Fiscal Accountability and Government Relations Committee - Regular Meeting

I call this meeting of the Fiscal Accountability and Government Relations Committee to order.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I heard somebody say that he's moved on to a better place, but I'm going to disagree with him on that. Yeah, me too. So let's go ahead. Before we start, let's do the Pledge of Allegiance.

Just a brief moment of silence, please. Flex meditation. Thank you so much. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes.

May I have a motion to bring the E items to the floor?

Very quickly, I'll just echo the sentiment. I'm so proud to be able to present this audit to the public and continue to build trust in MDCPS. I know that isn't the case with other similar programs across the state. And so thank you to our administrative team, to Mr. Raul Perez, to Mr. Goodman on presenting this. It's a great feeling when you can go and share very transparently with the public that their dollars were well spent today. where we said they would go in supporting our students.

Hear, hear. Any other comments? Thank you so much.

Yeah, I was going to ask him if he had additional comments on E87 or E88. Through the chair, I'll answer any questions you may have. Madam Chair, before you.

Thank you. Mr. Steiger, can you or someone from the team overseeing this procurement walk us through how the services presented in E141 are similar and or different from the voice over IP services that we contract under separate agreements?

Through the chair, thank you so much for that overview. We also, through different contracts, have voice over IP as a service that we have in our school district. I know downtown has had some transitions. School sites have had some transitions. What's the difference through the chair?

Thank you. Through the chair, would you agree that the copper lines are an outdated technology that's being phased out?

Thank you. But through the chair, it's my understanding that providers that provide the servicing of copper lines are even phasing it out. So it's not even something that we may even be able to purchase in the future, even though today it does provide some backup.

Thank you. for walking us through that, because I was very concerned to see a procurement for a technology that, frankly, is being phased out, I think, just generally in the world. And, you know, the cost outlined in this item is almost $16,000 per location. I know that's not, you know, it's an average across all locations. And we did spend $7.5 million the previous year on this. That's a large sum of money for a technology that we really ought to be phasing out very quickly, and so can you walk us through the timeline on which you will phase this out, please?

Thank you, so through the chair, what I'd like to ask administration to do before the next board meeting is to really take a look at the number of years you're asking us to approve this contract for. And I know Mr. Fernandez sent me, when I asked about this timeline, an estimate of 12 to 18 months. I know you're in beginning design phases, so let's say I take 18 months. as worst case scenario, that takes us to 2028 latest. And I really think that it is appropriate and responsible to hold ourselves to that kind of timeline so that we are fiscally being responsible in not I get why we need to sp

Thank you so much. Seeing no comments. Colleagues, why don't we just jump ahead to E201 before we get to the hot potato.

Anybody else on E201? Okay. And now the moment we've all been waiting for, E143.

Thank you, Mr. Steyer. Yes, Dr. Benos-Mendigo.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll jump in and just say just a couple of things. Now that there's no connoissance and no protest, I'll echo something I said when it first came up in committee. I think we have to, as a board, take a look at our policy on procuring this particular situation. As a former city attorney, and I've done a lot of procurement over my legal career, the fact that you score something in the first segment of evaluation and then result in a voice vote where we as board members can't necessarily identify without digging into a record how they got to that decision, what are the value

Thank you so much, and thanks to my colleagues. I know we've all spent quite a few number of hours on this one. So I want to thank staff, selection committee, procurement, risk and benefits, and Aon for what was clearly a lengthy and complex process. Like I said, we've spent lots of hours reviewing this, including the committee discussions, the concerns raised by the proposers. and of course the recommendation before us today. Really where I've landed is this is not a decision about choosing between good and bad options. I think it was clear that all three firms are capable of providing those

Thank you. I think through the chair, maybe accurately, they were considered or asked to be considered, right? But there is no, again, in the final voice vote, there is no sort of objective sort of weight or score assigned to any of those categories, although every committee member was asked through the chair to evaluate on those criteria, correct?

