Town Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Microphone.

Just like Lizelle was. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Good morning or evening. Let me get this all straight. I got a little confused now. My mic wasn't on. So thank you for all being here. Today is Wednesday, November 19th. We have two meetings today. We have our LPA, and then we're going to go directly into our town council meeting. So Mr. Clark, if you could please take the role. Council Member Lord?

Here.

Council Member Duncan? Here. Council Member Ramirez? Here. Vice Mayor Callahan? Here. Mayor Mirabod? Present. We have a quorum. All right, thank you. If you could all please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Remember, Duncan just arrived. We're just letting him in through. Okay. All right. We'll just give him one moment. All right. We'll give Councilman Duncan one moment to get in here. He's got daddy duty, so never know what's going on with him now. Let the record reflect that Councilman Duncan has arrived. Join our team. All right. Again, so Cutler Bay, we're going to go into our LPA. Again, I'm going to be opening a public hearing on this item, but this item will just be, if moved, will go to the regular town council meeting. And if possible, if you want to have public comments on this item, I'd ask that you do it at the next edition. So with that, if you could please, Marisa, if you could please read item 3A on the LPA.

ordinance of the town council of the town of cutler bay florida updating the town water supply facilities work plan and adopting water supply facilities work plan related amendments to the town growth management plan providing for transmittal providing for conflicts providing for severability and providing for an effective date all right ralph sir thank you members of council this is the our our water supply update and we have mr julian perez our planning zone director that'll provide you a brief update

Yeah. This part we have to, we had to do it. Okay. Ralph, did you want to do this during this meeting or the next one?

Mayor, we could certainly do it on the next one. Just the item is before you and we could simply just move it to the regular council meeting. Okay. It was advertised on the November 10th Sunday local section because this is associated with our comp plan. So Julian Perez is prepared to make that presentation during the regular council meeting.

Okay, let's do that. And again, I'm going to open the public hearing on this item now, but again, we'll be moving this to the regular council meeting. Anybody wishing to speak on this item, please come forward. If there is none, is there anybody in the queue wishing to speak on this item?

No one in the queue.

No. All right. So looking for a motion to move this to the town council meeting. So moved. We have a councilwoman Lord. Second. Second by Councilman Ramirez. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Okay.

Move.

All right. I will now open up our regular town council meeting. I'm having a little bit of a delay. Do we need to take roll again, sir? Okay. If you could take roll, please.

Council Member Ramirez? Here. Council Member Lord?

Here.

Council Member Duncan? Here. Vice Mayor Callahan? Here. Mayor Mirabai?

Present. We have a quorum. All right. Great. Marisa, if you could please read the directions for public comments for calling in, please.

Please be advised that when joining the meeting, you are automatically muted. Welcome to tonight's meeting. The public was able to make public comments prior to the meeting, either by leaving a voicemail message or sending an email to the town clerk. The town clerk's office did not receive any voicemails or emailed public comments for tonight's meeting. If you wish to speak tonight, please press star nine and the host will be alerted. Pressing star nine is known as raising your hand. Once you press star nine, you will be placed in a queue to speak and will be called upon by your name or the last three digits of your telephone number. Please wait to be called upon. Please state your name and address. If you are a hired consultant or town employee and or if you are engaged in lobbying activities and are representing an organization, please provide that information before speaking. Please be sure to be in a quiet area to avoid unnecessary noise. A time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each speaker during public comments.

All right. Thank you very much. All right. We've all submitted our town council board and committee reports or any additions. Anybody like to make it this time?

No.

Okay. We're good. Takes us to our town manager's report. Ralph, sir, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, members of Council. We have a full docket of presentations today, but we'll get through it quickly here. Today, first up, we have an update from Design Services for the 16-acre Legacy Park. We have Emma Jones from Stantic, our owner's rep, and she's on the line and brought a quick presentation.

Good evening, everyone. Emma Jones with Stantec, owner's rep for the town of Cutler Bay. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen and give you a quick update as to what has been going on with our Legacy Park project. So first off, this is just a summary recap of GMP1, which is the soil remediation portion of the project. As you can see, we started construction or site clearing in April of 2025. 25% of the contaminated soil was removed by the end of April. 50% of the contaminated soil was removed by the end of May. By June 2025, we had imported 50% of the clean fill. July, 75% of the contaminated soil had been removed. By August, we had imported 75% of the clean fill. And then by September, 100% of the contaminated soil had been removed from the site. And the remaining tasks, as noted in this box, we... are waiting for our utility plan approval from DERM. We did some additional inspecting site testing last week that now has to be analyzed. And then once that has been completed and we have approval, we will bring in the remaining clean fill, finish grade, compact, and do the site inspections. So a quick summary by the numbers. We exported 126,393 tons and have imported 80% of the soil, which is 154,128 tons. With regards to the schedule moving forward, as I mentioned for phase one, which is GMP1, soil remediation and site preparation, the soil import and compaction will be completed between December and February of 2026, and then with everything being complete in February of 2026. Phase 2 and GMP2, that refers to the underground utilities and infrastructure. We are... anticipating final civil construction documents mid-December. And this is after we get the results from the additional testing of groundwater and then update plans accordingly. At that point, the permit documents will be submitted for Durham approval. Approval can take anywhere from a month to two months. So we're anticipating that be complete at the end of February. The civil package will be sent out to bid middle of December. We will be finalizing GMP2 in February, and then the goal is to have construction start for the underground utilities and infrastructure by March of 2026. Phase 2 GMP3 is what we are referring to as the vertical build on the site. The bid documents are complete. There are some minor changes, but we are, Kauffman Lynn will be beginning to start pricing on that. Permit documents will be submitted in December. Our design assist process is ongoing, and this is a constant evaluation of material costs and means and methods so that we reach the correct and projected budget amount. And again, you know, we're hoping for the initial estimate to be complete by February. There will be a review period to verify that we are within budget. At that point, if for some reason we are still slightly above, there will be design revisions. And then we're hoping to have the final GMP3, which again is for the vertical build, complete and wrapped up by May 2026. So this is just a quick summary of next steps. As previously mentioned, for site remediation, the additional DERM testing of soil and groundwater was completed on November 13th, and the final soil and impact, or soil import and compaction is scheduled for February of 2025. The site design, As mentioned, samples are under review. Once we have the results, we will alter the locations of the exfiltration trenches and irrigation wells as needed. And those documents will be finalized on 12-15 and submitted to DERM and then put out to bid by Kauffman-Linn. In this process, the town will host, along with Kauffman-Linn, an in-person and virtual workshop so that local contractors can learn how to bid on GMP2 and GMP3. The same for GMP3, the final departmental reviews were completed last week, beginning of this week, last week. The bid documents were released to Kauffman-Linn on the 17th of November, and we are... reviewing finished materials. That is an ongoing process as we are receiving the pricing. And again, the town, along with Kauffman Lynn, will be hosting an in-person virtual workshop on how to, for local contractors to bid on GMP3. And that is my whole update. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Council. Do we have any questions?

Councilman Duncan, are you recognized? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just quickly, and this might be more so for Ralph, do we have a date on when we're going to be scheduling that workshop for local contractors?

We don't have a date yet. We're trying to see if we can target it sometime in December. We want to make sure that we have the approved Durham permits in hand so that way they know exactly what they're bidding on. So we're hoping, based on what we've been talking to our consultants from Kimberly Horn and Bill Spinner, who's been in direct communication with Durham, we're hoping to get that within the next couple of weeks. So you'll see that coming. But I did not want to have that workshop until we have a full set of plans permitted. Thank you.

Councilman Lord, do you recognize him?

Thank you. Ralph, also, I know that we do a really great job pumping out information to the public. I have had a handful of friends who are in the contracting industry who are interested in being able to be involved as residents, as this is our legacy park. So I presume we will put that out on social media and we'll have an information push for that.

Correct. We'll push that out in social media. We're also going to reach out to the Chamber of Commerce as well. And another one that we spoke about internally, but I'm going to make it a public where we're also going to reach out to our friends from Miami-Dade County Public Works Department and get their bidding list as well. I mean, you'll see some speakers later today. We have two assistant directors from Miami-Dade County Public Works that will work with them and get their list of contracts. I want to make sure that everybody knows about it so that way it's very, very competitive.

Anything else Council. And thank you very much appreciate it.

Thank you members Council next update we have a monthly update from range a road we have to find a viola on zoom and then we'll have Janet got all here in person the discussing some of the public outreach so the final.

