Aviation and Seaport Committee - Regular Meeting

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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What a delight! What a delight! Thank you for watching.

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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Gilbert, Commissioner Hardiman, Commissioner Millian-Orbis, Vice Chairman Gonzales, Chairwoman Cohen-Higgins.

Good morning everyone and welcome to Port Miami and our Seaport Committee. We are going to have an invocation led by Commissioner Gonzales followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Commissioner Millian-Orbis.

Please bow your heads. Dear Lord, thank you for this wonderful day that you've given us. Thank you for our families. Thank you for all the residents of Miami-Dade County. Lord, please guide us in every decision we make and everything that we do. Let it be for your will and your glory. In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Good morning to the attorneys. I don't have any public hearing items on our agenda. And so at this time, I will open the reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard. I don't have any speaker cards. Reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard is now open. Now is your opportunity to approach the podium on any items on this morning's agenda. Seeing no one approaching, reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard is now closed. To the attorneys, any additions, edits, or changes to this morning's agenda?

Good morning, Madam Chair. Yes, I do have a couple of preliminary announcements. Item 3D was added to your agenda, but the administration has since withdrawn that item. So that item has been removed from your agenda today.

Is that 3B or 3- 3D as in delta. 3D as in delta, okay.

In addition, the administration is respectfully requesting the advancement of item 3B as in Bravo to the October 6th BCC meeting. Otherwise, the motion to set your agenda is in order.

I'll entertain a motion. Motion. It's been moved. It's been seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Anyone wish to be recorded? No. This morning's agenda is set. Before we take up any bifurcations or discussions on this morning's specific agenda items, I would like for our Miami International Airport Director to approach. Yes. I'm sorry.

No, no problem. If it's appropriate, could we take a moment of silence for those whose lives were lost this Labor Day weekend in the airplane crash?

