Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Excellent. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board Meeting, October 2nd. Before we begin, I want to welcome all of you, but I also want to quickly just take a moment. Because we have a couple members who, well, I'm sure Mayor Mirabar will be on his way shortly. But Roberto Torres, I know this is your last meeting, and we want to thank you for all of your participation over the years. And we know we'll still continue working closely.

First, thank you for allowing me to be part of this. This has been a real honor and privilege to take part in these meetings. And I also want to thank all the members of the board, all the supporting staff, and all the members of the public who participate in these meetings for your dedication to protect and preserve our precious bay. As someone who grew up on the bay and oftentimes in it, I can really appreciate the work that all you guys are doing. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Yes, your love for the bay definitely shines through. I'm just looking for the speaker cards. I have one. I know two others were given to me, but I don't know where they were placed. I'll call with the one I have in front of me. Laura Reynolds, please come up. You have two minutes as we begin the reasonable opportunity to be heard.

All right, our next speaker, DJ, I apologize ahead of time, but Milodoznik.

Thank you. And our next speaker is Valeria Donets.

Thank you. Reasonable opportunity. Do we have any other speakers before we close? All right, please come up. It's fine. Come up, state your name.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Rachel Silverstein. I think it's okay.

Thank you so much. Thank you. At this point, anybody else wish to speak? Seeing none, reasonable opportunity is now closed and we're going to move into the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion? Thank you, do I have a second? All right, seeing a motion, a second, all in favor? Next, we have our first item, and we have our wonderful county attorney with us, Jess McCarty, who's going to be presenting a legislative session. And 2027 upcoming session, I guess update, discussion, the floor is yours.

Um, thank you, Jess. Uh, I, I just want to mention since we're talking about, um, budget allocations and funding. And I know I'm here representing the builders, but I also am on the board of the Florida Inland Navigation District. And we recently approved our budget two weeks ago. And we awarded $12 million in projects here to Miami-Dade County. So those are going to get funded in the next year. The 12 million is our cost share, so that is being leveraged to fund $38 million worth of projects. For the county specifically, we have a couple that I'll just run through real quick. We have three di

Thank you. Anybody have any other questions? Yes, Dave.

Hi, Jess. Good morning. We heard about the need for eel money, and we haven't received any Florida Forever money in, I think, forever. Is there a way that we can champion specific projects? Is eel and specific land requests going into the ask?

Yeah, I mean, I think whatever, whatever, however, the state wants to do it, you know, we should kind of lean in on it because we do need to. You know, there's there's the 1st aspect, which is acquiring lands for restoration, but then there's also to just. basically prevent lands from being developed and paved over with concrete where they serve no benefit at all. These ag lands, in our case, are really good buffer zones. And so keeping them as ag lands is probably really beneficial. The second question I have is on your agenda, is the county preparing to support legislation that would reduce

So that has so so there's nothing in there as of yet today and.

Is that something that we could make motion and encourage for marine debris to be included in the package?

Sure, that shouldn't be a problem. We can always put it forward. The way it works too is that sometimes we all get, depending on how it's done, every year it's changed, but a lot of times they pick about 10 to 12 priorities that we have an entire big book of a legislative priority, and then we rank them. And so it's a very interesting process. But the last time, I believe we just said, here take the whole package and go for it so hopefully we continue doing that um yeah i don't have an issue with that okay i'd like to make motion asking for uh uh you know uh support of legislative support for

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Jess, for all you do for the county up there. You were recollecting on how the land acquisition process has changed over the years, and I couldn't agree with you more. We used to have kind of experts evaluate a list, and then the list would be funded, and we've moved so far. I'm remembering like a year or two ago there was that project in Destin that I think that was way beyond a member project. It was like $80 million, and it was line itemed in the, is that just, I know things happen up there, but was that a function of any process other than, no, okay.

