City Commission - Regular Meeting

and start having a seat. We're gonna get going. Chairwoman King is not feeling well today, unfortunately, so I'll be filling in her shoes, not to the full extent of her shoes, but I will do my best. Welcome to the City of Miami Commission meeting, March 12th, 2026. Procedures for the public comment will be explained by the city attorney shortly. Procedures for the swearing in of parties for planning and zoning and quasi-judicial items will be explained by the city attorney. The members of the city commission appearing for this meeting are Rolando Escalona, Ralph Rafael Rosado, Chairwoman Christine King, myself, and the Honorable Madam Mayor. The meeting will begin and open with a prayer and Pastor Kenneth Washington from the Greater Israel Bethel Primitive Baptist Church. Pastor Washington.

Thank you, sir.

Shall we pray?

Eternal God, our Father, before we ask you for anything, Lord, we want to thank you for everything. We thank you for this meeting today. We pray, our Father, that everything may be done decently and in order, and we will be careful to give you all the honor and the praise, for it is in your Son's name we do ask it all. For his sake, let everybody say amen. Amen.

And Commissioner Rosado, if you could lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Yeah. Mr. City Attorney, can you please state the procedures to be followed during the meeting?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you. George Wisong, City Attorney, City of Miami. Detailed information about the processes, order of business, rules of procedure, and scheduling or rescheduling of City Commission meetings can be found in Chapter 2, Article 2 of the City Code, a copy of which is available online at www.munico.com. Any person who is a lobbyist pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 6 of the City Code must register with the City Clerk and comply with related City requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the City Commission. A person may not lobby a city official, board member or staff member until registering. A copy of the code section about lobbyists is available in the city clerk's office or online at www.munico.com. Any person making a presentation, formal request or petition to the city commission Concerning real property, must make the disclosures required by the City Code in writing. A copy of the City Code section is available at the Office of City Clerk or online at www.munico.com. The City of Miami requires that anyone requesting action by the City Commission must disclose, before the hearing, any consideration provided or committed to anyone for agreement to support or withhold objection to the requested action pursuant to City Code Section 2-8. Any documents offered to the City Commission that have not been provided seven days before the meeting as part of the agenda materials will be entered into the record at the City Commission's discretion. In accordance with Section 2-33F and G of the City Code, the agenda material for each item on the agenda is available during business hours at the City Clerk's Office and online 24 hours a day at www.miamigov.com. The meeting of the Miami City Commission is a limited public forum. Any person may be heard by the City Commission through the chair for not more than two minutes on any proposition before the City Commission unless modified by the chair. Public comment will begin at approximately 9.15 a.m. and remain open until public comment is closed by the chairperson. Any person making offensive remarks or who becomes unruly in the Commission chambers will be barred from further attending City Commission meetings and may be subject to arrest. No clapping, applauding, heckling, or verbal outbursts in support or opposition to a speaker or his or her remarks shall be permitted. No signs or placards shall be allowed in the Commission chambers. Persons exiting the Commission chambers shall do so quietly. Members of the public wishing to address the body may do so by submitting written comments via the online comment form. Please visit www.miamigov.com forward slash meeting instructions for detailed instructions on how to provide public comment using the online public comment form. The comments submitted through the comment form have been and will be distributed to the elected officials, their staff, and city administration throughout the day so that the elected officials may consider the comments prior to taking any actions. Additionally, the online comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the elected officials or staff in the city administration up until the chairperson closes public comment. Public comment may also be provided here live at City Hall at 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, subject to any and all city rules as they may be amended. If the proposition is being considered or rescheduled, the opportunity to be heard may be at such later date before the City Commission takes action on such proposition. When addressing the City Commission, the member of the public must first state their name, their address, and what item will be spoken about. Any person with a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids, and services for this meeting may notify the City Clerk. The City has provided different public comment methods to indicate, among other things, the public's support, opposition, or neutrality on the items and topics to be discussed at the City Commission meeting. in compliance with Section 286.01144C Florida Statutes. The public has been given the opportunity to provide public comment during the meeting and within reasonable proximity and time before the meeting. Please note, commissioners have generally been briefed by city staff and the city attorney's office on items on the agenda today. Anyone wishing a verbatim record of an item considered at this meeting may request it at the Office of Communications or view it online at www.miamigov.com. For planning and zoning items, PZ items shall proceed according to Section 7.1.4 of the Miami 21 Zoning Ordinance. Parties for any PZ items, including any applicant, appellant, appellee, city staff, and any person recognized by the decision-making body as a qualified intervener, as well as the applicant's representatives and any experts testifying on behalf of the applicant, appellant, or appellee, may be physically present at City Hall to be sworn in by oath or affirmation by the city clerk. The members of the City Commission shall disclose any ex parte communications to remove the presumption of prejudice pursuant to Florida Statute Section 286.0.115 and Section 7.1.4.5 of the Miami 21 Zoning Ordinance. The order of presentation shall be set forth in Miami 21 and in the City Code. Staff will briefly present each item to be heard. The applicant will present its application or request to the City Commission. If the applicant agrees with the staff recommendation, the City Commission may proceed to its deliberation and decision. The applicant may also waive the right to an evidentiary hearing on the record. Please silence all cell phones and other noise-making devices. this meeting can be viewed live on miami tv the city's facebook page city's twitter page city's youtube channel and comcast channel the broadcast will have closed captioning and finally pursuant to advisory legal opinion of the attorney general ago 2020-03 issued on march 19 2020 the florida attorney general opine that consistent with prior attorney general opinions a member of a local governing body who is presently unable to attend a meeting because of medical treatment or due to medical reasons, could participate and vote in meetings where a quorum of the other members was physically present. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. City Clerk, please state the swearing-in procedures to be followed during the meeting.

Thank you, Chair. The procedures for individuals who are providing testimony to be sworn in for planning and zoning items and any quasi-judicial items on today's City Commission agenda will be as follows. Members of City staff or any other individuals required to be sworn in who are currently present at City Hall will be sworn in by me, the City Clerk, immediately after I finish explaining these procedures. Those individuals who are appearing remotely may be sworn in now or at any time prior to the individual providing testimony for planning and zoning items and or quasi-judicial items. Commissioners, are you comfortable with all the notice provisions set forth in these Uniform Rules of Procedures we have established for this meeting? Chair, may I administer the oath for the planning and zoning items? Yes. Thank you, Chair. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. If we will be speaking on any of today's planning and zoning items, those are the PZ items. May I please have you stand and raise your right hand? And again, that's just for the planning and zoning items. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give at today's hearing is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? And your response is? Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair.

Mr. City Manager, do you have any items to be deferred or withdrawn?

Good morning. Good morning, Madam Mayor, Chairman, and Chairwoman, virtually, Commissioners, City Attorney, and City Clerk. The administration would like to defer or withdraw the following items. RE8 to be deferred to May 14th, FR3 to be withdrawn, and Discussion Item 2 to be indefinitely deferred. Thank you.

Commissioners, do you have any items to be deferred or withdrawn?

No. Yes, I do. Pertaining to the ultra, I can't see the... RE10? That's right. I'd like to defer that. To April 23rd?

To April 23rd. Anyone else? Commissioner Escalona? Commissioner Rosado? No? No.

And, Chair, if I may briefly just interrupt. I do have a number of sponsor and co-sponsor requests, so if you can just bear with me. Mary Higgins will be co-sponsoring RE9. Commissioner Pardo will be sponsoring CA1, CA2, CA3, CA4, CA5, CA6, CA7, RE2, and RE3. Commissioner Pardo will also be co-sponsoring RE11, RE15, and RE17. Commissioner Escalona will be co-sponsoring RE9. Commissioner Rosado will be sponsoring RE8 and co-sponsoring FR5. Commissioner King will be sponsoring FL1 and co-sponsoring RE9. Thank you, Chair.

I know Madam Chair is not feeling well, and there were items that we wanted to bring forward that require a four-fifths. So, Madam Chair, if you're there on the Zoom.

And Chair, if I may, my apologies. For the items that are being deferred and withdrawn, if you would like to ask for a motion and a vote. Wait, wait, wait. Discussion.

Wait, can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay. I didn't get the items that the manager said will be deferred and withdrawn. Could you do that one more time, please?

Absolutely. City Manager? Hope you feel better, Chair Oldman.

Thank you. RE8 to be deferred May 14th. RE8 deferred to May 14th. FR3 to be withdrawn. And Discussion Item 2 to be indefinitely deferred.

And in addition, RE10 was deferred to April 23rd.

I got that one. I would like to defer. I thought administration was going to defer it, but I would like to defer PZ2 deferred.

Is that it, Chairwoman?

That would be it, yes.

I apologize, I didn't go through you on the Zoom first.

And my apologies, Chair. To what date is PZ2 being deferred?

Less than definitely deferred, because we're going to work on it a bit, and we can bring it back at any time.

Okay, so can we have a motion?

I'm sorry, on the RE, sorry, I didn't want it here. At RE10, what do we agree to defer? April 23rd. Is that the second meeting in April? That's the second meeting in April. Okay, so I motion to defer RE10.

Okay, along with the whole list of items.

Yeah.

We're good.

Second.

Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Now, for the items to be considered now were PH4, RE6, and RE9. These are our four-fifth items that we're moving forward so that the chairwoman can vote on these items. Is there any discussion?

Wait, I think you've got to do public comment first.

Ah, okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. So our public comment period is now open.

Yes, sir. Good morning, Commissioners, Madam Mayor. My name is Rick Madan, president of the Biscayne Neighborhoods Association, and I am a resident of Edgewater. I'm here to express our neighborhood's strong support for several items that prioritize our safety, mobility, and environment. First, we urge you to support for the Margaret Pace Park Improvement's RE2. As one of our primary green spaces, the proposed baywalk segment and kayak launch are vital for public access. Similarly, we support the I-395 Baywalk connector, RE17 and CA12. These projects move us closer to the long-term vision of a continuous safe front path for pedestrians and cyclists. Regarding mobility, we thank Commissioner Rosado for sponsoring the discussion on traffic light synchronization, DI3. In high density areas like ours, efficient traffic flow is a daily necessity. We also support Marine Patrol upgrades, CA2, essential for emergency response on our busy waterways. Eliminating single-use plastics, RE15, a critical step in protecting the health of Biscayne Bay. Finally, we appreciate Commissioner Porter for initiating the discussion on managing homelessness and the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, DI5. A comprehensive service-oriented approach is vital for the well-being of our entire community. Thank you for your time and for moving these important initiatives forward.

Thank you. Ma'am?

Good morning, Madam Mayor. Good morning. Commissioners, Commissioner Pardo. My name is Marlene Barton. I'm representing the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative, 3640 Grand Avenue. Today is one month and one day since our beloved Mrs. Gibson left us physically. I'm here in support today, in support of RE9, acknowledging the work of both Reverend Father Gibson and Mrs. Thelma Gibson, who tirelessly advocated for fairness, funding to make the lives of the residents of West Coconut Grove better. Not just better, but providing opportunities for them. So I ask the entire board to please support RE9 as this community and Miami-Dade County should remember the tireless work and dedication both Father Gibson and Mrs. Thelma Gibson gave their lives for. I mean, not gave their lives for, but dedicated their lives. Thank you. Thank you.

Sir?

Good morning, gentlemen. Perhaps you can take another speaker while we're waiting for the, oh, here I am, okay. Good morning. Regarding the find grants, you have a total of 12 fine grants on today's agenda, and find the Florida Inland Navigation District exists to increase public access to the waterways. The total grants are over $9.5 million. But those fine grants could be in jeopardy, and here's why. The Legion Park boat ramp opened in 1966. Here it is being used by motorboats in 2007. But due to a lack of maintenance, it was closed and fenced off in 2009. Imagine that, a city facility that was not well maintained. Later, some neighbors objected to the motorboats using the ramp. I told those neighbors the fine grant required motorboat access. It's very easy to take away a personal freedom as long as it's someone else's personal freedom. But rather than continue allowing motorboats, the city canceled the FIND grant. FIND was not happy and said so. So here's the before. They were starting construction in 2023, in 2022, and in 2024. This is what ended up. Your cars can no longer park there. They expect the kayakers to carry their kayak 610 feet. There's no parking allowed at the end of the street. And what little parking is available is taken by a 236-unit apartment building before... after. I highly recommend you repave the Legion Park boat ramp parking lot and put it back in service. Please bring back a public waterfront benefit that should never have been taken away. Find and the public will be most appreciative. Thank you.

Sir? Morning. My name is Keith Moore. I'm from the Historical Research Group Profiles in Black Miami. It's been our task to bring to fruition hidden history within the black community. We have been sponsors of several street naming events. I'm here for RE9, the street naming event for Father Gilson and Mrs. Thelma Gilson. They have contributed to this community. Father Gilson from the 1950s to the 1980s as a civil rights activist and as a commissioner. The second black commissioner to be sit in this chamber. Mrs. Gibson took the helm from there, where she did a lot of community work. She did work for women's rights and advocated for this community immensely. Their history is not hidden in plain sight. We know about them. But today, I'm here to support the proposal to have a street named after them for future generations to see. Thank you. Thank you very much, ma'am.

