Health Facilities Authority - Regular Meeting

Thank you. If we could have a roll call.

Yes. I'm sorry, I didn't hear anything.

It's okay. This is Marcus Life for the staff. Also in the chambers is Mr. Mark Alvarez, our planning consultant, and we do have applicants in the chambers with us today.

Excellent.

Thank you. Good morning.

Alex Uribe with the city attorney's office.

Okay, and if that concludes staff, we'll go with board members. Mariano Corral, landscape architect.

Weir Baena, architect.

Angel Lopez, architect.

Rodriguez. And Daniel Guerra. Very good. Lakewood, if we could go ahead and start with the first item. Sure, give me one minute. Oh, well, I guess we should step into swearing in first. Yes.

Morning, everybody. Everybody in chambers can stand and raise their right hand. And anybody who's online on the Zoom who is going to give testimony, I need you to please turn on your cameras and unmute yourselves. So if you're going to speak on Zoom, please turn on your cameras and unmute yourselves. I see George Navarro. Hello, George. Okay, I see. I see a conference room. Okay. I need you to please unmute yourselves if you're going to be providing any sort of testimony today. Okay. Uh, I, I need you, uh, anybody also to please unmute yourselves at this time. Okay. Uh, please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I do.

I do.

I do.

Thank you very much. Mr. Vice chair, please proceed.

Okay, Marcus, if you could go ahead and read the first item. Yes, sir.

All right, yeah. Good afternoon. We're going to call the Health Facilities Authority meeting to order. Today is Monday, February 9, 2026, approximately 6 o'clock. I'm going to have a roll call. Chair Del Castillo. Your mic. You have to turn on your mic. Here. Vice Chair Reynolds?

Present.

Member Kelly? Here. Member Alonzo?

Here.

Member Fuentes?

Here.

We have a quorum. The first order is the approval of the minutes for, we have several meetings, March 27, 2025, June 26, 2025, July 7, 2025, and January 29, 2026.

Do we approve them one at a time or can we make an aggregate?

Unless you have a correction, you can all approve them at one time.

Approve. Chair, we could entertain a motion for the approval of all the minutes and a second.

I move the approval of the minutes.

Second. Member Alonzo?

I approve.

Member Fuentes? Yes. Yes. Chair Del Casillo? Approve. Vice Chair Reynolds? Yes. Member Kelly? Yes. Minutes approved, 5-0. Now we have discussion items, which is donation recommendation from the authority members. So I don't know how we're going to, who wants to start?

May I just introduce the item? Yes. The first order of business is a resolution before you. It does two things. It approves the donation of the surplus funds to the city, and it also approves the annual report for 2025, which is attached to the resolution. The annual report is also required by statute and by our city code. Any questions? I'm happy to answer them.

Do you want me to go ahead and read the resolution?

Please, Madam Clerk. Thank you.

I'm going to read the resolution. A resolution of the City of South Miami Health Facilities Authority to approve the donation of surplus funds to the City of South Miami pursuant to Section 154.209 offering 14 Florida statues and the annual report for 2025 in connection with the issuance by the City of South Miami Health Facilities Authority of its hospital revenue bonds 2025 in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $500 million to Baptist Health South Florida providing for transmittal of the annual report.

We go ahead and discuss it.

A motion to approve or discussion, whatever.

I approve it.

I did give the clerk and city attorney, as well as the other members of the committee, some recommendations that we had discussed the last time. One of them involves the purchasing of the Marshall-Williamson property, as well as providing some assistance to other facilities in the community, such as the seniors and the community center for programming. So one of them is based on if that purchase of the Marshall-Williamson project goes through, and then the other is if it does not. But I think it's important to take a peek at that, and I've made that suggestion to not only to all of you, but I've left copies for the City Commission as well.

Madam Chair. I also invited someone from Thelma Gibson Health Initiative here. And if you're willing, they can explain to you what their program is all about and how they serve.

Is your mic on?

Yes, it's on. Can you hear me? And how they service both the Coconut Grove and the South Miami communities. They're prepared to present something so they will understand exactly who they are and what their needs might be. But I think that they will be a perfect recipient for some of the monies that's available for distribution by city commission.

I think that is a great idea.

Madam Chair, if I may, with your permission, I just want to give some background. We discussed this at the last meeting, however, there was no quorum. So by Florida law, the funds must be used for, quote, non-profit human health service agencies. And the purpose of this board is to approve the donation to the city. The city commission then determines how it appropriates the funds. I think we have several recommendations coming from board members as to ideas to the commission as to where the money could be used. And that's what they're discussing now.

So basically for now is to approve the donation and then we can do another meeting accordingly to say what the money is going to be approved for funding.

actually know that the decision on how the money is used provided it's for the statutory reason which is the non-profit human health service agency that is ultimately the city commission's decision okay this board can make recommendations as to how those funds can be used i think that that is the right way to go non-profit is that i i think that is a great idea

Do you want to hear something about the organization, Thelma Gibson Health Initiative, so that you'll know that they meet the criteria? Ms. Barton is here to explain to you just who they are.

