Virginia Key Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Do a call to order.

Peter Ehrlich.

Here.

Nicholas Lopez Jenkins. Here. Luis Casamayor. Jackie Collier. Carrie Johnson. Steven Leidner. Lynn Lewis, Gary Milano, Vincent Richter, Monty Treanor, Andrew Frey, and Laclivia Morley Snipes.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. A couple questions, Raffaella. Under my agenda package, vacant position number two, board member, ex officio, is that Luclavia?

Yes, she's the interim parks director.

All right, so her name will be in next time inducted for the October agenda?

I'm sorry, can you repeat that, Peter?

Oh, I'm looking at the bottom on the first page.

So she's interim. So at this time, no, there hasn't been a parks director appointed. So once there is a parks director appointed, that'll be the vacant position that'll be filled. But the city hasn't appointed one officially yet.

Okay. Thanks for the update. So for anybody watching, are we live on TV? Yes.

Yes.

Okay, for anybody watching, this will be a brief meeting. We do have some items to be discussed amongst the three board members who are attending this evening, and we'll go through them quickly, and the meeting will adjourn quickly as well. The first item we'll be discussing will be upcoming meetings for November 23rd and December 23rd, and as part of that, we're also gonna be discussing the difficulty of getting a quorum for these meetings. And I think there's a legislative update on where we stand with our request to go to a different requirement to meet quorum. So why don't we go to the discussing November 23rd and December 23rd first. November 23rd occurs. Is that two days before Thanksgiving?

Correct. So that was an inquiry that we wanted to vote on in the past couple meetings, but we had to cancel. But to see if there was going to be a November meeting and then a December meeting due to being around the holidays.

And December 23rd is two days before Christmas. Any board members have any comments on that?

I'd like to move them up like a week before, I think. Obviously, we'd probably need a quorum to get that changed, but I think that makes sense.

Is City Hall available the Tuesday before?

I would have to check to see if it's still available, but if it is, we can make the change.

Gary, do you have any comments on the 23rd and 23rd?

I'm going to be out of town from the 17th to the 23rd of November. So I think the 17th is a Monday, so probably the 18th is probably the day that you're thinking to have it. So I'd be out of town.

Sorry, Gary, can you talk into the mic? I apologize just because I came here.

I'm just not going to be available on the 17th or 18th.

Yeah, that's usually a difficult time just because the last two weeks of November, usually because of the Thanksgiving holiday, a lot of people take time off. So that's why I wanted to put on the agenda so we could discuss.

That's a tough one. We're going to have a meeting in October.

Yes, the meeting for October is scheduled for October 21st. No, I'm sorry, October 28th.

October 20th? 28th. 28?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yeah, the last Tuesday in October.

How do board members feel about not meeting in November and meeting on the Tuesday before Christmas, the 23rd?

I just, I don't, I mean, if we can't get people out on September 23rd, I don't think we can get people out December 23rd, to be honest with you. So I'd like to move it up a week earlier if possible. I agree.

Yeah. Rafa's going to look into it. Okay. Availability. Okay. What room is available.

So do you want me to see if city hall is available for November or we're going to cancel the November meeting and then move the December meeting up?

Both. Can you check the Tuesday before?

Sure, so the Tuesday before the November meeting is November 18th, and then the Tuesday before the holiday is November 16th. I mean December 16th, I'm sorry.

Okay, and then do you mind filling us in on the legislation that's pending? So it's been submitted... We voted on it last year sometime.

Yes, and I apologize, so... It's been submitted to the agenda office. We just don't have confirmation which October meeting it will be under the agenda, if it's going to be the first meeting in October, which is October 9th, or if it's going to be the October 23rd.

And can you describe it?

It's most likely going to be on the 23rd. Can you describe it for us? It's for the reduction of quorum, and I have to look at the other part of it. I'm not sure off the top of my head.

You can summarize it for the three board members who showed up and for our TV audience.

So it's to address to the city commission to amend quorum and to direct the city manager for the top-ranked proposer for the Miami Marine Stadium RFP.

I'm referring to the legislation pertaining to quorum.

