City Council - Regular Meeting

And we'll take the roll call. Adam Clark.

Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice Mayor Porras.

Okay, agenda order of business. I don't believe we should have any additions or deletions. Okay, being none, we'll move into public comments. I'll now open the public comments portion of this meeting. If you would like to address this council, please approach the podium. You have three minutes to speak in a respectful manner. We have comment cards. I will go ahead and take the first comment card that we have, which is Mr. Richard Gladstadt.

Richard, thank you for your comments. Please, let's be more respectful next time. Otherwise, we will not be taking comments. Especially with expletives. Thank you. Any other comments at this time? Any other comments? Okay. Public comments is now closed. Let the record reflect. No one else has chosen to speak at this time. And we'll move into the discussion item. So before we move into the first discussion item, I will ask for a couple of ground rules as we move forward in the interview process. There are, I think, four candidates here. I believe there may be one virtually. Correct? Are four he

Okay, we'll go ahead and take Mr. Ricardo Mendez. You're here, sir. Please approach the podium. You'll be given two minutes to do opening remarks and then two minutes to close. And in between, we'll have questions. OK. Madam Clerk, can we have a clock for two minutes? All right, Mr. Mendez, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Mendez. Okay, Councilman Cabral, would you like to please open with your questions?

Yes, so go ahead and ask your question. The candidate will respond and then you'll be able to ask your next question. We are doing three questions per council member.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Reynoso.

Through the mayor, I have a question. Weren't we supposed to have a two-minute timer for answering each question?

I was not implementing a timer. Let's try and keep the question, the answers a little more concise so that if they felt the liberty to have to elaborate more, we could. But let's try and keep it a little bit shorter.

Thank you. Mr. Mendez, thank you so much for taking your time and coming to Doral to interview with us. My first question. From what I understand, none of the applicants currently reside in the city of Doral. How do you plan to connect with our community, immerse yourself in our culture, and understand the needs and expectations of our residents?

Thank you. My second question, Mr. Mendez. Yes, ma'am. You bring valuable experience from the cities you've worked in. How do you intend to apply that knowledge to serve Doral effectively and help make it the leading city in Miami-Dade County?

Thank you. So, my last question does have to do with the 100 days, and here it is. Yes. What are your priorities and plan for your first 100 days as city manager of Doral?

Okay, Vice Mayor Porras. Thank you, Mayor. Good morning, Mr. Mendez. You've interviewed with us before, right? Right, during the last round? Okay, yeah. I actually selected your resume to move forward. So you have a very impressive resume and background. I didn't realize it was you, but welcome again. I just have three very quick questions. The first one you may have already answered in between all the other answers, but if you can just summarize it, and that is why should we select you to be our next city manager?

Thank you. And just very briefly, how will you keep the elected officials informed?

Thank you. And just lastly, what is your management style? And very briefly.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mendez, for your time as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mendez. Okay. Your questions.

Thank you, Mayor. Good morning, Mr. Mendez. Good morning. Good to see you again. Good to see you. What do you see as the biggest challenges for the city of Doral in the coming years?

Excuse my voice. No, don't. And I'm going to ask you, for me it will be the last question. Why should we select you to be our next city manager? Well, I think that... Sorry, I missed that one.

Thank you, Councilman. Thank you, Mr. Mendez. So I'll go ahead and close and then I'm going to give you two minutes, just any final remarks. Mine is very simple based on I'm looking at resumes and looking at your resume currently, you're not employed.

So one of the things that strikes me is the Extensive work experience, however, very short time periods. So can you just explain to me or elaborate a little bit on, for example, your previous employment with Palm Beach was for one year. Right. Then previous to that, less than two years. The city of Sweetwater. The city of Harrisburg, which you speak a lot about, was one year.

Then before that, the Seminole tribe was less than a year as well. Yes. Before that, city of Miami Beach, about three years. So there's a little bit of a time there.

Thank you very much. Just very quick closing remark.

Well, right now we're not gonna go into questions from us just because we do have three other candidates that are waiting and I think each of us, we have a strategic planning session where that is discussed at length and we want to be prepared for that which hopefully we'll be doing in February or March which is why it's so important that we kick the ground running in January with a new manager since our manager resigned effective December 31st. But those are discussions we'll have with the manager through our strategic planning session which we do every year. But thank you very much for your

Thank you so much, Mr. Mendez. Very nice. OK, we'll give Mr. Mendez a moment to step out. You can take your water if you like. It's regular water. We just don't use plastic in the city of Doral anymore.

