City Commission - Regular Meeting

Miami Dade.

Mr. Clerk. Mr. Clerk, you ready? You ready? Or seems that we got We're down here. All right, we're we're on. this way. No, not coming.

Mr. Mayor, we're on. No, I'm talking into it and nothing. You can't hear me in the Mr. Mayor, can you speak? You ready? Not yet. Not coming. I think we're ready. We're ready. We're ready. We're ready. No, you can't hear me in the chambers.

Can you hear me? Can you Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? No, you still can't hear me in the chambers. Still can't hear me in the chambers. Testing testing one. Testing testing. Testing here. Everything will be working in two and a half years.

It's been 98 years. I was impressed with the tournament.

Test testing one to three. Testing one to three. Audio check. Audio check. Testing one to three.

Testing. Mr. Clerk. Yes, sir. Ready? We're ready. All right. Uh, good morning. I'd like to have ask everyone to please take their seats. Welcome to the Tuesday, February 24, 2026 commission meeting. Sorry we're starting a few minutes late. We have some technical difficulties. As I mentioned to everyone when we start these meetings, this is an opportunity for people to speak freely on issues that are meeting with our city and our community. Please engage either in person, multiple different opportunities via the phone, Zoom, and get in contact uh through email with the clerk or with one of us. But there's multiple reasonable opportunities for people to engage and enjoy our democracy, our blessed democracy. So, with that being said, I'd like to or I'd like to request uh for Reverend Timothy Fleck from St. Thomas Episcopal Parish to please join us. Reverend, thank you for being here again with us. It's always an honor to have you. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, staff. I bring you greetings from St. Thomas Episcopal and the South Gables. The Lord be with you.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, in your word, you have given us a vision of the holy city to which the nations of the world come to know you. Bless and challenge Coral Gables and every city of the earth. Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life. Give us honest and able leaders and protect those who serve. Give us grace to take seriously the dangers of division and strife. Take away all incivility and disrespect and anything else which impedes the work we owe our citizens. Enable us to eliminate poverty, prejudice, and oppression so that our city may flourish in peace and concord so that we may live in harmony and justice and so that we may enjoy and share the gifts you have given us. In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Reverend, thank you very much for joining us this morning. Uh we send our best wishes to you and to your congregation and worshippers on behalf of the city beautiful. We're honored to have you here. Thank you. We have changed things up a little bit. This is the second time that we do it. But we continue a new tradition here at the city commission meeting where we are proud to once welcome once again welcome one of our team members who is a veteran to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. This morning we're honored to welcome Maria Muras, a lieutenant in the United States Navy and a valued member of our team. Lieutenant Muras served nearly eight years as a Navy nuclear submarine engineer stationed in San Diego, where she applied advanced mathematics to solve complex reactor challenges in high pressure environments. Guided by the Navy's core values of honor, courage, and commitment, she takes pride in leading with integrity. Since joining the city beautiful in 2024, Marott has continued that commitment to public service as the administrative and fiscal affairs manager for our parking, sustainability, and mobility department. Thank you for your service to our country and for continuing that service here in Coral Gables. I now invite you to please lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please join us

to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Ma'am, will you please join us one second at the podium? I while I read a brief bio, will you tell us a little bit about your time of service in eight years and also your time here in the city beautiful? Thank you very much for joining us this morning. Thank you, sir. The floor is yours.

So, I just wanted to add on to what the uh mayor said. I just been proud to continue my service to the community and to this beautiful city and just move it forward with all the good projects that we have going on mostly with Monica leading our parking department. Thank you, sir. Where are you originally from? Cuba. What? You were born in Cuba. Yes, sir. How many years have you been in the greatest country in the world, the United States of America? 16 years. 16 years. So imagine you come you come to this great country and you serve in the armed forces for eight years and now you join us here in the city of beautiful. That is correct. Now you understand why I say this is the greatest country in the world, right? Yes, sir.

We're honored to have you. It's truly a privilege and you've made my day by being here. Your story is an amazing story and it's a story that again makes us all incredibly proud. Thank you, sir. God bless you, my friend. You're the mayor. Yes, sir. Good morning. I'm so impressed with what the mayor read about your accomplishments and that you've done that at least um in a very short time that you've been I'm thinking in the United States. Can I just ask you a silly question? What is the highest level of math that you completed in school? What what would that be? Because I don't even know what that would be called. So, uh I would say probably real analysis. I didn't take that class. I didn't take that class. absent that day and I studied a

analysis a real I didn't I I didn't take that. Congratulations to you. That's really impressive and thank you for your service and for what you're doing with

Thank God. Thank God you're on our side. Thank God. Uh like we say about Ray Mundo who's I don't know if he's here but thank god he's on our side along with all our incredible staff. Mr. Manager, I'd like to with the with the um with the approval of the commission. I'd like to uh every every two weeks when we have a commission meeting and we honor and we honor uh one of our incredible employees who have served in the armed forces and thank you to Martha Bing for coming up with this great idea. Um I'd like to host host this on our website and I'd like to send this out in an e- news uh with a little bit of a background of who this individual is. maybe, you know, we take a photo together, whatever that may be, because I think it's worthwhile highlighting, you know, the the level the level of employees that we have here and the dedication to not only this great city, but also this great country. So, I'd like to put that out there. My colleagues would would uh indulge me with that request.

Mayor, happy to do so. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um just a suggestion, maybe we can include a brief bio in the agenda um when they're going to be doing the uh the pledge of allegiance. Uh because I think that's a place where we can most highlight it. People are always looking at the agenda to see what's coming up. I think it'd be great for them to read who's going to be doing the pledge of allegiance and if they want to be present to thank that person for their service, they can. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Uh moving on to the American moment. Good to see you over the TV. Thank you for being here with us.

Thank you. I'm going to actually take two points of personal privilege today. I stand in front of you as I always do on Tuesdays with my um Coconut Grove Crisis Food Pantry t-shirt. Um and I just wanted to mention that we lost um the the Bohemian community lost one of its most wonderful leaders in Thelma Gibson uh recently. And um I wanted to mention that her funeral is this Friday the 27th at Christ Episcopal Church. Uh the bishop will be there and um it's it's a great loss for our community. So um the Merrick Minute, the Merrick House governing board brings you the Merrick Minute little tidbits that add up to a remarkable story. The governing board consists of Genevieve our chair Mary Beth Burke, Alexis Arinhaft, Carmen Kasein, Christina Onaten, Susan Rodriguez, and Bonnie Sight. Today, more from Arva's eyes. She speaks of George's youngest brother, Richard, and of George's short story series, Men of the Magical Isles, where he speaks of the Bohemian Way Showers. Everything came together after Richard Merrick's widow, Mildred, a former M research librarian, offered me a great gift. She had become the caretaker of a cache of original Merrick papers. For more than two years, we met at least once a week, carefully organizing the material for donation to the M library special collections, and we can all go there today and see these wonderful papers. Even though I have been studying Coral Gables for many years, much of the material was new to me. included. It was a series of unpublished short stories that George had written. Because of my knowledge of Miami history, I immediately realized the stories were autobiographical, not fiction. After further research, I was able to document the events he described, thus making the stories a unique primary source. My

first order of business was to study George's family heritage and how it helped define him. I discovered that many of his ancestors had pioneer experiences in untamed lands and as a result were not afraid to take chances or to make change. I even found remarkable similarities between their stories and his. His parents and grandparents shared their past and taught him to be proud of his heritage and carry it forward in a positive way. So, as always, come for more of the story. Weekends at 1, 2, and 3 o'clock at the Mer House. And I should mention our third vintage market will take place on the lawn with more vendors than ever on Saturday, March 14th. And now for my second moment of personal privilege. Um, Clerkia uh suggested that I would be able to show this today. We had a pretty neat little event happen last night. I'm a volunteer at Pelican Harbor Seabird Station and this is a rescue, rehab, and uh release facility that's currently up on 79th Street Causeway at um the the W's edge. Um in its 40y year history, it has served over uh or or treated over 47,000 animals. These are national um uh um uh native birds and small mammals. Um so we're going to And you're seeing it now, the wonderful release of this barn owl that was rescued um due to um well our the help of our fire department in Coral Gables. This is at the Coral Gables um tennis center at the Granada Golf Course. And um this barn owl was stuck in the top of a a dead palm tree where um the nest was for his family and um he was his body was hanging and the

um crows were already pecking at his body. Um, a neighbor found uh this bird and um fire rescue was called because they needed a a bucket uh contraption to be able to get up and get this bird. But after only two weeks at Pelican Harbor, he or she, we're not sure which, was able to um uh be rehabilitated and it was such a wonderful proud moment and we had a lot of people out there to watch it yesterday. So, the CEO Khloe Chels of uh Pelican Harbor will be making a presentation about the wonderful work that Pelican Harbor does. And um the city of Coral Gables being an arbor uh a um city of of many trees, of course, you can imagine that a lot of birds go to Pelican Harbor. So, we're hoping that we'll be able to partner with Pelican Harbor in the future. And she'll be making a presentation at the May 19th commission meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. So, just two points. Uh Joanne brought this uh forward to my office in regards to having this conversation on on the das. I said it's a great idea. Uh we want to promote as much as possible Pelican Harbor and the work that they do. I wasn't able to attend last night, but I know that my staff went and they enjoyed it. Uh it was amazing. Uh and we'll be sharing it later on social media. Uh it's an amazing thing that was done yesterday. So, thank you for spreading the good news and you know, we need a lot more good news like this. So, thank you. Thank you for your hard work. Certainly. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Presentations and protocol documents. Item A1, a presentation of a certificate of condolence to the Bereie family of Thelma Gibson. So I put this on the agenda. Please join us. So, I put this on the agenda um after hearing the news of the passing of Thelma Gibson, an individual who I had a lot of respect for and continue to obviously have a lot of respect for. And I'd like to read the resolution of condolence onto the record. I'm going to use it read off a paper because it's a little small print. Whereas Thelma Gibson embodied the highest ideals of service to community and dedication to others, demonstrating throughout her remarkable 99 years and unwavering commitment to healthcare, civil rights, and community development. And whereas Dama pioneered her pathways in nursing despite facing segregation on the at the onset of her career, becoming the first African-American assistant supervisor at the Miami Day County Department of Health and dedicating over three decades to caring those in need. And whereas together with her husband, the Reverend Theodore Gibson, Thelma championed desegregation and fought tirelessly for infrastructure improvements in historically black neighborhoods, demonstrating that partnership in marriage and partnership and purpose can transform communities. And whereas upon retiring from nursing in 1980, Thelma expanded her civic impact by establishing the Theodore Gibson Memorial Fund in 1983, creating the Gibson Plaza Community and Educational Center and supporting youth STEM initiatives that continue to inspire future generations. She also founded Miami Day County's first Women's Chamber of Commerce, opening doors for business women and demonstrating that economic empowerment strengthens entire communities. And whereas through her work with the Coconut Grove Local Development Corporation, she championed affordable housing and created youth programs that transformed neighborhoods and challenged their lives. Whereas

Thelma Thelma's devotion to Christ Episcopal Church and her deep faith guided her aspect of her service, reminding us that true leadership flows from a heart devoted to something greater than oneself. Now therefore be resolved by the commission of the city of Coral Gables, Florida, that we extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Thelma Gibson, honoring her lasting contributions and recognizing a legacy that will be remembered with gratitude, respect, and admiration for her service, compassion, and transformative leadership. Thank you very much. I had the privilege of getting to know uh Miss Gibson uh due to a very close friend of mine uh Mayor Francis Suarez who one day invited me to an event uh that was happening in Coconut Grove and and I said listen I'm really busy because I want to meet I want you to meet somebody. This is about 10 years ago. Uh she's a powerhouse softspoken. When he told me who it was, I said I'm dying to meet her. I'm dying to get to know an individual who is probably one of the most soft spoken individuals. Tell me if I'm wrong. I mean maybe maybe She was different in private, but in public she was incredibly softspoken, but one of the most respected individuals I've ever been around. Um, she was transformational and she did an amazing job and she immediately took a liking to me and, you know, it was an honor of a lifetime to get to meet her and get to know her and be inspired by her. So, I just wanted to take the opportunity to invite the family and friends who are here who are going to speak a little bit about Miss Gibson. Uh, so that her legacy her legacy is going to be remembered. She's everywhere. Uh and it's not about naming of buildings or facilities or organizations or legislation or letters of condolence. It's about all the young men and women who have passed through uh Thelma Gibson's hands in one form or another. And one of the things that I remember speaking to her speaking to her one day about was we were talking about the black community and uh the pride that we have of the members of our

community here in in Colossals McFarland Golden Gate. And she told me, you know, you need to understand that this is not about the black community. And I said, talk to me a little bit more. What is it about? She goes, Vince, it's not about the Cuban community, Hispanic community, Asian community. It's about our community. and we better figure this out because at the end of the day, I'm not going anywhere. You're not going anywhere and we're better together. And that was a message that she reiterated over and over and it was just a natural message. And I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you uh and to continue to push forward her legacy and allow you a few moments to please talk a little bit about Thelma and all the work that she's done in this community. Thank you for being here. Thank you everyone. I am standing here for number one number two. Your number

eight and your number don't matter.

Thank you. Well, well, I am the oldest and to the city of Carl Gable, city commission, the mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, and staff. We the family are so honored that at a time like this you think of us. My aunt Elma Gibson to you all was one of the hardest working person for the good of the people. Not just us, but everyone of every color. Wherever you walked, wherever you went into a job, wherever you were in Miami and across the US, California have called, all over. She believed in helping everyone. And it didn't matter where you were on the tree, how high or how low. If you needed help, we were going to help you. If you needed to be straightened out quietly as you think, um, she had us. She would tell us when we were wrong. And I don't think she was too far in not doing that when she was on board meeting of boards and

commissioner after um Father Gibson. She was real. And to tell us what you know about her and what we know about her is almost the same but a little different with us. She believed in education. She believed in loving your neighbor. If you fell, she lift you up. She would smile at you. She would tell us to do better. Walk better. Be kinder. Be a little far. Go a little further. Know a little bit. If you have to speak, know somebody. Smile at someone. And for all of you to honor her and give your condolences to us, we thank you. We thank you and we love you and we are all coming in from all over to be here to say thank you.

Thank you. And for the future, if you ever need us, we still here. We don't know how long, but we're still here to do the things that we need to do to help and to be better. Thank you again. Thank you.

Um, as number eight, niece, I just want to add one little thing. Um, for those of you who don't understand how much you've impacted her. As we're going through her things, I want you to know she saved everything. If you gave her a picture of your child, of yourself, of a wedding, she saved it. If you sent her invitation to something, she not only saved it, but she wrote on it when she received it. when she called to RSVP, she saved it. And these are the things that we are cataloging and going through and it's just like you said, it transcends every demographic you can think of as we're going through these items and some of the things we're like, you know, you know this person. And we're like, it must have been important for her to have saved it. Articles, she saved it. So, she was very much a community person for all demographics. So, I just wanted to let you know that if you sent her something, we got it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Let's take a quick photo. Please, will you honor me with a photo of the commission? Let's go over here. There you go. Moving on to item A2, a presentation or proclamation declaring February 24, 2026 as Tumblebee's gymnastics day in Coral Gables. Come on up. So, I'm going to read this and I I wanted to put this on the agenda. I put this on the agenda uh because I'm really proud of these young ladies. Look at this. And when I think you hear a little bit about what these young ladies have accomplished in representation of the city, beautiful in the middle of the Olympics, you think we

have a you have some future Olympians here in front of you. So, I'm going to read this very quickly and to the record. Whereas Tumblebee's gymnastics, Coral Gables, is one of the largest and most successful gymnastics schools in South Florida, dedicated to developing the physical and mental strength of our youth. And whereas at the 2025 state championship held in April at the Broward County Convention Center, Tumblebee's gymnastics gave us achieved an extraordinary feat by producing more gold medalists than any other gym in the state of Florida. with 29 athletes earning gold medals. Whereas this remarkable accomplishment is even more impressive considering that almost 100 gyms competed in the state championship, demonstrating the exceptional quality of training and dedication present at Tumblebee's gymnastics coral gables. And whereas these talented gymnasts, aged 5 to 16, train with unwavering commitment at the Coral Gables Youth Center, six days a week, demonstrating grace, poise, and composure under pressure. And whereas during this competitive season, a score of a perfect 10, 10.0 was awarded six was awarded 16 times combined amongst all four events. vault, balance beam, uneven bars, and floor exercise. And whereas under the dedicated leadership of the gym owners and the expert guidance of their coaches, this program has created an environment that fosters excellence and is deeply committed to the health and fitness of our community's youth. And whereas gymnastics requires not only strength and flexibility, but also focus, courage, and perseverance. Qualities that inspire our entire

community and reflect on the character we celebrate here in Coral Gables. Whereas through their unwavering commitment, this talented group of athletes represents the very best of the city's values. Hard work, integrity, teamwork, and the pursuit of excellence, making their achievements worthy of recognition for their passion, efforts, and positive impact on our community both locally and at the state level. Now therefore, I Vince Lago, as the mayor of the city of Coral Gables, on behalf of the city commission, do hereby proclaim February 202 24th, 2026 as Tumblebee's gymnastics day in Coral Gables. Congratulations.

Good morning.

Good morning. I want to begin by saying thank you to the mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners for this incredible recognition. It is truly an honor for us to serve the city. We feel has supported us in bringing a sport that we love so much to this community. We are deeply privileged to work with children every single day. While we are proud of our championships and our gold medals that we've earned over the past five years, we are deeply what matters most to us is what these children are becoming today. Through gymnastics, they learn discipline, resilience, and confidence. They learn how to push through fear. They learn how to fall down, and they learn how to get back up. They learn how to believe in themselves even when something feels impossible. And that itself is a victory for us. We are not just building athletes. We are helping shape strong, determined young people who will carry these lessons with them for life. As lifelong residents of Carl Gables, this is very meaningful for us. The youth center holds a very special place in our hearts. It's where Jenny and I trained as gymnasts in the original facility. We then began coaching in our careers in the new facility and I'm extremely proud to have been a part of designing and creating the new facility gymnastics center the city offers today. To stand here now and to give back to the community that helped shaped us something is very special for us. I'm sorry is something that we will never take for granted. I want to say thank you to our amazing staff who we would never be able to accomplish what we have accomplished without them. Our office manager Dena and our head coach Nicole has bring such

recognition to the city to Tumblebees and to the sport of gymnastics. We also want to give a great thanks and appreciation to our families that have cheered us, joined us, to the girls that work hard and practice and dedicate themselves to the sport of gymnastics to always striving to be the best that they can be. We thank you for believing in us. We thank you for supporting youth gymnastics and youth sports. And we thank you for allowing us the privilege of helping raise the next generation that the city will the next generation in the city that we are proud to call home. These girls will shine for us one day. As always, we will do the best that we can do and be the best that we can be. Thank you very much for this honor. It is greatly appreciated by us, by our families, and by our gymnasts. I also want to let everybody know that we had an outstanding weekend competing. We scored 10 perfect tens. And as you can see, we have a host of gymnasts wearing medals that we and they are quite proud of. So, thank you for the opportunity and we continue to want to build and strive the best gymnastics program we can for the city.

Thank you. Jenny, want to say anything please? Just to add to what Andy said, um she already mentioned it, but I started my gymnastics career here at the youth center. My parents put me in before the construction of the new building and that's where I started as a child and I came back years after the construction to do service hours under Andy. Um I would say a couple years later became an owner and it feels very good to be back home in this city. I have been a resident of the city since I was born and Coral Gables is my home. We passed by a shop on Marco Mayo that had a bag that said Gables girl on it and I bought one for me. I bought one for my sister and it felt great because we have been, you know, part of the Gables for our whole life. And it feels good to bring a sport that I love so much to this city. And what we're doing for the kids goes beyond the medals like Andy said. So, I'm happy to um be able to provide that for the city and I thank you guys for the opportunity. And I just want to say gymnast salute.

Oh, you took the words. You took the words away from me. I was going to say it. So, I'm very proud of all of you ladies. Uh and also of the work that Jenny does. Uh you're my neighbor. You're a person who I have a lot of respect for. uh you you produce an amazing team uh and it shines a really positive light on the city and I want to thank you uh for not only being my good friend but also committing yourself to the city. Um, you know, there's a lot of things that you could be doing and I know it's not easy every single day, but you enjoy going to work every day. And one of the things that Jenny's told me over the last few years, look, we're at capacity. You know, we want to continue to grow. We want to continue to bring young kids uh who have talent, but we can't uh continue to grow because obviously we're at capacity in the facility. So, one of the things I wanted to bring uh to the attention of the commission and of the the community was that, you know, you just recently got your you went through a process and you were approved once again as the winner uh to be able to do this for the next 5 years and hopefully the next five years we can grow so we can have more young kids in the community engaged in gymnastics. This is a beautiful sport. Shows dedication. It shows community. It shows teamwork. And um I think it's a big deal for young kids, especially young girls to engage in sports. My daughters play soccer. Uh and again, it teaches you a lot. They play competitive soccer. They play club soccer. They play at their school. And I think playing in sports um is is healthy. That competitiveness that that I that concept of of having to lean on on your colleague, you know, on your friend that they got to get the score up because maybe you didn't do as good or they got to pick you up when you're down. And that's what this sports are all about. Not only about winning, but it's all about, you know, being in the moment and working together for a common goal. I was gonna say gymnast salute.

Say it again. And I'm going to say it again cuz I have it here written down. Gymnast salute. Love it. Ladies, would uh would any of you like to say a few words before my colleagues? Any of you? Don't be shy. Can't be shy after winning getting a perfect 10. Come on. I know they wanted to say something about Coach Nicole. Anyone? Anyone want to? It's okay. Come on. All right. I'm going to pick one of you with the three medals. That's Come on. Come on up. All right. Madam Vice Mayor.

So, I I use the U gym over at the youth center and one of the things that I've always observed is everybody's happy. Everybody's supporting each other. The family's outside. No one's complaining and that speaks volumes. Um I can't say that for every program that we have, but uh this program is so well loved and the way that you support each other and a sport as a team. I mean, lifting someone up when they're having a bad day is incredibly important thing because it leads to what happens later in life. When you become an adult and you learn how to work as a team, whether whatever job that you have or if you decide to run for the commission, learning to work together is an important skill set that starts now when you're young. that teamwork and thank you for bringing this to our city and giving these young people this opportunity to learn through you and help support our city in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Want to take a photo? Yes. I'd be honored to take a photo with you.

Why don't you walk and you guys go So that she can walk all the way down. Yeah. Camila, walk all the way down. Slide down a little bit. I hear there's a bit of background noise and a few voices around you. No worries. Take your time. I'm here whenever you're ready to chat more. Let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to continue or explore further. If you need a moment to settle things or if there's something in particular on your mind, just let me know. We can pick right up already. Is there something you'd like to discuss next? Thank you. Morning

sir. Thank you so much. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Thank you guys. I was not sure. Okay, if you say so. Uh I just want to confirm item A3 is deferred. Item A3 is deferred. We'll move on to item A4. Presentation or proclamation declaring 2026 as physicians to children's centennial year in Coral Gables. I'd like to welcome the son of founder Dr. Warren Killian to please join us. Dr. How are you? Good. Please join us.

Madame Vice Mayor, it's a pleasure to have you here with us and thank you for coming in. And we have a The last time I was here was with group seven years ago. How long ago was that? I've lost track of time. I would say 75 years. Wow. Okay. Well, we're blessed to have you. I wasn't here then. So, so, um, I have a little proclamation here for you. Thank you. Would you like to speak first or have it read first to you? Whatever is easiest for you, Ron. Okay. Well, I'll read it first because I get to learn as I go.

Then you can teach me more. Whereas founded in 1926, Physicians to Children is the oldest pediatric medical practice in Cole Gables and has provided compassionate highquality pediatric care to generations of families for 100 years. And whereas the practice was established by Dr. Warren Killian Senior, a pioneering physician whose leadership extended beyond private practice to include founding Jackson Memorial Hospital's pediatric training program and serving as the first chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of Miami School of Medicine. And whereas for a century, Physicians to Children's has played a vital role in safeguarding the health and well-being of the city's youngest residents, earning the trust of families across multiple generations and contributing to Coral Gable's reputation as a community that values excellence in health care. And whereas longevity of the the longevity of positions to children reflects not only medical expertise but also a deep commitment to service, continuity of care and strong community ties that mirror the city beautiful's own enduring legacy. And whereas in 2026, Physicians to Children proudly celebrates its 100th anniversary, a milestone that coincides with the city of Corable Centennial era and highlights the shared history, growth, and resilience of both the practice and and the community community it serves. Whereas for 100 years, the Builtmore Hotel has invested in generations of employees whose dedication and professionalism have shaped its legacy, strengthened the local economy, and position the resort as a global ambassador for Coral Gables and its values. Now, therefore, I've been Slago as mayor of the city of Coral Gables

and on behalf of the city commission to hereby proclaim 2026 as positions to children's centennial year in Coral Gables. Okay,

it's your turn to to educate us. Say thank you for that honor. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for bringing us the honor. I'm glad I'm still upright. Uh, anything you'd like to talk a little bit about what what the work that you've done in the community, the family, anyone else would like to engage and talk about it? I'm sorry. I didn't understand. Would you like to talk a little bit about the work that your family's done in the community or anything else? Let's take a picture. How about that? Just a moment if I can have a point of personal privilege. Of course.

So, Dr. Quillian, I um I've had the privilege of being u high school classmates with uh both your son Warren and your lovely lovely daughter Francis. you know that um Warren, excellent soccer player that he was, I didn't know if he was ever going to amount to very much because he was a Rapscillian mischief guy in high school who I'm proud to say is also a physician today. Yes. I want to thank uh Mr. Hudachak for coming to his aid on days.

