Sustainability and Resiliency Committee - Regular Meeting

for joining us today it is july 17th at noon for the sustainability and resiliency community meeting uh man click if you could please call the role trey geich here for committee member canada yeah committee member manas yeah trey you have quorum thank you um any changes to the agenda or order of business

So we had two carryover items from the last meeting that didn't make it. They are there. Oh, they're on there? Yes. Oh.

And if we could add one item, just dealing with the election of the vice chair. Yes. And if we could have a motion to that, please.

A motion to add vice chair election for today's meeting. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. And where would you like to place the agenda? Right after two?

Or the first discussion item? Yeah, as the first discussion item.

Okay. Okay, so I have the hiring of Chief Sustainability and Resiliency Officer being moved to this meeting, and I'm missing it in the agenda.

Okay.

And then I have a joint meeting with the news council actually being pushed to the August meeting. So this is in the minutes. I'm just looking at the minutes.

So if we want to add the discussion of the Chief Resilience Officer, let's add that as item, or to the item after supporting the North Beach Compost.

Yeah, that makes sense.

So a motion to that effect?

A motion to add the... sustainability and resilience officer position to be added to our agenda under 6E?

It will be 6F. 6F? Plus the vice chairs will be 6A. Excellent.

So second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Our liaison is not here, so we can come back to that item if she arrives. And we're on to public comments. So we have one member of the public here today. If you would like to speak on any non-agenda items, feel free to do so. I need this fellow to speak.

Yeah, I'll make a quick comment. I really love seeing 9148 proud and a member of the commission. And that we have scheduled for the next month we're going to be doing a replanting of the garden at 92nd Street and Bay Drive using a grant that we got from the Florida Wildflower Foundation to do it as a true native plant demonstration garden unofficially I'm looking to get some volunteer gardeners that we can call on for sort of low level maintenance my plan is that the maintenance of that garden is not going to go to bright view the landscaping company that does our general landscaping work because it's very specialized and we want to be very sure that they don't use any pesticides there that they trim everything by hand and so there's going to be some need for volunteers to keep an eye on things so if members of this committee individually want to talk to me about that you know i'm sort of doing this who are into gardening and would want to be a part of this, please let me know. Otherwise, the planting is going to happen scheduled for August 18th and 19th. I don't know if Franca has heard about it yet. But it's going to be at least a two-day process on the 18th and the 19th. and down the road, hopefully within a couple months, we'll have some nice signage for all the different plant species to let people know what butterflies they attract and all that kind of thing. So really to make it a good educational resource.

This is the new garden that had the Hialeah statue in it for a while? So when the Surfside Urban Gardeners was... Form. They were, it was formed because we needed a nonprofit, the steward of the community garden. I don't know where the budget is, but historically the town has supported that organization by paying the insurance. and paying for ongoing management of that site. And in exchange for that town's support, they were encouraged to be an active participant in promoting the garden at town events and blah, blah, blah. By way of example, many years ago for our celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service, the Surfside Urban Gardeners worked with our landscaper, the town's landscaper at the time, to plant fruit trees at public street ends. They have come to town events in the past, but I don't think it's an unreasonable ask to reach out to that organization in consideration of the town's ongoing support of the town. of Surfside Urban Gardeners, we would like you to take a prominent role in beautifying that site.

Thanks. No, that's helpful. I have reached out to Dahlia Blumstein, who I believe is in charge of that organization now. And she... So we're in touch, but it's good to know that there's a way to pitch it as... That's part of an ongoing partnership.

You may want to do the same with the dog park. So we did the same thing. There's an organization at the time, many years ago, it was led by Ann Finley. I don't know what the structure of that organization is, but you may want, because I know dogs stop by that park too, you may want to see if you can get them engaged as well.

Do you have a time limit for the planting?

I think it's going to be sort of all day those two days. The landscaper requested a meeting with the manager and somebody from Public Works. I think that's going to be sometime on the 18th, just to talk about the needs. And she has given me...

stuff i have talked to mark uh but that's yeah coming up you know hopefully that'll be partially in place before next week there was a group at the event that we had with the environmental like recycling thank you And there was a group there. I'm blanking on the kids' names. They've grown up in Surfside. Their mom's very involved. But she introduced me to... there's an org there that had a table that does plants, and she's in Surfside, and she reached out to me wanting to get involved with what was, if something was gonna happen at the house that we bought, and I was like, I'm so out of the loop on that, but she's like, I really want to be involved with planting in Surfside. So she had a table at birthday. I don't know if you guys know this.

There was plants.

They had plants, like they had plants, and anyway, I know that was very convoluted. I don't know how you're gonna put that in minutes,

Just make sure it's attributed to Tiffany, right?

There's a couple of suicide families very involved with this group, and she wants to get involved.

It's probably Noreet.

Is it Noreet?

She does the vegetable gardening in her front yard.

I mean, it could be, because I'm trying to Google, like trying to find her.

She rides a trike around town with a basket on the back.

How do you spell Marie?

N-I-R-I-T. To parks. To parks.

That would be the most objective way. Yeah, she was a part of that.

Okay. So whoever has that table, she reached out to me afterwards and said, I really want to get involved in native plants and stuff like that.

And she's got a group.

Awesome. Oh, that's one-stop shopping.

At least I remember that.

And I will try to find email because when I remember my friend who introduced me to her, I remember her name.

Thank you.

It's a full package.

Oh, man.

I don't think I have. I mean, I do have an extra pen. You do? Yes. Okay. Just on myself, give it back. Just give it back.

Because it is my favorite pen.

I don't need it. Trust me.

Okay. So I'm going to figure out. During this meeting, I'll probably figure out who my friend is, and I'll find out how to do it. Okay.

Any other public comments? Moving on. Approval of minutes. Just for the record, there were some Scrivener errors that I shared with the clerk that had been addressed. If we could have a... Motion to approve or approve as amended, if anybody has any comments.

There were not the changes that I made. I made them before Edwin posted the minutes, so there's nothing really to amend.

Okay.

Okay.

But if anybody has any other comments or amendments to the meeting minutes, and if not, just a motion to approve. Motion to approve June 18th minutes. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. They are approved. First discussion item relates to the election of a vice chair, if anybody would like. So basically the responsibilities are to serve as the chair in the absence of the chair.

Patrick's perfect.

Patrick, are you willing?

You knew I was going to do that. You should have jumped the gun and done it to me, but see? Yeah, the first one to bring it out is you.

I'm not opposed.

You're not opposed. So that's a yes! I second.

You can't do both. I'm going to pass the gavel to Patrick and second it. And I'm going to take the gavel back. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Congratulations. Thank you. You're way more organized than me. I don't know. So stick around afterwards. We'll take your photograph and we'll get you in the Gazette.

There you go.

I think we can do it.

Small board. Yes, yes. I'm so sorry.

How are some words you speak with people, right?

It's okay. I'll never mention it again.

Maybe. Singaporean complex.

Small but mighty. Small but mighty. Kind of.