Thanks for your presentation. I was wondering, is it possible that we could see the draft contents of the legislative package? I hear you describing a range of different activities, which, you know, as I process them, I think, oh, these are going to have various degrees of effect. And it's, you know. I'm not a political person. I vote, you know, to the extent that I vote I'm political, I guess. But what I often see is in the framing and labeling of actions for a political purpose, it's easy for us to lose sight of the relative value and importance of each of these items. And so I'd like to see

And I definitely want to thank you and your whole team because you do an incredible job. It's not an easy one. Just so you know, he literally moves up to Tallahassee for like three months of his life and just is up there constantly on our behalf along with everybody. And I also encourage everybody in their individual capacity to go up. and lobby and advocate and do what you can. I mean, I have seen a number of you up there when I've gone up. Dave's always there. And I've seen Mayor Streitfeld up there on various issues. And so I think it's important. And I know that a lot of the organizations,

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Mayor. I agree with you, and I just wanted to get on record, because we've requested that in years past, and it's been very effective. So if we could continue that practice of making sure that this board is distributed with talking points and a summary of the legislative agenda, and also to prioritize connecting with you in Tallahassee, because you always have the most up-to-date information as to where things are trending and where the winds are blowing. So thanks for all the great work you do, Jess.

Yes, anybody else have any questions? Well, we're looking, yes, please, please, Mayor.

Yes. I mean, we really try to be very proactive. Sometimes we end up having to be reactive to some of the things that have been filed, but we try to keep our strategy and the tasks at hand focused on. Quick question for you, Jess. For those of us who don't know or for the public who may be interested, Can you just quickly, before we conclude your item, let us know when do committee weeks start and when does session actually start this year so they can understand as the calendar moves forward?

All right, item six is our state lands management plan. This one I know we're going to take some time in discussing and I'd like to welcome Griffin Alexander from Florida Department of Environmental Protection at the state and Alicia Shatters, is she here? With FDEP as well. First of all, I want to thank you all. You guys are great partners. We've done a lot of great work together and so we're looking forward to this presentation.

Thank you, that's a great presentation. I guess let's focus on this topic and then we'll call your colleague up after to discuss. So does anybody have any questions specifically as it relates to, I guess, the aquatic preserve management plan? I do, Madam Chair. Yes, please.

Okay. Hi, Gretchen, great presentation. I appreciated the reduction in latex glove and zip tie use comment. My question, I have two questions. One is about the consent decree and water quality issues as it relates to permitting and building moratoria and whether your office has any interchange with the county as they enforce various building moratoria around the county in both incorporated areas and unincorporated areas. And then my second question is, what is the interplay between the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve management plan and our progress in the reasonable assurance plan? Is there com

Are we going to be using your data to inform our progress on the RAP? Or is it completely separate? Yeah, are we going to be using state data to inform our progress on the RAP is the question.

Okay, thank you. Do you have any other questions here?

I would just love for staff to follow up with a concrete answer in terms of the data sharing.

Thank you. Yes. Yeah, Dr. Redman. One fun.

One of the things that stands out as particularly important to me from what you presented is your role in observing habitat loss. And I was wondering, when you observe habitat losses, do you identify the causes of those losses? And if so, how do we address those causes? through your process or through cooperation with other processes?

THANK YOU. THANK YOU, GRIFFIN. CAN YOU LET EVERYONE KNOW IF YOU GUYS HAVE A PLACE WHERE WE OR THE PUBLIC CAN GO AND LOOK AT ALL OF THE DIFFERENT GRANTS THAT HAVE BEEN PROVIDED AND FUNDED, YOU KNOW, SINCE THE STATE FUNDING KIND OF TOOK HOLD, WHICH I THINK WAS ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO. Cause I think there's, you know, maybe, I don't know, 80 or a hundred million dollars of funding that has come here from the state to fund projects. And I think it exists, but I just want you to explain it. And, and if, and I want people to be able to go there and say, okay, $80 million has got us, you know, these 25

Thank you. Anybody else on this side? Anybody on this? Dave. James?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Nancy, I have a question for Nancy and then for Griffin. Is that right?

