City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The mayor has called the meeting to order. Mayor Roscoe.

Present.

Council Member Bracken.

Here.

Council Member Kaplan.

Here.

Council Member London. Vice Mayor Sardinas. Here. Council Member Stoner. Present. Council Member Boscos.

Here.

Mr. Mayor, we do have a quorum. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. We have an invocation by Pastor Tony Gowdy, Crossbridge Church, Key Biscayne.

Good evening. Hey, Nancy. How are you? Let's pray. Gracious God, we are thankful for the opportunity to gather today and for the responsibility we share to serve others well. We ask for wisdom beyond our own understanding, for clarity in our decisions, and for hearts marked by integrity, compassion, and courage. Help us to listen well, speak with respect, and to seek the good of all, especially those most affected by the choices made in this room. We ask for your guidance and your peace as we move forward together. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Next item, brief comments by counsel.

As I said at the State of the Village, I would forget something, and I did, and that was to thank our clerk, who does a marvelous job putting the whole thing together, so.

And the certificate givers, outers.

Yes, everyone did a great job. Okay, let's go to public comments. Melissa Jimenez.

I am coming with quite a group. Thank you, everybody, to be here. Just a quick question. Last time that I attended one of these.

Your name and address, please.

I have to, exactly. I wanted to ask if I have to give my name and address. Okay. My name is Melissa Yauri Jimenez, and I live at 177 Ocean Lane Drive, apartment 106, Key Biscayne, Florida. I am here representing approximately 24 families whose children are currently in eighth grade at Key Biscayne K-8 Center. Last year, when families from Class of 2025 received their mass admission results, very few students were accepted on March 15. Many were placed on a wait list for at least two months, creating significant uncertainty for both the family and the children. As a result, several families were forced to make the difficult decision to leave Key Biscayne. We are here today to respectfully ask for your support in ensuring that our children are given a fair opportunity and appropriate priority, please. So we do not experience the same situation again. Many of these students are also applied to Catholic schools. They worked extremely hard, but due to intense competition, only few were admitted. And even those spots are uncertain. Families are very worried. For the past three years, my friend Agustina and I have served as room parents and have worked tirelessly to build community and keep families engaged. Today, we're simply asking that you stand with our children. We are not here to create any type of conflict. We do not want any repercussions. We believe in our kids, and we believe in working together. And that's what we've been doing for a very long time. Thank you very much for your time. We sincerely hope that when the results come in March, our families can finally receive positive news and we as parents can finally breathe and relax. Thank you so much. And thank you for all the work that you've done here in the key for this purpose and all the other purpose that I know it's a lot.

Thank you very much. Next, Monica Ordonez.

Good evening. I'm Monica Ordonez, 141 Crandon, apartment 234. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm a mother of two boys, ages 15 and 17, who have grown up in Key Biscayne Soccer Club. Our youngest began in PUE, progressed through intramural, and since 2018 has been part of the competitive program. Each level has played an important role in developing him as a player through merit-based competition. I am here tonight because it is concerning to hear a commissioner with voting authority publicly express a preferred outcome before the VAB has completed its evaluation. In a recent Islander News article, Commissioner Stoner stated that the village's role should be limited to intramural soccer and that families seeking higher level play should look off island. Our youngest son currently plays in the 2010 academy level. His team was here a few weeks ago. They finished 20, 25, ranked number one in the nation through God's soccer. We won regionals last year and will complete in nationals again this summer. As he enters his junior and senior year of high school, it is disheartening to think that the village may end the very program that has taught him discipline, accountability, and hard work. Suggesting these players simply look elsewhere for a team ignores a reality that many will not find comparable opportunities, not to mention that you would be taking away their chance to represent their home team, a club they have given their all since many were five years old. Key Biscayne Soccer Club fosters a unique community environment where children grow alongside classmates and neighbors, strengthening social bonds while developing athletically. Over 1,000 children participate in this program. Rather than limiting access or penalizing kids for the program's popularity, the village should explore options on how to expand field capacity and meet growing demand for soccer and other sports. Key Biscayne Soccer Club is one of the main reasons my family loves Key Biscayne. It has helped shape our children to responsible young adults and has given us friendships that we now consider family. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Lee Oden.

Lee Oden, 200 Ocean Lane Drive, apartment 405. I am speaking about a topic of other business, what the village will do for the World Cup. The January 13 council meeting announced the committee is at work. I am asking that the next council meeting have the committee report on its planning. Creating the village, mast, the shoreline, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on resiliency, some were or are better dreams than others, but the village was willing to thoroughly investigate them all. I had a very, very tiny dream about the World Cup, and I am not sure that the village thoroughly investigated it. Last spring, I proposed my dream. Last fall, my dream was rejected. On both my proposal and my reply to the rejection, I copied the same council member. I am summarizing my dream, which can be considered as two separate components. Everyone in the village should be for component one, which is sell thousands of t-shirts for the benefit of Key Biscayne soccer teams. I leave it to experienced licensing lawyers, but I believe some version of the below could easily be done. The back of the shirt would be like those shirts many of us bought at rock concerts that listed all the tour dates. These would list all the games to be played in Miami. The front and potential additional back design would be selected after a t-shirt contest similar to that of the July 4th competition. When the final design is announced, orders will begin. These could be shirts in Key Biscayne blue. But there would be various country colors, such as those of the US, Argentina, Brazil. There would be no country lettering and no soccer federation markings, just colors. If having country flag colors were a licensing issue, the shirts could be in various solid colors. I could imagine various release dates. I could imagine shirts purchased by soccer players, students, families. I could imagine many of us owning many shirts. And when I hear of unhappiness because children cannot play soccer where and when they want, I suggest these shirts would help unite youth soccer. My dream and vision that shirt orders would already have begun. With four months to go, I believe the village can still design and sell many shirts for the benefit of Key Biscayne soccer. Component two is showing at least the Miami games on one or more large screens on our soccer fields. Component two can be rejected because of various constraints, licensing, cost, staffing, security. but it offers the opportunity for a shared community experience and very likely will help local businesses. I expect the Key Biscayne July 4th celebration will be extra special for the country's 250th year. The village could consider the World Cup as part of a month-long 250th celebration.

Mr. Oden, can you wrap up? Thank you. Thank you so much. Good input. Next speaker, Fabian Rivero.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Fabian Rivero. I live at Harbor Lane, 690 Harbor Lane. I'm here to speak as well as just our fellow neighbor about the soccer recreational club that we have here in Key Biscayne. I just want to speak from my personal experience. We moved to Key Biscayne in 2022, and I'd say if not the main reason, one of the most important reasons was actually the soccer club that we have here. Our oldest son, we have three kids, 12, 8, and 4. Our oldest son started practicing and came, showed up to the soccer events and to the soccer trainings and everything that was going on. And he just loved it. And after we started house hunting here in Miami, it was a must that we had to move to Key Biscayne because that's where we knew that our son and the other fellow sons as well, they were going to be very happy about it. And if we ask me today, one of the cornerstones of us feeling how we feel in Key Biscayne and loving Key Biscayne the way we do is actually the soccer club. And that's a big part. And that's cornerstone of the community sense that we have in Key Biscayne. If you ask me, one of the main differences of Key Biscayne as a neighborhood here in Miami is is that sense of community. And a big part of that sense of community is the soccer club that we have here today. Again, I have three kids. They're all practicing sports here. They're very happy they're part of a team they're recreational and competitive as well, which is very important, helping them develop different skills. And they just love it and we want to continue with the same club, we have today, I think that it should be used as and we need building blocks to improve what we have today. For example, as it was just mentioned that we need more fields and everything else will continue improving, but on top of what we have today not destroying something that's very important for us as a community. and not only for the kids, but for parents as well, because part of us parents getting that sense of community and being part of it and also getting to know the parents and the neighbors that live here in Keepskein with us is actually showing part and being part of that soccer clubs that we have with our kids through our kids here in Keepskein. So please let's build on top of that and let's not destroy something that's very important for us and for that sense of community that we have today here in Keepskein.

Thank you. Next speaker, Sandy Wallen.

It's my first time doing this. My name is Sandy Wallen. I live at 270 Hampton Lane, and we've lived there for 36 years with our four daughters. Now I have three of my grandchildren living with me. They're boys. I have... seven grandkids, one girl, six boys. So needless to say, I know nothing about boys. But what I have come to learn is you cannot have a front yard with soccer players, with baseball players. They're constantly out there digging holes with their shoes. So over the past five years, my husband Peter and I have, we had a pristine garden when the girls were growing up. Now it's just a dirt pit. And I just don't know what to do. Last year we changed, we planted grass two times. Every time, it's thousands of dollars. So this time I said we have to think of something that would be safe and environmentally pleasing to the neighbors, because I'm sure my neighbors would be the first ones to say that she needs the grass. So anyway, I wanted to show you that I did some research. And this grass is one of the most natural looking grass. It has a little bit of like a brown in it. So from this side, it's it would be to the street, and this side would be to the house. So you have the nicer view from the street, which is really nice, in my opinion. So I think that's just about it. And the kids can play on it. My six grandchildren, boys, will be very happy. And I'm so sorry that I am up here speaking about my own kids when everybody else is speaking about other children and soccer. My one grandchild, Pierce, is on the Key Biscayne soccer team, traveling soccer team. So we always like to keep the community happy, and I appreciate the aesthetics of it, but this would be something that, some way to keep the community happy being my neighbor.

Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Okay, we got a family affair here. Julian Joffre.

Good evening council members. I'm Julian Joffrey from 710 North Master Drive. First, I want to thank you guys for your time tonight. I'm here to talk about the Key Biscayne Soccer Club. So I've been in the club since Pee Wee is three years old. And since I've been there, I've graduated from Pee Wee to travel and all the way to the academy team. And I've just always been so happy to pass by Village Green and see all the coaches I've always had in those early days, and they've always motivated me when I went to competitive travel. And it's always been nice to know that we've always been such a big, nice family. For the last five years in competitive travel, I was part of the B teams, and I learned how to compete, develop at the pace that was right for me, and become a disciplined student athlete and have a lot of fun along the way. My coaches have always been supportive and motivating. My goal has always been to make the Academy team, and this year I did. Throughout the year, we've done a lot of achievements. And last weekend, we even made nationals. And we'll be supporting and we'll be representing Key Biscayne, Utah this July. When I read in the Islander News that the idea that was shared by council to me looking about having academy teams leave the island, I was quite shocked. Right now, I can manage my schoolwork, soccer well, but having to leave the island is quite hard for me to manage all that. And also, if I'd have to leave the island, I won't be able to play with my friends from Key Biscayne and representing my home when I compete. The Key Biscayne Soccer Club has always been one big family to us, and many of us don't want to break it apart. This program has always been effective for all levels, and our hope is to stay together from peewee to competitive. I truly think that we can reach goals that we set for each other, and my teammates and I are proof of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Julianne. Great job. Okay, now Ricky Joffrey.

