[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] he [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Applause] [Music] m [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] m [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Applause] [Music] m [Music] [Applause] [Music] now [Music] welcome to the city of Miami commission meeting for April 11th 2024 the attorney client session has concluded and we are now resuming the city of Miami commission meeting at this time I would like there have been a couple of folks that have been here waiting um and I'd like to take them out of turn if that's okay with my colleagues for a report we have um Mr city clerk for annual board reports come forward all right ready all right good afternoon Madam chairwoman uh honorable Commissioners Mr city manager Mr clerk uh my name is AD I want to have the honor of serving as the chairman of the lgbtq plus Advisory Board um it's truly my privilege to present our annual report um I'm proud native in Miami proud to serve um this community um I want to start off to let you all know that our mission is clear um and it's to advise you all on uh improving the quality of life for all lgbtq plus residents and visitors while amplifying the voice voices of underrepresented individuals and uh communities with your invaluable support our goal is to continuously refine policies to better reflect the diversity and inclusivity of our community our significant achievement of securing securing a perfect 100 on the municipal Municipal equality index of first in our City's history underscores our commitment thank you underscores our commitment to fulfilling our mission and addressing the levels of needs in our community as evidenced by our inclusive laws policies and services we extend our heartfelt gratitude uh to Mayor Suarez and the city manager's office for their instrumental role in making this Milestone a reality in 2023 our efforts were concentrated on community outreach particularly in educating stakeholders about our economic impact the lgbtq plus community in Miami wields substantial purchasing power amounting to $1.62 billion with lgbtq Travelers contributing to an additional 1.7 billion last year collaborating closely with the Greater Miami lgbtq plus Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Miami Visitors and Convention Bureau we are committed to supporting lgbtq owned businesses and ensuring a welcoming environment for our visitors to our city additionally we supported the Department of Human Services CDC accelerate change together project focusing on creating a plan to add lgbtq Public Health in the city of Miami which you all should have received as I hand delivered them to your offices respectively we also organized our annual family day and rais a pride flag here at City Hall and the MRC during pride month which I invite you all to join us this year again I expand my deepest appreciation to each of you for your unwavering support together let's hold Miami to be a beacon of equality for all thank you so much thank you now we have have um are there any items that my colleagues would like to defer to our next meeting yeah I'm going to defer one which which one okay there was one in here that I had trying to find it sorry okay uh di6 I want to go ahead and defer that okay di6 are there any other items that my colleagues would like to defer to our next meeting he's deferring di6 by the way uh now sorry madam chair but the are we uh the di8 we the attorney shouldn't we yeah I was about to say I be okay deferring di well no not that uh di7 and di8 okay um commissioner Rees no I'm moving that one di6 I'm I'm I'm that's right what you doing withdraw what's that withdraw it because if you defer it it we'll come back again I'm going to defer it for the time we okay well you defer it okay okay saying I don't have any quarrel with it I sit here and I so but are there any items that you would like to defer no no ma'am no ma' are you sure just checking what's left in play is um di3 yes we want to stay with that yeah di4 that's fine Madam chair I think there's a presentation so I'll stay with that di4 unless we want to defer because of time because that's I'm thinking all right cuz of the time defer di4 okay um uh okay so may I have a motion to defer di4 6 7 and 8 di4 six seven and eight M isn't there one more missing you have four six okay okay motion for a second I have a motion and a second all in favor I motions carry okay all right then can can I may I have a motion oh I'm sorry Mr City attorney would you please read in to the record the remaining second reading ordinances would be sr2 sr3 6 and 7 yes Madam chair sr2 in ordinance of the Mii City commission establishing a temporary 270-day moratorium on the acceptance of applications for any building permit or permits or zoning entitlements for signage on government-owned property and off street parking facilities pursuant to chapter 2 article 9 section 2779 of the code of the city of Miami Florida has amended titled Administration city-owned property Outdoor Advertising Signs and on-site signage on government-owned property providing for extension of said moratorium by resolution containing a severability clause and providing an effect an immediate effective date sr3 an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 2 article 9 section 2- 779 of the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended titled Administration city-owned property Outdoor advertising signs an on-site signage on government-owned property to amend ordinance 14140 to bring it more into Conformity with prior ordinance 13636 so as to disallow LED signage and other recent changes containing a severability clause providing for an effective date sr6 an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 40 article 3 of the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended titled Personnel Civil Service rules and regulations by amending section 40-18 of the city code titled personal leave adding references to indigenous people's day containing a severability clause providing for an effective an immediate effective date sr7 an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 50 article 7 of the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended city code titled ships vessels and waterways deri vessels to update the notice requirements and procedures for the removal or relocation of derck vessels containing a severability clause providing for an effective date that's the end of the second reading items May I have a motion for Sr 6 and 7 motion second all in favor I I motion carries unanimously Mr City attorney would you please read in read the titles into the record for first reading items yes Madam chair uh F fr1 in ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 10 Article 1 Section four of the code of the city of Miami Florida is amended titled buildings in general to create division one titled building code adding the Florida building code to and certain amendments theto and creating division two titled building Administration fees waivers contractor and emergency requirements and renumbering current sections 10-1 through 10-9 to sections 10-10 through 10-20 replace ing article 9 titled fence requirements for Miami city commission District 5 as that article has sunsetted with a new article 9 titled contractor code of ethics emergency plans for certain buildings certain permit requirements environmental violations securing of sites and emergencies for those sections that have to be renumbered due to the addition of new division one of the chapter and removing Article 13 titled fence requirements from Miami city commission District 4 as that article has sunsetted containing a severability clause in providing for an effective dat fr2 in ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 2 Article 4 division 2 section 2-27 of the code of the city of Miami Florida is amended titled Administration departments planning building and zoning department zoning certificate of use required annual reinspection of buildings and premises fees for inspections and issuance of certificates more particularly by amending section 2207a to provide for a certificate of use application fee containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate itive date fr3 an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter Mr City attorney that was deferred fr3 was um defer to May n was oh thank you was um all right F fr4 in ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 39 Article 2 of the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended city code titled Peddlers and itinerant vendors sidewalk and Street vendors by clarifying the definitions for right of way and vending providing for prohibition ions against Vending in the Miami Design District retail Street special area plan except as expressly approved in appendix F of the Miami 21 code and following the issuance of any required permits containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date that's the end of the first reading items May I have a motion for fr1 2 and four Move Motion second I have a motion in a second all in favor I motion carries unanimously sr2 the moratorium commissioner Paro thank you madam chair so I'm going to start with sr3 because I would actually withdraw sr2 if we pass sr3 and let me explain it as best as I can for the folks here from Pam and Adrian our centers you have permits in our system that are legal and will just continue this is not meant to stop your permit it's not meant to stop your signs we argue that we have no jurisdiction in that matter you have legal permits that are vesting in process so that is not our intent at all our intent with sr3 is to stop any new signs outright from happening and as far as liability because I know that was something that came up as far as liability goes there is only liability if we stop these processes or we tear down a ass sign which we are not going to do because there is no standing unless we intervene in that in that manner so I'm making it very clear we are not intervening these permits uh continue to go through in fact I'm not even going to change or add any amendment to it I'm just going to call the motion as is the way we already voted on it before and after discussion we can move through the CH oh through the chat I want to ask a question uh uh Mr wison and you are excluding the arch Center in this right there's there's no need to exclude anyone because they are already in process and they are oh the ARs Center is in process yes but uh I I I think that uh we can have uh uh I mean don't we have Madame Shar you were saying yeah um so are you saying that you're okay with the signage for all of the AR the Pam the size the content you're okay with all of that what I'm saying is obviously I'm not okay with it um District 2 The District I represent this has been a constant source of frustration for our office this comes up everywhere comes up in our forums and our emails and our phone calls so this is a very big issue for my district okay and in the spirit of of compromise here I'm not going to fight the permits or even nor staff any of the ones that are already in process that's they're going to continue down their path we're not Madame share through the chair I would like to I mean I I know that uh okay uh I voted against this from the Geto well now that we are living it I would like to make an amendment that the Arts Center have only instead of two signs the only one with the reducement in size that's as as I was as was proposed in a letter that I received and I want to know if they are willing to just have one sign heading I mean looking East only okay commissioner Paro if I uh yeah but if I hear commissioner Paro correctly let let me make sure I understand this now you are are not trying to take anyone's permit away from them so what is in play can move forward to to be perfectly clear I mean we've gone through many attorney opinions Municipal attorney opinions we've gone through a lot of homework since we introduced this and if we were to let's say provide an amendment specifically to something that we negotiated with Arch in this case the county has rtz zoning which impacts their sign the county is the owner of the property in that case so I'm just saying that's between them and the county that's between Pam and the state what we're responsible for we're changing it so that in the future none of these signs can happen and that's that's why I'm m madame chair I I do understand and I have here a letter from the county that uh for what I understand the county is saying that it is uh a responsibility of the city I don't have a letter both letter that that they they have but I I uh I I do understand that this the way that you're doing it you passing the ball to a to the county but what I'm saying is that even if they go to the county that go one sign on instead of two signs and one sign reducing the uh the uh the uh the the size he also he has to also be equal to the agreement that I was reaching with the neighbors on the two flag I mean flag street sign that that is that they're going to be uh I mean on until 11:00 and uh and uh and that's it you see I mean if if you are willing to do that I mean you're going to go to the county anyways but I am requesting that if you go to the county you go to reing for one sign I mean if they do it it's because you already asking for permits you have permits and a in a in in the city of Miami right okay you understand what I'm saying yeah that'll be between them and the county we are not putting in any of the signs our Amendment we are not profer it at this time we're sticking to our original sr3 item that's if if if it is I believe it much better because even if the county said yes we have that commitment and I know they're going to say they're going to come back and throw the ball at us according to that letter and what I'm saying is let's let's control it let's do it in a way that it is controlled now because the county saying no no it is the city of Miami responsibility you see and I said okay fine you want them to go you going to go to the county and the county is going to throw it back to us so uh would you rather that we defer this item and I get more information and that way then let's go ahead and move with sr2 so that we're clear so I have I have someone that would like to speak so I'm going to recognize sit down hello Jose Felix Diaz um wait wait Jose because I'm not opening it up to everyone that I'm I'm not opening it I'm not opening it back up to everyone commissioner Paro offered to fur the item which I because this is a new twist yes and I think we need time to digest AB what he's saying you see and and Madame sh what I'm based on is uh an April 7 2023 letter to the to J and uh fix and also it is uh an an answer to uh a letter that was uh that was uh written to Mr uh I don't want to this to sound bad in Spanish but it's naan K see that's that's the name of the of the person and he explicitly he says that uh that uh that uh in here that ultimately outdoor ad s shall be governed by section uh 2 779 of the city of Miami and it is article six does not apply to properties located in the city Urban code of the city of Miami has by illumination and murals including but not limited too but blah blah blah I mean I want to clarify yeah man KO go if it would have been an a you would have been and Madam chair well speaks I'd like Mr yente to speak on the other side just so we have the full information okay and that's just for clarification I'm not opening it up for public comment I'm just having him answer okay let's let's we got clarified go go ahead go ahead the question no go ahead yeah I was just going to say so the thought is to defer sr3 and move on sr2 and the clarification I wanted to put in is that the language is still in there in sr2 on certificate of uses which would freeze these signs because they need a certificate of use to continue in the process so they've applied for permits but the certificate of use is what allows him to get through fruition so he's going to withdraw no he's not withdrawing not I understand what he's what he wants to do he wants to he wants to defer sr3 but he wants to move on SR R2 while sr3 is being considered but sr2 is for 270 days so sr2 will actually be a moratorium longer than the one month extension for this meeting so that that's why I'm raising a concern can we have staff comment a moment on that and its application sure man we have to clarify that no on on whether that would impact their process on their permits so you don't you don't get a certificate of use on the sign what you get is a certificate of completion not a certificate of use so let's make that not impact the moratorium it won't impact with the moratorium with the moratorium we're not looking backwards no we're looking forward forward right it is it is not retroactive I mean it can't be retroactive right right no they do not need to seeu for the sign and then if I get two seconds can Mr ente uh just address the issue he's an expert in this area and I just wanted for the record for our benefit to listen are you Mak so it's we're not no so we we are we are just getting clarification we're not opening it for public comments because we're just getting clarification on this clarification this is fine we can we can we can do this another way if you object this is fine okay okay so can we vote on sr2 then yes if it is so hold on we're currently discussing sr3 so if if there's a motion it's my understanding you're going to defer this item I want to make I want to make I want to make sure from the city attorney that any moratorium is forward it doesn't look backward so and for example someone has a permit now they will be able to complete the process process yes that that is the intention and I can understand where the gentleman was concerned because a certificate of use comes at the end of the process so the concern was that while they had their application in they did all their stuff we'd hold them up at the CU phase but Ace has clearly identified that these type of projects don't need a CU anyway they need a certificate of completion that's not in the code so therefore they shouldn't be affected by the um the language in the moratorium and what about someone that has an application in but hasn't received a permit as yet they would still be able to go through the process because they have an application that is correct that is correct we we just can't accept new applications so we can't accept new applications Vice chair I want to he directly from the representatives of the people that have put their money into this cuz I don't want to see another lawsuit and something of this type uh because this was not explained clear to us uh Jose can you come back here I mean I want to make sure you're an attorney you're representing your client uh I want to make sure that what is being proposed here you fully understand it and you have no problems with I think that on the moratorium the clarification is very very impactful um and instructive on the the furrow of the revisions to 2- 779 you know you know they're right there so I I don't want to speak for them but you know I was hoping to have some finality just because this has been around for a very long time um I think that that's where the rubber meets a road on 2779 n sr2 you're yeah I I think so I think that was that very good Clarity yeah I want to get you on the record on that so yes and the other one is still the will of this commission to defer that yes okay and and just to repeat I'm being told to repeat it on sr2 uh then there's no certificate of use needed just a certificate of completion and this moratorium would not impact the city's process that is currently going through on both pamar that is correct thank you thank you call the question let's yeah let's go ahead and call the question I move I need a motion I need a a motion forment sr3 let's address sr3 which is a moratorium no no sr2 is the moratorium sr2 is moratorium moratorium Sr so we've been discussing sr3 so this is the item that we should go ahead and just