Climate Resilience Committee - Regular Meeting

and county websites as well as fema the state of florida

Marion Flores from the Office of Resilient Sustainability.

Sonia Brubaker, Chief Resilient Officer, City of Miami.

John Solomon, Office of City Attorney.

Thank you so much. All right, we'll move to item two, which is public comment. If anyone in the public would like to make a comment, you may now. Miriam, are there any public comments online?

At this time, no.

All right. Silvio, would you like to introduce for the roll call, please?

Silvio Pupo-Casco.

Thank you. All right, we'll move to item three, approval of the CRC minutes from our December 15th meeting. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve those?

I so move.

All right, and a second?

Second.

Second from Silvio. All right, all in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Any oppose or abstain? Okay, unanimous. All right, we have two presentations this evening for item four and also our annual report to vote on later. Let's move to item four, which is our bus shelter presentation. I'm excited for this. We've had a number of people from the public in the past make comments and questions about bus stations, bus stops in their area. Wonderful to have you here this evening. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me. Natasha Way, City of Miami. I don't know if you guys are able to see my presentation.

You plugged your computer. Let's see if we can put the presentation from the podium on the screen, please.

Perfect. Again, thank you guys for having me and the presentation. I hope clear up a lot of you guys question where you have in reference to the city of Miami bus business and shelters. As you can see from my first slide, the bus business shelter has been in place with the City of Miami since 2007. We have an extended contract which expires in 2027. Our contract is now with Outfront Media, who oversees all bus business shelters within the City of Miami and also handles the maintenance as well. Attached, I have given an outline of the City of Miami, which indicates where several bus business shelters are located throughout the City of Miami. Currently, we have a total of 1,115 bus shelters and benches throughout the city of Miami. For your convenience, I was able to outline the different types and also outline the numbers that relates to the bus bench and shelters throughout the city of Miami. Per our contract, we have 1,500 bus bench and shelters that we can have throughout. For the shelters, I think it's 600 that we can max out. And currently, we have a total of 536 as of today. The wooden benches, we have 1,500. And I think as of today, we have 579. The difference on how you can defer, the difference with City of Miami bus business shelters and Miami-Dade County shelters is the color. Miami-Dade County shelters are blue. City of Miami are green. One may ask, and I have had several questions on how can one request a bus bench or shelter be placed within a specific area. Numerous ways we can have that done. A lot of our, I guess, requests come in from callers, residents itself, commissioners, and sometimes I have here with me my staff who I'll see every bus bench and shelter throughout the city of Miami where he may get a request where someone may go on a bus bench instead of a shelter or a shelter instead of a bus bench. where one can call our office. The number is located here, which is 305-416-1132, or either email us at trolleyinfo at miamigov.com. I also had a question related to our trolley system. Just to give you guys a little feedback on it, the trolley system has been in place since 2012. We currently have a total of 13 routes We operate with a total of 57 trolleys, some of them aging from 13 years on. We are actually in the make of transitioning out our old trolleys, where we had three just recently came in, and we're ordering more as they come in, which is this project is funded by CITT, so all of our funds come from CITT. As far as the vehicles, sometimes we get grants from FDOT that help contribute to our trolleys. At the bottom of this, I think you guys will send a link to our trolley tracker where it gives real-time tracking where one can be at one location, want to know how can they connect. It can also connect with Miami-Dade County Transit as well. Again, our trolley operating hours, it varies per route. As I say, we have 13 routes. This actually gives a number of trolleys per route as well as our headways. Our headways go from 15 minutes to 45 minutes per The route, and our route starts from 6.30 a.m. to 11. Some operate on Saturdays, some operate on Sundays. Our Sunday routes that do operate are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. And I think this slide belongs to Resilience and Public Works.

All right, hey, hi, Alyssa Farina, Assistant Director, Office of Resilience and Sustainability. Just to bring up and remind everyone of our extreme heat plan, Miami Forever Climate Ready Extreme Heat. This was launched and released to the public in December of 2024. And one of our actions, our first action, actually, in our shade section of the plan is to provide additional shading at bus and trolley stops. This conversation is aligned with something that is in our extreme heat plan. And thinking about how we can inventory the stops that we have and then think about where the key opportunities for shade are. And thinking about what are the right areas to target given the limited number of available Shelters that are available in the out front media contract so very much in line with the Plan that we have and appreciate the bringing up something that is in our resilience strategies Thank you so much

I have a question regarding the, when you said that there's a certain amount allowed in the contract, have you, based on how you said the contract's due end of next year or at a point next year, do you anticipate filling out those available shelters that are still available in the contract based on historical amounts that get added each year, or just as far as essentially capacity to fill user requests?

Capacity to fill is usually on requests. So we get more requests, then we'll fill them. I did speak with my director in reference to an RFP. So we are in the makeup doing an RFP. So maybe in the RFP, we can probably extend it to be more than what we have currently now.

Excellent. It's very important for a lot of the different topics that we talk about here, not just heat, but also the transportation resilience, the real estate aspect of reducing single occupancy vehicle trips, which is a large contributor of greenhouse gassage. So I think it's a great initiative and hope that we can continue to offer even better shelters and service. So I appreciate your time this evening. Anyone else with questions or comments?

I just wonder if we could have a copy of the slides we saw this evening. Sure.

Yeah, I think we have a copy from Miriam.

Yeah, and we should probably also get, it's an RFP, we should probably get a, it'll be public information. So it'll be interesting for us to follow along, because the RFP, so Outfront Media makes a lot of money on the advertising. So, you know, I hope it's competitive, because maybe... We thought there was something more that should be in the RFP. I know we've talked about shading or whatever, but maybe it would be important as part of their evaluation as to... I'm hoping it's a competitive process. I mean, if there's only one company that's bidding, which you would know more, but hopefully through the competitive process... we can get more of what you guys are trying to achieve. And maybe if there are suggestions that we'd like to see in there, you know, it's just feedback for them. If it hopefully is a competitive, there's more than one.

I think that would be handled by procurement. Yes. And soliciting it and putting it on the different platforms where people get notified.

Correct.

Is there a way for us to potentially offer feedback to align it with resilience goals?

Excellent. I would love for you guys to provide us with your feedback, because in the midst of doing the RFP, I could include you guys' comments and questions that you may have.

I think we'd really appreciate that. So if you gave us notice and say, two to three months, because we only meet monthly, that we had a little bit of time to review it internally, and then had a meeting to talk about it here, and then vote on something, a memorandum or a resolution that we would pass to you. I think that would be helpful. And it could also provide the general public another avenue for providing feedback that we can hear and potentially include in any recommendations, which is also part of why we invited you here this evening was public comment. So that would be great.

I agree. I'll be happy to assist you with that. Excellent idea. Thank you.

In response to your question, Barbary, the presentation was sent to all CRC members through the last email I just sent. In addition to that, you also have Trolley Links apps and the Miami-Dade County apps, so you could share it with whomever you'd like to. All right. Thank you.

Chairman, may I? Please. Yes, please. And a couple of things. I wanted to... This is something I've been very interested in. We've been collaborating with the county, and we were trying to explore about a decade ago how we could add sensors to different bus shelters, whether it's for a Wi-Fi signal, whether it be the same power source to be able to make cooling centers, or even to put sensors to understand how long people are waiting in these different bus shelters. Is there anything like that that's been considered or implemented, or is there an opportunity even to... work with some shelters to explore what innovations we can apply to some of the shelters?

Well, under my purview, I don't know one that does, but that is something I can probably ask the contractor as well as including in the RFP if possible. I can mention that someone asked a question in reference to the city of Miami incorporating Wi-Fi on the trolleys. So maybe that can be incorporated together. So I am in to talk with my director related to that.

And that's excellent. I would love that. I think it's very much needed. And with things like the design, I would love to think about how the public could support, whether it's universities, the community at large, maybe a challenge on these bus shelters. uh and for example uh how do we make it more green could we put a green roof so it doesn't so it absorbs uh so it doesn't trap heat and serve really as a as an amplifier to heat right with green roofs that could absorb and cool maybe you can put things like there's ways We have a lot of humidity in Miami where some of these bus shelters could actually have a small device that turns drinking water out of the air. So you don't even have to build out infrastructure to be able to have water there. And there's other things like even paint that changes in color if it's too hot. So an elderly person could find out if this might be a dangerous time of the day to step there. And we'd love to support and figure out how we can support. One proposal I got from the community today was an adopt a shelter program. And if there's ways for different community members to take care of the bus shelters near them. I'm in Alapata. We're on 36th Street. We have a lot of, and 17th and 12th Avenue. We have a lot of elderly housing. And so I think that those areas I'd like to, for the record, make it a high priority area. 36th Street, 17th Avenue, and 12th Avenue. to consider how we might be able to do, you know, pilot some of these things there or just a general adopt the shelter program and how else we could support in that. Has there been anything like that done before, proposed before?