The next item is a joint meeting with the Youth Council. So sort of the genesis of this and props to our commissioner who has been the champion for the Youth Council. But I think we've all observed over the last many months that the Youth Council is hyper-focused on environmental and sustainability matters. They are a very active and engaged organization. I understand that Their term is really aligned with the academic year, so part of the reason that it was deferred was that they're going to have to reconstitute the youth council. But in speaking with members of the youth council, it just seemed like a good idea for us to have a joint meeting so that we can identify common ground and work together on initiatives where it's appropriate, or we can support initiatives that they're involved with and vice versa. The reception by the then sitting chair and vice chair was very supportive.

Chair, if I may, the new youth council has been appointed already. Their next meeting will be on August 6th. Just so you know, the prior chair and vice chair, they were reappointed. Their first meeting will be very short. It's all introduction. But you're more than welcome to reach out to Ella and to Lucia. which were the chairs last year from last term, to speak about this initiative so maybe they can bring it forward.

I would suggest a couple things. One, I may have jury duty that week, but because that will be their first meeting and I want to give them the space to get organized, that we convey our intention to have a joint meeting with them. and ask them to identify some potential dates and times later in August, so that we do it before, hopefully before the school year begins and their attention gets distracted.

You could also ask the Vice Mayor to speak about this matter during the meeting, since the Vice Mayor is also the staff of the other commission, he should be able to.

Maybe the motion should be in the form, if everybody's agreeable, that we schedule a joint meeting with the Youth Council to occur after their first meeting as a new council. But still have a meeting in August.

Anybody with school-age kids, do you know when school begins this year?

They start on a Thursday, yes. Very, very strange. If I may, Chair, schedule a joint meeting with the Youth Council in August?

Yeah, following the Youth Council's first meeting on August 6th.

Well, when would be their September meeting? So they meet the first Wednesday of the month. So the next September meeting will be one second. September 30th.

What time do they typically meet?

They meet at 5.30. This meeting, this is before the school year starts. We did it at 3 p.m. just so we do it earlier. We don't have to do it after school.

I know I opened my mouth. I'm going for grace that day. On the 3rd. On the 3rd. But you all can meet.

Can't you just postpone it? Didn't you buy a refundable ticket?

Okay, maybe we want to keep it in August. Maybe go back to August.

Yeah, ideally in August, but no later than the first regularly scheduled meeting with the Youth Council.

Yes, so you would like to do it later in August? Is that what you mean?

Yeah.

Okay.

Sometime in August after the August 6th meeting, but no later than their regularly scheduled meeting on September 3rd.

I'll have to look up my dates as well with my other boards, and then I'll suggest some dates for them.

Okay. For the record, are they considered a small board or a large board?

I apologize for that. I'm going to get them too.

So they'll be a small one. Okay. Thank you for the direct answer.

Okay. So is that a specific time? Because since school's going to start, their preferred time is 5.30. So 5.30, okay? And who's going to be making the motion for the joint meeting?

I will motion to have a joint meeting with the Youth Council after their first meeting, for our meeting sometime in August at 5.30.

Can I shout out dates I won't be able to make it at 5.30?

That is the only time that really works for them.

No, I'm saying which dates in August that I have. because all the orgs I work with, their boards are all meeting.

I'll have to let you know.

Can I just email you separately?

Yeah, yeah, let me know separately, and then I'll work with the board. I mean, most of them are okay with the 27th. And do you second the motion, Ms. Cannava? Yes.

those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries awesome thank you next item is it's carryover recycling services assessment and optimization action plan so this was on the agenda last month i know that a representative from waste management made a presentation there was discussion about the importance of upfront training so franca is there any movement from from a staff

I guess prior to all this taking place, I was in the process of trying to host a recycling workshop. I know Liz from Port of Greenwich, I think it's supposed to be here, is supposed to be attending next month's meeting, Genesis, if I'm right? Yes, next month's meeting. Next month's meeting in August, the sustainability via Zoom. She'll be here to explain more about recycling. more about the, I guess this program that they want to implement between them and waste management, since it's such a small time.

They can give you money.

The grant is, Because we're such a small town, she was sort of, Florida Bembridge is going to sort of like spot the town for, because it's labels, that's all it really is, just to produce labels. So because it's such a small amount, she was just going to do it, I guess, out of pocket, at no cost to the town, to start the process. But they do have a grant that's only open in January for $25,000 for larger scale things. I mean, you guys, you know.

We may get to that point, but let's start with, you know, for low hanging fruit. Signage is absolutely important, but that's customer facing. Has there been any discussion about training solid waste staff

That was a part of, like I said, I had a lot going on, so part of that was doing a workshop, not only for staff, but also for residents to come out. So at least we're both on the same page of what's recyclable and what's not recyclable. I'm still trying to work on trying to do a workshop so that people can attend and so everyone's well aware and well informed. I guess in trying to get in line so that we can start this pilot program so that we can assess whether or not is the education working, are the labels working, so we're still working on that.

And just a shameless plug for Gigi, in addition to a volunteer, I think everybody knows she's the primary author of the Sustainability Corner that shows up in the Gazette, but she's a consultant as well. She has a lot of experience working with municipalities in training staff and public engagement. I realize it's an expenditure, but I'm a firm believer that if we don't have the capacity or expertise, I'm not suggesting we don't have the expertise, but we're resource constrained. It's been a common theme with a lot of our conversations. Let's bring in the resources that are appropriate so that we can start to chip away at what is a manageable the circumstance that we find ourselves in. And I realize it's controversial, but I would like to get to the point that our solid waste staff, specifically the recycling staff, are adding tags and refusing to pick up recyclables, right? Because the other edge of that... Across the street from me, that's what they did. Yeah, so the other, you know, so the challenge with that is people may say, well, forget about recycling, it's too much work. that I would rather try, not a heavy-handed approach, but a gentle approach, maybe with photographs and a personal touch, so the people understand that the decisions that they make about what they put in that receptacle affects the entire town, not just them.

What if the sticker actually, I don't know what the sticker says, I just know it was put all over. Like probably 10 of them were put on the guy across the street from me because every day he was ignoring it. But I didn't read it. But if on the sticker, if it says the reason you're getting the sticker is because you're not following what goes in this.

And so that's one of the things too in the new labels that Alyssa wants to create. I would love to get your feedback on what you guys would like to see on it as well. Not just coming from a staff standpoint, but from a residential standpoint, what do you guys want to see on these labels?

And waste management should be part of the conversation if we're going to continue to send our material to their facility. They have a new material recovery facility going online first quarter of next year that's integrating a lot of technology. So I wouldn't want to get stickers that speak only to what is acceptable today. Let's figure out what they are going to accept in the future because it's going to take some time to roll this out, and I'd rather have it line up with what they're going to process. And if they're able to take number five plastic, not just one and two, That's important because a lot of our food packaging comes to us as .

If I may, a couple weeks ago a neighbor in my building brought up a concern that on non-recycle days they've witnessed both of the trash being picked up at the same time. And so I went down to audit this and in fact it is happening. Not only is it happening in my particular building at a building level where the maintenance person is actually commingling both things because of a lack of space, but then it's also happening at the city level.

So I think that the stickers... And I don't mean to cut you off, but once garbage hits it, it's no longer recyclable. It has to be thrown away.

The whole bin.