defer right so I'll make a motion to defer sr3 to what date to the next commission meeting on April 2th 25th second I have a motion and a second all in favor motion carries how about sr2 then sr2 no that was sr2 we're doing sr3 that was that was sr3 that was sr3 correct so now sr2 so we deferred sr3 to the next meeting so now it's sr2 so sr2 who said first who's in the second sr2 so sr2 is the moratorium yes which is not not looking backwards it's moving forward it doesn't it doesn't impact any applications that we currently have permits everything will move forward that is in the hopper as of today and just to clarify any applications that have been completed through our pre-screen process completed through your pre-screen process correct but can I can I just ask a question before we take this vote U the gentleman is is asking for exped right and AR we ready to go aren we all in agreement to do this today no because there were some other opinions out there in some negotiation that want to make sure that well I think we should allow for it because two of the Commissioners had you know other ideas they wanted to kind of work yeah you're ready to go or you're not you want to defer no I'm ready to vote he's ready to vote on sr2 on sr2 right on sr2 for the moratorium for the moratorium yeah I was try to say go back to sr3 the whole okay because I I do have I do have um if if we want to go forward with it I can propose some amendments that I think would be palatable good but from what I understand it's it's it's more complicated than that that's why I suggest we defer okay which we we've just done yeah so now for the moratorium well it might not be as complicated maybe we could hear your amendments but we already deferred it so let's go ahead and move to sard two let let him come in with whatever agreement he's going to come in whatever information is going to come in if we want to add an amendment then we will discuss it and then we vote on it yep through theair that's hard to so motion second I'll make a motion second to move sr2 and second it uh for sr2 Mr Vice before we vote since there's been a lot of promises made to Residents a lot of stuff that has been said can you just give one quick minute to the head of the DNA so that an sr2 in particularly he could uh give his point of view okay sharff call the question call the question I'm sorry I I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't hear what if we could give one minute to the representative of the residents in that area the president of DNA no V uh no but sr2 has been changed a lot from what was said and I think it's becoming of us to give them one more say from all the changes that were made and here because the residents were promised one thing I'm hearing another now and I just want to give everybody a chance on the record so that we can't be accused of not letting people speak on this issue that have a say so we're talking about one person speak is it the will of the body to allow Mr Torres to speak one minute come on Mr Torres good evening thank you for having me again so the issue here is we've had several Town Hall meetings with one of the sign companies which one are you are new tradition wait no no no are you speaking on sr2 sr3 you're speaking on sr3 we are voting in sr2 but the issue here is that they have a permit that's moving up to five they've agreed with the residents that they're only limiting to two too that's that's it right but that's not in there and they were going to enter that in the record and you guys are moving this along without taking the considerations of the neighborhood because they were slated for five again they've agreed on principle up to two and and that's the clarity that we need to enter here today as far as the chair you said in principle they have St in principle do don't work I mean I I agree because I'm totally opposed to any any any type of uh of uh illumination I mean of those signs on B Boulevard on the park particular in the park corre I'm totally opposed but since they have two already built okay they only have one built one build uh they've got permits or more and they have they have the permits on another one okay fine only two but uh not in principle not in principle correct it is definite two yes sir so there is an amendment uh from D2 that speaks to those signs so it is included and it's going to follow as well as commissioner King's amendment that was also submitted this morning and then would you allow the representative from New Traditions to read that into this because that's the issue there it's there already but it's not based on what was requested what was requested was and he can't read it because you guys deferred it what it clearly identifies is that they not going to build more than two yeah so is ites back again hold on a second is it is um is it the will of this commission to open sr3 up again no no unless we're going to hear from uh your proposal and they don't want to hear now at least he doesn't that's how water on by the through the sh that's water under the bridge I mean we already voted you you need more time we allow Mr Torres to speak in this that's right touching on what he's talking about that that's all we're asking as the DNA we're asking for the clarity even though commissioner P Damen Paro is stating that they were ready to read that into the record to clarify what the DNA in the community has agreed upon Todd can you read the D2 Amendment into the record uh so from when I to see uh from the email that was sent out on April 11th at 900 a.m. um the underlined section um okay I'm just going to read from what I see here in red and underline Bayfront Park 401 bisc bouard Miami Florida limited to two outdoor signs at this site with the clarity right the hours of operation and all these other components that's all separate and that's why we're deferring the item to get more of that information okay so I just want to be clear because as you said this has been a very touchy subject for the district especially in downtown understood where a lot of individuals seem to believe that there's not a living breathing population there so I appreciate the time and effort on that thank you thank you so are we calling the question so he still loves you yes no I love but you are your friend now oh God it's a makeup wait so for clarity sr3 is there an appetite for this body to open this back up again no I have no problems with it I have no problem but I'm going to I'm going to defer because it's his area that's impacted so I'm going Tok you the proponent doesn't want it I mean he wants it needs more time and he wants to I mean I'm going to yeah I wanted to put this to B today to you know finish this up and down you know but I mean thank you no you're welcome so should we call the question of on the moratorium now before I forget isn't this one of the reasons excuse me through the chair we might be here one through the chair isn't this one of the reasons why you wanted to get rid of the City attorney and the ear and stuff and you were all set with sr2 and just Madam chair can we call the question do I have a motion I have a motion in a second yes for the more all in favor I yeah all in favor I motion carries okay okay we we aren't finished can we go home then no unless you wanted to defer some more items yeah let's let's do that uh I had a I had a discussion I had a DI uh discussion item that it is about the Audits and it is uh it's uh the the what D9 D9 okay D9 it's a discussion item about do you want to defer that uh or you want to hear it well I'm I'm just going to ask a simple question and and that really uh I got a little upset about it uh that uh we haven't picked we haven't chosen any Auditors because uh you decided that you wanted to wait until the audits that's what you told me in in in my office and I don't think that's right if I wanted the audits from the from from all the boards and the parks I would have asked them instead of having an independent audit that's all I want to say and what I'm saying is that you make us look like a fool man because when we go out there and we tell the people we're going to have an audit and an external audit in 90 days as we we uh uh agree unanimously and then without telling us if I may commissioner Reyes I believe our CFO said to us that because of the time of year and everything that's going on it would be very difficult to have audits completed within a 90-day period that's right but but but they should at least I mean you don't have the same aitor for everything you're going to have every one of those I mean it's one of of those Boards of the part are going to have an auditor it's going to be it's going to be uh uh forensic audit you see but what I don't accept is that the the excuse that those parks and those boards they were finishing their audit doesn't have to do anything with it they are mutually exclusive you see that's what I'm trying to say and what I'm trying to say this and what I want to say is I love you but please don't do that again okay um we're we are getting them done the solicitation process finished um I I believe you've received some Communications on that we'll keep you update updated next we don't we don't en sure they been friends for a long time and you know that I am very very real nice and all of that but man I mean I got accept that we'll get it done sir all you have my Assurance thank you Mr city clerk can you tell us what other um discussion items are in play maybe my colleagues would want to defer them yes ma'am di3 uh and di5 are the items were remaining that are left in play and I believe there was a gentleman here for discussion items for next meeting it's only put him at the front of the meeting di3 and di5 is it the will of the body to defer these we'll put him as the first items thanks or or I think the5 is relatively easy right the non-as powered leaf floors we can take that real fast yeah but on that one I just want to I spoke to the resilience officer director wbe back and my concern is that we were going to ban outright uh first it was whether it's us the city or the city of Miami as a whole the ban and I've been told that we're not going to do that anymore this is just to buy some electric uh flowers I don't want to put a ban of gas blowers or you know weed eaters or whatever in the whole city or be you know through the share agree commissioner Rees through the share I I want I want you guys to uh before we uh make a decision on this and take a good look of uh the state what the state is doing and I have information that the state it is prohibiting anyone of us from getting I mean Banning uh or making anybody use use electric uh uh blowers or electric anything so I would like to uh have uh somebody that that I don't know if who can do some research in why we should the state the state we have someone here that's going to quickly okay uh thank you Commissioners for uh for your attention on this um so this uh yes uh correct in mentioning the The Proposal in front of us is about about adopting electric leaf blowers to uh reduce could you say your name and address fuel consumption air quality improvement Etc it is right you cannot force this um on anybody so we can recommend the city can recommend that folks adopt it because we could be preempted so yes that's correct uh uh there could also be a study and a transition period right um it's it's probably going to be in the long run the total lifetime value for operators a a more economically favorable to them and in the short run um you know less noise pollution better for the environment less less savings on gas you know 3% I think of all emissions are coming just from these class blowers so um yes the idea would be study this let's look at a transition period uh and what the what that would inil no but but but listen I'll tell you something you know uh you know I use electri I I have three electric blowers I have uh I'm sorry you forgot to say and your colleague had his hand up Madam chair can I speak to the gentleman I see everybody jumping in and I'm the only guy here that's called out when I jump in because it happens naturally I'm not trying to I to do anything I know it does you know everybody else jumps in and I don't I don't hear I don't hear it but you know we got to put an end to this if he can jump in at the end and the other one too then I'm going to jump in and that's I mean I'm getting tired of this you know what I mean with all due respect ma'am I know speaking of protocol I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself for the record it's Sylvio poo Casco economics lead for the climate resilience committee commissioner gabella can I Now respond with your the chair so what what I wanted to tell you po I know I know you're enthusiastic about this and all stuff and I am too you know but here's the thing okay uh I I've been I'm a mechanic by training by the way I specialized in Jaguars all my life I've done this since I was 14 years old 15 years old the problem is this number one remember that when you have electric things your power's got to come from somewhere either nuclear Co wind or solar so it's not like it's it's you know it's free it's not you know to build that battery or whatever it costs also energy to to do whatever you're going to do my point is I don't want to see a ban permanently you know in the near future of gas blowers or weed eaters you know it's okay you know when when we're there you know that you know all of a sudden okay you know what they're obsolete no problem but I don't think we're there yet and so what I don't want don't want to see happen the I I was speaking to the director of resiliency and she and she said no uh what we're going to do is we're going to do a test pilot that's fine you know let's do a test pilot let's see how it goes you know but but I'll tell you what you know I I don't want to see this thing we're we're imposing our will on on people okay because because the left wants to do it let me just say it how how it is and I'm not I try not to be here politically but political one way or or or the other you know but you know the same way that you know the other side shouldn't impose on on anybody you know and and so I like your idea you know but I I for one if if it's a ban and and you guys the intention is to get rid of this in the in the future completely I'm not not for that and and I'll state it on the record but but thank you for Comm Thank You for Your Enthusiasm no it's an important point Thank you for for for for making it and I believe the chair the Chairman's uh eron Aon Deo which had an emergency today couldn't make it but he he did anticipate that right and the and I think his commentary was we can't force businesses right to do this and we should not but you know because they have a voice in those business of a voice now the community that's being affected with air pollution and noise pollution and and and the health implications of this also have uh made their voice heard during the committee meetings um and so this has after much liberation and many public comments uh kind of come up but yeah we won't force it it'll be a recommendation thank you any other comments questions commissioner Paro no I just had a a question for the city manager we have a policy on electric gas blowers Etc correct that we're moving toward we have a policy migrating toward elect uh um electric gas non- gas blowers internally okay that sorry theair for the record I just can't hear anything that's being said over there he couldn't hear you Mr city manager who do the share second Mr hold on a second that's what is saying okay there you go we are working on costing that as we speak that is so it'll come back to us some point the report yeah correct through the chair Madame commissioner Reyes thank you manam uh it's one thing that the city adopts its policy we are a city we can adopt it there is another thing that we ban them in the city I have personally I hate every Saturday morning that I'm sleeping and at 7:00 I hear that I wish that we could man better we have to comply with the state and I don't want us to be taking steps that the later on then we are going to be you see that's right yeah but but a recommending yes I I agree with that okay yeah we can incentivize it we can encourage it we can't we can't require it uh because we could be preempted that's right okay is there a motion here anywhere motion no motion it's just a discussion item okay and we have a may I have a motion to defer di5 di3 di3 so moved I have a motion second all in favor that'll be to the April 25th meeting April 25th meeting and that shall conclude the city of Miami commission meeting for April 11th 2024 thank you very much Commissioners mtion to journ [Music] --------- [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] down [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] and [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] 2024 I am your commission chair Christine King and I'm joined here with my colleagues Vice chair Joe Coro commissioner for District 1 Miguel gabella commissioner for district 2 Damen Paro and commissioner for District 4 monola Reyes who I'm proud to say is in remission from his cancer [Applause] scare we are going to begin I believe commissioner gabella would like to withdraw an item my apologies sir re1 R1 I'd like to defer that to the you next oh to defer it do I have a motion to defer R re1 to the next motion so I have1 yes till yeah till the next commission meeting if it's okay with you guys okay I have a motion do I have a second second all in favor I I motion carries unanimously R1 is deferred we just got okay for my colleagues what are we taking up first um we left manager the manager the manager okay so I will give the mic to the manager to provide his presentation good uh good afternoon um Madame chair Commissioners um Mr Mayor this um presentation and review obviously has been quite a while coming um you know I sat through the public comment earlier um I listened to the very colorful language some of the insults name calling um some of the quite you know honestly fabricated numbers I mean it's it's it's an interesting sort of development that has occurred over the last few months specifically as it relates to this issue that um you know this issue of the company my wife works for and its relationship with the city and the scrutiny around it um and a lot of what's been put into social media um that has been selective obviously information that's been left out so this opportunity to sort of go through a a summary of the history involved in this um really what transpired from the very beginning um is an important thing and I and I applaud the commission for wanting to have this this presentation um in the end I really look forward to it whatever um reaction from me at the last minute the last meeting and whatever was interpreted from that in the end what I was really um trying to get to was an opportunity to present it and get through it and get past it um I've been in public service for well over 27 years now um through two iterations at the parking authority and and as my 10e city manager um I've never ever taken a penny outside of my salary as it relates to my job never had outside employment never done Consulting work um what I've earned I've earned the hard way right and and I've never taken that for granted no one's ever questioned my ethics before relative to um compensation and the job it's my the jobs I've had have all required theyd be full-time jobs that's what they are right um so I've never had any reason to work an outside job never had the opportunity never had the time so you know this narrative that was created and has been created over the last several months and a lot of what was discussed as part of the public comment really has not entirely been about truth per se right um it's about creating that narrative to tarnish me as an individual and as a professional and in some ways that translates tarnishing the city to some extent so this is my opportunity to sort of set the record straight a little bit right and create clarity about about what