Yeah, I think that's absolutely appropriate, Commissioner Millian-Orbis. So if you would like for us to stand, or would you like for us to just bow our heads? Yes, can we please stand for a few moments of silence? Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for that, Commissioner Milliano-Orbis. And I was having our director approach because I want to have a conversation with our director and take things a little bit out of order as a result of the tragedy that occurred this weekend that I know everybody is very familiar with from the perspective of hearing from the press. And maybe some of us were briefed, some of us maybe were not. um but but welcome director thank you for being here and again thank you commissioner orbis for the moment of silence i think it was entirely appropriate you know thankfully what happened this weekend is not something that we experience often in this county especially to the magnitude that it took place this weekend and it is a true tragedy with five innocent precious lives Being lost and so I think that this is a very somber meeting that we're having as the 1st aviation committee hearing after the tragedy. And I will welcome any comments or questions from my colleagues, but I certainly will add to the moment of silence that I, as a member of this board, and believe that I speak on behalf of all of my colleagues when I extend the. Deepest most heartfelt condolences to every family member. and everyone affected by this tragedy. Really, our hearts go out to these families, whether they are residents of Miami-Dade County or not is completely irrelevant. Our hearts are all breaking for the lives that have been lost this weekend at our airport. And so with that, Director, I will turn it over to you. I have a number of questions. I believe my questions may be encompassed in your brief presentation. But I will give you the floor to inform this committee and anybody who may be watching on what you have by way of factual information as it relates to the tragedy that took place this weekend. with the Amazon Prime cargo plane at Miami International Airport. You are recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. So on Sunday, September 6th, at approximately 2 p.m., we had an Amazon Air cargo aircraft, a 767, operated by 21 Air. Their operator crashed at Miami International Airport on runway 1230. That resulted, upon the crash, our fire department did an exceptional job in the response time. They were on scene in 30 seconds. and were able to put the fire out the subsequent fire out in on the right wing area um that resulted that crash resulted in approximately a three hour ground stop to the airport so we had no flights coming in around for three hours and we had all our runway shut down at that time within three hours of that we were able to get runway 8 left up and running and then subsequent to that runway 927 up and running as well so we are currently operating with Half capacity, two of our runways operational, runways 1230, which was the site of the incident, and the adjacent runway 8R are still down while the NTSB conducts their investigation. As you mentioned, Madam Chairwoman, tragically, this incident resulted in the loss of five lives. Three victims were transported with critical injuries to Ryder Trauma. And two were transported, the pilot and the co-pilot actually, were transported to Jackson West, I believe. And they are apparently in good condition. So ten casualties total, five deaths, three critical, and the two that are okay. As far as operational impacts are concerned, we had that day, Sunday, we had about 211 cancellations, 211 plus cancellations overall. So a major operational impact. The airport, yesterday we had about 183 cancellations total that we had. We are slowly but surely taking steps. Our staff and the fire department responded immediately. We had drones up in the air doing inspections of the airfield prior to getting access to the site. We were in contact with the NTSB immediately and they responded right away. They're currently on site now conducting their investigation. As of last night, we were able to drain all the fuel off the aircraft. We were able to drain about 2,300 gallons total from both wings from the aircraft. That was completed late yesterday evening. That fuel was collected in a truck and is being held as evidence as per the NTSB's instructions. We had our environmental crews out this morning at 5 a.m. starting to assess any environmental damage and any environmental cleanup that has to be performed on the airfield. Obviously, as a result of the aircraft going through our thousand-foot runway safety area and breaching our perimeter fence, We had about 370 linear feet of perimeter fence that was damaged and taken down. And obviously the aircraft impacted two vehicles, a passenger van and a civilian vehicle outside of the fence line. So that's an overall overview of the incident as it is. The NTSB obviously is conducting a very thorough investigation of this and we're working very closely with them on that. As far as any other operational impacts, we are working very closely with our airlines. We also are working proactively in partnership with American Airlines. This is very similar to what we did back four years ago during the Red Air crash. We are under emergency procedures. We are working with American Airlines with their special aircraft recovery team, which is based here locally. They've already gone out and assessed the site, and they already have a plan of action in place to remove the aircraft. once we get access to the site by the NTSB, which hopefully will be in the next few days. Can't really promise that because they're still working on that. So we have a plan of action to get us back up and running. Runway 8 right does not have any damage, so we're hopeful that we can get that back up sooner than 1230, which apparently does have damage. The aircraft, upon impact, did take out several FAA navigational aids. that have to be repaired. There apparently also is some runway damage to runway lights and other areas of the runway on 1230, which have to be addressed. Our teams are ready to go. We've been marshaling up materials, et cetera, to get ready. So once we get access to the site from the NTSB, we'll go ahead and start those repairs right away and try to get us back in full operation as soon as possible. So that's kind of an overview of the incident, the operational impacts. I also want to mention two other things. Our airport, along with all other large category airports around the country, undergo annual FAA Part 319A inspections, which are safety inspections of our airfield. We pass those inspections every year. So our airport is fully compliant with all safety requirements and all FAA safety requirements as far as operational capacity of our airport. So we are good on that end. And I know in the media there have been some conversations regarding engineering, engineered material arresting systems, EMAS systems at airports and how they're used to be able to mitigate impacts of this type. I can tell you that those systems are employed as per FAA reg when an airport does not have the required 1,000 foot runway safety area capacity for these types of incidents. So all four of our runways have the 1,000-foot runway safety area capacity. These things, these type of EMAS systems are employed at airports where they cannot meet that capacity, and that is considered by the FAA under the regs on alternate solution not a complementary solution. So the fact that we are compliant, that means that, you know, obviously we would not be certified to operate by the FAA under their annual inspections if we weren't. So those EMAS systems are typically employed, as I mentioned, when you don't have that. Obviously, if the NTSB comes out with any recommendations, we're surely happy to look at that in the future. That would require, obviously, the FAA regulations to be revised, etc., But would it have made a difference in this case? We're not sure. That'll be up to the NTSB to decide as part of their investigation. And they will look at multiple factors as far as root causes to the actual impact. Weather, wind speed, air speed, altitude, attitude of the aircraft. potential mechanical or instrument failures, those kind of things. So that'll all come out. Yesterday the black box was removed from the aircraft and transported up to D.C. for inspection. So we hope to get some better information as far as flight data, hopefully today. And in a nutshell, anything else you want to cover? That gives you kind of an overview, and I'm hesitant to get into any more because obviously I don't want to run afoul or get ahead of the NTSB investigation. They're currently controlling the site, and they're doing a very comprehensive review of everything that happened.