Okay. Yeah, and I also have Laura on standby because she was going to give some context if we had additional questions.

Nancy is a member of the advisory board, the superintendent of Biscayne Bay National Park. In a way, my questions may be more relevant to when she's here, Madam Chair, and maybe she could give a presentation. But when I look at the map, Griffin, I see you guys north and south of this big area that says Biscayne National Park. So I'm trying to remember that they had a requirement to do a management plan, but there was some disagreement at some level in state government, maybe fisheries, about some part of that. From your perspective, and we can ask our board member later from her perspective, a

You remember anything about the fisheries issue that jumped out during their plan? Am I using I?

Yeah, hi Griffin. You guys do great work. I really appreciate everything you guys are working on. My feedback on the management plan was there is a whole lot of monitoring and not as much management as I would like to see. in such a highly urbanized environment. My question is, we have gone back and forth about the licensing and regulation of commercial activities on Biscayne Bay. And I kind of get a ping pong about who is responsible for oversight and whether there should be any licensing for these commercial activities. Is this the role of the county? Or is this the role of the Biscayne Bay

All right. Thank you. Um, I don't know if, I think we also have a presentation from, um, your colleague Alicia. Yes. So, um, I think we're, thank you so much for your presentation. We really appreciate it. And we're going to have Alicia come up and, um, discuss about the coral aquatic preserve management.

Thank you for that great presentation as well. I'm going to open it up now. I know we have people who are very interested in coral here on the board. Who would like to go first with any questions or comments? Yes, please, Mr. Torres.

Okay, being my last meeting, I want to make this one tough. This is a question for both presenters. In the several years I've been on this meeting, I've seen so much focus on monitoring water quality and habitat. I've heard almost nothing on monitoring other species, like fish and other organisms that use our waters. Is any of this being monitored? Are fish species increasing, decreasing, staying the same? As someone who started fishing here in 1972, I've seen almost everything decrease except maybe for spiny lobster because we've heavily regulated that one from the very beginning. We did not

Thank you. I'll finish one last comment. I have noticed that there is more of the fish biomass in the northern part of the bay, the degraded part, than in the southern part. So that's something just to be aware of. A lot more bait fish, a lot more just things swimming around up there. So obviously something's doing a good job up there.

There you go. All right. Anybody else on this side? Yes, please. Red wine.

So thank you Alicia for your presentation and for Griffin. This really question is for both of you. In your management plans, do you forecast the anticipated condition of the coral and the bay into the future? and as a follow-up do you identify how your actions or the you know the consequences of the policies adopted by your agency will affect those outcomes in the near to mid medium term future like say five to ten years

It does to some degree. It's not quite as direct of an answer as I would prefer. You know, for me, the key thing that I'm trying to get in here is, you know, it's our goal. And this is to the, you know, to the elected leaders who sit on this board. I want to make sure that this is clearly stated. In order to improve the quality of the bay, we have to live in harmony with it. In order to live in harmony with it, we have to understand the specific things that make it healthy and we have to address them. Um, if we can't do that, we won't achieve our goal. Forecasting and understanding, you know,

Yes, thank you. Yes, of course. It's your last meeting. You can speak as many times as you'd like. Really?

No, you don't want to. This is actually a question for Jed. Were you referring to proactive versus reactive management? Yes. Okay, yeah, I want to second that, because that has always been my big issue with, especially fisheries, where you have a new fishery that just gets started or is a new action. It's not until somebody says, hey, this is a problem, then you study it, form a commission, take public comment, then say, yeah, we do have a problem. Then let's take an action on the committee to come up with an action. And by the time you do something, it's ten years later where the problem is t

So that would have been a great opportunity for reactive management versus proactive. And I'm sure it works the same with habitat and water quality development, whatever it is. Don't wait till somebody says, oh, we've studied that this was a problem 10 years ago. Maybe incorporate

future management red flags say well this might be a problem let's look into it now just want a second that thank you yeah great point um anybody else on this side because i know we have people here on this side who'd like to speak as well um okay can i get back to you after let's get someone who hasn't spoken yet so um dave dave dave i'm calling on you and go thank you he's deferring to james i'm like um you know uh um