Yeah, the whole bin.

And so, and that may be the case in this, but I think that in order to validate that that is in fact what's going on, that we need to have an audit process because when I spoke to the worker and I said, hey, you know, I see you're commingling things. He says, yeah, we always commingle it and then we separate it. at the plant, and so his rationale wasn't what you're mentioning, which would have sufficed and would have given some peace of mind, but because he said that, it led me to believe that there's some kind of a knowledge gap, and when I brought it up, this is, no, no, this was the actual crew, the waste management crew, in addition to the building maintenance, so you have two problems, right, on both ends. And like she's saying, if it's commingled by the building staff, then they're doing what they have to do. But then in the building next door, they threw the recycle into the regular trash, and when I asked them, that was the answer.

They said they separate it.

They separate it later. And so when I brought it up to Vice Mayor, she says, oh yes, this is an ongoing problem in the city. So I just want to validate what she's saying is that we really need that education to make sure that everyone is aligned.

Because if not, the stickers are not going to really... Yeah, so it really has to be a robust education program, town-facing and customer-facing. But I think it's important that we prepare, whether it's the town or we can support it, frequently ask questions. Right, right. So what is the responsibility in a multifamily building? Well, for the property owner or the resident, they need to separate the material. The building staff needs to keep it separate because if they don't, It all goes to the landfill. So it has those sort of upstream or back stream impacts. We could be doing everything right if we were a multi-family building, but there's other opportunities for failure that then undermines the enthusiasm that the property owner has to do the right thing.

Is there like a process if a building is co-mingling it, like the traction or recycling? Is there like a letter that building management gets like, hey, we are noticing that you're not keeping things separate and it's all going. Yeah, I think because you're putting the stickers on in the houses. But maybe this evening we're feeling just, you know, hey, this is a heads up and then this is a warning and this is a, I don't know, like bring it, escalate it somehow, saying, you know, this is costing our town.

Yeah. Is there code? Is there code?

That's where I was going to go. We have a resident who also sits as a commissioner So if we could give you an assignment to look at our solid waste code to see if there's an opportunity to strengthen and clarify and or strengthen the language that makes it actionable from a code compliance standpoint.

Agreed.

Nonetheless, they did say that we have very good rates of contamination. So the team's doing well.

Well, what they may be doing is just putting it all in the trash. So the recycling is ending up clean because they're not taking the stuff from the buildings to recycling because it's just easier for them. Because if it's a mess, it's a mess. So that may be why. Exactly. But we do want the recyclable items to get to the recycling facility. I think it's trickier in a multi-family.

But it sounds like the town's on top of it. But if we could have a motion to the effect that if the town needs external professional support that we endorse

the town um absorbing that expenditure so that we can get our solid waste and recycling program optimized so if i sorry i have a coffee issue i'm not sick i don't know what it is i'm getting tested for everything i'm not sick right anyway um okay so i'm making a motion for that?

That our committee endorses and supports the engagement of a qualified consultant to support the town in its recycling services assessment and optimization.

I second that motion.

We're all saying yes. Now my question is, is that I was at the budget hearing the last time. They're not approving anything. So we can put this out there, but how do we get it approved money-wise? You know what I'm saying?

Well, it's a first start. That was in part why I asked for the town manager to be here. I sent a request. To our commissioner, what's your sense?

Yeah, um...

So I think that a joint recommendation for anything from the Youth Council and this committee would have more than doubled the effect, I think. There's a kind of good synergy there. I think that at least a couple of the commissioners just seemed opposed to any creation of a new position to pension concerns.

But it's not in your position.

Or even creating a position. But a consultant is something that another commissioner has mentioned as a possible compromise. So I do think that there is some possibility there. And I have thought, and I think I've said this before, This could be the thing that makes me do it. Make a list of all the things that have come before the commission where I would have liked to have had a consultation or in the future would like to have it. the recycling uh procedures are very high on that list but when we approve the contract with bright view for example the landscaping company you know we're kind of on our own talking about individual pesticides and and landscaping practices when it really would have been nice to have you know somebody with expertise review that contract to improve our processes and there are various things like that um that i think are identifiable problems where we lack We certainly on the commission lack professional expertise. So I think the case can be made with kind of concrete examples like that, I think. And it might be that getting a consultant and a budget for a consultant is an intermediate step.

I realize the manager's spending authority is limited. I think it's $12,500. They were slashing him, too.

It's been cut down to $15,000. But even $15,000 for this sort of engagement?

Yeah.

That's sufficient budget to be a resource to public works to get this done. So even if it's not in the budget, I think the manager still has the discretion, if it's the will of the commission, to focus on recycling.

Yeah. So that is one solution is if it's then they might fall under the manager's discretionary spending authority. If it's a larger idea of having a kind of sustainability officer as a consultant, then it becomes a... We're going to get to that.

But also part of the story is we have willing partners. So we have the Florida Beverage that is willing to front or sponsor the signage. Waste management as our processor is willing to be part of it. So it's really, it's not the town carrying all the water. It's finding the synergies and other resources that when combined together can move the needle.

Yeah. No, I agree. And if there is a sort of room for a consultant under that, under the town manager's discretionary price range. I'm meeting with the town manager later today. I can ask him about this. I'd be very strongly in support of that. I know I've, you know... Just while I don't want to make too many comments, but on this topic, I know that David Dobler, who the chair also knows, is a North Bay Village resident who's very interested in these issues. And he has label designs that he's kind of come up with. He has strong views about them.

They're free. They're publicly available. Yeah, they're free.

They're exactly public domain designs that we can think about. I did actually talk about this possibility with County Commissioner Mickey Steinberg in a recent meeting with her. She's all for it, but she's under the impression that we would need a memorandum of understanding with the county if they provided the bins in the first place to modify them.

No, we're not going to have hot-pressed carts. So we used to piggyback. We used to receive service through the county, the county's contractor. We moved all that in-house many, many years ago. In the process, we acquire those carts. So they are our carts.

Are they our carts now? No, they say Miami-Dade County, they belong to us.

There's a mishmash. There's some that are branded Surfside, some that are still branded Legacy. But the simple solution, we need not overcomplicate it, is let's get some stickers. That's part of the recommended approach. It is not the totality of it. Picking up on your point, if we could amend the motion to also engage the Youth Council for their endorsement of our motion, I think that would... And the Youth Council is so...

I mean, there's going to be a the new makeup of it but they're really into making videos and the social media so there's any education component to this they're great at that you know um so they can they can be a big help i know um the commissioner you went to the plant um you guys do want to visit so you know we can schedule an appointment i'm not sure

in terms of how they're open, in terms of the youth council, for them to go out and find out, and that'll just be another opportunity, just for more knowledge if you guys are going to be working together.

It's a really good, eye-opening visit, so I recommend it.

And when he was speaking, that if... people do go take video of it and put it in your educational video so if the youth council went what waste management will provide all of that they have more marketing materials i would just suggest that cool tick tock with youth council Gotta go viral.

But remember, they have a new facility that's under construction now. It will be operating first quarter of next year. I think it would be a good time for all of us to go and see the new facility because they are utilizing new technology.

