##VIDEO ID:dG-d9ocehYo## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] what [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] what [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] first [Music] if everybody could get ready and we're going to get started here please take your seats the meeting is about to begin remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record please stand by we are going on air in 5 4 3 2 one welcome everybody uh we are at the October 18th finance and economic resiliency committee we're here in a gloomy windy day in Miami Beach uh but hopefully uh we we get through a pretty simple agenda today and get everybody on with a very pleasant weekend um I'll hand it over to our CFO if you want to make introductions and our City attorney and we can take it from there good morning today's meeting of the finance and economic res iy committee has been scheduled in a hybrid format with a quorum of the committee physically present and remaining members staff and members of the public appearing either in person or virtually via zoom in order to participate in today's meeting virtually members of the public may dial 1888 475 4499 and enter the webinar ID which is 863 6059 5462 2 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 raise hand icon if they are using the Zoom app or dial star9 if you are participating by phone uh thank you chair I have a number of items to announce as uh deferral and time certain uh n NBC seven has been deferred to the February FK nb8 has been deferred to the November FK NB3 has been deferred to the November FK the following are the time certains nb14 has a 10:30 a.m. time certain nb10 has an 11: a.m. time certain and mb12 has a 12 noon time certain that is all and I've also been asked by the sponsor to defer uh nb1 we'll note nb1 deferred okay why don't we get started with the 10:30 time ser nb14 discussed Lincoln Road public seating sponsorship pilot program I'll read it uh yes uh mb14 discuss implementation of the public seating sponsorship pilot program on Lincoln Road mb14 thank you Mr chair this is an item that I have placed on the agenda to help the businesses on Lincoln Road and we've joined together both as sponsors of this item it's both you and and myself that were sponsoring this um we need to support small businesses the small businesses going into Lincoln Road and right now uh oftentimes they have to pay very high fees uh to be to to place tables on on the ride of ways at a time when we want to encourage businesses filling up empty space es in Lincoln Road we need to maintain the vibrancy of this pedestrian Corridor so we've asked the administration to put together ideas on how we can Implement as a city a public seating uh pilot program so that the city can come in provide the tables uh perhaps partner with the bid on the maintenance of those tables and support the small businesses that are trying to open up on this important Corridor if you allow me Mr chair I'd like to rec oriz our staff uh to give us their recommendations on how to proceed with this item of course and I appreciate bringing the item forward appreciate uh the bid supporting this um Brad I'll recognize you good morning chair magazine commission fellow chairs um just I'm going to have staff provide an update today on on our efforts uh on this very important project um we've been working hand inand with Annabelle and the bid and also just trying to make sure we put all together a good scope and criteria that make sense for this program so we can achieve the goals that we um are looking to and make it a successful pilot project so with that said I'm going to let Charles Ortiz from our public works department come up here and provide the latest update on where we're at good morning everyone uh so so far we've uh been in communication with bid in regards to the expectations timelines and design of the tables and chairs I'll be taking place the goal is to provide seating in a public capacity for locations that don't have interior seating that are not eligible for the outdoor dining program so using uh benches public chairs that everyone can use funded privately by the bid we will work with them they will manage it and uh this uh seems like a good idea going forward Mr chair so so I just want to make sure so the pilot program yes uh under under what has been produced by uh staff uh this wouldn't apply let's say to all uh establishments how how do we make sure that this uh really targets the smaller establishments that are starting up that might need support right so the how we differentiate it is the BTR classification so the many restaurant on Lincoln Road already have interior seating assigned to them this would be for takeout only establishments that don't have any interior seating okay and do are we tiing this to any square footage uh no no okay all right um and who would be maintaining the tables this would be all done by the bid and the private businesses that will be partnering with us all right yeah uh what type of seating are we getting and where I'm going with this uh I guess we have two choices we could just be mundane and put a bunch of tables and chairs out there that any late person would have on their balcony or we all aspire to be greater right and so often we compare ourselves to The Design District and things like that and say well why can't we replicate things like that one of the great things that they have going over there is essentially almost uh Urban art that doubles as furniture you know if you look at 41st and 42nd Street they have those pink chairs and you know they essentially serve uh functionality for seating uh but they also are out of the box and just add to the overall environmental and urban streetcape have we thought about um even if it would be a mixture of the two just having your everyday pedestrian seating uh but then also getting creative and really aspiring to be better yeah that's certainly something we can look into as part of the pilot the city will be determining and reviewing the design of the tables Andor chairs that will be out there so the bid will present to us with their ideas we'll go back and forth and ultimately we will review and approve Mr chair I I just want to make sure because on our analysis on the information that we received it stated um it stated that the program would uh prioritize small food establishments potentially those that are about 2500 square fet or less so I just want to make sure so we are limiting this to establishments of a smaller square footage yes and generally the establishments on Lincoln Road are limited by their interior retail area um we're mainly targeting by the classification on the BTR so these should all fall under the 2500 or less okay um well I just want to make sure because like an establishment a national chain like Cheesecake Factory they have a huge foot a relatively large footprint they don't need this but a smaller mom and pop that might not be able to afford a large footprint would need to so I just want to make sure to the extent that we're creating a a pilot program that we really do focus it not just on you know any but like specifically those that have a smaller square footage that perhaps are the ones that need our help a little bit more yeah and and again like we want to have any issues with places like Cheesecake Factory because they have interior seating allocated to them which makes them eligible for the outdoor dining concession program uh so these will be for like you said little places that that aren't eligible for that and how long would will the pilot program be for uh 3 month period to start right is it it's six my correction six months oh we're going a year okay one year okay sorry all right um okay and is there any funding requests from the administration on this item uh so the furniture will be funded um by the bid and its Partners privately funded uh so we will not be anything other than a potential uh permit fee uh they won't be any cost to us okay great well um Mr chair I I I think I I would like to make a motion at the appropriate time uh once we get more feedback from our colleagues um recommending that the administration Implement uh this pilot program I I think this this could be great as we are trying to collaborate with businesses to to to help them fill empty spaces on the road thank you commissioner commissioner tbot um thank you Mr chair um so in in the documentation it says six months so is it six months or a year okay so the documentation is okay so it's one year so it's one year so do we know how many possible um retailers this will affect and also if you're not literally directly on Lincoln Road but part of um you know on one of the side streets would that would you be able to um be considered for this program as well like for instance salt and straw is an ice cream shop that is the target beneficiary of this um the freeze just got sold it's around the corner from Lincoln Road but it is effectively part of Lincoln Road would they also be able to benefit from something like this uh I believe uh all this will go under the master permit so if they are part of the Lincoln Road bid they they should be available so as long as you're part of the bid you can be considered that is correct okay and um do we know roughly how many um businesses could be a part of this pilot program uh at this time we're looking at two to three to start um that number could be more or less depending on the locations interested in participating uh it should start as relatively minor footprint at first okay all thank you appreciate it I think you see that we're eager to move this along um I don't want to you know get off tangent here but it it's a good opportunity not sure who I'm directing this to but if it's applicable to anybody how long did it take this ice cream shop to open um I know commissioner Rosen Gonzalez was a huge champion of this uh moving this along but this was a pretty well-renowned ice cream shop did it if I'm understanding correctly years to open and we're all excited about a new restaurant opening on Lincoln Road uh in the coming weeks it's my understanding took five years to open uh another tenant Mr Nice Guy um they're going through a multi-year process anybody want to come up and say what's going on here I mean tell me how an ice cream shop how many scoops of ice cream they're expected to sell to cover rent costs to converting for a year is it maybe I'm off maybe maybe these are normal time frames but anybody want to speak on that and anybody I'm not the expert on that of and not you is that acceptable is it not are we going to fix it come back and follow up next meeting anybody takers no okay well it's a good message for future ice cream shops looking to open Mr I just wanted to check if you want I mean have the I think I have the motion but if it was to go back to commission but if you also wanted to retain I I think it's okay no so so the motion is for one year so we're amending the recommendation on the item uh so it's so it's one year and and and uh commissioner magazine you're you are so on point uh because we need to be self-aware that when we talk about challenges in our economy and challenges is in a pedestrian mall like Lincoln Road a lot of it is is our own doing and we have to be aware of that as a government we need to make improvements in our regulatory approval processes uh because it's it's it's challenges that are unsustainable and I hope with a new city Administration that uh that is resonating the new building director that's coming in is will take this seriously to streamline the processes uh to make sure that people don't need to continue suffering years of being empty and having to pay rent but speaking of rent you know the same way that we are self-aware that that we are a big problem in this as a government our bureaucracy our red tape our process let's look at the other side as well landlords need to be self-aware as well landlords are pricing out small businesses from our city landlord who are not uh offering uh an appropriate rent are making it hard to attract businesses to our city so we are self-aware of the challenges that we need to improve but going forward I I want and I was making a point to say this in this meeting moving forward I'm going to be thinking twice about a lot of the things that come from these um business districts until I see what the landlords themselves are doing to to create a better environment for the business Community how long has spaces been empty how much more are they charging compared to other areas where where where vacancy rates aren't as high and what are they doing recently to to improve that because all that I hear from from the business Community is that the landlords are pushing them out and it's something that we need to address as well as addressing our own internal challenges with our red tape and our bureaucracy commissioner as long as we're all just talking about whatever we want I'm just going to bring about on Lincoln Road um yesterday I happened to be with another business owner and Jason you're going to love this but I'm hoping that in the months moving forward um s we were we're going to have to lower or give some relief to the prices of the sidewalk cafes um I know of one restaurant um who's going to close his doors if we don't said I can't do it anymore uh and I think I've thought so much about this and I think the reason that this is happening is because the Delano theore Club the shellborne the Raleigh every single hotel is closed right now they're all under construction so they're dying it's it's it's empty it's EMP it's the emptiest I've ever seen it so I'm I'm not it's not on this agenda but Jason I'm going to tell you that when we roll back fees you can I do not I want to roll I want to give relief to uh and and and we just gave relief to 41st Street they're not paying for sidewalk cafes now I'm not saying that Lincoln Road does not have to and I don't know what the fiscal impact of that will be but I am going to bring an item moving forward that three months out of the Year especially for example somebody was showing me their seating yesterday it's not that much but the fees have increased so exponentially that to have an outdoor Cafe at this point is $50,000 in addition to their rent you're right I think that the the property owners have to do something but um the businesses that are open right now on leol road are also asking us in the interim until these large hotels move through the process of their constructions they need relief too and um and I don't want to I don't I do not want to increase uh their fees it it it just doesn't make sense I don't know what that increase will be but hopefully you guys will consider this because can you imagine more restaurants closing on Lincoln Road right now it can't we can't have it because we can't get them open so by the way there are new restaurants opening I said I was going to be a cheerleader you've got the Negroni Sushi opening andr car I landu cast something called Ordo that sounds very cool and hip so we do have some new stuff opening but it is taking too long but and Mr chair if I may I'm sorry because commissioner Rosen Gonzalez brings up a great Point especially during slow season we need to give maybe a a fee a fee holiday uh to to to these sidewalk cafes during slow season but I'm going to tell you this and I'm glad that the bid is here because I want the people who represent the property owners to hear me when I say this I will only support and I would urge us as a commission to only support a uh fee holiday to the extent that the landlords are willing to offer a break to their tenants during those periods of times because the the landlords are the ones that are you know profiting here left and right on this they they they they charge people more rent because of the Frontage that they have on the on the sidewalk and they're the reasons why we have vacancies right now so I agree with you we need to offer a discount on those fees but the landlords need to show skin in the game and cooperate with this because we are helping their tenants do you want to close point this I'll be happy to join you wonderful so Jason we've already got two votes for this we need you to roll it back and discount it since I guess this is just Festivus and we're all airing our grievances um I I agree with you uh commissioner um one kind of piggybacking on my point I made earlier about how long it takes in Miami Beach to open a store why does it take so long to do construction here right I think we we need some answers I don't know if there's anybody out there in the abyss that wants to take this on as a challenge or a project but why does it take the Raleigh so long to build when entire cities quite literally entire neighborhoods across the bay have been built in the time it takes to do one building here right it it just does not make any sense the Delano the Shore Club these are all great projects that we're all excited about but these are years in the making how long have we all sat there and been like we're so excited about the uh Raleigh coming so excited about the Delano when why does it take so long in the city to get things done it's an economic disadvantage and then you know I'll sound like a broken record but I agree with everything you said about all the hotels being closed and the need for the convention center but I'll also you know piggyback and say it's full-time residents that we lost that supported a lot of these small local businesses if you look at what the owner of daru said in the Miami New Times when they had the close on Lincoln Road he said we used to have a great residential happy hour we just lost the residents that stopped going there if you look at yard house right that is a that is kind of a mom and pop local business with other locations but it's a place that's frequented by residents we just don't have the residential population to support that if you look at a place like books and books right who's going to go to books and books full-time residents that live here that are going to walk over at 10:00 a.m. to grab their morning coffee and breakfast and those are the people that we've lost as well not just the hotels so uh I think in conjunction I think we need to look at the entire ecosystem so uh the devils in the details but I I I imagine I'll be proud to co-sponsor that with you all as well wonderful and in addition I would like to add that possibly when you've waited a year or two years or three years to open your restaurant your first six months of Sidewalk Cafe permitting fees should be on us because it's taken us so long to get it open I know it sounds like a lot but they're really suffering and we want to incentivize people so and and that what that's not a big cost to it's not no cost to us actually something that we can do I think we're going to say only the Commissioners can Nar their grievances but go ahead no and just if you need any information regarding the heaviest hit areas and which areas uh because essentially I I do get that uh complaint a lot about the fees and all that so any information you might need regarding that I'd be happy to pass along yeah if we don't do this relief we're going to see more we're going to see restaurants closed and by the way I'm not going to out the person who told me but it's a restaurant that restaurants that that residents do frequent on Lincoln Road and it's been there for decades and the possibility of something like that going out of business is so scary to me that I think we need to do whatever we can okay excellent if I could uh get back to the motion I believe the motion is to return to commission with a favorable recommendation to direct Administration to work with the Lincoln Road bid to establish the one-year pilot program as presented excellent well let's use that as a leeway oh I'm sorry yes I guess we have to vote vote Yes all in favor I I okay thank you let let's move to nb5 I wasn't expecting this but I think it's a good uh uh piggybacking sorry for using that word for the third time by 11: a.m. um discuss the possible creation of incentives for owners of vacant commercial properties to lease vacant spaces good morning I I was sitting back there saying oh this is my whole position um Heather Shaw assistant director Economic Development um I think we've had a big robust conversation about this um for uh this item we've been trying to do some research for actually a larger item that we're bringing back in January but um we did some research and looking at the do the best practices of other cities I mean we have a lot of programs here that um we are doing to attract businesses and also support the businesses that we have we have um the vacant storefront covers for the the stores that are going out and actually Lincoln Road is probably our one of the largest areas where we have the uh storefront cover and last year I think we did 62 which is a lot and so what we're doing with them is that we are going back to all of those those businesses and saying okay we we covered your business we made it pretty what are you doing to activate and and and find tenants and what can we do to support you and help you navigate or what what what