I was excited to learn about the new Kristen Jacobs Preserve here. I don't know, I haven't studied a lot about corals historically, but I've gotten to know a lot more about them with some recent exciting things that have been happening down in Miami Beach and South Beach. So I have one comment just to let everybody understand where we are in corals. Florida has lost roughly 90% of its corals since 1970s. And there was a really exciting program called the Florida Coral Reef Restoration Recovery Initiative, which is no longer being funded. And that was really to get new out plantings out there a

So I think this is really part of the struggle with who is responsible for various activities. I see in chapter four of your management issues, sustainable economic and recreational uses. Yes. And community education, engagement, and access. And we can't even get Mooring buoys out there so that boaters can safely tie off and swim lines. And so who who makes the decision and how do we get this done? Because we have community advocates who are going out there and really trying to fight for the safety of. The hundreds of swimmers who go out there every weekend and boaters who should be able to ac

Yeah, no, great point. I think we always have those conversations in terms of whose regulatory, which regulatory agency, which body, which enforcement body, and all of that. I mean, we go through that too. We'll take on something and then we'll be told by our county attorneys, well, actually, that's not us. That's this department or this agency or this. But also, I'm sure the city of Miami Beach, I'm sure, would be running lead and working with whatever agency. So I'm happy to follow up as well. Commissioner Natalie.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, just along those lines, and I don't think it's necessarily for your organization, but I have several waterways in my district and we do get a lot of complaints. We have a lot of canals that connect the neighborhoods. We have a neighborhood called The Waterways. I come to find recently that there's no way to enforce a speed limit in the waterways. There is no speed limit. You know, Florida Fish and Wildlife is apparently over that, and there is no way to, you know, there's a way to petition them, but I was basically told it's not going to be successful because ther

No, thank you. And I'm so glad, while it's not necessarily germane to this, it is adjacent, right? um and I appreciate you I will support that because I have actually brought this item for predates you I brought this item forward as a resolution at the county to have FWC really look at the entire map and and the speeding and because it's all over the place sometimes of the year you're you're one speed other times of the year you're another speed and you have managed it is absolutely something that needs to be readdressed so I'm I'm I'm yes the answer is yes um but moving on um James

Thank you, Madam Chair. Alicia, in your very first bullet, you mentioned a plan that I hadn't forgot about. It's called the Government Cut Inlet Watershed Management Plan. Last time I had any contact with that, it was a plan being done by National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. So is that now part of the aquatic preserve?

Not to drag this out, but could you or whoever at the county level get back to me on that? Because the title kind of is misleading, because you'd think government cut is the focus. It's actually the watershed. right that flows down the miami river in the government cut and that's like i said it was two years ago it was the last time or more that i ever heard about this thing uh this plan excuse me so if you could just follow up with oh you or for somebody from the county uh nancy that could help me understand where this new plan is in the status thank you certainly thank you i did not forget d

Thank you. I kind of wanted to build on what Roberto said about, this recognition of what we've had in the past and, you know, understanding how little of the natural resources that we had in the past still exist, are still here with us. And in, you know, the level of abundance of these resources relative to what we saw in the past, and it's, you know, it's far lower than what we've seen. And, you know, the flip side of this is, the opportunity that we have here is, you know, through bringing everyone together, to address these challenging issues that affect everybody. They require everybody's

There's still a lot of farming going on. That farming that's occurring is no longer devastating to the soil profile and the landscape. It's sustainable. And a sustainable process is what we're looking for here. Something that we can all survive and thrive and I'd be very interested. My last question is, you know, if sponges are, if the sponges that we plant are going to filter 75 million gallons per day, what fraction of the total gallons of the Skane Bay is that? And how much filtering would we need to have a healthy bay? You know, to me, those, I hear a lot of, you know, things are doing bet

Thank you. I look forward to you solving the math problem and telling us what the answer is.

