City Commission - Regular Meeting

it today is wednesday august 12th 2026. it is now 6 0 5 pm and this is a regular city commission meeting of the city of west miami this meeting is called to order please rise from the vocation and the pledge of allegiance good evening i invite you to bow your heads with me

Motion. Motion. Second. We have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, item passes. Next item, please.

Anyone for public comments not related to any of the order in the public hearings? Going once, going twice. Next item, please.

Let's do, let's, let's do this. Let's take budget right after we get through the, um, Items 10A. Hold on. 10A, 11A. Let's just get everyone out of the room.

We're getting a deferral on 10A? Yes, sir. Okay. Let's get that out of the way. Read item 10A, please, so we can defer it.

And a motion to the 1st of next meeting motion motion. Second, I'll first say aye. Aye. Let it be deferred. All right, aye.

Yes, aye. Can you read out all of the numbers, please, of the items where we have residents or affected parties here, applicants here? I think it's IJK. Item I, item A. J, item K. All right, let's just start off with item, if it's okay with the board, let's just start off with item, we'll go I, J, K, we'll skip down to A, and then we'll go back to manager for the budget presentation, and we'll take care of the ordinances following that. So let's, we're gonna skip around a little bit today, but let's go to item.

You guys come forward. Can you say your name and address, director, please? Hello, Michael Alonzo. And address? 1025 Sylvani Boulevard. Thank you. Can we get an update on what we're dealing with today so that we know we have contacts?

Okay. Is there a recommendation from staff before we hear from the applicant? Okay. Go ahead.

From the time that you contacted the tow truck company and the time that they gave you the notice, how long was it in between?

Yeah, can we have context there? Because we're getting different numbers.

Right, and let me ask you, just procedural, if the Code Enforcement Board had actually gone through the motion of reducing it to $600, could he have still appealed to this board?

You can speak into the mic, please, just for the record. It's not my preference. I can hear you.

Right, understood. I think my main question was just that, the discrepancy between the two numbers. The 4550, how does that number get calculated? Just so I know, is that a certain amount of days?

And there was a period for compliance before the $50 are running.

Just to confirm, sir, you had the car sold but just parked there for six months? No, no.

Since 2015. 2015. I looked up your address just out of curiosity to see where the house was. A beautiful house. You guys obviously take care of it. Your hedges look nice. I mean, not that that goes into my thought process of mitigating a lien, but you guys have been here for over 10 years. I've never seen you guys before up here with any issues. It's a vehicle that was parked in front of your house. I understand that what we try to accomplish with violations is anything has to do with safety, with nuisances for your neighbors, things like that. I never got a single call about your car being in

For me, there are times that we have to be hard on residents, unfortunately. For me, at least right now, I don't think this is one of those times. You guys have lived here for a long time. Things happen. I mean there was maybe those miscommunication. I know our staff is very diligent. They do a great job Code enforcement they volunteer their time to come out here as well and they ran you through that process and it was it seems to be a little bit of a Miscommunication there as well. I sat on that board before there's times that we can only mitigate down to I think 15% there's times that we wan

Right? Look, I'm on the same boat. You know, This is not a process meant to punish you, but obviously you have to go to government meetings, which I don't think anyone likes to do. So that's punishment enough. So I think I'm in the same boat. I mean, look, if you were running an improper business out of your house, selling cars, flipping cars, and you had this derelict issue, it's a different story. I mean, I agree. I think let's cover the costs and let these people have dinner.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Call the roll, please.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. All good. Thank you. Have a good night. Next item, please. I'm James. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Thank you. Can we do the same? Let's just run the same process for all these. Yvonne, please. just give some context and, uh, give some context recommendation and then we'll have the applicant, uh, give, give their, whatever they need to say. Go ahead.

Was there any time in the process where, where the clinic wasn't operating due to construction or, or lack of anything? Was it, was it, was it operational the entire time or?

Okay. And we're, my understanding is it's fully compliance. This is, this is, this is more about documentation than anything else. Right. Mr. Manager.