Not out of my purview, but I love it. It sounds like something that would be beneficial to the city. So I would take your feedback back to my director.

And could you, and so, I don't know, Chair, how we could propose something like a motion, or maybe to even start this conversation, where we can explore things like an innovation program for the bus shelters, or an innovation challenge for the bus shelter, as well as an adopt-a-shelter program that allows different residents to do things for those, you know, for those. And that way we can just, you know, start the conversation, have a framework that allows us to take this conversation off the dais and, you know, to be more hands-on for folks with things that are out there. The RFP obviously presents a timely opportunity in a way to do that. Could you explain more about the CITT funding? You talked about funding coming from DOT and was it CITT?

CITT.

What is that?

CITT is Citizen Participation with Miami-Dade County. It's a half cent that every municipality get a part of. So with City of Miami being the largest, we take a big portion of that funds, which covers our trolley routes.

And with some of the proposals, when people want to put benches, for example, how do you evaluate where something is a fit? Just from prior work and research, I understand that oftentimes where we want to put cooling centers or shelters, we don't have enough easement to be able to do it, to also be ADA compliant, Accessible Disability Act compliant in those sidewalks.

Right.

Have you seen any other ways to move forward in some of those challenges, like these areas in 12th Avenue, 36th Street, 17th, for example, that are kind of restricted in terms of their sidewalk, but also do have private property owners that have a lot of maybe space or easement that they might be able to give? For example, I know a church that's turned into a school on 36th Street and 13th Avenue. As a shelter, they installed personally some trees there. But if there's other ways to work with others like that in the private sector that would be willing to give a part of their easement for the purpose of supporting ADA compliance or even fast-tracking that conversation, I know that's been a big challenge. Has that been a challenge in your experience?

It has been a challenge. When we experience situations like that, we sit it out for media, and they do the assessment. If they're able to put one, they can. I know recently we had a bus bench and shelter request at Carrie Meek. And there was a gate along with a tree. So what we were able to do is get with our park department, have them remove the tree, allow us to make the concrete even wider so it can be ADA compliant. So we have ran into challenges like that, and we were able to conquer that request.

Wonderful. And maybe a question to the resilience office or the finance office, which is if we're able to maybe support some of these shelter, cooling shelters or cooling center initiatives, and if we can, if we have a shortcoming in the projection of the demand. both for the trolleys and the stops, if we might be able to tap into the Miami Forever Bond series to help finance and fund some of that. Not sure how, kind of what the budget projection or needs are going to be to be able to do something or to be able to pay for an innovation challenge, but perhaps from our resiliency bonds, including some of the ones that are being planned and talked about right now, There's a way to tap into that. Maybe that's a question for Sonia or the CFO chair.

Yeah, we'd have to take a look to see at what the obligations are for the bonds that have been drawn down for the different topical areas within the bond to be able to figure that out.

And so I'd like to propose or make a motion to move forward on a bus shelter innovation program. and consideration for how we might be able to support your office and collaborate and bring more resources to your office to explore how we can maximize this, especially for our most vulnerable community that are not here today, but I see very often at noon in the street sitting in the concrete. So, if this would be helpful, Chairman, I'd like to find a way to make a motion that we incorporate some of the requests from today, including that this conversation comes back whenever RFP is about to go out. I'd also like to propose some type of resolution that allows us to create an innovation challenge, focuses particularly on this issue of the bus shelters. And yeah, and I think that would be very helpful for our community. Thank you so much for your work. I know it's very important and would love to find out other ways that we can help you.

Thank you so much for having me.

Well, we have a motion, but I have a lot of questions. Sure. I mean, you mentioned support pool shelters, and you defined a lot of different things of what that means, which I'm not totally clear. There's already existing shelter capacity in your existing contract that could be met in the next X number of months before it ends next year. So those are already part of the budget that the city is paying for with that contractor?

Well, the city isn't paying anything. This is a service that Outfront has given to the city. So the city doesn't receive anything from it, nor does the city have to pay for anything. Outfront oversees the whole project on its own, the maintenance and everything.

And as residents identify locations, they can submit them as you showed us. And then your office facilitates coordination with the provider. And then they evaluate it to see which of the bench options might fit tangible space requirements. And then they get back to you. So if there's still capacity in the existing budget, I don't know why we would push to try to get additional budgets for benches. If you're looking to try to look for innovative ideas, I mean, it makes sense to continue to innovate. But before we start suggesting innovation things, I would say, can we see what innovation things already exist out there?

Yeah, that's what the innovation challenge is for, German. is to see what solutions are out there so that community can come forward with them. I gave you three or four different examples right now of what I think are different innovations that do exist that we can adopt. And I also understand the challenges in adopting those innovations are on one side capital, so the Adopt-a-Shelter program would help you. Let me finish, please.

I'm calling call of order. Call of order. Sylvia, please. I'd like before, I get that an innovation challenge could be great for the general public to come up with new ideas or essentially bring ideas that already exist to an existing context. Maybe we should see more information on what exists and craft a resolution. Typically when we craft resolutions on the spot, it's normally in relation to a time sensitive item that, you know, for instance, last year in January, this time of last year, we wrote something about suggesting withdrawing the tree issue because it was, a lot of public comment and it was on the city agenda. So may I be more effective if we had a little more understanding of what it is you're trying to describe?

Yeah, yeah. The time sensitive thing last year was also my proposal to adopt a tree citizen science program for tree planting and urban reforestation and tree banking, all of which I've asked to be put on our agenda so we can continue moving that conversation for Chapter 17. Which still need to bring back in this case, I wanted to finish addressing your comment on financing and how we can finance this without tapping into the resilience funds. I think it's a good suggestion. Just to know that we already have allocation now in the beginning of the year. This is not if it's not time sensitive, no big deal. But I do believe that something as simple as an innovation challenge in an adopted shelter program. you know, could agree to move something like that forward. Again, put four squares on it. What does Innovation Challenge look like? What does the Adopt-a-Shelter program look like? We will need to figure that out. There's a lot of questions, obviously, on how we do that. However, I still think that the opportunity of the RFP, the Adopt-a-Shelter Program, and the Innovation Challenge together would really help us give something very concrete to keep this on the agenda and invite our guest speaker back in the future with a very specific, focused agenda. Thank you. Go ahead, Avra.

Yeah, I'd just like to say that if there's a motion to be made or something like that, I mean, I personally need something more concrete, like outlined. I mean, it's an idea, which is great. So I think for me, anyway, to support something, I think you should come back with something really specific.

I mean, an outreach on a challenge.

Are you going to... what's that process and who's going to manage that and how's that going to happen. So if you have a clear idea on how to do that or how you want to do it, I think for me to vote on something, I need more than just an idea. And I will tell you, the city is working on the tree stuff. So don't think that they're not. I know because I'm sitting on the commission appointed tree thing. So I just wanted you to know that the city is not doing nothing. It's just there's processes, right? So I think if you have something specific to propose and outline, I think thank you very much. I think your openness and your willingness to be thinking bigger is fantastic. And we're really happy to be part of that conversation. And if there's something more specific, I think you suggested some good ideas, but I think we need something more specific in order to vote on it.

I agree, if I may, Chair. If there's no more questions for Ms. Natasha, can we let her go, and then we can continue our business?

Could I ask one question?

Please.

I'm curious how you work with the... We got a presentation called the Transit Station Neighborhood Development, where they're building... in certain areas, housing around the transit stations. And the one we saw in Little River was in a neighborhood that was primarily single family and duplexes around, that's our existing neighborhood. And what my question is, is there some coordination between your trolley routes and these transit station neighborhood developments that might engage the existing neighborhood in the new transit developments?

Thank you for your question. We're actually in the process of doing our trolley master plan. Like I say, this trolley has been in place since 2012. Some routes have been implemented. never change. We have to keep in mind that we have to do an interlocal agreement with Miami-Dade County. So the issue that we're having with Miami-Dade County is, even though there's an area there, the transit go in that same area. So we can't duplicate their services. So as part of our master trolley plan, we're actually coming up, now we're doing a survey to get feedback from the public. Beginning of February, we're gonna have public meetings where we're going to take the public information that we receive from them to see how can we better our trolley system. So even now where we have bus-ventured shelters may not be the same locations because that stop may be moved to incorporate another stop. That route may be eliminated to increase another route. So all of that's been taken into consideration, but we do try to connect our trolleys with the transit system.