Get that in the minutes, TikToker. I'm not a silent TikToker. I've got TikTokers in my face. Not me.

Not me.

I'm going to look her up later.

Chair, if I may regard the motion, is Ms. Canova amending the motion to add engagement of the Youth Council? Yes.

To support this item. Or to advocate with the Commission to advance this initiative.

To support and advocate with the Commission. To the Commission. And is the seconder okay with the amendment?

Yes, ayes. Second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Okay, the next item is sort of a status report. I'm not sure, Francois, if you have, if you can address any of these. Again, it would have been nice to have the manager here.

I'm sorry, I don't have it active.

I'll let it be here. I printed it out. It should be on your agenda.

So when I prepared, this was from really for last month. That's the same one. I wasn't able to attend. But I just tried to pull out some of the items by date when direction was given. So we talked about tarballs on February 20th. I don't know if that issue has gone away. Maybe votes aren't. cleaning their bilges anymore offshore, but that's generally the source of the tarballs. The next item is, and this is really more for us, we had discussed having representatives from the Youth Environmental Alliance, that's the organization that has installed the de-birder dunes with support from town and others, as well as the removal of non-native invasive species. I think that may be happening now as part of the dune restoration plan? In terms of

I'm not sure if the Youth Environmental Alliance is involved in that, but I know they're starting with the dune projects. Yeah.

No, I don't think they are, but historically, we built the Gilberto dunes under the leadership of the Youth Environmental Alliance, and they have done a lot of removal of non-native species. But really, the purpose in engaging them is to see if we want more Gilberto dunes. At one time, it was something that was included in development orders for oceanfront properties, that they have to improve the dune and add a diverter dune, but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

And I don't know if they, I mean, when they did the planning phase for the project, did they consider diverter dunes?

I think this would be a better sustainability and resiliency officer to coordinate all of this. Yeah.

I can always find out with the engineer to see if that would be reconsidered and what their thoughts are on it.

We also talked about inviting somebody from the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, whether it's a talk about Florida native plants or composting. Again, the idea is let's engage with other units of government or other organizations that we can learn from, and if they have successful initiatives, we don't need to create our own. We can simply replicate what's already been done. Okay. The near-shore reef, we had a great presentation a couple months ago, but I have no idea if any action resulted from it.

You mentioned that, right?

Yeah, I think there might be something budgeted for it. I can confirm this, but that came up at a budget meeting. The Vice Mayor brought it up, and I think it was favorably received.

And one of the other items also was an urging resolution to the city of Miami Beach to basically support the initiative. I don't know if anything ever became of that, but it was something that we talked about with the representative who presented. And if we said that we were going to do something and we didn't do it, shame on us. But I don't know, and that's why I was just looking for an item.

I don't recall an urging resolution.

So who, I guess this is where I'm coming from with earlier what I said is like, there's a lot of things on there. Like, what are we supposed to be driving? You know what I'm saying? As a committee, or are we putting it out there and then we're just, saying it's going to go somewhere? Like, you know, how do we make sure stuff, how can we support?

Yeah, well, I'm a list maker. Okay. And that's why.

It's to go through the list, basically. Okay, so where are we on this? Okay. So who's responsible for getting with Miami Beach? The commission?

To me, it's an administration. It's an administrative matter. And if our town manager has any questions, we have engaged members of the commission.

We've given directions. We've given directions.

We gave direction. Our direction was to recommend to the town commission to, maybe it was the administration, I have to go back and look, but to prepare an urging resolution. And until it's confirmed that it's been done, it hasn't been done.

To clarify, the urging resolution is supporting the City of Miami Beach's efforts in this area, or is it trying to coordinate with them for our own reef?

As a starting point, it was really to support the organization that was advocating to the city of Miami Beach to expand the reef protection area. I see.

Right.

But it's a resolution urging the city to take action on that initiative. Got it. So it's on behalf of the other organization, but the actual urgent resolution.

And to learn from Miami Beach to bring it here?

I think it would be appropriate. So there were two items, a two part. One is to see if we can also relocate our buoy line. But that's also not just Miami Beach, it's also about harbor that we were supposed to engage with. So that's one item. The other is the urgent resolution to expand the protection area. I share your frustration.

I'm just trying to figure out how to navigate all of this. A directive versus a recommendation, those are two different things. If we give a directive, why isn't it happening? And then what happens if it doesn't happen?

Unfortunately, we're a small committee, so we don't have... All we can do is recommend, but we have to be strategic whether we're recommending or not. whether we want to find a commissioner that will be the champion or if we want to recommend to the town manager. To your point, and we'll talk about it more later in the agenda there should be somebody that's coordinating all this and don't saddle somebody that is already full right um that there's value in yeah the manager's got a lot on his plate you have a lot on your plate all that we're talking about is is for the benefit of the town for sure we've been told from from the very first meeting that there are staffing constraints But the only way we're going to get around those staffing constraints is A, do nothing, or B, hire the resources. There's lots of ways to get that. But the point earlier, there doesn't seem to be support for hiring a chief resilience officer, at least not as a budgeted position. And for the record, I think that's short-sighted.

Because we have all these recommendations that have gone unanswered. And to coordinate these efforts in a way to really

Yeah, and I mean, this was a cursory look back through the meeting minutes. Yeah. I'm sure there's more.

Okay. Is there a copy of that page available? I mean, I couldn't find it.

It's on the agenda.

It's on the agenda. Yeah. Okay. But it's a new one.

You updated it. Because it has dates, so it's nice to show.

Yeah, but I simply updated the cover memo with the correct date. Okay. All right, so the Sustainability and Resiliency Officer was rated for an update. SolarFold will take panels at town facilities. Again, the return on investment is short, or I should say the payback period is short. We have no shortage of rooftop space that we could be doing. So part of this is what can the town do, the town administration, to demonstrate leadership that hopefully will serve as a priming of the pump of what individuals can do themselves. The tree giveaway?

That's happening. The commission approved that. That's on my list of things. The tree giveaway? What's that?

The photovoltaics? No, the tree giveaway.

Okay, good. Yeah. We have identified the species. I was going to ask Mark about that.

Okay, awesome. The walkability initiatives?

Yeah, there's some good things happening there. FDOT, on its own initiative, is adding several crossings around town. 91st and Collins, I believe, and 9th and Harding. As part of that, we're looking to build out this site. There's one... street between Collins and Harding that lacks a sidewalk. It's 90th on the north side. That's to be built out to connect to the new crosswalk. I have talked with the manager about other sidewalk possibilities that can be a little bit trickier and might have to go through the commission, but we're looking at some things. I've also been looking to try to make the corner of 88th and Byron more accessible to bikes and to... It's pretty hostile the way it's designed right now. The Commission did approve a resolution at the last meeting. called Bike Route 1, asked us to designate a path through the town. It's like a long distance bicycle route, and it would go down partying as far as 94th Street and then down Byron and out to the town. I'm using the Miami Beach's Byron bike lanes. And that was approved. And so anyway, these are things that fall, you know, this is more of an alternative transportation initiatives that are moving. If there are more specific recommendations in that area, I'm a big champion of this stuff, so happy to promote them.

