Village Council - Regular Meeting

We are here today for our hybrid emergency special council meeting today, Thursday, July 23rd. And we're starting just a minute late. Oh, actually, we're right on time, 5 p.m. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll?

Wonderful. With that, I'll turn it over to Council Member Fiore for invocation.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, if we could all bow our heads in prayer. Tonight's reading is from Deuteronomy 31, verse 12. Gather the people together, men and women and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of his law. Amen.

Wonderful. At this time, we'll take request petitions and public comments. I know there's only two people in the audience, but this would be the time for comments not related to anything to tonight's agenda, but something you might like to share with us. And seeing none, we will move into resolutions. I understand we have an additional resolution. Everybody should have that in front of you. Hopefully you've had the opportunity to take a quick look. And if I could get somebody to move it to the agenda.

Anyone opposed? All right, very good. Okay, so 4-1. So this item will be Resolution 3B on tonight's agenda. For the people that are in the audience, there's copies of it over there. It's related to 87th Avenue. Oops. Just throwing in some sound effects. Okay, so would somebody move item 3A? Move it. Is there a second? Second. Madam Clerk, can you please read the item?

Thank you. This would be the time for public comment for this particular item. That's you, Charles. That's okay. There's a little button there you have to push, but the clerk's going to run over and... IT's going to help you out. We should put a little red dot on it, by the way.

Thank you. Thanks for coming down, and thanks for your service to the community. Any other comments? All right. With that, Vice Mayor, it's all yours.

Thank you. I want to start by thanking our village clerk and village attorney because I texted them yesterday at around six o'clock with this and they jumped right on it. So thank you to both of you for jumping on this and being willing to work with me and notice this and get this ready for the meeting and also to the rest of the council for agreeing to this because I think this is a matter of incredible importance to our village because We are home to quite a few Haitians in our community, and currently the country of Haiti is under a level four State Department travel advisory. And for those

to put this out there and ask for your support and once again thank you very much very good uh i see we have a um a list of um okay i say you're gonna probably uh okay uh questions first for the vice mayor all right then comments or motions

I'll move the first amendment that's printed here.

I'll second. Is there any discussion on what's been moved and seconded? Any questions, discussion on that? Okay, then all those in favor of the proposed amendment number one? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Opposed? Okay, so the first amendment, and Madam Clerk, you've got a copy of it, correct? Correct. Okay, so the First Amendment passes 4-1. And then, you want to move the Second? Yeah, move the Second Amendment. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or discussion? All right, hearing none. All those in favor of Proposed Amendment Motion No. 2? Aye. Anyone opposed? Opp

Uh, well, yes. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Mayor. First, I want to thank the vice mayor for bringing this forward. Obviously I've said this before. It's very personal to me. My wife is Haitian American and, uh, I'm happy to hear that our three Congress people in the area did support this. I didn't know that. And my understanding from today is that there was a judge that extended this a few more days, I believe, till July 27th. I hope our senators do the right thing. They probably won't. They do what they're told. I'm making opinions here, so that's all it is. Um, there was a senator today from the

Thank you. Are there other comments? I'm so sorry. Council Member Cody, go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just looking back two years during the past presidential campaign, we saw a continuing cavalcade of racism aimed at the Haitian community. I don't know if you recall, but the man who would go on to become elected for a second term, used the phrase, they're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats. And he said that about Haitians. It wasn't true. There was no evidence of that. But it was an appeal to racism. And the racism continues. And as my colleague to My left pointed out Haiti is a failed state. And to send people back there right now puts every one of them in extre

Anyone else want to be a co-sponsor as well?

Yeah, I was going to ask, so I think you'll have everybody, it looks like. Perfect. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes.

Yeah, I also, since the mayor's office is here, I also wanted to point out that her office has been working on this issue, and I wanted to say thank you. So that's all.

All right. Thank you, Mia. If I didn't, I think I mentioned at the beginning, but Mia Devane is here tonight from Mayor Daniela Levinkova's office. Thank you for joining us. Anything else? All right. Then all those in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. Item passes 5-0. And Charles, normally I don't call people out in the audience, but You know, it's very cool. You've never come, at least that I've seen, I've been here for more than a minute, never come to a meeting before, but you felt so passionate about this that you chose to leave your home and come over this evening. So I just want to

Okay, sure. Is this on the item we just passed?