That's a tough act to follow.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle it.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Ricky Joffrey, 710 North Masha. My message is very simple. It's more of a public service announcement to our soccer community and our community at large. I'm a part of a parent committee, along with Elena Almador, and we act as liaisons for parents to the club. We offer ourselves as an avenue for parents to express any issues concerns, suggestions, anonymously, which is a concept I take very seriously, and so does Elena, if they choose. I believe getting more awareness of mine and Elena's availability to our soccer community goes a long way towards building stronger relationships all around including with the Village Council. So in light of all this, I'm going to ask Marcelo to go ahead and send out our information, our contact information to our community so that it's easily accessible, as there's a lot of focus on this right now. And I hope that people take it seriously. Whenever there is some issue or conflict or something that needs to be brought to the attention that might be sensitive, that somebody might not want to bring directly to the club, but maybe as somebody who's been involved with the club as long as he was three. So with that, thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Dana Joffrey.

I saved the best Joffrey for last tonight, unless Lourdes comes up. Dana Joffrey, 710 North Mashta. Good evening, council members. Thank you for your time tonight. The current review process of the Key Biscayne soccer program has come as quite a surprise to many soccer club parents. We've had numerous conversations wondering why the council would choose to put a successful 15-year program under review. Hundreds of families, including my own, are very pleased with the current management. and my family in particular has been part of the club for 11 years. During the January council meeting and last week's Village Athletic Board meeting, we heard statements that issues have arisen and not all families are happy. As a former team manager for my son's teams for five years, I understand that no program is perfect. However, I believe the most productive first step when concerns arise is to open a dialogue directly with the club to understand and address specific issues. Moving straight to a formal review without that ground-level conversation creates uncertainty and concern among the families who rely on and support this program. As my husband mentioned, currently there is a two-person parent panel that allows families to raise concerns anonymously. if they're uncomfortable going directly to the club. Over the years as a team manager, I've facilitated many parent meetings, and the club leadership has consistently been open-minded and responsive in working towards solutions. Since this review is already underway, I respectfully suggest that the council consider holding a concurrent roundtable discussion with families who have shared concerns. Including the club's management in these conversations would ensure transparency, encourage collaboration, and lead to more constructive outcomes. Skipping this step makes the process feel incomplete and leaves many of us with more questions than answers. It doesn't seem effective to potentially modify or replace a longstanding successful program without first engaging directly with the people who run it and the families it serves. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you for coming. Wendy Hernandez.

Good evening, and thank you for allowing me to speak. Before joining, keep your name and address. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Yes. Wendy Hernandez, 119 Southwest 21st Road, Miami, Florida 33129. Thank you. Before joining Key Biscayne Soccer Club, my son Adam tried out for four or five different clubs. We approached this process very intentionally. Our number one priority was not prestige, branding, or promises. It was whether or not the club operated as a true program, not simply a bid for new registrations. And that is what we found at KBSC. From the very beginning, the difference was clear. The trials were intentional. The staff knew exactly why they were evaluating Adam, what role they were looking to fill, and how he might fit in with the team. No other club demonstrated that level of care, clarity, or purpose during the trial process. I also want to be clear that Adam was offered roster spots at several top tier clubs, including positions on top level teams. We made a deliberate decision not to pursue those offers because they would have placed him in environments where development was second to roster depth, and that was not the case here. In KBC, we saw something far more valuable, a program that genuinely recognized him, understood how to develop him, and was willing to invest in his growth. That balance between player, role, and development is exactly what youth sports should be. Adam tried out alongside recreational players from within the club as well as players from outside the organization. He was selected through a process that was clearly purposeful and deliberate. The administration even scheduled friendly matches with the existing team to ensure that the boys being selected had real chemistry with those already on the roster. In my experience, this level of diligence is rare, even among major clubs. No one else did this. I have been part of other clubs. I have been recruited. I have been sold promises. And that includes programs with international recognition, where the name alone carries weight, but the substance did not compare to what we found here. What sets KBC apart is that it has been genuine, transparent, and consistently centered on what is best for the children, not what looks good on paper. I continue to be impressed by the investment made in these boys, from physical training partnerships like 54D, all offered at no additional cost, to engaging with platforms that help players meaningfully connect with coaches as they pursue collegiate opportunities. These are not superficial additions. They reflect thoughtful, long-term commitment to the player. This is our first year at KBSC. Our only regret is not giving this club a chance earlier in Adam's soccer journey. We have something special here, an incredible gem. And I say this with confidence because I have experienced different levels of youth soccer. This is exceptional, not because branding or promises, but because of the people, the leadership, and the integrity of the program as it currently exists. I respectfully urge you to protect what is working. Sometimes you don't realize how good you have it until it's gone. Please don't let that happen here. Thank you very much. And Adam just wants to read a short little thing that he wrote.

Hi, my name is Adam, and I'm 12 years old. I play on the U13 Elites team at Key B. Skane Soccer Club. When I tried out, the coaches really paid attention to me and helped me understand how I could improve. I feel supported here, and I've grown a lot as a player and as a teammate. This club makes me want to work harder and be better every day. I hope I can keep playing and developing here with my coaches and my team. Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Adam. Adam looks like he's 18, all right?

Must be feeling good.

All right. Sophia Cheka.

Good evening, my name is Sofia Chica and I live at 345 Westwood Drive in Key Biscayne. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. I'm here to represent the girls who play soccer in Key Biscayne. I started playing in this club when I was seven years old and over the years I have made a lot of improvement, not only as a player but as a teammate and a person. Girls soccer is an important part of our community and every week girls across Key Biscayne show up to practice ready to work hard learn and improve. We train seriously, support our teammates and play with pride for our village. My team is like one big family. We encourage each other, push each other to be better and celebrate together. As players, we are motivated to keep improving and to help make the girls program more competitive. So we can continue growing our skills and proudly represent Key Biscayne. while appreciating everything that already exists in our club. Soccer teaches us more than just a sport. It teaches us teamwork, responsibility, confidence, and leadership. Through soccer, girls learn how to set goals, stay disciplined, and believe in themselves, both on and off the field. The girls who play soccer in Key Biscayne are committed and motivated, and with continued support, we can keep growing the program, improving our skills, and representing our community in a positive way. Thank you for listening, and thank you for supporting youth, sports, and girls soccer in Key Biscayne.

Thank you, Sophia. Thank you. Elena Amador.

Good evening. My name is Elena Amador. I was named already by Ricky. And your address? 230 Sunrise Drive. Thank you. I'm a mom of four children. Three of them have played competitive soccer at the Key Biscayne Soccer Club. So I know how this, you know, goes. But now I talk as the team manager of the girls elite team, which is Sophie's team as well. So as well, I'm part of the parent committee, which really we enjoy having this extra communication with parents. And if it needs to be anonymous, it is like that. But it's an open conversation always to serve and to have a better communication between parents. I want to take a moment to express my strong support for the girls competitive program at the Key Biscayne Soccer Club. My daughter has been part of this club since she was six years old. It's the same team that Sophie named. The core team of these girls has been together since Pee Wee. Then they grew together as being the first competitive girls soccer at U9. And then they now have a very strong elite team in playing a U13. They are competing in state cup this current year. Over the years, soccer has become much more than a sport for her and for my family and many families in the community. It has been a place where, now I'm going to talk specifically for my daughter, a place where she can learn discipline and confidence. She's now in U13, and what makes her group truly special is what I just said about the core team. that they have been growing up together, competing, and side-to-side building strong bonds and trust in each other. And that wouldn't be possible if the Key Biscayne Soccer Club hadn't been supporting the girls' team and the girls' program. This competitive program gives our girls the opportunity to challenge themselves, learn how to have a you know, to face losses and character inside and outside the field. I truly believe this program is essential to their development. I am grateful to the coaches, the club, and the families that make this possible. Thank you.

Thank you. Andy Herrera.

Andy Herrera, 923 Crandon Boulevard. Good evening, council, village manager, and village attorney. It's a pleasure for me to be here tonight and listen to all these wonderful opinions and belief of our community about the Key Biscayne Soccer Club. I'm here tonight not to say all the good things about that. I'm here more to express transparency, especially to address to the village attorney this main concern that I have in the past related to the Keynes-Higgins Rocket Club, preserving high standards in any future RFP process. As part of any future review or quotation request for proposal, we respectfully urge the council, staff, and advisory bodies not to downgrade or to dilute the professional, operational, and developmental standards required of any prospective vendor. If the village elect to explore alternative providers pressing expect that any such provider will be required to meet or exit the high-proven standards demonstrated under the current QSK socket crop program leadership, including comprehensive program management, certified professional coaching, age-appropriate player development pathways, financial and operational capacity, and documented records of success, at both expenditure and competitive levels. Lowering qualification thresholds, redefining or structuring an RFP in a manner that accommodates less qualified applicants or bidders aligned with outside interests will risk and undermine the program quality for public confidence. The community's interest is not to reinvent the wheel. but to protect and build a model that has been independent and validated through many years with participations and good results. The second point I would like to bring is something that is really stronger. Conflict of interest safeguard during the council discussions, seconding, and policy direction. We also respectfully request heightened attention to conflict of interest safeguard at the council level, particularly during discussion, motions, and seconding of motion and policy directions related to the Keep Scaling Soccer program and the implementation. When council members participate in shaping, advancing, and seconding or directing the views of policy actions that may materially affect a long-standing vendor program, it's essential that any actual or perceived overlapping interests be clearly disclosed and appropriately managed. This includes situations where the council member may be a professional, organization, or program involved in youth, recreation, after school activities, or sports activities that could be reasonably perceived as an interest with decisions affecting the KBC soccer program. Even where no proper intent exists, participation in discussion, seconding, or policy directions on the social good can create an appearance of divided loyalty, which may be undermining public confidence and the fairness of the neutrality of the process. Best governance practices, therefore, are called for clear disclosure, careful separation of roles, and consideration of recusal. where appropriate and particularly at the earliest stage where the policy discretion is being framed.

And the wrap-up.

Ensuring that council, the relations and implementation directives are free from both an outward perceived conflict of interest, protects the integrity of the process, the credibility of the council, and the trust of the community, especially when decisions affect only your children's and a successful contract compliance program. Thank you so much. Thank you. And hopefully you guys will implement and listen. All this is very important for the future of the program.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. And especially for you, Mr. Attorney.

Okay. That's all I have on the sucker. Just so you know, it's not on the agenda today. We appreciate your coming out and giving us your input. You're the liaison, right?

I am the liaison. Can I make a comment?

Yeah, go ahead. I think that would be appropriate.

One comment, and that is I have not espoused, I think something I said was misinterpreted and turned into some misinformation. I have not espoused dismantling the program, and I have not espoused and do not suggest that the elite and club level go off the key. I did bring up the question of whether we should restructure the program, and honestly, we have not had an opportunity to understand and investigate and explore what restructuring means. So I know the suggestion might be raise concerns, but no one has to worry that they have to go off the key or they're going to lose their coach, because that is not what we are going to be looking at. And nothing is going to happen without input from the community. As a matter of fact, later on in the meeting, I am going to request that the council set a workshop on this issue. So thank you for your concern.