He's was the greatest guy. And and Francis, you know, just a delight to have her around. Uh we've had some good times. We went skiing together. But I want to uh congratulate you with all you've done for the community over all these years. You are a living icon. I have to say that standing before us today. But with all of your amazing achievements for all the children you've done over the years, your crowning achievements are your own children. So congratulations to you, sir.

Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Let's take a photo, please. You know, I just want to say that um to belong to this institution, Physicians to Children that has serving children's and the community and families for 100 years is um is both a humbling and inspiring um to continue your footsteps. your values and to practice with such a wonderful knowledgeable partner exceptional and many many other adjective that I doesn't come to mind as well as our new partner who is probably the architect of having us here because she was the one who decided to expose our office to you Even though many of you know positions to children um and with genuine intelligence, no uh no not AI. Um also the office was like presented um in the corables museum a few years ago and was very successful in a um commemorating Dr. Quilliam and his father and so on. So it was very neat. But anyway, um it's a privilege for me to be here uh to thank you all to acknowledge our office manager Terry who has been also a foundation in our practice.

Uh the family of the doctors um and um and I just only want to say thank you and again thank you very much Dr. Thank you for everything you have done and your father in keeping this beautiful institution of hope and values, good moral values and honesty and knowledge well known from everyone here as well as my partners here.

Okay. And I forgot to mention that to practice with my daughter is a privilege too. No, it's not. Thank you. Thank you all for having us. It's it's truly an honor and a privilege to be joining such a a beautiful group of people and a uh a practice that is really uh here to serve and care for our little ones and our families and um I look forward to continuing the legacy very that we're very very proud of. Thank you. Thank you very much. So

I'd just like to add mayor commissioners that it really has been really more like a family than a practice. Dr. Quiam was my pediatrician for over it's been over 60 years and then I had the privilege of joining him and having his mentorship which was amazing and then the blessing of working with Dr. Legosa for all these many decades has been really an answered prayer and of course Sarah Marie just a real privilege. Thank you so much for this time and for this acknowledgement. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you through the mayor. Yes of course.

Um I have to apologize. I should have pre-eread this. You mentioned the Builmore Hotel. It should have mentioned the positions to children. So the clerk's office is going to correct and give you a corrected version of proclamation before you leave. They're working feverishly on it right now. So, we can take a picture with this one, but you're going to get the corrected type and there hotel will be substituted out for positions to children. So, thank you very much and I apologize for the u clerical error that occurred and thank you for being here today.

Let's take a photo. Bless. Amen.

This way. That way. Very careful. Very careful. Oh, okay.

Thank you. Thank you, commission. Perfect. Thank you. So, as the physicians were leaving, they were said, you know, we're going to do this for another hundred years. And I looked at the young lady who's taken over the practice and I said, uh, no pressure. No pressure. Imagine that. Going to do it for another hundred years. No pressure. Okay. Uh, that's no no small task. As a son of a physician, trust me, I know what they have to go through every day.

Item A5. Congratulations to firefighter Daniel Moscada, recipient of the city of Coral Gable's firefighter of the year award for 2025. Good morning, Chief. Good morning, Mayor, ladies and gentlemen of the commission. So, as I present to you why he was selected as our firefighter of the year, just to give you some history um with our firefighter, he's a six-year veteran. He came to us two years ago. He was a six-year veteran of the Naples Fire Department. And his claim to fame that he I'm not sure if it was infamous or fame. He was the firefighter on duty during Hurricane Irma that we saw all the footage where their station flooded. That was his engine that he pulled out of the bay due to the flooding. So that was uh his claim to fame and history behind him. But there is a famous scene in that movie Backdraft of many years ago that was a fire department movie and Donald Sutherland's character said, "Funny thing about firefighters is they're always firefighters whether they're on the job or not." Uh the reason that Daniel was selected as our firefighter of the month, he was off duty and he was going to breakfast with his lovely wife who's with us today and she was pregnant when he noticed an individual slumped over the wheel on the side of the road. He uh went in, rendered help. Another firefighter also stopped and they commenced to do CPR until Miami Dade Fire Rescue arrived and took over the patient. So for his dedication and his life saving commitment whether on or off duty, he selected as our uh firefighter of the year. So congratulations to Daniel.

Congratulations. Thank you. Well deserved.

Thank you. I want to say thank you to Chief Delar Rosa, the command staff, and my brothers and sisters at the Coral Gables Fire Department. Also, my friends and family. I also want to thank city the city of Coral Gables, the mayor, city manager, and the commissioner. I'm truly honored and humbled to be standing here today. As we know, this job is not a oneperson job. It is built on teamwork and and team bonding. No one earns this. No one earns this award by themselves. Every call, every long shift, and every moment is all done side by side with the men and women of this department. To my shifts, my crews, my classmates of 2401 and our cadre. Thank you for the support and the trust and for always having our backs. To the leadership and the training division, thank you for setting the standard and giving us the training and guidance to serve this community in the right way. and to my family. Thank you for all the sacrifices you make so I could do this job. Especially thank you to my wife Chrissy and my son Miles for always being my motivation every shift and every day. Coral Gables is a special community and it is a privilege to serve the people that live and work here. This award may have my name on it, but it truly belongs to the entire department and the culture we share. I am proud to serve this community and this department. Thank you again. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your six years of service and your dedication to this community. Again, this is why we live in the best community because of employees like yourself who dedicate their lives away from their family, away from their personal endeavors to dedicate themselves to the city beautiful ensure that we're safe. So, thank you for your hard work and going above the daily call, taking that extra necessary step to make sure that again we shine every single day. So, thank you for that. Thank you all of you. Thank you. Let's take a photo. Congratulations.

What's that? Appreciate that. Thank you.

Mr. Clerk, we have no approval of minutes. Correct.

Now, we'll move on to the public comment. I'd like to read a brief statement into the record. Welcome. I'm going to ask everyone who comes to the state their name and address for the record. Please state your name and your address for the record. You will have three minutes to share your thoughts with the commission. As a reminder, these comments are limited to the items on the agenda or within the scope of the city commission's jurisdiction. If you wish to speak on an item that is on the agenda right now, please remember that you will not be given an additional opportunity to speak again once the item is called. All comments should be directed to the commission as a whole. All comments should be directed to the commission as a whole. When the three minutes is up, the timer will beep. I ask you to please wrap up your sentence and leave the podium when you're done speaking. If someone keeps talking after three minutes, I will ask you very respectfully to please finish your sentence and hopefully you will. Thank you very much, Mr. Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First speaker this morning, Miss Maria Cruz. Mrs. Maria Cruz, 1447 Miller Road, 305 323 2154. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us reo, rejoice and be glad in it. As we all know, February is a month recognized for love and friendship. A few weeks ago at this in this chamber, I was identified as my dear friend in the back. So I thought that it would be a good time today to remember and honor the friendship that I had with some people on the dis. People ask me all the time whether we were really friends and I would like to put that to rest. Yes, we were friends and it's extremely sad that we're not anymore. Billy, can you cable TV could please put up the photo? I'm sharing on Zoom and that's from the Instagram picture that I found that shows that we were really friends.

Thank you. Next speaker, Javier Sanan. Good morning, sir. Thank you for being here with us. Good to be here.

Good morning, Honorable Mayor Lago, Vice Mayor Anderson, commissioners and officers of the city of Coral Gables. I am Javier San Juan, homeowner of 305 Santandere Avenue in Coral Gables. and I've been living in this beautiful city or should I say city beautiful in my home Kasa Santander since 2008. I chose to move to this city 18 years ago because of the Coral Gable's unique architecture character and its residential scale and balance as well as its longstanding commitment to protecting its residential neighborhoods. better said in 2008 when I moved here. I was a believer in George Merik's wonderful version. Mr. Merrick was definitely ahead of his time as was the city he founded. As a matter of background, my home and duplex was planned, built, and sold to me by the Honorable Bernardo Navaro, a respected member of the Coral Gables community, who you may already know, and my two neighbor Excuse me. My two neighboring duplexes were built by the well-known MG developers. I'm here today to express serious concerns regarding the direct and and recent acquisition by a developer of three homes directly behind my and my neighbors homes. These recently acquired homes are addressed at 300, 310, and 318 Malaga Avenue. Most of my neighbors and I, residents of 301, 305, 309, 311, 315, and 317 Santandere Avenue, are deeply concerned that this recent acquisition could result in the construction of a high-rise building right off of our backyards, one similar

to the large Alexen Crafts high-rise recently built by Traml developers between Malaga and Catalonia Avenues. Each of our six homes is a relatively new twostory residential duplex with between 2,200 and 2500 square ft of living space built again between 2008 and 2017. These houses were constructed and purchased in good faith with the reasonable and justified expectation that the scale, character, and privacy of our unique residential neighborhood would be preferred. By way of context, my next door neighbor at 309 Santandere Avenue purchased their twotory home just last year for approximately $2 million. And the 317 Santandere Avenue next door is currently on the market for $2.650 million. Should a high-rise development be permitted on the recently acquired Malaga Avenue lots, six Santandere Avenue families would face the chilling and unfair realism of a sevenstory building just a few feet and I emphasize just a few feet as in between me and where you are of a sevenstory building just directly behind our backyards. not even a street to divide a single home from a high-rise. And if such a high-rise development procedent were to be established, what's left of the rest of the entire block may easily follow with high-rise structures and not rows of town homes and duplexes, which was the direction that the block was taking prior to this recent development. This would literally mean dozens of windows and possibly an open rooftop

area with direct unobstructed sightelines into the six private homes with private living areas, including living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, backyards, and pools of the six houses. A high-rise condominium within a few feet directly behind our properties would dramatically and ne negatively affect our privacy, our quality of life, and not to mention the value of each of our homes. All without any action or fault on our part. I want to emphasize that these six cent and their avenue homes I referred to were built many years prior to the controversial 2021 reszoning of a portion of the Coral Gable craft section. On and off I think you all know that former commissioner was very involved in some of these reasonzoning things. Eric Menendez and he also has a house a few blocks down from me. Not a few blocks, a few houses.

Excuse me. You meant to say Kirk Menendez, correct?

Kirk Kirk Mendez uh who was very very much involved in this controversial 2021 resoning, which I call 2021 co uh because we were all gone. We were we were traveling. We were not going out of our houses and we didn't really know what was going on until after the investors, builders, and owners of these homes most certainly did not buy into a transition zone or a high density corridor. The homes were built in a stable, lowdensity residential neighborhood with fair-minded and reasonable expectations of zoning related protection by the city of Coral Gables. We were even told that the neighborhood was next to a Coral Gable site with historic significance which had neighborhood height restriction considerations in place. Clarity from this honorable commission is essential for our peace of mind and our ability to protect our homes and families. Today, on behalf of my neighbors and myself, I humbly and respectfully ask the honorable Coro's mayor, the vice mayor, and the commissioners to please provide clear and timely guidance regarding the applicable zoning height limitations and development restrictions for the three properties directly behind our homes. My my cardiologist asked me to put that there. I would like to make clear that I am not here to oppose reasonable development. On the contrary, I am simply here to ask for fairness, consideration, and transparency for the hardworking Santandere Avenue residents who have invested their lives and their considerable savings into this fine Coral Gables community.

Finally, we want to make it clear that we are more than willing to sit down and meet with the developers and the city of Coral Gables in a constructive and respectful manner to discuss their plans and share our very real and valid concerns. I thank you for your time, your service, and for allowing me the opportunity to address the honorable mayor, the vice mayor, the commissioners, and the officers of Coral Gables, uh, regarding these matters of great importance to our community. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'd like to clarify on the record, Mr. Manager, just a few things that I think are important. Uh this gentleman has come to see me before uh on zoning matters and other matters that deal with the neighborhood. I was here when the lot for Tremolo which is currently built and has a co and is inhabited now was built. That zoning was seven stories. Correct.

It's MX1 seven stories with Mediterranean bonus. So 77 feet correct. 77 ft. Then Vice Mayor Mike Mena took the property where you live, the entire block, and during much negotiation stated that we should have a transition to the historic building which is on the corner of Nune and University which you can see. Mr. Clerk, can you put up that photo again, please? Yes.

I think it's very clear. I want to put this on the record. I want to make sure that we satisfy the resident in between that Trevo Crow project which is completed and is was allowed to be 77 ft. It has a park on the corner. You can see the empty lot where the red dot is where is the block in question. That block was zoned by the vice mayor then Mike Mena to 45 ft maximum. So after much discussions with the neighborhood, the three homeowners that sold their properties just recently got tired of waiting and as they were trying to assemble the entire block, they sold the properties. Those homes cannot be taller than 45 ft. So what you'll probably see there is a townhouse threetory product similar to what MG produces in certain areas of the city. That is the maximum that's allowed by the code. They can always come back. But I will tell you where I stand. If my colleagues would like to interject and add their position, I'm perfectly welcome to that. I would not accept a reasonzoning above 45 ft there. Why? Because you're at 77 ft for the Tremble Core project, which is just north. You can see the empty lot is no longer empty. Now it's a building. And you have your entire block, which is a perfect transition to the historic building that you see there, which is kind of like a triangle on the corner of Ljun and University. That was the original, correct me if I'm wrong, University of Miami building. Correct.

Oh, that is correct, ma'am. So, that is a historic building and that's why we went from 77 feet at the Tremor Crow site to your entire block which is 45 ft to this building which I think may be 40 feet or or 35 feet or some the historic building. So, you have a very smooth transition that again minimizes the impact of of what you see there. I will not under any circumstances support an increase in height on those three lots or in your block. It is 45 ft and my vo will remain 45 ft. The mayor.

Yes, sir. Um I want to echo your sentiments. I wasn't on the commission at the time that uh the Tramocrow project um was elevated to uh 77 feet, seventory. I would I wouldn't have voted for that if I was on the the commission at that time. But I'm also echoing the mayor in stating that I am vehemently opposed and would not vote for any change to the 300 block of Malaga to be above the 45 ft which is the maximum allowed now. So you have my commitment should that ever come up in the future. Madam vice mayor,

so I'm going to add in in the zoning in that area also limits to 45 ft anything within 100 ft of Lun Road and this would bring it consistent all the way across and it's always been my position that you have to have these transition zones down to um you know to the residential area and it would not be appropriate within a few feet of the of a home single family residential home without a street separation. to have anything more than the 45 ft that's already been uh zoned there.

I want to add something to just since I want to take advantage of putting on the record. I think it's important because I've heard from residents on the other side of university, the south side of university. So you have your lot, your block, then you have the University of Miami block. It's no longer University of Miami. Now it's an apartment building and you have University and then you have single family homes on the other side. Right from there all the way to Bird Road, I will not change the zoning. The dividing line is university. It's very clear. There will not be any zoning changes. I will not entertain a zoning change neither on ponds or on lun even if your property is on Lun. I've had people come up to me, can we turn a two into a four? Can we open an office? Can we do something with some frontage to Lune? Under no circumstances. The dividing line for me in regards to development is university. And you can see a perfectly well choreographed step down in buildings that respects the historic nature of the building on the corner of Ljuna University, but also ensures that the integrity of the residential neighborhood across the street is protected. Um, nobody knows, we've talked about it, why those three blocks ended up being residential when everything else was commercial, but that's the way it worked out. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. I would also like to add that that particular block is not MX and not multuse is multif family. So we have the first block north of the university is multif family and then the other two blocks are mixed use and that multif family site has been was limited as you mentioned to 45 ft. Commissioner Fernandez.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Uh Mr. San, I had the privilege of visiting your home and I had privilege of visiting with both of you. Uh, and I think the the biggest selling point to anybody who is on the fence on this argument is stepping into your backyard. Uh, and just visualizing what even a 45 foot building would be behind your home. Uh, and the invasion of privacy that it would be. Um, I would definitely be against uh any uh change in that zoning. uh and in fact I would urge the developer who was purchased uh to take into consideration the homes that are currently there and when they're proposing a project try to come up with something that minimizes the impact that it will have on the privacy and the quality of life of you the residents who live there u because that is important. I agree with the mayor uh there should be no changes to uh the zoning south of university either. I think we need to preserve our residential neighborhoods there. Uh we have um an incredible wealth of um community there, a community that's very united. Uh and they appreciate the fact that they have these smaller single family homes uh that they can enjoy and um we need to make sure we preserve that. Um, I think the damage has been done here uh with the upzoning already in this neighborhood. Uh, but we need to encourage developers as they have in other projects where they haven't maximized on what they can build uh to try to work with you. And I appreciate hearing from you that you're willing to sit down. That's always been your uh your motto. the times that we've spoken, both of you have said, "We're willing to sit down and have a conversation and find a solution that works uh for both sides because you understand that their ownership, right, and their ability to uh to build is something that they do have. Uh but I think there also needs to be that uh other side where they can

appreciate the fact whatever they build there is going to be right behind your house. Uh and these aren't very large properties where you have, you know, these huge trees that can uh protect you. Uh there is no tree canopy there uh that can protect your home from the visibility that you have from a three or four story building behind you. Uh so uh again um if there's anything that I can do to help um you know mediate between you and the developer happy to sit down with both sides for the mayor.

Yes. First, I want to thank you very much for having the courage to go ahead and um say your public comment here and and what you're going through. I want to reassure you as the strongest voice on this commission that you have my complete um attention when it comes to this. I will have a very very strong stance when it comes to changing or upzoning the zoning code and you have nothing to worry about from my part. Thank you for speaking up.

Of course, one thing that extremely worried was that there was another developer that wanted to do the the entire block.

And what we heard was that they wanted to They spoke to everybody in that neighborhood except for the four duplexes eight. They didn't even want to talk to. So stuff like that got us worried and then this is the next. So I I was waiting for the other shoot the saying the other shoe to fall after these acquisitions. I don't know if there will be another shoe falling but I thank you very much for your comments and for your support. It's an honor to be here, by the way. Thank you.

So, as I visited in your house a few months ago when we were walking door to door and as you come to visit me, I told you if you're if you're not sure in regards to the commission's position, I will tell you my position on the record. So, it was a pleasure to invite you and I'm happy you came and it's very clear they can only build 45 ft. At the end of the day, I know that there was an effort to try that was led by Commissioner Menendez in an effort to upzone that property so there could be more of an advantageous position in the sale that did not that fell through when the three properties sold, breaking up the entire parcel. So, at the end of the day, it worked out in your favor, in the community's favor, and if they do bring it forward to the commission for consideration, I will obviously keep my word and say that I'm not in support of changing the zoning, not one inch. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, Mr. Clair.

Jackson Holmes. Good morning, sir.

Greetings. Uh, thank you very much. Uh, my name is Jackson Rip Holmes. I live at 35 Sedonia Avenue in Coral Gables. Um, I'm here to speak about the upcoming referendum vote by mail. uh and I urge people who are watching uh this proceeding on television or whatnot uh to vote uh to keep our elections in April. This really is a developer plot to take control forever of Coral Gables. How so? If we move the election to November, it will be so such a crowded ballot where people are not really focused on Coral Gables. They'll be voting for president, for governor, and then the voting in Coral Gables will almost be an afterthought and they won't even necessarily know which candidate is which. And here's where the developers take over our city forever. they buy name recognition in advertising. The regular guy uh can't afford that kind of purchase of name recognition and so the developers will have if we move it to November bought city hall and they will change this city to make it unrecognizable. The best outcome might be Bickl Avenue and the worst might be the city of Miami. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Paul Savage. Mr. Savage, good morning. Good to see you.

Hi. Good morning. It's my pleasure to see the honorable mayor, the honorable vice mayor, and the honorable members of the commission. Uh sometimes I'm here on controversial items and this morning I have a nice easy one and I just wanted to come down and personally and formally thank the commission for its support of Coral Gables High School. Uh, in case I didn't say, for the record, I live at 522 Vibella Avenue in Coral Gables, which is the street immediately behind Coral Gables High. Uh, I am the proud father of a of a graduate of Coral Gables High who's now at Emery University. And I also have a junior, my son is a junior at Coral Gables High. I'm here today uh as a volunteer board member of the Friends of Coral Gables High. Uh, and I'm to thank the uh, commission and the mayor and the vice mayor for their support of Coral Gables High. Uh, sometimes I'm here asking for contributions or I'm asking for uh, interlocal cooperation for events and things like that, but today I'm just here to thank you and to um um, and in expression of our support uh, through the mayor as the chair, I'd like to hand out an invitation to our next event. Uh, and I invite you and your staff to please RSVP uh to the email that I'll provide. Um, and we would really love to host you at a very nice garden party that we have coming up next month. So, um, today again is is a happy one. I really enjoyed um the fun part of your job this morning honoring the honoring our medalists and our firefighters and the like. And in that elk, with your permission, I'd like to hand out this invitation. And again, we thank you for the support at Corg Gables High, which I note is now an A school um and has been for some years now. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Savage, for always always engaging in the community and bringing this no matter it's controversial. It's important. Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Thank you. Mr. Clerk, next. That's it, Mr. Mayor. All right, we'll close the public comment. Thank you. We'll move on to the consent agenda. Before the vote adopting the consent agenda is taken, is there anyone who wishes additional discussion or review of any item on the consent agenda? Not. May I please have a motion? I'll move it. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you.

All right. Moving on to item E1. E1 is an ordinance of the city commission amending chapter 105 buildings and building regulations of the code of the city of Coral Gables by amending section 105-30 construction staging plans to modify construction fencing requirements requiring visual displays and multif family mixeduse and special use and preservation zone districts establishing standards for temporary store from barricades and by creating section 105-33 demolition standards to establish requirements for demolition activities providing for repeated provisions of ability clause codification and providing for an effective date. Have there been any changes since first reading? Oh, I didn't see you there. Good to see you, Madam Director. Hey, good morning. No changes.

No changes. All right. Um, I just want to put on the record one of the pieces of legislation that I wrote, which again, this went against my own industry, which was stopping any exterior work in residential neighborhoods on Saturdays uh to ensure that the entire weekend could be enjoyed by families in the neighborhoods. Uh again, this is another while a little bit more costly for contractors and developers, it's the right thing to do uh in regards to upholding our standards here in the city beautiful. Uh you cannot be the city beautiful if you do not uphold those standards. So while people may see this as punitive, people may see this as for example when I heard from the construction industry engineering architecture developers, I heard from everybody Vince, how can you stop construction on Saturdays? because it's the right thing to do for our city. People want to be able to after a long week of work, they want to enjoy themselves outside, not hear a hot mopping tar roof uh being put on or shingle tile being put on or concrete being poured in the middle of weekend. So, we were one of the first cities in the state of Florida to outlaw uh construction on Saturdays. So, uh with that being said, I think this is a good thing and a move in the right direction uh to ensuring that we again can say that we're the city beautiful with the right level of respect. I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move. Second. Mr. Cler, do you have any public comment? No, Mr. Mayor. All right. Vice Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Castro? Yes. Commissioner Fernandez? Yes. Commissioner LA? Yes. Mayor Lo? Yes. Thank you very much. Item E2, items on first reading. E2 is an ordinance of the city commission providing for a text amendment to the city of Coral Gable's official zoning code by amending a appendix A sight specific zoning regulations section to amend section A-36 craft section to modify building height standards for bungalow type duplexes by removing the one-story limitation providing that the maximum building height shall be consistent with the underlying zone underlying zoning district providing for repeater provision severability clause codification and providing for an effective date madam director

good morning again um I have um yes there we go so there There are eight properties that are facing Santandere University that are currently zoned duplex. Um the site specifics of our zoning code um limit these duplexes to be one story and so that's standard twotory duplex. They're budding a single family which is of course allowed to go up to two stories as well. Um we are proposing to eliminate that height restriction to be one sorry to be two stories instead of one story. That's it. Uh, do I have a motion? I'll move it. Second. Yes. No, I I'll second.

Okay. For public comment. Mr. Clerk, do we have any public comment? No public comment. Mr. Mayor, does the commission have anything like that? The mayor, can you pull the map up again? I just wanted to Yes, I think we pull up the map. Yes. All right. So, the current designation for these eight properties is one story. Yes. MF1 duplex. Okay. And we would be changing it to

Sorry. So, right now it's MF2, sorry, MF1 duplex. Um, duplex and citywide is allowed to go two stories for these eight. There's a site specific that caps that height to be one story. So, we're eliminating that one story cap. So, it could be two stories just like all other duplexes in the city. Okay. I'm I'm going to be a no. Uh, we just had a comment on this and and I committed not to changing the zoning code south of university. Uh so I'm not supportive of this measure. Madam vice mayor, I I have some questions. Okay. Um the under the as read the underlying zoning is two stories.

Yes. Okay. So this is consistent with the underlying zoning. Correct. So we're not upzoning anything. Correct. We're just correcting some text. Yes. So, I just want to be clear on that. So, let's repeat that one more time. So, I want to make sure we get that for for uh for social media.

So, yes, right now MF1 is a duplex zoning. So, the citywide you're allowed to have two stories just like you are for single family. You're just allowed to have two units instead of one unit for a single family. Um there are two other areas in our in our city that cap that height. We're not touching those. Those are near um university um RTZ um area as well as in the area next to Lee Lincoln on Pon Leon. We're not touching those. But these eight properties, there's one at least one property that currently is built as two stories. It's not complying with the underlining site specifics of one story cap. So removing that one-story cap, so they can do two stories just like most other uh duplexes in the city.

