Safety and Health Committee - Regular Meeting

Let's start with an invocation folks. I think everybody is probably aware by now we have two devastating fires that are occurring right now. One up north in the Broward area. One is down in the southern area. If we can just take a quick moment of silence and prayer for the brave men and women that are out there not only fighting this fire but making sure that we're all safe and for any individual that may be harm's way to make sure that everybody is safe. Dear Lord, thank you for this wonderful day. Thank you for allowing us to be here. Thank you for our brave men and women who put their lives

folks we do have a presentation um today but before we start uh to the county attorney's office i would like um to get chief adala to come up and just give us an update as to what's going on with the uh current situation with mdfr The fires that are happening up north, I know that they are in the Broward line, but I believe you folks have been helping for a while and what's happening down south. If you just give us a brief overview of where we're at, let us know what's going on and what folks at home can expect.

Thank you so much, Chief. And, you know, I want to personally thank you for not only for your swift response, but for your leadership on this. I know that you guys have been on this immediately. And I think because of you and because of all the brave men and women in our fire department, this is being contained. Is there anything that you would be able to say to the folks that are watching this at home? I know that in the morning this morning, there was a lot of folks that were stopping on the road and causing some traffic. Is there any advice that you can give anybody on their way home if the

Thank you, Chief. And once again, I want to thank you for your leadership. And, you know, God bless you. God bless all our firefighters and our first responders, colleagues. I'll open it up if anybody wants to make any comment. If not. Absolutely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was unaware that the fires were actually taking place now, and I want to thank, obviously, our firefighters for their good work. I just would ask that we be kept abreast. I mean, I know it isn't impacting my particular district, but it's impacting many of our residents in Miami-Dade County who could be on the line of being unsafe. Again, thank you for your hard work. And my thoughts and prayers are with not only those that might be impacted, but with our firefighters and first responders. Thank you.

so especially with the areas out west um if i may and senator yes absolutely as a matter of fact last year uh the chief uh was uh kind enough uh to send over a lieutenant um to my office and we did a brief video talking about just this talking about not only the cigarette buds but a lot of folks are traveling down the road they throw their cigarette buds out and something like that can cause it uh also folks that park on the side of the road we did an entire video on it but i think the senator's on to something i think these are things that we should probably be proactive about and we should p

Colleagues, anybody else? Commissioner Bastien?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for bringing forth this issue. I wasn't aware of the fire, so I'd like to thank you for bringing up this issue. We live so many busy lives, and we don't take time sometimes to reflect on the work that you do and the danger that is involved. And when you met with me in my office a couple of years ago, I expressed my The fact that I think it's important from time to time, just like the senator indicated, for the public to be aware of what's going on and how they can partake in keeping our community safe because they also have a part to play. So I wish to echo my colleagues'

And thank you, Chief. I want to thank you for, again, for your leadership, for your swift response. I want to thank you for calling me yesterday. I want to thank you for calling me this morning. I want to thank you for keeping us up to date with what's going on. And as Senator Garcia pointed out earlier, we have the greatest fire team in the entire country, and we have an amazing director, an amazing chief at the helm of it. Thank you so much, and God bless you guys.

And to the county attorney's office at this time, I'd like to move forward with our presentation from our amazing from our amazing women's is it women's and family now or is it women's. Commission for women's commission for women and families is that is that against the law now can we do that. I think by adding the families now it's commission for women and families.

Everybody has a family, sir. No, not everybody has a family. I mean, everybody has a family.

You haven't seen enough Disney movies. Everybody doesn't have a family.

Well, not everybody has the privilege of having their parents live for the entirety of their lives. But everybody has a family and everybody has a heritage.

not everybody not everybody has a parent but even those like for example we had um uh we had an event in my in my in my district that uh for mother's day and uh i was able to speak to this um young great grandmother uh almost getting to a hundred um and you know she Was never able to. Well, she was not able to see her daughter. Continue to live after her. Granddaughter was born. And so she took on that role and. You know, she got a little bit emotional because she took the role of mom for her granddaughter. And now, although her granddaughter is alive and well, she's also taking the role of gr

Thank you so much for that presentation. I'll open up to my colleagues. Commissioner Lopez?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much for the presentation. I had a couple questions. First, on the women's health, maternal mortality, and chronic illnesses. Do we have data by race and ethnicity?

May I? Mr. Chairman, thank you. So I saw that because I recognized you had a baseline. And in order for me to know whether these mortality incidences were increasing or decreasing by race or ethnicity, it's always important because that's where you know where you might need to provide more services. So I'm grateful that you're going to try to disaggregate the data because I think it's important that we do so. And my other question, if I may, Mr. Chairman. so i have been working with human trafficking for the last 15 years and as a state legislator i passed actual human trafficking legislation

And maybe what we can do is try to coordinate our efforts with law enforcement who do know where they're making arrests and what industries they are. Because funny that we didn't realize there was a loophole in the state statutes related to the operation and regulation of massage parlors and massage centers. So I think it's important because we were able to make such a dent in human trafficking in that particular industry, but My other colleagues in the House said, well, there's nail salons. There's a lot of places where we're seeing them. And I think it might be important for us in the next e

Thank you so much, Commissioner Lopez. And Senator Garcia, you're recognized.

