Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right, Mayor, are you ready? OK. All right. So good morning. Thank you for being here. So today, of course, is September 1, which kicks off many things, including Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. And we have two incredible organizations that are here this morning. And we're going to start with Mystic Force. As we know, the Mystic Force Foundation was founded 18 years ago in honor of Salvatore Sal and is dedicated to supporting children and families affected by pediatric cancer through advocacy, awareness, community outreach, and programs that provide hope, assistance, and comfort througho

All right. Our next presentation also is to a wonderful organization. And, you know, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is observed each September. And the Live Like Bella Childhood Cancer Foundation was established in memory of Bella Rodriguez Torres and is dedicated to changing childhood cancer from a terminal diagnosis to a treatable and curable disease by funding innovative research, providing financial and emotional support to families, and advocating for children affected by cancer. The Live Like Bella Childhood Cancer Foundation has made a profound impact by supporting families throughout

Why don't you tell them what's happening this weekend and let the public.

And so now we have, um, our final presentation. We are going to be acknowledging, um, hunger action month. And so Miami-Dade County is honoring, well, feeding South Florida. for those of you who may not know, have been around since 1981. And have worked to address food and hunger insecurity in Miami-Dade County, providing the community with immediate access to nutritious food and other vital resources and support. Feeding South Florida leads hunger and poverty advocacy efforts while transforming lives through innovative programming and education and provides economic growth and overall well-be

All right, guys, please take your seats. Find a seat. Unless you're press or law enforcement, you should not be standing up. And I need the podiums placed where they go. All right clerk, please call the roll.

All right. I can, I can. All right, while we wait for quorum, I'm going to ask you all to please I'll stand up quietly for the invocation this morning given by Pastor Worth Carson of the Granada Church at the invitation of Commissioner Emiliano Orbis, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Commissioner Gilbert.

You may be seated. all right welcome back guys do we have quorum now let me see before we do a whole other quorum call all right All right, clerk, please call the roll.

All right, thank you very much. Madam Attorney, is it in order to move into the reasonable opportunity at this time?

All right, I'm going to go ahead and open up reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard. As you call your name, please state your name and address and the item on which you're speaking of, and you will have one minute to speak. Victor Antunez, please line up, approach the podium, and as I call your name, line up beside each aisle. Victor Antunez, Joseph Roca, Sophie Amaya, Damian DeJesus, Elio Lopez, and Nicole Lozano. None of these people are here. Okay, they're here. All right, need you guys to approach the podium.

All right, is that it? I also had a Joseph Roca and a Victor Antunez. Joseph Roca, Victor Antunez, one once, one twice. All right, and then I have our tax collector, Daryl Fernandez, who's not able to have made it, but he prepared a video he wanted to share during reasonable opportunity. So if we can play the video, please. I guess, do you want to say something first? Yes. Go ahead.

Appreciate it, thank you. And yes, the mayor and myself have been speaking with the tax collector, Dario Fernandez, and we even wrote him a letter to try to get him to waive this, and he's agreed. So this, as he mentioned, is about $13 million that I believe will be outlined in the mayor's change memo. So I want to personally thank the tax collector, Dario Fernandez, for his partnership and commitment, as he did last year, he did again this year, in working with the county to deliver the savings. Thank you, Mr. Tax Collector. All right, Madam Attorney, is it in order to set the agenda at this

Okay, no problem. Take your time. I also need Director Lourdes to read a statement. Does the agenda need to be set for that statement?

Is Lourdes in the building? Director? In the chamber? Well, we have the attorneys finalize the agenda changes. Director, I know it's just a protocol statement that you need to read. If you can go ahead and put that notice on the record.

Thank you, Director. All right. Madam Attorney, I'm ready when you're ready. Just wing me down. And while we wait, good morning, sir. While we wait, also, I want to recognize Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson from Coral Gables. I believe she's in the chamber. Welcome to our chamber. I'm sure you're here for a specific item. Are you in support or against an item?

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. All right. I think we have another meeting before. We have the budget meeting on Thursday, so I won't. I won't get ahead of my colleague Commissioner Steinberg and wish everybody a happy Rosh Hashanah, but because I think we still have another meeting before it starts officially, right? So. Yeah, we still see each other before then so. Yes, sure. All right, Madam Clerk, if you would like to make the Valuma Award announcement at this time as we await the attorney.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, Madam Attorney, are we almost there? Let me welcome also our Madam Sheriff to our chamber. I see her there in uniform. Thank you for being here for a very special recognition that we have today and that hopefully we'll be passing as an item in short order. Madam Sheriff, I always wonder whenever there is business that you have to be down here, you really fill this room with your officers and I can't help but think who is safeguarding our streets because... Every officer in Miami seems to be in this chamber right now. But.

I have a motion by Commissioner Gonzales, seconded by Commissioner Steinberg. All in favor of setting the agenda with every single item being pulled, essentially. Signified by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. All right, show the agenda here by set. Commissioner Gilbert.

Mr. Chairman, I just had a question on AK1. I got my question answered, so I release it.

Okay, so AK1 has passed with the setting of the agenda, right, Madam Attorney? yes it will pass as soon as you take a motion and a second i did it's been moved it's been second and we all voted so the agenda i move ak1 yes we need to move it okay so ak1 is being moved it's being second by commissioner regalado all in favor signify by saying aye aye all opposed nay all right show ak1 passed as well then all right i'm going to go into first reading items at this time since that should be should be quick So Madam Attorney, please read the first reading items. And any bifurcations you may have.

All right, so any bifurcations? Seeing no bifurcations, we'll have a motion to, all right, it's been moved by Commissioner Gonzalez, seconded by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. Clerk, please call the roll.

All right show the first reading items passed. I'm going to get into public hearing is that I'm going to take them a little bit out of order. So and we'll do public hearing has the order comes as well rather than all up front. I'm going to start. If you can. Read 5 X and 5 why.

Okay, so I will open public hearing for this specific item at this time. I don't have anyone signed up to speak in public hearing, but if the sheriff wants to say a few words. If the family wants to say a few words, this would be the opportunity for you all to say a couple words. Madam Sheriff.

Thank you, Madam Sheriff. Does anyone from the family want to say anything, or you guys are good? Dad?

Thank you, David. We're good mom. Okay. All right. So public hearing is officially closed. Yes. I'm sure that several will speak. Of course, my co-sponsor and in your district, I'll recognize you in a minute. I, um, look, I just want to say, um, that Devin wasn't just, like many of us, wasn't just born here and raised here, but he ultimately gave his life protecting this community that he so very loved. Service was in his blood. As many of you know, his dad, David, he grew up in a law enforcement family and followed in the footsteps of his father, David, a retired Miami-Dade police detective.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for your support and to the family and to all the officers that are here and the residents. You know, One of the saddest things that we do is name streets. It's usually not for happy reasons. And for us, it's such a tremendous loss. And as the chairman mentioned, for those of us who knew Devin and know his family, he was such an amazing light. It is an honor to honor him, not just with the street, but also with the field that he played in in Devon Air. And my hope is that when people drive down and see the name on the street, they'll Google it

Thank you, Commissioner. And with that, do you want to make the motion to move 5X and 5Y? It's been moved. It's been seconded by Commissioner Steinberg. Commissioner Gonzalez, you're recognized.

Thank you Mister chair and I I'd like to thank the sponsoring commissioner and I'd like to be I'd like to ask to be included as a coal prime sponsor on this. I'm sure my colleagues would like to do the same.

Co-sponsor anyone who wants to join his co-sponsor raise your hand.

The thing is that there's already coal primes got yeah, there's already to cope arms and it's already written so co-sponsor everyone.

If it could be a co-prime, I'm okay with it, but I don't know that you can have more than one co-prime. I'm not sure how that works. You can? Okay, so unanimously?

I mean, if we're going to make one more person co-prime that didn't draft, then we should make everybody co-prime that didn't draft. So that's kind of, I mean, the whole purpose of co-prime is that you were drafting. So, but it's fine if everybody wants to be co-prime, we can do that too.

I'm fine with it. Either way, I'm fine with it. Whatever. I mean, this is personal to the community, so this is why I think everyone wants to. So everybody wants to be a co-sponsor for sure. I know some want to be a co-prime. Okay, I'd leave it up. I'm okay with it.

Yeah, just everyone's co-prime is fine. I'm happy with everybody being co-prime. That's all good. We all agree and we just should vote and support. Thank you.

Chair, and if I could have a point of personal privilege, please?

There's a lot that I want to say, and I wish this would have came up sooner. I see a lot of deputies here today, and Devin was a young man that gave everything for this community. Today, we honor his legacy by naming a street after a hero. But we're not just honoring a street. We're honoring a legacy that he is instilling into this community, into this county, and into every single deputy that wears the badge. Because bravery doesn't mean that you're not afraid. Bravery does not mean That you don't recognize the risk that you take every single day that you wear the badge. I think the best exam

All right so having a motion and a second on the table having us all reflected as co primes all in favor of approving 5 X and 5 why which means the street and the football field at Devon Park signify by saying aye aye. All opposed, nay. Show the item passed unanimously. Congratulations. Unfortunately, this isn't something to extremely be happy about, but find happiness in knowing that this community honors Devin Jaramillo. All right. Don't leave, because I'd like to see you before you guys leave. I'll step aside, but we love you guys. All right next item that I want to call madam attorney if y

All right and I'm going to go ahead and open a public hearing at this time I don't have anyone registered to speak. Under public hearing, but I know that. Sergeant who so's wife Eileen is president. He did you want to say anything or you don't have to understand that OK. Well, I will I will take this opportunity and then I'll recognize Commissioner Gonzales who is my my co-prime sponsor on this this item But you know, I was proud to to sponsor this item as it's in my district honoring the life and service of sergeant David Caruso Who was tried tragically killed on October 28 2025 in a motorcyc

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Eileen, I didn't know Dave. I didn't know him. But he impacted my life, and I'm going to tell you why, because I think you need to know. To me, personally, the most important thing is to try to be a good man. In the Bible, it says that there is no good man but God. But to try to be a person that tries, that is a life worth living. I'm not going to talk about Dave's career. I'm going to talk about the impact that he made with many people that called me and told me how he led them to Christ. Not by forcing them. Not by citing Bible verses like I do, but simply by being a go

Thank you, Commissioner. With that, Commissioner Gonzalez, would you move the item?

moved it's been seconded by commissioner steinberg you want to co-sponsor it as well yes okay all right so list us list of entire entire days as co-sponsors not prime co-sponsors on this one Prime them. All right. You guys can prime this one too. All right. With that, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Show the item pass and street naming being approved by unanimous vote. With that, I'll have the attorney move into the rest of the fives, but I want to thank both families for being here today. And being present. I know that the drive is not easy to come downtown But it's

Thank you. At this time, public hearing is open to the clerk. We have two that have signed up for quasi-judicial items, 5M and 5S. Can you please swear in Mr. Jose Basos and Mr. Sergei Kelly? To the clerk, please swear in those witnesses.

Please stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So help me God. Thank you. You may be seated.