happened what transpired um and so let's transition directly into the presentation if we can can we ceue it up okay so the first thing we're going to do is kind of review the timeline a little bit so late February 2020 um I was appointed city manager um at this point but IA manufacturing had been a vendor for the city or of the city for over 10 years um so they had a long history as a vendor and as a really qualified and and well-regarded vendor of the city in April of that same year also taken into consideration we were at the very beginning and early stages of the pandemic so at that point I'm literally working out of an emergency Operation Center in consultation with both the law department and per curement we discussed hey there there needs to be in some formal way the need to address right the the relationship between this vendor and the fact that your wife works for this company and you needed to do a disclosure so we went through a number of different drafts of it the disclosure was was uh was drafted signed and then distributed to the commission and the mayor in June of 2020 that gives you a historical context in terms of when it was distributed this slide is the actual document that was distributed right early June 2020 basically disclosed the relationship and outlined the parameters by which um my uh limited involvement or lack of involvement in any way in any of the processing or any any furniture vending that but that it did with the city going forward next slide so one of the interesting um I think media reports it's been pretty consistent also referenced today in the public comment was this issue of overpriced Furniture right and this exorbitantly priced Furniture um some of it was taken obviously um really kind of through misinformation in terms of how certain line items were referenced in whatever public records request they made but to put things and frame things in in you know absolute context right every bit of furniture the city buys is as a result of a state contract every bit of furniture is fixed so actually a state of Fara negotiates a discounted pricing on all the furniture so you can't deviate from the furniture price you can't add to the to the pricing in any way way shape or form and this is all mandated by a state contract and a state procurement process so can't deviate from that right so this idea that that somehow we're you know overpaying for certain types of furniture certain Furniture pieces is um is incorrect and and we have a process that abides by that and and aligns to that so let's look at the actual purchasing analysis and and this i i includeed as part of this presentation because I want to put things into context too there was a reference made to a million dollars worth of furniture that was bought I don't know where that million dollars comes from I don't even know what the reference to it comes from but we're going to get to the meat of the details and there's a reason why I framed the data in this way because as I mentioned before in the earlier slide I'm taking the 10 years prior to my 10e city manager as a frame of reference because but I had been a vendor during that period of time and a little a little further back but 10 is a nice even number and a nice frame to a way to frame it in terms of the purchase number so the overall Furniture purchases from 2010 to 2019 which is a 10-year period is 3.4 five5 million that includes the vendors that sell Furniture does not include Amazon and office dep because it was a retail um um purchases and for the most part most of the Amazon and off off office purchases the line share of what's purchased through them is not Furniture so those invoices are are are um are of a high order of magnitude in terms of drawing information for the data set of what's actual Furniture it's wasn't really worth the analysis so we kept it Apples to Apples in terms of furniture vendors themselves during that period of time um buten manufacturing accounted for roughly $767,000 in terms of total purchases during that 10-year period which amounted to about 22.2% of the total Furniture purchase the top Furniture vendor was Krueger at $1.8 million and they amount they accounted for about 54.7% of the purchases during that same period from January 2020 through December 2023 which accounts for the period that I've been city manager it's an even four years the total V Furniture purchase purchases by uh um by Furniture vendors has been $2.2 million during that same period but that is portion is $354,000 which amounts to 16.1% of the purchases which is a reduction in terms of the percentage of the overall purchase amount and the top vendor during that period is compass which is one little little almost $1.5 million and it's 66.5% this is a bar graph that that uh tells the same information taking it a little further in terms of the overall um the top four vendors during that that decade that repres is represented in the first slide or the prior slide and then this is the top vendors really the top three um in terms of volume and as you can see it's Compass one Krueger number two and Par is the third highest selling vendor to the city uh during those four years and roughly it's we I started this process and this came honestly through feedback I received from the commission both commissioner Reyes commissioner Paro when I met with them individually to kind of discuss the presentations as I did with all of you um they gave me some valuable feedback that hey were are there ways to improve the process going forward because obviously when I did the disclosure back in 2020 the purpose of that was to be transparent the issue has since Arisen whether or not we should have maybe asked for an Ethics opinion at the time right uh as a result we thought through hey what are some of the ways we can improve this going forward in case there is any is issue relative to a to a conflict or a perceived conflict and this APM addresses that in two ways it requires that any potential conflict be brought to the commission as a discussion item and then immediately forward to the ethics commission for an opinion why that's relevant now in particular particular is that ethics will not go back and issue an opinion on something that has already transpired also in reference to ethics we have been in contact with them because we did from the very beginning when we got that answer of hey we we don't go back and issue opinions retroactively that that doesn't work but we are reviewing the set of circumstances involved here I am currently in the process of scheduling an interview with them so they are reviewing the process and I welcome that okay okay so this will obviously be a proactive approach going forward should this issue ever arise this is an APM it was issued a few weeks ago um and it's now currently an obligation of of of any employee of the city this goes back to I wanted to kind of highlight this because you know part of the issue when we issued the report earlier on the 18th of March um and the extrapolation of the from that in contrast to the uh the public records requests um there were line items that I think were misinterpreted more or less and there wasn't a lot of research and due diligence done um on those items in particular and they made a reference to a $7,500 for a chair which was incorrect that $7,500 line item Incorporated more than just one chair I think the chairs individually were like $600 each there's a there's a detailed explanation there um in terms of what the line item entailed but it was a number of chairs um not just one and so yeah if you take it at face value $7,500 for a chair is absolutely absurd but it wasn't the case case really was that the chairs really were valued at600 in change and there were a number of chairs involved in that lineup sort of in in conclusion and and there were three things I really wanted to highlight as part of this process and I think it's kind of important to do it in the sense that it creates sort of a framework of what the intent was right um there was never any malfeasant here there was never any intent to to um make money for an outside vendor um of which my wife works for uh that's not who I am it's not who I've ever been um I've kept an arms link relationship from the furniture that has been purchased at the city I've never advocated on behalf of P it to anyone by the way uh and it's represented in the numbers that there wasn't suddenly this explosion of purchases from Peta because I became city manager but one of the things you can't discuss right or you can't disprove right is this issue of well somebody gets up there and goes yeah but Furniture was bought for the city manager's office upstairs yeah so you must have have an involvement in it no I didn't but how do I prove that right it's impossible to prove that right there's no tangible way to prove that I know what I did and didn't do but ultimately I can't prove that I didn't do it because there's nothing in writing so the only way to resolve that is really that first paragraph right which is to address the issue of hey I didn't do anything wrong I did things the way I thought were the guidelines Lines by which I had to adhere to but in the end is there a way to do it better yes there is right and so as city manager I recognize the opportunity for improved transparency and clear boundaries regarding any business conducted within the office of the city manager as such I will prude any future dealings with P manufacturing by my office for the remaining of my 10e city manager partly because there's no way that somebody could just in general accuse me of hey of course you had something involved there and again I can't I can't disprove that the last item that I really wanted to kind of focus on too was was this issue of personal gain my wife's salary direct deposit hits my bank account every two weeks it's a salary she doesn't profit share she's not a principal of the company that there is nothing gained whether she sells 100 pieces of furniture to the city or a thousand pieces of furniture to the city there are times I wish that were different and if she was a principal of the company it would have absolutely been a conflict by the way if she was profit sharing and because hey they sold a million dollars worth of furniture she got a she got a 15% cut amen by the way that is a direct conflict cuz I would have benefited financially from it but I don't I wish they were different I've been trying to get her to be a principal of the company and and pushing for that and and hopefully one day that happens for her but it's not the way it is now it's not the current situation so there has been no personal financial game with any of the transactions that have occurred with the city and and as a result look I don't believe there's a conflict I believe that we followed um what was expected of me in terms of disclosure and transparency from the very beginning and in the end ethics is going to get a chance to weigh in on it and as a result whatever the whatever the results of that inquiry are I'll live with those consequences but my intentions were always sincere and within the ethical boundaries I never deviated from that I've never deviated from that my entire professional life that concludes my presentation I have a question uh I'm going to go in order okay Mr Vice chair thank you Madame chair for let me address the most important of all the issues here for me and this is the letter addressed to The Honorable mayor members of the Miami city commission from Arthur Nora city manager subject this closure of relationship with City vendor and recusal dated June 8th 20 20 this really is the bottom line in a full and open transparency I am disclosing that my wife Michelle bra n is the Chief Operating Officer cooc OA Office Products a company that currently conducts business with the city of Miami and has been aband for the city since 2008 whole eight years before Mr NOA was named city manager in early 2020 it adds please be advised that I shall recuse myself from any and all involvement decision making and or approvals between the city and the company please feel free to contact my office if you you have any questions regarding this matter that I know of none of the past members of this commission had any problems the remaining members of this commission when they received this that I know if there weren't any problems the media that had access access to this bloggers and others no one expressed any problems only four years later when a small group with strong allies in the media are trying to do a coupe in the city government uh is there a problem with this but this is clear city manager was transparent he let the commission the mayor and the world know by this memorandum this letter uh what the situation was furthermore it's an example of the kind of campaign that's been launched you have the famous 7,000 $500 chair frankly I have to be frank with you Mr manager I even thought that there was a chair that was bought for $7,500 I figured that maybe somebody had a real bad back or something and that's why it cost that much I wasn't aware at all like the local tabloid that wrote this the so-called Miami Herold that the 7,500 was not for one chair it was for 12 chairs quite a difference quite a difference and it's been the same people with this onslaught of trying to defame slash and burn there was a tremendous campaign by this group of bringing people to City Hall today to ask for the firing of the manager as for the firing of the City attorney even uh one of our colleagues up there commissioner Paro in his Instagram he was asking people to come in so they could discuss this well maybe some thought that there would be no room today to get a seat seat maybe this boy didn't come maybe the police chief was thinking that he had to bring more officers because there was going to be such a crowd here such an overflow and I kept adequate count there was a total a total a total of only eight people that came to to talk against the manager the City attorney where their hats to be put into a platter in the guillotine to move on to the next one and frankly the same ones that either in some cases work for or being paid by or Associated by the main group that wants to turn this government upside down and why because they got no less than five lawsuits against this city things have not been going well with them in the courts with new judges and they won from you of the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars they're asking I think between all of them if I had them up maybe 150 million more they don't want people that have stood up in protecting the city's financial interest now the letter that I read from this wasn't given a month ago or two months ago this was within a very short time after the city manager was named he disclosed everything granted um he's hasn't been in the political Arena he's a bureaucrat an administrator if I would have been in his shoes I probably would have done different knowing that sometime into the future when it would be convenient for someone and time would pass they would try to pull something like this but what can be hidden is the disclosure that he made and you could try to color this any way you wanted but he made the disclosures and if there was any problems with the disclosures that he made then the responsibility would have fallen on us the Commissioners up here the mayor or the uh soall media that we have in town to then have acted and have said something not four years later after the man disclosed and you're trying to have a a hanging for what he disclosed that he wasn't hiding anything if this memo didn't exist and he never disclosed it no you got a different story but that's not the case whatsoever so Madame uh chairman for um for the meantime I think I would leave it at that but you know what since I've been short and I got a couple more minutes let me put something up that is equally as good for this one and even more so for the next room we're going to be dealing with so all of those who are at home and the few people that are here today can see exactly what I'm talking about in the hypocrisy that we're dealing with um Karen can we get this up please but the one that came out at uh 5:33 p.m. on April 9th 1 this is an article that appeared in the local tabloid called the Miami heral on April 24th to days ago with the heading this Little Havana Bar was the favorite hangup spot for Miami locals now it's closing and I took my interest which bar is closing I read the story and it talked about Union beer small little place on a street that ranks from the owners ball and chain and in fact they claimed during the lawsuit that they were a minority partner of 5% however that was quickly uh brushed aside when the beer and wine license for the State of Florida that you have to put down all the owners uh names did not appear uh we suspect the reason they claimed that was because of the additional millions they were asking here is what the original one that came out on April 9th 2024 couple of days ago at 326 says from the owner of Union beer in a text this is the Miami tabloid known as and Miami hero reporting this in a text Rodriguez said that a perfect storm of factors May continuing at Unum beer too difficult among them a run increase of 3,000 a month gee I thought these guys were old heart 3,000 run increas in one month for a little hole in the wall and then he says in a booming grease trap upgrate that could cost upward of $90,000 in other words he text the Tabloid the Miami Herold that among the reasons the reasons he was leaving among them a rent increase of 3,000 a month and a booming grease trap upgrade that could cost upward of $90,000 about 2 and a half hours later at 5:53 p.m. the same day I guess the boys uh made their phone calls they didn't like that because doesn't put them in a good posture and at the same time they can't blame the city of Miami or joeoy to ask for millions of more dollars because they closed down because of the city or me and what uh does that seem paragraphs say in a text Rodriguez said that a perfect storm of factors may continue a union beer too difficult they took out among them a rent increase of 3,000 a month and a booming grease trap upgrade that cost upwards of $90,000 how interesting that something that was not going to put these guys in a good light they would take it out when in fact they were operating in that place as I hear without a rre strap and the whole beer bar that was put down and I don't know how much more was all built without permits and much more in fact to show you how lenient the city was it's an unsafe structure the city should have closed them down the city didn't they've done it on their own and I don't know why they weren't closed down Mr manager if anything you know maybe we should complain about that you know what were you doing how come you weren't top of that so this is what our local media is doing they're using let me use that favor word of your commissioner Paro they're weaponizing weaponizing weaponizing their ink their paper against this city and then those that are trying to take every penny that they can from our residents cover up for them so that in the next law suit or the ones they have they could claim look what they did to one of our tenants they had a clothes because of what they did to them so it wasn't too convenient to have those lines and H you know it's among friends why not take it out for them so nobody would read it and I see the core gesture for them is here now in the afternoon with his big smile thank you mam chair for now uh I would Reserve uh any additional time I have for a little later thank you thank you commissioner gello so I just want to put on the record that uh Mr CaRu uh spoke about 10 minutes as is his right and so I'm going to yield my time now because I I don't want to talk now but in the future I'd like to note that that when I start talking let me talk for the minutes that I need to talk just like other Commissioners I'm going to sorry I I just can you speak so I I can't hear no I I said that you spoke for the last 10 