Thank you, colleagues. Anybody else want to be recognized? If not, thank you so much for your time. And that was a brilliant, brilliant presentation. Thank you. And to the county attorney's office, I think now would be a good time to open a reasonable opportunity to be heard. Yes, sir. I do not have any cards. If there's anybody that wants to be heard, this is your moment. Going once, going twice. Seeing none, a reasonable opportunity to be heard is now closed. And with that, can I get a motion to set the agenda?

Thank you, sir. And with that clarification of the scrivener's error, I have a motion to set the agenda by Commissioner Lopez. I have a second by Commissioner Bastian. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. And colleagues, are there any items anybody wishes to pull or any sponsorship request? I would like to request sponsorship for item 3D. Commissioner Bastian.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to bifurcate 3D for a motion.

So if you can show 3D bifurcated. Yes, sir. Any other items, colleagues?

Thank you, Senator. So if we can show if we can show the senators co sponsorship of to a and if the administration can know the senators request to please keep us informed. And by us, I mean the entire commission body as to when what when these equipment is delivered. Would you like to be recognized? Okay, and with that- Mr. Chairman, I'd like to- Commissioner Lopez? Please show 3A bifurcated. Anybody else? So to the county attorney's office, I believe we have 2A, 3A, and 3D.

Do you have or yet to a we have as a cosponsorship.

OK so can I get a motion to move the rest of the agenda. Moved seconded by commissioner Bastian all in favor signify by saying aye. Show that passed. Let's take up 3, 8, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I pulled the item just so that I could get some clarification. So I noted that there were five vendors that will be providing elderly meal services. District 5 has one of the densest concentrations of low-income Spanish-speaking seniors in the county. And I was just curious if I could get a list of the vendors who they are serving, which seniors they're serving in District 5.

If we can get somebody from the administration to come up. And Chief Burgos, you are recognized for an ongoing conversation with Commissioner Lopez.

I didn't want the vendors as much as I wanted to know where are the meals going. So like for instance, I have senior buildings and in some cases they have had their senior meals cut. So I'm actually taking meals as often as I can to them because there's real food insecurity in our elderly population. And so I'm trying to figure out where these vendors will be serving my seniors in district.

And with that, I would move the item, Mr. Chairman.

It's been moved by Commissioner Lopez. Second. Can I get a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Bastian. And just quick on the easiness, do you folks happen to have that list now?

Okay, so to commissioner Lopez is up to us to whether you want to do this after you want to explain the list now.

It's the list lengthy. It's a bit lengthy. Okay, then we can wait till afterwards if they can just provide me a list that will be helpful because then I can go into the community and let them know that meals are being you know provided by this particular item. So thank you so much.

Absolutely so with that it's been first has been seconded all in favor signify by saying aye aye. Awesome. And so now if we can go to 3D. Commissioner Bastien, you are recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like Mr. Attorney to please read the amendment.

Okay, so we'll go ahead and we'll accept that amendment. Does anybody else want to be recognized on this? Would you like to be recognized again, Commissioner? Commissioner Hardeman, you're recognized.

So they were, how long ago were they previously purchased as part of the prior grant cycle?

Do we know that? Do we know when these portals, because most of these schools are under enrolled, so I'm just trying to understand why they even have these, well, you have Head Start programs at school board sites, not necessarily schools. Is that what you're saying to me? Like, help me understand what this is.

So these were previously purchased portables that we're asking for the federal government to reimburse costs for the purchase.

Okay. So we're just ratifying the prior purchase? Who owns them?

And we lease it to them? Yes. So the lease agreement, so they're giving us a lease? Who's the leaser? They're giving us a lease. They're the leaser.

OK. So we're the lease or given them a lease to these units and we they've already been placed at their site. Is that correct.

Thank you Commissioner Hardiman. So we have a it's been moved as amended. It's been seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye.

That's a good point, Senator, especially after Commissioner Hardeman just pointed out that we're going to be leasing these portables. Can we get somebody from the administration to comment? We don't have anybody from the school board here, correct?

Thank you senator commissioner Hartman you recognize.

Just one last question because you stayed on the record that we've been doing this for 60 years. Are we currently. Miami County providing his star services. Or is it privatized in some ways that there's an issue back in 2011 2012 where there's a privatization lot of people want to kind of lost jobs in services were sent to the private industry can you with that correct you recognize.

Anything further, Commissioner Hardiman? And so with that, I would suggest that prior to this coming back to the BCC, I would suggest he hasn't requested and Commissioner Hardiman hasn't requested, but I would suggest that it might be a good idea to reach out to all of the commissioners and just give an overview of why the county should continue to administer this as opposed to the school board. I think it would be a good idea prior to it returning.

Have a great day. And I think we're adjourned.