Good evening, Council members, Mayor, Stefano Viola here with Kimley-Horn Associates to give you your update on Frangio Road. Sharing my screen now. So jumping into it, we continue to hold our biweekly construction progress meetings with the contractor, the town, engineer of record, and ourselves as CEI, work zone, One and two has been completed and open to the public. That's along Frangio Road from Southwest 184th to Southwest 96th Avenue. Work Zone 3 is now open to local traffic. There's still final crosswalk improvements at the intersection of Frangio Road and Caribbean Boulevard that are currently taking place on the south side. And then light pole and tree installations are still pending in this area, but should not impact public use of the roadway. Work Zone 4, Acosta has also been working in Work Zone 4, which runs along Frangio Road from Caribbean Boulevard to Southwest 92nd Avenue. Currently, drainage work is continuing to Southwest 200th Street, and concrete work is taking place at Southwest 196th Drive and Southwest 92nd Avenue. At this time, work zone four is expected to be completed by May of 2026. And then work zone five, there's a portion of work zone five is being worked on in conjunction with work zone four. Kimberly Horne of town and Acosta continue to monitor the work zone to ensure that the proper MOT remains in place throughout the duration of the project. And at all times, we're focused on keeping the site clean, safe, and as well maintain the MOT. And then just a general reminder, that while the phases are being open to the public, it doesn't equate to them being finalized. There are a few pending items that must be installed throughout the corridor before the project is considered complete. Specifically, bus shelter installation has not happened in any of the work zones. The final list of asphalt, you will see throughout the project. So right now, when one gets open to the public, you may see a manhole that has it look like it's raised a little bit above the adjacent asphalt. When that final lift comes in, they will clean it up and it will be all at grade. But right now, as we open it to the public, It may look like there's some things, but it's safe to navigate on, but there's some items that are still remaining. And then lastly, the current project duration is from July 2024 to September of 2026. ACOSTA has received five rain days on the project right now. And that wraps up most of the update. And then I will turn it over to Janet to cover the public information.

Okay. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. As you could see, on the board, I continue to engage with residents, keeping them informed. And I must say that this last month, all I got was really positive feedback, similar to what Ms. Lord and Mr. Duncan mentioned in the last meeting that they were so happy to see ACOSTA being so friendly and able and willing to help if needed. So the residents are also commenting on that as well. One last thing I have to say is the town of Cutler Bay knows how to throw a party. So I might be, you know, needing your services at some point. But it was a party. And my booth was very close to where they were handing out the T-shirts and the caps. And I mean, you guys really went all out. And it showed with the feedback that I got on, you know, at my booth. And no, it was a lot of fun and everybody was having a great time. And they couldn't believe that everything was free except for, you know, the booze or whatever. But yeah. Yeah. But it was actually I really congratulate all of you on a party really well done. Do you have any questions for me?

Hi, thank you for being with us as always. My question is about your tent because I noticed how close you were to the town's tent. How was the traction? What did you hear from the residents?

Well, I was just mentioning positive, all really positive. Looking forward, nothing negative. Absolutely nothing negative. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a technical project itself. So in work zones one and two, we have these very beautiful traffic lights, not traffic lights, the lights on the road, excuse me, that are not on. I'm just curious as to when you were planning on getting those things electrified and turned on.

Yes. Yes, we actually had a meeting on Tuesday, and we touched on that subject. And it's just pending back and forth, you know, something minor, but has kind of been overlooked a little bit by the contractor. But he knows now that this has to be taken care of very fast. Okay. Anything else? Nope. You guys have a good evening.

Thank you, Janet. Thank you, Stefano. Next, Mayor and Members of Council, as I mentioned earlier, we have an update on Curion Boulevard Bridge. We have both, we have two Assistant Directors from Miami-Dade County. We have Alex Barrios, who's going to be joining us via Zoom, as well as Miguel Soria, who's also the Assistant Director over Transportation and Public Works, and Alex Barrios is the Assistant Director over Construction. I think it's going to be Miguel that you're going to be sharing your screen to provide the update on Curion Boulevard Bridge.

um good after good evening to everyone uh if you can please just give me a moment to bring the presentation up can you uh see the screen yes we can excellent thank you uh my name is miguel soria uh thank you for the opportunity uh to be here tonight and give you guys a brief presentation unfortunately i wasn't able to be there in person i've had some issues that I needed to attend to. But just to give you a quick update over the Caribbean Boulevard Bridge, we have a small agenda. For example, we're gonna be talking about some, I'll go through some of these sites really quickly because I'm sure you are aware of a lot of the issues that have been going on with the bridge and where we're at. So for example, the bridge location, as you know, is between 103rd Place and 103rd Avenue. It's a bridge reconstruction. So the project will be widening the existing bridge over the C1N Canal. The existing bridge conditions, obviously, the bridge was built in 1963. It's an older bridge and it has been categorized as functionally obsolete. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's structurally bad. It's just functionally it doesn't serve the purpose that it needs to serve with regards to the volume of traffic and certain considerations that are obviously throughout the years have been created the need for a larger or better bridge. So for example, in addition to that, the existing canal dimensions also have been widened for the nearby water basins, which also created the need for a wider bridge. The bridge typical section, when the bridge is complete, here you can see the dashed lines of the existing bridge and versus what will be constructed. It will be two lanes, but there will be a bicycle lane and a protective bicycle lane and pedestrian travelway or sidewalk for the existing area. Again, the bridge location, the bridge improvements, are within 103rd Place and 103rd Avenue. It's a wider bridge and to be able to see the needs of Caribbean Boulevard. The current bridge history and the project obviously was originally started construction in April of 2021. And because of certain difficulties such as unforeseen conditions with the existing soils and issues with the contractor, the county felt that it was prudent to cancel the contract with the existing contractor and advertise it with some modifications to the design. The new permit application was submitted in 10-2025. and we are currently waiting for the permit. The design schedule, the design is complete. We are currently in the permitting phase. We expect the permits to come in sometime in the summer of 2026. And at that point, once we have all the permits, we will begin the procurement process. Obviously, the sooner the permits come in, we will begin the procurement process. The project is funded and ready to go. Unfortunately, based on the permitting schedule, this is an anticipated schedule. So it normally takes approximately about 10 months or so for procurement, for contractor selection. We need to forward this to the Board of County Commissioners for approval of the project and before we begin construction. So we estimate that the start of construction should be summer of 2027, approximately a year, year and a half of construction. So the end of construction is anticipated for the fall of 2028. With that, I'll open it up to any questions that you may have. I will add that we have we have received some issues with regards to the existing barrier walls that are out there and some site issues that have been presented to our maintenance group. The barrier walls have been relocated and adjusted to be able to help with the site issue and the concerns of the residents in the area. So any questions, any issues?

Marathon's got their seven mile bridge. We have our seven year bridge. Questions or comments? Councilman Duncan.

More of a question. And I guess it's just for insight purposes. Why did it take almost four years to determine that there was an issue with the site and with the contractor? If we started in April of 2021 and we didn't cancel the contract until spring of 2025, it takes that long to determine that there's an issue? That's my first comment, more so. It's rhetorical. And then, yeah, I mean, going on what the mayor just said, I mean, we're anticipating this now being a seven-year project on this bridge. I mean, everybody up here, we hear it all the time from our residents because everybody assumes it's our project. If this was a Cutler Bay project, this thing would have been done already. And it would have won an award. Exactly. So I'm just frustrated. I'm frustrated on behalf of our residents. I'm frustrated on behalf of this council. You know, something that started in April of 2021. And we're sitting here middle of November 2025. And we're essentially in the exact same spot we were in. Now we got to go through the whole bidding and permitting. I understand it's a process, but if there was any possible way of expediting this, I would hope that the county would go ahead and try to do that considering the amount of delay that's already occurred. Thank you.

Well, I'll say, and I understand the concern and the frustration of not only the commission itself, but all the residents. It's understandable. Unfortunately, I can't speak to all the details that happened with regards to why it took so long. There were significant issues with the constructability of the bridge with regards to the driving conditions, with regards to the contractor itself. So, unfortunately, that did take a long time. I guess hindsight, sir, is not really something that it's kind of hard to look back and say, okay, well, we could have done it better. We learned from it. We are where we are today. The intention is to move forward as quickly as possible. There was a design process. Now it's a permitting process. We are making every effort to try and move it quickly. We understand the frustration. And for that, I mean, we can only offer, you know, we can only offer our understanding, and we are definitely trying to move this as quickly as possible.

And just to address that, this is Alex Barrios, Assistant Director of Reconstruction. Again, we apologize for the delay. We were working with the contractor trying to bring them into compliance, and that is a process that occurs. We did choose to cancel the contract before the contractor impacted the actual roadway surface. Because we had concerns that how long they would take, and it was in the best interest of the public to cancel that contract before we actually interrupted traffic along that roadway. And unfortunately, we have a process of compliance with the contractor, and that's why it took a little bit longer to cancel that project for convenience as we tried to help them work through the situation. But at the end of the best decision was to cancel it to avoid impacting the travel lanes.

All right, councilman learn directly.