If I call your name, please approach the podium and line up in the order that your name is called. Please give us your name, your address. You'll have one minute. Mr. Jared Simon, Jennifer Harrison, Tom Carney, Eddie Arroyo, Rochelle Vargas. Mina Trettenberg, Ghislaine Fandel, Marcelo Bandares, Muhammad, and Connor Palmville. Please state your name. You'll have one minute.

Thank you. Next speaker, please state your name, your address. Chambers. Chambers. Chambers. Thank you. For those of you that are joining us for the first time, we don't applause. We raise our hands in support. We can thumbs down if we don't support, but we don't allow the applause. Welcome. Please state your name, your address, and the item that you are speaking on. I'm going to remind you that we are here on public hearing items. 5B is listed for a lot of you as the item that you are speaking on. However, it is not. And I will repeat, 5B is not the Israeli bonds item. If you start your comme

Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, your name, your address, you'll have one minute in the item you are speaking on.

That item has already passed. That's 11A2. That item has already passed.

Speak to the item that you registered to speak on. 11A2 has already passed. Thank you.

That's not how it works here. Unfortunately, the public hearing on that item has already been opened and closed, which that instruction was previously given to you downstairs. You need to speak to the item that you registered for. That's what our rules require. We almost follow the same rules. 5B is what you're registered to speak for. Please proceed on 5B.

To our sergeants, to our sergeants, to our sergeants, we will have order in the chambers. To our sergeants, if you are standing in the back, I need you to find a seat. I need you to find a seat now. Please find a seat within the chamber. Please keep order in our chambers and please be respectful of everyone. Are you wrapping up? Are you finished?

Thank you. Commissioner, Commissioner, can you please ask to be recognized as a- Listen, we could be asked to follow the procedures in this board, but we're not doing that.

I'm going to say this. We are not going to stand here and allow anyone to be intimidated on this dais, anyone who's in this room. And we're not going to stand, I don't care what you're talking about, what subject it is that you don't like, what you care for, what you don't care for, what your politics are, what they are not. What we are not going to stand for are people who want to make anyone in this room feel uncomfortable about where they are, which means that they are in this place. If you make people feel unsafe in here, you will be removed immediately. Immediately. We don't care what God

Thank you, thank you, Commissioner Hardiman. He's speaking to, I don't think it was caught on the microphones, but somebody within our audience spoke out, out of turn and without registering. I couldn't agree with Commissioner Hardiman more. Again, we will have order in our chambers. Welcome back, Mr. Chairman.

You already spoke, right? Yes. Okay, thank you so much. Ma'am?

Ma'am, we need to speak on items that are in public hearing right now. If it's not part of public hearing, then it's not something that you speak on. And so thank you so much. Can we... I stepped off for two seconds, and I caught the tail end of Commissioner Hardiman's comments and Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, and they're right. We've got to stay on subject. And... Let's stay on the agenda, guys. Let's be courteous and respectful of the people that drove all the way down here this morning to speak on the items that are on the agenda and are following the rules and following what they're suppose

This decision puts another county- Puts another country first over the many residents of Miami- Sir, that's not what this item is. I'm speaking towards the investments. You may go, his time's up. Ma'am?

They're not listening. So sergeants, they continue, just escort them. Just escort them. Ask them to kindly exit the chamber.

That's not the case. Let's not put words in anybody's mouth. You just have to follow the order and speak on the item. You signed up for 5B. If you speak on 5B, you can say as much. Not 1182. You've got to speak on 5B. You could speak for your entire minute. Have at it.

They want their minute of fame. I mean, they want their minute of fame in the Herald. I mean, that's what they want.

You're recognized, Commissioner Gilbert.

Okay. Let's just, Yeah, Senator Garcia, we should probably take a moment to address a couple of things. First of all, when folks say things like America first, the very first amendment, The Constitution allowed us to speak, and so that's why we allowed, and it allows you to petition your government. That's why we have procedures. When Commissioner Hardeman spoke, he spoke the way he did because at times we are so involved with what we believe, we don't understand that there are folks on the other side of this who could just believe something different. We can disagree. Civilly, we need to disa

Mr. Chairman, if I may. Thank you, Commissioner. Senator Garcia.

I know we don't want to belabor a point, and I know that the item already passed, and I think there was a public opportunity to testify on this item. There was. It was open to the public, and I understand that we're using another item to testify, but I just want to be very clear what this is and what this isn't. The reality is the state legislature passed a new regulatory scheme for investments. We are following state law based on what was passed. I have a hold on a lot of these state requirements and implementation language. Therefore, that's why we're sponsoring this. The reality is when we

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Senator, let me just take my hat off to you because I know and everyone else knows that this information was already made public knowledge. Individuals had access to the very knowledge that we've actually discussed today at this particular meeting. And I agree with my colleagues to take this particular item to raise a political position in order to do what I believe is the act of engaging into click bake is, in my humble opinion, one of the most disgraceful things we can do.

so senator you continuously stand what stand by what you believe this board is standing with you on this and the reality of it is is if they had issues with this before they would have made their position known early on inside of this meeting so thank you so much commissioner bermudez this child be brief ditto to all the comments made by my colleagues in particular making sure that these meetings are run the efficient and correct way and second of all obviously as commissioner gilbert said america was based on respecting other people's opinions, even if they disagree with you. But I just want

All right. All right, so the first 10 were called. I've got Geneva Claus, Rachel Prestipino, Donna Novell, Gabriela Noah, Mishka Hamad. Jessica Johnson, Liji Ferrer, Adriana Noboa, Joe Conlin, and Sebastian Mouton-Gill. You may approach the well, state your name and address, and you have a minute to speak. And as you've witnessed, please stay on topic.

Sebastian Gil. All right. All right, okay, no one else from the list that I called. So I have Dorothy Brown Alfaro. Ralph Ferrer, Rick Crooks, Maria Luisa Castellanos, Brenda Betancourt, Edmundo Rodriguez, Soraya Marlez, Franklin Torrialba, and Agustin Maristani. You're recognized.

Thank you So So anyone that's speaking in the same line you can you can anyone is speaking the same line Make sure that you've all read the substitute item because I've removed everything referencing anything that that is against or not in favor of the small businesses that has been removed from the item so make sure that you've read the latest version of the item uh because i don't think you would be up here asking for us to oppose it if you if if you see that the latest item actually makes no reference to uh to the to a lot of the things you guys have mentioned uh but ma'am go ahead

Thank you. All right, I have, let me see. This is tricky because I'm going to try to sign up twice. Deborah Swain, Juan Crespi. Did everybody call Alejandro Crespi?

Angel Saki, Daniel Yobet, and Geraldine Grimes-Lewis. Ma'am?

All right, sir. Your minute's up. It's not up? Right, yeah. The clock is there. You're over by 15 seconds. Sir? Sir? Sir? Yes? Hello? Over here.

Thank you. Thank you, my friend. I like the spirit. Thank you so much. We're good. I thought you were following the rules. You made us say thank you. You got us excited. We're making a difference. We're making a difference. All right. Yes, sir.

Well, the point of order is I just want everybody to be quiet. So he was speaking and making some great points. And there's a lot of conversations you all, if you all could just, I know we haven't seen each other in a while, calm down so we can actually pay attention to the speakers. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. All right, I've got Mark Drummond. Mark and Mariana Evora. Mark Drummond and Mariana Evora. Jose Pasos and Sergi Kelly. Those are my last four. Mark Drummond, Mariana Evora, Jose Pasos, and Sergi Kelly. Sir?

All right. Thank you, sir. Ma'am, your name?

Let's see. Yep. All right. Go ahead. And then I have also, did I call Sean Lozano? Sean Lozano? He can approach as well. Ma'am, go ahead.

and those who do what others will not thank you so much thank you sir all right that is those are all the names that i've have is there anyone did i not call your name anyone that i did not call their name in public hearing all right so public hearing is now closed on the public hearing items does anyone wish to bifurcate any items Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, which ones?

I need to bifurcate 5D, Mr. Chair, for a brief motion. If the attorneys can please read my motion on 5D.

Yeah, I was going to, but let's take it. Give me a second. I'm sorry. We can just bifurcate it. Any Commissioner Regalado?

Yeah, there was a request at the beginning of the meeting to bifurcate some of the fives. So if we can have the attorneys repeat that. Specifically, I think we pretty much divided all the procurement ones up so that we can go through them one by one.

Mr. Chairman, that's just a vote no for me.

Which ones? 5M, P, and U. 5M, P, and U. Yes, sir. All right, so.

Mr. Chair, I have 5M as well, but I'd like to speak on it.

Okay, and what about 5P and U? All right, so Commissioner Gilbert moves 5P and U, seconded by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. Clerk, please call the roll.

A little unreadiness before you said the motion.

On 5P and U? This motion is for what? Just 5P and Peter and U. Clerk, please call the roll on 5P and 5U.

Okay, and then I'll entertain a motion on the remainder of the items that were not bifurcated.

We have a motion by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins.

I want to get clarification because I thought 5E. E through H. E through H. And H were all bifurcated, Madam Attorney, were they not?

Okay, so we're not voting on those right now. No, I said the non-bifurcated items. So we have a motion by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, seconded by Commissioner Gilbert. Clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Koenig, is he recognized on 5D?

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just want to recognize the young man who came, the 11th grader that is in high school. I think his name was Sebastian Gill. Thank you for your testimony in support of 5D. And I want to reassure the young man who did an excellent job at our podium. That 5D does have very strong deadlines and accountability, and we look forward to offering, finally, some real affordable homeownership opportunities in District 8. So thank you to the young man, Mr. Sebastian Gill. To the attorneys, can you please read my motion on 5D? Thank you.

To my colleagues, there are other folios going to Habitat for Humanity. They requested the removal of this folio because for whatever the reason, this particular parcel became very difficult for them to construct on. So they simply requested that this particular folio be removed from consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for that clarification. Thank you. It made no sense otherwise.

It's been moved as amended, seconded by Commissioner Gilbert. Do I need a roll call on this, voice vote? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Show the item passed. Commissioner Orbis on 5M. You had some- Thank you, Mr.

Yes. Yes, on 5M. So this came to my attention in April, at which time I requested a deferral because I got a lot of feedback. I went myself by this neighborhood, Shenley Park, very familiar with this neighborhood. And when I found out that there was a proposal for two duplexes on these small parcels of land, it just didn't make sense. It didn't conform to the neighborhood. So I asked for a deferral so that we could figure out what we could do. And in doing my research, I found out that somewhere along the line there was an ordinance change that allowed this type of use to just be done administ

Okay. And I'm asking these series of questions because we have obviously a resident here who is against this. And I have received numerous phone calls and emails against this plat. So I wanted the residents to understand that I have been, in the last couple of months, trying to figure out how we can do right by them. So my question now to the attorneys is, what happens today if we vote this down?

Okay, well, I am not comfortable with this and hearing our residents are against this. I know I've spoken on this before as this item has come up. Shenley Park is entirely single family homes. Although the designs that are proposed are beautiful, I don't think they conform with the neighborhood. So I am okay with it going through the process and I would motion to deny it.

Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. There's a motion and there's a second by Senator Garcia. So I have a motion and a second to deny. Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, do you recognize?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think 5M raises an interesting issue because nowhere in the item have The administration, the attorneys articulated this very important piece of information that was just shared with us on the microphone, i.e., this is not a discretionary item essentially for us to vote up or down. You're saying if it meets certain technical statutory requirements, we are mandated by law in order to approve this. I'm not sure why that critical information is not included in the item because our residents read these items. They organize, they petition our offices as they absolutely shoul

I do think that that would be helpful. I don't know that that needs to be a policy decision. I don't know that that needs to be an item. I think that's just a level of transparency that our residents deserve so that they can understand when they're positioning our office, the position that we're in and the discretion that we have, or that we don't have. which is applicable in this instance. I support the district commissioner and her decision to say that this is not conforming with the neighborhood. This is not appropriate in the neighborhood. I'm not sure where it takes us legally, and I know

Mr. Chair, I wanted to add on that, that I have been working with the county attorneys on legislation that Would change this in the future so that it would come to us so that we can have jurisdiction over these types of plots. So I am working on that already with the county attorney's office because to me it was extremely offensive to find out about this just on an agenda and to be told basically there's nothing you can do about this. It has to go forward when all these residents have come forward, they're not okay with it. And it doesn't conform with the neighborhood. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have some questions in terms of compliance. And obviously, I agree with my colleagues that I want to get into a whole conversation about our rules in quasi-judicial. But in terms of another deferral or a denial, are we limited in the number of deferrals since the maker has mentioned that she's working on something? And if so, can we waive it because it's our rule? So could we waive, if there is a limitation on deferral, can we waive our rule to defer it again as she continues to work on an item instead of a denial that would trigger court action?

Okay. Just putting that out there since you're working on something, I know that it's annoying to have it come up again and again and again, but you could defer it for a period of time, depending on what you're working on, and then it's not foreclosed completely. It's still difficult, but not foreclosed. Correct.

I appreciate that. I'd be happy to entertain the motion to defer. I also wanted to add, my staff just brought up to me and I did notice because I drive by there all the time. These developers have already begun construction. They have already begun laying down the foundation for this property without knowing if they were going to get an approval or not. So that is astounding. It is terrible. that we are basically bound by this and we have no say. And that speaks bounds of what the expectations are for these kind of applications. They're basically assuming that we are going to approve it. Thank

All right. Commissioner Bermudez, you're recognized.

I'm going to support the county commissioner on this too, but I really am a little bit, with legal, a little bit... Actually, I'm very confused. A lot of times... And we've got a friend right to your right there that says no to every plat. A lot of times, plats are just administrative. How did we get here to something that changes the community and changes the makeup of the community? How did we get to the plat before we got to a decision on that? Just a little bit, I'd like to know how that happened. I mean, did this get through before, or what's the reasoning there?

In general, I think as we move forward, and I'm going to support Commissioner Horvitz, but I think it's important when you work on that legislation, there are some plats that are just plats. And those, truthfully, there's not much we can do about it. Sorry, Senator. But the reality is they're just plats. There's others like this one that apparently was approved administratively, but the commissioner of the district either was, I'm assuming you weren't made aware or were not until it got in front of us. i would think when you work on that policy if anything pops up like that the administration

Yeah. I don't know if you are aware of this, but I became aware because when I was serving as the city of Miami commissioner, we have certain zoning and we abut the county. And so the county made some changes long before any of us were on the dais. Our mayor was on the dais at the time. But they made changes where in the unincorporated areas, it allowed for the development of duplexes and single family zone areas, which... Sounds like this is exactly what this is, although they're in a program. That's how the property maybe was transferred, et cetera, et cetera. But that was a big thing to hav

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is not as simple for me, and I'll support the district commissioner, but let's just be mindful that the housing affordability problem that essentially occurs because of supply and demand didn't happen overnight. It happened with a whole bunch of discrete single determinations. So if we stand by the principle that neighborhoods should never change in character and anything that's changed to character can't be built, then we lock ourselves into an affordability quagmire that's very difficult to overcome. And so I think that's why I promoted the RTZ and density and h

Senator Garcia, the Vice Chair and then Senator Garcia.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and look, I believe if I'm hearing Commissioner Oberst's position, if I'm hearing this correctly, two things happened. A decision was made, number one, and number two, notice was never given to her to have input. And I'm wondering to the county attorney as it relates to because it seems that it will now apply or it has always applied to all the commissioners district, especially when we are making the attempt to honor the wishes of a particular commissioner for a particular district. Is there a way where we can mandate notice to be given to the particular commissioner

Okay. And if I heard you correctly, these are normally important enough where it has to go through based upon state law?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Commissioner Orvis. Thank you for bringing this item to us. And I completely agree with your stance and your positioning that you're taking on this. And I understand the argument that we have about ensuring that the community is changing and we need more workforce housing or we need more housing in general. But the reality is that we have to be careful in how we proceed with some of these items. Seeing what Commissioner Orbis brought to us, Will really does not go along with the integrity of that community itself. It's not along a rapid transit zone. It really doesn

Thank you, Mr. Chair, if I may. I'm happy to do the deferral at this time as I'm working with the Attorney's Office on the legislation. I would request it to the second meeting in October to allow some time to work on that. And to Commissioner Gilbert's, what he just said, I agree that we need to work on the affordability crisis, 100%. but these are not affordable homes these are million dollar duplexes so i don't know that we're helping anybody in this case we're not helping a first-time family buying a home because no one can afford that this is a different situation so i but i agree and i d

Second October meeting, seconded by Commissioner Regalado. So then on the deferral?

Yeah, I just want to add something really quick since she's working on the item and, you know, we have sunshine issues. And I'm glad that she brought up the point that these are not affordables. So in my district, in 7 and in 6, one of the things that we're seeing is people are buying single-family homes, tearing them down and building homes. that are multi-million dollar duplexes. They're not affordable homes. And I live in the Pines. I live in a single family home that's surrounded by duplexes for this same reason. I don't know if she's been invaded by the sugar cubes like I have, but that's

All right, Commissioner, she hasn't spoken, so Commissioner Lopez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I just want to applaud Commissioner Milan-Orbis, because in my district, you will see all of these duplexes in the middle of these very old, characteristic neighborhoods in District 5, and they are so out of character. And you're right, they are over a million dollars. I actually called. to see because there was a group of duplexes that were for sale in my district, and they were a million four. And it was so shocking to me because I said, first of all, they're out of character. They are two stories. They're not just duplexes that look like single family homes with tw

Thank you, Mr. Chair to the attorneys. Are they actually doing work on the property already? And if so, if this is deferred to mid October, right? I mean, I'm not sure that they're doing the construction appropriately, but what I don't want, especially if this gets appealed. is for them to incur expenses and then come back to us and have an issue created there without getting into those details. So is it appropriate for them to have began construction on this property? That's question number one.

Yeah, at the tentative plat stage, that's required. Okay, so can we enforce that so that further construction does not commence in order to preserve the status quo? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. My point was going to be the same as Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, but I think moving forward, the fact that someone started construction without the final decision, knowing it had to be approved by this body. And I know it's permitted in certain instances. I think we need to look at that also again to make sure that these things don't happen. So I hope when you guys review it, you do it. And finally, I'm going to do a plug for what I've said over and over since I got on this dais. If we're going to talk about affordable housing, we need to talk about the urban develo

All right, so we have a motion to defer, a second. All in favor of the deferral, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Show the item deferred to the mid-October meeting. All right, so now I'm going to take up together, and if anybody needs to split it afterwards for voting purposes, we can. But I'm going to take together the strict task force items, which is 5E, 5F, 5E substitute, 5F substitute, 5G substitute, and 5H substitute. And at the appropriate time, just to make it easier, I've heard all of the concerns and discussions of those that came up to speak. And so at the appropriate t

I will wait. All right. I also want to take a special moment and thank Namita. Namita, are you here? I'm sure you are. Namita, thank you as well because I know that even for yourself, it was difficult dealing and challenging to deal with all the committee members. striking a balance between, of course, the administration's priorities with some of the recommendations. And honestly, I could not think more highly of you after this strip has concluded. So thank you for being honest, for being balanced and neutral in your work. admission so appreciate you and of course your entire team to the mayor

Thank you madam chairwoman and I will say and I alluded to it earlier in my remarks, but I will reiterate that. In fact, all the members here from strip force today are included in this comment and some that are not here as well, but. 1 of my biggest fears that I made sure my team. Kind of kept tabs on and monitored throughout the meetings is that that at no time and we're all human. At no time any of the strip committee members would put their personal interest before that of the counties and I will tell you not just because they've told me because of. Because of hearsay, but but I've seen it

Thank you. So with that, and I'm sure there'll be questions as there's some bifurcations, or I guess two or three members bifurcated the items. But to start, I'll entertain a motion on all the items.

And it substitute in the removal of 5F, 9, 10, and 11.

Okay, so there's a motion there's a second by Commissioner Orvis all right Commissioner the here's I'm gonna go to you last I'm happy to go first, but I just don't want you to jump back in later I mean, it's your decision All right, so I'm gonna start over here then Commissioner Lopez

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you, first of all, for hearing some of the concerns. Certainly the strip committee did an amazing job and it's a super undertaking. And anything like this isn't always fixed one time. And I love that you're going to continue to work particularly with my small businesses. In District 5, small businesses are not only the foundation, But I profile them every week. I try to find a small business because government shouldn't be an impediment to small businesses. It should be motivating small businesses not only to begin, but to grow. So I want to thank you f

Thank you, Commissioner. On this side, Commissioner Gilbert.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On, I guess, 5H, did we delete the requirement of dropping the lowest selection committee score for competitive procurements? Because that's one of the things I took issue with.

Namita, the director could come up, because I know that was something that. Director, can you address Commissioner Gilbert?

Okay, so you said yes, but the answer is no, it has not been deleted. No, OK, that's that's yeah, it's oh.

It's not been removed from the item. OK, so I I have an issue with with that first. It's one of the things that I think we put in recently because what we found previously we looked at procurements. is that sometimes there'd be extraordinary outliers. Not to say that anyone would do it on purpose, but it looked like someone was tanking a score for folks. And so the reason why we put that in there was because of that reason. And so I wouldn't be supportive of that. And also, on the sunset of the Small Business Enterprise Advisory Board, I'm okay with looking at that later, but it's my understan

So who would be doing that if they didn't do it?

If it's withdrawn, I'm fine with that, and I appreciate you all being willing to still meet. But the reason why we have systems that allow things is so that we don't actually, it's not required benevolence of the administration or procurement staff to do it. So I think that it's kind of difficult for us to say we value our small businesses, but we're going to take out the requirement that we actually talk to them. And they actually meet and agree. So I think those are challenging things to say together. But those are my two observations, Mr. Chairman. That one item, dropping the lowest score.

Thank you commissioner Gilbert. And, uh, and look, I, when, when we went over everything, that's something that I asked that. So I agree with what you're saying. The reason that we added it, I think you understand it is because they're reducing it from. 5 members to 3, so it's difficult to just take. 2 and to consider, you know, 2 numbers. So that's why they wanted to count all 3. So, in theory, if it stayed at 5, I understand what you're saying. Like, I agree with dropping the last, you know, the lowest score. We're bringing it down to 3 members. It, um, it's, it's kind of challenging to drop

And so how does it work then? If you have an outlier.

