landscape uh on the median between 602nd Avenue again and 61 Court um the project pretty much uh back then uh consisted of harmonizing with the US One Corridor Corridor uh based on the Landscaping uh plants that were planted at that project um and we also were task to remove the existing black olives um in total we were removing 22 existing small Palms six small Palms 41 Montgomery Palms uh planting 38 new trees and then approximately 14,000 uh shrubs and ground cover I'm going I have here the landscape architect who design the project out so he can get into the quantities and type of uh trees and ups that we were proposing uh good evening my name's ke semler I'm a landscape architect with gsla design uh we were tasked with this project back in 2020 I think it actually maybe started in 2018 even um but uh at the time uh the directive from the city was to uh remove the black olives along us one as you know we've been out there there's are the large mature trees that are there um because the idea was to even though they're mature the idea was to match the US One Corridor so there was you know Oaks and and the shrub material that they use there I think that project had just completed uh recently before we started this um so uh there was black olives uh Pink tabuas there's um some Chinese fan Palms Soler Palms number of different species for removal um we had a bunch that we were going to transplant Montgomery Palms there some thatch Palms stbl uh this is basically just a plant list of all the um New trees and we were planting at the time um a mix of mostly natives a couple zerich species in there as well but this plant list was basically derived from that us one project just some images of the shrubs and ground covers obviously the uh Sunset is you know there's there's turn lanes and intersections everywhere so everything is pretty much low material uh as you get close to the ends of the inter ends of the medians but the center of the medians had some POA Plum salom things that get a little taller more images of that stuff um estimated project cost was like 276,000 um there 2020 prices which obviously we know have changed since then but um so there's a maintenance cost for that um that's what's described there probably this was calculated in 2020 as well that was no that was that was a that was a maintenance cost that we we requested our current Landscaping Maintenance company to provide us a cost what it would cost to maintain this type of project and that was 2024 numbers correct yeah that's that was uh June of 2024 of course speak that um and something that we've been discussing internally uh is to sort of relook at the project that was proposed at the time uh come up with an alternate um something that we've noticed there's been kind of two things one was after the US1 uh plants were installed uh it was right after that we took this over and started this so we hadn't seen what survived versus what struggled out there so um some of the plant materials we would like to if we can change up to make sure we use the stuff that thrived and not the stuff that didn't make it or stuff that that was a maintenance uh headache um another thing that I wanted to discuss was um kind of the directive of removing the existing trees to plant the trees that were along US1 um something I would like to do uh I guess I'm a little bit The Lorax here I'm speaking for the trees um but the black olives we all know if they stain and you don't want one over your car or driveway however in a median there's landscape underneath and the asphalt is black so they really they're native tree They Don't Really pose any issues um and what's out there now they're large mature they provide shade um so and I know from experience unfortunately for projects I've done uh you know neighbors and residents don't like it when big trees get removed um fortunately I've had to do that before but it's always trouble so I want to kind of propose to you guys to maybe if we can go back and rethink that and maybe keep some of that material uh and introduce shrubs and other things from US1 that will obviously complement that but I think keeping the existing mature canopy would be you know a nice thing to do and it's you know the way the realignment has been done it's not like we're damaging them or or can hurt them most of them can stay so anyway that's just a a point of discussion that we kind of would like to see happen but you know it's changed since we initially did this but just food for thought so the next step is uh once mayor and commission make a provide us a direction on uh what changes we you want to make to the existing plans we'll go ahead and proceed with that uh we would need to request a redesign from our landscape architect uh firm uh and uh a cost proposal for that um and then that will come back to you all for for approval um once the design is complete and we're estimating three months two two to three months maybe for for redesigning the project we will put it out to for solicitations and construction solicitations and then uh once we rece receive the the bids you know we provide lowest bid for recommendation uh to construct the project so that's pretty much the timeline uh what's next on the on the project thank you I have a question and I don't know if it's a you question or or a you question we have been working on trying to get an RFP for a landscape architect to be our landscape architect so that we can redo the vision for the entire city I wonder if it's not prudent to have this wait for that so this doesn't stand alone outside of whatever we decide as a city is going to be the look as it relates to to trees and Shrubbery and all of that I I Look to You Mr city manager because you're the one I had the most recent conversation with correct yeah thank you vice mayor and you are correct and we currently do have an RFP out for landscape master plan um and uh not withstanding we we we're looking for opportunities that we may do some very sort of specific improvements uh that uh could start before then just because that may take a while and and some of that may be um uh in general it may not necessarily be all site specific it would be like the type of plant material we would want to use in certain locations so it it could be an approach it could be you know we hold and wait but given that that that I you know you know once I understood that this project had been designed and had gone to that extent I wanted to bring that option we've had a similar conversation Rel relates to what I'll call our two Parkways 80 84th Street and 53rd both of those are little different element because they're kind of like a linear Park and we try to look at potentially um we have uh request a proposal on what it would take to to maybe take a look at those and design something for those two particular Parkways um outside of of the Great Master Plan just because a it could take a while and B it may be in general so obviously whatever we would do we want to have some Synergy between them but uh not withstanding it could be an approach that that we hold off and wait for that process to to mature if you want to thank you do any of you have any questions for the gentleman yeah sure and thank you so much for giving the presentation thank you so much for uh coming back out after all of these years um I'm um I'm very interested in potentially beautifying Sunset Drive it's the entrance to our city from the West part the most popular entrance um while we've maintained it very well um you can certainly see a lot of inconsistency that exists within the design um and uh unfortunately I think it stands out for those reasons in in the wrong ways and I knew there was a plan design already I think a lot of what you would be doing seems to be more common sense oriented right we're already talking about not removing mature trees we're talking about putting shrubs in things like that I guess I just wanted to ask maybe the Landscape Architect's opinion of the uh condition of Sunset Drive and how it Compares maybe to some of our neighboring cities for instance I know Lun Douglas Road um ponts they all have very very well-designed medians with Shrubbery with you know it's it's very intentional um so what would you say the condition is at this point which is obviously very similar to the condition it was when you first designed it yeah I mean everywhere is different but the master plan I think is a great idea because you know what you want to do first is sort of go down and evaluate we were basically focused on the median but you know if you look at the adjacent uh you know the north and south of the sides of the street there's a lot of areas where you don't have pedestrian Crossing that there's you know right now there's some trees that aren't healthy or doing well in little tree group and there's no reason why you couldn't cut out the concrete and make a you know 5ot landscape strip so there's more root Zone and you know get make it more successful for trees and then you know maybe establish criteria for you know if you do new projects you can do structural soil under the concrete so trees have a more root space um you know if I was to approach this again ideally you know like I said there's a bunch of mature trees out there so you could kind of find a way to harmonize that with new stuff and make it more consistent without losing it so you know maybe maybe you know you have a cluster of black olives then you do a stretch of Oaks then another cluster of black olives or something else and sort of you know harmonize everything you know maybe even those existing trees you could have a consistency of shrubs along the base so it's still visually you know is kind of harmonious and um you know there's areas it's basically you got to go through and evaluate so right in front of uh city hall there's the medium with all the big date palms which is beautiful but there's you know shrub area and then a little area with concrete strips and gravel it could just be nice consistent shrubs the planter under the US1 I mean under the Metro Rail you know there's some stuff in there that's a little weaker that could be nicer there's definitely areas where you can focus on doing a punch or you know yeah basically just talking How We Do master plans Palms in the corners things like that thank you I I appreciate it and then the last thing and really the reason I wanted to uh hear more about this and maybe push it Forward is I mean this just happens to be one of the many sort of plans that never really took off uh kind of uh got off the ground never really broke ground on on doing any kind of improvements there and while I do think a master plan is is is a prudent thing I would love to be able to do something especially when it comes to maybe Landscaping where we could be a little more hands on a little bit faster um to be able to get something planned for Sunset Drive and then expand it out from there I know that it is it's it's prudent to look at the big picture but just like a lot of the things here you know we're talking about plans that'll be three four five years down the line where maybe this commission's composition is different or maybe the the priorities change it' be great for the residents who are who have paid a lot of tax money over a long period of time to be able to see these sort of long needed improvements on our especially um our main roads the county roads the roads that are really kind of our City's front yard so to speak that's where everybody sees and and gets an idea of of who we are and what our reputation is you sunet Drive 64th Miller things like that where where we can do things so just for purpose of the mayor since I I was at of town I didn't have a chance to talk to the mayor about it that the item uh came forward as a result of conversation with commissioner Corey who had explained that uh he thought that there had been a project I didn't really fully comprehend that it actually had been a design project that went to commission so we just put it on the agenda to reintroduce it and get some guidance before we spend any more money or time and effort just to kind of gauge an interest and so that's why this is before you just to have this conversation get some input as to if there's an interest um and the vice mayor had just asked a question right before you walked in mayor about since we looking to do a landscape Master Plan and there's RFP out should we wait for that that question was posed and um but that's why this is before you it's something that had been discussed previously by the commission and a portion of the project was a realignment of 62 Avenue is what went forward the Landscaping aspect did not uh but we didn't really want to spend a whole lot of effort on it unless this commission had an interest interest in moving forward so first let me apologize for being late my apologies uh glad to glad to make it um before I jump in with any thoughts commissioner lean did you want to did you want to speak on just certainly just a quick question in terms of jurisdiction talking about the Metro Rail Planters who who maintains them commissioner what's the question right my question is you just I'm speaking to you it's pretty simple you just said you wanted to change the foliage and the Metro Rail Planters so is that our jurisdiction are we able to do that perhaps yeah that was in the original uh point I we we currently have an agreement from all the way from dixy right to the city border uh through uh Florida Department transportation so we use uh brigh view as an Outsource company that does the maintenance but it's VI an agreement with fot for us to maintain the median on Sunset and uh US1 for that matter to okay F further questions or comments from my colleagues yes Madam vice mayor if we're not waiting for the master plan can we at least look and see what is going on around us so that we don't hit like culture shock you know you move from The Gables into South Miami and then into Pine Crest and for lack of another way of saying it I don't want to look like the the the weed section of the Landscaping so Second That Emotion yeah so whatever it is needs to be beautiful in the same sense that those other cities are beautiful so you don't go wow we got here okay we're gone so Mr maner just a level set and commissioner K I'll recognize you right after you mentioned there's a I'm sorry there's a there is an RFP out for a landscape master plan designer that's correct okay and when is that process at the close4 24th ju of July okay thank you I was not aware so that's good news uh commissioner K did you were you