minutes nobody interrupted you what I said was and no as as is your right and I just ask that in the future if somebody else does the same thing we be afforded the same uh right so I'm going to yield my time because I want to hear more from the body before I I talk thank you commissioner gabella I'm I'm sorry commissioner and I'm looking right at you commissioner okay that's okay first of all to the city manager thank you very much uh for your presentation there were things uh in it that even when we met uh before I thought were very good you've always been very competent and professional in all of your dealings with me and my office I'm glad that you disclosed to the City attorney and to the board of uh commissioners that conflict but obviously these kinds of ways of doing business are not working for our city and we do need guard rails around issues that might be potential conflict of interests I'm glad that this conflict in this form was handled now and as well going forward even so I think this is a very serious conflict of interest and I think a reasonable person just on the outside looking at it would feel that it's serious the information that I received last night I was disappointed in that it came last night I was disappointed in that at least for me when I'm looking at the comparable periods I have nine years and then I have four years and what I wanted to see was a comparable period of four years and four years so that if there is some kind of influence which of course I don't know and I don't think anyone knows and I take your words that there aren't but beyond that to the residents and to the city we owe more and we do owe that disclosure and that transparency I don't think that transparency was here or the urgency and I think that's what our city is asking us to do because at least someone that knocked on a lot of doors and talked to a lot of people that's our perception right now and perception is reality and sometimes when that's the case we have to go above and beyond to do things that we really shouldn't have to do do at some degree and don't want to do but we have to do it kind of for the sake of our city and for our own sake I think the overriding concern is that we have a culture of this is the way that we do business right this is just the way we do business it's normal for us and that's the city of Miami and this is what we're trying to change this is what we're trying to change as a body so that people can have trust that when required to do so we will disclose and we will put that out there have these kind of conversations so that's just the the shortfall part for me that I would like to see still applied as well I had some very quick questions you mentioned that you you are you waiting for an Ethics opinion I wasn't sure based on the yeah so for clarity we requested an Ethics opinion as I stated before um ethics will not give an opinion for a situation that is a after the fact they will do it as a prerequisite right so as a result they have a file they're reviewing it right okay they have requested an interview we have already you know been in communication with them we're waiting for them to give back to us with some dates so that is really the next step in the process excellent I think that's great the other part I was wondering if you could comment on because this has come up like in media and I agree with you sometimes the facts that are being reported are far from the facts that that are happening and I was wondering how the approvals actually occur in our meeting it sounded like these contracts are just automat like someone puts in an order for the chair and it just goes like there's no there isn't you or your assistant or someone signing for these authorization I'll let the the purchasing director speak to specifically how Po and are approved good afternoon chairwoman good afternoon Commissioners so um if I may if you may indulge me just for a few minutes to talk a little bit about the history of this contract please so section 18-111 of the procurement code allows us to access government contracts the most important thing to know about that is that they must have been s solicited competitively right so in 2006 the city commission through a resolution approved the state contract furthermore there was language in that that predates by the way so furthermore there was language that stated that subject to any extensions replacement contracts by the state of Florida for various City of Miami Department agencies what does that mean so the contract that was approved in this resolution had a long lifetime um I think it ended in September 2020 and then this contract came aboard so this contract was competitively solicited I want to make sure that everybody understands that it was an it was issued as an invitation for bid it's kind of like a qualifications pool you submit your pricing the discount you're going to offer the government agencies Etc now let's go to the approval process so when a department has a need for furniture they look at the contract they look at the list of Manufacturers they pick a manufacturer then they go to the section of the reseller so they they ask the reseller for a quote this is what I need a quote is submitted if the quote is accepted then the department submits a requisition through our Erp system Oracle that requisition goes through its approval process through the department then it comes to procurement so procurement manager will vet the requisition we'll make sure that the company's on sunbiz we'll make sure that they're not debarred things like that the the manager will also make sure that if there's insurance requirements those are submitted everything is in order then it goes to a Contracting officer to convert into a purchase order the Contracting officer will do the exact same due diligence finally it'll come to me and I can tell you I do the exact same due diligence I go through every single document in the PO and then we approve it so that's the approval process so I mean I just think the concern here is that if someone is familiar with a company name that is a director they may make that choice above the others right like is that that's how I I've never I've never so to be honest with you I've been here since for 10 years now it's going to almost 10 years and I knew PR manufacturing had a contract with the with the city since I think I think the first time was 2008 so they've been doing business with the city for a very long time and um you know the co so resellers represent different manufacturers so it depends on what the department needs right so for example I needed to to uh do something in my office and the people that had done it before were Compass so if I needed to take down a panel things like that other people couldn't provide the same panel so it was going to look funny so you know I used I picked Compass to do the the the little few items that needed to be done in my office so that's how and that's how departments do that so thank you and and art I think if you could comment on that a little bit because I think that's that's what I've heard a lot out there is that if people know that it's PR and somehow that you're tied to that in some way that they may just be choosing PR because hey it's a good way to get in in in good with your boss some way I mean that's that's the thinking I mean that that could be perception of course we're we're still talking about perception in terms of outside um but in reality the numbers don't translate to that right I mean it wasn't there wasn't some sudden increase in volume uh as it relates to um the number of purchases made through PR versus some of the other vendors I mean they even during the tenure that I've been here that the third highest selling vendor in terms of furniture vendor so clearly didn't translate in the city nobody was looked at the vendors list and said I I mean you asked 90% of the other departments they probably wouldn't even know that there's a relationship so I mean and that's that's a reality I mean I when I became city manager they had a pre-existing relationship with the city nobody had made any connection and and in fact I mean if you look at the timing right my wife and I didn't get married till 2015 right so you know they had already been a vendor for seven plus years before we've been married so and I had absolutely no sense of what work they were doing at the city what volume of work they were doing in the city um they do work with another number of different municipalities the state so they do a lot of government work that's a big part of their business because they obviously sell through this contract thank you commissioner Reyes okay uh thank you Mr manager thank you I uh as I stated before percept is very important and the perception that we uh have been uh able to witness all in I mean the press and radio and TV and all of that is that uh you had influence you had influence the purchasing of uh of furniture uh in favor of your wife's family Factory or whatever distributed and according to what uh you have shown here and I'm going to be very honest that what that's what I was looking for you see because if what I was very much interested it was that if during your tenure as uh city manager there has been an increment in the sale of furniture by your uh your wife's company to the city of Miami percentage wise and as I can see I mean even though it is 10 years or 4 years but it it is a percentage anyways you see and and the amount that between those four years is greater that means that a lot of purchasing have been done uh by all the I mean I haven't purchased that much in my office but that that has been had increased maybe because of need or whatever that's another uh question that we have to ask why in in incremented that much that much Furniture is being sold to the city of Miami I mean probably uh people are changing their Furniture when they don't need it you see that's that's something that concerns me now now but the uh the uh the word out there is that uh there was a $7,000 shair you see I mean I wanted to know what kind of share you know but but uh now you explain that that is for upstairs but there is also also a famous or inFAMOUS table that I has been been I had even I have been in radio talk shows and they had asked me about it and I said I don't know you see my table the the one that I have in my office I mean didn't cost that much not even I mean I would say not even at 7th what whatever it is uh but I want you to explain and if anybody can explain why that it is a a chair a table that it was 7, I mean whatever amount it is was so expensive is that did that come from also from predators and why it was like that also I haven't finished okay uh also one thing that I I am very honest and very straightforward with you I told you that the furniture that you that was purchased for your office you see uh I think that uh I don't know did you pick the company or that was picked by somebody else you want me to answer that question yeah I I didn't pick the company for any of the furniture that was purchased for the second floor I never picked the furniture itself um there were actually moments in time you want to talk about um some of the purchases that were made relative to uh I'll use Venture Miami as an example one of the reasons why the overall volume of furniture increased during this period of time a lot of it's covid related right because we had to re actually redesign space that people worked in because we were dealing with the pandemic that was a major issue in terms of for us for the last you know for at least two two and a half years um the other issue is capacity that second floor I mean and Vicki is can ATT tested this because she complains to me about it constantly um I kicked her out of her office because we ran out of room we we literally have outgrown this building as well so we're squeezing more people into space than we have space available so we had to really really re-engineer a lot of spaces and be more way more efficient in terms of people we we have six seven people working in a what in essence is a 600 foot space so um that's the reason why that was done staff handled the purchasing process entirely the only time I was was ever consulted in with regards to any any layout or redesign was that actual piece of it was hey we got to fit six people into this space and they may come to me and go hey here's the layout for it I be I be that's fine it was really more about content but but not actual Furniture purchase so you know I can't speak to the table I honestly wasn't involved in the the purchase of the table directly at all so I don't even know I couldn't tell you what brand it is how much it cost anything so okay and according to what my experience my experience every time that went when I moved in uh we want it we needed I have to say this but uh we went to Ikea you see and we bought Furniture we have to change it because you know they don't last that long some of them some of them still there but uh whenever we had to change the the furniture uh we were given some uh catalogs of the different vendors and it was I mean we uh in in my my office we picked the vendors we didn't know I didn't know who they were but it was according to price and according to style uh but what I want to know is when you were purchasing the the uh the uh the uh furniture for your office because I think that it is very important you P were purchasing the the uh furniture for your office did you in any shape of form in any shape of form influence and who the seller was going to be what they were going to do you didn't know that that that they were buying from your from uh your wife's I I didn't influence it but I certainly knew when it happened right for obvious reasons I knew when it happened but I had no role to play in picking the furniture and picking the furniture vendor you see that's that's one thing that that I I I consider that that at the time at the time and I know that it happens that it just happened and it was already picked but at the time that something that I I I believe that you should have done something about it said no or or inform everybody you say because it is it's it said I mean it it looks bad it looks real bad because otherwise on what has been you have been shown uh unless as somebody proves me uh wrong uh you are positioned as city manager according to this numbers I mean I didn't I I mean I wasn't the one that prepared there was not an undo uh influence or that was not an increment and the amount of of of furniture that uh uh your wise family uh company sold to the city of Miami but one thing that I consider that that it was on your part you should have taken action is on that that time that the furniture for your office you I mean in order to avoid you see we are all in a position that and it is just like the uh the uh that old saying that the uh wife of Caesar doesn't have to be honest only only he has to look honest you see and and that's the way we are you see we are in that position we have to really take care of of what impression what what are we doing that it is not misunderstood or misc conclude okay and uh and that is uh that's my tense I I really hope that uh we don't have to come back this because all of these problems that we had having now I mean is that enter to the city of man and I just said it and I told the the media this is a distraction that is UN needed we have so many things to do in the city of we have so many streets that have to be paved we have so many I mean affordable housing that we haven't started doing that we need to do and provide people with affordable house we have so much thing that we can do and we're wasting time in all of this think that that happened that I mean it is it it's a distraction that it is UN needed and our people deserves better you see so we have to correct this one way or the other but as of now I I mean unless all this numbers are wrong what I can really uh I I feel that you should have done is it's close that your or or stop the purchasing of your office furniture that purchase you I mean if I if it would have been me I would have stopped it I said no no no no no I don't want to there because I don't want anybody to think that I I am benefiting my family by purchasing this I would have done that's the only thing that have to say thank you commissioner gabella yeah Madam chair uh so Art thank you for your presentation uh we appreciate that you uh did what you said you were going to do and you know from the beginning I always said that your our grievances here that that we've had uh pertaining to you today with me uh it's not a a question of performance and it never was because let me just say for your uh to to your defense for example the city manager I know has been proactive in being a city manager uh whenever we've called he's answered uh just last Friday when we had the gas leak on 22nd half he called me to notify me there was a gas leak I said I'm coming over right there and when I got there he was already there the former Chief uh Joseph was there and uh the incoming Chief the new Chief uh Robert heavier was there and I was there so I can attest that you do your job and I want you to know your performance was never in in question however the this what commissioner Reyes was speaking about you know it just looks bad you know when you see this kind of thing you know and you know we all have flaws nobody's you know perfect you know uh I must tell you uh the way I learned about your furniture business is when I got into office and I was sworn in December 2nd uh I believe one of uh my employees Steve muo said hey uh I didn't know the the the uh uh the uh City manager's uh wife had a business here because they asked me if I wanted to use this company you know and and that's how I learned of it by the way and I'm not bringing that up I don't want to be Petty I don't want to you know get into the the thing but but it's just that I I think my not is correct and and and maybe your judgment in in that sense you know was a little bit clouded maybe you know you didn't think it was something on it to your defense you did do the memorandum which you had showed two months ago and I I did say it you know when I went on the radio and spoke about that when they were ask me questions but uh you know it it's like again like uh Commissioners you know raise part of myself others you know we're in this you know light and and you know sometimes we got to know better right than to make the mistake so I'll I'll just leave it at that thank if I finish could you please find out about that table I want to know about that table because they're going to I'm going to be in the radio and they're going to be asking me about that table and you clarified about the $7,000 share it's not only one one shares 12 shares and and I saw the PE but I want to know about that that table well he he precluded you precluded yourself from doing business in the future right which I think is good okay thank you I just wanted to make that clear as I understand and I totally agreed the city of Miami should not deal anymore with the that the company with feris while you are city manager in order to avoid any any other type any type of uh of uh problems problem of of uh misunderstanding it thank you so my comments are I renovated my office space after maybe three decades of the same furniture and I found the furniture falling apart and I'm glad commissioner Reyes spoke before I did he said that when he was looking for new furniture staff gave him cataloges correct that's right and you pick the one you want you picked the one you want and that is exactly what happened with me staff gave me cataloges I looked through the cataloges and I picked the furniture that I liked I found out that the manager's wife worked at the company of the catalog that I picked now there was a narrative going around and I didn't feel like I needed to defend the city manager that because the furniture that I picked do we have the invoice for that I asked to put it up does this is is it I don't know I want to show at the bottom well how do