You're welcome. All right, if someone could please get Mercedes Sardinas. She's next on our list. Mr. Diaz, welcome.

Good morning. So just very quickly, we're going to allow you two minutes to do your opening remarks, and then we will have questions from each council member. Each council member is allowed to ask three questions, and we are asking the same question to all candidates, and then you'll have two minutes for closing remarks. We're going to go ahead and start with Councilman Cabral, whenever you're ready. However, we'll give you two minutes for your opening statement. Sorry.

Thank you, Ms. Sardinas. We'll go ahead and start with Councilwoman Cabral.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, COUNCILMAN. SO YOU HAVE THE FLOOR.

Thank you for joining us this morning and for taking the time to interview with us.

First question. From what I understand, none of the applicants currently reside in the city of Doral. How do you plan to connect with our community, immerse yourself in our culture, and understand the needs and expectations of our residents?

Thank you for your answer. My second question. You bring valuable experience from the city you've worked in. How do you intend to apply that knowledge to serve Doral effectively and help make it the leading city in all of Miami-Dade County?

Thank you. My final question, what are your priorities and plan for your first 100 days as city manager of Doral?

Thank you. Council, Mary. No. So we'll move on to vice mayor for us. You have the floor. Thank you, Mary. Good morning, Mr. Good morning, vice mayor. Likewise. I know you've answered a lot of these questions, so feel free to be brief with the ones that I have. Um, why should we select you to be our next city manager?

Thank you. How will you keep elected officials informed?

Perfect. Thank you. And what is your management style?

Thank you, Mayor. Good morning. Good morning.

what do you see as the biggest challenge or challenges for our city looking into the next four years, for example?

Thank you. Speaking about the budget, what will be your philosophy in developing a budget, for example?

in order to be able to create like i said these recurring sources of revenue that we need thank you that's all me thank you councilman miss sardinas um you're currently employed yes ma'am so one of the things i'm looking at in all these resumes and i think it's been a common trend and what we've discussed you know with your interview is stability Councilman Cabral had the question. Civility is super important because I think it's what will allow us to achieve our goals long term over the next many years and in a very crucial time for their city. And something that stood out to me about your re

And even before that, Your previous employment, that was seven years?

And so I think that that trend in someone's experience is extremely valuable. Can you speak to that a little bit on maintaining a position for as long as you have and what that brings to your role?

Thank you, Ms. Sardinas. My questions were all answered. I'd like to hear your two-minute closing remarks, if you would.

Okay. Next we have Mr. Michael Sibilia. Hello, sir. Good morning. Welcome. Mr. Sevilla, you have two minutes to do opening remarks, and then we will, it'll be followed by questions by each council member. Each council member is allowed to ask three questions.

We've tried to keep the questions the same for every candidate, okay? And we'll start with Councilman Cabral right after your two-minute opening statement.

Thank you very much. Councilman Cabral, you have the floor.

Councilman Reynoso you have the floor. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for coming to interview with us. Thank you for having me. Of course. My first question. From what I understand, none of the applicants currently reside in the city of Doral. How do you plan to connect with our community, immerse yourself in our culture and understand the needs and expectations of our residents?

Thank you. My second question. You bring valuable experiences from the cities you've worked in. How do you intend to apply that knowledge to serve Doral effectively and help make it the best, I'm sorry, and help make it the leading city in Miami-Dade County?

Thank you. Give me a second. Okay. Last question. What are your priorities and plan for your first 100 days as city manager of Doral? Good question.

Thank you. Good. I Just very briefly, why should we select you to be our next city manager?

Thank you. And how will you keep the elected officials informed?

Thank you. And lastly, what is your management style?

Thank you, Mayor. Good morning, Mr. Ziviglia. Good morning, Mr. Pinero. There you go. You got it.

Based on your, certainly your background, how do you approach budgeting and financial management in a city like Doral? How do I approach? Budgeting and financial management in a city like Doral.

Thank you. I mean, next question based on your what you know about the route is what do you see as the biggest challenges for the city in the coming years?

