City Commission - Regular Meeting

Please take your seat. seats. The meeting is about to begin. Remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record. Please stand by. We are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1.

Good morning and welcome to our commission meeting of March 18th, 2026. Thanks everyone for being here. And I'll turn it to our city clerk Rafael Granada to give us any instructions. Thank you, mayor. Uh, good morning everyone. The city commission is physically present in the commission chamber at Miami Beach City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Drive, third floor. Members of the public are invited to attend either in person or virtually. If you're joining us virtually, you can log in using the Zoom app or visit the Zoom US on your browser. You can also phone in at 3052241968. That's 305224-1968 or toll-free 888-4754499. The webinar ID is 813928-57671 pound. Again, 813-928-57671 pound. If you would like to speak virtually on an item during the meeting, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom app or press star9 on your on your phone. The Zoom link, webinar ID, and phone number stay the same for every commission meeting. All lobbyists must register with the office of the city clerk located on the first floor of the of city hall. You do not need to register if you're an expert witness giving only technical or specialized testimony, a representative of a neighborhood association or nonprofit speaking without pay or a private citizen speaking on your own behalf without compensation. However, if you're an expert witness or a nonprofit or a neighborhood rep, you do need to submit a written disclosure form to the office of the city clerk before speaking with a commission or staff. Forms are available at the office of the city clerk. If a lobbyist gives or agre or agrees to give $1,000 or more to a neighborhood association or its representative regarding a city matter, that must be disclosed in writing to the clerk. Note that contingency fees are not permitted to compensate lobbyists. If you plan to speak during the public comment today, please sign in. You can use the sign-in sheets at the podium or scan the QR code also located there to sign in

electronically. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ralph. It's my honor to uh introduce Rabbi Scholom Corf of the Kabad of Lake View to give our invocation. I will say it's uh it's a fairly new synagogue to the Miami Beach community and it already has a tremendous profound impact on the uh Lake View and surrounding areas. Uh, I actually visited uh not too long ago on on a on a Shabbat and you were you were packed.

Yeah. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, mayor. Good morning. Morning, mayor, commissioners, city staff, and all members of the community here today. We gather with the shared purpose to serve, to lead, and to strengthen the community of Miami Beach with the help of God. As we approach the holiday of Passover, where we tell the story of the Exodus of Egypt, the Jewish sages teach that a name actually holds within its essential meaning. The name Egypt in Hebrew means limitations. So the exodus of Egypt doesn't just mean a story of physical freedom from bondage, but actually traversing beyond our limitations, going out of our comfort zone and leaving perhaps what we're comfortable doing to go a bit greater, more beyond to do a little more. Each of us faces moments when we're called to rise beyond what is easy and beyond what is known. Leadership at its core means exactly that. To be able to do beyond what is your comfort zone. To rise beyond what is the usual, what's easy, and to go a bit above the call of duty. With the help of God, may the work here done today be guided by wisdom, clarity, and compassion. May there be an openness to new ideas, courage in the face of challenge, and a sheared commitment to progress that benefits all those that call this city their home. Just as the journey of Passover reminds us that growth begins when we step beyond our boundaries. May this gathering be a place where

meaningful steps are taken towards growth, towards unity, and towards purpose that benefit the city of Miami Beach. May this meeting with the help of God bring about outcomes that promote opportunity, growth, joy, and well-being for all the residents of this city. May we merit the coming of the Messiah where there will be peace and harmony amongst all nations, people, and creation. And let us say, amen. Amen.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Rabbi Corf. You had the the room uh mesmerized. Thank you. Um, so as I look around the room for our pledge of allegiance, uh, I will say we're in the middle of spring break, getting toward the end, and for the third consecutive year, uh, so far, tremendous success. I don't want to jinx it, but, uh, really congratulations to everyone up here to our city manager, our police department so far. All right, great. But we also have to thank our marketing department, uh, and the great marketing campaigns that you continue to roll out. So, I'm gonna ask Melissa Berthier, our director of marketing, to lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

Mr. Mayor, as a fellow baseball fan and a superstitious baseball fan, what do you never do? You never call a no hitter before it's over. Fair enough. Baseball. All right, everyone, please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So, Commissioner Bot, you actually teed it up perfectly because I was going to wish congratulations to the country and the people of Venezuela who who uh beat the United States in the World Baseball Classic last night. Uh it was an incredible incredible game. The uh the dedication, the love, the love of country, but really what I what I saw was the love of people and uh it's really what sports brings out. It's what the arts and culture it brings out. We just had the Olympics. It's it's really great when you see people come together and you obviously you support one team, but then uh you literally high-five the uh the opponent next to you and and just wish them congratulations. So, it was it was a great moment for our country um and and for the world last night uh to see and witness the competitiveness and the spirit of uh togetherness. We're going to start the uh Sutnik hour, our open forum. So, thank you everyone for uh coming and and speaking. Good morning everyone. If you're going to speak, please approach the podium, state your name, address, and you have two minutes. Please go ahead. Good morning everyone. My name is Ka Rato. I'm part of the seniors committee representing for freedoms tower and these are all my friends and neighbors from for freedom. Um we're here because we're a little bit concerned about the cuts um donation cut regarding our senior the senior programs or classes. Um, I I understand that there might be funds allocated for bingo um in several buildings. And we really we play bingo in our building every Friday and Saturday. And God forbid, you know, you cancel they you probably cancel Christmas before you can cancel bingo.

But the thing is that we do it on our own. We don't need city money for that. People can bring chips, somebody brings soda. The other one brings paper. The other one brings cups. What we do need are the classes that we have because we have yoga which helps with balance which helps our muscles. Um we have a dance which she also gives exercises that will help us helps our hips. She does exercises for hips and bones. We have sumba which is for seniors and we do sit it down. Even our 94 year old does the Zumba sitting down because she exercises and um and we have painting which is the only class where we're not exercising our bodies but then we're using our minds and all those classes we consider are very important. They have been growing. It took a while for people but the classes not only help physically but also mentally. A lot of people are inside their apartments alone. Some of them have family that are very far and they're alone all the time. Like our 94 year old, she participates in everything. And she goes in a walker because she wants to get out of the house. And even though she doesn't exercise her legs, she exercise her arms and it gives her muscle strength. They teach us how to fall. If you're going to fall, how to sa, you know, be safer. So to us all those classes are really important just as well as transportation and the activities. Um actually instead of less we need more. You know there's places where like the e extravaganza um at the Scott center most people don't come because there's no transportation for some of them. They have to cross the street. they have to, you know, and I understand you don't put a bus for some

of the things, but maybe Ubers, you know, six people in an Uber. So, um, instead of less, what we really need is more. I mean, we paid our dues, we pay taxes, we put you guys, you know, our children to college, and now that we are seniors, Miami Beach has always been known for having so many programs for seniors. I hope that doesn't change, you know. Um, actually, if you can improve it, it will be better. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Dominguez asked this.

Thank you. Um, I just want to change um and clarify the narrative. You were given misinformation. I'm sure it's coming from the mayor's office because several seniors called me saying that Gloria told them to come in today and to call me. I have an item to add more, not to take away from your services. That's first and foremost. I've been working very hard to get things uh additional things for you. As a matter of fact, one of the buildings that asked for bingo was Federation and Vicky Lopez is going to pay for it. So, um when this item gets called, I'm going to make an amendment. Your building specifically did not ask for bingo, but Rebecca Towers did. So, that's another amendment that I'll make that um I won't be asking for. We spend a lot of money uh with the seniors and we're always looking to help and spend more whether it's the senior meals at um the different comedes but also through the parks department. Do you know that our parks funding is about $193,000 for the seniors? You mentioned buses. We spend about $37,000 in bus services for the seniors for the different events and we're looking to spend more on that. Part of that 193,000 also includes senior classes, our contractors for yoga, taichi, and all of those different things. So, we are looking to add and help more. The housing authority asked us for that additional funding, and as I mentioned, the county is going to help with some. So, in my amended item, when it's called later, it'll be $3,000 as But it's not for any cuts whatsoever. And I'm so sorry that you were given misinformation because that was not at all what's happening with this item.

I always want to try to give you more. No, thank you so much. Yeah. And I I I have no problem with your response and and I take it in good faith that what you're trying to do, Commissioner Dominguez, but since you invoked my office, I I have not directed anyone to make those calls. I just asked my chief of staff who said that she has not made any calls. and Gloria Campus, I'm being told, is on vacation this week. I'm just saying you you directedly pointed at me as saying that I was directing these calls from my office. And I I I didn't say you, I said the mayor's office. I didn't say the mayor directed his office. It's my office.

Uh for clarification, um your office was calling seniors to call me and that's what I wanted to uh clarify the narrative. That's not at all what this is. Okay. Can you come up here? Did you get a call from anyone from my office? No, I got an email. Could come up to the I' I'd like to know. Okay. No, I did get an email from

from Gloria Campus. And it wasn't just directed to me. It was directed to Esta, which is our administrator, our social worker, and a few other people. And it was in regards to to that, you know, and she and she said that the donations were that the person or the company that was donating was cutting the funding in half and that's where the worry came. Okay. Okay. Thank you. But she didn't say to call you, L.

You didn't call me, but I did get calls from somebody other people in Rebecca Towers. And I know that you guys are so busy. You don't read the agendas. like how would this even come up? And then they told me that Gloria had been calling and and in my case she didn't call and she didn't and her email didn't even mention your name though. Okay. Thank you. Next go next speaker.

Good morning mayor. Good morning commissioners. Good morning neighbors. My name is Alina Valdez and I'm here at the invitation of Kissa. She already went over basically what I was going to talk about also. So, I'm just going to make it very short. I just want to remind everyone commissioners and the mayor that uh when election time was here uh you all approach us and promise us that we will always be taken care of. And I just want to remind you all of that that uh we have given you our trust and uh we're very happy living in Miami Beach. Very grateful for all the services and just please don't forget us. We count on you all. Okay. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you and thank you for being here. We we as a commission and I have certainly uh made an uh strong effort to increase the amount of uh services that we provide to our seniors and I and I I am I'm confident that will only continue. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I just Commissioner Fernandez.

Thank you. And I just want to thank all of you because you all have always the entire commission you, Mr. mayor, each one of of the commissioners have always looked out for the seniors in our community um with with great passion and I think it's one of those things that unite us unite us not only as a community but as elected officials how much we value the senior community how much we owe to you how much we respect you and most importantly how much we love you we serve you with love and this entire commission has always been unified uh in that and in a matter of I because of a political matter uh one point was saying well maybe we shouldn't be doing this certain event and the entire commission was like oh no each one of my colleagues actually I was the only person I think that ever in the history of the city that said maybe we should do something a little bit differently and the entire body was so united and continues to be so united and that is the beautiful part of the city of Miami Beach that we really care for each other as neighbors and so I just wanted to put that on on the record because sometimes things can get tense, but there's beautiful stuff happening beyond that. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Meg Lustoau. I'm the executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League, and I'm here to speak in strong support of Commissioner Fernandez's resolution R7H, which will be coming up later today. This would authorize the city attorney to explore legal action regarding House Bill 399, which was passed by the legislature last week, which takes away the rights of Miami Beach residents as well as your rights as our elected representatives to make decisions about the development of our city. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next, please.

Good morning, everyone. Mitch Novik to piggy back on to what Meg stated, uh, House and Senate approved, uh, Live Local 4.0 last week. I hope you guys uh, consider discussing that at some point. On another note, uh, I want to say my numbers for March have been uh, uh, fantastic. Uh there's no longer utter chaos or a police lockdown outside of my home and business. Uh I have to admit I never heard of uh What a Pooer or Hydrox or any of those other fitness events until last year. And uh many of my guests uh from this past weekend were in town uh from Switzerland, Germany, uh uh Brazil, Uruguay uh to attend these events. So you're on uh you're on a good track and uh thank you.

Next, please.

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Uh, my name is Brenda Jordan. I've lived here in Miami Beach for over 35 years. And you know, when I came to Miami Beach, it was not a diverse community. As a matter of fact, I was appointed to the housing commission and denied because I don't speak Spanish. And the first thing that people would say, get a lawyer. A lot of people did. And I didn't. I gave the city a chance. As an artist, I brought my culture, my diversity to this city. And as an artist, I'm being discriminated against because they set up program without any input of artists. It was set up maybe with good intentions, but it totally left the artists out of away from the table. And it was set up by people who know nothing about art, have no degree in art, probably don't even have arts tag on their car, which I do. I pay extra money. And the problem is is that I had a nonforprofit. They cut me out of the grants. I worked at the Art Center of South Florida. I've worked with the county countywide. And the perception of the city, people don't know what the city is perceived of. I taught children in the inner city and one girl asked me, "Where do you live?" I said, "Miami Beach." She said, "Only only white people live there." And I said, "No, you can live wherever you want. Even though I've been discriminated against, I will not be discriminated against in the arts. The program that was set up recently, revised, made it worse. I'm paying double the fees. I get nothing in return. There's no website. There's no updates and people who are real artists

are being discriminated against. They can't even sell in the city again and dictating that jewelry is not art. I sent numerous emails and Mr. Mayor, last meeting you promised to have a meeting with me. I went to the office and tried to set up one. I got no response. Luckily, some people who promised during the election that they would be there for me, like you know, um the vice mayor here, Monica, she promised and she called me. Mr. Alex Hernandez, and I also spoke to David Suarez, even though we were on different pages because he already had a program in his mind and wasn't open his heart or his ears. He listened, but he was limited to because I think he had a program already dictated. It's not fair. It's not fair to elderly people who lived in the city who can't afford to live in the city. They moved out and now they're discarded.

Thank you so much. That's not fair. Thank you for listening. Thank you. I will. So, I I uh I do get a lot of requests for for meetings. I try to accommodate all of them. I uh if you did reach out, I apologize that we didn't do it. We because you promised and this has been going on before you were reelected. I vote it. It's not a matter of voting. If you ask if you ask to talk, we will talk. You told me we would last meeting. That was a month ago. Okay. I I was not aware that you had reached out. I am giving you my my commitment that we will talk before the next meeting again. And I hope this time you honor Now I'm saying in front of a lot of people. Well, you did last time. I hope you honor your word. We because words are sacred.

You and I have spoken. We may have not have spoken since the last meeting, but I we have talked about this issue. No, I've sent you emails, but we have not individually spoken. No. So, I'm giving you my I'm giving I'm giving you my commitment that we will have that conversation. Okay. I hope you honor your word. Commissioner Mattail Selenus, uh Miss Jordan and other artists, um I'm I think that you're aware uh that I do have an item, a referral to the neighborhoods committee to discuss the artist vendors program. So that way we can at committee talk about what um how we can improve the program and we can have further discussions about this to see what could improve the program. Commissioners because I have emailed like a ridiculous amount of time. Yes.

Even giving you like a blueprint of how to set up Yes. you know artist program and this is the first step in that process. So we we are definitely I'm definitely trying to help. So I appreciate it. You're welcome. We are. Commissioner Suarez, I know you had good intentions and you know, art is inclusive. It's not just painting. I'm sure we'll come to a a good place here. I hope so. We will hope so. We will. I'm optimistic. Thank you, Miss Jordan.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm not against anyone. I just want to be at the table. When you're setting up something and you know nothing about, it's not your field. is not your lane. Bring someone in. I'm not even asking for pay. I'm a cultural ambassador for this city. Bringing diversity. I'm not trying to take away. I'm trying to build. So, I appreciate all the help. Yes, we will have further conversations. Thank you. With all of you. Thank you. Thank you.

Next, please. No problem. Miami Beach. No, it wasn't Okay.

Hi, you all know me already. My name is Janet Figaro. I'm one of the artist vendors. Um, I've been here some of the meetings with Miss Matteo, with Mr. Fernandez. Um, I have talked to the mayor. I have talked to Miss Tanya on the sidelines. And I'm very grateful that you all have taken out the time to talk to us. And we're trying our hardest to be patient. But some of these people, they are elderly. We are already more than 55 and older in this program. I'm 61 this year. So, we all struggling to try to make it. And it's very difficult when you're a person that been injured in a car accident like me and I was hurt here in the MacArthur. My car was totaled. My neck and my back is damaged. I cannot proceed with a surgery because I would not be able to work ever. So this is all I have and this is how I keep my home. And I live out of Miami Beach because I don't live here because I cannot afford to live here. You cannot tell me that I'm paying for 1300 square ft for $957 is my mortgage, my taxes, and my insurance to turn to trade that to come live in Miami Beach to keep a job. It's insane. None of you would do that. So you have to understand I keeping my budget among my needs what I what I could afford. I am not exceeding my budget

because I know that I can't exceed my budget. So this is very important to me and my family because I don't want my children to have to take care of me. I chose this place and I afford I could afford this place that's $957 for a reason. I went through this. I planned my life for like that I won't be a burden to my children. You understand? This is so important to me as a senior. I don't want my kids to have to take care of me. I want to be able to take care of myself. And this is program is all I have. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you everyone. I see no one else in the audience requesting to speak. Therefore, I'm going to go to Zoom. First caller, Alicia Kasanova. Please state your name and you have two minutes. Hi, my name is Alicia Kasanoa. I'm here this morning as vice president of the Mid Beach Neighborhood Association, as president of the Blue and Green Diamond Condominiums, representing over 2,000 residents, and as a lifelong Miami Beach resident. We hope that Commissioner Fernandez's resolution R7H is heard today. We fully support it and hope that it's voted on favorably. We heard the mayor's virtual town hall and fully understand the concerns about Miami Beach potentially losing millions of dollars in state grant funding if the city uses its legal resources on House Bill 399. But this is about protecting the rights of Miami Beach residents and ensuring that we are not silenced by decisions made in Tallahassee like the one made last minute in the Senate last Friday. Our city cannot be intimidated. No amount of grand money can justify giving up our city's rights, our home rule, or our voice as residents to be heard before our historic preservation board. Commissioner Fernandez's resolution is not about starting a lawsuit next week. The resolution will serve to preserve the city's ability to explore legal action if and when it becomes necessary, following all legal advice available to defend its rights. It's also about our elected officials making a statement in support of its residents who will be severely impacted by this bill. Governor Dantes will be leaving office in a few months and while we cannot predict what will happen, we hope integrity and honor will prevail with the next governor. We know this is a difficult decision for all of you. But please listen to the voices of the residents who voted for you, who will suffer the consequences of what the

state just voted on and who strongly support this resolution R7H. Thank you. Thank you so much. Our next virtual caller is Mid Beach Neighborhood Association. State your name, address, and you have two minutes, please.

Good morning. Uh my name is Oscar Vasquez. I am also with the Mid Beach Neighborhood Association where I chair the beach and water quality working group. MBNA recently attended a meeting of the beachfront management plan and we appreciate the opportunity the city provided the community feedback. We also want to thank Commissioner Fernandez who's served on that ad hoc committee and her for his support during that meeting. MBNA has submitted public comments on roughly 10 areas of concern. Our overreaching concern is that the draft plan lacks vision. It does a reasonable job of describing current conditions, but it does not go far enough in setting a forward-looking strategy for the environmental challenges that could make our beaches unusual in the short term and over time. As you know, our beach is one of our most valuable public assets, and this plan should do more to bind the county to prioritizing and preserving this asset. In our view, this is an important opportunity to create a stronger accountability and ensure that beach management decisions match the value of the resource being protected. Our top concern is sargasm. The plan needs a stronger strategy for surge response, operational scaling during peak periods, and long-term adaptation if conditions worsen. A second major concern is water quality, including recurring bacteria issues and a need for stronger integration between beach operations and public health

protection. We also submitted comments on additional issues including concession enforcement, breakwater performance, special events. I need you to start wrapping up. Please go ahead. Yes, I'm done. Dune protections and water sports channels. This item is coming before the commission in the coming months and we remain available to discuss concerns with any commissioner or their staff. Thank you. Thank you. Our next virtual caller is Johan Moore. Mr. Moore, please state your name, address. You have two minutes.

Good morning, Johan Moore, 717 Jefferson Avenue. Um, I'm calling to um oppose uh, as you might assume, item R7A, which would authorize the demolition of the Southshore Community Center. Uh, I would remind uh that the uh planning board um uh no historic preservation board um declined uh unanimous uh declined uh to support that demolition. Uh we continue to believe it is a bad idea and that this infrastructure should not be forced into our residential neighborhood when other neighborhoods fail to carry their fair share of heavy urban uh infrastructure. Uh, I also object to our item R5T, R5U, and I'm not sure whom Commissioner Fetinandis was intending to benefit with the suspension of the color review requirements for the exterior of buildings, but speaking uh uh in in um echo of what many of my neighbors have said to me over the years, I believe that many of us who live in the historic district very strongly support continuing uh outdoor color uh review requirements for paint on the outside of buildings. Uh I am supportive of R7H. Uh and in fact uh would echo um Mitch's useful language uh rather than getting caught up in the weeds. It really is difficult for the public to keep track of all the negative legislation coming out of Tallahassee, but I think it's a useful shortorthhand to refer to it as live local 4.0. Uh and finally uh in light of the focus on uh the beachfront and the dunes uh I would encourage uh the commission to fill the vacant position uh formerly held by um Juanita

Vajest in the environment and sustainability department in order to further that work. Thank you. Our next caller is Judy Smeiggel. State your name, address. You have two minutes. Judy, unmute yourself. PJ, I think they may have a double collar because we also have Judith Smiggle. So, let's try that.

Judith, please unmute yourself. Okay. Thank you for waiting. Um, I'm You hear me, right? Yes, perfectly. Go ahead.

I am very happy to praise so many important people and bodies in this area for their advocacy of trying to balance our interest with Tallahassee, the extraordinary efforts of the Mid Beach Neighborhood Association, the Miami Design Preservation League, the advocacy of uh Commissioner Fernandez, the mayor, other people, we have we're certainly in an uneven battle um to keep local control and I just wish you all the strength to go up against Tallahassee, which is very difficult. I would love that more and more our community be a beacon of free speech, diversity embraced, and a balance of interest between residents and wise development. And I thank you all. These are not easy times. That's it.

Thank you so much. Our next caller is Patrick Brushik. State your name, address. You have two minutes, sir.

Hello. Uh my name is Patrick Brushik. I live at 1754 Meridian Avenue across from Fi Park. I'm calling uh to thank Commissioner Dominguez for item C4M to discuss moving the swim buoys uh further east to include the nearshore reef and the reef line. And thank you Commissioner Bot for co-sponsoring this item and really all the commissioners and the mayor for supporting the CC initiative in the past and hopefully in the future um so that people can enjoy the ocean safely without having to worry about getting hit by a boat. The reef line was just listed as one of the new great places uh in the world by time. So we know there's going to be more people going out there to swim. Uh so it's important that we uh keep this safety initiative uh moving forward as more and more people are going to be going out there to visit it. And speaking of safety, I also noticed there's an item to discuss the Jefferson bike lanes. And I want to say how wonderful these bike lanes are. Uh they are the highest standard of bike lane safety and support support both bikers and people using e-mobility and giving everyone safe space including pedestrians, bikers and cars alike uh by creating separate zones for each of them. I hope the city continues to invest in these highquality infrastructure projects that prioritize safety. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Our next caller is has a screen name of Vashiva's uh iPhone. Please state your name, address. You have two minutes. Please unmute yourself. PJ, let's go to the next. Go ahead.

Hi. Hi. This is Bachva Catz. I live at 4747 Collins Avenue. I'd like to request that the commission please support item R7H sponsored by Commissioner Alex Fernandez, which will authorize the city attorney to challenge HB399 if it is signed into law and if it is deemed necessary by all legal committees. This bill interferes with Miami Beach's local local zoning authority and strips residents of their voices in decisions that directly impact our neighborhoods. Our community deserves to be heard. Please vote yes on R7H to protect Miami Beach and its residents. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next caller is Susanna. Susanna, state your name, address, and you have two minutes.

Susanna, please unmute yourself. PJ, let's go then. Next to Dave. Okay. Hello. Go ahead. Hello. Yes.

Yeah. Sorry about that. Uh, my name is Susanna Santo. I'm the president of 5600 Condominium Association and a proud resident of Miami Beach for the past 30 years. I respectfully urge you to vote yes on R7H. This resolution is not about filing lawsuit tomorrow. is about preserving our right to act, our home rule, and ensuring that if and when the time comes, the city has the ability to defend itself and its resident. Commissioner, mayor, you're entrusted with safeguarding critical elements of this community. Our infrastructure, emergency response, traffic management, and budget. Those responsibilities do not exist in a vacuum. They require authority. Because responsibility without authority is not governance, it's exposure. And today the risk is real. Increasing density, traffic congestion, strain on emergency services and pressure on already limited infrastructure are not abstract concerns. Their daily reality your residents are asking you to address. This resolution is about standing up for your residents, ensuring that their voices are not overridden, and that the city retains the ability to act in their best interest. This is your opportunity to make a clear statement that the city of Miami Beach will not relinquish its responsibility, its authority, or its commitment to the people it serves. Stand with your residents. Protect your city. Vote yes on R 7H. And thank you, Commissioner Fernandez, the mayor, and all the commissioners who have stood with residents in opposing HB399 and defending our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next caller is Dave Dobler. Mr. Doer, state your name, address. You have two minutes.

Good morning, mayor and commissioners. My name is Dave Dobler, living at 8000 West Drive, and I'm the chair of the sanitation committee and former chair of the sustainability committee. I'm here to support C7L, the updated special event permit requirements that enhance sustainability and sustain and sanitation plan guidelines that reduce waste and improve diversion from landfills. Miami Dade County and Miami Beach has a waste crisis. We are almost out of landfill space and are already putting our trash on trains, shipping it to landfills in Central Florida. Reducing and diverting waste from landfills is not just an environmental priority. It's a fiscal one. If we don't reduce and divert waste now, those rising landfill costs will ultimately fall on our residents and businesses. Special events can generate tremendous volumes of waste, but are one of the few places where we can actually control both the input and the output. What material comes in and what happens to them afterward. That makes them a powerful opportunity to reduce waste, improve recycling, and keep plastic out of our waterways. We know this can be done. Ultra Music Festival at Bayfront Park has shown that with the right planning, execution, and engaging of vendors, large-scale events can dramatically improve waste diversion, and they've won worldwide awards for their sustainability programs. After you vote to implement these new guidelines, it is important for staff to develop the support systems to help event producers succeed and strong compliance oversight to ensure accountability. I specifically want to recognize the city staff who led this effort, particularly chief resilience officer Amy Nolles and our new sustainability coordinator Emily Milton. Emily has hit the ground running delivering exceptional work. This is exactly the kind of leadership we need right now. And I'd like to tell the environment and sustainability department, good job. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next caller is Mark. Mark, state your name, address, and you have two minutes.

Hi, good morning everyone. Thank you, mayor and commissioners. My name is Mark Weiss. I'm the founder of Stop Six Flags. I found a blew the viral resident movement representing over 4,500 residents. Uh, the biggest threat to Miami Beach today and the biggest story on Miami Beach today, according to every news article, is the destruction of our beaches with the Fountain Blue Waterpark. Uh, let's be very clear, what happened at Tallahassee was not preeemption. It was a bill paid for by a single developer with a representative who doesn't live in Miami who openly admitted that he worked with the Fiboo to draft a bill that overrides all of our local zoning control. And commissioners and mayor, when this gets built, the complaints are going to be much worse than we don't have bingo. This is going to be absolute gridlock on our Miami Beach. The traffic is going to be disaster. The environmental impact will be a disaster. We got gut punched. Let's be real. We got punched in the gut by Tallahassee, by Jeffrey Sofur, and by the Hotel Borrero handout. I am going to support R7H because it's the bare minimum. A city has the right to control its zoning, its planning board, its environmental protections, its coastal lines, its historic preservation. This is basic. We have to defend our home rule. We have to protect our local zoning and we have to put our foot down and say Miami Beach is beautiful because we know what we're doing and Tallahassee from 500 miles away should not be barreling down legislation paid for by billionaires. It sets an awful president and I want to thank Commissioner Fernandez for taking lead here and fighting so hard. I want to thank Mayor Miner for fighting so hard and we must fight with resolve because it will send a message the next time you think this is bad. There's much more coming. Every developer is watching with drool coming

out of the side of their mouth saying, "Wow, I don't even have to go to those annoying commissioners and mayor and talk to those pesky residents. I can go right to the top." Thank you very much. Our ne Excuse me. Our next caller has a screen name of Zoom user. Please state your name and address, please. You have two minutes.

Zoom user, go ahead. Good morning. This is Carolanne Alt at 408 West 25th Street. I'm also a member of the sustainability committee. Um, thank you, mayor and commissioners. I'm calling in to give my full support to C7L special events requirements and guidelines. I support the updates, particularly creating the standardized template for sanitation plan process. I also would like to draw attention to be mindful of the language that suggests the applicants with a thousand plus participants must assign a paid sustainability coordinator. I suggest that applicant fees compensate for a designated code compliance field inspector that will monitor and evaluate events to adhere to sanitation plans during events so any infractions can be corrected in real time. Additionally, I did not see on the agenda um an item for the new commission committee um work water environment resource committee, but I do give my full support of that as well. Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Thank you. Our next virtual caller is Miriam's iPhone. Please state your name, address. You have two minutes.

Hello. My name is Miriam Weiss. I am the co-founder with Mark Weiss of Stop Six Flags at Fountain Blue. My address is 4779 in the Blue Diamond. The residents have been working to fight this monstrosity for 6 months. It has unanimous opposition from everyone that lives in the community. There is no one that wants it on our beachfront. When you walk on the boardwalk, you are going to be see this 120 ft towering in the air coming all the way wrapping around the building right into the setback lines because now Jeffrey Sofur does not have to follow any of the basic rules that the city sets out for planning. Even if you wanted a water park, you now even have no say where that water park is going to be, how it's going to be constructed. It's going to come all the way up to the beachfront. It's going to be tremendous noise. It is up to you. You are the city. You have to lead the way and show the residents that Jeffrey Sofur cannot buy whatever he wants on our beachfront. That democracy still exists. The residents still have a voice in what happens. And our local leaders and officials get to lead us and decide what should be done in Miami Beach and if it's appropriate and if it's compatible. Please vote for R7H and please as a city consider all the possibilities whether this is actually a water park and therefore is not permitted by zoning because Jeffrey Sofur is going to sell day passes and that is not a permitted use. The city should be evaluating all the possible avenues to stop this train that's coming

down the tracks and then the next thing that he's going to go for is going to be gambling. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Thank you. Our next caller is Vincent. Vincent, please state your name, address, and you have two minutes.

Vincent. Yeah. Can you hear me? Go ahead, please. Do you hear me? Yes. Go ahead.

Yes. Vincent Mph. I'm a condo owner at the Sarrento right in 15t away from the proposed water slide. Um, I'm calling in support of R7H. I have to thank uh the mayor and commissioners u to take to consider uh to cons keep u opposing uh this situation and I want to give you guys just an idea and turn this thing flip it over and turn it on its other side. I think this bill this carveout is is discriminatory. Just think if you owned a hotel that only had 499 rooms or you had 4.8 acres or whatever the the arbitrary cut offs were that were conveniently fit the fountain blue would would you're going to have to play by a different set of rules. I believe this bill was discriminatory and it was so bad they had to put a five-year limit on it. So, we hope you guys can don't throw up the white flag and keep doing what's right. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next caller has a screen name of iPhone 275. Please state your name. Please unmute yourself. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead, please. State your name.