Yeah, what if you have an outlier, how does it still not do you want to address that? If you have an outlier, there's still like a 30, there's a, there's a.

Mr. Chairman, okay. If that's the option, then I'd rather just stay with five members. Because what you're saying is, is that if there's an outlier, We asked them about it and they can explain it. They can stick to their core score that they can't. I mean, these are people's business. It takes a lot to actually submit these proposals. So the reason why it's in there is for a reason. So like you really don't want those scores that are significantly below to be counted because that one person. can tank somebody's entire submittal. And the reason why it exists is because we saw it happening. That

Can we have Madam Chairwoman Diana? Can you come up and probably just stay sitting up here. Because I know that this the specific portion of the item passed like 8, 0, I could pass unanimously out of out of the strip committee can you kind of walk us through why we're reducing it to 3 from 5 and then you know the second piece I think was addressed, but the reason for the reduction is it just it's so hard to get.

We're only dropping it for that scenario, not for the five. Are we dropping it across the board for the five as well? For the larger procurements. Namita? Probably Namita should stay at one podium and Diana at the other. This is going to be, this is a big package, so we're going to have a lot of questions.

So what would you feel more comfortable commissioner Gilbert to just remove it from the smaller procurements? I mean, add it back to the, to the smaller procurements, but keep it off from the bigger ones that have the 5 members.

Thank you for the question, Mr chairman and thank you all indulgence on this. I was very interested in what you just said, because you said it would remove it. From you'd be dropping the 3rd 1 and you couldn't just have it. based on the two, but even under that scenario, if it were larger and you'd be dropping the fifth one, you would still be having it just on four. It's still an average of those scores. So that in and of itself, while you stated it as though it was a fait accompli, that it was some unfairness, it really didn't actually change anything. It's still significant. And let me just

So what can we amend to It's a lot more than just their calendar availability. It's qualifications, and then that adds time to procurement, right? So that's how we're able to reduce. I mean, that may not be the 60% we're reducing, but that's 5% or 7%. It adds up. So a lot of little things we're changing add up to that over 60% timeline reduction. So that's why we need to bring it down to the three-member evaluation committee for the smaller procurements and I agree the big procurement for for small businesses, but smaller in the grand scheme of all of the contracts that we put out. So I I agre

Instead of having them explain, just drop it at least for, if it goes over 33, that one is dropped.

Mr. Chairman, that is substantially better. I just want us always to remember that also they're looking at categories here. And some things, like what I've noticed about one of our procurements that actually I'm paying attention to right now, is that there shouldn't be that type of deviation in certain categories. So for instance, if price is a category, if cost is a category, so if you are the cheapest, then you get all the points. If you are the next cheapest, then you get less points, but people getting the same amount of points for instance for cost because the other stuff is also a catego

OK. So I'm good with doing that, that you keep for the three members, you keep it, or for all of them, you keep the three unless it's over, he's suggesting 25%. Is there a reason that you would object to 25%? No? No. OK. So the committee sees.

The way I understand it is below, right? It is.

Over 25% of deviation, then it's not counted. Okay. Okay. All right.

That is correct, yes. All right, Senator Garcia.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And by the way, I kind of wish this would have gone through committee, but I appreciate what you're doing here and giving it to Committee of the Whole, so I appreciate that. I'm throwing that out there, and I thank you for that. And I do thank you for bringing up some of these and resolving some of these issues that were outstanding that really go a long way to help our small businesses. I do have one question, if I may, and it has to do with the startup businesses. that we have removed we went from okay yeah we should not have a requirement of three full-time staff me

I just got a little more confused right now. Let's talk about local preference and then small business. The definition of a small business is what?

Okay, Mr. Chairman, that's for the small business, correct? Yes. And then now for local preference. Yes. Now for local preference, what is it for local preference?

Okay, so if you're qualified as a small business, can you qualify for local preference? Yes. Okay, that's fairly fair. Let me, Mr. Chairman, I think that addresses my concerns, and I think I feel fairly comfortable, but I'll get back to you. Thanks. And thank you for what you're doing here, Mr. Chairman. I really thank you for this.

Thank you. Actually, some clarification on the local preference. Just generally speaking, obviously, we know we have an affordability issue here in Miami-Dade County, and we know that we want to tackle it through many different means, and one of that is supporting local jobs, right? The local economy, the local ecosystem that we have here. So what are we doing today as it relates to that? Because I know we have two different versions as it relates to local preference. Can you please just give me the clarification?

All right. Minister, do you have anything? Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And first of all, let me just say to both of you, thank you so much. It's obvious that the work that went into this produced a great product, right, where we can hang our hats on and appreciate the system even more. And to the administration, thank you so much for making sure that this is something that, again, would right the ship, get us where we need to be as it relates to procurement. And Mr. Chair, thank you so much for your leadership in pushing this forward. I have a few concerns I would like to address, but instead of me addressing it technically each line by l

I don't think that's an appropriate question for the chair. I think that's for Diana. If anything, that's a question for me.

Well, whomever wants to answer the question, but if you would like, that'd be great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yeah, it's very simple. No, we can't wait till next meeting because this is real people's money that we're talking about. There's taxpayer dollars that we're talking about. And delaying this another month when the only thing that was removed in those substitutes was the removal of anything pertaining to small business and locally headquartered businesses. Nothing was changed. So the same item you got a week ago, you have it before you today. It was just removed. Nothing was changed. There was no funny games of words. So you've actually, if you read it, if it's true that you were briefed and re

I think Thank You mr. Chairman and and let me just say this I please please understand and appreciate my position not to say that there was some funny business going on behind the scenes and or someone had a position that would actually benefit another person into another organization over one my position has always been the same and it will continuously be the same it's really about transparency at this particular point because at the end of the day you know we prepared we were brief but at the last minute we feel as if things were actually injected into a conversation and it forced those to

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to be brief in my remarks in thanking you for your leadership on this. It wasn't but a few years ago when I was running my first campaign that I think the business community's loudest complaint to me was procurement. We need to get procurement in order in Miami-Dade County over and over again. And when Ambassador and my friend and former Commissioner Cabrera was here, we took a stab at it. I mean, this is an issue that we have dealt with in Miami-Dade County for a very, very long time. And I am very grateful to you, Mr. Chair, for your leadership in putting to

Commissioner Orbis, do you have anything?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Obviously, I agree with the task force recommendations. I know you've worked very diligently for the past year on hopefully fixing our procurement system. I know that we get so many complaints, one of the most that we receive as commissioners, and I'm glad that we were able to address the small business unrest that there was. I'm glad that we're able to assist them, so thank you for bringing this forward.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Hardiman? Commissioner Bermudez.

Yeah, I have a lot to say. Let me start by thanking you, because your efforts are efforts that I think a number of us shared, but you've always shared, which is to make things more efficient in the county, not only for the large businesses, but for the small businesses. And I thank you for, and applaud your effort, and thank you for, even though I agree with the Vice Chair that I don't like things getting dropped at 11 o'clock, I do appreciate the fact that you've taken the steps to clarify some of those things, and it's appreciated. But effective and as an efficiency too, I think we've always

All right, and then before I continue, just for a quick, Commissioner Gonzalez, you need to do something.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, to the County Attorney's Office, if I can just please remove co-sponsorship 8A5. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

All right, anyone else before I go to my last argument? Are you getting...

I mean, because, like if... You know we can talk, like, you know.

I'm not trying to engage you, I'm just trying to say like, if Raquel speaks first, then you, and then you say something that triggers her, she's going to want to speak twice.

Well, that's kind of how this works, right? Like, we listen to each other, and then we say what we believe. We don't create like a game plan before, and then, you know, call to play.

Thank you. Thank you to my colleagues. I'm glad that some of my concerns were already mentioned. I'm going to start with the easy stuff. In 5G, there is one of the recommendations for D7 is to develop a standard ground lease agreement. And I would like this to have parity with what we did for HUD. So what we did for HUD is we said we're going to have a standard ground lease. And when you apply, whatever you don't object to, you are barred from objecting to. And so I think you should add that on here because that's really, when we studied why Broward and other places do it faster, it's because

How do we- So what we would effectuate would be when we get a letter, because when the agenda item publishes, we get the letters. When we get the letters, they're made part of the record here and usually passed out. What I would say is, and usually procurement's copied and the mayor's copied. When they get those letters, then they have to give it to our legal department. And they have to say these arguments could have been, right, an objection to the procurement. So those arguments are taken out because you had your chance to object, right? And you didn't object. And now you're placing those o

I don't see an issue with that. Do you guys see an issue with that?

Yeah, and I think, and you're saying, Commissioner Regalado, like specifically just to arguments that could have been appealed.

Right, things that should have been part of your objection, right. So that's a legal, as I'm saying, it's a legal determination. What could have fallen within our, An objection to that procurement, which now they're re litigating in correspondence to the board of county commissioners instead of officially filing an objection or they did file an objection. It was rejected and now we're bringing it up again.

I guess my, I'm fine with it. My question is like, how do you, so let's say they send us, let's say we implement that. They sent us the letter. We had, we, it becomes part of the records. We give it to the attorneys. They. They say that what you just said that it's, they could have been, it could have been objected. What happens after that? Because as commissioners, we can still bring it up because we got the letter. Like they still kind of accomplished her there.

Yes, but on the record, it will be said that this argument, this argument, and this argument could have been part of an official objection, and they chose not to do that. So if we still want to go down that rabbit hole, we can, but at least there is, on the record, the statement that they chose to not use the vehicle provided to them by our procurement.

I'm fine with it. Diane, I don't see an issue with it.

It doesn't preclude us from still taking a different course. It doesn't change the outcome on our end at least. But I'm fine with it because it doesn't change our outcome, but it puts on the record that they could have objected through the right process.

And what I'm saying is, I think the restrictions that we're placing on objections, I don't want people to then send letters as a quasi-objection. I'm trying to hold everyone to that rule. And I think that this allows us then to look at those arguments in the context of not choosing to object.

Okay. Commissioner Gilbert, I mean, she still has the floor, but

Because what you're saying, I follow what you say, Commissioner Regalado, but the chairman's point is well taken because what you're saying is any other, that would just be cosmetic because we could still always consider and any other thing would be a limitation on our ability to take whatever comes into purview into making our decisions. And we have that discretion unless it's like quasi judicial. So I think it's just cosmetic.

No, it's a clarification on the record because I can think of three times that it's happened where we've put our attorneys in a difficult spot because then we ask the question. Like, could this have been an objection, right? So I think if it already comes to us with the determination, saying look they didn't file an objection or they did file an objection and what's in this letter is a repeat of that objection or they could have filed an objection for maybe they mentioned five things they could have filed an objections for one two and three but they didn't now four and five that would have fal

Yeah, but that's why it's cosmetic, because it doesn't actually change anything. It doesn't change anything, that's almost the definition of cosmetic. So it doesn't change anything. So what they can say, what we can actually- I hope it de-incentivizes them. Okay, so it's like lip gloss and not lipstick? I mean, I don't get that. Okay, but whatever. Chairman, you accepted it. You accepted it.

Let's roll. I'm good with it, because I'm good with it. Commissioner Bermudez, to that point, right?