what we can do what we can do what we can do um to help you um not have to use these store phone covers because we've had a few who' come back after a year saying um if they've had some graffiti or what have you um wanting to do them again and we only do them once and it's like well what what have you done in a year to get tenants into your space um we also have obviously our jcip with a job creation program that's an incentive to get new businesses and then we have the expedited plan review um which is actually something that a lot of new businesses like to do and that that program actually expedites the whole process of getting permits and getting them open for us it's it's limited to uh techn companies and um financial services and people who are bringing their headquarters in but it is something that a lot of businesses um come to us and say help us walk through you know and and I know L on a larger scale we as a city are looking at how um um with our new building um director how we can expedite that as well for other businesses but when we looked at other cities um to see what they were doing to encourage Property Owners to um get new tenants um a lot of them were doing some of the programs that we were doing facade programs doing um small grants um to businesses um but some of the newer ones are giving grants which we don't do give grants to new businesses for startups to small businesses to give them money to help them in their first year of uh staying in existence it's it's kind of hard as as you all discussed a second ago rents are extremely high for Miami Beach and it's very difficult and if you are renting a space and then it takes you 6 months months to a year to open and you're paying rent if you put aside some money you think that you're going to open up a lot quicker and now you're depleted of money and then it's very difficult for you to succeed in year two so how we can help them do that um there other programs like um uh in addition to Grants doing abatements abating um permit um cost which you all just discussed that's something that other cities are doing um tax abatements um that they have as well so there are a lot of uh cities that are doing similar things that we're doing and and some of the things just seem to be natural that we could potentially engage in and we'll give that full report to you after doing all of this but I also agree with um what you were discussing that the city can come up with a lot of programs and have a lot of money associated with those programs but it isn't a one-way street we have to do it in in partnership with our business Improvement districts with our neighborhood associations and our owners the owners really have to be part of this um because if we don't then we're just going to have more and more empty spaces as much as we can continue to have available funds for them if the rent keeps going up and our rent for Miami Beach is is typically higher than the most of Florida um and when you look at places like what you were just discussing on Lincoln Road you know when you have rents that are you know upwards of $300 square foot it's very difficult for businesses to come in open operate build out and then succeed um so um so we're going to come back but I I wanted to also just let you know the research that we were doing and if you had any other direction that you wanted us to to take I appreciate that Michelle and one thing I'd like to work uh with you and your team hand inand with over the next month is really doing an analysis of how our city is growing because that's my biggest fear is I believe we're just overc commercialized right we haven't grown in the right ways if you look at South of fifth which is one of the preeminent dining destinations in the world right we're going to have over a thousand new restaurant seats coming online and we have like I said no population growth we have limited new hotels where is all that demand going to be absorbed from and this is coming at a time when there's more formidable options across the bay as well right and we've seen the uh Resort taxes after covid it has nothing to do with Miami Beach it's just the change of the world more are open people have been to Miami so expecting 2022 spending to be our Baseline is just unrealistic so we're already going to have a dampening in spending and just in that area we're going to have a thousand new restaurant seats coming online Lincoln Road is exciting as we all are we're going to have a couple hundred if not a thousand new restaurant seats coming online there who's going to be eating at all these places right and that's why some of these commercial spaces are vacant if you go down I would really like to do a corridor by Corridor analysis if you look at our um Art Deco historic shopping district on Collins Avenue from 5th to 13th Street what is going on I'm just asking I mean it is an 80% vacancy there 80% if you look at Washington Avenue under the good times hotel and things like that it 50% vacancy we we really need to think about long and hard because yes there's some things like r high rent and things but it's also an ecosystem that I think we may be getting wrong commissioner Rosen Gonzalez you asked what was going on there shoplifting that's what was going on and all of these businesses opened up I saw what is it like a Forever 21 style store open on e8th in Collins and they were so excited about it and the property owner said oh you know the longtime South Beach property owners they opened it and there was no police presence and we were they were getting shoplifted like crazy so they closed and one after another because we were not policing the area and there were drug dealers going out on the streets and at one point actually during Co that there was like a street takeover on Collins do you remember that when the street was just taken over so yeah they were they left but now we need to send a message and here I think is the biggest thing you know we did spring break last year don't come we're breaking up with you and we have another campaign this year which is going to be great don't come again but we're not saying come back back so you're saying don't come don't come it's you know we're breaking and I get that good message but you're not counterbalancing it with a counter campaign I actually have an item coming forward saying all right you know what let's spend the 200,000 on spring break it really worked last year I think that is what saved us and saved that really was a GameChanger but now let's spend an additional 200,000 on boosting what we have one other thing that I think we could do Heather and I think you need to approach Derm is go into these spaces let the property owners know we're going to go to durm and we're going to say if you have an existing kitchen we're going to give you a two or threee abatement on your grease trap and anything that you need to upgrade so that you can go in and open up because the big fear as people come in where do we get stuck in that where do we get stuck in the process they get stuck in durm if you could get us this abatement so that we don't have to go through this process every existing Kitchen on Miami Beach get that two what what you let's say two years that way they can open up and then once they start making you know the money they can get past that obstacle and then go back and update their grease traps I think that that would be a GameChanger and we're not doing that we need to push push push so I that would be my motion if you really wanted to incentivize would be to send our Economic Development to the county and ask for instant abatements for all existing restaurant projects how do you feel about that yeah and I I love the marketing campaign actually I have an item on this month's uh commission agenda for exactly that and Mr City attorney it may even be in the exact amount right 200,000 250,000 I'd love for you to join as a prime sponsor sure I it just to just to interrup I believe that the the city does have a new positive um um campaign that's on that came after breaking up with you they have a new campaign I think it's been going on for a few months um that is a positive like back you know we're more mature we want you the more mature person it's been on our social media but I I defer to Communications to to blasted like how much do we spend is it International I mean I don't think it's working like people are telling me and we keep saying I asked for the property I asked for the tourism tax numbers for August and September which had just come in a couple days ago I've yet to get them but um business owners are telling me that they pay they're paid this year 20% less taxes I think the restaurants are getting hit harder than anyone else so we're seeing this you know it's not working whatever the campaign is we need more I have a question so we're talking about abatements we're doing we're talking about incentives we're going to be doing we're talking about the tables we're going to be putting as a pilot program on Lincoln Road we're talking about the advertising that potentially we could uh be doing and we've been doing you know we've we also have F your wave and there's a number of other things there's a partnership with the gmcvb that also and perhaps you know we need to bring the GN CVB to brief us to give us an update on what they're doing uh because that is important that's a big contract that we have and also the chamber too and the Chamber so but so the city is doing stuff and we're going to be doing more because that's our responsibility the businesses are trying to survive and I go back who is someone we're not hearing from the property owner what is the property owner doing what are they doing to help we're doing an abatement what is the property owner doing to help with these situations and and and and I agree with all of us the city has a lot a fault the bureaucracy and the red tape and the process and durm at the county we are very much self-aware of that but I really do think this is the moment when where the rubber hits the road and if we are doing all of this and we're giving the taxpayers money to do subsidies and incentives that doesn't go to the pocket of the small business owner let's be very clear what that goes to that goes to the large property owners who are asking for these very out of scale rents that have pushed out the diversity of our small business Community from Miami Beach what are they doing doing to balance off the uh scale on this we're going we're going to be doing a lot as a city but this scale needs to be balanced and I want to see that while we are doing a lot and bringing a lot to the table I am going to be seeing and I'm going to need to to see as part of any of this what is what are the individual Property Owners doing because though they have deeper Pockets than what this city or our taxpayers do thank you Mr chair commissioner B and commissioner Rosen gonz um a couple of things first of all just from a pragmatic standpoint I I appreciate the direction commissioner Rosen Gonzalez's I'm talking about with the durm and the grease traps from but from a practical operation standpoint I don't know um I I've never had to do a grease trap abatement or update is that something that can even be done once the restaurant is open in terms like wouldn't they have to close the restaurant for a week or two weeks to make that happen yeah so but but also with Derm and I think this is what the commissioner was saying when you're coming in as a new business getting your BTR you have to you have to go through Derm first before you even get a BTR right we we won't issue btrs without having approval from durm and that's where the is is that what you were talking about I'm seeing that if you're existing and you've already been through the Derm process we want Derm to give you the automatic approval with an abatement like two years later they better be in compliance because what they've done is they increased requirements and by the way you can absolutely stay home and open and change a grease stop that's not true it's not even inside the kitchen okay just want yeah I mean yeah absolutely and and by the way I've seen abatements happen you know when you know when you need one you can go to the county if you can find somebody there and explain the situation and and get an abatement so it does happen thank you for explaining that I just I haven't had to do that yet in my life so and hopefully never will have to do that they're kind of gross we deal with durm I guess before they're starting and then also dur so a couple of other points that I just want to um clarify um you know one of the issues that that we have is that we have property owners who rather leave their store their buildings vacant than take in a tenant because they can take a bigger tax loss or whatever it is so I know North Beach we have a number of vacancies of of uh Standalone buildings even that have just nobody's touching them nobody's interested because they're waiting for somebody put it to me um who's on the inside of this they're waiting to get an offer from Target to buy out their their land and so they're just sitting on uh and not literally Target but somebody to come in and buy their land so they're sitting on what could be really great land could be used for in its current configuration with modifications you know our Police Athletic League has to rent space in North Bay Village because the space where they used to do their kids boxing program is now um sitting vacant and defunct because the landlord the the property owner just rather keep it vacant I mean that's that's appalling to me and so I don't know I know we we live in a state that values property rights and I don't begrudge anybody um you know selling their property making a killing that's great I mean it everybody who can do that is great but um in the interim what can we do and I guess it's more of a legal question for a future discussion of what can we do to uh encourage in the strongest possible way people sitting on land on on properties to make them available to people who need or you know and even would pay rent so um that's a a deep frustration of mine um and I did have a third point but it has escaped so I will bother you when I come back with it I had a a I thought it was a great idea and I worked with Raquel for six months coming up with a property registration we're not allowed to tax or give a violation to any owner keeping their property vacant but we worked very hard the bid was not happy about this by the way when we proposed this because what we were doing was creating a vacancy registration what does that mean it means if you're vacant what what did we say raal over three months you have to register okay on a list and then we start to charge you registration fees um for the longer that you stay vacant and even though you might see it as punitive and the bid owners did not like it I think it is the only way because right now the reason that those rents are so high and the reason they're never going to bring the rent down and somebody a property owner explained this to me yesterday because I would have never thought of it like this commissioner Fernandez is because they can get more money out of a bank they can go to the bank right and say uh we're expecting a million dollars in rent per year with that inflated price that have on the market which everybody knows nobody's going to rent something at you know whatever it is $350 per square foot and a three-year buildup and so they're not going to lower that to $500,000 per year because then they're going to be able to take out less money on their property so they're using these vacancies and these elevated rents to finance and pull out large amounts of money so we're suffering and they're just playing around with the money because you maybe the properties have been there for Generations which is why I created this with bral this vacancy what did we call it vacancy registration I think it was a vacancy registration program yeah and just just for the record I think you determined that you didn't want to move forward with it at that time so we hadn't brought it back we had it but we have it and we worked on it and it was a lot of work and if we sponsor it I think it's going to in some ways encourage it's it's it's not heavy-handed I mean what did we say how long do you have to be vacant before you join join the club the vacancy list well I I think if I recall there were certain exclusions so for example if a vacant property was going through a pering process or there was an existing lease associated with a future tenant then that property would not be included but I think it was anywhere between three and six months so 3 to six months and then we can make the fees whatever we want and this way if if there is this component they what they might actually lease out their properties so if we made the fees punishing enough so you know if you guys would like to look at a copy of it I'm sure that Raquel can can provide it to you and if you want to bring it back I would love to bring this back because I think you will see a difference so you're exactly right on the problems about if you lock in lower rents you're able to pull less money out they could even have a mortgage that they would violate a covenant if they actually have a lower rent um for the prop uh vacancy tax or you know uh uh some form of it intuitively it sounds like a a good idea um it's my understanding that there's some pretty conclusive academic research around the the downfalls of that I'm happy to explore but I I think especially doing it just kind of off the cuff would would be a bridge too far for me I would Envision I'm not going to be supportor of but uh that's something that I would study pretty extensively because this wouldn't be the first municipality to try that so I'd rather look the real world examples to see if that worked or did not work uh maybe we could have the economic development team uh do that as well um because we don't have to recreate the wheel here we can look to see what was already done and if it's if it was successful and I'm wrong come back and tell me and I'll I'll alter my view but from me following this from afar I I do think there's pretty conclusive uh research out there Mr chair we can definitely come back with the details of the potential program I know that at the time we did look at other municipalities across the country to see what they were doing and you know tried to take some of the best practices we even called many of them and got feedback and so we'll be happy to bring it back for a more robust discussion thank you and and and Mr chair I I get the point that if if a landlord offers A reduced rent they might be in violation of their mortgage I get that but you know know they they too you know they can still ENT enter into into a lease agreement and the same way that the city might offer a subsidy or might offer some sort of incentive they too can offer a subsidy or they too can offer an incentive a match if you will so like I need to see if the taxpayers are is putting money on the table what are these landlords matching it with and I think that that's that that's important because I get your point certainly you know there's a lot of mortgages that have been done uh and and this is and and we can't put property owners in in a position of violating that uh but but if we're if the taxpayers are putting money on on the table so should the property owner and maybe in the form of a match to what the city is doing so they're not violating the lease but they're offering an incentive or a subsidy alongside with the city that way at this point they have skin in the game the same way that the that the taxpayer has skin in the game and I appreciate those thoughts and uh agree largely with them there must be something that is unique about Miami Beach because when I look at neighboring cities and neighborhoods and communities they're not experiencing that same level of vacancy so uh we're not the only place with expensive rent right I don't think uh Bickle City Center is cheap and that's 100% occupied and I know that that's one single owner but if you to Midtown uh they just released uh their occupancy rate uh well into the 90s um so there's a combination of things that yes are unique to Miami Beach uh but you know it's kind of idiosyncratic that we need to work through as well if if I may Mr chair and Commissioners we do have some data on that um for Miami Beach as far as Q2 the Q3 numbers haven't um come out yet but our vacancy rate on retail is 5.5% as compared to Bickle downtown which is 2.3% our average rent per square foot $103 Brickle downtown $663 there you go can you send me the underlying detail there because if you want to tell me that we have a 5% vacancy rate for retail in Miami Beach I I don't believe prove me wrong prove me wrong with the details of that um I don't think there's one area where you could go name me one Corridor right that there's a 5% vacancy rate I can name you corridors where there's above a 50% vacancy rate I don't think I could pick a single Corridor where I would sit there and look at it anecdotally and say yes that there's a less than 5% vacancy rate