Hi, this is Chris Carney from the Fountain Blue Trace Tower and Sorrento Tower. Uh along with everybody else who's already spoken, I totally support resolution R7H. And if if we allow Tallahassee to do this to us now, uh what's going to be next? Is the Eden Rock going to have a a um water park as well? Uh they're going to have a ferris wheel. uh it's just going to turn Miami Beach into a monstrosity. So, please consider resolution R7H and uh let's try to stand up for our rights. Thank you. Uh our next caller is Anna Marie. Go ahead, please.

Good morning. My name is Anna Marie Federa de Melo and I'm the president of the Mid Beach Neighborhood Association and I reside at 4779 Collins Avenue. I'm here today in support of resolution R7H and thank Commissioner Fernandez for putting this forward and Commissioner Bot and others that have co-sponsored this item. What happened last Friday in Tallahassee where the state stripped local authority and disregarded the voice of our community is not proper business and exploring all possibilities is essential to protecting our city and upholding our principles. I thank you for your consideration of this item today. Thank you so much. Our final caller is Andres. Go ahead, please. The noise.

Good morning, commissioners. And I I hear the how upset our residents are regarding

the water park and the traffic nightmare that's going to be coming having a mini Six Flags on Avenue. It's going to be a nightmare for everybody in that area. But we're fighting to, you know, to have historic preservation board have a say. But when the historic preservation board had a say to try to keep the Morris slap building uh alive uh and the county voted to place the fire station on Alton Road and Evans, that sort of feels like it got vetoed uh even though they had a say on that. It hurts uh to think that we are going to um destroy that Morris Lapidus building. You know, I am on the board of OIC Miami which I know you came by Commissioner Bot. you came by, Commissioner Dominguez, you came by. That was a $22 million facility that we built for the community to be able to have after school programming and programming for the seniors. As a matter of fact, we have Brutner himself doing a blue zone class in the building that's more we're going to take that building and we're going to tear it apart instead of building on a site that is not here now by a simply by a bathroom and a locker room on Alton Road where the police office where the firefighters actually prefer that site because it's one block away from their current site and they're going to continue to be able to use Flamingo park for training the track, the field, the pool and everything else. So,

Mr. You're breaking up, but your time is up. Thank you so much, Mr. Was the last caller originally in line. Uh, so we can conclude Sadnik at this time. Okay, let's uh let's go over the consent agenda. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh the following items have been separated from the consent agenda. Mayor Miner is separating items C7T and C7U. Again, Mayor Miner is separating C7T and C7U. Commissioner Dominguez is separating C7J. So, Commissioner Dominguez, C7J, Commissioner Suarez is separating C4P as in Paul, C7 AF, and C7 AG. Again, Commissioner Suarez is separating C4P, C7 AF, C7 A. Uh, the mayor has not approved the inclusion of any uh addendum item. Therefore, they will be heard after 5:00. And just for the for the record, uh the consent agenda in these items have uh the following items. The city commission must wave by a 67's vote the requirement for the land use and sustainability committee to review and transmit its recommendation before reaching before referring each of the following items to the planning board. That would be C4B, C4 C and C4D and C4E. Again, C4B, C4 C, C4D and C4E. So any motion on the consent agenda would include that

a motion to set the consent agenda. Second call vote. So this is to set or to approve to approve the consent agenda except for those items that have been separated as announced by the city clerk. So I have a motion by Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Vice Mayor Mattel Selenus. All in favor of the consent agenda as as set please say I. I. I.

Anyone opposed? Hearing no. 70 approved. Thank you everyone for calling in and uh we'll get started with our with our business. Hopefully we can uh get through a lot of items today. I think we can. R7L R7L is regularly monitor beachwalk camera feeds to ID address visibility issues. Um I'm sponsoring. Thank you, Commissioner Fernandez, for co-sponsoring with me. Um, who's going to be speaking on this? Uh, Eric from the administration. This would be our police department.

All right. Thank you, Chief. And so far so good. As we mentioned on spring break, I'll give you uh kudos for that. And uh obviously with uh geopolitical issues going on around the world in the Middle East um really we've we've all seen the stepped up presence from our police department. So yeah, again thank you.

Good morning Mr. Mayor Commission. I appreciate the uh the comments. Um as you know we've got a robust camera system covering much of the city particularly along the beach and boardwalk. Um total of almost a thousand cameras and almost 2,000 camera views. uh much of those uh cameras are monitored uh in real time through our Arctic, our real-time intelligence center. Um but there are times obviously when those cameras are used retroactively uh to help us solve mitigate crimes that may occur in and around those those uh camera coverage areas. Um but you know, it's something that we we do regularly and we'll continue to do. I mean, can we can we qu how do how do you monitor for example that there's no obstructions of cameras?

So, there's a maintenance program that we have and on a regular basis we have people that go out uh survey the areas where cameras are installed particularly on on the beach and boardwalk where it's really problematic at times because trees grow um need to be trimmed back to make sure they're not obstructed. Okay. Are you comfortable that uh that is being done and we have enough resources to ensure the cameras are operational and not being obstructed? Yes, we we have we do have a line item in our budget for camera maintenance and that those funds used to do just that. How are we with uh a full operational camera system throughout the beachwalk? Uh

I think there are some gaps still um not because there's not a wish to get it done or desire to get it done. Um the project has been fully funded, but it's gone going on in stages. Um I don't have a timeline as to when that's going to be fully completed, but I can get that for you. Okay. Yeah, let's follow up on that. And uh I guess it came to mind as we heard a number of uh members of the Mid Mid Beach Neighborhood Association. I know they've they've often uh championed the completion of the cameras uh throughout the beachwalk. So we'll follow up on that. We are to get it done, sir. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Commissioner Suarez. Um,

Chief, have we considered using possible AI solutions to detect when a crime might be happening that you can send an alert to the department? I mean, because you can't have you can't cover a whole beachwalk unless you have dozens of officers looking at the cameras. Yeah. So, we we are we are constantly looking for new technology, emerging technology to help us uh be smarter in how we approach, predict, um, prevent crime. And so we we do look at this on a regular basis. But are we using AI to do that or are you looking into AI solutions? We are. We are what? Looking into AI solutions, right? Are you can't close? I mean,

yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I can give you an update as to where we are next time I I we have this conversation. Um but we are. Okay. Yeah. I'd like I'd like an update next commission meeting. Absolutely. My fellow co-sponsor, Commissioner Fernandez, anything? No,

just um it's it's impressive the work that we're doing with the cameras. Um I know that there's a lot of different areas where we want to expand into into parks for for example like Beayshore Park. Um and the police department has done its part in making sure that the technology was was was implemented as part of the park design. Um the the technology the I guess the infrastructure that's necessary for other areas of the beachwalk is there. It's just a matter of getting the technology in.

That's correct. Um, Beayhore Park is one of places that's high priority for us to get uh cameras in there. I mean, it's such a large real estate, if you will, and we we like to be able to see what's going on there at any given time. You know, one of the things that I appreciate, chief, that I see our city doing now more frequently than what we did years before is that as we're looking at new spaces, you know, whether it be the Baywalk that we're uh hoping to complete at some point uh or whether it be a completed project like like Beayshore Park, this department has been very forward thinking instead of having to come in after the fact and run the infrastructure and think about how are we going to keep this safe. This department is planning together with a planning process of of whether it be our public works department or our capital improvement departments or our parks department, you're working side by side with them to ensure that as we envision new public facilities and new public areas, the department is up to speed with the safety resources that the users of those facilities are going to need. And so I'm for that. I'm very grateful for this item and proud to support it. I'm happy to co-sponsor it. But most importantly, you know, truly, you know, thank you for being very thoughtful and making sure that as other departments are planning the future of the city, our police department is working on a parallel path to ensure that at completion you're able to implement the necessary resources.

Well, thank you, Commissioner. I wish we we the police department could take full credit for it. The truth is we've been in collaboration with all the departments you just mentioned. we're brought in at the very ground floor to make sure that we're we're being smart about how we think about crime prevention u when these projects are are done. Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Bot.

Um so we're heading into our budget planning process, which seems like we just finished one and start another. Um we know that we're likely going to be facing some hardship imposed by the state. Uh completing this, expanding it, maintaining it. Is this um I guess let's start with completing it. Um is this a function of not enough money to complete it or it just takes even if it's fully funded it takes x amount of time and we just don't have that yet.

It's really a time and resource capacity issue we're dealing with more so than I think the funding has been funded for quite some time. So is there an opportunity um to expedite the implementation if we bring in outside help to subcontract out the installation for instance? That's actually part of the the process as it stands today. Um much of the installation and maintenance is subcontracted out. So how do we expedite it if that's already happening? I like I guess what I'm getting at is what do you need from us to get this finished this year? Let's say hypothetically speaking, I

I'm not sure we need anything at at this time. I'd have to go back and and speak to the folks that overseeing the the deployment of of the uh cameras. I'm not sure we need anything at this time. Okay. Can you come back next month and let us know if there if if you don't come back, we'll presume everything's fine, but if there is something, let's have that conversation. Sure. Okay. Thanks. Thank you, Chief. Welcome. Let's call R7D. I I need a motion and a second on the seconded by the mayor. All in favor of R7L, please say I. I. I. The item is approved. 70. R7 L. R7D. I'm sorry, Mary. What? What letter?

D as in David. D. R 7D is uh restoration of Star Island water tower as a fiscal year 27 budget priority. R7D Commissioner Dominguez and co-sponsored by Commissioner Bot.

I think this item was a um was on consent. I had put it on for it to be a priority in discussions for the upcoming budget. it was not anything to approve it outright. Um I had a visit with uh the Palm Hibiscus Star Neighborhood Association and in going through this and having discussions with the city manager and others in the city administration um the water tower is over 100 years old and it has been uh on the to be determined when we're going to fund fixing it since 2019. And each year it um gets pushed to the side and the cost to repair it get uh increased. It is historic um and it means a lot to the neighbors in the neighborhood. I even threw out there if they wanted to tax themselves to pay to fix it themselves and they do not. They feel strongly that the city should. So, this item is simply to put it on the list so that when we go through our budget workshops, we can discuss it and decide as a whole if we'd like to have it um as a priority for 2027.

Commissioner, is that a motion? Yes. So, motion by Commissioner Dominguez, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. If no discussion, all in favor of R7D, please say I. I. Anyone opposed? Seeing none, R7D is approved. 70.

R7E. R7E is implement comprehensive and regulatory schedule C grape management plan.

Um I thank you mayor. Um I would like to open and continue this um for another month. Is John here? John Norris? Hi. Do is a month enough time? So, this is something we've been working on internally as well as legislatively with Amy Nolles and John Norris and uh the chief to really address the fact that um the seag um along our beachwalk are an area that um becomes a repository for people doing unsavory things, whether they commit crimes then run in there or they're they're camping out there. Um, this is not an effort, and I know I know there's been misinformation out in the community. Um, this is not an an effort to chop everything back and make it look like a pile of twigs. This is a public safety issue and an, you know, ensuring that the um the plants grow in a healthy manner. Um, so we've had a lot of internal conversations, most recently earlier this week, and what we're what we're going to be doing is um um having the police identify the hot spots um along the beachwalk and then go out and visibly investigate and we are going to determine if we actually um can fix the issues within the budget that we have currently for these departments. um versus the original thought which was we were going to need to hire somebody outside to do something. So um with the clerk's uh permission I or whatever the right procedure is to open and continue uh

I have a motion to open and continue our 7E to April 22nd by Commissioner Pot. We may Can I just Great. Thanks. May Commissioner Suarez. Yeah. Um, I'm not totally okay with opening continued, but you know, I just want to make sure cuz I spoke with Amy about, you know, my biggest issue with this. And I think Amy actually came back with something reasonable was for for sea turtles uh and nesting season because a lot of these sea grapes do block the light from the street and from the street lamps, cars. Um, and I want to make sure that that isn't affected. That's correct. We've had those conversations that is a top priority as well. Okay, great.

So, I have a motion to open and continue to April 22nd by Commissioner Bos, seconded by Vice Mayor Telenus. All in favor, please say I. I. Oh, I'm sorry. Just that's not going to change the vote. Um, is a month enough time or do we do you need two months? I I think two months would be helpful to us to do the inspection and then get any quotes that we need to address the issues. I think that'd be important. Okay. So, to May would be is that okay, Ralph? You got So that would be May 20th. Thank you. Thank you. R7G R7G installed traffic delineators. I just did we take I just want to confirm we took the vote on R7E.

Uh we were it's all it was a commissioner bought Mattel Selenas open and continue to uh May 20th. Okay. Just wanted to make sure because we had a we had a a motion and a second to do that. I didn't know if you actually voted. Thank you, mayor. Just want to confirm R 7G is installed traffic delineators on Alton Road between Fifth and Sixth Street. R 7G. Commissioner Suarez.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I I think all of us have gotten almost like a dozen emails of pictures where you have these loading trucks that um are parking on the side of the road uh where you're not supposed to park and it's causing huge traffic jams uh along Alton Road just as you get onto the overpass for 395. Um, and I I believe parking enforcement has gone out there multiple times and I mean every time I go by there, there's always a delivery truck or, you know, there's there's hundreds of residents there. So, you can imagine all the the the hundreds of deliveries that go to that place and they think that that's okay. So, I would like to see if the city can put delineators there to expressly and explicitly show that you cannot park here. So, I mean, will let me know what you think about that, but right now, enforcement doesn't seem to be working.

Will McDonald, director of parking, city Miami Beach. Uh, you are correct, Commissioner. It's, uh, I will say that particular property creates a game of whack-a-ole. So, as soon as we send a detail through there and we clear it out, um, I'll be honest with you, some of the delivery truck drivers who don't deliver there every day just say, "Hey, I'll take the fine." Um, they take the fine. Uh it would be almost impossible for us to actually move them because by the time we get a a a tow truck large enough to move them, they're going to be long gone. Um the barricades, uh you know, I'll say it's I wouldn't say they're barricades.

The delineator post uh will absolutely be a deterrent. Um we can I mean obviously from my understanding and I'll kind of defer to our transportation director. I believe that is an F dot road. So, we do just have to get permission to be able to do that. Um, we have been working with the dockmaster at the property with with mixed results. It started off amazingly. They even called parking enforcement a few times when they told trucks to leave and they would not. Um, so there there began a great relationship, but I believe as you stated, Commissioner, um, there are uh that is a very dense property and there are a lot of untimed deliveries there. So it will continue to be a challenge moving forward.

So what do we need to do to put delineators there? Good morning, Mr. Mayor, commissioners. Jose Gonzalez, transportation and mobility director. As director McDonald mentioned, because Alton Road is a state road um to place the lineators would require a maintenance agreement, an installation and maintenance agreement with them. We've we do those all the time. um we would negotiate with them and it would need to come before this body for execution. Uh and I think that's really that's all we would need be able to install and maintain them. Yes, sir. Uh Commissioner Monica Mate. Huh? Oh, sorry. Commissioner Fernandez, Commissioner Monica Mate Selenus and Commissioner B.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and uh Commissioner Suarez. Thank you for bringing this item. I'd love to join uh as a co-sponsor. I know back uh in December and January, we were getting emails from David Martinez who lives in in the building fifth and Alton um I welcome the change of position from the administration. I know that when I reached out to the city administration specifically about placing delineators there, I was told and I relayed to my constituent at the time that the city administration believed that it would make situations worse by having cars instead of parking in that striped area. They would then park on Alton Road and that would create a parking situation on Alton Road with cars. Uh given that the administration now seems to have a different position on what could have been done administratively, I'm going to join as a co-sponsor uh with Commissioner Suarez on this on this item. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner Fernandez, Commissioner Matteo Selenus, and Commissioner Bach. I just I have concerns because, you know, and I don't mind the delineators, but again, like Commissioner Fernandez said, and what everyone kind of knows what will happen is that that lane going onto the causeway will be blocked. So, I'll support this today, but if that does end up happening and we can't figure out a way, a better way for them to unload and load and whatever they need to do, and it does block that lane, then I'll bring an item to remove the delineators because that would be awful. That's the entrance under the causeway and that it'll be a mess. It'll be a mess. So, Commissioner Bach,

um, so can the last time I checked on this, the administration was not supportive of this because of the, um, the concern about traffic impacts. So, can you guys explain to me maybe Eric, can you explain to me how this changed, why it changed? I I don't believe that it necessarily has changed. I as the administration have concerns that if we take away the parking spaces adjacent to the loading dock area, where are those vehicles going to go? I I'd like to show a picture of what what happens. I think it'll give a lot of context um to when was that submitted?

PJ, can you can you put up some of the pictures I sent? I mean, everyone has seen it from David Martinez, and I think it's important for the public to see it. Let's give him one second. Sure. And I think the way it's situated is if there's delineators there, there's no way that a a truck or I mean some sometimes there's these semi-truckss that we know what happens, but where are they going to go now? Well, where they're supposed to, which is where I think the south side of of Five Park. So if if I they're not supposed to be there to buy.

So I I think we have a delineators are no that's regardless we have a bigger issue. Um we see it with trucks doing deliveries on main thoroughares during rush hour who choose to not pull into their designated loading spots because either the building says they don't want them blocking the driveway or um the drivers don't want to waste the time getting in and out of a complicated driveway. We have the Ritz and the decoplage which have been in a Hatfield McCoy situation for years. Um, we have a building that we know is egregiously dense in a in a very dense area already that somehow approval without taking this into consideration and a doc master who isn't pulling his or her weight. How do we and Mr. manager, maybe this is a conversation we can bring uh for next month. How do we hold people accountable for doing the very things that the various um zoning laws, planning boards, and other land use committees, um traffic studies, parking studies are supposed to prevent in advance of these things happening. We have I know Will, you've been working with um delivery truck companies to have them sign pledges um saying that they understand the rules of engagement and if their their operators violate them then they will be held accountable. Um do we require more doc masters? Do we hold the building management accountable if there are issues like this? I mean this is absurd. This affects people beyond just the residents of that particular building. um it affects potentially life safety if if there are people backed up and can't get to where they need to go. It's a

bigger issue than this particular building. So I I do want to understand um how the position changed or didn't change because my understanding was that we were not supportive of this. And the bigger issue is um as this becomes a city-wide problem, what are we going to do to make sure that people comply with the rules of engagement of of living and doing business in our city? Living in and doing business of our in our city, whether it's building a building that is too large for our infrastructure, whether it's um bringing trucks in that are too large for our infrastructure. I mean, bring in smaller delivery trucks. You don't need, you know, Amazon has these little sprinter vans. Use those. I mean, if you're delivering huge amounts of furniture and somebody's moving in, that's a different conversation, then you get a a delivery permit or something where for from 9 to 4, it's blocked off for that particular delivery. But this is this needs to be once again a holistic review between departments and, you know, it planning, building, transportation, and parking holistically to come up with a game plan of how we're going to deal with this in our city because we're going to have more new developments, not fewer. I mean, look in North Beach, we're going to have 13 buildings in an 8 by6 block radius. And those are some narrow, desperately congested streets up there. So, I would like to bring an item and Mr. Manager, if you could take point on this for next month uh and have these departments work together and put together a comprehensive plan of what our options are and what we can do.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I think PJ's ready for the uh picture and I think it's important for the public to see it. And so, you know, right now it already sort of blocks traffic and commissioner brought does raise a good point and they should people at five park should know that you you cannot have these massive delivery trucks parking on a no parking section of the of the road. So look, I I think um we we can't we can't obviously I don't think that the amount of education you have given out to a lot of these delivery trucks and the drivers is going to solve that. I mean that's that's just laziness at its finest. And I think with a simple fix like this, we can alleviate traffic for a an important section of our beach, which is fifth in Alton. Um, and you know, I I think wherever we can step in and and actually make a difference, um, we should, and I'm not I'm not I'm not saying that we we shouldn't have a comprehensive plan, but right now, this is going on every day. And so this is something we can take an act action on relatively short period of time. Commissioner Fernandez.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, and I see we have one of the representatives of our uh, towing companies here. And I I want to know, are we when these car when these vehicles are engaging in these activities, have we actually engaged in towing these vehicles, are we only giving them citations? What are we doing?

So, when we have trucks of this size, it does require specialized towing equipment, which uh, right now does not exist on the island. it would require an off island solution. Um, also most of the time these trucks have somebody that is within a 3 to five minute walk. So they are they'll be there and for example in in one of those photos a truck was unloading but they're walking back and forth. So the minute that a a even if we got a a big rig to 10 ton, for example, to tow that out, they would just hop in the cab. So uh and and I want to recognize through the mayor Manny Diaz who I see sitting in the in the audience from one of our twin companies because I saw you reacted and I'd like if you could approach the podium as I would love

please come to the podium.

Hi Manny Diaz Tmont to uh Will and I work hand in hand and uh if we need a medium duty we could get you a medium duty but like what he said by the time the medium duty comes down they're already running out. Yeah, but if we know that there is a specific location that is a recurring nuisance, you know, perhaps it could be kept in close proximity uh to that location, especially the city has property very close to there where it could be stationed or you I'm sure you're very capable to to finding that. But here we have a recurring nuisance where it is predictable that a location like this you're going to be having these problems, you know, to be in in the vicinity. If he needs a medium duty, we could work together and I could have a medium duty at all times.

Yeah. Because nothing is going to change unless we drop the hammer. 100%.

You know, and so and so what I don't like is when the administration gives me one opinion and then without notifying me, then all of a sudden the opinion for a solution changes. Now that we have a different avenue for solutions, Commissioner Suarez, you know, I support you. I join you as a as a co-sponsor of this, but I do think that as we experience more of these types of challenges throughout our barrier island, uh we certainly need you um to make sure we have these resources available because ultimately, you know, we can issue citations, we can issue citations, we can issue traffic tickets to people and all that type of stuff. That doesn't solve the violation. And what we need is compliance of the violation in order in order to mitigate the impact. There's a reason why we issue violations. We issue violations because you have a lack of compliance that is causing a domino effect that is affecting other people. And it's very wonderful. We can give of a parking violation. We can put uh something on someone's driver's license. But what we really want is not to be punitive, but we want to drive compliance and achieve compliance as quickly as possible. And that's where we need your collaboration to address this nuisance.

That's how we did it when we first started the freight loading zones back in the days. Now we don't have those problems. If the tow trucks come, take the cars out. We could do the same with the heavy duties. I mean, 100% needs Mr. Mayor. Thank you. No, I have Commissioner Bach, Commissioner Dominguez, and Commissioner Suarez. and then Commissioner Magazine. Um, so I still there are two questions. Um, I still haven't heard why the position has changed. And then I do have a second question that I'd like to raise.

So, as I mentioned, I don't know why the position of our parking director and our transportation director has changed. My position has not changed. We're going to displace a problem from what is not a traffic lane into a traffic lane. So, Manny, I hope that you're going to have plenty of tow trucks available because we're going to be towing people out of travel lanes on a regular basis.

So, and if you could allow me to clarify, Commissioner, so this is uh six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. So, um, as, uh, uh, Commissioner Matteo Selenus talked right now, the trucks are in violation. Our enforcement officers show up, uh, they they write a $124 obstruction of traffic citation plus generally a $500, $1,000, $5,000 right-of-way violation. Generally, we receive compliance. And I say generally because I would say 90% of the time, um, there is an absolute risk of the trucks just turning on their flashers in the lane of traffic with these barricades and acting like they're invisible. That is an absolute risk. Um, so I I I want to make it very clear that um this could absolutely push somebody from the striped area, the Gore, out into the lane of traffic and they could just not care. So I don't know what that will look like. So and I don't think anybody can can can look forward into the future and say now will there be some drivers that will be um deterred from the uh delinear post? Absolutely. There will be some drivers that are deterred because they don't want to be as brazen. Um we have from the parking uh department we have a freight loading zone next to the building. However, unfortunately the freight loading zone is on west. It's on the complete opposite side. So, the design of this building is the flaw, not anything around it. Um, because if it would have just if we could pick it up and turn it around, it would be perfect. Unfortunately,

that goes back to one of my earlier comments. I mean, listen, this was not a small building that just snuck in and nobody noticed. This was went to a public referendum. This was designed up the yin-yang. It's being sold for bazillions of dollars as beachfront property. The fact that the loading zone is on the wrong side for traffic impacts is offensive. It's it's absolutely freaking offensive. So, be that as it may, I don't know if there's a way to retrofit that somehow. Probably not. But, you know, that is I as part of this comprehensive thing that I want to work with you on, Eric, that needs to be addressed. There is no way on God's green earth that a building of this magnitude should have a loading dock that is not in the ideal place and no other building should going forward. So that is a big problem for me. Um second of all, can we not um you know if if enforcement is the issue, why are we waiting for somebody to call enforcement? I want somebody staffed there during the loading hours uh the loading dock hours so that the second somebody pulls up they are ticketed and and fined. Um I believe most buildings have boards with cups and and and and um um plans for how loading happens in their buildings. I want the buildings held responsible too. It's affecting their members. It's affecting their residents. So hold the buildings responsible. Is there a way to um increase the penalties for repeat offenders? I mean, this is absurd and it is if we don't figure out a solution here and now, it is going to become beyond problematic throughout the city. And so, I want every option explored. I want it back at the April meeting a comprehensive plan. I'm I'm I appreciate the intent with which this was brought. All of us have gotten the same calls and emails and photographs sent. I cannot be supportive now. I think it is going to just displace the problem. I want real

solutions in April and I want them to be enacted without the delay of anou with fot etc. I want to understand how we prevent this going forward. what we can do immediately. I think staffing can happen tomorrow, right? You can have somebody assigned there tomorrow 24/7 if that's what it needs to be. And you know, I don't know how quickly we can get a a big rig tow truck or whatever available to us, but if that can be as of tomorrow or next week to have on call and and parked nearby, let's get that going. Like those don't need additional time. Um so that's where I am on this. Thank you, Commissioner Dominguez.

Thank you. Um, so I had also heard the same thing from the city administration that um, having delineators. They worried because we don't own the street and uh, the trucks would be parking in the street uh, instead of where they currently are. Um, and I keep hearing about bringing these massive tow trucks. Are boots not a thing? Are boots only for cars? Can't we just have the boots and then the trucks can't go anywhere? That's the same as a toe.

You can. Um, so boots can absolutely um, uh, be done, but it doesn't I I'll say solve the problem. So, right now, um, we do have advanced penalties with repeat offenders. So, our right of ways can go up to 10, I believe, $15,000, $15,000 for a third offense. Um, which obviously um, you know, that that is where we get the attention of some of these delivery companies. The challenge of this building right now, there seems to be a lot of unique delivery companies for individuals moving in, individuals buying furniture from this location, this location, having special deliveries. So, this isn't while we do see the FedEx's and the UPS's and the Amazons, they are starting to um hear us. We've had several meetings with all three of those vendors. Um, this seems to be the larger one-off delivery companies that, hey, I have somebody moving in. So, this delivery truck came from Colorado or came from New York or came from fill-in- thelank here. And so, we will give them a first time violation and they will never come back into the city again. Um, that is what we're seeing at this current time.

Can the violations go to the building? Um, they have a loading zone. They have staff that works there. If they see the truck, they shouldn't be accepting anything until the truck moves to the appropriate place. Can the building be held liable? So, parking department doesn't have any power for private property. I would I would probably defer to our code partners or building to see if that could be done. I'm not sure if that's a thing, but we have no mechanism to to effectuate the receiver. Yeah, I don't believe that we have a mechanism in the code to currently charge that back to the So, what would you need? Uh, a new item for the next commission.

Probably need a code amendment to tie those violations back to the adjacent buildings. And can something like that can an amendment be made to this item to include that amendment? Mr. city attorney. I think what we're talking about is a is an ordinance. So something we would have to look at. What are you proposing? Um the city manager mentioned that in order for the building to get a violation for not telling their delivery trucks to move, um we don't have a mechanism in place right now. Don't to enforce that and we would need new legislation um

to move forward. Eric, don't they have a CUP that they have to follow that has a delivery plan? So, not all buildings are going to have a cup, but part five does not have a cup. They weren't they weren't required to obtain a CUP. Okay. So, this is what I'm talking about. Like, I want in April, I want a comprehensive this is what we can do. This is what we need to amend our code for. This is how we I don't think we're going to be able to solve it on the fly today. I we can definitely do staffing. We can definitely get a tow truck into the city that can handle this capacity, but in April, I want to have a comprehensive review of these are options. Here's how we amend the code and and address this and and really get ahead of this problem. Commissioner Fernandez,

thank you. And so one of the things I wanted to to mention just to build upon what my colleagues and the city manager has mentioned is that if we do bring back uh an ordinance uh an enforcement ordinance you know what I what I do think should happen is that the enforcement yes the enforcement that we're doing on the vehicles and the drivers but the enforcement on the building and require the building rather than to you know put a hefty fine on them that goes to the city to some fund um in in the city's accounts um that the violation, the remedy be that they have to hire, you know, whether it be offduty police or offduty parking enforcement uh to be their present to do now the work that their doc master is not doing that their doc master is being negligent and dropping the ball in doing. So now we need to allocate our public resources, the taxpayers resources to do the work that they're not doing right. So the violation should be once we bring that ordinance, Mr. Attorney is that you're found not to be in compliance. Your building gets a violation, but you just don't write a check. You now have to hire off duty to sit there and do the work that you could have done yourself.

And if Commissioner Suarez is next, I'm sorry. It's okay. Finish your thought. Commissioner M.

Thank you. Um, currently when buildings want to hire somebody to trim palms um on their property, there's a right of way permit that has to be obtained because they have to bring their truck. I I you know, they're the guys with the co the hooks and the shopping carts that do it. But that's not what I'm talking about. I I know a resident had had reached out and there was a whole process where they had to like shut down the sidewalk so they could bring their large truck. Let's have as part of this a a procedure where um if you are bringing in an 18-wheeler because you just moved cross country that's fine but you need to then schedule that time with the city and if it needs to be um you know we need to have an alternate traffic plan in in place to ensure that we don't have an emergency then then that is that's what has to happen too. Um and you know can be selective to just super highly dense uh neighborhoods with narrow streets. you know, if it's on a four-lane street, Collins, not necessarily um required, but in this case, in other cases like what will be happening up in North Beach, we need to look at that comprehensively. So, as you guys all the departments work together to bring back ordinance an ordinance for us next uh next month, I want that to be considered as well. Please,

Commissioner Suarez.

Well, I'm really glad this burn on a very robust conversation on on loading and unloading. Um yeah, look, I I I I I think delineators would be a great way so that enforcement doesn't have to, you know, stand by 24/7 there. I think that, you know, just having it there without delineators kind of invites these uh tow truck deliveries, you know, they that's probably what they're used to outside of Miami Beach, you know, maybe in Halia or what have you. Um but um I look I I would love to try this see how it does. I mean we have cameras there and and um and see if it makes an impact because right now this happens every day all day, right? I mean well you know between the hours of like maybe 3 and 7 p.m. So um I hope that delineators are also part of the plan uh for some cases. Now, you said it's al they're supposed to load on the west side of

of five park.

So, we have uh the city already has a freight loading zone that also belongs to the building. When I say belongs, it's there to service any building that's, you know, within a walking distance that is on the west side of that building because it was pre-existing. In the perfect world, um yeah, the building would have been flipped and on that side we would have had the entrance into the loading zones off West A. We would have had the freight loading zone uh that is directly north of the road to the causeway um activated. So there would have been enough room to handle I would say at any one time between the loading zone and the freight loading zone five uh I'll say relatively large box trucks. The challenge is that on the Alton side there is no on street solution. Um obviously that that uh uh that gore that that hash striped area that is right there outside is there because there's some um for a reason there's some access to I believe some public works pumps uh under there. I'm not really sure. I don't want to speak unintelligently on that. Uh but unfortunately we have no place to to put additional loading resources on Alton Road right there.