Although my little ears, I think Gerald may have solved it already. I don't know. I heard him under his breath. I heard him say a number. So a lot of water is close. Exactly. And that's a lot. And that's, I mean, for me, all I'm trying to get at is we need to be concise, direct and think whole thoughts. Right. And whole thoughts is a problem solution coupling. Absolutely. Right. And so even in, you know, it's never a bad day to do the right thing. Right. And if we're, we're, we're suggesting that people need to come together to find solutions. And through that coming together process, set the

Thank you. Griffin, I have a follow-up question about, again, more interplay between state agencies and projects. FDOT is in its, I think, 60% planned stage for the reconstruction of State Road 934, the bridges, the flat bridges, not the basket bridges. Has your office been involved at all in reviewing those plans? Were you involved in the PD&E phase of the project? And do you think that there's an opportunity when they break ground on that bridge project for sponges or other restoration related projects that you're working on to be coordinated with FDOT so that we can maximize The coefficient

So what's unique is Bay Harbor Islands owns their bridge. FDOT owns the 79th Street Bridge. So what would you recommend from, you know, we're like not involved in direct decision making. All we can do is request. So can we make sure to follow up about what is going on and what is available as far as projects going forward? And is now, I mean, it's three years from now. Is now the right time to be having that conversation? I would think yes, right?

But you'll be coming and attending as a participating member of our audience at times, I hope.

I hope so. Okay. I'm not sure if boater safety would fall under the purview of this board, but someone mentioned speed limits in certain waterways. I would recommend as boats get bigger and faster and we still don't have anything requiring people to learn how to run a boat before they drive it. that we consider speed limits throughout all Biscayne Bay. Someone texted me the other day they were on a boat cruising at 70 miles an hour. No. So definitely has something to be considered.

If I may, Madam Chair, that was my point, but the thing is that we're not the enforcing entity. No, I know, but at least recommend. Absolutely, I'm with you on that. And to your point, I was saying that we need to figure out how we can urge the entities that can apply the speed limits in these waterways to do so. Because people are not being cautious drivers of boats anymore. They're not going on a leisurely stroll, they're speeding on by and it's causing danger to marine life and also people around. So 100% I agree with you and I'll be working to bring a motion from this body.

As I mentioned in the previous meeting, I came within two feet close of being rammed by a boat going at least 50.

no it's it's completely the wild wild what which you'll be happy to know that the we had a voter safety task force that was created unfortunately in light of terrible tragedies and um that with the support of natalie and my my entire commission we now have it as a reinstated permanent actual board that's going to be following through on all the recommendations that were made and making sure that they are on top with the lens of just looking at safety on the waterways so hopefully that will help bridge the gap on some of these issues but we are on it so thank you for bringing it forward and tha

Thank you. Before we go to our future items, I do want to quickly mention that we did have to postpone the septic to sewer project update. I know requested by Mayor Streitfeld as it relates to stormwater innovation projects and other things until the December meeting. So that will be on the December meeting. we did have members of the audience bring up a few topics and i would love to ask for a moment for our derm director lauren to please come up and maybe touch on um some things that were mentioned as it relates to the the new umbrella as to where derm is under and also I know we had the mot

Madam Chair, can I request a third update from the Durham Director? It's about a bill that has been moving through the county commission on limitation of vessel anchoring. I believe Commissioner Lopez was proposing to basically mimic the state law here at the county, and so I just wonder if we could get an update on the status of that ordinance.

Well, yeah, that's fine. Yes, of course.

That's great. So do you know when it will be in front of us approximately?

Thank you. And then the second question or topic that was brought up was as it relates to the DERM department.

We'll take a look at that and then maybe revisit that in one of our upcoming meetings. And then finally, I think Commissioner Streitfeld had a question as it relates to an item.

Is it going to be scheduled in October or do you not have an estimated commission meeting for the item?