Yeah, to that point. To that point, I agree with Congressman Gilbert. It's totally cosmetic, because some of the people on that committee are the ones that do this all the time. We get a letter when they don't like the decision that was taken by a committee and they don't, you know, they might lose a procurement hearing or they might not even have one and then they come in front of us. I have no problem with it. You accepted it. My only suggestion would be, since I believe legally They still have the ability to bring things in front of us, whether we like it or not. It's up to us to say, hey,

And I would add, this will allow us to quantify it, so then we can go back and look at this. And if people keep doing it, then we can actually do something about it. Because I think right now it's kind of left to our memory to remember how many times this happened, because it's not something that we consider. Okay, all right. Next one. To Commissioner Gilbert's point about deviations, one of the things I was hoping to find here, and I didn't find, was more accountability in terms of change orders. And I would separate change orders into two buckets. Change orders as a result of a change in sco

How can we address that? I think it's a good point.

No, when we look at dropping the lowest, right, I think that's when you should look at change order history. I'm happy to include it also as a selection committee, but they're going to say, oh, but that was different. I think if you include it, in the selection committee's decision-making regarding that, it might be presidential. But I think as you decide to drop folks, that's something that you might want to consider and definitely something that the board should have access to as we look at those decisions.

Commissioner, hold on one second. Guys, can we lower our voices? It's getting loud in the background. Yeah. Guys in the back, commissioner, staff. Go ahead.

I would say maybe go back five years and just look at the vendor driven and maybe when it comes to the board. Not as part of the selection process, but when it comes to the board. Because I think that's when it really, like when the rubber meets the road, right? I don't want to jam up the selection committee process, but I think that's information that we need in order to make a final determination. If it's like a serial change, because we're the ones that have to approve the change order, not the selection committee.

Thank you. All right. Now, Mr. Chair, to the more complex one. So. One of the things that we've talked about that are part of this is how we make up the selection committee. And I've talked about this before, selection committees were created by this board over two decades ago when there was an administration that did not trust staff. And over the years, we now have selection committees made up of staff. So how the pendulum has moved is very interesting. One of these changes changes the makeup. And I think that there's been a lot of concerns about the makeup of selection committees in terms of

I know that we addressed this to some level. Do you want to touch on it, or Diane, whichever one? I know this was talked about.

But what about through the chair? But what about the vacation time and the cost of that and the loss of that employee for that?

But to my point, I mean, we do have cases where people are walking into selection committee and saying that they haven't read it. They haven't even read the executive summary. That is a thing. That is a thing. We get complaints about it all the time, and it's not a new complaint. It's an ongoing complaint. And I appreciate that the directors are now participating in this election, but it's challenging for us to know that they're not at their desk, they're getting vacation time, and then they're saying that they're not prepared or they haven't read.

I've heard the same thing, by the way. I think that instance, I think we should keep record, and the person that says that they've not read the reviewed the information they should never be part of one again for sure because i've heard the same i mean actually they've said it on the right they've said it on they've said it it's recorded so i agree with at least keeping record um but the other thing what i would what i would suggest on the rest of it commissioner is let this play out for a couple months see if it works and if it doesn't a lot of these things may not we may need to revisit not j

Thank you. I'm just concerned. I can tell you there's certain departments that we need these people to approve things. So they need to get back to their desk, right? The procurement part is important, but so is the everyday work of Miami-Dade County. And when you combine all these things, it gets a little complex. So I hope, I think this idea of maybe reporting back on this and saying how it's working is a good idea. Because I think... having the directors participate, having some accountability, and making sure that someone is not overly participating in selection committees, because some of

Commissioner Steinberg says she wants double the amount of time of Commissioner Regalado. All right, so I'll take up each item individually. I know that there was a motion already on the table to move them all, but I think some may vote for some, I don't know. So I'll take, yeah, but we're going to take them up separately.

So, I have a question. Okay, yes, go ahead Commissioner Steinberg.

All right, I think that it's very important that since we are making some changes today and we did get a lot of feedback, and I appreciate some of the amendments, that this does come back in some form of a report or update. I don't know if you feel six months or a year is enough time so that we can continue incorporating and fine-tuning to make sure that we are cognizant of everything that we are doing so that we don't, so we try to eliminate as many unintended consequences as possible. So I do make that as a recommendation or amendment to what we do. Thank you.

All right, so Commissioner Conegans, would you, I know you made the motion. 5E. Would you move each one individually?

Yeah, I move 5E and any supplements and agreed upon amendments. It's been, well-

Okay, so it's been moved. It's been seconded by Commissioner Gonzalez.

Point of order. So Commissioner Steinberg made up a good point. Are we running that stat? Because I really do think we need a report. I would say six months. Are we running a stat through all of them?

I'm happy to second her friendly amendment.

It's a friendly amendment. Yes, we need reporting. What did you suggest, Commissioner Steinberg? I was- procurement takes a bit so i think i think 12 i think at the 12 month mark and then we because just because procurement takes a bit to really evaluate but so i think at 12 months we need namida a report on it and then we'll make the adjustments as needed so as amended for all of them with with the reporting so there's a motion uh on five which one was it 5e seconded by commissioner gonzalez yes Mr.

Like the amendments on the floor, right?

5F, it's substitute and any agreed upon amendments.

All right, so moved by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, seconded by Commissioner Lopez. Do you want to read the amendments? Do you want to read the amendments?

I move 5 G it substitute and agreed upon amendments.

When they respond to the RFP, yes. Clerk, please call the roll. Second. It's been moved, it's been seconded by Commissioner Regalado. Go ahead.

English no, Spanish no, Russian yet, no.

I move five, age substitute and any agreed upon amendments.

There's more. We talked about providing information to the board regarding change orders in this one when it comes to the board.

No, agenda item, no, part of the recommendation.

Okay, is that concluding our public hearing items? Yes. All right. Madam Attorney or Mr. Attorney, if you can read now going into second reading items.

Yes, please. And if you have any bifurcation requests, you could name them as well.

7E and 7F, okay. All right, so do I have a motion on the remainder non-bifurcated items? It's been moved by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, seconded by Gonzalez. Clerk, please call the roll.

Okay, this is, everything's on bifurcated. All right, yeah.

All right. Mr. Chair, could you show me this co-sponsor on 7A, please?

All right, so go bird is a co-sponsor on 7, 8. All right, 7. He was bifurcated by Commissioner Lopez. You recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I have an issue with the supplement that removes the proposed record keeping requirement that was intended to ensure that certain fireworks sales are being conducted in accordance with section of the Florida statute. I was in the house when we decided that it was important to ensure accountability because we have exemptions of the types of fireworks that can be sold. And it's only through record keeping that we can keep people accountable. So I would like to I can't vote on the item if they don't replace the record keeping back in, which is really the big accountabi

Commissioner Gonzalez. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And first, to the county attorney's office, I know that there's an amendment. Yeah, I think there's something you need to add.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so to Commissioner Lopez, I don't disagree. I think you're right, and I thank you for bringing it up. The reason that we took it out initially, we had extensive conversations with the fire along with the county attorney's office. And they can explain it better than I, but it seems like there might be a preemptive issue here. And it seems like it might arise litigation because of some clarity that's needed in the statute. That's the reason we took it out. I don't disagree with you. I'd be happy to put it back in, but I'm being told that it can cause possible litigation

So Mr. Chairman, I can't imagine that asking someone to keep records would cause litigation. That is exactly what the legislative intent was, whether it's vague or not. I recall very clearly that the record keeping requirement, and We have exemptions of certain types of fireworks that can be sold. So in order for us to understand whether or not they are doing the right thing, the record keeping is the very accountability tool. So I disagree wholeheartedly with. Whether it's the county attorney's perception or the fire department's perception, I know exactly what the legislature meant. And I be

All right, so what are we doing here? Do you want to just vote no on it, Commissioner?

Unless it's put back in, I will vote no, yes. All right.

Mr. Chair, I'm happy to work with fire and the county attorney's office to figure out, because she makes a very, very valid point. She was in Tallahassee when this was getting done. But per the conversation that we had, I'll move it as is. Would love to work with Commissioner Lopez's office to make sure that we remedy the record keeping at some point. Thank you.

All right, so clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Gonzalez has moved it. Seconded by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. Call the roll.

No, there's no amendment because the attorneys are saying that you can't do that. So Commissioner Lopez is just going to vote no on it.

But they're required to do it right now, right? They're required to keep record now.

I will allow Commissioner Lopez to engage a little bit further, because as I understood, they have a requirement now. And I too have an issue with keeping the record because in the district I represent, we have a lot of illegal things that go bang in the middle of the night that cause great injuries to people. And we have a proliferation of tents that are usually put up and they sell what is deemed to be fireworks or whatever type of explosive devices. And so it's a big mystery for me as an individual and then people who live in the community to have to deal with this, especially when you have

I don't know that it's expressed. I haven't heard that we are absolutely preempted from requiring. I haven't heard that. So I would say we keep it in there. you know, let them figure it out. But I think, I think, I don't, what really, what is Tallahassee going to do? I mean, we're just asking for record keeping on something that they probably support.

Mr. Chair, and can I be recognized? And I'm not opposed to it. I mean, I would like to leave it in, but I don't, you know, I'm deferring to the county attorney's office. Mr. Regalado.

Mr. Chair, if I could proffer a solution. I think we all agree it's not expressed, but that's their legal opinion. So I would tell you to leave it in and just to add that you could maintain or enhance reporting unless expressly prohibited by existing state law. And then you're good, because if it's expressly prohibited by state law, right? But give yourself the flexibility of being able to do that.

So show it amended. Like for that all stuff amended by call it commissioner Lopez. It's a friendly amendment.

I was already seconded, I guess just to be just a question and I agree with the amendment and also with commissioner loves this. So we are going to include correct.

Yes, we're including it with the caveat that as long as it's allowed by the state, or as long as it's legal to do so.

As long as it's not expressly- Prohibited. Prohibited by the state, it has to be expressly prohibited by the state.

It's not allowed by the state only because the governor and his buddies can do a lot of things. So I got to make sure that it's expressly stated here, that it's expressly allowed by the state. We have a former state representative here, she feels comfortable with it. I'll be more than happy to support it along those lines. But I have the same concern as Commissioner Hardiman and I think Commissioner Lopez had, which is if it's not there, then we can, okay, that's fine. But just be clear, because just because it comes from Tallahassee doesn't make it right. God, we know that.

Actually, before you do that, Mr. Chair, I'm sorry.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

So I asked about that solution and they had a problem with it. So I just want to make sure we're clear. And then I don't know whether the part of the language they read didn't say there was, we were preempted, but we're being told that we are preempted. So is there a general preemption with regard to fireworks or what is the preemption? So there is a preemption or preemptive language somewhere. Where is the preemptive language? Because then I'm pretty sure they're not just making it up.

I am, I am, I am. Thank you, Commissioner Lopez. Okay. That's not a preemption. Right. That's not a preemption to record. That's not a preemption to record keeping. So let's just be, that's not a preemption to record keeping. The sale, that is not a preemption to record keeping. That shouldn't be acknowledged as a preemption. So I think that we add it back in.

No, Mickey, no. As excluded. Clerk, call the roll, please.

As amended, as Commissioner Steinberg would say.