Okay, we submitted both. So those two would be the two items that would be going on the agenda. The request to amend quorum to reduce the number so that we can be able to meet. And then the other one that was requested by the board to submit was to direct the city manager for the top-ranked proposer for the Miami Marine Stadium RFP.

That was legislation to ask him to put a Virginia Key Advisory Board member on the selection committee?

Yes.

Which he did not do.

The thing is it wasn't submitted, so.

Well, he doesn't need a submittal to the commission to have made that decision.

On which RFP?

Well, it's already taken place. It's already been awarded. The RFP to the operator for the Marines.

Oh, I was on that. You were? I was, yeah. I didn't know that. I was, yeah.

Oh, then I stand corrected.

I was in the cone of silence, though. I couldn't speak on it. I missed a meeting when I was actually going to update you, so I didn't make it to that meeting. But yes, I was part of that selection process.

Okay, wonderful. The cone of silence is over now. Yes. Do you mind giving us an update?

Can we talk on the microphone just to make sure that everybody hears? I apologize.

All right. Later on in the agenda, Nicholas will give us a little update on his time spent on that committee. Thank you, I was unaware anybody from our board was.

I apologize for not, it just kind of went by, so.

That's okay, no problem. So if the legislation, if the commissioner's approved the pending legislation, is it true we will be able to have a quorum with only three members present?

That is correct. You would have a reduced quorum requirement.

Okay, thank you very much, Ms. City Attorney. And then I would like to hear from Gary pertaining to upcoming meetings and our difficulty of getting attendance. Can you offer? Do you mind repeating and describing the process of removing the board members board members who are consistently missing meetings? and also our need to have board members that consistently show up.

Sure. I was just talking with city staff earlier and the idea is when the city announces a meeting and reaches out to board members, whether they're going to be attending or not, at that time when they answer, they're going to attend or not attend, that's when they're going to be either identified as not attending or attending. Not when they come to the board meeting and when roll is called out. That's the way it's been done in the past, by the roll call. We're going to be doing it by a different method if the city attorney agrees to this. This is important. If it isn't, we need to modify our framework somehow to enable that. Because as you all know, we've been very frustrated in that we haven't had a quorum. We'll have a quorum tonight. So if we don't have people that are going to show up and care, then We're lost. The city's lost because we're supposed to be overseeing projects before they are implemented by the city. And if we are not able to review the projects, then the city will not be able to move forward with the projects. So it's very important to get this worked out. It's very frustrating as a board member that attends most meetings when people don't show up or don't. give us feedback that they're not going to be here, then it's very frustrating. So anyway, it's just a matter of being constructive and trying to come to some way to enable this board to function better.

Nicholas, do you have any comments on our difficulty of achieving quorum?

I totally agree. We kind of get paralyzed having the quorum at this point in time. At least reducing the amount that's needed for quorum. Obviously, three people probably wouldn't be enough no matter what, but it is frustrating to make it out here. I know you guys do a good job of informing us when there won't be people here so we don't have to come out here, but it becomes very frustrating for everybody, I imagine. Yeah. I agree with Gary is what I was trying to say.

Okay.

Chair, if you like, I can read the current requirements.

Sure, that would be wonderful. Thank you, Ms. City Attorney.

Absolutely. So as per your bylaws, Section 4 attendance requirements states that it is expected that all members of the board shall attend every meeting. Any board member shall be automatically removed if in any given calendar year he or she is absent from three consecutive meetings or he or she is absent from four of the board's meetings. Therefore, this is an automatic removal.

What happens if we don't have a meeting? Are they considered absent?

No, it would be, right, according to your bylaws, it would be in a meeting.

That's our problem. It can't be done by roll call.

far as absentee it's got to be done by the initiation of the city staff contacting sending out an email saying are you going to attend or not that's going to so do we have to modify anything in our absolutely so because that is not the current requirement in the bylaws you would have to amend the bylaws so that would require another process in in that event you will have to have a quorum in order to be able to amend the bylaws and and I don't know what that requirement is, if it's by fourth, fifth vote, or majority of the quorum present in that moment. I'll look at that and get back to you as far as what that process would entail in order to amend the bylaws, and then we can implement that process into the bylaws, the process that you would like to have.

