City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to congratulate Councilwoman Stoner for putting on the disability summit yesterday. She and her team did a great job, and I think everyone got a lot out of it, so congrats. Thank you. Excellent job.

In that regard, I just want to recognize the people who did the real work for that. In our Disability Advisory Board, we have Annie Thompson, Terry Oliva, Elise Binhach, Leandro Baer, Chiara Bergonzoni, Christy Mendia, Sonia Keefe. And of course, we couldn't have done any of it without Todd Hoffer, Berth, Of course, Mayor Rasko led us last night. He introduced everybody. And Vice Mayor Oscar Sardinas was there. It was the first ever summit for disability. And disability advisory board members came from all over Dade County. Commissioner Regalado was there the entire night. And we also had Dr.

It's a little off, but... Last week, as I was walking one night, which I do regularly, I ran into Gustavo. And I'm just hoping that he's watching tonight. I came upon in the dark on Crandon Boulevard, where some lights are out, a man on a recumbent bike. And his legs were banded by a resistance band. And he was working really, really hard. And it was dark, as I say, and we had a few niceties that we exchanged, and I spoke with his daughter and his wife, who were walking near him, who said that he had just had a massive medical setback, and he was out there struggling very hard to come back. So

Great. I'd like to skip over, if you don't mind, to the rugby presentation so that we can get the students back home to do their homework.

So on behalf of the village and my council persons that are here, we want to congratulate you for the work that you've done. You've been here before, so we know the work ethic that your group has and the fact that it's such a great family program. It's not just about paid coaches. It's about being very involved with the community and working as a team together. working as a family to get these boys to have a great situation both in school but also in athletics. And so on behalf of my colleagues, thank you very much, and we appreciate you so much that you've been able to achieve as much as you

I'm really struggling with not letting my- For an hour and two days a week with a friend at 7 o'clock.

Why don't we take the opportunity to get Marilyn Schwartz to make the presentation. Sure. Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Library.

No, no, we'll, thank you, thank you. Thank you for your comments. Yes, Allens Mose.

No. Todd or our police chief, can you address Jaramina's points and you want to deal with her? Sure. Go ahead.

And if you need any further information, you can talk with them after. Thank you so much. Andrea Castillo.

Thank you so much for making your comments. This is an ordinance on first reading. Yeah, so... you have the ability to look at it and tweak it if there's some issues that we need to address, but thank you for being here and supporting it. Okay, any other public comments?

Eating, I got a call from, I know you're missing, Mr. de la Cruz couldn't make it, he twisted his ankle, but he wanted me to tell you he's gonna send all his comments in writing to everybody. Thank you, I can't wait. All right.

Yeah, let's just add Ed's item to the agenda and we'll discuss.

I'd like to also add discussion of Zone 8 stormwater.

Justin, I'd just like to combine both items. I think those two items that I have kind of go hand in hand. I'm sorry, my request. For discussion. Yeah, yeah, we can do that. We can just talk about one item on that. Not one and two, but just one item.

Okay, the items to discuss. Did you email it? The vision plan? Yes, yes. Yes, put them together with the other item. I have two items.

I think we went on 8C, so I would like to pull 8C and discuss that. The elevator repairs.

Okay, sir. Todd, this is you. Yes, sir. I don't know how many years ago it was, but maybe five, six. We were dealing with Schindler, I think, originally, and you came before us and said they weren't doing a good job. We hired this other new company to take care of it.

So as a result, I said, fine, but make sure we have a contract for labor and materials, whatever it was, and the guarantee to take care of it. And all of a sudden, I assume we've been paying that maintenance contract all these years, and now I see this. Why would we have this expenditure if we had the maintenance contract for labor and materials?

That's exactly what I brought up. This proprietary equipment, I was assured by this company that they had the ability to go into the proprietary equipment that Schindler had, and there was no problem with that. Because I mentioned normally, these days they go with a laptop and plug-in, which is proprietary. They said there was not a problem.

So we've now gotten rid of the company after Schindler and there's a new company? Yes. Do we have a contract with them? I believe so. Maintenance contract?

So my question is, we're going on to a third contractor. What kind of contract? Do we have labor materials and a guarantee on this, or is it just per time every time you come out, they charge you?

So in other words, the elevator wasn't working? It wasn't stopping on the 8th?

Which one are we going with? Is 124, 990? Oh, that's the typo? Yeah, that was the typo. Okay, okay, okay.

Ed, question for you. Are you looking for a maintenance contract that would be inclusive of parts in labor? Is that what you're talking about? I think, Colleen, that's kind of a common process.

Public hearing is now open. Public hearing, seeing no one come forward, public hearing is now closed. Okay, on the ordinance before us on second reading, questions? The offshore barrier read feasibility study.

Preliminary design. What's the status of that?

This is a match we're putting 412. Is Dade County doing anything with this?

And is this a study that this is one payment or this is the first payment of any payments?

And then those determine, once we spend the money, whether they're going to do anything? Correct, yeah. Have they indicated ahead of time that they might do something?

Because the Corps is not, they're not interested in that? Is that?

So then basically if it gets approved, If the study says, OK, you can do this, this, this, and this, then we have to pay for it?

And this is basically going to prevent What's it going to prevent?

What was it called? The sheet piling, mounding that they have on the beach. One of the programs, I guess, when you first came aboard, Steve, that we were talking about, was sheet piles, sand. That's the course project.

So when they said this was too expensive to do, when you talked about this before, what kind of dollars were they talking about?