please Annabelle you want to be recognized sure thank you good morning everyone thank you for the opportunity Annabelle yopi executive director Lincoln Road um I don't know where those numbers come especially from brickl working in a private developer I can't imagine prickle City Center charging those Square footages just again based on my experience and we can't really be compared to one private developer versus a district that's public and you have multiple ownership now I can't speak to the other districts I can only speak to Lincoln Road I would say we're probably close to 90% least you don't see a lot of because there's leases on the tables there leases being worked on however I will say that the there's a lot happening on linkoln road aside from these amazing FMB that's going up that are paying rents that are doing fantastic and we're super excited to have that not just on linoln road but for the city I think this brings a very high level of positiveness to the city we have a lot of mom and pops on Lincoln Road and I think everybody forgets that I can tell you right now teranova alone is bringing six Mom and Pop so there is a nice mix a tenant mix that's coming to Lincoln Road what happens with Mom and Pops they don't pay high rents they work with them they work with them to defer rent until they open but that speaks to that whole quarter on the 800 block those are all Mama and Pops that are coming in that's was one of the ask if you will of many of the Commissioners is how do we bring some of that eclectic retail mix back to linol Road well it's happening so I welcome all of you to come and do a walk with really get educated on what's happening on linol roads so you understand some of the challenges not just from the retail side which is again permitting going through construction there I mean I have one that's right next to anthropology she can't get open you know so I reach out to Heather and she's trying to help them through so there are Challenge and you're talking about this is a mom and pop they started in the Antique Market and now they converted to an inline tenant and so that is the kind of activity we want to spur on Lincoln Road we want to see someone grow into an inline space and this is a local person who lives on the beach the challenges with the permits and it's listen it's not always on the the the city or the port or all that sometimes they themselves don't know how to navigate the process so I'm very happy for the staff to always at least lend a helping hand to walk some of these tenants through the process because it is challenging so especially when you're a mom and pop when you're a bigger you know tell or FNB you're going to have expert you're going to have people to help you through that but when you're a mom and pop literally you live on the beach you want to open up a business here yeah and that flows through the building department uh m w r so there's several elements different ones so for that particular business I I don't know which um regulatory departments they have been interfacing with or what their needs have been but I know that multiple businesses have to go through uh permitting and review processes with departments correct I mean they they have to go through the different departments it doesn't matter if you have a small space or a big space they still have to go through the entire process the challenging part is these don't these people don't have Deep Pockets no of course it becomes I me that's why we're asking these questions is so we can simplify this process Mr Seas we haven't met yet but if you're watching this your first challenge right here and then if I could to have somebody else take ownership of saying who's kind of uh looking at this from the 10,000 F foot View and how do we make this Collective process easier I would love somebody to sit there and say I'm going to own that I mean somebody from City staff say I'm going to own that and we're going to have a better process year for now but I think one of the things that I would just at least like to you know have you guys take away is come to linkor let us walk with you let us educate you what is coming so you understand the bigger picture what is the current activity on Linker road so so if I may there are a couple things first of all I remember my third point so thank you for triggering that but you know the fact that we we are um providing extra help to the larger uh businesses or developers uh at City Hall who already have a staff and a well Tred host of people who know how to do this is counterintuitive and we need to as soon as Mr Shas gets here you know a lot of us have been sort of beating the drum to get a a a sherpa if you will like you have one point of contact um uh along the along the um Perman process so even if that person can't give you all the answers that person can tell you yes this is where it is this is who you need to talk to let me help you figure that out like an on budsman almost but assigned a buddy as a part of a buddy system and the fact that that is still not happening is is is frustrating um it's the smaller businesses who don't necessarily know I mean there was somebody who opened up a business in north beach with you know basically a rough plan drawn out on the back of a napkin and didn't know that there was going to be a change of use involved because when you are following your passion to open up a you know whatever small business you don't know what what the land use policies are so a change of use thing is something that would never would never come into somebody's uh Consciousness and some unless somebody at some point before said these are the things you need to look out for before you start you know the realtor should have said you know you're the space was a bakery you now want to make it a knitting shop there's going to be a change of use for that and therefore you're going to need to go through some extra steps but that doesn't happen so we need to we need to really make sure that we are looking out for the small businesses the other thing is when we talk about the vacant retail quarters and I know Lincoln Road is obviously important for so many of us for so many reasons you know there are entire stretches of of blocks in North Beach that have um vacancies part of it is because of the doville that gaping hole that should never be should never have been allowed to come down but here we are and um you know we need to make sure that it's not we don't take our eyes off the prize in the other neighborhoods in in Miami Beach because it's not just the tourist destinations it's places everywhere around the city where we have opportunity to do better by our small businesses and that is actually where many of them will find a better more welcoming footing where there will be a built-in Market with local residents where the rates the rental rates aren't necessarily astronomical um so um and again I thought I forgot my third point so that's going to be the theme of the day um I think the amount of time between reviews with the building department is our largest issue because what happens is you might build out your whole restaurant and the inspector comes in and he goes you have to move this outlet from here to there and then the contractor and there goes crap no 60 days 60 days to get them to come back out and change it and by the way I have a girlfriend who's Renova a condo right now in mid Beach she goes she was so depressed they came out Plumbing came out and it was a different inspector they changed one thing and she goes my contractor looked like he wanted to cry because he wants to move on and now he knows he's stuck in the system for another 60 days while we're waiting for somebody to come out now that it needs to be like you get the feedback you can call as a contractor I can call my electrician and say come out move the outet but I don't get it because I used to renovate myself and we used to have this call-in system and I could call and I knew that I could get an inspector the next day how did we go from where you could get an inspector coming out the next day to 60 days and that's the issue that we're having it's the feedback online and then it's this wait time between the feedback and and the fact that every single project across the city has multiple inspectors so one inspector goes in and says you have to move the outlet from here here to there and then another inspector comes in and goes okay that Outlet's fine but look up there at that socket and you go what the other inspector said that everything was fine so now you have another feedback and guess what it gets you in the loop for an additional 60 days so you're asking why this is why that actually helped me visualize that good the well I'm trying to explain you why would you asked why and I'm telling I I agree and if anybody's uh out there looking at this and saying oh what a negative tone it's because we're not satisfied with the status quo we want to help we want to get to a point where Miami Beach is a city of yes a city where our building department picks up the phone and says how can I help you right not how can I put up roadblocks we want a permitting system that is yes going through all the requirements and a city commission going making sure all the boxes are checked but helping facilitate business business right and that that's where we're trying to get at we're not trying to bash anybody or point fingers or say this is an awful place we are looking to make this process better because it's been talked about for so long and I I think collectively you see six Commissioners in a mayor that are unwilling to maintain the status quo Maria I'll recognize you thank you um well that was a lot um I'm the intrum building director um and yes Vin house is arriving on Monday if you all want to meet him we're going to have a little meet and greet um in the morning um there's a lot that we're doing at the building department that we've been working on for a long time Miss Lopez is part of the ad hoc committee um which has been overseeing a lot of what we're doing um to first of all I just want to say 65% of all of our permits get issued in two reviews so that's an acceptable amount of reviews a lot of that has to do with the fact that uh we don't get the information we need upfront and we're going to work hard to try to um improve that to make sure you know uh that we do get better information up front so that we can have more than 65% hopefully 75% and then we only deal with the ones that are really difficult to your Point commissioner uh Rosen Gonzalez about the inspectors um we we get thousands of calls of customer service calls um a month and one of the things that we just re recently did 60 days ago is that we have allowed customers to call the the inspectors directly it's been a game Cher with the amount of calls that we get into to the call center we've reduced calls in 60 days by 742 calls and that's a lot of calls and that's really the biggest thing we did and we just moved the needle over the last 60 days just with that but we're going to do a lot of other things the um the ability for inspectors to keep coming back to the same place has to do with the amount of inspectors we have and Vince Seas is um uh very aware that we need to hire more inspectors and we're going to bring them back uh because there were things that were done along the way that removed inspectors from here and he's going to change that and he uh knows a lot of inspectors that he can reach out to because he's very connected in the entire uh building official World in D County so once we have more inspectors we don't have the issue of if an inspector is out and he's the one that did the original inspection and you need an inspection desperately you need to bring another Inspector Inspector in we're also going to go through a whole training of these inspectors so they understand what the other inspectors already inspected and approved so that it's not just you know you get there it's cold turkey you know everything is a you know is is for you to review all over again so it's a combination of training hiring realigning doing all of that and when Vince comes in on Monday he's going to take ownership of everything we've done and I'm going to make sure that he gets all the information he needs so he can hit the ground running so we're hoping it gets a lot better than what it is today Y and and uh commissioner give me literally one second but Mr City attorney um maybe we could put an item on the city commission agenda I'm going to guess that uh uh four people that'll uh Prime sponsor this uh 90 days from now let's have a referral to FK where Mr SE house comes here gives uh an overview of the building department the processes procedures uh what's working what's not and what is changing yep um and metrics metrics showing us we need to get to place yes where you get the feedback from the building department and when you call within like 48 Hours you get an inspection right so we we well we do inspections the next day mhm so I don't know you know every every permit I have found has its issues a lot of it has nothing to do with the building department but you know we're not here to you know put blame on the industry I mean that wouldn't make any sense we want to help the industry and facilitate it for them as much as we can within the code and that's what Vince is going to focus on when he arrives if it's things like the code needs to be simplified right perhaps okay we're we're getting these back and they're incomplete or inaccurate perhaps the inputs that we're asking for are too complex right I don't know the answers but we're not going to maintain the status quo so I appreciate your work as the inter director and look forward to um you know having a helping hand in here okay so you're welcome Mr CFO uh I was going to bring full circle here I I I I believe the there was a lot of of uh discussion on the item I believe there was there's a request for this to you know Economic Development G gave an update the topic but to return to firk with an update on a vacancy registration program I believe that was the M the the action yes and Mr chair as part of that I want to ask specifically and I've been thinking about this and I want I want to see that that vacancy registration program but I also want to see the inventory of vacant spaces on Lincoln Road the prices of the property owners are charging for rent the amount of time that those properties have been vacant as well as a comparison of those uh vacancy rates and the rents compared to other areas uh other areas around Miami day County and even here Miami Beach um you know how much higher is it can certainly come back with that and to the question earlier about the source of the data that was a call your report we can also provide additional data when we come back from jll kushman and weville uh CBR just to make sure you know we see the range of the data sources yeah you'll have me taking my sneaker Express down colins Avenue and sending you pictures but thank you commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and as part of that motion are we also making a motion to see between this month and the next if you guys can reach out to durm and see if we can get the instant abatement instant approval it is part of it I think that's the key component and by the way we're always like poor building department we are always going after them but let me tell you planning and zoning is not easy okay you get stuck in Planning and Zoning you can't find anybody to call and you know people reach out to me and I you know I can get them their approval the next day but I shouldn't have to be pushing somebody's you know not pushing you know like reaching out and saying hey they can't get to anybody so maybe we just heard that the building department is underst staffed thank goodness they have a generous Enterprise budget where they can hire more people the question is why haven't they hired the people and planning and zoning might be in a similar situation you know let's hear from them in and by the way our our technology Tyler is not good it is not easy it is not user friendly people complain and complain so I mean you know also when we when we're getting um upset about the building department we have to to remember that they also work I don't know how fire is how's how does fire you know because fire is a part of this process too you have to get fire approvals planning approvals business approvals and um you know sometimes you get you just get stuck I think I I think what happens is said when we talk about the building department and in general it's a holistic process it it you know building department is the receiving end but it goes through all of these other desks and all of these other departments and so when we are talking about the building department we're talking about everything that you know planning Public Works uh fire everything that falls on under that and hopefully the Vince when he comes in he looks at that holistically he's able to come forward with recommendations and improvements that he can report on in 90 days because you know we don't want ideas we want the results you know and I want to see changes within those 90 days so it's Mr chair um it's 11:42 and you have a big agenda but I just want to make one more recommend one more one more recommendation you're talking about simplification it's hard to simplify building code because that really comes out of the state of Florida and it's going to get worse and worse but our Planning and Zoning code have you looked at it it is insane and that is what we need to do as part of this motion you need to go to the planning and zoning department and say what are the top five things that you guys can do so that people aren't stuck in your department in red tape because nobody's even asking that and that's what we control and that's what we have made complex and I know that we've done a lot of stuff but when you add in the cups and the we have added so many layers that it's very very very difficult so when you're doing these Planning and Zoning changes remember people are getting stuck there and we are going to move on I appreciate it one final quick question is there one ACM that all these processes roll up to cuz as my friend and colleague uh mentioned when we say building department I think it is a throwaway term where we're just talking about the holistic process is there one ACM or is it really up to the city manager that all of this is coming together several of us manage different departments David maras has public works and then there's also remember there's environment and sustainability which is mine building department right now is mine um we also have I get it so parking also if if only our city manager is overseeing all of those we need one person not that any of us have free time but has more time to essentially consolidate this entire process and look at it holistic we're looking at all of that commissioner we're we're working on all of that and by the way the 60 days I mean the the the um 65% permits uh includes everything y you know includes all the Departments so we know how to do it um we just have to make it Broad no finger pointing this just about getting it better I appreciate Maria so let's move on Mr CF yeah I'm just going to sum summarize the it the items to return with an update on the vacancy registration program to uh to also bring data on rents and vacancy rates and to request durm about a grease trap abatement program thank you okay I just want to add one thing in because it's been frustrating I noticed that recently every tree that I see has like some weird box built around it especially when they're under construction so I reached out and I said why are we mandating that I haven't seen that in any other municipality the cost to build squares Square wooden boxes around trees is exorbitant it takes time it's another layer and that's something hey Eric how are were you watching or did you get so wait I have an item on to remove the tree box because why why are we doing that to people why are we doing that to homeowners why are we doing that to business nothing's going to happen to that tree but yet in Miami Beach you got to build a box so so I want you to support it and but let's talk I think you're here to talk holistically holistically absolutely good morning chair and members of the committee uh Eric Carpenter city manager happy to be here on this lovely Friday morning um just wanted to reiterate what you've heard from a number of the folks on the team that we are committed to making this process a lot more userfriendly there are some things that we're going to need your help on obviously changes to the zoning code the planning rules and regulations are a big part of the puzzle some of the things we don't have a lot of control over the State Building Code the national fire prevention code these are things that we have to figure out ways to work with not around um because we can't change them but that's why we're making sure that we have a team that is understanding and focused on how important it is that interface with the individuals that are relying on us to help them get to the finish line so that