What was the construction that was taking place? Was it electrical? What were you guys doing in there exactly?

I think that's important information. Cause as I mentioned to the last guest, when we talk about code enforcement has to do with life safety, the fire department, that's what they're interested in as well. And considering that there was work being done without a permit, if it was electrical, for example, we have families living near this facility. If it would have caught fire overnight. I mean, Any number of things could have happened and there's a reason we have this process to make sure that our staff fire Department's aware of the work being done to make sure it's being done correctly This

Right, because it was more of a long-running fine. Let me ask you a question again, because this is about a CO which had to do with the fire inspection, right?

Right, which had to do with the fire inspection, right? Correct. Were you in compliance with our permits? I'm sorry? Was the business in compliance with our permits? I'm sorry? With our permits, for any permits that was needed for construction from the City of West Miami? Was the business in compliance with our permits?

We have a violation for construction with no permit as well.

And then we gave them a violation retroactively, I'm assuming, after we got notice.

but it was a violation for no permit or because you weren't granted access.

No, no, I'm saying, but was there, was there a permit filed after the fact?

And that info is not being given to us today either.

No, I understand that. But the citation is for construction with no permit.

I understand, but there's a, there's a citation for construction for no permit.

We're mitigating something for construction, no permit.

My concern is this is a surgery clinic. Yes, ma'am. Yes.

Um, well, I mean, I, I go back to, to this thing where, how are we, how are we citing for no permit if there's no, and then mitigating it, if there's no permit that was required, how are you closing that out? How are you closing that out?

So they're not acting in good faith. based on the information from the fire department, they went in for, I guess, a life safety inspection and realized that there was some sort of construction going on that the city followed up on and cannot gain access to verify what kind of permit was required.

I think we should do this. I think, I think we should do this because I think, Can we please defer this item and, and, and, and, and have some more context brought? Yes.

Point of clarity, just for future reference, when you come back, the certificate of occupancy, occupational license, this has been open since 2015, right? So those licenses had been issued in the past and they expire. Is that the case?

So I think at least from what I'm gathering, the sticking point here is this construction, no permit. The other two items maybe have a little more leeway, you know, it was up to me, but yes.

All right. I think that's best that we have all the facts before.

Yes. Um, so I have a couple of questions really mostly for staff. Go for it. Um, what is the total amount that was originally mitigated or is this just simply represent 15% of the total amount?

Okay. If we can, for the next meeting, I'd like, if this item is deferred, the total amount of lanes, um, for each one, just so that I understand what is before us. And additionally, whatever information was provided by the fire department, I'd like to understand that just so that I have a better understanding what the nature of the violation and I'll, and I'm, I'm not gonna pull any punches. My motion today would be to reinstate the full amount. If this was gonna be voted on today, not 37,000. just me personally, I'm not speaking for the rest of the commission, but a medical facility without

Yeah. Motion to defer motion to defer. second all authority aye aye aye okay okay five zero item passes for deferral well yeah we'll we'll get more context and that way we can properly assess the understanding thank you next item item

Yeah. If you could just give your name and address for the record, we'll have her give some context and then we'll go back to you for.

I'm sorry to interrupt. The previous item, also the resolution, it states that the current total amount is 37,000. Can we get a whereas clause that says what happened exactly specifically, what the amounts would do, when it went to code board, and what code board's holding was? Thank you. Sorry. Yes.

I've never gone into this house from what, from what you do know, just if you can answer the, is this a, or is it, is a claim that is a, an efficiency or detached structure? What's what's the claim that it's been converted?

Is there pictures in the file? Okay. Okay. No, no, no. Yeah. If there's any, I understand this is a 2016 matter with, I don't even know who the code enforcement officer was at the time and what documentation. So go ahead.

And the city's not claiming that they didn't take any permits out on this? There's nothing, okay.