But the underlying zoning allows for two stories, correct? Correct. Yes. We're not changing the height. Correct. No. So, the height, we're allowing to have two stories just like any other duplex in the city, but the height remains the same as a duplex of two stories. Yes. Okay. Um through the mayor, but

underlying may be two stories, but at the present moment, you cannot build a twotory. You're limited to a one story. Correct. So, we are changing the ability to build a twotory here versus currently only being allowed to build a one story in a neighborhood where you may have a couple of two-story homes, maybe on the corners uh on uh on ponds, but most of the homes in that specific part of the neighborhood are one-story homes. They are a little bit elevated because you do have the um the crawl space in most of them. Um but I I'm just not supportive. I understand, you know, that there's a there's an understanding that you would be able to if you if this restriction wasn't there. I'm not in favor of lifting this restriction.

I'll make it easy for everybody. I'm going to defer the item even though I'm not a sponsor. I'm going to request that the manager defer the item and we'll bring it and we'll bring it back and we'll have a conversation on it. Right. And one of the items I'd like to see is I don't I'm not aware of how many one or two story uh buildings are around these eight. Maybe you can get me that information. Okay. Okay. Mr. Mr. Clerk, we deferred. Thank you. Thank you. Um F1. F1 is a resolution of the city commission directing city staff to deny the issuance of building permits to contractors with expired permits within the city consistent with applicable law.

Good morning, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Um, it's my understanding that the building department is already doing this, but this resolution makes clear that in accordance with applicable Florida law and the building officials authority, um, permits for contractors with expired permits in the city will be denied. So, let me clarify a little bit as a sponsor of the item. Let me clarify our city attorney. The city was not doing this. Correct, Mr. Manager? Yes, mayor.

I brought this to the attention of the manager and we were one of the few cities that allowed, for example, let me give you an example. the gentleman that was just here with us before, uh, the developer that built his home, MG finished the home, sells him the home, but they still have an open permit. Okay. Um, if if they're if that permit is not closed, eventually that permit will lapse. Correct. And what I will do, what I will do, what I recommend is what other cities, for example, in the city of Miami require that the general contractor, again, I'm going against my own industry once again, second time in this in this commission meeting, the general contractor will not be allowed to pull another permit in the city of Coral Gables unless they rectify this gentleman's open permit in his property. That is a standard process in city of Miami. And I had it I had it inflicted on me uh by our now city manager, and he was correct. By the way, it's accountability. You should not be able to pull a permit in the city of Coral Gables unless you have addressed open and expired permits. Let me give you an example. Surami Cabrera, who was the building official here who did an amazing job, an amazing job, and now she's working in the city of South Miami. We're very fortunate to have her. Uh she came here and my understand Mr. Ramirez, there was thousands of open or expired permits. Correct. you bring us that

mayor through the mayor. Yes. 7,000 7,000 open fires. Through the hard work of Mr. Ramirez and Miss Cabera uh and the team, you were able to bring it down to how many took years, but you were bringing bring it down to a few dozen. We're down to single and double digits only.

We could have avoided all this. We could have avoided all this. How? by now allowing my industry, again, I'm going against my own industry, to pull a permit, unless they've resolved existing permit issues that they may have with an expired permit. This is accountability. This is an accountability measure that will protect the residents and the business community to ensure that no one is taken advantage of and left in the lurch with unfinished work, shabby, shoddy work, or things that again result in a permit not being completed. Because a lot of these issues deal with fire alarms, for example. Firearms are always very difficult, but if you let that lapse over a long period of time, it just becomes more and more clouded and it becomes more and more of a conundrum to address. So this is again contractors, engineers, architects, developers are not going to be happy about this because this stops projects. This doesn't move progress. But in reference to our residents, this is about accountability. And in reference to our staff, our staff should not be working on these projects. This bogs staff down to have to address 7,000 expired permits. You could be working on the needs of the residents today, but what you find yourself is basically having a resident come to you and say, "Hey, look, I have an expired permit. What do I do?" Well, you contact the the general contractor and they have 10 other permits already active in the city of Coral Gables. Watch how quickly they resolve that expired permit when you don't allow them to pull another permit real quick. So, I'm very proud to bring this forward even if it is against my own industry. This is accountability and transparency measures that this the residents deserve.

The mayor. Yes.

Um, I've I've spoken about this before. Uh when my wife and I first uh bought our our home, we got married. Uh we bought a home in the city of Coral Gables and our closing was delayed because of an open permit. Uh and the property owners believed it had been closed. The uh the contractor had told them the permit had been closed when we started doing our due diligence to close on the property. Uh the driveway permit had never been closed. Um they had to start backtracking. Uh this is the days of paper. So, uh, they had to go find the original plans, have a final inspection done on the driveway, and it delayed our closing 30 days. So, at an expense to them, uh, the contractor was nowhere to be found. He he found he would never answer their calls. Uh, but when it comes to the city, they have no choice but to answer to the city. So, I I applaud this. I think this is uh something that's really going to be beneficial to our residents uh to ensure that they don't have to do deal with any uh unforeseen circumstances in the future. uh knowing that they go through a construction process, they pay a final uh check to their contractor and their project has been completed.

So, I'm bringing this forward today one final point because I had several residents who came to me with this issue and I brought it to the manager. The manager said, "We're going to implement this immediately with staff about a month ago. We started doing it about a month ago, but I wanted to codify it to ensure that this becomes law. Uh because this is the type of of legislation that again addresses issues and provides real transparency and really addresses uh residents and businesses here in the city. There's anything else? Uh entertain a motion. I'll move it. Second, Mr. Cler, you have any public comment? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Yes. Maria Cruz. No, no, take it.

Maria Cruz, 1447. Mrs. Maria Cruz, 1447 Miller Road, 305, 3232154. I think this item is wonderful. I support it, but I would like something else to be addressed. I um had the uh pleasure to go on the tour of the kitchens the other day and let me tell you lots and lots of those properties had um remodels, changes, new construction, and somebody's dropping the ball because I'm going to tell you it was obvious that um some of the owners did not want uh when you talked about permits, they talked about something else. We have an issue with a lot of things going on and I suggest somebody look at that booklet that they passed out and you will see you will see how many were done without permits.

Mr. Clerk, that's it, Mr. Mayor. All right, we have a motion and a second. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Lada, yes. Vice Mayor Anderson, yes. Commissioner Castro, yes. Mayor Lago, yes. We're going to jump around to city manager items really quickly to address some individuals that are here. Um, I think we can run through these very quickly. Item H1. H1 is a resolution of the city commission accepting the recommendation of the innovation and technology director to wave the competitive bid process of the procurement code as a special procurement bid waiver for Unitech, Inc. to provide fiber optic construction services for the phase 5 broadband expansion projects pursuant to section 2-691 of the city's procurement code. Do we have a motion? Move it. Second.

Mr. Cler, do you have any public comment?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Maria Cruz. This is Maria Cruz, 1447 Miller Road, 305 3232154. I have a concern. I am very happy that most of the stuff they're doing with financial uh stuff today, I saw that they had gone through a bid process. I am concerned about approving um projects that have not gone through a bid process because there's And there's more companies than one. And why would we not go through a big process if let the competition supply? The fact that the the companies do business with us and we become very friendly with them should not keep them from bidding. And if they're the best, let them get the bid. But why should we not bid?

That's it, Mr. Mayor. All right. We have a motion and a second. We do. Commissioner Lada. Yes. Vice Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Castro, before I vote, one pro, one question. Why is it that we're going through the bid waiver? Um, Commissioner through the mayor. Yes, sir. Uh, commissioner, they have done phase one through phase four of our of the project. This is connectivity from pon uh north pon to US1 and they the project has been very very competitively uh priced. So consistency seems like a good reason. Yes. Commissioner Fernandez. Yes. Mayor Lago.

Yes. I'm moving on to item H2. H2 is a resolution of the city commission accepting the recommendation of the chief procurement officer to award RFQ2025-50 for mobility hub pre-construction and construction manager at risk and negotiated professional services agreement with Kaufman Lyn Construction the highest ranked responsive and responsible proposer pursuant to section 2-763 of the procurement code entitled contract award and Florida statutes 287- I'm sorry 287.055 known as the consultants competitive negotiation act. Good morning madam director.

Good morning Le Walker Harmon chief procurement officer. Um this is a recommendation to move forward with Kaufman Lynn as the um proposer that was highest ranked for the mobility hub that will be doing the pre-construction services initially before we move on to the second phase of the construction. Um just to give a quick synopsis, can you provide I know it's called the record already. Can you provide a breakdown of the top three? I'm not going to go through everything, just the top three point scoring that we can show um that it was not a close call at all. Okay. There were five proposers. So the top ranked was Kaufman L. You want their points? Yes.

Okay. Their points was 459.5. Number two was Soulfolk Construction. They were 44.5. And Lamar Corporation was 444.5. So they're all very close. 10 points and then um between the first and second and five points between the second and third. Mr. manager, you feel comfortable u with the contractor? Uh yes, mayor. I feel comfortable with one, two or three. So I think we we um are very comfortable with this with this uh contract.

So right now uh the the next step in my opinion and what I've been doing this for a long time is we would negotiate with a contractor. I sat down with a contractor and I was very clear. Uh we have three very qualified contractors. We would love to do business with you. We want to do business with you. You put together a great presentation. I commend you for that. and you have a you have a splendid uh reputation. Um, but I will not accept any change orders. I will not accept any open-ended items, any allowances. If there's anything that's not clear in regards to the city's school, make sure it's clear before we move forward. I want this to be as as uh bookended as possible because we want to accomplish a goal and that is to deliver worldass parking to the downtown. We need to make sure that we have the A team, not promised the A team, and then the C team shows up because they're still at another job. happened to me on multiple occasions. I want the A team. I want the best. We talked about, we talked about traffic controls. We talked about coordinating with uh the neighboring community, especially the business community. We talked about visiting the neighboring community, having uh daily updates with the city manager, sending an email. This is what we're facing today is what we're getting ahead of the ball. Uh we had a long conversation. I think we met for over an hour. It was a very productive meeting. I'm very impressed by your team. But I want to be clear, we have three very, very capable, worldclass contractors. And if we're not able to get to a contract negotiation with you, we will move on because we need to move quickly. We need to move quickly but diligently and be very thoughtful. I want to start the CM process as quickly as possible to make sure that as we're moving forward with the design, we go hand in hand with the general contractor because that in my experience and I think the manager can attest and the team that we have here is the best way to finish a product is have a relationship where you start with an architect and you start with a general contractor, an engineering team, all of the the u the uh consultants and we work hand in hand in hand to finish this The message that I've always seen is the

design is complete. We bring the general contractor in. Hold on a minute. No constructibility, no value engineering, and now we lose another year redesigning the project. That should be that shouldn't be the case here. So, I feel very comfortable with this team. I had a very had a very good conversation with them. They're on the ball. They know what they're doing, and they're well aware that if again, if they don't deliver, which they've always delivered, I've never heard anything bad about this company, that we will move in a different direction. Mr. Med. Uh yes, mayor. Thank you. Uh just to clarify to the commission, this is a pre-construction contract. Yes,

this is a construction manager risk contract. So, we'll be actively involved in in throughout the the uh construction bidding process. And uh and I feel comfortable with with uh the first three. Uh and if I can say something, I hope you agree with me. This is the most important contract, the pre-construction contract. This is where the money is made. Where the money's lost, the any other time is lost. If you can't do it now, don't embark on the project. Pre, there's a reason why it's called pre-construction. You're preparing for the project to make sure it's seamless and it saves staff's time. The staff has a million things to do. You know, it's something that this is the most important, most critical component of the entire project.

Yes, sir. The mayor, um, I agree with the mayor. Uh I think uh change orders is always a concern that um he's had uh residents have had uh I have had. Um so I I agree on those points. Um as we move forward to construction, the other thing that I would request is that we respect the staging area. Uh make sure that we have as little impact on uh traffic in the neighborhood uh during construction. Um so um I'll be happy to move it.

So on that point, I want to touch staging because I had a long conversation with them. staging area is going to be a problem. Okay. Uh we're going to have to think of a lane of traffic. There's no other choice here. I don't want people to be surprised. I want to put it on the record before you know the blog start going crazy. This is an incredibly tight site. You have two options for a crane. Either offsite on the on the lane or you put it within the project. Both of them have their flaws in my opinion.

You put it within the project, you got to repour the slabs when you're done because it's in the core of of the project. Again, it can be done, but the idea that you can stage, we talked about it in the alley, is not going to happen. Uh, we need to find a location for parking that is appropriate. We we we've we've addressed certain areas. The manager is working on that and we need to as again have as little impact as possible in the downtown area. There will be impacts. I've told them very clearly, I want I want uh a perimeter two blocks south, two blocks east, two blocks west, two blocks north to be cleaned every single day, morning and at night. It's worth paying for. Uh there are certain properties that are not providing the necessary cleaning in the downtown and you can see it. You can see it. I'm not just talking about, for example, the silk fend that we just passed that legislation. We're talking about everything from picking up the garbage to speaking to, you know, for example, Benny Tori who's across the street, Booya, uh, Cheesecake Factory. You need to have conversations every single day and be on top of things. This is a very complicated project. Has nothing to do with general contractor. It's just the location is very difficult. Very difficult. And we have to be honest with ourselves before we start blaming people because, you know, we're going to have people there on city staff. I've even told them one of the items that I brought up. Obviously, I can't make these decisions. So, the decisions of the manager, I'm bringing it up here just to bring it to the attention and put it on the record is I think we should have a dedicated police officer on the site

while the construction is happening. We should have as I mentioned to them, I told it to them, I think we should have a dedicated police officer who's basically sole job is to make sure that the person who's on their phone, I think the numbers around 30% of people are on their phone is doesn't understand that there's a line of concrete trucks that are pouring. So, they're all the way down, you know, the street. go, you know, don't don't sit behind them because the concrete trucks are not moving because you don't realize it. So, you need a police officer there to navigate traffic, to push traffic to make people understand that you just can't walk through a job site. You have to follow. So, it's a there's going to be a lot of moving parts. A lot of moving parts. And I think that it's good. Yes, there's a cost with it, but thank God now we have a dedicated police force in the downtown, a piece of legislation that I'm very proud to have sponsored and and move it forward so we can actually get things done. Madam Vice Mayor,

so um uh happily second this and uh share that I also had similar conversations with the contractor told them about the sensitivity of the tight construction zone you have the usability of the alley the cleanliness of the alley the cleanliness of the street the impact upon the surrounding businesses the tight tight deadlines that we have to meet in order to be able to deliver worldclass parking to the residents in a short period of time and not have have disrupted the businesses downtown for any longer than necessary to get this project done. So happy to see this finally moving forward.

To the mayor. Uh thank you, mayor. Uh we we have looked at we are looking at at all phases including the the the fact that garage one will be down. Our parking director is looking at at at uh alternate parking. That's why we were very quickly moved on the on the Davidson site. We currently have 98 cars. We went from 24 to to 89 cars, excuse me. And we are developing the Lassel site also that will increase that to 129 cars. And in addition, we're looking at at at private parking to to help mediate that. We are also very very concerned about about the MOT. We're looking at, as you mentioned, mayor the crane inside or or the crane outside looking at at various alternatives and we'll be working through all these items uh with the uh with the CMR. Thank you. Um by the way, with that being said, we have the best professional staff of any city in Miami and we have a great contractor once it's ratified and I think we make a great team. So, I'm excited about it. But I'm also measuring expectations. I is a very complicated project. So in advance um you know it's all hands on deck. We have a motion a second. Mr. Cle public comment.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Jackson Holmes. Don't see him here. Is it? All right. We close public comment. Motion a second. Vice Mayor Anderson. Yes. Commissioner Castro. I think my stance on the mobility hub has been very well explained. So no. Commissioner Fernandez. Yes. Commissioner Lada. Yes, Mayor Log. Yes. Uh, moving on to item H3.

H3 is a resolution of the city commission accepting the recommendation of the chief procurement officer toward RFQ 2022-38 for landscape architectural consult consulting services and negotiated professional services agreement with Calvin Jordano and Associates Inc. Kimley Horn and Associates Inc. Landscape DE LLC Miller Lean Associates Inc. and Cevino Miller Design Studio PA. the five highest ranked responsive responsible proposers pursuant to section 2-763 of the procurement code entitled contract award in Florida statutes 287.055 known as the consultants competitive negotiation act.

This is a pool of um professional contractors or consultants for landscaping architectural services to be used on an asne basis. We evaluated five proposers and we're recommending that all five move forward in the process. Okay. Mr. Clerk, do you have any public comment? No, Mr. Mayor. Okay. entertain a motion. Move it. Second. Whatever. You roll the dice. Right. Commissioner Castro. Yes. Commissioner Fernandez. Yes. Commissioner Lada. Yes. Vice Mayor Anderson? Yes. Mayor Log? Yes. We on to H4.

H4 is a resolution of the city commissioner accepting the recommendation of the chief procurement officer to award HVAC and refrigeration system services to Weather Troll Maintenance Corp. as the sole responsive and responsible bidder in an estimated annual amount of $591,746.50 and not to exceed budgeted funds pursuant to invitation for bids 202533 and section 2-763 of the city's procurement code entitled contract award. Um this was a solicitation issued for HVAC and refrigeration services throughout the year on an as needed basis. We had one proposer or one bidder respond which is brother. They've been our current TR contractor for since 2018. We've have no issues or concerns with them. Thank you. May I have a motion? Move it. I'll second. Mr. Any public comment? No, Mr. Mayor. Okay.

Commissioner Fernandez. Yes. Commissioner Lada. Yes. Vice Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Castro? Yes. Mayor Logo? Yes. Moving on to H5. H5 is resolution of the city commission accepting the recommendation of the chief procurement officer to award parking lot improvements at DO's engineering LLC as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder in an estimated amount of 929,275 but not to exceed budgeted funds pursuant to intervation for bids 2025-43 and section 2-763 of the city's procurement code entitled contract award. This was competitive solicitation. We received five biders. We're awarding to the lowest responsive bidder and they are for um parking lot improvements to parking lots 12 through 16 throughout the city. I'll move it. I'll second. Mr. P, do you have any public comment? No, Mr. Mayor. All right. Have a motion. A second.

Commissioner Lada? Yes. Vice Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Castro? Yes. Commissioner Fernandez? Yes. Mayor Log? Yes. Moving on to item 86. H6 is a resolution of city commission approving a second amendment to the lease use agreement

to the lease use agreement between the city of Coral Gables lesser and less and less Venta's realy limited partnership for the property that adjoins the property commonly known as Kindred Hospital South Florida Gables located at north 105 ft of the 30 foot wide rightway of Wallace Street as shown on the recorded plat of Tamiami Place number three Coral Gables according to the plat thereof as recorded in platbook 146 at page 90 of the public records of Miami County being bounded as follows bounded by the north or on the north by the south right of way of southwest 8th Street bounded by the south or on the south by the easterly extension of the south line of said track B to its intersection with the westerly line of said track C bounded on the west by the easterly line of set track B for an additional 10-year term for the continued utilization of the property in connection with the tenants adjacent parking facility to complement the tenants medical objectives

thank you

morning mayor vice mayor commissioners page Perez asset manager today for your approval we are presenting a second amendment to the lease agreement under under which Benta's realy limited partnership serves as leie to the city beautiful and as a landlord to kindred hospital South Florida. This amendment would extend the lease term for an additional 10 years and will allow for the continued use of the demise premises adjacent to the hospital's surface parking area which provides convenient and safe access for patients, visitors and staff traveling to and from the hospital. In addition, under the amended lease terms, the tenant in coordination with the city will complete certain improvements. These include resurfacing and restriping the parking facility and lease premises as well as installing new landscaping within nine months of the amendments execution unless otherwise agreed to by the city in a separate agreement. The will also remain fully responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the parking site, including the asphalt surface, parking stops, irrigation system, and overall health of all plant material. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Director. So, um, just before we vote on the side item, I want to talk a little bit about I have some slides there from from the clerk that I'd like to show. So, we've been working on this area. We've made probably about three site visits to the area uh with staff and with the residents. We met with probably about a dozen residents there. Uh probably the last time we were there was maybe about a month ago and the chief was there with us, chief of police came with us in regards to Kred Hospital uh because they were having some issues there in regards to um just concerns about people walking through the neighborhood and in the backyards and different things like that. There a lot of trash and garbage and also beautifification in regards to there was no landscaping. Um there was no irrigation. So um just to give you an idea of what we've been working on and I think that we we have it uh already pretty much buttoned up. As part of this agreement, we'll be addressing obviously the the issue with um with the camera. The camera is forthcoming or I think it's already been has it been installed or not yet. Um Mr. DCM, you were there at the meeting also.

Good morning, Mayor. Um Joe Gomez, deputy city manager. Uh the plans that include the camera also includes closing the pedestrian gate, right? Uh those plans have are are due for bids this coming Thursday. We expect to start construction uh sometime in May and be complete by August.

Perfect. So this is right off A Street, the dead end street, but again it's one of those gates. Um and there's a lot of traffic as a result of Kindred Hospital. Again, uh we we love Kindred Hospital. We're great to have them here in the city, but I want to make sure that they keep it beautiful, keep it clean, and keep it safe. Um, we were very clear, we will find them. We will find them. Uh, they do not follow our standards and do not ensure that the residents are feel safe and that people are not dumping trash and that again the landscaping has to be up to a standard. There's no landscaping right now as you know.

I think I think they've already started Yeah, they've already started addressing uh a lot of the the violations that we had on file. We've closed all of them. Um, and I believe we provided some photos. Um, do you have those photos, Billy? Through the mayor. Yes, sir. Uh, mayor, the new contract, the new the new agreement is very strict on maintenance of the of the entire area. Okay. From from landscaping to irrigation to asphalt.

Good morning. Uh, Doug Ramirez, acting development service director. Yes, we we we've worked as deputy city manager Gomez said, we've we've worked with the hospital so that they could address the landscaping concerns. They also had gravel on the swale, trash, uh commercial property maintenance issues, dirty sidewalks, signs on rideaways over the years. We we've been there multiple times. Uh I'm happy to report that at this moment it does look up to our standards. Uh and and we have some photos that were shared earlier today. I'm not sure if they were able to make it to the Yeah, we'll bring them up right now. Those are we did our walk through. No, but we have different photos.

We have different Yes. Yes. The photos that we're sharing were taken this morning. Yeah. You'll see a lot of refreshing. If cable TV could please put up my screen.

Oh, they painted. Painted. Looks good. Oh, that that's actually a rendering. A rendering. Uh uh that's a rendering of of the coming uh gate closure. That was not taken today. That was not taken today. That's the plans that are actually in bid. Okay. Um

if you notice um on the photograph, you'll see some new mulching that's already been placed. if you can continue. These are just the plans. I apologize. I don't think they put the photos. However, the team did go out. Um, mayor, and we took photos. Uh, they cleaned the sidewalk. They pressure cleaned the sidewalk. Uh, they've mulched the areas. Uh so they they they've pretty much complied and closed out all the outstanding violations at this time. Thank you very much, Mr. Man.

Uh through the mayor, uh one of the things that we did, we we tightened up the agreement very much as far as maintenance and and maintaining that area in as a as as a very suitable uh uh end to that to to Wall Street. We have to understand that that's a closure and that will never happen again as far as the county is concerned. But I want to make sure that we vote on this today that Ker hospitals under under strict understanding that if they don't keep this up and they don't maintain the landscaping, the irrigation, the camera not kept in place. Could be a default in the agreement. Yes, it' be defaulted agreement. All right. Um I've been working on this for probably over two years now and this is again uh the residents are going to be incredibly happy this in this area that we're able to finally deliver on this. Uh Mr. Clerk, um we have a motion. Not yet, right?

Not yet, sir. We have a motion. I'm moving. Second. Do we have any public comment, Mr. Cler? No, Mr. Mayor. All right. Vice Mayor Anderson, yes. Commissioner Castro, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Lada, yes. Mayor Lago,

yes. Uh, Mr. DCM, Mr. Manager, Mr. Ramirez, thank you uh for your work on this along with your staff. I know Raundo played a role and obviously public works and everyone like that. Item 87. 87, social media year and performance report. Good morning. Good morning, mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners. Martha Pantene, communications and public affairs. Uh, our committee uh uh come before you to share uh our social media report. So, as you can see, these are the numbers between one year and the next and how we have grown uh we have grown in each of our categories. I think that one of the we think we have great numbers and we feel like we are fighting above our class. And why I say that is when I compare ourselves with other municipalities. For example, the city of Miami with with 450,000 residents has 46,000 Facebook followers and 149,000 Instagram followers. The city of Dural with 76,000 residents has 3,000 LinkedIn followers and as you can see uh we have 12,000. So we have actually uh continue to grow. LinkedIn is the one of our most uh of our biggest success stories, which is great because we are also able to feature our employees. So, for example, our uh officer of the year, our communications officer of the year, uh we will feature that it's a great opportunity for us to feature uh our veterans that are doing the pledge of allegiance that we will feature them uh in uh our LinkedIn and constant contact, which is our e-news, which as you know, we went from, you know, five years ago from uh bi-weekly to weekly uh continues to to And that one is really the biggest

challenge because we always have people that uh remove the re remove themselves. So our Facebook reach and uh and views you could see we we have uh two two million views. So that's for the for the year. This is a good news for us in uh from the trolley system. the the the top two posts by reach uh were both about the southern the southern loop uh which you know for us was surprising because it's usually Santa Claus and our most reacted post we saw that the centennial and the centennial concert was just really popular across the board our on Instagram which is uh our largest uh message one uh We have uh 74,000 uh visits and we have a very large reach. And uh and if you see a spike there in October, well, you know, if we could get David Beckham to visit one of our stores at any time, that would be great because that was our most reactant. It's Victoria Beckham uh posted that story. and our Instagram interactions. These are the likes, the comments, etc. that we see. And then you see our views are at 3 uh 5 million. our top post. Uh you see that we have the beckons of course and then we have uh the the the patch and the most reactive post not not surprising it's beckham but look we have uh the Venetian pool concert and we also uh the Fernando Mendoza heist also did exceptionally well and you know that's

something that we try to keep with what's happening in the news because the moment that he received the the Heisman we went ahead and posted because we kind have have to keep the news fresh uh Twitter or X overview uh that we've published 257 we have a total of the likes and the followers uh grew a little bit because we saw a phenomenon that happened nationally a couple of years ago that people went away from uh Twitter or X but now it's again beginning to grow our top retweeted post was uh the farmers market and then again the trolley. So that trolley has been very popular. Our constant contact uh the biggest story here for us is the open rate. We have a great open rate. Any business can tell you that they're lucky if they get a 20% open rate and we're at 52% which is way above a government organization. So that means that the content we are putting is also uh being being liked and I think that our philosophy is we keep our stories short and we also try to bring in community partners because our community partners that means that then their people whether it's the garden club or the Rotary Club they're also looking at to what we have and I can tell you that many organizations locally reach out to us in a constant basis to be included and obviously we have to be editors and publishers and we have to decide because we also want to feature uh the si the city's uh information. Uh so what's the conclusion? We have growth across every platform. We have performance of both manu municipalities the and benchmarks very strong engagement. Uh we are

committed to accessibility. So, for example, before it becomes law, we're already doing alternate text for uh for our for our pictures. So, we're doing that in across all systems and the and we have strategic momentum heading into next year. And this is something that we have been tracking for the city's main accounts, but now working with departments, we have asked them to begin tracking, you know, police, fire, parks, etc. so that we can look to see what is working and how we can improve because uh this is the way of the future of how we can get our information out and engage with our residents. Thank you.