aware I've just been made aware so we will be submitting for that um so going back to some the semantics with the question vice mayor had asked um you know what whatever route we decide to take since you already done the design do you consider this a full redesign or is this something that you can leverage something you've already done no the the shrub layouts and U Rejuvenation of the irrigation like new head layouts when we do this has already been done really it'll just be putting the trees back that we were going to take out um and eliminating the new trees in those spots and just swapping out shrub species so the design to layout the shape of all the shrub beds stays it's just you know what we had uh bulbine should be something else now or there's like two species I think that were weak from us one that we would just swap out so it's not a total redesign we've already surveyed it and done all that stuff we have sheets set up it's just swapping out species and keeping the existing trees and and I know Prett previous commissions to current commissions every some things changed here and there I think that one thing that you'll notice and I know adelio knows this is that one of the things that we've been consistent here on the commission is that we love mature we love canopy uh we we just did a study we saw that we lost canopy as a city so canopy for us is pretty important hopefully I'm speaking for all of us here but Amen to that um I think it's important that you understand you know if we move forward with this that you understand can is really important there's new buildings being popping up throughout the city and you'll see that changing through the next 5 years take that into consideration uh some of the landscape designs that we've seen come through here they're not the greatest um so if we can complement or help out and you know doing this these type of uh designs and drills you know just make sure you're conscience about doing that thank you I'm sorry I have a question my colleague here mam Vice you had a question about yeah presentation I I I just don't know if any of you guys have seen what this layout would be it yeah there was a power I believe it was it the layout that was in the PowerPoint Mr Kat this like so we had the the species in the in the PowerPoint yeah so I don't I don't think we had a plan sheet that actually had the that's that's correct okay so if we can if you could if you could do us the favor of Mr manager and with staff's help circulate copies of that I it was a comment I had to the deputy manager when she briefed me this week on the item I I I I had a couple questions from what was in the PowerPoint and there were some references to uh maintenance escalations about $24,000 a year can you I didn't understand what the source of the escalation was if you can dive into that for me a little bit sure so that was that was basically based on the The Proposal that we have right now on the design we went out we reached out to our uh you know landscape maintenance company and they gave us the cost to maintain that particular uh design okay so the the existing design has a a $24,000 annnual maintenance cost associated with it okay now if we were to change out the species to use stuff that's I'm assuming that's is it water principally or are they are these drought resistant or uh I forget what the zeroscape uh Style Plants what are what kind of plants or what kind of shrubs do we select for this particular design and is that the reason is that driving is a species selection driving the cost of the maintenance in part so yeah the the the species selection were was based pretty much to to mirror what was planted along us one okay uh I think they're Dr yeah for the most part it's it's native plants or Zer plants so they're all you know drought tolerant um okay you know mainly just comes from because the road way you have to PR make sure no overhang and it's fertilizing replacing stuff I wanted to understand whether or not the selection of the species CU that that I I thought I saw something in the presentation deck that was prar that you were recommending possibly alternating or switching species and I didn't understand what we were contemplating switching out and whether that was the reason there was a escalation of the maintenance so yeah basically what we have is as close to maintenance free as we were ever going to get correct okay there's never no maintenance but yes okay mayor it's also I'm sorry like right now it's pretty Barren so they just go in and mow no I I know the condition is not a condition I'm happy about so I I yeah that's but I I wanted to understand whether because again the presentation I I just say this in not in tend to be a criticism but a comment really the presentation in terms of understanding what the recommendation was left me a little bit unclear so um just Mr mjor we can kind of button that up so I kind of know what point it really to get input it was really introduce what was designed previously and understand hey is there an interest in going in this direction if there is then we would tweak you know the design and and and bring it back as a as a design so by way of comment I think it's look I've been wanting to do these improvements since day we got up here I think if we have a plan that's ready I would say let's figure out how we move it forward and I think you know it should help inform the work of the Consultants that we're that we're hopefully going to hire through that design through that selection process and maybe this is maybe this is an aesthetic we want to replicate uh in a variety of different conditions I I mean I leave that to The Experts commissioner Cay not the expert but I have another question so um this is based on the 2020 design correct you have not Incorporated anything that we just spoke about whether it's canopy and all that stuff so I I think what we need to take back to the to the manager and team is if there is a redesign or some type of what that looks like that's not in this proposal at all correct correct okay so I want to make sure that but to clarify to clear to clarify your clarifying question we're also talking about leaving the the mature black olive trees in place that wasn't in this design I know it's not it's so we're talking about leaving the m so I'm I want to because I got here late I apologize want to understand we're talking about leaving the mature trees in place not removing them that's correct this is a probably yeah this is a condition where you know black olives maybe on sidewalks that are traversed here probably a pretty good spot to keep them rather keep them mature trees but but that is what we're talking about correct keep okay so I am clear now yeah not only keep I think we want to add to like the idea that that this design was taking out the black olives we want to make sure we incorporate those and add more canopy to that yeah for my for my from my perspective in the future I'd like to see less palm trees right and more uh shade bearing trees whatever the species is that makes sense depending on the location um you know to the extent that the design would need to be modified for that personally I've also said I'm a big proponent of sometimes less is more I'd rather get you know fewer small uh dbh uh trees and some larger specimen trees even though it's a bit more expensive it kind of just in terms of the visual impact the immediate return or relief it provides uh I think is is is very value creative for the city so that's certainly my thinking I think generally you know depending on the cost where we can land on projects probably a sentiment that we all share at some level he did talk about that before before he got here he said he mentioned keeping the black olives adding maybe Oaks and black olives again and kind of cycling that way yeah okay yes Madam vice mayor one thing that we all need to be cognizant of I I believe as we run through this I think it's a good idea I just think we need to to make sure that this is something we want to prioritize as we work towards trying to prioritize the hom town area so not that they have to be mutually exclusive but I think we when we're thinking this through the dollars need to make sense so that we're not diverting from what is our priority excellent point and just to the manager is this this is this project funded I I don't think it is in our capital budget correct no we we we have sort of bucket categories of landscaping um so uh in this case we would tap those specific line items which were uh put in the budget specifically for these kind of projects obviously as it relates to Sunset Drive improvements you know that that project will will have some sort of cost to it that we'll have to come back and and we're putting some money away for for that um so there's a different part of money um and what was the what was the estimated cost for the 2020 design when it was developed but two 50 was it about 280 $280,000 okay $280,000 okay and and just to be clear we can apply tree fund dollars to this potentially right which I think has over 100,000 in it we we could I mean yeah it definitely would qualify for for it um so we have pots of money that we have allocated especially for these type of projects uh including a master plan and and other projects uh in this case obviously we w we didn't want to spend money on a redesign until we got some sort of feedback that that this commission was interested in moving forward um through the mayor sir just just an FY and for the commission I know there's a lot of uh there's currently a revision or a look into and maybe the city manager can follow them up on me but there's there's a there's a plan coming down the pipeline to give us a recommendation on what to do with the tree fund and the allocation of funds and how much the penalties are and so forth because I think we've been very venient uh so you'll you'll see that coming through okay so any final comments uh so direction of the bers to bring this back for our consideration we want this as part of our budget process as a capital Pro possible Capital project or do you want to see this as a stand loone item I'm sorry so we have money in in the current budget that that once that design comes back if that's a desire and it gets approved then we would bid it out okay U that we could use current funding this year fiscal money for this project okay understood if that's a is that direction colleagues that would be my preference okay so one can I get a motion then to direct the manager to I bring a revised back I move the motion is there a second second by the vice mayor it looks like I'll do it okay uh are there any anyone in opposition to the request seeing none I'm going to do it by unanimous acclamation that and say that it uh Direction has been given okay thank you appreciate the presentation thank you okay uh I think we have one other presentation and that's Mr Diaz you're recognized to update us on the modifications to the city's website good evening to all Brandon Diaz Communications and marketing manager for the city we're here today to present you guys the new City website that has recently been redesigned and redeveloped one of the topics of conversation that got brought on board and one of the things that we've been talking about since I've been in this position is creating a best-in-class city when it comes to Communications and marketing one of the steps in the right direction of that is our new City website along with its features and it new improvements so I'll go ahead without further Ado allow the presentation to begin good evening residents mayor Commissioners city manager City Clerk and City attorneys we are thrilled to announce the launch of our newly redesigned C city of South Miami website our goal is to create a more userfriendly informative and accessible online presence that better serves our community and enhances our Communications with residents businesses and visitors some of the new features and improvements included on the redesign of the website are a modern design with a new and improved home page and overall look and feel our new design is clean intuitive and mobile friendly ensuring a seamless experience on all devices that also features video content highlighting the city of South Miami enhanced navigation the revamped menu structure makes it easier to find information quickly as well as a sitewide integrated search bar how can we help whether you're looking for City Services upcoming events or contact information everything is now just a few clicks away how do I whether you're looking to pay a bill apply for a permit or contact a department this website tab is designed to help you navigate City operations effortlessly shop somi our new and interactive business directory that provides detailed information about City shops eies entertainment venues and all South Miami businesses my somi portal residents can can now access a variety of online services including submitting a service requests online forms website notifications important links and online payments directly through this online portal Community profile the One-Stop destination to dive into the intricacies of South Miami's local economics and demographics employee portal this secure and use user friendly section is dedicated to providing city employees with access to essential resources important updates and convenient tools to support their daily work police to Citizen portal this online interactive platform allows for residents to access South Miami Police Services and information easily Department videos we will now be creating video content for each City Department that will highlight their operations and and their impact on the day-to-day bases they have on the residents of the city of South Miami and now you see a preview yeah this is the the part we have to transition over to the video empis no pressure John we're just all watching here but it's okay so then the next segment is going to be showing you guys a piece of content that's going to come up so we're going to work on videos for each of the different departments for the city that will showcase pretty much the operations for each of the city departments so I'll go ahead and start with the public works division engineering is the first video piece that we have done and the goal is to create each of these different uh these type of content for each different Department Public Works is breaks down in several different divisions uh motorpool division Solid Waste division also uh streets Division and Building Division we take care of uh the right ways such as the