Great. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Thank you so much, I have one last question, do you know how many of those facilities, you showed us on the on the count had been installed in the last year say 2025.

I don't have that information off hand, but I can probably reach out to our media to provide it what they did provide to me was the spreadsheet that indicates the location of each bus bench and shelter.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us this evening. Appreciate your time.

Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.

Carrie, I want to address Alvaro's point very good. Alvaro, thank you for mentioning that. In order to be able to have something more baked, I mean, we're here to give recommendations. I'm not really the subject matter expert. We might need to have some type of workshop that allows us to understand which department, good question, which department adopts it, who hosts the challenge. We know that we have a... We have the Office of Economic Development, which is led by Keith. And they do a really good job doing outreach and with the whole, like, different initiatives that they have in innovation. So that might be a potential. But this kind of cuts across transportation, resilience, public works. So I'm at a loss. I would defer to our city manager or yourself or Sonia or somebody else that has more expertise in terms of how we... to get an answer to the details to make Avra feel comfortable. My request, I think, is very much still stands. I respect where that comes from, and maybe we can add that, you know, how we might want to move forward on something like that.

So, if I may, you know, I think, you know, our role here as appointed experts in fields are to make recommendations to commission. The recommendation you've made of an innovation challenge and an adopted shelter both sound great in merit, but we need more depth. Simply voting on something here, there are so many more steps that come after it leaves here. First of all, we need to have language. We need to have whereas statements I would recommend with statistics from other places, which you can look up and prepare for either this meeting or another meeting. Once it leaves here, it goes to commission, and it's reviewed by dozens, if not hundreds of people It's on an agenda. The public reads it. If it's not well thought out, if it's not well crafted, if it doesn't have the facts, there's so many more hours of effort to put into getting an idea done, and having it not be baked doesn't make sense. I don't like addressing things out of order, but you also brought up the leaf proposal. It was the same situation there. It wasn't fully baked. We hosted a workshop at your request to go over it. I went over it with you, tried to help you fix it, There was things there mentioning things that were not factual from chapter 17, and I pointed them out. You never sent back a revised copy for us to discuss. So don't put that on me that it didn't go back on the agenda. And just because you pointed out last year, oh, it didn't go on the agenda. I sent it the day of the meeting, seven days before. We've gone over this. I'm working seven days before the agenda. We have meetings. We have plans. We have order. And just because you come and do this and, like, that's not how it works. So you do have a motion on, you made a motion, so we have to ask, you know, would anyone like to second the motion for an innovation challenge and adopt the shelter?

And maybe it's subject to going through the process, the finding who adopts it, the finding who champions it, yada, yada, yada. And I think that this is not the setting to do that. So I would need to be, I need some support from you, Chairman, and city staff to help us answer those questions, because that's outside of my purview. So I don't know how we could work through that or who we could work together with.

So if I, Chair, if I may?

Please.

So... I'm trying to craft and understand Silvio's motion and direction. Perhaps what I could see that's in the purview without drafting a resolution on the spot today, There could be, Silvio, if you can, maybe you want to make a motion to request that the resilience officer monitors the request for proposal process and bring it to the board. And by the way, those things that you were mentioning, the bus innovation, that can all be put on the operator or provider. the bus shelters you know that could go into the RFP and that is effectuating and recommending changes to city policy that is a little more it's a little more loose and not as with we don't need facts right now it could just be a request to the resilience officer to monitor the request for proposals of bus shelters and it come back to this board prior to being solicited and That is where you guys could work out what kind of programs, what kind of things you'd want to see the operator provide to the city and the residents.

Thank you, Gigi. I think it's a good suggestion, Chair. And thank you, Gigi. That's the kind of feedback or input I was hoping for to help me, help us. That being said, perhaps if it was something like that, we might want to have an innovation challenge before the RFP. Or, I mean, I don't want to slow that process down, so I want to be sensitive to this. And maybe through the innovation, we're able to make recommendations for the RFP.

My two cents, you know, trying to... Well, that's up to the board to second that motion, or it's up to the board.

I just have a question. Silvio, can you describe the innovation challenge in a little bit more detail?

Yeah. You say, hey, people in Miami have a very difficult time. They're exposed to heat, all these facts that we know. You make a request to the public, just like the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority does. In fact, we can even ask the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority to host a challenge for us with the county, or the city does it unilaterally. You say, hey, by April, you know, Earth Day in April, we want to receive all these different proposals or like end of March or mid-March, something that lets us work, give people time, at least a month. You receive all the different proposals from the community. And there's a couple of ways to do it. Either you evaluate the proposals and you say, hey, these are our top three or top five that we want to adopt. And you also maybe need a way to adopt it so that you actually implement those implementations. And maybe that's part of the Adopt-a-Shelter program where people can independently maybe start to implement those innovations at specific bus shelters. Or the city says, look, this is a specific area, with Sonia together with our prior speaker. It says, look, these are the bus shelters that we have our most vulnerable part of the population in. This is a very specific place where you want to do the innovation challenge. And then you send that out, and you give people, I don't know, 30, 45 days. And then when they present it, maybe they bring it back to us. Maybe there's a different process. I would love to figure out how we activate it. But I think it's something as simple as, as that, saying, hey, we just want to receive the ideas of the public, maybe even a Facebook page with public comment. We really can make it quite simple to make sure that we can capture as much input as possible. And I would love to do something before Earth Day, just to put a timeline on this, which is in April, which means that maybe if we have one more, if we have a workshop this month before the next meeting or after the next meeting, that means that February, Ideally now, in February, we can say, okay, these are the four squares for this innovation challenge. Who, what, when, where, why, in terms of the department that will ask it. We open it up for 30 days, and then by that time, hopefully it's Earth Day, and now we can actually study it, get together, and have another workshop to understand with all the right stakeholders, how do we prioritize it, how do we operationalize it, what do we want to pilot in very specific locations. Yeah, that's me kind of thinking out loud, but we can look at the Miami Data Innovation Authority as a good example, and Keith Carswell from the Office of Economic Development and with the work that they do with Venture Miami as good templates that we might be able to piggyback on as how we might be able to do that ourselves. Thank you. Thank you for the question.

So, I mean, as far as the comments a couple minutes ago of, like, you don't know where to start, that sounded like a good start. So if you could put them on paper, you know, we could then maybe have a workshop. If you want to maybe do some research on what does an innovative bus shelter even mean, I know you're saying let's go to the public, but you rattled off a few ideas that already exist, like the one with the green roof or something with sensors or whatever. I'm not sure, you know, if you could put those together for us, maybe we could make a motion on something that we've, that we see that's tangible, that you've pre-written, so, you know, just doing a cop-out of, I don't know where to go, and we need to have staff, and we need to get all these people, like, that's part of our role here, is to do that work, and bring ideas, and if, you know, if you want Ask maybe someone else to participate, you can, but if you want to push this so heavily and speak over me and be all, you know, as energetic, then maybe just translate that energy offline to preparing something. And I will help you just like I helped you with the leaf and try to move it forward. But let's do it in a productive manner.

Yeah, Chair, I'm happy to draft something and share it with you and maybe Gigi for more input in terms of making sure that that looks good. So that maybe we go back and forth via email until we feel something ready. But I appreciate that.

It's totally fine. But, you know, we cannot share it with Aaron. That would be outside of the sunshine. But if you draft something with, you know, substantive statements and facts, I will gladly review it.

Okay.

And put it into, like, form for consideration of the board.

Okay. So I'll work on that over the next two weeks, Chair. Yeah. I'll circulate it. Maybe I'll send it to Miriam and Gigi to follow, you know, the proper chain of communication. Perfect. And let it take its place. So I'm glad that... We've been able to address this that we had this opportunity to think of real ways to create real action for our Community and that we've been able to also identify. Some of the challenges and things we want to see to make sure that we can get buy in from yourself over the other Thank you members.

All right, so um. All right, let's move to our next presentation, we have a we have an update on 2025 king tides. This was in the December meeting, I believe, or November, but we had a lot of presentations those months. So looking forward to seeing this.

I spoke to Alyssa first.

She wants me to break the ice.