Then again, we have no idea what the cost is going to be. To do it? No, we know that it's going to be 412 to do the study. Well, it's going to be twice 412. So then the question is, once we get it done, what's the deliverable? Exactly. And then if they do, we'll assume they do the sheet piles, for lack of a better word. I don't know what you call it. They won't do that in the ocean.

Isn't that going to basically take care of a lot of the That, of course, the energy won't be dissipated until it gets to that point. Then you're going to have some...

Mike. Rollin, excuse me. Devices that are being considered. Are we talking about jetties? What are we trying to move literal drift from trying to stop?

Are we piggybacking on something that Miami Beach is already doing? I believe there's something of that similar.

Right. Yeah. So is there any way to piggyback off that engineering study?

But I mean, if we do seagrass abatement, that's super expensive. So if we would go in. I know it's expensive because we're doing it at the Yacht Club and it costs an absolute fortune. So I'm just trying to understand what the intent of the study is other than just to reduce the weight. I mean, you probably already know something of the technology.

And the intent is to try to reduce the amount of times that we're re-energizing the beach. What's the cost of re-energizing the beach at current?

The last time it was approximately three million. Yeah, two to three million. It covers around there. How many years ago did we do it? 2024.

Is there a scouring problem with this type of offshore thing? When the border comes in, it hits the barrier, and then scours back down. On the backside? And pulling the sand out.

Because, I guess, you mentioned, Joe, about the seagrass. Can we determine, before you go to all this... trouble and expense whether the seagrass would preclude us getting this thing done assuming it was good.

Couldn't Durham give us a preliminary reading on it's so unlikely because of the extent of the Seagrass don't even go down that path?

So tonight we're just talking about the budget but not actually spending the money? Correct.

I have a question about that. If we move money into the operating account, and then we decide we're not going down a certain direction and the money's sitting there.

Within your discretion, can you appropriate money to different line items without us knowing about it?

But is this, this is going into an operating account, right?

So regardless of the amount you have to notify us?

So we get the $50,000 threshold or whatever that threshold is?

Right. I think my concern is if there's a line item here and then we end up not pursuing it and let's say it's $150,000, then there's $150,000 in there. Can that be used amongst different things that we don't realize it's being used?

Okay, so not to beat a dead horse, but if of the 150, we only use 75, so 75 is left. I'm just picking a number here. I don't care what it is. There's 75 left. Can you use 35 for something else and... 30 for something else, and we don't know about it. I'm just concerned about moving money around, and we're not aware of what's happening.

Steve, when you use the word notify, that kind of gives us the impression that we don't have anything to do with that expenditure. Is that you making the decision, or are you asking for approval and then making the decision, or both?

But that's come before this body. Yeah, we voted on that.

Yeah, we talked about that at the last council meeting.

This is what I'm trying to understand in the example you just gave. When they move the money to the other project... that arguably increases the budget for that project, and we didn't know about that. Or am I missing something?

If I'm not mistaken, year after year we run surpluses. We don't take that into consideration for the following year. We go ahead and ask for what we need for the following year, not reducing it by the surplus from the previous year.

Yeah. I guess the last 11 years I've dismissed it all.

But going back to the resurfacing of the village green curbs, if I'm not mistaken, when this came up originally, That's $65,000. I think Todd said last meeting. We had some money from that because, oh, maybe it wasn't for that. That was for the artificial turf. We had money left over from St. Agnes. Was that for the artificial turf? That we were using now for something else.

So Todd, so we had, let's just use some numbers. We had $300,000. You had a 10% contingency, gave you another $30,000. You didn't spend the $30,000, so the $30,000 is available to put towards. On that project, we didn't spend any of the contingency, zero. I'm just using an example. So that $30,000 is therefore sitting available in some account that Benjamin knows where it is. And you're taking those funds, and we're using parts of those funds to fund the $65,000 repair for the rubber bumpers for the park, basically.

I think Nancy's trying to understand the accounting part of it.

Maybe, Benjamin, you can explain it to people. Because I'm confused a little bit, too.

So it's a bit so Benjamin How do we know that you're that we're accountable for the money that's being spent specifically that's been allocated to that particular project So if there's an overage Are we informed that the overage occurred before it occurs? So if the project is, let's say a project's budgeted for $300,000, it's now running at 280. We know there's going to be an additional 40,000 because of a change order or something or some issue. How is the council being informed of that fact?

This is Jeremy's project where they redid it.

Equipment for the new park project you could probably do that without coming to so the council for some reason if there was an overage Excuse me You had money available Could you you could theoretically take that money and apply it to that particular project without having to come to council for approval? The contract would stop to come for approval the budget amendment portion would not correct.

Okay. Thank you Okay On 9A. Another question. Another question. Go ahead.

Looking at the 600,000, there's three items, AT&T, Design 1, 8, and Comcast. Have we decided definitely that we want to definitely underground at this point in time the cable and the telephone? I mean, I don't know. I mean, I know we say go forward with the whole thing, but do we include that or are we holding off on that?

Well, I think that we're working to try to get around that. The manager and Mr. Bracken, do you want to elucidate on that?

The only reason I'm bringing it up is because first I thought we approved it all, and then I thought there was a big discussion on maybe going forward with the electric but holding back on the Comcast and the telephone.

We did have that discussion, and it was kind of, It was kind of not dismissed, but it was just not taken up because of the variety of reasons that were discussed that night. But then my understanding is even though that we didn't push forward on it or agree to pursue that further that night, You all did undertake looking into that to see if it really is possible, and if so, whether we would be saving able to.

