Financial Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Get that. Ask Alvin. He'll be able to send it to you. Or actually, it's Johnny Saavedra. What's your son number? I'll send you his info.

Sure. It's 617-899-3500. Okay. I can always email Alvin, too.

Yeah, but Johnny is our IT guy.

Oh, okay. Recording in progress.

He should be on. John, are you on? Yes, sir. Can I give Bill your phone number so he can call you tomorrow and get the AI copy?

I prefer email, sir. You prefer an email? Yes.

I can, if it's okay, sorry, I apologize, everybody. I lost my voice. If it's okay, then can I email you now? Just as a, you know, going forward, I'm going to be taking the meeting minutes. If you could just email me the AI transcription so that it'll help. I'd appreciate it.

The communications are usually handled through the boards. I do it through Alba. I send all transcripts, and I actually send the transcripts and the AI generation of every board meeting to Alba.

You want it to go through Alba. Okay, I'll go through Alba.

Yeah, I don't want to step on Alba's toes. She handles all that stuff with the boards and everything. I'm happy to send it to you, but I send it to her, and she usually communicates everything with the boards, et cetera. Sure.

No, that's fine. I'll reach out to her after this as well and just mention it.

Okay.

So, great. Thank you.

Right. Sid has joined, so I think we've made forum.

Good evening, folks. Apologies if my voice is not clear. I'm at a hotel, so... Hotel Wi-Fi. It must be nice.

That means two of us, because I lost my voice a couple of days ago.

We're all doing great. We're all doing great. I guess it'll be a short meeting. Yes, very short meeting. We're missing somebody, too.

We're missing two people. So, Liz, you're boss lady tonight. Think of it as a condo association meeting. You know how to handle it.

Yeah, yeah, I sure do.

Basically, Lars has advised us that he is on a business trip. Actually, he's traveling as we're talking to the business meeting. And so he would be excused.

And Marco Zuniga called me a little while ago, letting me know that he had, by mistake, double booked.

Tonight, he has a business dinner that he must attend. I believe he's lying to me that it's his birthday. So he's going for birthday dinner, but it's quite all right.

Well, it was my birthday Wednesday and Mother's Day Sunday. That's still not an excuse.

But his is today.

All right.

So they're both excused.

Let's see if we get started. I'm going to call to order the meeting at 6.33 p.m. Roll call is myself, Liz. We have Sid here. We have Bill, which is also known as William. I did recognize 617 Massachusetts. I'm originally from Mass myself, so when I saw that 617, I still remember my childhood number.

Ah, sure, sure.

Great. Yeah. All right. So that's the roll call. We have Richard here. We have Maite. We have Frank also joining us. And that is the roll call. And we're supposed to be appointing the new board secretary, which I believe is going to be Bill.

Yes, it is.

All right. And I don't know how that goes.

Do I make them swear? Bill, also any questions, feel free to let me know and we can be in touch and I can help you with this one.

Okay, no problem. Thank you.

You're back on, Liz.

So have we appointed the new board secretary or is that something that...

Basically, he sort of said at the last meeting that he would take it on, but he just wanted one more week of practice as his note, and he's accepted to take it on. If you want to do a formal vote, roll call, I mean a vote, override for you.

Well, we can put it to a vote. I mean, any yays?

I'm a yay. All in favor signify by saying yes?

Yes.

Any opposed? Opposed? Congratulations, Bill. You are appointed as the new board secretary.

Excellent. Congratulations. Thank you. Okay. Second on the agenda, we have the approval of the meeting minutes from April 2026 meeting, which I read through them, and motion to approve.

Second.

So do I pass? All those in favor signify by saying yes. Yes. Passes 3-0.

Excellent. And then we have the old business, which is an update on the Village New Community Center and Treasure Island Elementary School project.

Frank, you want to take it on or you want me to take it on? And if you want to take it on, you have to unmute yourself. You may be having dinner.