All right, so I came prepared to give an overview of the 2025 king tide season within the city of Miami. We kicked off with a... King Tide season with the interdepartmental meeting to discuss needs, wants, where we want to go in the future. She told me to break the ice. We discussed communication and messaging, pump locations, video messaging, sign placement, street sweeping, and all the things that we would need to have a successful and safe King Tide season. It's always a pleasure working with the city departments. They're always willing to help, and they go above and beyond on a daily basis. Overall, we experienced recurrent tidal flooding in low-lying Miami neighborhoods, not surprising. The impacts were largely nuisance level with some roadway ponding. We had multiple king tide windows through September and December of 2025, and those were compounded with either heavy rainfall during the king tide period or just prior, which was saturated in the ground, so we saw a lot more roadway ponding than usual. October 3rd through 11th, we experienced moderate flood stage at Virginia Key. A lot of cars were underwater. We had to deploy additional pumps to help with that issue. And then we experienced minor to moderate street flooding overall with no critical infrastructure damage, which is really good. Our operational coordination throughout the entire King Tide period was very smooth. We monitored all high-risk Tide periods. We coordinated with the city departments, the Miami-Dade County of Emergency Management, and the National Weather Service, so we were always on the front line of what we could expect during those windows. Again, and that dictated where the pumps would be located, the video messaging signs so the public was aware. The messaging was critical out there. Office of Communication did a wonderful job. We used those kiosks, the new kiosks that are around the city. We have Alert Miami. where residents are able to sign up to be informed of these type events. We sent out blasts to inform them. Just prior to each King Tide window, we sent out a situation report internally throughout the city of Miami so everybody was aware and prepared of where the pump locations were going to be, where the high-risk flooding areas were, and the video messaging signs. So overall, our strengths was that we had very proactive planning and monitoring of the entire king tide period, strong interdepartmental coordination. Some of our challenges were we have limited stormwater surge capacity, and we have gaps in the multilingual outreach. So we wanted to move forward with expanding that. Key findings and recommendations would be to improve field condition reporting systems, One thing that was unique, the Office of Resilience and Sustainability reached out to us with a wonderful idea. We all went out there and we took photos of some of the king tide low-lying areas. Unfortunately, it was very uneventful, very slow to rise. But fortunately for the residents, it was a great king tide period or season overall. Another recommendation is to develop multilingual public messaging so we can put it out in multiple languages outside of Spanish and Creole. And unfortunately, that is the end of this presentation.

Thank you, I got one of those notices, by the way. Very good.

Which one, the interdepartmental one or the Alert Miami?

The Alert Miami, so well done.

You only got one, because that's concerning.

I got many.

Okay. Yeah. Let me know if you really didn't at all.

No, I did, I did. I thought it was helpful, very helpful.

Thank you. Did that work for you, Alyssa? Eyes broken?

Can I ask a question during this time? What does the monitoring process look like? Like do you guys have people on the ground like just kind of visually surveying the high risk areas or?

So that's a good question. We know ahead of time where all the low-lying areas are, especially King Tide isn't new overall, but it's new for us monitoring it in an emergency management and Office of Resilience and Sustainability fashion, and with the interdepartmental coordination with the pumps. So spanning off the idea of going out there to take photos to show real-time what is happening, again, this was a really good season overall. So moving forward, what it would look like, would be going out there, boots on the ground, checking it out. We always have meetings afterwards to kind of see what happened, what went well, what didn't, if we need additional pumps and signs. But that's something that we're going to look forward to moving, implementing for the 2026 King Thai period.

Is there anything in place for people to report instances of flooding or like strange king tide behavior like a storm drain like flowing water upwards or anything like that?

Yes, the most popular is the IC Change app, which gives them the ability to go on the application, take a photo, notice that this intersection has flooding or roadway ponding, and we get all of that and we monitor it, and then we're able to pass it up real time. It's especially important during hurricane season and what we have going on. We use that a lot, especially with people trapped that don't have cell service. So that's one of the ways they can report. Thank you.

Chair, I'd like to piggyback on this. I think they're very good questions. Are we using any sensors to understand if those storm drains are clogged so we can have that real-time data without having to send somebody?

At this time, no.

Is there any way we can pilot something like that? Would it be helpful if we know where the existing sites are, low-lying sites are?

Short answer is yes. The longer answer is It could be valid for king tide, but it's slow rise of water where it would be most valuable. Something that we're looking into is one of our initiatives in emergency management is for surge, storm surge during hurricanes. So yes, we can use it for both. And yes, it would be a great project.

Chair, I'd love to think about if we can add this to our notes, how we might be able to support something like that going forward. We can have a conversation of just putting a few sensors in specific storm drains that we can identify so that we can have some of that real-time data know as it comes. I think, of course, IC change, it really supplements things like IC change. In fact, we might even be able to use IC change data to prioritize what those heat map is and exactly where we should prioritize adopting some of those sensors.

Yeah, I'll make a note that we can add these sensors to a potential budget memo that we do this year, like we did last year. And then... I agree. I see change is great. Photos, videos, and they even can extrapolate from the data to find new things now. It's getting even more advanced because they've been doing this for a few years. So I hope everyone, you know, tries to post to I see change. Even if you think you've done it before, it gives a new data point for the next year on how water is moving through the bay during different weather events, etc.

One last thing before you begin, very important. We went back to all of the logs between dispatch of Miami PD and fire, and we were unable to locate any calls for assistance during the king tide period for any stalled cars or flooding, so overall it was very successful.

Okay, hello, is this on, yeah. Again, good evening. This is Melissa Farina. I'm the Assistant Director for the Office of Resilience and Sustainability. To add on to this King Tide conversation, I am going to be discussing basically a case study looking at the King Tide periods from October 5th through 12th and comparing that to November 3rd through 9th from last year. So just a bit about how we predict King Tides. King Tides happen annually. And pretty predictably, the king tide season is typically September through either November or December, depending on the year. The NOAA Tides and Currents is able to provide this data at the beginning of the year. And we are able to extrapolate and export data from this website to see the annual predictions of tides. The city of Miami uses a king tide threshold of 0.7 feet NAVD. It spits out this text file, and we are able to put it in Excel and organize and pull out which dates have above 0.7 NAVD tide prediction, and that is what informs the king tide dates that are communicated to the public. These two maps show the tidal predictions and then the observed tides for, on the top, the October king tide period, and on the bottom, the November king tide period. So the first thing that I want to draw your eye to is on the right side, those are the predictions that we got from NOAA. If you look at the prediction in feet on both of the king tide periods, you'll see that the tidal predictions are pretty similar. They are ranging from 0.7 to up to a little bit above one foot NAVD for both tidal periods. However, you look on the left, you will see that the blue is the tidal prediction, and the red is what was observed. I generated the map on the bottom a little bit, not towards the total end, so I don't have the full chart, but you'll see that the top chart, which is the October, the observed tides were roughly a foot higher than what was predicted, whereas in November, they were pretty true to the predictions. So why did that happen? We observed pretty unprecedented king tides in October. I'm going to show some pictures in a bit. And then in speaking with University of Miami Senior Research Associate Brian McNoldy, he put it in more scientific terms than I will, so I'm gonna quote him here, that the water levels began topping the minor flood threshold on October 2nd and continued to the 15th. High tides topped the moderate flood threshold for nine consecutive days, which is the longest span. The previous longest span was only five days in late September 2015. There were seven new daily record high tides during the October 4th through 11th period. and I'm just going back because I have some additional notes on this slide, that there was significant offshore activity that contributed to this change, this difference in observed water level. October had two named hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin, Umberto and Imelda, and so the swell from that hurricane activity in the Atlantic basically pushes those tides onshore, and so we can see more significant king tide flooding. So in addition to that, there was a weak tropical disturbance that passed over the first week of October. So all of those activities in the Atlantic combined contributed to these higher water levels that we saw in October. This is another chart that Brian McNoldy provided. So the different colors that you'll see at the bottom, they represent hours per day with a water level greater than 0.0 feet mean high water level at Virginia Key. If you look at the top line, which is 2025, you'll see that there is dark red and orange in October. And if you just kind of draw your eye down over the past 30 years, you'll see that that amount of activity above the mean high water is kind of more significant than you'll see in other months, just to show how much and how long the water level was at a significant high tide. So these are some pictures that I took at Jose Marti Park, and this was kind of the inspiration for deploying City of Miami staff from multiple departments to observe king tides. This was October 9th. This was one of the peak days of that peak period, So you can see that the water level is basically very close to the seawall, and there is some flooding that is beyond the seawall, and a lot of that is actually coming up from the storm drain. So in these photos, the seawall is not overtopped. It is coming up through the storm drains. This is an overtopped seawall area. This is along the walkway of Jose Marti Park. And then there is some flooding that's kind of inland that is coming from that overtop seawall. And here's a video. So you can just see the overtopped seawall here. and a bench that no one wants to sit in. By comparison, November 6th, 2025, same prediction, very different. experience at the park you can see that the water level is much lower that walkway is dry and clear where it was overtopped um in the in the previous king tide period so just to highlight for us and for residents that king tides can mean very different things the predictions are very informative but there are a lot of factors that play into what we experience on the ground in different areas of the city. So those were just two different king tide periods that we saw quite different things. So when we're thinking about how we're preparing for these high tides of the future, there's an extreme and then there's also, we have one extreme and we also have other experiences. So we're just thinking about what is the array of flooding that we experience and integrating that into all of our plans. So if there's any questions, I can answer. But just, yeah, thinking about this park and this area and how we experience king tides going forward.