Thank you, Director. To my colleagues, any questions or comments for our Director? Commissioner Gilbert, you are recognized.

Thank you. Thank you, Director, for your report. With regard to the people who lost their lives, I hope that we're doing, I'm sure we are, we're doing everything we can for their families. I mean, I was thinking to go to work. It's tragic. And, you know, someone calls and say, hey, they're not. And so anything that we can do. And then regarding the EMAS system, I understand we're complying to all this stuff. If the NTSB comes back and they say, you know, of course we were compliant, but this could have prevented it, I don't mind having a redundancy. Even though the runway is long enough, I don't mind putting in the system.

We would be happy. To your point, Commissioner, we would be happy to explore it. The mayor's gone on record by saying that. We would be happy to consider that, depending on what comes out of the NTSB investigation. So having a redundancy, we're always open to that. But again, I'll defer to the NTSB's findings and recommendations once they come out with their investigation. Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Gilbert. Commissioner Milian Orvis. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Director, good morning. This was a tragic accident, obviously, that happened in our airport. First of all, I want to recognize our first responders, our fire rescue, who you can confirm, but I believe they were on scene within 30 seconds. And I think that's a record time, and I think that's something that needs to be recognized. They certainly helped to ensure that this didn't snowball into a bigger emergency because of the fire that was coming out of the aircraft. They were able to stop that right away, and also our sheriff's office. Extremely cooperative and they were on scene right away. I know we had 200 plus. Emergency responders on scene 60 units right away 60 units. Yes. So, you know, I want to commend them. I want to congratulate them for their work and thank them for for what they did to ensure that this did not become a bigger emergency and to treat those victims as soon as possible.

Commissioner, if I can, and it bears repeating, and I'm going to give a big kudos to our fire department, best fire department in the country. So back four years ago during the Red Air crash, just as background, the FAA requires our response times to be three minutes. So our first responders have to be on scene within three minutes of impact from an air crash, what we call an alert three. Back four years ago during the Red Air crash, Our fire department responded in one minute and 36 seconds and had the fire out. We had 141 people that got off there, were removed from the aircraft, and all of them survived. And by the way, none of them missed their connecting flights. So our fire department broke a record back then and did it in half the time. This time they did it in 30 seconds. So big kudos to Chief Jadalla and his staff. They were on scene in 30 seconds with more than 60 units. prevented the fire from getting worse. If you notice, there was smoke, but there was not a big engulfment of flame on the aircraft. And that's a big, big, our fire department was a big part of that. So big, big appreciation and gratefulness to them.

Yes, we're very grateful. I spent a lot of time over the weekend talking to you since the airport's in District 6, and obviously there was a lot going on. I spent a lot of time at the airport. I want to thank you for your communication over the weekend. I know that when something like this tragic happens, there's a million experts that come out that have ideas of how this could have been prevented, and we have talked extensively about the EMAS system. I wanted to ask you on that end, is that something that is optional if you have the 1,000 capacity, the safety capacity in the airport for the runways?

Sure. The way the FAA regulation reads, airports that have the 1,000-foot runway safety area capacity at the end of the runway are not required to have an EMAS system. EMAS systems are employed as an alternative solution to the 1,000 feet. The industry standard is 1,000 feet of end of runway. So let's say, for example, if you have an airport where one of the runways is at 800 feet, then they will be required to have an EMAS system in order to meet the FAA reg. If you have 1,000, it's not required. It is clear in the FAA regulation that the EMAS systems are meant as an alternative solution, as I mentioned before, not a complementary solution. Now, to the Commissioner Gilbert's point, if the NTSB comes back and says, we think it's a great idea to have that redundancy, we would happily consider that. The FAA reg even goes on to say that they won't even fund the EMAS unless you're under 1,000 feet. But of course, anything that will make our airport safer, we're always going to be in for that. it would be something that would be voluntary for the airport our airport to do because i think you even stated uh in something that you shared with us that no u.s airport that's correct can you can you state that uh sure no no u.s airport and we did the research over the weekend no u.s airport that has a thousand feet has an emas system airports that have the emas system or airports that have less than a thousand feet and that's because of some physical constraint or some other you know whether it's a body of water A HIGHWAY, ET CETERA, THAT CREATES A PHYSICAL CONSTRAINT THAT WOULD REQUIRE THE E-MASK SYSTEM.