So, I mean, the Section 8 is $150,000, which is not an inconsequential amount of money. but it's not like doing phase one, for example. And we're so far down the road that I think the idea is to continue that process. That's what I'm asking. Okay. And I think the other 250 is really just sitting there as a holding number. That was my question.

I don't understand the other 250, though. It's Zone 1.

It's Zone 8. No, 250. Excuse me, Zone 1. Zone 1.

And I know I asked you this, but I still don't understand it, so I just want to clarify.

So can I just ask a question so that you know where I'm confused? Absolutely. Good evening, Council. I thought that we were done with all design for Zone 1, which would have meant that the undergrounding was included in that. And we budgeted for that in terms of design. Yes. I'm confused why we need more money now.

Didn't we already pay them something toward that?

Okay, I thought we paid them $100,000. I got that number from somewhere.

So, Mike, just to be clear, we gave them an upfront payment of $9,000. That's correct. They proceeded to do a design that, what was the equivalent number for Comcast roughly in the same space? Just so we have a comparable.

So Comcast was able to design the complete job for $20,000? And they're asking, and AT&T is asking for $250,000 for a similar type of work? Yes.

So that's where these business models do not align.

I mean, it seems a little almost litigious. I mean, you don't proceed and send somebody a bill for $200,000 or do a $9,000 payment without at least some email approval process. And we have nothing?

But that business model that they have does not work under our- So we have a gun to our head for the 250, basically.

So at the end of the day, not sure we need to move 250,000.

So just to be clear, all we're doing is allocating to move the money from the designated account into the operating account, to the capital account. Thanks.

And it can be moved and not spent. Exactly, and moved back. All right.

No, let's have that conversation now. We've moved in a different direction, and this is the way to get us going in that direction. And we can talk about it if there's something we don't like, but this is what we agreed on. So the matter is moving past.

I think all the prices he has are more than adequate to cover everything.

But this is just moving money again. This is not spending money. Correct.

Let me ask a question. Aren't we about to head into another budget process so is there really a need well is there a need to do this amendment now considering we're about to do a new budget and we're not gonna be spending this money anyway I'm proposing you do spend this money part of the money but we're not making that decision tonight okay okay we're drafting the

I thought we already had quotes for the CCTV. We do.

Wait, wait, wait a second. I didn't hear what you said about CCTV.

I thought we had, we were already moving forward with that in the time. So we have to put money in the account to pay for it.

But I thought we were actively had already. We have to pay. No, but I'm not saying that. I'm saying we got quotes. I thought we were already doing the work.

She's not even there yet. What are you talking about?

I've been asking for this. I'm sorry. The many ad hoc committees have been requesting reports on the CCTV and I've been getting a good hand wave apparently because I'm not really, I thought this work was already being done.

Okay, but Fernando, remember we have to get past April 22nd in order to commit on a bigger scale.

I agree, Mayor, and I'm not questioning the technicalities of the shifting of the funds. I'm talking about actual activity. I'm talking about a lot of discussions being held at the ad hoc committee with a sense that this thing was actually in place being done so we could have a report which constituted everything that we were doing. So I'm surprised, honestly. And again, it goes back to getting a hand wave. Everything's fine.

We were waiting for the decision of April 22nd. Listen to the tapes. I keep on asking over and over again. And again, I'm being told, yep, yep, it's being done. Or, you know, that's what I get. So again, anyway.

Thank you. All right. On the further discussion on the budget movement of funds.

I don't understand how the... at least on sub-C of paragraph 7, how that parking is going to work.

It's like a special event permit, so what?

Why can't they? They've been there for how many years? Why can't they just be grandfathered in?

Yes, it is. You're asking for somebody who's going to be in charge. Who's in charge now? The church owns the property. They're in charge.

It is a problem. It won't get any better when you have regulations. People just won't come.

councilman and you heard from the church that she came in and spoke today you know we've spoken to her and we plan to work with them further between this time and the next council meeting to make sure that we can ask her if you really want to have an ordinance were you happy to do things the way you're doing them did you ask him that or did you say here's the ordinance what do you think of it we're working with the council member you heard what she said do you want another one to possibly exist Listen, my point being is, if there's a demand for something, and people want to support it, and it'

So the next one that comes, they can do whatever they want.

Of course. Well, how would you stop them when you didn't stop these people for 10 years? Why would you stop somebody else? Say they want to go into the Presbyterian church.

Right, right. Jeremy, I'm more concerned not so much about this process. I'm concerned about the parking as it exists now. I mean, there are several residents who live on that street. They're complaining routinely that people are parking in front of their driveways, their parking, sort of all over the place. And that doesn't seem that this is going to be addressed. That seemed like that's a police issue that the police need to be enforcing on that area or put a policeman there or something. I mean, I don't throw the police under the bus here. That's not my intention. But the idea is that we kn

It's not legal to park all over the swales and stop traffic.

That's kind of the problem, right? So if we tell them they can't park there, then that restricts usage of the farmer's market and just encourages people from coming.

I think we're confusing. They don't put cones in front of people's houses. No, no.

Chairman, I don't mean to be insulting, but have you been to the farmer's market recently on a busy day? Yeah, it's overwhelmed because nobody pays attention to the cones. Golf carts are everywhere. It's a challenge. It's a challenge.

It is first reading, and I have a couple of my own ideas about how to solve what seems to be an insurmountable traffic problem, which I will ask you and the chief about, but it's first reading.

Looks like we got some things to work out here. Okay.

Go for me. Is there any reason why we just wouldn't defer it then. I don't mind teeing it up, but this needs a lot of work.

Public hearing is now open on this ordinance. Public hearing is now closed.

Moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Item is properly before us.