Okay. Yeah. I thought that they discussed at committee when it was supposed to come back. So I think that was the main question is what's the upstate on that. So I'll reach out to commissioner Lopez. Thank you.

Thank you so much. So do we have ideas for future agenda items so that we can make sure that we have a great, robust meeting in December?

And we are going to add the item that didn't make it onto the subject to sewer project update.

I'm looking forward to that. So thank you, Nancy and Lauren, for the support and staff for putting together a really great meeting. I should have requested this at our last meeting, but I think it's still worthwhile for us to do in December. We have a new 2627 county budget and the county approved its capital projects plan. I would love if staff could put together a report for this board on the 2627 budget as it relates to. Biscayne Bay priorities for this board, for our priorities. And that would include, I think, Marine Patrol funding, because we do get the updates on boater safety, Commissi

All right, so noted. I also actually we might want to invite FWC at a future meeting. I know they came a couple years ago to speak and maybe that would be interesting to hear from them. We can have both from the science side, the marine biology side to discuss some of these issues and then also maybe on the enforcement side. That could be interesting. Maybe you can reach out. Yes.

Madam, Madam chair, I just through you, can we direct staff to prepare a report in advance of the December meeting so that we can all review it and then have discussion or ask questions of staff on the budget in December?

I don't see, I don't see why not. I think we can absolutely do that. So it's show it done by acclamation.

I will say John is super human. Yes. Okay, yes.

Yeah, thank you. I think that would be very informative, again, to give us an update, especially in light of last session's amendment to the bill that now allows code enforcement to also tag and have that authority, that it'd be interesting to see how that's working. Yes.

A couple of things. First of all, you know, the comments about John are appropriate. And I do want to highlight that John has been with the county for a number of decades. And so he is, you know, we always have a problem when there's a, what is it, the key man role, right? The one person who knows everything that... is so critical that should they not be here anymore, you know, John's coming into the period where he could be retiring. So I think his love of the work is what keeps him going. And so we need to be considerate that, you know, We need more than one human being in charge of this. I

yes actually i'm glad you brought stormwater up actually requested an item to be placed at this upcoming commission agenda to discuss our stormwater plan but i think we do need to have an update um at this board because now i know there's also been a change to the departments and the um right now stormwater is under public works And so we really need to get an updated update on where we're at with that. I mean, look, I know everybody has been experiencing king tides lately, and that's a whole other conversation we could be having. But I think it's very important that we have all of those conve

THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR. I GUESS ONE OTHER STORMWATER ITEM THAT WOULD BE GOOD TO HEAR AN UPDATE ON IS THE MS4 PERMITTING PROCESS. I KNOW FOR A WHILE THAT WAS LIKE A BIG ISSUE AND WE TALKED A LOT ABOUT IT AND THEN IT KIND OF FELL OFF AND THAT FOR EVERYONE WHO IS WATCHING IS THE WAY THE COUNTY REGULATES THEIR STORMWATER SYSTEM AND REGULATES ALL OF THE DIFFERENT MUNICIPALITIES. So for marine debris, for nutrient loading, like that really is the critical item that has to be improved if any of these issues are going to be improved. Um, so I, I think that would be helpful. And with respect to some of

Yeah, that would be great when they come to present. You can give your perspective on that and be a part of that. I would love to talk one-on-one. It would have to be a sunshine. So that becomes a different...

Madam Chair, I think that I also had previously just requested a public works update. I mean, we're talking about storm water, but the waste water project as well. I mean, so it's public works on waste water and storm water, and then separately it's the subject of sewer conversion, right?

No, no, no. No? So public works, storm water, WASDE is waste water. Right. So it's, it's, it's, so you'd have to bring two different departments, which we can do.

No, I think at the last meeting I asked for an update from public works on how it was managing stormwater improvements in its roadway plans. Great. That's, that's what we had asked for at the previous, what I had asked for at the previous meeting, in addition to the septic to sewer conversion item.

But yeah, I mean, there's a lot to discuss.