Great job as always. I'd like to see the growth and amazing thinking about the future of how we're going to tackle certain as as this, you know, social media continues to evolve every single day. So, thank you, Mark. I appreciate all our hard work. We take a quick restroom break. Okay, we will take a 15minute break. Uh we'll be back at uh 11:35.

Mr. Kirk, you ready? All right, let's start with item F2. F2 is a resolution of the city commission expressing the city's policy recognition that first responders, including fire, rescue, and emergency medical services, play a critical role in identifying victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Acknowledging that properties generating repeated calls for service, may warrant review through nuisance abatement processes in a victim-entered, trauma-informed manner and proving providing for an effective date. Is it safe to say that we can do F2 and F4 together? Madam Secret attorney,

that was actually going to be my request. Thank you. So F4 is a resolution of the city commission directing the city manager to ensure that all fire, rescue, and emergency medical services personnel complete an assault, human trafficking, and abuse training courses in the next six months focused on familiarizing emergency responders with the unique patient care considerations and characteristics inherent in incidents of sexual assault, human trafficking, and abuse. Directing new fire, rescue, and emergency medical services personnel to complete similar training within six months of their initial hire, and directing the city manager to ensure that all fire, rescue, and emergency medical services personnel complete additional training thereafter. Thank you very much, city attorney, for reading this resolution into the record F2. I'm going to make it very very simple. This is just a priority and a stance that the sh that the city should be taking regarding human trafficking and the the set above. Um, I also want to give a very kind w a very kind thank you to the state attorney attorney general for the invitation to the human trafficking press conference. I I spoke deliberately with the state attorney regarding her efforts and initiatives for human trafficking and she knows the stance I am taking together here with the commission and the priority we are setting upon human trafficking. and and I believe she's um very appreciative of it. Now, I want to go ahead and join the other resolution. I do want to say I have two expert testimonies for this item. But before that, I want to go ahead and say why this is so important to me. And I think it should be important not only for me, but for the commission and for this city. So, what grew the most um interest in me is when I got this little

card and it's about human trafficking versus smuggling and I really started to examine it. I don't know if maybe we could zoom into it a little. Yeah, there you go. Perfect. And here we in in the back of the card we have a phone number. Okay. Now, this is about the Blue Campaign. The Blue Campaign is a national public awareness initiative to combat human trafficking. Um, so they were launched in 2010. But what is it that they do? What they do is they educate the public. They train professionals that are most likely to encounter victims and they encourage reporting to law enforcement. So, doing a little more research and this is really what grew me so passionate passionate about it. Doing a little more research, I called the number and this is what I got.

You have reached the Immigration and Customs Enforcement tip line. If you have a life or death emergency, please

So, if you realize what you heard right there, we're actually calling ICE on victims. That's exactly what we're doing. And I think our city should be leading by example. And I was really not only sad but outraged. So what did I do? I partnered with nonprofits. I spoke to the state attorney and I've been very very involved in this subject. Why? Because Coral Gables has one of the biggest coastlines and we need to protect our residents and we need to protect our constituents. Sadly to say we are the third we are number three in human trafficking in the nation guys and we also are number three in Florida. Needless to say 88% of human trafficking happens to women. So that being said, I'll go ahead and start moving on to item two. Number one is a priority. F2 is a priority that we should be setting as a commission. I think this is something that's very easy to vote on. This is something we should not be divided about. This is something that does not measure party lines. That is not about politics. This is about unity. This is about uniting for the voices that are most vulnerable in our community. So that being said, I will move to it to the next item, item SF F4, which the city attorney went ahead and and read it on the on the record. If I could please, my expert testimony, if you could please come up, state your name and what organization you belong to. Thank you very much for for being here.

Thank you.

Good morning. I'm pleased to be here today with all of you and sharing our experiences and our recommendations. My name is Dr. Lenda Perez. Um I am VP for Miami Dade uh sexual assault response initiative. That is our nonprofit. We are nurses. We're mothers. I actually rode here on a raft in 1994. So I am an immigrant and um I want to resonate the mayor's previous comment that we do live in the greatest country on the face of the earth, right? Where we have the opportunity to realize those dreams that we have as children and make them come true. For me, education has one been one of the things that allowed me to give my family and my two daughters the the realization of that American dream. And so why I'm here before you today is to encourage you to support, right? something that only makes sense and that is to strengthen the emergency and health care services response to sexual violent crimes in our community to ensure that we recognize not only that these issues happen in the country or in the world but right here in our community in Coral Gables right and these circumstances look different depending on where we are but there is no socioeconomic strata that is protected against these. There is no um race or gender. Everyone is affected in one way or another. And we know um being part of this wonderful melting pot that is South Florida is a strength and it's a blessing, but it also brings many specific challenges um that we have to address head on. So, I am pleased to to see that we are beginning to threat on these waters and and be intentional about our response to the challenges we face. We want to make sure that we are giving our first responders the tools they need to be able to respond to these

circumstances in a meaningful way. That they are operating from a place that is researchbased and evidence-based that are best practices um that have been proven to ensure not only that we respond in a trauma response uh trauma-informed manner but rather that we can proactively prevent this continuing to happen in our communities. So I um welcome you, strongly encourage you to support these um items so that our response can be more robusted in in Coral Gables. Thank you. I'm very

good morning. How are you commission mayor? My name is Maniv Bettton Court. I'm the executive director of Miami Day Sexual Assault Response Initiative. I'm here today sick and all to strongly support Melissa Catcher. This is super important and you know when we see a lot of our initiatives and our directives they are initiated and directed not towards health health care but towards our law enforcement our legal and that is where the gap lies. Okay. The lap the gap lies in where we train our first responders our prehosp. Okay. There is no mandate for first responders to get training for domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault. When you look at what we train our police officers, we have a gap. We have a disparity. So that blue campaign was not created for healthcare workers. We work under different circumstances. We work under HIPPA and we work with patients and victims. We are not here to investigate nor are we here to prosecute. We're here for the victims because we hear a lot about the actual traffickers about sexual assault. We don't hear about the victims. We're about the victims and we're about our healthcare workers and we're asking this commission to pass this because there is nothing like it and we understand. We're never saying that our first responders, our firefighters and police, they're doing the best that they can. But we always work from the position of what we understand and what we know. And when you speak with first responders, well, we call the police. But here's the thing, we are healthcare workers. We don't call the police on victims. We don't call the police without somebody saying yes. We would like the police to be involved. Okay? Because it's about autonomy. And as a woman, as a Hispanic woman, I know how important that is. I'm an ER nurse. I'm married to a first responder and I understand these things. Okay? So, it's not that we're asking for you to do anything more. We're just

asking you to give your firefighters the same tools we give our law enforcement. Understand that we are two different entities. and what prehosp you have and maybe that contact. 24% of your sexual assaults aren't even reported. The ones that are reported reported to law enforcement for XYZ reason because we're living in a time that we're handing out numbers and telling people to call ICE on human trafficking victims. You have to understand that there's going to be that push back. But sometimes firefighter shows up uh somebody that is in the healthc care field and you will feel more you will feel more responsive and you may open up and say things that you would not say. We still love our law enforcement and there's always a role and a definition, but the role and definition for them is not the same as for a healthcare worker.

Thank you very much, Mari. Thank you so much for expressing your expert testimony as as well as Glenda. Um, do is there anything else you would like to say? If there's any questions,

does the commission have any questions? No. Okay. Well, I'm going to tell you how this is going to play out. What's going to happen right after your testimony is that the city would probably put up a presentation that would portray that they feel that there's no gap in all our firefighters and that they're trained paramedics, that they don't need this because they're already trained, right? However, in my opinion, I don't think a little more to go ahead and train them on specifics of human trafficking is sufficient. So, do you have anything to say about that? We are, it is not, we're not condemning the fire department. We want to work with you. We want to help you and give you those tools. Okay. Most of your money is allocated towards law enforcement as well as all of your grants and funding for teaching. When we say teaching for the for the first responders, we have a curriculum for it because it didn't exist. I know because I spent probably a year and something looking for one because it's easier to just take something that somebody else has. Okay. So, the the nonprofit you guys represent, I'm not sure if it's the same nonprofit, would that go ahead and help the city maybe acquire funding, state funding or other methods in where we don't have to engage in getting into our general fund or whatever the case is.

Yes.

Okay. So, it's very we do is strongly supported by federal uh grants and so we have a variety of sources for funding. We stand before you because we are professionals and we understand where the gaps lie. I see patients all the time coming back and being readmitted time and time again for the same things in the emergency room that we clearly understand to be red flags of human trafficking. We clearly understand to be signs of abuse. Um and quite frankly it is disheartening to see that when we say something and we identify it right nothing really happens after that because the resources within our communities sadly have been fragmented which means a lot of victims and survivors are falling through the cracks. We have a real opportunity to set up a national model within our community that other communities can also implement that makes sense that is practical that works. Um, and I think it's important to make a decision to lead on this issue and not fall behind like we've been doing for a long time. Our efforts need to be collaborative. We cannot continue to operate as silos where everyone is in their own little box and cave and only wants to, you know, solve one one problem at a time. Unfortunately, these issues are dynamic. They're robust. The same survivor that was a sexual assault survivor yesterday today could be a trafficking uh victim again. And so we understand how it intersects, for example, with the the foster care system. How many of our youths that are at risk in our community fall prey to predators that specifically capitalize on their vulnerabilities. This is a big problem. This is something that we have to address. Um, you know, whether we want to be the one to lead on it or not, it's something that affects us. These victims are not a number and a piece of paper. There are friends, there are daughters, there are sisters, there are your wives um that we see in those emergency rooms that we get the calls from in a panic. And so we want to make

sure that you understand the gravity of standing for something um as significant and as unifying as this is where where we all know someone in our lives that has gone through something as horrible as you know sexual assault or and we want you to understand something which is very interesting and if you think about this if you are a human trafficker you are not going to let the police officer into your house but you know who you will let in? you'll let in fire rescue because they're they're there to help. They're there to patch up your victims and you're going in and they're seeing things, but who exactly are you going to report that to? So that training and that level of like somebody you can reach out to and say, "Listen, I saw this. See something, say something, but who are you seeing and saying something to the blue campaign local always helps because it's somebody can put hands on and can help you walk it through."

I want to put something into perspective and that is if we're really trying to something more and bigger about this. Calling ice on a victim. Okay. And deporting the victim. Now, how are we solving this by the root? Now, if we're deporting the victim, how is it that we're act catching a person who's human trafficking these women? So, if now we don't have someone testifying against the actual people that are human trafficking, guess what's happening next? They're finding other women to human traffick. And that's unacceptable, especially in this city, in this city that we love so much. So once again, thank you for your testimony. This is not about politics. This is not about parties. This is about protecting the voices that are most vulnerable. And I really hope I can have the support of this commission. And there's no such thing as there's no gap in the system. We could always do more, especially for those underage girls that are being human traffked. Thank you very much.

Uh, Mr. Clerk, Mr. Mayor, can you can you give I'm so sorry. Can you give one of those cards to each of the Will you give them to the clerk? Thank you very much. And he'll he'll pass them out. The mayor. Yes. I just want to I would like to hear public comment. Can we hear Do what public comment do we have? Yes, sir. Would you mind would you mind sitting down and you can give those? Thank you very much.

First speaker, Maria Cruz. Mrs. Maria Cruz, 1447 Miller Road, 305 3232154. This is um a topic that of course In the city of Coral Gables, we usually do not like to um uh show that we're like everybody else. When we talk about the city of Coravables, we will uh usually assume that because we're well off, because we have nice homes, because you know those things don't happen here. Well, they do happen here. All you have to do is drive around late at night. And I'm not talking about the motel on ACE. I'm talking about US1 near my house. You see people there that obviously need help that obviously are doing things that they shouldn't be doing, that who knows who puts them there. But you know, once again, scandal is not a good word in Coral Gables. And I'm glad that Commissioner Castro already pointed out. I know what the what's going to happen. I can predict. I don't have a um what is it? A ball that I can look. I can tell you. She brought up the topic. It will be it won't be a good topic for

this commission to go with and then a few a few months from now we will have a new idea and somebody will bring up exactly what she proposed and it'll be great because the issue has been you know if she brings it up we don't need to address it because we don't know now as a mother of three daughters and two granddaughters I tell you that our kids, our children are in danger because the same way as kids from other countries get trafficked, ours can get traffic too. And if you remember not long ago, I mean a few years back, we have people that disappeared and then they were found someplace dead. Okay, it happens everywhere. All you need is a young good-looking girl walking around and something could happen. Okay. And we need to open our eyes and forget the smoke and mirrors and face reality. We need to get involved because it is there and we cannot avoid looking at it. And it is not just the motel on Southwest 8. It's all over the city that you see what's going on. And I'm glad that the people in the health field see it because you know what? They are the first line of defense. They see it. They're taken there and something needs to happen after that. Mr. Clerk, Tony Diaz little. Hey everybody, how are you? It's a pleasure to be here today. I see why they call it the city beautiful. Nothing but beautiful people in this room. really good looking commissioners here. Um, I think this is common sense for the city of Coral Gables. I think Coral

Gables has always led by example. I'm uh I'm running right now for District 113, your neighbors over in Miami. And we always look up to you guys because the way you train and the way your personnel executes is just, you know, it's what public administration is meant to be. Seldom is there a conversation about the police in Coral Gables without somebody saying remember they're the ones that everybody's trained on the defibrillator. Everybody has one in their car. Just great differentiating factors like those make the city beautiful great. I think this is just one more way to do that. And if we want to look at it more selfishly because I have, you know, lived here my whole life and I'm familiar with the A Street corridor because I go to the McDonald's on 42nd and 8th and then my parents live on 2800 in Al Humber. So I'll go down that road a lot. We can stop the behavior in that corridor. If we just lengthen the recidivism pipeline with these offenders if we report them, if we make them go through the programs like this training would help fire help them go through, we can stop them from getting out there and placing that pressure on the business between Coral Gables and Miami. I think would make that a street area better and would help with the future plans you have to redevelop the area and take out some of the blights there are with those motel. So, I really think it'd be great if you supported this resolution. I think um you know, I'm hoping to go to Tallahassee to help bring some funding down for that. But even if I don't, there's a lot of great representatives right now in Tallahassee who I'm sure we could reach out to and they'd be willing to get us some funding because it'd be, you know, it'd be below the city, honestly, for us not to get more training. More training is always what's made the city beautiful great. And I think it's just one more item we have that can make Coral Gables an example for the rest of the county. And um while I'm here because I don't want to waste your time a second time, definitely would be great if we could uh protect the UDB and keep it from expanding. I think Coral Gables is uh once again an

example of great public planning, public administration planning, and expanding needlessly isn't going to lead us to solve many of the problems we have. So thank you so much, Mr. D. That's it, Mr. Mayor. All right. Perfect. Uh, Mr. Manager, staff, uh, mayor, we have a presentation by police and fire concerning the, uh, F2 and F4 and and the and the, uh, response and the training that, uh, our fire department and and police have and and what they provide every day. Chiefs, good morning. Well, good afternoon.

Morning, sir. Um before fire gets into it, I I just I just need to clarify something. Um because I understand there's there's a lot of misunderstanding about what we can and cannot do within the police department. I know the 287 we've had this conversation with this deis before about having to sign that which I signed uh as well as it goes in with statute 908 and specifically in 908 and I need I know there's a lot of information out there under section 8 it reads in the law this section does not apply to any alien unlawfully present in the United States if he or she has been a necessary witness, victim of a crime of domestic violence, rape, sexual exploitation, sexual assault, murder, manslaughter, assault, battery, human trafficking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, involuntary servitude, fraud, and foreign labor, contracting, blackmail, extortion, or witness tampering. In other words, if they are a witness or a victim of any of those cases, I am not allowed by law, nor is your police department, to notify ICE. As the commissioner asked me earlier this week, I don't know where that card came from. I don't know what that number is, but you know, we will not, your police department does not notify ICE if somebody is a victim of human trafficking, domestic violence, or anything else like that. We have had cases this year that have risen to that level and we have not contacted them. As far as the communication between police and fire, we are our 911 center is run by the police department. The same people that handle the police calls handle the fire calls with the exception

of very few times do we not respond to medical emergencies. That's why this body gave every one of the police officers an AED. If it's a heart attack, rescue's running and we're going as well. So, we are all there. I'm not saying whether we should or should not do this, but I just want to clarify that we are not turning over people ice. I can talk to the other um issues that we work with the state attorney's office after the fire chief.

Thank you. So to segue off of the uh police chief what he just stated, um I can say that our medical protocols that I'll discuss here in a few minutes have specific numbers that we use whether it's for elder abuse or if it's for human trafficking or vulnerable population uh abuse or mistreatment. And uh those numbers are either with the department of children's and family or elderlings which is uh alliance for the aging. So I'm not aware of any other number uh as the chief just stated. So can we go to my presentation please? Next slide. Oh, so to begin and to give a 30,000 ft level of what we participate, whether it's involving any actual information or intelligence gathering, whether it's uh human trafficking, whether it is um uh terrorist threats or uh areas of concern or whether it is site security for major events such as the Super Bowl or FIFA or anything like that. Police and fire command staff attend regional domestic security task force meetings. Fire command is part of the urban area security working group as well as the fire officers of Miami date. Within those groups, intelligence is shared, information is afforded, and education with regards to all topics, including human trafficking. Our folks will be part of certain specific committees that drill down, whether that is law enforcement, mass care, public

health, communications, special response, intelligence, or community risk reduction to mention a few. We are the recipients of information that is brought to us through a fusion center. A fusion center is a complex multi- um dimensional group that searches through all actionable data. uh whether it's uh cyber, whether it's um intelligence through the internet or groups that are talking or reports that they receive from our alphabet agencies whether it's DHS, FBI, FDLE, that information is then shared with uh first responders that that is has specific law enforcement functions or security functions will only goes to law enforcement. forcement not necessarily to fire. Um we are participating in the Miami date office of emergency management multi area command group for FIFA and I will be representing as a state coordinator for fire rescue resources. So, with regards to the training that our paramedics receive as part of the Florida training uh requirements and framework, uh included in that education and continuing education is 150 hours of patient assessment training, which includes abuse, neglect, exploitation, and uh sexual assault victims. Now, that's not to say that the entire 150 hours are dedicated to that subject, but all of these areas, whether it's a sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking, are a component of the scene assessment that we have, how our interaction with our patient is, what is our finding from our patients interactions,

um recognition and trauma informed care focus. What that means is is that once our paramedics identify that a victim um is either the subject of human trafficking or sexual abuse, then the manner in which we question that patient, where we question that patient, what words we use or don't use um takes into account their psychological impact from the emergency that they're um under. It provides for the understanding of Florida statutes. It um recognizes the coordination and importance to coordinate with law enforcement and it demonstrates appropriate scene management for patients with special needs. Those patients include domestic partner abuse, elder and child abuse, sexual assault, identifying your typical abuser profile, and identifying the profile of an atrisisk individual. We are part of what's called a common medical protocol. So the fire departments within Miami date county uh participate in one common medical protocol. So what I'm discussing or presenting here is the same for departments including Miami Beach, Miami, Hyalia just to name a few. Um our medical protocols are reviewed and approved by our fire department medical director. He's a certified uh emergency department physician as well as a professor. Um our paramedics receive training annually on all our medical protocols which include the protocols that are specific to either um vulnerable population or sexual assault. Uh those protocols we participate in an annual examination. uh they are uh processed and examined

again with consideration for rescue assignment and all that information is also part of our promotional process. The department does have a specific protocol for abuse, neglect, exploited and vulnerable populations. Uh that protocol and I'll rem I'll restate this, okay? It is a specific protocol that identifies the reporting mandates of based on state statute 415. It is not a standalone protocol. It is a protocol that goes along with um the assessment or the treatment of the medical emergency or traumatic emergency that that patient is um experiencing. It identifies, we have protocols that work in conjunction with this that identify the need to immediately treat life-threatening situations. It speaks on physical exam and treatment and then the supportive care. So, they all work in conjunction. It's not a standalone protocol that identifies or speaks on everything that needs to be done with that patient, but it works in conjun in conjunction with all our other medical protocols and procedures. Um, with that, we also have a protocol for sexual assault victims. The reason that protocol is there is because of the idiosyncrasies that goes with that with those emergencies. Whether it is the psychological trauma, as I stated before, trauma focused communication or the evidence preservation that needs to be part of that protocol, whether it's coaching the patient or what our responders do on scene. So behavioral indicators um that when we

approach on scene uh flag or give us a reason for concern or to for further scrutiny as it was stated before um when we go on a call it is not a call that they're identifying that there's human trafficking or sexual abuse. So repeated emergencies or incidents to the same location begin to draw a flag whether um we're talking about human trafficking or sexual abuse, but a very common one in our in our community that raises to the level where a concern or an incident is flagged is elderly folks that live by themselves and are continuously showing signs that they're unable to care for themselves. And those frequent calls by either police or fire personnel start to flag that there's an issue with these patients or a special need that needs to be addressed with these patients. The interactions with others in the home or the business and how that patient interacts begin to raise flags for us. the physical signs upon um examination, the patients response to our questioning, um the fearful behavior or lack of identification of that victim to us, or evidence of labor or sexual exploitation are all flags that are raised during our scene assessment or while we're on that scene. Um the protocol itself involves environmental scanning. Um, so what that means, and I don't really want to get into particulars because there's issues there that we rather not share with everybody, is how our paramedics assess that scene and what clues are they're taking from the environment that they're in, whether it's a home or a business that starts to either raise flags or um question, are we getting the big picture on these calls? Um, the patients management and protection of their

privacy. uh traumainformed communications as I stated earlier um the scene management and crowd control what we say around our patients when there's other people around we try to isolate our patients um especially if there is uh protected medical information that we are asking on we follow our specific protocols for the vulnerable for the vulnerable population and our documentation is objective and thorough Um, as I stated before, our specific protocols work in conjunction. So, you the universal assessment, treatment of life and injuries always comes first. Um, with these patients that we suspect are victims. We explain our procedures and obtain consent prior to uh treating our patients. We transport to appropriate facilities. They're always transported by our rescues and um we notify police if not already on scene um of any of these suspicious like human trafficking because of our environmental scan. So a good example of that is is uh police have an integrated response with us on most of our calls. However, we may go to a scene where it's um it gets dispatched through the 911 questioning for a slip and fall. Well, that's a low acuity call that police may not respond with us. But as a result of our either our assessment with our patient or our um environmental scan, police may be alerted to that scene. Um we use um specific radio communications. So, for example, we'll never use the word sexual assault or

rape on a radio, okay? Um or in public. And we avoid one-on-one mayor u male caregivers um if we're in the presence of a a female victim whether so we either try to incorporate a female paramedic on that call and if there's not one immediately available while we're addressing that patient then we'll lean on our law enforcement folks to provide a female presence during our physical examination and care of that patient. some of our best practices. Uh, as the chief mentioned before, we have a common public safety answering point or 911. Usually, that is the first place that starts to flag frequent calls, for instance, to a specific location, whether it's a business or a resident. Um, we have that integrated response with our police officers that they go on the majority of our calls. Um, we use a unified command intelligence meetings during major events or significant trends throughout Miami date. So, as we approach Moda and we approach um Carnival on the Mile, police and fire will have meetings together where our plans are reviewed and any actionable intelligence that we've received either through our end or through law enforcement is shared as precautions. Um, we coordinate with the police department on frequent emergencies and suspected abuse. As I mentioned before, we use the Florida Abuse Hotline as our direct contact for these patients. We also have a number for elderly patients, as I mentioned before, that are either unable to be cared or we recognize that there's neglect or abuse. Um, we are mandated by state statute to complete the hotline form and document it in our patient care