And the VAB will continue to be involved as a sounding board. Okay. Thank you all for coming.

Mr. Mayor, may I address the two issues? One was the eighth grade KBK and MAST and then also the one World Cup. Just to give an update to the individual. Okay. All right. Just for an update for the public. So we are, as we did last year, and a few ladies in the front row, are working very closely with MAST. And last year, obviously, we changed a little bit what we did, and MAST had to catch up with a new principal. But we will be meeting with him in two weeks so that we're going to start really early. So we'll make sure we work on that. And secondly, I think it was Mr. Oden, we do have a World Cup committee in place. Todd is working that. And if he, I don't see him, but if he would get with Todd, we'd be happy to get his ideas as part of the committee to get these going. And we're excited about celebrating the World Cup, our 250th anniversary, and Key Biscayne's 35th anniversary, all three of them.

Excellent.

What Sandy wants, I think, is... To be able to do this, I think we have a zoning code which says you can't do it, correct? Right, on the front yard. So her avenue was to file for a variance. Is that the idea? What does she do now if she wants this? That's what she's here for.

Yeah, why don't you talk with Jeremy? Okay. Do you have a sidebar with Jeremy? And see if we can help you out. Thank you.

Go talk to Jeremy.

You're welcome.

How do we join the committee about the soccer club that you say is going to be formed? Who should we reach out to?

I think what the councilwoman is proposing is to have a workshop. That will be open to the public. That will be announced. We always announce everything on Village Connect. We announce it at the entrance. It'll go through different channels. Thank you.

I'm sure that Todd will let Marcelo know, so he'll let the club know.

Okay.

Thank you. All right. And last but not least, Luis de la Cruz.

Thank you.

OK, a little change of pace. First, I want to say that, obviously, I am very much in favor of the Resolution 10A. After 15 years of talking almost every meeting about undergrounding, I am hoping that you guys will finally make the decision tonight to proceed with undergrounding our power. I don't know what the discussions have been with regards to Comcast and AT&T and such. But personally, if I was in charge, I know what I would be doing. And it would be negotiating with them maybe something different than what they have until now. Anyway, thank you so much for bringing that up. I'm pretty sure that it's going to pass. So excellent. Just as important as that. is making a decision with regards to our storm drainage. We presently have a very qualified, very experienced engineer putting together the right plan for the village of Key Biscayne. And I urge all of you to get this plan going as soon as possible. It has to happen very quickly because of certain things. First of all, there's an election in November. And if that plan was not to be the successor of the other stuff that had been discussed before, there is plenty of people that are very excited about a referendum. I wouldn't want to have to have a referendum. I know what a referendum does to the community. Unfortunately, it may be the only way to get reality and to get the right things done here at this particular time. But in order to do that, there's time limitations where You have to put, you know, obviously you have to hire counsel. You have to put together an ordinance that you're going to propose in the referendum. And you have to do that way before November. So I really strongly suggest that by March 10th, you guys make this decision. And I know that it's hard for you guys to make decisions. But this one is a very important one. Because if not, a lot of people are going to be up in arms. And a lot of people are going to be back and forth with each other. It's not going to be a nice thing here. And I really, really want to get past this issue. It's the right thing to do for the village of Key Biscayne. I am absolutely sure of that. Please, let's get it done. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, public comments is complete.

The next item is the agenda, approval deferrals, additions, deletions, substitutions, and withdrawals. I have an addition.

For council comments, a discussion about a workshop for soccer.

I also have an addition. I'd like to introduce an item.

Okay, hold on, hold on. Discussion.

I also have some items that.

Soccer. Workshop, I guess. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, Fernando.

I'd like to introduce a discussion item on traffic calming.

Discussion on traffic calming?

Yes, village-wide traffic calming.

Calming, okay. Very good.

Ed? I have, I think you all have copies, which I sent you about an hour ago, but I guess I should read them for the record. One, a motion for our attorney to draft to advance the decision date to determine the plan, either ACOM or GIT, to be used to improve storm surge range in zone one to a meeting date no later than March 10th, 2026. Two, to modify the resolution concerning undergrounding. A, to delay the vote on motion until after or at the same time the decision on which storm surge plan is decided but no later than March 10th, 2026. B, to clarify the undergrounding decision to only include complete undergrounding and not to consider the hybrid system originally proposed by FP&L. I think what's proposed here is open-ended, so therefore I want to make it clear that we're just talking about complete undergrounding, not a hybrid. C, to include Zone 1 and to prioritize Zone 1 for construction. And then third, to request the manager direct his code compliance department to survey all street crossing intersections in Key Biscayne for compliance with the setbacks in our zoning code. This is primarily because the sight lines were very dangerous at a number of intersections. a notify all property owners who are not in compliance and be Provide a list to all council members of non-conforming property and council consider proper remedial action for non-conforming properties So these are the things the three items. Okay. Thank you.

These are three discussion items.

Yes Well, actually I need a do we need a a What do we do? Your motion. The motion to get Chad to write up a resolution for the next meeting. We'll discuss it when we get there. Okay, then you make a motion afterwards. And you can make a motion.

Thank you. Or it could be by consensus. It doesn't have to be by a motion. Okay.

Right. Picking up on the manager's item at 11A1.

Okay.

I wish to... suggest that we add a response to his request okay uh this would go at item 10c seems logical place to park it to reconsider the uh two quote requirement on purchasing okay at or under six thousand dollars as the your discussion item This is going to result in a motion to take this action.

Yes, I understand. We don't need a formal resolution for that, but you can leave it there if you'd like, just under a motion. A motion to reconsider is fine. Okay.

All those in favor of the agenda?

One more thing, Mr. Mayor, before we would. I'd like to... proposed a change to 10 a which is the underground and to remove the words for zones 2 through 8 this is intended to be an entire village-wide program it's not supposed to be limited to 2 through 8 so it should be all eight zones okay Steve would you would you consider also modifying it to just include undergrounding specifically not I think by the absence of any other word

Well, I think there's some concern about possible ambiguity there.

Well, I think that's probably better discussed when the item comes up. Okay. That is mine just to modify the words, and then obviously that can be a discussion amongst council. Thank you. If they choose to do it. Very good.

Okay.

All those in favor of the agenda changes?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries.

All right, next item.

The next item is a special presentation, recognition of fire rescue personnel for exemplary life-saving efforts. Chief Fernandez.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Joe Fernandez, Fire Chief. This evening, we're here to recognize the outstanding actions of members of the Key Biscayne Fire Rescue Department for their response to a critical incident involving an electrocution and a three-story fall. In a memo from Captain Dunphy to Chief Feeney, he wrote, on December 16, 2025, at approximately 12, 12 PM, crews from Key Rescue 1, Key Engine 2, and Car 40 responded to a report of a worker exposed to an electrical transmission line who had fallen from a significant height. The responding personnel were Captain Dunphy, Lieutenant Campos, Lieutenant Perez, Driver Engineer Costler, Driver Engineer Hotchkiss, Firefighter Costa, Firefighter Trujillo, and Firefighter Lima. The crews arrived on scene within three minutes and encountered a patient in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. They immediately secured the scene, initiated a trauma alert, rapidly assessed and stabilized the patient, and recognized the need for immediate transport to a level one trauma center. Through disciplined teamwork and controlled urgency, scene time was kept to under 10 minutes. Subsequent medical evaluation confirmed the patient had sustained severe internal injuries The crew's rapid decision-making, seamless coordination, and timely transport unquestionably contributed to the patient's survival. While the long-term prognosis was initially uncertain, their actions provided the patient with a fighting chance. The victim came in contact with high tension power lines, fell 30 feet, received countless surgeries requiring him to reach the maximum amount of units of blood to keep him alive before toxicity. In recognition for their professionalism, teamwork, and lifesaving efforts under high risk conditions, it's my honor to present a letter of commendation to these members. In addition to the official commendation, they will also be receiving the unit citation award and ribbon given to an entire unit or crew for displaying the highest level of performance as a combined team. An added note is the patient is now out of the ICU, in the plastic surgery unit, out of danger and has no physical or cognitive deficits. In recognition for that, we are presenting them with the letter of commendation and a unit citation and ribbon. And you can see a picture where they went back to visit the patient. This is about a month in, about a month ago. It's about almost two months now since the event occurred. But this is what you invest in, the level of training and equipment that you have. an absolute success and a man that's going to live a successful and productive life because of what you do and what the crew members do. So thank you. And Mayor and Council, if we can present them and take a photo. Yeah. We'd just like to.

Let's go down. Captain Thomas Dunphy.

That's what makes the job worth it. That's what makes the job worth it.

All right, let's...

The next item is the Advisory Board Annual Report Presentations, Art in Public Places Board.

Lourdes. You can talk about soccer, right? Yeah.

after you saw my whole family here today. I'm not gonna talk about soccer. All right. So, I'm Lourdes Joffrey Collette, 430 Grand Bay Drive, PH1C, Key Biscayne. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. I'm happy to report that the Village of Key Biscayne Art in Public Places had a productive year. And it's not the end. We're going forward. Out of eight Beria Plazas, five have been beautifully restored. The remaining three, will be completed in the next couple of months. And they're really beautiful, and we're getting a lot of good comments on the plaza. So next steps, we're applying for additional funding from the National Endowment of the Arts grants. to restore to its original glory the Monaco reflecting pools by Sarah Morris. Additionally, we really need an education program to put forward all we're doing in the community and hope to teach and entice people to join in different ways. We need funding though. for an educational consultant to help bring programming awareness for the artwork, to inspire our children to love and appreciate art, and one day become members of the board. We also need funding for lighting for Jim Drain's sundial gnome, the sculpture in the park. that everybody stands up on. Frankly, we need to bring new resources so we can commission new projects to make our key Biscayne art program the best. And we can do it with your help. And I'm glad it only took a couple of minutes.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

But if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer.

Appreciate all the work that your group does. They do a great job.

Thank you. Thank you.

Who's the liaison? That would be me. Okay. Proudly. Proudly, yes.

The Village Athletics Advisory Board presentation.

Good evening. Jimmy Lee, 445 Grand Bay Drive. Some tough acts to follow there, huh? Thanks for having me up here. So as you know, I'm the chair of the Village Athletic Board and took over for Glenn Waldman last year, who did this for over 25 years. Great, amazing service that he'd given to Key Biscayne. Married to my beautiful wife, Kiersey, who's here in the audience. I have three children who grew up here on the Key, 23-year-old who graduated college, living in New York City now, working private credit. I've got a freshman in college, my daughter, who's at Cornell University. I still have a 13-year-old here playing sports, but all of them played sports here. Soccer? Soccer, for sure. We can talk about that. We can keep going. But overall, I think, as we all know, sports is life. I've really enjoyed all these years living here and all my kids and myself playing sports here. It's just a great community to have that. So my kids played everything from tackle football to baseball to volleyball to soccer and t-ball and baseball. So it's a great thing. But overall, I have the pleasure of serving on my board with me is Ken Cotto, who just recently, over the last couple of weeks, just stepped down. So we need a replacement mayor, if you don't mind. Paul Zuccherini, Sylvia Zavala, Sandra Mejia, Austin McQuillan, and Jamie Tompkins. So great board that we have here. Obviously, there's some people talking about soccer, but we'll come to a good conclusion working with Nancy very, very closely. and making sure that we come to some good resolutions with soccer. Again, you know, looking through it, it's a review year. We're going to go through everything together and we'll find the best solution for everything.

