Sustainability and Resiliency Task Force - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hello, everybody.

Hi. Hello, how are you doing?

Hey, Jess, Oliver, Roger, Frank, Christina, Brenda, Dave. Looks like we're just missing our chair. Let me text her. Okay. I just texted Chairwoman Graham.

Thank you.

She's on her way in. She says... Roger, how are you doing, man?

I've been better, but I'm healing up pretty nicely. There's still a lot of pain.

I'm so sorry you're still in pain, buddy.

Yeah. So it's kind of hard not being able to do a whole lot in practice.

Yeah. Is it the arm that you write with and do things with?

Yep.

Oh, no.

Well, soon you'll be ambidextrous.

Dave, the eternal optimist.

I've been learning to do a lot of things with my lifetime except write.

Voice to text is super helpful.

Yeah, but you can't really manipulate the spreadsheet with your voice, not just yet.

Oh, well, this is a really good time to build an AI agent, isn't it?

I would, but typing kind of sucks, too.

Oh, no. Okay. Damn. Good evening. Hello, Madam Chair. How are you?

Hello, Madam Chair. Doing good. How about you?

Doing good. Let's get this show on the road. Yeah.

I got to have Daryl knock on the window in 12 minutes because we got to go inside for a concert, for a fish show.

All righty. Let's go through this. All righty. So, call the meeting to order at 637. Roll call. Dave, vice chair. Brenda is here. I see. Oliver.

Here.

All righty. And... Missing one more.

Yes.

So fresh, so clean. Yes, me, Jessica.

Sorry, I don't know why I have terrible service right now. I keep like disconnecting, but I'm in a better spot now, so it shouldn't happen.

So, all right, let's do the approval of meeting minutes real quick. Everyone read them? Everyone good to go?

Great. I motion to approve. I will second.

All righty, all in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Me too, good to go. All righty, Madam Mayor, you want to take it away?

Thank you guys for indulging me. I got to jump off for a dinner in just a second. I wanted to give you guys my update. Real quickly, the green procurement policy that Christina has been working on and that was presented to you all got deferred from our June commission meeting, mostly because everyone was acting really crazy and I didn't we didn't have like the emotional bandwidth to talk about it. So it'll be heard in September. And I would really love for any of you and allies that you have in your buildings and in your neighborhoods to come talk about why the green procurement policy is really important. Staff prepares these items, they advocate for them. And then ultimately it depends on how the day feels about it. And if we get to a point in the meeting where I don't have any political capital and people aren't listening to what I'm saying, that's my fault. But the reality is that we need voices from the community to come advocate for these things. So the green procurement policy will be heard in September. We did, at the last meeting, approve the new RFP for Treasure Island Stormwater and Roads. Roger and Christina co-presented that item. We got it through the commission. But as we go forward in that RFP process, as we go through the interviews and go through the scoring and have a public meeting to select a team to do the new Treasure Island Stormwater and Roads design, We will need community buy-in. There were a couple of voices on the dais who expressed a lot of frustration, a lot of disappointment. Conversations that we've had here multiple times. I mean, you guys have sort of been in the trenches with us from the beginning on this. And you guys really know where things went wrong with Black & Veatch and with BCC and all of the things that... And for not every member of the commission is fully briefed on the ins and outs of those issues. So as we move forward with Treasure Island, Stormwater and Rhodes, I really am going to ask you guys for your support. And of course, we're going to be notifying the community of these meetings. And every time there's a workshop and all of that, we're going to publicize it. And then the other thing I wanted to talk about, same thing with the stormwater park. We got pushback on the stormwater park because the partnership with the University of Miami is going to cost a little bit of money. And even though we have a bond explicitly for this issue, we got pushback on the dais about the stormwater park. So. All that is to say the items are moving forward, but it's not easy. And if there's any way that folks can be talking about this in the community, that would be really great. And certainly when we notice a community meeting or a workshop, you know, I'm going to reach out to each of you to help bring people there. And then the last thing I want to update you on is the solid waste policy. you know, trash hauler situation. Dave came to the meeting with a ton of environmental advocates. Folks from Compost for Life were there. The county's, you know, solid waste consultant was also there. We had a really great crowd coming to speak in favor of piloting compost and incorporating compost into our solid waste routine. And that was really appreciated. Dave, thank you so much for all of your hard work. Dave also took the liberty of preparing an addendum to the Coral Gables Waste Management Contract. If the village moves forward with privatizing solid waste, Trash hauling is really probably the better way to call it. But if the village moves forward with privatization, our options are either to go out to bid immediately or to piggyback off of a contract that's in the village's best interest. And that contract would probably be the Coral Gables Waste Management Contract. So Dave went ahead and prepared a draft addendum so that we could incorporate composting while still piggybacking off of that contract. And I wanted to let you guys know that I sent that addendum basically to waste management and they're preparing their responses to that suggested language. And I'm meeting with them in a week or two to go over their responses. So that if we do decide to piggyback off of the Coral Gables contract with waste management, we have language already prepared that will allow us to incorporate composting immediately and not have to wait for some big mama RFQ process that we do two years from now. And from my perspective, that's probably it. the best way to go. I don't know if the rest of the day feels that way. I don't know if the rest of the commission feels that way, but we have a deadline. We need to make a choice on privatizing solid waste. And so if we can get language into the waste management contract, that seems like sort of the easiest thing to do, especially if we can do it without increasing the cost to residents for that service. Any questions? That's my update.