Questions? So procedurally, Colleen, do we require a bond for this level work from the contractor? This is a question. Yes. So they do provide a bond? Yes.

The boardwalk is staying? Just being repaired?

Does this include time locks on the bathroom doors?

I've been asking for this for how many years, Steve? Council Member, we will get you time off. You told me that before, over and over again. I'm promising you right now, I've been waiting for this moment. And then the other thing is, I've also asked over and over again, are we going to get a beam across the property so that people don't come off the beach? That's another thing you said. That was explored and it was not deemed. And you know what? I keep doing this, come to the meeting, but nothing ever happens. A beam? A beam. What's a beam? A security beam, like an infrared beam that goes acro

We didn't say it's going to stop them. I understand. The idea was to, lights go off and the alarm goes off and say you're trespassing.

I can just hear the people on Ocean Club. They don't like that alarm going off.

So in other words, the people here are looking at it all the time. So if they see somebody go across there, they have voice communication there, and they then say, hey, we see you there?

So how do we respond? Is there a policeman out there? Wouldn't it be much easier just to say, you're trespassing, get off the property?

It seems to me, and I know this has come up before, I don't know why we haven't been able to do it. It seems to me that we would have much less trouble if we had automatic locks and gates on the public access that We're automatically locked at whatever time the beaches are supposed to be closed. I don't know if it's sunset or 10 o'clock, whatever it is, because I live there, and I see who's going back and forth at all hours of the night.

They do, but people are coming. And using those access. It's a lot harder if you have to enter in Crandon and schlep all the way down. But if you can park there, walk in, bring your whole party and your bonfires and the whole nine.

Right, but right next door you have the other access that's, you know. Understood.

So Nancy, you're talking about the fact they go on the north side of the beach club, come around in front of the beach club, go in the beach club and steal the furniture, and then go around and go to the park.

And they go to the beach park. They trespass in a lot of places, but they do have access to the beach park. And it occurs to me that if all of them had an automatic lock, that would stop their late night, early morning hour activity. That's dangerous. It really is dangerous. The sands access path I think no the Beach Park is ours, but I don't know what Authority we have I know the beach is closed at a certain hour We are required to provide access to the beach during its date hours of operations.

We have more than one. How many accesses do we have? I think four or three, and a new one's going in?

Well, I think we should really think about doing that. I know it's been brought up before. I don't know why we haven't done it, but I think that would go a long way to protecting the beach park from people going in there having parties.

Chief, you said that the reduction in hooliganism, so to speak, for lack of a better term, has dramatically decreased. Dramatically means numbers-wise.

They have to be there for a while before they start the bonfire. So obviously no one's monitoring the cameras.

But I know in the beach club they have people entering the access and coming around and barbecuing as... Those were members. I know, but... I get it. Maybe that call was members, but there are people who aren't members because I've seen it and I've called in. At any rate I really think if I don't really see what the big deal is if if we put up gates at least those two access points that I Don't even care if they close at 10 o'clock, but they should close at some hour I apologize for neglecting to tell you but yes, we talked the Corps of Engineers couple months ago They they agreed that we can do it as long as we kept it open during the hours of operation Which is daylight and if that's the will of the council we can

I thought we said that the situation was we were keeping the beach park open until 10 o'clock. I thought that was the new rule.

Yes, so we're talking about the same idea that is to put one on the north side of the beach club and the south gate.

I don't know if it's appropriate to make a motion at this point.

I have one more question before that. I'll take a motion, but can I add a question? On this? Yes, sir. Go ahead. It's related more on CFP. Thank you. I'm worried. I notice we've taken not the lowest bidder. That's fine if we think they're responsive, but I did notice that they are six years of experience. Whereas the other one, who's the lowest bidder, has 21 years of experience. And the third one came out a little higher, obviously, at nine years. So why did we take the one with the lowest experience?

Did that come in as a formal writing evaluation in the write-up?

Did you get a formal note that they didn't perform such a great job and maybe a lower rank? And was it germane to the work that they're doing? Yes. Yes, yes. The due diligence process, that came up. Sometimes you just make it a bad thing, you build a road, but he's doing a beach park, so what gives?

All right. Well, thank you for that explanation. Thank you.

Okay. One last thing. Is there a line item budget to maintain it so that we don't get this far down in the erosion process?

So if this is an $800,000 renovation approximately, are we setting aside 10% of that money on an annualized basis to maintain this asset, or how are we doing that?

It's been something that wasn't... My point, Steve, was that we're allocating money to maintain the asset, not just build it new and then not take care of it.

It's okay. Mr. Mayor, before we take a vote, because I know it's imminent, can we either, as part of this, amend this, or simply ask direct the manager to get quotes on erecting gates with timers, and we can decide on the details of the timing of the locking later on and how to proceed. But with a time frame, like in, I don't know, a month or two months, but somehow... And time locks on the bathrooms.

Yes. I don't think we don't have to do sundown. If the beach park is open to 10, I don't think we have to. We can have that discussion later.

Just to be clear, Madam Attorney, is this can be included as part of the ordinance or we do this separately?

Anything in here that we need to hear right away?

All right, let's do number three, four, and nine.

I'm sorry, to see if the current grants are transferable?

He can touch in on number nine. When we talk the automatic aid agreement? Yes. Okay.

Yeah, I just want to express a little concern. I don't feel like the sustainability group feels like they have been getting a lot of interaction with your team. So I think there's a bit of a disjunct there. I actually just received an email today that we got from the head of the Sustainability Committee. I apologize. I wasn't here due to a family reason on the last meeting. Actually, the last meeting, It didn't even happen because the person that's in charge, the engineer that's supposed to be there, didn't actually show up and open up the room. So there's some real communication challenges th

I think if you reached out to Derek, that would be appreciated.