Thank you. And I think that, you know, I certainly want to be very clear on the record that I want to respect the procurement process. I want to respect the selection committee process. I think it's important that we keep that intact and integral to future and all procurement. And so I'm not interested in really doing that. But as my colleague said, we are the policymakers, and we do have a strong... responsibilities when it comes to leading on the vision for this procurement and ensuring that the data before us is great. So talk to me about the level of independent validation that was possibl

Thank you for that clarification. So through the chair, in the case of the third provider that you mentioned, we couldn't get that independent clarification. How did we make that request for the discounted database? upload, let's say, of data?

through the chair when you say through procurement?

Thank you, so through the Chair, I would definitely ask that that communication, for the sake of me understanding when that was asked, if that could be please forwarded to me before our final vote next Wednesday, that'd be great. Sure. So we have different levels, I think you could agree, of independently verifiable projected savings. What protections actually exist as the item is presented today to our district if those assumptions, any of them, prove inaccurate?

What protections exist for us as a district if some of the data presented doesn't actually work out through the chair?

Thank you for walking us through that. And I did, you know, in every conversation I had asked, you know, I said, this is a wonderful upside projection, but. at the end of the day, I have to be responsible for the downside and the protections that exist on that. So it's definitely something that I'm carrying with lots of weight in this decision. Okay, I mean, look, as board members, we're not actuaries. It's not our job to rerun the procurement process. We're not consultants. I don't want that job. Lots of respect to everyone who has it. Or members of the selection committee. So In your best es

OK, so to close, certainly I want some clarity on that in the next day or two to understand what possible ramifications there are. And certainly, it is not my intent when this item came or what protests came after. It's not my intent to slow things down, certainly. And especially when it comes to people's health care, I think they deserve that to be ready to go on day one. I think we'll... Once we get these final pending answers, I'll be ready to make my decision. I think one thing that's become clear and I've asked, I've been very consistent in my request and ask for objective tools that meas

So on the county- On the county side. On the county memo, they requested on July 16th at the commission meeting, this memo was dated August 6th with a summary of findings. And then there's a subsequent memo on the 12th. So I mean, from what I gleaned from this, this came from budget, this one came from the actual mayor's office, in less than 30 days, And now that I have the floor, forgive me, because I don't remember how long you want to speak. I'm going to tell you right now, guys, you've heard me say this before. This was with regards to the co-location. I hate having to make a decision with

All right, so what I'm saying to you is that if it wasn't done on that timeline, what would have happened?

All right, but that wasn't an answer to my question. My question was, what if it had gone longer?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't want to spend a lot of time saying some of the things that have been repeated, but I think because so many times people go back to the record, right? I need to go on record saying that this is absolutely one of the most important decisions that I have been asked to make and probably will make from a financial standpoint when we look at the impact that this has. And then on top of that, the personnel side. And I want to make it very clear because in doing my homework and meeting with various people from all sides to try to do my best to understand this, a lot of ti

Through the chair, some of those programs end up being cost beneficial down the road. And so again, there's just so many factors at play that my own mind can't handle. that I have some level of concern. And so with some of the other providers, are all of those things included in the fixed fee, or are they also a la carte? Because that information I didn't get to in my homework for the last few days through the chair.

Would it be through the chair, would it be possible before the board meeting to get some of that information? If it's pages and pages long, at least some idea of what's including and what's not, because I've already heard the expression, and it's one that I've been using for the last four or five days, apples to apples and oranges to oranges. I feel like I haven't been able to get an apples to apples comparison. And I know that that's where we're relying on our consultant And I understand one of them couldn't be verified independently, but there's a potential at a huge savings, right? So it's

As far as I can tell, I'm sorry to interrupt you. As far as I can tell, I'll look back at my notes because I obviously did not commit this stuff to memory. Not in my notes, but the memo itself. I don't recall if in this memo they talk about splitting the medical and the pharmacy, and I don't have a price for what Aon did at the county.

But just as a follow-up, the numbers we're looking at are the proposals and what was considered by committee is looking at both through the chair. So to really get an accurate...

Homework between now and committee and board meeting.

I don't think I have any more questions at the time.

No, no, no, please. No, no, no, please. Are you done?

Oh, thank you. I'm done. Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Go ahead. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you for your understanding. Board Member Geller?