I would just say, I mean, it's hard for us to put any blame on them after such a long time. Nobody in this room was on the days. A lot of folks weren't even working in the city. But I would say moving forward, if we're going to continue to give violations to folks, if we can set up a better system. You guys have a ton of work already that you're doing, but I want to add a little bit more to your plate. Just a system that we can make sure that at least if this happens again, the city can say, look, we've noticed them. These are all the notices.

No, listen, we have a bunch of I mean, let's be frank, we have a bunch of very old violations that we have limited information on file for because of, you know, the way the administration was set up prior. And a lot of residents that don't know they have liens on their properties because of that. And a lot of word of mouth kind of like this is taken care of. Um, situations, this is not the first time this has happened. It won't be the last time that we, we, we have, uh, you know, 10, 15 year old, uh, claim beauty is because residents here live here so long that it sometimes don't realize it un

I mean, we don't have, we don't have in our, in, in, in, in current administration's time, we don't have any claims that they've, they've been renting this as multifamily.

Yeah, I mean, so just to confirm. Back when this went to the board, it went to the board multiple times. And in 2017, the board obviously found them guilty of something, but we have no record of what that was or any evidence to support that finding.

And did this go to the code board for mitigation?

No, because the code board had put the lien back already from 2017, so they can't go back over there. I mean, it's a 10-year difference in mitigation time, which is obviously... you know, absurd on its face, but you know, it's, it's not surprising. I've seen enough, uh, I seen enough of, you know, record keeping sometimes in the city. So, um, pardon me.

Didn't they have some sort of like a karate studio or something in that back area? Yeah, I remember that. That was part of the whole issue. Yeah, so I don't know.

The photo you showed us today with the storage of all the stuff, that's a today. Is there a kitchen in that room?

no there was there was something there but there's nothing now like that you can't you can't connect you can't anything there and so it was a karate studio previous owner previous owner 15 years ago well whenever i mean when was that a while ago a while ago yeah um look i don't know i mean this doesn't seem to be honest with you like a pressing issue in the city today um You know, I don't know who was impacted here right now. Like who was the victim here?

I mean, being that we don't have a lot of information, it's already been 10 years, it doesn't seem that the city's been accruing any costs with staff, et cetera. I would motion to absolve these folks of any payment whatsoever.

I mean, just the fact that we don't have any, any evidence in our file. I mean, I don't, that's my issue. Yeah. We don't have any evidence in our file. So what are we doing? I mean, it's not, that's not the current administration's fault. That's just, we don't have any evidence of the file. So even if you, even if you, you, you were running a hotel back there, I don't know. I don't know how we would sit here today and, and, and, and say anything. So I, I agree with the vice mayor, you know, whoever wants to make a motion, I second the motion. All right.

So I'm gonna make a motion first and then motion to set the lien amount to $0.

Second? Second. Second. Call the roll, please.

Thank you. Please don't reopen the karate studio. Thank you. All right, let's go 11A. 11A is here? Yes, okay. Let's do 11A, and then we'll go back to the agenda, and we'll power through this. Good evening, board members.

Beautiful you know that the last the last person knows here. Committed to a lot of things which are in the fall yet you want to you want to make aware of what you committed to that way. Coming straight out of it.

There was two things actually. One was that Commissioner Ceballos was insistent, which I agreed on, making sure that the site plan was... Let me make sure it's in here. What was your covenant on the... It was something with the site plan. I just want to make sure that it's in here, that it was tied to the approval. Do you not remember? Do I remember? You don't remember?

I do not remember the specifics because it is not here. But I believe it's just, it was tying the proposed site plan, which is, I believe, single-family, one-story buildings. Correct. Tying that to the approval.

great is is uh this is a hold on you almost caught me here this is a public hearing this public hearing is now open on this item is anyone here to speak on this public hearing going once going twice Look here, it's not closed. Okay, back to the board. Any questions for the applicant? I know we went through this. We all know it was there before. Obviously, the neighborhood is not super against building new homes and having new families move into that neighborhood. Anything that we want to, last chance, take a stab at the applicant to make sure we get a good neighborhood feel in there.