Thank you. Hi, Alex. I wanted to first say, just to comment, while there's a level of frustration here, it's much more disappointment that we as residents and the rest of the residents of this town are feeling. We have a great deal of faith in Miami-Dade County and what they can do for us, but I Aside from things that were out of your control, and thankfully the project was canceled before traffic was actually affected, we're looking at three full years from now before this one little project is completed. And so, I mean, I say little because I'm a layperson. There's, I'm sure, levels to this that I have no understanding of. But that's just my comment. I'm vocalizing the disappointment that I'm sure the residents have. have having heard this presentation I do thank you for the presentation um I also off topic um Alex because I know that you're the bridge guy can you I have been receiving calls from residents about the 87th Avenue Bridge do you can you give us just a very brief update on where we are with that so that project we have poured the deck on 87th Avenue which was a major milestone

um we're working through that project we anticipate opening that in fall of 26 um to traffic thank you alex that's great that that one's moving right along it happens when we have a responsive contractor um that we're able to work with and work through unfortunately we have a a responsive contractor on that site um vice mayor callahan uh thank you mr mayor um

Help me understand something. We had an original contract. We had an original permit, which means that we had original design documents. And now you're talking about, well, we're going back for permitting, which is taking 10 months. So are you saying that you had to go back and redesign the entire project and resubmit for permit?

Yeah, unfortunately, because there were unforeseen conditions out there with the driving conditions of the specifics of the soil, we did have to go back and make some modifications and design revisions, which prompted a permitting submittal. There was also a timeframe for the permit, obviously, that we needed to coordinate with the agencies. So those were the driving forces with regards to having to deal with a redesign and a re-permitting.

And we are working with the permitting agencies to try to expedite this. The time frame that's been given is the long lead in the worst case scenario. But we fully hope to work with the agencies to try to rein all these numbers in and get started sooner. We'll be able to provide better update in about a few months once we meet with the permitting agencies and go through their comments.

All right. All right. Thank you very much for the update, Alex, and both of you. Thank you very much.

I think just one clarification. I know, Councilman Malone, you mentioned 87th Avenue Bridge. That's the 87th Avenue Bridge. It's inside the Village of Palmetto Bay town limits. I just want to make sure. No, okay. No, I just want to make sure. Thank you, Miguel and Alex. Alex, I know just also, you know, when we meet on a normal basis with County Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, it has always been on her front burner. I know there's been several meetings with both, you know, Alex and Miguel at the commissioner's level. So she's just as frustrated, the frustration you hear now. So thank you, Alex and Miguel, for the presentation. Next we have our our preview for the twenty twenty six state legislative session as we call member council members we approve the appropriations that are published on our agenda because we want to make sure we met the November the November early November deadline so that has been submitted all the appropriation forms through the. House and through the Senate. And then tonight, I want to take an opportunity to have our state lobbying team provide you a little quick preview of what they're working on and what to expect. We have our team is from Jared O'Rourke from Converge Public Strategies. He's on the screen there. If we could also, and then right after him, we'll have Edgar Fernandez from Anfield, and then we'll have Valeria Donette from Conservation Conference, who's here in person. So, Jared?

Thank you, Ralph. Appreciate it. First and foremost, I want to give apology on behalf of Jonathan Kilman, the CEO of Converge Public Strategies. He apologizes. He wanted to be here this evening. He unfortunately had a last minute family issue that he had to take care of, but he just wanted to. have me send his apology for not being able to be here. Good evening, Mayor and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to present a briefing on the upcoming 2026 Florida legislative session, including key deadlines, legislative leadership priorities, and major statewide issues such as property tax reform, which I know is going to be kind of on the front end of everybody's minds. First and foremost, some key legislative dates. The opening day of legislative session will be Tuesday, January 13th, 2026, and session will adjourn 60 days later on Friday, March 13th. So the town is coming up and has a planned fly-in on January 13th, so it'll be that first week of session, which is the absolute perfect timing to be up there to meet with the legislative leadership, focus on your budget issues and your budget priorities, as well as talk about other issues that are going to be discussed during the legislative session. So you guys are coming in right at the right time, right on the front end, and kind of being ahead of the pack. Some other kind of administrative deadlines are kind of important. August 18th was the first day that members could file any legislation. So we're keeping an eye out on any bills that are being put in the system and filed by members that could impact you all. And we keep an eye out and send them to the town manager to take a look at. So we're keeping an eye out for anything that could hit. This Friday, November 21st, is a very important day deadline date for you all, which is it is the deadline for all members for bill requests and appropriation project requests. What that means is if there was any bill that they've been contemplating or any appropriation request that is being contemplated, it must be within their system. It must have been filed within their system. That doesn't mean it's the final version. That doesn't mean it's the final published version, but it had to be within the legislative system by this Friday. And I'm pleased to say that all of your appropriations have made that health deadline. They are all in the system. Now the health staff is going to take a look at them and kind of do some tweaking and and make sure they're in the right silos, budget silos. So that'll all come out later on. And then we'll finally officially publish those finalized versions. But as of right now, the most significant deadline that you all had was the 21st. to get it in the system, and your appropriations have made that deadline. So we're good there. These deadlines are especially important for the town appropriation requests, such as stormwater infrastructure, transportation, mobility improvements, public safety upgrades, resiliency projects, and your park facilities. As far as leadership priorities, Speaker Perez is gonna be focused on a couple of different issues. Number one being affordability, a central theme that will drive major policy and budget decisions, including housing costs, healthcare access, infrastructure costs, and property insurance reform. Another kind of theme that the speaker will be focusing on will be government efficiency and accountability. He's going to be taking a focus on data-driven funding, outcome-based spending, and strengthening legislative oversight. The relevance to Keller Bay is that project centered on affordability, resiliency, infrastructure, and public safety will align most strongly with his agenda. As far as the Senate president, President Albritton, he's gonna be once again, as always, focused on his rural renaissance, and I apologize, that's kind of a tongue twister there, rural renaissance infrastructure initiative. That will include a statewide investment in roads and transportation, broadband expansion, health and public policy facilities, workforce and economic development, and the creation of an Office of Rural Prosperity. The Senate President will also similarly be very focused on fiscal discipline, increased state reserves, scrutinizing recurring spending, and prioritizing high value investments. The relevance for, again, for Cutler Bay will be stormwater, roadway, broadband, and residential projects can be positioned within the president's infrastructure and fiscal stability priorities. Now I know the other, as I'd mentioned earlier, the big kind of topic that will be discussed will be the rollback or the elimination of property taxes. and what that will be and what that will look like. The House created a select committee on property taxes and they've had several public meetings to discuss. There's no real finalized kind of language as to what that will look like yet. Obviously, we are gonna be very much involved in monitoring what's gonna happen, what's coming out, working closely with the League of Cities and Association of Counties to advocate on the town's behalf and tell the story of the impacts of any type of rollbacks would be. And I also know, I'm aware that your town manager has met with your state senator and your state representative and kind of walked them through the actual fiscal hit. If some of the ideas that had been kind of put out there work to come to fruition. So it's a massive team effort of everybody kind of working on this, advocating almost daily or weekly specifically on that issue on the town's behalf. as far as, you know, usually I'd like to make some strategic recommendations for you all. Uh, but you guys have kind of hit all the targets that, that, that, that I would have made. Number one would have made, um, meet your, your, um, your, your deadlines. So, uh, you've met, you made the Friday deadline. So you're, you're, you're good with that with your appropriations. Um, I would say, you know, coming in, you've already got your fly in scheduled. So you guys are good to go on that. Um, and then, uh, You know, once again, and I know I don't mean to always kind of tout this, but Ralph's book, that book that you guys bring up and you guys hand out to members that has all of your projects and all of your priorities in there. I mean... It's one of the greatest tools you guys can have for during session. So, you know, as far as, you know, those three kind of target things, you guys have hit all those and you're aligned on that. So for us, you know, in conclusion on that is that, you know, We're going to be heavily focused on monitoring the property tax issue for you all. We're going to be fighting for your appropriations. This is, once again, I think the appropriations process is going to move very, very fast. So, again, your guys coming up that first week is going to be absolutely crucial. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

All right. I do appreciate it. You know, we've had a lot of success in some years and – i guess sometimes the red pen takes over like lash so one more success this year and ralph book is is great so also the council going up there and and advocating on that first distance i think is very useful as well um any questions um we'll go with councilman duncan

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm very pleased to hear that Speaker Perez is considering property insurance reform. That is one of those big bugaboos that I get it, that property taxes and everything that kind of surrounds that's the sexy issue of the moment. But property taxes in general, and just speaking as a resident of Cutler Bay, I've been in my house now for 13 years. My My homeowner's insurance is over four times what it was the day I bought my house. And we have plenty of residents. I would go ahead and venture to say that at least 90% of our town residents have a mortgage or higher. Therefore, their homeowners insurance is escrowed as part of their payment. And if everybody else in the town of Cutler Bay is dealing with similar issues where your homeowners insurance is going up four, five, six times, if not higher, It's pricing people out of the ability to live in our community. So I guess the question would be, have you heard any specifics yet or is this still very, very new as far as what the ideas would be for finally tackling our out of control property insurance issues within the state of Florida? Because it's really strangling our residents.

I haven't heard of any specifics, but we're definitely going to keep an eye out. And as we get that information, we will get some route for you and for y'all.

Okay, thank you. Yes, sir. All right, Councilman Lurk.