A quick, through the chair, a quick follow-up to the superintendent. Obviously, we want to get this done, Mr. Superintendent. The question is for you. Obviously, we want to get this done as quickly as we can, but based on what you were just saying, to what extent is there an actual deadline by which the board Must act to give you the direction that you need Is it something that we must do with this meeting and you say it could be July it could be special To what extent if any is there a deadline or is it just we obviously want to get this done and settled as quickly as possible Through the cha

Thank you. So colleagues, in light of the discussion, is it everyone's poison to maybe defer without, or to recommend, to transmit without a recommendation on E143? Can I understand a motion to recommend transmittable?

Thank you so much. entertain a motion to approve, recommend approval of the rest of the items.

All opposed? May I have a motion to bring the G items to the floor?

Mr. Harvey, the floor is yours. G1, sir. Yes. Hold on one second. Hold on one second. I'd like to take a point of personal privilege and identify one of our now former colleagues who's sitting directly behind Mr. Fox, and I couldn't see him. Steve Gallen, the third. Thank you so much for being here. I don't know what's more weird, you sitting in the gallery or the fact that there's a bee item with your name on it next week. Look forward to, first of all, thank you for your service with us up here. Like I've said to other people, you've become one of my wingmen up here, so I'm going to miss you

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm sorry? Member Blanco.

We all have to take this opportunity. So as we were running through the meeting, I looked up and I saw him and I thought, why is he there? So actually, sunshine no longer applies, right? So I texted him and I said, I'm so happy to see you. We need to catch up. But honestly, truthfully, I'm so happy to see you there. And I was going to say this to you, but I'll say this publicly. I've truly learned so much from you, the wisdom, the knowledge that you bring, the eloquence with which you speak, and the advocacy. that you do, truly have learned, and it's been a pleasure working with you.

Thank you so much. I know it's been described as the end of an era. I think it is certainly that. It has been such a pleasure to get to serve with you, Dr. Gallin, and the rest of my colleagues. We're going to miss you so dearly. Thank you for always being a consensus builder, for always taking all of our loose ends and trying to bring it down to the action recommend and what we're going to amend and vote on, for always serving all children from birth Florida City to County line stay true to that when you're on the County Commission And just thank you for teaching me so many things since since

Well, this may sound a little funny, and I want to be clear, I say it with due regard to my esteemed colleagues that I sit next to but having done like you did a whole bunch of graduation speeches I feel like in the last few weeks I feel like I could use some of those words today because in a real sense graduating from very serious responsibilities that this board has to what you're now going to be facing which is completely different I'll just echo the part about being excited for what you're about to undertake. I mean, for somebody who's never even served on that board, to have no one want t

Dr. Brandos-Mendigo, can you bring us home?

How about one more time for Steve Gallen III? Now, Dr. Gallen, I know old habits die hard, but you don't have to stay for the rest of the committee meeting. God bless you, brother. Thanks so much for coming. See you next week. Mr. Harvey, G1, please.

Colleagues, any comments, questions, concerns on G1? Seeing none, G3, please.

Seeing no comments, entertain motions to approve the Gs. So moved. To have a second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Thank you so much. Entertain a motion to move the H item to the floor. All in favor? H9. This is actually an item by Dr. Gallin, so his legacy continues. trust we've had an opportunity to review it succinctly put he wants to explore and review all policies associated with the potential development of workforce housing and infill housing in our district-owned properties which is a conversation we've been having on this board for feels like now three and a half three three three a

Mr. Lewati, thank you so much for your time and certainly for the work that you did with you and your entire team up there. Obviously, extended legislative session and a precarious environment where I think we fared very well between the mitigation as well as avoiding the implications of potential significant tax reductions. I think one of the estimates that Ron mentioned was something like $600 million to us if some of these reforms would have impacted us, which I don't even know where that would have left us. So I think we've done well. Obviously, as we said during the budget workshop, we ha

Okay. Entertain a motion to reconsider H9. Do I have a second?

Motion to amend the co-sponsorship? Move it. Second. All in favor? Motion to approve as amended. Do I have one? All in favor? Aye. Aye. There you go, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. So now, any new business?

Well done. Colleagues, anybody else with new business? Entertain a motion to adjourn?