NOW, ANOTHER QUESTION. DOES YOUR TEAM HAVE AN ESTIMATION OF WHAT IT WOULD COST US TO IMPLEMENT IT? AND IF WE DON'T, CAN WE GO AHEAD AND BE PROACTIVE AND GET A COST?

WE DON'T HAVE THAT YET. I ASKED OUR TEAM TO START WORKING ON THAT. SO, I MEAN, OBVIOUSLY, I DON'T WANT TO GET AHEAD OF THE NTSB RECOMMENDATION OR INVESTIGATION. BUT, YES, WE WILL GO AHEAD AND WORK ON AN ESTIMATE TO SEE HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST. Obviously, one determining factor of having the EMS system is we wouldn't want to lose or reduce our 1,000-foot runway safety area just to have the EMS system. So if we're going to make it complementary, I would recommend that we have the 1,000 feet along with the EMS. But for that, you have to have the space to do it.

Of course. I mean, we can't overstate safety in any situation.

That's our number one priority.

Would you be able to present us a report at one of our following committees on the cost and if there's any amendments that need to, any things that need to be done to our runway, any modification that needs to be done to our runway to be able to implement that and what that would look like for our airport?

Absolutely, we'd be happy to.

Okay, thank you, Director. Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Gilbert, you were okay?

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify what I was saying about that. I don't really, so how do I say this? The NTSB will make a report. I don't really care what they recommend. Even if they don't recommend we have it, I still want us to get it if it's viable for us to get it. And of course, we're not directing you to shorten the runway. What we're saying is we want the long runway and the system as a redundancy if it's possible. And so I don't expect their report to say, oh yeah, go out and get this if no one else has it. I'm saying that I would be willing to go the extra step because five people lost their lives. And so if it's something that could have assisted in preventing folks from losing their lives, even though it's not required, I'm still saying we should do that.

And I agree with you, Commissioner. My only concern is as long as we're compliant with the FAA regulations. Yeah, absolutely. If this recommendation requires that the FAA reg be changed, but yes, we will be considering that.

And so by the way you said it, you said that it was complementary. So if it's complementary to it, that means what that tells me as a word is that It complements it. That means it doesn't change the substance of the thing that it's complementing. So just the word that you use seems to indicate that you could actually do both of those things. Now, if it comes time you can't do both of those things, then please come back for this committee or this board or inform our chairwoman. But my expectation is that if we can do it, if we can do it, then we should do that. Absolutely.

Anyone else commissioner Hartman you're recognized.

Thank you. But you know when I read the. Now with the story headlines about what happened. I mean it's clear that. You have a media that's trying to place blame on something that does not is not was not the calls. I don't want anyone who are residents of the county we're hearing this discussion except this s the airport saying we did something wrong.

No, we did not.

Clearly, you're within the guidelines. You are, planes land every day at MIA. And I can't tell you a time in which something like this has happened, right? And so when I look at, When I look at what it says in most of these articles, Miami airport not equipped with safety system for planes that veer off runway. You know, they're not telling the whole truth. And so, I mean, the whole truth is that Miami International Airport's runway is safe.

That is correct.