Yeah. And I'm sure you will work very closely with the liaison who's interested in just making this program better.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

So.

Absolutely. We're in lockstep on researching and improving. Exactly. Exactly.

So we are, since the board was incepted in 2008, we're here to give an update on what happened last year. A couple things that we do on an ongoing basis, plus what we did last year as well to kind of improve everything here on the key in terms of athletics. On an ongoing basis, we review all the program's budgets and proposed structures so that we can make it beneficial for Key Biscayne residents. We provide recommendations for athletic program, capital improvements. So for example, KB, K8 improvement on the basketball courts, which we cut the ribbon for, in addition to the St. Agnes fields, which we also cut the ribbon for. Beautiful improvements. We needed those. And I think that if we can continue to find great spaces and court spaces, field spaces, it'll improve sports overall. I think our community has changed. A lot more families here and demographically. now than it was in the past so you know we do need to find more space and we're working very closely with everybody in those different committees to see if we can find more space. We provide recommendations for increased volunteer participation in all athletic programs. We try to have a board member at each one of the parent meetings whenever the season starts to encourage all the parents to go out there and volunteer more. I think Oscar knows this very well. And we go out there and we try to volunteer and give examples of doing this. And this is a great thing for the community to continue as well. improve, try to find improved ways of getting surveys. So, you know, we want all the parents and everybody involved in every one of the sports to give us good feedback on, you know, the seasons that they had just participated in. So we're trying to find better ways to go out there. We've even had people walk around with iPads and literally get the surveys at the moment as opposed to waiting for them to get emailed. You know, so those are things that we want to get you know, improvements on and get feedback immediately from parents. We conduct pre- and post-season interviews with all the athletic program directors to get their plans and their feedback on their season. We provide a couple of board members to participate in RFP processes whenever there's a renewal upcoming. in terms of their contracts. Recently selected a new volleyball head, Josh Dallenberg, great job. He's done a great job improving the program and taking over for Joanna and team that did a great job as well. But overall, I think that there's just a lot more to go in terms of that. So lacrosse is also being decided upon as we speak. And we're trying to get more feedback to improve increased participation. So Key Biscayne Community Center, we're actually putting a lot more banners up and a lot more kind of advertisements on that television right in front of the gym. And I think it's improving a lot more participation and getting people up there to sign up for these sports. Sometimes they're not aware of it, and when they see it on the screen, I think it's better for all of them to say, wow, it's interesting that there's something available. So that's something we're doing. And then obviously we're currently reviewing the soccer program, the contract amendments to improve the governance of soccer in general. And then also with Nancy's leadership, we're going out there and trying to find if there's a need to restructure anything within the program in order to get things better for soccer overall. Obviously, you heard the passion of a lot of the people coming up here and talking about soccer. It's a great program. But we do need and everybody in general of all of our sports programs need improvement. And this is a great way to approach it. So I'm jealous of this village council because you guys always have great participation. And I encourage a lot of our Key Biscayne residents to come out further and into our boards. Our next meeting is February 23rd. and I want more and more people out there giving us feedback on how we can improve these programs.

Thank you. Thank you. If I could have the privilege to look at 11B1. I see that my nominee to fill this slot is here, Ernie Cambo. So if we have consensus of a council, he's got a very, very elaborate resume in sports, so I think it would be a good addition. That's my nomination. Sounds good. Okay. Consensus of council.

Consensus of council.

Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. First ordinance.

The next item is the first reading of an ordinance of the Village of Key Biscayne, Florida, amending Section 25-31, Business Tax Schedule of Chapter 25 of the Village Code of Ordinances to increase the business tax receipt schedule rates, providing for severability, providing for codification, providing for conflicts, and providing for an effective date.

Move. Second.

Thank you.

Go ahead. Good evening, Council. Jeremy Kraus-Gauger, Building Zoning and Planning Director, and overseeing code compliance where most of our work with business tax receipts resides. So this is a proposal to increase the rates by 5%, which is the maximum allowed by our code and the state code. This is a request that's following two and a half years ago. We raised them 5% as well, but it had been 20-plus years prior to that since we had raised them. So our rates are significantly lower than other municipalities, any other municipality. So this is an effort to have this be a little bit more of a self-funded program because there is quite a bit of enforcement from when we have new businesses and there's levels of review for to make sure the type of use is compatible with the building and the zoning regulations as well as recurring for checking things for like seat counts or occupancy loads. So this is an important touchpoint, the business tax receipts, for making sure we're preventative compliance so we don't have to do code enforcement. We can keep it compliant.

Great questions. What kind of compliance are we talking about?

So this could be... Anything where you're making sure a type of business is suitable for that location. So, for instance, if you have a change of use from, say, an office used to more than education use, we would be inquiring whether the building is suitable for children. There's different codes that apply that there's. In a case like that, that there's outdoor space for the children per county code, those kinds of requirements. If there's a change of use to a restaurant, then we would be looking at grease traps and making sure they're compliant with WASDE regulations.

Don't they have to do that when they get a building permit, say, to become a restaurant and change the thing?

Yes, but if you have a different type of restaurant or if you have the same building but a different type of use, That's in and not all of the you don't necessarily need a building permit for changes that would occur in a type of change of use so in those instances the btr is the is the backstop to check those so they don't get a btr how would you know the change he is.

They get a btr that's how that's how we that's that's how we do it guy has whatever it is now only changes the use but he doesn't go get another btr how do you know he change he is.

Well, if he doesn't, so we would check from year to year, and we check the businesses to make sure that they have anybody that's registered. How do you check? I mean, our code team is out in the community checking on these things.

So does every business get visited once a year to determine what they're doing?

Not necessarily. Not necessarily. We don't have like, because we have so many, the BTR also includes like occupational licenses. It includes home businesses. So we're not doing door-to-door checks.

So how often do these things happen, I'm really asking?

Pretty frequently, where you'll have a change of use, where you have There might be a different type of building type required or different occupancy. Certainly, it happens all the time with restaurants because of the grease trap regulations. And even if you have a change in the number of seats within the same restaurant, it could have an impact where we need to check on something.

How many BTRs do we issue a year?

I don't have that number exactly. It changes from year to year.

What you said is a bunch of them each year. Is that 5% change? 1% change?

Do we have the number? Anybody know? Do you know roughly the number?

Yeah, there's approximately 650 licenses that are currently issued. The question is, how much percent does that change per year?

Yes, exactly.

I'd imagine it stays pretty constant. 1% maybe?

Or less?

Sounds fair, yeah.

So my question is, the only reason I'm bringing this up, because I see these aren't large costs. They're fairly minimal costs for a business. But it's just one more pain in the butt and one more thing we're asking businesses to pay, because they're not represented if they don't vote. So basically, they have no choice. And they're easy pickings. In other words, we just could tell them this is it. They really have no say on the thing. So the question is really, one, should we have it at all? And two, should we even think about increasing it? That's where I'm coming from. Except that we like to get more money for the village, and it's easy.

We don't make money from it. But it is really important that we confirm that the uses are compatible with the locations. I mean, that's what zoning is. If you don't do this, don't bother with zoning.

The point being is if you have your code compliance people who don't even see them once a year, how do you know they're even being compatible?

So if you have a change of use, it's usually notable if it's in a commercial space, something like that. So I can tell you we have seen changes of use. And we've had to work with people to adapt buildings. So can I tell you we have 100% compliance? No, that would be silly. But what I can tell you is this is very effective in us enforcing our zoning regulations and our building code.

Okay. What's the financial ramification of the change, roughly? I mean, how much revenue are we talking about? $50,000 a year? $100,000 a year? What are we? It's a 5% increase over the current value. How much is that generally?

Yeah, we collect roughly $110,000. We're talking $5,500 to $6,000 annually. It's a small amount. And the reason it's a small amount is because there were many years that went by where we did not increase that fee. So this is a $6,000 discussion we're having. Correct.

But you did say here that you spent $210,000 on enforcement last year, and we collected $103,000.

Yeah, I wanted to answer Council Member London's question was, you're doing this because it's easy. I'd say no, it's because we're trying to recover costs. So this fits in terms of that whole 20-point list about revenue diversification items. This is just one of those items where if you don't charge a fee enough to cover the cost, that cost ends up getting shifted on the overall tax base. That's why this is here, not because it's easy, because it's... to cover the cost of enforcing the service.

And actually there was a deficit of close to $100,000 in 2024, correct?

Correct. We'd like to get those numbers as even as possible. Because we're limited by state statute by only going up 5% every other year, it's going to take a long time to get there. The longer, and yes, it's only, I heard your point, $5,000 or $6,000, but that's why that is.

So you just said we're limited by state statute to do this every other year?

Correct. And I want everyone to know that our plan is, as long as that is to the statute, to be back here every two years asking for the same 5% increase until we get...

But aren't we...

I thought it was supposed to be revenue neutral for the whole zoning... No, so to clarify, the building department for enforcement strictly of the Florida building code is meant to be revenue neutral. But that is not enforcing... zoning regulations, it's not enforcing business tax receipts. Now, sometimes there's overlap with building code issues with business tax.

The personnel overlap too, though, right?

Yes. Yeah. So we allocate time accordingly.

Ben, you put $200,000. We can collect $100,000. We spend $200,000, right? What do we spend $200,000 on if we don't even visit everything once a year?

So there's also the billing. There's billing and receiving. There's a clerk that monitors to make sure there's compliance that everyone has paid in. And also the code guys that he has in the field. It's not 100% of our cost. So we did allocate based on time that's actually spent enforcing to come up with that $200,000 estimate for what the service costs.

Let me clarify one point, if I may. We do visit 100% of the commercial spaces in the village in the course of a year. I can confidently say that. Do we visit? And CPA that has a home office, no, we do not. Nor an attorney that has a home office, we don't do that. And that's included in that 650 numbers. But every commercial space, every public-facing space, we certainly do visit over the course of a year.

Could you just explain to me the difference on the exhibit, on the... and the exhibit with the fees, the difference between the intangible or tangible personal property, which is proposed to go to $103.35, how is that different from the retail or retail stores, which is only $41?

You're talking about in terms of classifications of businesses?

Yeah, I don't understand what the difference between the two entries is.

So there is sort of an elaborate system of explaining these types of businesses. These categories are actually set by state law. They're not set locally.