you make it go down I want to show the the um authorization for it it said resolution number blah blah blah you see that on there the CFO will do it for you it's in the middle of the screen what the language is in the middle of the screen well that's what I'm trying to show the language the authorization for the purchase I'll read it it's up on the screen it says pursuant to State of Florida contract 5612 -9- ACS as authorized by resolution 12- 0265 so I understand that with the public records that was requested and I get that we don't confuse the truth with the narrative but the purchase of this Furniture was not under the manager's $50,000 authorization the purchase was authorized by that resolution from a contract that piggybacked from the state but nobody cared about that you just wanted to say that the manager did not he went over his authority it was more than 50 $50,000 it was $56,000 and change everybody got that the Herold got that everybody got that invoice that showed the authorization for the purchase Annie can you come forward again yes chairwoman and you did say that that contract that we used was competitively bid cor it was it was done as an invitation uh to bid and it was set up like a pre-qualification pool and it did not fall under the manager's discretion no we have through that resolution Authority the commission the then commission delegated that Authority down that we can use that contract subject to budget you know budgetary obviously the money being in the budget budgetary approvals so my disappointment Mr manager is that you didn't come forward sooner to say that you didn't do anything wrong this was not a purchase that fell under your discretion and therefore it did not have to come before this body because it exceeded $50,000 it never fell under your discretion and it was a completely legitimate purchase I didn't choose the furniture because his wife worked at the at the company as a matter of fact when I went to look at the furniture she wasn't there someone else was showing me the furniture I did not know the family connection I thought she was an employee but again the purchase was a legitimate purchase under authorized by that resolution that the commission prior to me getting here approved there was nothing to see with respect to the manager and the purchase of the furniture for my office which was again about 30 years old and falling apart I wish you had said that before I got Lo into this narrative so so to be clear Madam chair we did highlight that it was just never reported we did we did respond to that comment in writing and it just never reported back so it was left out Vice chair I'll try to be brief bottom line to make a resume uh of this when Mr n came on board for the 10 years before but this furniture was the number two supplier of office furniture to the the city of Miami with 22 plus% to be exact 22.2 this is before AR Nora became city manager bis was the number two supplier of furniture to the city with a 22.2 after Mr NOA came in in the fouryear or so he's been here but Asis now is number three not number two and they went down in the percentage that they were getting of office furniture um in the city of Miami to 16.1% over 4% less which to run it up is about 19% less that they were getting before Nora came in numbers speak for themselves if there was any anything underhanded uh they would not have gone from number two to number three and would not have gone down some 19% what they were getting from the city on the contrary their percentage would have gone higher than before $7,500 chair that's what uh the local Tablo was reporting that's what uh in particular uh morning local radio program was saying they were putting that out to uh bloggers anybody that would take the baate to put that out what the chairwoman brought out the fact that this was put out to bid and it came back to the commission for commission approval just the opposite was being told and spread by our local tabloid the Miami Herold the bloggers one uh local programming a radio station and others and the lie was being repeated and repeated media protects itself on defamation with the absence of malice well I think it's getting real close here where there is malice real malice um chairwoman um I have nothing else to say in this uh if we're done with this subject let's move on because we have a a long uh day but the Mr manager um if anything that I would criticize you for is that you hav't done sufficiently enough to defend this city with people out there against the onslaught of defamation of Lies like I've never seen before in the small group that wants to destroy the city that wants to undermine it for their own personal gain gentlemen is there anything else okay let's continue with our agenda we are on sr1 okay Madame chair would you like me to read the title please could you read yes sr1 and ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 37 of the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended titled off offense misscellaneous to repeal section 37-8 titled panhandling prohibited in certain areas in its entirety containing a stability clause and providing for an effective de do I have a motion for sr1 um hold on let's um um this one in panhandling uh mam cityy can you explain it again commissioner this is the one that we had a settlement in the case of Willie white versus the city of Miami a couple uh meetings ago and part of the settlement was to um resend this code section that we had arrested on um though the section was declared on constitutional um so this is part of the settlement that we U brought to you and was approved a couple meetings ago yeah I see there's approv but refresh my memory was this a State Court ruling or Federal Court ruling it was a State Court ruling in a criminal case um that um a judge declared this section of our code unconstitutional was this ever did December reach the third DCA um I would have to double check it was a couple years ago well second reading now so if it's approved right um the thing is that these um sections have been declared unconstitutional in other places um so right now it it would be the prudent thing to do all right do I have a motion motion I have a second all in favor sr1 passes commissioner gabella we held off on CA 4 and five would you my my mistake okay so I did very brief uh on ca4 I made a mistake okay so that is you ready with that you don't have any what about ca5 ca5 is the one I just wanted to read put it on the record real quick and okay so on ca5 it has an undisclosed amount I was wondering if we could yes speak to that yeah more clarification on it Madam City attorney Mr City attorney ca5 chalk settlement the amounts good afternoon Commissioners Uh Kevin Jones office of the City attorney the amounts in the settlement agreement I I didn't I miss part of your question what was your question what was the question there is no amount in the settlement agreement in in ca5 right we're talking about chalks okay so there are costs associated with the settlement uh not traditionally damages right so you're going to have Ren abatements and you have to make some Capital Improvements to the site Capital Improvements to the site there is a cost um I guess we expect it to be in the neighborhood of $4 $5 million and then the rent abatements come online as the property is cooed once the property cooed you understand how renov batement works that spread out over a 15-year term and the present value of the rent abatement is we we haven't actually calculated it I can get that for you if you want just so you can see it that renov batement is over 15year period so the monetary value of it is $6.5 million but it's spread out over 15 years onto the utility relocation um we've been working with a couple of our jck contractors to pin down a number but in consultation with Public Works we feel the conservative number like and we and we think the numbers probably in that $5 million range but we're using $6 million as a conservative number thank you so Madam chair what I wanted to do was put it on the record just so the people you know the taxpayer knows what we're doing I got your briefing I'm aware of the whole thing I'm not going to ask all the questions the only thing I want to put on the record and I want to be clear we did promise them that we were going to attempt to do a a zone change which we are not guaranteeing and which says that if if we're not successful then the settlement goes back to court is that correct I just want to put on that is correct the the case remain sort of in Libo if the zoning Chang does not occur which is very important to them then we will go back to the lawsuit okay thank you that's all for me do I have a motion for CA 4 and five Move Motion I have a motion and a second all in favor motion carries unanimously you're back in sr2 we are back with the can we do the boards do we have any board appointments um yes ma'am bc4 Bayfront Park management trust commissioner Cy will be reappointing Alex cardinas to the at large seat additionally M uh Mr cardinas requires a 55 ter waiver do I have a motion move second I have a motion in a second all in favor I I bc15 Little Haiti revitalization trust Chair King will be reappointing lesene angad dorin and Robert Holland move second I have a motion and a second all in favor I bc22 Virginia key Advisory Board Virginia Key Beach Park trust is seeking confirmation of Carrie Johnson as its design move I have a motion and second all in favor I that concludes the boards and committees thank you chair okay now we are madam chair uh for re20 re20 uhhuh can we do these others first and then go to re20 well it impacts the others so I was hoping we could get this one how can hold on hold on hold on hold on you say it impacts it seems like you know if there's a reason why you want to remove the City attorney where she can serve the rest of the day then be out in the open be frank with it I am being out in the no what what is it that's going to impact I mean she is the City attorney she's been here through all this time knowledgeable how is it going to impact the others in what we're going to discuss and make a decision here because I'd like a fresh look at this from another source well when you say a fresh look are you looking for a fresh look or are you looking a way to say face with this no in what you're doing because any Source unless it's someone that's going to tell you to go against your fiduciary responsibilities uh and put the city at risk it's going to tell you the same thing that she has so I don't understand what you're getting to but let's take sr2 you didn't have any problem in this request the last time that he was here Madam chair my request is to do re20 first so that we can move on to the others after in that order what I'd like to do is take up the re that we have remaining re1 does anybody R1 was theer April 2th oh I'm sorry I'm sorry okay wait um 16 R 16 that it was uh pulled by uh that was right so that was pulled so I'd like to go in the OR re 16 no that was um that was pulled right that was pulled the for discussion right do we no not for discussion for no next time right uhuh for the next time didn't we agree to R 16's in play it was it was for discussion do you want to defer it what is that what you wanted to do defer it I I'd like to defer it in light that I'm seen that the agenda wait wait wait wait may I may I uh this is uh R 16 it is uh an interlocal agreement you see we are talking all the time talking about a corruption and Corruption here corruption there this is an interlocal agreement with Inspector General Miami day County so I mean they have to agree but the the administration will enter into an interlocal agreement I know what it so they will will have somebody that all of this contracts all of the this not I mean uh uh every time that we talk about uh corruption and all of that well we we have somebody that is going to be audited whatever and all the decisions that we made and that's why I propose the independent auditor I mean it's it's it's uh is uh uh uh An Inspector General that it is totally totally independent totally independent and that's the only way if we were we are serious about correcting and getting rid of uh the so-called corruption that we have first of all we have to find out where the corruption is and then we have to root it out okay and the only way that we're going to do that is with an inspector general which is totally totally yeah but but the thing is that we were discussing in the briefing with the city manager and others and the thing is that we're not even sure they want to do this and they're going to they're going to want to do it and then we got to pay them to do it what the uh the 16 isn't this what we were talking about art but the but uh so the question came up in the briefing with commissioner gabella as to whether or not we had spoken to the IG yet and I said no we haven't like we haven't we Haven we we can't till this item is either appr so one of the so one of the suggestions I had was if there were to be proferred a an amendment to this was give us direction to go talk to them first absolutely right because I I in the end they could come back and go look we don't have the capacity for it or on board Personnel for 6 months doesn't make sense there are a lot of lot of variables to this right listen what I'm trying to do M you see we know that we have a question in the in next election about establishing An Inspector General we have that that uh that uh and I'm I'm very hopeful that the voters are going to vote in favor I mean if I mean what meanwhile meanwhile in order not for us to wait until we appoint something and have an interlocal agreement with the actual Inspector General from day County just as day County school has it you see it's so any problems they can come in and they can do the investigation as they have done to all the governmental agencies and it is an independent an independent analysis and that which will uh I mean it will be free of any political I mean intervention or of any political pressure you see that's what I'm trying to do see that's what it is and and and and yeah yes I agree uh they might not they might say there listen I mean we cannot do any everything but let's at least give it a chance that uh we approach them and try to in and maybe this is written wrong but um it's a directive to the manager you see to go and try to get into an interlocal agreement with the inspector then County Inspector General so it overlooks and the business of the city of man because I'm sick and tired of everybody whatever I turn it it is corruption corruption corruption we all corrupt no no we're not we're not there some might be I don't know but not this guy here okay so if we want to step out corruption and the and the uh and the uh the uh uh and the narrative well we have to take action no no but but listen if I can Inu for a minute what I meant was that it's not clear what what his he needs clarification um and and Direction on what exactly you want to do but then the other question is we also have the questioner of Mr goba and his Department which if you're successful if if if that uh uh if that is successful in in August the primary right for for the it is then then Mr goba Department he's he's going to be gone at some point and by the way his contract is coming up well I I I uh Mr goba is his Contra is going to come in coming up and and I'd rather have the independent and and mou with the uh with the uh day County Inspector General than to extend go uh because anyways he is welcome to uh apply for The Possession you see and the uh the independent committee will select from the best but he's welcome to go but I don't want I mean we are not fire him and anything it is the the the the the contract would not be extended we have an independ an independent Inspector General that uh that is going to be looking on the business of the city so it seems as if what I'm hearing is that we want to direct the city man city manager to speak with the county about this and get back to us is that what I'm understanding so do I have a motion move and a second as amended Mr City attorney so the course of action to be taken by the commission number one re16 is is currently being discussed but it sounds as though they may be moving in the direction well maybe would rather just direct the city manager to reach out to the office of the Inspector General so are you going do you want to amend R16 or is that a separate item can I ask can I ask a question before we Maru can can I ask this question we're now we now have goba his his Department right and his contract is going to be up what I was trying to do is number one get confirmation that they going they're going to want to do it cuz first they might not want to do it let's pretend they do want to do it then we got to pay them but then we're also paying goba at the same time and then the the the referendum thing is coming up in August so now we got three things going on or possibly a three contract is going to come up I mean the only thing that we have to do is not extend it and direct him to apply for this you see when is this contract over it is about next month or something like that I think it's in May is when he com May yes in may you see that's what it is I mean by me we will the the interlocal agreement we will not be ready for it and this what we're saying what we are doing what we're trying to do here is to direct and authorize the city manager to enter into inter local agreement if we don't succeed well then we will extended for the time of the election and all of that but uh but that's what I want I mean I want as soon as possible to get an independent auditor to take I mean to look into our actions you see we we spend a whole time going in the radio they just we're going to Stam app corruption well let's start working on it all right so motion to do it I'll second it so I have a motion in a second all in favor as is as is AR 18 can someone Mr City attorney can you go over this okay actually we probably need the chief of police r18 is a resolution of the Miami city commission directing the city Administration to investigate and enforce both the code of the city of Miami Florida and the laws of the State of Florida as it pertains to smoke shops located within the city of Miami which sell synthetic cannabis which is either illegal or not allowed pursuant to their certificates of use and or business tax receip okay do I have a motion move second second all in favor I I re9 that was pulled for discussion y I think it was me I'm not sure think it was me do you have any questions still or have you resolved it so all right so on this one we wanted clarification Because We Came Upon some things that has been done in in the past uh okay that uh a res resolution was passed let's say to buy a couple of properties and then there had to be a second resolution to to identify where the funding was coming from and and and disperse the money before the money was dispersed uh we asked for for that uh Second document okay and it it's it's not been clear to me been made clear to me whether that was followed or it was not if it was not then there's a problem okay and and I also want to speak uh I should should bring this up you know I'm not a hypocrite I I just you know I hate petty stuff you know and but this is the thing I read the Miami Herald uh piece okay regarding Mr K District 3 okay and the impact fees uh and what happened with the developer that that developer was supposed to give those impact fees and spread those impact fees uh within the five districts and then according to the her that money was somehow directed to uh Mr G's District okay and and this kind of plays in with this you know I didn't know about the herald thing until I read it this morning um but in actual fact when we do a resolution and and you know the dream department is going to buy a property we direct them to buy a property okay and we buy before that money is dispers I think that that there's something in the books that says You must do a second resolution and to me it's not