we can give them the path of least resistance from where they stand to where they want to go yeah and be proactive about the things you need from us don't have us trying to sit there and and Pull and pry and uh we're not the experts you all are so tell us what you need and and you've heard today you'll get it and and let me let me just say this oftentimes we get memos with recommendations and the recommendation is very big from the administration I almost have to pull teeth sometimes to ask on a policy that's coming forward what is the what is the recommendation of the administration so this is you know I'm glad that I'm hearing we need to make changes to the land use code I need to know what they are because this I I I I have never had someone come to my office and tell me as chair the land use committee that we need to make changes to the land use code to facilitate this I am all for it I need to hear from the administration what those are because whenever I have a briefing on zoning policy the recommendation is the administration reviews that the committee you know analyzes and issue their recommendation to the full City commission but I never get a real solid recommendation so from this point of on forward I am going to be expecting on each one of these members from the city Administration a true solid recommendation favorable or unfavorable un policy because because you know that's what we need the city Administration for I'm glad that you're seeing it from this perspective because we need that we need you guys to give us your expert opinion but I'm going to challenge the administration on its recommendations when these items come forward give us a more robust recommendation rather than a more open-ended recommendation I want a true up or down recommendation from the administration that's backed with a reasoning Su Y and that is and that is the clear direction that I've given to my team we're the professional staff we're here to make recommendations to you all you're the policy makers you get to choose to follow those recommendations or not follow those recommendations but we will will be making them great to hear um great item great discussion and we'll be following up uh extensively sooner rather than later thank you all thank you um CH chair if I may just what if I can going back to the public seating one MB 14 I had the motion by commissioner Fernandez but I didn't make a note on who the second was can I get a second on that okay thank you we also had a Time certain of 11:00 a.m. yep let's go vbx okay good morning uh number 10 uh discuss a potential partnership with beachbox for the installation of beachbox kiosks and or portable lock boxes on the city's beaches nb10 good morning uh Mr chair members of the commission uh Mr CFO and Mr City Attorney Jerry libbon uh I'm here as a consultant to beachbox and I'm here along with one of our Miami Beach residents I'm proud to say uh Austin aene who I'll be introducing shortly and ask him to tell you a little about the product and how he came about to design it he is the co-founder and CEO of beachbox but I want to just you know paint the picture for those that may be watching or maybe here as well because we've met with each of you individually previously um the the product that uh is uh being specified and as beachbox and you'll see about it in a video as well is designed to attack a problem that we have that's somewhat pervasive in terms of thefts on Miami Beach and as we all know social media today can be your best friend or your worst nightmare uh you can just imagine if you went to a city and and went to their beaches and had your wallet stolen or your keys stolen or your whatever it may be your watch your phone you wouldn't have very you know good feelings about that and and a social media post uh you know I I came to Miami Beach and and got ripped off and things were stolen is not in our best interest so the product that we're going to demonstrate and talk to you about addresses that and we have police statistics to show where most of this theft takes place and and and Austin will go over that as well um but ultimately what we are here to ask you today uh is to move the process forward what we're seeking is public approval from the full commission to install kiosks so that people will have access to rent these boxes okay so we're asking for your permission to have public RightWay access to install at our expense the kiosk so with that let me turn it over to Austin um and if you would please Austin give a little bit of your professional background which I think is is unique to this product as well and how it came into being absolutely thank you guys for having me this morning uh my name is Austin aene I'm the CEO and co-founder of beachbox uh beachbox is a portable safe for the beach to keep your keys wallet phone safe at the beach the box has cameras GPS and alarms to safeguard against theft the box also charges your phone and plays music my professional background is in risk management and insurance I have 10 years of experience managing risk for Fortune 500 companies uh the idea really came about while traveling I was in Thailand with 20 friends and we all wanted to get into the water at the same time uh we couldn't all do that one person had to stay back and I saw that existed with families uh with uh solo Travelers and with couples and I said there has to be something there's something I can do about this and this is why I solved the uh the problem thank you so I'd like to just quickly play a video um to show you what we're looking to um add to the right of way [Music] [Music] [Music] so that's the kiosk before you saw the individual bock [Music] thank you atin congratulations I believe you're a Miami Beach resident right so it's great to see uh you know local people supporting local businesses one I'll ask you never to run for commissioner because it's already getting crowded in the fitness commissioner competition you know so we don't need any more Challengers there yeah um list I'll I'll kick it over my colleagues I think what I'd like to do I is move this along because I don't think there's really a financial impact here um so what I think the neighborhood and Public Safety would be a better place when we're discussing where this public right of way would be um so I think we can move it along from this committee that's not to say okay we're we're all in support of the entire business plan where it's going to be I think there's more relevant committees where those more nuan and granular discussions are better suited to have uh I have a feeling Liz is going to tell me how wrong I am but uh go ahead uh Liz you know what before uh just so you collectively can answer all of our questions commissioner Fernandez if you had yeah um it's a very unique concept and I think it could serve a very interesting purpose in our city um clearly Beach slaps Our concern and it harms our reputation and it harms the experience that individuals have when they go um when they go when they come to our city and they go to the beach and we've been looking for years for something to address this um I just have a few questions okay on the item itself it mentions an LED display for advertising does the kiosk um does a kiosk contain an LED screen so the uh kiosk is going to be designed once if we are uh awarded the rights by the full City commission to install kiosk we're going to redesign the entire uh facility at a at a pretty significant cost and the kiosk will have the capability of having digital information on the back because it's not only Miami Beach that we're going to be going we're looking to take this far and wide so if you don't want it turned on in Miami Beach that's okay we weren't planning to do advertising we when we met with each of you we told you we were going to dedicate that space to Miami Beach that's why you saw perhaps sister cities or something else if the city wants to promote your own events turn it on we're not selling advertising where would they actually be located where where I know there's there's specific streets that are under consideration I saw 6 8th 10th and 12th but where at 6 8th 10th and 12th would this be located I think you have a screen is that can we get that on the screen yes can we uh pull it up on the screen there go so this is uh in between Fifth and 6th Street uh located close to the bathrooms it's on the back side of the boardwalk this is eth Street uh also located right by the showers on the back side of the boardwalk this is 10th Street um kind of in that open area where you know a bunch of crowds walk to towards the beach and then this is 12th Street um very close to the the uh showers I I want you to know there is a lot about this that I like the GPS tracking the built-in camera the alarm the Innovative solution to a problem that we have in our city we have a separate problem in our city proliferation of items uh on our ride of way the other problem that we have is is visual pollution proliferation of visual pollution and I have to balance that out I want to be able to get to a point that I can support this because again kudos to you because you have found a potential solution to something that is that is a big problem in our community I believe a better placement for these were it does not create an obstru struction in the public rideways along the beachwalk is put it against existing buildings so for example the public bathrooms that's already there put it against that so that we're not obstructing ride of ways um not having the not having the LED signage those are things that I think you know if this item would come back when it comes back if it comes redone then I'll be able to support it today I can't support it in its current form but I hope you take this feedback so that I can get to a place where I can support this where it's not taking up too much public ride ofo put it against the bathrooms where it's not contributing to visual pollution um where you know there's any sound component in this any noise component uh that you know is limited to an alarm and there's nothing else no music uh so I want to be a ble to get to a place that I can support I I owe it to you to offer you that feedback because you're doing something great you're offering an Innovative solution and uh and I hope you consider this feedback as constructive uh because I really hope we can get to a place that that that I can ultimately vote for this but today in its current form I can't support it yeah and Jared before commissioner before you go I I think I land in that camp as well I was talking about moving along from the finance perspective but I'd like to see somewhat almost almost like a pilot program on a beach or I'm sorry a street before we would say okay here's four or five streets in our highest trafficked areas you know so from where I'm sitting here and if you're not familiar how this process works you know uh maybe maybe you'd be surprised you're like wait commissioner magazine just sent it forward from Finance but now public safety saying why is it on four or five different streets I'm passing along today because there's not a big Financial commitment uh but like I mentioned before my comments that neighborhood and Public Safety would probably very much align with what commissioner Fernandez said I'd like to see a more kind of um fine-tuned approach where you know before we all lights you know Green on this and handing over four or five critical public rights of white maybe 10th Street you know maybe Eighth Street uh against the bathroom something like that and and Mr chair if I may just as a follow up I mean one of the things that I think you know there's going to be a standard uh rent uh rental of 20 to $30 per day is is is is that correct and there's a 25% for City residents you know whenever this comes back you know what's I would like to know you know is there going to be any Revenue sharing with the city you know because again this is utilizing uh public areas and so and and so I would want to know is there any Revenue sharing with the city I know the the buet brothers um you know you know have a similar amenity uh what has been the demand for that uh and if there's any Market study to support this because I want to make sure the moment we allow something to go into a variet of ways I want to make sure that not only are we entering into an agreement that's going to allow something to be in our public Ral voice but I want to make sure that it really does seres if we're doing something in our of ways that's going to be an and I hate to put it this way but it's going to be another obstacle ruction the right of ways well I want to make sure that it's something that's going to support a demand whether it be of our residents or our or our visitors so I would want to know how are the other amenities like the aqual that bé Brothers have how is that performing what is what does the market studies tell us about how this would be accepted differently what would be uh what would be the re the revenue share with our with our community should we move forward with it since we are in the finance committee just to bring it back into that perspective as well yeah I'm always for getting Revenue in uh commissioner and then Liz so just there's a lot wrapped into that on eight items I don't remember if I'm gonna hit them all but let me try to respond uh as far as you know the the digital backside if it's against the building it wouldn't be seen anyway we again that was really for the city so if you don't want to use it it doesn't matter if it's not visible the the structure will have that capability because in other cities it will be okay so it doesn't really matter in Miami Beach put it against a building unfortunately I don't think and maybe you all the staff will show us I don't think there are buildings at all those there may be a bathroom at 6th and at 12th I don't think there is anything at 8 or 10th and I think we had prepared for you today you know where the uh police report shows the heaviest theft areas are and unfortunately it's it's in there seventh and Ninth and that's what we thought going in between but if you can identify places that you would put them I don't think it's a problem for us so that that's one item in terms of the aaval and and you know the success or lack of success with the SHA BR they don't use them at all and the reason they don't is because if you know what the aaval is is a little kind of pocket you know thing hardly anything can fit in it uh and it wraps and secures itself on the back of the seats and because they're required to stack the chairs every night it didn't work so they never used it and they're very excited about this product and in fact Steph buet even called this morning and said that we can represent that he's giving uh beachbox a a trial period out in his eighth street Hut you should also be aware that for more than a year uh Austin has been great at lining up our hotels on Miami Beach I think there's five or six major hotels that actually are renting the boxes directly from him and then either giving them or reselling them to their patrons and this is not only for our beaches but the hotels are interested in doing this on their pool decks you know so you know theft unfortunately happens on pool decks too so but that's where uh uh Jerry you've so you know there are ways to to to to to work this through so that we're not adding more items on the beachwalk or Beach entries or rways you just mentioned okay 6th Street and 12th Street we have public bathrooms already constructed there the potentially this could go against those bathrooms you know built against these bathrooms you were mentioning eth and 10th Street we don't have those bathrooms but uh Steve bu reached out to you about the possibility of placing at one of his Huts just a product not not the not the kiosk just just the product well but but but when matters is the product not the kiosk the product is what keeps is what keeps people's items safe it's what achieves the ultimate outcome of preventing the beach test so you know get this feedback you know as as constructive accept it as as constructive please uh and uh and I'd be excited to see you guys come with a revised uh proposal that incorporate some of this uh feedback okay yeah and how how would you like to proceed because I I largely agree right I I think L I'm happy to kind of move it along but that that's not pledging my un you know unwavering support because I don't think I'm going to be supportive of four blocks right I don't think if you came to me and said wow look this demand is off the charts and we need this across four okay there really is a need and the demand for this you know these are large things um I I think we kind of tiptoe a little bit before we kind of jump all in and by the way the art Deo Welcome Center is at 10th Street um you know that's where the bathroom the uh is at at uh right behind mdpl building so I there are locations is there's also one at 6th is that right yeah and there's a bathroom at six street so get this okay I I follow I'm going to follow the chair uh lead on that what he mentioned but I I just I can't support the way that it's presented today okay commissioner so I um I think it's a great idea and I and as um I said when you showed it to me initially I share my colleagues concerns and the challenge will be to come back and sort of reimagine the business plan a little bit and the locations and maybe tying in with the buche Brothers but I would like to hear Liz you came up here as if there was a financial implication so I would like to understand understand what what you have to say about this whole thing before we move it to another group no worries I'll be brief good morning Mr chair committee members Elizabeth Muro facilities and flea for the record um basically somebody stole my thunder but it's everything is out there already so just consider the market study the demand for this consider Revenue sharing all of those factors should be considered um is what we have included in the memo in so far as if the city does desire to move forward with expanding um and provide wring these portable boxes um what our recommendation for the administration is to have a formal competitive solicitation yes so that's that's kind of leading to my next question so thank you so if if we have a um a pilot program at one location or whatever I what I won't don't want to see is have 12 different vendors come you know having their own version of this up and down along the beach so so there would be a competitive solicitation that's great look I I think it's a great product I think it's a great idea I don't love the delivery vehicle right now because you know I've been fighting since 2015 to keep kiosks out of Miami Beach in any configuration as my colleagues well know um uh so I the challenge is to figure out a different distribution system whether it's it it's against a building or through the buet brothers or some other partnering kind of way of doing this um uh and because I'm not on the the neighborhoods committee with a vote I I um wanted to get this on the record here chair if I if I may it it may sound like if this item is also at neighborhoods is uh is the item is presented by by the vendor there was feedback given and if you wanted to close it out here and that feedback would then be taken to neighborhoods for them to make the recommendation to the commission on whether to engage in inform formal solicitation yes so are we able to essentially close it out without providing some sort of official recommendation and just say okay we heard we gave some feedb along neighborhoods and you know you better incorporate some of it before it comes to the full commission but we don't we don't want to negatively opine and you know kind of Muddy those waters before you go to neighborhoods but we're also not sitting here wanting to jump uh fully into the pool yes so I think I'll show show the record that the vendor presented the item and Commissioners provided feedback and the item is closed at F you go if if I may however there is the revenue share aspect of it and the market study asking of it that I do think at some point those elements do need to come back uh to um to FK that are you know gerine to the purpose of our committee yeah so maybe we uh keep it here okay we close it out and keep it here are those mutually exclusive those those would be different things uh if it if it's going to be sent to to neighborhoods or it's going to be presented in neighborhoods for them to make the formal recommendation back to Commission uh and it does go down the path of it being a solicitation that goes out perhaps the the solicitation results come to for I think the City attorney wants to assist here sure um different paths that can be taken here um it goes to neighborhoods if neighborhoods makes a favorable recommendation then the commission can either vote to uh proceed without a a formal competitive solicitation and engage in negotiations for a pilot program or or commission could direct a competitive solicitation if the commission proceeds with a solicitation then each uh proposer will present its terms If instead the commission wants uh the administration to