Can you give me an example of each just so I know what the difference is?

So can you give me the two categories again?

The one I don't understand is intangible or tangible personal property. Every person engaged in the business of trading, bartering, serving, buying, lending, selling intangible or tangible personal property, whether as owner or agent, broker or otherwise. That sounds to me like it would include retail, but it doesn't.

No, I think that's brokerages specifically as opposed to direct sales.

Okay. Okay, thank you.

Oh, so the questions that I had have already been asked and sort of answered, but I think it has to do more with, I know we're talking relatively lower amount, but I want to understand more of the philosophy and the concept behind it, because every time I see increases in taxes or tax revenues, I'd like to see a zero sum game. I understand we may not be obliged to do that, or I think you indicated the building code does, but we don't have to through the LBT. Anyway, what I'm trying to understand is that before we impose more taxes on businesses here, Let's understand what the zero-sum game is. What are we getting? Because it seems to me, it feels, not seems to me, it feels like we're just riding on the business track when there is a different way perhaps that we could look at it. Why don't we look at the success of the business if they draw in more customers? And let's look at ways of recovering through that. Why is it that we always have to hit the businesses, the local businesses? Now they're going to get a 5% increase. That doesn't send the right message, in my opinion. You may very well have it justified financially, and I appreciate that. That's your job. But the message that we're sending out there to the community, we have no, I don't see anything here that tells us that at the end of the day we're gonna be at zero. I don't see the benefits for the businesses except just paying more. Let's keep our local businesses healthy, and let's encourage them to be healthier maybe with incentives other types of incentives. I'm sure we can be creative. I just hate this type of taxes. Go ahead.

Okay. Madam Clerk, this is the first reading. You'll get another crack at it.

Well, Mayor, I mean, I know it was, I didn't intend it to be an abstract message. I want it to be kind of something that we think about. I would hate to, I think what I stated makes sense. I don't know, am I wrong? I wanted to have a dialogue about that. Yeah, so in terms of,

Supportive of the businesses, I mean, yes, the villages we do contribute to the Chamber of Commerce, which does I know that I'm not saying I don't see a balance sheet in here.

How many what what are we getting out of this and what are the businesses going to get out of this? What are they getting?

So I think probably one of the most important things we get out of this is safely operating businesses.

I'm safe. What does that mean?

So it's literally cases where you have a change of state. Say there's an office space, and it converts to a daycare, and these things have happened. You need to make sure, when you have a change like that, that the electrical system, everything from where outlets are, you need to make a child safe. And the way to do that is, sure, the business owner, ideally, would be 100% responsible for making it completely safe. But in most cases, When you have that change, it triggers us and says, hey, we need to inspect that for this new type of use. And you get an inspection and you make the place safe. And this is a service.

We're not taking away from that service. We're still going to do the service. We're just discussing raising the fee.

Right, right. So these are fees that cover those services. So my understanding of the question was, what do the businesses get in return? Right.

I mean, there had to be something depleted before, so we had to increase it. And I'm not hearing that. All I'm hearing is that we have to increase it.

Those reviewers, those inspectors, those costs have gone up, right? You know, those salaries have cost of living increases. Like the cost of doing business for us has gone up as well. So what we're trying to do is partly cover those costs.

Do you have a spreadsheet that shows the losses that we had before, or is it just that I'm hearing you?

So it's in the memo. We talk about the cost of providing the service and the revenue that it generates. That gap has increased every year. year, every two years that we do not increase the revenue side of it. So it's just gotten more where the cost of the service, as Jeremy mentioned, we pay our code enforcement officers more, they get salary increases and benefits, but we haven't changed that revenue component. This is trying to catch the two up, it'll take more than just this reading, it's going to be an every two year plan to get closer to that breakeven point. And that service to ensure compliance of the businesses is the safety items currently being paid by taxpayers. Correct.

Correct right so we're passing that cost along to the businesses, whom are receiving that service to state the cost is one of the taxpayers for the we're moving into moving into the businesses by increasing the business taxes attacks.

This is this is part of our greater plan is Benjamin presented in I think was December, maybe January. of trying to do a fee for service. The services that you receive is what you pay, similar to what we talked about in the community center. So this is what we see is the benefits that they receive, and it's hard, I imagine, for Jeremy to come up for dollar to dollar benefit, but he generally knows what time and effort that he puts into providing the support for these businesses. I think Benjamin mentioned Chamber of Commerce. We are the biggest member and donate her to the Chamber of Commerce. And Chamber of Commerce provides outstanding services to our businesses. So it's just an opportunity. It's not great, but again, what it is as we face potential property tax issues coming down the road is to begin to diversify our revenues to make sure that we continue to do our operations. Okay.

All right. Madam Clerk, on first reading.

Council Member Kaplan?

Yes.

Council Member London?

No.

Vice Mayor Sardinias? Yes. Council Member Stoner? Yes. Council Member Bosquez?

No.

Mayor Roscoe?

Yes.

Council Member Bracken?

No.

The ordinance is approved on first reading.

Okay. Let's keep going.

The next item is the first reading of an ordinance of the Village of Key Biscayne, Florida, amending ordinance number 2025-15, which adopted the budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 by revising the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Move. Second.

Thank you.

Mayor, if I can just add there was a scrivener's error in the amount that's listed in the ordinance. The actual amount should be $98,637.24. Okay, that's in the memo also. Yeah. Okay, ordinance on first reading. Any questions?

No? Okay. Madam Clerk?

Council Member London.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sardinius. Yes. Council Member Stoner. Yes. Council Member Bosquez.

Yes.

Mayor Roscoe.

Yes.

Council Member Bracken.

Yes.

Council Member Kaplan.

Yes.

The ordinance is approved on first reading. The next item is a capital project, on first reading, a capital project authorizing ordinance of the Village of Key Biscayne, Florida, approving change orders for the building zoning and planning BCP office renovation project relating to the building department customer services area in an amount not to exceed $68,813.97 for a total project cost not to exceed $516,930.46, authorizing the expenditure of additional funds for the project, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

So moved. Second.

Thank you.

Questions? Seeing none, Madam Clerk,

Vice Mayor Sardinas?

Yes.

Council Member Stoner? Yes. Council Member Bosquez? Yes. Mayor Roscoe?

Yes.

Council Member Bracken?

Yes.

Council Member Kaplan?

Yes.

Council Member Lunden? Yes. The ordinance is approved on first reading.

OK. Take 10B first.

A capital project authorizing resolution of the Village Council of the Village of Key Biscayne, Florida, selecting advanced roofing ink for the Key Biscayne Community Center roof coating system in an amount not to exceed $123,300 and providing for an effective date.

Move. Second.

Thank you.

Item properly before us.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, Chris Miranda, Public Works Director. This is a capital authorizing resolution asking for the village to give the manager authorization to enter into an agreement with Advanced Roofing to provide a Roof coating system. It's a silicone based system to the community centers flat roof area. The community center is a 33,000 square foot building. I'm going to round off some numbers here. Um, the flat roof portion of the of the building is approximately 45% of the building. So the paid the pitched or. Metal portion is about 55%. Adding this waterproofing system would extend the life of the roof, of the flat roof, approximately 10 years. That's the guarantee that we're getting on this system. We are in effect covering 14,900 square feet with the contract. The contract is a piggyback contract that we are utilizing with the Broward College contract that was put out for bid in December of 2025. and we are taking advantage of their bidding process. The piggy-bagging process is pretty common in the procurement world. It helps us move along a project quicker and saves us time and money in the procurement phase.

Mr. Miranda, what's the cost of a new roof?

Cost of just a flat roof, we have an estimate of $1.2 million. And if we were to re-roof the entire building, I did not get a price for the metal portion, but it's approximately another $2 million is what I was told.

So 10% is what we're spending to maintain it for, you hope, for 10 years?

Correct. We're receiving a guarantee of 10 years, a warranty of 10 years.

Go ahead.

So you called Broward County and they told you to use advanced roofing? Is that how you got advanced? We did not call Broward County. We called Broward Community College and asked them for permission to piggyback on their contract. We have used their contract previously. And yes, we did communicate. And then they said use advanced. Advance was their lowest bidder on their contract, yes. On their contract?

Yes. Well, obviously, I like the system. I've used the system 100% for the system. And I'm 1,000% against what you're doing. Doing, again, we have a purchasing department. This is easy. This might be a good price, but it might not be a good price. And it's a simple system. It's very easy. It's very quick. And there's many people who do it. Very simple. Is it a good price?

It is a good price.

How do you check that out?

We didn't go out and request three bids from other contractors. I can't tell you exactly what another contractor would bid on it. We had some verbal conversations with other contractors, but How do you know it's a good price? Because we had verbal conversations with other contractors asking what they thought the square footage would be.

What did they tell you?

They didn't give me hard numbers. They wanted to hold that until they, if we were to put this out for bid.

I would like to defer this. go out for bids and come back to us so so whatever broward college does doesn't do anything for you absolutely nothing okay well we differ on that so i but joe i've been involved bidding these things and building for dade county school systems and i've always seen as you know the biggest waste of money is in school systems okay in my opinion dade county is of all the things i've ever been involved with

So this was bid out in December of 2025. So it is very, very recent information that tells us where the market is.

What do you mean, Joe?

That the Broward College contract was issued in December of 2025.

I have a question, Chris. What is the urgency on this is there is there current leaking that's Causing damage we have made several repairs to the roof.

So at the current time We don't have any leaks But this will extend the life of the roof if not within the next approximately two three years maybe four years will be roofing that building for 1.2 million and above

And if we go out to bid, will we lose the opportunity to take advantage of this?

We won't lose the opportunity. Their contract is in place. They have a roofing department. That's all they do is roofing contracts for their buildings, so we could take advantage of it later in the future. We could put it out for bid, but that's a... I would assume that we're talking about six, nine months before we would bring it back to you.

Why does it take that long?

Because we would have to advertise it, put an RFP out on the street. We have a spec, don't we? We have a scope of work.

Scope of work. Yes. So basically put the scope of work out, and people give us bids. And then we determine if they're qualified or not. Why does that have to take six or nine months?

Because we'd have to put together the bid package to put out on the street. We'd have to advertise it for a minimum of 30 days, receive the bids, go through the bids, find a qualifying firm, evaluate and then come to you with a recommendation of who to award it to.

So the bid package for the roof is going to be different from a bid package for electrical work by the scope of work, but the other 20 pages that Chad prepares, it's pretty much the same, aren't they?

The boilerplate for the contract would be the same. The RFP would differ in the scope of work and any details that we would be asking for.

And in all due respect, either it's the most inefficient department you have, I know the laws are inefficient, but this is ridiculous to take six, even waiting 30 days, and then to evaluate it, how long does it take you guys to look at it and come back to us and say we recommend this? So Chris, let me jump in.