Yes, as included according to Mickey Steinberg.

Right. Mr. Chairman, before you move on, over here. Can I release 8A4 and 8A5? My question about the square footage cost was answered. Not to my satisfaction, but we'll talk about that later. Thank you.

We'll get there, guys. Hold on. Are you guys leaving or something? You guys got to leave? Okay. All right. So 7F. Okay. 7F. Does the director need to read anything? No, right? Anything that needs to be read on the record by the attorneys, the director, no? Anything, anything? Public hearing has already been had on this item. I motion to approve. All right, I have a motion. I have a motion. Do you need to read something, Abby? No, I- Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Okay, so do you want him to say I motion it first or do you want to say that first? What do you want to do first, Abby?

He's motioning to approve it. He just said it. So there's a motion to move the item. Gilbert seconded it. Commissioner Steinberg had comments.

No, no, I was just going to say at the conclusion of this item, I would like to please be recognized.

Okay, at the conclusion though, not now. All right, Abby, do you want to clarify the motion?

All right, and that's one motion for all for the supplements, right? I don't need separate motions, right? All right, so it's been moved. It's been seconded. Commissioner Regalado.

Thank you. Um, I just want to clarify a few things with staff cause we've made a lot of changes, um, to the application, um, and, and put something on the record. Um, so first of all, I want to thank everyone that came out and that has reached out to talk about this. I want to thank the applicant for all the changes that we've made to the application. I think in its current form, it really is best in class in terms of wetland protection for the folks who have spoken against this. I just want to say that concern is not conservation. Talking about preserving wetlands and actually preserving wetl

You know, this is not a promise. This is something that we're going to hold them to before they open their doors on this. We have a funding mechanism that fully funds a long-term maintenance. We know that we have issues with EO. We'll be dealing with that on Thursday, and I look forward to that conversation. We're going to maintain it in its natural state, free of any exotic vegetation. Under the maintenance plan, RER would be reviewing and approving that. We have legally a conservation easement, a requirement of rezoning to the conservation district for the preservation area, pursuant to sect

All right. Sounds good. Thank you very much. All right. Clerk, please call the roll.

All right. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Yes. You may be recognized commissioner Steinberg. Of course.

Thank you so much. So I have, um, a motion that I'd like the attorney to read into the record and no, it will not use eel funds, not general funds. And I will let her read it.

It's been moved by Commissioner Steinberg, seconded by the Vice Chair, Commissioner Bermudez.

Yeah, I've got two questions, and I don't want to channel my inner Mickey Steinberg and just say no to logical things, but this is proposed by her, but the bottom line is, don't we know where the wetlands are right now, or do we not know? Isn't it on CDMP? I don't know. The administration can enlighten me on the... Oh, okay, let's see.

My first question, Mr. Chair, if I may, I'm going to try to treat you guys, do we know where the wetlands are?

That's a yes. Can you provide said maps to the wonderful 13 people up on this dais?

Okay, my second question would be, while I have great faith in both of you and in the mayor, I would like this to be fair and not just cited to the people that may be followers of the environmental world. As such, I believe, especially if you're talking about valuing the wetlands, that you need to bring in other sectors of this community that can also be a part of this process. Because what I would not like to see, no offense, Madam Mayor, is a committee of individuals that are made up of individuals that are just looking at it from one perspective, not taking into account Other aspects that m

No, thank you so much for asking that. I had worked with the administration. They had asked me to bring this forward. I believe that has the Lord is please you're up there.

Are you telling me the scope will include all interested parties, not just one sector of the community that may have an opinion, as we saw on the prior item, where there are buildings to the left, right, that may have an opinion that's already set in stone when we're looking at the wetlands. Is that the comment you're putting on the record today?

You great ladies and the mayor and the administration that this is going to include all the parties that could be impacted and concerned. Again, the only other thing I would say is when you have those maps, can you get it to the 13 August members of this body? I don't include myself. Let's call them 12 August members and one other individual.

All right, now we got all the parties. It's officially a party.

Commissioner Gilbert, do you still want to? At the risk of being like a psychic here. Not that of a party. Yeah, they're going to take all input and it's going to come back and say exactly what you think it's going to say. This is going to be like written by termites. So I just want to be clear about what I know what's about to happen here. But this is one of those times when I can see it coming and it's completely fine. That's what's going to happen. I'm going to miss you. It's going to happen. JC, you're trying to guard against it. And by the way, I actually believe you, Lourdes. I actually

So I guess my question is, because I agree, but my question is, why do you need a motion for this? Mayor, don't you have the authority to do this already and do a study on your own?

Covered the cost by proprietary funds. I don't want taxpayer dollars. In a time when we're already crunching pennies here, as we're doing the budget to go to a study that. I mean, we, like, we know what the outcome is going to be. So I don't want to pay as a taxpayer. I don't want to pay for something that I know what it's going to say.

So if I may, absolutely. As a matter of fact, specific to the motion is no general funds will be used towards this and attaining any sort of federal and state grants as well towards this to offset any additional costs.

Okay. And as long as that's the case, I'm good with it. Commissioner Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And just to see if we can get both Commissioner Gilbert and Commissioner Bermudez on board. I don't know if this could be a friendly amendment to Commissioner Steinberg, but what if we made it so that the commission had input as to who does the study? Because the administration wants the study to move forward, but if we had a say as to who does the study, then perhaps everybody can be sufficiently happy with the fact that everybody's included.

That's not what I'm talking about, Dolores. I'm talking about the actual entity, because you cited to possible universities and stuff, right? Yes. So the actual entity, if we can have a final say as to who does that, it could be FIU, it could be the University of Miami, it could be Berkeley, it could be a thousand different people, right? A thousand different universities. But I'm just saying, if we could have a say as to who does it, perhaps more folks would be on board. Commissioner Regalado.

I'm sorry, did you... Commissioner Regalado.

Thank you. I think it's a good item. My only concern is whenever we do... First of all, all love to the germites. But whenever we do this, we don't take into consideration ownership. So I'm all for a valuation, but... At the heart of our problem is who owns the parcels, right? So I think we make these decisions on other people's property, and I think it needs to speak to the ownership. It also needs to speak to the cost for restoring the wetlands, right? Because we know that that's going to be one of the big issues. I mean, I'm happy to do an audit so we can figure out where the wetlands are.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When was the last time that we did a wetland study in Miami-Dade County?

Yeah, I think considering that we either haven't had one done or haven't had one done in the recent history, I'm not sure why there's so much pushback on getting informational reports on the current status of wetlands in Miami-Dade County. We are flanked by the Everglades and Biscayne Bay. These decisions directly affect our drinking water and flooding in our county, of which many of our residents complain to us all the time, and yet we continue to pave and pave and pave. And so I would like to see a wetland study done just so that we can have the information since we haven't done one in since

were we paving? Because my district needs new paving. It hasn't been paved in 30 years. It has potholes everywhere. Yeah, thank you for asking.

I'm not talking about sidewalks. I'm talking about surfaces. That's why we passed the improvements ordinance. Thank you so much.

It's been moved by... I have a question. I have one question. Yes, Bermudez, yes. If I may...

Second bite at the apple. Yes. And I'm going to vote for it. And I, commissioner Cohen, Higgins words are well taken, except for the fact that I don't, I think we do have a right to have everybody incorporated in this process. There are proprietary rights that people have their landowners and some of this area, and we need to also include them. And then the final one, since everything here is political, do we call you germites or dermians? Because, you know, I once saw a taxi episode where Jim was watching the Delaware, you know, government saying Delawareans or Delaware rights? Because, you k

We have a motion. We have a second. As amended, make sure we're using preparatory funds. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. Nay. All right, show the item passed. All right, are we in the pulled items at this time?

Yes, actually no, we'll take the releases in a second. I'm going to call 84 and 85. Together, if possible, it was released by D-13, but I still have D-12. It's going to be simple. So, Commissioner, and then you already got out of- No, I have a possible conflict on 85.

Yeah, you already got- Caution. You took out your co-sponsor. No, I'm going to exclude myself. That's right, you took it out, yeah, yeah. You said that already, though.

Oh, you can actually walk out. Oh, OK, OK, OK, OK. So separate from the co-sponsorship. OK. All right. Got you. You are. Yeah. So we'll take a separate, but we'll discuss them together. Commissioner Ramirez. I'm going to be.

No, but I can't. I'm not going to discuss 85.

All right, 84. We're on 84. I'm going to say the same thing I'm going to say on the other one, so I'll save the time of talking on the other one. For me, it's very simple. I'm going to support both items. The only thing I would like to do is, as we don't do in this county, when somebody commits to doing something, we must have a tracking mechanism. Whether it's this administration or all the ones, I know one of you is very, a good number of you are interested, or a future administration. This needs to be monitored as we move forward because that's the only thing I'll say. Commissioner Gonzalez

All right, so 84 moved by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, seconded by Commissioner Lopez. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed nay. Now you can be excused now.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'm going to read this for the record. Although I have discussed it with the county attorney's office and they do not believe there is a conflict of interest, I'm recusing myself on this item in an abundance of caution. I may have a potential conflict of interest regarding the discussion and vote of item 8A5. I'm a party to a business lease agreement with a possible affiliate to Case LLC that is the county's proposed tenant in 8A5. Item 8A5 would authorize the county to enter into a lease agreement with Case LLC. In an abundance of caution and to avoid any appearance,

Thank you very much. I move 885 in its supplement.

Commissioner Cohen-Higgins moves 885 in its supplement, seconded by Commissioner Gilbert. All in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed nay. Show 85 passed and Commissioner Gonzalez can re-enter the chamber. All right, now, Mr. Attorney, you can see what was released.

Yeah, is that, Mr. Chair? Was that 3A1 and 2? No, okay, all right, okay.

Second by Commissioner Gonzalez. All in favor? Aye. All against? So the item passes. Next, Madam Attorney, I believe we're at 381?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And just to read this into the record, this is a naming of a street. And just for the record, just for everyone's information, again, what I said earlier, I have the state hold, so a lot of these state designation, road designations will come through our office.

Sorry, Mr. Chair, were we on 381 or 382? 381. 381.

So this is the role designation for Celia Cruz. Celia Cruz was a unique and dynamic becoming enduring symbol of strength and freedom for the Cuban exile community. Celia Cruz's life is a story of talent, perseverance, cultural pride, and joy. Her music uplifted millions, her voice broke barriers, and her legacy remains a vibrant beacon of what it meant to lead with artistry, authenticity, and corazon. Her trademark phrase, Azuka, became an empowering culture symbol, reflecting joy, resilience, and Afro-Cuban identity. Mr. Chairman, that is the resolution that was passed by the Florida State Le

Seeing that you're moving the item, do we have a second?

I pulled it as well. I pulled it to co-prime it.

All right, so showing District 12, you want to co-prime, co-sponsor? Both? Okay, anyone else who wishes to co-sponsor this item? Madam Attorney, are you getting the entire dais, all of us, for both of them? Well, for both of them, is that correct for everyone? That's okay. So we're going to call them at the same time, 381 and 382.

I actually pulled 382 and I'd like to speak on it.

Okay. For 381. Let's push through 381. All in favor? Azucar.