Thank you very much. Not to echo what Councilmember Duncan said, I am very happy that we are potentially looking at reforming our homeowners insurance. I've owned my current home for 27 years, and I would hate to calculate how much my property taxes, I mean, my insurance has gone up. I wanted to take this moment first to tell you, Edgar, Gerard, all of you, Since I've been on this council, we have a history of you guys working incredibly hard for us, and I'm very, very appreciative of it. And if the residents took a very hard look at what you guys are doing for us, they would also be appreciative. I'm not saying that they don't all look at it, but some of them do. I wanted to take just a moment. though to um more educate the people that are tuning in and the people that are here um because you did mention the fiscal hit that the property taxes what that could mean for us so um our budget book is still available online for anybody who wants to look at it at tab 3 on page 20 you'll see that our ad valorem or property taxes We yield about $11.6 million a year on that. Our police alone is over $13 million. So if you do the math, it doesn't match up. I have some serious concerns, even if there's some... some way to control the police. Maybe we get a little bit of the ad valorem to help us with the police or whatever. Other things are going to be affected. I know, like you said, it's a very sexy idea not to pay property taxes, right? But there are things that are going to be affected. potholes you know whether or not we can continue with the the trees that we plant i mean this is a bottom line base issue problem for us with income that comes into the town that is required to give services to the town and for 17 straight years we've been a green tree city and that would be affected by that but most important and this is my biggest concern is that and we we say this all the time i have another demonstrative for you guys we have we were ranked the number one city by the house of reps out of 90 cities that are our size number one in fiscal efficiency and responsibility and if we are losing all of those property taxes i fear that our efficiency won't be what it is today we have an amazing staff We have an amazing town manager. They will work within the parameters that they are given. But I want the residents that are here and that are listening to do a deeper dive on what this could potentially mean for your neighborhood and your neighbors. And hopefully, we'll come to an understanding that in Tallahassee that works for us, for everybody, but those are my concerns. And I just want everyone to take a closer look at what's going on here.

And Councilman Duncan again.

I'd just like to add one thing to what Councilmember Lord said. One of the things that would be impacted, one of the things that makes the town of Cutler Bay as special as it is, this small town feel, are the events that we are capable of putting on annually. We do about 17, if not more now, free events, free to the public every single year. We have our golf cart parades. We have our Hispanic heritage. We have chili cookout. We have wings. We just did our 20th anniversary. Those are all things that, you know, some of this additional funding that comes in allows us to give back to the community. and provide all of these, you know, 17 plus special events every single year that allows for that small town field. So that's just something to consider that if that revenue disappears, then those are some of the things that might also potentially have an issue sustaining.

All right. Okay.

Next man. We also have Edgar Fernandez from man physical broader, a brief presentation as well. Edgar.

Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me?

Yep.

Yes. Perfect. Oh, good evening. So it's a running joke until last year. Every year they say it's this is a different year. But someone who's been doing this, I won't tell you how many decades the year has not ended. We we ended session. We've been six, seven months into four sessions. We had two months where everybody thought the government wasn't working. But as Ralph and the team know, we were working grants and loans and everything. And then we were back here in September. The select committees started in September. And it never fails because it's an early session. People are a little laid back in the beginning, but with everybody being burned out a little bit, now you're seeing everybody seeing their deadlines and everybody's running around trying to get those appropriations in. So Gerard and the team getting those things in, people still today are trying to get those things in the system because they were waiting for the last minute. The Senate's a little slower because they don't have deadlines and they get a little more relaxed. But getting that in is very important. I'll give you the agency stuff, Ralph, and the board on what's happening with the governor and the agency. But tomorrow, there will be a select committee on the property taxes. And there's eight bills out there right now that they'll be discussing. This is an actual committee that votes and moves things along. But they're going to have three stops. There's a lot of different ideas. One of them actually touches on the insurance issue, trying to give Homestead exemptions to people with the insurance issue. There's some folks by age. So it's all over the gambit, but they're shooting to put something on the House floor in January and put a bow on it and send it to the Senate. The Senate right now is not discussing the issue. They're not working on the issue right now, but eventually it'll be part of negotiations with the tax package and the budget because they're going to need to discuss that because it's going to affect the state budget also. So tomorrow they're going to be meeting from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The League of Cities has done a wonderful job If you go on the website, most of the cities, over 200 so far, Ralph, I think, have put their data that it's accessible to the public and to the legislators. So they've been educating themselves over the summer on what that really means. The taxes in one community are not the same in Central Florida or in North Florida and South Florida. We have to do the education job of what it really means. And you hit the nail on the head. Law enforcement, public safety, those type of things take up the majority of the budget. And then we have a few pennies to do the things that we need to do to run the government with fees and permit fees and things. So those things will be coming along. Stay engaged on that. Tell the public to give their opinion. On the administrative stuff, the governor normally – Since we're in an early session, we normally start in March. January and February is when we start doing the real interim committees like we are right now, and then we'll start doing the budget. The governor's budget should be released soon, but they've been behind the scenes looking at grants and loans to balance out the money that's coming out of the budget from this current year. As you know, the resiliency budget for implementation was released, those awards, but now they're working on preparing for the next cycle. So in July, when the resiliency dollars are there, you'll be able to be applying and receiving those dollars. And those will have statutory deadlines, as Ralph knows, that the legislature will review it to make sure it sticks to the agenda and the goals of the state when it comes to resiliency. It's not an administrative person deciding behind the scenes when it comes to resiliency. All the other grants are still pending from this current fiscal year, but we'll be seeing the governors recommend the budget. We're hoping that we can go back to the norm where we can do grants and member projects, a good balance. Last year, there was a lot of less money in the grants, especially on water quality issues. At least Biscayne Bay was able to get their dollars, which is important to Cutler Bay and to Dade County. uh but well we're going to try and work on trying to keep those pots of money up on the grants and also member projects and make it a balanced approach um there is uh the pen cutting cutting conversation still continues because the forecast of the state the senate this year is probably the one that will probably be talking about cutting uh this year usually they take turns but as we know next year is an election year but uh we'll start talking about cutting a little bit and we'll see where we land, but the budget usually lands around the same number, but we'll be waiting for you when you come up for the day. As Ralph knows, if we want to have any agency meetings besides the legislature to let us know ahead of time, because those are usually productive meetings when you're talking to the agencies in person, but everything else is going well and hopefully 26 will be here soon for us. Any questions? Thank you, Edgar. We appreciate it.

Thank you, Edgar. And last, we have Valeria Donetz from Conservation Concept representing Laura Reynolds to briefly talk about some of the environmental bills that we're tracking as well in Tallahassee. So, Valeria.

Hello, can everybody hear me? Okay, first of all, Laura is also apologizing that she couldn't be here today. She also had an unexpected family emergency. So I'm the new Laura for today. So first of all, I'd like to talk about the Senate Bill 180. That's the one that was passed. earlier this year, and it created major legal and planning roadblocks as it bundles unrelated emergency provisions with sweeping land use restrictions, violating the intent of Florida constitutional single subject requirement. So the two main issues with that bill are section 18 and section 28 respectively. So section 28 of the law, citing federal disaster declarations for Florida counties from hurricanes Debbie, Helene, and Milton, basically renders more restrictive and burdensome, quote-unquote, comprehensive plan and land development code changes adopted by every local government after July 31st, 2024, basically subject to judicial invalidation and precludes local governments from adopting such measures until October 1st of 2027. And then the Section 18 of the law prohibits all counties and all the cities therein, those that are impacted... quote-unquote impacted local governments, listed in federal disaster declaration that are located entirely or partially within 100 mile radius of the track of a hurricane from proposing or adopting, again, more restrictive or burdensome amendments to their comprehensive plans. So that's obviously problematic. And I know that the town of Cutler Bay has also joined the lawsuit with the Thousand Friends of Florida to try and challenge some of those provisions. So currently there is two companion bills that were filed in Florida House and Senate. So those are HB 217 and SB 218 that are kind of proposing, I mean, it's like a bandaid on an open wound. It doesn't really do much. But essentially what those bills try to address as a fixed USB 180 is defined in the term impacted local government. But it's, you know, it's still, while it narrows the scope of comprehensive development master plan, plans that are suspended, but it still excludes 13 counties. So, you know, The lawsuit is a good thing that is happening, and hopefully we can challenge and maybe roll back some of those things. So in terms of things that are currently on our environmental trackers, so we have a pretty disastrous HB 399 with a companion bill in the Senate bill. SB 208. So what this one does, it basically directs OPPAGA, which is the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, to conduct a study to be finalized by November 1st of 2026 to identify the effect of removing the essentially to UDP or any equivalent in other counties and municipalities to see if we can, you know, uh control growth and protect the environment without the udb in place which i think is i think everybody understands that it's just not a good idea um and then it also redefines compatibility in in a way that narrows uh local discretion to deny harmful uh out of scale development uh another bill that so definitely going to be tracking that one because that there is a big potential for you know gdb getting basically done away with A good bill that passed the first committee yesterday is SB240, so that's the auxiliary container bill, and that prohibits, it seeks to prohibit cell and distribution of single-use plastic and polystyrene auxiliary containers within Florida state park properties. Uh, there's several other bills that are on the handout that you received that we're going to be tracking as well. Um, I'm not going to go through all of them. It's, it's a lot of talking for the sake of time. You can, you can familiarize yourselves, but those are the SB 180 challenge, the SB 240 and, uh, And HB 399 and HB 208 companion bills are the ones that are like at the top of our agenda. And we just heard a little bit about the budget. And so when it comes to conservation funding and water quality funding priorities, so Florida Forever Fund would love to see it at pre-2008 levels. So we maintain robust funding for rural and family land protection, programs that protect Florida Wildlife Corridor, and other high priority conservation lands like environmental endangered lands program, always on the agenda preventing swapping or selling of state-owned conservation lands. And then we're obviously dealing with SERP it's still an ongoing project so we're looking towards our next installment of three and a half billion for Everglades restoration. Some unpleasant things happening on the front as well because there are some slippages in the implementation schedule and some of the funding is being redirected towards projects that are in the central Florida around Lake Okeechobee and there is generally seems to be a bit of a shift People, I think, are getting impatient, and it almost seems like the state wants to wash their hands off of SERP projects altogether and try to move, basically prioritize water storage north of Lake Okeechobee. So that's going to be an ongoing fight to try and make sure that the funding goes to projects down south where they're very much needed. And then, you know, when it comes to water quality funding, you know, continue enforcing stricter water quality standards, and particularly as it relates to biosolid management. And real-time monitoring of Biscayne Bay is always a nice cherry on top. If you have any questions, I'd love to take them.