I think what you're showing is a great example of the difference between weather and climate. And sometimes those two get confused or used incorrectly in a discussion. And climate being more longer term trends, weather being shorter term, whereas weather events of hurricanes, wind patterns, rain affected these tides. So just keeping our eye on the long term. And then there's one other question I would ask. During your comment, you mentioned about the amount of flooding, and you said it was a level of nuisance flooding. Could you define nuisance flooding, just for people who may not know what that means, and just as far as how our streets are actually meant to hold water? Because sometimes I've seen comments and things about there being water of a certain amount, but just as how that relates to actually a designed feature of the built environment.

Yeah, and I'll say for king tides and something that we communicate is that king tides, you'll usually see the impacts for an hour and a half to two hours before and after the peak tide period. So what I presented photos of was the peak tide period. I was there for about an hour and that was at the height of it. By the time I left after an hour and a half, the water is subsiding. The impacts are not as severe as I showed right now. So that was not how the park wasn't like that all day. And so when we think about nuisance flooding and we're thinking about the flooding that people experience in the city, there are temporary periods of flooding. Our stormwater systems are meant to accommodate a certain level of service is the terminology, but sometimes they get overwhelmed. It's not gonna stay like that for forever and it's not gonna stay flooded for long periods of time, but we're thinking about that there are brief periods of flooding that may be experienced in certain areas of the city, but that it won't stay permanently inundated, and that is, I think, the difference that people sometimes don't think about.

Jerry, if I may? Oh, please.

That was very well said. You know, nuisance level means different for a lot of people, which is why I think it's important for the clarification. In my presentation, it was mentioned the nuisance level flooding, and it's because what the IO Depot holder And to them, it's not, you know, to us, it's not a public safety risk. It's not infrastructure risk where it's going to damage city property. It's just they're impeding traffic or walkways. And to the public, it's a nuisance. That's the terminology and how we used it in this.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

I was just curious if at this location there are any pumps in place or like if this is kind of just the raw effects of the king tide.

Yeah so because this is low-lying and right on the Miami River it does experience this. There is a long a project that has been in process for a while to do an adaptive redesign for this park because of issues like this. It's looking at the waterfront and adding a living shoreline. It's thinking about how this park can retain water better and making sure that those flood impacts don't extend into the community. They don't, but this can serve as better coastal protection for the inland community. Conditions like this are part of the reason why the city has worked so hard to create an innovative design for this park That is going to move forward this year But currently there's no pumps or anything at this location There is not a pump to like clear that walkway out of curiosity and maybe it's but there we do I will say that the city does have temporary pumps that in places where there are not permanent pumps and more where there are traffic implications that are deployed so that way streets can be cleared of water where there's no permanent infrastructure at this time.

There is an outfall that's close by to this location. And we have put in some backflow prevention valves kind of across, right across from that. But like Alyssa said, we're getting ready to do a big... adaptation project for this area.

Thank you. I was just curious what would qualify an area for a pump. If it has to be kind of a nuisance that impacts traffic or if it can be a park.

That's identified in our stormwater master plan for permanent pumps. We identified 24 priority projects through that plan. and are beginning to implement those. But this area was not identified. Thank you.

Are you referring to the pumps I was talking about putting in place or temporary pumps, small portable pumps? Are you talking about the stormwater permanent pumps?

I was curious about both.

So the big problem we have is something you asked about, a temporary pump being placed here. The problem is where are we going to pump it to? The problem is it's coming from the river in this case. So if we're pumping it back in, it's just going to come back out. So the temporary pumps are usually for low-lying neighborhoods that are impeding, kind of like a public safety risk, impeding them to be able to get in and out. And we have to pump that to another location in hopes that it doesn't come back down. Because, as was mentioned before, this is a temporary, lasts within hours. That's why we put in multiple pumps to kind of help spread the water around. But there's really nowhere to go except for a permanent solution is what we're working on in the permanent pumps.

For the overtopping, the solution is a hardened edge. And then a lot of the temporary pumps are located at places where the water is entering the the system through the outfall and going farther inland like for instance uh like eighth street brickle used to have it edgewater thank you and just a piggyback chair um i think that as as a as a chief mentioned i mean and alyssa you're the expert here and i guess it's if it's a nuisance there's not

this is more informative. I don't think it really calls for us to act on anything more just to be like, hey, this is a situation of what's happening, right? But it doesn't seem too severe. It doesn't seem like we should be putting any more money here. I do understand we did the wedge certification in this park last year. Maybe this is a good opportunity to talk about how that is related to this or not.

I can just say that the design for the Jose Marti Park adaptive redesign was wedge certified wedge is short for waterfront edge design guidelines it is kind of a new accreditation for waterfront projects that integrates ecology environment and economy principles into the design and so we're the first in the state of Florida which is really really exciting and so it's just a way to make sure that projects are designed with multiple benefits in mind so there are habitat considerations, there are social considerations, and just thinking about multiple uses of the space. So we're really excited about this project, and we're excited to see it move forward this year. And the conditions that I, you know, some of the conditions that we observed are things that we have seen in the past. So those were things that informed the design of the project. So we're really excited about that and, you know, know that they will be addressed with the new design of the project.

Excellent, thank you so much for the presentation. Thank you. All right, so we'll move on to our item number seven, which is our 2025 Annual Board Report. So that is a requirement of our committee to prepare this every year, and I have done so, which you all have a copy of. So there's a set of questions that we have to go through and answer. And then I looked to add detail for each question on exactly what it is we did, because we did have a pretty ambitious year. There was a lot to get done. And as I was putting this together with all of the different presentations that we received and items that we talked about, efforts that we did, I think something for us to be proud of. And I wanted to ensure that also we framed the conversation with some of the recent events of climate and weather, just to make sure that when we're discussing the importance of the board and what we're looking to meet, that we kind of bring those things top of mind, which that presentation was very timely of kind of remembering some of those events that we're preparing for over a long period So I don't want to go through every part of this but i'll just kind of touch on a few of the things, so we start with a couple paragraphs just on some of the main things of you know rainfall records, then I talk about. flooding events, then going into number of heat days, then talking about rapid intensification of hurricanes. The next paragraph is about king tides and sea level rise. And there are three links in that paragraph. You'll notice that every time I bring up case studies or facts, I try to link them to the source of the information so someone can dig in deeper. And for this one on sea level rise and king tide, I used those same charts that we actually just saw from Melissa. So the one from Brian McNoldy with the with all of the squares kind of listed over time. So that's kind of like introing this letter on those events. Then moving to whether the board is serving the purpose for which it's created. Yes, it is serving the purpose for why it's created. We fulfilled our two mission statements of making suggestions to the commission. And we did that through a number of policy recommendations like Storm and related to rapid intensification and weather tracking. Flora, related to the Chapter 17 discussions. Finding a middle ground for ecology and development. The budget recommendations that we put together. The solid waste and trash resilience resolution that we put together in April, which kind of stemmed off of the incinerator conversations. Also a resolution to withdraw Chapter 17 amendments. I noticed that there's a missing space there, which I'm gonna add and I'll mention in a motion between chapter and 17. And then we had, the second part of our mission, we reviewed six waterfront projects in 2025. So we had the Margaret Pace Park project, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant, the Brickell Bay Drive seawall project, the lease agreement for Bayside Marketplace, the lease agreement for the Miami Yacht Club, and the lease agreement for Coconut Grove Sailing Club. Whether the board is serving community needs, I highlighted the need for a public forum for the public to learn from staff on presentations, to learn from experts that we invite here, to learn about projects that come before us that may be from applicants related to waterfront projects. And then for item three, the major accomplishments, I took the same items from item one, but I elaborated on them. So just a little bit more explanation of the storm, flora, budget, solid waste, and Chapter 17 ordinances. And then I listed out the presentations and discussions that we had. So there was also a number of presentations last year from a wide range of experts and city staff and on existing projects that are already going on in the city, as well as things that are going on elsewhere that maybe we could learn from. And then we also had discussions. Most of these items under the discussions were items related to the ORS updates, which we heard directly from Sonia on a number of issues of existing city projects, city procedures, things going on around town. And then number four was whether any other board would serve this better, and no, another board would not. serve our function better. There are similar boards, but they don't do the same tasks that we do, that we're tasked with. And then number five is should the board be amended? I wrote no, it shouldn't. I think that it was, it's allowing us to work effectively. Item six, should the membership be modified? I said no, it should not be modified at this time. And Number seven, the cost, both indirect of maintaining the board, indirect and indirect. And I list out the staff that we're all very grateful to who support us in this mission, as well as, of course, our significant time that we donate and volunteer in serving on this board, both here at the meetings, but also in preparation for these meetings. And then I kind of end it by highlighting in this number seven item about the direct and indirect costs of maintaining the board, about the return on investment of what has been found of resilience and adaptation investments, and how important it is that we plan ahead and make sound investments, and thus also the investment in this board and keeping it active. And then just the final paragraph that I added that's not required, but communication and coordination just suggesting that the commission, the mayor, the manager, and the public, that we welcome guidance and feedback in our priorities, as we did this evening with the presentation from Natasha Wade, which was a public request. So it was fun to kind of reflect on our year and put this together. And I think that we have a lot to be proud of from last year and to look forward to build on this momentum for next year. which I think some of the things that we did, for instance, the budget recommendations, we now kind of know how to go about that. And the recommendation today that you made a few minutes ago of the sensors, I'm going to note that down so that when those budget recommendations come back in a few months, hopefully that process is even smoother and we can continue to be efficient and effective in our roles here. So I appreciate serving with all of you on the board and open to any comments or questions or feedback on this and then we should take a vote, a motion to pass this, because it needs to go to our new city manager.