AND YOU COULD HAVE THE SYSTEM INSTALLED AND PEOPLE CAN STILL DIE. MEANING PEOPLE CAN DIE AT THE AIRPORT. YOU CAN HAVE PLANES HIT OTHER PLANES OR HIT SOMEONE WHO IS DRIVING A VEHICLE THERE OR PEOPLE. YOU KNOW, THIS IS, THEY CALL THESE ACCIDENTS FOR A REASON. THESE SORT OF COLLISIONS. You know, as always, you know, we want to do the best that we can to ensure that people are safe. But the question becomes, is it a point of there being a diminishing return? I don't know what could have stopped this. And maybe this system would not have stopped it. Maybe if a plane overshoots too quickly, you still end up on our highway system or on a road that's adjacent to the airport. You can come into a building. I mean, that is why we have professional pilots. Pilots are professionals for reasons. They exercise their duty of care within a certain degree of certainty every single time they take off from the ground and land. And flying on a plane is one of the safest modes of transportation that you can have. It's especially safer than driving in a car in the Miami community. This is a tough one and I think that as professionals you all handle it the way that you should have. Clearly it's an issue that involves our government because we own the airport. So I was happy to see the mayor and her staff there readily available. I was happy that the fire department, which answers to the mayor the last time I checked, was present. UM WE KNOW THAT THE POLICE YOU KNOW DON'T NECESSARILY ASK TO THE MAYOR BUT THEY WERE THERE AND SO I APPRECIATE THE WAY THAT IT WAS ALL HANDLED I MEAN THIS IS WHAT WE EXPECT OF YOU THANK YOU IT IS THE EXPECTATION AND YOU KNOW CERTAINLY AS ELECTED OFFICIALS YOU KNOW WE FIND OURSELVES ON THE SORT OF OUTSKIRS OF ALL THIS FINDING OUR RELEVANCE IN THIS IN THESE TIMES BUT UH THE RELEVANCE IS IT'S REALLY THAT We're the Board of Trustees for this great organization, and you report directly to us about the things that happened with this organization, and this is one of those happenings. And so we appreciate you giving us all the information that you can about it. And the next day, Miami International Airport opened up and people arrived here safely, and we appreciate you for that. So let's continue the good work that we're doing at Miami International Airport. AND LET'S BOAST ABOUT HOW SAFE IT IS TO LAND A PLANE. I MEAN, IN THE TIME THAT WE'VE BEEN HERE, YOU PROBABLY HAD ANOTHER, I DON'T KNOW, YOU KNOW BETTER THAN ME, BUT ANOTHER 100 PLANES.

150 DURING HOLIDAYS.

A LOT OF PLANES TO LAND IN MIAMI, RIGHT? AND MOST PEOPLE DIDN'T KNOW THIS HAPPENED. BUT THOSE OF US THAT DO KNOW, KNOW HOW SERIOUS AND HOW TRAGIC IT IS AND HOW WE DON'T WANT THIS TO BE REPEATED. SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SERVICE.

Thank you commissioner Hartman commissioner Gonzalez you recognize.

Thank you madam chair and I just want to piggyback off of what commissioner Hartman said you know first and foremost I want to thank you for your leadership. I think director you for you've shown that you handle this in the best way possible. This was in an ordinary accident it was something that's completely out of the ordinary. Something that's extremely tragic. But something that as commissioner Hartman has pointed out we don't know what could have prevented it. I do agree with both commissioner Gilbert and commissioner million or bus that it doesn't hurt for us to explore how to further our safety features, even if that is beyond what is nationally and FAA required, but certainly it doesn't mean that MIA is not safe. I think that the way that this was handled by you and your team, and specifically, I want to give a big shout out to our brave men and women that are with the fire department, the greatest fire department in the world. As you said, they responded within seconds. Within seconds, they were out there making sure that if they can preserve more lives, if they can save more people, they could running towards danger. I want to thank them. I want to thank our sheriff's office. did the best that they could in a tragic circumstance. I think it just shows, as Commissioner Hardman has pointed out, the level of excellence that is required here in miami-dade county um because it is it it is part of our nature to be ready for the worst of tragedies and the only way that you're ready is by holding yourself to that level of excellence um so i want to thank you and um obviously i think The entire board is mourning for the five lives that are lost and for all those that were injured. We don't take that lightly and this is why we're exploring how to further an abundance of caution. But again, thank you for your leadership and thank you for handling this at the best way you could.