Good morning. Elisa Margulies, 3333 Rice Street in Center Grove. I think we should all join Mayor Higgins in sponsoring RE15. Eliminating single-use plastics and polystyrene containers would be a huge win for Miami. A word of caution though, many cities have tried and failed. Take the time to learn from their mistakes. Reach out to environmental groups in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland. Ask them about the unintended consequences of implementing bans without suitable alternatives. Next, look to cities and countries that succeeded in banning plastic bags and takeout containers. Washington, D.C., Santa Barbara, Hong Kong, Ireland. They figured it out. Follow their lead. Tap into our local resources like Filabag for their expertise. Did you know more than 100,000 sea turtles, whales, and dolphins die each year from plastic ingestion and entanglement. When you include other sea life, the number increases to over a million, and that doesn't even include the seabirds. The numbers are staggering. With the right public messaging and the necessary incentives, businesses and residents will become invested in this challenge. Even the most jaded can be persuaded. Finally, now that you've started this conversation, please make sure it doesn't get bogged down in typical Miami bureaucracy. Because when you find the right formula, the impact on our environment will be immediately noticeable. And what a legacy that will leave.

Thank you.

Thank you. Sir?

Good morning. Good morning. Acting chairperson and the rest of the deus. My name is Reynolds Martin. I'm with the Homeowners and Tenants Association of the West Grove, and I chair Grove Rights and Community Equity. otherwise known as Grace, I'm here to offer support for RE9. It's legendary what the Gibsons has contributed to both Coconut Grove and the rest of the city of Miami. But I'm also here to support the renaming or the naming of the Aquatic Center at Beard Park after Renika Silva. We know a lot about her, but there's a lot more that we can learn about Renika Silva, who's certainly eminently qualified to have this thing renamed after her. She was an alumnus of Carver High School, and she was also inducted into the Hall of Fame at Florida A&M University. You know, at Florida A&M University, folks didn't hear too much about Coconut Grove, but they always heard something about Carver. And when they found out that Carver and Coconut Grove were synonymous, oh my God, when you go to FAMU and you say that's where you're from, then you get recognition. But in addition to that, Ms. Silver was president of so many organizations in the community. She was president of the National Association of Black School Educators. She was president of the Girls Club of America, the Miami chapter, and everything that she was a part of. She was an officer at the Gibson Memorial Fund, Miami Mental Health, Dade County Sickle Cell, Sigma Gamma Rho. So Ms. Silva is certainly deserving to have her name on the Aquatic Center at Beard Park. So I thank you for your consideration of this.

Thank you.

Sir? Good morning. Mark , 627th Street, Miami. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning, Madam Mayor, seat officials. And I wish Sherwin-Kings get better soon. I live in Wedgewater, and I'm about quality of life. So I'm here to speak for four items. The first one is the application for grant for the marginal pace park. The next two are related to Baywalk. We've been fighting for Baywalk here for three years. So the RE17, Baywalk connector design and permitting grant application, and the CA12, the design for the I-35 Baywalk pedestrian and bikeway bridge. And the last one is related to the Miami patrol, the CA number two, Miami patrol bolt engine replacement grant application. So all those four topics, and I agree with others, but I select only these four, is really related to provide to Edgewater, to the city of Miami, a better quality of life. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Sir? Adam Gersten, 7010 Biscayne Boulevard. Good morning, commissioners. Madam Chairwoman, I hope you feel better. Good morning, Madam Mayor. I am the chair of the Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board, and I'm supposed to deliver a report. You all already have it, but I think for the benefit of the public, just to know what we do, what we've done in the last year. The board serves as the city's local planning agency, providing recommendations to the commission on important planning and zoning matters, including Miami 21 amendments, comprehensive neighborhood plan updates, rezonings, and special area plans. The board also serves in a quasi-judicial capacity, hearing variances, exceptions, land use, and zoning appeals. In 2025, The board held 20 public meetings, with two canceled due to lack of quorum. We apologize for that. During the year, the board reviewed approximately 83 resolutions and six discussion items addressing planning and development matters across the city. The board remains committed to transparency and public participation, ensuring meetings are publicly noticed, materials are available in advance, and proceedings are accessible through the city's broadcast channels. Board members completed their required Miami 21 ethics and Sunshine Law training to ensure compliance with state law and best practices. Everyone on the board appreciates the opportunity to serve. I've done so for a long time. I hope to continue to. I know my time's up, but I just want to say that we're hoping to be able to explain what we do beforehand. We've taken the cue from some of the commissioners who like to let people know what's going on. So we're hoping that as we move forward, that's a possibility that we can explain to the public a little more of what's happening in advance. It's sometimes hard to explain how to click through, even though we think it's obvious to click on a PDF and go through an agenda. So the more we can reach the public in more clear ways, we'd like to. Thank you. Thank you. Sir.

Good morning, commissioners, Madam Mayor, city staff. I'm Stephen Dutton, resident of downtown 244 Biscayne Boulevard, apartment 3906 Miami, Florida. I moved here with Thomas Lang, my life partner, in 2013 after we both retired. We enjoyed the next few years in Miami, mixing a wonderful life of leisure and travel. In September of 2016, we returned home from a couple From a cruise for a couple of months and with our dogs, Lucy and Max, we were enjoying coffee and breakfast outside a cafe along Flagler. Sadly, everything changed for us that morning as we were startled by a man across the street in front of Walgreens screaming obscenities at everyone who passed and shouting threats. He was enraged, but his voice was also sounding delirious, and by his dress, we knew he was homeless. I made a decision to photograph him so the police could be alerted. He saw me take the photo and yelled, take my photo, Mother F. And he came across the street and after swinging a punch that missed me, he ran to my partner who yelled, leave us alone. And he pushed Tom to the pavement, landing squarely on his head, causing his death two days later at Jackson Memorial. It would be hard for me to advocate for anything to help the man who caused Tom's death were it not for the fact that I spent the last 20 years of my professional life as Chief Executive Officer of Samaritan House in Fort Worth, Texas, before moving to Miami. Tom and I were both attorneys. He was with the bank, and we both were very involved in our community. How sadly ironic that after creating a medically supportive facility there for persons who were homeless due to AIDS, as well as from mental illness and substance abuse, that I would now live in Miami suffering as a victim of violence from a homeless man suffering untreated mental illness. I can only surmise my journey to finding peace will include helping this community finally understand there is no silver bullet to ending homelessness, but through the goodness of heart and the persistence of persons working to end this scourge, progress most definitely can happen. Your problem is simply one of deciding for the community the next step not yet taken. Despite the millions of tax dollars spent in our city for incarcerating persons that are homeless, but with untreated mental illness, followed by short hospital stays for medications that help, but then back to the streets where it all starts all over again.

Thank you.

All right, I'm sorry. I apologize. Thank you.

We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Ma'am?

Good morning to you all. I'm Anna Viamonte Ross, and I live at 34 Almeria Avenue in Coral Gables. I served as Secretary of Health for the state of Florida, as well as a First Surgeon General for the state. I'm currently Administrative Medical Director at Camillus Health Concern, as well as a Professor of Medicine at Florida International University College of Medicine. And I say this because I'm really very passionate and very committed to the health of everyone in our community. In 2023, Camillus Health Concern was approached by Judge Leifman at the Miami Center for Mental Health team to explore potential leadership and partnership in this area. The medical team, we felt Camillus Health would be able to help in this initiative and that we would be able to provide a continuum of primary care services as well as episodic care for acute illnesses, chronic disease management, and specialty and surgical referrals as needed. We're committed to evaluating all these patients and making referrals to Jackson Memorial Hospital emergency room when appropriate. We feel that Camilla's health concern, as well as the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, have a natural alignment in serving individuals with complex health needs, particularly those with serious mental illness, co-occurring chronic conditions and social vulnerabilities. We believe this partnership enhances patient outcomes for everyone in the community and reduces reliance on emergency and inpatient services.

Thank you.

Thank you. Sir.

Good morning, Honorable Commissioners and Mayor. My name is William Hopper. I live at 527 Northeast 56th Street. I want to express my appreciation to the chairwoman for allowing me to present the annual report of the Historic Environmental Preservation Board in public comments. Throughout the year, At monthly HEP board meetings, the board has reviewed applications for special certificates of appropriateness for alterations to designated historic sites and districts, designation of historic resources and tree appeals regarding intended decisions to remove trees throughout the city. The board also has the authority to review certificates to dig for major ground disturbing activity in archeological sites and zones, and special certificates of approval for tree removal and or construction activity in an environmental preservation district or scenic transportation corridor. During 2025, the board had held 11 meetings lasting approximately 32 hours, made a total of 45 resolutions, including the following. Two preliminary designation report reviews, two final designation of historic resources, including John Sewell's Hallacy Hall gate columns and 3634 Pro Avenue amendment. 35 special certificates of appropriateness for alterations to historic resources in districts. Four historic preservation waivers to allow for restoration or adaptive reuse of designated historical resources. Two tree removal permit appeals. In addition, the board has reviewed an action on the archeological site under excavation at 77 Southeast 5th Street slash 444 Burkle Avenue. Other discussion items include the progress of Charles Avenue developments, ongoing board enhancements, updates to demolition by neglect legislation, implementation of an inventory and assessment of the city's historic resources with unsafe structures violation, and proposals for new designations. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Good morning. My name is Orlando Gutierrez-Bornat. I represent the Assembly for the Cuban Resistance. The Assembly is a coalition of 52 civic Cuban-American civic organizations inside and outside Cuba. That recently expanded as we have signed an agreement with the Pasos de Cambu Coalition just about a week ago, right there in the Hermita de la Caridad de Cobre. I'm here to speak on behalf of Item DI-4, Support for City Planning for Transition in Cuba. Cuba is on the cusp of change. Preparedness is essential. As we learn from history, what happens in Cuba deeply affects Miami, but what happens in Miami also deeply affects Cuba. We must prepare because we have a long history of being affected by the crises in Cuba and are not preparing in spite of the writing being on the wall for these crises. And we believe that the city of Miami must not only prepare, but it can also assist the federal government in that outcome which is most beneficial for the city of Miami, for the people of Cuba, for the United States. There are many possible scenarios in Cuba. Two of them, hybrid change or the regime remaining in place, will have a negative fallout for Miami. But real change towards democracy, towards freedom, can really help Miami and be a boost for Miami's economy. The assembly has a coherent plan for national reconstruction of Cuba, for national salvation. We have commissions who are working on different areas, and we're more than glad to help the city in any way to prepare. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Sir?

Good morning. I'm Dr. David Newman. I live in Coconut Grove, 2470 Trap Avenue. I just want to express my extreme support for the funding of the mental health facility. You all know how long it's been on You know, on the agendas, it's been a project of Judge Leifman's for over 20 years. And to pull any kind of funding now would be, it's really at the one-inch line. Okay, it's gotten the support of the commissions up until now, and a lot of things have been, a lot of foot-dragging, but we're really right at the door. And all we need to do is to turn the key on this. I was at the commission meeting for the county, And strangely, they're using the reasoning that, well, City of Miami and Miami Beach are not sure about funding it itself. So they're using this, the... unsureness of funding it as an excuse for them not to fully go forward. It's crazy because the amount of money they're asking from the county and the money that the city is also putting up is really lint in the pockets. It's such a minimal amount of money. For the amount of money this will save taxpayers, it'll greatly reduce jail time of the people who don't deserve to be in jail to begin with. So on many different levels, this serves the community. It saves money. It gives people who need the help the help that they need. And I hope you could continue to fund this project because it's good on so many levels. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good morning. I am Yamal Anderson-Ruff, the youngest niece of Thelma Vernell Anderson-Gibson. And I'm coming to you from her address, 3661 Franklin Avenue. And we are here to speak in support of RE9, the co-designation. And I just want to speak about my Aunt Thelma, not as an activist, but as a woman and beloved aunt who helped raise my father and was mother to me when mine was lost. Proverbs 31 speaks of a good wife being valued greater than rubies. Because she was absolutely a woman of noble character, and brought Uncle Theodore, her family, and community good, we agree. While Uncle Theodore was a leader in his own right, my Aunt Thelma enabled him to do greater as that Proverbs 31 woman, and she continued and multiplied their work even after his death in 1982. She was truly a woman of great value. She was the model for us as we, her nieces and nephews, aka her children, Our educators, ministers, police officers, community organizers, healthcare professionals, and military service people, we carry her legacy all over the world and are proud of the home she worked to create for us and hope that you will vote to move forward with the co-designation. Thank you.

Thank you. Ma'am?

Good morning. Laura Okamura, 50 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami. I'm here to speak against RE10.

We ended up deferring RE10 from the agenda.

Correct, yes.

So is there some other item on the agenda that you would like to speak on?

No. So are you voting on that deferral today?

No, it is deferred already. We've already voted to defer it, so that'll come back on April 23rd.

Okay, thank you.

No, thank you for taking the time to come. Thank you.

Good morning. I am Misty Brown, resident of Miramar, Florida, address on file. Today I stand to ask for your support for RE9 to commemorate the legacy of both Reverend Theodore Gibson and our beloved Aunt Thelma Gibson. We thank this commission for always being in support of her and her efforts in everything that she did in this community. We know behind this sacred desk that she, sacred dais, that she and Reverend Gibson served this community well with pride and with dignity and served, especially the west part of Coconut Grove, their beloved home, with integrity. She would want to say today to thank this commission, and although she had high regards for the men on this dais, She had a special infinity for Chairwoman Christine King, and her last act of civic duty was to vote for our new mayor, Mayor Higgins. And so we thank you on behalf of the family for this recognition, for generations to come, to get to know and know about the great works that Reverend Theodore Gibson and Thelma Ronell Anderson Gibson did on behalf for this community and all the constituents. Thank you again.

Thank you. Ma'am.

Good morning. It's so good to be here today. My name is Elaine Black. And I am the president of the Liberty City Trust, and we are here to present our annual report for 2025 and our direction for 2026. Our vice president, Professor Sam Lattimore, will do the first introduction.