I think that. I think we can close out the year really diving into, no pun intended, the infrastructure discussion. And that's going to be very, I think, prudent. And also have FWC here, I think would be great to kind of tackle this before we go into the new year.

Yes, they're definitely a big part of the equation. Yes.

yeah I absolutely recommend that everybody reach out to Nancy so that she can incorporate any any of your thoughts or ideas to the wetland scope when they so that when they bring it to us we right so there's time to get the input before it's finalized yeah yeah we'd like to get that sooner rather than later so I don't want to have to wait till next meeting yeah that was thank you

Yeah. And it's along those lines that I want to provide comments is, you know, what I see here, you know, I've been part of the board for about a year and a half now, right? Maybe a little bit over a year. So what I'm seeing is it's kind of like we have a rush to get prepared a couple of nights before the meeting, you know, the challenges that we're trying to address through this board are complex and multifaceted.

For me, I've been the head of a water quality program for a sovereign nation. There's no way I can remember everything that's associated with it, even when it's my full-time job all the time. We need a reasonably – it's like we need a translation process. I hear you guys, you speak government, which is there's all these processes. You have this authority and that authority, and then – but the bottom line is we have inputs to our political process, and we need outputs. And we have to know is – Is the rhetoric and process that we're trying to set up to solve a problem, how much of the problem is

So I really appreciate the motions that I see for today, the discussion for futures meetings and the review of infrastructure. What I would add is I really think it's important that we check in reasonably and concisely with the outputs. I was trying to work with DERM to get every 30 days, what's the condition of our water quality? That's a report I produced in the past. Man, it helped. It tuned my thought processes and helped me localize exactly where the challenges are and where I should be looking, where can I ignore? Because there's too much information to keep track of it all. So I'd still

so by acclimation that's a motion second by acclimation i think you're right we should receive um regularly updates on the water quality reports thank you all right all right um yes so yeah i had a question i don't know if this is going to lead to more discussion it's okay

um we we're going to get a septic to sewer update projects update i know that the mayor brought this uh right this was your topic what exactly is the update containing what's the scope of that report that we're getting back what is it about

but if there's anything and additional specifics that you'd like for us to request of them we can of course request of them and again i'm saying this without actually knowing what uh she had planned in her presentation understood it's not you um so it's all of the septic to sewer projects that are pending in the county or going to happen you have anticipated ones that you can include as well like i have like a couple sections of my district that are undergoing septic to sewer but they're not necessarily shovel ready right now so If we can have those updates for every area, I would say, and I w

Thank you for that, because actually there is a program for the private harmonization portion, for the private adaptation portion, that we do have a loan program specifically for septic to sewer. And so maybe you want to recirculate that information so that she can definitely make sure her district is aware, but all of us can disseminate that information and remind people. because while we're working on the public infrastructure side she's correct they have to then tie in and there's no incentive to do so especially if it's costly and so that's why we came up with that so she's yeah i think th

Earlier today, I'm going to take off on that one there. This board not providing insight and thoughts on projects that would affect the watershed, I believe is a flaw in how this committee was created. And Nancy passed out a motion that I had prepared earlier today. Which is requiring the advisory board review of development projects that do affect the watershed. If you look at motion number one, I would like to make a motion that the Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board recommend to the Board of County Commissioners. that our charge be amended to require that any development proje

Okay I would have to ask the county attorney also what that would actually mean because I you can make listen this board can make any recommendation it wants but I want to also manage expectations because I don't know that the not all of these things come in front of the board of county commissioners to begin with and secondarily I'm sure it would have to amend like many different codes in order for that to even be a possibility and I don't know where the will would be of that board but Maybe I can get some clarity.