Have you given any fines so far? Oh uh did that

we can I can we can tabulate it but it's going to be in the thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars because we we continue to keep that while we don't have anybody stationed there all day. That is on our I'll say south of fifth or kind of our southern island route. So we do have team members pass by there on a frequent basis and so every time they go by um they will write the appropriate citations. I was and again generally compliance occurs while we are there. Um it's it's one of those things that happens I'll just say frequently throughout the island. We show up um we start sighting. If there's more than one somebody generally pulls off but we will at least be able to site the main offender at that point in time.

Okay. And and if Jose can step up, what what again? What is the process? You have to get anou with the county with F dot F dot. Okay. It's an F dot roadway. And what's the time what's the time frame on this? Um I would give it probably two to two to three months. We would have to come back to the city commission for execution of that maintenance memorandum of agreement. So a couple months Okay, it vice mayor. Yes, Commissioner Max.

Have a number of different things I want to address. Uh, agree with the traffic delineators, but what are they aesthetically going to look like? Because I'm working steadfast in trying to approve the aesthetics of our public rights of way. And my fear is we're just adding these little orange cones or things like that. Could we not why would flower pots placed in that area not work?

So the generally they would be the white delineator post with a reflective stripe at the top. Um the challenge with any fixed item would be the access. So we have two different hashmarked areas in this specific area. One is for a fire hydrant. The other one is for access to um some and I there are these doors for something that's underneath the roadway. I'll defer to our public works director. Um I think the challenge is is those those doors are half in the gore and half on the roadway. So

Got it. So but across the board we need to do a better job of having a practical purpose for things but making it more aesthetically pleasing. We need to have more respect for how our city looks. Right. And and I I'm so frustrated because I've been emphasizing this for years and years and nobody seems to care, right? Nobody seems to care. You You drive up and down Alton Road or 17th Street and there's these silly little messaging signs. For what? For what? Looks like hell. Okay, we will never fix this problem that we're talking about unless we better design our streets. And I have been sending our staff and administrators videos for years. And Jose, it was one of the first meetings we had about the loading in West Avenue. And PJ, if you could show two videos that I sent our city administration and code uh just in the past couple of weeks. This is every single day. And we could have enforcement, but it's going to be a whack-a-mole. Somebody is going to get killed. Should we address this after they're killed? This is a crosswalk right outside of one of the busiest parks in our city. And we have delivery trucks every single day. Okay, if that was 15 seconds earlier, I took this video cuz you saw a mother like this peeking out past the delivery truck with a baby stroller and 10 seconds later, a car comes flying down. Is somebody gonna have to get killed before we really address this? This happens every day. Every single day, right? And and saying, "Well, we're gonna have staff towe or staff." That doesn't work. That does not work. We need to better design our roads to permanently address this. And I've

been on it for years and I've gotten nowhere. Okay. I Well, this problem that that crosswalk, I've been working for two and a half years to try and get an elevated crosswalk. What does it say about any of our initiatives if it takes two and a half years to build a freaking crosswalk, 30 feet wide or 30 feet long? Why? Right? Hundreds of people walk out of there every single day, kids, families, and it takes three years to build a crosswalk. Right? We we have hundreds of agenda items, but if it takes three years to do a crosswalk, I I saw Commissioner Abbot. Uh she had an item a few years ago about building a new flyover on 63rd Street, and it was right after I I go, "Well, this crosswalk will take another year." I go, "What are we even doing?" Like like how how can we possibly be ambitious and think comprehensive and and truly game-changing solutions? If it takes three years to build a crosswalk, an elevated crosswalk, what what are we doing in the city? What? What are we really doing? That video. PJ, can you play the second one? This is every day up and down West Avenue. How can we not have an aesthetic design in the median that prevents delivery trucks from doing this? I took a video just this day. This is on every block up and down West Avenue. Are we going to get calls from people that are pissed and going, "You know what? I want to run into Pure Vita on West Avenue and because you have these beautiful plants there now I can't. Yes, we're going to Are we going to get calls from buildings along West Avenue like my own, right? Where they go, h it's a lot easier for us just to have these cars out in the street. Yes, we are. Okay. And we're going to have to be strong and say this is not the right way to go about things. Okay. We should have planters in the

median just like we have in Sunset Harbor. I've been bringing it up for three years. And maybe it'll take somebody getting killed. Maybe it'll take a mother trying to cross in front of an Amazon driver that's there every single day. And we'll go, you know what? Maybe now we'll address it. I really hope the city can show some proactiveness in addressing this that I've sent around to every single department head for years before it's a result of somebody dying there. Okay. The widening of West Avenue is five lanes long. People are going there and passing every single day. People pass in the medians. They pass on the right side. I've sent everybody videos. And it's not about having the police out there to enforce because that can't be a constant strategy. We have to have better design in our roadways. Better design. So this is a permanent solution. So who's who's going to take the initiative and do it?

Well, uh guys, seriously, not all at once. Commissioner, not all at once. I will work with the team and we will come up with a plan that we will bring back to commission next month. I appreciate that. Thank you. You know, I'm getting text messages here and it's asked me to ask you, Tom, for for specifically Five Park, doesn't DRB or HPV for that five park have have orders to address delivery?

Yeah, they're Well, I need to check the orders and I did double check. I misspoke, Commissioner Bot. they do have a cup and that likely will have conditions regarding loading and delivery. The DRB order may also have conditions on loading and delivery, but since they have a corresponding CUP, it's likely going to be in that. One other thing I wanted to mention, and I I mentioned this to the manager, is that with regard to the loading area, they do have a very robust interior loading dock that's accessed from Alton Road. The reason that it was placed on Alton Road is because that was really the only viable location. The problem with the southside is that it fronts directly on MacArthur Causeway, which is for all practical purposes a freeway entrance. The problem with the west side fronting West Avenue, is that the future pedestrian bridge, the downs slope to provide access to that bridge that goes over West Avenue comes all the way down the west side of the building. And then on the north side, that was the main entrance that has the interface with the park. But with that said, the uh it was anticipated that the trucks were supposed to easily pull right into that very large loading dock area. And so there was never an intention for trucks to be parked on Alton Road.

So how come they don't do that? Sorry. Go ahead. That's how come they don't do that? Why don't they go into the loading dock, which is designed for them to So pull in. Part of part of the challenge is every time I've gone down the loading dock, you will see um single occupancy vehicles with inside the loading dock. Also, the the way that the loading dock is structured, it does require I will say a CDL driver to have a certain skill set. And I am sure that there are some so it would require you to pull head in and then back your vehicle up into one of two bays that that exist um while inside the area. And um I I will say that there's probably, you know, in my experience, certain CDL drivers that have that skill set and there's certain that may not feel comfortable.

So So now that they now that we've confirmed that they do have a CUP, can the property owners be held responsible for these traffic violations? Yeah, if there's violations that are issued, we can certainly issue a cure letter and then bring them bring them back for a progress report. a will I

and city manager you see this like by the way it shouldn't take this to to to get it going you know because we've been getting emails like this for the last 6 months and for now all of a sudden you know the staff to be like well this is what you know you have seven lay people telling you that something needs to be done and you know we've been telling you this for a long time. It shouldn't take like a a little delineator item to spur on an hour discussion on insane

on on what to do about traffic because this happens every day and it's very frustrating. And you know, look, I I I think it's I think it's ridiculous that the staff isn't ready to really handle this head on because the number one issue in Miami Beach is traffic. And so when you have blatant violations and your staff didn't even know it, it had a cup and that we can hold hold the the property owners accountable. You know, I mean, come on. I think if we would have known that and we would have held them accountable, I bet you those people at Five Park would would would make sure that every single delivery driver that comes through is either making sure it goes parks in the bay and doesn't block traffic and doesn't go on the the gore. Um, so look, get your get your get your stuff together, Eric. Okay? Because this is obviously a big issue for us and obviously we you have seven of us really encouraging whatever we you need to pass legislation for for you to do your job effectively. It we're willing to do that, but this is a big issue for us and for the residents.

And I just want to Commissioner Fernandez. Yeah. And I and I just want to say, you know, Commissioner Magazine, you know, I value so much what you're saying about the aesthetics of our city.

It's so important the on the ground experience uh that our residents have, that our visitors have. That's they're not going to look at the details of everything except what is on the surface. And that's what they're going to remember when they go back home. And I think we truly, even though we live in a beautiful city, we truly need to go above and beyond making sure. Yes, we're going to put delineators. We're going to do some other type of infrastructure, but just don't throw delineators there. Do it. Pay attention to the detail and the final product that people are going to be seeing and remembering. And lastly, Commissioner Magazine, I share your frustration about the crosswalk. Um, Vice Mayor Matel Selenas and I when she worked in in my office, you know, we worked I think it took us two years to get or two or three years to get a crosswalk on Meridian Avenue by Lincoln Road. It was the most frustrating thing. I didn't understand how is it possible for me as a commissioner for us to take two years to get a crosswalk a simple crosswalk and for it to take an elected official now you commissioner magazine in your neighborhood where you're trying to make conditions safer for mothers and families and children just pedestrians in general for it to take this long I to me then like then why are we commissioners if we cannot push an agenda for the benefit and the safety of those who have placed their trust in us, then why do we hold these offices? So, you know, I I I support my colleagues, Commissioner Dominguez uh and Commissioner M and their efforts and there being an enforcement ordinance with real teeth uh in there. uh Commissioner um Suarez and his initiative to to to bring forward these delineators and Commissioner Magazine and the finished product and the amount of time it takes on this and I'm happy to support all of you and second your

item because this truly just speaks to just a bigger effort in our city which is not have things take so long and do things that you know with attention to detail. And also, by the way, if we go to you guys with a problem, a problem with UN, you know, deliveries and we're coming to you guys with delineators, well, don't tell us, well, no, we can't do the delineators. Give us an alternative. Don't just say no. It's so easy just to say no. But if if the administration knows, well, there's there's a development agreement or there's a conditional use permit and there might be other avenues through which to achieve your objective. Well, guide us in that direction. Commissioner Magazine, then Commissioner Bot.

Few things that I'd uh like to ask the administration to consider when we're looking at this. Uh if we're thinking comprehensively, if you look at a lot of our curbs, and again, this sounds silly, but this is the surface level experience for so many visitors or residents, they are completely destroyed, right? And I see it firsthand. It's because some of these large trucks have such a wide turning radius that they go around fifth uh 15th Street right by the Valagio is a great example, right? We spend so much money to take care of the aesthetics of our city and then these large trucks are destroying it. Uh right outside on Collins Avenue uh by Council Tower South, it's the same exact thing. These curbs are destroyed by these large trucks. Uh perhaps we do need to look at some ways to encourage or I I hate the word, but penalize the larger trucks and really encourage the smaller uh trucks that are more compatible with our city. Um I want to bring up something specific, but I'd like an answer. The exit of West Avenue right onto the MacArthur Causeway. Um, it's always been a very complicated intersection, I guess, compounded with uh the possibility of having that uh crosswalk project going on, but right now the it's essentially split between the the north and south lane, the entrance on West Avenue and the MacArthur. There's about 12 traffic cones that are there, right? And what what is the purpose of that? Why is it there? Again, it's because we have a poorly planned road where I mean, am I crazy? Nobody knows what I'm talking about. It's literally the exit of our city. People have to come and enter every single day. There's 12 traffic cones right there. Where are our area managers? Who Who are they? What do

they do? Why do they not drive around looking at issues like this all day? Why does our neighborhood affairs community not driving around golf cart highlighting this issue? For a year, we've had 12 traffic cones for no rhyme or reason at the exit of our city and the entrance of our city, right? West Avenue and MacArthur Causeway. And I'm getting a bunch of blank stairs. Who's responsible? This is the nobody knows. Nobody knows. But everybody will drive by them for years and years with no accountability. Why are there 12 traffic cones at the end of West Avenue exiting on the MacArthur? Thousands thousands of employees drive by there every single week. Wh why do we have them? Who can answer that? All right. I I don't want you to, right? Because I get that you want to take one for the team and accountability start stops at the top. I get that. But this should be individual department heads. Somebody's department is responsible for them. Who? How is that possible? H how is that possible? At the exit where thousands of people, tens of thousands of tourists go out every single day. It looks like hell and nobody knows why. Nobody knows why they're there. John

Commissioner, I'll find out immediately. I'm not familiar with the exact location, but I will get you an answer.

When we say the exact location, I'm not trying to be pompous or an ass here. This is the exit to our city, right? The exit that thousands of people, we don't have a 100 exits to our city. We have three main arteries, four main arteries. This is one of them. And there are 12 traffic cones for no the reason why they're there is because the roadway is so poorly designed. But instead of having long-term structural fixes, we'll have a grouping of traffic cones. And if it weren't for this for an elected official to say what what are we doing here and nobody knows it would be there for the next 10 years,

right? like how do we have all these department you guys make and gals make really good money an area manager we just hired a whole team of them neighborhood affairs right these should be the people dayto day just going around our city and saying that looks off I'm going to find the person to fix that looks off I'm going to find the person to fix that what do they do I have my phone full of the detour signs that are thrown in bushes they're on the bridge of Sunset Harbor. They're laying down on the street. How can we have thousands of employees going around our city every day, whether it be the city manager or a sanitation worker or anybody in between and not highlighting that and saying that really looks off, we need to do better.

That's I I know why. Commissioner B was next. Um, so we know there are violations at this building and we know they have a cup. Can we have them can we get them a notice to cure um and to appear at the planning board for the next planning board meeting? Yes, there's a minimum 15-day notice when you issue a cure letter. Um, I can try to have that issued and get them to the planning board for their April 7th meeting. If we can't meet that minimum notice requirement, then it would be the May 5th meeting. Okay. Commissioner Sars,

I was going to say something I probably should not, but I understand there's public comment. Is there public comment? Our first is a public hearing. Is there public comment? Somebody calls, somebody wants to call in, I say we will. Okay. So, we're gonna do the people outside and then I'll call you in. Okay. Okay. I'll let Carla go first. She's here. Okay, Carla. Oh, it's it's related to Hold on, Carla. Come on in.

Oh, sorry. Carla Probus. I live in 20th in Alta now. Uh, but I wanted to say I used to live south the Fifth and I go down there quite a bit to go to Smith and Winsky. Everyone knows that. And Commissioner Sues, you had an item last week and or last month. It was about the uh timing of lights and us taking over work from the county. And I just want to mention also the problem that's here at this intersection is six, fifth and fourth street. I know they I got the crosswalk put in fourth street that is all out of time. So I think that also causes the backup. You know sixth and fifth were in time. It would also help with the flow. Okay. So, I want to bring that because I know it ties in with your other item you brought in last month. So, thank you.

Thank you, Carl. Thank you. Our first public caller, virtual caller is Susanna. Susanna, state your name, address, and you have two minutes.

Susanna Santoro, 5600 Collins Avenue. My comment is regarding the delivery companies. Um, if the city has not been able to get a grip on commercial delivery companies, the solution cannot be to shift enforcement onto associations and residents. All in the financially responsible for actions that they neither employ nor control is just unjust and misplaced. Enforcement should instead target the delivery companies directly with meaningful fines and consequence not the properties that they service. And I do agree with Commissioner Magazine that safety must be addressed. But again, penalizing residents for content they cannot control is not fair or effective solution. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, you know, Tom, she does bring up a good point. What What is the argument there where, you know, sometimes the the HOAs are oblivious to I mean, who who's really at fault here? And maybe that's city manager question, but you know, I mean, because right now we continue to find tens of thousands of dollars that building, yet every day it continues to happen and there's no compliance. So

in terms of enforcement um if they're in violation of either a land use board order, CUP order um that is something that we can enforce. Now in terms of how the HOAs deal with their violations internally that's something that's not something that we could speak to, but we could certainly enforce what their approvals are any conditions of that. And to Susanna, that building was built with the understanding that they were going to follow the rules and that they were going to enforce their delivery trucks to follow the rules. And so, uh, they went into an agreement with that with the city to do that. So, sorry, I'm going to keep continue.

So, our next caller is Alex Himenez. Go ahead, Alex. Alex Hanes, Bell Isle. I'm calling uh because this happens here on Bell Isle. And I also have an idea for you guys. Uh as we know, the Standard Hotel is next door and you are diverting traffic uh right now because of the undergrounding of the water utility. So Venetian the Venetian causeway is blocked. So when that happens, they bring everybody here along, you know, in front of the standard hotel and that's for all the traffic to exit. talk about exiting our city and the beauty of exiting our city. The standard hotel has two or three trucks, you know, at a time delivering stuff. Can you imagine what it looks like here during rush hour where there's a lot of traffic? People are coming into the city and they're coming out of the city and there's three huge box trucks in the middle of the way. That wouldn't be allowed if you know it was on the Venetian causeway. But why is it allowed on our little street? That's not to say that it's the standard's fault. I think this is the city's fault. You know, I think an idea for for everyone here, I think you we've had like I've heard a lot of great ideas is, you know, there needs to be a place for these trucks to go and there's plenty of parking spaces. You know, I know that parking is limited, but three or four or five or six can be converted to a freight zone for the standard right right in front. There should be some more proactive creative ideas with the real estate that we have like our parking spaces. is I think Commissioner Magazine was totally correct. We should with all the employees the city has, there should be a looks off person that walk that drives around and finds uh opportunities and create creative ideas uh to fix things, paint curbs, uh suggest ideas. But I definitely think converting parking spaces is is an easy win near Five Park, near the standard, all over the city because people do need

deliveries and if you're a delivery driver, you need to stop somewhere and you need to park. So, we should be converting more parking spaces to freight zones and not just for one truck, but for three or you know, two or three. Thank you, sir. Our next caller is Jane Crup.

Go ahead. You have two minutes. Hi, Jane Crop 1390 Ocean Drive. You all know me from the parking department because I call about 10 times a day. And the parking department, you know, they're doing the best they can, but it really is a cat-and- mouse game with these drivers and they know it. We have a very limited amount of staff to get over there. But, um, it's a city-wide problem. And you can see the beginnings of where has this problem started? It's this big highrise. The big high-rise is creating density, creating the need for more deliveries. And the city needs a city plan, overall city plan of how to integrate the higher density that's coming. If you want to encourage higher F and Washington Avenue, you need to have a loading uh plan citywide. And part of it is restricting the size of trucks. We don't have a terminal like they have in New York where they all the big trucks don't come in because they can't maneuver the streets. So, we're we're heading towards this conflict of more density and safety because the trucks are very unsafe, especially I'm here on 14th Street and Ocean Court. A man was killed by a huge truck trying to make a three-point turn. No, no truck over 30 ft should be going east of Collins Avenue. We need some rules. We need a plan and I encourage um the traffic department to get with this and the police and the parking department to get together. I agree with what the commissioners are saying that right now we have an unsafe condition where yes, tourists are are walking in between huge trucks on 14th Street near the beach. That's not acceptable. If you're going to do your laundry in your hotel from Broward County in a tractor trailer because it's a dollar cheaper for the water, that's not a common sense solution. Use a local laundry that has

vans. They're available. We by not allowing these huge trucks coming from long distances. One more second. Um we encourage local businesses with vans and local deliveries. So, it's a win-win if we can have some city planning around this as well considering the density that's coming. Thank you. Thank you. Our next Hold on, let me Our next virtual caller is has a screen name of callin user 4. State your name, address. You have two minutes.

Good morning, mayors and commissioners. My name is Matthew Volanov. My address is 125 Jefferson Avenue. I remember many years ago at the fifth and al site there was a lowrise medium density project that was approved. It was called the wage. It would have brought sixtory buildings to that site with much needed market rate apartment housing for residents of the city and area neighbors actually came and fought it saying that it was going to be delivering too much traffic uh to the site. And so it's kind of funny now I look up and I actually see the fifth and alpha tower at over 500 ft. And here we are now a decade later and the actual issue is that there is tremendous traffic impacts being caused by this tower. And the narrative that it would just be empty and people contributing to the coffers of the city and not living here actually doesn't appear to be necessarily true either. But remember the formula for success many times is lowrise medium density in cities. Thank you.

Thank you. Our last virtual caller is David. David go ahead please. Uh hello. Can you hear me? Yeah. Go ahead. State your name, please.

David Wallock. I seem to sound like a bit of a broken record as do many of these callers, but uh deliveries are a part of hotel business. They are a part of restaurant and cafe business. And Ocean Drive from 5th to 15th Street is a commercial district. It is not a residential district. It is filled with hotels. It is filled with restaurants and mixed retail. They all require regular deliveries virtually every single day. Not just one truck, but each business requires probably five different trucks. And if large trucks uh cannot get in, then they have to use four small trucks. And so we're propagating the problem by closure of any of our main streets, including Ocean Drive, and throwing that problem onto Collins Avenue, plus valet, plus ride share Ubers, plus multiple multiple delivery trucks per block. And the further you put these trucks from the delivery point, the more truck, you know, uh, uh, hand truck back and forths have to happen and then the more time those trucks have to stay. It's a domino effect by closing main arteries which were not designed to be closed. So please consider all of the multiple domino effects and collateral damage that we are creating ourselves by poor planning and thinking that we can close a major artery and it not seriously affect major arteries that are attached to it.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh Mitch, uh Mitch Novik, 901 Collins Avenue. I agree with the last caller and Jane Crup. Uh when you close Ocean Drive, you create a dangerous condition. My street becomes a uh uh traffic cesspool of absolute gridlock. So I would urge you to uh keep the traffic flowing and the way to do that is not not disrupt our traditional urban traffic grid. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. That concludes. Okay. Okay, I believe we have a motion and a second. We do. We have a motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. Commissioner Fernandez will be listed as a co-sponsor.

Thank you. Let's call a vote. All in favor of R 7G, please say I. I. I. Anyone opposed? Item is approved 70. That was item R 7G. R7S R 7S approved strategic plan 2026. Commissioner Magazine. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And Mr. City Manager, I I'll turn this largely over to you, uh, but it's really just um a good governance method and while I love that this commission gets down into the details like we just did today, right? Because that is the importance of local government. It is when you walk outside of your house,

what you experience, whether it be the safety of your roads, the cleanliness of your streets, whether your city is safe during March for spring break, uh whether your streets are aesthetically pleasing or not. Uh those are the meat and potatoes of everyday day-to-day operation of a city. But we also need to think comprehensively a and oftentimes I think our way of governance tends that we focus solely on some of these day-to-day issues and uh don't take a step back take a breath and figure out those macro issues as well and the decisions that we make are often piece meal together and lack uh being part of a broader context and vision for a comprehensive plan for our city. So this is essentially setting some of those parameters. Now, that's not to say that we can't deviate from that. If uh uh if we have a comprehensive plan or vision, something is outside of that, perhaps we take a step back and explain why we're doing something that deviates from our comprehensive vision. Uh but Mr. City Manager, I'll turn it over to you about how we're going to essentially lay this out and then how we'll govern uh within the context of this.

Thank you, Commissioner. through the mayor. Um this is uh obviously a very important discussion. Uh we prioritize how we want this organization to be run every year through the budget process, but a document like this is really taking us out further multiple years. Um, I liken this to if you're in an oldtime boat and you had 40 people who were rowing, each stroke of the ore is important, but if you all don't know where the point in the distance is that you're trying to go to, it becomes very difficult to move that boat forward in a positive direction. Um, this particular document is the culmination of input from the mayor and commission over the past year. Um, it does obviously build on what we've done historically. Our city of Miami Beach's first strategic plan was established pursuant to resolution 2006 26341 and was updated in 2015, 2019, and 2023. Um, this particular document remains committed to our mission of providing excellent public service and safety to all who live, work, and play in our vibrant tropical historic community. It outlines our organizational values to maintain Miami Beach as a world-class city, to work as a cooperative team of well-trained and empowered professionals, to act with ownership and authority to reach exceptional outcomes, to expediently serve the public with dignity and respect, to conduct the

business of the city with honesty, integrity, and dedication. We are ambassadors of goodwill to our residents, visitors, and the business community. And we treat our citizens, staff, and each other with professionalism, kindness, and collegiality. We have a number of strategic vision areas, a vibrant city um where our objective is to build on our internationally recognized reputation by balancing tourism and development initiatives to enrich the quality of life and vitality of our neighborhoods, schools, and commercial areas. Safe city where our objective is to build resident satisfaction through safety, cleanliness, parks, and modern codes. our resilient coastal city where we our objective is to protect and enhance our natural and build environments through leading edge resilience infrastructure initiatives and investments in support of the longevity and sustainability of our community. A connected and engaged city where our objective is to embrace a multimodal philosophy to encourage non-motorized mobility options to reduce congestion and provide enhanced connectivity to our neighborhoods, schools, employment, special events, open spaces, businesses, and attractions. a smart city where our goal is to create a high quality and efficient governance services and employees. Mr. City Manager, if I could uh maybe for the best usage, I explain is this the result of the retreat that we did uh this past year. Okay. Yes, this is the result of a two-day retreat with the um

six of you. Obviously, uh Vice Mayor Matteo Selenus was involved but not in her current role. Um but obviously this is the uh consolidation of a lot of discussions and a lot of um you know thought-provoking exchange and where will this be publicly visible and is this already locked in and set in stone or is this kind of a uh dynamic document that we'll be able to essentially um change or uh massage as we go along.

So this is adopted by resolution. It can be changed by resolution at any point in time. Um this would inform our budgeting process and this would inform the day-to-day direction that I give to the teams on how to deliver the best results for the community.

Is there anything that almost adds uh acts like a safeguard? I'll give an example. Let's say we want to one of our strategic goals and priorities is to make a more walkable pedestrian-friendly city and then somebody proposes legislation uh without giving a concrete example but just flies in the face of that right really takes uh uh that that will result in going the exact opposite. Will there be some sort of flag or discussion that'll say, "Well, our strategic priority is walkability, but this is flying in the face of that." So, in our memos, um, in prior iterations, we've always tried to incorporate some of our strategic goals and initiatives into what we're formulating as we're putting the information forward. Um, we we've transitioned a little bit away from that. Uh, I think that's probably because we haven't done a full-blown refresh since 2019. Um, but I would like to get back to that so that we could help the commission uh dovetail initiatives with the strategic plan.

So, I guess I'll turn over to my colleagues and not that I have the power, but uh, Commissioner Bot, but are we going to discuss what this is or are we just going to kind of adopt? Uh who know commissioner bot

um you know over the last number of years through um impetus from residents or commissioners at the time there have been things added to um the the blue sheets the the cover memos about fiscal impact or um is it a resident's right to know or whatever. Could we um add a thing like a little check box to those cover memos say does this align with an init initiative? If yes, which one? So that we can that's a quick reference point that we can just keep ourselves accountable. Absolutely. If that's the commission's desire. I think that's Is that something we have to vote on or

we could propose an amendment to to this? I'd like to propose an amendment that the cover sheets incorporate a a a place to indicate whether or not um the item being proposed aligns with one of the initiatives and if it does which one it is. It doesn't mean that it doesn't it doesn't mean that it is a bad item if it doesn't. It just helps us keep a frame of reference incorporation of key performance indicators. Yeah. So that's the motion if there's a second. Yeah, I'll second. Okay, let's call a vote.

This is item R sevens as amended to include a section uh moved by Commissioner Bach, seconded by Commissioner Magazine. All in favor of R7S as amended. Please say I. I. Anyone opposed? Hearing none. R sevens is approved as amended. And just if I may through the chair for clarity, the the box to be checked will be whether the item aligns with or whether the item affects because there may be items that don't align with. Right. Um I think it would be does it does it affect does it is it related to is it related to is a good way and and then which one it relates to.

Okay. Very good. Should we do that, commissioner, or is it maybe just ask for a flag if it adversely uh impacts? I I like having sort of the the benchmark of, oh, look, we're doing another thing that aligns with one of our strategic priorities. R9X R9X is discuss take action naming rights opportunities to fund capital projects R9X Vice Mayor Mattel Selenus

so this is going to be an interesting discussion I I'm guessing um I want to explore possibilities for our city to reach out and see if there's any opportunities for naming rights or advertise advertising opportunities for some of our facilities here. And I think at one point we had that um I believe it was maybe Norwegian cruise ships. They offered us $11 million to co-ename the um convention center for maybe five years. Was it Mr. Manager? I would ask our marketing communications Melissa please join us

team to talk about it. Uh, sure. Melissa Berier. Um, it was a 10-year deal.

Um, and ultimately we turned it down. The commission turned it down at the time, which I think was a bit of a missed opportunity. And I think we should explore that again, especially considering we're trying to cut cut and maybe we need to instead increase revenue in certain ways. For example, I learned that in Miami Dade County, one of their parks, the underlying park was sponsored by Chewy, the dog food brand. um or it's they sell more than dog food, but you know, maybe we could approach Chewy for some advertising. Maybe they can, you know, wrap a park in a banner. Um and and my biggest issue actually is that, you know, I I want to one of my budget allocations that we're going to discuss in May is the Flamingo Park um uh football field, soccer field right there. And in order for that field to be returfed, it's going to be $1, I think, $3 million. And so what if we reached out to Adidas, for example, and we said, "Hey Adidas, you're doing multiple events in our city. FIFA is big this year. Why don't we do some type of naming opportunity where Adidas names, co-enames our Flamingo Park Track, and gives us the 1.3 for a couple years and we call it the Adidas Flamingo Park Track." So many ideas. And the reason why I did this as a discussion item and not sent it to committee was because I wanted to have the discussion here, talk about it with our staff and have them come back and give us some ideas of appropriate locations. Um, so that way it wasn't clogging up committees and and and and kind of eating up time. Um, I want to see what everyone I want to take everyone's temperature and see how we all feel and see if we can get started on something.

Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Fernandez.