Good morning, my name is Professor Sam Lattimore. 937 Northwest 55th Street, Miami. Been a resident for over 70 years. And I am with the Association of Liberty City Trust. I just want to briefly mention that the vision of the Liberty City Trust is to empower those who live, learn, and work, and play in the Liberty City. Overreaching objectives as it relates to transforming a distressed high-poverty community into a valuable mixed-income, sustainable neighborhood with access to well-functioning services, high-quality public schools and educational programs, as well as partly early learning situations, public assets, reliable public transportation, and improved access to employment opportunities.

Thank you. I'd like to just say that our goals for 2026, we have nine pillars, commercial development. And under commercial development, I'm happy to say on March 25th, we're going to have the grand opening or ribbon cutting for Yeager Plaza. The reason Yeager Plaza is important is because there was a doctor by the name of Mr. Yeager, Dr. Yeager, and he served our community for many years. He came to many of our initial meetings many years ago and advocated. And as a result of that, We are building a 135-unit apartment building with 10,000 square feet of open recreational space across from Liberty Square.

Thank you.

Oh.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Two minutes. Thank you. Ma'am.

Good morning. To Mayor Eileen Higgins, Chairwoman Christine King, and the City of Miami Commissioners, I am Dr. Tadra Anderson-Rhodes, the seventh niece of Mrs. Thelma Vernell Anderson-Gibson and Reverend Theodore Gibson. I'm Dr. Tadra as my aunt called me. I'm from actually Pembroke Pines, Florida, but my father was one of her brothers, and so I grew up in the grove. I'm also on the board, an active board member of the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative, which as you all know, or should know, provides amazing healthcare services, behavioral health services, social work services, and so much more to city of Miami residents, especially those in the historic Grove. My uncle and aunt, whom I both loved, knew, revered, and cherished, led with integrity, always, always doing what's right. They led with passion, him more loudly than her, as those of you who knew them. Will can attest, but also with compassion for all people, especially the least of these, those who are underserved, underinsured, or uninsured, making sure that they gained what they needed to be productive citizens in our community. They inspired me to become a physician along with my mother, who was a nurse, but they inspired my twin sister and I to become physicians, and I am now a chief medical officer in Broward County. On behalf of our very large family, which many of you have met, who have learned how to serve our God, our church, our community, our family, and each other, we have learned from two of the best, Uncle Theodore, whom you all know as Reverend Gibson, and Aunt Thelma. We thank you for your consideration of RE9, the street naming co-designation, in their honor for their legacy of love and servant leadership. And I want that highlighted again, love and servant leadership. We thank you for this timeless way that you can honor them for what they have given to all of us.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir.

Good morning, commissioners, mayor, city manager. Steve Warnick, 396 Alhambra, here on behalf of Wynwood Community Enhancement Association to speak in support of PZD1, the NRD2 text amendments. We're very grateful for the collaboration with the city's planning department, with Commissioner King's office, Chairwoman King, for her support and sponsorship of this item. This has been a continued collaboration to make much-needed neighborhood improvements and see this neighborhood grow in a way that's sensitive for the existing residents. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good morning. Maggie Winchester Wyler, 195 Sunrise Drive, Key Biscayne. I am the senior manager for Florida Conservation for Ocean Conservancy, and we've been a proud partner of the City of Miami through our Shores Forward program since 2020. We're excited to see the city is taking steps to limit the procurement of single-use plastics on their property. As the leader of the International Coastal Cleanup, we found that single-use plastic items are the most commonly picked up items year after year, and Miami is no exception. Single-use plastics can be some of the most challenging items to recycle, which means that limiting their use to begin with means less waste. It means saving money on waste hauling and less litter on our streets and our beaches. As a city that's benefiting massively from our beautiful Biscayne Bay, you have the opportunity to be more than just a good steward, but a real leader in her protection. In 2021, we worked with the city of Miami, the University of Georgia, and many residents and stakeholders to assess circularity in the city and look for opportunities for waste reduction. Starting with your own procurement process was one of the recommendations from this study, this engagement process, and we're really happy to see that this idea is gathering some steam. So we're happy to support this resolution. And if you need any support in identifying plastic alternatives or looking at other ways to reduce plastic and waste around the city, you have a huge network of allies in this community, myself and Ocean Conservancy included. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Good morning. My name is Chaplain Stanley Young of Freedom Prisonage, a ministry serving all of Miami-Dade County. We want to give well wishes to our chairwoman, Christine Kinney. Hope you get better. For all the commissioners, Mayor, thank you for serving and serving our community well as you have been doing. I'm here to talk on CAA. one through seven. It's about all the grants that you have put out on in the community. I stopped everything I was doing just to come down and thank you for what you are doing and supporting in our community. Because we can't do what we're doing in the community without your support. Without your encouragement, without you opening your doors, answering the phones, sending emails to actually engage with us to really do what we do. I love doing what I do. I do it without a paycheck. I do it without a congratulations. Been doing it for 36 years. and I plan on doing it probably for the rest of my life, serving my community and trying to make my community just a little better than I have found it. That is my motto, that is something I live by, that is something I'm going to leave here with, that I left my community better than I found it. I thank you once again, 500 Northwest 2nd Avenue, Miami, Florida. Call me. Let's collaborate. Let's see what we can do to make our community better. Thank you. God bless. Thank you. Ma'am.

Good morning, Mayor and Commissioners. Jessica Fernandez, 3401 Northwest 82nd Avenue. Doral, Florida 33122. I'm here on behalf of Crown Castle and I wanted to thank you Commissioner Rosado for agreeing to postpone or withdraw the item FR3 so that we can discuss the best collaboration with utility companies. Crown Castle is committed to maintaining the highest standards of restoration in the public rights of way and as we work to enhance our neighborhood's telecommunications infrastructure. And so we really appreciate this opportunity to work in partnership with you, Commissioner Rosado, and with each of you, Commissioner Descalona, not King, Pardo, Commissioner Pardo, and Commissioner Gabela. Thank you so much, and I hope you have a great day.

Thank you, sir. Charles Gibson, 3679 Franklin Avenue. I am the grandson of Theodore and Thelma Gibson. First of all, I'd like to thank you all, all of the commissioners and the mayor for ERRE9. We know that Mrs. Gibson and Reverend Gibson have left the place better than what they founded. They dedicated their lives to the improvement of this city. Their level of service is unmatched, and I'd like to thank you all for considering this measure, and I'm in support of it. On behalf of our family, the Andersons and the Gibsons, we really appreciate your support, and we hope that the commission will approve our E-9. Thank you. Sir.

Hi, good morning, Mayor and Commissioners. My name is Dave Dobler. I'm a plastic fisherman residing at 8000 West Drive. I'm here to support RE15, the plastics in procurement. I founded volunteercleanup.org 12 years ago And our organization has helped facilitate more than 5,000 cleanups, removing over 1.4 million pounds of trash from Biscayne Bay. Our work protects our waters, marine life, and our food supply, because no one wants plastic in their fish tacos. A huge portion of what we pull out of the water is single-use plastics and polystyrene. In fact, four of the top five items our volunteers collect are used for food and beverage, including plastic bottles, bottle caps, and utensils. These products are designed to be used for a few minutes, and they last on our planet for hundreds of years. The reality is simple. What is sold and distributed becomes what ends up in our streets, storm drains, and ultimately waterways. That's why this resolution is so important. It focuses on something the city fully controls, its own contracts, concessionaires, and events operating on city property. When the city sets the standards, businesses quickly adapt, costs come down, and the public follows, leveraging capitalism to solve problems. We've already seen this work in Miami-Dade County and City of Miami Beach, where similar leadership helped move the market towards better alternatives. Ultra Music Festival is a great example of an event on city property that has made major progress eliminating single-use plastics shifting to recyclable products and reclaiming that material. They've shown that reducing single-use plastics makes good business sense. This is about leading by example and reducing the flow of single-use plastics that we know cause the most harm. So on behalf of the thousands of volunteers who show up every year to protect our waters, I strongly encourage you to support this resolution. Thank you.

Thank you.

Sir? Good morning. My name is Ernest Champagne, and I live in 5545 Northwest 3rd Avenue. And I just came here to, you know, go ahead and thank Ms. Chairwoman Christine King for her continued support of Focal. I started in the program when I was younger, and now my son attends the program as well. You know, especially, you know, In growing up in that area, you know, there wasn't my mom and dad didn't have a lot of money sometimes. And because of that program, I was able to, you know, go to like different do different activities like outside of state, even like things like college, you know, check out college campuses and things like that. And so that program really helped me, you know, develop myself as a student and even as an adult today, because I also worked there after I graduated. So Again, I just want to thank Ms. Christine King for her continued support of FOCAL. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Teresa Pinto, 140 Northeast 84th Street, number 1365 in Miami. I'm here with the Peer Group. I'm an attorney with the Peer Group, a nonprofit law firm that advocates for thriving, sustainable communities. Sorry. Sorry. that put vulnerable populations first. I'm here to support RE15, the city's green procurement resolution. I commend them in thinking about this. That would help reduce plastics in our environment. As you probably know, plastics are entering our environment at an alarming rate, and I include people in that environment, and it's having huge health impacts. Micro, nano, and now pico plastics have been found in almost every ecosystem on the planet. and almost in every human bodily fluid. That includes the brain, the placenta, and seminal fluids. And we still don't know what these impacts will be down the line. Plastics never break down. They just basically get smaller and smaller. And so the environment and people are basically absorbing over 90% of the plastics that are being produced. So I commend the city for thinking about turning to green procurement and helping to alleviate this issue. Thank you.

Thank you. Ma'am.

Good morning. My name is Rocio Vergara.

3015 Northwest 8th Avenue, Apartment 12, Miami. I'm coming here to thank all the people from Focal, a program that helps children. The impact that it has on our families as a single mother, the aid that it has given me is very valuable. It lets me work while my child is taken care of in a loving and caring way. It's really important to me. I want to thank them and God bless all the people who make this possible along with their teachers to make this program. A special thanks to Madam Chairwoman Christine King.

Thank you. Ma'am.

Good morning. My name is Amanda DiPerna, 3775 Loqua Avenue. I'm the director of Zero Waste Cultural Change at Debris Free Oceans. We're a local nonprofit working to prevent plastic pollution and advance zero waste solutions across our communities. I'm here today in support of RE15, and plastics are made from fossil fuels, and if the global plastics industry were a country, it would be the fifth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. There are more than 4,200 chemicals associated with plastics that have been known to be harmful to human health and the environment, and microplastics have been detected throughout the human body. Here in Miami, single-use plastics are the most common items found in our storm drains, canals, and waterways, contributing to the hundreds of thousands of pounds of debris removed by the city and local organizations every year. Procurement policies like this are an important opportunity for the city to reduce plastic at the source. If your bathtub was overflowing, the first thing you would do is turn off the tap. Setting standards for city concessions allows Miami to lead by example and safeguard the health of its residents and ecosystems. We have already seen proof that this works here in Miami. Ultra Music Festival, which takes place on city property, has voluntarily taken major steps to reduce plastic waste. Through its Mission Home Sustainability Program, the festival has eliminated more than 2.6 million single-use plastic items from entering the waste stream, and in 2025, reduced the types of single-use plastics used at the event by approximately 91%. Reducing single-use plastics protects Biscayne Bay and supports Miami's long-term climate and resilience goals. Thank you.

Thank you. Sir? Is there anyone else? Yes.

Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, Mayor, Council. I'm Wills Feline, I'm with the Arts and Entertainment Council. I have my distinguished council members, Gloria Rodriguez and Armand Dubois. The Miami Arts and Entertainment Council serves as an advisory board. to the City Commission, providing guidance and recommendations that support artistic programming, cultural events, and creative initiatives throughout the City of Miami. Our mission is simple, to cultivate opportunities, to expand our arts, support creative organizations, and enhance Miami's cultural identity. Over the past year, the Council has focused on strategic partnerships that directly impact residents, artists, and cultural institutions. Throughout our collaboration with such projects like the Locust Project, we supported Little Haiti, Little Haiti River Art Days, helping activate galleries, studios with bringing residents and visitors together to experience the neighborhood's creative economy. We partnered with NIDO Refuge of the Census to support initiative programming that encourages exploration, experimentation, and contemporary art while welcoming diverse audiences to engage with creative expression. During Art Basel Week, the Council sponsored public art activations with Miami Urban Contemporary Experience, including the Animal Kindred Spirits Exhibition. You still have 36. Okay. exhibition, which explored resilience and environmental changes throughout the art. Well, since I'm running out of time right here. On behalf of the Miami Arts and Entertainment Council, we thank the commission for its continued support of the arts and creative community that helps define the spirit of our city. All right.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good morning, Commissioners and Mayor Higgins. My name is Maddie Kaufman and I live at 3375 Southwest 29th Terrace. And I'm here today also speaking in support of RE15 to phase out the procurement and distribution of single use plastics and polystyrene throughout city contracts and events. So I work at Debris Free Oceans where I oversee a coalition of more than 160 people representing more than 100 organizations working to prevent waste at the source. We're here to support the rollout of this contract. And this resolution really is a practical and achievable step forward that has already been implemented in Miami-Dade County. And this proposal simply brings the city into alignment with that leadership. Did you know there's actually nearly 40 years of precedent for a policy like this? The city of Berkeley actually eliminated polystyrene foam back in 1988. And since then, entire states, including New York, New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, Maryland, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, have phased out certain plastic products statewide. So we can really no longer make the argument that there are not enough alternatives available at reasonable prices. And this does hold true in Florida, where Miami Beach, Key Biscayne, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Key West, among others, have implemented policies to reduce single-use plastics. And the reason communities are moving in this direction is because the science is really impossible to ignore at this point. As folks have already mentioned, beyond our oceans and the environment, Plastics have been throughout our entire bodies, including lungs, kidneys, hearts, blood, the brain, as well as placentas and breast milk, indicating that we're passing it on to the next generation. And so this resolution addresses the problem where it starts, and it really safeguards public health. And so Debris Free Oceans and Zero Waste Miami are in full support and are here to help roll out. And I also want to highlight that Ultra Music Festival has done an incredible job eliminating these products anyways. eliminating millions of plastics from being introduced in Miami. And so I support the continuation of their lease at Bayfront Park as well.

Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Herman Dubois. I reside at 7900 Harbor Island Drive in North Bay Village. Thank you this morning for accommodating us. I serve as the vice chair for the Miami Arts and Entertainment Council. I was a mayor appointee of Mayor Suarez, and I'm seeking an additional appointee under... Ms. Higgins' administration. I wanted to just reiterate what was said by one of my colleagues, that the Miami Arts and Entertainment Council is an excellent group because it represents the district commissioners, and we want to make sure that art is something that's accessible to all of our residents to water districts. We know there's a heavy concentration of art in the Wynwood area, which is wonderful, but art is for everybody. And we want to be able to represent the interests of the districts. But unfortunately, we're unable to do so because we have several seats of districts that are vacant. With your appointee, we can operate with a full council and we'll be able to maximize the role we serve. But if you need some assistance, we have interested individuals from the respective districts that are willing to serve with your permission. And so we ask for your continued support. We thank you for encouraging to continue to work in the arts and entertainment communities. And again, our main focus is to make art accessible for all. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

Greetings. My name is Jamila English. Our office is located at 765 Northwest 36th Street, Miami, Florida, 33127. I want to say good morning to the chairwoman. I hope you feel better. I know you're watching. Welcome, Madam Mayor and the commissioners. And I'd like to extend a warm welcome to you, Madam Mayor, and to the new commissioners and introduce you to a wonderful program called FOCAL. You met two of our parents already, and I just want to thank you for stepping into the shoes of public service, and we look forward to your leadership. Once again, I am Jamila English. I am the Executive Director of the Foundation of Community Assistance and Leadership, FOCAL. FOCAL is located in the city of Miami's Moore Park in District 5, and since 1999, FOCAL has serve youth and family in our community with a mission to empower young people through education, mentorship, workforce development, and life skills training to help them build the foundation they need to be successful future leaders. For the past 26 years, FOCU has successfully maintained our mission by providing services to over 120 students daily. Our services include homework assistance, tutoring, life skills, job training, and career exploration. and we offer after-school meals daily. With a 92% retention rate, many students start in elementary school and continue throughout high school, and some continue into college by maintaining a job.

You have 30 seconds.

Okay. Through our work hard, play hard model, we provide students and family opportunities that they normally would not have. And today we are here just to thank the commissioner, the chairwoman, Christine King, for PH4, and we look forward to our continued support. And we also would like to thank Commissioner Gabela. We border his district and he has been very supportive of our program as well. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good morning, Commissioners, Mayor. My name is Gloria Rodriguez de los Reyes. I am a Mayor Appointee for the Arts Entertainment Council. And I am here not only in support of our Chairman's report, but also to request that the Mayor Appointees get reappointed today. Not just myself, but also for mine, but those of us who weren't able to make it. If we can get that reappointment done today, we can basically continue to serve. Again, we are here to serve you and the public in support of the arts, entertainment, and myself and also an educator. So I am also working on trying to get some of that education, not only education in the arts, but also education for financial education for the artists. Also, I see Commissioner Rosado is busy. but I would like to get just as quick attention. I realize that there is a new interfaith council that is opening up. My master's in philosophy of science and religion. I'd be very interested if I can speak to you afterwards or get in contact. And if there's anything else that my chair might need, I think that's basically it. Please reappoint us today and we'd be very grateful.

Thank you. Sir.

Good morning, Madam Mayor, Madam Chairwoman, Mr. Chair, members of the Commission, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. My name is Steve Leifman, and I live here in Edgewater. It's a pleasure to be here. I do have some briefing document that I'll give to the clerk to be handed out. But first, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the city of Miami for your tremendous support for the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery. The center fulfills a promise made to voters in 2004 to create an effective cost-efficient alternative for people with serious mental illnesses who repeatedly cycle through homelessness, jail, and hospitalization. The reason for this center is quite straightforward. When community mental health was first created in the United States, individuals with the most severe and persistent mental illnesses, particularly those with the psychotic disorders, were still in state hospitals. Community mental health was actually designed and developed for people with moderate mental illnesses. And when we closed the hospitals, We went to the war on crime and drugs. We cut back housing. This population got thrown into communities that, frankly, was just not built for them. No one should be surprised at what happened. They became homeless and they started to cycle in and out of our very expensive criminal justice system. Today, there is nowhere in Miami-Dade County for many of these individuals to go. In fact, there is virtually nowhere in the United States for them to go. As a result, our jails in this country have become the de facto mental health facilities. We would never tell someone suffering from cancer or heart disease that their only option for treatment is jail. Yet, that is effectively what we have done to people with severe mental illnesses. Today, in our jail in Miami-Dade County, 70 to 80 percent of the individuals in our jail have been diagnosed with a mental illness at a cost of $414 million a year. This is why we set up the jail diversion program. We've been able to reduce recidivism from 75 to 20%. We've reduced the jail audit from 7,400 to 4,400. I appreciate your continued support. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Sir?

Good morning, Madam Mayor, Mr. Manager, Mr. Chairman and members of the City Commission. Jose Bermudez, 801 South Miami Avenue. And I'm here to basically commend Commissioner Rosado on adding to the Downtown Development Authority three positions for the residents perspective. I think it's incredibly important to add those resident components to the authority. And I am very proud to be nominated, and I'm here to ask for your support, but also offer my support as a resident, as someone that has lived in Brickell for over 10 years and in Miami downtown area for over 20 years. um so i look forward to working with the entire commission and making our dda area more vibrant more vibrant than it already is so thank you so much thank you sir thank you madam mayor honorable members of the commission my name is chris hodgkins i'm also like jose here to say

Thank you for the opportunity to be on the DDA. I look forward to working with all of you, with Chairman Rosado of the DDA, in looking at the residents' first aspect in making our downtown a better place to live, work, and play. I've been here in Miami since 2010. I think I've played a role in the physical and economic landscape, and I'm excited to to work with all of you. Excited because the new energy and the cooperation of everyone to move us all forward. The timing couldn't be better. You know, with Chair Rosado's background and planning, The mayor saying she still wants to be the leader on transportation and mobility and housing and all the good works that this commission is doing. I'm excited to play a role in trying to help things move forward. My claim to fame is building one of the largest infrastructure projects. in the city of Miami on time and under budget and working with stakeholder involvement that involved over 7,000 people working on that tunnel, 83% being right here from our 305. But it's a privilege and an honor to hopefully be part of your DDA. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Ma'am.

Good morning, my name is Shanee Jones. I'm an Activities Director at Focal, located at 765 Northwest 36th Street. I just wanted to say the impact that Focal has played in my life as someone who has attended the program over 15 years ago and a FAMU alum. With Focal, as Ernest mentioned, we were able to attend college tours, go to space camp and just experience things that we may not have experienced outside of FOCAL. It's still prevalent in my life, having family members attend there, my children, nieces, cousins. We try to make an impact in the kids' lives inside the classroom and outside the classroom. We follow the work hard, play hard model, and we thank Chairwoman Christine King for her continued support of the program. Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.

Thank you. For public comment? Okay. What agenda item?

Well, the items for...

Well, good morning.

Good morning.

And I do want to thank all of you for your service, especially Ms. Higgins. Thank you. I supported you, and I think you'll do an awesome job. My commissioner is Mr. Rosado. My name is Mayra Rodriguez. I have a nonprofit, and I help the elderly and people with disabilities. And I just wanted to speak on the fact that you are doing the articles of the streets, and you have done such a great job. that I want to thank you in person and let you know that I'm honored to have you as my commissioner because you are my commissioner.

Thank you.

All of you, thank you for your service. I'll be leaving a little paper for each of you so you can read a little bit more about my nonprofit. It's a legacy of Nanita Vasquez. He was a very good activist and a humanitarian person that worked at House Inspector for Section 8 but he also was an active of politics back with Victor de Jure and Miriam Alonso. Thank you. I mean, it's a lot. So thank you, Mr. Cabela, for also being here. You're welcome. I haven't had the pleasure to really meet you like in person, just when we do distribution with Kevin Cabrera back in the days. So thank you for your help because the elderly are really suffering a lot right now. They just cut their food stamps to $64. No one eats with $64. So I just wanted to bring this up to you so you'll know what we're going and what we're facing. I get all the calls. I'm just a bridge between our community and yourself. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And I'm sorry, but I'm not used to speaking.

Oh, no, it's great to hear you. Thank you. Is there anyone else here for public comment? Anyone else would like to make any then come up to the. To the podium, any item on the agenda? Has to be an item on the agenda. Right there, yes.

Hi, good morning to all.

Good morning.

So I am here on behalf of FOCAL. I know that it's already been discussed, but I also wanted to just let you guys know how important that program is. I have four children, the oldest one being 28, the youngest one being 16. All of my kids have gone to that program from five years old. Had it not been for a program like this, I wouldn't be able to hold the job. I'll be worried sick about my kids and the surrounding. They give them opportunities that are not available to the community. So this is a very important program, and I wish there would be more like these. And I thank you guys for the support you guys give. That's all, thank you.

Thank you.

My apologies, Chair. Can we have the speaker's name for the record?

Can we have your name for the record?

My name is Noeli Toribio. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment? Okay. Okay. Good morning. The mic, there you go.

Okay, my name is Luisa Gallo. I wanted to thank you and everybody who supported the program for after school because I do struggle. Not everybody know I'm widow and I have two kids. So supporting me with the program that you guys are allowing, I'm really happy for that.

Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment? Okay, seeing no one else, the public comment period is now closed. So we're going to take the items that Chairwoman King will be involved with. It's going to be out of order, so patience from my colleagues. We're going to be skipping around a little bit. I'll bring one at a time. If there's any discussion, just let me know if there's discussion. Otherwise, I'll go to the next item. PH4. Any discussion on item PH4? Okay.

Over here.

Commissioner Gabela? No, I'm good. No? Thank you. RE6? Did you want to vote on them individually or? I was going to just go through the list.

Okay, as a block vote. Block vote. Understood. Yep.

RE6? Any discussion?

No?

Okay. RE9? I actually have some discussion about RE9. All I want to say is I have tremendous respect. I kind of idolize Mrs. Thelma Gibson. And when I started, you know, for years, I had been trying to meet her. For years. I grew up in the Grove. And for years, I was like, how can I try to reach out to people? How can I speak to Mrs. Gibson? Everyone would say, well, you know, she's kind of older now. She doesn't really take, you know, requests. And I was so frustrated. I can honestly say that one of the best things about having been elected is the fact that I had to knock on doors throughout all of Coconut Grove. And one of those doors was hers. And she answered the door, and I was looking at my phone, my computer screen, and at I look at her. We had a little conversation. I asked her, is there anything in your neighborhood you'd like to change or you think should be different? She's like, oh, no, honey. Such a nice day. Have a nice day. So I leave. I look at my phone and I'm like, oh, my God, that was Mrs. Thelma Gibson. So I immediately returned back to the door and I just had to tell her how much I honored her and how much her work and her service had meant to me. Personally, and always from that day, even I had the pleasure of working with her a little bit, but always from that day forward, I kind of was afraid to take a picture with somebody that was so special in that way that it just felt like respecting her needed to be done a certain way. So I did want to share that because we're super proud to support this and to put it on the agenda and support the co-designation. And I know, Chair, you also had a very special relationship. I don't know if you want to make any comment on that.

Yes, she was such a joy. And, you know, I have a reputation of being very strict with public comments. You speak for two minutes and that's it. But when she came up, I would let her speak for as long as she wanted because she earned that and she appreciated that. And I would get... Surprisingly, you let her speak for more than two minutes. And I remember clapping back with someone and I said, when you make it to her age and have the accomplishments that she has on her resume, I'll let you speak for as long as you want as well. So it is my honor to support this initiative for her and her husband because it is well deserved.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. City Clerk.

Thank you, Chair Pardo. I also wanted to state on the record that Commissioner Rosado will also be co-sponsoring RE9. Thank you, sir.

Okay. Moving on with the items. RE12. Any discussion? RE13. Any discussion? All right. RE14. RE18. RE19. Okay, so as a block vote, we'll take all these items. Can I have a motion?

So moved. So it's only the ones that you mentioned, right? Only the ones that I've mentioned.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Can we repeat those? Yes, absolutely. It's PH4, RE6, RE9, RE12, RE 13. RE 13. RE 14.

RE 14.

And RE 18. RE 18. 18. Okay, thank you. Okay, those are all the items, Chairwoman. I hope you feel better. If anything at all, you're welcome to stay as long as you stay.

I'm going to be listening. I'm going to be voting. I'm going to participate in the Omni CRA meeting to make sure you have my support. There are a couple of forfeit items on there as well.

Thank you.

And then I will go and lay down.

Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. Really very much appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you.

So I know we have a presentation that we wanted to bring forward for five minutes. This would be the moment for the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery. And this, what we're gonna do is we're gonna move the discussion item right behind this so that it kind of makes sense. We take DI6 as part of this.

