City Council - Special Meeting

All righty good evening everyone and welcome to a special joint city of North Miami Council meeting along with the North Miami Youth Council. I know we're starting a bit early before 7 PM but we are pleased to have our youth Council today so madam clerk at this moment can we please do the call to order.

Yes, vice mayor, mayor does only. Mayor Timothy here. Councilman Burns. Councilwoman Mary estimate Irving president Councilman peer friends Charles present vice mayor, you have a quorum you may proceed. Thank you at this time will.

We'll go into the pledge of allegiance. And if Councilman can read it. We have one right of action.

For the next order of business, Madam Manager, do we have any addition, deletion, or amendment and deferrals?

Madam and no additions deletions amendments or deferrals. Thank you and at this time we'll move into a discussion item and I know will be presenting the North by me youth Council Council and Mary estimate Irvin would you like to present them please.

Sure, madam vice mayor and my colleagues um good evening everyone i am just so excited and so proud of our very youth council but believe it or not i will give it i would let i would like for our liaison our director of our library paul basil to come and to go ahead and either do a roll call for the youth or to present the youth before us before this discussion thank you all right well

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for having us here as the Youth Council. I would like for our Youth City Clerk to do the roll call, if you don't mind. Go ahead. No, don't.

Youth Vice Mayor St. Lear. Youth Councilwoman Just. Youth Councilwoman Spence. Youth Councilwoman Liberty. You may proceed.

Thank you. So once again, Paul is the Library Director, Youth Council Liaison. As you mentioned, Councilwoman, tonight we have a special presentation by the North Miami Youth Council. Going into my second year, this was a very special year. Six of the eight members are graduating high school, which is a big milestone. Definitely gonna miss you guys, even though you guys give me a run for our money. But you guys know I definitely love you guys. All the time that we spent together, and learning different things about civic engagement. So with that being said, unfortunately our youth mayor could not be in attendance tonight, but we do have our councilwoman, our youth councilwoman from District 4, Priscilla Liberty, who will be leading us into tonight's presentation.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Presconia Liberty, and I have the honor of serving as North Miami Youth Councilwoman for District 4. On behalf of North Miami Youth Council, I have the privilege to present a legislative item for your consideration. Many of you have said it yourself. The youth are the future of this city tonight. I'll be presenting a proposal that allows the youth to be included in the livelihood of the city of North Miami. Our proposal is that the city of North Miami mayor and council will establish a one non voting youth alternate member position on select city boards and commission. Youth members will attend regular scheduled meetings on designated boards and commission. While they wouldn't have voting power, they could actively participate in discussions when recognized. Their main duty would be to provide feedback and recommendation from a youth center perspective, offering insight that only young people can provide. And lastly, they would act as an ambassador for youth civic, encouraging their peers to take an active interest in city growth and government. To ensure the success of this initiative, we've established clear requirements for the youth alternate members. Members will need to be active and members in standing of the North Miami Youth Council. They will need to maintain a satisfactory academic standing, In addition, they need appointments. Appointments would also be subject to approval by mayor and council to ensure that selected individuals are prepared to represent the youth of North Miami. And again, their role would simply be advisory and collaborative. Now, let's talk about the why behind this proposal. This initiative is designed to achieve four primary goals. Increase youth civic engagement and leadership development. By participating in local government, youth will gain skills and experience that will prepare them for future leadership roles. Second, it will provide the youth participation in local government discussion. Our perspective are often missing in these conversation, and this proposal ensures our voices are heard. Three, straightening collaboration between youth residents and city leadership. This initiative fosters mutual understanding and a strong community bond. And lastly, create long-term youth representation opportunities. It is important to note what youth alternate members will not do. They will not vote on agenda items. Their role is strictly advisory. Members would also not count towards quorum requirements, meaning board's ability to conduct official business will remain completely unaffected by attendance of a youth member. They will not exercise any legal authority of appointed members. And finally, they will not replace any current voting board members. Possible boards and commission for consideration could include the Planning Commission, Board of Adjustment, Parks and Rec Commission and the Library Board. These are area especially important because they directly affect the quality of life, opportunity and future development of the community that young residents will inherit. Through this initiative, we hope to create lasting opportunity for youth representation and inspire more young residents to become involved in public service and community leadership. Thank you, Mayor and Council, for the privilege to speak in front of you today. As I come to the end of my first year of North Miami Youth Council, I would like to thank Councilwoman Mary Estiman Irvin for her leadership in constantly redefining what it means to be a leader and inspiring me to be a better servant to my community. Thank you for your effort in always making sure that the youth are heard and ensuring resources are always put in place for us. Thank you all. I would like now to open proposal questions to questions.