Thank you, Mr. mayor and I'll say traditionally I'm I am not a fan of having names throughout our cities. It comes with unintended consequences at time at times. You know you might enter into an agreement with an entities whose values in the future you might not realize might not necessarily align with the public values and the public policies of the city. However, notwithstanding that, we're in a very different time and place today than when we were four years ago when Norwegian Cruise Lines came to us with a proposal uh to name the convention center. Today, we're facing a potential shift in revenues, uh potential reform uh to our source of funding for the operations and the maintenance of important facilities to our city. And because of that, I do think, Madame Vice Mayor, it is indeed prudent uh for us to be exploring what opportunities may be out there. Doesn't mean that we're necessarily going to engage in those opportunities. But if it's the right opportunity, uh then it's only responsible for us uh to be considering uh those potential partnerships. Not all of them will work. I know in the past, Melissa, we had a company,

correct? Uh do we still have group? do not have that company anymore. We don't and we don't have a sales team, right? also add but I mean we can try our best but we are not a sales team you know um but maybe we can get together with economic development um and do our best but there are specialized firms that do do this but of course it's comes with a cut

right but I do I I do think you know and and to your point the communications department um you know handles communications marketing but you guys don't do media sales you don't do sales for bus benches you don't do sales for trolley wraps you don't do sales for exercise equipments. Uh, and we shouldn't be engaging either in sales of of naming rights. Um however I do like the idea of approaching this through an outside entity that does have uh those those contacts those relationships knows how to negotiate uh a a really worthwhile financially worthwhile uh term and agreement for the city. Um so you know whereas four years ago I would have completely been against this. I think that the shifting landscape uh that we may be potentially uh facing if 60% of the state's voters make a constitutional amendment to property taxes, which could foreseively happen over the next year or so. Um it it makes it prudent to be ahead of it and be engaging in these conversations. I was happy to support your motion.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Yeah, I Commissioner Magazine,

I'll echo those thoughts. I don't want to tie ourselves into anything. Uh I would have historically been against it as well and I do want to maintain some sort of decision-making authority while not micromanaging there. There could be some good opportunities. You know, the Flamingo uh stadium by Adidas. I I don't think that's overly offensive or something like that, but again, I don't want to micromanage, but I do want to uh not just kind of give the green light sign off to wave all of these things in. I I'll offer up our first possibility. I I'll offer $500 for the magazine orange cone removal capital project uh across the city. So,

commissioner bot. Um, so I have historically been dead set against this. I share my colleagues open to openness to um, consider what's out there. I'm actually very leerary of having an outside organization go out and sell the city because for them it's revenue and I think this needs to be curated with um, careful consideration of what the property is and who the sponsor could be. I would like to actually pivot this possibly to a different approach. Um, we have increasingly and Rick, I'd need you to tell me how how we can do this um, legally. Um, and maybe you don't have an answer at your fingertips because it's a weird I don't know if if other cities do this. We have increasingly mega weealthy residents in the city and in other cities we we see people underwriting arts and culture institutions, school playgrounds, uh public playgrounds, improved waterways, all things that will be dramatically affected um if, god forbid um we lose our property tax and potentially our business taxes. So, is there a way to set up an a an employee, an office, a firm to basically be a municipal fundraiser to the way that you know, you've got um fundraisers for other notfor-profit organizations to fund initiatives to take up um uh maintenance costs for existing facilities. ities that is not selling naming rights but is is a different approach to this

because I I would be kind of much more interested in that. And this is a a a target demographic that is usually not or is is usually new to the city. Might not be super engaged yet with with the community because they're here some of the time, not all of the time. uh doesn't know the history of what what gets valued and what is a challenge and it's a way to um engage with them and and um have them build relationships in meaningful ways.

Sure. In fact, one of your colleagues uh several months ago had had discussed with my office the possibility of some kind of a fundraising uh 501c3. I believe that this was done during uh Mayor Lavine's administration. Um and I think that it was shut down eventually because of some concerns. So uh the your colleague did not pursue this as a result of some of the concerns. But we can certainly revisit the idea again, especially given the current economic climate. Maybe there's some guard rails that we can come up with to ensure that the that the issues that were um identified back then do not

The city at the time had one Miami Beach which was a foundation that was set up um the the uh city commissioner I think authorized the city attorney's office to work on setting up a foundation uh on behalf of the city and then that foundation had a board of directors uh I believe you know the late commissioner Malikov and a number of other members from the day is uh were on that board of of directors and specifically it focused on um you know contributions that were made by by people throughout the community uh and then the reinvestment of those you know into projects that then the city wouldn't have to to to fund. And maybe, you know, if if we can't do a nonforprofit again, maybe we have a development person uh in in the city that can work on, you know, if someone wants to work on improving a park and we have, you know, we have it set as a goal to make, you know, improvements in a park or do an improvement somewhere in North Beach and there's a new business that's coming in or there's a new resident that came in that wants to contribute towards that, you know, someone that's making those relationships with those stakeholders. Um so that then you know we can pursue that money even through the city and we the city every once in a while we accept contributions you know we can consider a resolution accepting a private contribution and allocate that and dedicate that for a specific purpose. And so maybe that's something that we could explore is bringing in a development person and maybe part of that person's compensation doesn't have to be, you know, coming out of the general fund. Maybe, you know, it's a structure where, you know, they get a percentage of what they fund raise, which is, you know, very typical a lot of times in the nonprofit world. So maybe that's something we can explore.

Yeah. And I just to be clear, I I this is not Relentless for Progress. This is not a pack. This is this is a um this would be you know sort of a high-end bespoke um um fundraiser the way as you mentioned not for-p profofit organizations have um and use very effectively and it's long-term relationship development and um I think it would be a very interesting way to approach this. Um so I don't know if that's an amendment to this or becomes a separate item.

I think it's a separate item. I think if I heard correctly, Commissioner Matteo Solenos would like to make a um well, right now you are acting as mayor, so you cannot uh make a motion, but the earlier motion that I believe you had made was to direct administration to work on some potential naming opportunities for the city and return back to commission. And I do want to assure everybody that the city has a very vigorous process for naming rights. So this would go to neighborhoods. it would come back to you all. In some instances, there's a a referendum required for certain namings. So, um, so it's not that that this would happen without your substantial input.

I just want to add that, um, Commissioner Bot, I love your idea as well. That was one of my ideas, too. If a family wanted to, you know, say, "Hey, this little pocket park in my neighborhood, you know, I want to explore." Lots of opportunities here. And I don't want to limit it to just corporate partners, but I do think we should look at corporate partners. In fact, I was told that one of our one of the events, the corporate events that we're going to be doing, one of the the folks that's hosting an upcoming event wanted to wrap one of our lifeguard stands. And I won't say which, but um and I think that they're going to end up be being able to do that. But then someone had asked, well, how much are they being charged to wrap their logo on our lifeguard stand? And the response was nothing. We're going to let them do it for free. and it's like, well, maybe we could have charged for that. Um, you know, so we just need to be a little bit more cognizant about brands that are coming to our city that want that that PR and that marketing aspect and and and what we can get for that. Um, similarly, Muscle Beach, you know, we we do activations there all the time and, you know, if if we're with a brand or a partnership with some type of brand that's there, maybe they can wrap the inside of that coral wall with with a banner. I mean, there's just so many opportunities. There's so many opportunities for revenue here. Um, and I'd like to just explore all of them. And then, of course, you know, I Commissioner Magazine, you mentioned something about, you know, this isn't just like Carp Launch, do do whatever. We, you know, need to look at the brands and we need to look at the the sponsorships and look at the areas and what the amount is. But I do want to brainstorm and just kind of see what we can come up with. See what your team can come up with, Melissa. Or or not your team. I'm sorry. The whomever. Yep.

One team. That's right. one city, one team and whomever we get to do this. I I do want to ask a question about um are there any categories that you would want to exclude and specifically I'm asking about alcohol alcohol. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that's appropriate. Yeah. Vape and vape and alco alcohol, cigarettes, vape, CBD, THC. Yep. Agreed. All the bad stuff. You like wholesome because there was there, you know, obviously alcohol. We're still on that same page. I I would what I would do is I would look at our current uh agreements that we have like with the trolleys and with the uh with some of those because

then haven't we addressed this issue like I remember bus on on trolley yes there alcohol is not permitted but on bus shelters alcohol is permitted but that was an administrative decision that was not legislative so we have the ability to advertise alcohol on the trolleys I've directed the communication department to not do that we just have a standard a consistent standard uh that we don't want to explore. No, no adult toys, please. Okay.

Yeah, I'll also add and give a plug for our water taxi, but we've had some interest for uh from some private enterprise potentially partnering with with us that they would help potentially fund some of our our routes, but also for naming, right? So, I think it fits in what you're saying. This is thinking outside of the box and thank you for guiding us into this conversation because I'll tell you, you know, it's it's a four years ago the conversation came up and it takes courage to bring it up again. It was a very difficult and controversial conversation four years ago. It became very politically charged and I think it's very forward thinking of you to take that very brave step to bring it up uh now because we do have to be looking at this. How are we going to close the gaps to maintain the operations and the maintenance at the level of service that our residents have been blessed to get accustomed to? And so this is forward thinking and I like the direction that we're going in. I'm happy to support you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Anyone else? Let's vote. So, I have a motion from Commissioner from Vice Mayor Matel Selenus uh seconded by Commissioner Fernandez to direct administration to explore naming rights. All in favor, please say I. I. I. The item is approved. 70. Uh, Commissioner Bot also had a separate Yeah, we'll work on that for the for the April meeting. We'll work on an item for you and maybe an item for you or you guys could work together.

Ri. R5 I is an ordinance of the mayor of city commissioner of city of Miami Beach Florida amending part one subp part B article 9 related special acts of Miami Beach city code entitled pension system for disability and retirement of members of police and fire departments amending section 62 definitions adding definition for police management employees amending section 79 entitled deferred retirement option plan drop related to the maximum drop participation period providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict here with clarification servability and providing for an effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. It is item R5 I seven sponsors. I guess congratulations Chief Jones Fernandez.

Thank you Mr. mayor and uh I want to begin by thanking all of you uh the entire commission for joining me in sponsoring this ordinance and for recognizing the uh very important uh role of continuity and leadership uh within the police department. And briefly before we speak about our wonderful chief uh Jones, I want to speak briefly about what this legislation uh actually does because this ordinance is a matter of policy. It's a policy decision amending uh the uh pension plan to allow the chief to extend his participation in the drop program from 8 years to a maximum of 10 years. Uh and I want to highlight something that's very important and that is that uh our actuary, Mr. Manager and correct me if I'm wrong, the city's actuary has reviewed the ordinance and they have confirmed that it does not increase cost to the city.

Correct. And so in other words, this uh this ordinance allows us to maintain stability in leadership without placing any additional burden to our taxpayers. But ultimately, and more important than this being a policy decision, um, and a very prudent uh, policy decision, this is an ordinance about the men and women of the Miami Beach Police Department. The officers who show up every day, those who answer the call of service, who put on that uniform every day, and they don't know whether they're going to come back home at night, they walk our streets. They put themselves in harm's way so that our residents and our visitors can feel safe. And a department like ours, like our incredible Miami Beach Police Department, is only as strong as a people who wear that uniform and who serve every day with that bravery. And those officers deserve leadership. That leadership that supports them, that prepares them, and that gives them the tools that they need every day to succeed. And when you look at the results of this department and what has been delivered under Chiefs Jones leadership, it really talks about that support that he gives every day to our officers so that they can succeed. And PJ, uh, I don't know if we have the slide on major crime statistics. If you have that ready to to be displayed. There we go. If you look at our most recent uh major crime statistics, we see meaningful redu reductions across nearly every category. You look at violent crimes, that's down by 9%. You look at property crimes, that's down by 19%. Robberies down 32%. You look at burglaries, they're down

26%. Autothefts down 36%. homicides. Homicides down 75%. And these are real improvements in safety for the residents of Miami Beach. And what we're seeing today is a department that's operating with a high level of discipline, a high level of purpose, with strong morale. That's why we see those reductions in crimes. the morale in our police officers who are bringing us these results and that that begins with the leadership of the Miami Beach Police Department. Chief Jones has cultivated an environment where officers tell us this is not anecdotal. Officers are telling us that they feel supported by their chief of police. They feel well trained. They are equipped to perform at the highest levels expected for them. And that leadership is is is reflected in the department's activity and presence throughout our community. And I think we all know the numbers, but in 2025 alone, the department responded to more than 80,000 calls for service. More than 81,000 of calls for service. Uh 58% of those, nearly 60% of those are initiated by the officers themselves. And officers don't do that if they don't feel supported and if morale isn't strong. That level of proactive policing is a result of a workforce that is engaged and actively working to prevent crime uh rather than simply reacting to crime. We've also seen their visibility. Officers under Chief Jones uh leadership conducted nearly 5,000 park and walk patrols and that increases the engagement with our neighborhoods.

That increases visibility. Chief Jones, as we all know, one of the cool things uh and and new changes in our department is that Chief Jones has pushed the department forward in how we use technology to keep our community safe. Uh and PJ, do we have there the drone footage and what you're seeing there is drone footage from about a week ago. uh and I believe uh and perhaps the chief is probably the best one to uh to to give this description, but in the real-time intelligence center uh that was completed uh during during his tenure, uh they they get alerts for license plate from their license plate readers and whether when there's a stolen vehicle, that real-time intelligence center gets the alert and they're able now to deploy this new technology that we have the drones uh in less than a couple of minutes. It's over the MacArthur Causeway waiting for that license plate of that stolen vehicle to show up. And there at the far you see that stolen uh motorcycle coming into into our city. It is such cool stuff when you see it. And there's that motorcycle coming in.

Can you zoom in on those cones, Alex? There's that motorcycle coming in. Look, I mean, the the work that our police department does with this technology that the chief has brought forward. There's the stolen motorcycle and what and what and what happens there is just incredible. It just speaks to to the techniques and the and the abilities in which the chief has taken this department to. And PJ, is this is this uh at double the speed? I don't want to double the speed. There we go. There the there there goes the guy. Bad boy. There goes the guy. There he goes going into the opposite direction of traffic.

He goes down into the residential neighborhoods into Flamingo Park. Commissioner

Selena's close to you. He abandons his motorcycle, throws it in the alley, goes into a building, takes off a shirt and a cap. Thinks he's getting away, but oh no, there are there are Chief Jones officers. There they are responding, and the guy thinks he got away, but no, he didn't. There are our officers taking him down. That is the work of true leadership of leadership like Chief Jones. But technology alone doesn't create these results. It's the people people. It's the leadership that guide that that guides them. And we see that leadership play out right now during one of the most demanding times of the year for the city of Miami Beach. But most importantly uh for for for our police officers and um and PJ, do we have there the news clip that just reminds us of where we were and where we are now?

This is the moment chaos erupts in Daytona Beach, Florida. Hundreds of people running across the beach Saturday after what appeared to be gunshots ringing out. There were zero gunshots on the beach because what they were doing was crushing a water bottle to make it sound like a gunshot to stampede the crowd. The Valuchia County Sheriff says it happened even with dozens of law enforcement officers in the crowd. Later adding at least one weekend shooting was also spring break related. And in Port Aranis, Texas, police say a 17-year-old shot and wounded five people on a beach late Saturday night. No one's running from gunshots.

But in Miami Beach, Florida, an iconic party town has worked on a spring break rebrand in recent years, and it seems to be working. Police say this weekend arrests plummeted almost 21% year-over-year. The city's surging resources, more police, DUI and license plate checks, but also parking and getting towed are more expensive. The strategy that we implemented was an all hands on deck and a collective strategy involving not only the police department, but different city entities that made it very clear, we welcome you to our city, but if you decide to break the rules and break the law, you'll be dealt with accordingly. embracing a new strategy to avoid scenes like this. Jesse Kers, NBC News, Miami Beach, Florida.

Thank you, PJ. That type that kind of turnaround doesn't happen by accident. It happens when a department has strong leadership, clear expectations from the very top and officers that know that their city stands behind them. So extending the drop uh for Chief Jones is not just about his tenure. It's not just about keeping Chief Jones here for another two years, but it's most importantly about maintaining the stability, continuing on the progress we are seeing and supporting the men and women and the police officers of the Miami Beach Police Department who rely on that leadership, on the leadership of Chief Jones every single day. And when our officers know that their leadership has the confidence and the full banking of this Miami Beach City Commission, I think that message strengthens the import the the entire department. So with that uh for those reasons uh Mr. Mayor colleagues, I thank you all uh for being sponsors in this in this legislation and I'm proud I'm very proud to move it in support of our incredible chief and the and all the men and women who work in the Miami Beach Police Department. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner Fernandez. That was a very good presentation. I appreciate it uh and enjoyed it. So, um I think it highlights and it's important uh and it resonates with with our residents. I'll I'll add one other a couple of things, but one is I'm a big believer that data and numbers are very significant and it tells a good story and and in this case it tells a real story but uh I'm also a big believer in it's how our residents and tourists feel when they walk down the street uh as a even and apart from the data and the good news there is I hear all the time and I I assume all of us hear from our residents and visitors wow Miami Beach has changed in a big way I feel very comfortable walking down the street taking my family. I've had people tell me they wouldn't take their kids to South Beach and they do now and they're walking on Ocean Drive and other parts. So, um there's a great story o overall. It's and obviously it all comes with breaking that spring break cycle, the major crimes you talked about. Our homeless numbers, the lowest we've ever had in our city's history, 60% lower than just three years ago. Um the staffing, full staffing, which shows that we have a a a well- motivated force. And I'm actually hearing a lot and again I I suppose I'm hear I hear a lot of people telling me I run into uh officers in other cities or security guards who are telling me I'm trying to get into the Miami Beach Police Department. That's where I want to be. But you guys are fully staffed. I can't even get in. So uh it's a great place to be cuz it wasn't that long ago we were I remember hearing we have 40 slots that we have to fill in our uh uh police department. So, it's um there there's a lot going on and I and I and I I'll give all of us here uh a pat on the back because I also hear Chief Jones, others and officers on the street who say thank you to us because not every city does the elected body support our police department in the way we do and say

publicly we got your back. Um and uh I think uh I think our officers the message is loud and clear. We got their backs. We're giving them the best technology that we have to offer. We do um it's important it's important for their own safety and it's also important for for preventing and solving crimes to have that. So uh Chief Jones, it's uh it's it's uh it's great working with you. We started around the same time in our respective roles. So, uh, it, you know, we work obviously closely together. Um, I will say, and I and I've had this conversation with you, I think, and I don't want to speak for you, you could say it, but I think part of your motivation in wanting to continue is we've seen so many positive changes, and there's more to do, right? We don't we don't rest on our on our laurels, and uh, the police visibility has gotten tremendously improved, and there's even more we can do, right? We we never stop we never stop pushing. Um and uh and I and I think I think I personally believe our officers love that. They love the fact that we are uh giving them the tools to do their job and that we want them and expect them to to uh follow their training and do the jobs that we're asking them to do. So thank you again. Fully supportive of uh and looking forward to working with you for the next couple of uh couple of years. Commissioner Dominguez,

thank you. Uh I too am very supportive. I'd like to second the item. Under uh Chief Jones leadership, we have seen a reduction in crime. He and his team has worked very hard in tackling the rampant drug problem that had really built up during COVID in the entertainment district. He filled all the vacancies. That was an incredible feat. Not easy. And um now we have fully f staffed police department. Uh the chief is very responsive and he has also built a strong command staff of men and women very experienced and of diverse backgrounds. We have an incredible team under the chief and I look forward to working with him for the next few years.

Commissioner M. Um, obviously I'm very supportive of this as well. And um one of the things that I've been talking to you about, Chief Jones, that I'm excited about for the next two years is the opportunity to really improve, not improve, to continue um and build on the successes you've had and your command staff in support of you in the initiatives like 30 by30 and making this a safe department for people who are not traditionally seen as cops. Um because I think that it is so important for community to be policed by people who look like they are and um I am going to look to you and to you know see significant improvement not I'm sorry significant movement um as that continues over the next two years and ensure that no matter who uh comes to try to fill your shoes after you leave in two years um that that is a priority and a pillar of the department moving forward in perpetuity. So, I know you can do it. We've talked about this. I am thousand% confident in your vision and supportive of your vision and confident in your command staff who will continue uh to do this after you've gone. And uh I look forward to what we can get done together in the next two years.

Chief, I'd like to take a moment to thank you for all that you've done. I fully support you in in this extension and I'm so impressed by the work that you've done and the team you've created and the staff that you oversee. I every time I speak with an officer, no matter where they're at in their rank, they all really love their job and I think it's because they love the environment that you've created within the force and within the team. It's just it's palpable. I I had the I was at roll call on Sunday and I had the chance to go on a ride along with a sergeant. Um and he just you could tell he just loved his job. I mean the way everything he was so detailed about every explanation about you know it was fascinating. It was truly fascinating and I'm so glad I got that opportunity because you have created such an impressive team. Um, every single officer just has such pride in what they do and the residents know it. We see it. We We love it. We love you. We love the team. We love every single officer that that protects us um and and helps us. And it's just so impressive. And I just want to thank you again. I I truly can't give you enough accolades. You know, when I went to you and I said, "Listen, I want to work on human trafficking this year because that's very important to me." and you agreed immediately and you said that you had created the first human trafficking team within the police department several years ago and if that if I misspeak please correct me but I mean I just behind the scenes you do so much and as in front of the scenes you do so much and I really truly can't thank you enough so I'm happy to support you chief any any commissioner magazine

yeah chief we could go on until you're uh you're you're halfway through your extension here so we could we have some talkers huh Uh maybe we'll bring this in for a landing. Uh love you, love what you do, love your family. Um and it's clearly a lot of people in the city do. You're a great ambassador, great police officer, great police chief. So proud to work with you going forward.

If I may, if I uh I just wanted to add one one other thing which uh which I thought of. there's really like there's so much that goes into what you have to do in in a department like this and and everything we do is so high-profile uh which adds to the uh sort of the the pressure stakes because you know every decision but um I'm I'm really proud of our of our entire city because you've gotten nothing but support from us as the commission, our residents, our business community. It really takes that to uh to to to build and and I say that partly because you know when this process was coming up and and until this came up there was some talk about potential successors and what have you and and there's and and you've built a deep bench which is also part of uh I think is going to be part of your legacy as well and it's a compliment to you and our entire department that we have so many good people in in our in our in senior command and senior management. But at the same time, I I always like to tell people and residents because I have residents come to me, "Thank God we live in South Florida. Things are good. Things are safe. We're a safe haven here." Um I've even had some people from outside our country tell me recently that they're looking to move here, looking to move business here, looking to move themselves. And they said, "But the it's it's going to stay this way in South Florida, right? It's guaranteed." I'm like, "There's no guarantee in life. Things can change very quickly. a change in leadership, a change in in different uh and we've seen that in other cities in our country, we've seen it in other parts of the world. Things can change very quickly. So, uh I do not take it for granted that I work with so many good colleagues up here and work with so many uh work with our city manager, our police chief and other departments as well. And I believe our residents don't, but I say it as a cautionary tale that um the successes that we're seeing doesn't happen in a vacuum. It does not happen by accident. It takes a

tremendous amount of hard work. It takes some tough decisions that we often do get uh negative push back, but we do it because we know it's the right thing. And today is proof of why we do it because we're seeing the success that our city is having and you're a big part of it. Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Fernandez.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I just want to recognize um, you know, we all have very stressful, very challenging, high-profile positions. Uh, they can be at times, uh, disheartening as they can be rewarding. They can be demoralizing as they can be uplifting. And at the end of the day, we all go home. We go home to our families, whether it be our partners or our significant others, our children, our families. They're the ones that keep us going. And I want to recognize that in the audience we have Mariana uh Chief Jones uh wife and Mariana this community owes so much gratitude to you. Uh I know that you are the rock of that family. I know I know the chief feels so supported and doing his job every single day because you're there supporting him and supporting your beautiful children and your beautiful family. And the fact that you are here in this milestone moment is is is so beautiful. And I also, you know, we are a team. I know in my office I have my uh two aids who help me in absolutely everything that I do. And I'd be remiss not to equally, you know, highlight the incredible team chief that you have around you, whether it be assistant chief Sammy Guerrero and and Denny Morgal or whether it be Chantel and Celia and Chris Bass or Nesso Rodriguez. Um, you know, you all, each one of you, we call you guys at all times of the day, at all times of the night, on holidays and weekends, and you guys on Sunday mornings, you interrupt your beautiful Sunday mornings to respond to us. You interrupt your family celebrations to address the needs and the public safety of our city. And so chief, our residents feel the difference with your leadership and our officers

are making a difference in our city. They support you and today we stand with them in supporting you. And with that, I move the item. Let's call the vote. And if I may, through the chair. Um, I had previously um discussed with uh the sponsor of the item and the city manager that because uh the ordinance could entail in um administration by the police department that it needed to be referred to public safety pursuant to resolution 22533496. However, as currently drafted, um it will be administered purely by HR. So, I just wanted to clarify that there was no need for for that referral. Thank you.

It is a public hearing. I see no one on Zoom and I see no one in the audience requesting to speak. May I call the role? I'll acknowledge Bobby Hernandez here as well, the union chief. I know there's a lot of discussions uh that the city manager and others had with him. So, so thank you.

Yeah, it was good morning everyone. It was a pretty contestious at the beginning I think, but meeting with the manager, Mr. Taxes, uh we were able to come up with a resolution where our members won't be affected. That was our biggest concern. But you know, where were we 3 years ago? We were in a vocational school they call the police academy. We're in a serious police academy now. Chief Jones changed that. We don't have a just in case staffing plan where all of us were working every day just because something might happen. I always refer to my Publix analogy with Mr. Carpenter. You don't walk into Publix at 7:00 in the morning, see every cash register open just because you might get a complaint. Um, and we're no longer there. That's why you see the 437 officers. That's not a coincidence. It's leadership. So, we're very happy for him and congratulations, Chief.

Thank you. I have a motion from Commissioner by Commissioner Fernandez, excuse me. Seconded by Commissioner Dominguez. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Bot, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Vice Mayor Matselinas, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Mayor Miner, yes.

Motion carries. The item is approved. That was item R5. You want to say a few words, chief? You know what they they say in court here? She's expecting a speech from you. You know, they say in court when the judge is in your favor, you sort of don't say anything. But I um that's why that's why you waited for the vote.

Yeah. I I uh um not not sure what to say actually. You know, I have uh this past weekend was 30 years for me in this great city that I often refer to as the capital of the world. Um I love it. Uh much like all the men and women of the Miami Beach Police Space Department love it. We do what we do because we think it's a great city and we want to make it even better and we all love it. I I am thankful to each of you for the confidence you have collectively showed today. You have in me and in the organization. I am grateful to my boss for giving me the space and latitude to be a police chief. We speak on the phone multiple times a day, meet multiple times a week, and but not for that, I don't think we'll be in a position we are in right now as an organization. Uh we're doing great things, not because I'm brilliant, not because I'm the best chief in this country, but it's because of these people behind me standing against the wall. I really think I have a command staff made up of absolute police brilliance. I have a team of police officers uh doing the heavy lifting for us every day that believe in this city, believe in protecting his residents and his visitors, believe that we can make this, as you say all the time, Mr. Mayor, the safest city in America. And because of that belief, we've seen success. And so I am honored and grateful. I'm simply going to say thank you for today and for supporting. like to thank my wife who showed up unexpectedly um for being there all the time and she's there when I get the calls late at night and uh early Sunday mornings and she's taken a brunt of raising our twins that quite frankly a piece of work. Um

but it's been a collective and team effort and so I'm simply going to say thank you all. I'm grateful. I think we should do a group picture. Mr. Manager, he's your employee. Let's do it.

Everyone is going to be in the Where are the guys? Excuse me. The command staff can

if you guys can get a rear be. Our name you guys can hold them in the windows. We're going to have to do two lines. So, you guys can come up a little bit, please. And command set. You guys can follow suit.

Major Garcia tennis, if you guys can come on this side. Take the picture.

Okay. One, two, three. No, she's got nothing. this camera. One, two, three.

Okay. Look at this camera. All right. Thank you so much. Congratulations.

Why don't we call while uh Looks like the sheriff's department got some My baby boy. Yeah.

Manny, thank you for being here. Manny. Manny. It's called R5V as in Victor. I'll be right here.

Yes, sir. RV. It is an ordinance of the mayor and city commission of the city of Miami Beach, Florida, amending chapter 66 of the city code entitled marine structures, facilities, and vessels by amending article 2 entitled restricted rig zones by amending section 66-43 entitled restricted areas to establish a designated public swim area and corresponding motorized vessel exclusion zone in the water surrounding Flaggler Memorial Island, also known as Monument Island, pursuant to section 327.46 46 of Florida statutes and further authorizing the city manager to undertake and execute the necessary applications and coordination within the various agencies of Miami Day County, the state of Florida and the US government in order to effectuate the establishment of designated public swim area and corresponding motorized vessel exclusion zone and providing for repealer servability qualification and effective date. This is a first reading public hearing. We're doing item R5V.

Hello, good morning. I'm uh I'm sponsoring this item and uh thank you to Commissioner De Mingz and Vice Mayor Matteas Selenus for joining me as co-sponsors. Um why don't you take it away?

Sure. Good morning uh Mr. Mayor, Commissioners Lindseay Pre, Deputy Resilience Officer, and Assistant Director for Environment and Sustainability. What this ordinance would allow us to do is move forward in the regulatory permitting process to establish a designated swim area around Monument Island, uh, which is a required step in the FWC process before we continue with the other permits. As you know, Monument Island has seen increasing pressures from vessel and swimmer conflicts, heavy vessel traffic, um boats anchoring very close to shore, shoreline erosion in addition to seaggrass bed decline as a result of those beaching activities. In 2023, the commission prioritized a project to move forward with funding for shoreline restoration in addition to a motorized vessel andor swim zone uh exclusion zone, excuse me, for the motorized vessels. um and allowing us to move forward through the regulatory permitting process. Uh since then, we underwent consultant selection and procurement. And the city's consultant has completed surveys, environmental assessments, conceptual design, and submitted permit applications in August of 2025. We've now received agency comments that clarify what may be permittable within the Biscane Bay Aquatic Preserve. Initially, the project contemplated both a motorized vessel exclusion zone and a public swim area or swim only zone um to allow us the flexibility through permitting uh depending on what the agency comments were. FD FD has made it clear that uh establishing a motorized vessel exclusion zone would require a submerged lands lease which they are not issuing new leases for that purpose within the bay which essentially negates that option. However, they did indicate that a public swim area would be permittable. Um, while we were going through the FDP process, we also in conjunction worked with FWC on reviewing the draft ordinance which was prepared in close coordination with the city attorney's office on that language and

they confirmed that the language is appropriate and approvable by their agency. The swim zone is proposed to extend 150 ft from the shoreline and that distance was based on several factors. The first is we worked very closely with marine patrol to provide a meaningful safety buffer between the vessels, motorized vessels and the swimmers that utilize the island. The second is it avoids impacts to seagrasses and other benthic resources surrounding the island based on the results of the environmental surveys. The third is it stays clear of navigation routes and deeper waters used by boers. And then finally, um, to not take everything out of my pocket, but, uh, it allows for regulatory compromise while you're going through permitting, when you go for the largest, there may be some give and take that happens as a as a result of those permits. This approach for a swim only area is consistent with the commission's goals and priorities for the island, prioritizing public safety, and reducing the conflicts between vessels and swimmers. Uh the ordinance before you today is required by state statute in order for us to continue with the regulatory permitting process. Uh and then if the ordinance is approved, staff with the consultant will revise the engineer drawings to reflect the swim only zone, remove references to to the motorized vessel exclusion zone um and resubmit the application materials to all of the regulatory permitting agencies. The ordinance in parallel will be transmitted to FD uh FWC for their approval.

Thank you. This is a perfect example of uh you know our commission taking action to to improve the quality of life of our residents. This was uh Monument Island was was something we were getting a lot of complaints about. Um the motorized vehicles uh the trash that was being left there. Um the the noise that was emanating from uh from boats that were there and uh proud to sponsor this item. Thank you to my to my co-sponsors as well. Um does anybody want to

Commissioner Dominguez? Um, I do have a few questions. Uh, yesterday I was bombarded um with a few folks that had concerns and I'm just going to go through their concerns and see if there's anything um see what the answers are and how to make this better if uh that's necessary. So, let me just open this. Um, is it currently no swim? I mean, is it currently swim only or? What it currently is is it's a beach where swimmers are accessing the area. However, because we did not designate a public swim area, there is allowed to be a conflict unfortunately with the vessels.

Okay. And um so currently motorized vessels can go and this change would would force the motorized vessels to be at what length? 150 feet outside of the swim only area and then people can swim from the motorized vessel to the island or go on kayak or paddle board.