engage in negotiations with this proposer then I think the next step would be to return to FK to uh to to work on the fine points of of what the economics of the deal look like and if I can so just uh Dev tailing off that is then it would be at the commission's direction on how if they wanted to completely handle it themselves or there's some aspect to senate for but I think it sounds like we'll be okay closing this out with the feedback given to the vendor yeah I just one comment on the uh the proposed 25% uh rebate if you will in his proposal if he would have gone through his whole proposal today you would have seen that was designed to go to the city and our expectation was the city CU we're not talking a lot of money here and he's got huge expenses we're talking hundred hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars out of his pocket okay and to rent something for 15 bucks you know not you know he's got to make a lifing you got to pay people so the idea was to give 25% to the city which in turn if I were sitting where you were I would say well I want a dollar of that I would give it all to the residents and the way the resident discount was going to work was they going to use their credit card in the kiosk okay as opposed to with the Pas Hut it becomes very complicated to start on the sand taking credit cards they registered their credit card in the kiosk and only if they have the credit card registered to a Miami Beach ZIP code if the mailing address is not as they don't get a discount that's how we quantify the beach resident discount so when there were 33139 40 41 I'm not sure if 38 is anywhere in Miami beach but they unless their card was registered to one of those zip codes they wouldn't get it so it would really be up to the commission to ultimately decide out of $5 on a $20 rental do you want 250 and give the residents 250 would you want to give the residents all five if it went to $25 it would be you know six and a quarter six and a half but you know man has to cover tremend he's already spent over a million dollars to the design point this point and I totally appreciate that um and I wish you the best of success uh little girl or boy you have no K Oh I thought oh come on Jerry that was a selling point there uh wish you the best success it's not our job up here to make sure that this is successful we're turning over the public right away and and what we receive in return can't just be well you got to help him you know make a living no no I'm saying you can do with that Revenue what you wish but you know we were asked uh you know from commissioner Dominguez would you consider a resident discount so we thought it would be up to you to decide what you want to do with the money we would give to the city and and just to clarify on that $20 it would be $5 to you guys if the person wasn't a resident um and then if they are a resident we want to pass pass that five that's their call they don't want to pass it we would like to pass it and uh question this is being proposed as a pilot with a finite end because what I don't want to get into is you know we we issue some long-dated contract and at the end of the day after a year one uh we're giving up a very um attractive public right of way and we're getting a th000 bucks or something along those lines you know so are you in and but that puts you in a difficult position because you have large upfront capex and you know may be hard to commit over just a six-month or one-year pilot program yeah I think that's something that we would have to discuss if you the commission is inclined to move it to the administration negotiate I think that has to get worked out but you're right there's going to be a huge capital expenditure uh and so six month it wouldn't make sense to spend the kind of money you'd have to spend to try something for six months because remember there's also a a ramp up period for people to even understand what it is now they got to go to the bathroom well I wasn't planning to go to the bathroom I I got to go look for something on the bathroom wall you know it's going to be a selling job to get people to even understand it so you may not have any respectable results for the first year until people even understand as opposed to where bushe now has has worked out an agreement that at least for a short period of time I think it's a three Monon trial at the 8th Street Hut which they have um he's allowed to put boxes out there I can tell you that Austin has had a team out there that's been raining a lot but over a 3-day period he rented an average of 10 a day so uh the buet had asked if we could demonstrate over a two consecutive week period at least $11,200 of rentals okay which he's already achieving uh that they would consider investing or consider expanding it to other areas and then if we continue to increase the revenue in in three areas of theirs they would look to potentially invest and by no means do I want to slow down a business plan but in the long run you know it could be saving money because I would love to see kind of a more expanded pilot program like that show us what the actual results are over 3 months at the Eighth Street kiosk I think if you ask me what I would feel comfortable moving forward with when all is said and done it would be something like okay uh our beach contractor there on Eighth Street allows you to set up a little specialty stand at his uh um venue and let's see what that revenue is over the course of three months right because I think that's going to be valuable feedback for you because if you go and say well I got to spend uh $200,000 to construct the kiosk but I only made $10,000 you know over three months may maybe uh you you kind of change your business model and focus more on the hotels and things like that before making that large up from capex uh so let's try and reel this in Land This Plane um I think the best course of action is to hear where neighborhoods wants to go with the logis itical Factor um I I really before I would vote on the full commission in favor uh would really need some of these Logistics kind of reworked I wouldn't be comfortable with the four different streets I prefer you know a three-month pilot program on 8ighth street or something along those lines you you'll have those statistics because we're not able to be to the neighborhoods until the December meeting so we wouldn't be back to you till at least January which time he will have statistics of what's happening on 8th Street so I I personally would like to see you all you know at least move it to the neighborhoods as you're doing see where they come out um and then we'll have the data and we're willing let's close this out from Finance we'll hear to neighborhoods in December and uh see where we go from there thank thank you yep thank you awesome best of luck thank you for what you're doing for our city thank you we have a 1200 p.m. time certain for install playground in Pride Park N B12 commissioner Rosen Gonzalez do you want to present I have some of the Palm View residents here um who sponsored the item to give the um Pride Park to the parks department commissioner Suarez that was okay commissioner Suarez I know that we were unanimous in that um the residents of pal view have come forward and said that they would like some playground equipment um the thing I like about installing playground equipment is that Parks does this very well it's one of our Capital Improvements that happens quickly and it's when we look at it it's not the most expensive and I know that Jason can find the funding if he really tries we have a budget amendment coming up um we have some like muscly kind of equipment and we thought that right adjacent to it uh we met with John from Parks and we could add some additional equipment um I know that the price and I know that we have Cindy here I know that there's a little bit of arsenic remediation and don't panic because it's not toxic arsenic it was just that at one time it was a golf course that kind of makes it a little bit more expensive um I don't know Cindy do you want to talk about it before we hear from the residents too good afternoon uh chair and committee members Cindy Casanova assistant director for the parks department uh this item before you is a dual referral um to be heard here at Finance today and at the public safety and neighborhoods quality of life committee as outlined in the memo and as um commissioner Rosen Gonzalez explained um understanding that the pride Park footprint also serves as a temporary activation area um for the convention center we propose to consider the placement of a children's playground on the northwest side of the park which is close to the um fitness equipment in the park um we identified that location in the memo we would further vet this location if approved with any effector user depart Department um to ensure that it's feasible uh we take into account user safety um and to make sure that there are no concerns with the Holocaust Memorial or again with any Convention Center activations the construction budget that we put together um for this project is estimated to range anywhere between it's expensive a,1 146,000 to a m766 th000 and that depends on the design the budget includes the playground equipment itself fencing landscape aping the shade structure pour in place surface drinking fountains trash recepticles um benches and and uh I'm sorry and Landscaping and any remediation that would need to go into what commissioner was alluding to for any arsenic remediation um the range in these costs does fluctuate and it really is really based on the amount of consideration that we want to put into the design knowing that this playground will be an essential hub for Global activations such as puzzle so we you know we don't want something there that's catalog playground we want something there that's kind of nice and and high-end um so that's why you have these cost estimates before you um we are supportive of the project we think it's a great idea um and if it receives a favorable recommendation we would be happy to add this um for consideration as part of a proposed enhancement to the budget process um for funding Mr thank you Mr chair um I love this idea I love the idea of putting a um uh a playground at at Pride Park uh I think is something that we should given the costs you know to do something that is really worthy of our City Center District that's worthy of the historic neighborhood in Palm View and just the the vibrancy of this area uh it is worthy of this investment and should be put into our Capital program um what I also do think is when I was a kid the playground I was playing in was didn't cost $1.7 million I mean it was it was a you know a swing with a um what is it called a seesaw is that what it's called a seesaw and you know it was it was beautiful it was it was simple and I think you know we should be do taking two routes here um you know we should be budgeting for something really spectacular uh as part of our uh Capital program but I think in the short term in the in the interim why can't we have an a playground that is not a million dollar playground uh so that we do serve the families that are there today uh and the people that go there it shouldn't cost a million dollars to get a playground there uh cyy uh aric remediation is that what it is the Arsenic remediation that's but but people are already going there like this is what I don't get I mean this it was it was a peot yes for decades yes and then we did the convention center campus and we converted it from ashalt to uh to a park yes so it hasn't been a golf course for at least 50 or 60 years so I don't understand how is there arsenic there I mean all of that soils new soil that we put there uh with the development of the convention center campus so there's something here that that I don't get yeah to as far as the the soil contamination reation I really don't have a lot of information on that that wasn't actually part of the cost that we put together for no for um the budget estimates that we just gave you um so I don't get where where's this arsenic coming from we this is something that was done as part of the convention center campus a just only a few years ago how is there contamination on this good morning again Mar yeah hello um it existed from the past the site has been capped so you do that with clean soil when it was a parking lot what capped it was the asphalt so that contamination was underneath now that it's a park and you know you can roll around in this in the grass it's been capped and it was a process that was approved by Derm so now what happens is any single time you dig whether you plant a tree like when we did the two big calop films remember that we dig we dug huge holes but there's uh a process for how you replace that soil and how you inspect it it's got to follow the protocols of Derm so there is a process for that okay when we dig when you dig okay so I again I don't understand how kids are playing there now I see it all the time out outside my office window so why so for us to set up a temporary place while we got $1.7 million for a fancier playground why I don't understand the remediation that we have to do I don't I don't get that people are playing there now as as it is yeah I think um Cindy was referring to the permanent playground where you would be you know digging and and doing some kind of footings or foundations for it so so so can we while we budget uh the uh the what is it 1 Point six five to 1. it was about 1.5 while we budget for the 1.5 can we temporarily get something there without having to do uh any extensive remediation because the kids are there now we can we can definitely look at that okay yeah and I and and I think that that's what the neighborhood wants they want to see you know an amenity um this is something we have to put through the budget process I would I would imagine uh so it has to go through the capital program but in the meantime you could get something there quickly that's not going to cost us over a million dollars while we budget for something really beautiful and more permanent in nature uh through the capital program yeah absolutely and we can also um so Maria just mentioned we could also do some really creative programming in the space too um for kids for families so there's a lot of options that we could do there I'm Brian I live in the neighborhood and I'm here at Jessica and we represent palm viw and a lot of residents that want to see this happen um right now the kids are playing on the gym equipment and it's kind of dangerous that they're playing on that um I met Jessica actually cuz she and her child were playing in the middle of the street like with a little toy there's nowhere for them to walk to to go to a playground so we really do want to see this we don't we think it's going to benefit us obviously but all the surrounding and including the new hotel like families will be able to walk across the street and play in the playground sure so uh and what what park doesn't have a playground besides and we have gym equipment so we really want to see it fixed whether it's fancy or simple I mean obviously fancy is better but like we'll take simple as well I mean whichever route well the thing is $1.7 million for a fancier one it'll be great to do that but that's a more of a long-term project and I think you can get something done probably relatively quickly that is not of such a high price tag that's good question so Cindy what can you get us quickly and not so expensive let us go back sharpen our pencils and come back with a with a cheaper option yeah oh okay and what I would love to see um and I'm I'm going to ask some questions here uh for a 1.7 million and I'm a father and I'm the biggest advocate for parks and wreck and things like that I think hear me out and tell me if I'm right wrong indifferent uh we do something simplified in Pride park because I look around that surrounding area and there's just not the population density to support a $2 million playground but you're also not a long walk from Lincoln Road a long safe walk actually right I would love and there was a proposal that got deferred on here for a playground at ukul Circle on Lincoln Road which is just a short F minute walk there that could be enjoyed by our residents and visitors alike and could be such an attraction to Lincoln Road instead of having $1.5 million a year $1.5 million a year I'd rather go out and be like you know what let's make the coolest playground in the entire city right there on Lincoln Road that is just a short walk away from your neighbor we would support that thing but just adding on to that the gym equipment is pretty simple so also to have it like match in a way would be more reason for a simplified playground so it kind of goes together yeah you know because money is finite right we would love to put the best everywhere yeah but I'd rather you're still a short walk away have something right there immediately you know we care about Lincoln Road so we support that yeah exactly and when people are walking down Lincoln Road in fact make it so cool where people are coming to Lincoln Road just to use the parking lot and then they stumble upon play use the playground and that was not a Fudan slip because I hate parking lots so if I may um so obviously um this would still allow the design Miami and other major activations that were committed to to take place yeah that's why we were looking to put it as far away from those activations as possible so my view is um because it is a convention center and and design destination the more understated and sophisticated it is the better it will be I mean when you look at the layout of the park it is a very understated sophisticated Park and so to have this like you know bells and whistles kind of playground to me doesn't fit what the aesthetic is already and and the exercise equipment as you as brought up you know if you have it sort of like a kid extension of that so that it's it can be more immediate it can be um Timeless it's not going to look out ofd soon that um it appeals to the very sophisticated consumers who are coming to the convention center for for parts of what's going on and it fits into the overall aesthetic I think that would be my preferred way to go and um and then you know maybe part of revitalizing Lincoln Road is by making it a destination with kids who get hungry on playground equipment who then have to go eat at restaurants um so I would be supportive of that as well Mr CH so like I I really commend uh commissioner Rosen Gonzalez for for design it because it really it thinks about our families um you know i' I'd support you know moving forward with with a with a simplified version uh there at Pride Park so I'm happy to make a motion or if you want to make a motion to uh put a simplified version uh I think sometimes less is more you know less really is is more especially with time you can get it there quicker um and the one thing I would say let's try to do it as much as we can to the west side of Pride Park is closer to where the homes are at uh it takes it away from the larger activations uh so that's close to there's an area right next to the gym equipment because then that would allow parents to like work out while their kids there you go yeah there you go and and I think we should you know try to see if we can do a budget amendment to get it as part of this fiscal year if it's I mean it this shouldn't be a big ticket item Cindy uh you know it's it shouldn't be the $ 1.7 million Playground now just we're going to scale it back some plywood just sand down the plywood edges you'll be fine I wanted to give you the Cadillac version but I we we'll we'll come back with a with a Cadillac you know on the economy side uh not to over complicate things but you've got the Botanical Garden right next door maybe you can get their involvement in designing something that complement them I don't know just a thought sure any anything that we do that's going to elongate the process I would not recommend simply because it you know I mean if you want to ask them for input if they want to plant some stuff we could along the way and we could give that direction but I would just go with getting some equipment so that you have a place to go and your kids can play you know if we did a simplify version like this how soon do we think this would we'd have to go and we have to look at what we currently have in the que as far as the projects that we have underway um but it it it shouldn't fairly it shouldn't take us long is this like 2025 June May maybe maybe I mean I don't want to commit to a timeline yet I got to go back sharpen the pencil see what we can put in there and and take it from there but you'll have it sooner rather than later I mean I mean if if this cheap quickly I got I got it and this was still 1986 I'd say let's go to Sears and just like let's go buy one and let's just like do a weekend project and put it together put we don't want to do a Fisher Price in there can can I ask one question we don't have any geobond funding money for this for parks that we can pull from to do this we do have playground money and artistic playground money but I think it's all been spoken