Sir, yes, if that's the will of the board. We don't have that one here. We don't have that one. What do you mean? You're the one that you were talking about. It's not the one here money. No, no, no, we don't have that one. Okay. No, it is not.

She's in the audience.

But but in my in my second option, it is includes a another party that is to be named.

Go ahead.

If if we're in order, we can hear Miss Martin.

I don't have a problem with it.

Yes.

Good evening. There was a time when I would be here almost every meeting. We are the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative nonprofit, 501 C3. We have been serving the residents of South Miami for over 23 years. I have staff at the senior center who work in the elderly program, providing care coordination, socialization skills, healthy, nutritious, this, that. We do everything because most of them do not have a family member here with them. We also provide services in the community, HIV outreach, education testing, and referral for a cure if we find the need. We also have residents in the CRA, We have residents, I'm not sure of their particular street, but we serve residents here in the community. We've been here. The late Commissioner Bethel, before he passed, brought us to South Miami because Coconut Grove and South Miami residents are like family. Some live in the Grove and some live here. And we have had an excellent relationship with City of South Miami through different mayors that have been here. And I guess I got a little bit older and stopped coming to meetings. But my staff, we're very active. We have provided outreach services at Bethel. Church? I know I'm losing it sometimes. But anyhow, we've been here serving South Miami for many, many years and have had excellent results. In particular, your senior center, which is where we have 90 plus seniors that we serve. not just my staff, but the students from the University of Miami doing mental health counseling in English, Spanish, and Creole, if the need is there. So we have been here, and we haven't been quiet. It's just that there's so much to do and new faces. So do you have any questions for me?

Could you speak towards funding of your organization and how some of the funding may have been lost?

Yes, absolutely. With the current administration, we lost over $100,000 last year in our HIV program, from the state of Florida, that is. All PrEP, I'm not sure if you're familiar with PrEP, but all of that funding was taken away last year, June, and unfortunately, that was what... afforded us to hire qualified outreach mental health therapists and substance abuse counselors and HIV counselors and testers. So we had to trim back our staffing. We lost $120,000 in particular. We've run a fantastic organization named after Mrs. Thelma Gibson, who is well-known in Miami-Dade County. And we've never had a blemish, thank God. Mrs. Gibson would have my neck, but we... Which is true. She's... an honorable lady, and she's still with us today at 99 years old. So Mr. Martin, thank you for recommending Thelma Gibson. We've been here, we lost money, and I want to provide more services to the seniors in the building. If you walk into the senior center, you'll see my staff. Sometimes two or three they have to squeeze into an office, but we get on very well with the manager. They're very supportive and they're very in need of our services. So that's what we do. We've been here and we would like to continue serving. So any way you can help us to provide additional services to your residents, please consider us. We have an excellent record. Any questions? Thank you, Ms. Martin. You're welcome, Mr. Martin. Thank you for having me.

No questions? Thank you.

No, thank you.

Thank you.

Should we go ahead and approve the item?

I need a motion if you want to approve the item.

Move to approve the item. I'll second.

Yeah. Continue. Approve. Chair DeCasillo?

Yes.

Vice Chair Reynolds? Yes. Member Kelly? Yes. Member Quincy?

Yes.

Member Alonso? Yes. Item passed is 4-0, I mean 5-0.

You didn't even do a report.

If I could just clarify, so what passed was the resolution that's before you, the donation of the funds and the annual report approval? Correct.

Do we know when the commission would look at this and appoint where the money would go? Do we have any dates for that?

Good evening, Alfredo River, CFO of City of South Miami. We're anticipating this item being on the first meeting in March. At that meeting, when they're approving, they're gonna adopt a resolution authorizing and pretty much ratifying your resolution of tonight. And at that meeting, I anticipate, I don't have any certainty, but I anticipate that they will probably be discussing the donation that's being transferred from the Health Facilities Authority to them. and their responsibility, and I'm sure they'll have questions for city attorney, a reference to what those parameters are, and I'm sure there's gonna be discussions on recommendations of this board to them on what are some of the viable options in giving that money. So I anticipate first meeting in March, that's when that'll take place.

March 3rd, first Tuesday. Do we have to meet again, or are they just gonna let us know?

I can let you know what, I mean, it'll be a public meeting, obviously. I can, after that meeting, one, I can summarize to all of the board members, the committee members, what was discussed and what was the final verdict. Correct. And then I'll probably see you again like I do every year. around March or February to give you my annual report again, of which, if there's no business to be conducted, but we're required to provide, until the debt is retired, an annual report to you.

Perfect.

So I don't think we'll need another meeting, but if you call another meeting, I'll be ready for you.

See you in 27.

Chances are yes.

I haven't seen you two times a year, so I don't want to do that either.

Any further business?

Any comments from the authority? If none, then we can adjourn the meeting.

No, everything is good from my end. I'm glad we did something here.

Meeting adjourned. 6-15.

Oh, meeting adjourned. Yes, thank you, guys.

Thank you.