Could you possibly draft that up for us?

Absolutely.

And then we could have it available at the next meeting that we do have enough people to vote on it?

Absolutely, if that's the chair's, the chair's the one that makes the...

I would certainly agree with that.

Okay. Great. Perfect. Thank you very much. Absolutely.

And another question, to please define request for absence waiver. How do you define absence waiver?

So when I send the... the notifications via email to all board members stating that there's an upcoming meeting, please advise if you will be attending or if you'd like to request an absence waiver. If I get a response, people just respond saying, I will not be attending, but they don't specify that they want an absence waiver. And then I go and respond asking, would you like to ask for an absence waiver? And sometimes I get a response, sometimes I don't. And that's something that I mentioned to the chair the importance of stressing to all board members that the way that we communicate through the board is via email so that everybody needs to, you know, the email that they provided or if it needs to be amended, but to make sure that they have an accurate and current email address that they frequently check so that way we can communicate and disseminate the information.

Do we need to have an absentee waiver?

I mean, if they request it, it's part of the bylaw that they can request an absence waiver.

And what is the definition of an absent waiver? She's going to check on that.

Good question.

Your bylaws do not define what an absent waiver is. Generally, what an absent waiver entails is where you explain why, as a member, you're going to be absent. And then that is taken into consideration so that it's not against your, let's say, three strikes that you have, because it's an event of extreme circumstances or something like that. Generally, in this case, it's not defined in your bylaws, so it's really open to interpretation. That would be another of my suggestions. If we're going to amend this, then I recommend stating clearly what is an absent waiver and who makes the determination, what it entails, and what those guidelines are.

Could you give us some definitions that we could review?

Absolutely. I can propose several definitions in like a red line, and I can have Rafaela send it to the board, to everyone.

And we may want to incorporate that into the document.

You may, absolutely, and you can suggest other changes, revisions, comments, and we can tweak the language. Great, great. Absolutely.

I mean, I can see granting an absence waiver in the event that a board member has either surgery or a death in the family, but failing something very serious, we might not be issuing any waivers.

Yeah, you know, let's take, for example, my situation in November. I'm going to be out of town. I know that now. I'm telling you that now. So I won't be here. Is that a good waiver? I don't know. Or not.

You'd have to just do a trip once a year.

Yeah, or maybe just do away with the waivers. And, you know, that would be one strike against me because I'm not going to make that meeting.

Death in the family or surgery, I think, might be justifiable.

Yeah, those are significant. Yeah, and that's not happening. I mean, you know, most of the time people don't come because, oh, I can use the waiver.

That's true.

As an out.

It's true. It would be in a small minority of situations.

Okay, so we could define it as an extreme, like a death in the family, something significant, not being out of town.

Understood.

Yep.

Yeah, it sounds good. We're making some progress, and we're going to work very hard to get a quorum and get everybody to show up in October. We'll have good communication, and we're going to send out the agenda very early for the next meeting.

Chair? Yes. I was just verifying with our assistant city attorney. And I believe that according to the bylaws, the board can also choose to meet quarterly. And that's something that I think we had discussed before, that that might be an option, too, to be able to, you know, have more people attend if it's not a monthly obligation, in quotes, obviously.

Let's discuss it and maybe put it on the agenda for October for discussion, too.

Yeah, I like that idea.

Nicholas. I like it. Okay.

Chair, I suggest any amendments that we want to do to the bylaws, I suggest that all the members read the bylaws very carefully. If you want, we can share them with all the members again, so that way you can all send your comments, and then we can all have them through email, and it would be easier for us to keep track of what those items are. And it gives you an opportunity to also review the bylaws and provide any other revisions that you would like.

Thank you. We appreciate that. And, you know, I have to admit it's very nice that the two of you are here and also Lorraine and Hector are here from Department of Capital Improvements. You know, it's already six o'clock on a weeknight. They're very nice to join us. at this meeting while we go through these discussion items. So the idea of maybe meeting quarterly might solve a few problems for us. Any other comments, or should we move to the next item? Next item is a landfill site update. I know Lorraine is here from Capital Improvements, and I know Gary Milano has been following this issue closely. for several decades. Gary, would you like to discuss this item briefly?