Not going on, that's for sure. Any questions? All right. Thank you very much for the update.

Thank you, Miller. As the Mayor and Members of the Council, you can see that our lobbying team, we're hitting them at all different angles there. So, you know, thank you for the team up there. Next up, we have Adrian Esquivel from TechPerk regarding the update for enterprise software system that we have townwide. So if we could cue up Adrian for a brief presentation.

Thank you, Ralph.

Good evening, mayor and council members.

I'm Adrian Esquivel with TechBird, serving as the town's principal consultant and owner's rep for the Tyler ERP implementation project. Give me one second here while I get the presentation open.

Okay.

Okay, let me know if you can see the presentation.

Yes, we can.

Okay, great. So, as you know, the ERP replaces EDEN and brings financials and permitting and licensing, as well as asset management and parks and rec systems into a single cloud system that will allow residents to complete services online. Since my last update in June, the project has continued to progress steadily. We have just about over seven months behind us, and heading into next year, we're on track with the project. We have worked alongside the town staff managing the project and coordinating communications with the vendor, resolving issues and keeping them accountable to schedule and deliverables, which is essential given the ARPA deadline in December of 2026. So moving on to key activities here, since we last spoke, finance has been the phase that we've been focused on. It was the first phase of the project. It's foundational, as every other phase relies on it. We've been working, a significant amount of work has been completed with the finance team, and they've been involved in multiple workshops, four and eight hours in a day, and they've been very dedicated, all while managing their normal workload, especially during the busy time of the year. We finalized the chart of accounts, and that was a major milestone. It enables configuration and the ability for the system to work with other parts of the accounting module. We closed what's called the assess and define stage, and we began work on preparing the solution, which includes configuration and workflow development, And we've been preparing for early testing, which will begin in January. That's the phase that Tyler has for what's called targeted solution testing. That's when they'll be able to run scenarios in the system and, you know, simulate, you know, daily work, daily processes in accounting. So another key milestone, we kicked off EPL, which is their enterprise permitting and license phase. We started off completing multiple day workshops across building planning, code enforcement, business licensing, and GIS-supported permitting. Those sessions were very helpful in translating the existing workflows of the departments as they have not been digitized before into what would be the new system. So we coordinated demonstrations and workflow design sessions, which included various areas from business tax receipts to certificate of uses, golf carts, alarm licensing, and other key processes. We've also worked working with the county on GIS integration work as well. Tyler calls EPL is very complex, interconnected phases and these early workshops are very critical and continue to work with the town staff to ensure that that configuration is going to reflect the processes and workflows. So looking ahead, what's upcoming here in the finance phase in the EPL, we'll continue to work with the town staff and with Tyler on configuration and refining these workflows and producing reports as we move into January and into testing. For the EPL phase, we'll continue with workflow development and GIS configuration as well as form and document setup. So continue to align sessions as well with community development and finance. We'll also be preparing next year to kick off the two other phases, which is the Enterprise Asset Management, their EIA module, which we have slated for start in January, as well as Parks and Recreations, which is slated to start in April. So here's kind of a table showing the different phases, the current status, and the start and completion. And just for reference, all the project contacts on the project, we continue to work with the town staff and the project sponsors, as well as the different module leads and the town staff who are doing the hands-on work in the project. As I mentioned earlier, everything we're doing here is in addition to the normal day-to-day operations and very important work as the commitment to this project. is going to reflect in the system how the town actually works day to day. So just kind of give you an idea as to where these phases are and where we are in the project here. As I mentioned, we're just over seven months into the project in financials and started in July the EPL. And we are scheduled to go live in July of next year for both the financials and the EPL with Tyler. And then working next year in the January timeframe starting the am module, as well as a parks and recreation in April. So, in closing. Working to work with the town, keeping the project on track and will support it to or closely to ensure a successful implementation, and thank you and i'm happy to take any questions. All right, Councilman Lurd.

Hi, Adrian. It's good to see you again. Thank you for the presentation. Welcome.

Good to see you.

Thank you. I was a huge advocate to change to this platform. I think it's necessary. I think it's with the tech that we had before, I think it's, you know, I got tripped up on that one, but I think it is very necessary for us to have this. It's going to help us continue to be the trailblazers that we are. And I didn't understand until I had my agenda briefing with our town manager how much work you guys are actually doing, how many meetings, how much work our staff is doing to make sure this is rolled out timely and well. And so I want to thank everybody for their hard work. But I also wanted to remind everybody that this is ARPA funded and this is such a significant contribution. and appropriate way for us to use those funds. So it's a win-win for everybody. We step up to a great platform and it's not costing us anything. So thank you again, Adrian.

Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you.

Thank you, Adrian. And thank you, Robert and Vivian and other folks that are involved. As Adrian said, I mean, when we have these meetings with Tyler, they literally call the department head and say, we need to block off six hours every day. That's a lot of work. But thank you to everyone involved. Thank you, Adrian. Next, members of the council, we have an update on Turnpike Extension. We have Hector Reyes from the Florida Department of Transportation to provide a brief presentation. Hector?

Thank you, Ralph. Good evening, Mayor, council members, excuse me, and members of the community. I'm Hector Reyes. I'm a community outreach specialist with the Florida Turnpike Enterprise. And tonight I'm here to give you guys an update. Can you hear me?

Thank you.