I know this is a discussion item, but I first would like to congratulate youth council member liberty for a well thought out presentation that you brought before the youth council. You all are here in quorum as opposed to us up here. I know sometimes it's hard getting quorum, but I want to congratulate you all for being here and being present. And I want to say this is probably the first time since I've been elected that a board or a. advisory board brought an item for consideration because every board that we have here in the city of north miami can bring forth a discussion like you're doing a resolution or ordinance so i applaud the youth council and paul for bringing this initiative and showing the other boards what they should be doing um here in our city and again thank you councilman um i think we'll bring the discussion up here um to my colleagues or do we do we have to open up for citizen forum as the city attorneys it's a discussion item right okay so it doesn't have to Unless we're voting, correct? Correct. Oh, okay. Thank you. So I'll bring it before it's up here.

i just want to say um um congratulations to you all and uh job well done um district four so again district four represent um good job but um my my only um concern i know that you were putting out some boards but looking at the um composition of the youth council which is mainly made of women and we have a very very active women commission and the great city of north miami and i don't see that commission listed as part of uh but because they they are very active and they are doing a lot um as far as i can tell because i've been in some of their events and everything and i think they have a big event coming up uh next month i believe so which is uh something that i'll just put out for consideration because uh you know When I'm checking, I was like, probably have one or two young men in there, all women. So that would be something that you might want to consider. Thank you.

Council?

Youth Council Councilwoman Liberté, thank you for representing your colleagues well. Thank you for a presentation. Well done. I'm just so very proud of you. As you've heard from my colleagues, this is a discussion item. So you've presented this before us. We're going to then speak to our city manager and our city attorney and figure out how we can implement this. So I just want to thank you all for your leadership. All of you that are here, all of the youth council, I am so proud of you and you represent us well. So thank you, thank you, thank you and continue to work hard and are you graduating as well? No, you're not graduating this year, but everyone else that's graduating, congratulations. I'm very proud of you. And I just want to do a shameless plug that there is application process open for you parents that are listening, you students that are watching, that you should go online and apply and speak to Paul Basile. And I believe the application process is going to be open until May 30th. Is that correct, Paul?

I'm sorry to be that was one the the the application process for the youth count for the early open is close June 30th June 30th June 30th, yes, June 1st apologize June 1st we opened it May 1st of June to June 1st would without the applications to see if we have enough members and if we don't reopen it until July 31st OK.

Yeah, so those are all my comments for tonight. Thank you. Thank you, guys. So proud.

Thank you, Councilman. Did you have something else? Yes.

I would now like to call up my colleagues as we have a special presentation for Councilwoman Mayor Estevan-Irvin. Thank you all. Thank you to the mayor and council members for your support and dedication. Thank you. If I can have Councilwoman May Estefan.

Actually, I'd like to come with all of my colleagues because I don't do this alone. So without them, I won't be able to do anything. So let's go up.

OK.

This is a token of appreciation.

After you guys. Thank you.

if um the youth council could come back up we've got a gift for paul the youth council liaison i know it's so sweet

so at this time we'll make recommendations um councilman i know you made your recommendation of adding the north miami commission for women also and looking at the board as well maybe include the north miami cra and the affordable housing and i would also like to give direction to the city attorney if there's a possibility that they can vote on the board you can let us know i know some of them are chartered boards and they probably can't vote But if we could maybe look at the possibility of which boards that we can have them as the actual voting member would be the recommendation that I've made on the record and direct staff the city manager and the city attorney to begin looking at that legislation. I'm pretty sure Councilman you'll be sponsoring it.

Yeah.

No, this is your board. I just want to make my my notation.

You were going to say something.

I was just going to say we'll look at it and come back with a recommendation to the board.

Okay, all right, thank you next on the agenda is citizen form. Seeing then I know we don't have Council reports because we'll do that at the next meeting but Councilman do you have any they have any counsel. Oh yeah, what acts the you counted the youth Council do you have any Council reports. I know you guys just did a presentation. All righty can I get a motion to adjourn second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries with a 3-0 vote. It is now 6.54 p.m. Thank you and congratulations to the graduates.