Councilmember, it wouldn't take six to nine months, but we also have many other contracts that we're doing, and so one of the reasons why we do piggybacking is we take advantage of the economies of scale and their ability to As you know, the larger and more roofs you're going to do, you can likely, not saying definitely, get a lower price. If it's will of the council for us to put it out for bid, we will, but it'll also delay other work that we're doing. And that's what Chris knows. We have a lot of contracts that are about to go out, which is probably why he's hedging his months. We could do it faster, and if that is the will of the council, we will do it, but piggybacks works, and they're very effective, and this is likely the best price we could get.

Well, again, we're assuming, Joe? but basically Broward County or whatever that is. It's Broward Community College. It's a big operation, and maybe a lot of smaller contractors won't even bid on that. In usually cases, smaller contractors and this type of thing are better cost for us than larger contractors. This is a small job, and there's many people who could do this job. And so I believe that we are really shortchanging ourselves by not putting an L to bid. I mean... I've been in the contracting business too long to see stuff like this. And we had this excuse before we had a purchasing department. We had nobody in the purchasing department. That's why we did this stuff. Now we have a purchasing department. I'll be an assistant in the purchasing department. And we still do this kind of stuff.

Yeah, you want government not to work how government is supposed to work, OK? You have a process. You have to put out a scope of work. You have to advertise it. You have to do all these things. No, no, you just want, hey, boom, boom, boom.

No, that's fine, Joe. That's not right. That's the scope of work you do. If you're doing any bidding in any contract, you have a scope of work.

I'm sorry. Is there a second for Council Member London's motion?

I seconded it.

Thank you.

That's on the motion to defer. Or motion to defer. I'm sorry.

I thought you were referring to the motion to defer. I did not.

I thought he made a motion to defer earlier. So you seconded? I did.

I did not.

You did not. I'm sorry. Is there a second for.

I'll second it. Chris, I'm frustrated with the same thing Ed's frustrated with. And I share Joe's concern as well. I just find that this is just mind-bogglingly challenging that it takes this much time to do this, especially when we have a procurement department. But maybe when we do this, it would be helpful to say, we're doing the following 15 contracts, and these are the time slots that we have allowed to. So it gives us a reference for the amount of work that your department is doing. And that's where I always get challenged, because I don't exactly know how many bids you got out for work. And that reference is challenging for us. You do it every day, and you're well aware of how much work you have to do. And I'm not eluding by any means that you don't have a lot of work to do. I just think it would help us to know, and that's part of this infrastructure workshop that I wanted to put together, was for us to get a sense of how much projects are being done at this time and how many we're managing so that we know, because there's a cost of procurement, and there's a cost of time, and all those types of things. But when we just hear a number, to Ed's concern, for me, I would do exactly the same thing. I'd call Pavona, get four bids, and I'd have it. can make a decision now I understand that's not how we we allowed to do things I've learned that process but I think this would be helpful when we have these conversations to say we're working on the following things and that's all that's all that's all I wanted to ask what does the procurement what would the procurement process cost us ballpark for this I would defer that to the procurement department I don't run the procurement department so

I mean, is it $5,000, is it $25,000?

I would imagine at least 40 to 50 hours worth of employee time. To do what? To write the scope, to release the scope, to communicate with vendors, to then take in the contract, then to put together a five-team evaluation committee. Why? Because that's what was required by state law.

Yeah, that's state law.

To then put together a recommendation to council, to have the clerk and my chief of staff put together that recommendation, get a concurrence by the attorney to come forward and present it to council for approval. That's what it takes, and that's what we are bound to as a government entity. So therefore, one of the benefits of piggybacking and these conglomerates that we have across the counties are these open contracts that people can piggyback off of. And you always want to go to the entity that has the largest scale who can get the best benefit to do this sort of work. Can I just say one quick thing? I said before, I said likely. I did say likely, but out of Pennywise, whatever the phrase is, we may go out and save $6,000 that would take 50 hours worth of work. And then I don't know if that would really be a victory because, again, we're doing something that we couldn't be doing otherwise. And everything has a cost. It's just not much.

Thank you, Mayor. Look, I see it from both sides. Obviously, we want to be sure that we get the best deal. And obviously, we want to be able to get it procured with transparency. And we understand that we're going to get the best price for it. There's also something to be said about the amount of time that it takes for that to happen. And I have relied myself in the past with piggyback contracts. And I can't speak. I mean, they're pre-selected. They never had an issue with them. But what I do have an issue in this overall discussion is that we get a lot, and I notice, we get a lot of these procurements that are coming in at the last minute. So we feel like we're scrambling about trying to figure out, and I think that's where we're going, Steve. If there's a way that we could know ahead of time, maybe through a memo to council, hey, we're going out to bid with these projects at least, or we intend to bid these projects, or Look, you can't let it out if it's not in the sunshine. I'm just trying to figure out a way that we don't get caught in these types of decision battles. Look, there is obviously a lack of clarity of what a piggyback contract is and what it can provide for you. But at the same time, we are being caught kind of sandbagged in a way. We don't really have an opportunity here to discuss this in detail and really provide you with the best directive. It's not you, I mean.

No, no, and I appreciate that, but it really just comes down to we're trying to repair a roof. And we're trying to repair a roof before the beginning of the rainy season.

Today's the roof, next is something else. And at the same time, folks want to be sure that they get the best price. So let's find a way to advise council ahead of time at least prior to it so we can read it and come up with best ideas.

You ready for my perspective on this?

Yes, please.

My perspective on this is as follows. I don't think that this process is always one size fits all. There are projects, the nature of which involves subjective decisions about complex alternatives. And I tend to think that a competitive bid process in that realm is both best and necessary. Where there's a preselected thing that is regarded as the effective solution to an existing problem, and there's a market and we have the ability practically to assess generally what the market is for that thing, this material, and the application of it, I see a competitive bid process as less relevant, less necessary, and I feel comfortable that in these types of circumstances, with the kind of due diligence that's just generally applicable to not being blind, it's good enough. That's my perspective.

He mentioned he has no other prices. I heard that. I heard nothing.

I heard that I also heard that this is a thing it's available in the marketplace and it's generally costs what it costs both to purchase it and to apply it. It's not that complex.

That's why it's very competitive.

OK. So there's a motion to defer on the table. It was seconded by Council Member Bracken. So I think that takes precedence. So we need to take up a motion to vote on that first.

May I take a roll call vote for that?

Sure.

Please. Council Member Bracken. This is on the motion to defer 10B.

Defer and get competitive bids. Yes.

To defer and get competitive bids. Okay.

Okay.

I'm sorry. Council Member Bracken? Yes. Thank you. Council Member Kaplan?

No.

Council Member London?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Sardinia?

No.

Council Member Stoner? No. Council Member Roscoe?

In this case, I'm going to say yes, but I want to see more transparency in what we do. I'll go with a yes. With a yes?

Mayor Roscoe?

No.

Motion fails.

I think I have a vote. This was on the motion. This was on the motion.

To defer and go get competitive bids. Motion to defer.

10B and get competitive bids. Yeah. I voted no. You voted no. That's what I meant. Okay.

Sorry about that.

And so on the issue in front of us.

Wait a minute. I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. So this was this was to defer. I didn't want to defer. I said continue in this case.

So you were you wanted you meant to vote no.

So you're going to vote no.

OK. We're still on the item. It's fine. You can you can. OK.

So Broward Community College doesn't have a procurement department, doesn't have people who do this for for a living, they just go out and they say, oh, okay, is that what you're trying to say?

Of course that's not what I'm saying, Joe. But then you have to take into consideration. Yes, you take consideration. They have a big roof to do. They have lots of stuff. And so they don't know how to do roofs, right? No, excuse me, Joe. That limits the number of people who will bid that job, who are qualified to do the job. because our financials and everything else versus a small job like this where everybody's qualified to do it. That's the big difference, the big difference, Bryce. I saw it in Dade County school system over and over again. I saw it in public companies. I saw it in telephone companies. I saw it in utilities. I mean, I'm tired of saying it, but all we do is basically take the easy way rather than the best way for the village and spending the taxpayers.

That's all. I mean, you think they're doing a great job?

Fantastic. I'm not going to bench you. Otherwise, you know what happened with the Dade County school system. You remember that?

Yes. Under really poor leadership. Yes.

Okay. It didn't get much better because it was more than... Anyway, it doesn't matter. All I'm saying to you, the method was such The method was such that their bidding and their procurement and how things are involved. That's what happened. I'm not saying it's Broward County. It's the same way. But I'm also saying it's a large operation. You were saying that we don't know what they're doing. No, I didn't say that. Oh, okay. I didn't say that at all. I said basically they're a large operation. It's a large jobs they have. Right. And therefore there is not many qualified employees. people in the business and roofing business. I can think maybe half dozen all of South Florida who do really large jobs. Small jobs, there's 50 of them or more. And this is a simple job, and those prices are much, much better. The fact that you're going to vote on something, you don't even have another ballpark price. But you're going to say, fine. I guess I've been in business too long. I work too hard to make my money.

We do it with a sheriff's county contract. We do it, and all cities do it this way.

It doesn't make it efficient. Most cities are inefficient. You know that. But ours isn't.

That's the difference. Ours isn't. Don't we want to be efficient? We are.

Not when we do shit like this.

Any further discussion on the item?

What do you want to do? Just to give just a little credence to what Ed is trying to drive home, and I don't mean to be difficult. Joe, that's not my intention. But if you're going to bid on a county project for Broward, you're going to have to bond the job. They're going to have a bunch of procurement requirements that a small contractor, small roofing contractor would probably not be able to make. And I think that's his point, where the cost structure may be more beneficial for a smaller project. But Chris, the real issue here is not Not that, it's the amount of jobs that you have to bid, the amount of work that you have under contract, and what the cost is to do this actual work. I think that's where we're having this, that's the difference in conversation is that it's gonna cost us possibly the difference of the money that we may save by going out with a smaller vendor. And I think that's the conversation we should be having. But without understanding the entire scope of work that is in your department, it's difficult for us to ascertain, is this the right decision or not? That's what I'm driving at. And I don't think we need to talk about this anymore. I think I'm done. I appreciate what you're doing, but I would just like it when you come up here. Talked several times about this is that it would be a lot more useful for us to understand the volume of work That's in that department so that we can understand these just these discussions and that's all I'm asking for and thank you for your time enough said Madam clerk was there a motion in a second.

I know there was some confusion before did you get it on the item I?

Yes, on the item councilmember Kaplan motion and vice mayor Sardinia's seconded. Okay on the item 10 B all those in favor aye opposed Just councilmember London rock into and thank you motion carries The next item is a resolution of the village council of the village of Key Biscayne, Florida, authorizing the village manager to advance the village-wide utility fortification program for zones two through eight to underground electrical and telecommunications facilities and providing for an effective date.

Move. Second.

Thank you.

You noted the change for all zones, yes?

So let's just, can we just, let's just, Just start with, just the manager had a request, and since it affects the title, we can start there. So the manager would, why don't you say, you just wanted to, I don't want to take your words, but say what you wanted to say.