One recommendation and one suggestion. The recommendation is between Byron and Abbott on 95th Street, there is a We talked about it five years ago on the north side, extending the sidewalk, in part because we're dealing with people walking to houses of worship, and it's inherently unsafe, and not to say that people are going to use sidewalks, but let's give them a fighting chance of making a good decision.

I completely agree. I think that's something I've talked with the manager about. I think he's sympathetic. I think... On the commission, there are some people who are more skeptical than others about sidewalks, but I agree that's a priority, that block.

It doesn't have to be an all. It can be, let's be strategic about where we add sidewalks. separation of vehicular and pedestrian. Okay and then my suggestion is you recall in the 2019 climate crisis report and action plan there's a long list of environmental initiatives that are reflective of Commission action I would just suggest that we maintain that list

Did we get that again? Did you send it out at some point? Because Tiffany Troxler, I think you know her. She mentioned that she knew there was one at some point.

It's on the town website, but if we could get a copy, just a copy of the link. It's a big file. I don't know how robust your computer is, but it slows things down.

Well, there's a link on the website if you could just email out. Can you repeat what is it that you were requesting?

The climate crisis report and action plan. It was adopted in December of 2019.

Yes, I believe I forwarded that in the past, but I'll do it again. Yeah, if you can do it again. Okay.

We were supposed to get copies of the Recycling Contamination Report. Do we still get that from Waste Management?

I do. I didn't know. Was it sent out on a monthly basis? I apologize.

You'd only send it to our new clerk.

Oh, crap.

They asked if we could get that on a monthly basis because that will help inform, keeps us apprised of at least what's going to the facility, what the contamination rate is. And I think it can help at the commission level. Oh, we don't need to do this. Well, look at our contamination report. Oh, and by the way, it doesn't capture the full story because we know, based on anecdotal information, that even if property owners are segregating properly at the building level, multi-family properties, Staff may be commingling it. Once they commingle it, it then becomes trash.

That's the whole point of this pilot program that they want to do. Since we're such a small town, it's easier to just pull our load to the side and try to assess how much of it is contaminated. Once we start getting into the... It's a position to set all these things and align ourselves with education will be able to better track and see if what we're doing is works. Yeah.

And then we already talked about the recycling training for public court staff engagement with compost for life. This now goes back a couple of months. Our liaison volunteered to bring the opportunity to the town commission. Do you recall if that was ever brought to the town commission?

it has been. This does touch a little bit on the item that I put on the agenda today, but it's a separate line. We have not talked about that at the Commission.

Sorry, if I may. From the last meeting and the meeting before that, the prior vice chair, she said she had engaged with a compost company and the vice mayor said that she was interested in engaging with that compost company. But that's the only thing that I am aware from what I've took from the minutes.

I would like to see some action on that. But really, whether it's our vice mayor or the town administration, It's not a heavy lift. And it's another opportunity to engage with the Surfside community, urban gardeners, let them champion as well. Just in our stormwater master plan, I think that is ongoing. But it would be nice to get an update on.

Is there a master plan? Because my understanding is that Abbott is first. But is there a master plan?

Well, that's a project. I'm talking about a town-wide study. I think Tim and Lauren have been engaged to prepare.

It's on the website, the finalized Omar and Matthew plan. Oh, it is? Yeah. Okay, awesome.

Yeah, I can say on this one, this has come up in the budget. The manager had put into the budget some money for like the next, you know, for some of the other projects that are identified in that plan. They're not all like, you know, injection wells and stuff like the Abbott project. Some of them are just simpler widenings of drainage pipes and stuff like that. And there was resistance on the part of certain commissioners to that budget item. So I don't know where that stands currently.

But basically what they were saying is that let's see how Abbott works because that could solve all of our issues.

I'm not sure.

No, that's what they said, though. That is what they said.

Okay. I just want to follow up. I agree with you.

But they said, how do we know? Because it could just, all the water can go there.

We need some engineers. Right. To talk about, validate. Hydraulics. Water's going to flow to the lowest point.

The stormwater master plan is on the town's website. I'll send that as well. It's a large file as well.

If it's on the website, just do the links. I'll send both links. I will always have them in this thing.

We spoke generally about both inter and intra-governmental engagement.

Can I go back to the stormwater thing? If money is an issue, how does it work with the town to raise private dollars if we wanted to do stormwater initiatives? Can we do that? Flesh it out a little bit.

The projects, whether we contract for it, it generally falls into the category of public-private partnership. We are engaging qualified professionals to provide a solution to a specific problem. The consideration that they're getting is compensation for that work. What would the consideration be for public dollars coming in?

Public, private? Private dollars coming in. So if a recommendation is bioswales, you need to put bioswales in these sections of town. And it's going to cost money to put the bioswales in. Not like Abbott. whatever it is, but it's going to cost money. Are we allowed to raise money to private people who just want to see bioswells throughout the town? And how would that work? Like I know you got the PTA that raised money for the school because the school can't raise money. Is there a similar way in Surfside? Like how does it work if I find a donor that says, I will fund $200,000 worth of bioswells?

How do we do that? I mean, it's been done. In a sense, through the proffer approach with development, where we have... If you build a building. Yeah, we've gotten consideration because of the impact of that project. We've gotten lots of benefits. Some in built things, like Surf Club paid for all the trees downtown. sometimes it's just money for the town to spend as well. So that's one lane. If it's a person who just wants bioswales.

Can we accept money to pay for the bioswales?

I'm going to leave that to the town manager and the town attorney to figure it out.

Okay, so that's a, what do I, how do I ask that question and figure out like, is like how, because I'm fine with running around town saying, hey, we need $200,000 for bioswells.

I would argue it's the town's responsibility, but if the town's not going to embrace that responsibility.

To raise the money is their responsibility?

To identify the need and to implement a solution. But I think it's a simple matter of asking the question, point of clarification for the administration, is there a process to solicit private dollars for public benefit? Right. Can we solicit dollars, public, individual donations to create a biostorm?

If we're looking at this storm master plan, and I know what all the pieces are. We all know what the pieces are. And the town has said, we are not giving any money to any of this stuff. But we know what the prices are. Can we go out and try to raise the money for some parts of the storm? I mean, can we do it? I would be totally behind that, and I think I know other people would be behind it, and we know there's people with money in this town.

Just a question for the administration. What is the process? Is there a process to do that? Is it legal?

Basically do a capital campaign for Surfside. You know?

I don't want to speak out of turn, but I can say with my experience with the Native Plant Garden, I did the grant application. We got some money. And then that creates a certain momentum, because then you say, look, we got recognition for this plan from this organization. Now it has to kick in money to finish the project.

But my job is that my whole career has been asking people, people for money.

But something like a grant can help solidify support. Right. It's going to be hard to get money. Well, let's first ask the question.

If it's a non-starter, then okay, now we know.

No, but I think, you know, Let's talk about bioswales.

I'm just saying bioswales. The stormwater master plan has five pieces to it, and these are kind of doable expenses. They're not crazy. Can we speak to potential donors? Maybe they want the permeable pavement in the alleyway behind the shul, and maybe we get people in the shul, if we're going to name it after the rabbi which was brought up, See about the temple making a beautiful alleyway with permeable pavement and some drainage system instead of putting asphalt down, which is in the budget right now. So take the money out of the Surfside budget and see if members from the shore will fund it. It's like a no-brainer to me. You're naming it after a rabbi.