swells of different swells in different areas throughout the city we we also maintain potholes we do the tree trimming we pretty much beautify the city we have this app called Sing connect our app is so great because we respond to Residents within 24 or 48 Hours the reason why we're so quick to respond because we do have staff inhouse that allows us to take care of everything immediately as an office support for the public works department I'm the one that answers the calls from residents um uh contractors asking questions let's say of a Miss garbage if they want their trash holes to be filled um if they want their garbage container to be either replaced or they got their garbage container [Music] stolen we deal with many kind of permits umot permits maintenance of traffic sidewalk permits driveway permits um basically anything from the sidewalk to the roadway Public Works engineering department handles as far as you know permitting is concerned this is a city of pleasant living and we continue to strive to keep it that way [Music] [Music] the here's the top 10 places where everyone is moving in the United States in 2024 and we're going to Deep dive into the best states the best CI just pause it there I'll wrap it up so that's that's that was funny Flawless presentation of our first video for the city of South Miami's Public Works and engineering department this new City website will greatly improve our ability to serve and engage with our community thank you for your time and I hope this presentation was informative please feel free to ask me any questions that you may have on the site thank you all right guys colleagues any questions no I just want to say I love it thank you thank you thank you I wanted to say great job I know how difficult it is to build a website every aspect of it from the design to the content to the coding to launching it from transferring all the other pages over there's just a million things that can happen to go wrong you did a great job mobile responsive site great uiux you guys you guys did great and it's great representation in the city thank you I was waiting for the SEO question uh no it's right we'll do that off off off camera thank you other questions looks great thank you guys very much congratulations thank you for the presentation thank you thank you okay uh Madam clerk do we have an add-on item this evening yes one okay if you could read that please yes a resolution of Mayor and City Commission of the city of South miam suppor resetting the second regular meeting in j July 2024 to July 18 2024 okay uh any objection to the item being added on okay seeing none we'll take that up during resolutions thank you uh do I have a motion to approve the minutes of June 18th oh we're deferring that my apologies so we will show uh the minutes of June 18 2024 is deferred and we will move on to the city manager report Mr manager or Madam manager good evening good evening um pretty much just event updates for you guys tonight for um starting July 1st the senior center is extending its hours to 3 pm um so that'll allow for some afternoon activities they have dominoes crafts indoor bowling a lot of fun stuff planned um on the event side obviously we have our big one coming up Fourth of July that's at palro Park um starts at 5:00 P PM fireworks are at 900 PM we have several live bands there's going to be a kid Zone there are going to be a lot of um food trucks and vendors so it's going to be a good time we invite everybody to come out carpo if you can parking is tight um July 13th is Rio's Bike Rodeo that's hosted by the South Miami Police Department um that's from 10:00 a.m. to 1 P p.m. it's going to happen on the same street where we host Omi second Saturdays it's going to feature different bike challenges for kids so they're going to have different courses bike safety checks helmet giveaways and then following that 5 to 10 will be SOI second Saturdays this one's going to be themed it's going to be a country night so we have a country DJ there's going to be some line dancing moving forward we have some fun themes going on so we invite you all to come to that that's the end of the manager's report tonight thank you any questions colleagues okay seeing none thank you m manager thank you uh Mr C attorney thank you mayor one minor uh matter uh I believe this commission had previously um we had presented a a conflict of interest issue that we had with with Baptist Hospital South Miami Hospital believe we had spoken about it but I don't think it ever made it into the minutes so I am again requesting that any conflict of interest be waved just to give you a little background uh another one of our partners represents or has represented Baptist from time to time um we do obviously South Miami Hospital has a lot of applications pending they have another application pending now before the design review board uh and they are proposing a an ordinance at this time so it it came up again baps had already waved it um I we thought that you had waved it formally but I guess not so I guess I'm I'm asking that uh that you consider a waiver of that conflict of interest and again just I'm got distracted I apologize this is the waiver the ordinance related to the the Urgent Care Facility urgent care facility okay and they have their their facility on 62nd and and Sun so uh I don't presently do any work it it is Lily for for Baptist hospital um so understood I just wanted to clarify what the matter was okay questions okay uh if there are no questions can I get a motion to approve the waiver of the conflict mentioned by Council I'll move it I'll second okay so motion by the vice mayor uh a second by commissioner Cay Madame clerk please call the role yes um commissioner Cay yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner Le yes VI yes mayor Fernandez yes pass okay thank you anything else okay thank you okay with that we will open up the floor to public remarks um first on the list this evening Miss greay Reed you're recognized good evening evening welcome thank you thank you I might be the only one anyway I I am on the green task force and I want to say I'm delighted that you're plant planting um Sunset Drive and that I think the green task force would love to be part of that process to um because we had very good luck with the US1 planting when we involved the landscape committee a citizen landscape committee so you know I don't want to hold things up but I think it would be great if we ran it by the green task it's a good idea thank you okay second thing is about the about the recycling I think it's important for us to keep recycling at once a week um because it sends a message to the residents that recycling is as important as trash removal and recycling is our future you know that that I think it's important for us to encourage it and to um give the residents a chance to um you know to to consider both the trash and recycling as as equal sort of components uh so really um that's all I think it's important for the city to take a stand on this and in fact to encourage the the county to do more recycling rather than more and better rather than this thank you thank you sorry about [Music] that it's construction of [Music] something I I think the chief is going to ask them to stop if we can thank you sir appreciate you jumping into action if you could arrest them that would be great the man the man of action there yeah tell to give us tell them to give us an hour we hopefully we'll not be too long okay is there anyone else who'd like to come before this Commission on any item uh the floor is open for public remarks please come forward at this time do we have any other lists for public remarks no anyone online no no one's online great seeing No One in the Chamber no one online we will close public remarks and we will move on to the next item uh that is commission reports colleagues uh anything you'd like to share for the good order I have a just a brief statement because I missed the opening of the meeting anyone recognize yes sir I just wanted to share with everybody that I met with the chief yesterday I'm hoping to open up um our uh unhoused Outreach meetings that we hold monthly uh to the public and extend that to uh the commission as well I think if anybody did show up we might have to advertise that but um uh we do have those meetings once a month in the library and we're going to be opening it up to um residents and business owners be able to offer any help that they can and feedback and identifying any individuals things like that so um just to let everybody know that we are going to be opening those meetings up thank you sir anyone else like to share anything commiss what is the commission report yeah yeah recognized thank you mayor uh a couple things um at the um elderly facilities we we celebrated Father's Day with our grandpas um some of us went out there it was a really cool event um you know we we had uh Miami day fire rescue taking up temperatures and blood and cholesterol tests good music good food had a great time out there um so I think as we continue to move on as a city incorporate our communities and and they really do love us and and uh it was a really good time um secondly I had a meeting um last week with the underline and one of the things I've been working on is to continue to improve uh worker relations uh from our community with a lot of our vendors and contractors uh we have a lot of work going on in the city and it's going to continue and I really want uh the local the local community to really and going to the vice Mayors keep it kind of together with our own people so I'm really working on getting uh a lot of a sheet of employees of different work uh work sets whether it's supervisors inspectors uh electricians uh I I partnered up and there's pictures and there's a lot of marketing going to go start happening now but I would was there with M Daly with the contractors I'm going to be working with commissioner R L's office in Coconut Grove in the rest of the area so we can really build a pipeline and a single place where people can come in look for our people and really start hiring mentoring uh apprenticeships um so I'm pretty I'm pretty happy about the first meeting uh it turned out really well uh you'll guys see you'll see pictures coming soon so that was the underlying kind of project that I've been working on and lastly um just you know we we've been going back and forth in some of the boards and I want to give you guys an update on the unique abilities board uh We've added people from uh idea stage uh we have uh we have speech pathologists coming on board we have uh musical uh people coming on board and really what we're trying to do is build a community by themselves where they set their own goals uh achievements and commissioner Leman stated this earlier which I thought you know it was something that we we're working on so I appreciate the feedback uh but it's it's cool to take off and you see the Community really enjoy and they really want to be a part of it so I encourage the commission and and our staff to continue to work with these boards and and and cultivate them and encourage them to do more for our community because it it really is our uh an extension of what we want to do for the city so those are the three things I want to talk about today thank you yes M Vice May you're recognized one thing that commissioner Kaaya doesn't mention is at the Father's Day event he brought his son who helped serve meals and talk to people and just generally be a joy and I think that the seniors very happy to see that so thank you for kind of bringing your family in to making that happen and to the parks and recck team we keep hearing about these great events that the seniors are doing and we need to get credit where credit is due it's definitely 100% them and I'm thankful and I'm especially happy because they're very forward thinking last year at the Fourth of July event there was a tent for seniors and food and all of this stuff and we were like wow it's so hot we should have fans next year and it just occurred to me out of nowhere the other day and when I reached out they were like oh no we already we already did that and so I think we we sometimes spend time talking about the things we haven't done or should do but we don't spend enough time talking about how amazing our team is and so thank you very much to our parks and wck team and to Public Works which helps them put it all together thank you very very much for taking care of our Sen years the way that you do did through the manager one more I mean through the mayor yes sir you're recognized so well the other thing I wanted to talk about the community as well is that it was our mayor's birthday last week and the community themselves set up a little cake event and some food so it was cool how they give back to the mayor they think he's the most handsome One so whatever mayor happy birthday to the mayor and everything he's accomplished for for our community thank you thank you and I Echo the sentiments of the vice mayor um Kudos store staff on all the good work you guys do uh I just wanted to share very briefly if no one else had anything uh condolences uh to the family of George Green who was a a long serving employee of the city of South Miami uh over 44 years of service to our community I was privileged to go to uh the memorial service today and um I never think i' never had a chance to meet him but certainly learned a lot about him today and uh got to interact with his lovely wife Mart Deena another South Miami medine Connection was revealed to me at least today she's a medine native so we talked quite a bit about Columbia uh medine our sister City's program commissioner leedman so and it was wonderful just to hear uh of um George's selfless service particularly in comments by one of our own Randy who you know regaled us with quite a few stories about George and what a formidable voice he was as a member of uh our un Union the union and um and running the department and even after his retirement he's continued service to make sure that things continue to run well in South Miami uh among the things I'll quickly share was uh his pension to basically wear his old mechanics uniform after he was retired and go out on to Sunset that just randomly pick up to bre that was on the street um you know just someone who's very committed to our city and um who was sorely missed by his friends and family and I just wanted to make sure we were all aware of his service that the Community was aware of his service that we're grateful to him and that our prayers are