No, I think the update would be interesting.

Hector, maybe, Hector, you have some information on it?

Thank you very much. City of Miami Office of Capital Improvements. For the landfill site, I know that the county's submitted for dry run through the city's building department.

Has anything new come up on that issue recently, in the last few months? Not that I'm aware of. Gary, you have questions?

Yeah, I submitted in writing some questions and have never gotten any response back from either you or the consultant. I was just wondering if you want to go through those now, I can.

Well, we have our consultants ready to present. They've taken your comments in and then they're ready to present whenever this board is available.

What are they going to be presenting?

The input from the comments from you and from other stakeholders.

So it would be a conceptual plan, an updated conceptual plan? Correct.

Updated conceptual plan, yes.

Great. Great. So maybe the October meeting?

October 28th. They've actually confirmed that they're available October 28th.

Great.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Hector.

You're welcome. Nicholas, any questions? No.

On that issue? On our discussion item for discussion is an update on the Civitas plan. Is there anybody from city staff that has an update on the Civitas plan? No?

I can inquire if you'd like again with the planning department.

Okay, and just for board members that aren't aware, we had several meetings on this plan several years ago. Civitas is a planning group based in Colorado. We had a meeting here to go over some plans, and they even had a public forum at the Miami Rowing Club. And I believe the city of Miami paid an $800,000 fee to this planning group called Civitas.

Nicholas, are you aware of this issue?

Did you attend any of the meetings? I did not attend any of the meetings. Gary, you recall Civitas presenting to us?

Many times.

Have you heard anything about it in the last 18 months or 12 months?

My general feeling is it's kind of been tossed out and they're kind of going back to the drawing boards and kind of picking and choosing things out of it that the city wants to do. I don't see that the whole plan is being implemented. It's just parts of it.

All right. And then let's go back to Nicholas for a second. Nicholas, do you mind discussing your experience with the selection committee and the RFP and the bidders?

For sure. Yeah, there was two very well-qualified candidates that provided RFPs for the management of the Marine Stadium. Both international companies, one much larger than the other. Kind of the deciding factor, and it was almost unanimous amongst everybody that was there, going from record, obviously the meeting is recorded, was that the OFU group, or OVG, provided a lot more of local input as far as how the Marine Stadium was going to be run. It tapped into a lot of local people like Breakwater, which does the wharf here, and Groot Entertainment that does Miami Beach. So it really played up the fact that Ohio was going to partner with people here to make sure the Marine Stadium was a Miami thing, you know, trying to relive what it was back in the day and kind of keep that kind of forever. So that really was the deciding factor. Obviously, there's going to be additional negotiations with the cities with the exact numbers because there was a $500,000 fee they were looking for yearly and a couple other things that are going to have to be worked out. But I would say the deciding factor was that one seemed to be just adding another piece to a huge portfolio, and the other one was really focused on, you know, whether it's traffic, whether it's environmental, you know, all that kind of stuff, they really incorporated well. I mean, there were huge RFPs. I mean, there were like 400 pages.

Was the winning bidder the larger of the two bidders?

No, it was actually the smaller one. Oh, it was? Yeah. I mean, they're both sizable companies and really, you know, powerful groups, but the one that provided the more in-depth to, like, tapping into local talent is the one that ended up winning, so...

Gary, do you have any questions?

Just what's the next step as far as...

I think it goes to the ballot now, right? Correct? Yeah, so.

No, I believe it was, the item was pulled off the city commission agenda a week or two weeks ago.

Oh, was it? Yeah. Oh, I wasn't aware of that.

It was a headline in the Miami Herald. Isn't that right? The item was pulled off the City of Miami agenda when it was found out.

I can verify that for you.

The winning bidder was indicted and pled guilty to some fraud charges regarding a bidding process in Austin, Texas.

I wasn't aware of any of that. I should start reading the paper now.

And I and The article in the Miami Herald didn't really describe next steps except the city would redo the due diligence And the other my other question was Nicholas Marine Stadium only takes up, you know less than an acre our impression as the process went along was that the bidders are were also submitting, as part of their application, to take over 15 or 16 acres, including the Flex Park space, too, in addition to the Marine Stadium space. Is that right?