Thank you, Councilman Pinero. Mr. Sevilla, I've been reviewing the resumes. For me right now, what's most important is stability making sure that we create that so that all of everything can function moving forward for the next few years. And looking at your resume, I was unclear as to your experience in municipal government. It doesn't seem you have any directly. It's more contract work is what you've done and what you're currently doing. Can you confirm that?

Okay. So your last experience, work experience, it says it's one year, July 2023 to February 2024. Rational CEO as a consultant. Which is your company, I'm assuming, as a consultant. Right. And then prior to that, three years.

2018 to December 22nd. September to December, three and a half years. Okay, can you speak a little bit to that, how your overall experience,

Thank you very much. We take your closing statement now. Two minutes.

We're not going to answer any questions right now. This is an opportunity for us because we do have other candidates, and we do need to make a decision today. Fair enough.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have our final candidate, Tariq Rahmani. Rahmani, I think. Rahmani? Oh, okay. All right, so then that leaves us with just these three. Okay. All right, does anybody need some time or otherwise we can have a discussion or I will take a motion for a candidate. Motion for Sardinia. Hold on. I had Council, Vice Mayor Porras had a question and then we'll take. Are we voting on a candidate and then the contract? Yes. So we're going to vote on a candidate and then the contract will come back for ratification on the 15th. Got it.

Second. Okay, I have a second by Councilwoman Reynoso. All right, any questions? Can we get Ms. Sardinas back in the room, please? OK, Ms. Sardinas, would you please approach the podium? Thank you. All right, before we take a vote, very quickly, and we will open up to discussion if there's any, I'd just like to ask Ms. Sardinas, so there's a motion on the floor for your nomination. We will be bringing back the contract for ratification at the first council meeting in January. I'd just like to ask, when would be your available start date?

I have no issues with that, if everybody's OK with it. Before we take a vote, I do just want to say I think that there has been great candidates. And we've actually gone through this process now couple of times this year. In looking at the role of city manager and what I'm currently looking for, there is determining factors for me. Stability, connection with Doral, institutional knowledge, professionalism, and experience. And I think Ms. Sardinas embodies all of these things. So I will be supportive of her nomination. I thank you all for going through this process, and I think that the next fo

Yes. Motion passes. Congratulations, Ms. Sardinas, and we look forward to seeing you on January 13th.

Just one more thing. I think that our current city manager will be leaving on December 31st. We did make a motion to make Mr. Frank Rios our interim during the time period that there will be a transition for Mr. Ardenios to start. However, I think it would be prudent for you to maybe try and meet with Mr. Valdez before he departs, even though he's going to be around, I'm sure. So if we could try and set that up at some point, I'm sure he'll be available. Thank you, Ms. Ardenas, we look forward to working with you.

All right, actually, if you will stick around, we can take a picture for anybody who would like to join us at the end, Ms. Ardenas. Ms. Ardenas, stick around so we can take a picture at the end of our meeting. All right, we're going to move on. We have two more items on this agenda.

I'm going to turn this over to our deputy city manager real quick.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Rios. Does anybody have any questions for the deputy city manager or for legal? Motion to approve by Councilman Pinedo, second by Councilman Cabral.

All right. Thank you very much. Madam Clerk, would you please like to swear in any witnesses?

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. City Attorney.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to open up public comments real quick since it's a public hearing item. Public comments is now open. Anybody that would like to speak to this item, this item alone, please approach the podium.

Mr. Gladstock, let's stick to the point, please.

Okay, we'll open up for discussion or I need a motion. Any discussion, questions? Any questions on the item? I think the city attorney addressed the item. Mr. Lozarte, would you like to?

I have a question. There is still one more reading for the rezoning. Yes, ma'am. It's that this was, I believe, overseen, should have gone, it needs two readings as well, which should have been also at the same time as the rezoning. Correct. Which is why it's before us today. And timeline-wise, Mr. Nasarjah, can you take us back to when the first approval for this...

So the only step left would be the second reading for the rezoning?

Okay. Any questions for the administration or for Mr. Losarte? Motion to approve. Okay, I have a motion to approve by Vice Mayor Porras. I need a second. I need a second for the MDA for item 256003. Is there any more questions for the administration? I need a second or the motion dies. Any questions.

All right, any other questions? No other questions? All right, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

All right, thank you very much. I need a motion to adjourn the meeting. If anyone has any other comments or points of personal privilege. Motion to adjourn by Vice Mayor Porras. All in favor say aye. Aye. Meeting is adjourned. Happy New Year.