clear whether that's being done and also I'm concerned about this problem and I'm not accusing anybody I just read the article I am a commissioner I have to take notes just like everybody else you know I'm not saying anything I all you that you this that you know I'm just saying what I read if that's the case you know I don't think that's fair if that money was allocated to the five districts I want my peace from for my people that's all I'm saying so so I would like clarification on this on this on these two issues can can somebody Enlighten here am I wrong here to speak on this issue uh through the chair Larry spring Chief Financial Officer uh I met with the commissioner staff yesterday they provided me with concerns yeah more more more of the detail and concerns I've been doing the research on the legislative by the this was before Larry's time yeah I know it was the record but I've been researching the legislative steps we're now trying to reconcile to the budget Appropriations so if you give me a day or two we will get it out and if you want a formal report we'll push one out gr but we are work we are working on it uh thank you for bringing that up commissioner G you're welcome even though we're uh off track and the item I figure that would be coming up in 20 19 we'll deal with it um on 19 and then if uh you like or others would like uh we could keep dealing with it in 20 R20 um let me say first and foremost that this commission is the only body that can approve any buying of properties any upgrades on Parks any new parks to be created any affordable housing to be built um none of our districts can do any of this no matter where the money's from unless it comes to this body and this body approves it now I been around too long not to uh understand especially how things have been uh in the last years here how the local Tablo plays with each new hero that they find until they can't use him anymore then they trash them and look for a new one and the story uh was perfectly planned to come out this morning for the so recent uh given something so that the guillotine could be pulled on the City attorney CU there is nothing else uh I you never mentioned the City attorney I'm talking about that hold on I'm not talking about that I'll address that in a second let's do what we you said that we all should do when we all finish talking then yes others would talk absolutely I think I'm down there with you and I appreciate that you're going to do with me I'm just having a conversation yeah I understand now having said that why this story came uh out today in the fashion that it did uh I'm going to give you some examples and your district is one that needs to be fighting because you're one of the three poorest districts in the city you have some parts that are not that poor like I do but alipa is one of the poorest districts and I understand that having said that the Freedom Park project that's huge you're going to get way over the Lion's chair of what's coming from there it's not going to be divided 2020 20 2020 I understand that even though I consider that more of a regional project or part it's in your district is going to have the impact there uh that District needs send money to because of what we all know and it's correct that you take the line shares of the monies there it's not going to be the other districts that get the impact of traffic and all the other things that go along with it this the same thing in Little Havana same thing in Little Haiti and in some of other poor areas when commissioner Hardman was here not that long go he fought rightly so and in Little Haiti it's rare like in alapata or your District or my district to get major projects that come forward they're not District 2 that you have them all the time one after another because they're in the water and everybody wants to build for the Rich and Famous there so it brings a lot of money Little Haiti the Magic City Casino project for the future that money and all those impact fees are things there before I got to District 3 the commissioner that was there before me Frank got OU my brother he did the same thing with the only other project besides this one that has come to District 3 of aisal amount that was going to Le sufficient dollars so all those dollars would be left in District 3 sadly it took so long for that project to get up and going uh he's out of office already and been out of office now for over six years and now it's one a little bit is going to trickle down that that project is going to be paying down dollars uh the same thing with this project the bulk of the money is going to come in when I'm gone it'll be for the future and that's how I looked at it for the future of that District district three is the district by far with the least amount of park space in all the districts in the city of Miami I know that we have extreme poor areas Little Haiti Liberty City in Overtown in alapata Little Havana it's right there in the midst with those others that I mentioned where you need major affordable housing and I'm not talking uh about just Workforce housing I'm talking about affordable housing now the agreement that had been done before contemplated for those dollars to have stayed there that had basically had become the norm if I would't say the tradition that this commission was doing uh in District 2 it's the richest District in the city there affordable housing the countertops they're made at granted some time they were marble I don't think we have to upgrade him to gold plating and and they have project after project after project commissioner Rey's District while it doesn't have the impact of major projects either it's rare you're going to get some now along 37th and 7th Street and so on the difference there is that unlike alapata unlike Little Havana and in District 5 the bulk of the housing that he has are middle- income housing owned by the people that Liv in them and they' kept it in the family for years uh so it has that difference uh also what was done during the worst time that this city had experienced especially in the beginning when you're talking about March April uh that the pandemic was just kicking in everybody was in a panic because we really didn't know how much of an effect it was going to have people were dying everywhere people were getting sick um everything was shut down construction stopped to nothing every developer was petrified to make any decisions into the future because no one knew what kind of future we were going to be facing with the city Administration other City departments and yes uh the Law Department that always has to guide the administration uh we were able to negotiate a much much better deal than the one that the commission approved whereas we were able to negotiate for an additional $10 million either in direct cash or in benefits that had the equivalent of that cash for instance besides impact fees uh they were going to be guaranteed even if they would build less which they're going to now they can go lower than 4 million we made him increase and given us 90 uh parking spaces uh that they had a construct in the building for the people that would come to that Park that would be individuals from the whole city because none of our Parks have a sign that said only for residents that live in District Two or four or three or one or five they're parks for All City residents this Park Southside park has no parking uh and what off street parking you have you might have if you're lucky you might count 12 spaces but with all the huge buildings you never find any so whoever comes to the park either has to come walking or they're going to have to pay a hefty parking fee in some of the parking lots there to be able to use it so we were able to get 90 spaces for free that are going to be controlled by off street parking for any City resident that comes they could get free parking to use to park in addition to the $1 million that was going to be spent in refurbishing redoing the park that was brought up to $3 million the original 5 million that they were given for the rights to build there we brought it up by another $4 million Etc so I don't think the commission expected any of that to come back but the commission expected was that if we were going going to be receiving substantial less money that had been contemplated in February on this project that yeah you want to see it but for 10 more million that you're getting uh I don't think anybody needed to see that whatsoever now the commission approved for the manager to have the the rights to sign that contract and to do everything else that he needed to in that contract and as I said this is not something new that I've created my predecessor in District 3 did it District 5 has done it I don't know if with commissioner King there's been some that have happened there in addition to Magic City Cassini or not uh with you uh your predecessor Works some of that out uh and you still have an opportunity I think to work some more of it uh because there's still more meat in the uh the bone in that one uh with Freedom Park which is huge that's the crown of all the projects that we have and the size and that's going to help alapata and your poor areas tremendously and and you will have my support 100% thank you other districts here uh proportionately during that time have received from Impact fees from other fees a lot more than District 3 had I didn't complain so it's great that the Miami heral wanted to come today with this story to push the story that they're trying to against this city but no one here has done anything wrong whatsoever unless you think that by negotiating $10 million in a contract that the city negotiated during a Time that you got to wonder how we even had a contract left what's wrong and that was accomplished by your city manager your City attorney and other staff members of the city and a little bit of at me giving my input as the district commissioner well here's what I'm saying so what I'm saying is it you know the at the end of the day I I realize you know all the time you know this goes on the Press I'm it's accurate but you want the Press because we don't want to be cuber NWA or Venezuela that we don't have no press and you know what I mean so you know at the end of the day you got to balance things out and you don't want the pedum to swing too too wide one way or the but but here's my point the reason I'm stating that is because the article is about your area and it does mention your name now if there the point is if there was a contract with a developer to split that money one came in and I realized and I heard everything you had to say but if that was the contract that is the contract okay and whoever is the one that deviated if if it is true if the story is true because you're questioning the story it's a contract they was sign yeah I'm talking about the contract of the impact fees that was negotiated with the developer that then the developer what the heral says that then that money was diverted didn't go to all the district that's what I'm saying I'm not saying I don't know who's in charge but somebody's got to be in charge at the end of the day okay and if that's a deal that was a deal and that's simply what I'm saying okay I realize you know you turned it around then you talked about you know the uh the freedom uh Stadium which you're correct but and and like you properly said remember a lot of those people are going to be impacted on 37th F Well you don't think that in this project which is a big project there's not going to be a major impact in fact I'll offer you this take all the money from this project and give me 50% of what you're going to get over there in that Freedom Park no I don't think I want to make the deal Madam shair Madam shair may I may I please uh that that that uh article was mentioned and uh it I was quoted and and I stand for what I said I mean the uh difference is I do uh uh I do remember that uh there was uh I mean you made a great argument for the uh the uh I mean when they all offer the amount of money that they did they stay in District three but also the contract stated that if there was going to be any substantial change that he have to come to the commission but he to that substantial change well hold on a sec let me finish let me finish okay and and in and in my when they asked me and I said I would have like you see if it is a substantial change I would have like to at least argue it because I would have I mean would have like to get my hands on it but if you if you would have made would have made a a strong argument about it I might have vought it for you you see and and besides that I got to remind and I got to remind you something when you say that that a m is uh that there's going to be uh I mean the the all the districts are going to benefit well there were $20 million right it what's going to be divided on the people that voted for it I voted against it I'm not receiving anything I'm not I'm not I'm not talking about that 20 million I'm talking about all the other monies that are coming that ain't going to that that's I mean I'm not receiving anything 20 million is penis compared to all the other money okay then now that you are so generous what you should do is resent that that it will must be divided among the guys that voted against it and make it even you see and so I could get at least $4 million out of that and I would more than glad we spend that in my district I've been thinking about uh some of the things you have out understanding that uh uh I might be able to help you even more than the 4 million you oh thank you very much sir it's always welcome we might have to have a meeting uh you know an open meeting sure uh so that we can discuss it that's right Madam chair I just wanted to add uh District 2 is a very diverse District it has many challenges and we're also a donor District generating 70% of the revenue of the city so let balance our comments you don't have to apologize if we would uh truly divide the city and districts the way it should be instead of from north to south you know we would go up from the bay across and five slices all five districts would also be wealthy because each district would then get a big piece of ocean front where the money comes from so if if you know you would like that I would be fine with that let's just cut it straight down across where everybody gets a piece of the ocean uh and this way uh you don't have to be a donor District anymore well you're I mean I think you're overlooking the fact that it also has climate resiliency and INF infrastructure issues like no other district and they go unfunded largely okay um I think you get more than the line share of dollars let let me let me let me just add one thing and I want to be honest with it you see there are certain developments that taking place in certain areas that in in more need and the the effect of that development is going to directly be felt by the area that is and I think it is fair it is fair that sometimes in certain instances that that uh all the uh what I mean impact fees and and um whatever the people are profing uh I mean the developers are profer remains within the area in order if they are ear Mark to improve the surroundings of the area I do agree with that and I believe in that that will benefit you will benefit Mr G and will benefit all all of us okay so we don't have to just it it all depends it all depends okay Miguel look into what I said to you because uh you have a lot of dollars there for the future it's not immediate who knows how many years down the line but there's a lot of dollars there that you will be able to use in your District in the future I will look into it so do I have a motion for re9 um did you approved it motion do I have a second I have a motion and a second all in favor I r19 passes unanimously Madam chair yes um I just wanted to State for the record that the item that was brought up by commissioner gabella having been on the hip piece in the Miami Heralds it clearly stated for the manager to negotiate it did not have to come back so I I need to be very clear about that well let me be clear what said was that what I read in the hill was that the contract of the impact fees when they started paying was to be divided that's what I read in the her correct me if if I'm wrong if I'm getting my my information incorrectly but that's what I read whether later on the manager you know that happened but but I'm I'm I was I I just right I just want to be clear that not all that the herald rights is correct so it nothing was done inappropriately when the commission wants something to come back it's says bring it back this this was for the manager to negotiate and that's how it was negotiated to the betterment of the city also whatever goes to District 3 obviously then that leaves a pool of other things available for the Commissioners and other types of money so this isn't something I I understand that everybody works in silos sometimes of what goes into District three what goes into district one but at the end of the day if there's monies available for something in District dist 3 or in district one or in District Two then that frees up other monies in the general fund so I just wanted to clarify that okay thank you for the clarification what I wanted to ask you now that you're talking about that on the resolution that we just passed I was under the impression okay and what I read you know and I can read English okay is that when you when you uh instruct when we instruct somebody to buy a property the dream Department buys a property we instruct them to buy them and just before the dispersement of the money there must identify where the funding is coming from if it's a bank what bank okay and we need a second resolution on on that am am I mistaken on that did I did I did I read that wrong because I I think I read that right and and that's in other words it's not only the first resolution to go by the property it's a second resolution okay we're going to close on the property we made a deal now we have to identify and that needs to to come in front of this body is what I interpret this is I voted for it CU I think that's good government okay you should always be a you should always identify that's right where the money is coming from that you're going to spend that's good that's you know that's why I voted for that okay r202 here we go R20 Madam City attorney um before we begin in full with the ra20 I'd like to read something to the recer and be able to give it because I believe whether others do or not it's my belief that this has to do uh with item 20 and if I may this is uh public record request to commissioner Damen faru this is public records request in the Florida State statu chapter 119 reference any and all information inside the folder that you held up on the commission meeting of March 14th 2024 whereas you imply the you had information in it reference to the $65,000 plus doar that you gave to your campaign for Miami city commission last year to be clear I would like copies of any and all the documents that you had inside that folder you proper whether it pertains to the monies you gave your campaign or not um if he could be given a copy please and another to the clerk so it's an official public records request even though a public verbal one should be more than suffice um okay we're ready for item number 20 I'll take that under advisement re20 re20 seeks to remove the City attorney from her current role in terms of running the city attorney's office and move her to a transitionary rule it seeks to name as interim City Attorney John Greco who returns on 422 in the interim Deputy City attorney George weong would serve in that capacity she would continue through that period we would ask that for the April 25th agenda we have a new appointee for approval to this board and we would ask HR to make sure the selection committee understands that we would expect them by April 19th to wrap up their process so that we could have a firm name on the April 25th agenda mad Madam shair let me ask a couple of questions because this have become become I mean