with his family obviously in this very difficult time at some point we'll get a uh Mr manager I'd like to kind of connect with you and a couple members of the staff to see if there's something we can do to honor him more formally here as a city but but thank you for the few minutes of uh to honor George uh with that let's move on to a couple discussion items I think the first one is on his part in mosquitoes and I think M vice mayor that's your item would you like to share with us your thoughts sure and and I would be remiss if if I didn't mention this was not my idea I'm actually for lack of the nice way of putting it ripping off our former mayor mayor Stoddard who was I think very clever in how he dealt with mosquitoes and you know all kinds of pests I guess is the way I could put it we all as homeowners a while back received these little kits if we wanted them to help kind of Stave off the mosquito Invasion and they worked really really well and so I started thinking recently gosh you know we're not really doing anything and it's been so rainy you know I I always Gauge by how much rain there is is how many times I've had to like empty the water in the pool and it's been quite a bit and then we started hearing about D in the keys and in a part of South Florida somewhere and so we reached out to um Jeremy of Spartan and he is willing you know to to sell us like these massive amounts of it even though I don't know how but mayor Stoddard got it for free to him um and so I just wanted to kind of bring it to our attention because we have to do something um one of our city attorneys um Miss arango pointed out that the county also has a mosquito like department but having never seen them or even really heard of them I can't really speak to that but I think if nothing else we should look into what we can do whether it's the Spartan mosquito uh little things along with you know reaching out to the county and having them spray we we need to do something because doing nothing which is what we're doing right now is not working um anyone have questions to the vice mayor do you want to see I know that there's like a little video or something do you have that John so you can see well there there's someone in the audience that has his ear maybe we can get Phil starter to come back here and help us yeah right just maybe or you know I mean he might not I I haven't spoken to him about it I just didn't want to take credit for something that he's done I don't think that's right but we can look at the mosquito thing I mean if he's interested in talking about it I'm sure I do it all time there's a there's always a way to do that but I at least want us to start thinking about it like it's so simple [Music] [Music] it's that easy guys and it actually works I had them at my house it actually really works okay so so just a couple questions so this the idea would be for us to purchase these and distribute them to households mhm and do we have a sense of what the unit cost would be the unit cost of a pack of two tubes is $13 they could lower it to 1275 um and how many would you typically use in a in a typical house well if you look at the video actually showed you you like a regularized property uses two of them so each house unless it's a very large property does two of them maybe we start with reaching out to the county and seeing what they're doing and then seeing if if we can fit something like this in do we think this is the best I just wanted to bring something up because to come up and say hey we got mosquitoes I think is like redundant and to the manager and I guess our City attorney I know that you know other communities like the keys have mosquito districts I guess we've internalized that at the county where I forget what department actually does spraying or on a on on a Proactive or reactive basis I don't know if you guys have any information about how that service gets offered across the county Mr manager or should some light on that through momm County and public works and obviously uh calling 311 does help a lot of times when they get calls in and they log those that generates uh cost for service that they may uh and they have two types of operation one is uh Ground Control or the other one's aerial and so depending on you know certain areas you know they decide what what methodology to use obviously different than than what we're looking at here uh but that that's a uh their operation is either uh vehicle mounted Andor aerial spray but they only offer they only offer the aerial spraying correct I'm sorry they only offer spraying as a correct a local I spray okay correct I mean they they monitor counts because they have these traps throughout locations in the county and they monitor those traps and based on that is how they determine uh frequency of of spring uh but totally different than than obviously a commercial product that that residents May Avail themselves of yeah I just I the only thing that worries me with that is it's reactive so we'd be having to kind of reach out to our populace and say hey reach out to somebody else to get some mosquito relief I'm just trying to find ways of for us to be proactive further questions would would this be something we'd be able to do on like a lower scale considering the distribution model might be people coming to pick up or something like that you could just offer it and have people come and get it you could purchase a fewer amount of them see if it if it was a popular program or yeah I mean I I just rough math I mean the vice we're thinking along the same lines you know it's about $54,000 if we bought one for each household so I you know I don't know if that's an expense we want to incur or not um certainly you know um is there there might be you know maybe something we want to actually try to message out and see people feel there's a need for us to provide them or maybe there's just a way to possibly leverage our buying power to allow people to access this at a much lower cost than they would commercially and maybe not incur the entire cost ourselves but um I'm I'm open to any direction you want to give the manager on exploring this further I I mean I think it's certainly in many ways more attractive to me than the spraying right because it's the spraying has its own environmental other health issues that uh are attended to that as well so um I agree um maybe what we can do is we could as Miss Reed was so nice to point out we can reach out to Mayor Stoddard and see how many did we buy last time I don't know if we bought 40 if we got 4,200 of them maybe we start with you know 500 of them and see where we land do people reach out for them maybe we could put it on our website and on our social media and see if there's interest while we have those conversations does that work yeah I would also maybe see if the sponsor wants to donate a certain amount and match whatever we buy so we can for them it's probably as much a promotional opportunity as it is anything else so I mean that would be certainly be my suggestion okay duly noted so um do you want to kind of suggest uh Direction and we can all I think that I mean as far as the discussion item is concerned I think that we can reach out to Mayor Stoddard and see kind of where that conversation started we can also reach out to the vendor and see if if we can reach any kind of deal of buy one get one or even just get a discount on them and do a pilot of it okay Mr manager do you need any more formal Direction than that or is that fairly clear we'll do a a little more due diligence and then and come back with um um you know maybe some some some pricing uh Matrix or something that that we could share obviously given the amount it would have to come back to this commission regardless okay thank you thank you thank you mam vice mayor okay M2 if you could read that to the record please M mam clerk driveways and single family residential district okay so that it's just an item I wanted to bring forward for a quick discussion how John if you can share some pictures for me as I often walk my dog drive around the city I also have a picture and uh one of the trends that I know that's a little disturbing is um the amount of driveways that are being kind of torn up uh to replace with gravel in order to meet the impervious requirements uh I'm not particularly opposed to gravel but in many cases the conditions are this is just the front yard of a home that's uh actually adjacent to Bob W Park you probably might be familiar it's had a a substantial constr addition that was built on it uh it's a nice home uh others where they've added a gravel driveway if you move to the next picture the rest it's improved with traditional tile I'm I'm sorry Mr Mayor can we go back real quick yeah please go ahead yeah go back to yep yeah please is that a trailer that's a trailer in the front yard in a boat because they're actually doing construction at the rear of the property so I think they've moved it there temporarily it's my guess I kind have not seen it always there in the front when I I was walking but recently that was a condition about 6 months ago but you'll see here what's happened is the driveway has been torn out the asphalt and we're pared with gravel in sections um there are other sections of the city where in my our neighborhood commissioner lean you'll see the the driveways have been removed altogether and D has been left if you can go back one slide John this is a condition I think is fine where the gravel actually has a border on the edge of it that's not certainly something that's required today a lot of what I'm concerned about is the proliferation of gravel to kind of get around the imperious coverage requirements results in gravel being introduced into the rideway and and you have loose Rock and material you know in the street um not an ideal condition other cities require if you're going to use gravel it's permitted but it has to have an edge or a border uh there's a couple I think there's one example where it was done fairly nicely in my neighborhood recently with a new home keep going this is a a neighbor who I think wanted to add a pool to the rear of their yard in the neighborhood you can see there's a newly printed grass which is the footprint of their old asphalt driveway that led to their garage which no longer has any access from a driveway if you go forward one slide uh one more picture there's my dog Milo making a cameo there is the uh Remnant driveway now that's uh left so you know a lot of the asphalt was torn out I think to kind of get below the threshold even with what we've liberalized and you know again I appreciate that they want to make use of their backyard but I know that necessarily without some thoughtful planning is leaving the best condition at the front of the house which obviously impacts uh all the neighbors um I just wanted to highlight the the issue because I think we some thoughts required in how we kind of meet this challenge I think gravel can be a good solution it requires probably an Artful design in other locations I've seen across the city it's again spilling over into the right away I just like to make sure that we have some standards nothing too onerous give people plenty of options but at least uh some standards in our in our code to to deal with this kind of uh condition so there's um I think a draft ordinance that's been uh put together by staff I have not seen the current version but I think it hits most of the elements of what I'd like to see I think the the request today would be to refer that over to the planning board so they can discuss it and um and see if it makes its way to us with some final recommendations for possible adoption so if there are any questions I'm happy to take them that's the intent of today's discussion I have question yes mam vice mayor I always have questions I actually read this and I pulled out the survey of my house because I have a circular driveway in my home and I was like well does if I were to do my circular driveway today would I be able to do it and the answer is no I have a lot that it's you know 109 I think deep on one side and 116 wide on one side but I live on a corner so the front of my house is actually 91 and so even though I have all this space I wouldn't be able to do that so when we're doing this type of thing right now it shall be limited to one curb cut for 100 feet or less in lot width and two curb cuts for greater than 100 so I that's that's that's language I think staff has you know my intent was to deal with the driveway condition I'll give you one other one other standard that's there that for me was particularly important was the minimum width of the drive a u there was a condition in my neighborhood uh where a drive AIS was being proposed that was at points 4 and A2 ft wide where there was a curve in the uh Drive AIS around a tree so you can imagine that uh navigating that condition keeping the vehicle on the drive a was going to be impossible and it just there's some gaps in our standards today so I'm I'm again I would say to you that conditions like yours we I'm I'm open to having conversations about everything that's on that paper my my my ambition was two things one is I want to make sure that we had minimum Drive aisles that when cars are particularly navigating obstructions You're Expecting The Cars to stay on either the gravel path or the improved asphalt or any other path and then we're using gravel in particular because it seems to be more and more of a surface of people are incorporating I think for reasons that they want to get more and more out of their real estate in terms of uh you know impervious cover of course right that uh it's being applied in a way that's not you know spilling over into the street right so those were my two main motivations for proposing any of the legislation I don't want to take any ownership for that standard that you're referring okay yeah I just think that we need to look at what the realities are in the majority of our as Built Homes before we subscribe to this because if not I think we leave a lot of people my house that driveway is from 1957 yeah I know and I I certainly you know personally would speaking would love to see you be able to rebuild it improve it repair it if you need to exactly corre that would be my main concern because if you have maybe it's just a matter of grandfathering you know legally permitted driveways so that those standards don't apply to them okay but I'm certainly open to that conversation all right thanks yes sir you recognized thank you mayor I I support your concern while you go through this process