The original DI6.

Good morning, Madam Mayor, Chairman, City Commission. I want to thank you today for the opportunity to speak and thank you for the continued support of this work. My name is Isabel Perez Marina. I have a doctorate in clinical forensic psychology, and I'm the CEO of Advocate Program. Advocate Program is a nonprofit that has served Miami for over 50 years. Our main client office has long been headquartered in the city of Miami, currently at 1399 Northwest 17th Avenue. Our work sits at the very particular intersection mental illness, addiction, homelessness, crime, and family violence. We serve as Miami-Dade's misdemeanor probation provider. We provide outpatient behavioral health services to justice-involved individuals, and we're a provider through the Homeless Trust, Thriving Mind, worked alongside Miami's problem-solving courts for decades. In other words, we meet people where multiple systems are already touching their lives, and often when those systems are struggling to coordinate care. If given the privilege, our role at the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery is to continue doing what we do best, help build systems that work together, coordinate care for individuals with the most complex needs, and serve as a bridge between vulnerable residents and the services designed to support them. The center itself is not open yet, but the funding allocated to our team, including support from the city of Miami, has already been put to work. We have mobilized a field-based team of care coordinators and peer specialists who are now integrated with the Jail Diversion Program. And that team has already stabilized individuals who would otherwise fall through the cracks of multiple systems. But there remains a population our current system simply cannot serve well. And I want to take a moment to tell you about one of them. And we'll call him Sam. And Sam was born in 1976, and his first arrest was in 1998. That timing is not unusual for individuals with serious mental illness. Many experience their first major psychiatric crisis in their early 20s. And when treatment is not available, that crisis often shows up in the system as an arrest rather than a medical intervention. Since then, Sam has been arrested more than 46 times, and that doesn't count the bench warrants. He's been cycling between homelessness and jail for nearly three decades. We don't know how many times he's been through emergency rooms or crisis stabilization units. We just know it's a lot. Last week, our team met Sam at a crisis stabilization unit after he had been transported there from jail. His most recent charge was a misdemeanor battery. And he agreed to accept help, and that was a major victory. But here's where our system failed him. Miami currently has no short-term residential treatment options between crisis and independent living. There's no structured, secure place for someone like Sam to stabilize beyond a few days, other than, of course, jail. So Sam was stabilized, given medication, and placed in an Uber to travel across town to housing and outpatient treatment where our team was waiting for him. Sam never arrived. At some point during that ride, he got out of the car and ran. And now he has an arrest warrant. And so the system starts again. The Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery was built for people like Sam. Within this facility, Sam would not be leaving crisis and getting into an Uber across the city. He would simply go upstairs. He would have structured care, stability, and time. Time to treat an illness that often interferes with a person's ability to make decisions in their own best interest. The initial scope of the center will include 75 treatment beds, including short-term and longer-term options designed specifically for individuals with complex behavioral health needs. The annual service cost to operate this scale will be approximately $10 million. And that is a significant investment. But it is worth asking a simple question. How much have we already spent on SAM through police responses, jail bookings, emergency rooms, transportation, staff time, and crisis units? And what has it solved? The Miami Center for Miami Health and Recovery represents something rare in public policy, a moment where a community chooses to solve a problem instead of simply managing it. The city of Miami has already been an important early partner in this effort. Your support has helped move the center from a vision into something real, and projects like this succeed when local leaders continue to stand behind them and help maintain momentum alongside our county and community partners. This facility will give Sam something he hasn't had for more than 20 years, a chance, a chance for stability, a chance for treatment, and a chance for a different outcome. And it gives our community something as well, the opportunity to finally interrupt a cycle that has affected our courts, our law enforcement, our emergency rooms, and our street for decades. Thank you to the leadership of this commission and the city, and we know that you'll continue to stand with the partners to help make this Miami Mental Center a reality.

Thank you. Thank you. So I had brought this discussion item because we all talk about this. Commissioner Gabela, this is a very big problem in your district, in my district, in your district, in your district. This is throughout the city of Miami. The city of Miami is ground zero for what I would say is an issue that we're trying to solve and nobody has been able to solve successfully. I have a family member that suffers from mental illness who was on the street, isn't anymore, but there is no way to help that person. Trust me, through family, through friends, you don't want somebody you care and you love out on the street. That's not a great place to be, no matter what. And so, you know, I've been following, I'm sure like many of you and many of us on this day, is all the stories and trying to fix this issue. And I just wanted to open it up for a discussion among us about how serious the problem is and how we should really push for a collaborative effort to finally get this done. Because the folks we see on the street can't go anywhere. There isn't anywhere for them to go. They have a serious illness. Commissioner... Commissioner Escalona.

Let me ask you a question. Do you have any updates on what's happening at the county with the center?

Well, I mean, I know yesterday an item was deferred, but we can talk about that. We can talk about that. Oh, Chairwoman King, I know you have your hands up, and then Commissioner Gabela. Madam Chair.

I wanted to say this facility, it should have been opened years ago. I had the pleasure of taking a tour of the facility, and I also had Judge Leifman on my podcast, and we talked about this. And I find myself saying this a lot lately. Compassion is not partisan. Compassion is not political. We have to support initiatives like what Judge Leifman has done with this facility. It is a game changer, and it will help us get to functional zero with our homelessness issues. Commissioner Gabela and I, we carry the brunt of homelessness. I think Escalona is right there with us as well. Commissioner Escalona is right there along with us, but Overtown, when I got elected, had a large population of homelessness. I used to be on the board of the Camillus House. I understand this, and I think as public servants, we have got to wrap our minds around the fact that government is going to have to substantially support these efforts. They can't do it alone. But it's short-sighted of us to not see the long-term savings that we will gain by helping this community, and particularly those who suffer from mental illness. We do not turn away cancer patients. We do not turn away folks that have what we, I guess, consider a tangible illness or disease just because you cannot see mental illness or you think addiction just stop or get better they can't they need our help just like affordable housing affordable housing we will not see affordable housing in our community unless we as the elected officials substantially fund, support, subsidize, and that's what we have to do. And I stand with Commissioner Pardo. We need to make a directive to the city manager, to the city, that we want to move forward with doing whatever is needed in terms of funding this facility so that it could move forward. And I will encourage my colleagues, if we all have to go to the county, and stand up and say in all municipalities, Miami Beach, everybody benefits from what the city of Miami does. We shouldn't have to hold that purse all by ourself and we should lean in on this. It is a shame that this facility is not open so many years later and it's being held up because we're trapped in some political hell. Compassion is not political and we need to stop it.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Gabela?

Yeah, let me just state for the record, I also have a close family member that's been dealing with mental health issues. You know, we've been dealing with that for all our lives, my mom, myself. And I also took the tour about a year ago with the judge, and they spent quite a substantial, you know, hours and money to make that place ready to take this on. And this also now that we're in that, this is why I think, And you guys gave me your help. And this is why I also wanted and want the Allopata CRA. Because with that money, we can also help people like this, okay, and take a little bit more. We're never going to resolve the problem 100% of the time. There is no silver bullet, like somebody said. But, you know, we have to do something about it. We can't just, you know, talk about it and talk about it and not do anything. And it affects the chairwoman's district greatly. It affects mine big time because that's Seventh Avenue Quarter with the Camilla's House and everything else that we have there. You know, there's a lot of resources spent on this recycling of doing the same thing. You know, and if, you know, if 100 percent of 100 people go in there and we fixed, you know, 20 were helped. That's 20 that are not going to be recycling the system. And, you know, so it's just, to me, you know, in my view, you know, this has to be done. I've been talking about this since I got into office, you know, and I would also urge the county, okay, and let me just say this, you know, we've worked diligently here for two years on the Allopata CRA. You know, we first tried to merge the Allopata CRA and make it a An omni thing. And that wouldn't have worked because if it would have been Commissioner Pardo that sits on the board like it is now, he rightly so would have been pushing for his district like he should. And if I would have been the chairman, I would have done the same thing. I'd be pushing. So that wasn't going to work. And then what did we do? We established the Allapattus CRA with your help, Commissioner Pardo, with your help, Chairwoman King. And that was over a year and a half ago. And as we sit here today... My Allapattah CRA has not been done. They don't want to give us a win. Somebody in the county does not want to give me or the people of Allapattah a win, okay? This is the only thing I can read this. And by the way, we sent two letters already to the county, okay? Two letters already to the county, no response. It's like we don't exist yet. About a month ago, okay, when the question came up whether they were going to put a moratorium on CRAs, that failed. The commission said, no, we're not going to put a moratorium on CRAs because they're needed. And then number two, The South Miami CRA and the Allapattah CRA were the only two new CRAs out of 40 that already exist in South Florida. And you know what? The South Miami CRA got passed. They got passed. And by the way, they don't offer affordable housing because in that bill, you cannot offer affordable housing. And what we passed here, it's affordable housing, it's infrastructure, it's everything that can be used to mitigate this situation that we got on the 7th Avenue corridor. So I would urge the county, whoever it is that's playing games, to stop playing games, okay? And I've talked to Wisong about this, by the way. If this doesn't move, I am going to file a lawsuit because it's been over 120 days for the second time in a row, and nobody has responded to us from the county. Nobody, okay? So, Madam Chair, Commissioner Pardo, Commissioner Calona, Commissioner Rosado, we are all in this together, okay? And we need to act. We've done a lot of talking here, but the time has come to put our foot down and act. Thank you. Thank you.

I echo what my colleagues have said. I echo what all the speakers have said. And I am open to doing whatever it takes to get it open.

Commissioner Escalona? I believe we are all on the same page.

So if I heard you correctly, Madam Chair, you'd like us to give a directive to the city manager basically to collaborate on this issue and see how we can get this moving so that there's a resolution.

Yes.

Okay. So let's go ahead and Mr. City Manager, a directive for please, let's work on this issue as hard as we can, bring parties together and hopefully see how we can make something happen so that this population gets served and taken care of.

Could we have, through the chair, could we have an update at the next meeting? Like, let's keep this on as many agendas as possible. I'm happy to go speak at the county commission as well. I mean, whatever it takes, the facility is sitting there. I know I've been on the record a number of times if the concern, I've heard an assortment of concerns from assorted people at the county. So it's unclear to me what the real genuine concern is. I've been on the record a number of times saying that I if their concern is an ongoing budgetary shortfall, I'm comfortable supporting additional allocations from assorted city budgets, whether it's the DDA, the city, you know, CRAs, et cetera, to get at getting this open and keeping it open. Thank you.

And Mr. City Manager, you've heard the discussion, and thank you. We'll move forward, thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, so now we move to the approval of the minutes. Do I have a motion for the minutes of January 8th, 2026 and January 20th? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Aye. Motion carries. Our consent agenda items. Are there any items that anyone would like to pull? Any of the commissioners? No. Commissioner Escalona?

No.

Commissioner Rosado? No. Okay, so CA1, CA2, CA3, CA4, CA5, CA6, CA7, CA8, CA9, CA10, CA11, and CA12. May I have a motion?

Motion.

Second, okay. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. PH items. Are there any here that any commissioner would like to pull? No? Okay. No. All right. PH1, PH2, and PH3. May I have a motion? Motion. Second. Okay. All those in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries. Motion carries. RE items. Are there any items anyone here would like to pull?

Sorry. I want to pull RE7.

Okay. Anyone else? Commissioner Escalona?

RE19 has to be discussed after the Omni-CRA meeting, right?

Yes. Yes. Which one was that? Oh, okay. I'll just go through the... Let me go through the whole... So, RE6... We already took action.

We're already right. So, RE7...

RE8, I have a deferral. Right.

RE7, we're going to discuss.

Yeah, discuss. RE8's deferred, RE9's deferred, RE10 is deferred.

RE10 passed, but RE10 was deferred. RE9 did pass. RE10 was deferred. Great.

Then RE15? No, RE11. You missed RE11.

Those have already... RE11 is in play. I can read the list. Okay, please, thank you. Sure. So RE1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 has been pulled, but then 11, 15, 16, 17, 19, and 20 are all in play.

So I'd like to indefinitely defer RE16, and RE19 needs to be heard later. because it's tied to the CRA, to Omni CRA.

So then if you would like to make a motion for RE16, that's an indefinite deferral on RE16, correct?

Yes. Hang on a minute. Let's talk about that. Why are we deferring that? Do you want to talk about all of those items together? Well, the 16 is to abolish what we said we were going to do, that we were going to... Oh, I have the wrong item then. That completely... I thought you were confused then.

No, no, no. Then we're pulling it for discussion. Yeah. Mr. City Attorney.

No, I was just going to say RE16 is separating Maurice for a part. That's what I thought.

Yeah, so that is indefinitely deferred.

That's something else.

It's separating the two. It's creating a structure around that.

Right, which we agreed that we weren't going to do, is my understanding.

No, that hasn't been agreed upon. There hasn't been any agreement upon any structure or not structure, at least that I know of.

Okay, let's talk about that. Okay.

Give it a minute. We got some confusion. That's all right. Do you want to table RE16 and we can... Let's table RE16 for the moment. So maybe we can do... Maybe it's just easier to go one by one. Yeah. Let's do that. So just for the record, RE1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11... 15, 16, 17, 19, and 20 are all in play, and probably best just to go one by one numerically.

Okay, so RE1? So moved. So moved.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. RE2? So moved.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. RE3? So moved.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. RE4? Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. RE5? Motion.

Move.

Second. All in favor? Aye. RE11? Motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye. RE15?