for um I'd have to check with um John and and to find out what it is in the amount I'm thinking here are are we kind of align $250 $300,000 something like that gets us something that is or less yeah L yeah 300 better be safe yeah yes better be say I agree I agree yeah and one thank you for being such wonderful Advocates of the neighborhood I want you to go away uh feeling good about this because one we're looking to expedite it but two you have my full commitment that I would love to bring a destination playground to a walkable distance to you on Lincoln Road we're all about that too yes I'm I'm okay with the destination playground and this playground too and uh Cindy you get two you get two playgrounds instead of one cut you down to 20% of the budget but you know what listen let's see what we can make happens absolutely thank you my six-year-old daughter will be happy thank you thank you for coming in thank you for coming and advocating thank you thank you thanks thank you chair I I believe the the motion is to return to commissioner the favorable recommendation to direct the administration to inst install a simplified playground at the western side of Pride Park as part of this fiscal year yes your favorite word okay if I can the who made the motion who seconded I made the motion second Kristen second second okay thank you C uh yes I believe number 11 you said we we'll do next uh I don't know the number but canopy Park yes mb11 discuss installing shade above children's playground equipment in canopy Park nb1 how much I didn't look at the recom how much is it Cindy there's not so much canopy okay at canopy Park it's growing in but in the interim I've had some parents come up to me and ask for a shaded area it's just getting hotter and hotter the sun is burning people and and what much can we how can we do this so so yes um Cindy kasanova again assistant director for the parks department um so when the park when the playground was originally designed it was designed to have the mahogany trees that are there shaded um over time we all know trees take a while to grow um and as it is as it stands now depending on certain points of the day it's very hot there um and it it is it's problematic um so we are supportive of the item um shade structures are not cheap um so we gave you two options of what we could potentially do there one is um it's partial shade that we would work along the existing tree canopy it wouldn't shade the entirety of the playground equipment it would shade some of the bigger elements of the playground equipment like the elepant slide um and that came in at a price tag of 265,000 the other option is to shade the entirety of the playground which is at a higher price point and also would require us relocating a couple couple of the trees that are are that are there um and that comes in at a price point of 429,000 can I ask a couple questions sure so canopy Park was part of the development agreement with um with the um five Park five Alon um who paid for the construction of canopy Park I believe they did okay so with all due respect I would request that we go back to to the developer because this is either one of these pieces of uh you know expenses or Trump change um to that developer and if the park as constructed didn't Envision the fact that we wouldn't have trade canopy tree canopies to provide shade this should have been contemplated at at time of of design and Development and Construction and so this is just a a fix um in my view and I I would suggest that relocating trees is not something I'd be super excited about doing um especially if we are anticipating that these canopies would be temporary while we want the trees to grow in so I would I would be I would not be supportive of the city funding this I would be supportive of the city going to the developer and asking them to I agree okay first of all then that's killing the whole idea and now we have because you he's not reopening a development agreement to put some shade in and now you have a kid's park and it could take up to a decade to get proper canopy to shade it and it's too hot for them to use the equipment so we have all these residents that love the park but if you notice there's not a lot of there are people sometimes it's just hot it's too hot so I mean we could first of all I mean I I suppose we could approach them but they don't have I mean why would they they've already seated the park to the city when we took ownership of the park that was the moment where we had to probably say to them you know we want a shaded canopy so if I mean I don't know how you guys feel about that but there's a lot of kids that would like to use that equipment and we have that equipment but it's not shaded it's hot so am I supposed to go back to these parents and say um we didn't want to give you shade and complete the park because because to me he's not going to why would he do that if he didn't have to and he already seated the park and the develop agreement is finished ask the question and why wouldn't we not just first ask the question without reopening the development agreement it is an inconsequential amount of money and why would we not at least ask ask we don't have to reopen anything it is a it's it's a small you know $265,000 is not a big deal well so I would I would um I would suggest that would be our first course of action I think his response will be uh well if I build my building taller it'll provide more more shape but um I'm fine with going out and asking the question but I also think we should uh think of a contingency plan where if the answer is no uh or if there's something else where we say you're doing this can we get a shade as part of that you know it doesn't hurt to ask uh but then it's like where do we proceive the answer is no commissioner Fernandez chair chairman you uh live you're you're a neighbor of the area what's your experience I know you're a dad so what value your Insight um my sense is in the mornings when the sun is coming from the East it's not unbearably hot and when it goes to the West Side the Sun at certain times of the year is blocked by uh partially blocked in the evenings from Bentley Bay and the Floridian uh however that's my experience of other people you know say that uh they want a canopy um perhaps I wouldn't be in favor of moving trees either so perhaps the the best is to go with the scale down version I think we asked the developer um both developers actually you know the other one actually has a partner on the project has some more active projects in front of the city so maybe he'd be more enticed to help us out um but uh then we also have to contemplate if that answer is well thanks but no thanks uh how do we proceed and perhaps that's you you know uh putting forward um a request in next year's budget for the scale down version this is this is where a while back I had an idea I'm going to put it out here since we are the finance committee we should have a wish list in our City's website we are a community of such great wealth of so many resources people who have done so well in their careers and come and retire here and I'm sure that let's say it's not those developers you know there are people in this Community there might be people that live right in front of that Park that might have the very deep pockets and the desire to contribute to something like this and don't even know that the city is looking to do something like this and we should have like a wish list of projects that would be nice to have but you know but we don't necessarily have the money to do it immediately because it's not necessarily at the top of the priority and people might be willing to put the money forward and contribute to a fund for it and so I I want to work Mr attorney on an item about that uh because this has happened in other neighborhoods where there's things that it's kind of like the icing on the cake type of uh type of a thing and there might be people in the community who might be willing to pay for it uh and get it and get it done uh so that the city doesn't have to do it because it's just for the common good and so I'd like to work on on an item on that but yeah I I support what a motion as stated by the chairman so you want to bring it back what do you what do you you want to give direction is Cindy supposed to reach who's reaching out what's your what is the motion is it if I if I and if the City attorney I'll jump in if I'm off here but I think it to return to the to the commission with a favorable uh recommendation to direct the administration to request a donation for the five Park developer for a partial uh sun shade at canopy Park playr that's what I believe that I've heard and if that would fail uh to to then return to FK for further discussion well how about make a recommendation to move forward with the scal down version would that be to to implement or to make a budget priority during the 2026 budget process 2026 I I have a question this and this might just be okay a structure a structure is going to cost shade structure it's going to cost us anywhere between 265 and 429 how much would mature trees cost us I don't have the answer to that question okay I would want to know how much would mature trees uh cost us um you know I would rather see us if we're going to be spending this amount of money potentially whether it be us or a private entity the the goal is shade and if we can get the shade through canopy through mature canopy I much rather see it whether it be us or whether it be a private person uh private entity doing it so I I would like us to consider that please can can I say one thing you know when you live the people on West Avenue live in apartments and I have to say when you have a toddler who's to what is that like being in an apartment with a couple toddlers two three years old they're running around they you have to get them out do you understand so to say to elongate this process I understand that that could be an option that we could find but like it's a necessity you know it's a necessity because they will drive you crazy when you have little kids now you've got a puppy okay you know and you might want that puppy to have some shade because you don't want that little puppy's Paws to get burned if he was in a puppy park right so you don't want these little toddlers who are going to be toddling along and getting sunburned and getting burned on the equipment that they can't use and their parents are in their units on West Avenue and they're stressed out and they need to get the kids out I mean how long are we going to elongate this process is it ideal that we have to put shade there no but is it a necessity and should all parks moving forward have some sort of shade so that kids can immediately use the equipment probably so I would ask commissioner Fernandez that you would would um re-evaluate your that request because I think that that will make it take a lot longer I mean if you could as we move the process along fine now we're giving three directions to ask the developer to move forward with partial shade and to find out if we can buy mature trees is that what this direction is that what the motion is is that what my motion is I just I mean how long will that take as long as sammon I if if if it's about requesting what it would look like uh for mature trees I think that would be discussion probably for green space and Public Works yes uh they would have to look at that um and then come back to firk to um I just kind of show what that would look like in cost and and I just think like for example we're going to have the same issue at Pride Park you know when we this this means we need to look at a matter of just policy design policy yes when we put money towards designing playgrounds I guess we now need to we're we're learning that we need to consider shade as part of playgrounds because it is getting hotter we listen we're seeing it with hurricanes why are we having more hurricanes because the oceans are getting warmer uh and so why do we need shade structures now where perhaps we didn't need them before with children's play uh playgrounds because it is getting warmer out there so as part of our policies when we design playgrounds now we know we need to to incorporate shade what I would encourage us is that we consider when we incorporate this shade let's not look at structures for shade let's look at incorporating proper shade trees and as our assistant City Manager David Martinez likes to say not a Charlie Brown tree I don't want to see more Charlie Brown trees and that's my frustration with the trees that we installed they are Charlie Brown trees and it's frustrating to see their rate of growth it takes a really long time the community deserves you know real trees to have real canopy and so and so I I I would just say in this case to remove any tree to put a structure to provide shade takes us in the wrong direction I would first like us to see can we just add more trees there that can provide that shade uh so that we're not taking away any of the existing trees yeah thank you commissioner I'm I'm looking at a Arial view now and come back with a a cost estimate on a mature tree I'm looking at this I think one mature tree kind of solves this issue if you would place it on the western side of the park um could be off but you know what what would one mature shet tree be I don't think we need an entire New Forest here uh it's growing in uh the template is there there and let let's see what that analysis is with one grown tree cuz that is something that we'll have forever yeah exactly chair we can um Parks can work together with green space and public works and return to the uh next next FK sure it's it's a tight turnar around we have because we have a November 8th but we'll return with uh that information as requested maybe the First Street oak trees there you go next there you go so does that mean that we're not considering the Shaded structures at all no I think we just want a return of what one mature sheet tree would be um I think the higher version of um moving a trees wouldn't be my uh what I'd be inclined to support but let's kind of bifurcate this right let's uh if somebody could engage in a conversation with the developer um about the shade structure and then if we could have uh returned um whether it be Finance or to the commission about the cost of uh a single large mature Tree on the west side of the playground there okay I certainly don't want to give up on the idea I think we move forward with one of those two options okay so we'll re we'll return to uh FK with the with the cost would be for the mature tree and there could be a discussion uh a reach out to the that developer to see if there's interest in a in paying for and maybe someone and maybe someone wants to dedic maybe someone wants to if it's not the developer maybe someone out there want wants to dedicate a treat to someone that did something spectacular you know and how beautiful would that be you know if I might for for um in Central Park there's a I think this a Central Park Conservancy that allows residents or anybody to gift a bench in memorium or on behalf of somebody um and maybe that's something that we could consider doing in Miami Beach is yeah you realize that I have that program we have a park program you can buy a bench right now for $10,000 we just don't advertise it I've did that in like 2017 and we sold we sold several benches and then we like raised the price to 20,000 we didn't sell any benches but we do have the program correct so maybe maybe there's an opportunity to expand that program to you know benches and other playground equipment and trees and you know sort of broaden scope I believe there is one also for trees I believe I think there's a commemorative tree program yeah but by our department actually we even have a commemorative brick what you know what the problem we you can even buy a commemorative brick on beachwalk that I did but what happens is like I'm not in charge of marketing and the city doesn't necessarily I don't think we we've marketed that much so the programs those programs are all there are they not yes they're all in place people why don't we ask the Communications Department to put it out there does someone want to sponsor I don't know if it's legal Mr attorney but can we ask the Communications Department to ask you know does someone does anyone want to dedicate a tree at canopy Park in honor of someone someone and and we can go ahead and and put a tree there that's now a living memory to someone's an an honor to someone's contri I would suggest that it might behoove us to reexamine the programs we do have and maybe roll them into one bigger program that we can um reach out and and sort of reintroduce a community to so that so it is still the same offerings but it's it's expanded and so whatever your interest is whether it's um you know trees we have them we I mean we have all three I know but roll them into one together and announce them re announce them to the to the community so that people know it's there so that it's not like oh I have to go over here to find a tree or you know gee I want to do something nice for Miami Beach what are my options right so that it's a One-Stop shop okay so I think we have two MO two separate motions here one is to ask the developer for a big tree and the second one is to roll all three programs into one and have a marketing campaign so that people know that they exist would that be your motion y okay I will um I guess uh second that motion and uh let's see what we can make happen so if I if I can so we will not be returning the FK then with the cost of the tree if so if there's a motion to request a donation from the developer for a large tree and obviously obiously return the commission and then to direct the administration to amend the the commemorative programs that the city has uh and to reinvigorate the the marketing of set campaign um okay by the way that's a much easier ask asking them for one tree rather than asking for the the shade structure yep and um and listen I'm so excited about uh you know marketing these ideas it's in the back of my head always like all these programs exist and we haven't market and when we did Market them we started to sell them and we were selling a lot we we sold two so quickly and I was like maybe it's too cheap at 10,000 but we follow the Central Park Conservancy model when we created the program I think the coolest thing is the commemorative brick on the beachwalk because we need like it would raise so much money and it's like nothing to pop the bricks in and out but I feel like I feel like where's Public Works where are there where's Eric Eric was in charge of that brick program it's not that hard is it to change a brick whatever you yeah so okay so I think with some marketing you know we could actually raise a lot of money with these programs especially the commemorative tree program and everything else so and by the way commissioner you you have an email list with a great circulation uh because people read it and maybe you know I would encourage you yeah put it put it at the bottom of your emails because a lot of people do read your emails uh and that's a another Avenue in which local residents can uh can find out about it um if if I may um let my office look into the propriety of Commissioners incl including solicitation for donations in their emails and I will report back this is not a solicitation it's just a simple advertisement because I'm not receiving anything at all they are purchasing a bench for themselves I have nothing to do with it it's not a solicit it's the city program existing and they were not easy to get fast I mean it was like you would think it would be easier get I understand tree but all right I will look into it and let let you know and just to Reit this is commission uh motion by commissioner Rosen Gonzalez return to commission with a favor of recommendation direct Administration to request the donation from the five Park developer for a mature Shade Tree kopy Park and to combine the various commemorative uh programs and to re reinvigorate the marketing of said programs yes yes a second second who was the second second commissioner bot all in favor I thank you and before we move on just while we're on this topic I was going to bring it up at the commission meeting I've been uh kicking around an item that I'll introduce but I want us all to be a part of it and all to start think about it is I've termed it the Miami Beach Legacy project and to your point commissioner Fernand is between families that have been here for six generations and new families that are here Miami Beach has benefited from some of the largest wealth migration in the entire world and perhaps putting together just an iconic Legacy project I think along the lines of if anybody's familiar with little island off of the Westside Highway in New York City it was $125 million it is Iconic it's incredible so if we could get 20 of you know these prominent families the beckhams just bought a house on North Bay Road for $90 million you know significant donations to our city for a project that will last the lifetime that truly the entire Community Embraces um I I don't want to be the