reports. Um EMS must report the incidents that are in 415 even though police or the hospital may be involved as well. Um and there is mag mandatory requirements for minors and reports that are unlivable or self um neglect conditions when appropriate mainly with our elderly is mentioned as well or or shared. So what do we do to prepare for major events? During major event planning, the fire department will assess our operational response readiness, training, and prevention. So as we approach MOT, we approach um uh Carnival, our operational protocols, whether it's mass casualty incidents, our incident command, our site planning, all of that is reviewed. Firefighters will receive training and updates through roll call announcements, um situational reports and real-time information. Our personnel are trained or assigned through our training portal uh courses on awareness for human trafficking. Um I put that because that was the subject matter that we're presenting here today. But we also receive training through that portal for mass casualty, for command training and other related either medical or fire training that we use that portal or or engage that portal for. Um our online courses, there's about 240 in that library. They're all accredited. and the courses contents that reinforces the paramedic training and reporting criteria as previously mentioned are all part of our common protocol and paramedic training. The the courses the courses that our paramedics are receiving currently for human trafficking awareness are the same ones that Miami Beach uh fire rescue for

instance are using um in their preparations. So, we have unified command briefing. We partner with agencies for situational awareness and information um sharing. We've participated in major event tabletop trainings with FIFA in preparation for the G20 2026 to G20 Miami and other scheduled LAR events. So in summary, um our paramedics have training and recognition in the management of vulnerable and/or exploited victims. Uh the Corable Fire Department utilizes a common protocol for the assessment, managing and reporting criteria of abuse, neglect, and exploited and vulnerable populations and that includes sexual assault. Coral Gables Fire is providing training awareness to our paramedics that reinforce our protocols and reporting criteras. Uh Gables uses a joint PAP uh for 911 center that identifies potential instances of vulnerable or exploited victims. We use an incorporated response with our police partners. It collaborates with the police department in case management and information sharing. And the department participates in regional security groups that provide for critical information and potential threats to vulnerable or exploited victims throughout our region. And that summes my uh presentation, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, Chief Chief Hud. Um so as mentioned earlier the human trafficking is handled on a in a statewide level as come up now and now more importantly the state attorney Katherine Rundle has had a human trafficking task force for years of which your police department has been a part of to the point where the person who is the executive director or the executive officer of the state of this countywide task force is a retired Coral Gables police sergeant. We also have a detective that's assigned to it. We have actively worked alongside of all of those detectives from all the different jurisdictions. Uh last year that task force handled about 20 cases, I'm sorry, investigated 20 cases and oper had operations throughout all of Miami Dade County. Approximately 20 of those cases were investigated within the task force, some by our detectives. In the city of Coral Gables itself, we have had two of those operations resulting in arrests, search warrants, and identification of trafficked people as well as subjects uh that were actually trafficking them. The press conference that the state attorney that the at- state attorney general had was in deference to funding specifically to that task force for the upcoming FIFA World Cup events. Now, because of previous issues going back to the Super Bowls and things like that, there is a coordinated uh silo breaking type of theory that the state attorney herself has. So, our our people from Salt, as we know, right, Salt, um they're brought in. There is a there is a building, an undisclosed building in in Miami Dade County that runs the human trafficking side that provides assistance uh for any

of those people that are identified. The state attorney's goal, your police chief's goal is not to deport anybody like that. We understand that. We are not looking to take them off the street. We're looking to get them assistance like everything else our city does with the homeless population. The second part of that is we are going after the John's. We are number three between behind New York and Texas and us. And we know because of the intelligence that we have within the police departments throughout the country that they're bringing these women here. When I tell you the atrocities that I've seen and the pictures that I've seen and what these vile humans do to these poor women, it would turn your stomach. So, we have been committed to that. The money, again, the money that that uh the attorney general sent is specifically for that. There is going to be a large task force of officers, ours included, that are going to be attacking the human trafficking that is coming this way from around the world. Um to to the commissioner's point, how do we notify them? Right? There are and if we go into some of our businesses, some of our hotels, there are human trafficking posters. The latest one coming up is all about, you know, shut out human trafficking. It is specifically geared toward the upcoming FIFA event. This was put out the other day. The numbers are different. There's a QR code. So, you will see these in backstage areas around hotels where we're trying to get people to identify things that they that they have seen. Uh, Attorney General Up Meers also put out the report of crime. I don't believe it's the same number, which has me thinking about that because

I'm not smart enough to get the Florida safe numbers on our phone, right? Um uh but these are things that we have started to put out. Part of those monies that were allocated the other day are going to go toward the human trafficking task force. It is going to be a joint operation. Um as the chief talked about and I can't reiterate enough, your police department responds on every overdose. Just thinking about that, the reason why we respond to overdoses is not to penalize the person that's in a medical emergency. It's to try and backtrack where the drugs came from. So, we send our narcotics people after the fact to try and find out and stem the tide of of fentanyl overdoses that we've seen. So, we are used to that. The police department, police officers also get state of Florida training. I'm going to be honest with you, it's not very much. But they also retrain every year or every two years I believe it is we're doing online for rec recognizing domestic violence. That's those kind of issues. The human trafficking side is put in that as well. So is it is it on the tip of everybody's tongue? Not necessarily. But is it in the forefront of every officers and firefighters mind? Absolutely. uh you know we we are dealing with unique times whether it be um somebody working at the house that's worried about it but again I can't state enough the the the propaganda about who's getting deported throughout this country or or the statements uh are huge. I can only go by the law. As I've told this body before, for statute 908, we are not allowed to notify ICE. Now, that being said, if the

state attorney's office has an operation, which we have con have done in this city, we have had ICE agents embedded not to go after the victims, to identify the traffickers. And those are the kind of cases that if we don't have enough, and I've told you this, if we don't have enough to arrest that trafficker and they are deportable, why would we not turn them over to ICE? That's the traffickers. The victims are the victims. You that's doesn't make a difference where you were born or where you came from. That's pretty much in a nutshell how we've addressed the issue. Uh again, as you've heard me say this, we are going to have all hands on deck for the better part of 30 days between crowd control issues coming in, but we are not losing sight of what we are going to do with our human trafficking side to the point of you all know we have a financial crimes task force that's also the the fiduciary responsibility is that of Coral Gables, but they're going to be focused on the monies that are coming in from human trafficking during that time period as well. So, it is going to be a concentrated effort.

Thank you, Chief. Um, go ahead.

Most of the commissioners here have their minds made up already before this item even came up. Um, and that's really sad. I understand the city manager without even talking to me opposed my resolution before even saying anything about it just by reading the language. And I also understand that the city manager is your boss. I also understand the city manager is the police's boss. So whatever directive he gives you, I understand you need to comply with. Okay. However, I am asking for stronger training for firefighters and um from the presentation that you gave, it wasn't very reflective on human trafficking. Like you mentioned human trafficking once. Okay. I went through the training protocols. It was just a lot a lot of things. It was like a word salad trying to confuse me a little. Before I comp continue talking, I want to be thankful because we do have a wonderful force, police and fire. And in no means is this meaning to diminish your work, which I think you guys are exceptional. But do I think we can improve? Absolutely. Do I think there's room for improvement? 100%. So I don't want you to take this personally because you guys are outstanding. Okay. The other thing is there is no fiscal impact to the training that I am proposing to this department. Okay. Um and the other thing is we should not be implementing this on special events. Do you think this is what our taxpayers are acceptant to? Should we not have year-round training specifically targeting human trafficking? Especially when I'm offering you solutions where I

can offer you state funding that is more easy. Okay? There is never enough to say this is enough training especially for something that is invoking into our community so deeply. I know you spoke about the the migrants and we have the biggest coastline here in Coral Gables. So for you to say we have sufficient and there's no gap, I strongly have to disagree with that. Now, what you're trying to tell me is that we won't benefit from additional funding. I would want to once again want to call Marivi. She's an expert on this. And really, do you feel that after this presentation there is no room for improvement and I know and I'm calling you because this is still my item. So, when maybe the chief steps aside, you can approach the podium.

So, be give me one just give me one

through through the mayor. Yes, if you don't mind. Um I just want to clarify one statement that you made. So human trafficking is part of our all-encompassing medical and trauma protocols. This falls under the uh protocol that I mentioned to you before which was vulnerable and spec uh community services to the vulnerable population which is human trafficking amongst all the other uh vulnerable population that I've identified whether it's children the elderly sexual abuse was another protocol that I mentioned those protocols as I stated in my presentation are presented and tested on on an annual basis. They are again presented and tested under uh consideration for rescue assignment which is our advanced life support units and as part of our promotional content of uh information that has to be they have to read and they're going to be tested on. Human trafficking right now for special events is as the chief stated on everybody's forefront with the upcoming major event. So I just point that as a clarification that to my residents human trafficking and all vulnerable population protocols are reviewed on an annual basis. the awareness that we're presenting currently towards human trafficking as well as mass casualty training as well as active shooter as well as command training are all commensurate with a major event whether it's a Super Bowl or FIFA. So it is in conjunction with but as you mentioned our taxpayers our t our medical protocols and our fire department standard operating procedures are constantly evaluated and trained on and I just want to make sure I make I'm very

specific on that. Thank you. Thank you chief but if I may commissioner we've been going back and forth. Let's let's allow some of the commission to get a little word in here. Um please sit down. I don't want Thank you very much. Um first and foremost I just have a few questions to ask you. to the chiefs, all three of you. Just want to be very clear because the word word salad was used, I think it's important. I see a lot of word salad on training and training and training and training. Um, I have these two documents here, common EMS protocols. It says Gables, Halia, Miami Beach, and Kisk. The protocols are delineated here very clearly. Correct. Correct.

These are protocols. Do we train on these protocols every day, every week, every month, once a year, once every 10 years? We're constantly training on this. Correct.

They are uh trained on and we participate in a um protocol test annually as I just stated, then again when you're assigned to uh when you're being considered for an assignment to rescue and then again as the reading content for promotional opportunities. So, let me let me just ask you a question again because I think using human trafficking as a political ploy is ridiculous and a disgusting. So, I just want to understand something because I'm not an EMS expert. I'm not a firefighter. I'm not a police officer. when you when you when you train on a yearly basis, okay, and you bring in existing staff and new staff and you have a conversation about human trafficking and you find out new information from professionals that are the ones that write these protocols and then provide it to us. For example, the physi the physician that we have on staff who is our our head medical director. Correct.

He's a doctor. Yes. Very correct. So what what happens is that we update these protocols, correct? And we say there's a new key target. There's a new uh you know way of attracting young women or young men. We update this, right? We don't we don't continue to keep our old protocols in place. And this is continuously it's an organic document that's evolving. Correct. To better benefit the community.

Yes, sir. Hence why I presented at the beginning. Um it is very important and an objective of ours to participate in regional task forces in local um working groups whether they're security or for fire rescue because medical protocols actionable intelligence um all that information will push to change the manner in which we conduct our systems. So, I want to just show you two documents that I I read through that are pretty comprehensive. Again, I'm not a I'm not a human trafficking professional or a person who is I'm not a I'm not a professional like these young ladies that came up and spoke who are medical professionals. That's not what I do for a living. Okay. What is a vector solutions manual?

So, I was asked to provide the training curriculum for human trafficking that we are disseminating currently and will be disseminating to our paramedics. um throughout the time approaching FIFA. Um those are the course curriculums as I was asked to provide for the online training that our paramedics are taking currently or will be taking as part of our training plan moving towards FIFA. Could we have could I have this up on the on the camera please?

Vector Solutions is the software or the training portal that we contract with. That training portal allows us to put our protocols on there, our standard operating procedures, uh, anything whether it's a new device, uh, drug information, new medication or medication review that we want to provide, anything that's a training aspect that's not hands-on that can be delivered through an online portal, it is included in the vector solutions or training protocol. and chief because I've never and I'm sorry. Finish up. Finish words.

These two courses are part of their 200 and something odd courses that they offer through their training libraries that are accredited. And what is the requirement of of your team of everybody who everyone who's a firefighter? So, everyone will be assigned this training. um they have to complete it and we'll get a report uh monthly as to the level of those that are still needing to complete that training

and as this document evolves every year it gets updated. Correct. And then you and then you you do new things or maybe not this document but our standards and protocols. Correct. or we use other um aspects that are in that library for training, whether it's fire, EMS, um ISO criterion to to meet our ISO mandates. Um it's an all-encompassing global training solution that we have.

So, I think the gentleman who came up and spoke to you in public comment made a made a comment that I think is always the standard in the Gables. Our requirements, for example, for police officers requirement of two years of of higher learning, correct? you know, firefighters, correct? You have to have certain standards and you have to have gotten certain certificates, for example, EMS that is not required, for example, by Miami date county. Correct. And correct me if I'm wrong. So, we have the highest standards already. That's why people come here to cherrypick some of our some of our employees and it's happened in the past. Okay. Um, and I'm happy to see that we're pretty much the fire the fire department and police department at full capacity. I think maybe we're how many short would you say the chief right now?

Yeah, I can let you know. Exactly. I had that with Just want to put it on the record. I know that obviously the fire department is always always stacked and people waiting in the in the in the in the wings. One second. Take your time to the mayor. Yes, sir. All our firefighters are paramedics. All our firefighters are paramedics, which I don't think any other city, correct me if I'm wrong, can say that. Correct. I believe in Miami date county we're the only department that requires you to be a state certified paramedic upon the job offer. We currently have four total vacancies. We have five cases in background 18 in the academy and two that are awaiting the next academy.

Thank you. So I want to talk you know again listen we're invested the fire department and the police department in providing the best services. I want to talk about a little bit about because I know that this is again something that always comes around during FIFA and all the elected officials want to line up and take pictures because obviously we talk about human trafficking gets a lot of clicks. Okay, Mr. Mr. Clerk, Mr. Clerk. Yes, sir. Can we can we put on my presentation? So, I want to bring back a little bit of go down memory lane.

So, for items F2 and F4 and the chief please step in whenever you like because you were part of this. Okay. Um I introduced in 2016 10 years ago, a radical new zoning change which outlawed hourly motel in the city of Coral Gables. I received to say that I received immense heat from that is an understatement from the motel owners both in the city of Coral Gables and in the city of Miami. Uh the individual who then ran my campaign was a gentleman by the name of Steve Marin who came to me and introduced me um to the motel owners who lobbyed me incessantly to not pass this legislation. I passed it anyways who were the first that I'm aware of city in the state of Florida to ban hourly motel. I then went uh to the city of Miami and I'm going to backtrack the city of Miami. personally went to the city of Miami. I went to city of Miami date county to get this legislation passed. We were to get some sort of iteration, but it wasn't really that as effective as I wanted to. I ended up taking measures into my own hand and going to Tallahassee and meeting with the governor and the governor made it a state mandate. Okay. Um some cities have been able to circumvent it by doing two hours or three hours instead of hourly. Again, these are individuals that again they're I care about is money. The bottom line, you're reading blogs that I went to Miami that I went to the city of Miami uh in December to support Commissioner Rosal who was putting money in the budget, which I wholeheartly agree they should they should buy up all those properties and they could do something with them. Uh what I would love to see them do is for example I'm I'm sit on the board and I've been helping for over five years Glory House uh which is another resource here like Lotus House and what we do there I give

a lot of of charitable donations to Glory House. I I attend their gala and help MC the gala. I'm a sponsor of the gala. What they do is they take women off the streets and they house women. So the city through the leadership of the chief, the manager, myself, and the commissioners that were on the commission on 2016, I wrote that legislation. Can we have the next Can we have the next slide? I'm very proud of that legislation. It stopped hourly motel here in the city. Now, what did we do further? And I want the chief to talk a little bit about it. I went on overnight raids to see this myself. I've gone on I've gone on over a dozen with the city pro Gables city Miami Kathy Fernandez Rundles department Dorado Hay Aliyah it was a joint enforcement effort I've gone on 12 we've done overnight raids I've seen it all what the chief says he's seen I've seen the same thing I even mentioned it uh in the city of Miami so I am encouraged in the city of Miami use funding to buy these motel and take them offline and why not build a halfway house for the women instead of saying that the blogs that many of you are supported by uh end thrashing me and making up another ridiculous story which is absolute insanity. But it is what it is. Doesn't matter. Chief, will you talk a little bit about about um the joint enforcement task force? Another thing that I'm very proud of a piece of legislation that I passed with the help of the chief and the manager was a piece of legislation that allows the city of Colgate was it's the first of its kind that I'm aware of. I haven't seen it. you can talk educate me if maybe people are doing it now but at that point they didn't do it where the city coral gables can go 100 feet into the city of Miami and arrest pimps arrest drug dealers I've seen them in my own eyes residents have called me in North Gables I've gone there 11 12:00 at night I've seen them that's where we we worked on this legislation and and what they would do is they would come to the city of Corable side when the police would show

up they would see them coming they would run to the other side where the motel for now we can go into the motel and we We can literally go in there, we see somebody who's taking advantage, who's being trafficked. We saw people being beaten on the street there. But to make a long story short, this legislation, nobody had done this before, and we did it here in the city. Will you give a little bit of background of what that is?

So there are within the agencies of the police agencies, there's what we call a mutual uhou, mutual memorandum of understanding. These are legal documents that give us cross jurisdiction on on many issues outside Specifically, the way it was written with the city of Miami is that our jurisdictional boundary stops at the double yellow line along 8th Street and along Douglas Road. Uh, this legislation that came from this body through the mayor or the commissioner at the time. Well, I've sponsored it,

right? So, it came through. It was approved by this body and then also approved by the city of Miami. So, our jurisdiction actually goes to the north side and to the west side or the east side, if you will, of Douglas Road by agreement with the two entities. Uh, so we were able to do that. It it kind of stopped there. We talked with the county at the time, but it did not it did not get extended with the county for whatever reason. So, it did give us the ability, as the mayor uh alludes to, is that if our cars drive down the south side of 8th Street, the people that were either walking the street or being nefarious would walk to the north side thinking they were out of their jurisdiction. After about a month of us going and grabbing and picking them up and not having to worry about city of Miami being there, that really kind of dissipated even further. We still to this day continue to work those areas on both sides of the streets um both collectively with the city of Miami. Um you know so we have many operations I'm I'm not going to talk about. I mean we've had one get interrupted uh because somebody wanted to advertise and put up names of our undercover officers which was a problem for me and had to stop the operation. But we still continue that same process and it was the same thing that uh the ladies testified of. The silo I'm very happy to say is being broken down just on the human trafficking side. But it's because of the legislation in theus that gives us the ability to step outside Coral Gables and arrest those individuals that are praying on people in our city as well.

So to bring it in for a closing, okay, this is a feel-good resolution. We have to vote for it at the end of it because if we don't vote for it, tomorrow we'll be in the blog saying that we are in favor of human trafficking. There's no choice. We got to vote for this. But to say I want to put very clearly our chiefs are doing a great job. They're doing everything above and beyond. I don't think there's another another department in Miami County that is that is taking the level of training that we have already. By the way, it's not because the Super Bowl's coming. They've been doing it for years. We have legislation in place to be the first the first to address hourly motel when other cities don't have the courage to take it because again there's a lot of money between the motel contribution. We are the first to do a joint enforcement task force and we're able to address issues outside of our jurisdiction. And it's very clear as you can see here now the amount of the amount of training that we're doing and the protocols that we're doing. And when new things come out, we're doing whatever everything we can to make sure that our employees are are in the best hands and have the best information to address horrific situations of human trafficking. Now, um do you feel there's anything else, any other level of training where we fall short that another that another municipality offers where we could do better to ensure that human trafficking is stopped? and looking at the resolution and actually hearing it presented today. Uh I would I would if in fact this passes I believe through the manager who as you said is both of our bosses. So I I I believe and again I don't want you to think walking out of here that there is a one-sizefits-all training that's going to be able to tell them and my people what to do and how to do it. And when I say human trafficking changes daily,

all of my officers don't know what's going on. We would have to rely on the detectives and the hostage negotiators who are have hundreds and hundreds of hours of training to come in because they are certified instructors by the state. If this passes, then what we would do, as we have done many times before, is come up with a curriculum to supplant, not supplant, but on top of their uh electronic curriculum, have a have a a part of that to be put on by our detectives on any other kind of nuances of what would be recognized, which I think would uh if it passes, then that's that's what I would recommend we do. There there's not a cost associated with that. It would be using our in-house people and bringing the information from the state attorney's office and other parts of the country and what the trends are to what we should be looking at.

I like I said before, I have the full faith and confidence in our manager and and both of our chiefs. But when you use a word like additional training so broad that I mean, how could you not say let's do additional training? Let's do it. Madam Vice Mayor,

so um throughout the the course of my legal career, I've had the opportunity to represent victims and also folks that do bad things. Um and looking at this uh proposal together with my background and experience uh dealing with victims of all types of crimes um and witnesses of various types of crimes. The biggest gap that we have is educating the public. And the public is our eyes and ears. I've had residents contact me and I've picked up the phone and called the chief thereafter because they were witnessing something they had no idea what they were witnessing. But I recognized it because of the experience that I've had. I've had victims and also witnesses in my career that were unwilling to step forward or unwilling to prosecute and I convince them to do so because you need to think about something more than yourself. You need to think about the next victim and stopping the cycle from going again and again. So I I did take the time because I knew uh Katherine Fernandez Rundle has a human trafficking task force. I was aware of it when I was a young lawyer. I've been over the state attorney's office. I've been through the the protocols that they go through with children's victims and and adult victims. And I know that they have an extensive uh network in there. They have six numbers on their website that people can call for. Human trafficking, Project Gold, Victim's Compensation Bureau, 24 hours state Florida domestic violence national Human trafficking hotline or the human trafficking hotline. All of them are on there. None of them are this number on this

card. Reading it through a lawyer's eyes. This card is directed at the John's. This is directed at the individuals that are bringing the people over. So, yes, I'm I'm sure that federal government would be interested in it, but it would be the last number I would ever call in the last number that I would um select because I want my local law enforcement to show up and analyze a situation. You want your NSAs observing things. We have some wonderful residents in our city that report Airbnbs to us. It's a hot area for crime to occur. Anytime that you see a marijuana rowhouse, a meth lab, a any type of crime situation, it's usually not inside someone's own home. It'sn't something that they rent. It's in a hotel. It's an Airbnb because you can pick up and leave and not have leave a trail. And they're not necessarily going to use their own name when they're renting either. They're going to try to cover themselves and they're not necessarily going to be calling fire rescue because the last thing that they want is somebody from law enforcement or connect with law enforcement showing up and be able to have a data point there. But you're more likely to be able to see the items that the human trafficking task force on has on there for identification of the various issues that occur and kinds of human trafficking. There's a litany of them listed on the state attorney state attorney's website. And commissioner, I appreciate you bringing this up because I think this speaks to a bigger problem that we have and that is that we need to educate our residents. Why do I say that? Got up one morning,

my husband told me a story about somebody walking on a wall in the middle of the night at 3:00 in the morning. I said, "Well, dear, did you call the police?" "No, no, I didn't see them doing anything." The fact that they were walking on the wall across the street on my neighbor's house was enough for me to raise an alarm bell that this is illegal activity going on. They're either casing a joint or they just got done doing something or sealing something. I myself, I'll walking the dogs. I see a woman on the side, something didn't smell right to me, I call the police. We call that a clue. We call it a clue. Walking on the wall. That's

you know these are the you know the people need not to think ah you know I didn't actually see that act happen. Call the police. It can be the non-emergency number. Let the police connect the dots. The fact that Airbnbs exist gives a greater opportunity and there's many other names for them other than Airbnbs. greater opportunities for crime to occur untraced. So that's where I see the greatest efficiency and I would love to hear from Katherine Fernandez Rundle where she feels that there's gaps in our training where we can do better because this is borderless crime. So this is not just city of Coral Gables red roads right over there. We need to deal with this countywide, a comprehensive plan. And and I, you know, I've I've put victims and I've I've connected with not only state but also federal to put victims and witnesses into um protective custody, change their name, give them a new home, move them around. Why? Because they're not going to sit on that witness stand. and they're not going to report the crime because they're too afraid of what's going to happen to them tomorrow if they do so. We have to protect them. So that's where I see the biggest gap and I' and I'd ask you to really take the advice of the state attorney's office of running this human trafficking task force and I'd love to hear from you chief uh further on that uh based upon what I've just said your thoughts. Absolutely. Comm vice mayor, you are you were wise beyond your ears. I what I can tell you is that we have solved a lot of crimes because people have called us on what they thought was suspicious, but we

haven't solved one ever when somebody didn't call us. So, we pick up the pieces after the fact going forward. And the reason why the state attorney and the other chiefs are foring the victims and the human trafficking aren't here in our community yet. They will be brought here. And that is why the focus for FIFA and these events throughout the country are are looking at it both state and federally. I believe and it was mentioned uh previously by some of the people from Salt. This is a model say our state attorney has a model of how we do human trafficking. The police department's a part of it the notifications which is why I say we can do the training. You know what you're looking for. And again that's something the the police the fire department can look at for us. But again, it's letting us know this has been taken care of because the moment that they feel that somebody clicks that trigger, you know, sheepish, um, scared to talk, coached, bruises not consistent with what the call is, it's automatic. And even the officers, the first arriving officers would probably call our human trafficking detective, which is why the training will never keep up with the trends. Madam

no, I I was just going to ask I mean could you reach out to state attorney's office and provide us the recommendations perhaps by the next meeting? Yes. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner.