Motion.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries. RE 17. Motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Motion carries. And Chair, my apologies. Just for the record, Commissioner Rosado is submitting multiple backup documents into the record for agenda item RE 17. Thank you.

Thank you. Then RE 20. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

And Chair, for RE20, RE20 needs to be amended pursuant to a substitution memo dated March 5th, 2026. So RE20 will be as amended.

And just for the record, the substitution was changing Exhibit A to amend and update the award number and the award name.

Okay, then we're at RE16, which was coming back from deferral. RE16 was coming back from deferral. I'm just indefinitely deferring it again.

Yeah, I thought we were going to get rid of it.

No, because nothing's been decided. That's going to be discussed today, but that item was just coming back. It's been around forever. Okay.

All right, got it.

So can I have a motion to indefinitely defer RE16? Motion. Second.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Actually, it's a withdrawal, no? Is that what we're doing?

For RE16? Yeah. Yeah, I believe you were requesting a withdrawal of that item.

So this is the other item?

Yeah, RE16 is the resolution relating to separating Maurice Ray Park from Bayfront Park.

Then there's... That is our original item, correct? That's your original. That was indefinitely deferred and coming back.

Then there's two more items on that.

Right, so we're just indefinitely deferring it again. That's all we're doing. Okay, we're good?

Well, I thought we had come to a consensus that we were not going to give the park to the city. That's what I thought. But correct me if I'm wrong. If that is not, then, you know.

I don't think there's been any consensus. I think that's what we're going to talk about today.

Oh, okay.

All right. That's why I was just indefinitely deferring. And instead have the conversation on your item so that we can. All right.

Okay.

Got it. We're good? Okay, may I have a motion, again, just to be clear?

Oh, we're good to go for RE16. Oh, okay. Good to go. So what's remaining in the resolutions category is RE7 and RE19, and it's my understanding RE19 has to be heard after the Omni-CRA meeting.

Correct. So RE7... Not this one, for real. What's that? I'm sorry, Chair?

Nothing, my phone rang.

Okay, no worries. And then, Commissioner Gabala, you pulled for discussion RE7.

Yeah, so this is a holdover where I presented this about, I don't know, five or six months ago. And then, you know, at the time, nobody really wanted to do anything about it, you know, and it came back again, okay? And while we're at the subject, you know, let's talk about the subject, right? And the conversation has to be had. So what I said was that if we were going to go after the attorney's fees, right, and we would have... have anybody on board, right, that what we're really going to do, you know, practically is, you know, spin our wheels, collecting a piece of paper, a judgment, that we were probably never going to collect on, okay? That's the reality of the situation. However, for me, you know, now I got a problem, and it's out of principle, right? Because I make your, you know, business decisions all the time, and not necessarily, you know, right? The other way around, it's just that we want to settle the matter to save the taxpayer money is what we try to do here, hence our fiduciary duty. But, you know, this bothers me. Not this, but it bothers me that in light that we were going to be lenient, okay, and not be petty and say, you know what, you know, this happened, you know, we're going to collect a piece of paper. We're not going to collect any real money at the end of the day. We're going to spin our wheels and we're going to pay for attorney's costs. But now we have a problem that Mr. Carollo himself is suing the city of Miami for, you know, 1.5, I don't know how much it is. We've all been to the Shea meeting. You know, and, you know, what he's suing us on is he claims that he was shortchanged on his retirement. Now, this has been going on for— Excuse me?

I was waiting for the city attorney to step in because I don't think that we're supposed to be talking about the litigation.

No, I'm not going to talk, but here's the thing.

Well, no, my point was I was saying why isn't the city attorney saying something?

I shouldn't have to say that. No, no, I'm going to keep myself from going into legal ramifications, shall we say. Okay, but this is the thing. It is public knowledge that the man is suing us. You know, he says, you know, that he, you know, this has been going on for 15 years. He's the one that didn't bring it on for 15 years. And now all of a sudden he's suing us for 1.5, I don't know how much he's suing us for. And I say that we leverage, okay? that we leverage the situation.

I think, Mr. City Attorney, it's your... Yeah, I was just going to try and prevent you from talking about any settlement negotiations relating to the case of Corolla versus the City of Miami. But generally, you're right. There is a lawsuit that has been filed, and it relates to a pension issue that he has filed. But I would encourage you not to discuss the background details of the litigation whilst we're in the middle of it.

I'm not going to discuss the details, but I am going to discuss the, you know, that I don't think that with all the money that he has cost the taxpayer up until this point in the millions of dollars, he should let this, you know, be gone. I was willing to, you know, say, you know what, let bygones be bygones. I'm that kind of guy. Water under the bridge, you know, let it be. But now we've got a situation where, so he spent millions of dollars, in my opinion, of the taxpayer money, right? Taxpayer money in the millions of dollars. Not one million, not two, folks. Multi, okay? It's been going on for, you know, I don't know how many years now, because I lost track. Ever since I got here, we've been talking about this issue, okay? Now I don't want to let it go, you know, me personally. You know why? Because now he's going after us. This other thing that... The way I see it and what's been told to me was of his doing by not bringing it forward before this, okay? Before this. And so I say, you know, I say we go forward in recovering the fees that he cost the city of Miami because of what he's doing now to us on the other side. That's my opinion.

Okay, so that's your opinion on RE7 to move it forward? That is correct. Discussion? Discussion?

Are we likely to collect?

Once again, you asked me to look into the crystal ball of the future. Who knows? I will tell you that there is a judgment that is recorded against the former commissioner already in the tune of $63 million plus incurring interest, I would imagine. So any sort of relief we would get would be behind that position. things could happen, that somehow that judgment goes away, or he hits the billion dollar lottery and is able to pay that off as well as other things. So there is a possibility that the city would be able to proceed, but in all likelihood, we would have a paper judgment, as the commissioner said, we would record it, it would remain on the books quite a long period of time 20 years and in the sort of like just imagine mr. OJ Simpson he was sued he had a huge judgment against him he was deemed judgment proof he moved to Florida to take advantage of our homestead exemption laws which we all enjoy here so you can't take a person's house to um collect on a judgment so right now the former commissioner is relatively speaking judgment proof but that doesn't change what the future holds and the only other caveat i would have to throw out is we as a city attorney's office because he was a former commissioner would not be able to prosecute that case because we have a conflict, a clear conflict. We have worked with the commissioner. We still defend him in other cases. And so we would have to hire outside counsel to sue and collect on the attorney's fees. I just wanted to add that just for the flavor. Now, I believe the statute of limitations for this would be approximately four years. The case, the United States Supreme Court just two weeks ago, I believe it was, determined that his appeals were over. They denied certiorari appeal, and so his, that fuller one case as we've described it over the years, is completely dead. So the timing is appropriate to sue on that, and I believe the statute of limitations, I'll check with my staff, but it's most likely four years from that date that we could sue So you don't necessarily have to make the decision today, but state law permits us to sue. There's not a legal issue on suing. The only issue would be the collectability of the judgment and the cost it takes to get that judgment.

Any more discussion? Commissioner Rosado? Commissioner Escalona? Hold on one moment, Commissioner Gabel. I do have a question for the city attorney. So if I'm hearing you correctly, it would be very difficult to ever see any kind of compensation or any kind of benefit from This lawsuit, because it's behind the $65 million lawsuit that's in first position, given that he's asset protected, he's not likely to be in that position. What I'm curious about is what are the costs associated with us having to deal with this civil action?

I don't think it would be that expensive of a lawsuit to file because it's pretty straightforward. What were the attorney's fees? The state law seems to provide entitlement. They may resist that or he may take a default, I don't know, just to save himself attorney's fees. But I don't think it would be extremely expensive.

What is that in dollars?

Well, lawyers are expensive these days. Well, that's why I'm asking. We were discussing that, you know, depends on who the lawyers are. But we would probably have a firm at the rate of somewhere like $600, $650 an hour to sue. You would need an expert to talk about the fees, to go over whether the fees are appropriate and stuff like that. But I think... i think it would be relatively quick action a summary judgment motion would resolve the issue um but once again you cannot predict i mean that the fuller one case went from the beginning to the end over multiple years and multiple courts so it all it all depends unfortunately commissioner yeah but we can offset if we did the the lawsuit when we won we can offset if then he he prevails on the 1.5 we can offset that couldn't we

And we can wind up not paying him the 1.5, can't we? So in actual fact, there is something there.

Well, the only issue there is, and we're starting to get into that case and uncomfortableness of discussing that case, but the only difference there is that relates to pension benefits, and pension benefits are not... They're immune from collection for these type of things. So... So that's a good point. It provides leverage. It provides you, you know, the ability to, you know, it could affect the litigation. I'll leave it at that. But I don't want to get into it further.

Do you have a motion, Commissioner Gabela?

I have a motion. If, you know, I can read a room and I have a motion, if this body has the appetite to do it, you know, I would go ahead and do it to leverage it and to say to him, You know, no, you're not going to get the 1.5. You've already fleeced the taxpayer. You've already fleeced the taxpayer. Enough is enough. That's the message that I would send if you gentlemen, you know.

Got it. We have a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

Motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Aye. And that will be shown as unanimous. Motion carries unanimously. As amended to add the Supreme Court of the United States case number.

So we have the second reading items. Mr. City Clerk, would you like to read the titles for the second reading? I'll defer to the City Attorney. Mr. City Attorney, would you like to read the titles for the second reading ordinance?

All right, second reading items. SR1, an ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending Chapter 2, Article 2, Section 2-32 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled Administration, Mayor, and City Commission, time and place of meeting to remove provisions specifying the time of hearings for certain ordinances involving zoning map amendments of 10 contiguous acres, or more, or changes to permitted, conditional, or prohibited uses within a zoning category, thereby deferring to the requirements of Section 166.0413C2 Florida Statutes providing for severability and providing for an immediate effective date. SR2. Second reading ordinance, an ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending Chapter 38, Article 1 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled Parks and Recreation General, by creating Section 38-41, titled Naming of Facilities at Elizabeth Vurek Park, more specifically naming the aquatic facility at Elizabeth Vurek Park as the Vernica Stirrup Silva Aquatic Facility, containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. sr3 in ordinance of the miami city commission amending chapter 2 article 11 division 6 of the code of the city of miami florida is amended city code titled administration boards committees commissions reserve more specifically by amending section 2-1011 through 2-2018 of the city code to establish the education advisory board stating the board's purpose powers duties composition appointment qualifications and requirements for membership providing for officers Rules of procedure, meetings, quorum, legal and staff support, assignment of personnel, waivers, other necessary provisions, and public notice, containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. As our second reading ordinance, an ordinance to the Miami City Commission amending Chapter 2, Article 11, Division 9 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled Administration, Boards, Committees, Commissions, Reserved. More specifically, by amending Section 2-1121 through 2-1139 of the City Code to establish the Interfaith Advisory Council. stating the council's purpose, powers, duties, composition, appointments, qualifications, and requirements for membership, providing for officers, rules of procedure, meetings, quorum, legal and staff support, assignment of personnel, waivers, other necessary provisions, and public notice containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. And then we have... S.R. 5, second reading ordinance, an ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending Chapter 2, Article 2 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, is amended, City Code, titled Administration, Mayor, and City Commission, by amending Section 2-33, titled Order of Business and Rules of Procedure, to amend the time in which an elected official may place an item on the City Commission agenda from noon, seven business days before the City Commission meeting, to midnight on the second Sunday preceding the City Commission meeting, containing a several-day clause and providing for an immediate effective date. On second reading five, we've submitted a substitution, which would have a different title, which would read, in ordinance of the Miami City Commission, amending chapter two, article two of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida is amended, titled Administration, Mayor, and City Commission by amending section 2-33, titled Order of Business and Rules of Procedure to amend the time in which an elected official may place an item on the City Commission agenda from noon, seven business days before the City Commission meeting to noon, eight business days before the City Commission meeting containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. So we would clean up the understanding of the language in SR5 if the substitution is accepted.

Thank you. Are there any items that any of the commissioners would like to pull in second reading ordinances? May I have a motion?

So moved.

Second? All those in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries. Mr. City Attorney, can you read the titles for the first reading ordinances?

Right. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. FR1, first ringing ordinance. An ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending Chapter 20 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled Flood Damage Prevention, providing guidelines and timelines for recertification of existing drainage systems, providing a fee for the recertification review, establishing reporting criteria for compliance, and aligning drainage recertification requirements with the city's building recertification program, containing a severability clause, and providing for an effective date. An ordinance of the Miami City Commission repealing in its entirety ordinance number 14382 adopted on July 10, 2025 as amended by ordinance number 14422 adopted on December 11, 2025 prior to its scheduled effective date of July 15, 2026. Said ordinance having abolished the Bayfront Park Management Trust and amended various sections of the code of the City of Miami, Florida as amended. including Chapter 38, Article 3 of the City Code, titled Parks and Recreation, Bayfront Park Management Trust. Chapter 2, Article 11, Division 2, titled Administration Boards, Committees, Commission Standards for Creation and Review of Boards Generally. Chapter 18, Article 3, Section 18-72, titled Finance, City of Miami Procurement Ordinance, Application and Exclusions. And Chapter 54, Article 1, Section 54-9, titled Streets and Sidewalks. In general, placing signs, advertisement, or displays on any portion of public right-of-way, street, or sidewalk surface containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date. FR3 has been withdrawn.

FR4, the big one.