Can I? So I totally disagree with that idea and concept. This this board is not a regulatory board. We don't we that that's not why it was created. It was created to assist the county with restoration activities and to be a proactive uh entity that you know basically tries to keep track of where um certain funding is being used how successful that is um and and to make recommendations about how to do that in the future it's very different than um a board or an entity having regulatory authority um I think trying to get this board to act in a regulatory capacity is going to very much undermine

Thank you. Madam Chair, if I may. I completely agree with my colleague. Projects that are being built within the Shoreline Development Review's jurisdiction go before the Shoreline Development Review Board. There are other quasi-judicial items that come before the county commission and community zoning appeals boards. Like Spencer said, we're not a regulatory body. Respectfully, I don't want to spend two hours providing review and comment on a project that is just for the benefit of having more opportunities for the public to be heard and to provide review and comment. If it's just a recommend

Would the members of this board be able to in their own private capacity comment on these projects?

Yeah, actually that's a great point. Um, any one of us in our own capacities or in the capacity of wearing the hat of being, you know, um, whatever profession or organization you're involved with can absolutely come and speak on any item during public hearing and also email and, and influence the process. The truth is that, um, okay, so I don't know if anybody else wants to speak on this particular item.

I mean, I would just say, Madam Chair, I believe this is an advisory board and it can speak in its advisory capacity on anything that impacts Biscayne Bay. So perhaps we can get clarification from the county attorneys at the next meeting as far as our scope and how to take on this request from the board member. That would be my suggestion. Uh, you know, because I think our scope already. Encompasses something like this if we specifically wanted to speak on on an item of this matter. I don't know if you can answer that.

All right. So I didn't see a second to your motion. So I'll go. Yes, please.

And so, you know, this issue of saying, you know, we have a specific founding purpose and process and that we may not have responsibility for, you know, another process which has a material effect on water quality for the Biscayne Bay. To me, you know, this The challenges of water quality, it's hard to find a situation where they become more obvious, right? The challenge is nobody's responsible for all of it. And then the bottom line becomes, we can do our job perfectly. The County commission could do his job perfectly. We could still not have a successful outcome. That's the problem. So This

I don't think that's what he was saying. He was saying we can we can consider all sorts of different things. It's just the type of action that we can take and the type of discussion that we can have. He just needs to research a little bit more because it might put some members who are currently, listen, I hear you. Philosophically, I'm there. It's a question of the reality of how that would work, what that looks like, and what we can and cannot do within the legal framework that we're given. That's what they're saying, because we are an advisory board that has to deal with kind of the we look

I appreciate that. And so the second motion you have, Dave, is regarding voter traffic study. Is that separate to what we were discussing earlier?

well i think that the challenge that we have is we have many projects that have been approved and are that are being approved uh and we don't really have a clear understanding about how many uh how many boats or the sizes the biscayne bay can really handle and so um you know when i ask folks about you know how many you know When there's a new marine or a new project, the question comes about, well, I feel that there's too many boats on the water, but nobody can really tell me what the actual quantity of boats and the depths and the size. We're not Fort Lauderdale, and we need to have access fo

I see you have a motion here. Number two. I don't know if you're going to. bring it forward today, but I'm happy to include your concerns as well, because I agree with you. I'm happy to include that in what I will work on to bring to our next.

I'd like to allow you to work through that and think through it. Yes.

Thank you for bringing that up. I appreciate it. Yeah.

Yeah. This motion is very important, but it refers to a lot of things that we haven't talked about, which need to be talked about. And speaking for the Miami River, we're way beyond carrying capacity on boats. But this is inherently part of the manatee protection plan. And if we're ready to talk about the Manatee Protection Plan, Madam Chair, then we can tackle these issues. But I leave it to you and the staff to look at this, because this has been stymied for a long time. And if we're going to take it up, we need to take it up, because we will never solve the other issues until we're ready to

Agreed. Thank you. Good point. And Dr. Redwine, just so you know, even when I look at this motion, I think, well, I don't even know which is the regulatory body that she's going to have to flush out into who would even regulate this. It's a lot, yeah. All right, so I think we have an interesting December meeting. I hope everybody can make it to December because it looks like it's going to be stacked. But I want you to, again, remember, please email the different departments. Nancy, why don't you make sure you reach out to each member individually so that if they have thoughts about the watersh