it's a total Destruction all the time we got to nip it on the butt and and and I hope they never hear about this and uh what you what your proposing is that uh um City attorney would cease to be the City attorney and then we have we have one of the attorneys the acting attorney yes uh she will still remain until the date that we all agreed which was May 3rd and will help in the transition that Greco is uh will be uh I mean uh uh uh we will know name him acting City I mean acting no interin we're going to have acting and interin and then we will have okay and uh the city Atty would remain until at the date of May May 3rd which was what we voted in uh unanimously okay I'm good with that all right can um June 11 I just wanted to clarify June 11 was the date that um I was supposed to be in a transitionary role until no the original the original resolution which commissioner Paro seeks to uh resend uh was on January 11 and you gave the committee five months right month so June 11 was transitioner okay that's fine if uh if I may uh chairwoman let me make sure I understand this commissioner Paro you're proposing that we name an inim City attorney today so that when a another City attorney arrives we then have him be the inim and then somehow the committee that we name is supposed to finalize everything by April 19th I don't think they're going to uh but but the inter commissioner will will be in place until finalized but we yeah but I I could that could even make some sense to me commissioner that's right if we Nam one in but we're naming one so that we wait for another inim to arrive no this one this one is not in it's acting the same thing whether acting they're all acting listen only because of a vacation schedule that's the only reason only because of vac what does it matter you're still putting two inms together where one doesn't even warm the chair up before you get another one in I mean I've never never in my life in government even in you know where Andy of Mayberry used to uh be the sheriff that's right uh have I heard such a thing before yeah okay never now let's go through the process of what we had done Madam chair can we call the question we uh Mr Paro you you know you you talk about being a champion of transparency and democracy and people having their First Amendment rights but you sure don't like people expressing and using their first amendment rights now you know I I I hate to disappoint you but you're not going to shut me up you could throw as many motions to censor me you could ask me as many times if you want to resign it's not going to happen it's not going to happen you know I'm not a punching bag and I've been around too long too long to let someone like you think they're going to come in here and push me around I know that your buddies they're squeezing you tight to you know do all this but I want to go through the process so we could all understand just how unusual so I could use a politically correct wording phrase this is three months ago to this day we went ahead and approved a 5mon transition period how is normally done in democracies uh to bring in a new City [Music] attorney now we're two months away we've only GED three yeah can I bring uh Angela Mr manager through you if we could get the director of hr up here to answer a question because I'm I think I'm missing something and I want put the piece of the puzzles together Angela how are you hi how you doing Angela Roberts HR Director thank you how many people have applied that have qualified to be City attorney of the city of Miami as of March 29th at 5:00 there were three eligible applicants so for a city this size the biggest city in Florida because Jacksonville it's a County city so they really don't count if you're going to count the size of what is really their city they're much smaller than we are so for the flagship city of Florida only three people want to be City attorney in the city I I find that difficult to comprehend I think that we need to go out and advertise more even if it's just for a short period after all we had given until June 11th commissioner Reyes yes now let me let me go further the board that we name what is it called uh to select the advice The Advisory Board the City attorney selection the attorney selection they then El wanted more time for more people to apply and that was denied correct yes sir why was it wait minut we gave them s to interrupt you we gave them a month didn't we we were supposed to close on and then we gave them an extra month what may I M Madam let me clarify this point of clarification point of clarification the the uh selection committee wanted to change the requirements and all that isn't that right yes sir okay they wanted to change the and and I for one I said no we are the employers and the the qualifications that were placed you see when the announcement were made people that that apply must meet disqualification how many people applied that were not qualified there were a total of 14 people that applied we found out that one application was submitted aded twice so there were actually 10 C 10 applications that were ineligible ineligible that is that is that is what we have because the uh the uh qualifications required that you have expertise in look in Municipal law I agree with that you see no no I'm clarifying why we we didn't have so many applicants and why they wanted more time but they didn't one more time it came to me the information that they wanted to change the qualification and I said that is not a that I had not heard I'm glad that you brought that up and just clarified because I would agree with you in that yes we should never lower the qualifications yeah um most of the times we have them low enough if anything should up well I think the Reon one of hold on hold on give me a break and I know we we both forget at times it's it's normal um chairwoman uh and gentlemen look to choose from only three it's just you know you talk about transparency and perception it gives a real bad perception we need to at least open this up for two or three more weeks uh do something different that we have Haven done some more people can apply it that maybe would qualify what what do you what do you uh propose of doing something different well L the Sanders no no no I you heard what I said on L and the Sanders no way am I in favor of that no no no what what I'm talking about doing different uh is that we advertise in different Publications uh that we have them before that are national uh that would reach a lot more people uh we have plenty of time between can't do it national because they have to have the Florida bar it ain't going to be National it's got to be flid because we don't reciprocate reciprocate you're you're wrong commissioner because there are many attorneys out there everybody's allowed to jump there are many attorneys have everybody there are many attorneys that they might not live in Florida in another state but they also took the bar here and qualified in Florida we have a lot of attorneys that are qualified in other states too so I don't doubt it but but they some of them don't have the for but look I I think that we need a few more weeks of advertising uh I don't think it's going to change anything whatsoever uh and advertise it wider than we have L where where have we advertise so far in So currently we advertise with LinkedIn and we advertise through neogov which has 144 I'm sorry might even be more than that search engines that they advertise through we advertise through the Florida bar um so all in all we probably if you talk about funds also we probably spend about 1,800 in advertising commissioner G commissioner Paro could we call the question on the resolution when everybody the our city city clerk came to tell me that I have to let everybody speak commissioner first of all chair I I do not have a motion or a second um and second of all Mason does allow for a right to debate okay so thank you so do the Constitution of the United States okay so uh number one uh look I didn't know this was going to take place until I learned in the thing I thought we were said for May or June what we agreed in in January you know now did did anybody ever think that maybe part of the reason why we don't have a lot of applicants is what's going on in our city and and the reputation that we now have and and I'm not blaming anybody I'm I'm just saying we got to be truthful with each other this is a problem to to to deal with this atmosphere here that you know that's been in the city and and and and talk of corruption this and that you know a lot of lot of people want to get into that you know and then you have what what I was trying to say God you is that but also if you do a national search our state does not reciprocate with other states some states do but our state does not so therefore there are highly a smaller number of people that you can get as applicants in a national search that would also have the the uh the Florida uh bar I know this because my my daughter is an attorney uh she has the Florida bar and you know we we talk on time to time you're you're also an attorney you know this good good for you good for you da iess I'm I'm I'm telling you where I got the you know the information why because when she took the Florida bar she had to take the exam the mom went my wife went with her you know to help her this and that but but besides that what I'm trying to say is we've been at this for a long time I did not expect that this was going to come up honestly speaking I mean this is part of his motion I I respect that I've had my diff differences with the city attorney I thought we were on track for mayor June which is a thing I ask myself why now I don't understand it's a couple of weeks away like what you're thinking but you know what thinking of this whole thing I think we should just get this done and over with honestly speaking and and and and move on and I understand where you're coming from I understand where you're coming from I also don't understand the idea of putting uh um Greco as an interim when Greco's out of the country I agree with you on that you you know has anyone spoken to Greco I don't even know if he's been talking to that yes he's been spoken with and he will accept it upon his return okay who spoke to uh Mr Greco when you said that he's been spoken to who spoke to him the attorney's office well I attorney off I believe George Weiss no no Deputy attorney George coming up join the fund you're on the clock uh he says the city attorney's office spoke your record that is correct when this um legislation was being drafted yeah um there was an issue of who was going to be the interim City attorney and um there was a notion that because my name is in as far as an applicant it would appear to sort of put a thumb on the scale so um there was a decision to not make me the interim City attorney during the pendency of this time not to make you the interance City attorney well nobody's made the decision because the decision is yours um but in drafting the legislation that you're considering now that was the consideration in the promulgation of the leg in other words commissioner Paro made that decision right it's his legislation well and who called uh Mr Greco so I don't know who called him first but um as he was leaving getting ready to leave the country I had a conversation with him where he indicated that he had indeed agreed to fill the spot during the the interum period yeah but then if you w take it because of whatever you said how I would look and the thumb or something or other then why are we going to be naming you now until he gets back I don't understand I had nothing to do with that sir uh see this is the problem that we have with maybe people want to apply when they see something like this that's going on you know they say Hey you know I don't want to be no part of this we agreed 5 months uh and Miss Mendes would be out we agreed that we were going to have a process now we've changed everything upside down and what we're saying here doesn't make sense for anybody all right I got an idea why don't we go straight and name weong okay attorney to take Vick's place and that's it and we're done gentlemen we're done no no no no listen okay listen let me tell you why no no no no let me tell you why let me tell you why we've been we went through this before you see when uh when uh we had a committee to select this this I mean chief of police and then after the all the applicants came in and and they went and and they did they did the due diligence then out of the blue sky out of the blue sky the anointed one came the anointed one and I am I believe in process the process that we determined and we voted for was that we are we have a selection committee right everybody want named it and if he Mr wisen is the the person that that committee uh uh uh uh selects he be the City attorney or anybody else well let me let me just tell you my that in that process I was left out because when the time frame was extended to extend that application my office was never notified of what of of the extension of the the the the uh the opening of the position was named by by us we said we're going to open it up we opened it up and then a month later you said yourself it was determined that we were going to get give others another month nobody was gent yes yes I know that cuz I'm not crazy gent if I may if I my office my office was never notified gentl if I just for the record commissioner Rez based on the logic that you just said you said it we and and what commissioner gabella said we had a process we voted we gave our City attorney until June I'm not clear why this is I'm not talking about the process I'm talking about you guys talk about a process but then some members are left out of that process I was left out of that process now everybody's holy and everybody wants a process okay let's have the process but let me just put it on the record wait a minute wait a minute I'm talking I am a City Commissioner to respect me like I've been respecting other people I'm trying to let them say let you finish okay are you done yeah mad wait a minute wait a minute let me let me say it very clearly but let me say it very clearly so there's no misconceptions okay we agreed that we were going to have a process to look for a City attorney right we were all part all of us were part of it right and we said we were going to open it up we opened the process up okay and then somehow when the process was supposed to close it got closed and then it got opened again when it got opened again my office my officer sir was never contacted never included me as part of the process what do you think but now all of a sudden we're talking about processes okay let me let me I'm not saying hold on a second please you you say your pece now in mind go ahead Madame come here Mr Roberts uh who opened up who extended it if I may can I clear something up it was never reopened it was extended okay hold on a second sir I have the floor now yes sir did you did you notify everybody that it was extended yes we did because by I I learned by by uh email that you sent did you send that same email to all the commission every last one ma' can I okay now it's my turn I got the floor ma'am can I ask you a question yes sir who directed you to to to extend the the the the opening all of you all no not me not me that's what I'm trying to say my office and I'm putting it on the record my office representing district one was never made aware that we were uh doing that that's why I asked you because mon says okay no no problem I'm just saying that me this gentleman here this commissioner here was never notified the process wasn't carried through but now we're talking about processes okay I'm going to participate like I've always wanted to but I'm I just want to put on the record my office was never contacted or consulted whether I was in agreement with this okay go ahead Miss Roberts so just for clarification purposes at the time that we met with the Commissioners individually it was during the beginning of February at that point in time it was only one eligible applicant that's right and it was agreed upon that we would keep it open until March the 29th because we only had one eligible applicant and if I remember correctly we only had maybe seven or eight applications at that point in time that's when the extension was agreed on when was I there when was I there when was I there that I agreed to that can you tell me one we it was myself the city manager we went to your office no ma'am never did I I'm sorry but we we have a problem with with memory you you know what I mean never was I consulted to extend the the opening and that I'm putting in on the record never was I consulted my office was consulted okay on the extension of of the opening for for the City attorney never and I'm putting that now on the record I say again I'm not crazy okay I know who I talk to and who I don't talk to and I this gentleman here I repeat was never consulted on whether I agreed that you should extend the the the uh the opening or not which by the way had you come to me I would have probably said yeah let's extend it since you only got one person okay commissioner Paro I just wanted to address your question of why now for the last couple of commission meetings the City attorney has been at times insubordinate and at times disrespectful I don't believe that's conduct becoming of that position I think all of us as electeds are called to express or demonstrate civility and Temperance furthermore I personally do not have confidence in the information that I receive and I think that's a big enough issue when we are tackling major like the settlement of the redistricting um verdicts uh case I believe we have these major goals right here and now that require us to make that change and also show the residents that change has happened in this position let's call the question I because of these accusations I need to be heard go ahead okay um when have I been in subordinate when you were young please speak please speak into the record did you ask me I I can't hear you okay uh when you were pointing your finger at commissioner gabella and telling him not to point his finger at you he pointed at me first I mean I pointed you cuz you're the City attorney and I'm saying for pointing and for what else when you called one of the residents a little vile man you mean the January 11th meeting when when you already removed me as of as of June 11 okay next those those are the two that come to mind right now those two reasons so it's you're bringing it up now isn't it because you don't like my opinions with regard to all these led issues isn't that why you're trying to remove me right now no no no Vicky as for me I'm sorry to him but listen as for me I don't have the the LED thing I don't have a problem either way but I just think that we need to move on honestly speak I you know and listen I said to you a long time ago when I met you this is nothing personal I don't mean ill for your family I don't like doing this kind of stuff it's not in my in my blood okay but I think for the city to to move on you know what I mean and listen nobody is saying to you you're not going to get your you know nobody's trying to get you out of your retirement or stuff like that you know what I mean you know and and and I was concerned about that by the way because this this came to me all of a sudden I was asking the question why now you know what I mean I mean you know but but I think at the end of the day we need to conclude this we need to you know we need to get this Cloud you know out out of the the city of Miami's head okay for the bond rating for this for etc etc we could have a problem and and I think you know now that commissioner parter is doing I think we need to to to move on you know I I think we just need to put a a close to this and and move on and I think now you know that we're all discussing why why prolong what we already know is going to happen is my question and and also you that constantly you're in the hot seat you know taking you know these these things you know