If I remember correctly, as far as managing it, doing maintenance and stuff like that, I believe so. Yeah, but not to convert it into any kind of event space. It was to keep it as a Flex Park. Yeah. I think it would be difficult for someone to manage the stadium itself and not have some kind of overview of the rest of the park just because it's all one continuous piece of land.

You certainly need influence over parking.

That's for sure, yeah.

And what about the, was there much discussion on building the new adjacent building that sometimes is proposed?

There was nothing construction-based. It was all about just actual facility management.

And also, if you don't mind my asking, I think most people thought that the winning bidder would be paying rent to the city to be able to take over a city asset. How did that morph into the city paying

Well, like I said, this is, once again, this is what they want to do. The way it was explained to us that there would be an obvious negotiation with the city about the eventual financial situation between the two parties. So this was more of who would bring to the stadium or to that whole facility what we were looking for as far as an execution kind of thing. So that was the basic advice. So this was just the first step in that process. Yeah. We weren't voting on whether to allow the $500,000 a year or anything along those lines.

Did the other applicant, did the losing applicant propose getting paid to take over at the same time?

Like I said, they both had their own ways of becoming financed through this. Obviously, they were both there to make money in some ways. One did one way and one did another way.

Gary, any other questions? Ms. City Attorney, would you like to update us on the process of the RFP? And was the item heard by city commissioners for the opportunity to go on the ballot?

I don't know. I wouldn't be able to answer the questions. That's assigned to another assistant city attorney. That's the one handling the Marine Stadium. But I am checking to see if it was removed from the ballot. I can confirm that while we're here. I'm looking for that information now.

I don't think... I don't think commissioners voted on it to vote yes or no to put it on the ballot. So it wouldn't have been removed because it was never put on for a ballot. I think it was pulled the day before it was going to be heard by the city commissioners, according to the Miami Herald.

Okay, we'll verify. We have a process where we can see the agendas as they're being prepared. And then once we, you know, if we amend them, we can also see that. So I can see if it was removed from the agenda, but I wouldn't have any other information.

If you do a quick Google search, you know, Miami Herald, RFP process, Miami Marine Stadium, a fairly extensive article will come up. But in any case, we can talk about it again in October. Nicholas, thank you very much for putting in the time.

Sorry for keeping it secret. I think I took the cone of silence too serious, I guess. I didn't even tell you guys I was involved. But yeah, it was an interesting process. It was my first time ever being involved in something like that.

Well, I'm glad the city manager included you.

Mr. Chair, something relating to the Marine Stadium. I don't know if you've noticed, but the stadium area has been cleaned out as far as boats, and they're all outside now. Basically, you can see them on the south side of Obie Beach. And I'm a little confused as far as what's going on at the city level as far as, you know, we heard that there was going to be a mooring field installed because the mooring field was required and the only way that they could control the boats anchoring in the Marine Stadium area. But the mooring field isn't in, and the boats are gone, and I'm curious to know what's going on. So I'm hoping that we might be able to request some sort of... presentation from the Marine Patrol at the next meeting to give us an update as far as what the status, maybe this isn't gonna be Marine Patrol, but what is the status of the mooring field and what's going on as far as managing the Marine Stadium Basin as far as the boats? It's just, I mean, it's a good thing for the rowers that the boats are gone, but I have a feeling that the mooring plan is still going forward And the whole reason for the mooring field was to be able to regulate the boats anchoring in the Marine Stadium Basin. So I'm a little confused.

We'll put those two items on the agenda for October. And it's a great question. And I had heard the boats had been removed.

Yeah. Why?

Does anybody from the city know why there's much less abandoned vehicles and boats moored illegally in the Marine Stadium Basin? All of a sudden, there was 80 or 100 at one time. Okay, that'll be an item for our October agenda. And we will discuss it as a board, and hopefully somebody from the city might have some answers. Certainly we can get an update on the mooring field. Let's go to the next item. 38 acres across on the south side, south of the Virginia Key Park in this aquarium site. Did both of you see the article in the Miami Herald on the 38-acre aquarium site?

