Aviation and Seaport Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone and welcome to Port Miami and our Seaport Committee. We are going to have an invocation led by Commissioner Gonzales followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Commissioner Millian-Orbis.

Please bow your heads. Dear Lord, thank you for this wonderful day that you've given us. Thank you for our families. Thank you for all the residents of Miami-Dade County. Lord, please guide us in every decision we make and everything that we do. Let it be for your will and your glory. In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Good morning to the attorneys. I don't have any public hearing items on our agenda. And so at this time, I will open the reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard. I don't have any speaker cards. Reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard is now open. Now is your opportunity to approach the podium on any items on this morning's agenda. Seeing no one approaching, reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard is now closed. To the attorneys, any additions, edits, or changes to this morning's agenda?

Is that 3B or 3- 3D as in delta. 3D as in delta, okay.

I'll entertain a motion. Motion. It's been moved. It's been seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Anyone wish to be recorded? No. This morning's agenda is set. Before we take up any bifurcations or discussions on this morning's specific agenda items, I would like for our Miami International Airport Director to approach. Yes. I'm sorry.

No, no problem. If it's appropriate, could we take a moment of silence for those whose lives were lost this Labor Day weekend in the airplane crash?

Yeah, I think that's absolutely appropriate, Commissioner Millian-Orbis. So if you would like for us to stand, or would you like for us to just bow our heads? Yes, can we please stand for a few moments of silence? Thank you.

Thank you for that, Commissioner Milliano-Orbis. And I was having our director approach because I want to have a conversation with our director and take things a little bit out of order as a result of the tragedy that occurred this weekend that I know everybody is very familiar with from the perspective of hearing from the press. And maybe some of us were briefed, some of us maybe were not. um but but welcome director thank you for being here and again thank you commissioner orbis for the moment of silence i think it was entirely appropriate you know thankfully what happened this weekend is no

Thank you, Director. To my colleagues, any questions or comments for our Director? Commissioner Gilbert, you are recognized.

Thank you. Thank you, Director, for your report. With regard to the people who lost their lives, I hope that we're doing, I'm sure we are, we're doing everything we can for their families. I mean, I was thinking to go to work. It's tragic. And, you know, someone calls and say, hey, they're not. And so anything that we can do. And then regarding the EMAS system, I understand we're complying to all this stuff. If the NTSB comes back and they say, you know, of course we were compliant, but this could have prevented it, I don't mind having a redundancy. Even though the runway is long enough, I don

Thank you, Commissioner Gilbert. Commissioner Milian Orvis. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Director, good morning. This was a tragic accident, obviously, that happened in our airport. First of all, I want to recognize our first responders, our fire rescue, who you can confirm, but I believe they were on scene within 30 seconds. And I think that's a record time, and I think that's something that needs to be recognized. They certainly helped to ensure that this didn't snowball into a bigger emergency because of the fire that was coming out of the aircraft. They were able to stop that right away, and also our sheriff's office. Extremely cooperative and they were on scene right away. I

Yes, we're very grateful. I spent a lot of time over the weekend talking to you since the airport's in District 6, and obviously there was a lot going on. I spent a lot of time at the airport. I want to thank you for your communication over the weekend. I know that when something like this tragic happens, there's a million experts that come out that have ideas of how this could have been prevented, and we have talked extensively about the EMAS system. I wanted to ask you on that end, is that something that is optional if you have the 1,000 capacity, the safety capacity in the airport for the r

NOW, ANOTHER QUESTION. DOES YOUR TEAM HAVE AN ESTIMATION OF WHAT IT WOULD COST US TO IMPLEMENT IT? AND IF WE DON'T, CAN WE GO AHEAD AND BE PROACTIVE AND GET A COST?

Of course. I mean, we can't overstate safety in any situation. Would you be able to present us a report at one of our following committees on the cost and if there's any amendments that need to, any things that need to be done to our runway, any modification that needs to be done to our runway to be able to implement that and what that would look like for our airport? Okay, thank you, Director. Thank you, Commissioner.