right so I'm in the hot seat because unfortunately unfortunately though you say that these matters aren't personal you're upset at me for doing my job no I was upset at you because you interfered in an election you interfered in an in my opinion was to make you're head behind the we're in the United States of America we're in the United States of America and you guys know for well when I came here if you didn't know now you know it on June 14th at my house I'm a candidate and this is all documented and then you know what you did you filed a lawsuit with the city's money with the taxpayer money against and then you and then I won that lawsuit I won that lawsuit and then you doubl down again for a second time and then you double down for pursu and then you know what you did now you got us into a position of interpretation of what the charter is actually do you have to live the the year prior or can you live any year prior to that you got to that position the Char so I was only doing my job whether you were a candidate or not I was doing my job and that's why that's why you're upset at me no I'm not upset of you because of that I think you been doing a bad job and Advising you because every time we ask you a question I don't trust you okay because here here's an example let me give you the perfect example the gya lawsuit with all due respect to gyo uh those of you that are implied should never have participated in any of the Shay meetings because you were a benefit when you come to me now and you say to me you know what we have a settlement offer we should settle on this matter how do I know that you're not doing it for your benefit because you're named in the lawsuit or how do I or maybe you're telling me because it's the right thing to do but if if you're in his shoes and you're in my shoes by the way you came to my office what settlement have I told you in the F in the future VI listen to what I'm saying listen to what I'm saying told you settle any you came to my office one day you came to my office in the very beginning you said that now you worked for me and I said if I work for you I'm just curious how come you keep a lawsuit going on against me they try to deceive me against the that so then you're upset I did not no because I can't I did not of participating your been participating in the was following the Char you've been participating ma'am you've been participating in the garou sh meetings on settlement of the gou issue with uh Bia and Fuller okay and I always say in the beginning you guys have a vested interest a benefit to get this over and done with and you should not participate because you're conflicted conflicted partip me partip if you come to tomorrow ad and because you said that I did not partipate in anything even outs if tomorrow you come to me Vicki and you say Mike I think that we should settle how do I know that you're not telling me because it's your own personal benefit or the city's benefit and so therefore I canot trust you as a City attorney nothing personal nothing personal that's all I'm done let's call the vote let's call the question no your name is m we because you're in the lawsuit what do you want me to do do I mention somebody else I didn't okay go ahead yes let's let's continue that way let's continue the way yes let's let's keep it the away thank you commissioner G yes sir uh when you say the Royal lawsuit to come to an agreement to settle my lawsuit with an agreement I don't need any agreements in the lawsuit against me because all this stuff is temporary uh I could withstand the Rockets uh bares uh I could withstand the missiles coming I could take Hamas until we're ready to go to the appell court and my brief is going to be done either at the end of this month in the first week or so of uh May once that brief is done and it gets sent up to the appell court they have X amount days to rep reply and then we get to reply again but once that brief is done any attorney that's got two cents that will read it is going to know that there's no way no way that what was done to me is going to stand it is either going to be thrown out totally or at best it's going to be sent back with a new retra but with a caveat that this goes for the rest of our cases in the city because just like there are multiple code violators uh there are multiple people like to Sue and Sue they think they're going to get their way intimidating by suing there's a case is called D Martino that's the premier Case by the appell court of this southern district of Florida in that case and there's been more Pell decisions after the case it's Crystal Clear what they had to do in my case that they haven't what judge Moreno is making them do that's why he's thrown out and they're very unhappy uh on the second lawsuit that they fil in that case and they gave one more body of the Apple and what they still haven't done in the other suit that they have the SoCal mad room is that by law by law they have to allege in their motions that there was no probable cause by this city to have taken those actions but yet we're no well listen that's the whole problem uh the good with the bad you got to take of America anybody could sue it if you got money like these guys have money from somewhere uh you could Su and sued and sued and of course then they'll try to use that look at all the money is being spent but what are we supposed to do what they want us to do to not defend any of these lawsuits that we then turn over tens of millions of dollars to them and hell why are we even talking settl but why are we having settle we if we got such a good case why are we having shade meetings on settlement matters because if I got a good case I go to court well look number one uh I'm not going to talk about anything in the Shay meeting I don't think you should either and but I'm only addressing the fact of what you said that the city was trying to settle for me because then all the Ries in the media are going out saying that the city is trying to settle for the 63 and a half million that they got from me in that uh Brower County court so I don't need the city to settle for me or anything because we are going to win this hand but it's not about that what what I was referring to that in the future Vicki comes to us and gives us an opinion the trust issue that's what we were talking about now you know what let's call the question let's call the question if before we call the question the the dialogue that has gone back and forth is outside of the rules of decorum for this commission and it is the last time that I'm going to allow that I would ask that the city clerk give us all training because each one of you have the right to debate but it has to come through the chair and you have to wait till I recognize you okay can I speak for one minute that issue Madam hold on a second uh I've noticed that hold on a second hold on a second I want all of you to be heard but not in the manner that you're talking over each other and this one and this one the proper way to be heard is through the chair and then you wait for me to respond not you're speaking then you answer then you answer then the only person person here that respects the rules is commissioner Paro he always waits for me to say commissioner Paro so if the city clerk could give us all a training on commission decorum and when it is appropriate and not appropriate to speak I let everyone speak today because I know this is pressure points but we just can't conduct business like this and it just goes on and on and on and it becomes a whole video real so I don't have a motion on the floor may I have a motion for re20 motion do I have a second what is s E20 says to resend resolution R 24-18 um Mr City Clark and um Mr City Clark commissioner gabella you accept commissioner paro's amendment that was made I'm sorry you you can make the motion no you make the motion so there's an amendment it's your it's your motion go ahead and so commissioner gabella we do have you as the Mover I just want to make sure that you are accepting commissioner paro's amendment that was made at 4:45 p.m. I'm going to Second it okay so so now you've removed your motion so now commissioner Paro has made the motion the amended motion now commissioner gabella you're seconding that amended motion could you could you could you read the am through the chair could you read the amendment the amended motion I'm sorry I'll need to defer to commissioner part I don't have that language to appoint John John Greco uh I believe this is the complete one appoint John greo until New City attorney is appointed effective upon his return from vacation on Monday 4:22 a directive to have GE GE weisang sit as acting City attorney until John Greco Returns on 422 if there's an extension of time uh until April 21 the city attorney's duties should be limited solely to the assistance in the transition process to a new City attorney and then we would also give a directive that the new City attorney shall be appointed instead of May 3rd April 25th and we would give a directive to human resources to make all efforts to select a final candidate by Friday 419 in preparation of the meeting on 425 and in in during that period Madam City attorney remains until the date that we agreed upon in January which is juli June 11th m is that correct there's a motion chair second may I uh I I I would you turned your mic off I I I agree that uh we should do as fast as we can but are we not limiting ourself until I mean by the 25th of this month uh um M Roberts you think that world that will be possible because the the committee has to meet and has to agree if they don't agree and in and with in within that meeting that going to have then we will be on a Vine I think that we are limiting ourself you see we set best efforts and we hav so thank you we have uh set best efforts so that if there is a gap it's covered by the inum so it's a Target yes date that could be extended if we don't have a the uh the uh the uh I mean the recommendation of the uh oh it's extended until we get the recommendation from the selection committee yes that's not a hard date huh it's not a hard date okay may may I offer uh just another bit of information Angela will you do them the favor of walking them through the current schedule with the selection Committee just so they're aware of when they're meeting next whether they've done any interviews at all what what their plan schedule is so just so they're aware where we're at so the current the current schedule for the selection committee is to meet at the Miami Riverside building that was their choosing on um the 15th of April at 2:30 at that time we were going to show them the applications of the people that are eligible and discuss the actual interview process they do have a tentative date of the 19th but we have not noticed it because I didn't know what was going to go on here today one of the questions I was going to ask the selection committee on the 15th is it their intent to keep the date of the 19 19 based on everybody's availability at that time we were also going to I was going to discuss with them attempting to have a structured interview process through the share Madam commissioner Reyes yes uh what you mean is that uh on the uh you said the 19th they're going to uh you're going to instruct them about the uh I mean uh uh the uh uh interviews on the 15th of April we're going to talk about you're going to talk about the the three eligible applicants and then the actual structured interview process okay fine and they have a tentative date of the 19th based on their availability I'm going to for the interview but I'm sorry to inter you yes sir for the inter that's what they put they wanted that for the interiew next meeting is the 15th at 2:30 at the No No all next meeting saying the 28th 25th 25th the 25th okay what we're saying is a target date that could be extended if needed okay and chair Mr Vice chair everyone is satisfied that we have sufficient people to pick from with three everybody here is satisfied that we have sufficient people to pick from from these three candidates well mayor you that's a question I'm going to tell you commission re oh through the share through the chair you are recognized through the chair you asked the question I'm going to give you my answer it has been open for a long time it has been advertised properly advertised SI we had 13 people that applied and 10 of them didn't meet the qualification if maybe uh Mr glla is right that because of this toic I mean atmosphere that we have here and I want to get rid of it as soon as possible you see that other people would not like to apply and that for all the positions also we have lack of application because people don't want to come and and apply because the way that I sometimes we behave with our employees so what we I I I'm quite satisfied because the opportunity was there the opportunity was there there are a lot of people that at this time there are assistant City attorneys in all the municipalities in that county they didn't apply you see if that was the one of the requirements that uh that that uh people didn't meet that is knowledge of of of Municipal law that didn't apply and I wonder why well we have to create the conditions that people that want to work with the city of Miami has environment an employment environment that they are not shame in front of everybody they are not Y and there is no in misqu from us on their jobs and and I'm satisfied because there's nothing that can do about it and I just want to see permission mam chair can I just see let me let me recognize you commissioner gabella thank you for recognizing me Madam chair uh so I just want to State on the record that my vote will basically on uh upon my judgment my opinion on the city attorney's performance Mrs mes and nothing else I hold no ill will toward her or her family or anybody uh here this is purely uh what we what we were elected to do for the people and and and I just wanted to put that for the record Let It Be know thank you madam chair one last question commissioner what in this solution is there that addresses um if the City attorney is going to be kept in any other advisory position yes it well but well what is in this resolution let I'm going to wait let let the staff respond that's right let the staff respond ass makes the well vote let I know but let the staff answer your question Madam Madam chair if if I may they can answer go ahead I would just like to um clarify what the what the motion was just so we can be clear for staff to also answer my understand um excuse me division Chief jav Alan with the city attorney's office so my understanding is the resolution as amended is the City attorney will be removed but kept on staff until June 11th the then um George weong will be appointed until April 22nd when then uh John greo returns and John Greco will then be appointed uh as City attorney or as interim City attorney as stated in the with the same emoluments and and compensation package as stated in the resolution until such time as the City attorney selection committee uh makes a recommendation as requested and then on April 25th this board will make a determination of the City attorney the permanent City attorney based on the three qualified candidates Vice chair did that answer your question yes no I don't think it us Madam chair to the chair I he asked what in I mean what what was the uh the currency Atty was going to do and what I'm proposing that she assist Greco in the transition from one whoever is p to to uh and and I know that she will do it you see assist in the be part of the transitional process okay is that an amendment is that an amendment Amendment you accept that the Mover is willing to accept absolutely okay till chair till June 11th June 11 correct and that means if there's a new City attorney chosen before that she will stay in that yeah position doing the same with the new City attorney advis correct correct I have a motion and a second for re20 as amended all in favor I I I may so I have that as 41 with commissioner croo voting no correct understood Madam chair may I just briefly State something since I'll be turning over the chair yes please I want to thank God my family and the City of Miami my interdepartmental colleagues and especially my city of attorney family for the 20 plus years that have been allowed to me to serve this wonderful City where I was born in alipa raised in flagami and lived in flagami for 44 years my office has accomplished great things and we produced Legacy projects had incredible litigation wins and preserved the quality of life for the residents of the city of Miami for many years from taking on FPL to making sure water quality is safe for the residents and throughout Florida to saving the city millions of dollars in potential catastrophic litigation because we don't create the fox taking the city out of multiple consent decrees just to name a few things my office has been a leader in the state and nationally as the longest serving fulltime City attorney the longest serving female City attorney the longest serving Hispanic City attorney for the City of Miami nothing of what the two new Commissioners and their serial litigant backers have done to me and my family today and since March of 2023 with the media and bogus litigation will ever take that away from me thank you thank you madam City attorney and at this time I would ask my colleagues if they are ready to go to the attorney client sure yep at this time the city of Miami commission meeting is in recess chair Madam chair we have to read the oh read the wait um one second Madame City attorney thank you thank you so much on behalf of all the residents of Miami for your service to this city your carrying to this city for so many years thank you thank you madam chair um March 14 2024 under the provisions of section 28600 011 subsection 8 Fuller statute um the City attorney request that this city commission meet in private to discuss pending litigation the case of Grace Inc engage Miami Inc South a branch of the NAACP Miami Dade branch of the NAACP Claris Cooper Jared Johnson yanise Valdez Alexandra conteras and Stephen moo versus City of Miami case number 12 uh 1 22- CV - 2466 dkmm pending in the United States district court for the southern district of Florida uh City of Miami versus Grace Inc engage Miami South Dade branch of the NAACP Miami Dade branch of the NAACP clis Cooper Jared Johnson yanelis Valdez Alexandra conteras case number 23-1 12472 pending the United States court of appeals for the 11 circuit and American civil liberties Union of Florida Inc versus City of Miami case number 20 23- 0230 38- ca-01 currently pending in the city in the Circuit Court of the 11th judicial circuit in and for Miami dat County Florida to which the city is presently a party the City Commissioner approved my request and will now approximately at 5:36 uh p.m. commence a private attorney client session under the parameters of section 28601 subsection 8 Florida Statutes the subject of the meeting will be confined to settlement negotiation negotiations or strategy sessions related to litigation expenditures this private meeting will conclude approximately 1 hour later the session will be attended by the members of the city commission which include chair Christine King Vice chairman Joe coroo commissioner Miguel uh Angel gabella Damen Paro and manol Rees the city manager Arthur Nora the 5th uh acting um Chief Deputy City Attorney John Greco Deputy City attorneys George K weong and Kevin R Jones outside Council Christopher N Johnson and George T lavesque uh and Victoria Mendes um a city certified court reporter will be present to ensure that the session is fully transcribed and the transcript will be made public upon the conclusion of the above cited ongoing litigation at the conclusion of the attorney client session the regular commission meeting will be reopened and the person chairing the commission meeting will announce the termination of the attorney client session thank you the city of Miami commission meeting for April 11th 2024 is now in read [Music] say [Music]