Okay. Oh, you're the staff liaison? Yes. Okay.

Great. I think, Benjamin, if you reached out to him, I think it would be a good idea. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thanks, Joe.

Could you explain a little bit more about the contract, Chief? Sure. Just a little bit more what it means, maintenance of vehicles and things like that.

So we can pony up on their ability to buy goods and services based on their purchasing agreement type of things?

But this is more than just purchasing. This is responding to calls. When we respond to calls, they come and they back in. Yes.

The helicopter aid program that we went to visit is part of that agreement, correct? Could you repeat that? The helicopter agreement that we went on that demo. No, that's Miami-Dade.

On the equipment issues, this is a real pain in the neck, right?

So are you suggesting that we put our order in sooner than we would have originally done that?

Has anyone looked at sourcing outside into Canada or outside into Europe for vehicles? I understand there's a compatibility issue probably with equipment.

Curious, in a year's time, how often the truck actually does something?

I'm just curious that how many times does it go and actually pumps water?

The reason I'm saying that because you said it's typically a 12 year life and that's typical for the industry as a whole not for Key Biscayne. So my question is how do we compare the use of that kind of truck versus the industry as a whole, that's all.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's do Mr. Vasquez. Thank you, Mayor.

And the second one, too. Yeah, that's fine. You want to read it?

You all recall at least five of us here were at quite a momentous location back in May 2023 when we approved this plan here, right? I forward it to everybody to review. This plan It was a highly debated plan. It was just to remind everybody. It was prepared by previous members of the village council, residents of this community. It was debated by the community. I remember when the room was, I remember May 23 when we voted for this, the room was more full than I've seen it before. It made the GIT thing look like a funeral because it was packed. And everybody had their respective positions. But

Let me ask you a question, if I may. Sure. We have only two years on here.

I want to ask you about this vision plan. How does this work with the strategy session that the council does every year I don't know if it's strategy session, but we all sit together and prioritize projects, right? Because it seems to me that this is aspirational, general, and that it's up to the council to direct the manager what we want him to do.

Okay, what I would say, aspirational, if you're looking at it... Are you asking structurally if it's aspirational, or are you asking from a civic duty to the community and from a philosophical standpoint? No, I'm saying structurally. Structurally, it has, we've been conducting projects, we've been doing projects, but we have not been to the degree that the manager has advised us. I don't think we have been. Every project that we approve, we say this is part of the vision plan. This is what we set on the vision plan that we're going to do. There's a big project here, by the way, which I never,

I know. I'm just saying. My question is, that goes to my second question. Are we aligned with, is the administration aligned with the vision? This is policy. This is not just an aspirational plan. This is a policy. We are to move in this direction for the community. This is what the community wants.

I'm not arguing with you. I'm just saying my understanding is now it's up to us because we're going to go down our list of all the things we've prioritized. We're about to do that again in the next either month or couple of months. And that will indicate, that would be the time to look at this

Absolutely, no, I don't expect us to have a workshop at this precise moment. I just think that it's important to, this thing has grown stale as far as I'm concerned, as far as the community is concerned. I don't think we discuss this vision plan. I don't think we bring it out to light. I think there's just a lot of people wondering, what are we doing? And that's what really concerns me because the residents are, in my opinion, what I read and what I listen to is that we lost our way somewhere. We lost our, we did. I mean, technically, when we move forward with a massive project and the communi

Bernardo, just as a question, we have short-term goals and long-term goals, right? Yes. And I would agree with you that we got pretty hyper-focused on some goals, right? Yeah. Okay, because we had a challenge. I agree with you that this should be part of that discussion that we do with the off-site meeting or whatever we want to call it. We should dedicate some time towards looking long-term.

I would ask, and this is not something, I don't think I caught anybody by surprise on this. I forwarded this two weeks ago. I forwarded this little report that I try to do on things for everybody to see ahead of time. and to discuss, I wasn't expecting to really make any decisions tonight, but I would like us to get back on track. I don't know whether we're following council's vision, which was the community's vision, or we're following the administration's vision. I don't know, I don't really understand what the alignment is there yet. That's why I think it's important that the administration

Yeah, I'm hearing. But there is an implementation matrix that the plan developed.

Yeah, I would ask that we make it the main, one of the main components of the agenda in our discussion and how aligned we are to this plan. And I want to bring the administration and everybody in the same course of action. and advise the community. We should be having workshops of this. We should be calling out the members of the community and telling them or reporting to the community how close, how far we are from the vision that they wanted us to adopt and make policy out of that.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm not questioning that. I guess what I'm trying to bring up is, I guess I'll ask the question, are we aligned with this plan? Can everybody say at this precise moment that you feel comfortable that we are aligned with the vision of this community with the work that we're doing?

I don't personally have any problem with council reviewing this, amending it, seeing if we veered off and maybe we want to get back on track or we want to go in a little different direction. I don't have any problem with that at all. My only question was, what that has to do with the manager at this point. That was just my question, because it seems to me that this was for us to steer. This was a vision, and then we need to figure out what we want to do and what the action items were on it, and then tell the manager what to do. That's my only...