So the swim only zone does prohibit other uses. However, I did speak with marine patrol. We would be responsible for our own enforcement and as such the number one goal would be to prohibit the motorized vessels from entering the zone. There are are other areas as well on Monument Island where paddle boards and cattle uh kayaks can access the island. Are there other areas on Monument Island where a motorized vehicle would get close? There are uh smaller rip wrap vetments on the south side of the island that essentially makes it impossible for boats to get too close because they wouldn't want to ruin their holes.

Um are we bound by ADA compliance? Uh people were concerned about um elderly folks that wouldn't necessarily be able to swim 150 ft. Well, the swim zone doesn't say that you have to swim to like the 150 ft to get to the island. It just prohibits motorized vessels from staying outside of that. There are areas on adjacent to the swim buoys where they'd be able to get closer to the island along the adjacent areas. So like the northernmost buoy and the southernmost buoy, you can get close to the island. It essentially draws a fake line from those and keeps vessels outside of that.

And so a motorized vessel would be able to go along that line to get closer to the island. Okay.

Um let's see. And then there was a lot of commentary on um the trash. There is a ton of trash there. Somebody mentioned to me that there's another island on the Miami side where they decided to take the trash cans out altogether and that's helped make the trash situation better. Um I know I recently traveled to Japan. They don't have trash cans anywhere. So people have to carry their trash, keep it in their pocket or uh their bag until they found Has that been thought of as an idea to help with trash there? um because I know our funding was like $400,000. It might have been doubled um for clearance of the trash, but it hasn't solved the issue.

Yeah, I'll let Amy speak a little bit on our leave no trace policy. Yes, I'd be happy to do that, Commissioner. Um so, the Miami Date County actually does trash pickup once a week there through a find grant. We actually added on an additional day per week to address any litter issues and we also do beach uh actually island cleanups as well as um education. I don't think we're at a point where it's time to actually remove the trash cans. I don't think our culture and our behaviors are really there yet, but I think it's something we can continue to work to work towards. It is important. I understand the leave no trace policy, but we still have people that aren't really ready for that and we don't want the island to just have tons of litter.

Okay. Um and so the last thing was um is there a current statute in place where boats cannot beach on the island? There are not. Thank you, Commissioner Matteo Selenus.

So, I am co-sponsoring this item because I do believe we need an area where swimmers can be safe around the island and swim safe. And, you know, I did get some emails, you know, how could you support this? And I'll tell you how. Um, because in 2018, and this is in the memo, but people don't read memos, they just knee-jerk react sometimes. So, I want to spell out in 2018, there was a tra tragic incident when a charter vessel guest was swimming within the swim zone and um it was hit by um uh the another vessel's propellers. Um the victim sustained catastrophic injuries including a severed arm and leg, a split open back and a displaced spine. And despite the immediate response from the marine patrol, um it recovery efforts took two days to locate and res and retrieve the the descendant. So, this is why we're doing this. Um, and I thank you for putting this together. And I thank you, Mr. Mayor and Commissioner Dominguez for for uh creating this swim zone because ultimately safety in the water is paramount to um, you know, enjoyment and and stuff, you know, that's not quite as paramount to life or death situations that happen on the water such as this. So, I fully support this item. Thank you. I

think that actually happened over Easter weekend, unfortunately. Yeah, I'll second the Let's call the vote.

You can't make the motion. I didn't I didn't make it. I'll second. Okay. So, I have a motion from Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Commissioner by Mayor Miner. Uh, Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Bot. Yes. Vice Mayor Matselenz, yes. Mayor Miner. And for the record, this was a public hearing. There was no one on Zoom and there was no one in the audience. Second reading, public hearing scheduled for April 22nd. That was item R5V, approved 70.

Let's call one more item. R5Q. R5Q is appendix A fee schedule modification advertisement fees orders of the mayor and city commission of the city of Miami Beach Florida amending appendix A to of ordinances to change the advertisement fees for public notices required by section 2.2.3.5 of the resiliency code of providing for repealers of ability clarification and an effective date. This is a first reading public hearing R5Q. Commissioner Suarez. Call the vote.

Motion for Commissioner Suarez. Seconded by uh Commissioner Fernandez. It is a public hearing. No one in Zoom. No one in the audience requesting to speak. Uh Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Bot, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. West Mayor Matelas, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. Motion carries. The item is approved. Second reading. Public hearing is April 22nd. That was item R5Q. R7 AF R7 AF is approved sponsorship Ocean Drive fireworks display July 4th, 2026. R7 AF.

I have a motion by Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Commissioner Suarez. If there's no discussion by caller roll, yes. On R seven AF, all approved. Say I. Hearing no nos. R7 AF is approved. 70. R7N.

R7N is allocate funds enhance ethics training for city employees. Commissioner Fernandez. Let's call the vote. I have a motion on R seven by Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Vice Mayor Moscelenus. All in favor of R7N, please say I. I. Anyone opposed? Hearing none. R7N is approved. 70. R70. R70 is flag flagpole at Normandy Fountain. I move the item. Second. Have a motion by Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Vice Mayor Matel Selenus on R70. All in favor, please say I. I. I.

Opposed, please. Uh, hearing none. The item is approved. 70 R70. Thank you. Is HR here, Eric? Yes, HR's here. Oh, great. Uh R7T R7T up there. Recurring donations from employees enrollment in voluntary benefits program. R7T. I have a motion by Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by uh Commissioner Suarez. If no discussion, all in favor of R7T, please say I. I. I. Anyone opposed? Hearing none. R7T is approved. 70. Thank you. R7 AG.

R7 AG is mail notice to condo owners bulk buyout uh good standing ordinance. R7 AG. Second. Second. Second. I heard a motion from uh Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Commissioner Dominguez on R7 A. All in favor, please say I. I. Anyone opposed? Hearing none. R7G is approved. 70.

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Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. Please take your seats. The meeting is about to begin. Remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record. Please stand by. We are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1.

Welcome back to our afternoon session and we'll kick it off with our Oakland Public Forum, the Sutnik time. Good afternoon. Hey Sarah. Sarah, state your name, address, and you have two minutes. Sarah de loses Santa Harbor Neighborhood Association. Uh I this weekend that this past weekend I was at in Palm Beach. I took my cats to the 33rd pet parade of Palm Beach. It was wonderful. And I think it will be great to bring the pet parade back to my start the pet parade in Miami Beach because it brings family together and the kids and they love watching the the dogs and the animals parade and and dressed up. So hopefully you guys can bring it back.

Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Fernandez, last year, uh, Commissioner Laura Dominguez took a lead in bringing the pet parade actually during the month of March. I think it was the first weekend in March. Uh, or when was it? It last March 29th. It was the last week in March. Y and it was such a beautiful event. Uh, you saw so many people come out to Ocean Drive to uh to Lumis Park, people from throughout the city, even outside the city. And then they were supporting the businesses and it was a great family event that just brought everyone together. We had such a great time and Commissioner Dominguez, thank you for your leadership in bringing that that that parade. It will be great as uh Sarah mentioned to do something like that again and maybe we can refer

I'll refer you'll refer to uh public safety. That'll be great. Yeah, that would be really great. I think it will be a benefit to Miami Beach if we start something like that that is every year people plan and it gets bigger and bigger because people love to dress their animal and show them and everything. So it was great for your dog. I have a question Sarah for that parade. Were there any sponsors? Did you see we had we had um not ours but the one

we actually had the air the um bad air that air the the private plans who actually gave the grand prize of a a trip to New York and back on the private plane with your pet. They all they do is carry your pet with you in the plane and and in fact Bark Air Bark Air was one of the big sponsor if we got him. We got a few one that you went to this past weekend. What sponsors did you see?

Oh, well, in Palm Beach, it's all the sponsors on Worth Avenue. I got a Tory C Tory church bag as a present. You know, my cats won the tied with other the cats, but there's mostly dogs as you know. It's like there's only three cats and 100 dogs, but it works, you know. So, they get really they get hotels gifts to stay in a hotel for three days. So we can actually even have sponsor of the hotels to actually they can sponsor a gift. So I think there there's a there's a good um there's a good promotion for Miami Beach. I think it starts growing and then it'll get bigger and bigger. Everybody start training their pets to do something.

I'd like for us to make a motion to send this to the public safety committee or or I'll second your I'll second that. Thank you. Perfect. Yeah. So So we'll do it out. There you go. That's right. do it now. We won't even need to place an item. Okay. And we can refer it now. We We'll do it now based on if you all make a motion and vote on it. We can do that. I'll second Commissioner Dominguez this motion. So I have a motion for the PEP parade to public safety. Motion by Commissioner uh Dominguez, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. All in favor, please say I. I. Anyone opposed? Item is referred to public safety.

Yay. Uh anyone else wish to speak? Seeing none, I have Mr. Aion on Zoom. Mr. Oion, you have two minutes. Please state your name and address.

Andreas Aion, 1000 South Point Drive. Sorry, I got uh bad reception this morning, but I was touching upon the fact that um we're voting so hard to make sure that historic preservation has a say and historic preservation voiced their opinion of not knocking down the more slapous building community center that we have on the beach and that's looks like it's getting vetoed. U the county uh we took this to referendum to the county. the people voted. Uh that's getting vetoed as well. And all I just want to say is that, you know, the firefighters truly would have liked to have had their fire station on Alton Road in 11th because it would have been a campus. They would have been able to continue to enjoy Flamingo Parks track, field, pool, and all the facilities as part of their training versus being on six and Jefferson. Um it's hard. You know, we I took uh the mayor, Commissioner uh Dominguez, as well as Commissioner Bot over to the community center in Overtown where I'm a board member at. That was a $22 million facility, and we have amazing programming for our seniors, our kids, and and and all that. And we're going to lose such a valuable asset in our community versus knocking down a bathroom in a locker room to build a fire station on Alton Road. Um it's sad. It's sad to see it happen. Not because, you know, and I hate that the firefighters are the ping-pong ball in this scenario, but it's not like if we didn't have another option, we did have another option, and we're executing on knocking down a Morris Lapis building, and it hurts. That's all. Thank you guys.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, seeing no one else on Zoom, this concludes uh the afternoon Zoom.

Thank you. Let's call R5M. R5M is a notice to the mayor, city commission of the city may be short amending chapter 46 of the city code entitled environment by amending article 4 entitled noise by amending section 46-152 entitled noises unnecessary and excessive prohibited by amending section B subsection B to reduce the distance to establish primmaacia evidence of the specified noise violation during specified hours providing for repealer servability clarification and an effective date. This is a first reading. It is a public hearing. It is item R5M.

So, one of uh one of the best tools that we can do here as a legislative body is to give our police department the additional tools through through through the law. So, this would reduce the codes 100 foot standard to 25 ft regarding noise from vehicles of vessels and floating structures. But take it away, chief.

Yeah. Uh good afternoon, Mr. Mayor Commission. Um Wayne Jones, police chief. We're really really excited about this. I think it gives the police department just yet another tool to address some of the concerns we've been having. Uh which seems to have peaked up quite a bit quite frankly in the past few months. Getting lots and lots of residential complaints about it from residents about this. Um certainly creating what I think to be a quality of life uh issue. Even got complaint from you one night, Mr. Mayor, late at night um about people making loud noise, speeding, loud, mouthless music along the Collins Avenue corridor. Uh a few months ago we started what is called operation quiet streets is sole purpose of addressing some of these concerns. Um obviously right now we're doing it doing it and enforcing it based on the 100 foot rule. Uh having it reduced to 25 ft I think makes a world of difference both for cars vehicles um and for boats as well in the waterways. Um just wanted to throw some numbers at you Mr. Mayor. I'm really really proud of it. You know, if you look at um back to 2021, our enforcement efforts as it relates to noise coming from vehicles was really, really bleak to be honest with you. Wrote 76 citations for the entire year. That year, um as recent as 2024, we wrote 430 and last year we wrote 675 for the entire year. This year, as a result of Operation Quiet Streets, we've already written 513 citations. That's two and a half months into the year itself on record only on track to probably break 1500 at this particular pace. So we hear the community, we understand how much this impacts their daily nightly lives. Um and we we're committed to doing something about it. By the way, this is not an issue that um is solely uh limited to here on the beach. Um much of other cities, many other cities and counties sort of facing same problem. Uh, in fact, there was a a recent news article um highlighting what

city is doing for this very same same reason. Um, there Chief Danny McGallo is here and he's actually the brainchild behind Operation Safe Streets and so he's here to answer any specific questions you may have. Quiet streets. Um, so he's here to answer any questions you can have. Okay, great. Well, thank you. It's uh before I turn over, it's interesting because uh I've been I've been on this commission for a little over six years. commissioner first. It's interesting to see the shift, I think, in focus that of the quality of life and I think we're getting into a good place because spring break obviously was a major problem.

We've uh again I feel like I'm jinxing it again, but we've uh we've solved that. Um crime, a lot of misdemeanors uh which were were plaguing our city. Then we started prosecuting those cases obviously through the efforts of our police. Um again, all these things we have to continue improving on. they they exist. But as far as uh they they we've definitely improved significantly exponentially. Um when we're talking about a homeless population, which we mentioned uh down 60% in the last three years, our lowest homeless count ever. Doesn't mean there's not more work to do, but we're I used to get complaints all the time about homeless individuals. Now it comes in they're much more rare.

Um but certainly something we need to address. This is now sort of the issue. And I think that's a it's a good place. It shows that we've we've we've helped improve so many different areas of public safety. Now, the to me one of the prime complaints that I get is about the about the vehicle noise. Yeah. So, um and uh since since we've been able to uh improve significantly on the others, I think we can do it here, too. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um Commissioner Bot.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, chief, we've we've um done a lot of enforcement and education programming or programs um with micromobility on the beachwalk. We're talking about it for um enforcement going forward on micromobility issues. What's one of the things that's been really successful about it is that um uh we haven't seen repeat offenders there. There will always be some who need to be educated because they're visitors for the first time. They're um uh so they didn't have the opportunity to get educated about where they can and can't ride. Are you seeing the same thing? And um Danny, maybe you can address this as well. Um are you seeing the same thing with this type of violation? I would imagine part of the issue is that people come over the bridges because it's cool to do it down here. It's cool for the Graham. Um so I don't know if we'll ever get through to them, but is there any are you seeing repeat offenders or is it first, you know, once and done or what are you seeing?

I'm going to let Danny answer the question, but I'll tell you this. We we also couple the enforcement with an educational campaign mostly um social media and the recent data point I saw we've had at one point 17,000 people actually looking at the social media content we're putting out there so people are aware that we're doing this and we're serious about it then. Yes.

So good afternoon Mr. Mayor Commissioners Assistant Chief Danny Morgal here. Um, we haven't taken a deep dive into whether or not we're seeing repeat offenders. Just anecdotally, based on experience, a lot of the people that are getting these type of tickets historically and and this has been an issue for us dating back to when I started working here. I remember details that we had on Ocean Drive as a young officer here where we were writing people citations for loud noise. Um, and it's come back to the forefront again after going through, you know, the last 25 26 years. Um, it is not a Miami Beach specific problem. As the chief alluded to, we're seeing that same complaint coming from Bickl in Miami and other neighborhoods throughout uh the Tri County area, which is what led to us partnering with FHP and collaborating loosely with Miami and other departments to actually spread the word and let everyone know that this is an issue. And just, you know, reinforcing what the mayor said, it's a great place for us to be as a police department to be able to focus on issues like this that are important to the community because it reflects the fact that our officers are doing such a great job to keep this community safe that we're not chasing robbers and shooters. We're able to focus on the quality of life issues that are important to this community. And based on the numbers and what the officers are doing, they have ramped up um focus on this issue tremendously. In two and a half months, we've written over 513 citations specifically for loud noise from vehicles for comparison. All of 2026, we wrote 675. So, we're on pace to triple that number this year. Now, I don't know if we're ever going to get to the point where we have zero noise violations. So, if if that's the standard we're going to, we're going to try hard to get there, but I don't know if we're ever going to make it there.

So, what what happens when you write a citation? Is it um is it points on your license? Is it a fine? Um, yeah, this one is considered a non-moving violation. There's no points license, but there's a fine associated with it. If you don't pay that fine, and obviously your license is suspended after 30 days. And so, is there a way to track or if there's a rec first offense is $250, second offense is $500, and then it goes up, or um is it just it's a flat fine? It's a flat fine that's set um as a uniform traffic citation. And it's not like our city citations that ramp up or anything like that. And do we have control over that or is that mandated by the state? State.

Yeah, I believe it's mandated by the state.

Okay. So, um, Mr. City attorney, it would be interesting if we could take a look at what options we might have um if if this is mandated by the state, is there anything that we can do from a city perspective? And if I may clarify, what this ordinance is doing is it's taking our existing ordinance which establishes that noise emanating from a vehicle or or a vessel uh by radio or other instrument. Um it there's a primaaccia evidence of a violation if it is audible and we're taking it from 100 ft to 25 ft. So this is unrelated to other concerns. We we do have another item which is to make a legislative priority um asking the state to allow us to use noise cameras to to enforce noise throughout the city. And so this is then a third related I question which is if the state controls the fines for UTC's is there anything that we can do as a municipality that if you are now on your fifth or 10th

we would need to ask the state to enact legislation to enable us to or or rather the state would need to enact legislation that ex that increase the fees statewide like we don't have the ability to and there's nothing we can layer on separately. No, not to my understanding. It would be I mean if it's not ownorous to do to just run a report to see how many people are getting more than one ticket. Yeah. For the same thing. I mean because if it's all new people coming in that's one conversation. If it's the same 30 people getting tickets every weekend that's a different kind of conversation. Don't don't know if it's possible. We certainly ask and see if it is. Yeah. That would be great. Thank you. Sure.

No, it's a good call. the um I mean I think what you were alluding to chief is the chief of Miami came out with a public plea because there was one individual I guess who does it for kicks on Instagram and uh and and then unfortunately the problem is the tools that we have um are not great as and you're asking the perfect questions commissioner bot because you know we uh I had brought an item to bring cameras here which we did have we had these uh video they would take pictures videos but under state law there's nothing we can do with it correct

New York actually has a very great good program, but um they if their cameras detect, you can issue a ticket and then require them to fix the noise violation because they their cars get inspected in New York, unlike here in Florida. And if they don't, then they have to pay the fine. So, and the fine is significant there. I think it's over $800. So, there's an incentive for them to correct the the uh the issue. Unfortunately, here the fine is much less and there's no incentive for them to fix it. They're not going to lose their vehicle.

Yeah, I I think giving away things are a best course of action um is to continue uh the program we're doing. Uh mostly done at at night. Like I said, 80% of citations are issued at night when people are most impacted by this. Continue doing that and then celebrating it uh publicly, whether social media, other means, just celebrating the fact that we're doing it. uh getting the message out to folks that don't come to the beach and re your engines or play loud music. Yeah. So, uh well, let's let's get through this item and then I'll call the next item which is the muffler item. Uh well, who's moving it? I'll second. Thank you. Call the vote.

It is a public hearing and I see Mr. Mitch Novik on the line. Mr. Robick, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Ralph. Good good afternoon. Mitch Novik, uh, I like the conversation you're having. Uh, I believe the 25 foot threshold should also apply to businesses, especially along Ocean Drive, the 1000 block. You have some businesses, which you can hear their music and screaming all the way to the shoreline. Want to point out a hot spot. I spend a lot of time at Sixth and Jefferson where I've managed the property for I I don't know 35 36 years. Uh the golf carts of of as of late uh coming down that sixth street corridor probably from Publix or Total Wine uh have been blasting and uh really uh impacting that section of uh of the beach. And thank you again.

Thank you, Mitch. I see no one else requesting to speak, so the public hearing is closed. Call the vote. Commissioner Bot, just a quick question. You know, Mitch Trades is a good point there. I see these um little free golf carts. They're not city freebies, but they're I guess sponsored by who knows whom, but they down especially in the entertainment district and they have music blasting. What who's are they? How do they operate this way? And how do we I I have no issue with the music obviously, but like it doesn't need to be blasting that you can hear it a block away.

So we have done we have done details in the entertainment district specifically targeting those individuals and those reckless operators basically operating with noise uh blasting. We've written um numerous citations and and dealt with it. Obviously Mitch bringing it up is is it that it's moved to Sixth Street shows that our enforcement in the entertainment juristic works but we need to expand it to

but but those are businesses and I'm not even talking about the private operators but so do they have BTRs or is that a code thing where we can enforce that if they've been you know bad operators we can pull their BTR? So again, I would defer to code to to answer that question, but if they're required to have a BTR and they're operating a business, then we we collaborate with code and we do the appropriate I would hope they're required to have a BTR if they're operating some kind of commercial taxi service.

Hi, good afternoon all her and Cardino code compliance. So um yeah, in our joint ventures out there, what we do is we'll go out and we'll issue the violation for not having a business tax receipt. Police usually arrest and will impound will tow the golf cart. But yes, it is a code violation because they're conducting business on a public roadway soliciting these rights. Okay. So, what do they need to do to cure it then? I mean, they just need to get their BTR and then they can go about their business again. Correct. Um, and then we'd presumably catch them with this 25 foot ordinance or whatever in theory. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Mr. May.

Commission magazine.

Um, Mr. City Attorney Mitch brought up a point that I actually observed when I was in his neighborhood actually just this weekend. And while I certainly never want to be the word police are too heavy-handed in government, what people do inside their own businesses and their own walls will never be any of my business. Um, but there was uh one establishment in particular that had their music blasting. We we could debate whether there should be outdoor live entertainment, things like that, but the actual music that was coming there was so egregious. Um I was with my daughter, it it would offend anybody. Is there something where even where we're restricted uh in places that are grandfathered in and do have the uh open outdoor live entertainment abilities that there has to be some sort of common decency threshold about what can emanate out of their establishments?

Well, I mean, we we have our noise ordinance and so if if the music or the sound is unreasonably loud, that could could trigger a code violation. Um there are some businesses that have that have grand been grandfathered in and I think theirs is triggered by um being over a certain decel level. Um so that would require taking a decibel meter and and determining. So so really what you're talking about would be a code enforcement. I I actually mean the the content. I'm sorry. The content. Oh, the content. I mean, if if I would repeat 30 seconds of it up here, people would cover their ears in heart,

right? Um I I believe that there would be some some First Amendment issues with trying to regulate the content, but not within their establishment. They could do whatever they want within their establishment. We we're talking about what's emanating audibly and loudly on the public right of way. Yeah. I mean, I could look into that further, but my general understanding is that uh people can shout profanity if they're in public. Um, there's a first amendment right. Can a business businesses have first amendment rights the same way that people do? Yeah.

Right. But we we must have some sort of regulations about uh you you couldn't optically have something. There has to be some sort of line. what you can have commission start giving examples on the day.

No, no, I I mean I hear what you're saying. There are certain things that are considered pornographic that you can't just have out in public. Um and I see our first amendment expert coming up here uh to to assist, but but there's a there's a difference between visual and and spoken. Can I just ask a question because I think this you're picking up on a very good point and just in general sometimes a lot of these businesses they engage in activity that we give them the rights to engage in some of these activities like for example entertainment. They don't they're not always entitled to life enter entertainment. And so to the extent

to the extent that we're giving them a right that they are not entitled to we should at minimum ask them hey are you agreeing to you know not use not you know engage in you know profanity in the entertainment that you're putting out there. Uh not engaging in anti-semitic entertainment like what we saw happen uh at at the nightclub. uh not engage in homophobic uh stuff. uh the type of stuff that you know if we're giving you these actual rights that increase the value of your business and that increase the value of the of your property we at the very least I feel we should be able to at least ask them you know are you willing voluntarily profer you know before we give you this do you voluntarily agree are you willing to state whether or not you agree not to engage in if and I'm going to use the anti-semitic artwork um that we dealt with um recently. Yeah, that isn't even artwork. That was just like anti-semitism, you know, flaunting anti-semitism from a night life venue. Can't we do that? The question is whether we can ask for a voluntary profer of uh something that we could not demand is an open question that you've asked us to look at and we are looking at. But the general rule is that you cannot impose an unconstitutional condition upon a permit or a license. And so if

but that's not a condition if we're if we're we're asking them do you voluntarily profer now they can choose to say no and God knows if someone someone says that they're not willing to agree to not engage in anti-semitic activity and not to not to engage in in racist activity and not to engage in homophobic activity. I want to know that if someone is not willing to profer that I wanna I I wanna I wanna I want to know that I think it's important to to know your request we are currently uh thinking about that and thinking about if it's possible and the best way to formulate it if we are so I wouldn't want to discuss it uh here on the dis right now but we are looking at it

well at the right time if we do have that avenue you know perhaps we could work together with commissioner Joseph magazine uh on this because I think it speaks specifically to the issue that you, Commissioner Magazine, are bringing up. Uh, and thank you for researching. I know you guys and your office has been putting a lot of time uh into researching this matter to make sure that we get that that um that control, that safeguard in place, but doing it the right way. So we don't violate any anyone's rights, but we also protect and uphold the values of our community that that are to be an inclusive and a protective community that we're everyone can feel safe. Um and I think an important process in that is using you know when the process when we're giving rights for live entertainment and for music and for noise uh rights that they don't have that we put that safeguard that you're speaking of in place. Yeah, cuz Rob, uh, it was so egregious. I actually Shazammed the song. And again, I was with my nine-year-old. We're not just talking like, oh, I I casually hear I'm across the street and I hear it as as clear as Shazam picks up. And I'm looking here. They I'm not going to say it, but I'm just looking at the lyrics of the song. They they use the N-word seven times. They F on bees. Hide is H. uh just just things that are not conducive to any type of you know uh not even a familyfriendly environment just common decency

right you lost me on some of those but the um I mean if if I mean obviously you have the noise violation if you if they're over whatever is allowed in their cup or by our general noise ordinance you can charge them with that if if an organization is allowed to play music outside we cannot in almost every case including the cases you're talking about control the content of what they're doing. Okay, I appreciate that. We can't. So that's that's so we can't I mean there are certain things you can if they want to play the Hail Hitler song, they we can't do anything about it. That is constitutionally protected.

Yes. So um since this is an informative discussion, can you um illuminate why there is a standard a different standard for um visual things that are visually offensive versus um things that are spoken that are offensive under the first amendment. Like for example, commissioner not going to play that game.

Okay. Well, I mean, the the things that you can prohibit or restrict under the First Amendment are fall into certain categories like fighting words or true threats or things that you say that it's going to incite someone to violence immediately against and against someone specific and words obviously lend themselves to that much more than a picture like on a on a on a frame would lend itself to. Um and so in that way spoken words uh have can be restricted in some ways more because they have more power uh than written. But in this case it's actually the opposite right

that if if um the the phrases that were in the song were done up as cartoon caricatures for instance and put on a wall they would be visually repellent um and probably not permitted. But since they're spoken or sung or whatever phrases, they are protected. No, I I'm sorry. I didn't realize that was what you were saying. I think they would have the same protection for in this context uh if they were written or spoken. No, but I'm I'm saying if if the phrases were translated to illustrations of the phrase, like, you know,

I mean, for example, we had a we I think we may still have a business that wanted to call themselves uh uh hamburger B. Uh since we're inaccess, okay, and and and that was constitutionally protected. It was written on their sign and they had the right to do that. Uh, so that would be the example. But no, that's not like if if these were visual like if if I may, I think she's trying to draw the distinction between words and pornography. And there is there is protection. I mean, you know, pornography is not protected under the first amendment.

She did mention pornography. I'm following what Commissioner B is referring to. I'm sorry, we're talking about pornography. No, I'm saying these the words that are explicit and offensive to, you know, sort of general run-of-the-mill decency, right? I don't want to get into the foot loose generation of what we can and can't hear, but if something were not permitted to be visually represented with an a photograph or picture on a public right of way because it's offensive to the community standards, right? Then why would something that is the same level of offensive but is done with words rather than images allowed to be on a public right away if it's offensive to community standards?

In that context, they would be the same. There would not be a difference. There's a different legal analysis for uh obscenity and pornography in this ca in the type of situation of like nudity. uh and that is a more detailed nuanced and different discussion uh that it has a different standard but as far as words and whether you say the B- word or you write the B- word on a sign that has the same constitutional protection.

Yeah. And Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, I mean that's like I mean that's like hip-hop, you I mean, hip-hop consistently uses that sort of taglines of mistreating of women. Okay. Um, you name it. And especially profanity. I I mean, what are we going to say? We can't allow hip-hop on on the, you know, for businesses to play hip-hop. Are we going to crack down on what they're going to be playing? Look, I'm not a fan of it. It's not my It's not my It's not my choice of musical. I'm just saying like there's this is a slippery slope that we're going to go start going down on and are we going to really regulate what businesses play

you have cont Yeah. Look at on one extreme you have you know you have yes there's unfortunately we have the disgusting business that plays Ad Hitler in its club. Um and then you have businesses that are just playing you know the top 10 hits of hip-hop which could potentially fall under this category. And I don't know if we really want to get into the business of regulating that.

Where I was going was there's usually clean versions of any song, right? So, you can play whatever you want, but if you have people walking down our street at 1:00 p.m. and they hear FFN, it's probably something that we don't enjoy, frown upon. But where does that line fall? like is it just allowed and there's nothing that we can do?

Well, we usually think about it at the outset when the legislation or the permit is is being for thought about in the abstract. Uh like when you think about are you going to allow music outside? We when we advise you we tell you well think about it in this context. This is what you may hear outside. Uh and so you you have contentneutral uh ways of dealing with it which are noise or not allowing music outside at all or something like that. But uh once you do allow it uh you have to you can't regulate based on content informative. Commissioner Fernandez.

Thank you. Going back. So um Mr. Mr. Chief Deputy Attorney you mentioned when the language incites violence. Yes. That then the city could have uh in a level of enforcement authority or a level of regulatory jurisdiction over the matter. matter. Words aren't protected by the First Amendment if they incite imminent violence. Okay. So, but you but that's an incite to violence. That's a call to action is what you're saying. You could say it that way. Now, let me ask violence.

Could wouldn't couldn't couldn't it be said that if if you're putting out there racist language that could incite violence. people who are offended by that, people who are, you know, to whom it's something that's emotional. For example, you put something, you know, a song, you go to Little Havana, you go to Halia, and I'm sure if you put something that celebrates, you know, the Castro murderous regime, um, you know, that's been depriving people of their rights and, you know, making human rights violations and arresting political descendants and descent and and all that. If you put a music hailing that, it's gonna incite violence in in in some in some of those communities. It could incite violence right here. If if if you play that here, um we wouldn't have a way to regulate that because it's being done with the intent of creating, you know, an incitement to violence

uh to people to violence.

But no, the what you're talking about is the heckler's veto. that that the effect on the listener who is offended by it is not the standard by which uh an imminent threat of violence is measured. It is are you uh urging somebody to take violence against someone else now like I want you to go out and kill this gay person today uh is a threat of violence and um the entire gay community may be very offended by that but it's not a threat of violence against all of the gay community so they couldn't react that way and uh act in self-defense for example. So the the reaction of people who are hearing it except for the the the the exact threat that's being made is what's uh the what we have to look at here.