Oh, we get the special ones. Go ahead, Commissioner.

I just wanted to commend you. I did a little homework on your company, and I know that you build these homes to make home ownership affordable for those that can't, so thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for picking our beautiful city.

Yes, thank you for all the money you're making. Thank you so much. Or bringing to us. Thank you so much. Does anyone have anything else? I think we've kind of vetted out this proposal on first reading, so... You know, uh, questions, concerns, motions, anything motion. All right. Motion. We got a motion. Second. We got a second. Call the roll, please.

All right, let's go. There's no other items that require. Volunteers, right? Nothing, right? All right, let's go back to the order agenda. Mr. Manager, you're up.

So it's a little hard to read so maybe could you grab some of the highlights for sure.

Well, when you see it five times, it gets boring.

Is this a change to the FPL tariff system?

Um, I'm sorry, but they give, they give us or no, no, no, we pay for it.

No, no, so it's basically like a long-term financing. It's like a long-term financing.

This is the budget presentation. Any questions for the manager? We will be hearing this again and again as required by statute. So get used to it.

Just out of curiosity and for clarification, November, ballots go out, say this property tax amendment passes. When does it go into effect?

We have a new budget cycle to prepare for. It won't impact this budget. I just wanted to put that out there.

I think it's fair to say though, that while we're planning projects, the projects, the live, the few projects that we have that aren't grant funded, um, we'll obviously be monitoring the November ballot to see what adjustments we have to make, um, or cutbacks in, in terms of the capital projects and improvements you want to make. Right. So, that that obviously plays a role, but I think, you know, we, we obviously plan, uh, business as usual and, um, and await that. And of course we're always looking to cut costs wherever. So that's not really, um, you know, anything new for, for our city. So,

Yeah. And, and look, and we're gonna be the same boat as every other city in Florida. So, you know, we're, we're all gonna be going through that process together and that is what it is. So, uh, any other questions for the manager? No. Okay. Thank you. Uh, next item, please.

Honestly, haven't noticed, but, uh, never say never. I'm falling asleep because I think, you know, depending on how long the managed presentation is, I mean, we'll, we won't put it past you, but, uh, I, we appreciate your service, sir. Thank you. And next item, please.

Questions for the engineer? All right. All right. You got lucky you got you got late into the meeting. Thank you. Next item.

Item nine committee reports, anything for committee reports, the parks and rec board. We've met a couple of times since the last commission meeting, the manager already went over most of what it was that I would have presented, but I just want to put out there for anyone that didn't watch that meeting is watching this one, September 12th, Mr. Manager, 10 AM the charrette.

So September 12th, 10 a.m., come on out. Let your voices be heard on the future of Cooper Park.

Yeah, I love a good charrette. I'll take this opportunity to just report. I've been working with Miami Realtors Association. I'm sure you're all familiar with the letters that they do, that they often, you know, they'll give to cities where they put a big, I want to call it a sculpture, but big letters of the city that residents actually end up taking pictures with and whatever. so that they, they donate install, um, as part of a partnership. So we were awarded, um, the letters this year, um, they'll be coming in. We're finalizing location. I think administration is proposing, um, Cooper park,

Mr. Manager, can you update us on Sylvania? I know you said in the rec meeting, but just to update us on when that potentially is going to be open for the residents.

Okay. Um, yeah, let's, let's coordinate with our score members to do a ribbon cutting as soon as it may.

Yes. You all have a resolution in front of you. Can we just motion to put on the agenda? Do we have a second? Second. Do we have a second? All in favor say aye. Aye. It's been added. Thank you. If nothing else for committee reports, next item.

So public hearing. Public hearing on the housekeeping is now open. Anyone wish to speak on this item? Public hearing is now closed. Back to the board. Anyone have any comments, questions, concerns, motions, anything on this item?

Just, this is only for commercial, correct?

You have a motion? Sorry, hold your motion.

And you guys reviewed the fees and made sure that we were competitive, that we were actually increasing.