Okay. Tonight I'm here to give you guys an update on the Florida Turnpike Extension State Road 821 project from Hainland Mill to US-1 in the town of Cutter Bay. Let's begin with an overview of the project and look at some key improvements that are already underway. This project delivers several major upgrades designed to improve traffic flow, enhance safety, and support increasing travel demands throughout Cutter Bay. The total project cost is approximately $37 million with construction anticipated to continue through mid-2027. Some of the major improvements include adding a new northbound turnpike lane from Cutler Ridge Boulevard, Southwest 211th Street to US 1, providing additional capacity during peak travel hours. A Hayland Mill Road new turn lanes in both directions and an additional eastbound turn lane from Cutler Ridge Boulevard to the northbound turnpike to help improve intersection operations and reduce congestion. The Caribbean Boulevard Bridge is being widened to support these improvements, along with new noise walls in qualifying residential areas to reduce sound impacts. Additionally, lighting and signal upgrades throughout the corridor will increase visibility and improve travel reliability. These improvements directly support connectivity and safety for Cutler Bay motorists and neighboring communities. Now let's take a look at some of the community benefits. Once complete, the project will deliver smoother and more efficient travel flow throughout the corridor. Additional lanes and improved signalization will provide better access for residents, businesses, and emergency responders. Bridge strengthening ensures that the corridor is built to last and can withstand heavy traffic conditions and weather events. New noise walls in qualifying areas help reduce roadway noise, improving quality of life for nearby neighborhoods. Overall, this project strengthens regional connectivity in Miami-Dade County. Next, I'll outline how we're managing construction activities and traffic impacts. Daytime work typically occurs Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Overnight operations take place from Sunday to Thursday from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. to help reduce daytime congestion. Short-term lane closures and detours will occur periodically, coordinated with the Town of Cutler Bay and emergency services. To minimize disruptions, lane closures are scheduled during off-peak hours and are shared with the town and emergency responder agencies. The QR code on the screen, it links to the weekly traffic advisory for South Florida and the Treasure Coast. And it is updated with the latest information for construction schedules, as well as with lane closure information. We encourage the town to share this thing so that residents can stay well-informed. However, consistent communication remains an important part of how we manage this project. Our outreach plan includes coordination with the town, homeowners associations, and businesses along the corridor. We distribute construction alerts, fact sheets, and email updates. Feedback from residents and the town is shared directly with the construction team to address inquiries quickly. The goal is to ensure clear and proactive communication throughout construction. To give a better sense of the work area, let's take a look at some of the project maps. These maps illustrate the full project limits from Haneland Mill Road to US 1 and highlight where lane additions, turn lane enhancements, and bridge works are located. To better orient you to the map, I'll let you know that northbound is facing up. So we're looking at the Florida's Turnpike Extension in the north and south direction over Caribbean Boulevard. North being on the right-hand side. A new eight foot high noise wall will be mounted on the right hand side as indicated by the magenta line there. We are also widening the roadway on 821 or Turnpike on the inside and outside lanes. There'll be bridge widening on the Caribbean Boulevard bridge as well as rehabilitation work. On the southbound side, you'll notice that we're improving the right turning movements at the exit ramp of Caribbean Boulevard. This next slide, we're also looking at the north and southbound Florida Turnpike, but this one is over Cutler Ridge. North still being right, you'll notice that we have roadway widening in addition of turn lanes at Cutler Ridge Boulevard. And on the southbound side, we're widening the inside roadway with the addition of tubular markers for improved traffic safety. Again, we're still looking at Turnpike north and south, north on the right-hand side. We're rehabilitating the bridge over the Black Creek Canal. And excuse me, this is the interchange of Haneland Mill Road and the Turnpike. We're rehabilitating the bridge over the Black Creek Canal, as well as widening the roadway on the inside with the addition of the turn lanes just south of Haneland Mill Road and widening the roadway with the addition of turn lane at Haneland Mill Road interchange. This next map we're looking at is Turnpike. North will be on your right-hand side, and it is at the Quail Roost Drive interchange. The important things to note for this map is the bridge rehabilitation on the southbound frontage road, as well as the roadway widening for left turn extension at the Eureka Drive interchange. These next few maps, north will be facing right. Currently, this is the Turnpike. Cutler Ridge Boulevard is the top left corner there. The important thing to note for these slides is the addition of the tubular markers. This is between Southwest 211th Street and Southwest 200th. And the tubular markers will be added there for improved traffic operations. In this last map, you'll notice as well, there's tubular markers on the upper hand side, on the right side. And this is at the exit ramp or at the interchange of Hanley Mill Road and Turnpike A21. Before closing, I'd like to share our contact information for continued coordination. For project-related inquiries, please reach out using the contact information provided. Our outreach team is available to support questions from stakeholder coordinations and media requests. We remain committed to transparency, accessibility, and partnership throughout construction. Finally, I'd like to thank you, the mayor, council members, and members of the community for continued partnership and collaboration. We appreciate your support as we advance construction and keep the community in form. Our team looks forward to ensuring a smooth and coordinated effort as construction progresses.

What are the start dates and end dates anticipated?

The exact start dates, sir, I don't have. The project did start in October, and we're anticipated to continue through mid-2027, sir.

Questions from the Council? Councilman Duncan?

No question, just a comment. Thank you for your presentation. I love this project. As somebody who deals with Getting on the turnpike northbound every morning from 216th, from Haneland Mill, going north, that commute is miserable. And a lot of our residents do that, and it can very easily take you at least 30 minutes from once you turn off of 216th onto the frontage road to actually get onto the turnpike, which is ridiculous because it's no distance at all. So I'm excited for the improvements that this will bring. So I just thank you for your presentation. And thank the Florida Department of Transportation for taking a look at this very necessary project. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

Councilman Duncan.

Hi, Hector. Thank you for that. I, too, am going to echo what Councilmember Duncan said. I am stuck in that traffic off of Cutleridge Boulevard every morning at 6 in the morning trying to get home from the gym. I have near misses maybe weekly. So this is absolutely necessary. But aside from my personal woes with traffic here, And Council Member Duncan hit on it. 216th, going on to the Turnpike, getting to the Turnpike. The 216th is a main artery for our residents in Lakes by the Bay and Isles of Bayshore. And when it takes them, and I think 30 minutes is a generous estimate. I mean, I sit there for 15 just trying to get through the intersection. So my hat's off to FDOT for this. And I also travel the Turnpike south from Cutler Ridge. three times a week at four in the afternoon. And I see what you're doing south of us, which is only going to benefit us as well. You do have that eight-foot wall going up south of Cutler Ridge or Cutler Bay, and it's going up fast. So you guys are doing some great work, and I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Anything else? All right. Thank you. Ralph?

Thank you. Thank you, Hector and team. Next, Mayor, we have, I'm going to do two for one here. We have our annual updates for both our 2025 local mitigation strategy and our 2025 flood mitigation plan. And we have Alfredo Quintero, Public Works Director, provide a brief presentation on both.

Thank you, Ralph. Mayor Mirabal, members of council, I'm Alfredo Quintero, your Public Works Director and CRS Coordinator. So as part of the town's participation in the National Flood Insurance Program and CRS credit rating system, I am presenting you with a 2025 annual mitigation strategy report, as well as the 2025 end of the year flood mitigation plan report. Copies of both reports are published on your agenda. They're also on our town website. I'm just going to end it right here because I know we have to move on, but I'm available for any questions that you may have. Just one thing that I would like to point out. because I think it's important for you all to know. On November of 2024, we went through our three-year NFIP cycle verification visit to defend our current CRS Class III rating. And on July 22, 2025, we received our results for the cycle visit in which the town earned 3,584 points, which was a net increase of 28 points from the previous cycle visit. And we will continue to hold these points until our next three-year cycle visit. As you all know, We are removing a recently adopted higher regulatory standard in which we will lose only 20 points, but we are committed to look for additional activities to make up those points and increase our points earned. And finally, as a CRS class three community in the National Flood Insurance Program, the town residents enjoy a 35% discount off of flood insurance if their property's in a special flood hazard area. And out of 1,770 communities that participate in the CRS, In the entire United States, only 22 are class three or better. And at a class three, our policyholders save an average of $523 on cost of flood insurance per policy, which is annually a total townwide savings of $2,963,244. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any questions for me? We're good. Councilmember Lord.

Thank you, Alfredo. You know that I'm a huge advocate of the work that you guys do with our flood mitigation plan. And I just wanted to say great job as always. And to the residents who say that we don't clean out our drains, and I've had Enviro on my street now for two days, and I get so excited when I see them doing work. So it's happening, folks. Take a look. You'll see them. They're around town. I just wanted to thank you again for all your hard work and

and because of that i have a 35 discount on my flood my flood insurance so thank you thank you very much customer thank you i appreciate it all right thank you thank you for that and i'd be remiss if we'd also thank our our uh folks that are in the flood mitigation committee as well so i mean i think it's a lot of hard work to make a presentation both afraid on your near do a great outstanding job and providing our residents a 35 discount as mentioned by councilman lord Mayor, next up, I wasn't on the agenda, but we have the privilege of having tonight Mr. James Duncan, who is the chief of the urban forestry and tree division from Miami-Dade County Durham. He's going to make a brief presentation regarding the Cutler Bay marshland, which is right next to our eight and a half acre coastal preserve as well. So, James, welcome.

Good evening. Thank you for having me. I'm really happy to be here. I was very kindly invited earlier this week by Ralph to give a quick update on some of the activities that are happening in the preserve today and also a quick update on a grant that the county received a few years ago regarding permitting and design of the coastal, the rehydration of the coastal marsh. So this week, the town kicked off clearing the eight and a half acres Coastal Ridge property. This was done with support authorization and coordination with DERM. The removal of invasive plants can come with some public perception challenges. So I just want to let you know that we're here to place some support. If people see trees coming down, they may not know that they're the bad kind of trees. We've worked with this contractor for a very long time, and they're taking every measure to protect wildlife, which sometimes wildlife do utilize invasive plants. but though our native plants are used a lot more. Additionally, the county is working on funding the reforestation of the entire vegetated portion of the eight and a half acres in accordance with the town vision. This will be converting that property into a true urban forest. And before I talk about the bad, I also like to note when I talk to the public about bringing down prohibited species that our native hammocks, our native trees are actually a bright spot for wildlife conservation. Recent research has documented increased migratory bird utilization within the urban forest fragments and trees of Miami County. And this is what that eight and a half acres will do. tips on what trees they're using more. We always hear so many bad things about, especially our wildlife. I think it's great to note that we're seeing some good stuff as well, some good trends as well. Most of the trees coming down are prohibited species. That's a county term. It's to remove... It's a county term, and you may know some of these species. Brazilian pepper, Australian pine. They're controlled by state, federal, local government. And... To be quick, for my second topic, you'll start to see me a lot more around town. Recently, I became the manager of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Cutler Marsh Grant for the county. The county was awarded this grant with your guys' support to permit and design the rehydration of what we call the North Cutler Wetlands or Cutler Marsh. Funding from the NFWF, the foundation, and Miami County will be used to survey the properties, develop final design, prepare and submit permits. This is an initial plan that we're passing along with the agencies. where we are proposing to co-locate a spreader canal on a strip of property that we hope to buy from you to bring estuary lower salinity conditions And I was there last Saturday with many of your town folks talking about the project and pulling some leads. And you'll see a whole lot more. So come say hi. My email is there. If you have any requests or questions for me, you may reach out.