so dis what that project is I'd love for us all to uh collaborate on something like that yeah I think it's great I think I I think it's it's it's it's aign there is money in this community and not everything there's icing on the cake projects and I think there there is money out there that is capable of and willing to support it if they were to be engaged uh and asked so I love your I love your idea you know you can do big Legacy prcts and they can do small things like a tree for shade you know uh because there's people that are to contribute in different amounts and I see the Inspector General nodding his head so I hope that means that it's it it has a blessing on it reduces waste Mr IG um yeah okay so speaking of that let's uh um since you invoked his name commissioner Fernandez let's go to nb9 nb9 nb9 referral to the finance and economic resiliency committee to discuss potentially enacting a red flag ordinance requiring the office of the inspector dor General to review City commission agendas and make recommendations concerning all agenda items that will likely result in an expenditure of greater than $100,000 and be nine all right so this is an item that I placed on the agenda uh because the office of the Inspector General serves an an important uh function uh and it's there to to to avoid fraud reduce our risks of fraud we abuse misconduct uh and and and other types of mismanagement um we oftentimes end up with uh with very large uh tagged price tags on our agenda item items that uh cost a lot of money or items that are insignificance are significant in nature and what this item uh proposes is that the inspector General uh review all of these uh items with an expenditure greater than $100,000 and in his review uh the Inspector General would pretty much have to raise a red flag um if it is determined by the Inspector General after consultation with the city attorney that any action that we're about to take would violate any of the City's policies any of the city's procedures any ordinances or other applicable law it would also uh require the Inspector General to notify us if there's going to be any significant negative impact involving waste involving fraud involving inefficiency in connection with any City programs with any projects and any contracts or or expend expenditures um it will make sure that we find out about any concerns like these that the inspector General may have before we vote on something rather than after the fact and I think that's important to our taxpayers important to our community that created this office and placed this trust in the office of the Inspector General for them to know that the inspector General is looking at our agenda that is reviewing these uh big price tag items that we are about to vote on and if he Det or has reason to suspect that there is any any abuse or inefficiency or violation of policies or procedures or any other type of applicable law that he now feels that he has the the obligation to raise that red flag and help us make the right policy decision when it comes to these matters thank you Mr chairman thank you Mr Inspector General please thank you um Mr chairman and and Commissioners Joseph sorino uh Inspector General uh um I I appreciated uh the the commissioner Fernandez's original proposal in the sense that he was Surly trying to you know maximize the value of the office um and U and there really isn't anything in the ordinance the the the enabling ordinance of the office that really U you know gives any sense of how the office should interact with you know on you on a less than formal basis with the administration with the commissioner and so forth you know we have procedures where we we often you know tied up with with confidential matters um and uh we sometimes you know we we we try to put a lot of work in into the reports that we put out whether it's an audit or investigation often we can't really comment on things because of of confidentiality on the other hand I mean there have been times when we have felt compelled to you know to advise the administration or advise commissioner about hey you know before you vote on this you really should know this and sometimes those conversations have have had to be confidential just by the nature of them sometimes have been able to um to speak a little more more openly um but anyway what what I think we worked with commissioner Fernandez on this as well as your your City attorney who I appreciate his his input uh on this to try to come up with a structure that would would maximize the the value Val of the office that would provide us with the flexibility to decide how are we going to you know On Any Given matter how are we going to uh to engage with either the administration or Commissioners when we think that there's something that really need to know uh before a decision is made before a vote is taken at the same time respecting the independence of the office because um under the city Charter under the standards that we operate under with the association of inspectors General we we have to have the flexibility to decide what are we going to look into what are we going to speak out on you know what what form that's going to take what the content of that is going to be so we did work on on this uh this ordinance somewhat and we came up with the four kind of Provisions that we have regarding notification uh regarding violations uh of the law only in in consultation with the city um the City attorney we can't be I don't think we can we should be giving legal opinions whether something is legal or not without the city attorney's uh advice um it just it would create chaos I think if if we had it any other way um and we also to notify when we think you know there's something there's some problem that you should know before we are in a position to put out a public report uh that you should be aware of that maybe there's an audit going on that you know before you decide to uh to uh to to adopt the to to ratify a contract or extend a contract maybe you should know you know maybe you want to wait until the audit findings are out that would help help you um you know we're all in the information business that's our life blov we're only as good as the information we get and the information we're able to put out and you're largely in the same in the same business I mean you have to make a lot of decisions that require an enormous amount of of information that you have to absorb and process and decide what to do so to the extent that we can we can add to that information and clarify certain things I think it's helpful uh to you and also it helps I think uh uh maximize the role that we are are supposed to play Under the uh under the city uh the city Charter so I know appreciate commissioner Fernandez's work on this as well as the the city attorneys I think we came up with something that we can we can live with u and it shows it gives us somewhat of a of a structure uh during which shows how we can and should at times uh uh interact with the U you know with the elected officials as well as the administration thank you Mr IG and I I actually I don't want to speak for the IG and correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think he was actually very excited when I initially proposed this because it's it's uh it's it's almost a lot of extra responsibility uh to the office um but I do think um listen I brought a times items that U maybe over 100,000 that would fall under the scope of review of this item and I don't know you know the Inspector General could review it and have concerns with it and or say it's a redundancy of resources or say that there's more efficient ways to do things and if that's the case so be it you know we need that feedback we need uh that Watchdog over our expenditures over our government I think is a big reason why our electorate created uh this office and I believe in in the purpose of this of this item I think uh I I think we need to govern in the present thinking about the future we don't know who could be sitting at this day is on the future we don't know um we just don't know and uh and I think that this helps ensure um trust public trust in our expenditures as an elected body thank you uh Mr chair so in my experience we already have a fiscal impact then we have to get the city manager recommendation that we have to speak we has to come here to committee um we have to make sure that it's legally sound we now have a lobbyist uh we also have to disclose if we were approached by a lobbyist and I'm going to ask how many more things do we need to put how many checks do we need do we need 20 checks because I think between the lobbyist disclosure the fiscal impact statement going to finance committee assuming that we all have a fiduciary who our constituents I mean they're just wrapping Us in red tape you're just going to wrap it and wrap it and wrap it until nobody can move you know it's enough and by the way he's conducting how many audits are you conducting right now there are audits yes yes multiple audits we have we're meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting and we have to realize that in addition to looking at our agendas they're trying to work on other projects so if we really want this Department um now that we took the auditing function away from the city manager and the auditing function is under the Inspector General I would say that we have enough checks in place and that this is a massive job and that he would take his job tremendously seriously and he would be going through this all the time and we would have be paying one person for a fifth check on something that has so many checks already that I think that it's sufficient in my in my personal opinion and thank you commissioner and I'll I'll say that this isn't necessarily another item on the on the agenda you'll notice that that this ordinance doesn't amend our agenda procedures or what agenda items should should show this amends the enabling ordinance of the Inspector General so that he notifies us he can call us or if he wants to issue a written recommendation as to something that involves waste fraud abuse but right now it doesn't there's no word that say that there's no one so what happens like for example you know we were doing the issue with the waste haulers and the Inspector General felt that there was a violation of process potentially and it wasn't until after we cast our vote on that that the inspector General came forward and told us that and I'm sorry as an elected official if I'm going to cast a vote on something something that's gonna affect our electorate our budget and and the governing of our city and the IG who is the Watchdog of our government has a concern over that I want to make sure that the IG is empowered to come forward and to raise that red flag I think that that's why people created this office and so and so I understand your your thoughts about it um but I think I I think the INSP dor General feels comfortable in how this has been written not to overburden his office not to create an expectation that the IG has to you know issue a recommendation on every single item that's on the agenda uh and if you would like to respond to that uh Joe you're welcome there may be a m misunderstanding this is not the original proposal that we we're working with right now not the you know the check off on you know items over a certain amount that was my initial request and and not that that wasn't well intentioned but that would be it would be beyond our capacity we are a minuscule part of the city government compared to the administration which works on all these items you extensively so it really wasn't realistic for us to be able to in a a week or two to come up with a an opinion on things like that we just don't operate that way and and and we couldn't with I think but what what what the the ordinance that we provided which is a substitute for that would would provide a means for us to give you information it would I don't think it would require it would it would it's going to obstruct anything frankly um it just provides you with information that you can utilize maybe in making a decision then you can ignore it also it doesn't mean you have it doesn't require that you not do something it just gives you additional information that you didn't have so I would say it just empowers you um and facilitates maybe some of your decision making I don't see it as any kind of obstruction whatsoever Joe practically walk me through how this works how you're envisioning that this works so we essentially uh the agenda gets printed the Wednesday before commission meeting what happens what are you doing how are we interacting this is not tied to to any particular agenda action this is just this this provides several means for us to communicate when we can and when we have information we think would be important to a decision it's it's our discretion to come forward with it we're not going to be commenting on all you know anything by you know that that by requirement but we we have to retain that Independence and the discretion to say okay we we need to let them know about this and and it can come in different forms doesn't mean we're going to it's not going to be it may not be public I may meet with the with the city manager or with the the mayor or with one of the Commissioners who might propose something and say look you know before you go ahead you make want to know this this is some information that you might want to have I I know I'm catch you off guard here but do you have any examples of past things where if this uh legislation was in place you're able to sit here and say you know what this would have went differently we would have been able to do this well it's already happened uh on occasion I I hesitate just to to mention too many things specifically but there's there's a there's a there's an item right now that's uh going on I think I can say this much publicly regarding the uh the marina all right there's a pending audit we have on the marina and I have advised the administration and a couple of Commissioners I think know about it also that you know we our our suggestion is before you make a decision on that you you you should get the results of the of the audit all right I think that would it would be helpful to to know what that information is I'm glad we deferred it today and and and in the past have there been others in in the past yes there have been time to time and but frankly there we Str we've struggled with it because you know confidentiality is important and if we're going to speak confidentially with somebody we're going going to have to trust that it's going to be remain confidential but then in the past you've also been accused when you've spoken up on something and it's we were accused no matter what we do well but it's jeopardized it's it's put it's jeopardized the office in the past that because because you may have spoken up against something then then your office becomes a target of political retribution when this would would say like I don't know how how how it would be wrong for us to say that the inspector General shall notify us or the administration if there's a violation of City policy a procedure of law like wouldn't we want to know that there's a violation of law before we cast our vote on something I mean we want to we want to know that and these things could happen and fly under the radar uh or or or being notified if the Inspector General suspects that or or has determined conclusively in fact it's not even suspect has determined conclusively that one of the committees or the commission is about to take a vote on something that's going to negatively impact you know waste that is going to create fraud that could potentially create an efficiency in our in our programming or in our contracts I I mean this is this is what the office at the IG was was created for and shouldn't feel retro contribution when they speak up for it and I think we need to make it clear that we want them to speak up before we cast a vote tie our name to a vote and something that could be doing this because they do serve the purpose they should serve the purpose to promote integrity and efficiency in our decision-making process and this empowers them to do that and I can't say here confidently that in a billion doll budget or a budget that approaching almost a billion dollars that I know for sure that in my own independent review of each one of these items that I know that there's not waste going on or potential abuse or a potential inefficiency that's a resource that we that the IG can assist us with so um I I appreciate the spirit of this for starters I applaud you for bringing this forward um question for me is that the the legal correctness of an item doesn't that get handled Mr City attorney not to put you on the spot but wouldn't that be something that goes through your shop and presumably would be caught sure but because of the uh unique position that the inspector General has he may be aware of a situation or a matter that I or my office is not aware of and so this intends you know certainly and he he would consult with the office of the City attorney if there's any question of law or violation of law but he may be aware of something that I have no knowledge of so this is protective of of that type of situation and uh commissioner Fernandez your intent because my understanding is the um the oig can do this anyhow but your intent is to um codify it so there's no threat of Retribution or um yeah shenanigans that get played by people who might yeah get taking funding away taking staff away eliminating the office I mean this this should be expressly defined as part of the responsibilities of the of the of the oig uh and right now it's not necessarily expressly defined that uh that that that they that he shall notify us of these things before we cast votes on a government that handles such large high-profile often controversial issues that are import important to the public and not just important to the public but important to the public trust which is which is important as as well um but how would it how would it work practically I just help me understand how this would work so the commission agenda item would be published the Wednesday before and then in in those intervening days this is this is not the original proposal which I think you're probably looking at that was talked about us responding to certain items on every agenda this is not the the attached to my memo is the ordinance which is four sections to it that we worked on with commissioner and with the city attorney which just provides the the structure under which we would interact with the commission on things in regard and it and it deals with things like know asking us questions I me I know that sometimes people feel well you know we shouldn't interact too much with them we're open to a commissioner and then some Commissioners have done this calling us up and say you know tell us what you know or what you can tell us about this or you know just asking for an opinion sometimes we can do that I mean we can do that and and it gives some flexibility to the to the pro to the process and I think it opens up the the the channel of communication it it doesn't and and and and and let me let me just add I'm sorry commissioner through through the chair just I think something important to keep in mind here a lot of this is at the discretion judgment so that to communicate with us at his discretion and judgment so sometimes it might be written in public and other time might be communicating directly with us but if there's something that he is aware of an an addded um something that's non-confidential in nature that he can share with us that we should be aware of so that we don't step on the well you know what um you know before we cast our vote you know we we should be aware of that because what because otherwise you know we we're going to be in positions of like well I wish I would have known this before I voted on something and in the past when the IG has done that the office has been placed at political risk I like the spirit of your Em I'm going to reiterate what I initially said that I don't necessarily think that this needs to be a codification and this is part of your already job description also um the subjective nature you know I trust our city manager um I trust our lobbyist disclosure I trust the administration that's making our fiscal impact statement and um you know so and I think that also um Mr Cino knows that if something red flags he you know when he hears it in committee I think that he's already going to do this in the spirit of keeping our code so simpler we expand and expand and expand our code with things that are already being done and in my opinion while you know it's it's a nice gesture I don't think it's necessary um you know and and also there's the political nature of this you have a city manager who's voted upon and you have an inspector General who's voted upon and while sometimes you guys have gotten along there have been times where you haven't gotten along so you know I I don't you know I don't think that we need this I mean to codify it because I think that that's his job already he's supposed