Okay. Well, Commissioner Magazine, I hope you'll join us. Uh if if we this leads to to to an ordinance, I know you've been working on this for a few months now. um looking at the issue of you know whether we can get a voluntary profer on on the matter of voluntary disclosure as to whether or not they agree you know not to engage in this type of language or entertainment. Um I'd love to have Commissioner Magazine participate in it was Commissioner Joseph Magazine. Joseph Mag. Yes. We've got the original Joe Magazine in the audience by the way. Shout out to him. the original OG,

the OG Commissioner Mateo Selenus. I just want to circle back to um our police department and our code department because I understand there was a um crackdown on unlicensed golf carts and limousine services called Operation Titalist, which uh led to the about eight arrests and multiple vehicles that were impounded. So, thank you for doing that operation um both to code and um our police department for working together so seamlessly and enforcing our laws. Thank you. Take the vote. It is a roll call. And again, no one else is on Zoom or in the audience. I have a motion by Commissioner Fernandez and seconded by Mayor Miner. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Bot,

yes. Vice Mayor Matelinz, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. Motion carries. Second reading, public hearing scheduled for April 22nd. That was item R5M. R9AB. R9 R9AB is discuss take action enforcement efforts addressing excessive vehicular muffler exhaust exhaust noise. It's

kind of a continuation of of the last item, but uh let's close the loop on this. So, I had brought leg legislation and Commissioner Dominguez uh co-prime sponsor. We've actually uh co-prime sponsored several items uh recently relating to and again this gets back to the concerns we're hearing from from residents. So, just wanted to hear an update uh regarding our efforts. I think you kind of described some of them, but this is specifically to the the mufflers and loud exhausts. And uh just obviously you know this well but just for the public some of the noises you hear from cars are actually legal if it's the car is manufactured that way but we're talking about it's kind of obvious sometimes I mean I know that the police department sometimes has to uh do um do some checks on the car but generally when you hear those booming noises coming out of the exhaust system those are illegal and um so the the recent legislation that I brought along with Commissioner Dominguez fully supported by our commission was still have uh nighttime details uh basically from 10 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. mostly because that's when people are trying to relax, go to sleep and um and and these cars clearly intentionally driving down our streets and and trying to disturb disturb the peace. They're also easier to locate for your police department uh because there's not as many cars on the road so it's pretty obvious. I mean, I can see it from my window sometimes and I can pinpoint which car is. So, I just want to hear about your efforts, what uh you how many tickets we're issuing, how many are at nighttime during those hours. Thanks.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, commissioners. Uh, Assistant Chief Danny Morgal on behalf of Chief Jones and the Miami Beach Police Department. So, I can tell you, and I alluded to it in the previous item, um, in 2025, specific to loud noise, loud mufflers emanating from vehicles, we wrote 675 citations for the entire year. In the two and a half months of 2026, based on the recommendations from the commission and the guidance and the feedback that we've gotten from the from the the residents in the city, Chief Jones has made it a priority for us to focus on dealing with this issue specific not only to the the locations that were in the resolution, which was the fifth street corridor, 41st Street corridor, both causeways, uh 71st Street and uh from 44th to 63rd along the Collins corridor. Um we have written already in two and a half months 513 citations as compared to 675 of all of last year. The overwhelming majority of those citations as the chief mentioned over 80% 397 citations have been written on the midnight shift for us which is after 10 p.m. and before that 6 a.m. window um at the direction of the commission. We're very proud of the workforce and the job that they're doing to prioritize this among the many different priorities that we give them constantly and they have come through overwhelmingly and they will continue to do an amazing job at addressing this issue and if we need to continue to ramp it up, we'll continue to ramp it up. Again, we we started Operation Quiet Streets in January and we've partnered with FHP. FHP is also issuing citations and as I mentioned earlier, Miami police is also doing this and we're also even seeing things on social media that Fort Lauderdale police and other jurisdictions are dealing with the same issues.

Yeah. And and that's well to me I look at it as as a couple of one it there's a um it's always good to have police presence. We talk about it all the time. So there's a couple of major spots whether it be Fifth Street off the MacArthur 41st 71st. I hate to leave some out because there's other areas in our city. Collins, Bell Isle, there's other places clearly, but we we sort of in the in the legislation that Commissioner Dominganas and I brought that that our commission approved, we sort of hit on some major spots that impact that one car going down with that illegal exhaust impacts thousands of people. Thousands. And they hear it.

Um, you know, people jump out of their beds when they hear, by the way, I think there's a safety. I was on the highway, so it's not our jurisdiction, but I was on the on the highway and one of these cars with the exhaust came up. I mean, I literally jumped in my in my in driving. It was scary cuz I I didn't expect it. I guess he I'm assuming it was a he hit the uh hit the pedal and uh and and I jumped. It's scary. It's dangerous. So these cars definitely need to be um pulled over, but so there's a police visibility aspect to it and they're easy to catch and that's why uh I think if we have that high level detail and those cars are going to know that basically coming down any major intersection whether it be 71st, 41st or 5th, they're going to get caught. Yep.

I mean is there an issue at having a literally a detail from 10 to 10 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.?

No. No, there's not there's not an issue. The the traffic level is less. So, it allows us to pinpoint those specific vehicles, which is a little bit more difficult when you have dense traffic. Um, and then the other advantage, too, is that we have a usually less volume of calls between 10:00 and 6:00 a.m. So, it has we have available resources that we can target on not just the noise enforcement, but also speeding and, you know, reckless driving, things like that. So, it's maximizing the visibility and adding in the productivity and directing the workforce on the the the areas that are most important to obviously the the community and to the commission. Okay. Anything else?

No, sir. That's it. We're uh we're happy to come back next month and continue to report on the great job that our officers are doing. Okay. Great. Sounds good to me. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to call um C 7J. C7J is amend city of Miami Beach Ocean Drive sidewalk cafe design guidelines. C7J was separated by uh Commissioner Dominguez.

Okay. So, this item drew uh some concern from uh folks on Ocean Drive and I'd like to refer this item to the Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee for further discussion. Second that motion. Let's call the vote on C7 on C7 AJ referral to public safety. All in favor, please say I. Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Suarez, um, is this going to have any financial impact? No, there's no financial impact on this. I was going to say maybe also refer to finance, but if there's no financial impact, it's fine.

So, the item 70 is referred to public safety. That was C7J. No reszo. R5C. R5C is an art of the mayor of city commission of city of Miami Beach, Florida. Amending sub part A of the city code entitles charter and amending chapter two entitled administration by amending article three entitled agencies boards and committees by amending division four entitled budget advisory committee by amending section 2-41 thereof entitled established purpose powers and duties composition by amending the name purpose and powers and duties of the committee providing for repealer servability clarification and effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. It is item R5C. Commissioner Magazine.

Yeah, I appreciate this. Uh we had a pretty robust discussion about this on first reading. I have since spoke with uh the chairman of the budget advisory committee and I think uh they had their latest and greatest meeting just this past week. Um Tamika I don't know if uh you have any feedback of what they discussed there but from what was conveyed to me uh those changes um and the enhanced scope that we're looking for all seem positive. So uh I don't see need to prolong uh the discussion here. We went pretty detailed last time unless anybody had any uh incremental comments or issues in between first and second reading.

Sounds good. So that's a motion. I'll move it. I heard a motion from Commissioner Magazine. I second by Commissioner Bot. Sure. Uh may I call the role? Yes. Uh it is a public hearing. No one in Zoom. No one in the audience requesting to speak. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Bach, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Vice Mayor Matelas, yes. Miner, yes. Motion carries. The item is approved. That was item R5C. CR A1. CR A.

So, we are recessing as a commission meeting and reconvening as the North Beach Community Redevelopment Agency. Uh, Commissioner Steinberg is absent. We're doing uh CRA one, which is approved commercial PA facade grant award Miami by Me Beach Express, Inc. I move the item. Hey, can you're not giving Steve his chance in the limelight here. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Call the vote. So on uh North Beach CR1, I have heard a motion from Commissioner Fernandez. I believe I heard Vice Mayor Matel Selenas. Uh all in favor, please say I. I. That is is approved. 70 with one absence. Motion to reconvene at the Miami Beach City Commission. Thank you.

All good. All good. R seven A. R7 A D increase special magistrate compensation by $25. So moved. Hold it. Hold it. Not there yet. Uh, Commissioner Fernandez. Seconded by Commissioner Matel. Vice Mayor Matelin. No discuss. What's the thing? just the what's the think behind this?

So, the chief special magistrate whose um compensation can be set by me administratively has not gotten a raise since 2023. This would be the equivalent of 3% per year since her last raise. Um, and the special magistrates that are set by ordinance by the commission will have to bring back an ordinance. But this $25 would result in a 2% per year increase since the last time they got a raise, which I believe was in 2018.

And what would this bring them amount to? uh would bring the chief special magistrate from 275 to 300 and the ma uh magistrates from 175 to 200. Okay, let's call the vote. This is on R7 A. All in favor, please say I. I.

I. Any opposed? R7 A is approved. 70. Uh R5D R5D an ordinance of the mayor and city commissioner of the city of Miami Beach Florida amending chapter two of the Miami Beach city code entitle administration by amending article 3 entitled agencies boards and committees amending division 17 entitle city of Miami Beach commission for women by amending section 2-190.4 four thereof entitled composition to modify the total number of members who serve on the commission for women and modify the number of members who may be appointed by each member of the of the city commission and providing for a theater subability clarification and an effective date. R 5D is a second reading public hearing.

Move it. Exactly. Let's call the vote. I will say uh since we're talking about the commission for women, what a great event we had last week honoring uh 10 exemplary women in our city. um really was uh first class. You can see the exhibit in in Lumis Park. Thank you, Commissioner Bot. Um and uh it it was really a special event. Hundreds of We really had several several hundred people in attendance and I and I highly suggest you check out uh the 10 women that we uh we we highlighted and and and honored.

Mr. Mayor, if I might, um and the exhibit will be moving up to Almar Park when it has completes its run here in South Beach. I was trying to confirm that. So, thank you for confirming that. Excellent. And congratulations to your aid, Commissioner Bod, who did such an incredible job. And you could tell that how proud she was of the work that she was doing. So, comm congratulations to you and to your team. Well, I can't take any credit for Sarah, but I will give her a huge shout out. She's up here upstairs. But also I would like to point out um that yesterday was her birthday and she is doing all this as a very young, very accomplished and quite awesome human being. So um Sarah, I hope you're hearing the loud and clear. If not, we'll send the tape. All right.

Excellent. So have a motion by Commissioner Bot, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. This is a public hearing. I see no one on Zoom and no one in the audience requesting to speak. Uh Vice Mayor Matio Selenas, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yeah. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Bach, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. Motion carries. The item is approved. That was item R5D.

R5B. R5B is uh an ordinance of the mayor and city commissioner of city Miami Beach, Florida amending chapter 14 of the Miami Beach city code entitled building regulations by amending article 7 entitled permits applied for hon or after March 1st 2002 by amending division 2 entitled demolition by amending section 14-421 thereof entitled notice of demolition to affect persons and by to affected persons by creating section 14-442 thereof entitled one-way trap door installation prior to demolition and providing for repeal of ability confication an effective date. This is a second reading public hearing and it's item R5B. Commissioner Dominguez.

Thanks. Um, so this item is second reading and it's basically uh ensuring that before buildings demolished that there are trap doors for any animals that could have been trapped there. And with that, I move the item. Second. Is this call? Is this for also single family homes? Yes, it is. Okay. It is a public hearing. There's no one on Zoom. There's no one in the audience. Uh, I have a motion by Commissioner Dominguez, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. Vice Mayor Mattel Selenas. Yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Bach, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Mayor Miner, yes.

Motion carries. The item is approved. That was item R5B. R5E. R5E is an or notice of the mayor city commission of the city of Miami Beach Florida amending chapter two of the code of the city of Miami Beach entitle administration article three entitled agencies boards and committees division 22 entitled Miami Beach animal welfare committee section 2-190.59 thereof entitled composition to modify the composition of the voting members of Miami Beach animal welfare committee and providing for repeater qualification servability and effective date this is a second reading public hearing it is item R5E commissioner Dominguez

thanks so we have a situation where an organization um that was no longer active was still listed. So this ordinance changes so that any organization that's involved with animal welfare can appoint rather than u mentioning one in particular and I move the item second. Call the vote. It is a second reading. Have a motion by Commissioner Dominguez. I have a uh seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. It is a public hearing. No one in Zoom. No one in the audience requesting to speak. Uh, Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Bot, yes. Vice Mayor Telenz, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Mayor Miner,

yes. Motion carries. The item is approved. That was item R5E. Since you're on a roll, Commissioner Dominguez, we'll go with R5F. R5 F is an art of the mayor city commission of city beach Florida amending sub part A of the city code entitled general ordinances by amending chapter 10 entitled animals by creating section 10-21 entitled interference with trapneuter vaccination return activities prohibited definition penalties to prohibit interference with specified trapneuter vaccination return activities and providing for repealer of ability cification and effectively this is a second reading public hearing it is item R5F commissioner Dominguez

so this item is for trap, neuter, vaccinate, release uh protection of the cat trappers and that includes the city and volunteer trappers. What tends to happen is um interference with the trappers while they're doing TNVR. And so this item is strictly during a TNVR cat trap. Uh and it protects our city uh workers and volunteer trappers. I second the item. Move the item. Call the vote. It is a public hearing. I see no one in Zoom. No one in the audience requesting to speak. I have a motion by Commissioner Dominguez, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes.

Commissioner Bach, yes. Vice Mayor Telenz, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. Motion carries. Item is approved. That was item R5F.

R5N. R5N is an orders of the mayor city commission of the city of Miami Beach for amending the code of the of of ordinances of the city of Miami Beach by amending chapter 90 entitled solid waste division 3 rates charges billing procedure section 90-133 thereof entitled single utility billing billing to relocate the table of sanitation commercial impact fees to appendix A by amending appendix A to the city code and title fee schedule to add sanitation commercial impact fees imposed pursuant to section 90-133 and to include an automatic annual consumer price index CPI adjustment for sanitation commercial impact fees, water impact fees, and sewer impact fees imposed by the city pursuant to section 90-133, section 110-167, and section 110-169 and providing for codification, repeatability, and an effect update. This is a first reading public hearing. It is item R5N.

Commissioner Bot. Um, before anybody panics, this is a correction. This is not new water fees or anything like that. Um, these fees have not been updated. uh in close to 30 years and it's high time that we did. Um so I will turn it over to John to explain in further detail.

Yes, John Norris, public works director. As Commissioner Bob mentioned, this does update the commercial sanitation impact fees which have not been changed since 1998. So that's applied CTI CPI to come up with a current value in today's market. And it also adds CPI increases annually to water, sewer, and sanitation impact fees. So we don't find ourselves in this situation in 30 years. So we'll update them annually, and I'm happy to answer any questions. What are the rates that are going up? I'm sorry, what are the rates?

So there's a chart uh that we provided. A commercial unit with 0 to 25 units, the uh monthly fee will go from $16 to $34. And then at the other end of the spectrum, a commercial building with 101 or more units would go from 50 to 109 per month. And commercial units could be four unic or eight unicondo.

Correct. That would be on the 0 to25. So this is an impact fee that's added to the solid waste collection for that building and that uh comes to the city to uh compensate for the impact of adding the uh structures. So this is for new development. This is for well this is for every development the impact on our system to maintain the sanitation division. Is it you mean would it be to it be for any commercial properties that are currently exist or just new

current current exist? I'm sorry that currently exist. This is added to every commercial solid waste bill that waste connections or waste management would have. So okay. So can you just for the public to hear what are the thresholds? It's from zero to Yeah, absolutely. So 0 to 25, 26 to 50, 51 to 75, 76 to 100, and 101 and above. What are the diff what are the rates percentages?

So the associated rates from 0 to 25, the old rate was $16, it's going to $34.93. From 26 to 50 units, the old rate was $24. It's going to 52.40 per per household. This would be for the complex that's getting the bill. So So that that's that $25 increase is shared amongst shared amongst the entire building. Yes, sir. Okay. It's not per household.

Correct. Correct. And from 51 units to 75 units, it goes from 30 to 6550. From 76 to 100 units, it goes from $40 to 8733. And then 101 and above goes from 50 to $19 annual fee. This is a monthly fee. Can you run that threshold again? So, okay, it's per month, but these aren't per unit. This is per aggregated development. That's correct. So, we're going from 0 to what was the threshold?

So, 0 to25 is the first bracket. That goes from $16 to 34.93. So we're talking less than a dollar per unit. Correct. That's correct. Yes. Per month. That would be passed on to the per month. Correct. I'm just if if I may because you know I'm concerned about passing utility costs to residents and we're working we're working very hard for example on an item

to lower the cost of this specific of for example trash collection waste collection

we're working very hard on an item to lower cost on the residence I cannot come then on the other side pass this along when I thought that this was specifically for new construction. We're talking about new construction. I'm fine with that and and perhaps the sponsor could take that as a friendly amendment focuses focuses on new construction. I I don't feel comfortable especially when we look at a lot of like all of our all of our forplexes are going to be getting this increase. I that's something that I wouldn't feel comfortable with our forplexes, our smaller buildings. This is sometimes where, you know, the most affordable or the naturally occurring affordable housing is at I don't feel comfortable passing along any sort of increase to these individuals because it gets passed down to the tenants that live in those buildings. Um, if the sponsor amends this to make this for new construction, 100% on board because I understand where where the sponsor is coming from. Um, but to apply this to the existing that I cannot support.

What do these fees go to, John? These basically come back to the city to support the operations of sanitation. So, you know, we have contracted services doing solid waste collection and this is a fee that comes back to the city. We administer those contracts. So, we have staff that's basically administering all the commercial solid waste and this basically goes to help us do that. And this does not include it's only new construction for the water sewer impact fees. That's a little different. That is when you're upgrading a meter or installing a new meter. So sanitation is on the monthly bill. Is this going to be

Can I Can I um Mr. Manager, you know, last year we discovered that there were fees um that had not been updated in the city for three decades. And as a result of that conversation, it might have been two years ago. As a result of that conversation, the direction was given by this body to have the administration go through every single fee to make sure that there are CPIs applied and that they are brought up to current standards of of cost assignment. Um, you know, I can't think of a single thing that we provide updated and um extensive service for that we were charging at a price of 30 years ago. I am not in I'm not a fan of adding cost to residents and I know things are very difficult now but I also think that we need to pay a reasonable amount for the city services that we all rely on and getting your trash picked up is one of them and this is a um this is something that we should never have been put in this position to have to do. I can't believe that, you know, for three decades there was nobody who caught this, but here we are. And we have to be the grown-ups in the room to do the right thing to ensure that we don't have waste management issues. It is it is a a relatively small amount of money, and I'm not being cavalier. It is a small amount of money to ensure and we get calls from residents all the time saying they haven't come picked up my trash or there's trash being dumped or uh whatever the issues are. If we don't update our costs to be in line with what the actual costs are, something is going to have to give. So,

how did we can you walk us through what the process was to arrive at these amounts? And again, if we'd had CPI built in properly, it would have increased by pennies every year and nobody would have noticed this. And that's what's going to happen going forward.

So, commissioner, through the mayor or the vice mayor, um, this item that you have in front of you is what would have happened if CPIs had been applied each year since the last time there were were increases implemented. um this you know over that period of approximately 30 years you're seeing that many of these rates would have for all intents and purposes slightly more than doubled and so that's what we are proposing here. Um you can see that you know those rates although they have may have doubled are still relatively small in the grand scheme of things for the number of units that you're talking about. So if you were to divide it out amongst the number of units you would find that that rate increase is relatively minor

through the mayor commissioner Suarez. I I I totally can sign on that, you know, we need to catch the times, but shouldn't we phase this out and over a period of time instead of just all at once? Uh Jason Green, chief financial officer. I I think to that point, I think that was perhaps what Commissioner Bot was getting to was the fact that the city hasn't done that over the past uh 28 or 30 years um by not having those very small incremental adjustments here. And I know I'm not saying small, right? I'm just saying it's a little unfair to punish, you know, current residents for the previous mismanagement of financial responsibility from the city

in like just like that. I'm saying maybe you phase it out over 3 four years instead of

if that I mean if that is the commission's will obviously that's something that uh could be you know looked at to come back. But I think it's just important a couple of things that I wanted to just clarify because there were a couple of questions. Just one on the sanitation fund. And I think a lot of this started uh due to probably a budget retreat from a year two years ago when uh the office of management of budget raised at a May budget retreat uh kind of the red flag on concerns about the sanitation fund and all the wonderful things it does for the residents. Uh you know litter pickup and we've expanded a lot uh over the past couple of years. This commission's one of their major directions was a clean and safe city. Uh to that effect, we've expanded our uh maintenance cycles related to litter pickup. Uh the residential pressure washing, sidewalk program, all of that gets funded through our co cap programs. All of that gets funded through here. And it had a major structural deficit uh at the end of the day. That was either going to make some rates go up dramatically or or a mixture of that or service level cuts. And to that effect, I believe Commissioner Bot was the one who sponsored this was originally look, I think she mentioned, look at all the different uh impact or connection fees uh that we have across the city that haven't been looked at, that haven't been indexed to inflation to rectify that situation. Last year, the first part of this ordinance is the the connection fees or those one-time connection fees for new developments that haven't been updated in 20 or 30 years, and we lost those monies. That was rectified by the commission last year. But the one thing we realized going through this exercise is when we did that we it was through just I think through paperwork error we didn't add a CPI escalator to it. So that that's the first part of this ordinance is that water and sewer connection fees for new developments that was approved by commission last year to add a CPI escalator like most fees do. So that's the first part related to the water and sewer on the one-time developer connection fees.

Could we vote on these individually? So could we vote on that part? I think we're all aligned there, right? I don't know if there's an appetite for the body to

Well, and then on I I think we can if there's a determination to approve one and the other one to come back in a different form that could be that could be looked at. And then on the sanitation fees, that was one that was also discovered just like the water and sewer and even further back wasn't since 1998 that those rates have been adjusted. So these are just if there had been a small incremental rate adjustment per uh per year over all those times and I think as our public works director was stating is though that looks like you know obviously had doubled but when you spread it over a 50 unit building we're talking about you know pennies per month perhaps at the end of the day and this goes again I just wanted the importance of all the things of the sanitation fund. So, it's going to, you know, very specifically where these dollars are going. It's for clean city, clean parks, clean right ofway, clean sidewalks. So, just wanted to, you know, this is

we got it, Jason. You don't need to sell this on it. But look, the condo owners in Miami Beach particularly are getting, you know, there's like a death by a thousand cuts, right? There's now the FPL raised their rates. Uh, condo special assessments, you know, you you name it. Um, and this is just another hike. So, I'm not a Look, I I want to be financially responsible obviously, but I I don't I think it's a little bit just I think a little too much to just do it all at once. I don't know. I mean, you have one commissioner, Fernandez, who doesn't like from what he just says, he's going to be opposed to the idea. I don't know if he's be amunable to maybe a a a step increase by 25% for the next four years to get to where we are. That way we can kind of phase it in. I don't know how the rest of the body feels about that. But, you know, there's we're going to be I we're going to be voting probably soon on everyone else, right? Um for for uh more water impact fees. So,

I don't know. I I'd like to see what the rest of the body feels on this. Could we at a minimum agree that we're going to start implementing a CPI per year? I

right. I I think that is a big because what you're saying is there hasn't been a CPI in 30 years adjustment for 30 years. So I think at a minimum just like almost any other fee, right? You add a CPI just to keep up so we don't get further and further behind. I think that should be kind of the base minimum part of our discussion. And then if we want to do a step in, if we want to do maybe CPI plus 1% each year um for five years or we can get creative between first and second reading, but I would ask at least if we add C that we start applying CPI right now, even if we don't increase the fees, that at least uh we add CPI adjustments annually.

Yeah. I mean, I think you know, it's obviously up to the commission how they want to do. they wanted to do a phase in one, you know, and do uh, you know, one half of that value now and the other half we just would modify the table to have a an immediate 20, you know, 26 implementation and a 2027 number. Uh, that's really up up to the commission. If if you wanted to split it in half, let's say, and go 50% of the way uh to the for like I'm just using the $16 to the 34.93, whatever that halfway increase is, and do that immediate and the other one to be to be implemented in 2027 and then for the CPI to be escalated beyond that. I I I think that that's that's reasonable if if that's a happy medium. Commissioner Matteo Selenus,

do we know I'm looking at this chart here. Do we know how many buildings that we have in these ranges? So yeah, I know it's a uh Okay, I don't have that number with me. We can get that.

I'd like to see that because I do agree. You know, the the the smaller buildings from 0 to 25, you know, if there is a building that only has eight units or 12 units, they're going to be paying a lot more than the buildings, you know, that are over 100. It it just it just doesn't seem to be fair. And those smaller buildings from 0 to 25 generally are the more affordable older buildings that are you know they don't necessarily um you know they're in a tougher spot and I think the math just doesn't even though it's it's I get that it's equal across the board. It's a double number from what they're paying now. But then if the smaller buildings you know have less units they're paying more versus the larger ones, you know. So I am hesitant with this. I I would like to look at this a little bit more.

Commissioner, we have another item that's going to address those small buildings. Uh we had first reading. We'll be coming to second reading. I think it's on the 22nd of April hopefully. Yeah, we're we're finishing working on it, but that will probably address that part of this because then they will go to a different uh contract. So So So why don't we just wait then until that's finished? Take it step by step. I'm okay with adding a CPI like what Commissioner Magazine said at least moving forward. We're saying that the water impact is for new builds, but the sanitation is for

it's an right. The sanitation is an ongoing fee that funds all the activities of the sanitation fund. The water and sewer connection fees as the commission tackled last year.

Can we bif a motion on the the water fees? I'm 100% fine supporting that. I will not vote today to pass along a cost to our fixed income residents. our residents who are making who are facing difficulties facing uh making ends meet and and in fact you know we sent the homestead relief check in the mail because we understand in residents are facing cost but we didn't send that to tenants and tenants are going to be affected by this as well and because we weren't able to send that relief to tenants is why I've been working so closely with public works uh to see in what other ways can we uh help our residents uh by lowering other costs such as some some of these um sewer costs, not sewer uh waste collection uh costs. Um, and so today I'm not going to sit here and, you know, while I'm exerting so much effort with staff and meeting with attorneys and meeting with the way holers and meeting with public works to see how can we lower the cost on collection while at the same time pass them um this this other impact fee increase that I don't feel comfortable. So we can bifurcate um I'll be I'll feel much more comfortable. If I could just ask one clarification, is the bifurcation that the table meaning the rates being gapped up on the retroactive CPI is what would be pulled out for now, but both the water and sewer impact and sanitation would just have the future CPIs added to it or no

that was a lot and I will ask you attorney that to me down Jason wanted to ask because there have been some I think a little bit of discussion that there would seem to be okay on having the CPI added to the both the water and sewer and the sanitation on a going forward basis with this retroactive catch up on the sanitation of what you I think are Commissioner Fernz wants to both I Commissioner Pernz and I want to bifurcate I'm okay with the CPI moving forward on both water and sir that's what um but I would like to bifurcate the I guess the yes the catch up of of the 20 30 years

so through the chair if I may what I think we could do here is we could bring back the CPI increase for a second reading and then the sanitation element which is the catchup could be a a a new ordinance first reading uh so that everybody could study it and and be comfortable with it. If I can can the can the CPI is that we are at second reading could the CPI is in there be be approved today? Pardon me. The CPI can move forward to second reading. This is just first reading today. No, this is second reading. No first reading on the screen. Okay. And if it was second reading, we could do that, but it's not. I apologize. No problem.

Okay. So, I'll make a motion to move forward with CPI on a pro for basis. Second. Okay. It is a public hearing and I have to uh Mr. Mitch, this doesn't increase any cost in our residence today. Is that correct, Mr. Attorney? When the CPI increases in October, that will be the first time that it will increase. Today, there is no increase. The CPI is what? 3%. I don't think we'll have telling us. I thought it was just for new builds. I'm sorry. I thought it was just for new builds moving forward. What we're approving today, the water and sewer, all the water and sewer connection fees are always for new builds. Okay.

The sanitation is an ongoing charge for all existing and that's what we're coming back with the sanitation. what what it appears you'll be approving today on first reading will be a CPI escalator for both of those going forward. So new bill would adjust the rates today. It would be October 1st which is normal. I I think the question coming up is that CPI going to be applied to sanitation impact as well. Yes, that's what they're discussing. And it would be October 1st which is typically when all fees go I understood it to be across the board. Yes. I'm going to if and it won't be now. will be October 1st when all

I want to know what we're voting on as it relates to costs and I see a lot of a lot of uncertainty. So just to cl make it as simple as possible, right? We have two fees here. Neither of those fees have been increased in 30 years. They haven't had any type of CPI step up in 30 years. Water, sewer, sanitation. We the original ordinance was to say, let's do a one-time catchup for the last 30 years. We're going sanitation.

Yes. We're going to shove that. We're not implementing that. But as fiduciaries of our system, we're saying, "Okay, we can't be 31 years behind and 32 years behind and 33 years behind." So like just about any other fee, we're going to on a go forward basis, our water and sewer and sanitation impact fees will have a CPI applied to it. Mr. Manager, can you confirm all this please because this is really your responsibility.

Yes. So what I believe the debate was is whether we are going to bifurcate the water and sewer impact fees from the sanitation impact fees. I think what's being discussed on the table right now is taking the CPI for the water and sewer impact fees and the CPI for the sanitation impact fees as a package to move forward today and putting the sanitation ketchup um as part of a future discussion. I'll second that. I I heard originally a motion from

We have public comment. It is. Yeah. And we have two individuals waiting to speak and and Sarah, you can go up, but originally I heard a motion from Commissioner Magazine and uh Vice Mayor Monica Matelinas. Is that correct? No. So, Commissioner Bot seconded then. I second it. So, motion by Commissioner Magazine, seconded by Commissioner Bot. Uh, please go ahead.

Hi, Sarah Deos Reyes. Personally, I'm I'm a realtor and I do have my clients that I do manage in small buildings and they are getting hit very much with an increase in their maintenance because of the of the reserves and that's really huge. Some of them are trying for one year to collect some money and then get some credit, you know, from the bank to have it there. But they're really getting hit the small buildings who are fivetory five stories, you know, not the big ones. I mean, we're getting hit. The big ones are getting hit, but I'm saying it's more impact on those type of building. Three floors, five floors. You have to think about that when you do this. So, just letting you know.

Thank you. No one else in the audience. I see Mitch Novik requesting to speak. Go ahead, Mitch. Thank you again, Ralph. Mitch Novik, I've been watching our water rate increases for 30 years. need to correct the the record. Uh for since the days of Jimmy Morales uh being our city manager, we've had an automatic CPA uh CPI increase every October.

Uh all this leads to housing on affordability. Uh David Durmer, former mayor and commissioner David Durmer, perhaps the best legislator this city has had, policy maker this city's had in uh decades, would never uh approve as a as a policy and as a promise he made to p to the public, never approve any of these types of rate hikes and fee hikes. And he's he stuck by that. Um what what's going to give uh what's going to give what's what's going to give is you guys are going to have to focus in on pay uh spending our money wisely. We have 500 more employees uh today than we had when Jimmy Morales took took office. We need to reduce our city staffing uh and do what's financially responsible and and that's and that objective needs to be towards the residents not towards the monster monster of government. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next caller, wait, can I just through the mayor? Um, can we clarify because Mitch just said that we are trying to raise uh a rate that has already been raised. Can we please set the record straight? If he's correct, let's address it. If that's a misunderstanding, let's address it, please. So,

I was just going to mention that I think what Mr. Novik is speaking of are the uh user fees related to water and sewer. What we're talking about today are impact fees that are charged as new construction is coming online and they need to connect to our system. They have a impact to that system and we're trying to offset a small percentage of that cost.