No, no, I'm good. I'm good. Okay. I just had to turn on the mouse. All right, the community center. Let me tell you where we are with that. I was out there today. It is moving quite rapidly at the moment. The... Let's see the windows are all in except for one on the second floor, where they're still passing materials in and out. The interior has been called the exterior cladding is on except for the finished cladding when they finished caulking the windows. They got cladding to go around that. So that's, they'll probably get with me if the weather holds good for the weekend, where they can work on Saturday and Sunday caulking around the windows again. So that's happening. Tomorrow they're pouring the slab for the fire truck access on the back of the building. So fire department requirement that they'd be able to get a fire apparatus on at least two sides of a building. And so the fire truck can drive through the parking lot for the school and get to the back of the building, but they have to have a concrete pad and that's being poured tomorrow. They finished the stairs. They've poured stairs on both the north and south side of the building to get up to that level. The stairs on the east side are sitting stairs so that people can sit there and watch them play paddle ball and pickleball. Tomorrow, They're hoping to start to pour the concrete for the courts at the Far East end. They've got to work themselves out of the property because they're running out of space to run equipment. So they will back themselves out as they do the last pours for the courts and they won't be able to get heavy equipment in there anymore. The pergolo on the roof is moving right along quite nicely. So that's going rather quickly. When I was there today, they were mopping up the floors on the second and third floor to clean those up. Ceiling is ready to be put into place. The drop pieces, all the drop ceiling frame and everything is in. The sprinklers are in. The lighting is in. They just now need to drop all the other squares in for that. I guess the most work that's left now is the cafe on the first floor. They've done an awful lot in there. They had a plumbing inspection today that they could not perform because the Final plans for what the cafe is to be looking like and all the mechanical and everything have not been submitted. So we didn't want to slow it down. I got with the building official. He said they'll send a plumbing inspector back tomorrow. He will fail the inspection. And then they are to take photographs of everything they do and close it up. And as long as the photographs match what the plans are, then they will approve the plans and it won't be any big deal. So they're moving as fast as they can on the cafe. So that project is moving. The main soccer field, the turf is on. They're gluing it down. It looks beautiful. The posts are up all the way around for the fence and the high netting so the balls don't go outside the soccer field. The lights are in and they've been testing on the last few nights, which appears to be the latest uproar from the community, the houses that are just on the west side of the soccer field, is that they've got these lights that are very bright shining into their homes. into the evening. So I've got a meeting with Mariano either tomorrow or Thursday to talk about if there's some way to do something about the lighting. I have my doubts because there's, you know, minimum required lighting all over the field. So we'll see how we cross that bridge. But anyway, that's where that project is. It's moving swiftly. They are still looking at end of May being finished. I think it's ambitious, but they tell me today that they're going to have it done. Now, the courts won't be 100% done, but the building will be occupiable. And the courts won't be finished, but the building will be completed, they say, by the end of May. So we go to the village hall.

Before we go to the village hall. Shoot. The complaint with the lights is also from the Lexi. There has to be a way that we can shield the top of the lights so they shine onto the field but not out of the field.

Well, that was my thought. However, I'm being informed that that is not exactly how they work. That the lights that are on the east side of the field have to shine into the dark side of the field on the west side. They like crisscross over each other. And to be able to reach those spaces, the upper part of the light has to shine above the court. It's not like a spotlight. So we're going to see what might be able to be done. We talked about maybe some shading on those poles that are going to have the nets. Maybe we can put some shading on those poles that would cut down on the lights on those houses. Now, on the Lexi is complaining, and I'm thinking about that, where I guess it's got to be the lights that are on the south side that are aimed towards the north side where the Lexi is, That's got to be what's giving them a problem. So, look, we're going to see what can be done is all I can tell you at this point.

Basically, I've been looking at the complaints as well as you have been looking at them. And Facebook, they're talking from the Lexi. They're talking from South Treasure Drive. They're talking from the street right next door to them as well. So, basically, it's all over the place.

Well, the lights are all around the court, so...

Yeah.

They did tell me today the lights are not aimed properly yet. They turn them on at night and they adjust and take readings and all that stuff. So they may be tilted down some. I don't know. But they know it's a problem and we're aware of it too.

The other thing I want to say is that on Thursday, June 4th, From 5 to 8 p.m. is going to be the grand opening event and ribbon-cutting ceremony. So you're all more than welcome to join us.

Oh, for sure. Absolutely. So that's the community center, Village Hall. Today, we put out the request for proposal to the five firms that qualified for earlier on that may reply to the request for qualifications. There were 10 firms that replied. There was a committee put together. They selected or ranked them in the top five. Today receive the plans to bid. The project is out for 45 days. Those five firms have had a 90% set of plans for several months. So those that are really interested have probably been doing what they call their takeoffs on those plans and working up their costs already. My plan or our plan is at the July commission meeting, we will award the bid and they will, hopefully we will break ground in one form or fashion before the end of August. And that's a requirement with our agreement with the county that we break ground by the end of August to protect the funding and that part of their participation for the fire station.

Is there going to be a committee that's going to review the five farms that are submitting bids? Yes.

It'll be the same people that did the other.

Oh, usually the same people who are going to suggest to include a member of the Finance Advisory Board.

Well, I guess somebody could sit in if they want, but they wouldn't be a voting member because it has to be the same five that they're dealing with.

But if one pulls out for whatever reason, you need somebody else, please consider them from this board.

Okay. And we'll make you aware when it is, and it'll probably be at Village Hall. Most of the people who are here local, I don't know who the entire committee is. There is a representative from Dade County Fire, one of their chiefs. because of the fire station. And they will do the evaluations and rank them. And then it'll come to the commission in July. Okay. And that's it on the two buildings.

Excellent. Then I guess we're on to new business. Any new business?

Frank, is JLAC for publication?

Say again on JLAC? Is it for publication? Then what I sent to you guys? Yes. Absolutely.