just in my opinion a couple things to to be aware of is one is is gravel the only M motivation may not just be that it's pervious it's also economical and it's attractive I understand your concern is contain it and then personally right it doesn't look good to half and a half of anything but I happen to find gravel more attractive than the than the asphalt personally I don't disagree Aesthetics yeah I don't disagree I just think it's you know what what I'm seeing why someone would do that too you have to question it right I think they're just trying to get around the standard that was the limitation in activating the backyard and I and I you know again they're great people I have nothing against them trying to do that I just want to make sure that we have the rules to at least you know I think the application there I'd be much happier if it was just all gravel frankly with the appropriate edging right because I think gravel is a perfectly fine application that's sir commission guy yeah thank you mayor are we sure that the impervious the current previous calculations would impede on their current design I I that that one condition I highlighted that had the no longer a driveway to the garage I I don't I don't know I it certainly was done right before that was adopted what I figured but but there's but you know I will say the home that's near Bob wsh Park is a very large one that's being built and plenty of lot there that you know that's a big house big house I did speak to him and he was one of the reasons why I did that talking and knocking on doors when we did he was very adamant about it so that's one of the reasons that's one of the reasons why I started thinking about making that change if there's two things that he that bother that particular person was that in solar but um the current calculations if we did it today would have would have made his whole as well so um but again again I think I think the concern is you know people are using this application and let's just make sure it's done in a way that's tful and value creative not just to them but to the neighborhood so okay yeah further thoughts questions if not can I uh get a motion to refer this to the planning board for consideration I I will move it I'll second thank you my motion myself and it's second by the vice mayor um all in favor do we need to take a roll call Vote or how are we doing this I'm sorry madam clerk okay all in favor uh all in favor I I I I okay so uh the item is referred unanimously okay if we can uh if you can introduce M3 please modification of membership qualifications for The Unique abilities board to allow both residents and business owners of South shy is this your item yes it is okay if you want to go ahead and introduce it thank you mayor it's just a quick uh fix to the the literature that we uh on the uh legislation um we were very specific to Homegrown or South Miami residents I'm just adding correct me if I'm wrong city manager I mean City attorney we're adding that and uh and and businesses in the city of South man correct correct business owners business owners right correct okay that's all here any questions of uh the sponsor met VI no commiss leben no okay thank you um you want to make a motion uh well if it's okay with the commission I'd like to move the motion to make that change second okay a motion by commissioner K second by commissioner Corey uh Madam clerk uh I'm sorry anyone in opposition to the item okay show the item is referred unanimously uh if you can read um item four please sorry um yes sir maybe before we advance the City attorney called me earlier and mentioned that there would be one more discussion item is that there is yeah that that's going to be um I was just going to make the direction at before the close of the meeting but uh I'm happy to take it now if you want to discuss it so that's up to you and I'm going to if you'd like to um I'll excuse myself following or I can excuse myself uh now but I I did call the proprietor the the subject property following my conversation with the city okay attorney so let me just let's we'll take it out of order here really quickly um colleagues you recall last meeting we passed uh a resolution to authorize an RFP for L lb which is the parking lot just west of Sunset Place um over the last few days I was approached by the owner of the adjacent dry cleaning property um which we when I became aware of that was on the market uh spoke to their Council U their name his name was Josh Miller had a very pleasant conversation about their intention to sell um I think it would be value creative to the city and to them for us to consider pulling back on the RP for maybe 30 days uh with the idea of possibly seeing if we can jointly dispose of both properties together um and um you all may be aware that the adjoining property to the dry cleaner which is currently occupied by a pizza establishment and a Greek restaurant is also on the market for sale currently um my thought was and Mr lean I guess you've had some conversation with them are they interested possibly they're interested in selling still and what was your conversation if you could share uh well well certainly but I I you know should more specific I was referring to my conversation with the interior lot the interior lot that is the conversation I I had today okay and when I offered this idea to the commission I've mentioned that both of these properties were in fact in play or are on the market so um I'm going to post this what's 30 days um not only will both properties potentially be worth more but it would be a better project for the city um but when I spoke with the proprietor they said that they were they're just interested in recouping their initial cost I know if that's the price they paid or plus carrying right transaction costs um I asked that question they didn't specify what they said is they would be reluctant I know they approached us I know this is in conflict with the information you've received in writing should to go on but they said that they would be reticent to tie up the property because then it would be off the market and they couldn't accept any offers right they're just looking to break even and get out okay so I but it it won't but either way we have nothing to lose 30 days again I think the idea would be that you know uh as soon as we with a maximum of 30 days uh just try to engage them in some conversation see if we could formalize terms and put something out together I think it would make for a much better execution for the Redevelopment of all three Parcels uh to be done jointly as opposed to individually or whatnot um and if we can come to some understanding reissue the RFP with that Arrangement some arrangement that would bind all three of us to at least seeing that process through so if there's a a willingness to consider that I would just ask that we um direct staff to temporarily postpone the issues with the RFP and then maybe direct the City attorney to uh with the city manager to engage both property owners and begin discussing how we could move to issue a solicitation that would include both Parcels sorry yeah the idea I think the idea would be to see if we could just Market rather right now everyone's marketing the pieces individually right um I think that the sum of the parts is greater you know the whole is greater than the sum of the parts right before I I destroy another whatever we figure speech but um that's the intent behind this request is to pull back um and then I'd offer because relationship with the other two owners to to make that introduction to either you may or the City attorney I'm happy to have you have you have that make that connection for us okay through the mayor yes sir so I've spoken to them as well uh the owners of the establishments and we also got I got a letter of intent for the middle property saying what commissioner Leman saying so they're offerings for sale as well so there's two different opportunities here that we need to kind of investigate a little bit Yeah they they they they they my understanding was they were enlisting a broker to put it on the market um uh in the course of a few days the expectations demands dropped substantially uh that all said I'm not you know I'm not sure that we it's a piece I would particularly want to chire per se maybe not sure that's a conversation we were interested in having certainly if it is the will of this body to have that conversation we we we can have it um my thought was simply to approach them about marketing the pieces together through a formal solicitation uh the latter is much better than what what's been proposed so I agree okay okay so if if further questions I just want to clarify so that I have it right in my brain we have R square the drag cleaner and then the other two are jointly are owned by one owner so we're talking about One Two Three Laws correct what I'm understanding that you're proposing is to then possibly amend the RFP yeah but those purchases would be happening would be happening separate and outside of us correct so if they were going to be negotiating this RFP or putting in something for the RFP they would independently be giving you know a a bid or whatever on those other properties contingent on them getting our lot so I think you know again uh not to get too in the weeds here but I think we would have to they would probably have to communicate to us a minimum reserve price almost like an auction where they there's a minimum they have to get commiss lean alluded to what one of the property owners is looking for and then see how that would work out um in in this disposition scenario but we're not part of that process for those privately owned the idea would be I think the idea would be to come up with have to come up with a a mechanism for those the proceeds that would be bid for the entire of assemblage to be divvied up between the parties and I would imagine that it would have to in their mind result in a minimum amount of proceeds for them to be bound by any particular bid so let's just say you they that person the center thinks their lot is worth not less than $250 ents right if the proportionate um consideration offered by a bidder does not result in them getting $2.50 in total compensation for their piece they would not be bound to basically sell the piece right we could we could just we could consider a disposition in execution just in our piece at that point in time but at least it gives us the option for someone to come in and maybe make a bid that's attractive to everyone and meets everyone's minimum expectations you thank you yes yes just a couple things to that point which are obvious may not be all yeah the the uh the property would really be in play would would be the interior lot because you can't buy the ends right and do something without the interior piece that said the interior piece may have environmental issues City piece has direct access obviously larger there's the pizza place could argue has is exposure from US1 but not the way it's oriented depends on the direction um but then also we've and with this item maybe brought up cost recovery it would be our City attorney and I believe correct me if I'm wrong City attorneys but this would be outside work would they share the cost with us three ways so yeah I mean I think the respondents in any scenario where we have a bid the respondents would pay the cost recovery okay so I think you know um I would suggest to us so it wouldn't be the it wouldn't be would be the property owners it would be the respondents to the solicitation as we would right would get the benefit of the cost recovery Provisions in the document as well well but we would be risk because we'd have to pay the City attorney regardless of whether or not those owners accepted an offer or whether or not an offer came in I mean that's a it's a fair point and it's a it's a it's a risk that we got to discuss and whether it's worth taking or not but I think you know um these are very preliminary conversations again I just thought it would be worth turning the stone over and you know if we can't get to a point where people want to be reasonable able in a short amount of time we'll go out and do our own thing I think certainly I would say the center property owner has the most to gain from this conversation um certainly the other at bookend probably could trade well and do well enough um on its own but I think just the you know I think we had some anxiety on I know the side of the day about the solicitation uh because there is the possibility to do something larger better possibly in terms of an execution uh I didn't think that there was a willingness on the part of the owners to consider that it seems that there's an opening so I thought let's just have the conversation see where we end up okay all right so uh can I get a motion to direct the manager and the City attorney to approach the owners about a possible joint disposition I'll move the motion okay is there a second second okay pardon me mayor just so sir just so we're clear my understanding is these entities want to sell their properties yes so would we be talking about a sale of Lot B we would be talking about a S as we have it right now as a sale or a lease correct okay yeah I think at that point we would probably when it when the RP came back it would like it would be solely for the purposes of a sale understood yeah okay is is that up for discussion mayor because I'm not necessarily sure about the sale yet I mean there's still opportunities for a leas yeah so I think let me so I I'll just address that I think the the difficulty is want a timing on the part of the other owners so you know there you know my conversation certainly is the transaction for one of the owners was not one that evolved as they had hoped and so they definitely are trying to see how they can maximize the return I understand I don't know if they're interested in having a long-term leasehold interest um and again I I leave it to the City attorney to tell me whether we can have uh a leasehold interest with a private party or whether that violates the Florida Constitution in any way so um there there are there are questions of law that at least novel to me if not novel to other people that I don't understand it sorry just for the context of the conversation it's a maximum 50e lease of that site correct yes yeah that's correct yeah yeah we're good about but I would I would imagine it be commissioner Kai to your point or your question it probably we'd have to consider a disposition exclusively okay Mr manager Mr City attorney any questions I just