Thank you, Commissioner. Madam Chair, if I can say one thing, just to clarify one thing. Our team did an exceptional job responding to this. I had very little to do with it. Our team did an exceptional job. Fire rescue, the sheriff's office, our airside operations team, both our deputies, our chief of staff, everybody. was boots on the ground, our comms team working together with the mayor's comms team. It was an entire team effort that was able to mitigate this event, which again is tragic. And when something like this happens, the entire aviation community, I was getting texts and phone calls from airports around the state offering help, assistance, anything we needed. And that's when you see how special the aviation community is. Everybody comes together to try to help out. So very appreciative of that and of our team and the work they did.

Thank you, Commissioner Gonzalez. And thank you, Director. Again, I think we've all applauded our fire department and our first responders for an extraordinary job. And this is when our community tends to shine the brightest. You know, when we have tragedies, we know how to handle it. And we always come together as a community and showcase how amazing our first responders truly are in Miami-Dade County. And this is another example. And there are five lives that were lost, and I know they have not been identified yet. But there's also three people, I think, that are still in critical condition. So I know everybody is extending thoughts and prayers to those individuals and to their families. Just a couple of follow-up questions, Director. How long do you anticipate the two runways to remain closed?

We really can't answer that yet, Madam Chairwoman, because that is up to the NTSB. Their investigation continues. We will be able, we have one runway, 8 right, that does not have any damage. So we should be able to get that one back operational hopefully sooner rather than later. But we don't have a timeline yet because obviously the NTSB, we don't want to do anything to rush them. They have to sift through all the debris, look at our runways, etc. But hopefully we'll get runway 8 right back sooner rather than later. And then 1230, which is where the impact happened, may take a little longer because there has to be some damage that has to be repaired. and we can't really effectuate the damage repair until we get access to the site. So I'm hesitant to say, and I don't want to put the NTSAB on the spot. We're working very well and cooperating with them very well. So hopefully sooner rather than later. I know that our airlines are taking a hit as far as operations, but, I mean, we're doing the best we can.

Yeah, and I know that a lot of agencies have responded and have been on the ground, the NTSB, the FAA, obviously MDSO, our firefighters, everybody at MIA. Has anybody been in touch? And I know there was a general thoughts and prayers statement that has been released, but have we all been in contact with Amazon?

I believe, I'm not sure. Yeah, so they were there yesterday at the NTSB conference and the mayor's office spoke to the Amazon folks yesterday at that conference.

Okay, great. Thank you, director. If there's no further comments or questions from that, yes, Commissioner Gilbert, you're recognized.

This was, I guess, to the chair. I'd be remiss if I didn't say this because I saw the little tweet thing about who's supposed to be speaking this press conference crap. So there is an expectation that I have that for this county. The first thing is that we always do things decent and in order. We're going to do that. We've existed for a long time the county with the sheriff is a part of the county proper. I like to call it this year still their own empty now and why understand that public safety is a thing. This is not exactly public safety. I mean, it is the same way that drinking water is public safety. And air pollution is public safety. This is operations. We have the expertise. We have the responsibility. And Daniela Levin-Caba is our mayor. So we should be communicating with everyone and cooperating with everyone. But the face and voice of this county that the people chose to speak during that situation is Mayor Cava. I know there's going to be some how we fit in and because other counties operate different ways and other sheriffs and other mayors operate different ways. But this is Miami-Dade County. 2.7 million people and our economy is bigger than everyone else's in the state. We have interest. The airport that you run for us, the largest economic engine in the state. People think about Disney World, a mouse got nothing on us. We have somebody to speak for us. And so we're going to cooperate and all of these things should be chronicled. And I know we probably haven't done it before because we never had to. But if it becomes necessary to never ever see that again, this board can act. And we can lay out exactly what our expectations are with regard to procedures. Because from my perspective, it should be, it should have been a common understanding. That appeared not to be, my granddaddy used to say, common sense ain't common. Otherwise it wouldn't be the same. Well, there wasn't a common understanding here, but we can't do that. We can't do that. So there's going to be a coordination between, and this won't just be for aircrafts, it'll be stuff at the ports, it'll be for hurricanes, about how we actually manage emergencies. There's going to be protocols for that, and I hope that you all can get that established without us getting involved. But if they do, Madam Chairwoman, I'll be gone, but please, and thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Gilbert.