Thanks, Chair, for putting this together. I know it was a lot of work. I just went through it. A lot of it is in response to language that you have to answer to. So in just my look through, I thought it was... very accurate and to my standards, complete. So I would make a motion to approve the annual report for 2025 for submission to the city manager.

Chair, I sent some, as you saw, some written comments. I got this today. I sent the written comments over to Miriam. to incorporate some language that I think really helps, I think the city manager, the city manager, just kind of his first time being a city manager, understand the importance of the economic return on investment that we're doing by investing in resilient infrastructure, especially things like our urban tree canopy, mangroves in our parkways. And so I believe that I'd like to include language in this that incorporates of how a lot of What we've been doing helps us, like with natural capital accounting, align our investments and our goals with the real ROI that I think we can get out of the city, as well as thinking about something forward-looking. If we want anything, it'll be forward-looking. I think this is a really great job. It's very detailed in here. I do believe as the economics appointee, it would be important to understand that investing in nature-based solutions or green infrastructure shouldn't be seen just as a capital expenditure, but really be seen as a way to improve the balance sheet of the city and improve our credit rating as well, and even the insurance mitigation. So I'm not sure where I, you know, again, I'll spare your time for the rest of everybody here on the board. But if there's any way you can incorporate any of that language into where you see most fit, I'd be very happy with that. So I cannot second this one until I think that component is a very missing component and a very important component in terms of budget and economics and ROI to justify.

I think. would be clear if the chair could explain what's the purpose of this and I think that we make a lot of it like the budget recommendations and things like that or we're gonna make some we want to be involved with the RFP with the bus things like that I think this is like answers a the questions that we need to answer for purposes of the annual report. So I mean, if you want to add language, it's fine, but I think for purposes of the goal of this documentation, for me, it was adequate, so I would still make the motion to approve it as written, and I'm open to amendments, but I think this achieves the goal.

Okay, thank you.

I would second your motion.

We have a second from Barbara. I appreciate that and I appreciate your words. I do wanna hear if there's any other comments or questions before we take a vote.

I was just gonna say that I think section seven or question seven is where Silvio is referring. And I also thought that what's included in there is probably sufficient.

Yeah, where it mentions the World Resources Institute found every dollar invested in climate adaptation and resilience generates more than $10 and that benefits over 10 years. So that shows the kind of ROI that our decisions are having on the city. So yeah, it does address it. If we can amend thinking about any specific language to natural capital in here or that we already have it in a presentation.

I received your comments like A little bit before the meeting so. I would say that the one that I think is easiest to include and kind of. Directly acknowledges natural capital would be to add. what you said here to me under presentations. If you'd like to go to presentation section, which is under section three. So if we go to section three, and then the third one, they're in chronological order. So the third one, piloting natural capital in Miami, if you'd like to make a proposal to This discussion informed the committee's broader consideration of how natural capital accounting could support future budgeting, asset management, and resilience finance strategies. I think could be appropriate. And we do have a motion and a second. So I would have to now say like,

Well, does Avra accept the amendment? Yes, I do. If she accepts it, we can move forward.

I'm in favor of that amendment. And when I made the motion, I said I would be open to the amendment. So I'm happy to include that as part of my motion.

Okay. Sylvia, do you think including that line... Acknowledges it enough that we don't have to repeat the capital. Yeah multiple times.

Absolutely. Yeah, maybe one as I would approve as amended Okay with this that one. Yeah, absolutely.

Are you okay with that? Yes, absolutely Are there other comments or questions?

I have a comment I just want to recognize the the hard work and the detail that you put in into this report It's very comprehensive. It's a great snapshot into this committee's involvement through the last year and And I'm happy we can come to a compromise on the added verbiage. Shows a lot of growth for us in this last year. So thank you for writing this. I won't waste your time anymore. Let's get to a vote because it's aye.

All right. So we have a motion and a second for the annual report as written with the amendment to the natural capital presentation description. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. I just want to remind parties, this report is due January 15th. Okay, so last minute changes in that. In the future, please be cognizant of sending the information prior to the deadline.

Yes. Thank you. I will, I'll make the change immediately and send it out to ensure that Miriam has it, and Gigi can review it. So it goes directly to our manager. And this will be posted on the Climate Resilience Committee web page. We now have a pretty up-to-date section on the committee actions that we've taken. I gave that update a couple months ago and thanked everybody for all their efforts in putting that together. And this item will go there and live there so that when people go to our web page, they'll be able to see this and click through it. So hopefully this is shared widely and read through. It is a little bit long, but hopefully it's easy to read. And we do have a new commissioner. We have a new mayor. We have a new city manager, hopefully. This is something that they can look to and see some of the actions that we've taken. And again, kind of back to the last paragraph, offer guidance where they see us being most helpful. So yeah, looking forward to a great 2026.

Chair, if I may?

Yes, please.

Just a point of personal privilege. I have worked with many, many city boards, and I actually said this last year, that this board has done a lot and is able to, you know, really actually convey that in the annual report. And once again, this was the longest annual report I've seen from my various boards. So I do have to just commend you guys. You are actually really taking your civic duty serious and you're really, you know, putting out policy recommendations. So I just have to, I'd say that I have to vote. Thank you.

Thank you. A lot of hard work. A lot of people, you know, have contributed to this, and you included. So thank you so much for being a great assistant city attorney.

It's not a victim.

All right. All right, let's move to the next item. We have item 8, Office of Resilience and Sustainability Updates on storm drain art.

Hi, good evening. So I have a couple of updates. I'll start with storm drain art. Last month, we had some plans to install these, to do the painting near the storm drains. And so this was the project where we had worked with FIU to identify art to show a pollution prevention message. for litter going into the bay and ocean. And we were printing the stencil, and there was a mechanical delay in doing that. The machine caught fire. So we have, you know, the machine was fixed, and we have had it printed, and so we are rescheduling when those installations will come. So I hope to be able to share at the next meeting some pictures of the art or when they will be scheduled. The next update is we've made some really good progress on our partnership with FPL Evolution, where we'll be installing fast chargers at six of our city parks, as well as one lot in two different sections. And so I'd just like to share some progress implementation. We're really close. We have CD100 plans for two of the parks. So those should be scheduled for installation very soon. We have a CD 90 plans for three of the parks and then the lot that has the two sections so for both of those sections, and then we have CD plans for our last part and so. You know when we talk about projects, especially infrastructure projects, you know it takes it takes a long time, and so I think being able to show the progress and show you know. how we get there is really important. And so I just wanted to share that we're almost there. And so hopefully we'll have some dates to share really soon and those will be in the ground. And then lastly, I just wanted to share that there is a survey out for the Miami-Dade Zero Waste Master Plan. So they have a survey monkey for that if you haven't seen it already. And that's all for me.