Thank you. I'm very excited about the rehydration in there and helping our Bay's health. Questions or comments? No? Thank you very much. Thank you guys for having me.

Thank you, James. And I also like to thank James publicly because we're also working with James and his staff and Commissioner Cohen-Higgins' staff for the $250,000 appropriation that Talk about a four-year project, Mayor. Remember that? We started talking about that with the Miami-Dade County. So, you know, thank you, James. In fact, it's going to the MOU is hopefully will be on the Board of County Commissioners meeting in January. Then it'll come to us. That will provide a $250,000 appropriation from the county to start the reforestation with no match. Again, no match. So that's one pot of money there. And then last month, if you recall, we applied for Florida forestry grant for $50,000 with a $50,000 match. So if we land that, that could be hopefully an additional $350,000 to even start doing some of the planting that we have there as well. So thank you, James and your staff and also Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. Mayor, Members of Council, the next item we have is Veterans Park Master Plan Report. What I did here on this item, Mayor, Members of Council, is we put together the comments, recommendation, advisory from the Parks Committee that was back in October. We then took advantage this last couple weeks ago on November 11th. We hosted in this very same room a Veterans Day breakfast there. And it was great to see the council members attending and we had some great feedback. We took the opportunity that we have a nice focus group there right to provide. We provide them sticky pads and items and we provided summarize their comments there as well as, you know, we took advantage of that. But most importantly, I just want to have have it on the agenda. kind of provide that memo that gives you the timeline everything that we've done here and just get some more you know direction from the council if you're going to accept the recommendations or what have you because what we're trying to do here now is setting this up for potential future grant as well so again that's what we're doing here i know i mentioned last time we're going to provide some doodles and you know some kind of master plans but i want to just get get the recommendations on the table here and discuss some more so we can come back thank you man

All right. Vice Mayor Kellyanne, you have a question?

Yeah, I just have a, I would like to have that, have this referred back to the Parks Committee just so they have a chance to be able to review the recommendations that came out of the Veterans Breakfast. You know, there were some good ideas in there, but the Parks Committee has been working on this for quite some time. So I'd like them to be able to look at those recommendations and add them in or just provide feedback. President Ramirez?

Thank you. As pretty much everybody knows, November is the month that we recognize veterans. And as a veteran that sits on the board, I just want to say thank you to the town manager and our staff, especially Maria and Paula, for putting on a very, very nice event for the veterans last week. And we really appreciate it. And again, the response that we get from our residents that come and get to enjoy some of these activities is overwhelming. And the fact that they were allowed to put their two cents into the Veterans Park thing, I think really will get home for a lot of them. So thank you guys. I wanted just to recognize the people that put it together and did a fantastic job. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Anything else, Ralph?

No members Council will do with that will refer this back to the parks committee and then we'll have something hopefully you know, maybe and I didn't bring back is my my biggest thing and I want to make sure that is getting this public involvement as much as we can so that we could start having start chasing some of these grants that we're talking about so so thank you Mary that completes my report sorry for the lengthy presentation so that.

That's a new record, so all right, thank you very much. I'm sorry, just real quick. Ralph, the committee does not meet in December, which means that the committee would meet in January, so the recommendation couldn't come back to the council before February. If there's a concern about that timeline, then... Mr. Clerk, we would have to reach out to Chairman Biegun and call a special parks committee meeting in December for the sole purpose of discussing this and getting it to Ralph by January.

I'll send out an email and find out everybody's availability first.

okay thank you and good catch vice mayor because what we'll do as well is i'll i'll uh discuss what our grants court implication more is to make sure if there's any else pending grants if there's any sensitive debit lines there as well so thank you thank you all right that takes us to our town attorney's report all right

You are appreciated, Mitch. Thank you very much on that. Takes us to our town clerk's report.

This one's real quick. For those of you that still haven't done your state mandated ethics training, there's two opportunities coming up now in December. So on Thursday, December 4th. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., our town attorneys will be having a training via Zoom. So if you guys want to take advantage of that, let me know, and I can go ahead and sign you guys up for that. And if you can't make that one, there's also a Wednesday, December 17th training by the Florida leading cities. That one's from 10 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. Both of them will fulfill the four-hour mandated training for the year.

All right. Thank you very much. All right. That takes us to our consent agenda. If there's any polls looking for a motion to approve... So moved. We have a motion by Vice Mayor Callan. I'll confer a second. I second. Second by Councilman Lord. All in favor say aye. Aye. Note that there is a pointing to one of our youth councils. Matthew Schemick, I believe, is in the audience. Matthew, you just stand up and be recognized. If you come forward just for a moment, if you would. I'd like to recognize that people are working on committees. We thank you for your time. If you'd like to say something real quick, you can.

Yeah, good evening. I'm an 11th grade student at Color Bay Senior High, and I am honored to be a part of the Youth Council Committee on behalf of Color Bay Senior High, and I am committed to learning, participating, and contributing towards the Youth Council Committee. Thank you.

Thank you very much. You are appreciated. Thank you. Glad you're joining us. All right. All right. That takes us to a quasi-judicial hearing. No one? Not yet? There are none. I'm saying that's a good thing. All right. Okay. One second. I'd like to open the floor for public comments right now, general public comments. Anybody who wishes to speak, please come forward. As there is nobody in the auditorium, anybody in the queue? No one in the queue. All right. If you could please read item 9A.

An ordinance of the Town Council of the Town of Cutler Bay, Florida, updating the Town Water Supply Facilities Work Plan and adopting Water Supply Facilities Work Plan related amendments to the Town Growth Management Plan, providing for transmittal, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.

All right, Ralph, sir.

Thank you, Mayor, Members of Council. This is an item that was brought over from the LPA. We have tonight a brief presentation. Mr. Julian Perez, our Planning and Zoning Director. Julian?

Thank you, Manager.

So it's my turn now. All right. Good evening, Mayor, Council, Town Clerk, Town Attorney, Town Manager, members of the audience, Julian Perez, Planning and Zoning Director. Before you tonight, it's a very good, good document. And it's something that we have been doing now for the last probably 10 years. I think this is the second cycle because it's a five-year cycle. It has to be updated. So it's the water supply facility work plan. And I have a few things that I want to touch on this evening as part of of the transmittal to the Florida Land Planning Agency. I would like to make a brief presentation on four different items that are associated with this document. This is a very important document. First of all, Typically, what we do with this document is we do updates every five years. This time we went ahead and we did it in-house and we did a more comprehensive document. We took some standard language from the previous documents, but then we went ahead and we did a total update to it. Just to make sure that the document continues to evolve and it's not so much update after updates. So the first thing that I wanted to talk to you is the transmittal process that takes place this meeting and the next meeting. This is actually our our transmittal hearing, and then later on in January, we're going to have the adoption hearing, and then hopefully we'll be able to go through the 30-day appeal period, and then we'll be on time. We're submitting this document on time by March of 2026, and that's the requirement by law. The second item I wanted to mention is the mission of this document, as well as the goals and objectives. It's a very lengthy document. I don't know if you had the opportunity to look at it and the way that was formatted, as well as the attachments that are associated with that document. Then third, I wanted to talk a little bit about the coordination. This is probably one of the most important points of this document, is how this document itself coordinates with the rest of the other documents that were responsible by state law. And then finally, I want to mention the consistency with Senate Bill 180. And 180, which was codified under Section 252.422 of the Florida Statutes. And I know that there were some concerns whether or not these amendments that were making, text amendments to the comprehensive plan, we're going to be successful through this process. And then I'll explain to you, and I also made an argument in my transmittal letter that what we're doing here has nothing to do with 180, okay? It's a process that what we're doing here, these amendments, is to update some of the policies, especially the dates, okay? So that has nothing to do with the intent of Senate Bill 180, specifically Section 18. So with that, let me just touch very basically on the transmittal process. There's actually two statutes that drives this process. It's 373.709 and 163.377. Basically, they're the same. And what I mean by the same is that they require local government to adopt a water supply recommendation. And those recommendations go into your goals, objectives, and policies of your comprehensive plan. As a result of that, we only have five text amendments, and they're all related to updating the dates. And it's only in three elements of the comprehensive plan. It is your infrastructure, it is your conservation, and it's interlocal coordination element. And again, this type of document is updated, like I said, every five years, and it coordinates land use planning and water supply infrastructure improvements over a 10-year planning horizon. The second area that I wanted to touch on is the mission goals and objectives. The mission of this document, when I look at it in every document, every planning document that I like to put together, is looking at always at the strategic planning and how they marry together, right? Because we want to have livable documents. We just don't want to have one document here that does this, another that does this. They're all integrated. Planning is an integration process. Right? So as part of this integration, what we're doing here with this one is land use planning, okay, integrated with water supply planning. The same thing when we have transportation, transportation planning integrates into land use planning. This is something that they're trying to accomplish with this document. All right, the goal of this document, okay, is to ensure the long-term sustainability of portable water resources by maintaining or reducing the per capita water consumption or demand through a series of programs that we already have in place. That's why the integration is so important. And that is the conservation measures that we have, the infrastructure improvements that we work with Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer, because our community, our residents are the retail buyers. All right. So it's extremely important that we work very closely with them with some of these programs. And if you look at the report itself, there's tables in that report that shows some of the projects that Miami-Dade County has going on. All right. That is a benefit to our community because they're water supply type of projects. And then the next item is the coordination with agencies and resources. There are actually two very important documents in this whole process outside of our water supply facility work plan. And that is the South Florida Water Management District Lower East Coast Water Supply Plan. And that's the key around our plan. And then the second one is the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Water Supply Facility Plan. There we drive on the capital improvement projects. And that's the connection. All right, so what is the objectives of what we're doing here? The objective is, again, to promote the town's water conservation programs, okay, prioritize sustainability, infrastructure improvements, and there's a series of other objectives in our plan in section three, page seven, that spells out those objectives, and they all come together, right? Then the next item I wanted to talk to you that I already mentioned is the coordination. The coordination is extremely important throughout the five years. And every time we look at our comprehensive plan, we look at our goals, objectives, and policy, even when a project itself, a development project comes in, we have to look at all of this because, again, all of this is done in unison. The town of Cutler Bay, required by law, those sections that I mentioned, 376 and 163, all right, we're required to have our plan ready 18 months. Once it gets approved, the Lower East Coast, then we have 18 months. And that 18 months translate into March of 2026. So I understand that our plan, what we're doing here, will probably be one of the first coming in, and that's the reason why we're moving so quickly. Then finally, I wanted to touch very briefly on the consistency with Senate Bill 180, actually Section 18, and now codified on the Section 252.42 of the Florida Statutes. The reason why I'm giving these statutes and everything is because this is all part of the record of the discussion that we're having as we transmit this document. When you look at Senate Bill 180, It requires, specifically in Section 18, it requires for one year after a hurricane makes landfall, an impact local government may propose or adopt more restricted or burdensome amendments to its comprehensive plan or land development regulations. This is not what we're doing here, okay? What we're doing here is we're cleaning up certain policies and objectives to make sure that the document itself is consistent. And I wanted to make sure that we put that in the record and that we're very clear because If this document goes to the state land planning agency and they stop it, okay, then it will be very easy for us to be able to write them back and remind them that not only are they stopping our request for these amendments, but they're in conflict with 376 and 163. And I want to make that very clear and on the record as we're getting ready to transmit this document. And with that, if you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to address any of the questions.