I did not.

Rafa sent us a copy of the article. It will be in your email if you click on the attachment. But essentially, the tenant at the aquarium is a Mexican company. It's being evicted by Miami-Dade County. for mistreating animals, and I think there are some other violations. And some developers have reached out to the tenant that's being evicted. Developers have reached out to the tenant to take over the 38 acres to develop it. And the developers that have been mentioned in the Miami Herald, this is all in the Miami Herald article that was sent to all board members. And it's a public article. or the Terra Group and Integra. So I think that would certainly affect Virginia Key Park, certainly affect the City of Key Biscayne, and anybody wanting to use the public parks, either the Miami-Dade County parks or the City of Miami parks on the causeway. Anybody, I guess neither of you have seen that article. It's still online, but any thoughts on that issue? I guess this is news. Anybody from the city have any comments on that article in the Miami Herald about this aquarium site? The city attorney, did you notice the article on this aquarium?

I did notice the article. Yes, I saw it. It was shared.

Oh, okay. Yes. Well, maybe we can discuss it next time. It's not in the Virginia Key Park, but on the other hand, it's huge. And it would affect the park if something going forward. All right. Let's update on Marine Stadium RFP. Nicholas, I think you did a good job. I think we just handled that one. Marine Stadium RFP, and we can get an update in October on that from Andrew Fry or from anybody at the city staff that has an update. And the last item was an update in the Virginia Key Advisory Board legislation, the city commission. Rafa's brought us up to date on that. Two items will be heard by the city commission at one of the two meetings in October. One of them is moot because the city manager appointed Nicholas to the selection committee. So the other item pertaining to our quorum is very important. We hope the commissioners vote favorably to help us. In the meantime, Assistant City Attorney will... consider some legislation to amend our bylaws and make it easier for us to have quorum. So it looks like we have seven or eight items for our October meeting. We'll be meeting on October 28th. We're going to make a huge effort to have quorum. Lorraine, would you like to update us on anything? You're not required. Thank you very much for showing up. Anybody else have any comments, questions?

Nope.

Chair, I would like to clarify something. In the code, I went back and verified the meeting requirements, and it says that the board shall meet every other month unless required to meet on a more frequent basis. So that's something to consider, that you could meet every other month. So you're not required to meet every month.

Very interesting. So we'll put that on the bi-monthly. We'll discuss that in full in October.

So maybe we could drop the November meeting and just have one in October and one in December.

Sure, we could drop any.

Well, I'm just not going to be around for that meeting. I'd like to be here for the meetings, so.

So then we can decide in October, and I'll take notes. We might drop the November because it's close to Thanksgiving and try to do December 23rd.

No, you had said to move to December 16th.

Oh, nonetheless, you're going to check the dates and see if the room is full.

Yeah, do it early in December.

Yeah, I'm going to check for November 18th and December 16th, but Gary's still not going to be here for the November 18th, so that's why he's.

Yeah, and we could even do it earlier than that, early in, you know, first of September.

But the other meeting is October 28th, so if we move it up to... You mean the October meeting?

I was thinking the December meeting. We could have it early in the month. Okay. And do away with the November meeting, and then we'll just go to a bi-monthly after that. So December, we skip January, go to a February. I think that would work out pretty good every other month. Yeah.

Yeah.

I agree.

Maybe quarterly is too infrequent.

Then we wouldn't have to mess around with changing or amending the bylaws.

And thank you, Ms. City Attorney, for finding that.

Absolutely.

So we're going to meet on the 28th, and we have a lot to discuss, including... if there's a possibility of moving the date, the meeting up in November, and what to do about December.

And then December, would you like me to check for the 9th or for the 16th?

In December?

Yeah, let's do the 9th, because we can eliminate the November meeting, and then just do the October, and then do an early December, and then we'll have everything covered.

Okay. And Rafa will check the availability of the room.

And I'll let everybody know.

Anybody else have any comments?

Questions?

No, sounds good to me. So 622, move to adjourn.

Second.

All in favor? Thank you guys very much. And thank you to everybody from the city for showing up.

Thank you.