In ordinance of the Miami City Commission, amending Chapter 2, Article 4 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, City Code titled Administration Departments, more specifically by amending Division 2, titled Planning, Building, and Zoning Department, Division 3, titled Department of Fire Rescue, and Division 4, titled Resilience and Public Works Department. Chapter 3 of the City Code, more specifically, by amending Article 2, titled Alarm Systems, Burglary, and Robbery Alarms, and Article 3, titled Fire Alarms. Chapter 10, Article 1, Division 1 of the City Code, titled Billings in General, more specifically by amending Article 4, titled Registration of Vacant, Blighted, Unsecured, or Abandoned Structures and of Defaulted Mortgage Properties, and Article 5, titled the Code Relief Program, Chapter 11 of the City Code, titled Cable Television, Chapter 12 of the City Code, titled Amusement Games or Machines, Chapter 17 of the City Code, titled Environmental Presentation, more specifically by amending Article 1, titled Tree Protection in General, and Article 2, titled Environmental Preservation Districts. Chapter 18 of the City Code, titled Finance, more specifically by amending Article 1, titled In General, and Article 3, titled City of Miami Procurement Ordinance, and Article 8, titled Stormwater Utility Fees, and Article 11, titled Leases of City-Owned Submerged Lands. Chapter 19 of the City Code, titled Fire Protection. Chapter 22, Article 1 of the City Code, titled Garbage and Other Solid Waste In General. Chapter 22.5 of the City Code, Green Initiatives, more specifically amending Article 6, titled Soil Erosion, Waterway Sedimentation, and Airborne Dust Generation Control. Chapter 23, Article 1 of the City Code, titled Historic Preservation. historic preservation. Chapter 32, Article 1, titled Merchandising Bankruptcy and Closing Out Sales. Chapter 35 of the City Code, titled Motor Vehicles and Traffic. More specifically, by amending Article 4, titled Parking Rates, and Article 9, titled Valet Parking. Chapter 38, Article 1 of the City Code, titled Parks and Recreation General. Chapter 39, Article 2 of the City Code, titled Peddlers and Itinerant Vendors, Sidewalk and Street Vendors. Chapter 42 of the City Code, titled Police. More specifically, Article 1, titled In General. Chapter 53 of the City Code, titled Stadiums and Convention Centers. More specifically, by amending Article 1, titled In General, Article 2, Division 2, titled City Stadiums, Marine Stadium, and Article 4, titled Convention Center of the City of Miami, University of Miami, James L. Knight, Chapter 54 of the City Code, titled Streets and Sidewalks. More specifically, by amending Article 1, titled In General, Article 2, titled Construction, Excavation, and Repair, Article 6, titled Sidewalk and Street Cafes, Article 7, titled News Racks on Public Rights of Way, And Article 9, titled Coconut Grove Special Events District. Chapter 57, Article 3 of the City Code, titled Vehicles for Hire, Pedicabs for Hire. and Chapter 62 of the City Code, titled Planning and Zoning. More specifically, by amending Article 1, titled In General, Article 3, titled Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board, Article 7, titled Historic and Environmental Preservation Board, Article 12, titled Parks and Open Space Trust Fund, and Article 13, Division 8, titled Planning and Zoning, Approval for Temporary Uses and Occupancies, permit required temporary banners in Article 13, Division 9, titled Planning and Zoning Approval for Temporary Uses and Occupancies, Permit Required Farmers Market, to remove the requirements for fees to be adopted by ordinance and provide for fees to be set by city commission through resolution containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date. FR5, first reading, an ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending chapter 18, article three of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida's amended city code titled Finance City of Miami Procurement Ordinance by amending sections 1873 and 18111, titled definitions and contracts of other governmental entities, prospectively to define cooperative purchasing organization and authorize the city manager to utilize competitively award contracts of other governmental entities and cooperative purchasing organizations Subject to specified conditions, reporting, and commission notice for certain purchases containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. FR 6, first reading. In ordinance of the Miami City Commission, amending Chapter 38, Article 3 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended to the Code titled Parks and Recreation, Bayfront Park Management Trust, by amending Section 38-103, titled Governing Body, to establish and appoint the City Commission... as ex-officio members and provide for two appointments from the city's district two commissioner, containing a several-league clause and providing for an immediate effective date. That concludes the first reading ordinances.

A lot of chapters there and articles.

Concluded. So are there any items to pull for discussion, Commissioner Gabella?

Yeah, so I think you wanted FR2, right? FR 2 and FR 5. FR 6.

And FR 6, yeah. FR 5. FR 5.

And 5.

FR 5. Commissioner Rosado? Okay. So for FR 1, FR 3, FR 4, may I have a motion?

Chair, I'm sorry. Yes. So FR 3 was restaurant.

FR 3 was. Perfect, that's correct.

So maybe just one at a time?

Yep. FR 1, is there a motion? Motion.

Motion.

Second? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. FR4? Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. And then pulling for discussion, FR2. Commissioner Gabala.

Okay, so what are we doing here? Because we got a bunch of... Do you want me to explain?

All right. No, this is the reason that on FR2 and FR6, all those different structures are out there. In November, when we had last revisited this, and it took a long time to get there, we had said that we were just going to kind of leave everything on hold, see what the audits finally reveal, which still haven't been concluded. You had said at that time that you would be stepping down mid-July. Everything was kind of... out there, but we don't really have the guardrails, we haven't really had a conversation, or I don't know if they have, the Bayfront Park Management Trust Board contemplated what changes they'd like to make to kind of avoid where we had been, because that was the whole.

Let me bring you up to speed. Yes. So when we got in there, we put those, in 2019, for example, auditors went over and they said, there's a problem here with the gap, the accounting practices, general accounting practices, and we rectified that. We put guardrails that in 2019, they told them, you got to do this. They didn't do it, okay? And we put that in place. For example, we changed the meetings from 12 noon, basically, on a weekday, which not a lot of people could attend, and we changed it to 6 p.m., as you know, so a lot of people can attend and that'll work. So we've done so many things, and all the irregularities that we found, those were reported. OK, you know, I don't think there's any one thing that we haven't touched. I mean, everything that you know that, you know, there's still more to do. Right. But the the the the idea was, you know, that. It was going to be dissolved and given to the city. OK. And my argument was that the city should not be the one getting it because it doesn't run things pretty, you know, very well, at least at the time. I, for example, went to my water park in my district, in the Freedom Park, and I found out that that water park, because the city was taking care of it, was only opening up two months out of the year. And I think I made that statement, and maybe O'Connor wasn't here. Commissioner O'Connor, I don't think, was here yet. But the point was that water park, out of the 12 months that the year has, was opening up two months. And when I asked why, you know, not very good reasons. The city ran that. We then passed a resolution for that water park to have some private entities come in and revamp it, and they run it, and we're going to get into the profit sharing. Why? Because we don't seem to run certain things very good. That's always been government, right? And I thought that we had all agreed, you know, after the attempt was made to take it to the city, we had made the case. We have put all those guardrails in place. And by the way, the audit has no reflection on me or my executive director or who's there now. Because remember, we came into the fold much after all that stuff, you know, that they were claiming happened. Now, they did the first phase of the audit. Then the second phase came through. The city then said that they weren't going to pay for it, okay? And we said, you know, what's going on? That's what was said. Then the city said they were going to pay for it. By the way, that's before you guys got here, Madam Mayor, with all due respect, and city manager. That was before you guys got here, so let me bring you up to speed. And then, so they said, no, we're not going to pay for it. Yes, we're going to pay for it. Back to no, we're not going to pay for it, okay? In the beginning, when this whole thing started, we said that we were going to pay for it at Bayfront Trust. So we, out of the Bayfront Trust funds, we were going to pay for that first audit and all of them. And the city said to us, no, no, no, we don't want you to do that for whatever reason. And I said, okay, all right, you guys. And then we picked the auditing company out of the four or five that they gave us to pick. And that's what transpired. So we've done everything possible, humanly possible. You know, the parking situation where they were taking cash at one point, by the way. Okay. That was dealt with. Okay. That was dealt with immediately, you know, because there was no accountability. Okay. You know, our meetings, you know, if you've seen our meetings, and you have sent the lectures over there, relies on, you know, our meetings, you know, we let everybody talk, you know, you know, it's at 6pm. Sometimes it lasts an hour, other times it lasts two. In other words, we are an open book. Okay. And You know, we have done everything humanly possible and continue to do it to put all those guardrails that hadn't been put there before, okay? So that's that. And again, I stress, the audit was not a reflection on us. The audit was a reflection on what happened before we got there. If you want to do an audit on us, I'd be happy to comply. I know you don't, but I'm saying, we're happy to comply. We're not hiding anything. As a matter of fact, we've been more transparent than I think what was going on there before. We don't hear complaints of neighbors come and you're not doing this, and they're open. Just like, let me just say, the ultra thing with the contract. You know, we had an open meeting about a month ago on the ultra thing at 6 p.m. Nobody showed up to contest the contract, you know what I mean? And the board voted, and they gave me consent to deal with all, and that's what I did. But having said that, I know you were concerned, and that's why I deferred it, because I know you're the District 2 Commissioner. I respect you, I respect your district, and that's why we deferred. But I'm giving you an example of what we've done.

No, listen, I think those are all really good changes. The point I was trying to make is from the community participation side, and some of these items we're talking about Changing the board structure, having more commission participation on the board structure, which for something like an area like District 2 would be important because still residents feel like whether it's a billboard or ultra, they're not, whatever the process is, because it's not you and it's not your board. It's more a process question. And that's why, from my perspective, what I would love, if you would be willing to go along, is just to defer it a bit so that we can work through this and then come back with something that is well understood. Because I'm not there yet, but I can be. Oh, I understand. And bring the community with us. I think that would be.

So let me just answer that by telling you very quickly, you know, because we're not going to beat this horse to death, right? but we've talked a lot about it. But here's the thing. You're never going to please 100% of the people all the time. You know what I mean? So there's always going to be the naysayers, and no matter what you do in this world, right? And that's okay. But like I've always said, when people come up here and they give you credit, we like taking the credit, but we also got to take when they criticize us, right? Because that's what we signed up for. This is what this job entails. But by the same token, you guys don't see me For example, questioning the DDA, questioning the Omni CRA. You know what I mean? You guys don't see me at that. And I don't because I believe if I voted for you as the chairman of the Omni CRA, I trust you. There's not been one time that I've questioned your integrity or anything on that thing because I know you're a good person and you're doing it with heart. for your community. The same thing with Commissioner Rosado. We might have our differences. We've had our differences in the past, but I don't question his judgment, and that's why I actually nominated him for the DDA, and I've seen Rolando's work, and the same thing goes for Commissioner Escalona, with all due respect, right? You know, at the end of the day, you know, what I don't want is that you guys assign me as the chairman to the Bayfront Trust, and then there's all these questions, you know, because remember, I'm not the guy that was there prior to February of 2025. I'm the guy that stepped in to take care of that situation. And I think we've taken care of that situation. So I'll leave it at that. But no problem. You want to defer, let's defer.

No, listen, I just want to say it's no question to your integrity or the board or all the good work you've done. It's just more time so that we can get to a place. And frankly, it's because it's in the district and we're dealing with the residents and all of those issues in our office. So it's actually no different than what we've asked with Commissioner Rosado dealing with the DDA. So it's very similar to that, just a little more time so that we're all on the same page and we can come back with a plan that Not only will we understand, but we can communicate.

But I'll tell you one thing. If we're going to talk about the downtown and we're going to talk about, you know, that side of the, you know, your neck of the woods, you've got more problems. people talking about the DDA and how they're overtaxed than actually the Bayfront Trust. But you don't see me questioning and say, hey, are we going to dissolve your thing down there? You see what I'm saying? But you see my point? There's a lot of noise on that. There's a lot of noise on that. That the downtowners think that they're being overtaxed and they're not getting as many services downtown, that's a big one. You don't see that in Bayfront. Yet you guys are telling me, hey, wait a minute, maybe we should dissolve it. Well, hell, I might start to ask the question in a couple of months' time. You know, what is up with the DDA? You know what I mean?

Listen, I think transparency is always a great thing. Am I hearing you correctly? You're okay with deferring this? That's fine. Can we look at May? Absolutely. It's like the end of May. There's no hurry. The second meeting in May? Is that acceptable?

Do you want to defer it, Gabriela? FR2?

Yeah, if he wants to defer, he's not comfortable. Thank you very much, Commissioner. Do we have a motion?

It's 16, no? What's the second meeting in May? Motion. May 28th. Motion made. Is there a second? Yes. All those in favor? I'm sorry, who was the seconder?

Okay, but guys, just make this clear. We're dealing with RE16.

Yes, correct.

Okay. I'm sorry. We're dealing with what? RE16. By the way, hang on guys, there's a problem. Frank has just alerted me that this needs two readings. If we do in fact decide to not abolish the park and give it to the city, and in July the 15th, I think is the date that we set for the sunset.

So do you want to do it in the first meeting of May?

That's a good idea. Okay.

So I'll just need a motion. So right now we're on FR2. FR2 was deferred.

That's exactly what I thought.

Yes. Oh, yes.

You know what? I'm mistaken, Commissioner.

And again, my apologies for the interruption, but FR2, there was a motion and a second which passed to defer it to May 28th. So what I'll need is a motion to reconsider. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And so now, if you'd like to make a new motion for, that's May 14th. Is that May 14th? Motion. All in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries. And then FR5 was pulled, I believe, Commissioner Escalona?

Yes. The item is good, but I have some concerns in the piggyback. Is there any way that we can amend these to $1.5 million just to keep the transparency there? That's what I thought.

Yes. I'll refer to the city manager. Commissioner, I do not have any issues with that amount.