No questions on my end.

Sounds great.

I don't have any questions. Maybe we could have a write-up, too, of all of the points that we could also share with other people in the community and neighbors and the dates that are important for us to show up. That would be awesome.

I don't. Well, I can tell you right now that the commission meeting in September is going to be a big one. And so, yes, we will make sure that you have the date for that.

I will actually suggest that Commissioner Chevroni has invited me to present and discuss at the Finance Committee on, don't quote me on this, but I believe it's September 8th. And so that would be a great opportunity to, I think, to show up because I think by the time it gets to commission, hopefully the commissioner should have learned and read and made a decision before they show up. So I think that is the place where we're going to be able to have a greater conversation.

Um, I was, you know, at the beginning of the conversation, you're only going to be able to make public comment at the financial advisory board. I mean, that's true for basically other public meetings, but you're just saying, you're saying like, we're going to be able to have a good conversation. I mean, I don't, I don't know how much of a conversation it's going to be.

Well, I imagine I was invited to come answer questions and be part of whatever conversation is happening.

Yes, but for the rest of the task force. No, no, no. Right. Okay.

Right.

I'm just managing expectations on participation. That's all.

I already know.

So I think that's the time for every show. Great. Thank you.

All right, so we're going to move on to Item 3A, Resilience Update.

Okay, I'm going to hop off, guys. Thank you so much for everything that you do. I will watch this meeting later. Thank you so much, Rachel. Have a good night. Bye, guys.

Thank you.

I got to go as well, everybody. I appreciate you.

Have a great one, Dave. Bye. Have fun. Enjoy your concert. Bye. All righty. Item 3A? Resilience update. Is that the mayor's item? Does anybody know?

I believe so.

Okay. Update on stormwater master plan.

Maybe we should rename it. to update on the or progress on the stormwater master plan implementation. But I guess that's just being pedantic. So I'll start with North Bay Island. Progress is slow, but we did manage to secure a meeting with FPL to identify and get their confirmation and agreement with the location of the FPL equipment on the causeway that's been proposed by our engineer. Um, and then once that is confirmed, we will also, um, get confirmation from the engineer that the, uh, for the proposed location of the actual pump equipment on North Bay Island, um, in the right of way next to that piece of property on. Coquina Drive. So that we're making headway. Eventually, I expect very soon after this slate of coordination meetings, we will be able to finally break ground in the next couple weeks. So there's that. For Harbor Island, we are currently, we actually managed to secure the ancillary services for the engineer to proceed with the design from 60% to 90% and then completion. So I'm very happy to say that we're looking to make good progress with Harbor Island as well. And as for Treasure Island, the mayor, you know, went into where we are with the Treasure Island stormwater design update and the RFQ. The actual RFQ is currently in development. It's in residence with the capital improvements team. We're reviewing the full package, and then it will be subsequently sent to our procurement team to finalize and very soon issue for response. So that's our update.

Can I add to that?

Yes.

My audio isn't working, so I'm logged in twice. I apologize for the stormwater park. with the UM and Treasure Island. So as you know, we have the presentation from Tom Klein with the University of Miami, and we have it on the agenda for commission next week to accept their proposal to go ahead with the studio and the center study that they're doing, which will result in about 30% design drawings for that part. And I would love the support of the Commission on the of the task force on this as we bring it to Commission next week. I was hoping to solicit a motion for this.

I would move forward with a motion. All right.

I would second that. Okay.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Oliver?

Aye.

Aye.

Perfect. Thank you for accepting the proposal, for recommending the proposal to commission. Thank you. Yes.

And just a quick addition. The RFQ, the scope of work in the RFQ for the Treasure Island design does speak we made an effort to make sure to include the stormwater park and the fact that the work that the engineer does and their team does will incorporate as much as possible the work that's done by the UM team. So, otherwise any kind of pickles that might have otherwise arisen. So we're working to make sure that everything speaks to each other.

That sounds good. Sorry, my audio is not working. Thank you so much, Roger.

You're welcome.

I just have a quick question, Oliver. On the thing that we just approved for the agreement that we're giving support for with the University of Miami, is that in the package or is that something that we've seen before? I know we saw the whole presentation, but I just didn't know if there was an actual agreement that goes along with this that you were going to send to the commission that we've actually packaged or can be included?