Well, I understand. I see it differently because I see that it was an adopted vision. And I know the manager and the administration participated in these meetings. So and it had a matrix and implementation matrix. And although we have done some progress and they move forward with them, the cost that's been allocated, the budgets that have been allocated. I don't know if they're balanced with that vision. I also don't know if technically we are really following the philosophy of this vision. And if we're reporting that back to council, it's been three years. I haven't heard a beep about this. I

I think that I ran the on a vision and that vision I pursued very hard over the last 3 and a half years and I will pursue it until the very last day that I'm up here. And I think it's a vision that shared on this day is. Okay, we wanna do something about Rickenbacker Causeway. We wanna do something about flooding. We wanna do something about sports fields and go on down the line. I've been working on that for the last three and a half years. And I've been telling the administration, this is the direction that we all agree to. And every project that we follow has that direction in mind. And the

Absolutely, Mayor. And I'm not suggesting that anyone here has not really thought of the best interests of this community whatsoever moving forward with the right projects. All I'm asking is that we, I think we need to just understand where we're at with it. That's all. I mean, how far, how close we are. That I just need to get some operational mechanics on how we're moving forward with this thing. You want a progress report? Yes, of course. I want to gain the confidence of the community that we're moving in the right direction.

And I'll remind you that politics is the art of the possible, okay? And that's what we do up here all the time. We try to move this way or that way depending on where we feel that our electorate is. And it's just not that simple, okay? We just can't tell businesses, go ahead and put that second floor so that you can walk across each of our commercial areas.

Right. I do have one specific question, and I hope that next time we talk about it, I really want to talk about that entrance. I don't know what happened with the entrance, the circle, the traffic circle, remember that? And the entrance coming around, we have not discussed that. It's not been funded. I really would like to have a discussion about that on the status of it.

Yeah. Please read about it. But anyway, I'll leave it at that. I don't want to hand wave. I'm going to keep pushing on this one, so I want to see it implemented.

And that is basically, we have the AECOM master plan. We're now going to the GIT. And that's basically, they had the EAC, which a lot of it was very similar to what we're doing. They probably had different injection wells. But I understand that is necessary to go forward. So all I'm saying is direct the management to go forward with it, either if they either have GIT do it, or if it's not legally possible to change their scope of work, then go ahead and advertise for a new vendor. Something simple, should be not very expensive, but it has to be done.

But I think I have a question. When you say it would have to be updated to how you envision that?

Because right now we have the plan for Zone 1, so basically update it for Zone 1. That's all I'm saying.

Okay, so just update the AC master plan for that time. That's it.

But what we... Ed, why can't we just move forward with the... Yeah, I mean, it's something we should do, because basically my next thing, go to my number two.

Ed, can I ask a question? Yeah. I'm a little confused, but when you say the 2015 EAC master plan that reflects the GIT changes, why wouldn't we just take the work that we just did with GIT and take it to the 30% drawing level?

This is not the... This is not the, what do you call it, the bid package for 30-sit design build. This is just the plan.

This is the holistic for the whole island. Okay, got it. Okay, I understand. That's all. Thank you.

So what I'm proposing is that we move forward with one injection well right away for the school, which is our biggest problem, and get something moving, getting something done. In order to do that, while we do anything else as far as the bid package, you've got to get a geotech, drill a hole, make a report where they're going to put the well in. So what I'm saying is, while we're going to provide bid packages, in the meantime, get this done. Not wait until we get the bid package and then do it afterwards.

I have a question to the attorneys. Would this be considered, I mean, given the excessive flood conditions of the school, would this be considered an emergency contract? Could this go under? Because we want to get it done. We're in hurricane season. We've been debating back and forth on the big day. I'm wondering if under what Council Member Lennon is bringing up, Clearly could qualify as an emergency condition and get it done in an emergency Steve has bids already from a couple different drillers.

You told me no, but I'm talking about the installation of the pump It's really two different things we got to get this done before we have the bid package done So it falls under an emergency. Oh, yeah, but I'm just saying get this not to confuse things, just go forward with this thing, with this drilling thing, which should be no more than $50,000.

I'm talking about this is strictly for the school. for one shallow injection well at the school. That's what I'm saying.

I'm saying right now we go forward with one thing for the school, get the thing moving, yes.

You mean while we're doing all the other...

We start today, get the bid package done for the school. You get the thing done, it's also a test of concept. Then we really know what we're going forward for the other five wells, if we've made any problems, if we need any changes, what the costs are, how we can be more efficient. And since the school is the biggest problem, that's why I'm suggesting that we do that first.

ed are we talking about doing this simultaneously with the current um money that we just approved for that's with the recommendation that will be coming out of the money we just approved from the that we just moved into the budget so steve you feel like we can break out the 250 and do the got just a single 250.

Yeah, but I'm just saying, we're talking about one well, probably closer to $50,000. He's just asking.

I want to get the thing done and moving as quickly as possible.

Under that particular condition, and that's why I was suggesting an emergency approach to it to handle it before hurricane season, but that would also include the assessment. Well, I think it fits because obviously we want the kids, we're tired of having that place all the time. It's about time. I don't know what they call the emergency.

Normally we go into an injection well by inlets and pipes, yes.

Of course there's transmission. There's pipes there that we're going to utilize our existing piping system to pipe the water into this.

The question is, do we know? I can't tell you that until I do the design drawings.

He wants to move forward with the issue of the school. And I'm suggesting the only way they can be done quickly enough, I think, would be under an emergency contract.

Is there a way to prioritize the school in the, the package to say you know what we're we're going to do the whole package and then prior prioritize the school as the primary part of that package you're saying basically saying you got six things but this do number one and give us that before you go any further anything else yeah that's the idea is that what you're saying yes sir that's what we had already said no it is i don't think it is what we had before i mean the idea was to do the

Well, you see, my number three is my number three.

So again, to get the thing done as quickly as possible.