Okay, so it's a friendly amendment of $1.5? Yes. Do we have a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. As amended.

Yes, amended.

And that FR6 was just indefinitely deferral. It goes with all of this together. So I'll need a motion for the indefinitely.

Is there a motion? Motion. Second. We're talking about FR6, right?

Yeah.

It's the same as the other item. Yes. Okay. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay, so I know for board and committees, Mr. City Clerk. Sorry, Mr. Chairman, through you.

There's a problem. Did we do RE16? It's the same thing. Did we address that?

RE16 was indefinitely deferred.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair. Boards and committees. BC1, Arts and Entertainment Council. Commissioner Pardo will be appointing Michelle McCoy.

May I have a motion? Motion. Motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye.

Motion carries. BC3, Bayfront Park Management Trust. Commissioner Gabela will be reappointing Carlos Martel to his seat and reappointing Ana Matos and Horacio Stewart Aguirre to the at-large seats.

So moved. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye.

Motion carries. BC4, Climate Resilience Committee. Mayor Higgins will be appointing Irella Begay to the Community and Real Estate Development category, and City Manager Reyes will be reappointing Grant Muser to the Emergency Management category. May I have a motion? Second. Motion second. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. BC5, Code Enforcement Board. Commissioner Gabela will be reappointing John Kunil to his seat, and reappointing Juan Galan to the alternate at-large seat. Commissioner Rosado will be appointing Ulysses Arias to the at-large vacant seat. Do we have a motion? Move. Motion second. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. BC6, Downtown Development Authority. The Downtown Development Authority is requesting confirmation of the following individuals. Chris Hodgkins to the Arts and Entertainment District seat. Jose Bermudez to the Brickell District seat, and Christina Palomo to the at-large residence seat. May I have a motion? So moved.

Motion, second. All those in favor? Aye.

Motion carries. BCA, Finance Committee. City Manager Reyes will be reappointing Munera Daniel.

Motion. Second. Motion and a second. All in favor? Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. BC 10, LGBTQ Advisory Board. Commissioner Escalona will be appointing Aaron Riffa with a four-fifths residency waiver. Move. Second. Second.

Motion second. All in favor?

Aye. Motion carries. BC 12, Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board. Mayor Higgins will be appointing Lynette Cardock, and Commissioner Gabella will be appointing Chris Collins.

So moved. Second. Okay, motion second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. That concludes the boards and committees. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Mr. City Attorney, can we have the titles for the PZ items?

yes sir um pz1 second reading ordinance in ordinance of the miami city commission amending ordinance number 13114 the zoning ordinance of the city of miami florida is amended miami 21 code specifically by amending appendix p winwood norte neighborhood revitalization district 2 nrd2 by amending appendix p section 3.2.1 titled general to zones nrd2 thoroughfares and corridors to allow for dominant setback waivers on a Wynwood-Norte corridor by amending Appendix P, Section 3.3, titled General to Zones Wynwood-Norte Public Benefits Program to adjust bonus height regulations in all T4 and T5 transit zones within Wynwood-Norte. By amending Appendix P, Section 5, titled Specific to Zones, to clarify and update bonus height regulations in T5 transect zones. By amending Appendix P, Section 7, titled Sign Regulations, to modify master sign package requirement for structures with multiple commercial or office tenants. By amending Appendix P, Section 9, titled Street Master Plan, to provide additional NRG2 setback requirements along Wynwood-Norte thoroughfares, making findings containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date. Mr. City Clerk, did we move PZ2?

PZ2 was indefinitely deferred.

Thank you. That concludes the PZ1.

So on item PZ1, is there any discussion?

No. Okay.

Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second? Hang on. What are we voting on?

We're on PZ1. Item PZ1. Didn't we defer PZ1?

PZ2 was deferred. PZ2 was deferred. Okay.

Any discussion, Commissioner Gabela? No, not me. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries.

Aye.

Moving to the discussion items. DI 1. We already covered that in the public comments. Do we need to vote? No, we're good. Excellent. Thank you.

DI 2. DI 2 is indefinitely deferred.

Okay.

DI 3.

I think that was Commissioner Rosado, right?

Yes, yes. So DI3 is about traffic light synchronization. I know that in recent years, the city of Los Angeles became the first major city in the country to synchronize all its traffic lights. I think we are comparable in terms of traffic and land uses to LA. And so I'd like to see us do some research on how we can work with the county to expedite that in terms of the city of Miami, right? We're at the center of the county. We are the city that's most impacted by the way that traffic flows. This is definitely something that residents ask all the time about. They complain about the lights not quite making sense together. And so I'd like to see if the manager could and the public works director could speak with the county and see what can be done to prioritize our traffic lights. In addition, very related to that, I had a great conversation with the mayor recently. There's been an analysis done countywide about the 100 most dangerous intersections. And as you can imagine, the city of Miami has several of those. And so I'd like to see us get regular updates on what we're doing to address the most dangerous intersections from that list in terms of funding for design, redesign, construction, et cetera. I know some projects are along the way. Others maybe not so much. But I'd like to see us get regular updates on those. And I think because this information should be readily available at a minimum, I'd like to see an update at one of the April meetings as to where we stand on these things. And then from there, as a body, we can determine what we'd like to see the next steps be. But this first step would be providing information on how viable it is for Miami to be the first city within Miami-Dade County that has the traffic lights synchronized. and also where we are with regard to the most dangerous intersections of that top 100 in the city of Miami.

Commissioner Scaluna?

Oh, I'm sorry, Mayor Higgins.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. On the traffic light synchronization, the county has funded a many, many, many, many millions of dollars projects to upgrade every signal in Miami-Dade County, so it might actually be that perhaps our public works director wants to invite someone from the county to give an update on the progress of that project. It's certainly a multi-year implementation because every signal has to be upgraded to become a smart signal. So that might be something we may want to ask for. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. City Manager, would you like staff to address any of those issues?

Good morning, Madam Mayor, commissioners. So yeah, so Miami-Dade County is working on their adaptive traffic signal control upgrades. I'll gladly have a conversation with both the director and the deputy director and ask them to come and join us and give us a briefing on that. We've already sent them a request for an update on their project and we're waiting to hear back from them, but we'll continue that conversation and invite them.

Thank you, thank you very much. Other, Commissioner Gabela? No, I'm good. Commissioner Escalona? I do want to say that I think this is probably the most important project for our county. I know that for the folks in downtown, Edgewater, Brickell, everybody in this county, traffic is just unbearable. So if there's a way for us to lighten that load, I would, whatever we need to do to collaborate, prioritize, help, support, Please let us know because we're 100% behind it.

Definitely.

Anything else? A chair? Madam Chair, is there anything you would like to add?

No, I'm okay.

Thank you. The only other item for discussion is DI4, and I believe Commissioner Rosado, that was your item?

It is. This is a topic that's getting a lot of attention. I hear about it. I mean, I think we're all seeing this on the news, but also I'm just hearing about it from individual residents in District 4. and that is that the fact in the last few months we've seen obvious major changes in Venezuela, and we are hearing a number of statements from both the President and Secretary Rubio to a potential transition in Cuba. We are the epicenter of the Cuban community in the United States, and so I'd love to know a little bit more, and I'm sure the public and my colleagues as well, you know, what are transition plans that the city has in place? When was it most recently updated? Because I'm sure there is a plan, but I know it's Plans are often not updated as often as they could be. I'd like to know more about who's in charge, were there to be a transition. I want to make sure that we're respecting people's civil liberties, but we're also prepared for crowd events and things like that. Could you talk to us a little bit about that, Mr. Manager?

Sure. Thank you, Commissioner. So first and foremost, approximately three weeks after taking this office, obviously we got some of the same feedback that the Commissioner just alluded to. At that time, we requested that our fire chief and our police chief both refresh their plans in terms of responding to the challenges presented with the politics currently playing out in Cuba, particularly on two fronts. One is obviously the mass migration front. The other one is what we could expect, a lot of celebration and mass demonstrations here within the city. Both the fire chief and police chief have executed and issued updated action plans as it relates specifically to the challenges presented with the politics surrounding Cuba and the impacts here in the city of Miami. particularly for South Florida. It's a multi-agency task force that combines not only our state partners, our county partners, but also our federal partners, particularly on the migration front with Operation Vigilant Sentry, which has been in place now for quite a while in preparation for not only Cuba, but also any Haitian mass migration that we might receive. So we are well prepared to collaborate with our local partners Beyond that, our emergency management, our office of emergency management under the auspice of fire rescue would take the lead from an incident command perspective. We would have a incident command post on the most impacted area within the city, identify an incident commander that will lead in that response effort.

Good? Yes.

Thank you. Any other statements from Commissioner Gabela?

No, I'm good. It's important. Obviously, this is an important thing, so I'm glad we touched on the subject. Commissioner Escalona?

Chairwoman King?

No, I'm okay.

Okay. All right. Okay, so we're going to recess this meeting. We're going to take Omni CRA, and then we'll come back, reconvene our meeting for that one item that relies on Omni. So, Mr. City Clerk, have you turned the tape, Nicole? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Sure. No, no worries. Yeah.

Actually, we flipped the tape rather quickly today, so we're ready to go.

Commissioner Escalona, we're ready to go.

If I may? Yeah.

Let's open. Todd? Okay, so the meeting is now reconvened.

Guys, I want to, with all due respect, I want to vote up or down on the FR2 and RE16. I'm not going to be in limbo anymore, and neither should the employees of the Bayfront Trust. I thought we had settled this matter. You know, I want an up-and-down vote today, FR2 and RE16. You cannot expect me to continue serving with this, you know, attitude of whether we're going to be there or not there. We've been there before already. I thought this matter was settled. I'd like to vote up or down. FR2 and RE16. So you'll decide the future of Bayfront.

Probably best to address them one at a time. So there's a motion. Which one would you like to start with first, Commissioner? FR2. FR2? So we would need a motion to reconsider FR2 because FR2 has already been deferred.

Motion to consider FR2. Move.

Okay, so if we're reconsidering FR2, I just want to. Say, Commissioner, I don't understand why. Just let me say my piece here. I don't understand why there's an urgency to reconsider this item instead of being able to bring the community along. I personally do not understand where all of this is at. I think many people have told me they don't understand where all of this is at. as far as process, as far as procedures, as far as policy, those are important things to consider. I think that if we all just take that small period of time we can come back a lot stronger with something that works and is communicated well. This is no reflection on you or the trust. It's not meant to keep the employees hanging at all. I think we're headed in a good direction. I commend you for your work and the work of the trust. I just think it could be better if we take this small period of time and come back with the item so that there is that understanding in the district among the residents, among the staff, and here on the days. That's just...

With all due respect, can I proceed? Commissioner, with all due respect, I have been dealing with this for now, a year now or something. We want to vote up or down. I want to vote up or down. I'm tired of this. You know what I mean? This is like if you were on the Omni CRA, I voted for you. I didn't even have to look at the book because I trust your judgment. I need to do the same thing. You cannot expect me to be there or my executive director, people like this with the uncertainty whether we're gonna be or not to be or not to be. This is the question, like Shakespeare said, okay? We need to decide that today. I'm tired of this already. You know, your residents, the residents that you're talking about, I haven't seen them because we're open to the public until 6 p.m. Nobody has gone in to say, oh, you know, we want Bayfront Trust to be absorbed by the city. We don't know about that. You know, let me think about that. No, nobody's come in there in all the time that I've been there, you know, and that's the truth of the matter. So look, as for me, I want to vote up or down. Okay, very good. We have a motion. We end this today. We end this today on FR2 and RE16.

We have a motion on We have a motion on the floor, and we have a second. To reconsider. The motion to reconsider. All those in favor?

Aye.

Unanimous? Yes. 5-0. No, I'm no. I'm a no on reconsider. Okay, 4-1. 4-1. So FR2 is now in place.

So now you have to call the question to FR2.

So FR2, what I am intending to do is to repeal it, the ordinance, that it was going to be stripped away and given to the city. That's what I want to do. Let me know what that motion is, and I'll make that motion.

Simply make a motion to pass FR2.

So motion to pass FR2.

Move. You do want a second? Second. So there's a motion and a second on the floor to pass FR2.

All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

No. 4-1. And now moving on to RE16.

I'll need a motion to reconsider RE16.

Motion to reconsider.

Seconded by Commissioner Escalona for the reconsideration of RE16. So there's a motion and a second on the floor. Okay. All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries. Is that 5-0? 5-0 for the reconsideration? No. 4-1. Yeah. 4-1. So, Commissioner Pardo, voting no. Okay, RE16 is in play.

Okay, RE16, very simple. I want to assume management of Maurice Safer Park. I assume that this is the city, right, that they were going to assume the, is that correct? What am I supposed to vote here? To end the takeover of the city of Miami to the Bayfront Trust. That's it, very simple.

And I apologize, I would need to defer to the city attorney.

I believe what you want to do, because this resolution would be to separate them, right? So I want to end it. So if you move to withdraw, that ends the request.

Move to withdraw. Second? Yes, second. The motion is to withdraw the item. Second? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. And one no.

4-1 with Commissioner Pardo voting no. Understood.

And then we have the omni item. RE-19. RE-19. RE19, is there any discussion on RE19? No. Motion. Motion made.

Is there a second?

Second. All those in favor? Aye.

Aye. RE19 will be amended to include the following resolution number, CRA-R-26-0010. So RE19 was adopted as amended.

Okay. Any other discussion on any other items? No. Okay. Thank you all. Thank you everyone for coming. Today's meeting is now adjourned. Thank you.