Seeing that the resolution was moved, do we have a second?

All against? That item moves and passes.

Mr. Chair, I just had a statement from the Celia Cruz estate that they had asked me to read, if I may?

Thank you. So on behalf of the Celia Cruz estate, I want to extend our deepest gratitude to State Representative Alex Rizzo, Senator Rainey Garcia, the State Legislature, City of Hialeah, the Chairman Anthony Rodriguez, Commissioner Milian Orbis, and every member of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners for honoring Celia with the designation of Celia Cruz Way. This tribute holds profound meaning for the estate of Celia Cruz and for all who cherish Celia's extraordinary legacy. Hialeah and the South Florida community represent the heart of the Cuban exile experience and embrace Celia wi

Thank you. Would you like to file that letter with the clerk of court? Yes. For the record? Thank you so much. Heading over to 382, Commissioner Meleon.

Yes, thank you so much, Mr. Chair. So this is a co-designation for Manolo Reyes, and obviously Manolo Reyes left a tremendous legacy in our community. He was a fierce advocate for the community, and he literally left us while still fighting relentlessly for his community. He was loved by all. And his family is very special to me, to my family, myself. And I think I saw his son, Manny Reyes, here earlier. I don't know if he's still here, but he's a dear friend. This street code designation is so well deserved, and I am so delighted that it is in District 6. In my research, I found out that all

Thank you also, we see district 12 you pulled this along with district 13 and

Yeah, I kind of, well, first of all, let me just say, and I don't know if Manny Jr. is here, but Manolo Reyes was an example of a... There's a lot of good people in politics in Dade County, all 12 of you included. But he was very unique in that he called it the way it is. If he was with you, he'd tell you. If he was against you, he'd tell you. He was always an honest man. Nothing was ever done for any ulterior reasons. So I think this one is important to me, having known him, because he was always... In my opinion, always, even before he was an elected official, a very fair guy. And I also, an

Give me one second. I know Commissioner, I meant Senator. You okay? Go ahead, Commissioner.

Well, I just wanted to ask the county attorneys if you can clarify, now that we're in the sunshine, if you can let us know specifically that the hold, that everything that comes out of Tallahassee goes to one commissioner, and it has to go to that commissioner, even if it's in our district?

Does that answer your question, Commissioner?

Thank you. And on this one, I'm going to agree with Commissioner Orbis. I loved Manolo. He's wonderful. There's also part of District 7, too. But still, that being said, you know, and I talked to many Reyes and the family about it. We're all so excited that we could provide Manolo and his family and his grandchildren with this honor. He's so deserving of it. Such a wonderful man. But street name is in my district are are very delicate. Um, so, you know, I, I really think that upholding the rule that we get to decide, even when it's a kind of decision, uh, would be the best because we are the o

I want to echo everybody's sentiment on Manolo Reyes. He may have been like a resident of seven and eight, but he drove through district one once or twice. So, but he's. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. Good public servant. Definitely worth it. I hope we get invited to the street naming. I appreciate it. So thank you for allowing me to be a co-primer, whatever it is. But definitely a good dude. And so that's one thing. And the second thing is, I know the county attorney said that there's a hold on this. But I think that that that decision probably needs to be something that comes from the cha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I want to say that Manolo Reyes was probably one of the consummate elected officials. I won't even call him a politician. He is beloved in my district, in District 5, which he shared with me as well. Not only when I was the State House member for District 113, but now. I did not get a chance to work with him as a county commissioner because he had passed away by the time I got appointed here. But I have to say that I'm grateful that there would be any effort to celebrate and honor this incredible man, which so much has been said about. But I recall that he is the on

Thank you. Senator Garcia, I saw your hand.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to tell you something that Manolo Reyes is an amazing individual. All of us, especially in the Hispanic community, knew exactly who he was. We've worked with him, and he was someone that always stood up for what's right. He always worked within the rules. He was not someone that you could owe. He's not someone that when he made a decision or when he took a vote, you knew where that vote was coming from. It was coming from a place of honesty, integrity, and making sure that he stood up for his community. He was a man who I admired. I had man who I respected j

Chair, I got a quick- Commissioner Hardiman, please, and then followed by Commissioner Bermudez.

I believe Manolo died around 80 years old, so he lived a very full life. And there are many people who knew Manolo for a very long time before he turned 80 years old. I was not one of those individuals that had the pleasure of knowing Manolo in his younger years. But it was always awesome to hear his friends from then describe Manolo then. I know they lie from here to there. We should lie for our friends to tell the best stories of us. And we should lie for our friends to tell terrible stories of us just to keep it spicy. I think you have to add a little bit of both truth and fiction when you

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Bermudez.

Yeah, I just have a question more of the attorneys. Commissioner Gilbert enlightened us a bit on some of the comments of the definition of a hold, which is different what I've been given from you all. So I would like to make sure that we can have that discussion based on that. And then the second thing, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to be the first guy to declare a hold on all holds by Commissioner Gilbert subsequent to January 3rd, 2027. It's already been done.

Thank you. Do you want the county attorney to answer the first question? That's my question.

No, no, they can come and tell me personally, because I think you made a very valid point, and I'd like to hear that difference. But the second one, I'm serious. I was the first, so I get that.

No, no, I think that's because I've been on first.

Are there any other questions or concerns on this item? All right, can we get someone to move the item 382 in the supplement? Second. Do we have a second? All in favor? Aye. All against? So the item passes. The next item up is 8A3, commission from District 7. You pulled this item?

I just wanted the director to speak to it a little bit. I'm glad that we're finally getting to the jet fuel storage. It's so important. I know Ralph has been working on it for some time, but I really believe it's worth a quick mention.

Sure. Before that, Ralph, Commissioner, is there a specific question, or you just want him to give an overview of this item?

Yeah, just a general overview. I mean, we don't have to get into redundancy and all the other stuff, but just a general overview in terms of how it gets us closer to compliance and how important it is from an infrastructure perspective.

And I will say to the board, when we were going to do the VIC, there was going to be a piece of the VIC that did some of this. So that's why this item is a little bit different, because the VIC wasn't able to do that piece. And obviously, we already approved an item that redis all the generators and all the electrical and everything else. So this was the missing component in terms of the infrastructure. So thank you, Ralph. I'm going to move it.

Thank you. Seeing that the item has been moved by Commissioner Regalado, do we have a second? Second by Commissioner Lopez. All in favor? All against? So the item passes. Let's move to 8G1. We're almost done, ladies and gentlemen. District 13, you pull this item.

Mr. Chairman, thank you. It's a quick question. A couple of months ago, we passed the standardization of the budgets because we were having all these budgets that were coming to us were not standardized. I just want to ask a question of the administration. What is the status of the standardization of the budgets for the- Bless you. Good afternoon. The standardization on the budget. We had a big sneeze back here. Bless you. Actually, it was a cute sneeze.

And by then, we will have them all standardized. We'll have all the detail that we asked for.

I appreciate that. Thank you very much. I move the item.

I'll second it, but I have a question. Does that also include how to actually create a budget narrative?

But I mean, have they been told how to do a budget narrative, detailed? Do they understand what a budget narrative is? Do they understand that when you are explaining it, such as, let's take travel. You will list every travel you intend to make, what the costs are for airfare, hotels, taxis, etc. Have they learned that?

Mr. Chairman, I would like very much for someone to show me what a budget narrative looks like that you think is acceptable, because I'm going to tell you it's probably not going to be acceptable to me.

Understood. Do you mind reaching out to her office and setting up an appointment and work with her? Does that work for you, Commissioner Lopez? Yes, sir. Thank you. All right, Senate item moved and also seconded by Commissioner Lopez. All in favor, signify by saying aye. All against, it shows that the item passes. All right, we're coming home to the home stretch. Item 11A1, District 12. Commissioner Bermudez, I believe you pulled this item, the illegal dumping item.

Yeah, I'm supportive of the item. I just would like the resolution to include District 12. because we have a lot of illegal dumping in District 12 and encampments. So I'd like them to take a look, and they're looking at District 2, look at District 12.

Gotcha. Okay, give me one second. It's getting a little loud in here. If you can just quiet down, we're almost done. Commissioner Gonzalez, I do believe this is your item.

Bastian's item? Okay. He co-primed it. I mean, I don't have an issue with that, but she's the main sponsor.

Yeah. I just look, and as a matter of fact, I'm glad it was co-sponsored by Commissioner Gonzalez because on the other side of the district, which it's my district, we get encampments. So all I'm asking is to be included. She's not here, but I'd be surprised if she'd be bothered. If not, I'll just bring one next month and say District 12th.

I don't think she'd have a problem. It's fine. So the item amended to include it, I'm getting a nod from her office. Commissioner Stomberg, please.

And I think it's a great item. I abut a lot of the district two boundaries, so I would like to be included as well.

Also include Commissioner Stomberg's district in this report also. District four, anyone else? Three. Maybe everybody? Commissioner Hart in this district also to be included in here. Anyone else needs to be included? We're going to talk about this. Commissioner Millian Orbis also includes her into this one also. Anyone else needs to be included?

I'm good, but we're going to talk about this at length on Thursday.

Gotcha, thank you. Anyone else wishes to be included? Include District 9 also. Can we get someone to make a motion to move the item? Move. Second? Second. Senate second. All in favor of the amended version of this item? Signify by saying aye. Aye. All against? So as the item passes. 1183, I believe this was you, Commissioner Steinberg, who pulled this item?

I did, I did. So first I want to apologize because we did not discuss this at committee very thoroughly. We had another item that kind of overtook that committee meeting. And so as I had a chance to further dive into this item, I think the intent is really good, but I have a lot of concerns. In my district particularly, I don't know that we can just have a blanket intensity, more intense uses, since we already have a lot of intensity in the district. And I know the memo was very high level, but I am concerned about what Pandora's box we're going to be opening here and what constitutes you know

Thank you, Commissioner Gonzalez. I do believe this is your item. First question is, are you amenable to having her district excluded? And also, understanding where the second question was, is who follows through, who does what?

Which, do we have someone from the administration to come to the podium and speak on this item as the request was made by Commissioner Gonzalez?

I mean, great concept, but I just don't know how it translates to reality.

Okay. Are you okay with that? We'll come back. We'll just come back. Commissioner Regalado.

Yeah, on this item. Again, I would like to be excluded. I read the item also with some concern. I mean, I think from a price point, a few of us I think might already be excluded. But that being said, I don't think it's compatible with the uses that I have in my district. I will say also when reading the item, I have concerns about Kind of the intersection of the state law on this, like what is ag for the state and then the designation by the property appraiser. There's a lot of different things there. I know that when we were working on agritourism, we all learned a lot. about they wanted to d

Thank you. Mr. Chair. Commissioner. Please. So just to clarify, the actual resolution says we're compatible. And I'd still like to defer to the department for the explanation. This was taken word for word from the act study. This is specifically from the act study.

Well, they're still waiting for, I believe, lawyers to get here, but I'll move over to Commissioner Gilbert.