What I'd like to remove are just the words four zones two through eight.

Consensus of council?

Because we're doing the whole thing.

We are. That's why it says village-wide utility fortification program, which means village-wide all zones one through eight. Okay. Okay.

Consensus of, I'm sorry. No, okay, I'm sorry.

Basically also to clarify that this is undergrounding and not hybrid.

All underground is very clear, non-hybrid.

No, I don't think it's clear, and so I would like to amend the language where it says in the first paragraph where it uses the The program as the definition.

Fair. The first whereas. Second whereas.

The second whereas. Whereas, this is my proposed amendment. Whereas, in order to address these concerns, the village has discussed and explored the possibility of pursuing a fully undergrounded utility fortification program. And when they refer to the program, that's what they're talking about, fully undergrounded. So, please.

I is before we move to that is the title fine otherwise does anybody have any other comments on that there's one possible inconsistency we just touched the title and I'm just noting in the submission memo.

There was a recommendation to defer project one correct to pause, I mean it's okay, I think to have the title broader and then deal with that in the body which it does or you could be more direct and and you could add in you know

couple words into the title if you want to do that well this also dovetails with Ed's part of Ed's motion so we should actually vote on the table is for a minute and determine whether we're gonna do something on March 10th or not because it do something March 10th then soon we go ahead what does that have to do with the undergrounding right prioritize zone one because we're holding zone one up to find out what we're going to do since we don't know

But we're prior things.

OK, but we're going to plan we're going to do OK. So we're going to do one of the other plans. We make a decision.

So you're you're hurrying the decision that is going to come anyway.

Here's what I think. Here's what I think is at stake in the context of Ed's thought. Up until the managers change in the scope of this. this wouldn't have been relevant because we would have been deferring what they call here project two, which is zone one. And that would have enabled a decision potentially on what we're doing on stormwater. What Ed is asking to do is defer the decision on zone one on undergrounding until we make a decision on stormwater for zone one.

I think we all want to go ahead with undergrounding, so why do we want to defer it?

No, I wanted to prioritize zone one once we make a decision rather than the other zones because previously Steve said we don't want to go ahead with zone one because we haven't made a decision on what plan we're going to use. So I'm saying since we're at that point, we want to prioritize zone one once we make that decision. That's all. The head of the garden district, Ed? Sorry? The head of the garden district?

ahead of the Guard District? We can do them simultaneously. Why can't we? Yeah, okay.

But is your point that if we don't include Zone 1...

I'm up for including Zone 1.

No, I'm just saying, if we don't separate the electric from the... and move ahead on all of it...

from the underground from the the storm water and the storm water gets held up then then zone one undergrounding gets held that's correct right okay that i thought that was okay it's not a big deal we can go ahead this next month i'm not going to object if i can clarify my recommendation in it it's not in the ordinance but it's in the memo it's basically just recommending it wasn't deferred it's actually delay moving forward on the zone one order undergrounding until a stormwater decision is made. So if the choice is to make a decision on March, and if that's the choice of the council, obviously, then that decision is made. And so then Zone 1 is on the table. So this thing is written. So once a decision is made, all zones are on the table. So I think if the council chooses to pick up

If you look at the authorization section, section two says what I think Steve just said. It says that the council authorized the manager to advance implementation of the program for projects one and three and directs the manager to pause further action on project two until such time as the council selects a preferred stormwater infrastructure approach for zone one. It's a little different.

Let me try this out. Let me try this one. If the decision is to underground the entire island, That's a decision. And I think that's the decision that's before us right now.

Yes.

The question of how Zone 1 is installed, whether it's in synchronicity with the stormwater system, i.e. AECOM, or not, i.e. not AECOM, that's a later decision. But we're still making a decision to underground the entire island.

Correct.

My concern is the way it's worded, it sounds like If the AECOM, for example, if we decide to go forward with the AECOM plan and then we are held up because there's a referendum, then everything gets held up, even the undergrounding. And I've gotten some calls.

But all the other zones wouldn't be held up.

But zone one, we already have the design. We've already spent the money. We're already there. Exactly. And we were going to go ahead with that. And I just don't want to get, unless I'm wrong, if we don't word this right, we could get caught in that trap.

So let me just say that this is simply a resolution. It can be amended at any time. I mean, this was really a resolution that was brought forward as a follow up from the workshop that the council had. So don't feel like whatever you have in here is binding your hands. It's really just to give the manager direction. So he has a commitment to go forward. This is organic, it can be changed.

And to tell the community what we're doing.

Correct.

Yeah, and I wouldn't sweat much the logistics. They can work that through. I mean, yes, of course it wouldn't be ideal for that system to, I'm sorry, for that system to be stuck in referendum. That's okay. But I think from a logistics standpoint it's doable, and by that time I'm sure we'll be fine. So I like the idea of going ahead and moving forward with the undergrounding. It's about time.

I just want to make sure we take the ambiguity out of the conversation.

So the will of the council is to proceed with undergrounding village-wide?

Yes.

Yes. Okay. End of story.

And then we'll work that other piece out.

And section two is broad enough for that.

Okay. But we've got consensus that we're going to remove the, it's strictly undergrounding. There's no other process. No hybrid. No hybrid, no nothing, just undergrounding. Okay. Good. Thank you.

Okay.

So you want the resolution only to deal with undergrounding at this time?

Yes.

We want to see futuristic designs in a way that when they think about it, they think that it may be in the future there will be a system there or not, but don't design it and don't put it in the middle of the street. That's all.

Just keep it out of the street. So Chad, to clarify what you just said, the resolution is to go ahead with undergrounding We are going to wait and find out the decision on the stormwater, but regardless of the decision, we're going ahead with the underpass. Correct.

I understand. We just don't want to have a hybrid built in to this in any way.

So section two needs to be changed to reflect the omission of the zones projects. I'm sorry.

Section 2.

And Nancy's language in the second whereas, and that's it.

I'm sorry, can you clarify the section 2 to be removed?

Section 2, which is the authorization, speaks about projects 1 and 3, pausing on project 2.

So removing that portion of the section.

All that this says in effect at the end is we're advancing the implementation. of a fully undergrounded utility system. Yes, I understand.

So a village-wide.

A question on, I mean, do you intend to, this is obviously gonna have to be design and detail, I would say, right, Steve? Can you walk us through? Can you walk us through the now that we made a decision or about to make a solid decision on this can you walk us through why don't you tell logistics the steps what needs to happen what you know we wanted underground. So the whole village.

So moving forward from today, we're going to move forward with what we've already started doing on most of Zone 1 and Zone 8.

Mike, before you start, are we clear that this is 100% underground? Is that in the language?

Yeah, this resolution will be amended that it will be village-wide undergrounding.

I just want to make sure that that's in writing.

Fully undergrounded? is when you say fully undergrounded, you're referring to both FP&L and the telecommunications? Telecommunications, yes.

Okay, that's okay, I understand. Momentous occasion.

Oh, okay, yeah. Maybe we should just vote on it before you go on with this, all right? Okay, yeah. Madam Clerk, call the roll.

On item 10A, as amended, All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries.

This only says FD&L. It doesn't say telecom.

It does in the title. It talks about underground electrical and telecommunications. But we understand the intent of the council here. We will clean this up. We'll say that it will be authorizing the village manager to advance a fully authorized village-wide undergrounding program.

We're making sure we're including telecom in this conversation.

It fully includes telecommunications and FP&O.

Telecom is in the first whereas.

Yeah, we can make it clearer.

How many years have we been at this? Okay, since 2017, right?

Tom, why are you shaking your head? May I speak? Yes, please.

Please come to the podium and state your name and address.

Forgive me for being out of order, as usual. Tom McCormack, 680 Curtiswood. Chad, when he says fully, he does not mean including telecom.

Well, I asked that.

He means not hybrid. Right. That's what he means. Fully underground means we do not harden telecom.

The concrete poles.

That's what he means. When he says fully, he does not mean village-wide, and he does not mean including telecom. He means non-hybrid. Because you just workshopped a hybrid solution which would include concrete poles. And nowhere in that resolution does it specify that undergrounding doesn't allow for hybrid underground.

Super important. So what you meant, Council Member Bracken, was when fully means that there's no hardening of the overhead infrastructure. Correct.

That it's completely underground.

Yes. No poles. But you also want to have the... Okay, I understand. Okay. Thank you, Tom.

Thank you for your help I like to We voted on already By the way, we didn't talk about costs because

you know, this will come back to us, but we're talking somewhere in the range of $66 million to $81 million, okay? And as some people have quoted in the press, I only relish little things, so I guess you guys are part of being stuck with little things like this, right? You know, and never mind that we've worked on the Shoreline project, which is probably a $200, $300, $400 million project. Never mind that we worked on the Bear Cut Bridge. I mean, that's, you know, $200 and $300 million. But we only work on the little things. I'm so proud of you. You guys, you know, you just went all the way through this, okay? You are doing the little things just right. And by the way... The little things are quality of life issues, okay? That we get our kids involved, that we get our seniors involved. Yes, we do the little things, but we also do big things. And big things don't happen because at London, goes like this, okay? As powerful as he is, you know, just because you go like this, a large infrastructure project just doesn't happen, okay? It takes a lot of work, and I am very proud that this council is taking things on like it has here, and we will make a decision on stormwater, okay, before you and I leave, okay? And so, you know, folks, Focus on what's important. What's important is the work that we're doing. Thank you for all you guys do. This is a great day to celebrate that we have moved forward what they didn't do in 2016, they didn't do in 2018. We're able to do it, and kudos to all of us up here. Thank you.

A little epilogue on that? Yes. In 2020, In 2020, despite some significant political headwinds, this community approved a government obligation bond, the existence of which, which has never been drawn, which will soon be drawn for the first time, the existence of that fact, the reality of that opportunity enabled planning, design, feasibility, and expedited implementation on a very complicated challenge that's been bubbling around this council since before 2010 so that's that's good excellent by the way which if you remember friday we tried to get this done in what 2013. yeah and it's you know it's funny looking at looking at my colleagues here one of the things that was confounding years ago was ambiguous advice from fp l as to whether the technology was ready at the time absolutely

Mike and I were in the committee. We were in the committee. For three years. Exactly. So it's a long time coming.

Put this in the dog park with my two major things in 2013. I got one of them.

May I ask now to hear a little bit of the realities? How long is it going to take and when are we going to get it done and how much is it going to cost?

Just a little bit.