a comment that depending on how this gets arrange just to be mindful that given the property and its prior use any issues I I don't I don't know uh if an assessment has been made of the property it could be environmental issues so just that we're mindful that we don't take on you know some of that no I think we we we're not in a position where we or nor do I want to be in a position where we are making ourselves responsible for any of the remediation costs M Tri that sit I want to be clear that the idea is if the AA have an expectation of a net number of proceeds if there are costs or there's a discount associated with the value because of the remediation it's attributed to their abortion exclusively so that would be my my preference I think the B of the board I agree with you mayor okay okay so we got a motion on a second um all in favor I I sorry I'm busy it's fine being mean to him here I okay yes okay so the item pass is 5 Z okay uh all right we need to speed this along so thank commissioner can watch soccer at 9:00 p.m. I know so let's go okay uh M4 please baring options and potential Bond okay so uh this is uh we've had some this is my item we've had some conversation about the possibility of uh a borrowing we've talked about it in a number of presentations the intent of this item would be to um direct uh the City attorney to bring forward a question for our consideration at the next meeting uh in a recommendation on an amount uh that could be placed before the voters um for their consideration in November at a at the general election any questions yes yes Madam vice mayor of course of course it's fine questions um one I was I was kind of surprised to see this as a discussion item because this obviously something that you must have been working on for a while so having it as a discussion item I think leaves it open-ended makes makes me a little bit nervous um makes me a little uncomfortable because I we're discussing something we have no idea what it is what it could include and we're leaving ourselves a very small period of time to have a discussion before we have to say yes to it at the next meeting so I let me let me kind of walk you through my mental timeline so I've had some conversation with the city attorney about this very issue um unfortunately for us to get anything on the November election uh ballot it's got to be submitted to the supervisor election by July 26th at noon okay so that leaves us a very small window uh we've had a couple conversations about this with this would do we bring forward the the question um and ask us to approve the language of a question specifically um we can continue to evolve the program I don't think it forecloses us from evolving a program that would be funded by this uh but but to the extent that we wanted to have that wrapped up completely before went to the voters in my mind we have another question that is kind of the precursor question to this unfortunately we can't wait to see the outcome of that question before we authorize this one because the timing won't allow for it but I have spoken to the City attorney if we wanted to withdraw this question because that other question fails right uh and so essentially it's kind of moot I would say not completely move but certainly you know much more difficult uh conversation to consider a borrowing under the existing rules uh that's certainly um something we can do and I would I would say by the same token if we were not comfortable with the program or had not arrived at understanding of a program that we want to fund uh via this authorization um you know we still have the ability to uh by you know late August uh possibly ask the that the item not be included on the ballot so Madam C attorney am I mistaken in my understanding or am I correct oh you're correct mayor it can be withdrawn timely okay so there we do have the ability to withdraw the item but we don't have the opportunity to present it unless we take some action now and are we going to be privy along the ride either via the city manager us having a sunshine meeting or discussions with the city attorney before this is actually on the agenda for the 18 14th 18th would be the idea yes so that we are before we have to vote on it vers comfortable and have had whatever discussion it is we need to have either as a group or with our counterparts so that when that does arrive that's not the point where we try to Hash it out so I I would say the language I'm assuming is going be pretty straightforward this is not as complicated a question as I'm and again to the city attorneys you can correct me if I'm if I'm misspeaking but you know probably be the same form question that you would have have for any go offering at any other City Yeah so basically mayor it it needs three components in the in the referendum question the maximum amount of the bond of the goo Bond the purpose for the bond to finance uh Capital Improvement programs are pretty specific the public purpose behind it and then we set out the maximum rate permitted by law so the question would have the amount the maximum amount and the purpose of of the program okay and will we be seeing that before we sit in these chairs in the next meeting so that if we have the Lang so I want to be clear the language of the bond the language of the question yes okay if you want to see I'm this is a question to you you want to see the the program we have had a couple presentations on the elements in terms of needs we can certainly have another conversation about what we would want to consider funding off that list yeah I think through use of proes like that yes I I think that that would be best just because that way then I think we're all agreeing to something that is concrete versus like an ephemeral kind of decision I I think not only us but the residents should know the thought process behind whatever that is yes May so one question add to that uh if there's something on the Capital Improvements or anything that was on the document that comes up for example we have the opportunity to acquire set asset that's not currently does that automatically eliminate that and I'll give you so I so I I just want to and again M City attorney correct me if I'm wrong but I think the Madam City attorney so the program can evolve right the program we're going to put down a series our best understanding what we would spend the money for we can do a categorically right we talked about that before and assign a dollar amount to that we can list specific projects right but that does not preclude this current commission or any future commission from making modifications to that program subject to public hearing right and I think enactment via ordinance correct am I recalling my yes as long as you it's within the program that's identified in the reference correct so so as long as as long as so for example we have Park Improvement a versus Park Improvement B so long as there's Park improvements that are authorized generally or up to a certain amount and we stay within those thresholds those parts are always interchangeable so again I you know thank you yeah yeah like the we we choose an amount and we choose a bucket correct if we want to do that or we can just say we choose an amount and here are all the things that we would spend it on right and what we may want to communicate to the public is our needs are this today this is what we the kinds of things we would spend it on right these are the kinds of things we would not spend it on but those priorities needs could change over time part part of the reason that I I I want to bring this forward now is that I don't intend to have us authorize a borrowing or issue a borrowing in 2025 obviously I don't think our financial position is such that we could afford to do that without raising taxes substantially but I think the the ability to show the ability to borrow right allows us to begin to show the ability to match dollars at the federal and state level and so that is I think the value of having the authorization issued today and again correct me if I'm wrong to my colleagues to the left the author iation does not expire right there's no expiration date on it we it expires when we when we've exhausted the authorization uh that's been approved by the voters so let's assume we want to borrow five bucks the day that we get to that $5 threshold then the authorization expire so it does give us the flexibility to match and we can decide collectively when we want to take dollars down what the right timing is based on what we can afford at that time thank you okay you're welcome further questions no uh have a comment mayor yes um if if we approve this as a commission and it goes out to the public for vote uh we should figure out how to best communicate that to our constituents so you know working in sunshine and really coming up with a plan so people really understand what we're trying to do communication to our constituents is not always the easiest uh so we really should work on that as well uh 100% agree yeah so okay um so I'd like to move move that we direct the City attorney to prepare uh language for consideration on the November 2024 ballot uh authorizing a potential bond for the city of South Miami um do you need us to provide you with Direction on the amount or can we rely on you to work with the city manager and his financial team to suggest an appropriate barrowing amount to bring back for consideration on the 18th assuming we the yeah I so just uh I would we can we can certainly work with the manager that's not a problem um we would probably advertise the largest amount uh that that that was even in the realm of possibility so let me so let me just give me a heart attack no no no so that so that so that you could you have the flexibility to reduce it exactly you have the flexibility to reduce it there's no question that you went over it so Madam vice mayor here's what I what I'd like to because I I did spend some time bothering Mr riveral on his vacation uh this week about this and so I think if you recall our presentation the maximum amount that we that our fa and he presented to us was 87 million do that's certainly not what I would like to suggest that we end up on just made my chest hurt you know you got a strong heart um I I would I would if we if you need a number I would like to suggest $65 million outer which is would be the outer limit right just to kind of give us a working number we can discuss whether that's the right number to land on if you guys I don't know what the pleasure of the board is with respect to a number I'm leaving this to you we could do get out of the 18th I think I think it'd be great to hear from Mr riverol on the Range he thinks what would be the most effective lowest and the most practical highest did he do that did he do that I think I feel like he did that but most effective low yeah we shared a we shared a scenario that that that had range just for purposes of this commission to understand what that would represent in in debt service on an annual basis um so um as the mayor mentioned the calculation was made by our financial advisor as to our debt capacity uh which was in the tune of of $87 million um so something in the order of magnitude of 50 million was about a $3.2 million Debt Service on an annual basis so if you're up to 65 million you're probably talking an order magnitude about $4 million Debt Service on an annual on an annual basis um we could um clean up the list that was provided May 7th uh because some things have been updated since we've been working on projects and we can clean up that list update some numbers and share that list again uh for your review as this item is being drafted and um and then we can meet with you individually as well to have that conversation so from uh to answer commissioner Corey on on that range we have provided that from a order of magnitude now that that also means means I think about 65 $65 million would equate to 1.4 of a mill but remember that we're retiring debt so we have debt that's going to come off our books here in the next about five years I think it's the first issuance that that we may retire and then some additional debt in another so and then we don't issue that all at once right these projects are scheduled through the life of Bom Bomb program so so you see some things come in at different times so has a little bit of a recap of the information that we provided May 7th but we'll update that list and share it and then any other the ideas that you may have that not may not be on that list certainly we can work on okay is it fair then to say that we should look to Mr riverol to give us his best yes no I stab at what the we could do without physical pain so uh that last part I I think I think what I would ask the managers to just recommend what they think is an appropriate authorization amount again um how much pain we can tolerate is not a question we have to decide with the adoption of this item because ultimately we've got to go come back uh even assuming the charter is changed in August we have to come back and by a majority vote to issue 60 Mr River no I understand so I what I what I've I mean I I I've had quite a bit of conversation with him um $87 million based on the presentation they made was kind of the outer limit of what they what we can we can authorized based on Charter and financial requirements uh statutory requirements and then we had scenarios of I think 35 and 50 million Mr manager that were in the that were in the presentations and and the commentary Debt Service so uh I just said let me go a little bit above what they presented so we're at 65 so we if we want to bring that number down further we have some room to talk I didn't think anybody would want to be in the realm of 87 Million by way of the outlier number um but again that's a number that when the discussion is had hopefully on this item we can try to rightsize that further okay and Mr Mayor th those calculations were made on a conservative 5% taxable value growth so this year we were a little bit over 6% um and we know there's some other projects coming online so that may be you know really conservative as it relates to a 5% growth um so I just predicate all those numbers were predicated on that taxable value growth okay look forward further questions on okay so like to move that we direct the City attorney to prepare um language for consideration by the voters in a referendum in November for the authorization of a general obligation Bond um I just say for purpose of advertising let's set the amount at $65 million and um unless someone wants to suggest 