Where can we find the survey for the zero waste, please?

So at Merriam, I'll have Merriam send you guys the link. Yeah.

It was in the letter?

It's in the newsletter that we sent last month, and we're going to include it in this month's newsletter too, which will be sent out this week.

Excellent. You mentioned CV or CD. Is that in relation to the speed of the charger?

It's the construction docks.

Oh, CDs. Oh, okay, construction documents. Okay, got it. And then you said the program is EVOLUTION? Is that, so did FPL fund this, or where did the fund, it was funded by FPL?

Yeah, so they are funding all of the infrastructure, and then we signed an agreement with them to utilize the public space.

Sounds great to have chargers at parks, get more people to parks, and while it's charging, they can relax and get some exercise. Yes. Sounds awesome.

And to bring the fast chargers to the city, there are not that many located within the city. And so this is really filling a needed gap.

Which parks are they going to?

So they are going to be at Gibson Park, Manolo Reyes Park, Shenandoah Park, General Morrison Park, Charlie DeLuca Park, Regatta Park, as well as Lot 19, Section 2 and Section 4.

Very cool. Hopefully we see even more of that, more and more EV adoption.

All right, awesome. Any other comments or questions?

All right, so then we will move on to open discussion. So the annual report is listed here as item A, because it's a discussion, and then it's also in item seven, because we vote on it. We don't need to go over it again in an open discussion. B is February is the 2026 election for chair and for vice chair. So please attend next meeting. And then are there any other items for open discussion that anyone else would like to bring up?

I was curious about dates for future meetings. I think the last time we said we would discuss it, and I don't know if they're up for discussion or if they're set in stone, but I was just curious. What? Oh, sorry. Dates for future meetings? Yes. I was just curious if they were set in stone or if they were open for discussion.

Because at the last meeting we had taken a, a vote or a discussion on some of the dates, but then there were some pending. So were those all, were they locked in? Locked in. So we have all 12 meetings set for here at this location? Okay.

One of the biggest challenges we have is reserving the chambers. And it has to be available for us. And the reason why we want to do the meetings in the chambers, because this way we can record it and we can put it on the webpage.

Got it.

On the city's webpage.

Thank you.

So we have calendar invites from Miriam for all the dates, and they'll be updated on the website soon. Okay, awesome. And I think you can also see the dates on the legislative hub where all meetings that are planned are listed, so if you want to see our future meeting dates, they'll be on our website, but in the meantime, you can go on on Legislative Hub. All right, so we don't have a future agenda item tonight, but I guess I'll just ask now during open discussion, are there any other future agenda items that we haven't already discussed that anyone would like to see?

I'd still like to see the, now that we did that leaf and canopy workshop, and then we were going to, I think last month or the month before, try to workshop it one more time to put a polish and get maybe Chris Baraloto, Professor Baraloto's input on some things. So today I learned about this other tree committee that Avra's on, so I'd love to learn more about that, Avra, and also still see if we could explore that workshop with Chris Paralotto so we can have the leaf and canopy proposal put on the, ideally, the next agenda. And I think I also have a piloting natural capital accounting thing. So those are, I think, some of the pending things. But at least for Chapter 17, we'd love to hear. That's my two cents. And we'd love to hear from Avra on what's been going on, how long that committee has been going on, or maybe some of the conversations there.

Yeah, so it's Commissioner King's office reached out and asked me if I would serve on the committee, the tree committee. And I let her know. I thought that it would be, that's awesome. And I said yes. There is no agenda. There's nothing. I think the commission is looking for some recommendations as it relates to Chapter 17. And I think they wanted me on the committee because they know of the tree work that I've done. And I'm a developer, so I could speak to both sides. I also did tell her that I sit on the CRCs. So I think that's... something I would report back. There's been no meeting set. There's no agenda. There's nothing. But I did let them know that I thought it could be helpful to the committee, that I could maybe share whatever that experience is back with you all. So I don't know anything more than I was given an invitation, and I accept it.

Maybe that's an opportunity for us to invite whoever these appointed other folks are for this initiative to the workshop so we can all kind of, you know, have a conversation and at least get this first part out that we've, you know, been making. And then, you know, if we have any other gaps, we are now, can you leverage that, those other professionals to give their input, you know, to whatever it is or...

They are a standalone committee, and they have their own task, and I don't think we need to, I don't know exactly what the process is, which is the same thing I said multiple times last year of, So just to give everyone a quick rundown on how that came about was there was a proposal for updates to Chapter 17 in October of 2024, or November of 2024. And then we heard about it. The public heard about it, read it. We had questions. There was a lot of questions from the public. We had multiple discussions in November, December, January. We made a motion, I believe, in December to suggest a postponement. In January, we made a motion to suggest a withdrawal. The item was ultimately withdrawn, and there was a discussion to hire a consultant to assist with an effort in finding a common ground between different parties. And then there was also a discussion on this committee of members to work and solve it. And I'm very happy that you're on it. You're a wonderful person to understand all those different issues.

Yeah, and I think that this was a result of that initiative, right? So I have no idea who else is on the task force or the committee. Hopefully, I'm sure there will be some professionals that can, you know, can hopefully bring a holistic view on this matter. So I wish I could share more, but just if there is something... meaningful to be shared unless it's something you can't imagine. It's public hearing. I'm certainly happy to report back.

Yeah, and we're all welcome to attend those meetings. They're open to the public the same way the Forever Bond Advisory Committee is. The approach we took last year was let's see what this committee does and offer recommendations because FLORA proposal, which I crafted in consideration of the multifaceted stakeholders of wanting natural preservation and also finding development. And I've spoken to a lot of people about that proposal, and I've had very wide support from a number of different stakeholders. And even something as what I thought was fairly well accepted or even highly accepted was deferred twice at commission. And thus when the LEAF proposal came about, which, again, respectfully, I don't think was that well crafted. We had a workshop. I helped you work through it, and you didn't bring it back. I don't know about bringing it on another agenda until we maybe see if you could have worked off of those comments. And if you'd like, if you lost those comments or something, I'm happy to help. I've drafted a lot of things, and I've put the time and effort in, but it needs to be reciprocal. And I do think that our committee... related to chapter 17 should see what happens with this tree committee and how we can support it, you know, but support and do our own thing as well. So I think it makes sense to be prepared with the list of ideas like what you did. And I have notes from all the public comments last year and there was town halls and, you know, let's see what happens with that would be my suggestion. If you really think that we should bring this up now, you know, I'll continue to consider it, but it just, it doesn't seem like it's going to, it's gonna be effective based on what the results have been of the past efforts and that the committee's about to start.

And maybe you could bring that suggestion more directly to the Tree Committee. So if there was something to present to the Tree Committee, maybe that it becomes a better path. I don't know. I mean, I would say you, Aaron, you know, yours was outstanding. And the thoughtfulness of that was outstanding. So hopefully the Tree Committee... could also, you know, that's something that could be presented to the tree committee because maybe that becomes a better path to the commission, city manager, and so forth.

Yeah, I plan to attend those meetings. All right.

We have dates for that, though? I mean, it doesn't seem that we have any dates. So I think if we want to accelerate the process, which I do since last year, and I know I gave you some comments and I had a glitch. I remember my dad was in the hospital at the time. But that was very helpful, and I also want to thank Alyssa and Gigi, especially, as well as you, because we did spend a lot of time through those workshops. Maybe this is one way to catalyze that task force, which is coming together, so that we can just get it out. I'll work on, over the next week, or maybe by Friday, Chair Friday and a day I'll hope to give you some of the I'm gonna try to find the notes that we did I remember we wrote it down on a piece of paper Yeah, just so in other cities like Miami Beach You do have joint meetings so the sustainability board will meet with other boards and some of the times both two committees meet at the same time to facilitate some of those dialogues we explored i think having a workshop with the miami forever bond committee for example um and so i think i reached out to some of the folks there so there is an opportunity there is precedent to actually combine different committees and if we do have a task force for this particular issue Perhaps calling a workshop to order would help accelerate the meeting of the task force if it hasn't been called to order now and would help catalyze that.