Let's find out.

Yeah, so this is where my mind works when I'm hearing these budget conversations. I'm like... But we're going to get clarity, hopefully, before the next meeting or to be part of the next meeting.

Yeah.

And just a side note, that should be happening.

Okay. And June management, I understand that you're moving forward with a June improvement project.

If I may, Chair, there is an ITV for the June management project on August the 8th at 2 p.m. Okay.

An opening. An opening, yes. Awesome.

An invitation to it. Okay.

Beach for Nourishment, securing support from the state and the county is a long process. I would have expected our town commission and the administration to be on top of this the moment that our last project finished. To the casual observer, there isn't much beach left at high tide. It's just the nature of the project. It's not a problem that we've created. It was really the state when they created the beach in the first place. But I don't know if anybody is advocating with those units of government to get in line for the next beach renourishment.

Isn't Balfour originally a beech tree nursery?

Yes, but their circumstances are slightly different than ours. Typically they're eligible for bypass sand. I'm not sure that this time they're not getting the bypass sand, it's coming from upstate. But they're in a better position than we are generally because when they dredge all over, they get the sand. But it is, it's not every town for itself. And when I was in office, I had regular meetings with the mayors from Sunny Island to Miami Beach, to Bay Harbor to Indian Creek. And we talked about putting pressure on the units of government for beach re-nourishment. It was something that we all benefit from, even if they don't have their oceanfront like we are. And that helped. You know, move it along. The mayor, it was Mayor Jimenez at the time, he got really creative when we all sort of applied pressure to them. And that's how we got the vitriol action, the one we did. But now we're five years later, and I'm not sure that anybody's applying the same pressure. But it could be another 15 years before we get it. But if we don't get in line, then the time frame just gets pushed down.

On this topic?

Just in general.

It's informal. I do talk to commissioners from Bay Harbor mostly, not so much with the others. There's not a formal mechanism.

And this is something that you led?

I just thought it was appropriate, especially when this was starting in 2010, we're coming out of a really bad economic period. So we didn't have, none of us had a lot of money. So I tried to focus on what do we have in common? And then what are the low-cost, high-impact projects? One of my favorite examples is the shower that's at 96th Street. Bay Harbor mayor said, when our residents come to Surfside to the beach, they typically just walk down 96th Street. And there's no shower there. What can we do about it? So the mayors spoke about it. Well, how can we do this for everybody's benefit? So I think... Bay Harbor paid for the shower, et cetera, piece of equipment. Bell Harbor provided the water and paid for the water, and Surfside did the installation. So we all contributed a little bit, and now we have a shower for everybody's bathroom. Right, right, right.

And I know we collaborate a lot on the school, because all of our kids go to the same school. I don't know if that still happens. I don't know, but I know. Okay.

Okay. And I think this was your suggestion. But instead of having the, oh, it was like a wooden coin or something instead of the wristbands, something that is reusable as opposed to... Yeah, if I may, I'm not 100% sure if the Apple will work for the chairs.

I do know that they said no more wristbands, but I don't know. that applies directly to the chairs. So that is something that I will have to ask the Parks and Recreation Department if that also applies.

I have seen less of the van. I'm going to try.

There you go. Try to reserve a chair.

I wish I had time this afternoon.

I used to see them all the time.

So it's on the app, the reservation of the chairs?

I don't think so.

I'll ask if that's part of it. That's something you can add. If somebody asked, oh, did you reserve this chair up here? Right, right.

All right, so still we have a lot of outstanding items we just don't know and our time manager is not here to brief us. Okay. But I think at least we're able to talk about what we know about. But by all means, feel free to scour our meeting minutes. And if you see any other action items, let's add them to the list. And what I can do is I can send you a spreadsheet for the items. Yeah. And then leave us that too.

Maybe I'll recommend that, you know, my chair, if the manager can't make these meetings, maybe send a report on an update for you guys.

I'm afraid the answer, I agree and I support it. I would hate for the answer to be, well, I'm resource constrained. we've got an item about supporting the north beach compost on 85th street that would be me um thank you uh so i did write a little a little cover bill on this item um

agenda item for the commission to talk about supporting the North Beach compost hub. It occurred to me at some point that very few people actually know what this is. I know I use it, Charlotte Alsadli, is also a member of it. But there is this wonderful compost drop-off site just blocks from the town on 85th Street. And you can take kitchen waste, non-meat, and houseplant waste, but not landscape waste. And I want to be able to have the town promote the use of it, but it seems fair to me that we contribute in some way if we're going to be putting some extra strain on the thing. The way it works right now is there's an individual sign up and there's an access code and you can drop off your stuff.

Even if you don't live in Miami Beach?

Even if you don't live in Miami Beach. It's a project run by the Miami Beach Botanical Garden. Now, they need support for the project. I've talked to the executive director of the garden. They get some money from Emmy Beach. I'd love for Surfside to be a kind of a junior partner in this. I know this doesn't really conflict in any way with the Compost for Life discussion, as I understood it, which was about having composting at Town Hall and having it at certain town events where there could be composting. Compost for Life carts their compost, and they present it to this committee to a, you know, far away. They do their composting way off-site, I think on the mainland. You know, the North Beach Compost Hub is composting on-site. They have like a three-bed system going there. The waste you take there is composted there. So these are kind of non-competing proposals and yeah I just sort of wanted to get the committee's advice on how to present this to the Commission you know and the garden what they want they want $25,000 for a position that would be run by the garden and I you know I can't give it's gonna be hard to get that full amount or anything close to it but we might be able to make some contribution because they

Oh, they want the concession.

They want a composter. They want somebody to sort of... But they're looking for support at that level. I'm trying to pitch this to the commission in terms of the idea that... so much of what we're spending money to send to landfill is compostable. And we could potentially save, I think even conservatively, 40% of our landfill costs if we could find a decent way to compost what is compostable. So there is a potential long-term savings, but it involves getting some behavior change and sort of getting this idea into people's minds. Most people don't have any idea what compost is or how to do it or why it's important. It really is like, it's strange given how urgent the need might be to do this, especially in Miami-Dade County. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm... I sort of was coming to the committee maybe for some advice here. I did succeed in getting an environmental donation approved at the last meeting for Pelican Harbor. So it's not like the commission is totally opposed to such things. But how to make the case, what the role of that hub could be in a longer-term composting strategy, these are all things I'm trying to think through. And so, yeah, again, looking for advice, possibly, you know,

which I think is going to be easy. Just a couple thoughts to share with you. One is to make the case on a couple different lanes. One is intergovernmental coordination. It already exists just off of Surfside. There's a business case that's another lane. There's a sustainability case to be good stewards of our resources. And I would set the intention that we also have a community garden that has, we have room to expand and we could potentially move from demonstrating the concept to bringing that concept into Surfside proper. But let's walk before we run. Let's learn. on somebody else's property, what it takes, and then with the intention of bringing it to our community park.