Um I've been involved in this issue for many years. Uh back in my days in Congress, um I handled all domestic issues for Congresswoman Ross Leighton and we had numerous meetings back then and the vice mayor brings up a great point that was always part of the discussion. I remember we had a a large meeting with um federal, state, and local stakeholders on how to raise awareness on the issue. And it was always about how to bring that information to the people on the ground who are the ones who can bring that information forward and how to put them in a situation where they're not afraid to put to stick their necks out because one of the issues that we had back then, we still have it today, is they were always concerned about bringing up the information and now they have a target on their backs. Um, and I think, you know, these cards, if they were made at some point, the phone number obviously should have been changed if these were uh delivered to the public. Um, because they're not conducive to anything. They're not solving the problem. Uh, I think these two resolutions are no-brainers. Um, Chief, you're always talking about making sure your officers have the right tools. You are as well. I think if there's a tool out there that we can help in doing your job and getting the information, we should try to embrace it. We should bring it in. We should incorporate in any way that we can. Um I think you two are the only ones that I ever go to and I say, "What do we need to include in the budget that will make things easier for you to do your jobs?" All the other departments, I tell them, "Let's find a way to do it in a few years." But with your two departments, I always say, let's find a way to get it done because you are the one that provides safety for our residents. And we have a very large university right here in our city. Beautiful. And those students can be targets of these human traffickers. And that is something that would concern me.

And I want to make sure that we're providing not just Coral Gable's PD, but UMPD with whatever resources are necessary to protect. Going back and and just thinking back on all the the the uh different um meetings that that I've been in on this topic in the past, um you brought up a good point and it's that we can never keep up with what they're doing. And you always say it, you know, for every criminal that we catch, they're trying to find a new way to do it. Uh I remember speaking with Scott Carmichael. Carmichael was the one who brought down Annabel Montes. She was the Cuban spy uh in the the State Department. And it took them 20 years to bring her down. And one of the things that Scott I I drove him around for a few days when he was here in South Florida. One of the things that he told me was the thing that kept me up at night was not the fact that she was doing what she was doing. It was the fact that it took us this long to figure out who it was and the fact that we don't know which others are out there doing the same thing. And I think getting additional training, no-brainer. Let's do it. if there's a way that we can do an awareness event for residents, uh, some training. I know that the state attorney's office does trainings all the time for numerous issues, uh, because they talk about at our crime watch meetings that they're there, they're an active member of of our crime watch. They're always there talking about the different programmings that they offer. Uh, but maybe that's something that they can incorporate into the offerings that they have. Maybe it's something that we can host at the the the public safety building um, and have residents come out. Um, you're always concerned about the information that you're putting out there, too, because you're showing your cards. You know, when you have a deck of Uno cards, you don't want to show your deck so everybody knows what you have to play. And that's always the problem. But

there are markers that we can give people as reference points to say there's something suspicious here. There's a number you can call the police non-emergency number or the number that's provided by our attorney general. I think the attorney general's uh campaign is is an a great campaign that they're launching right now uh for FIFA. You know, it's always talked about and I I bet you a lot of people don't know the one event with the largest prostitution and trafficking events are political uh uh conventions. Uh here we have an event that is an international event that's going to be attracting people from all over the world and not only for smuggling but also for trafficking because they will be targets as well. And I think it is our responsibility to make sure that our team has whatever training is necessary, whatever training is out there. Let's give them that tool. Let's equip them with that tool. Let's get them out there on the streets with everything that they need. you watch these uh television shows, FBI uh FBI Most Wanted, and part of that discussion is always whether the officers at the local level had the training that the FBI uh team did. And I think the campaigns that are that are being offered now and I think state of Florida has been leading on these issues for many years with our task force to ensure that everybody has the same information, everybody's prepared to address whatever issue is out there. Uh I did the ride along a few years back and we had two domestic calls that night and even back then our officers were trained on what to look for and and as we did the the walkthrough they kind of told me these are the markers we're looking for. In fact in one of the residences they arrested both the husband and the wife because they were both bloodied. Um but it's about ensuring that

I thought you were saying something. Um, it's about ensuring that the resources are out there and that our team is ready to address it. And I agree with the vice mayor. There's something that we can do to get the public uh involved. We've done a great job with with the public in the past. Uh, I think our biggest eyes and ears are our public uh out there giving us information. Uh, let's just get them on board on this issue as well and give them some pointers on what we can do. Thank you both for your presentation today. I mean, as everybody here knows, right, how can anybody take a different position? I fully support all of our first responders efforts um to combat human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic violence, right? But these are obviously serious crimes and I understand and know especially by and through your presentations today that our first responders already play play a very crucial role in uh protecting the most vulnerable of our individuals. Um my hesitation though with this resolution um really directed to Commissioner Castro who's the sponsor. It's it's about you know its clarity or its scope not about its goal. You know I think the goal is is laudable. Um the resolution expressly states that it's policy guidance only and it does not create new law. It does not create new funding. It does not create new procedures. So for me that raises a threshold question. What operational change are we looking to um actually make today with this proposed resolution? If the resolution is symbolic, then I question whether we even need a formal resolution. whether that's even necessary if the resolution is intended to influence future enforcement or even nuisance

abatement review focused specifically on the resolutions um then I believe the discussion should occur through a more structured policy process uh with clear safeguards what what I'm hearing through your comprehensive and extensive recounting of what you've been doing and how this is ever evolving and up tothe-m minutee training that's going on for your officers and your first responders is laudable, but I don't see how this particular resolution adds anything to what you all are already doing right now. So, Commissioner Caspro, if there's something in Well, let me ask you this first. Did you speak with uh the chiefs here today? And were you presented with the uh laying out of all of the um protocols, training, policies, procedures that the first responders are trained prior to you bringing this resolution today.

Yeah. And let me go ahead and put a point of clarification, but I'll answer your last question first. That's my only question. Yes. No, no. The first one was that you didn't understand what I was putting forward. But let me ask you that question. I'm just saying the second question. The only question. Okay. Through the mayor,

yes, I reached out to Chief Hudac for some clarification, which I was very satisfied with his response. Number one. Number two, I reached out to Chief Dear Rosa via email and I believe the commission was also copied. I went through all the protocols. I went through what I also noticed that the training was actually an online platform or videos in which you just check mark and that's the training. Me personally, I wasn't satisfied with the level of training. It could be sufficient. Maybe that's that's the norm for me for human trafficking. I think we need something more hands-on. Now, when you say for the two resolutions is F2 and F4. F2 resolution is taking a stance saying that this is our priority and F4 goes into the actual explanation and policy of what training should be and that's the that's the difference between both.

So on on F1 which is where F2

I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no, you no I I just want to you feel you feel that the response was appropriate what I'm dealing with and I'm not capable to understand you want to a feel good resolution today. I'm all for it. I know. I'm all good. I'm fine with it. We're literally spending an hour and 15 minutes on something that literally says more education. I'm all for it. But there's actually nothing nothing of tangible concrete plan of action. There isn't anything no resolution that's being shown. I know it's election season. I know everybody wants to get out there, be able to put things I passed, you know, human trafficking, stop human trafficking. But the people who are the experts here are telling you that they are already doing above and beyond what any other department does. We passed legislation to stop hourly motel. We have a joint enforcement task force with not, by the way, to correct the record because uh somebody said that it's only on a street. No, we actually have it with with West Miami. Correct.

West Miami with 57th Avenue also on two borders of our street. That was also my legislation. So my point is that I just we could talk about this till till the cows come home, but I think what's important is coming back with actual robust legislation that sits down with the two chiefs, not something that was taken. Let's just do something today to do something because we can hit it on social media. We really really have to like drill down and and bring things here that take time, that take work, you know, just it's not about, you know, clicks. So, Commissioner, I just want to I don't want to spend the whole day talking about this. Well, I appreciate that any time that I'm being given to be able to say you can take as much time as you want to say, but it's just

um but that that that you're really encapsulating, you know, where I'm going with this, right? So, while I think that the intent is is uh is laudable, right? I mean, look, I'm a father of three daughters. I have personally worked with Katherine Fernandez Rundle for over a decade on human trafficking um task force. You know, the company I work for and I serve as executive vice president has donate donated hundreds of thousands of dollars, including a billboard on US1 and Southwest 27th Avenue to provide a hotline QR code and to raise awareness precisely during F1, Super Bowl, FIFA upcoming here, right now. So, I mean, I take a personal and professional stance to be more than just against this to do something about this, right? So, this cannot be intended, and I'm expressed as saying it isn't. My lack of support for this resolution, as I said at the beginning, is based upon the fact that it provides nothing tangible to what we already have, but I think it's a great idea to always be focused on it. But if we're intending to do something to affect future law enforcement, we need much more than this resolution.

Yeah, but that's if I may, Commissioner, now you're playing with fire because you know where that's going to end that's going to put you, right? And and I got to have this conversation here in the public. If you vote against this, I promise you. I promise you. My advice to you is just don't do it because tomorrow you will get eviscerated. You are in favor of human trafficking. You're this, you're that. It will be, you know, it will be a destruction just like if you vote, you know. So, so you have to understand I'm just giving you as a person who respects you, who knows what you've done, who knows your efforts and your intentions, which are a good place. What I would hope is that we will use common sense. This is a this is this is basically they're putting a little rat trap there for you. They're dying for you. They're dying for you to just go in there and get your hand caught in the rat trap. They're dying to do it so they can all look at the crowd. They're here. You got the unions in the back. You got this gentleman that's never shown up here before. It's, you know, it's they're they're teeing they're teeing it they're they're they're teeing it up. They're teeing it up for you. They're teeing it up for you here. They're teeing it up for you for for to make this into a circus and to say that we are anti-human trafficking. Even though the legislation says Even though the legislation clearly says it's just more educational. So, I'm just giving you my fair bit of advice that I hate what this has become. This is politics central. Please sit down. This is politics central. Politics central. You have two trained professionals that have told you this is what we're doing. This is the protocols. This is how we're head and shoulders above any other organization in South Florida and this is what we're doing here. What would you what do you think?

I I truly appreciate your concerns for me right as the newest elected commissioner here. Um but a couple of things I'll say and I'll finish on this point. I'm also being a little facicious to a little little bit. Um, you know, I I I trust and know that the two chiefs are here before us today, right? Have given your thoughts, your professional views and opinions independent of any undue influence from anyone. Am I correct in that? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. Because I would take offense if anybody would have thought to the contrary.

I'll finish by saying this. I am not supportive of this resolution as it's currently drafted, but Commissioner Castro, I think that my concerns are things that can be addressed with some more work on it. I would suggest that we work maybe together on an amendment to it that actually accomplishes better, I think, your goal of trying to shore up, address a gap or produce a more robust and effective means of addressing human trafficking. I just feel that the way it is right now doesn't get us anywhere near there. I don't think it moves the needle in any way. Why be symbolic when we have an opportunity to be um effective by putting some actual real teeth in it? So that would be my my my friendly suggestion to do that

before before you before you take the floor. I just want to I want to ask the two chiefs a very simple question. I don't want to belabor the point anymore. I let the the commissioner finish off. Um do you think we are head and shoulders above every other department when it comes to human trafficking education and our efforts to eradicate human trafficking? Chief,

I mean, I think we are ahead of a lot of other departments, smaller than us. I mean, can we always do more? Yeah, but it's going to cost money and resources. I mean, could I put three detectives out there? Uh, so yeah, it's a constant balancing act. and um but commit I mean if if this were to be worked on some more I think there's something that maybe we can all come up with and and the fire chief and I can look at both his I hate to use the word silo but his area of training and my area of training in police and we may be able to come up with something changing for municipalities our size through the mayor.

Yes sir. So, I'd like to move based on what Chief Hudac just said to table this um item so that we can maybe all get together and work on an amendment to it to take into consideration the the points raised by the two chiefs today to make sure that we make a more comprehensive um resolution. So, I I I I would like to move. So, I'm gonna second that based upon my request to have the state attorney's office to weigh in on it because I think we can do some we can do better. I think we can do more. Okay. And I think it's something that has to be addressed. Why? It's a borderless crime

through the through the mayor. I asked to be recognized for that motion. Just give me one second. I mean, I would have moved it, but you you selected somebody besides me when I was talking first. You can play the tape back months and months in the past. It's happened. Same thing's happened before on the other side of the issue. So, we're going to you're going to have your moment now. Uh we have a we have a motion, a second, Mr. Clerk. I know. I know. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Everybody just relax. Remember, we're talking about more education. We're not talking about anything anything here. No, more education. Okay, guys. We have a long item of list item of things to finish up the city with. So, Commissioner Casual, how would you like to finish? Go ahead.

Yes. The before you I wanted to go ahead and response to you because I spent countless hours actually looking at trainings and protocols. Okay. And that is the reason that I wanted Miss Marivi to come up. Do you have a copy of that? I want I want to see what you study. Can you send me? No. No. But not her. She She spoke already. We We give public comment. Said I'm more than That's not public comment. That's my expert testimony and this is my item. I called her up before. I'm so sorry. Please, I have the floor at this point. Okay, commissioner. I'm running the meeting. Let's be respectful. I'm asking. We're not running the meeting, but we're not we're not going to get into the debate. We're not going to get into the debate. You don't have to debate with the floor is mine. Madam city attorney, you I was recognized and the floor is mine. Please let

Mayor, yes, I understand that you've recognized the commissioner, but the mayor does preside over the meeting. He runs the meeting. So in terms of speakers, I think he's said that the speaker has already, you know, her her her time to speak. So what I think we need to figure out the I'm so sorry. The floor is still mine. Please respect that. Like I'm asking you graciously respect that. This is my item. That is not public comment. That is my expert testimony. Okay? There was concerns brought up to this commission. I want her to go ahead and clarify that we have been working on training. That's the only state approved training regarding human trafficking. So please, Miss Martiv, Commissioner,

Commissioner, the city attorney has spoken. Please move finish your statement, please. I'm trying to, but you keep on interrupting me. Mi, can you please explain the training before this motion goes through so that the the commission can hear clear the concerns that they are having through the mayor?

Okay. Can we stop? Stop. I will. Please don't make me do this again. I know you guys want it for the blogs. I know. I know. I'm not going to give it to you today. Okay. The city attorney has spoken. Please, commissioner, I'm begging you. Finish your statement. Finish your statement. Finish your statement. No one else will be speaking except for the chiefs and the people on this d. We're done with public comment. We're done with expert testimony. As a city attorney will tell you, that's the way it works. Please take the time that you need to finish your legislation and let's move forward.

Okay. Commissioner Lada, I have been working on the training. This is only approved training for human trafficking, okay? It's not going to cost us anything. And not only that, but they are going to assist us with state funding. I've worked really hard on this and I've worked hard on it because it means a lot to me, especially having children as you do that are women. Okay? And I've also researched where where the human trafficking the human trafficking is happening. And a lot of it from public records that I've read is in Miami Beach and in the Bickl area and in Airbnbs, not in these hourly motel. What's happening in these hour hourly motel are actually prostitution. So I am very very very involved and I'm not just bringing up a resolution. This is a meaningful one and I would appreciate your support. If I may answer, um I think I think the great thing I think the great thing uh to do is she has all this information. She's not willing to share it here today. She doesn't have it here. The training uh stuff that I guess is happening in other municipalities that are not it's not happening here. Let's get all that information and let's present it at the next commission meeting after the two chiefs have reviewed. Have you have you reviewed the training that she's talking about?

The the training the additional training has the manager, Mr. Manager, have you reviewed any of this additional training? She's talking provided nothing. When I present something, when I present legislation and I say, "I have something." I I provide it to staff. I write a memo to my colleagues, I work on it for a while, and we try to figure it out before we present it that it makes coherent sense. So, you have a lot of ambiguous training. You have a lot of ambiguous facts that again, they're not here. Let's get it on order. Let's present it in a in a in a in a resolution or an ordinance body which has approval from the chiefs that says, "Listen, we're not being redundant on these facts. put it through the manager and we'll bring it forward. I think I'm more than willing to do that. Yes, Commissioner.

Well, I was going to say and not to engage in an extensive back and forth, Commissioner Castro, that one, the reason I asked you whether you had gone through what the presentations we just saw today made by both of the chiefs was for the follow-up question. Was there an area that you, not another surrogate, could address? What you could address is where you believe it came up short in specific training. But I'll withdraw that question because I think that we can work together on making a stronger resolution. As I said before, I think the intent is laudable, but I just think the way it's written right now, you can't get my support, but you will get my support to see if we can make it a better one. And that's why I made my motion.

Yes, ma'am.

All right. Um, government works a lot better when you remove the word I and I'm tired of hearing I. I want to hear results. This is a resolution that sets us on the right track. It may not come attached with a full plan, but it is giving directive to the city manager to get that plan going. We are kicking the can down the road two weeks just because it wasn't our idea. It was Commissioner Castro's idea. That's the reality that we're seeing here. And you know what? I'm fed up with it. Human trafficking victims will benefit from this legislation. Our officers and our firefighters will benefit from the training that comes from this legislation. And because it wasn't somebody's idea in the majority, it's not good enough. Commissioner Castro, thank you for putting this item on the agenda. Thank you for the work that you've done. I think this could have passed and within the next two weeks, a formal plan could have moved forward and if it needed to be codified, it could have been codified. Many items come up here as resolutions without a plan attached showing that the commission supports the action. Instead, we're kicking the can down the road. I'm sorry to the human trafficking victims who are going to suffer because of this. I'm sorry to the members of our community. I'm sorry for our firefighters and our police officers who are going to have to continue to wait for the training that could have helped them during this process.

Your motion is on F4, correct? Or an F2 and F4. Okay. All right.

If I may, thank you for that. Um, just to put some two things on the record. Number one, if you look at F6 and you look at F7 and you look at F8, discussion items are for the commission to talk in the in the sunshine and talk about things and get ideas and put pieces of legislation together and see how we can work together. You also write can write memos amongst each other and you can do a lot of things to try to build legislation and to try to do things that build consensus. Chiefs, that's the that's what you should do. What I recommend chief both chiefs. So the discussion here, the key sticking point here is education. Commissioner Lada says he's going to work with Commissioner Castro on this effort to provide you with more education in regards to human trafficking. You feel comfortable with that

as far as providing more education, more resources? Yeah. Okay. Do you feel that today that if we don't pass this, as Commissioner Fernandez said, that we that victims of human trafficking are going to be further penalized or further put in a bad position as a result of us not passing this legislation today that calls for more education in that context? No, I don't. Okay. All right. I want to make sure if you say that, do you feel the same way or do you feel differently?

So, I'd like to add that um as I mentioned in my presentation, there's always opportunities to improve or gaps that we try to identify. Hence why I tell you that our departments participate in every domestic security task force opportunity that we can be part of because that's where we identify trends. That's where we identify our our gaps. That's where we identify training opportunities or enhance training opportunities. I'm welcome to look at and evaluate along with Chief Hudach whether that training comes from the state attorney's office, whether that training comes from what Commissioner Castro stated or the her expert testimonies. I can say that in the areas that I participated, which are statewide or four counties wide, um I'm interested in looking at the training that is supposedly statec certified and that is presented or that was discussed here today because I'm unaware of it. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It doesn't mean that it can't enhance our response and our education to our first responders. I'm just saying that whether it is through um our local committee amongst EMS chiefs or whether it's at a regional state um folks come before us and provide intelligence sharing or training opportunities or build a better a better collaboration with first responders whether it's uh law enforcement or fire in which issues are discussed. Whether it is um elderly abuse and vulnerability or neglect, whether it is um enhancing our

relationship and support with American heart or the alliance or the of the um for the elderly or um in preparation with special needs victims through hurricanes or autism, folks that have training or provide for training opportunities that can enhance our response in any aspect normally come before us. I invite this group that presented today to come before the fire officers of Miami date EMS subcommittee present their training the validation of that training and if it enhances not mine but regionally wise our training I welcome it as I do with the validated training that can come through law enforcement and that they share with us with the state attorney. I can say however at this moment this is the first I've learned of it.

Chief, thank you very much.

My my biggest concern on the issues as and again I don't know if legally I can do this and that's why I'm I've got questions which I want to work with everybody to answer them. But on specific on F2, u the part where it says acknowledging priorities generated repeated calls for service may warrant review through a nuisance abatement project. I can't agree legally that we that the police department can agree to a nuisance abatement policy. If you all were to put that in to a resolution, it's one of those things that I don't know if I could partake in that as a police department because our statutes and things that we do through our victim advocate program are things that we're allowed to do. So, I I again, I think we all want to get there. Um, you know, here's the one thing, and this goes back to something earlier. The city manager has allowed me and the fire chief to talk with you all individually not to vi violate the sunshaw sunshine. He's understood as my boss that you can call me all directly and I think everyone on this day has when it's come issues. The manager has never stopped me from that. These are conversations that we can have to get where you want to get. Nobody doesn't want to do that. My concern, Commissioner Fernandez, is that there are certain things passed as is that would come back and I would have to tell you all individually. That's not something I can enforce. That's and again, I don't know what the training is. I know of Salt. I know the value that they have, but if we're going to incorporate that as a guide for for this, I'm not there yet. Second part of that, the education part

is we've given that flyer out and we will work through the manager's office and Martha Pantene and my people to start pushing out the awareness. The say see something say say something has worked magnificently for us. This is just a bigger broader picture of it. Right? So that to my point is that's my trepidation of if this is passed the way it is. I don't know how I can answer that. It's it's and we've had this conversation on on ordinances. So what I what I recommend is go back sit down with the chiefs with the manager have a robust discussion say you can bring back something that again offers true value and can offer help to these victims and to like I've done before is try to avoid having any more victims in the future and that's the plan.

We've got 119 days until FIFA starts coming. So we will I will make myself available, Commissioner Castro, Commissioner Lara, and we will bring in our experts, Vice Mayor, and we will put something together in a very timely fashion with the permission of the manager because I don't want it to delay any longer than we have to. for the mayor. Hi, I'll go that. Yes, sir.

For the mayor, uh issues I have is when we see nuisance abasement issues or emergency medical assault human trafficking course. The reason I I asked the the uh the chiefs to provide this presentation which I was didn't even see until right now was that we are doing all these things right now. Can we get better? We will be happy to get better. However, uh I don't want the the public to think that we are not doing anything. Of course, and this is not possible. Our our chiefs are doing a phenomenal job. Our fire department is incredible. Every one of them is a paramedic. Every single one of them. When they see something happening, they immediately work with police, which is which which would be probably there at the same time. So, are we doing these things? If we want to do better, I'll be happy to work with the two chiefs to get to to get something uh to get a resolution that really uh addresses any anything that we can add that we can add. As you as you saw by the presentation, it's extensive the amount of of of work that police and fire do on all these abuse issues, all of them. And and and that is my concern.

Let me then we'll take a vote.

Yeah. So, so briefly, thank you again for um uh illuminating these points, right? All more to the point that, you know, we need to make sure that we look before we leap and that we actually do some more homework before we put forth a resolution that may actually do more harm than it would do any good or at best would actually not move the needle forward one way or another. But I want to make one comment and to you, Commissioner Fernandez, that it um respectfully, you know, I do respect you. I I I think it's pandering of the worst kind to say or to insinuate that my wanting to work together with Commissioner Castro to improve what I think is a laudable but flawed resolution as presently drafted would in any way insinuate that I'm in favor of human trafficking or seeking a way to better their environment to commit the heinous crimes that they do. I take offense to that if that were your insinuation. I don't believe that the chiefs here today would say that the failure to sign this off today um versus not signing it off signing off and and voting for it today would in any way impede what the first responders are doing with respect to evidence that they encounter of any sort of harm or or or victims uh due to human trafficking. I'm certainly I'm hopeful that's not your your suggestion, Commissioner Castro, but to be Commissioner Fernandez, but I am uh I wanted I wanted to be clear that that's that's not my intent.

Go through the mayor. Yes.

Uh just as clarification, that was not uh my comment. My comment was regarding on who brought up the legislation. Um, and on the second point, we've been talking about this issue for an hour and 40 minutes, and this is the first we hear that you have a concern with the actual language and that the manager has concern with the actual language. I discussed this with staff during agenda review. Nobody brought up issues about the language of the resolution at that point either. That is a concern and I think we should address it after this meeting because we've always had an open line of communication. When you've had any issues with any resolution that's come up, you've read them beforehand. and you've come up to me and said this needs to be out. You never brought that up to my attention. I'd appreciate it all of you if in the future there is a concern with any part of the language of a resolution or anything that's on the agenda that I be brought into your concerns beforehand so that I can be aware of those because to this point an hour and 40 minutes into the discussion this is the first I hear of any concern with the language of this resolution.