87 million um she's going to make me choke um and that would be the most motion is there a second there's a second okay so move by myself and second by commissioner Cay any further discussion okay I'm sure we're going to have planning on the 18th okay all in favor say I I I great uh motion carries okay uh along the same lines can you read item five please yes Charter Amendment $5,000 purchasing thres okay so colleagues as you know the manager has long want us to have the public consider a change to the Charter in terms of the procurement threshold which is currently at 5,00 000 um again the discussion is intended to basically result hopefully in direction to the city attorney to prepare language to allow for a modif modification of the procurement threshold Mr manager there an amount uh I know there's an amount youve recommended I believe there's also a recommendation recently from our budget and finance committee on this item if you could share it with us that would be appreciated so budget and finance had uh approached it from the standpoint of U allowing the legislation to let this commission set it uh uh from time to time and and and so to give that flexibility instead of having that fixed amount in a charter uh from our standpoint you see cities that are similar in size between a25 and $50,000 authorization for a manager from a spend standpoint uh so we would be looking at a number in that range we would be recommending a number in that range um if that's the will that we would you know kind of Define that a little bit more so I guess then the question for us is do we want to specify a threshold that would be memorializing the charter or do we want to reserve that to this commission or future commissions to set via ordinance as as a limit okay that's kind of the policy question we have to decide uh in addition to saying that we want to put this out for consideration any thoughts on whether we want to specify am out or Reserve that authority to the commission I I I feel like we've seen the issue of having a single number in the charter and how that impacts our ability to function so I'd prefer to leave it to the commission I second second agree that as well okay I think we're unanimous on that point so is there a motion to direct the City attorney to prepare about language for November I'll move it okay I'll second so again the motion would be to prepare the language with a reservation on the amount uh for determination by the city commission okay okay all in favor I I I as well okay motion passes unanimously okay uh we have two R three two resolutions an add-on and uh consent agenda item anyone want to move consent agenda item one after the clerk readon into the record I'll move it yep second after she reads it but there you go a resolution of the mayor and City Commission of the city of southa authorizing a city manager to issue a notice of intent to withdraw from the public risk management of Florida Insurance Pool okay uh I'll move the motion mayor second it give a motion by commission K second by the vice mayor Madam clerk if you can call the role please yes commissioner Cay yes commissioner Cory yes Vice Bon yes mayor Fernandez yes IEM passes Bo thank you if you can read item two please it's item two a resolution of the mayor City Commission of the C South Florida approving a proposal and project agreement with J&M engineering PC DBA M&J engineering to provide Design Services for the parking lot Improvement project at sou Park and amount not to receive 133,00 60 thank you for that any questions on the side of the manager no I do have questions uh Mr K commiss K you recognized have questions for the director you don't mind Mr director good evening good evening good evening quid um can you give us what the intent of the design like what is it that we're trying to do here yeah so uh a number of things the first is the um resurfacing restriping marking things like that for the parking lot um lighting is a very important U factor in this project as well there is currently no parking lot lighting there's a safety concern at the moment um so lighting would definitely improve the parking area directional signage um is part of this project um traffic caling devices as you you come in on 58th Avenue and you enter the park we did informally put some you know speed humps things like that but we want to make that a little bit more for formal so traffic caling devices um I'm asking that the consultant look into drainage improvements um doing their surveying seeing if there's any U drainage infrastructure that we need to take advantage of in this design study so that's included um accessibility upgrades if you look at the uh for example the ramps where you enter um into the playing field those two ramps um are not Ada accessible um signage regarding handicap accessibility things like that how people get out their car where they're parking at now there's curving that blocks their doors when they get out their car that make no sense so we're asking them to look into that aspect of the project um the entrance of the park is blah at the moment you know I want something that um draws people attention that really um opens people eyes up and really um you know makes the park look good as soon as you walk in so rather than that 10-ft fence when you're walking in some sort of Marquee um entrance gate um marker or whatever it may be as they come in and last but not least I'm asking the consultant or part of this project is to look at all the unofficial parking that's taking place in the park right now designating that as parking seeing where there's opportunities to EXP expand um the parking capacity but do it in a very formal and official way people are parking on you know the grassy areas they're parking along the fence I'm looking to see if we can make that more official we currently have 92 parking spaces there um if we take a very less aggressive approach we can go from 90 um to about 35 more parking spaces uh increase to 125 um if we take a very aggressive approach we can go 60 more parking spaces which will take it up to 150 so again all the informal parking that's currently taking place now I'm asking a consultant to look into making that official and um just redoing our entire parking lot to make it more safe accessible and usable thanks commission Cory you're recognized uh I was going to ask along with that entrance I know that the sidewalk currently ends as you approach the gate and there isn't a pedestrian entrance there is that part of the design plans to fi finish the sidewalk and create a pedest stream gate so I've asked him to look at all accessibility issues entering the park within that parking capacity and going onto the actual playing field so that will be a prer their work scope so that sidewalk that you're you're speaking of how we can make that more safer how do they get in Ingress egress things like that so that will be a part of their scope okay and this is a wish list item I mean I know no matter how much we increase the parking it's really like a behavioral problem I think on the most part like every kid that's there two parents come from different places from work to go and meet the kid there's two cars for every kid you know you're never going to have enough parking but um if we're doing this and there is any opportunity to work with the school for excess parking that would be amazing because again no matter what we do I mean I do want to optimize I do want to create more spaces we're not going to have enough parking there so anything if there is anything we could do from a design perspective to even prepare for sharing the space or talk to them about it that' be a great opportunity to do it since we're only going to have one shot when we when we redesign this understood we'll do um as you may not be aware of when we have games on Saturday soccer game tournaments things like that um we do use the school's parking lot so we have a pretty decent relationship with the principal and things like that so we've have used it on the past when you first come out 58th the teachers parking area I think it's like 15 spots um right there um then if you go further you know towards the there's the big parking lot that we used in the past um from our experience folks just don't like walking all the way I was going to suggest you I think you know my my to piggy back on commissioner Corey's Point uh Mr director I think the the opportunity would be to Envision where we would want to add parking that would be adjacent to our parking apron on their campus um I mean I think the physical plan that school should change over time likely will change and so if we can identify a way to integrate some part parking that would work well with our existing parking apron that could be shared parking for both facilities beyond what they have today that's on the east side that's not accessible that would be at least a good kind of visioning sub element to this whether it gets executed in the near term or not understood okay uh any further questions thank you for your presentation sir thank you okay uh can I get a motion on item two do we have one I move the item okay is there a second I'll second okay so motion by commissioner Corey a second by commissioner Cay Madam querk if you can call the role please commissioner C yes commissioner Cory yes yes mayor Fernandez yes IEM pass great um Madam clerk I skipped over and one do we need just have you read that into the record we don't need action on that do we no no action okay just notice if you can read it three please yes a res of the mayor City Commission of the city of South for approving the reduction of curbside recycling to bi-weekly pickup authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute an amendment to the interlocal agreement with Miami day County Department of solid waste management for curb side Recycling services thank you uh Madam clerk uh Madam Vice May believe this is your item if you'd like to introduce it yes we've had various discussions on the effectiveness of the recycling pickup how much is actually getting recycled are we seeing a benefit and is that benefit commensurate with the soaring cost the continuously soaring cost of having the additional recycling well recycling in general and you know to compound that the weekly recycling I'm proposing that we go back to every other week it just I don't see where the cost benefits us as residents I understand and and I I I do hear when people say well if you recycle every week you're more responsible about recycling I don't know that that's the case I think if you are an avid recycler you will recycle and if you're not you won't um but adding kind of insult to injury on a compounding scale when it comes to costs is not feasible in my eyes for our small City so I'm proposing that we go back to every other week pickup question of the vice mayor anyone um sorry mayor um vice mayor I app appreciate trying to be a little a little bit more coste efficient on on what we're doing but I think we're seeing overall problems throughout the county and through the nation with our garbage and the need for recycling I think that uh gray gray was here and she spoke really eloquent on on and it's really what I believe as well is that we need to encourage more recycling um by cutting it back one one one one day per week or once every two weeks it shows a message that we're not for that Stu stuff and I think that we need to be more Progressive and we need to continue to do that in my household and maybe I'm an outlier and I don't know that but from my personal opinion and pretty much anybody in my neighborhood uh recycling is a big thing my my recycling bin is full every week um IAL to the city manager he's like well you can always order another bin but I think that you'll see that a lot of people are recycling and it's continue to improve um I think we need to do a better job and we've had questions with our County to see how we continue to improve that marketing wise in in the city as well so I I would tell you that I on the contrary I think that we just need to have more people um Recycling and do a better job of communicating what's recyclable and how do we expand this so I'm going to vote no on that okay I just before we get into debate because I I have some questions and so let's let's just take questions and I'll recognize you to um okay address his comments that's okay perfect okay commission Cory did you have something you wanted to ask or make some comments on the item I I just want to make some comments I'm going to ask you to hold those for a second I have just want to follow up on some questions Mr manager what is the when is the term of our our current contract expire with this recycling company I'm GNA have to uh see if we John you remember exactly the end date we we had an extension the county U was going I I thought it was March of 2025 if that's yeah I have to double check cuz I just don't want to give you bad info the county was is going going through a uh resolation of this of this contract currently correct and and this item um is uh going to be going to committee I'm hearing pretty soon okay at the county and then commission um so they do it by zones um so uh we're kind of awaiting that and that that'll trigger a new contract uh but I because of that there were extensions provided and I don't remember the exact date so to either you or the director just in terms of that solicitation process do we anticipate it's going to close before our budget process concludes um I talked to the county they're supposed to go to the commission tomorrow not commission John just committee committee committee yeah it's not tomorrow I I it's going to go to committee I heard next week so go to commission got it yeah only they only I think they only have one County Commission meeting which is the 16th yeah uh of this month left so before they break in August so I I just I want to get a sense of the schedule because one you know again speaking to cost escalation right now it's moderately more expensive I just curious to see how much more expensive this could possibly get after that solicitation is completed so we we we we may or may not have an idea by September Mr manager Mr director about where that cost could end up on the recycling we will given what I was told as far as that timeline on the Tipping fees and things like that that's going to be a little bit later we have no we have no there's not that's not something we can opt in or out of we're in we're in that system either way but from a a budget stand point and populating that into our budget we may