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify what I was saying about that. I don't really, so how do I say this? The NTSB will make a report. I don't really care what they recommend. Even if they don't recommend we have it, I still want us to get it if it's viable for us to get it. And of course, we're not directing you to shorten the runway. What we're saying is we want the long runway and the system as a redundancy if it's possible. And so I don't expect their report to say, oh yeah, go out and get this if no one else has it. I'm saying that I would be willing to go the extra step because five people lost

And so by the way you said it, you said that it was complementary. So if it's complementary to it, that means what that tells me as a word is that It complements it. That means it doesn't change the substance of the thing that it's complementing. So just the word that you use seems to indicate that you could actually do both of those things. Now, if it comes time you can't do both of those things, then please come back for this committee or this board or inform our chairwoman. But my expectation is that if we can do it, if we can do it, then we should do that. Absolutely.

Anyone else commissioner Hartman you're recognized.

Thank you commissioner Hartman commissioner Gonzalez you recognize.

Thank you madam chair and I just want to piggyback off of what commissioner Hartman said you know first and foremost I want to thank you for your leadership. I think director you for you've shown that you handle this in the best way possible. This was in an ordinary accident it was something that's completely out of the ordinary. Something that's extremely tragic. But something that as commissioner Hartman has pointed out we don't know what could have prevented it. I do agree with both commissioner Gilbert and commissioner million or bus that it doesn't hurt for us to explore how to further ou

Thank you, Commissioner Gonzalez. And thank you, Director. Again, I think we've all applauded our fire department and our first responders for an extraordinary job. And this is when our community tends to shine the brightest. You know, when we have tragedies, we know how to handle it. And we always come together as a community and showcase how amazing our first responders truly are in Miami-Dade County. And this is another example. And there are five lives that were lost, and I know they have not been identified yet. But there's also three people, I think, that are still in critical condition.

Yeah, and I know that a lot of agencies have responded and have been on the ground, the NTSB, the FAA, obviously MDSO, our firefighters, everybody at MIA. Has anybody been in touch? And I know there was a general thoughts and prayers statement that has been released, but have we all been in contact with Amazon?

Okay, great. Thank you, director. If there's no further comments or questions from that, yes, Commissioner Gilbert, you're recognized.

This was, I guess, to the chair. I'd be remiss if I didn't say this because I saw the little tweet thing about who's supposed to be speaking this press conference crap. So there is an expectation that I have that for this county. The first thing is that we always do things decent and in order. We're going to do that. We've existed for a long time the county with the sheriff is a part of the county proper. I like to call it this year still their own empty now and why understand that public safety is a thing. This is not exactly public safety. I mean, it is the same way that drinking water is pu

I don't want this to turn into a discussion, but there was a lot of moving parts that day and, um, you know, you were at the airport with me. It was a lot of things happening all at the same time. So I think emotions were a little high and things just. Develop the way they did, but, you know, I don't think. We should say anybody was wrong or right. It was a lot of things were happening that day. And, you know, times were moved around for the press conference. There was a lot of back and forth. I do agree with you that we need to organize ourselves in these matters. But I know that everyone her

Thank you. Um, any further comments or discussions? Uh, yes. Deputy mayor, you recognized Madam chair.

We might have to actually actualize that. The charter is, I mean, I read it, but I won't make assumptions. I'll say that maybe we need to have a better understanding on a more granular level.

Because I think that I don't want that at a press conference anymore. I don't want that. And when people see that, it's a slow erosion in the confidence of the competence of government.

Thank you Commissioner Gilbert and thank you Deputy Mayor for providing that clarification. I do think that it's an important conversation to have and clarity needs to be given because I don't think anybody wants to see a display similar to the one that we saw happen again, especially when lives have been lost. It is a complete distraction from what we should be focused on, which is making sure that we are keeping those individuals in our thoughts and our prayers and being unified as a government and as a county. And I'm very, very hopeful. And I know, in fact, that we will, we will get there

Thank you, thank you. Okay, any further comment or discussion? I know this will be ongoing. Director, thank you for that detailed report and analysis. And I thank my colleagues for the obvious unified expression of care and concern regarding all those affected and obviously repeating the message that Miami International Airport is very, very safe. um and and obviously an amazing uh airport here so with that any bifurcations or um any item that any of you would like to discuss on today's agenda seeing none i'll entertain a motion on the entire agenda separate and apart from 3d it's been moved b

Okay, I don't have any problem advancing 3B and asking our chairman to place it on the next agenda. Anybody have an objection to that? Seeing none. Okay, to the attorneys, any unreadiness or unfinished business before the body this morning? Seeing none, thank you all so much, everyone. We are adjourned.