Okay, would somebody move it? With that language, it's been moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Anyone opposed? All right. Madam Clerk, can you read the item?

Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Councilmember Fiore. If I could, though, at some point, Councilmember, we had a meeting today. Ms. Devane was part of the meeting with several directors and staff from public services with Miami-Dade County, to talk about this and other more emergency-type items. So at some point, if you would allow the manager just to give an update on that, I would appreciate it.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I wasn't aware of that when I did the resolution. Thank you. Basically, since we were having this emergency meeting tonight, this is an emergency as far as it affects the life, health, property, and public peace of village residents. Um, you've all received the emails or phone calls as I have concerning already the speeding. It's only been four or five days, I guess, since the bridge opened. And, um, I don't, I know we passed a resolution sponsored by the mayor, our mayor here several months ago, um, for the county to get involved in this. Uh, but the issue I believe is

Are there questions of the manager? Vice Mayor?

Yeah, thank you for that. So by the sounds of it, the county is waiting for school to start and then they're going to do a traffic study and then do implementation of whatever ideas come out from that study.

Sure, and I guess my next question would be, I remember this council approved a 20 mile an hour speed limit, and I'm wondering if we decide to order those signs and implement that in the next fiscal year, I'm wondering if that area can be prioritized for that 20 in the surrounding area so that especially if they start getting cut through, we're already responding to that. I'm wondering if that's a possibility.

Perfect. And the last question is, I know that there's discussion about potentially doing some pop-ups or temporary measures in place in terms of the actual intersections around 87th Avenue. I'm specifically talking about potentially converting some of the four-way stops into mini roundabouts or other improvements that we've done elsewhere in the village with temporary or pop-up materials. I'm wondering if that's part of our consideration, if that's something the county could consider as well.

If I could, and just to piggyback, first of all, Thank you, if you would, Mia, to Mayor Levinkov for putting today's meeting together so quickly. I had reached out to her on Sunday, on Monday with a little more urgency, and so I appreciate that. The manager has actually, and you highlighted it, has been working, well, you've been working with the county forever, but you've also specifically, as it relates to this, have been working with the county. March 23rd was the date of the email that you sent to the staff. I don't know if there was a response, if the commissioner's office responded to tr

Thank you to my colleagues. I want to thank you, Madam Mayor, for taking the personal initiative along with the manager. and the vice mayor also. So again, the point of this resolution really is for expediency because time is a luxury that the residents don't have. So thank you all.

And if you can get it doctored up pretty quick, I can sign it right here and pass it off to Mia before she leaves. I have a pen.

Madam Mayor, I want to thank esteemed city clerk for helping me with this today was done at the last minute on a day that I was working and a million other things going on so I want to want to thank her personally her name is Missy Orocha mr. manager that's what her name is awesome thank you yes vice yes Thank You vice mayor

Yeah, so to your point about making some motions, yeah, I actually just had two based on our conversation. I'd like to make a motion to also request the county include in any studies that they do the consideration of expanding any bike paths and also the repair conditions of the sidewalks on 87th Avenue as well. So that's my motion.

You willing to add appropriate pedestrian crosswalks? Okay. Did you capture all that? That's three additional things. That's your motion. I'll second it. Any questions? All those in favor of the motion? Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? You're right, Missy. Okay. Okay. One more. Yeah, okay.

The next one is based on our conversation with the manager about the quick build projects. I would also just urge the county to implement where feasible quick build projects are.

uh for designs that are available on 87th avenue and around 87th avenue second session all those in favor aye anyone opposed okay still good um okay is there anything else all right then let's vote on this item all those in favor all right anyone opposed all right the item was co-sponsored by all and uh passes five zero uh so we've got we're gonna i'll take a motion to adjourn and for those of you that are watching we'll be back um at six but there will be nothing for you to see because we will move into executive session and then come back out and close the meeting so is there a second second