And they do all sorts of educational programming. They're willing to do programming for Surfside. They're providing the real estate. That's a really important thing, too, because I love the idea of having community composting at the garden, but you've got to make sure that you're doing it just right so that you don't get vermin, you don't get worries. But they have the site operating, and it's in a good place because there's no immediately adjacent residential. It's in a parking lot, so it's kind of a really the case for it.

So you mentioned they want $25,000?

Well, I did talk... They're looking for... For support for a position. Yeah, and I think... Don't put that in the list. ideal.

But it could be twofold. One is a stipend. We support the operation and the continuation of this compost problem. whatever the number is, $5,000, $3,000, $10,000. And what that gets for the benefit to Surfside is anybody that wants to participate, do you have to pay to join it? So it subsidizes the operation for the benefit of Surfside.

It allows us to then confidently put a notice in the Gazette or something without feeling we're just freeloading off somebody else's traffic.

If you don't want to walk or bike, you can take the freebie.

But it's super accessible, you know, because it's really accessible, the Surfside. It's, you know, an underused resource.

It would be nice if they also provided training, so if somebody learns about composting, that they can then bring that to their home and avoid the trip back.

Right, so I do have this on the agenda for the August meeting. I'm going to refine my proposal. It may just be sort of asking for some money right now, but also trying to back it up with some picture of the issue and the cost savings and stuff. I'm trying to think about how to do that.

Has there been any sentiment from residents in Surfside in support of the compost or inquiries of composting? Just to kind of set up a baseline. Thank you, Mike.

those that do do right so years ago the town received an innovative recycling grant from the state of florida that money was used to provide compost training both in person and collateral resources on the town website and to subsidize the cost of the compost bill but that was 20 years ago yeah well who was that who was the commissioner who was

I mean, I know you had a role, but wasn't, like, somebody like Tim Will or somebody, like, really into composting also?

Yeah, so I think Tim was either the vice mayor or the mayor at the time, so I wrote the grant on behalf of the town. The whole idea was the town would embrace it, and they would steward the program. Much like today, the town didn't have the resources or the appetite to... But that was before we had the Surfside Urban Gardeners. And the whole idea was let's get a group of engaged and activated community members to be a champion for these matters. The commission's role is to provide the financial support.

There again, maybe some of these people have the resources to fund it. So we don't even need to ask for the money. You know what I'm saying? The wealth of this town has exploded.

But I would use that as a fallback position because it makes it too easy for the commission to say, yeah, let's go use somebody else's money. When really the fundamental responsibility of the commission, aside from setting the budget, is protecting the public health, safety, and welfare. And this is part of the foundation of public health, safety, and welfare. But if we could have an endorsement of the commissioner's initiative that he's planning on bringing to the commission.

I make a motion to support the initiative of supporting the North Beach Compost on 85th Street.

Engagement with and financial support to the North Beach Compost Hub.

They are the operators of the hub, yeah.

I second that motion.

All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed?

Okay, so at least you have an endorsement.

And it's now on the list.

And to the extent that I can help you craft... The discussion item, just send it over.

Yeah, thank you. I will, you know, and individually, you know, I welcome, you know, if you want to reach out to any commissioners and stuff. I'll take a little bit of time to try to put the discussion item into a more actionable form, but I might reach out to some of you individually as well.

Okay. Anything further on this item? Let's move on to the resilience officer.

Chair, if I may really quickly. This will be under item 7A. I apologize, I made a mistake earlier, because this is new business as we were walking on the item.

Yeah.

Which one? Which is the item?

The Chief Resilience Officer.

Even though in the minutes it said we're carrying it over? Because it was walked on today. So that's why it's in the new business. But that's, it doesn't, it's just how it is on the agenda. Okay.

So I should talk? So I would say that, you know, the importance, I can load bullets for the budget meeting. You know, hearing from the budget meeting that the property value in this town is $5.3 billion, and we know it's going to be, increasing significantly as new developments happen. I mean the Kushner property, all these things are really raising our property value. I really, I feel we're doing a disservice to the residents and to Surfside overall and our tourism if we're not proactive with having a comprehensive approach to making this town as sustainable and resilient as possible. We have eight, our town is eight blocks.

Eight blocks.

We can really become a leading coastal, this is all getting in the way. We can really be a leading coastal community and how to figure out the use of innovative products, projects, innovative projects, but it can't be piecemeal. We have to have somebody who's looking through the lens of a comprehensive plan and approach, and funding needed, and how do we get the funding, but really looking at the whole eight blocks for how we can be a leading cultural community to make us more resilient. Okay, I'm not gonna say this. Okay, so a full-time sustainability and resiliency officer, because I'm going to go back to full-time. I really do think this is a full-time position. I know it's been suggested part-time, but there's so many tasks and issues in coordination with public works. Like this could be a position that reports to public works, right? We already know the town manager has a lot on his plate. We already know you have a lot on your plate, but to have a sustainability and resiliency officer, it's a small investment for $5.3 billion worth of property in this town to really build a plan and secure funding to assist with project management to really make this a community that will thrive into the future. So that's my practice run for the budget meeting when it gets rescheduled. But that's where I stand. I mean, we're looking at, we have job descriptions here, we have our job description, but then what was interesting, I don't know if you all had a chance to read the North Bay Village one, the north bay village one does include some public works roles in there i mean ideally would it be dedicated to sustainability resiliency only but i think it does make sense that there's this partnership obviously with public works because to execute these projects is public works capital improvements program but it's every function of the town and i couldn't agree more

question is, and maybe a question for our commissioner. What do you think would resonate with the commission? Because it doesn't matter what the manager says. What matters is that we have elected officials that understand that this issue is timely, and broaden in scope and scale. And burying our head doesn't help anybody, whether in the short term or in the medium or long term.

I mean, this New York Times article, I mean, we saw what just happened in New York City. We saw what happened in Texas. This flash flooding is an issue. It's going to continue to be an issue. And if we just keep our head in the sand, it's going to become a bigger issue. So what can we do? If a catastrophic hurricane happens, whatever, that's a different ballgame. I think we should prepare for that, too, with warnings. And how do we warn with a big flash flood? But what I'm talking about is every day, torrential downpour, where flooding's going to happen, or all these things we're talking about.

So I guess harking back to, and this commission can say, well, it wasn't us, but the town declared a climate emergency in December of 2019.

I know.

We had, at that time, a chief resilience officer. We had one, I think, until 2021 or thereabouts. And that position has been unfilled. And, boy, really, it was eliminated. Because it's not in the budget anymore. Yeah. So we went from a leadership position. real action to now this piecemealed approach at VEST. Flooding is an issue. It was a Herculean effort to get to the point that we have a stormwater master plan, but there's projects that fall out of that. There's many more projects identified in the action.

All of these projects are important. They're all important. How do we...

Other than sending Tiffany to the budget here, is there some...

I mean, I think it was very interesting. It was a very interesting experience. It was kind of like I spoke, two people shot it down, and that was it.

But two is not a majority.

I know, but it definitely felt like it. So how do we... We kind of spoke up, and Tina kind of spoke up, but they're like...