We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second. All right. Oh, uh, call, call the roll, please.

is a public hearing public areas are open. Anyone wish to speak on this item? Seeing none public area is now closed back to the board questions. I think we all love food trucks motion. Well, there's a, if you can hold the, hold the motion there, there's a reason we're doing this. Correct. It's, it's, it's comply with state law.

So the fees also include if somebody's having a food truck at their property for an event, this is included in the fee schedule?

Um, I think I recommended last meeting that we do just because think about when we're hauling the dumpsters for any type of, uh, work construction work that we also put a deposit in case I walks are broken or things like that. I think it would behoove us to kind of make sure that there's no destruction of the property while, while the food trucks are present.

I apologize. Just to clarify, are you talking about for private parties or you're talking about for city events?

yeah for private parties or parties at people's homes yeah because they're more likely than not going to be parked on the swale or they're going to be parked on they have to be parked within their property on their driveway within their property and if it's not then how would you yeah they it requires them to prop completely park on the property so they have to fit in the driveway they cannot be on the soil they cannot be on the sidewalk they cannot be on the street

so just there is no permit there's no cost but is there a notification to the city that they're going to have this on their driveway because it's for four hours so are we going to be notified in some form of fashion

What is it? What is a notice? I mean, I'm also trying to be practical here because everyone is throwing a party at their house too, right? I mean, let's face it, if you're having a party at your house, I don't think the person's first thought is going to be to go to the city to register their food truck, right? Like, you know, being real. I think what we're trying to prevent, if I'm correct or wrong, you drafted this, right? So I think what we're trying to correct is, prevent is that we don't have a business parking on swells or, or, um, or on streets using the city sort of like an ice cream,

What is the damage or harm that you were trying to that you were alluding to to prevent?

It's that it's just being forward thinking that now we're opening up a use that wasn't allowed before, and that we're not getting taken advantage of if somebody has multiple and it's not on their property, how do we enforce it? If it's not part of the ordinance. So I just wanted to make sure that we have some language in there to protect us later on. If it does happen.

Sure. Was I'm curious, actually, was, was it not allowed before? I mean, I know we didn't contemplate it at all, really. Right. We were silent. What does that mean for us? I mean, how do we...

to have a deposit we would have to have something like that and I think it was a matter of balancing it I mean in my opinion we should be a little proactive with that just because someone could park it in front of someone's house and say oh we're here for a party and then they do that the next month and then they're getting their fees waived and we just want to make sure that if somebody is utilizing our space that they're

paying for it that they're doing it correctly that they're abiding by all the ordinances and make sure that they're structured to protect that well the the the art the ordinance right now only contemplates on private property right so they would be they'll be taking advantage of private property space right and then we would have to much like we monitor for example let's say let's compare it to like a garage sale ordinance that we have right which actually our garage sale ordinance says that we can jail people, which is crazy. But the garage sale ordinance has a limit to how many times you can

So I can, we have a second, um, call the roll, please. Yes. Yes.

This is the first reading of this item. Does anyone have anything specific they want to call out before this item potentially moves second reading? Motion. Second. Motion and a second. Call the roll, please. We have a motion, Commissioner Blana, second by Vice Mayor Chavez.

Hold on. Can we just do things by calculator in hand? I think we should go back to that. Can we just start? Can we just do calculator and pencil? Would that be? No? Okay. I tried. Do you have a motion? Second. We have a second motion by Vice Mayor Chavez, second by Commissioner Blanis. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, item passes. Next item, please.

I think we had previously voluntold commissioner again, um, as part of this committee, correct? You were, you were involved and told you can't, you can't take it. You can't, uh, no take backs. So you are on there. What was the, the other, who are the other members of this committee or is that up to us?

I thought it was going to be a public discussion amongst us.

Well, let's just pick names. What do you respect?

I mean, this can be anyone, people on boards.

How long is it? This is just to select a, this is just to vet out the auditors, correct the auditors.

A time commitment, one meeting potentially? It's one meeting.