to be you know red flagging these things um you know who knows I mean I've seen I've seen crazy things come out of the office like turkey gate you know like things that I that you spent hours and hours and hours upon compiling information like that and I just don't you know because of the political nature and my institutional and historical knowledge I would say that this doesn't need a codification I mean okay that's fine I'm going be a no vote against it well here's the thing I mean I don't want to vote against something that's ethics but I want to vote against complic over comp like adding more pages to our code that aren't going to make any changes is May I through the chair those four paragraphs that we're adding to the code it's not Pages it's just four paragraphs in our code does how many thousands of pages this is our code Mr attorney I will have to get back to on that he doesn't even know it's four paragraphs that we're adding to our to our code add and add and add and add and add and add and add you know just like let's simplify it commissioner but so I I think um maybe a way to to split the difference here would be to codify the part about no retribution maybe um that well I I think Tanya if if you're not comfortable with this you can vote against it uh but I don't think there's a splitting of bay Beyond this you know we either want to be able to for the Inspector General to feel comfortable in in in you know helping us maintain a transparent accountable government that has high levels of of Integrity or or or not and and if you don't feel comfortable with this as it's written that's fine you know you don't you don't have to point but my point is that I feel like that's already that's already why are you forcing vot that's I'm not forcing my my feeling is that's already what the office of the Inspector General should be doing and if my concern is about is there any pressure to um of in the past historically there're being retribution or bad blood or whatever do we protect that but I'm I'm not I just I'm not understanding how this um gets us more ethically correct if given what I I always going to say yes to more ethics and transparency but I'm not sure how this accomplishes that if it's already what the office is supposed to do and that's maybe just because I'm not understanding so Mr Cino can you explain that well you know I let me just I mean there's as I said before there's nothing in the ordinance now that's that that lays out that the inspector General should ever talk to anybody all right I mean so I'm not going to be here forever uh the next person in this office may look at it and said look we're independent uh you know when we put out a report you get the report I'm not talking to you otherwise they could do that that's not it's not required this does give a a pathway for that kind of communication to take place when it's appropriate and it isn't going to happen that often but you know I can tell you there have been times when I've said I've struggled with the idea was should I say something should I not say something you know we have a pending investigation we have a pending audit it hasn't been completed you know C can I say anything to anybody and you know I sometimes have said things confidentially to people you know and and and helped uh somebody but there are times when I haven't so this this this makes this puts it in writing and and so the next person in this office says well okay this is what they expect this is what I should do I I should make something some information available when I can without damaging an investigation without violating any confidentiality and and you know so it it means that there probably will be more information I don't see it so much as an ethical matter I it's just information that will will get to people who should have as much information as possible before making a decision that's all okay thank you yeah I appreciate the inside Joe uh commissioner Fernandez um I'm going to be supportive here uh do you want to make a motion see how see where things land sure yeah I'll make a motion to uh send this to the city commission I'll second I mean we're not going to vote it's hard to vote against anything regarding ethics that's fine I don't understand the retribution not the ethics ordinance just this is this is on the enabling ordinance of the oig I colleagues we're colleagues if someone wants to vote against this I don't hold a grudge if someone wants to vote against something like this you know you can you can vote you can vote you can vote what do you feel you need to vote if you don't feel comfortable with it you don't have to vote for it where does it say that there's no retribution for the oig I don't that's not in the ordinance there's nothing about retribution in the ordinance uh I thought it was like an exemption of all retribution I mean that's fine I'll be supportive of it um and I'll see you know what what my colleagues say at the full commission and I would ask this body you know to you know think about simplification of the code chair we have a a first and a second take the vote all in favor I I thank you thank you crazy Mr chair uh I know City uh Administration is requesting to hear item number ob5 yes thank you and I'll spare us from reading the entire title uh but ob5 is an item related to design engineering services for living living uh living Shor line and seaw walls ob5 and we have procurement here thank you how are you good morning good morning Christy B chief procument officer so this item was here at the September 20th um FK meeting and it was referred to the administration to revisit the city manager's recommendation and we're back still supporting the original recommendation that was presented to Commission on the July meeting I'll move the item as uh as you know reaffirmed by the administration okay I second thank you so we'll go back to the full commission so we uh the motion will be returned the uh return the commission with a favorable recommendation on the item yes uh commissioner Fernandez motion and uh chair magazine second all in favor I thank you thank you thank you so much uh commissioner Rosen Gonzalez would uh I think it's such a cool item the Barbara Huli Art Deco Pasto colors would we like to hear this and were we looking to stop at 1:30 today uh if so we can hear this uh last item then yeah nv4 uh discuss establishing a match funding program to incentivize building owner participation in The Hil niiki Art Deco pastel colors initiative nb4 thank you so it's interesting I had a property owner from Washington Avenue in my office yesterday who said that she's had to decrease her rent from $55 per square foot to $35 and that she's making less money now than ever before and that instead of her tenants paying the rent at the beginning of the month they are now trying and struggling to pay their rent at the end of the month and you know how she purchased her property and renovated on Washington Avenue in the80s she received and this was in the 80s a $155,000 grant from City of Miami Beach and that is how that's the only reason she purchased and improved her property on Washington Avenue so this is an item to try to get people to paint their buildings um and not just come to us for informational purposes but do some sort of matching agreement in terms of you know we're not offering them if you took the $15,000 that we gave in the 80s when Washington was struggling right and you look at what's happening now across the historic district um this is paint now I don't you know and so if a property owner um comes forward and says that they would like to work with Miss hulani Niki to design or repaint their building um what we would like them to do is you know have a consultation with her then you know go get an estimate and it would be matching property owners and City match these funds um to create you know something new and interesting beautiful and exciting and expand on this project so um I don't think it should be just I I you know I I I met with the finance director said you know we're going to we're you know we're going to suggest informational at a time when you know we want you know information I don't think that that's what we want what I would like to do is have Property Owners come forward with their invoice um because I think that if the city the city can't do the painting you've seen we just got quoted how much for playround where over quoting I would like uh Property Owners to go move forward um have some sort of consultation with you know hul and Nikki to decide on some sort of color palette or use our existing color palette and then give us an invoice and we match it and see if we get any takers you know and maybe we'll see a revital revitalization of stuff and maybe we'll get done sooner we started working on the colony theater project with Barbara hulanicki almost a year ago and we are still not there to repaint it so you know um so I would like to you know and I'm I'm they and the city has been wonderful and we're picking out awnings and we're doing stuff but it's a lengthy process so I don't know how you feel about this but these small amounts of money grant monies that we would help Pro that we would do matching with the property owners um I'm just trying to find incentives to beautify at a time where I walk down the street and it doesn't look so great you know so in conjunction with other stuff I don't know how you feel about this but I think that this is a win-win I I think this is very cool um are you envisioning uh commercial and multif family buildings and are we going to consult her for each and every one or do we kind of simplified and have her put together almost like a uh sample pallet of what would be acceptable or is it going to be her consultation building by building I I'm going to be supportive of this uh would just love to learn some of the details Miss Williams thank you chair Raquel Williams assistant city manager so we incorporated a few options uh that could be layered together as part of this program uh one of them includes the city participating financially in having these buildings painted we haven't recommended a match level so for example in the north beach CRA we have a facade Improvement grant program where we do a 7030 match with a cap of $20,000 of of course depending on the size of the building and how much paint is required you know a 50/50 match could be very expensive and so we want to be Equitable if we go in the match Direction and allow for multiple buildings to be able to participate we also proposed to have a educational campaign that could uh incorporate what you just suggested maybe we have some template color mixes that we showcase and Property Owners can take a look at that to give them some ideas and inspiration for what they could do for their own properties we also have an opportunity to get a maybe a third party sponsor or donor to contribute to a fund that could assist uh the city and the property owners with these expenses and then of course we have uh the colony theater as mentioned before as well as the ocean rescue headquarter building that we are going to be uh painting with the Barbara Hulan Nikki um consultation in the Leonard Horowitz color palette uh there would have to be dollars allocated to uh pay Miss Hulan Nikki for her Services uh so I'm not sure to the extent that she would be utilized for each particular building uh but we do not have any funds allocated at this moment this would be something uh that we would ideally try to establish for a future fiscal year because we don't have a funding mechanism at this time so I have no problem with um using we already have color palettes that even hul Niki has to go through it we don't necessarily have to um use Barber on these private buildings because that would get too expensive we are using her on the public buildings if we wanted to lower the consultation fee on the private buildings and have the owner decide whether or not he could work with her or not but we consider doing the matching um also when you're doing the 7030 split in North Beach is that 70% that the owner's paying and we're paying 30% or what is the split in North Beach so for North Beach we're contributing up to $20,000 and so the owner needs to put in 70% and we're putting in 30% um I was envisioning like the smaller buildings along you know watch I didn't really think about like massive buildings um I definitely want us to do a match I guess you can go back and figure we could do what we're doing in North Beach how many people have taken advantage of it in North Beach so we have seven applicants to date two of them have already been approved by the North Beach C board have any been completed yet not completed yet no okay and one of one of the requirements includes that the property owner has to get quotes for the services so they couldn't just you know pick someone to do the the paint or the facade or the awning or lighting they would have to get quotes that we would then review because we don't want anyone to take advantage of this opportunity and you know uh just pay anybody to do the work at a crazy price so so why don't you follow the north beach model um you could do the 7030 also cap it and um and we would have to go and see where we where we get the funding but you know I think that investment in our historic district is so critical especially with the vacancies I want um you know it's interesting when I was on Lincoln Road yesterday they get um requests for different like large um businesses around the world you know um send requests and some of those requests have not been going to Lincoln Road they've been going to Bickle City Center and other places I want retail and restaurants too to walk around and say oh there's something cool happening here and the reason we started this was because I thought of Winwood and the Winwood walls without the city contributing and they did contribute to these private business owners to create those murals nobody would have ever gone to Winwood and those walls got so much press and there was so much Buzz surrounding that and I almost feel like at this point we need something like this these these programs are going to take years to implement and see anything what okay that would be my motion do you want to just come back with it do you want to do you want to bring this to the commission or do we have to come back here how would you guys Envision this back whatever's the desire of the the committee I think we can come back with better detail it could it could return if if there's that direction to come back uh with a specific program program uh with a a budget request or budget amount with specifics like talk about like a 70 30 60 40 and then whatever a cap like the I suppose if it could be heard by on November 8th I just don't want this to be like you know December January and then get stuck here in committee so Mo the motion is to use the north beach model that we currently have on our facade program apply it to the South Beach model and um have make sure that the private property owners get quotes and that they cap it at $20,000 and I I was thinking that it you know I don't want people to you know we would cap our contribution at 20,000 there's six applications currently in North Beach none of them have have been finished yet but this might be a way to really just beautify and have Property Owners incentivized to go move forward and paint something that they normally might not have you know seven seven excuse me and that's exciting by the way it's really exciting about this facade program and and this would be specifically for the art de pastel colors art deco well buildings in our historic district and this and and does the administration feel that this you know because I would love to do this if it still has the ability to generate the good PR uh I think there was a lot of excitement when you started talking about this um and I just you know I want to see a return for our investment not only on the commercial properties improving commercial properties aesthetically but I think you know it's almost like a Renaissance a Renaissance of creativity and I want to make sure that this is tied you know to our yes the thing is we okay for what we did so far you know we paid a fee per building that would get that would that's too the fee that we have been paying her would be too expensive if I could renegotiate the fee with her or have her come up with some color paletts like you said maybe okay so maybe part of the motion is to have Barber Huli come up with a few color palettes that would you know I but the other proper isn't going to like that though because we have this horror with's color palette that's like the Bible like you can't really touch that so if she comes forward I don't really see we already have the color palette um how could we we could have her review um or recommend stuff and if it's a lot if it's seven applications then we could significantly lower the fee so that she could be involved if you want to because I think that is part of the cool the cool part I just I'm trying to keep expenses low because our finance director here has told us that we don't have any more bucks to spend and I'm proposing playgrounds and things so I want to do this program I just don't want to you know do something that we can't afford to do and then have you guys tell me oh you know this going to be too much so I guess the motion could be reach out to um Hulan Nikki okay and you know and and find out what her potential fee could be how she could Envision this if we do this with private properties too come up use the north beach model and bring it back here I suppose for November 8th if possible if I could just get some clarification uh so we have several historic districts throughout the city are there any areas of the city that we should focus our attention on initially is this a is this a pilot are we trying to go Citywide and then not every historic district is a art deco I would do Washington Collins and Ocean Drive I would like it to focus right there where I can feel like the love from fifth to 15th Street and and then to the extent that anything may need to be approved administratively or by the HPV um I know that that concern has come up before that um certain colors or schemes or uh renovations to historic buildings may need to be reviewed internally so it's not that the property owner painting painting doesn't need to be reviewed by HPB and nobody wants to spend the $3,500 to go in front of the HPB so this is that's why we have the pre-approved color pallets so if we approve this and we speak to hul Nikki about it she has to work with the already approved color palettes so I don't want to involve the HPV bringing it up because often times before paint application properties need to do something to the facade to prepare it first to be painted um I just want to make sure that we're in alignment with all of our um rules I don't think it should be a problem I mean as long as you're not changing anything structural on the facade we're painting it's painting and Awning colors what we could have her do is we have the hwis color palette but what she has done with the colony that's been very cool is pick out this funky awning that by the way I would have never picked what she picked and that's why she's Barbara hulanicki thinking in terms of pink mirrors and you know color combinations for awnings so maybe we have her pick out an awning an awning awning colors to go with the palette and that's how we move forward what do you think of that yeah I like that actually because you know um I remember being in Disney World as a child and running into friends of the family from Brazil and they were like they had just it was like they had seen um been hit by a train and we're like what's up with you what's going on they're like there are so many flavors of ice cream here we cannot process this and so I I don't want us to be in that that situation we're so overwhelmed I mean we have historically approved beautiful colors the creativity is in using them differently than the way you or I might um and then adding an element of a colorpop of an unusual um uh um awning Awning or something like that I think that is the way to go to simplify this my concern is that um usually once you start touching paint you discover there're sping and there's there's some kind of stuff that needs work and so I don't want this to get bogged down like I want us to be able to like they need to make the repairs they need to fix the spalling they need to do whatever waterproofing they need to do it's not just slapping a Cod of pain on it's it's not structural restoration but you know a moderate amount of spalling and waterproofing should be able to be approved administratively as well that's that would be my recommendation okay so they'll come back with a program that we can approve for hopefully the next meeting if we can just we'll come back on the eth yes all right thank you you I love this it than we welcome expensive welcome Sammy to the first Finance uh committee meeting Sammy and uh thank you for all the staff and uh people that were tuning in from around the world motion to adjourn motion to adjourn all right for