All right. Yeah, I think a combined meeting might be interesting, and I can look into that for Forever Bond and also for the tree committee once it moves along. Also, you asked about the back-based study, and there is going to be an update later this year. So I think it would be prudent that once that next step comes out, that the county comes back and presents to us. But as I understand, as of now, the information that is currently presentable is the same or very similar to what we have been presented to in the past from the county. So I think that that's going to happen around mid-year, around the summer. And I'm very interested in Back Bay as well. I just don't think it... Now is the right time to invite them and request them to come here if you're okay with that.

That's fine. That's good.

And then there is also, I believe, a bike master plan meeting that may occur next week. So I think there may be people, we've talked about it, and I think there might be people in the public who are interested in that. I don't have any more information other than I think it might be on the 20th. But we'll see. I haven't seen the official documents. But I think that that's very important. Again, kind of plays into the TSND legislation. It goes into the blood shelters, just kind of creating a multimodal, safe, walkable environment. And having safe, protected bike lanes that are continuous is so critical to that. All right. So if there's no other open discussion.

One more. Barbara, after you.

We've talked about learning about what Miami Beach is doing in terms of their private public, is it not? Okay, private public project, and I don't know what's the best way to do it. If you, hi. She doesn't, hi. I don't know if just sitting down with Amy and learning how she got county money and how it worked between the two of you, or if one of us should be involved. I don't know what your preference is, but something along those lines would be helpful before I go, perhaps, to the district commissioner, because I know that Miami Beach received commission approval and push to get the thing started. And we don't have that yet, but there's been nothing really asked of any commissioner. So, you understand, I'm a little, I don't know all the facts and I don't know what you think is the best way to go about getting them. And I'd be really interested in following your lead.

Yeah, yeah, I've definitely talked to Amy in the past, you know, particularly when she started the program on, you know, on how the program got started and, you know, how it's been running. But, you know, definitely having another conversation with her, you know, I can set up a meeting Have you met with her?

You know, I don't remember if it was a face-to-face or if it was a telephone call, but this was quite a long time ago when I was just trying to figure out what they were doing. And parts of what she told me was that they had county money that she redirected or was allowed to redirect into her private public. And when I talked with the county, they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. And I couldn't be any more specific than that. So there's a lot to be filled in. And I don't know if it's a presentation to the committee or if it's a meeting with you and Amy and if I should be involved. I just don't know how to do it.

Yeah, yeah, it'd be good to follow up with her because I had not heard that either. So yeah, let's follow up with her to see kind of what the status is, how it got started.

I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time hearing you.

Let's follow up with her to see how it got started and then really know what the current status is. And so my office can set up that meeting.

So you'll take the lead on that and let me know what, if I need to do. Sure, yeah. Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you, Sonia. Yeah, maybe have, if you're allowed to have a committee member join the meeting, obviously having Barbara would be great.

Yeah, we'll set it up. We'll figure out a good time. Okay, great, thank you.

Thank you, Barbara. Chairman, the other, yeah, I think that's great. I forgot what I was going to mention. But I think this is the exact thing of the twilight zone that we get into as committee members that want to do something, and then we're like in the bureaucratic twilight zone. So I appreciate you trying to champion this effort, and I think it's very important. Thank you.

In the spirit of the New Year and New Year's resolutions, I'd like to recommend something that I believe will help us move forward in conversations, particularly when it comes to making motions and voting. And Gigi can correct me if I'm wrong or if I overstep. But I'm all about spirited conversations. I'm all about innovative ideas and beating it up and brainstorming together. But I'm like... majority visual learner, so I need things written down. So I would ask that maybe we can formalize something where if we're gonna make motions on items and things so that I can clearly understand exactly what we're voting on. By all means, let's bring it up, let's talk about it, brainstorm, but if the chair says, hey, we need to put this in writing, and we work with Gigi as we learned, and put it in writing so that the next meeting we can vote on it. And I think that will help us move forward, maintain consistency, and most of all, professionalism throughout these meetings.

Absolutely, and I think that is my preference, personally, but we are able to make resolutions, any of you, you know, and I want to make it very clear, I'm not overstepping anything by saying, like, you made a motion, you're allowed to make any motion that you would like, as is anyone on the dais, but I just, you know, putting these motions together, it definitely takes time and effort, but as I described again, yeah, preparing them beforehand and letting everyone read them and having something visual, I think, I think that is the best process. And that's kind of what's shown to be effective in the past.

Because I want to support the idea. I just need to understand it.

So that's just why it was a recommendation. I appreciate it. Is there anything to add to that or clarify or we're okay?

Well, you know, the board can create that policy if they wish to do so he, um, he can make that motion and then we can adopt it and create, uh, either a standing policy of the chair. So the chair can actually create those kinds of requirements and conditions for a motion. So, you know, chairman, I can work with you to maybe have a chair memo that kind of formalizes that.

And we do have the CRC procedures document that was created last year. that I think we can all reference again as well. There was a lot of time put into that in preparation. And I know that it takes time to get to these meetings and attend them, but it is an honor and a duty that we've all accepted. And putting resolutions together, it takes time. But they should be worth it. So just putting the time in outside of these chamber walls and just coming back with them. Thank you very much.

Yeah, Grant, to piggyback, I think it's a good recommendation, especially for myself. I mean, sometimes the process of going through it, even though it's painstaking, is where the magic happens and we are able to give better input and you can give explicit input. So, yeah, I think duly heard on that. And in the spirit of streamlining things, I'd love to not have to put one more bureaucratic obstacle, which is to say, hey, let's adopt as a best practice. You know, I'll be the first one. to say, okay, I have this idea. What do you think? Because I need a place to talk about this. We can't talk about this off the dais. So I'm between, Silvio, please keep it succinct, and hey, Silvio, we have a million problems in Miami that we need to solve.

But just prepare something written that we can read beforehand. It's not just stream of consciousness. That's right.

But when we do, to whom do we address it?

Things are addressed to Miriam, and then shared with the board or shared with me directly, depending on what the item is.

And is there a deadline for submitting these things?

I mean, we can go over it for the multiple time, but we set the agenda. We usually have a meeting about one week to 10 days after the meetings, at which point we set an agenda. We try to make sure that we have presenters lined up, that they already have their materials ready, that we're not going to go over on time, that we're going to have a full agenda, that people are available on that date, that I'm meeting what you all have asked for, if staff has something that needs to come before us because it's timely. And so it happens a couple of weeks before. But just because the agenda goes out a week before the meeting, it's usually Like, we're not creating it that day. You know, all of this is prepared. So it's a couple weeks in advance. Great. Thank you.

Barbara, the rule is you need to be, something needs to be at least seven days.

I want to finish on time this evening. So I feel like we addressed it. All right.

One more.

Was there something else? No? Yes.

One more thing. Zero waste. Tonight, there was a workshop for zero waste that was hosted by the county. It's the first such workshop of several. The cone of silence has been lifted on zero waste on the different proposals from FPL and I think Arcadia or some of whoever else, please correct me if anybody else is following this. So I couldn't attend that workshop for zero waste, even though I know, Chairman, you asked me to run point on some of this initiative. I know the city applied to a grant, but we're also very timely because These presentations are being given to the county. I think on the next county agenda, we have these two big companies coming to present their proposals that were submitted. And so I'd like to circle back because that is something that's timely and urgent to think about. where are we at in terms of our own zero waste master plan and the recommendations, as well as how we might be able to inform ourselves and give our recommendations to the county as they're in the middle of this process for the incinerator.

So there's the survey link, right? Was that the survey link that was mentioned earlier in the newsletter? Was that the same one? Yep. So we can all contribute to that. And should there be an interest in us contributing taking a motion of some sort as a recommendation to city commission that they should have an opinion on something at the county. I think that sounds prudent. I don't know what that would be. We did make a couple motions last year related to this. So if you think that there's something that's timely right now that builds on what we already did last year, then that would make sense. But I don't know what that would be. So if you want to propose something and send it to Miriam for consideration. You know, I welcome that.

All right. I'll add that to my to-do list.

And, you know, I want to be really clear. Like, I'm not trying to shut down communication, or I just feel like we've gone over the procedure, you know, so many times, and just trying to not have to spend time every meeting talking about procedure. I just, I don't think it's effective for us, and we also want to, people from the public who come here to not hear it every single meeting. So just trying to be, just being respectful of everyone's time.

As a member of this board, I really appreciate the timeliness and the efforts you've made to make sure that we finish on time, if not early. Much appreciated.

All right, so let's move to item 10, which is public comment. If anyone here in attendance would like to make a public comment, now's the time. or if there are any public comments that have been left online, Miriam?

No.

All right. Well, then we'll move to item 11, which is adjourned. So thank you all so much for your time this evening, and look forward to a great 2026. See you next meeting. Thank you.