While we're waiting for Lourdes to come to the podium. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was kind of there with Representative, I mean, Commissioner Gonzalez. The reason why is, I don't know that excluding is the answer, but if some things aren't compatible, it should say that it's not compatible considering cost, it's less compatible than others. If you start excluding geographic areas, Because before they even do the study, we determine it's not compatible. Then you're saying to the rest of us, they can only do it in our areas. So if we, I think it's probably a better practice for us to make them list

Thank you. So, Lourdes, what you missed is I'm here. There are questions as it relates to exclusion and compatibility. And so what I'll do is I'll turn the floor back over to Commissioner Steinberg so she can ask you the question directly.

And thank you for coming back. So this item, I know it's about vertical agriculture, right? I already have. We go vertical in my district, right? We don't have, you know, sprawl. And that's okay, right? That we understand that and we balance all of that. However, in this, There could be more intense uses that I have concerns about. And also, who will be deciding the parameters, ultimately? What is it exactly that you're going to be preparing with this item to bring back to us? Because everything that we read, whether it was in this ag study, whether it was in the memo, was all very high level.

Mr. Chair? One second, Commissioner Steinberg, are you satisfied with the answer, or is there another question?

No, that I understand. Okay, so in terms of the type of vertical ad, can you give me an example? Because when you're talking about compatibility, where exactly, obviously it's not going to be compatible in areas that don't have vertical environments. Or will it? I mean, I'm trying to understand what the vision is potentially.

curate or curtail or have a say if the preemption is still on the books at the time that this actually becomes a reality. So I just wanted to, you know, again, conceptually, I get where you're coming from. I just do have concerns about the reality of it, but thank you.

As it relates to excluding your district from, you okay with it now? No, no, no.

okay okay um commissioner regalado did what was your question answer are you still requesting to have your district carved out of this also i'm happy i mean if i don't i mean if we're not going to carve out i'm good we'll do it all together my i just wanted to make sure this came up when we were doing agritourism and remember we took it out so i just want to make sure that when this comes back to us there's some analysis as to all the different triggers, right? So this compliance with the state is this, to comply with our rules and the property appraiser's designation says this, and then poten

I mean, thank you. Commissioner Gonzalez, would you like to move your item? Yeah, I'll move it. But just, just to make sure you will include that, correct?

Yeah. I'll move the item. Do I have a second? Commissioner Lopez, do I have all in favor? All against?

Thank you. Next item we have up is, that item passes by the way. The next item we have up is 1184. Commissioner Regalado, I believe you pulled that item.

Yes, I think it's a good idea. I just have some questions. Whenever we look at our portfolio, I mean, PIOD should be doing this already. But whenever we look at our portfolio, I just want to make sure that if it's in the master plan, so for example, water and sewer, the fact that it is vacant does not mean that we don't have a plan for it. So that's my only issue with the way that it's written, because we have a tendency to say vacant land, but it may be vacant, but we may be using it in three or four years, and it's part of our expansion. Also, i think that in the case of the sheriff and i me

Yeah, and Mr. Chair, if we can get Chief Palmer to clarify, or the administration, if the mayor, I saw the mayor raise your hand, or the chief, if they can address that we're looking at the county as a whole and we're not looking only at Doral.

And Mr. Chair and Chief, just to also clarify, because Commissioner Regalado also pointed this out, you're not looking at land that's being utilized right now by Miami-Dade County, and also that you're not going to look at land that there's a plan for right now in Miami-Dade County.

So, is property that's owned by the sheriff's office, is that distinct from property owned by Miami-Dade County?

And so for instance, this study that we're doing, who pays for this study?

So I know the county charges me to paint my county facility. Like if I want to paint my office, the county charges me. And I know that the sheriff charges us to utilize the The Sergeant at Arms, is that correct? I think so. Okay. Is it within reason to charge the Sheriff's Office as well for the services that we're providing her?

Help me understand this. I'm trying to conceptualize what you're saying to me. There's a budget. It's a pie. And in this pie, you cut it a certain way, where I give, say for instance, certain departments or offices, like the sheriff's office, a certain percentage of that pie. Which means then we have less percentage to use it towards other things, right? So if we give the sheriff a percentage of this pie, And then we say, OK, we're going to do this work for you, but we're not going to charge you. It costs money, but not for the sheriff's percentage of the pie. So the shares get a certain perce

can't afford to pay pay and it just shouldn't it shouldn't be that way or we should at least be more transparent about how we're going about doing this Commissioner Hardiman and I hear where you're going and understand it clearly is there a particular question you would like to put to the administration and or you've already gotten well I've already asked are we charged them right to the administration please we're about to wrap it up let's go

Give me one second. Commissioner Gilbert is next. I'm following you, Commissioner Hardiman, but I don't believe the question was answered the way he posed, but Commissioner Gilbert, you're up.

Okay. Yeah, I don't think it was either, Mr. Chair. But let me just say, we can't decide when doing reports and the human resource function of what we do is an extra allocation or not. And I'm just thinking back to the CRA meeting when we talked about, well, when I asked the question about whether those people would have to come to work anyway, we pay their salaries anyway. And you were like, yeah. And so, okay, so if it is, it is. It's a human cost, it's a human cost. If it's not a human cost, it isn't. But independent of that, this does not apply because it is by our vote that this is happen

I know it's an expense in their budget, but when we go out and we buy vehicles, we're accounting for it in our budget. So what we were doing was we were accounting for it on our side, but it wasn't reflective of this money that was being used for them. If we're doing something for them, it needs to be, and it might just be a difference between the sheriff's budget is 900 million and 970 million. But that 70 million, I understand it all comes from the general fund, but it needs to be accurately reflected. That's for our law enforcement function.

to support the sheriff that would be above and beyond the money that's actually in their budget and that is an excellent example yes so i just want to make sure that we're doing that from a financial perspective and i'm okay with the the item i'm supportive of the item i just want us to make sure when we identify these real properties we keep in mind that you ought to be indexing how much it's going to cost us to the best extent possible to actually maintain build Because the sheriff doesn't own real property and the sheriff has a checkbook that's written out of the general fund. So if we're g

Thank you. We're going to try to land this plan. Commissioner Regalado, and then we're going to go to Commissioner Gonzalez.

Thank you. And I just want to say, while I appreciate your answer, Carl Denise, who didn't answer my question, because I know how the game works, right? So right now, we're all concerned about the general fund. the portfolio of solid waste, there's a large part of that portfolio that sits in unincorporated Miami-Dade near Doral. And clearly, that portfolio is in play, which is why my question was, If you are going to take property from an enterprise fund, will you be reimbursing that enterprise fund? And your answer was, it's all the same money. It's not, because that comes from the trash cans

Commissioner Regalado, do you need answers to those questions right now at this time? Yeah. To the administration, can you answer those questions so we can get this out of the way?

Commissioner Regalado, does that satisfy your request?

Commissioner Gonzalez, all about Commissioner Emiliano-Orbis. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And actually, I want to thank Commissioner Regalado because that's the broad perspective here. The broad perspective here is to be able to analyze all the properties all throughout Miami-Dade County, to commit well to commissioner gilbert's point specifically for the sheriff's function but really for a county-wide response time and public safety um benefit which is why we're doing this study because for example i i concur with uh commissioner regalado where a primary Section of what is covered by the sheriff an

Thank you. No problem. Commissioner Milian Orvis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm obviously supportive of the item. I asked to co-sponsor it. Would you accept that the distinction is made in the report that what Commissioner Regalado is saying, the pots where the funding is coming from, so that we can be aware of those different distinctions in the parcels that are being identified?

Yes. All right, so did you get that, Madam Attorney, Mr. Attorney? Distinction? Great. Seeing no other questions on this item, Commissioner Gonzalez, would you like to move the item as amended? Seeing it as moved and seconded, all in favor? All against? Item passes.

You want to put on the record? Commissioner Lopez? Co-sponsor, thank you. All right, we have four items left, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be out of here. Two airport items, AP2 and AP3, we have to call those individually because they're aviation items per statue. Do we have someone who wants to move AP 2? Wow. So on that, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. All against? Item passes. AP 3, need a motion? Seeing that it was moved and seconded. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

I have a motion, if I could have the attorneys read it real quick. No, no, we're done with that one. We already voted.

Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no, we didn't. Yeah. Okay, sorry. All right. A motion for AP3 on the resolution, please signify by saying yay. Yay. Against? Item passes. Your motion?

Thank you. If I could have the attorneys read it. If not, I'll read it. All right.

Seeing it moved, seeing it second, all in favor? Aye. All against? Item passes. All right, the last two items were on. Commissioner Bermudez, I believe it's 1482, which is yours to medley into local.

Aye. Do we have a second? Seeing a second, all in favor? Aye. All against? So this item passes, and I believe this last one on the agenda is 14A4. That belongs to Commissioner Hardeman of the Caler Renovation. Seeing that it was moved by Commissioner Hardeman, seconded by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. All in favor? Aye. All against? So this item passes. Mr. Attorney, Madam Attorney, are there any other issues before this board? Any motions?

Okay, motion Commissioner Gilbert. Thank you, the county attorney has two motions for me. One is an appointment of Jessica Meyer Turner, Esquire to Commissioner of Human Rights. And the other is an urging to the Florida legislature to convey real property that's in Opelika to the county so that we could see if we can work with their CRA for redevelopment. If you could read those motions please.

Thank you, Senator. I'll move by Commissioner Gilbert. Do I have a second? Second by Commissioner Regalado. All in favor? All against? All right, motion passes. Second motion, Madam Attorney.

I move to appoint Jessica Meyer Turner, Esquire, to the Commission on Human Rights.

Second. All right, all in favor? All against? Motion passes. Are there any other motions before this board? Give me one second. You have one? I have two motions. Senator Garcia.

Great. Seeing any item moved by Commissioner, I mean Senator Garcia, do I have a second?

I'll second it, but next time, give me a written copy of the motion, please. Thank you. Second. Second by Commissioner Ramirez.

All in favor? Aye. All against? Item passes. Any other motions at this particular moment?

Yes, I have an appointment. I want to appoint Aaron Caesar to the Biscayne Bay Shoreline Development Review Board.

Thank you. I have a couple of motions on behalf of Chairman Rodriguez. Chairman Rodriguez moves to amend resolution R6-3226 relating to fiscal year 2026 action plan funding recommendations for funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to increase the funding recommendation on page MDC. 018 in exhibit A from $198,501 to $198,560 for Miami-Dade County Housing and Community Development, Economic Development, Housing, Public Facilities, and Capital. Improvement if I read that correctly, it's a motion, I guess, to correct the scrivener's error for a difference of a

Thank you. Seeing the motion's moved by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, do we have a second? Second. Commissioner Lopez, second the item.

Just need copies. Okay, I got it, I got it.

No, let me get through this motion first. All in favor? Aye. All against? Motion passes. Madam Attorney?

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Okay. Commissioner.

I'm sorry, but everybody's included in this one. Not me. Just because the chairman was on the other one doesn't make this one wrong. I support motion to pass it. Wait a minute, so we're using the rules?

Wait a minute, we're using the rules. There are actual rules. Seeing that the items were actually moved by Commissioner Bermudez, do we have a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Lopez. All in favor? Aye. All against? So the item passes. Are there any other motions?

Okay, and that was just for clarification, Jess, for the record? That's correct. Thank you. All right, are there any other issues, business before the board, before we adjourn? Motion to adjourn?