Okay. So, I just want anybody who's listening to understand there are two different types of fees and we are talking about the one that has not been addressed in three decades. I want that to be loud and clear. And not only that, Commissioner apologies.

While it hasn't been addressed in 30 decades, that's not um sorry, 30 years. It's not an ongoing monthly fee. The water and sewer fee is strictly a one-time fee for new development. Right. Correct. So, we cannot sit here and talk out both sides of our mouth about, oh, all these uh billionaire developers, they're doing all this and they don't help out with anything. This is a chance to make a 30year too late modest change to just increasing from CPI from a price that was set in the '9s in the 80s.

I'm a little conf I'm a little confused now. Hold on. I'm a little confused. So the sanitation fee is applied monthly. The water and sewer fee is a one-time impact setup fee only for new development.

Okay. Can I make a suggestion? I'm going to make a motion to bifrocate uh the water and sewer impact fee which is the one that's on new development. So, we can do a motion on that if the if the sponsor would allow. I would like to to to make a motion to bifrocate that because I can support that. If we're talking about new development, I will 100% on the new development that's coming into our city. I will 100% support an increase in the impact fees that Commissioner B, thank you for leading on this because it is 100% long overdue. Uh, and three decades is way too long of infrastructure impacts and you are taking the leader the the leadership to finally address that, Commissioner Bod. I'll be happy to make a motion to bifurcate uh that part so that we can vote on that and maybe then we can vote on the other because the other I cannot support if the other means

there's already a motion on the floor then but hold on if if we can clarify then we'll almost have to bifurcate the bifurcation because where we said we go okay we're not going to change the fees in a rears we're just going to start CPI going forward but if we're going to bifurcate water and sewer from sanitation and we're just talking about new development then I think we do the catchup that's 30 years in a rear end and add the

through the Mr. Mr. Mayor this is already starting to get a little out of hand. Can we can we just defer this one month? Honestly like this is this is getting a little out of hand and I think it's not even I'm having a little hard time tracking this. I can't imagine the residents are having a hard time track if if we're going to do it let's do it right. Let's do it responsibly. Let's have let's have plenty of more time to prepare for this. At the next meeting, we can discuss this and dedicate a time certain for this because this does impact a lot of people. As Sarah said, there's a lot of people who are hurting out there who need help. And I think it's I think it's a disservice to our taxpayers if we kind of just rush this and a and kind of kind of shotgun this through. I think let's just defer one month and then let's really get our bearings straight.

So, I'm going to make a motion to defer. I'll turn it to our city attorney since we have now two motions on the table. Three motions. Great. Well, and before the motions because there is a motion on the table, but the motion to defer would would would take precedence. Um, but I think there is a little confusion here and I would love for for Jason and or John and the manager. The water and sewer connection fees, those were already updated. You did that in June of last year. So all that this does to those connection fees is adds the CPI the sanitation fee that is the one that has not been addressed for 30 years and this ordinance would both update and start to apply the CPI. Correct. So I don't know if that helps but uh but the motion connection fees were

so why don't we just get that out of the way right? If we want to bifurcate things, we can all sit here and simply agree that we can just tack on the CPI for the water sewer impact fees. That way when this comes back in a month, it'll just be the sanitation part and we could discuss twofold whether there's going to be any catchup for Mar and whether we're going to apply CPI going forward. But if we truly want to simplify things, this is as simple as possible. In previous months, we passed in a new impact fee for only new development for water and sewer. What this portion is that we can vote on here is just to include that it will be updated at the rate of CPI going forward. That that's very clear. That's very simple and I think probably what we intended to do anyway. And what that'll also do is in a month when it comes back for the sanitation side, it simplifies that so we don't even have this discussion on the table on two different parts. So right now what I'm suggesting if we go with what Commissioner Fernandez suggested, I'll second that this bifurcate it only address the water and sewer part today. As the city attorney just mentioned, we all voted to increase the water sewer impact fees that hadn't been updated in 30 years. The motion before us given uh Commissioner Fernandez's direction is simply to continue applying a CPI adjustment so in 30 years we don't have to do another catchup. That part is very simple and then we'll have a little more complex and comprehensive discussion on the sanitation side perhaps a month from now.

Commissioner Dominguez. Okay. So this item has gone in a few different um directions. I'd like to go back to the sponsor of the item, Commissioner Bot. What is your intention on how this item should move?

Hello from this side of the world. You want to change side, huh? Um, yeah. Sorry. Um,

I would like to move the CPI on both items or no, is it on on it's on both now? I'm so turned around. I'd like to move the CPI because that has to happen. That's a no-brainer. It has to happen. And I'm very okay with coming back next month with a a different conversation about how to catch us up on sanitation. Whether it's we do half of it um this upcoming year and then 25% and 25% or if we do CPI plus some percentage over the next five years. I'll leave that to you guys to proceed and come back to us with a plan. but that we're making this far more complicated than it needs to be. And I know that you're working on a sanitation program to carve out the smaller buildings. So, we will make sure that whatever gets accomplished in that um in that undertaking gets applied to this as well, so they're not forgotten. I I think we've just overcomplicated the

significant. Are So, are you moving that item? Yeah. So, that's I'll second it. So, I think that was on there and it was sec and I seconded it. Okay. So I have two different motions completely. The original motion is what Commissioner Bot just said. Then we have the second motion that Commissioner Fernandez and Magazine said just for the water impact fees. And just to move forward with the first motion. The first motion is CPI for both the water and sewer and the sanitation. So that one needs to be voted on first. Okay, I'll second.

So let's do that. So the first motion is Commissioner Bot. Commissioner Doming uh Dominguez is second. This is CPI on both water and uh impact fees. Water impact fees and sanitation. Um yeah, I I just got a text message from Mitch Novik and he sent me a picture. I think we all got it, a picture of his bill where it says uh notice all building customers pursu an ordinance 2016 4039 effective 1st 2025 base consumption components of the water and sewer chargers will increase by 1.6%. 6%. So that looks like CPI. So what that I think as the manager said that's the usage fee, not a connection fee for new new construction.

I I'm just going to suggest, you know, I'm going to defer to to to my colleague. I'm just I'm not feeling comfortable voting on this today. Um I my you know our a number of us found out here that this was going to apply to existing construction. Um which is not what I had discussed in my briefing. Um if we have to vote on this today, I want to be able to be supportive and I always like to get to a place of a yes. But if I have to vote on this today, I I'm going to have to vote no. Uh very respectfully because I and I say respectfully because I understand the intent and the effort here and how responsible the effort is, but I just cannot support this today. Um if or we can bring it back next

first reading. So you can support it on first reading making changes of meeting with the sponsor by second reading. But this is an item that's been on for months. It was just not reached. Yeah. I I I hear what I think we all hear loud and clear what the concerns are. It is first reading. It has been on for months and months and months. And I think that even if second reading doesn't take place, I mean, I think we can get there by April, but if we need more time, the second reading can be assigned for for May. I think we can get there, but I would really hate to get this kicked off this pile because it's taken I don't Ralph, I don't know if you have in front of you how long it's

not in front of me, but I can I can look it up if you want. Yeah, I mean it's been it's been on forever and so I don't want to lose the progress. So maybe so so so let's do something. Let's let's vote on this today and maybe we can have just a quick sunshine meeting just to make sure that we're all on the same page that we all understand it clearly. Uh because I know I think there's even members from the administration that didn't even understand it clearly before today. uh so that by the time it comes to second reading we all make sure I just want to make sure that we are not passing cost

to residents while I'm I am actively working trying to reduce cost for them on a recurring basis. So, if that's the case, you guys are hearing loud and clear what he's saying. You know this inside and out. Should we break these two items apart right now? Water and sewer and sanitation. That's or do we break it apart, CPI? And you're not going to have his support and perhaps others. I think the easiest way, hold on. The easiest way is to have these travel in two different paths, right? We have a vote for water and sewer. We have a vote for sanitation. I agree with that. Yeah, that I feel more comfortable with

because you're talking about two different populouses here. One is being charged for new development on developers, right? The other is for existing residents. On point. Yep. Read the room. Let's allow these to travel differently. Right. I say we take a vote on the I don't know how we could do this legally, but take a vote on the water and sewer and then defer the discussion on sanitation. Okay. I like where Commissioner Magazine is at. Well, I think just procedurally you're gonna have to start with the initial motion which was to apply CPI across the board and then if that fails, you go to the second motion. So, could we do a friendly vote down of that? As you said, the motion. Yeah, with somebody could withdraw that motion. Sure. Who made the motion? Mr. B made the motion. Withdraw the motion.

Commissioner Magazine's motion. So, I have a motion on Commissioner Fernandez, sorry, Commissioner Magazine made a motion uh seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. is this is only CPI new impact water and sewer fees going forward. I for the mayor I mean far respectfully we're this is really unprofessional. I I understand this has been on the agenda but we're like learning on the fly right now what is what I mean come on I think that's our fault. I mean

it's sure it's our fault but like still doesn't two wrongs don't make a right I think. I mean what's Can I finish please? What's been on the agenda for months? What's what's the what's maybe next month we have a packaged after having a sunshine meeting we have a package deal we have we really thought this through but I mean do we really want to you know vote on this where clearly for the last 45 minutes we've kind of just been learning on the fly what's what's what and I and I wouldn't wouldn't necessarily place the blame on us I mean our administration I haven't had this conversation there he hasn't brought this up to me you know so again I I I'm with Commissioner Fernandez. I don't feel comfortable voting on this today. I'm going to vote no. So, you guys can vote at your conscience, but I was simply saying, let's just wait one month. Let's have a sunshine meeting. Let's really iron everything out. That way, we all feel comfortable and then the and the voters of Miami Beach can see that we've been professionally prepared for this and and move accordingly. I mean, I don't see what the big deal is. It's one month. It's and then we'll be better informed and we'll have a much more thoughtful discussion instead of on the day on a commission meeting.

Well, I think that's how discussions are supposed to happen given the sunshine that this is where we have discussions. This is where we hash things out, right? We can't talk to each other in private and public. This Yeah, but we could have a sunshine meeting. We can call a sunshine meeting. I mean, this is a sunshine meeting, right? Like

no, like a sunshine meeting dedicated to this. I mean, we're we're going to be raising rates on our customer on our on our residents. Well, but if if we if we address the motion that Commissioner Fernandez has on the floor with me, it actually does that. Uh, Commissioner Suarez, it makes this simple, right? Where the sanitation we could discuss whether that's in a sunshine meeting or next commission meeting and we travel in two different paths. The water and sewer is very simple. We've already voted to increase the impact fees that hadn't been updated on 30 years. This is just adding almost a text amendment to make sure that they continue to be adjusted by CPI. It doesn't impact any existing residents at all and it actually cleans up this process. So then we could have that more robust discussion on the sanitation fees. This actually just cleans it up and gets rid of some of this back and forth

prefully occupancy. Respectfully to my colleagues, respectfully to my colleagues, this is the first reading of two. I can't tell you the number of times that we have had um differences of opinion amongst ourselves on the details of how to get to where we want to go. And we have time and time again said, you know what, direction has been given. Come back to us with second at second reading with the item cleaned up and and fixed. We have also said we will have a sunshine meeting to make sure that between now and second reading we will be in agreement with the direction and at second reading if it's not there we can defer it at this point. Why why are we not extending the same grace to this project as this initiative as we do to other initiatives?

If I may Mr. Mayor

Commissioner Fernandez and let's call the vote. For a long time, we've been looking at cost savings on utility rates. I mean, there's been an item, I think I connected you with an entity actually that reached out to us that looked at ways in which we could save money for people based, you know, through their utility rates. And we've been specifically this issue has been an issue of concern for a number of years. this issue issues relating to rate increases potentially to our residents. And so and and so in the in the way that it's being described by Commissioner Magazine, it makes sense to me because we can still move forward with a significant part of your legislation while we still figure out the other part that would have a more direct impact to residents uh that are living here now.

Understood. But why wouldn't we do that between first and second reading? And if second reading needs to be pushed out till May because we're not there yet, so be it. But why are we because it gives residents an opportunity to object or to hear? And the more public input that we can have

been very consistent on this. I'm sorry and I'm sorry. Zero item and I want to be able to to to support you and the part that I feel very comfortable supporting, but I have just been very very very consistent. Mr. manager, you've asked us to have discussions about rate increases in the past, as has Jason, as has our current public works director and previous public works directors and I've been and I've held the line on it and I said, I don't want to talk about it until we figure out how do we address the lower income people, the people who are struggling, the people who are going to end up absorbing these costs because it certainly won't be the association. The association is going to pass it on to people and and it's certainly not going to be the landlords. they're going to pass it on to the tenants and I'm just very mindful and very cognizant and try to put myself in their shoes as I know all of us do and especially you commissioner bod uh but I've just for a long for I think probably two or three years now I have been very very very very consistent and very passionate about this that we don't take any legislative action as it relates to these utilities that is going to be passed down to the most struggle struggling segment of our population. Um they don't they it's it's expensive enough for them right now. Yep. So before we over complicate this further, the motion on the floor I think is very simple, very digestible and very doable for all of us, right? And that is to separate the discussion for the water and sewer and then the sanitation. And we vote to apply a go forward CPI that only applies to new development on the water and sewer. We have already caught up 30 years that that has not been forward. So this is a very simple routing a CPI metric. Then we're going to have basically have a separate item where we discuss the more robust sanitation. That's the one that's not so

much confusing, but where there's a lot of different viewpoints about where we go. And I think separating those two allows us to have, sorry for the pun, a much cleaner discussion. Oh, right. So, what we should be voting on given there's a motion in a second is are we going to apply a CPI charge on an annual basis on water and sewer impact fees that is only applied to new development. Yep. Second. It is a It is a public hearing. I have one more person requesting to speak. Susanna, go ahead, please.

Good afternoon, uh, commissioners. So in in regards to the matter of the increase of the water, sewer and sanitation first of all buildings are getting increases uh every year uh and I understand that it's not an impact fees but solid waste management for instance just from last year to this year went up 4%. Uh I'm glad to hear that you're planning to apply the impact fees at least for water and sewer only to new developments because really the impact fees are are prompted by new developments. So they should bear the cost. Uh in regards to the concerns that both Commissioner Suarez and Commissioner Fernandez uh repeatedly stated for residents in the old older buildings that is a legitimate concern. As we know Sears came into effect uh the uh costs have gone up. I can tell you that just with for our association we had to raise maintenance fee by 22%. So, and we do have older people living in our buildings in older buildings that are on a fixed income where most of their money actually goes to pay for medication. So, it's very important to be mindful of those people and the fact that what may uh be construed as a minor increase all around to people on a fixed income that are older, it's not a minor issue. uh it's it's you know it might move them out of the beach or may you know uh make it impossible for them to live here and um so we definitely don't want to put people in a chokeold and um Commissioner Suarez asking for uh more information to make an informed decision I think is responsible and legit and I and I and I thank Commissioner Suarez and M and and Commissioner Fernandez in particular for wanting to have more information so that

they can better represent the interest of the community and also to make sure that whatever decision they make it's made with facts uh that are corroorated by uh documentation. Thank you. Thank you. Our next caller is Elizabeth Laton.

Hi, good afternoon. Um I just wanted to say thank you uh to everyone for bringing these uh impact fees uh current and also bifurcating it. I think that's the right way. Um we cannot continue to maintain our systems the way we have been without doing this. Um it's very simple as uh Commissioner Magazine said it's a to new developments only and we have to do it. We cannot with all of the new things that are going to be coming onto Washington Avenue and Lincoln Road. Um we it just has to be done and I just would like this to pass. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I see no one else in Zoom. No one else in the audience requesting to speak. May I call the role? Can we just be very clear on what we're voting on right now? Sure. Um, right now you're voting on the motion that was made by Commissioner Magazine, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, which is to move forward with the CPI increases only as to the water and sewer connection fees. And then the development, well, those are only on new development or on changes to an existing water service. And then that would come back for second reading next month. The sanitation will be exerted from this and that will come back for a first reading. um next month presumably.

Okay, let's call the role. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Vice Mayor Selenas, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Bach, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. A second reading public hearing is scheduled for April 22. Mr. Mayor, Mr. But um John, will you be ready to talk about sanitation in April? Yes, that that shouldn't be a problem. So, respectfully, Mr. Mayor, would we be able to assign this to a time certain in April so that we could make sure it doesn't we don't lose more? Sure.

Okay, that would be great. R 7A. R 7A is a public hearing. Approve certificate of appropriateness demolition of building at 833 6th Street R7A. I make a motion. I mean, we've literally discussed this to death. Motion and a second. I have a motion by Commissioner Magazine, seconded by Commissioner Swore. Is it is a public hearing. I see no one on Zoom. No one on in the audience requesting to speak. Roll call. Let's call the vote. R 7A. All in favor, please say I. I.

Anyone opposed? hearing none. R7A is approved. 70. I know this is purely symbolic. I know it's moving forward, but this is breaking my heart, so I'm going to be a no. Uh, so you are an O. A no on R 7A. That is Commissioner Bot. So item is approved 61 with Commissioner Bot voting no. with all this stuff. No, it's it's uh this has been through so much. Uh congratulations Eric and our fire department.

Really quickly, Eric Troll is on behalf of the uh on behalf of the Miami Beach Firefighters Union. Just wanted to say thank you all for your continued support and again we don't want to see the demolition either, but it's unfortunately, you know, it's where we are today. Um you know, but thank you all for your continued support to get us a new fire station, let our uh firefighters, men and women sleep in, you know, actually, you know, acceptable conditions. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. R9D. R9D is DRB appeal number 25-112 filed by Michael Kger. R9D.

Milk. Nick, welcome. Welcome to the day here,

bro. This is going to be fun. Thank you, mayor, and good afternoon, members of the commission. This is an appeal of a design review board approval for a new two-story single family residence at 50 West Alto Drive. The application included a waiver from the maximum height limitation for single family homes and a waiver from the sitewall uh requirements. The appeal was filed by Michael Creger, the owner of the property to the south at 34 West Toledo Drive. Because this is an appeal of an order of the design review board for specific property, the city commission is sitting in a quasi judicial capacity. Your decision must be based on the record before the DRB and no new testimony or evidence may be taken. Any exparte communications by members of the commission have been disclosed on the record and I've given copies to uh to the parties. Under the code, the city commission can only reverse or remand a decision of the DRB if the commission finds on a 5-7 vote that the DRB either failed to provide procedural due process, failed to observe the essential requirements of law, meaning the failed to apply the correct law, or failed to base its decision upon competent substantial evidence. The commission cannot reweigh the evidence presented to the design review board. Your job today is only to determine whether the DRB's decision was supported by competential evidence at all. Uh the order of the hearing, it will start with the the petitioner, in other words, the the neighbor who filed the um followed by the respondents, which are the property owner and applicant and the and the city. And uh and and lastly with any rebuttal by the petitioner. And then at that point, um, the attorney should sit down and the city commission can deliberate.

Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Fernandez, just just a quick question. Is it I mean, I've I I saw the the hearing. I reviewed the record and the materials presented to us. Um, is it the position of the city attorney's office that the DRB followed all the proper objective criteria? So the so I'm sitting here as councel to the city commission as a board. The city is represented uh by my colleague Justin Alexander and the but the parties do have an opportunity under the code to present oral argument. Yes, the the the briefs and the exhibits and the and the transcript all are part of the record. Um but the petitioner does have a a right to make his presentation.

Thank you. Commissioner Magazine. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. And just to speak in more plain layman's English, I watched the video as well, but just so we can put this in a simplistic form, there was an applicant. They got a favorable ruling at the DRB and now a neighbor is saying he's making an appeal saying, "I do not agree with that ruling." We're not necessarily litigating whether we would agree or disagree with his thoughts. It's just did the DRB act appropriately owing to that approval. That's right. How much time uh does are they do they have to present?

So consistent with prior appeals before the city commission, the um petitioner could have 10 minutes. The respondents have agreed to split uh their 10 minutes. And then lastly, the petitioner can can present a brief two-minute rebuttal. Okay. Okay. So, set the clock for 10.

Good afternoon, uh, Mr. Mayor, members of the board. Uh, for the record, my name is Bill Riley. I'm an attorney located with offices located at 16343 Southwest 256th Street in Miami Day County. I'm here on behalf of the applicant or the appellant, uh, Mr. Michael Kger, who is the sole uh neighbor affected by the development program that was approved by the DRB. In order to make our time here efficient and make it move as fast as possible, the client would like to make a statement. I'm going to ask him to come up and make that statement first and then I'm going to present with my legal arguments.

Hello board, Mr. Commissioner. I appreciate your time and letting me be here. Uh, I'm a uh I'm Michael Kger. I'm a 40year resident of DO Island at 34 West DO. I've peacefully lived here uh for all these years and walked my islands daily. What I've seen happen over the years is astounding to me. There's been waiver after waiver has been issued exceeding the code. The reason for the code is a reason for the code in itself. It's exceeded continuously with waiverss for setbacks and heights. Uh it's it's a situation where I'm here regarding 50 West Alto Drive to make it this statement as simple as possible. My concern is straightforward. The approval of a height waiver of 3 ft above code without a present hardship or compelling basis. The code established limits for a reason and exceeding those limits without a clearly demonstrated hardship undermines consistency and goes against the written code. It's it raises a fundamental question. What is the purpose of having a code written code if it can be exceeded on a recurring basis which it is? This is not an isolated issue. It's repeated exceptions are becoming more common and have been over the years. My neighborhood is starting to look like an office park. We're progressively altering the scale and the character of the Venetian Islands which are historic in nature. In this case, the property is already a large scale double lot facing due west approximately 200 ft and the home is about 11,000 square ft. They originally came to me asking for a twoft height extension. I rejected it. Then when they showed up at the hearing, they pushed it to three feet.

Granting additional height is not about necessity. There's no hardship. It reforces it reinforces a pattern of incremental overbuilding. At some point, a boundary has to be maintained. I respectfully ask the board to ensure that any deviations from code are supported by a clear legitimate hardship and remain consistent with the intent of the regulations. I would also like the statement entered into the record to preserve my rights. Mr. Mayor, it's time someone speaks up. Commissioner Suarez. Thank you. I'd like Mr. Kger to be at the podium if that's possible. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, sir.

Uh, so is it true that you have asked the applicant for half a million dollars for your approval for his project and then when he didn't Well, excuse me. I'm asking Mr. Kger. The attorneys the attorneys were negotiating prior to this hearing. Okay. So is that a settlement wasn't a basis? I'm just simply asking a question. Did you request half a million dollars from the applicant for your approval? No. No, I did not.

Okay. Um, another issue that I heard was that you sent a demand letter to a well-known resident in Miami Beach, Melissa Bey, because apparently she also had concerns about a type of quid proquo uh in the neighborhood as a result relates to Mr. Sanjay's project. Is that true? Miss Bey accused me of extortion on a public platform, which is a criminal offense, and I requested her to withdraw that statement, and she did. So, I'm asking you here on the record, did you ask the applicant or did you try to negotiate a half a million?

I did not try to negotiate anything. I had my attorney try to negotiate to not exceed the height. Sorry. Your representatives, did any of your representatives try to negotiate a half a million dollar settlement for your approval? No. Okay, there was negotiation partation. Is this under oath? The because we're on a quasi judicial. We aren't in a quiz judicial hearing. The oral arguments are typically conducted by attorneys only. Um I think the the uh the petitioner asked if if he could address the board. But the the truth is that that the argument should be presented by um by council to each party and these aren't under oath.

No. So usually you know usually these and is the the gentleman speaking before you want if council's under oath maybe the council since Mr. Right since since Mr. Briger did provide a statement. I can ask you is the testimony that you have given the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth as well as the any testimony that you will give in this proceeding. I'm not party to discussions the attorneys took place prior to the previous hearing. Okay. You are testifying before a hearing. You're testifying at at a hearing and I'm testifying about overbuilding height.

Excuse me. Usually individuals that come to testify on matters like these are testifying under oath and they're usually administered an oath before the test before they start testifying before the body. You are commissioner, you are correct. Um Mr. Griger, I'd like to place you under oath and ask you if the testimony you have given is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There was discussions. It's a yes or a simple yes or no. There was discussions. It's a simple yes or no, sir. Period. It's a simple yes or no. You're under oath. Yes. Okay. Can you ask him one more time? Thank you. Do you swear that the testimony you've given and will give is the truth of all truth and nothing but the truth? My statement before I make that statement

the testimony you've given at this at this oral argument. My statement is the attorneys negotiated a settlement for this and I was not party to that is the truth. Mayor, my my recommendation would be that we limit the rest of the argument to the uh to to council for parties to the appeal. I'd like to I I'd like to hear him be under oath because he's making serious allegations and I want to know the truth. What allegations am I making except that he's building over hype. Excuse me. I'd like I'd like you to be under oath that is Mr. Ker. I'd like you to be under oath. I It's a simple yes or no. It's binary. Yes or no? Not my attorney. Yes or no to what?

Can you ask him the question one more time? Sir, since you are since you have given testimony, I I just I'd like to ask you if the testimony I I'm placing you under oath. If the testimony you have given and the testimony you will give in this proceeding is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I'm not going to answer that question. Okay. Mr. Mayor, I would just recommend that the that the argument be handled by by council. Yeah. On that front, hello everybody. Gra the recommendation. Thank you, Mayor. 200 Gamble Boulevard for our record before if we could hold on one second. I just just real quick not confused. Are they under oath? Council are not under our our code and under in general counsel not do not need to be placed under oath at these proceedings. But but point of

testifying is this a public hearing item or No, it is not a public hearing. It's an oral argument. Okay. Could we perhaps do something? If anyone is going to testify as part of these proceedings, of course, not the attorneys, but anyone else, you know, can they just not stand and you administer their just like with any other typical proceeding of this nature? It's it has not happened to me in my 13 years here, but All right. All right. And well, Bill,

wait a minute. Wait a minute. I need to make sure the record needs to be clear for the next reviewing court body. And my understanding was that the appellant goes first and then we're going to have a limited amount of time. He gets to respond and then I get to reply. I'm not sure. I just want I don't want it to get confusing, especially since this is a record for a reviewing court. Your time the timer was stopped. It was paused. No, I know. But he's going to start speaking now. And I had a question and no one's answering my question. I wanted

I like I like to answer it. Sure. So, the question is, was there a an offer for a sum of half a million dollars to buy your client's approval for Mr. Sanjay's property? The answer is no. With an explanation. If you allow me to explain, I can walk you through and you can understand the full history associated with that item. Let's hear it.

Okay. So, I'm going to just pivot for a moment to answer your question and I'm going to go back to our presentation. But before I got involved, um the client, the homeowner, Mr. Larkin, sat down, had a conversation. The conversation didn't result in a agreement. So, Mr. Kger decided to hire an attorney. Um I came in and started speaking to Burke Howardell and Fernandez's office and we were working on a settlement agreement. That settlement agreement included and primarily focused upon moving the outdoor entertainment area that's located against the uh appellants's property to the north side of the lot where there is no neighbor. If that was not something that they would do, which I thought was an easy fix, but that's not something that they could do. Mr. Kger said, "My home is going to be substantially damaged. the valuation of my home is going to be substantially damaged. I said, "Look, you have to have actual empirical evidence to state say state something like that. You can't just come up with it's my opinion." So he went out to Burkow and Hathaway and Burkow Hathaway did an evaluation of the property, came back with a written opinion which we submitted for the record and that written opinion says that if the house was built as proposed at the height it was proposed and created a canyon effect that the home would be diminished in value by millions of dollars. What we asked for is if and it wasn't to buy anybody's vote. If you don't want to move the entertainment area from the southside that's abuing our property, it's going to be a major for force of impact to the north where there is no neighbor. Well, then we would like to mitigate our damages. We gave them the letter from Brookalow Hathway. They didn't have anybody else evaluate the

proposal. Um our our proposal was for mitigation the $500,000. We put that in writing. Your code requires disclosure of all types of settlement discussions. What do you mean by mitigation? Mitigation means that we didn't ask for the full damages affected by the reduced valuation that's in the professionals opinion letter. But what would it what would half a million dollars buy to mitigate center? It would offset the devaluation of the home. It's a damage. So if somebody if somebody comes in and decides they want to do a a carnival next to your house, but this isn't a carnival. This is a single family

house being a hypothetical. Another hypothetical. Your property is going to be damaged. The valuation of your property is going to be damaged. But everything I'm sorry, I'm I'm trying to play devil's ad. Yeah, sure. But everything is to to code other than the three-foot variance. Is that correct? It's not like he's building carnival next door. It's he's just the only thing he's asking as far as a variance is three feet. And just to be clear, no variances were approved as part of this. It was a it was a three-foot waiver. It's a waiver,

right? So, what I'm saying is I don't see I mean 3 feet causing half a million dollars in damages when it it could be 3 ft less and it's the same it's going to be the same location of this entertainment center. It's it's very it's very different because the height has shadowing effects and that's one thing we complained about your code requires a VR if you don't mind because I had this discussion also on like last year when it came to understories is Tom Mooney around Tom Tom I I remember on the record you told us when we had the discussion for understories that three feet was what what was the what was the term you you recommend you said

dimminimous dimminimous okay so just I want to be clear that my planning director, our planning director says that 3 ft is dimminimous. It's imperceptible. And you're telling me that it's not? Yes, sir. And it's worth half a million dollars.

Well, what I'm saying is that we had an expert in the real estate industry give an opinion, a written opinion, and that opinion says it's going to be damaged by millions of dollars with this canyon effect. There was no lighting plan submitted which was required to be submitted associated with this application which is one of our arguments. Um that lighting that lighting plan when you have a flat roof don't know what type of overcast is going to have on our property. The location of the outdoor entertainment area which didn't have a variance but was our main point of concern because that was going to be the noise situation.

But again he could have built that without the three foot and it wouldn't have made a difference. But the the city the city has spent tens of millions of dollars on a zoning study and a zoning code and they provide for an exceptional situations for applicants to get waivers. Our our point but he just but our city attorney said there was no waivers granted. This was a waiver. No no other than the Yeah. No varian variances. Just a three-foot waiver for height. Exactly.

Okay. So if there's some type of reason, there's an irregularity associated with this property, um then an applicant come before a board and say there are extraordinary circumstances here, we need to ask for an additional 3 ft. You shouldn't they without those extraordinary circumstances, the city invested so much time and so much resources into a zoning code, they should have to develop in accordance with that zoning code unless those extraordinary circumstances exist. They don't and in our case by giving them an additional three feet I'm not a professional in the real estate industry but we had person go out there he gave his written opinion and that's the opinion we submitted now your code requires us to make disclosures and as an attorney following the code I made the disclosure to the board I put it out there for everybody to hear what the what the hearing was that you saw and I'm glad you guys all saw was basically filled with insinuations that we were somehow which it sounded like it was going this direction today selling our our approval which was not the case at all. We provided different options in order to settle our grievances. Okay, it was almost like a menu and that menu can be picked and choose from. What they decided to do was to address none of our concerns and instead lobby the neighborhood with false allegations and to lobby the uh design review board with false allegations. Now, for the first time in my history, the vice chairman of the design review board asked every person that came up to the deis whether or not they were asking for monetary compensation to sell their vote. And it put this whole um it put this whole uh shadow this dark shadow

upon the hearing because it wasn't focused on the actual issues. It was focused on a misguided narrative that something was improperly done. Well, we were actually following the code. The code has that disclosure requirement because it is proper to ask for mitigation of your damages. That's that's what we did. Whether or not they accepted it is a different story. Um they they declined it, but there was other options in a settlement agreement they could accept accept too and they declined those. Yeah. I'm just simply saying that if there was no 3-FFT variance for the height and Mr. Sanjay decided to keep his entertainment center where he originally intended. Yes sir.

