Safety and Health Committee - Regular Meeting

Awesome. So let's go ahead and get started. If we can have a prayer led by the wonderful Commissioner Bastien. That was beautiful, thank you. If everybody could just face the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance.

So let's begin with a reasonable opportunity to be heard. We can go through the agenda, and then I do know that there's some presentations that we can leave for the end. So can we open a reasonable opportunity to be heard?

I have one speaker card. Ms. McIntosh-Stephanie? Stephanie McIntosh? If you are present. No. No Stephanie McIntosh. If there's anybody that would like to be heard at this time, going once, going twice, can we have a reasonable opportunity to be heard closed please? And to my colleagues, can I get a motion to set the agenda? So moved. Moved by Commissioner Lopez, seconded by Commissioner Bastian. All in favor signify by saying aye. And at this time, colleagues, are there any items in today's agenda that you would like to pull? Thank you, Commissioner Bastien. And if the county attorney can note

Yeah. Can we move the balance of the agenda first? It's been seconded all in favor signify by saying aye. And let's move forward with the pull list. So to the attorneys, can we start with two a please?

Thank you very much. And Commissioner Bastian, would you like to be recognized?

Yes. For that, Mr. Chair, I'd like to move the item.

It's been moved. It's been seconded. Now, before we move forward with voting, I do want to add something. First and foremost, I want to not only congratulate but commend Commissioner Bastian for bringing this forward. Illegal dumping is not only an issue in District 2, but it is countywide as well. So I want to commend her for putting this forward. I did have some comments. I had the opportunity to speak with Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, specifically with the illegal dumping unit. and the environment crimes unit which explain the legal dumping in our districts has increased dramatically on par

Thank you so much, and I don't know if my colleagues have any, Commissioner Bastien, you are recognized.

Yes, thank you so much. So as I indicated in the item, illegal dumping is really a quality of life issue that demands a coordinated response. And I must say that I'm blessed because I've conducted civil cleaning campaigns in my district as a result of these illegal dumpings and had a negative impact, not only on the residents, but on the businesses in District 2. And I've been blessed to have the support of the Solid Waste Department, Dr. Daniels and her staff have been instrumental in participating and supporting these efforts, including the sheriff's office. so um the intent of this item is

Thank you so much commissioner bastion and um, I, I do want to commend commissioner bastion and I'd like to ask if you have me, I'd like to co sponsor the item with you. Uh, it's an incredible, incredible task that you've taken. Um, illegal dumping is a problem in all of Miami dade county. And I do want to recognize the great folks at the lingual dumping unit. Um, you guys are incredible. Um. i've seen what you've done not only in district 11 but district 12 district 10 district 9 you guys are amazing and i know that there was one particular um incident where it wasn't only dumping it was just

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I just had a quick question. So this is being done through the sheriff's office, correct? So remember that we failed to increase the rates for solid waste, and we got a memo from the mayor saying that part of the reduction in services, because we did not increase rates, was a 50% decrease in illegal dumping. So how does that work? I'm trying to figure out Is that the same fund or these two different activities, one that the county does, one that the sheriff's does? I need a little bit of clarification, please.

And to Commissioner Lopez's point, and I certainly don't want to speak for you Commissioner, but I totally understand, I think, where you're going. Yeah. And I would like to go there as well. We definitely don't want to see any overlap. Right. Especially if there is a law enforcement side that is going to deter heavily deter folks from illegal dumping we certainly want the deterrence not only to continue but to stop it and if we have a civil side that is being effective and is doing a good job but is overlapping then perhaps i don't know if this is where you were going commissioner i'll let yo

That in and of itself, but I was just trying to find out whose responsibility is what, right? Because it appears that now we have solid waste doing illegal dumping, but they've just informed us that they are reducing the illegal dumping services by 50%. And here, Commissioner Bastian is worried about figuring out what's going on in District 2. And so I'm somewhat confused because I hear what you're saying with regard to what your role is, but to know that we just have incurred a 50% decrease in illegal dumping services on solid waste part almost seems to be counterintuitive to what everyone is

So that that then leads me to here's the sheriff's office doing an investigation and yet we don't have the funds available to actually pick it up and clean it up, which is what I'm hearing the chief say is the solid waste role. So somewhere along the line there's a disconnect because there's no sense in you doing an investigation if we don't have the money to provide the services that you need to clean it up, which goes counter to what poor Commissioner Bastien is trying to accomplish in her district with this item. I'm fully supportive of what you want to do. I just wanted to point that out,

Mr. Chair, I see Director Daniels here. I don't know if she'd like to add anything.