There is, look, in some corners of the commission, there is skepticism about any new hiring of any kind. That's a problem. And I think then that there is a, I'll say, at least a lack of urgency around some of these sustainability-related issues, to put it mildly. So I do think that there... are ways to still speak to a majority of the commission, but there are at least two sources of opposition in terms of hiring and then the level of urgency given to the underlying issue. And so how those, I would just say that any case made to the commission should address either one or both of those. I just want to mention the idea of a consultant as at least starting the process. My sense is that there's skepticism about whether there's actually enough work for a full-time position. So by demonstrating what the needs are very specifically, and this is something I can work with you on, is what are the issues that would have benefited from, that somebody in this role could do right now.

Sorry, I'm sorry to cut you, but was there perhaps a consultant prior to the creation of the position back in 2019 that we can draw back on?

The two people that spoke up said it was inefficient The position didn't work.

And perhaps the person in the role was inefficient, but that doesn't speak to the...

Unfortunately, you know, put it in the category of its politics of personality, and if somebody doesn't like somebody, they're going to use that as an excuse to...

Yeah, but yeah, I think that's it.

For us to reboot why this position now is important and what are the tasks that we, can we put all of our recommendations, like this is why a full-time position is needed, like here's a whole list of things that have been... Yeah, so I guess on the other side of it, we hired an external grant writer

Yes.

What's been the return on investment for that? Have we gotten grant funds?

Well, that's also done as a kind of consultant. It's a different function, but I'm just curious. Yeah. There's something in the town manager report each month about that. I mean, we have, like, I know I worked with a consultant on an application recently, and, you know, we're waiting. Yeah, I'm not sure I understand the question. I mean, there are projects in the pipeline.

But we haven't gotten any grant funds since we hired that grant writer? I think we have.

Prior to coming back, Christina worked under Hector's direction, so we were able to get a few grants.

Can we work perhaps with FIU to leverage their expertise to get that, you know, to add that as a buffer or to add as some additional to our current recommendations before we bring it up to commission again?

So I didn't know you knew Tiffany when I spoke with Tiffany, but I mean, you know, she looked at the, she's like, this is absolutely a full-time position. Yeah. So she's at FIU. So she said that they would love to be able to work with their side.

The challenge is that... You need somebody to coordinate everything. Yeah, I'm going to use our town planner for many, many years who worked for a third party. What was unique about this person is that she took on the community's values and ethos, and you really couldn't... I'm a consultant, so I get to see this all the time. You really couldn't tell the difference between her role as consultant versus if she were in-house. The difference was that she had the capacity of her entire team, but she was the face of it, and she took on the community's values. not every consultant does that and there's a there's a pretty steep learning curve of what's been done understand what is what is currently going on what's possible and then understanding the currents from the administrative side from the political side as well as the sentiments in the community there that's before you even get to a project that's just understanding the community and it takes consultants a long time to develop that muscle i think that it's it should be a core function of the town i completely agree with you and i think that we should again urge the commission to support this position. And if maybe we provide that laundry list of.

What they would, how this is a full-time job.

What's the urgency?

Would you really have a start of the job description?

Do Bay Harbor and Bell Harbor have a office? But North Bay Village.

But they're, not every community. appreciates the importance of it. And I just come back to, we're one of a handful of communities in Florida that has declared a climate emergency. How on one hand can we declare a climate emergency and then not provide the support to mitigate and adapt to what we know There's a current condition that's only going to get worse in the future. That's what I get hung up on. But that's where we run into the politics of this. Well, that was a different administration.

I don't know if this administration, well, some of them don't agree that it's a climate emergency.

But they will support flooding initiatives. We're spending millions of dollars for a project that is going to have marginal benefits.

So back to the consultant, Tiffany could be from FIU, could be in a consultant role, but I'm a consultant too. I don't do, I advise, I think they do, but I don't actually do the work. I teach people and educate them on how they do the work. So we can bring on a consultant, but if there's nobody to do the work, what's the point? So FIU can come in and give us advice, but if there's not a staff person to then execute and meet with the town manager and meet with public works and coordinate the efforts, it's just going to be advice again and now we're back to this list where a consultant's going to be in the same place as us. Like, this is what I recommend, this is what I recommend, but if there's no money or staff or doers behind it, it just doesn't get done.

What would you recommend, Giorno, what would you recommend we do? Another... So they're urging from this committee, or should we put an item? Can we prepare an item under your name to advocate for it?

Yeah, I would be happy to sponsor an item that came from the commission, from this committee.

Because I don't know if the budget hearing is the right place.

If it is.

I mean, we can, I'll do that, but I think... They didn't allow for discussion because it was a budget hearing.

It wasn't an item in the budget. It's not an item in the budget. All those budget meetings so far, they're structured as workshops, and so there's a kind of free forum.

What's the cutoff for a discussion item for the August 16th commission meeting? If you could take a first cut at a discussion item for Georgia, I'd be glad to.

August 12th, I think is the deadline.

But I want to know what the cutoff is.

The August 16th meeting?

Yeah, or whenever the next commission meeting is.

I know we have a special meeting on the 28th, on the, wait one second, I'm on the wrong page. We have a special meeting on July 28th. Is that budget or is that? No?

No, sorry. There is a budget component to that meeting, yes, on the 20th.

Yeah, but it's just a presentation, so my understanding.

And I think that's what we have to decide on that.

So August 1st is the deadline for the agenda items for the town clerk to be put on the...

So, Tiffany, can you prepare a draft discussion item for Gerardo, and if it's okay... If you could send it to me, I'll add my thoughts, but not send it back to you.

So this is a discussion item with the job description? Or just, okay. So what is the form, is the format of the discussion item the same? The same format.

Okay.

And you need that by?

The first.

It needs to be submitted by the first. So I needed to get it to you guys to review with time. Okay.

I don't know if you could submit it to the clerk.

Yes.

I know Tina's not here. Sorry. Vice Mayor's not here. Vice Mayor's not here. Do we need to clue her in that you're going to bring up the discussion item? I mean, you can give her first dates on it. No, no, not first. I mean, I'm fine with you bringing up the discussion item, but I just think because she's a liaison to this committee, how do I move over it?

I'll contact her.

Okay. Yeah, I just want to make, you know what I'm saying?

But don't send it to us, Senator Clark. Your direct?

The discussion, I can send it directly to him.

You can send it directly to him. Which even makes it easier. Perfect. We don't want to violate something. Right, okay.

So then you look at it, he looks at it first, and then he sends it to you? Sure.

And we shall not cross streams. Okay.

I'm not talking to you at the band shell anymore.

Not about this.

Okay. I have to make an early exit, but thank you all. Thank you, as always. Thank you.

We're running over, so if we could just have a motion to extend the meeting by five minutes.

I motion.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The next meeting is August 21st. Good? Yes. Until it isn't?

Yes.

Yeah. Sorry, back to August 12th, though, that's the board meeting? That's the commission meeting.

Commission meeting, yes. And commission items, the items are due by August 1st.

Okay, and that meeting is at what time?

At 7.

7 p.m. Board meetings in a row.

Yes.

Okay.

And with that, we're going to have a motion to adjourn.

second that motion someone used to make them okay yeah motion to um finish our thank you everybody welcome to the team