Okay. Just a little bit of information. CBiz, who is our auditing firm, who was in front of you giving you the report for 23-24, has advised us that they will not be able to complete the 24-25 because there's some Entries from 23-24 that need to be corrected in order to be put into the 24-25 audit. So we have notified, actually Frank has notified, JLAC, which is the state auditing committee, that we're going to be late in submitting the audit report that should be submitted by June 30th. We are hoping if everything works out right to submit it by the end of July, no later than August 30th for sure. So we're not going to be as late as last year until September anyway. They don't publish the communities that are late in submitting their auditing reports. So we're avoiding by all, trying to avoid by all means getting back on that list. But the moment it gets submitted, we get removed from the list. So there's really no real penalty. But they were having an issue with the auditing, the information that were being fed for the auditing for 24-25. That's when the transition really took place. So it's going to be done. It's going to be done relatively timely this time around, but there's a little delay on it.

Yeah. It's moving well. It's just getting that other audit so late that it's tough for them with the one they're doing now. But everybody's hustling. And like the commissioner says, hopefully, if we're lucky, we can get it in July. if not no later than the end of August. And I've alerted JLAC to that, and they sent me the information that he relayed that it won't be published or, you know, they won't be informed to take any action until probably by the end of September by the other agency. So we should be fine.

That sounds positive. All right. We have any staff or commissioner updates?

I can tell you the staff is starting to work on their budget. And we're anxiously awaiting the, I believe, June 1st, we will be getting our ad valorem estimate for next year. And then we start working on the budget together with staff. And we have our budget workshops, which you're more than welcome to join us at those budget workshops. And I'll see what kind of information we can be feeding you throughout the next couple of meetings so you can start looking at our budget with us.

Sure.

But I encourage you to look at our budget.

Yes, definitely.

You all have the budget from last year, correct? That was given to you?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay. Just making sure.

Mm-hmm.

Great.

Any other staff updates? That pretty much covers it for right now. Okay.

Then we have public comments. I guess there's no public comments. Then agenda items for next meeting, Tuesday, June 9th, 2026.

We will have had the grand opening of the community center so i think that will remove the village community center from there unless you want to know where we stand with whatever was pending and uh i have a cone of silence on village hall so i can speak very very little about it uh and i will not know anything in the They have until the end of, I believe, beginning of July or mid-July to submit their bids. So I will not know anything to give you any updates. And I don't know how much Frank can give you since I have a cone of silence and I'm sitting on this board.

Yeah, well, I have a cone of silence just because the bid is out and I'm a member of the administration. I can tell you the bid is out and the process is on its way. I can tell you that before the bid went out, I got a call from a couple of the five that are bidding that are very anxious and want to know when they were going to get to see when was the bid coming out. And I told them this was on Friday. I got a call from two different other companies. Say, hey, when's the bid coming out? And I told them it would be out Monday or Tuesday at the latest. And it went out this afternoon.

It is out. Because we got our cone of silence notice.

So now our lips are zipped.

All right. We'll see what we get next time. Because there won't be 45 days, so probably the August.

So basically the other thing I'm going to include for the Tuesday, June 9th meeting is see if we can have anything for the upcoming budget information that we can feed you. I don't know if we will have anything or not. But, you know, we'll start getting some information to you guys about what's coming up in the budget.

Okay. And then next meeting we'll also swear a bill in?

Yeah.

Perfect. Perfect. Anybody got anything else for next meeting's agenda? No.

I mean, if you come up with something that you really want to discuss or you see or have heard happening around the village, please feel free to send Alba a quick shooter, a quick email, a quick text message saying, I'd like this added to the agenda. And she'll add it to the agenda.

Yeah. I did because I heard something about the ribbon cutting, but you already answered that question. June 4th, 5 to 8 p.m. Yes. How exciting.

I can tell you we're also having an interfaith meeting on June 17th at 6.30 p.m. at Village Hall. I have an imam, a rabbi, and two priests. One is from the St. Mary's Church here on Miami Shores, and the other is from Unity on the Unity on the Bay, who will be discussing hate. That's part of the North Bay Village Against Hate program that I have been leading and moving forward.

That's awesome. And that's June 17th?

June 17th, so I will repeat it at the meeting of June 9th to try to get a crowd out there. After the June 4th event, that's the big one that's happening, which is groundbreaking. I mean, ribbon-cutting of Community Center will have more time to publicize this a little bit better. But we're trying to do one big project a quarter in the North Bay Village Against Hate program. And this quarter I chose to have an interfaith meeting so they can discuss how to get along between the different religions, basically.

Right. That sounds like a great idea. All right. Well, if we don't have anything else, we can adjourn.

6.54 p.m. And we'll see you guys at the next meeting on June 9th. If you need anything before that, you all know how to reach me. Feel free to call and give me a holler.

Hopefully we'll see everybody at the ribbing.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, June 4th for sure. That should be fun. Yeah, definitely. There's a lot of activities planned for that day throughout visiting the center. By the way, Sid, you can bring your kids. There's going to be children activities as well. You better believe I'm bringing them. I have no idea who else has kids, but I know about you, Bill. That's why. No, no kids. But there will be some good activities there.

Sounds great. So meetings now adjourned at 6.55.

Thank you much.

Everybody have a great night.

Thank you.

You as well. Take care.