That was a very, very thorough explanation. So we appreciate that. Questions or concerns? Yes. All right. I'm going to open the public hearing on this item right now. So anybody wishing to speak on this item, please come forward. There is none in the auditorium. Anybody in the queue?

No one in the queue.

All right. Public hearing is now closed. Questions or comments from the council?

No.

All right. Looking for a motion for approval. So moved. We have a motion by Council Member Ramirez to move forward. Look for a second.

I second.

Second by Council Member Lord. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Duncan. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Council Member Lord.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Callahan. Yes. Mayor Mirabai. Yes. Motion passes.

Item 10A, please.

Mayor, just a point of personal privilege. I want to publicly thank Julian because this is one of the first tasks when we hired him, he took it on overnight, weekends. You can see the documentation there. And I could tell you that prior to Julian joining us, we were getting estimates in the $20,000 to $25,000 range from consultants to do what he just did. So thank you, Julian.

Yeah, like I said, very thorough. Thank you very much. All right. If you could read item 10A, please.

An ordinance of the Mayor and the Town Council of the Town of Keltner Bay, Florida, creating Section 3-45 Certified Recovery Residences of Chapter 3 of the Town Code of Ordinances relating to the establishment of review and approval procedures, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, providing for codification, and providing for an effective date.

Well, sir.

Mayor Mermin's Council, this is the second reading. This item was advertised in the Miami Herald neighbor section on November 9th. We're here, town staff is here, Julian's here to answer any questions during the second reading.

Public hearing is open on this item. If anybody wishes to speak on this item, please come forward. There's none in the auditorium. Anybody in the queue?

No one in the queue.

Public hearing is now closed. Any questions or comments from the council? Looking for a motion for approval. Summit. We have a motion by Councilman Lord. I'm looking for a second. Second. Second by Councilman Ramirez. Roll call vote, please.

Councilmember Ramirez. Yes. Councilmember Lord.

Yes.

Councilmember Duncan. Yes. Vice Mayor Callahan. Yes. Mayor Mirabon. Yes. Motion passes.

Item 11A, please.

A resolution of the mayor and the town council of the town of Keller Bay, Florida, selecting the Redland Company, Inc., for the soil remediation project at Blue Heron Park, pursuant to invitation to bid number 25-06, providing for authorization and providing for an effective date.

Well, sir.

Thank you, members of the council. This is a project that we know that's been long overdue, particularly with the community knows that Blue Heron Park has been closed. We went through the formal bidding process. The town staff, along with our consultants, have reviewed the proposals. We are recommending the award to the Redland Company. We also have here tonight Michael Goldstein, our environmental attorney, to provide just maybe a little brief presentation how what's going on with the brownfield, kind of tie it into this. I know it's not associated with the award, but I think it's important to talk about the financial side before we talk about the award.

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Manager, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, Town Attorney Michael Goldstein with Goldstein Environmental Law Firm, your Environmental Counsel on this project and on Legacy Park and others. It's a pleasure and honor to be here very briefly because I know the hour is late. The town manager has invested a lot of time and care and effort in moving this project forward. All of the approvals necessary from a regulatory perspective to begin the remediation are in place. My firm has reviewed the bids that have come in from the remediation contractors. We've confirmed the selection of Redland as appropriate and consistent with the underlying regulatory approvals. As you may recall, From the September 25th town council meeting, we now have the Brownfield designation in place, which means that this site is qualified as soon as we enter into a Brownfield site rehabilitation agreement for tax credits. That should happen in the next week or so. We've executed all of the paperwork we need to execute on our side. We'll be filing that paperwork with Miami-Dade County Derm tomorrow. And we believe we'll have the fully signed agreement in hand in the next week to two weeks, which provides access to tax credits, which I'll talk about in a second and briefly, as well as third party liability protection. Very important. In terms of the tax credits, the way that the town manager has sequenced this project, we are able to actually double our net cash on cash recovery to approximately $1.35 million, which is a fantastic windfall. That's number one. And number two, again, based on the way that the town manager has sequenced the project, we are able to mitigate any damages that would otherwise be suffered with respect to the tremendous amount of tree canopy that we have. and the town manager went to great lengths to direct our firm and kimley horn to put into place a tree mitigation plan and in doing so we are going to save the 297 trees that are out there so we have a tremendous amount of environmental benefit from a natural resources perspective we're going to double our financial recovery we have liability protection we have all of the approvals we need in place to move forward with remediation which is going to begin presently

before the end of the year and that's my report thank you very much you know as i said the residents did took a long time but really because we have to work with the state to get this done so thank you for all the work you've done especially the saving the 297 trees i just just just as a home run so um questions and comments from the council

And Mayor and Members of Council, this firm is very familiar. They were the subcontractor for Kauffman Linn and our Legacy Park. So they're very familiar with the site, the project, and the processes that we have in place as well. So we're very confident in recommending the Red Linn Company.

There's no other comments or questions. Looking for a motion. So moved. Motion by Councilman Lord. Looking for a second.

Second.

Second by Councilman Duncan. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Item 11B, please.

A resolution of the mayor and the town council authorizing the town manager to issue a purchase order to Kimley Horn and Associates, Inc. Environmental Engineering Services for the Soil Remediation Project for Blue Heron Park and providing for an effective date. Councilor?

Members and Councilors, this is just another example of working with the same team, you know, with Michael Goldstein as our Council, but also with Kimley Horn. Bill Spinner is very familiar with this project. He's been involved in it since the beginning with our Soil Management Plan and all the approvals from Miami-Dade County DERM. And his firm has also been, was the one doing all the quality control and obtaining all the receipts and tickets at a legacy park. So just another continuation as well, Mayor. So, again, we will move forward once again.

Questions, comments? Looking for a motion for approval. So moved. Motion by Councilman Ramirez. Looking for a second. i second second my councilman lord all in favor say aye aye well i just know going forward you're limited to six items uh for presentation instead of 11. okay so all right nothing further i'm sorry i apologize

increasing the rates that we charge on cost of government. Lafay has passed on to applicants in our senior five, five for junior 25 for all attorneys.

I thank you. We've discussed this. Your rates for years and years have been very rare. We do appreciate that. I think that's a very recent request. I'd love the comments from the rest of the council.

I would agree.

Councilman O'Leary? Sorry, I would also agree. Being in the field, my firm likes to raise their rates a lot more often than you have. So I thank you for the time that you give to us.

So that I don't need to ask again and have motions, we'd like to implement an automatic increase on the anniversary of $25 on each of those categories.

Vice President Kellyanne, you okay with that? Yeah. Yeah. Councilman Ramirez? Yes. All right. You have unanimous consent.

You'll authorize the manager to sign a revised retainer. We're in unanimous consent on that. So, yes. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. All right.