I can definitely share the proposal. I know I shared the presentation. I don't recall if the proposal was a part of it. It might not have been, but I'm happy to share it with the task force.

Yeah, that'd be great since we just made a recommendation to send it to the commission. Thank you.

Yeah, essentially it was $23,500 for two stages. Stage one was the part where it's the studio class. An architecture student from UPenn and University of Miami and private sector landscaping companies like Cadence would support the preliminary designs. And then stage two, they would take that design and refine it. By they, I mean the Center for Urban Design. design at the University of Miami. But yes, I'm happy to share the proposal.

Thank you, Christina. Does anybody have any other questions or comments on this item? If not, I'm going to move on to the next item. That is the reef tile installation. Brief update on that. Right now we are dispersing the amounts to the people involved. So everything's sailing on that. I don't know if Frank or Christina, if I've missed any emails. Last week was really hectic for me. I know that we made the disbursement to breezy permits, which is step one. And then the rest I know is going to fall into place. But is there anything that you guys need from me on my end?

Yeah, sure. It's wonderful news that the permits were approved, but we're still waiting for the designs for our record so that we can share with our building department, our public works, exactly what's going up, how many tiles. Yeah, so we would just like some official designs.

Okay. I'll go with the GC on that.

Thank you. We're a marine contractor. Okay.

Next item is the update on save as you throw proposal. Was that a Dave item?

It sounds like a Dave item. So. We've pretty much just kind of discussed. I don't know what his updates would have been, but I have to say our waste contract or potential contract has come a long way. They've really added a lot of his suggestions, particularly pay as you throw or save as you throw for single family housing. So that's our little update. I know the mayor spoke at length about this. But it's coming along. Good.

Okay. So. Does anybody else, any other task force members have anything to say? Because this has been a very light agenda. I know we're getting together next month, which I'm really excited about. We get to get together. I think this is like the first in-person meeting since like COVID or even ever since I joined the task force. So it's probably been like five years.

I agree.

Close to like five years. It's insane. It is insane. Thank God. The next item would be to suggest a recess, just like commission, to mirror what commission is doing and meet in September, not August.

I actually prepared a few different options for an education type center that we were discussing last meeting. And I even have mock ups of what that would look like from, you know, a low budget, almost zero cost option that, you know, to, you know, kind of a fancier option and then a middle option. And I wanted to kind of present that if I have the opportunity when we're at the community center or maybe at the following meeting. But I'm excited to meet everyone in person.

Yeah. Did you send it over to Alba so we could put it on the agenda and that we all have copies and we're able to review it? Perfect. So Christina, you said something about recess. Are we doing it next month or not next month in August?

It seems like the way we're going away during the summer and commissions taking a recess, it seems like it would be best to mirror that. And that way it would give us, would be the same track as them. We'd be, um, we won't have any updates from commission in August.

Right. And we want to make the most of it. See like the center though. And like kind of have a start talking about a plan maybe. Yeah.

I'm happy to come with you, give you tour and we can pull those markups. If you'd like Jessica.

Yeah, no, I was just excited about everyone getting together too. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it would be good for us to do it in September. I mean, what is everybody else's take on it? Because I would like for us to get as, you know, I would like for it to be a longer meeting and for us to, you know, make it a very productive meeting because one person is completely different than, you know, online and everyone is there.

Yeah, so we'll definitely by September than we would next month in August.

Okay, so then if everyone's good with that, let's move forward with that. Do we have to motion that to switch it up or can we just say we're all in favor of doing that? And we'll have an email chain to, you know, make sure that Madam Mayor would be able. Yeah, I would check with the mayor first.

Yeah.

Okay, that sounds good.

It's a little, because you guys can't talk in Queens. about the meeting.

I'm sorry, you're kind of breaking up for me.

Yeah, that is correct. The committee can't, I mean, the task force can't talk amongst themselves.

No. Sunshine Law. You're breaking up a little bit.

Did everyone hear me?

I didn't hear Christina. Christina, you're breaking up.

No, I just reiterated that there is no commission meeting in August. So our agenda will be very, very light if we go into a meeting in August.

All right. So we'll start coordinating for September and make sure everybody's available. Great. So for, we don't have any new business. Staff commissioned liaison updates. We got it from Madam Mayor. Is there any other updates from staff? No other updates.

No, not from me.

Sounds good. Any public comments? Anybody on here that would like to make a public comment? nope okay so seven uh agenda for next meeting uh that'll be coordinated and oh what's this discussion regarding august summer recess oh got it yeah all righty motion to adjourn i move that the meeting be adjourned second all righty all in favor

Hi.

Hi. All right. Meeting adjourned at 7 o'clock. Looking forward to being on another Zoom with you guys and then meeting you guys in August.

That sounds great. Or September.

I got it backwards. September. September, September. In person.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you, everybody.

Bye. Thanks, everyone. Have a good night.

Recording.