The mayor briefly brief briefly. Okay. So, Commissioner Fernandez um I I believe that during the course of this discourse that we have on the dis and you yourself have said this before on the dis that during the course of our discussion you're illuminated you've seen things that you didn't see from the first instant right so I would leave the the uh option open that the chiefs listening to our discussion may be looking at it from a different angle and by the way the length of time that we spent discussing this was largely taken up on a very comprehensive um presentation by the two chiefs as well as the uh experts in the area not necessarily in the dialogue in and amongst us on the dis by the way just and when we take it for a vote just so you're aware commissioner so you don't feel feel that left out the chief did not call me and tell me hey I'm worried about x y and z again we had our pre-aggenda meeting we all have our pre-aggenda meetings you're you're more than welcome to ask questions I I had over I had an hourlong pre-aggenda meeting. I sat there. I had conversations. I I asked a very simple question. What like I do with every piece of legislation. What does this legislation do to move the needle? And the answer amongst everyone, well, there's it just calls for more education. I need to understand what type of education, where's the funding coming from? What bill are we looking at in the Senate, the state house? What what's going to be our agenda? How are we going to train these individuals? But at the end of day, all we talk about is how great our police and fire are, how they take it to the next level, how everybody wants to emulate what the city does. And so, uh, moving forward, I think we've discussed this at Nauseium. And I think we're going to come back, we're going to table this item, we have a vote, u, and we'll come back and hopefully deliver something that actually has actually has examples of education that supposedly the state is doing that we're not doing. Uh, maybe

courses that we can take that are not online, maybe they're in person. Um, you know, again, find something that, you know, gives us the warm and fuzzies that this course is going to be, this new education is going to be great. And hopefully at the end of the day, stop human trafficking because that's the goal. That's why I know Fernandez doesn't like it, but I wrote legislation here to stop this from happening. Giving the powers to the police that they never have before, stopping hourly motel, and there is human trafficking across the street. And I will have our police chief who knows more than everybody. Chief, there was a statement here made that across the street on a street human trafficking is not happening. Can we please clarify that please? Human trafficking is

everywhere

happening everywhere and it is not the it is not the traditional I mean they will rent hotel rooms and they will use Adamat. They will go to hotel rooms. Uh I don't want to discuss some of the things that that we use uh tactically but it could be at an Airbnb. So there's there's so many different ways that people will come across people that are being trafficked. But I do want to say, Commissioner, the only person that I had a conversation with was the sponsor of the bill. That was it. I and my boss, the manager, I told him this is the conversation that I had and those issues were I think we addressed back and forth and my concerns were aired. Um quite frankly I was focused on F4 more so than F2 uh with the fire chief and and that's it. Um any other kind of briefings that that goes to the city manager on

So madam vice mayor and then we'll take a vote. I I just have one question for the chiefs because we've had a a wonderful turnout thanks to the fire department for the doggy CPR and everybody was interested in it at the farmers market. If you were if you were provided some time at the farmers market to do a presentation on human trafficking and try to get the hear something, see something more education out there, would you have time to do it here in March before we run out of time for

I mean we would incorporate that into the crime watch group um of which we meet weekly. I can put that or monthly the executive board does but we'll make sure that they're out in there and we'll put that human trafficking again. Those posters that were given were fresh off of the press conference this past week and they will go out again. So I'm referring to the tent that's in the middle. Yes. Yes.

Just like we had the doggy CPR. We can have some, you know, put a banner up there. Provide people with all the the six numbers that that uh the state attorney's office has, the signs that they should be looking for, you know, and things such as is it a short-term rental? Is it a rental piece of property? things like that that people will help make people more aware and perhaps we can get this so we don't worry about the delay in passing this more education for the fire department really getting the more education for the public so they can call in suspicions and let you know what's going on. That's my respectful suggestion. Thank you madam the mayor.

Yes, commissioner. Yeah, be before we go to a vote, I just want to go ahead and and um move on my item too. Just let the commission know we have two options. I know we're going to be voting on one first. I want to go ahead and move on both of my items. And not only that, but I want to go ahead and offer you some ease and maybe remove that word um that was troubling for you. Um Commissioner, if I may, Madam City attorney, can you address the fact of moving on two items, please? So we have a a pending motion. So we can't have another main motion while there's a pending motion. Uh okay. So moving from this. Okay. Uh Mr. Clerk, we have a motion and a second to table this item. Mr. Mayor, confirming we're make uh the motion and the second is to defer both items.

Yes, sir. Okay. Commissioner Castro, no. Commissioner Fernandez, no. Commissioner Lada, yes. Vice Mayor Anderson, yes. I mayor, I feel it needs work.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're moving on to item F5. I'd like to introduce uh Manny Sid from Miami Day County has an amazing staff. Um thank you for being here for Miami County. So to give you a little background in our efforts to streamline the the permitting process and you know continue to evolve, we have a lot of irons in the fire in regards to our permitting department. You're going to see a lot of things coming. I had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. Sid uh last week. I've known him for a long time. Mayor Sid, he doesn't like to be called mayor anymore, but I still call him Mayor and now he's working at the county. And he brought forth some ideas on how we could streamline the process with the city of Coral Gables dealing with the city, excuse me, with Miami Day County. I've spoken to our our city manager and our team members. I wanted to bring before the commission uh so we can have a discussion on it and hopefully implement this simple maneuver which will give us a direct line of communication with Miami County and will streamline the permitting process making it easier for our residents and business community.

Mayor Sid, good to see you. Thank you for being here again.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Commissioners, good to see you all. Uh Manny Sid, the assistant director for local uh small and local business development in Miami Day County. I'm joined by Arianne Oliva, our chief uh one of our chiefs in the regulatory and economic resources department in Miami Day County. And also we have uh one of our directors, Angelique Bastard, uh who runs the small business peritting team. She does a lot in the department, but that team is a national model and several other of our members here that do a great job. Uh Angelique runs the um I mean Arianne manages and created the MEQ program. So, what we're presenting today is the installation of a MEQ kiosk uh within Coral Gables building department workflow. Uh this was the the mayor of Miami Day County Dell Vincava's vision for her second term to collaborate with municipalities because we all know regardless of what city a businesses is in, they're going to need to work with Miami Day County. So, for example, um Coral Gables does not have their own water department. So through MEQ you can meet through those reviewers the water department the W was uh department uh through MEQ virtually same thing the reviewers were durm and so forth and so on. So we started off with a pilot program in the city of Miami Beach and saw incredible success. Uh, one of those stories and the mayor uh, highlighted it in the state of the county address this year was a yogurt shop uh, that utilized the the MEQ kiosk in the city of Miami Beach and they received their permits even through the environmental process uh, within 16 days. So, we saw that this is a scalable solution and so far we have many many cities, five out of the six largest cities in Miami Day County. This morning I was talking to the mayor of Meli and and the uh city manager uh down in Color Bay and there's more and more cities every single day coming on board. But I want to hand it over to Arianne because she runs the day-to-day and she's really

the architect uh behind this program and making sure that there's a seamless process for our municipal partners but more importantly our shared customers. Right? They shouldn't have to leave your building department to do anything in Miami Day County where we can add this within the workflow. Marianne, good afternoon. Thank you for waiting.

Good afternoon. So, essentially the purpose of this project is to bridge the space between our jurisdictions. Oftent times, uh, Oral Gable's homeowners and business owners are told that they need to go to Miami Dade County to receive additional approvals as part of their permitting or their licensing process. So, essentially what we have is we have an online system that has been well established for some time. And what we're trying to do is bring those services closer to their homes, closer to their businesses, so that when they hear that they have to go to Miami Dade County to obtain these approvals, it doesn't seem so daunting. It doesn't seem so scary because we're looking to place these kiosks close to the offices where your experts are providing them this feedback. Um, and with their guidance, they can use this kiosk to sign up for the appropriate service and get a meeting with uh the experts over at Miami Day County to go over any of their requirements and smooth things out so that they can turn around and complete their process right in your offices. Uh essentially we hope that this is something that uh allows people to be uh less scared about getting this information from Miami date county and we're just hoping to provide better services to everyone because uh our customers are are are your customers as well.

Thank you. Um so what I'm trying to see is now that we're working on the city of Coral Gable's permitting site and we're addressing many fronts that the manager and his team uh Mr. Ramirez, for the works, you know, all the teams that are working on this together. It's all all hands on deck to really streamline the process. I'm just trying to bring a solution here from the county because you again, people forget, hey, I got my permit. No, you didn't get your permit. You got to get the county. You got to go to the county, you got to deal with certain things and you got to go to the federal level or state level depending on, you know, if you have to uh health and if you have to obviously you got to go to Durham, you got to go to WASA. But what I want to try to do is I want to try this out as a pilot program and see how efficient it is. See if we're really successful. See if we can really cut weight times. See if we can really offer our residents and our business community an opportunity to basically say maybe they don't have to go to downtown. Maybe our reviewer can immediately sit down and have a conversation with their reviewer online through a portal system with the client there face to face. So I think it's a good opportunity at the end of the day. I don't think it costs really anything to to implement. uh a computer

a computer we have computers uh in storage and I think again um you know I want to hear from the manager I brought it to the manager so what I was telling my colleagues in the commission this is being worked on this is something that you and I met we sat down we had a conversation I met with the manager I met with staff I wanted to have a conversation what are the benefits what are the pros what are the cons is this truly viable does this really work that's when you work on real legislation and you try to pass things to help the community it's proven Because at the end of the day, you're bringing something that is comprehensive, robust. Maybe you get a no vote on it, but at the end of the day, why would you vote no on this? You understand these are good things. And I try to get as many yes votes as possible. So, Mr. Manager, what is your opinion? What can we do? And how can

Mayor, we've already implemented yesterday. So, we're we're implementing this. And if I may suggest something to the to the county, something that I was been working on for I don't want you to suggest one thing. I want to I want you to suggest 50 things. Yes.

Whatever it takes. Um, and something that I actually I worked with the county back when I was in Miami running the Miami building department and that is to be able to submit simultaneously for Coral Gables, Wasa and Durham and that's something that we need to I think I think the county needs to look at their at their IT issues and see if they can elevate them to actually work with us and that would be a real savings. Uh we've implemented this yesterday uh to to help certainly our residents but it would be great if we could have simult we are now working with electronic reviews and the idea is to simultaneously apply to everyone at the same time. We weren't able to do it 10 years ago. We w able to do it now because there's some glitches between day county and it was Miami at the time and corgi was now. So my understanding is that the county is looking at at maybe looking at a different solution for their building department and and for and for re and that would be great if we could uh have a simultaneous application which would be even better than what we're doing now. So mayor so in the in the point that the manager was making as you're aware just putting it or delay individual who may not be involved in permitting construction engineering architecture you can't pull a permit for example you can't get a plumbing approval until they see a stamp approval from the county then that has to come back to the city okay you have approval from the county perfect now we'll give you plumbing approval even though it's already been reviewed by our reviewers and they said that everything is in compliance They have to they'll tell you you'll have one comment left like it happens all the time. You know you get you know you get a structural you get electrical you get you know mechanical you get all the disciplines but then you have plumbing is always the last one. You got to get a county approval then bring it back. The reviewer here sees it says okay perfect. Remove the county comment excuse me remove the the plumbing comment as approved because you have your county

stamp. So I think that that's a good idea because maybe we can save a lot of time while we're waiting on that and we don't have to just get all the stuff in the city was done first. Do you do you have any ideas? Do you have any is is are other cities facing that also? Has that been brought to your attention?

I don't know if Angelique wants to touch upon that but I think one of the challenges that that we have is that we service the largest city in the county, right? It's 1.2 2 million people which is unincorporated date plus all the other trades within all the municipalities and every city has a different system a different process a different code um but there's a lot that's currently happening I don't want to speak out of line a lot that's currently happening internally to streamline the process Arianne's been uh her hand is in in all of that and it's really exciting I think part of what's happening now too is I don't know if you all know Durm is now um its own department when it comes to the scientific ific side of DURM, but the regulatory the actual inspection side uh is lying within RER. So now you're starting to see that side of it getting all streamlined within our internal uh processes uh which again Ariana and her team have done incredible job with that.

So we hope you know to to with this program little by little start that integration um with the these municipalities and the county base. It's a little bit harder. It's it's it sounds easy but it's a little difficult especially with the the the old mainframes and the old systems that exist

if I may in in order to maintain a consistent process and services delivered to all the municipalities that we have to service you know there is some nuance to that but I believe that a lot of the optimizations that you speak of can be also achieved through simple business process changes or maybe even approaching the process in better timing. Um, we already have an online system um at Miami Day County for building permitting. It's actually a system that I created. Um, it's it's available to be expanded as necessary and we have the opportunity and the ability to do that as needed. And so perhaps it might be something more achievable through a discussion about whether or not um we can have your staff or your experts shepherd the process over to us in a specific way um as other municipalities have already embarked on doing. I believe that um City of Miami is currently shephering all of their uh permits over to us through their staff and they've achieved great great gains with that because they are first and foremost involved in the process and then receive all of the communications and then have access to all of the stamped approved plans um themselves that can be then seamlessly incorporated into your plan set as well. So that's something that we can we can talk about.

Perfect. Perfect. Well, we implemented already through the manager's office. Um, if you just kind of if you want to codify it, if you have any other further comments, I'd like to have a motion. I'll move it. Second. Mr. CL, do you have any public comment? All right. First speaker, Maria Cruz. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate you for being here. Thank you so much.

It is Mrs. Maria Cruz, 1447 Miller Road, 305 3232154. I'm fascinated by the way we do things here. Last meeting, two weeks ago, Dr. Ramirez, who I believe is the acting development services director, came here, presented presented the improvement plan for development services two weeks ago. I guess nobody talked to him because two weeks now we have something else that we can do to improve development services. Well, we criticize all the people for not talking, I guess he didn't know you were going to present this today because had he known he would have included to his improvement plan and we wouldn't be talking about it now. You know, it's amazing what some of you are very good at smoking mirrors. We need to work together. You know, did you talk to this one? Did you talk to that one? Did you talk to the police chief? Did you talk to the fire chief? Did you talk to a man? Well, did anybody talk to Doc Ramirez before you brought this up? Oh, no. Because had you talked to him, it would have been on his plan. Hello. Don't use double talk here. This is not 19684 64 whatever the name of the book was

Jackson Holmes.

Greetings. Uh sorry about that. Uh Jackson Holmes 35 Sedonia. Um I um generally support Manny Sid. I supported him for mayor of Miami date county. So, I hope you all will give him uh benefit of the doubt as you consider this. Um, I did unfortunately miss the item that came up H2 earlier because usually the city manager items are at the end, but this came up midway. Uh, I just want to say amen uh and bravo for getting this moving forward, the construction of the mobility hub. My concern is, and I'll I'll quit here. I'm not trying to change things. Um, uh, my concern is let's not let a recession overtake this. There are people who would be glad to derail the mobility hub with the excuse of a recession. So, let's see if we can break ground um and uh before any recession hits us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. That's it, Mr. Mayor. All right. Mr. Mr. Ramirez, would you mind coming up here, sir, for a second through the manager? Just to clear the record as always, um, when did you find out about this? Doug Ramirez, acting development service director. Um, I heard about it Thursday evening or Friday morning when Mr. Manager Egles called me.

The reason why because I met with Manny Sid, I met with Mayor Sid, I think it was on Friday or or t or Thursday. That's when I met with him. So, um, at the end of the day, this is a county program that's being offered. It's being offered. It's complementaryary to what we're doing to the plan, and the whole purpose is to streamline our conversations, uh, with, uh, with Miami County. Do you object to this, sir, in any form or anyway? Absolutely not. I would have brought this to you earlier, but Manny, I'm going to throw you under the bus. Manny only brought it to my attention, uh, last week, and I thought it was a good idea. And by the way, I want to bring good ideas forward to help save as much time as possible for our residents and our business community. I want to thank Mayor Sid for for offering that information to my office. So, thank you for that. The mayor. Yes, sir.

Uh, I just wanted to say that we've always had a great relationship with RER and we will continue to have that and I hope we can work together and just stream streamline the process even more. So, I look forward to working with all of you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate you, Mr. Clerk. We have a motion and a second. Yes, sir. Commissioner Fernandez. Yes. Commissioner L. Yes. Vice Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Castro. Yes. Mayor Lago.

Yes. We're going to take a lunch break. I want to thank uh Mayor Sid and his amazing staff. Thank you for being here. Um I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors. You have you have a lot of you have a lot of work before you u and I want you to please continue working as you were. Thank you very much for graciously uh sending us the information in regards to this uh county project. All of you. Thank you for that. I send my best wishes uh to Mayor Cabba uh for allowing this for this program to happen and I hope that it helps us streamline the process for our residents and our business community. So, thank you very much and also keep tabs please uh mayor Sid keep tabs with the manager because we're revamping our entire permitting system on multi different levels and any guidance or any advice similar to what you sent me this past week is always uh warmly and greatly appreciated. Thank you, sir. We'll be back in about um 2:30. Thank you.

All right. Perfect. Vice Mayor, we're going to take your item next. We're going to take your item next. F6. Yes, ma'am.

We're going to get a hold. We're not on record yet. We're waiting for the manager. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We're good to go. All right, let's get started. Item F6. Yes, ma'am.

F6. I've been speaking with to staff uh for some time about a bicycle rental program and there is a need for it. U we've been mostly talking about a docked type program and I wanted staff uh to not only hear my comments but be able to hear your comments not necessarily now but also in the future. So, I'm going to share with you some of the the discussions that we had and I wanted uh this also to go before the transportation advisory board uh for additional comment as to where we need to have rentals. It became patently obvious to me that we constantly have people that need to borrow bikes to go on bike walk or gables rides. Um so, one location I thought of is at across from the museum. Uh we have a city facility there with parking garage. We could probably, and I'm just saying probably because it's up to staff to try to make recommendations, have a bicycle rental program there. There's other locations throughout our city where rental bikes could be helpful, perhaps at the country club, perhaps at the Venetian pool, maybe over at the plaza. Um, I think we need to have a robust discussion as to where there's some need. Maybe Kurtike Park. You know, these are a lot of may in my mind, but I want staff's recommendation. I want the transportation advisory board's recommendations and I also want the recommendations of my colleagues where you see a need. Where do you see a need? You know, and we want them docked because my personal opinion is we want them dock uh because we don't want them laying all over the sidewalks and blocking uh people. This is this is a useful thing for our city. I think people would enjoy our our city more and you don't necessarily have to own a bicycle and store a bicycle. you can run a bicycle. So that's the long and short of that one. I think I took three minutes to the mayor.

Yes. So I think the I think this is a phenomenal idea. So your concept is not like the the scooters that people just pick up and leave. This would be a pickup at a location and return to that location. I think that's great. The other loc the other location that I would suggest is maybe at the Kurdike Tennis Center uh for folks who come to the Builtmore. you see them walking a lot and trying to find a way to get to downtown uh even to get to the church sometimes. I've given ladies a ride back from the church to the Builtmore after mass um because it's been hot and they've preferred just to to get a ride but maybe if there was a bicycle that that would be an option.

So there is bicycles there but I you know I asked staff to talk to the built more perhaps we can have a cohesive program and we have our experts in front of us. Do you want you want to add something maybe to help give us some guidance in the meantime? Sure. I'll actually let Monica start um and then I I'll chime in. Where Monica? Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, my boss. Um so we've done a little digging into this. Um in my previous life, we had a contract with uh Deco Bike and the sponsor was City Bank. So reached out to them because actually between Miami Beach and Miami, they've had 22 million bike rides. And I thought, you know, if any of those rides came here, it would be so good for the city, right? And actually, they confirmed that there are people that ride even from Miami Beach and definitely from Miami. So the ideal would be to have a system, you have to have a beginning and you have to have an end.

And what would be even better would be to get a sponsor. So, there's no cost to the city and we could negotiate a beneficial uh annual program or something for residents. I've heard from residents that they don't keep bikes because they don't want to have them in their living room or because they've been stolen or because they just want to have access when they want to have access or because we have wonderful events in the city that maybe they want to ride their go to the farmers market, right? Take a stroll, whatever, and then ride back home. So, I reached out to Deco Bike and I said, "What would it take for us to get a sponsorship with city?" We've discussed this with my boss and um he said let me reach out to them. So he did and they said if we could put together a proposal with proposed locations and docking stations and number of bikes that we would like they would evaluate it for a sponsorship and that would be ideal. So what I did was again the direction of the city manager and DCM reached out to different departments of economic development so that we could link it to business parks or recreation so that we could link it to events, right? um development services planning uh departments that that could assist us in determining what are the locations so the city will buy into our program. So um I did speak to Belkus and we thought maybe at the large complexes uh apartment or condominiums that they would have use. And again, you can tailor this to however many bikes

you think you're going to need. So that's where we're at. The uh by speaking to Deco Bike, by the way, they're Miami based business. They they work in about five cities in South Miami or in South Florida. And uh they said they have logged more than 23 million rides, traveled more than 60 million miles, uh burned more than 2.1 billion calories, and resulted in a carbon emission reduction of 54 million pounds. So it would be something good to be here, but the success is going to depend on how we design this. I also asked them there would be no electric bikes

but there would be pedal regular pedal and we could also ask for some pedal uh assisted which is a lower velocity but you could still enjoy that if you wanted a combination and so yeah it looks good working on it.

I'll also add uh vice mayor that I've also reached out to the University of Miami to see if they'd be interested in exploring this as well. So, no, and I appreciate your your homework on it and and I know you know and many some other people know that I do a little bit of biking. So, you know, I've been up on Miami Beach. I've seen how well used they were. I've also been in South Dade. You know, a 20-m ride is kind of like my minimum. Um, so I I think there's an opportunity there. And the reason why I mentioned 20 mile ride, it's it's not for seen that people will take a bike from here and go to the beach. Correct. Or go to South Miami

or Coconut Grove or Pinerest or Pomemetto Bay or Cotler Bay because I've been all the way up and down and it's it's it's enjoyable. The good thing about a city

program um sponsorship is the interoperability, right? So that you could start a ride here and dock in Miami. Miami Beach, Surfside, or wherever you're going. And so that interoperability would be fantastic for us. Um, I must say that the underlying does have a program also through Deco, but a different sponsor and it's a Brazilian bank. Um, and it would be much more limited. So I think that if we combine this also as a first mile last mile so that it would follow with the with the trolley and at the many locations that we could have a very successful program here uh not only as a bike program but also as a service to residents and visitors.

I do have a question. Can we also work with the county to provide uh docking over at some of the rail stations because the trolley is great and it carries a million passengers I understand but it doesn't go everywhere. So perhaps people can you know go from the country club or Builtmore to Douglas station or to University Station leave the bike there and then go elsewhere and we could put it in the proximity because we're that that's all our area as well. So we could put it in the proximity to where you can walk within half a block or something and you're at the Metro Rail station.

And and I'll add we do have a lot of folks that use the trolley that use their bike and then use the bike racks in the front of the trolley. So this will just provide an additional um venue for them to be able to to get to the trolley stop and really act as that first and last mile of our main transit system. So I think it'd be very beneficial and complementaryary of our existing uh transportation systems within the city. So colleagues, this is something else we can collaborate on. We don't have to make all our comments today. You can reach out to staff and provide additional ideas and um you let us know when you can bring it back sooner or better than later. It would be wonderful.

If if we get ideas as to the locations so that we could put together a proposal for city that hopefully they'll bought. If that doesn't happen, I've spoken as well to Deco about alternatives so that we can get some type of sponsorship or something so that it's not expensive to us and it's affordable, especially for residents that would like a program, a long-term program uh for their use. And I'll be presenting at the uh sorry uh Commissioner I'll be presenting at the uh transportation advisory board next month uh giving an overall update on uh our transportation services. So I will bring that up as part of the discussion to get feedback from the transportation advisory board. Commissioner,

we did present it sorry to to the parking advisory board and they were most interested. Okay, commissioner. So I think it's a great idea and I'm glad that we're going to be able to talk a little more about it. But while we're here, does anybody on the dis have an idea about further south like say down on old Cutler if there's a place that would be a good place for it to be originating? Any city property or other idea math? I don't know like Fairchild, right? Because it just seems to me that Mat Yeah, Mat, right? Because that is such a welltraveled area for bikes in particular and um and we can get them maybe to say our residents that live down there, I'll take the bike into downtown,

you know, with that docking system. Anyway, south then madam sir, you're happy fine with this? Um no, I'm happy with it and we can, you know, make sure that the bicycle master plan is updated at the same time providing the best routes. On that note, we'll uh provide an update on that. We are working collaboratively with Melissa and and the public works team and updating uh working with a consultant to update both the parking master plan, trolley master plan, and the bike and ped master plan in unison since they all uh collaborate uh with one another. So, we are working on that and have been having meetings with the consultant that we have on board. Okay. Thank you very much to the mayor.

Yes, sir. Uh thank thank you mayor. Uh the reason we we we were talking to Deco is because Deco is in Miami Beach in Miami and then Corable. So there's a lot of synergy there where where a bike can be can be left off at different docking stations. I think what we can do is is reach out to to Deco and look to see what kind of plan they see as effective for Coral Gables and we can get back with the to the commission on that and see how effective that is. But I think it's important to have so we have Miami Beach, Miami, and Coral Gables. And we have other cities uh further further south. Commissioner Lara, it would be it would be fantastic with having that same that same provider because we could have that first start and end to the uh to the to the uh bicycle route uh from from multiple cities.

All right. Thank you very much. Uh moving on to item F7. and also the vice mayors. U different topic compost. Yes. So this is something we've been in discussions on for what about six months at least. Yes.

And uh when we did the unveiling of the exa Xavier Cordata art piece with the garden club at the library. We met with the library directors, identified a location to to place a centralized uh composting collection facility, and we're coming forward on the next steps. So, I wanted to bring you all up to date on that and have uh Matt Anderson, who's been working diligently on this item, uh provide us an additional update as to when for Earth Month we're going to be able to debut this this beauty. So yes, thank you vice mayor. Uh so we've been reaching out. What we did was my team and I we met with the three companies that operate in the region uh the and got basically pricing from them to see and proposals and we have renewable further earth and compost for life and they all gave us a proposal. Um the two lower costs come in around $6,000 a year for two 45gallon bins to be placed at the Coral Gables library. Uh, one proposer even has a container that we can put it in, design it in a way that has education on there for the residents. And what they're proposing is twice a week pickup uh, in that location. So, I'm currently looking at, they just sent me over a template contract. So, we're we're looking at that right now, reviewing that. I'm going to put that through legal, through uh, procurement uh, through risk uh, and have everyone uh, take a look at that. So, what we're anticipating is launching some I don't have an exact date yet during Earth Month, but we are looking at an event potentially in Earth Month, but also having them do the initial education and outreach of the program at the last farmers market on March 28th. We have our sustainability village. We're going to have upwards of 12 sustainability vendors out at the farmers market and we are inviting the company to come out and kind of help educate the community on this is coming and then we'll have obviously at that time we'll definitely have the date of when we're going to have that official launch over at the library. In addition, um Chelsea and I are going to be meeting with the library um just to go over

final details and get that all ready. So invite Chelsea up to she wants to provide an update on that. Uh yeah. Um so we've had conversations with county commissioner Raquel Regalado who fully supports the program as well. And I'd like to say that we've been in very active conversations with the Coral Gables Library. In fact, I I spoke with the branch manager today who um had invited us to meet with him on site uh to further uh work out the logistics of that. So, we're working with our partners and um we would provide those updates as they've become available. And

as far as funding goes, uh we've identified funding within our city uh sustainability funds to be able to fund it. But because we always want to make our programs go as far as we can with every city dollar, uh we've applied for two grants. one Florida Beverage Association. We've been successful in that before in getting our reverse vending machine that was at the uh the youth center. We applied for a $15,000 grant to start the composting program to see if we can get that funding. We've also recently yesterday submitted a $5,000 grant to keep America beautiful in partnership with Coca-Cola to see if they would uh take that as well. So, in instead of using city funds, if we can then use grant funding to be able to start the program, that's what we're always looking to do. And a lot of the programs that we've started in the city through keep uh Coral Gables Beautiful, we've done at no cost to the city, just staff time. Uh we try to get grants to be able to to to pursue these programs, so it has a minimal impact on the city budget.