Madam chair.

Yes. Commissioner. I don't know.

I don't want this to turn into a discussion, but there was a lot of moving parts that day and, um, you know, you were at the airport with me. It was a lot of things happening all at the same time. So I think emotions were a little high and things just. Develop the way they did, but, you know, I don't think. We should say anybody was wrong or right. It was a lot of things were happening that day. And, you know, times were moved around for the press conference. There was a lot of back and forth. I do agree with you that we need to organize ourselves in these matters. But I know that everyone here and who's not here was doing the best they could under the circumstances. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, any further comments or discussions? Uh, yes. Deputy mayor, you recognized Madam chair.

Thank you. Just to commissioner Gilbert's point. Um, I did want to call out that a process already exists that he suggested that we should look at and it's our charter. Our charters quotes, the mayor shall serve as the head of the county for emergency management purposes and it's explicit and, and that's how we've always functioned and, and I'm sure we'll continue that way.

We might have to actually actualize that. The charter is, I mean, I read it, but I won't make assumptions. I'll say that maybe we need to have a better understanding on a more granular level.

We got a refresher session for everyone.

Because I think that I don't want that at a press conference anymore. I don't want that. And when people see that, it's a slow erosion in the confidence of the competence of government.

Thank you Commissioner Gilbert and thank you Deputy Mayor for providing that clarification. I do think that it's an important conversation to have and clarity needs to be given because I don't think anybody wants to see a display similar to the one that we saw happen again, especially when lives have been lost. It is a complete distraction from what we should be focused on, which is making sure that we are keeping those individuals in our thoughts and our prayers and being unified as a government and as a county. And I'm very, very hopeful. And I know, in fact, that we will, we will get there and make sure that that sort of a fact pattern doesn't play out again. And it's my understanding that we either have, or we're working on, or close to, or should have some sort of an operational agreement interlocal MOU in place. And I don't know if we have that in place. with our friends and our colleagues at the Sheriff's Department. But I don't know if an MOU speaks to those sorts of operational structures. If an MOU is being worked on, I encourage everyone to kind of get that wrapped up. I don't know, Deputy Mayor, if you want to speak to an MOU and or an interlocal. Again, I think everyone's goal is similar in that we always will present, especially public facing and especially when lives are lost, a unified front focused on the issues

that matter to our residents of miami-dade county so do you want to speak to the interlocal and or mou we would very much like to have mou include these types of things to where there is clarity and there's no misunderstandings obviously that mou would would be consistent with our charter but we would like to memorialize that and that would prevent anything in the future thank you

Thank you, thank you. Okay, any further comment or discussion? I know this will be ongoing. Director, thank you for that detailed report and analysis. And I thank my colleagues for the obvious unified expression of care and concern regarding all those affected and obviously repeating the message that Miami International Airport is very, very safe. um and and obviously an amazing uh airport here so with that any bifurcations or um any item that any of you would like to discuss on today's agenda seeing none i'll entertain a motion on the entire agenda separate and apart from 3d it's been moved by commissioner gilbert second by commissioner gonzalez all in favor signify by saying aye Anyone wish to be recorded? No. The agenda carries. To the administration, 3B has been advanced. What is the reasoning for asking for it to be advanced to our next BCC hearing as opposed to carrying the normal legislative process?

Commissioner, the reason we're requesting that item be forwarded to the next PCC is we have a timeline as far as grants are concerned, and we have these 25 CTX machines that the TSA is going to be installing, and we have to have the infrastructure work that we're responsible for and get that done as quickly as possible. So we'd like to get that project started right away and get that expedited, at least to get the permitting process and the insurance for the contractor, get that going as soon as possible. That's really the urgency, just to make sure that we get that project started.

Okay, I don't have any problem advancing 3B and asking our chairman to place it on the next agenda. Anybody have an objection to that? Seeing none. Okay, to the attorneys, any unreadiness or unfinished business before the body this morning? Seeing none, thank you all so much, everyone. We are adjourned.