I mean I have a planning director that says it's dimminimous. it would you there would have still been in the same situation, right? Except just 3 ft less. And to me it looks looks a little different when um there is, you know, a half a million dollar settlement uh that's being proposed to b essentially go away. Uh as far as opposition is concerned, you know,

it it was it wasn't to go away. it. We were never going to propose anything like that. And I will say on the record, under oath, I know of no other firm out there that's made more disclosures than Burkow Don Fernandez on those types of issues. It's not unusual. Commissioner Magazine,

and I'll take the devil's advocate approach to that, right? where I'm saying, well, if there's two neighbors and a guy wants to build 3 ft higher for a house or he wants to build a fence a foot closer to your property line than the code allows, he comes over and goes, "Hey, Frank, if uh if you support this, whether he goes, I'll give you a case of beer or a million dollars." I don't really think it's the government's job to get involved there, especially if it's disclosed. Right. So I think we just move on to the further orders that are under the law says. But in the same regard,

I saw nothing in the DRB hearing that says, well, the DRB hearing somehow granted this waiver because of what was disclosed. So, while I agree with you in one regard where it's really not the government's business about what happened between those two private entities, again, whether it was for a case of beer for support or half a million dollars. Yes, sir. I also didn't see anything, but you're going to have your chance to uh further make that case here. Thank you. Whether somehow this waiver was improperly granted. Thank you. I have a question.

Commissioner Fernandez, then Commissioner Dominguez. Thank you. And in the materials that were pro that was provided to us, uh there's a letter from m from a Mr. Jason Zarco. Mr. Riley, I don't think so. Mr. Riley, I'm speaking to you. Sorry, I'm very uh there's a letter from a Mr. Jason Sarco. Is that correct? And the materials that were provided? Yeah. Yes, sir. Okay. And uh Mr. Zarko is the one that has determined um that this equates to a significant devaluation for land. Yes, sir. That's that's a gentleman from Brook Hathaway, I think. Birkshshire Hathway.

And what is what are uh Mr. Zarko's professional qualifications uh to issue this opinion? He's a professional licensed real est um real estate agent in the state of Florida. Is he an appraiser? I don't not to my knowledge. Okay. I don't know. So we're so we have someone who is not an appraiser making a determination or a recommendation or giving professional advice on value of property. Yes sir. And and it's a good point you're break bringing up. It's something that could have been raised. I just I just I just I I think you know it if you if you told me that this was an appraiser

an appraiser guides themsself through a scientific metric uh and they're trained to do that then I would say you know what this is important evidence that's presented to us. But considering the fact that that that this isn't someone that's trained in evaluations. We know the real estate agents all the time um agents from from from companies like the one that you provided, you know, they might say, "Yeah, property is worth this or that, but then when it gets time to get a loan or or whatever, it's not what someone like Mr. Zarco says that matters. It's what a professional appraiser says that matters. And I don't see any evidence before us today that's been provided to the design review board or passed along to us that shows that a that a expert and a professional on evaluating values of properties and their impacts has made this determination that you're alleging.

So our position was that we relied upon him as a professional as a licensed professional. You as a tryer of fact bring up a good point and as a trial of fact you can decide whether his qualifications are but wouldn't you say that he if you if if you if you had to get an an a valuation on loss of of of of value on your property would you hire a real estate agent to do that for you or would you hire an appraiser to do that for you? I would me personally I'd probably hire both because when you first go to sell your house the first person you do talk to is a listing agent and that listing agent usually decides what the listing price would be if

but then when you go get financing in order to make the deal you're going to need that appraiser and this is nothing this is no different and you haven't presented us with any evidence to show that a professionally licensed appraiser which is a trade that is licensed and regulated uh in under the state of Florida under specific speific training requirements has come out and made the determination that you are making on behalf of your client. And so I don't see and if it was I'm sorry. Yeah,

I was just going to rebut but if if it was something that was entertained by them and not used as a weapon and they decided to say look well let's have an appraiser do it. We could have taken a next step and had an appraiser do it. I personally would probably have done both but it was never fully considered by them. Instead, it was used as a gotcha. And it was this gotcha that created this false narrative that didn't allow us to have a full affair hearing at the DRB board and has cloaked this discussion about the waiver into, you know, something that it really shouldn't be.

No, we but but let me ask you something. But putting aside um what you know your questions about whether whe whether the hearing was was fair or not in the DRB and I trust that with the guidance of our city attorney I trust with the guidance of staff uh those who are appointed to the DRB conducted a fair a fair hearing. Uh I mean you trust that you know as as as an AICP accredited planner Tom Mooney has experience in this matter. Wouldn't you wouldn't wouldn't you say? Yes sir. I think he's one of the best uh planning directors that's out there. I made that point in my He's one of the best planning directors out there.

I think so. and uh and and you know, do you agree with me that um that on page three of Mr. Mooney's staff report who you who you just described as one of the best planning professionals out there.

Yeah. He has written that the proposed structure has an orientation and massing which is sensitive to and compatible with the building site and surrounding area and which creates or maintains important view corridors. The massing and the orientation is sensitive and compatible with the building sites and he wrote that that was satisfied. Do you agree that that is what Mr. Mooney said? Yeah, that sounds like you read it correctly.

All right. So, so Mr. Mooney who you have described as one of the most professional and the best planning planning professionals in the area has written that the proposed structure which you are which you are appealing on behalf of your client is indeed has the right orientation and the right massing and it is sensitive and this is someone who is licensed and who is trained to do that. However, you come and you bring as your evidence someone who is not a licensed professional on the issues of valuation. And so, how do I give more

not on the issue of appraisals and evaluations? He's a he's he's licensed he's licensed to sell property but not to value property. And so how do I give more wage to your evidence as opposed to the weight of our planning director who you just have said is one of the best in the area.

In in page 14 of my of my complaint to this board, I mention that I say that I believe that your professional staff is one of the best professional staffs in all of South Florida. I said it here again today. However, your code, your zoning code has a criteria that has to be followed by the planning by the design review board. And when I questioned staff at that hearing, and if you watch the tape, you may have heard it. They missed one of those criterias. And the criteria says shall, and they didn't evaluate that criteria. Okay? Now, that's a departure from the essential requirements of law. And even though you may have the best professional staff out there, I put in my arguments, everybody's makes mistakes. Everybody's entitled to a bad day. So, was there issues associated with this? Yes. And I believe those are appealable issues. Is he one of the best planning directors out there? Yes. But mistakes happen and our our appeal is based upon those mistakes.

Mr. Ali, does that conclude your presentation? So, we need to let the applica uh Are you talking to me? Yes. I haven't really even started my presentation. I'll just respond to answers questions. Would you would you like to finish here? I would like to go ahead and do my presentation. Yes, sir. So

what I was going to start with is to explain to the board that this is a very narrow issue and the issue is not to have a reharing on the matter as your city attorney mentioned but to see whether the legal requirements of the application were met and the law has determined that those this legal review has three prongs and they're pretty short and pretty uh concise. The first is whether or not the hearing allowed procedural due process. And to make it very short, and I quoted the the law in my complaint, but to make it very short, it means that you have a meaningful, fair opportunity to be heard. Now, if you watched that hearing and if you read the transcript that we submitted after the hearing, it's our position that there was procedural due process that was not afforded in this case. Um because I had a PowerPoint presentation. My PowerPoint presentation was very short. I asked to go through the PowerPoint presentation. I wasn't given an opportunity to present our our evidence. I was cut off repeatedly. I was asked about questions about $500,000. Um there was arguments throughout the day. Um whenever I went to make one objection, the chairman yelled at me and told me to sit down. I couldn't make an objection. Well, that's my job to make objections. It was it was really very strange to me to be in that setting. um whenever a staff person was inter uh introduced on on the response as an expert witness not the case and chief but in the response I asked to cross cross-examine the witness I was told I had I could give them one question

um and these arbitrary these arbitrary and capriccious rules that were set up by the design review board on that particular day and this particular matter never allowed us to go through our evidence, never allowed us to address the the 3T in height. And we stand and I'll stand upon the complaint. I don't want to belabor the point, but there really was a departure from the essential requirements law because the whole hearing centered around $500,000 and it put this the decision was made before we walked in the door. Okay? And it was all cloaked within this uh black cloud and conspiracy theory that was very easily to address and I wanted to address it was never given the opportunity. We think based upon the law that they failed the first prong and whether or not they failed the first prong is not decisive on this issue. The courts have determined that the applicant has to meet each and every prong satisfy everyone and if they miss one well then the case has to be remanded or overturned. Now the second one the second prong is whether the essential requirements of law were observed in the case. I wholeheartedly believe that the answer to that question is no. And the reason I say that is because in section, let me just find it real fast. Sorry. Let me give you the right section code in section 2.5.3.1 of the design review board's uh regulations. is is codified within the land development code, the zoning

resiliency code. It provides for a laundry list of items that must be reviewed on an application. And one of those items, it says, and I'm going to read it verbatim, a light lighting shall be reviewed to ensure safe movement of persons and vehicles and reflection on public property for security purposes and to minimize glare and reflection onto adjacent properties. The one question I asked the staff I was only allowed one was whether or not they reviewed the lighting and his answer was no. Now a departure from the essential requirements of law to make it very simple is whether or not the law was followed. Your code says it shall be reviewed. Now co court courts have said when the word shall is done it's a mandate. It's not like may. There's no uh discretion to determine whether or not you can or cannot. You must comply with that criteria and that was missed. Staff never reviewed that criteria. The applicant never submitted those documentation by making a ruling and the case could have been deferred and they could have resolved this. They decided not to. Instead, they were going to shove us down our throat. You know, they they they missed that criteria and therefore the essential requirements of law were not followed. The last one very shortly is whether or not disputed action is supported by substantial competent evidence. Your staff issued a recommendation of approval. Uh the applicant made a long his long argument and the design review board about how that was substantial competent evidence per se. The law has said it creates a rebuttal presumption. the reportable presumption we submitted uh was that the code itself was not followed and if the code was not followed then there's no substantial competent evidence and I'm just trying to rush but with that those are our

arguments on appeal we appreciate your time and of course I'm available to answer any questions you may have thank you okay Graham Penn 200 South Biscane Boulevard on behalf of the applicant KC property, Holdings, Land Trust. And I think one thing we've learned this afternoon is that the it's a good idea to move forward with that uh ordinance moving this into a special magistrate process. Uh Commissioner Suarez, uh the because again, I don't think this commission on, you know, this is natural is well set up for what this is really supposed to be because I can tell you, Mr. And yes,

you're getting into an area that has to do with the policy and with what is the jurisdiction of this body and I think that that's for policy makers to make and not for lobbyists to pine. Yes, I apologize.

Uh but let me be clear uh and I meant to do this earlier. The statements of Mr. Kger uh I would object to as being new evidence being presented to this commission. this commission cannot take in new evidence and I would even say apologies to Commissioner Suarez the colloquy with Mr. Mooney who is the best planner that has ever lived is my opinion. Uh but that is new evidence and that cannot be considered by this commission. You are limited to the record in front of the DRP. You uh you are limited to the arguments uh in uh that that were made and and given to the DRP. So I let me touch on and I I apologize. I meant to mention that Mr. Justin Alexander, the city attorney's office is going to help uh on any due process portions, but I'll I'll touch on a couple of the things that uh that came up in our init in Mr. Riley's presentation. First, waiverss just as an uh just as a point of information. A waiver in your code is not a variance. It's does not require any special showing or elevated showing uh to the board. It just it is a the board reviews waiverss under the same standards they review any application. It is not a special request. It's not a variance. It's not out of sorts or inconsistent with the code. Uh two on waiverss we had two waivers in our application. One was was the additional 3 ft of building height. The other one was to provide 7 foot solid walls on either side for Mr. Kger. Uh that was what he requested. So, we agreed to to seek a waiver and we did. And and contrary to the the uh the assertions we've heard, this plan from the outset has been designed to limit the impacts on Mr. Kger. We set this building back 18 ft from his property line. We put the garage, the kitchen, the pool equipment, all the the AC's all

on the north side of this property, as far away from it as possible. But again, uh the the questions before you today, and I think, uh Commissioner Magazine got at this is not whether the commissioner would make the same decision that the DRB made, but whether the DRB made a legal decision and the and based on those standards, the three prongs that Mr. Riley outlined, the DRB clearly made a legal decision. The Let me turn to the essential requirements of law argument. Basically what the essential when when you're asked to determine what the uh whether an application is consistent with the essential requirement or a decision is consistent with the essential requirements. The biggest question is did they apply the standards in the code? Did they look outside of the code and make a decision? Uh here you can see from the transcript is very clear that the board sought to keep their purview on design. the vice chair who's chairing the meeting expressly and this is on page 69 made sure that look uh we're not going to talk about valuation. We're not going to talk about $500,000. This is about the code criteria and he forced that he made sure that that was not being discussed because that's not relevant to their decision. As to the the question of the lighting plan, uh the petitioner suggested that there is not a lighting plan provided. There was a discussion on page 71 of your transcript where planner explained another great planner Raholio Madan explained that the uh that for single family homes the department's policy is not to require a phototric lighting plan until building permit and that's why there was no phototric plan provided. However, if you look in your packages, which I'm sure you've enjoyed reading at length, l page l uh plan L7 in our submitt, which is the last page of our appendix, uh includes a lighting plan that was submitted as part of this

application. That lighting plan shows the every exterior light on this property, including everything against Mr. Kger's property line. It also shows if you look at it that every single exterior light on this property is low wattage and and and every all but one are located no higher than 24 inches off the ground which is again for landscaping purposes. So there is a lighting plan now a phototric plan per city policy will be reviewed a building permit but there's a lighting plan in this set. So and I don't know if Mr. Uh if Justin wants to get up because we really didn't get 10 here, but the Let me just summarize our uh our clear position based on the record in front of the DRB. The DRB clearly provided uh Mr. Kger with due process. They clearly observe the essential requirements of the law and they clearly base their decision on substantial competent evidence including staff recommendation, the extensive uh lengthy plans that are in this set on nearly 50 pages of detailed plans and all the testimony at the hearing. Your job again is not to reweigh this decision, not to say, well look, we'll revisit it and maybe make a different choice. The only question is could the DRB have properly legally made that choice? And in our opinion, the answer is clearly yes. I'm here for any questions. Mr. Alexander.

Thank you. Good afternoon, uh, honorable mayor and commissioners. Justin Alexander, assistant city attorney. On behalf of the design review board, I would respectfully request 5 minutes to present if that's acceptable to the board. Um, the DRB respectfully requests that you affirm its order approving the design review application for 50 West Toledo because the DRB afforded procedural due process to the petitioner, Mr. Kger. This is so for three reasons. First, the DRB afforded the petitioner a meaningful opportunity to be heard on October 23rd. Second, the DRB fairly and impartially deliberated prior to rendering its decision. And third, all exparte communications were fully disclosed on the record at the beginning of the public hearing and are not prejuditial. The petitioner claims he lacked a meaningful opportunity to be heard, but the but the record plainly reveals that the petitioner had exactly the amount of time he requested, 5 to 8 minutes, plus significant additional time speaking in colloquy with board members, making evidentiary objections, introducing evidence, and providing supplemental testimony, as well as cross-examining planning staff. It should be noted uh neither the law of due process nor the city's resiliency code requires anything more for a meaningful opportunity. And I'd just like to point out that on page uh 42 of the transcript at line 5, Mr. Riley requested 5 to 8 minutes to uh to present to which m vice chair defender who was presiding over the hearing said I can give you five. To which Mr. Riley responded, "I I'll speed through it some." Now, 5 to 8 minutes should have been plenty of time to get through his public comment. Most uh most of the other public commenters only received about 2 minutes. Uh but he did uh go well in excess of that. Um and additionally any suggestion that there

were arbitrary rules governing the hearing is simply belied by the fact that in the in the in the in the transcript uh uh v Vice Chair Defenderfer and Deputy City Attorney Steve Rothstein controlled uh the time taken by public speakers at the hearing on no fewer than 13 separate occasions. As to the fairness and impartiality of the hearing, the design review board fairly uh and properly applied every design review criterion set forth in section 2.5.3.1 of the resiliency code. Uh regardless of the petitioner's attempt to inject the settlement negotiations into the hearing, even though doing so was neither uh required by the code, I'd like to reiterate something and correct something that Mr. Riley said. Neither the resiliency code nor the code of ordinances requires someone to disclose settlement negotiations between two private parties as part of a design a a design review board application. The disclosure requirement only applies to exparte communications by board members. And here that disclosure was properly made as I'll explain shortly. But the design review board repeatedly uh Mr. Derender and Miss Bhut Cavolei repeatedly said this is out of our purview. This is out of our purview. we don't want to discuss this and would would repeatedly try to redirect the conversation uh back toward the design issues properly jurisdictionally before the design review board. Uh and in any event, the board speaks through its written order and the petitioner's request to try to attribute a few brief responsive comments uh to some grand uh uh bias or uh sensationalism that tainted the proceedings is simply contrary to the law. There was simply uh no evidence that they were biased based on the um the the settlement disclosure. And also

the transcript reveals that Miss Bhuta Cavoi never asked Mr. Riley to disclose the settlement negotiations. Um she may have asked other applicants at dur for other applications on the in during the public meeting but not this one. And finally all of the expparte communications uh that that uh Mr. Defender and Miss Bhuta Cavolei engaged in were fully disclosed on the record and uh uh consistent with the requirements set forth by section 2-512 of the the city code of ordinances. And even if the petitioner could now raise some some defect with the disclosure, uh he waved that by not objecting contemporaneously at the hearing and by cross-examining those board members about the substance of those communications during the public hearing portion. So that cannot be a basis on which uh the commission would reverse the design review board. So in uh in light of the foregoing, the DRB respectfully requests that you affirm its order because due process of law was afforded. Thank you,

Madam Vice Mayor. Commissioner Magazine, uh appreciate it. uh have two questions and again whether there was some sort of payment or negotiation I don't think is in my purview especially for this hearing and I don't think it was in the DRB's purview uh as long as it was disclosed and I don't see any evidence that any decision was made uh in relation to that. So going on two things that the not the applicant uh appealing. Yeah. The petitioner

the petitioner uh mentioned and this is for the city attorney. You talked about a lack of adequate uh time to speak publicly which was 5 minutes as our city attorney said. Uh I understand that the petitioner may uh be directly impacted. And I guess I'll ask our city attorney if there is somebody at a public hearing DRB or things like that if they are directly impacted does that give them more time more right to public comment than anybody else?

So in this case an immediate neighbor no the code does not provide for additional time. Uh what happened here was that the board I think in recognition that this was the immediate neighbor um allowed Mr. Riley additional time, but no, the code does not require actually allowed him additional time. Yes, he didn't shrink his time. And the second is you made a compelling argument with the lighting that was then again to a lay person compellingly rebutted. Do you have a response to that rebuttal?

Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh or Mr. Commissioner. Um I just wanted to provide a very short reply. There's only uh three items I wanted to address. I'm going to address the lighting uh first uh because you asked about it. So, the code requirement specifically states the following. I want to read it verbatim because it's important. Lighting shall be reviewed to ensure safe movement of persons and vehicles and reflection on public property for security purposes and to minimize glare and reflection on adjacent properties. period. Now, when he was mentioning that a lighting plan was issued, sort of trying to sort of a red herring um because even though they had a plan within their 51 pages that showed where flood lights and items were going to be, the question specifically to professional staff on city on the day is was did staff review a lighting plan for the glare and effect onto Mr. Kger's property? The answer was no that none was provided but they're talking about the phototrics and the photometrics can be done at the time of building permit. So it's it's convol trying to convolute a very simple question in my mind. Um I'm going directly with how the uh code reads. Um the I asked that specific question to staff. Staff said no. The second item I just wanted to bring up uh very quickly was on my time that I presented. Um it was almost like today when there was a lot of discussion initially but I didn't get to uh present the meats and potatoes that was all counted against me um at that hearing and I never like I mentioned the easiest way for me to explain it unless you watched it and had your own opinion was that I had a very simple PowerPoint and yeah I did say I was going to rush

through it because I had like a minute they gave me left. Um, so anyways, uh, that's the one thing I want to mention. That was an ironic beep timing. Yeah, that's it. And and I'm done and I'm done and uh I hope that answers your question. Appreciate it. Thank you. I have a question, Commissioner Fernandez.

Um, and perhaps someone can guide me as to whom I should direct this question to. Um so when it comes to the RB proceedings and this specific section of the code um single family homes are lighting plans uh always required of single family homes when they go before the design review board. if

even though you you cannot consider uh new testimony or evidence, I think that's a question that is best directed to the uh to the to the planning director, even if you're just asking forformational purposes. Well, so perhaps I can ask the uh planning director um on the record, page 71 of the transcript, the line 17 says for single family homes, we leave that as a condition that can be addressed as part of the building per uh process. Do you agree with that statement that was made on the record on October 23rd, 2025? Generally lighting plans um are submitted um based upon and this is generally based upon all DRB applications um the detail of the lighting plan submitted um is based upon the type of development project in this particular instance and again I don't want to be in a position where I'm offering new testimony but the testimony that was provided uh was accurate and I agree with So, so, so it is. So, when I'm reading here that says for single family homes, we leave that as a condition that can be addressed as part of the of the building permit process. That is something that was stated on the record that was discussed at the design review board hearing that that is something that is done at the uh building permit process. And you agree with that record that was made uh at the board hearing?

Yes. Okay. All right. And so and so and so for me that satis that satisfies was there was there any objection uh from from the board members of of this being heard at the uh build building permit process. Uh we uh petitioner objected. No, the board the the board members that we appoint they the transcript shows no objection to Mr. Madan's conclusion.

Okay. And so I I would make a motion then to uphold what was the uh the ruling. I mean, what I'm seeing here is that, you know, the allegation is that is that they didn't uh review lighting. Um, but but but the record states that it was discussed and was disclosed at the time of the hearing that this is something that is handled at the design review process. The the board members that they had concerns with that. they could have raised that concern, but it seems like they all agreed uh with the guidance of the of of of Roelio Madan uh that our planning director just also, you know, supported. So, I I I'd like to make that motion to uphold the ruling.

Yeah. And I think to that specific point, Commissioner, uh, what we're reviewing and what's in our purview is was there any answer that came out of that lighting that would have prevented the board of adjustment from making the decision or granting the waiver? And to that, I see no evidence of that. So, I I agree with where you're going. And to Commissioner Fernandez who made the motion, may I suggest that the motion is to affirm based on a finding that the that the standard of review was satisfied, right? That the board provided uh procedural due process that the essential requirements of law were observed and that the board's decision was supported by competence, potential evidence.

So moved. Second. Can I just make one statement for the record? Is that okay? Um, I just want to say for the record to make sure it's clear that the code requirement on the lance on the lighting uh is specifically submitted for the DRB criteria and to uh delegate that uh to the permit process leaves neighboring property owners without a remedy. So, it makes that criteria meaningless is my only point. But I I appreciate everybody's time. We appreciate yours. Thank you. Okay. So, I have a motion for from Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Commissioner Suarez. All in favor, please say I.

I. Anyone opposed? Hearing none. The item is approved. 70. Mr. Kger, thank you for your time and the amount of time you've spent here on Miami Beach. And thank you. uh what you opened with I think a lot of us don't necessarily disagree with but that's not what was in our purview here. Thank you. R7J.

R7J is accept recommendation modification to 63rd Street Bridge schedule. Commissioner Bach.

Um, I'm going to make a motion to defer this item. The Coast Guard has been on furlow unfortunately and so we don't have answers to some of the questions. I very much appreciate the fact that you folks are here to speak. I've received your letters. I can assure you nobody's trying to make the waterways less safe for you. I rode in high school. I thought I would rode Brown, but I'm clearly too short to be of use. Um, so I want to make sure it's safe for you and I want to make sure that nothing um um there are no unintended consequences. As soon as we have some answers from the Coast Guard, I will share with you. I have emails. Um I will share with you what we're thinking. I'm very eager to get your input once we have a plan moving forward. But right now, we don't have any new information. Bear,

Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, I I think in that same thought, I think it's also important that we give direction to the city for any recommendations to the Coast Guard. I And I I'm sorry. There's been a motion and second to defer. We have had a community meeting. We've taken a number of um uh phone calls and emails. I think we have a very clear direction on what needs to happen next. Well, I don't have a clear direction. Well, did you were at the meeting, you made presentations. How do you not We don't, but staff doesn't have a clear direction to negotiate with the the Coast Guard.

I've been speaking to staff. It's my item. I have been speaking with staff. We have very clear direction. And if you would let me manage my item, I would appreciate it. It's been deferred. There's a motion in the second. And as soon as we have more information, I will share it and we will proceed accordingly. Thanks. Can we call the vote? I I'd still like to at least have five minutes to discuss this with our transportation director just to see if he can at least suggest some certain things to the Coast Guard. It's just going to take five minutes.

With due respect, it is my item. I have been working on this with the input from you and the community um residents and other involved parties that came to the community meeting. and you're free to have a conversation with Jose on your own time, but how is this that I'm not permitted to manage my own items? No one's no one's changing what you can and can't negotiate with the Coast Guard. I think it's just important that staff, you know, has some sort of direction for what to request from the Coast Guard. We have the rowing club here who took time out of their day. Mr. Mayor, pointed a forer because I've asked Rick to give me procedure.

Sure. I mean, there's a motion in a second, so usually you would vote on on that. So, look, I I just I think it's important to have public input and and and consider alternatives from people who who are on the water every day. Mr. Mayor, if I may, we've just been told the uh from the city attorney, we have a motion to second. I got to call the vote. Call the vote. So, this is a motion to defer to April 22nd. No. Um No. What did we decide? May or June? I forget what we decided. June, I think, to make sure they're back and we have time to Exactly. Because Okay. So, deferring to the June meeting. So, the June meeting is June 24th.

So, motion to defer to June 24th. I heard a motion by Commissioner Bot, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. All in favor of deferring R7J to June 24th. Please say I. I. Anyone opposed? Hearing none, the item is deferred 70 to June 24th. That was item R sevenj to to the rowing club. Sorry to if the if the sponsor would have let let us everyone know that it was going to be deferred. We you know you wouldn't have wasted your time to come and to those who are watching. But you know we're going to we're going to continue to make sure that whatever gets passed is not going to be detrimental to the safety on the water for you and your kids.

Clearly that is never the intent and that's not what's going to happen. You have my word. Thank you commissioner. Thank you. R7 AE R7 AE is a men model volleyball with electronic music concerts. Move the item. Second. Hold on. Did want to say my daughter has been going here since she was 3 months old. No discussion. I'd like to discuss this. Commissioner Suarez. Okay. Can staff present, please.

Good afternoon, Lisa Roante, director of tourism and culture. Uh we're presenting now the amendment of the model volleyball event uh before you. They are requesting for this year to add um additional programming. They're a long-standing grandfathered event. They've been 15 years with the city of Miami Beach. And for this year, they're proposing to add nighttime uh activations with DJs uh Saturday and Sunday until 11:00 p.m. We did meet with them to bring down on Sunday night to 10:00 p.m. uh their activations. Uh it will not be a tented event. It's out in the open. Uh as part of our special event permitting process, they do have to receive approvals from state. Um it's reviewed internally from all departments including environment and sustainability and we're going through that process right now.

And just in terms of the volume uh when we had the college football concert which I actually thought was awesome, excellent. I had three generations my family there uh we did get complaints that the music was loud. I'm going to guess that that event was for 70,000 people and it was professionally produced by some of the biggest prevent producers in the world. We're not talking even in the same ballpark is the decibel level that will be emanated especially on a Sunday evening.

Any event has to adhere to the noise or the county and the city of Miami Beach noise ordinance that's starts at 11 p.m. However, uh if any noise is heard within a 100 ft, they would have to adjust that or even be shut down. So that that applies to any event any time of the day.

So I guess what I'll say is I'll place my trust in you all. However, I'm guessing you don't want this to be a oneanddone type thing, right? So there's no coming back next year and going, "Ah, I'm sorry. We didn't realize something. If you mess up, you mess up and we're not having this discussion next year." So take it as you will. Let's be respectful. Let's manage this perfectly because it's not a second chance opportunity. Let's really get this right from the get-go. So, when when is the event I'm sorry, when would the event take place? The event is taking place Saturday, April 18th and Sunday, April 19th of this year. Correct.

Okay. And is there any proposal for the following year? This is an annual event. So, they they technically do come every year for the last 15 years. Okay. Uh my look, my only concern is turtle nesting season, right? Uh with lights and you know, I had a brief discussion with Amy. Is there any way to mitigate the lights on the beach?

Absolutely. Through the turtle ordinance, they would have to uh adjust and have a lighting plan. Uh most events end at 9:00 p.m. during that time. So, it's going through the process now. We're waiting. We would wait to see what the state um would require of this event in order for them to be to adhere to the turtle ordinance. Is that Amy if you don't mind if is this something that your department is going to work with Lisa on on making sure that it is total compliant?

Yes, we will commissioner. Um our our ordinance which we updated in October of 2024 has some very specific requirements um for any events in the evening. Um, first it says they have to have a permit or an exemption from the state and then any lighting associated with the event cannot be visible from the beach after 9:00 p.m. and any authorized lighting must be low wattage longwavelength light source shielded and directed away from the beach. So we have an expectation that it would be very low light that there would be shielding and that it would not be causing an impact. Is this on the beach? Yes, it's on the beach front. So how do how do you wrangle those? It's on the beach, so obviously there's going to be light.

Yeah. I mean, the whole goal is to minimize the situation, but it is something that the state may may allow. So, our ordinance minim minimizes it as much as possible. Okay. Well, I hope I hope it's minimized. I'm a big turtle fan. So, you know, just make sure that we can, you know, minimize the amount of light pollution even if it's till what time? 11:00. 900 p.m. is is our 9 p.m. 9 p.m. They just said 11. The the application that they've submitted is until 11 p.m. So when is it going to go till? I'm sorry. So when would it go till?

It would go depending on what the state recommends. So the if the state recommends 9:00 p.m. they would have to end at 9:00 p.m. Can we recommend as the city 9:00 p.m.? AB: Absolutely we can. And our ordinance recommends that the light be minimized after 9:00 p.m. Any lights have to be sea turtle friendly and not not visible as amended. I'll I'll move it as amended till 9:00. Okay, Rick. Can we tell the question? I didn't hear the answer.

I'd like to make I'd like to make a an amendment to make sure that the the event ends at 9:00. That would be um I mean this is approving the the event, but that would be up to the the special event permit to reduce the hours, right? So So motion has amended. And just to be clear, what is the amendment? Because I want staff to The amendment is to qualify the special ed permit so that the music ends at 9:00. Yeah. Good. And I do believe that the ordinance as it's currently drafted says that the event has to be concluded and any load out that happens that evening has to be concluded as well.

So if they're going to load out that night, that would have to start before 9 or they would need to load out the next day. I I would I would say the the the event should end at 9. If we we say that the load out has to happen by night, then might as well not give them any approval because then we're, you know, just effectively just destroying the event. Yeah, I'm a little I'm a little uncomfortable having an event on the beach till 11:00 and then coupled with the fact that it is sea turtle nesting season, right?