not know till September last time we didn't know till October unfortunately but again we can debate the merits of recycling or not just in terms of what we have to do Wast his position is a mandate recycling is kind of optional for us at least right okay um okay so so hopefully by the time we get back into our budget process we'll have at least some cost information on on on the recycling aspect of our Solid Waste program yes and there's also a 3% cap that to on the increase a 3% cap on the increase to households or on the increase under the contract the increase under the contract okay but that contract is expiring so is that is that cost cap continue I don't know the terms because it hasn't the item hasn't been uh made public yet um and it'll we'll get our hands on it quickly if it is going to go to committee next week then we'll get our hands on it pretty quickly probably by the end of the week potentially uh so we'll know what those new terms are okay uh if we can i' just like to get some information on what those terms are uh as we as kind of real time as we find out if we can Mr manager kind of get that to all of us I'd appreciate it uh on the same token um or by the same token have we gotten any information from this provider about what is actually happening with the items that are recycling and how if they're actually being recycled or diverted into uh our landfills the county had uh and we had the representative from the county here uh that discussed it and her statement was I don't but she's not with all due respect to that person she's not on and she's not aware of what's happening the solid way stream at least as I understand her position well it's their program so so they they're the ones that overseeing the pr I'm saying from the Department I I mean I that's honestly where I want to you know are you know Mr Reese's equivalent at the county who kind of oversees the handling of the wa stream I I that preser that person was a Derm employee if I'm not mistaken correct she is a solid waste employee in charge of the recycling program oh she is okay sorry I'm saying it was it was I'm mistaken I thought it was I thought it was someone on in another department I'm saying that that we we brought her purposely for that to hear from the county okay at that time her comment that day was everything that gets placed in a bin that is recyclable gets recycled the problem is a contamination right and so when it gets contaminated then you have the big drop off uh on what gets recycled right um You Give a number on that too I'm sorry you give a number yeah and it and different different places have different contamination rates right different cities and you that's part of an education process to educate folks to maybe not put things in that like plastic bags that'll uh impact contamination um so okay but I I I just want to let me just ask what I what I want to be and again if you can bring back some information again get them to reaffirm this the horror stories I hear is we put all our stuff in the bin it can be perfectly clean right set aside the contamination issue because I know that's a problem right but at the end of the day if there's no that there's no market for buying the the recycl the items being recycled right there's no market for the Plastics there's no market for the cardboard whatever is getting into that bin right ultimately is getting landfilled and so what I'm what I'm hoping to understand is yes it's being recycled maybe it's being sent to a seller or a buyer who's buying it in bulk and paying the county Pennies on the dollar for that trash and making you know a 10% markup but they're only selling 15% of that entire waste all and then they're just disposing of the the rest to keep to make their profit so what I want to understand is really what's happening down the line not just when they sell it to a third party but is it really you know you see get sent to China overseas or the Philippines you see all sorts of stories in the news about you know stuff getting washed up on on shores there I mean for a long time it feels like recycling the US was basically offshoring our waste right as opposed to landfilling it domestically I just want to understand because again I I I want to encourage recycling but I want to do it with my eyes open and because it also the other educational part is not just how we dispose of it but understanding what we buy as consumers creates a market for that stuff so they can get reused right uh so I just want to make sure that I'm being you know a responsible public servant and advocate in that regard and Beyond informing people how to do it correctly also how to buy correctly so that we actually are creating the market maret right in our own procurement practices we talk to Mr KCK about I mean I know that at the state level you know there was was not a real strong market for glass products but a lot of the glass aggregate was being used in actually as uh part of the roadway aggregate for repaving and so the state was doing some things on that front to kind of encourage the ReUse of glass um again lots of I don't I'm not a I'm not an expert in any of this information but I do want to just get a window into what's happening on the back end um uh and and so I would ask with for the benefit of that information Madam vice mayor my my preference on this item would be for us to kind of give staff the time to get a sense of where we're going to be from a contract perspective here under the new provider whoever that is whether it's Coastal who's doing the work today or whoever else the county selects so we have a full cost picture going forward we're not just looking at the I think it's a 50,000 differential today and maybe get some more information about what's actually happening with that waste as opposed to taking action to make this decision today I okay I hear you I do not disagree but I I would rather I would also like to know now if there's any price point where we step away from the ideology and step into the practicality if the answer is I don't care how much it costs us raise our taxes don't raise our taxes take it away from the plant I I whatever it is if if we're not willing to make that decision then I don't feel that it is fair to our staff to ask them to do the leg work if we're going to sit on I don't care I'm going to recycle every week anyway you know what I mean so I I I'd like to know kind of how commissioner Corey and commissioner Kaa feel about it because I don't want to waste our staff's time more any more of their time you know what I mean yes go ahead Mr commissioner Cory so if we if we were to discover that none of our recycling is actually being recycled I think the board and it its very practical mindset would would would not want to continue into recycling program if it became cost prohibitive where we were paying just very very excessive amounts we could consider something like that I've actually um reached out to the city as well and I might try to get a little bit more detail on this but I was even considering the idea of maybe bringing that in house right now we can't really see much on our own metrics on how we were cycle um I spoke with Public Works they said they might not even need to buy a new truck they would just have to maybe get two new people to staff we would actually be able to potentially collect their own recycling um measure that collection maybe even measure the contamination maybe get better at recycling than the county I know parts of Broward have like 10% contamination rates what what I what I wouldn't want to do necessarily what a concerns me here is obviously you have the $50,000 cost saving some of that's a cost transfer because people will throw more Trash Away which will go into tipping fees so it's not a perfect 50,000 of course that could go up in October it's a it's a consideration we're all M we're all uh considering but if we do put more pressure on the landfills it is going to push up the Tipping fees much quicker um we know that landfills are the the third highest greenhouse gas emitter after fossil fuels and farming so it's just a it is a real concern I think and our city definitely has a a green mentality a green forward mentality so um I do think that we'll try to hold on to recycling but maybe there's a smarter way for us to do that and that's what I always love about you bringing these items forward is maybe we can find a smarter way to do it because I don't think anybody in the county is even pleased with with how waste management is going right now and we as a city if we have the ability to to to do it better smarter you know that's really what our residents are looking for that's why we're Incorporated so um just the thought commiss G yeah just real quickly to add to that I've met three or four companies just in the last six months that have we' been I've been doing a lot of tech Summits and a lot of things like that there's a big push in this world for manufacturing to recycle a lot of the products that being recycled they add some type of residence that converted for tires for different materials so it's continuing to evolve obviously it's really Capital intensive and it's going to take a while to get there but it's moving so I I just address your comment um so I would encourage you guys to read a book called the end of the Earth okay it's not uh it's not in the particular section light read it's not a light read I read it that's it's an audio book I I listen to on a long drive home from Tallahassee and what I will tell you is the most cynical part about recycling in some ways is that it's an invention of the American P petle manufacturers Association right because they quickly realized when they were going to create a consumer culture around discard you know know disposable items they thought people might one day wake up and say where where's all this trash going right and so you know my my concern is I I want to encourage a culture of reuse right it's one of the three Rs but I also want to be going Eyes Wide Open that it's not something that's going to happen unless we're intentional about it and so to the extent that we as a small City can begin to understand what's actually happening with our W stream and shed some light on it whether we choose to spend the incremental $50,000 to try to make those practices more effective and better it's a choice we have to make but I don't want to make I don't want to make that decision without understanding what's actually happening because I again my my general default is let's we shouldn't be encouraging more recycling but I'm not so naive as to say that there's not a world where you know for uh producers of plastic items the profits in in creating new plastic items is much higher than any profits that may exist in recycling or creating recyclable plastic items so so um hopefully that addresses your your concern I I think it's great that you say that because I I think fortunately for a lot of us we're idealistic about Recycling and your comment shows at least that you have listened to the Audi book that tells you the reality of what I've heard from people in that industry so let's figure out if it's I just want to figure out if it's really a fairy tale or if there's really something we can do there to make this something that's viable for our society so anyhow so when are we so yeah we're not going to get that answers from asking anybody on our staff to go do that right like you you don't get those answers from that because they're going to be fed from the same place what I've seen other Commissioners in the county do and maybe we should do ourselves is really do a tour uh I saw commission I but we don't we don't the problem with the tour commissioner Guai is you don't see we see what we see the collection process we see how it's processed we don't see where it's sold and where it's sold whether that's actually put into a process where it's reused or where it's actually just discarded by that third party right and so I think that's where we're going to understand what's really happening in this process it's not that that I I I take the comments of our colleague at the county on their face that you know everything they're collecting they're selling to a recycling vendor who who believes there's a market but the truth is is there really a market you know once it's sold to that person or are we just really just redirecting the waste so you know look I there this is an incredibly I mean again I don't I don't we're living a moment in our County where how we handle our trash and our waste um is of the of Paramount importance right to our little region of the world's continued growth and evolution and you know if look if we can help create a window into how what is happening or what is not happening I say we take full advantage of it and I know it's an imposition out of our staff but you know we were last year talking about IGM and all growth in this County if we can't figure out where we dispose our waste right that's the kind of um related impacts uh that this issue has on our ability to kind of grow um as as a city as a as a County so I you know I for one would love to figure out what's happening uh we have we're in a position where we're privileged to ask these questions and you know I I'd like to ask them and see what answers come back all right okay so uh would be would you have any objection to tabling this item and bringing it back uh in the context of our first budget hearing with information from the uh city manager on the Lin that we've requested that works okay so I i' move to table this item until what would be our first budget hearing Madam Clark first hearing is Tuesday September 3rd September 3rd because I'd move to table ass items to September 3rd and have it come back on to the end of that point in time for some further discussion perfect okay would you second that yes okay so a motion to Second any objection to tabling the item till September 3rd no May no hearing none we'll move it till the September 3rd agenda okay anything else for the good of the order colleagues nope okay see no further business before this commission add add-on item the add-on item oh thank you yes yeah see uh we have a resolution to move our meeting from July 16th to July 18th any concerns about that request I'll move the motion move a motion by commissioner Cay I'll second a second by the vice mayor Madame clerk do you need a roll call Vote Yes okay please go ahead yes Cory yes Bon yes mayor Fernandez yes IEM pass great can see no further business before this commission we'll stand adjourn thank you e for