And so the whole thing is all together to do one well or one injection well as quickly as possible.

Okay. That's why I'm saying, I mean, there's a track to get there. And I think that the standard progressive design build process is going to take longer than what you actually want to have. I'm telling you. It'll be likely longer. So which way should we go? I am only saying that if it's a condition that warrants it because of the flood extent in that area, I think it could be procured as an emergency package. I think. I'm asking. That's what I want to know from the attorney. That would be the case. I don't want to put you on the spot.

I'm not trying to cut. I want to be specific. I'm not trying to cut corners in anything. I mean, engineering is engineering. Construction is construction. It has to be done. It has to be done right. But what worries me is the procurement process. And at this point, if we need to do something that hurricane season is coming up, is there a way to do all of that with an emergency approach?

School zone that's been floating for a while. Anyway, I get you.

Georgio said he can do the thing in two months to do the school thing. The 30% design. Basically, he's at 10% now. To go to 30% takes two months.

He's saying to you that he can do the design work in two months. Forget the procurement conversation.

Not for the whole thing, but for... And it'll cost $50,000?

I should divulge it, because basically, if you put it out to bid, you won't be able to know.

No, he talked about $50,000 for the technical work. Oh, right. Take the 250 subdivided into the 560.

I don't know how you guys feel about going forward with Zone 1. That's where really discussion is right now. Not Zone 1 with the schools being number one individually and moving forward rather than trying to put the package together for everything.

I feel good about it. I think we need to move.

I thought that that was one of the reasons we wanted to go with this.

Or something to consider. Go ahead and do this for someone. That's what we're really coming to.

My question, my only question is does it fit within the procurement framework of having a consultant hired to do a conceptual and then moving into a DCP? That's a legal question. I'm all for moving forward. I'm all for getting it done. I'm even suggesting an emergency contract. I just want to know that we're doing the right thing from a procurement standpoint.

Yeah, we need to make sure that we're doing it correctly. That's all.

So I don't know if we're pushing the envelope or not.

Well, there's not a motion. It's a discussion. I mean, discussion. If you all agree, then the manager will do it.

I'm good. I think we should move forward to try to prioritize the school.

If I don't want to do it, let's put it that way.

Would it be acceptable to instruct the manager to see if we can do the phase design as fast as possible and prioritize phase one? Phase the school as school is the priority? Is that a reasonable question to find out how fast we can do that?

I just want to know if that meets Ed's needs. I'm sorry.

Wait a second. Not the design, but for what?

That's normally their timeline. So these are money that we actually have at hand, or this is grants that we're having to apply for?

But would it be quicker rather than trying to figure out how to get the whole thing done as a group, get the one thing done and move forward?

I'm okay with either. But I don't want to do it to the detriment of... Oh, no, me neither. Okay. No, of course not.

But can't we be proceeding on the school injection while we are continuing the... The rest of it? I don't think we have to do one, finish one, and then wait until it's done to do the next one. No.

But you don't want to do something twice if you don't have to, right?

I talked to him the other day. He's for this 100%.

I guess there's a new way of running a city, you know.

So what are we doing? Guys, are we going to proceed and move forward with trying to get this expedited?

Well, let's say that let's have the manager look into and see if there are any red flags or any problems so that we can make a better decision, right?

Are we asking him to look into design criteria for all? with the ability to proceed on one ASAP? Is that what the direction is?

But we're doing that with Garden District, too.

The estimate's two months for one zone, eight months for all the zones. Or construction? No, design package, 30%.

That's why, okay, before we say that, let me just, I think that I'm inclining more towards an emergency type of structure because it addresses one specific component, which is the school flooding. I understand the administration's concern of looking at the whole thing, making sure that it works on the level of service, I am looking at the framework of something that needs to be done right away because the kids need to get flooded. I've even taken my own daughter, I said before, carried her to school. We're done with that. We need to fix that. So I think that we need to kind of change. If we're

Are you okay with two design criteria packages?

I don't really see the real difference, Mayor. The only thing where I see where the needle moves is more on the mobilization of the contractor. Obviously we get better economies of scale, if we get one contractor that does the six pump stations. In this particular case, I think that the cost will generate far better returns when we get that area dry for the kids. So I think I'm not, I am obviously fiscally concerned that we may have an additional mobilization cost, an additional contractor, but I'm not civically concerned because I think that we'll do a great favor to that place that's been fl

Is there a... You get a small contractors bidding on one or two wells who might not have the financial backing or the bonding capacity to build on six wells, you might get a better price doing it this way.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't think we should... I don't know that that's hypothetics and that's what gets us in trouble, but let's take care of the school. Let's do it. Let's get that moving and let's take care of the rest.

Can somebody format a procedure that we can actually direct the manager with that's consistent?

Well, I'm with procedures that basically determine from Chad whether we can use GIT to change his work order to do 30% from this 10% I got now, or we have to advertise and get somebody else to do it.

Okay. But then how do we utilize Fernando's thought?

You know it's 10%? Yeah, that's what he told me.

Well, That's neither here or there right now. We need to get a handle on this conversation here of having procurement do a very difficult thing, is we're going to separate part of an item in order to try to get some advantage to move one faster than the other. We really need to understand what this means. And we're not sure about the emergency provision of it. We're not sure about whether or not GIT could keep going on this. So let's get those answers before we make a huge leap that requires us to go through this process.

Yeah, and maybe there's a way to use Fernando's idea to use some emergency process.