If no one has a name, I think I see a young lady in the back with her glasses on that wants to be on it.

How many members do we need from, uh, besides from the commissioner, a minimum of three, a minimum of three additional names. No, no. Three in total, three total. So two additional names. All right. I'll nominate, uh, Mr. Antonio Chavez. Um, who else do we have? You had a name, Carmen Pujol, any other names? Any other names? I think those are fine choices. I mean, do we have any?

I'm not going to say a name unless I speak to them first.

Well, I mean, we're all going from the hip here, so you might as well just find out how committed they are to their community. It has to be a woman, though. It has to be a woman so far.

All right, I think at least three members. Oh, you're saying it could be more. You're saying it could be more. It's a minimum of three. It's a minimum of three. Would you like to say your name? I mean, they're not required for quorum anymore. No. So, okay. Well, they lose out. We're losing out on talent because you don't want to embarrass them. All right, I think we're good to go there. Can we get a motion to? Motion. Second? Motion or second, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

Does anyone in the commission require context on this item? Okay. Motion. We have a motion. We have a second all in favor. Say aye. Aye. Any against hearing? None. I had to pass this next item please.

This is a matching grant. Anyone have any questions on contacts on this item?

Just a comment, Mr. Mayor, uh, last time, I mean, everybody loves trees. We want to keep improving our canopy, but if I know there's a process, but at least to speak to the residents prior to planting them on their soils, because that way we don't get the calls afterwards that I parked my car there, et cetera.

Yep. That'd be great. All right. Anything else?

We have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, item passes. Item L, please.

Could we reject it? Motion. We have a motion. Second. We have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, item passes. Pocket item, I believe, M. If I'm good with the alphabet? Is my alphabet correct?

This is their 50th anniversary operating in Miami, many years at that location. questions, concerns, motions, or otherwise just a public thank you.

Every event they were looking for partnerships. I mean, they're the first one in line 50 years here in our city. I mean, incredible example of community partner.

Yes. They get more mad at me when I don't ask them to sponsor things.

So agreed fully support this motion motion.

Second. You got it first. So motion second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none. Anyone need to pull anything for consent?

Okay. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda. If anyone needs any time to review them before making a second, that's fine. Or not. Okay. So we have a second. All in favor say aye. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none. Items 12A, B, C are approved. Go to the order.

Sorry, I just wanted to make a comment. Going back to that lien mitigation, honestly, to echo what you said, that was egregious. I think it was a little bit concerning that our code enforcement team wasn't allowed on the premises, it being a surgical center and the fact that the fire.

I'm going to stop you. I'm going to stop you right here because that is a public hearing and the applicant's not here. So I don't want you to put it in the record that without them having the ability to rebut, Um, what we're, what we're saying.

So I, I will stop you, but my concern is more on how it went. So more on our team, our administration, how it was the fire department that flagged it. Um, and I just more concerns on the housekeeping portion of it.

A general question on liens like that or just general mitigations to that amount and to the fact that there has been pushback. Is there a way that it could come before us before mitigations are made so that it could be reviewed? Is there something that we could do with just generally asking? Cause it was something I was asking our city attorney before the meeting about proper process procedures.

I would make the request and obviously we can discuss it here. I think that the mitigation process is not something that should come to us. Um, I think it should be streamlined, maybe create a high threshold. Let's say, you know, mitigations of over a million dollars or a hundred thousand dollars, whatever it may be, and give authority to the city attorney's office and the, uh, city manager or designee in order to mitigate in circumstance. So they don't have to come to this commission. I'll be honest.

Look, I, I was actually in, in favor of that previously and commissioner blindness. I think you were probably the only person serving me at that time. Maybe vice mayor. I don't, I don't even think so that, that when, when, when this has come up before, uh, the streamline in this process, um, I took, I was actually in favor of what you're, what you're talking about. Um, You know, the time there was the debate on the commission to the center was debate was about the opportunity for residents to basically go directly to, to their elected officials. I agree with you. A lot of these things don't. I