Dr. Daniels, if you'd like to add anything, you are recognized.

So director, on the enforcement side, because I'm curious, on the enforcement side, what's the difference between the enforcement that gets done by the solid waste department and the enforcement that is carried out by the sheriff's office?

So this is criminal versus civil, is that correct?

Because I'm I'm just thinking out loud now and obviously we can tackle this. At a later date, but if the enforcement is already happening on the criminal side. To commissioner Lopez's point, what needs to happen now is these things need to be picked up and we need to clean it up. So perhaps, and this is just food for thought, perhaps the enforcement should continue on the criminal side. um and it should lower the burden of the enforcement on the civil side that's just food for thought for the future um that way we can adequately um use these funds to to commissioner lopez's point actually solv

To the county attorneys, which one do we have next? 2B?

Awesome. So for item 2B, I actually have a minor amendment on this item that will hopefully make the conversation between the administration and the sheriff's office more fruitful. So originally, the item asked both parties to identify vacant parcels owned by the county, which the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office could benefit from. If there are existing facilities that are not utilized or underutilized by the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, they could avail themselves to meet the rising demand. It would be more time and cost efficient for both parties to pursue those opportunities. So I just want to

Okay, so if you can work with the sheriff's office just to be sure we can get them in there as soon as possible. And if I can have the amendment read on the record by the county attorneys, please.

And so to my colleagues, Commissioner Lopez, you're recognized?

Thank you, it's been moved, it's been seconded. To my colleagues, any uneasiness or any comments before we move forward? Awesome, and so with that, with a first and a second, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. So passed to the county attorneys, do we have anything else?

Yes, I think there's a scrivener's error in the item, and I think that's what the county attorney's office wants to put on the record. And so my motion will be to approve the item inclusive of the scrivener's errors that are entered on the record.

Thank you. And so as amended, it's been moved by Commissioner Hardman, second by Commissioner Lopez. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. And with that, do we have anything further?

Thank you so much. And, um, one last thing before we go into the presentation, um, to chief Palmer Palmer at the, um, at the last meeting, we had a discussion about, uh, five acres at the homestead air force base. Um, are you familiar where we're at with that, sir?

Can we schedule a meeting with your office just so we can figure out what's necessary in order to move it forward? Thank you so much, Chief. And with that, we don't have any further items. We can start with the presentations. Is that correct, County Attorney's Office? And so let's invite the respective departments, if we can please start with emergency management.

So my colleagues, does anybody have any questions or comments? Seeing none, thank you so much, Director, for your time. And so now, if we can get the medical examiner's department

So I'd like to thank the department for the presentation, but instead of reading the whole presentation- Absolutely, I was about to say that. We have access to, can you focus on what's important?

Absolutely, so to the medical examiner department, so here's what FIRE did. FIRE has given everybody a copy of their presentation. You could email or get the presentations to all of the committee members, that would be great. And then for your presentation, if we can please not just read verbatim what the PowerPoint is. And instead, let's just get a macro synopsis of the key points. Thank you. And you are recognized to use the presentation, but give a macro synopsis of what the presentation is. And I assure you, we will all read the PowerPoint presentation on our own time.

Thank you so much for that presentation. And if I don't have any comments from my colleagues, if we can have the corrections department recognized to give us a macro synopsis as well. Good morning, director. Our amazing corrections department.

Thank you director. I will say we, we do have some commissioners that, um, are, are running short on time. Okay. I'm going to, um, but you are recognized if you can, um, give again, a macro synopsis of the presentation, I assure you, everybody's going to read the presentation.

Thank you so much, Director. That was a great job. Great, great job. And I don't know if- That's our model, Mr. Chair. Amen. I don't know if any of my colleagues have any comments, but if they don't, if we can have Miami-Dade Fire please come up.

Thank you so much. That was a fantastic job. Thank you so much. And without a doubt, you prove again and again, we have the best fire rescue in the world. Thank you so much. If my colleagues have any questions or concerns, and with that, thank you. Thank you, sir. I think we are adjourned.