Like I said, if we can just separate the school. I don't know why, but I get a hunch that if we can legally, I mean, the area gets flooded, the kids need to get to school. I don't know what the, you know, I let the attorneys figure that out, but I asked for a legal framework to understand whether we can do that so we solve that problem for once and for all. Then we take care of the rest that we need to do. Clearly, we're moving in a different direction, but let's be responsible about the kids. Let's take care of that now. That's all I put on the table.

So what are we doing? We're instructing the manager to look into this and get back to us.

That's my opinion on how you all feel. I don't share a discussion. I don't share that opinion. So you feel good about not knowing about the trees a year ago?

Don't you think a major thing affecting... Do you know how many trees GIT is going to affect? Sorry?

Let's get back to it. Can we talk about the economics of the conversation for a second? I think there's a conversation about maybe... I'm not, let's forget whether we've used Black & Beach or not, but should we be discussing bringing on some of our own team members instead of using outsourced people? That's what I'm going to say. I think there's a, I think that may be a conversation that we should be considering, and I think maybe that's something the manager should come back to us with, but maybe we should be looking at the possibility of having our own house people versus having outhouse peo And bringing this in inside the village first.

Cities at start, this is a common, I want everybody to know, this is a common transition. Sometimes villages, in the past we didn't engage in a lot of infrastructure. Now we're engaging in infrastructure. It makes sense to have a city engineer or a village engineer on board. Not to say that we don't have a great public works department. We do, but we do need somebody that's a register P that can actually understand the infrastructure of the city and plan accordingly. There's nothing wrong with that. Let's look into it.

Manager, I think the direction of the board is for you to look into it, come back to us, and show us The pluses and the minus of doing it that way.

that doesn't take away the fact that we are running large programs. So please bear that in mind. The fact, I mean, I don't think one thing eliminates the other. If we are committed by our vision plan and by other elements to run and to have infrastructure develop in the city, I think it's important to think from a programmatic standpoint. And that's why I think that having a program manager is nothing wrong to have that. I think it's important, I think it makes sense. I think it also makes sense to have an engineer on board the city that speaks and plans in the best interest of the vision of t

A couple of other things. We need to discuss the strategy session. Everybody, Madam Clerk, was okay except for one of our members. For either June 1st or June 5th or 4th, is that what we're looking at?

Those plans are paid for already. We can't talk about the vision plan if you're not there. I agree, but can we do it in, I'm not back until July, so I mean.

Can we fast track it to the last week of May? Are you still here?

From the 26th to the 30th, I'm off. I can do June, early June, but I can't do late May.

I'm back June 6th. I'm not here. Frank, I leave on the 27th, and I'm back on the 1st of July. 27th of May out back on the 1st of July.

I understand, I understand, but we have some, we have two members that will be out of pocket.

Is it two days? Could we do it on the 25th? Memorial Day.

7th? How's the 7th? The 7th. How about the 7th? Tuesday the 7th. What day is the 4th?

Saturday. The 7th is a Tuesday. The 7th, July 7th. I think that's good.

Okay, everybody good? July 7th. All right, tentatively, let's put July 7th. Please send that out, Madam Clerk. All day, so 8.30 to 6.

I just want to, I have like two seconds, but I do want to bring it up.

Hold on a second. I need to... I'm going to add two people to the art and public places board. One is, uh, Dominique, uh, Breard and the second is Carlos Coto. Let me say July 7th of a consensus of council.

Um, but that's, that's my recommendation. I, I, I heard the, the, the conversation, but I, I want to add him instead of one of the other people.

I'm just concerned that we're all on the same page and that we realize that in light of the reduction in the amount of what FEMA is offering us, that we are going to be spending more on Zone 8 than we expected because originally, We were expecting 90%. We were going to do 10%. And I think we might have thrown in some might-as-wells because there may have been some extra costs in there. So I'm concerned that we're not really paying attention to the fact that now we have to cover 40%, 50%? I think they're coming up with 45% instead of 90%.

Well, what is it going to... That's approximately 55%. It's going to cost us well more than what we originally thought, and I'm not saying we shouldn't do it. I just think that we need to go over that and make sure that we're aware that it's costing that and approve that instead of just... And I don't know... I'm not sure what the plan is, whether this was going to be an agenda item at some point, but... We're not paying attention to that as far as I know, and I want to make sure we're all on the same page about that.

It's a brand new thing that's come out. Right. Yeah.

Well, it was the original budget was far less because they started it in 2019, I think, and then it slowly creeped up to approximately $13 million.

Can we do an enterprise thing for GO bonds? StormStore is an enterprise business, right? Yes. So my point is, do GO bonds, can they apply to an enterprise business?

There's no restriction on the GOB bonds?

That's how the storm store enterprise. Yes. So I'm asking, how can we do the GOP bonds for enterprise?

Yeah. The conversation is, if it's a stormwater piece of hardware, why doesn't it fall under the stormwater fee? Why does it go to the GOP bond?

I don't understand. Think about Oscar, right?

It's a much lower interest rate. It's a 20-year bond, correct? And a much lower interest rate.

Also, if we're doing the work there in the condominium district, okay, and that if we're doing the same mechanism for fee-based work in the single-family-owned basis, we should probably be doing the same mechanism for payment of that. Yeah, I understand that. I just wasn't clear on that. I'm just asking if that's reality or possibility.

Okay. And my last issue, question on this issue is... I thought that we knew we had 90%. I understand the cost went up. I thought we knew we had 90%.

This is a federal decision. They've decided that they're not going to do 90%.

So they gave us the grant, and then they said we've changed our mind, or they never actually gave us the grant?

Anything else for the good of the order? Move to adjourn. I have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. We're adjourned.