That's great. I appreciate all your hard work on that. We'll also be out there um on the last farmers markets uh refreshing everybody because I've had a number of requests on recycling. Yes. that we have a basically show and tell on what to recycle and what not to recycle. So, we'll cover that topic as well. It's going to be a a lot lot to cover that particular there will and and just as an update, I know uh Joe and Karolina and myself, we just toured the new waste management facility up in Pemrook Pines this past week. They had a great event. Uh so, we were able to see the new technology and and that. So, we'll be sharing that with the community as well, uh with the sustainability board. So, a lot to come on that as well. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, moving on to item F8.

Get me again. Um, so we have here F8 are two bills that were introduced uh that the mayor's office asked me to cover. Uh, SP 1422, which brought was was brought to uh by Senator Elana Garcia, I believe, at the Biscane Bay Commission was discussed and and was looking for support. This bill really covers and and really looks into looking at the benefits of coral reefs in our region uh and making sure that we're healthy healthy and effective managed coral reefs can help mitigate risk from flood, climate change, natural disasters, protecting coastal properties. They also provide for risk reduction and having a restoration strategy. It talks about FEMA, how they're responsible for responding to natural natural disasters and providing technical and financial hazard mitigation support and really looking at nature-based solutions and coral reefs as a nature-based solution. And it really designates the protection of the coral reefs within the four county area, Martin, Miami Day, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties. And also goes into detail of the economic benefits of what the coral reefs provide to our region. over six billion dollars annually uh for along the Florida u coral reef region and also mentions the that 98% of our coral reefs have been lost uh due to the various shocks and stretches within the bill. It also has fines for those that cause damage to core reefs and it does it per square meter and fines could be uh up to uh $375,000. So there's a there's a metric on each one. So really looking at protecting and preserving the coral reef system uh within you know within Florida. So, you know, and it does align with a lot of the other policies that we all you all as the commission has taken leaderships on when it comes to the protection of Biscane Bay and how vital that is to our city and to our really to our environment and to our economy. I don't know if Chelsea wanted to add.

So, we really want to uh Chelsea Grenell uh government affairs director. We really want to thank Senator Garcia for bringing this kind of bill forward that falls in line with all the things that we've historically done in the city of Coral Gables. Specifically in 2026, as you all recall, our legislative pri priorities or policy priorities includes a section that talks about protection of the environment um which includes Biscane Bay. If you all like, I can refine that to also include Biscane Bay and our coral reef/marine life, which has also been a conversation that you guys have brought to the table sever several times. Um, furthermore, um, the commission can direct us to work on a resolution in support of um of that Senate bill. So, it's up to you all um and we're here to help with that.

So, that's why I put the item on the agenda. Thank you to staff. Thank you both of you. I wanted to get again buying from my colleagues before I put it on the next agenda and make sure it was something that you guys were fine with. Again, benign issue, something simple like I mentioned before we were having a conversation. Let's build dialogue. Let's build robust legislation. Let's do things the right way, have conversations. Um, and I think this is an opportunity in the next commission meeting uh to bring this forward uh if everybody's in favor of it. And I also agree with you, Chelsea. We should um we should uh uh revamp uh our legislative priorities to include this. Yes, ma'am. I I would agree. I fully support that. Okay. Absolutely. All right. Good.

To the mayor, can we take a vote on adding it to the legislative priority since we're already on the uh session's already moving through quickly, so I'll move it. I'll second. All right. All in favor? I All right. So, we'll have uh the team draft uh legislation for next commission meeting to put this on the agenda. Thank you to both of you. Good work. Thanks. Moving on to Mr. Clerk. One last item. Correct. Item F3. F3.

All right. Thank you. F3 is a resolution of the city commission affirming support for the preservation of the Miami Dade urban development boundary as it currently exists to protect downstream water resources including the bis the Biscane aquifer regional groundwater supplies and connected coastal waters as well as the Everglaz wetlands and agricultural lands. Urging Miami Day County Board of County Commissioners to reject the proposed development outside the UDB. Urging the Florida state legislature to oppose any legislation that would weaken the UDB and the Miami Day County Charter. encouraging advancement of attainable and workforce housing within the UDB to address housing affordability without expanding development into environmentally sensitive lands, adding preservation of the UDB to the city's legislative priorities, and further directing the city clerk to transmit a copy of this resolution to Miami County Board of County Commissioner, speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, the president of the Florida Senate, Miami State Legislative Delegation, all other municipalities of the Miami Day County, and the city's lobbying team.

Thank you, city attorney, for reading this um resolution into the record. This one should be very fast and very simple. Basically, this is about protecting our waterline. I I understand that this is this is we're not on the western edge. However, water quality and supply are regional. Um this resolution is not about stopping progress. It's really defining the progress responsibly. Um it's so important to protect our water, our environment, and our taxpayers while encouraging smart growth where infrastructure already exists. That's it. I'll move it. If I may, I just want to add something very quickly. Mr. Kirk, motion and a second for I apologize. Who second it?

Thank you. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Um uh Mr. Clerk,

Mr. Could we have um we have I have an item that I want to put up on the a graphic. There's a graphic that I have for item F3. Okay. So this is this is why again I want to be very clear. I do not support moving the UDB line. I have fought to not move the UDB line on multiple occasions. I went and fought against the highway that is currently under litigation. I went and spoke at the county against that. I'm very clear that I do not believe in moving you to Beline. I believe in vertical development, not horizontal development. When you do horizontal development, you have to spend more in regards to infrastructure on all fronts. police, fire, drainage, water, everything. But I believe as a city, we should not we should not get ourselves involved in this. Before Commissioner Castro got this resolution, this was sent to me by Mayor Cava. I told her, "Thank you very much. I agree with you, but I will not be embarking in this back and forth. This is a county issue. Let me explain to you two very simple points. Very simple points." Okay. Number one, in 2017, Miami Day County engineers and the county were going to transform this 250 plus acre site into a new wastewater treatment plant on the same site. It was blocked by a lawsuit, but the intention of the county at that point was to develop that site. If you look around that site right now, there's already truck parking on that on the other side of the UDB line. There's already extensive warehouses that are on the other side where the A36 is. And there's a lot of different pieces of infrastructure that are going up in that area. Okay. The UDB line is not our fight. I believe that we should steer clear. What's the second and final point then we can take a vote unless any further comment is that look what happened to us with the RTZ. with the RTC, we invoked they they invoked it on on on on uh on the city

and we had to come and basically put together our own RTZ overlay to minimize the damage in my belief that would have happened to the city in regards to impact fees, usage, signage, setbacks, heights. I think this is a county issue that we have two very competent uh county commissioners, Commissioner Regalado and Commissioner Orbis that they are dealing with this issue. It is currently going back and forth and we haven't even seen the final we haven't even seen the final end of what could potentially be proposed. It went before the it went before the commission which it already has commission approval. The mayor vetoed it and it was going back before the county and they were negotiating some final terms. So to me I think that we need to stay in our lane on this issue. I do not believe in moving the UDB line but I do not believe that we should have at this current moment a vote on this issue especially after the battle we went through in regards to the RTZ through

the mayor. Yes. You know, normally I I I'm 100% on on board with not getting involved in things that are outside of our area. Um I do believe that this will affect us though um indirectly. Any infringement that we continue to make towards the Everglades are going to have an impact uh on our um weather here in South Florida, on our accessibility to water. Um it's been an issue for many, many years. Um, I worked for many years on trying to stop the encroachment into the Everglades and try to restore uh the Everglades to what it was. Any movement of that UDB line further west will continue to impact um what has always been the state of Florida and our uh access to to water. Um for many years, we've been trying to restore the natural water flow. We raised the um Tamiami Trail in order to allow for part of it. Um it's a project that just didn't have enough funding to continue all the way through the project. Uh but that wa natural water flow was supposed to come from the north central Florida area all the way down into Florida Bay and unfortunately we haven't been able to get there. So I I do think that long term for the residents of Coral Gables, this is something that that could affect us. Um so I I think we should take a stand on this issue just in in in support of future generations that that will see the impacts of any encroachment into into that that area.

Commissioner Lada. No, I'm ready to vote. I'm ready to vote. Okay.

I'm just going to add a few additional comments as the DB line continue to go west, our traffic increased. And the more asphalt we put over um areas where we can have natural percolation and recharge of the Biscane aquifer, the less fresh water we're going to have recharging the Biscane aquifer. There's a lot of folks that don't understand that. They think that the Florian aquifer is also a water supply, but it's really brackish. It's below the Biscane aquifer. We're blessed to have it. Um, so I do feel strongly about this item. I uh there was a previous attempt to expand the UDB in another direction on very low-lying pieces of property. I did express my opinion to our county commissioners. Uh the vote was changed after that. Uh it might have been my voice. It might have been somebody else's voice, but I think collectively we we need to let uh the county commission know that, you know, we're concerned. Um I'd rather do see infill. We have a lot of property that is not developed to its optimum within our within not, you know, within Miami Dade County and that there should be other locations that were not going to be impacting the recharge of the Biscane AR. So that's why I I moved in and um Commissioner Castro's item as I felt very strongly about

to the mayor. Yes. I truly appreciate your support and I know exactly where you're coming from. I um I also want to encourage my colleagues and the people that are watching residents to go ahead and read the opinion piece that I posted in community community newspaper regarding this subject in particular week weeks back. But this is this is fairly important to me. Mr. Clerk, we have a motion, a second. Yes, Mr. Mayor. I also have a member of the public requesting to speak on the item. Yes. Maria Cruz. Commissioner L. Yes. Vice Mayor Anderson? Yes. Commissioner Castro? Yes. Commissioner Fernandez? Yes. Mayor Lago? Yes.

Madam Vice Mayor, anything good for the order

this Saturday? Just a couple things. When we have the farmers market, there's some wonderful vendors out there. I hope everybody enjoys it. Crime Watch is going to be out there. They have these reflective bands. You can go pick up. Um, we did have a neighbor who likes to walk out in the street, unfortunately, get hit by a vehicle. These things light up. Uh, avail yourself of that as well. Uh, the Dolphins Cancer Challenge ride is also this Saturday. Uh, I will be out there. I urge people to support those who are writing, make a donation. It's a great cause and um I look forward to our next meeting. So, thank you,

Commissioner C. Yeah, I look forward to our next meeting as well. Um, Billy, did you get two videos from my Oh, God. We did receive one. We received one video.

Let me Okay, so the first one is on on Saturday when I'm hearing there's this dolphin thing. Oh, that's not what I'm talking about. But okay, we'll put we'll put that. This is a dog walk. This is a dog walk. It was very successful. I think there was more than 70 um dogs that attended and um I just wanted to show a little bit of all the businesses that were really displayed on Miracle Mile. There was some businesses that without me contacting them at all, they they just came out and started giving testers of their restaurants, like in the food court when you go to a mall. Um to the people that were walking by, I had a very very large large crowd which I was very happy with. In fact, Bliss was out there too putting putting little bowls of water for the dogs. I'm very thankful to them. Not only that, they gave people like little fans because it was fairly hot. So, I'm very thankful for them. This is not something that was coordinated, but I do encourage other businesses to go ahead if you want to give testers so people taste your food and you can promote. This is a very um complimentary way to to expose your business. Um the other thing is I want to go ahead and remind everyone that on Saturday there is another well there's a comm there you go there's a community run. So, if you want to come with me and run, I encourage you to um live a healthy lifestyle and meet your neighbors. It's this Saturday at 10 in the morning in front of the park. Commission.

Yes. So, a couple things. Just reminding everybody, we have the upcoming uh Carnival on the Mile March 7 and 8, I do believe, which is an amazing event. Look forward to that each year. We also have um and I haven't been able to go recently, but I plan on going to the upcoming Gables Gallery night. It's the first Friday of the month. That's a great opportunity. The weather's outstanding to be able to enjoy the city beautiful outside and maybe if you're lucky, put on a sweater. The last thing I'd like to just uh remi remind reminisce or I guess comment on is how outstanding and how encouraging and uplifting it was the um celebration that we had the recognition of the month of Ramadan here in the uh courtyard at city hall. It was so well attended. I think all in attendance were pleasantly surprised of how enthusiastic um the community was to come out to that event. I thought our mayor spoke beautifully. I think it was wonderful to have all members of our commission present for that event and uh and I definitely learned quite a bit about uh that particular religious holiday and and that's really keeping in the spirit of the city's ongoing recognition of the other major faiths, you know, when it comes to Christmas and as well as Hanukkah. So, uh kudos to all in particular the city staff who did such an amazing job putting together a beautiful, beautiful presentation, too. Um, so I I echo your comments. I think the Ramadan event was an incredible community building uh opportunity. Uh, and our staff did a phenomenal job. Um, the food was uh I didn't get to try it. I heard it was very good.

Me neither. Um, but um, but I wasn't fasting. I wasn't fasting either. Uh but it was it was a great opportunity and um it was great to see some members of the community that maybe had uh some animosity towards actions that we had taken in the past come together and be joyful about what we were doing that day. Uh and it was a great opportunity to come together and really uh celebrate what Ramadan is all about which is about building community. Um question for the manager. Next commission meeting, are we at the new location or are we still here? Because I know the commission is moving tomorrow. The March meeting will be uh at the CMR from now on. Will be meetings will be at the CMR.

Okay. So for residents who are going to be coming in, the next meeting will begin at uh the public uh safety building at the community meeting room. Uh and the commission uh will be moving as of tomorrow. So if you're going to be meeting with us, uh check with our staff just to see where we will be uh uh during our next meeting. Thank you. Uh Mr. Ker. photos that I wanted to show last night.

Well, we'll wait for those. So, um I welcome everyone to Mayor. Yes, these.

No, no, not those. Those are just some things. Well, you know, you can put those on. Be nice to show those. So, those are some things that we found in the neighborhood this week in my neighborhood on Saturday. Um sent over. As you can tell, those are my my uh text messages with uh the DCM. Uh those are on Miller specifically. I'm getting a lot of calls from residents on Miller about how certain homes uh just the amount of things that are put outside the houses and and the actual um lack of the homes being properly maintained. But this weekend, it wasn't about the maint the the homes on Miller or just the appearance of these homes. was about uh you had an abandoned boat and if you can see the date of the date of the uh text messages that was on Saturday on Saturday I sent that uh that boat to uh the DCM with the address. Uh code enforcement went out there. Code enforcement find them. U but that boat remained till I think it was till Tuesday, right? Till today.

Yeah, they're still there. You can also see on the f on the top left you'll see a table that was there and there was a bunch of other items that later propped up but I didn't want to take more pictures and bother the DCM over the weekend I bothered him enough with all the stuff that the residents send me and try to resolve. So this is an example one of the items that was used in the last election against me. One of the things I want to be very very clear I will continue to do this when the residents call me to address their issues. I won't stop. Um, we say we're residents first. We work 247, seven days a week. As a DCM will tell you, this is critically important to maintaining the character of our city. Mr. Mr. Clerk, there's also some other

I have. Yeah, I put those up.

So, I'm very proud of this. This is a project that I've been working on for a few years. The project is finally done. And I know we don't like to use the word I, but I am very proud of this. Very proud of the amount of money that we spent on this, the investment that we made, the fact that staff did a wonderful job, and the fact that this was this was requested by the the community for many, many years. I worked on this with the ACM, the DCM, the manager, our staff for years of this project. And I want to thank them for the hard work. And I'm also honored that my colleagues approved my naming of the park be the David Lawrence Junior and Family Park. I ask you to come out on Saturday, March 14th. It's a community event. Parking is going to be an issue. So, I ask people just like you're going to have to park at a friend's house and walk or maybe we can the shuttle. There's going to be a shuttle, but some people don't want to take the shuttle. Let's be let's be thoughtful and cognizant of of the community. You can maybe you can maybe park on on ponds on ponds next to the underline and walk. There's going to be some parking there, but I think it's going to be a lot of overflow. It's going to be a lot of people. Uh David is beloved. So, I want people to get there. Mr. Clerk, anything else I have for you?

Yes. Okay. One more. If cable TV could share my screen.

All right. So, this is from last night. Um, I show you this picture because these pictures because we are failing to to truly shine a light on what happened 30 30 years ago today. My father took me 30 years ago to a march after the four brothers to the rescue pilots were shot down by Raul Castro. It's already proven. It's a proven fact by the United States government and international agencies that Ro Castro gave the order to knock down these poor Americans, Cuban Americans who were uh in American waters and they were shot down and killed. Uh last night was an amazing turnout at the FIU memorial. I was there with my father and the tax collector Diaz Fernandez. We also had Representative Risk Scott's representative there. There was many political prisoners. There was many plant that were there. uh many members of Abdala, Elio, Lin, it was well represented the community. There was hundreds of people there last night and um the community came out not only in remembrance and in a candle lit vigil as you can see in the top, but it also came out in request of what our congressman and our senators are doing asking for Raul Castle to be indicted. But I also wanted to mention something that's just important as the indictment and also remembering these four individuals that were lost is I want to give thanks to President Trump and to our Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Uh they have been leading in our hemisphere like they've never been led before. When you look at issues like Venezuela, when you look at issues like Cuba, you look at issues like Venezuela, Chile, Nicarawa, uh, and I I know that I'm forgetting countries, Argentina, we've seen a real change in our hemisphere. We've seen a change for democracy, for human rights, and it has taken real tough leadership. Whether you're on the left or the right, it doesn't matter. We're all for democracy, and we're all for human rights, and we're all for free speech. And we have to give credit where credit is due. And as a proud member of St. Augustine Catholic Church. It's always

an honor to see the Secretary of State there. Uh he's one of us in this community and doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat or you're a Republican or independent. It doesn't matter. He's one of us. He's a guy who came from West Miami and is trying to do the best job he possibly can to ensure our way of life, especially in this hemisphere. So, I want to congratulate uh the Secretary of State for his efforts and I hope that people get involved because today is 30 years since those f those planes were knocked down. So if you get a chance to learn a little bit about u brothers to the rescue um you know could have happened to anybody. One of my one of my family member very close friends uh a lady was one of one of the was one of the pilots of her brothers to the rescue. Uh thank God that she was spared. She was not shot down that day but she did many many visions u trips in search of Cubans that were in the middle of the ocean searching freedom in hopes of freedom. Uh it's a terrible terrible uh situation that uh those families have had to live through over the last 30 years and I hope that an indictment of Ro Castro will bring some comfort and peace. It'll never it'll never truly make them whole and you can never expect that the loss of a son. Um but uh but hopefully hopefully this moment will bring some peace and tranquility to those families. So God bless them. Um Mr. Clerk, anything else that I have there? Anything else?

I don't have anything else.

All right. Well, I'll me I'll mention these few things and I welcome everyone to please join me. I'll be having a town hall on March 9th as I do every year twice a year at 5:30 in the public safety building. The supervisor of elections will be there, Alina Garcia. She will present she will present uh the ballot process and the city attorney will answer any questions on the ballots. Then we'll open it up to have a discussion on the referendums or anything that deals with the city. It'll probably be about a 30-minute presentation in between the city attorney and our Lena Garcia. We're blessed to have her. She's also done some videos on behalf of our office to educate individuals to come out and vote in the April referendum's election. And then we'll open up to have a conversation on all the issues that are pertinent to the city. Um, one of the commissioners already mentioned it, but I'm very proud to say that this is our last commission meeting here for the next few years. Um, there was a challenge that was made to to to get this building in order. It's 100 years old and we're going to meet that challenge. We're going to deal with it head on. And I'm proud to say that I never left this building. I never left this building. I never left my office. I've held office hours every Friday. I met with residents. My team has been here. We never left this office. No matter when the comments were made that this building was falling, this building was never falling. As our DCM so eloquently stated in the commission floor, uh, we're here and now we leave to bring this old beautiful building back to its original splendor, its original glory. Challenge made, challenge accepted, and we will get it done because we have the best team to deliver on it. So, I want to congratulate the manager, the DCM, the ACM, public works, all the directors, all our staff. This is a lift that's made possible through your hard work, and this is a monumental moment in our city. And I want to congratulate you. We may never be back again truly at the end of the day uh in reference to I may never be back here, but I think it's the right thing to do

for future generations to make sure that we protect this amazing amazing uh building. Um by the way, I'll be moving my office hours this Friday, February 27th, and the new address is 234 Morca Avenue. I want to commend the manager, the DCM, the ACM, the entire team. I met with him, Ray Mundo, the public works department, the city architects, everyone that had a hand in it. Uh, the offices look incredible. You did a wonderful job. I think the residents are going to be very happy with the new offices. Uh, so I commend you for your hard work. Seamless transition. I'll be out of my office probably in the next few days and I'll be uh 2:30 for Morca for office hours on Friday. So, thank you for that. Well, seamless. No one skipped a beat. Two last things I want to uh mention that today's Stephanie's birthday. Happy birthday, Stephanie.

I don't know where she's at. She's around here somewhere. Uh an amazing city attorney that we're blessed to have here. Today's her birthday. So, wish her a happy birthday when you see her. And in closing, uh we are in the middle of Lent. It's a beautiful moment for us Catholics. Um it's a moment for, you know, repentance. It's a moment to think about who we are as Catholics, who we are as humans, who we are as members of this community. I want to wish all of uh my Catholic members along with my Ramadan members of this community a beautiful season. Uh this is a moment to enjoy yourselves. Enjoy yourselves. Uh bask and understand uh why we're here and why we're blessed to live in this wonderful country and to live in this wonderful community. And uh this is a moment for community and to truly be amongst the family and friends. So, God bless all of you and thank you for allowing me the honor to serve you and I look forward to our next meeting, not at city hall, but at the public safety building.

Yes, madam vice mayor.

So, I just wanted to thank you for going out to FIU and supporting the city in that event. And um I had the um honor to represent uh one of the victims of terrorism. And I just want to remind people that uh it's not just those the the brave pilots that got shut down, but also the fact that Ro Castro and um Castro regime had placed in our midst, you know, people that infiltrated brothers to the rescue, married an individual that was a member of our community, um who didn't know that they were dealing with the Cuban regime. um you know, inform it and that that person is back in in Cuba as a hero and that uh Cuba is and as long as the current regime is in in place always be a state sponsor of terrorism right at our doorstep. So, thank you. And I'm happy you mentioned that because you know you never

you've talked about it privately but you one day I would love for people to really get a better understanding of the case

and the battle that you won in the courts which is a legendary a legendary battle not only for Cubans but for for Americans for people who who live and fight for freedom for human rights uh for free Cuba to ensure our way of life here our constitution. Uh so that case that you were involved in is one is one two was they're they're two for the ages. They're two for the ages. So I want to commend you and one of the things that besides and I'm happy something came to to mind and I touched upon it before. I got to meet I got to meet some of the most impressive individuals both men and women yesterday who who I've met many of them before. Um I've had Dr. Bet who was over 15 years in prison uh in in in my house in my parents house on multiple occasions. He's still in Cuba. Um, I've met, you know, I met Daniel Fer yesterday, which I've had conversations with him on the phone, but I've never had the pleasure and honor of meeting him. Um, he's a good friend of my fathers. My father's been supporting him for a long time. Uh, yesterday I got to meet a lot of the members of Llantos. You haven't heard about Llantos. I've met a few of them. Uh, but these are resilient individuals. You know, people who, you know, when you talk to them, there's a smile on their face. And some of them were tortured, mistreated for years and years and years. And when you talk about them, they talk about this country, about America. They talk about freedom. They talk about the love. They have a love affair with what the United States of America is. And I sat there and I listened to them, you know, for a little while before the event commenced. And you know, it really puts things into perspective, like really puts things into perspective. Uh, and the manager and my father, my father came to visit on office hours on Friday, and it was just coincided that you were there speaking to me about an issue at the end of the day. And it was beautiful for you and not many people know this but for the manager to tell his family story along with my father and share that you know my grandfather was a political prisoner all the things that have happened in your uh in your family's life in regards to them being political prisoners and it that story is the story is who we are

and it's it's it's in our makeup it's in our bones and it's in our DNA and at the end of the day you know we see it so close but as Americans you know we want that freedom for my grandparents that are long gone you know I want my parents to be able to see something as beautiful as that. So, um, again, it's a privilege. It's a privilege to to represent the city and, uh, I want to thank you for allowing me the privilege and I look forward to seeing all all of you at the next at the public safety building. Thank you and God bless. Thank you very much.