So with that passing, it's great to be here, Council, Mr. Mayor, those managers. As you know, we've been also working on this. This has been one of the key components of the resilience program. So we've been diligently planning for village-wide undergrounding. Yes, considering hybrid before, considering wireless before, considering all different alternatives. But now what we're planning to move forward with, what we're continuing to move forward with, Zone 8 probably being the first one. So we have a preliminary design by FPL for Zone 8 to underground all of the overhead transmission lines. We've reached out to the telecom lines companies, that's AT&T, Comcast, and in Zone 8 it's Hotwire. Hotwire has one overhead line. And we're receiving their costs, their budget costs for the design. Once we get their budget costs coming in, we can give them approval to go forward with their design. More or less we'll follow FPLs, but there's different components that have to be placed. We have to make sure they have proper separation. We'll review all of those drawings, make sure that it coincides with what the village wants, make sure that it doesn't have any conflicts with existing infrastructure or known future infrastructure. Like the stormwater pump system for zone 8. At that point we'll go into final design. This final design is completed. And we'll go in for permits this village permits to make sure that it reviews goes through the building planning. And will be also at that time a little bit before in our funding aligned which will be the general obligation bond will be the primary funding source. The goal would be to try to combine as much as we can from a planning perspective for each tranche opening so we have the most efficient use of the tranche openings because it costs money each time. At that point, we'll be going out to bid for contractors, competitively bid. So they have to be FPL-approved contractors. Also, we'll make sure that they're approved by the telecom companies If we can, we'll have that contractor run the conduit just because it'll probably be more efficient and cost effective. We also have easements that we have to consider, which will be coming up before the procurement. But we probably won't have the actual easement agreements in place until afterwards. But we'll be making sure to discuss any potential conflicts on that side.

I have a quick question. You mentioned the design. I mean, I envision this is going to have to be serving, identifying where the easements are. There's going to have to be an engineer on board designing this, or is this going to be done by a contractor? How is this going to be done?

So FPL does their own design as far as the coordination. Same with the telecoms. They follow those designs.

They do their own design, but do they do their own in situ design in place? Or are they just telling us, this is the duck bank, put it anywhere you want to put it?

No, it's a design for construction.

It's a design for construction? Yes.

And it's permitted through the state.

You're talking only about Zone 8, right?

I am because this is the process for the first zone. We'll be doing this for the entire village. Per the discussion earlier, we don't have the exact... timing for the entire village. We're going to go back and speak with a PL and make sure that we're all in.

I'm sorry I got to go back to the design I haven't seen an FB NL design to that level of detail it could very well be. But you know we're dealing with driveways we're dealing with we're dealing with other utilities we're we're dealing with easements Is FB&L going to dedicate engineers to look at Key Biscayne in that level of detail? Because remember, we have beautiful trees and beautiful vegetation, and we don't want people to just come in and say, you've got to put a duck bank in here.

And that's part of what our responsibility will be to take their design and then to work it through at the village to make sure that it's not going to be a conflict.

What I'm asking, I guess my question is, are we going to have to pay additional engineering services for this?

I have an electrical engineer on board that's going to be reviewing it.

Do you have a civil on board too? Are they also going to require an excavation? I'm just asking.

We do.

Three feet below grade. Are there going to be utilities?

I just want... We need to have everything surveyed so it won't be conflicts.

You guys just voted to advance this, so give us a little time to get this... Okay, let's get the numbers straight. Yeah, so... Councilman Vasquez, we can also provide you... A lot of good questions, and I appreciate that, and those are all things that we're going to start... And that's fine. You don't have to have the answers today.

I'm not expecting that. For Zone 1, we have a more or less final design, which includes... fpl and all of the telecoms. Comcast is still lagging a little behind on some of their final parts because they missed a few items but there's been a lot of back and forth with the engineer of record on that particular zone because it was coordinated with the stormwater but the ones that are not coordinated with the stormwater they won't be.

It won't be as nuanced in the coordination with another utility, but it will still be a civil design process. And what I just want to be able to just educate and everybody, we need to understand what that means because we just finished talking about procurement and we finished talking about, you know, We need to understand what that means. So I would appreciate it if next time, not today, you don't have to have the answers today, but let's have an understanding of what we're looking at for an investment on this. We have to do it. We're going to do it, but let's understand.

Council member, like for zone one, AECOM did it as part of their design. I understand that. So you are exactly right.

That was a nuanced design that had to snake around utilities and all that.

I get that, but straight out. We'll have, you know, not as complex of a design problem. We'll have the same

Process in place to do this for zone 8 and then subsequently it's zone 2 through 7 Then then we get to the fun part of construction, but yes But it it's we have to do it it's just a question of just understanding what the steps are that's all All right I'm clerk

Let's do the reconsideration.

The next item, request to reconsider item 9E, adopted at the, this is a manager's report item, at the January 13, 2026 regular council meeting.

I think that the proper term is a motion for reconsideration. I'll just set it and then I can turn to Steve. Under Robert's Rules of Order, anyone on the prevailing side of a motion can make a motion for reconsideration at the same meeting or the next regular meeting. So the manager I know has circulated his recommendation. If the council does make a motion to reconsider, we would set this item at the next council meeting to be re-heard on second reading again. It will not be heard tonight. It will be noticed and it will be heard on second reading at the March meeting.

That is my motion. Second.

Okay.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries.

Make your presentations at second reading.

Shall we continue with the manager's report, Mr. Mayor?

What do we have for that discussion on traffic calming?

Well, that's at the end, so... Mr. Mayor, if we could just real quick, I want Benjamin to mention... the RFP for solid waste and what will be in there. I think it's very important that council hears some of the modifications that we'll make, and this will take 22 seconds.

Sure, yeah. Procurement's been the hot topic tonight, so I wanted to Brief the council real quickly on the RFP for collection services for garbage and recycling. There are going to be some differences in some of our normal contracts that we send out to bid. The two biggest ones are the first is we're going to be requesting a longer contract period. So if you guys know, most of the contracts we bring to you are three-year contracts with two one-year renewals. Based on this industry, and to make this a more competitive bid, we're looking at going out longer to perhaps a seven-year contract with three one-year renewals. We're talking about potentially a decade. The reason we're doing that, and this brings me to the second point, is as part of the survey that we had sent out to the residents, there was support for what's called curbside service. And the current service we have is side yard service. In order to go from side yard to curbside, there's big capital investments required amongst these collection services. So in order to get them to bid, because of the heavy upfront capital costs, going to a longer term contract would be, we think, more attractive to get more bids. The history of this is we've only had either one or two bids when we put this out before. I would like to get at least three bids when this goes out. So I'm trying to make this attractive. But also, we're establishing a partnership with this collection services. Those are the two biggest departures from some of our normal contract terms. I don't want to give away the whole RFP because it's not out on the street yet, and we don't want any one of these vendors to get an advantage over another one. So I just wanted to brief you all on what's going to be going out. So when we start reviewing this and awarding the contract, you guys won't be surprised by that.

One quick question. Are you going to include an education requirement for people to know what they're supposed to be doing? Yes. Like we discussed with the Broward County?

Yes, as part of this Chris and I've agreed also we are going to be replacing the bins, the bins are going to be very educational on the top about exactly what goes into each bin so there's compliance that the village is going to be doing education, but also there's going to be incentives for the vendor as well to have skin in the game to make sure that they're less contaminated.

Benjamin, just make sure you communicate with the SAB group, because they've done a huge amount of research on getting that. I think you spoke to the same people, just because that woman has done a very good job at Broward.

Yeah, she's phenomenal. We've been working in lockstep with her.

Her approach is straight up the best in my opinion.

There's going to be a lot of familiar language in ours that we've seen best practices from her, so we appreciate the advice from the SAB group.

Are you saying that curbside is more expensive than then up at the house or the opposite? I just that's what I would think but I didn't understand what you were saying then about the type of equipment the type of truck is different We're also excuse me.

We're also asking for Updated equipment. We don't want a contractor to come in with some older trucks. We want newer Equipment newer trucks to come in so this gives the contractors the longer term contract, an incentive to purchase those new trucks if necessary, which a new truck is approximately half a million dollars. They would have to bring in two, possibly three trucks. They're going to have to make that upfront capital investment. And then they would be able to somewhat recoup it over the longer period of the contract.

I think I know the answer to this, but there's been no discussion with the condos about them coming in on the same contract, right?

There's certain things that we don't want to disclose about the RFP before it goes out.

Okay.

You can talk to him.

Okay.

Yes, sir? My experience with these wonderful trash haulers over the last... half-century, has been that you're going to get a price from somebody, and then basically you're going to get waste management or something like that that's going to lowball them or buy them out. And then you're going to start dealing with them. And the new guy goes in business, and he lowballs them. And then waste management or somebody else either buys them out. or basically lowballs them. So I understand why you want a longer-term contract. But my experience in the Dade County area has been that it's constantly this fight. New guys go in business. They don't last that long. They make money. They're bought out by some. I think, look at our history. Same thing has happened here with us. So I don't know what the advantage is for going. I understand why you're doing it because you think of the capital equipment. But I got to tell you, my experience has been it's the last thing you want to have is a long-term contract because basically then you do away with the guys coming back with a low ball price all the time. So, I mean, that's just been my experience.

I will reiterate within the bid.

My experience doesn't seem to be worth much, so I'm sure this is no different.

No, it is that is concerned, obviously within the bid price is not the only factor here so if a new vendor comes in and tries to lowball the majority of the score has to do with their experience their approach their equipment so. Yes, it's a component we look at it's not the only item so.

I hope that mitigate some of that concern and the idea of a cut different contracts we've had in the last say 3030 years.

This past one was a five-year contract. Our contractor did get bought out just last year. Great Waste got bought out by Waste Connections.

I think we've had five contracts.

But they take on those specs, and that's our job to make sure we hold them accountable to what they do. One thing I do want to say that Benjamin mentioned is although we will just be providing curbside service, there will be an opportunity for those who have disabilities or those who are elderly to come to the village and justify why they would need side yard service. So that won't go away for those who need it. How old are you going to be? We'll set certain criteria.

You're good.

You're not there.

No, I'm glad to mention that because my mother-in-law, when she was alive, she was 90-something, and she couldn't physically pull the cart to the curb. So that's, you know, you need to have that kind of flexibility.

My mother had that in Roanoke, Virginia, so if Roanoke, Virginia can do it, we sure as hell can do it.

Can we put out a phone number where people can call in so they don't have to come in?

Yeah, we'll figure out the right process. Yeah, I mean, we'll put it in place. I said that, but they'll figure it out.

Mike, you've got a lot of experience with these folks. I've got a lot of experience, and we don't need to talk about it. We can do it sidebar. It's fine.

All right.

What do we have left? That was more than 22 seconds.

Is there any more in the manager's report, or can I move to the next item? Workshop for soccer. Council Member Stoner.

I would like to have in April, have it set in April, a workshop on soccer. primarily soccer, but some of the things we would be discussing might be applicable to the entire sports program that we offer. I would like to be able to organize by that point some presentations so that there are some things to consider about what kinds of changes could be made, what benefits they would provide, and let people weigh in on those things once we have that organized.

Okay. Nancy, can I ask a question? How does the ASK group or the senior programs fit into your responsibility, or they don't?

In sports?

In sports, yeah. I mean, like the pickleball group at Colusa. I mean, what are we doing for this?

Because I'm the liaison also for disability and for athletics.