City Commission - Regular Meeting

City Commissioners Veronica Mateo [music] Salenas, Laura Dominguez, [music] [music] Alex J. Fernandez, [music]

Tanya K. bot, David Suarez, Joseph Magazine, [music] [music] City Manager Eric Carpenter, [music] City Attorney Ricardo J. Doiko, [music] City Clerk. Raphael E. Granado. [music] As a [music] courtesy to everyone present, please silence all cell phones and electronic devices at this time. Lobbyist disclosure [music] reminder. If you are a lobbyist appearing before the city commission or any city board, you must have registered with the city clerk prior to participating. If you have not yet registered, please do [music] so immediately. Presentation reminder. If you submitted a presentation within the 24 hours prior to the start of today's meeting, please check the computer located at the podium to ensure your file is properly loaded. When the floor opens for public comment, please step up to the podium. Speak clearly [music] into the microphone and begin by stating your name and address for the record. How to participate in [music] public meetings via Zoom. Once you have joined the Zoom meeting, go to the bottom panel and click on the raise hand icon [music] to notify the meeting host that you would like to speak. As soon as the host grants you permission to speak, [music]

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icon and press star 9 to notify the meeting host that you have raised your hand to speak. A voice operator will prompt you to unmute [music] your microphone by pressing star 6. Once unmuted, you may begin speaking. After you finish sharing your comments, be sure to press star 9 to lower your hand and star six to mute yourself. We kindly [music] ask everyone to conduct themselves in a respectful and professional manner [music] throughout today's meeting. Thank you for your cooperation and thank you for participating in your local government here in the city of Miami Beach. [music] [music] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

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Please take your seats. The meeting is about to begin. Remember to speak into [music] the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record. Please stand by. We are going on air in 5 4 3 2 1. Good morning and welcome to our commission meeting of December 17th, 2025, our newly formed and elected body of commission. So, congratulations everyone again. And uh down to business. I'll turn to Raphael Granado, city clerk, for any instructions.

Good morning everyone. The city commission is physically present and the commission chambers at Miami Beach City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Drive, third floor. Members of the public are invited to attend either in person or virtually. If you have a if you're joining us virtually, here is how you can participate. You can log in using the Zoom app or visit the Zoom us on your browser. You can also phone in at 305224-1968 or toll-free [clears throat] 888-475-4499. That's 888-4754499. The webinar ID is 813-928-57671 pound. Again, the webinar ID is 813-928-57671 pound. If you would like to speak on any item during the meeting, please click the raise hand icon in the Zoom app or press star 9 on your phone. The Zoom link, webinar ID, and phone number stay the same for every commission meeting. All lobbyists must register with the office of the city clerk located at the first floor of city hall. You do not need to register if you're an expert witness giving only technical or specialized testimony, a representative of a homeowner association or not for profofit speaking without pay, or a private citizen speaking on your own behalf without compensation. However, if you're an expert witness or a nonprofit or neighborhood rep, you do need to submit a written disclosure form to the office of the city clerk before speaking uh to the commissioner of city staff. Forms are available at the office of the city clerk. If a lobbyist gives or agrees to give $1,000 or more to a neighborhood association or its representative regarding a city matter that must be disclosed in writing to the clerk, note that contingency fees are not permitted to be comp uh to to compensate lobbyists. If you plan to speak during the public comment period, we ask you to please sign in. You can use the sign-in sheets on the podiums or you can scan the QR codes also located on the podium. And since we've gotten a lot of questions, we want to make a notation that the board and committee atlarge appointments have been deferred to the first commission meeting in 2026 as approved by the mayor to allow newly

elected commissioner Monica Mateos Selena's time to review candidates and due to today's full agenda. I have some notations that I would like to bring to your attention on item C4 AQ, which is the log cabin item that was moved to C7B. So C4 AQ is was moved from C7B. Item R seven AE which is the fire station item was moved from R9 AM. And finally a correction item C7 CF extend boat show license agreement. Uh the resolution should be corrected to read seven additional days commencing January 26, 2026 instead of 17 days commencing on January 16, 2026. All the addendum items will be heard after five at the mayor's discretion. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, Ralph. It is my privilege to uh start off with an invocation and I'm happy. Thank you for being here, father. Father Andrew Falton from St. Joseph Catholic Parish will uh give us some inspiration and words of wisdom. So, thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me. Thank you eternal eternal and loving God. We come before you this day with a grateful heart. A word that every breath, every gift and every opportunity to serve comes from your generous hand. Your word is your word in the prophet Micah reminds us what does the Lord require of you but to do justice to love mercy and to walk humbly with you God. Lord we ask you to help us live those words in all we do today. Grant us the grace to act justly, to make decisions that are fair, honest, and always mindful of the dignity of every person. Teach us to love mercy, to treat one another with compassion, pa, patience, and understanding, especially when opinions differ or challenges arise. and help us to walk humbly with you, never forgetting that all wisdom and success come from your hand alone. Send your spirit to guide our thoughts and words during this this meeting. Let your truth be our light and your peace be our foundation. Bless the work we under undertake for the good of the community and help us to see your presence in one another. Lord of all creation. Make us faithful stewards of the mission you have entrusted to us. May our

efforts today bear fruit that endures. works of justice, acts of kindness, and decisions rooted in love. We entrust this gathering to you, oh God, and pray that everything we say and do will bring glory to your holy name and blessing to your people. We ask this with gratitude and trust now and forever. Amen.

Thank you. Thank you, Father. To follow up on your uh powerful words, if we can just take a moment of silence to remember the loss of lives in Sydney, Australia this week on the first night of Kaneko. And we pray for peace and no more tragedy and terrorist attacks against innocent civilians. Thank you. I think it's now appropriate to start with the pledge of allegiance. It's my honor to ask David Adams who's been so instrumental in so many facets of helping us fight crime and working with our police department, your crime and awareness group, but also I know privately we've had so many conversations and appreciate all that you do for the safety of Miami Beach.

Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay, we'll start with our Sutnik citizens forum. our open forum to allow anyone to come and give us uh their opinions, suggestions.

Thank you, mayor. So, if you wish to speak at Sutnik, I ask you to approach the podium, state your name, address, and you will have two minutes at this moment. Please start, sir.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Good morning, commissioners. Jose, 400 West 41st Street. I am an attorney and policy specialist with NJC action. Today we have an item on the agenda that speaks to city contracting and grant making. A couple weeks ago, alongside our basil, there was an unfortunate event that decided to cancel uh Israeli and uh Jewish American artists from participation. Unfortunately, the city um had previously sponsored that event and found itself caught in uh an unfortunate situation. The ordinance that you'll be hearing today is based upon a bill that was passed in Tallahassee. I know that we have Representative uh Basabi here today. Um he can talk a bit more about it. I did draft that bill. It's important for you to understand that the city is not in any way obligated to fund the speech of private citizens. In no way is speech implicated by the ordinance that you will uh hopefully be passing today. To the extent that somebody makes that suggestion, it's important to understand that the city um is not con constitutionally obligated to fund anybody's speech, including uh hate speech. What this ordinance would do is make sure that um prior to entering into contracts or issuing grants or sponsorship, the city does receive a certification from the folks who would be uh uh participating in those grant-making programs or contracting with the city that they will not engage in national origin based uh boycots uh against Israel or people who uh are connected to Israel somehow. Um, so to the extent that there are any questions, I'll be here for the next few minutes. I'm happy to answer any questions about what this ordinance would do along with what this ordinance would not do, just want to thank you guys once again. Mayor Miner, thank you for that very classy opening and just reminding everybody that there are difficult things happening at a season that's supposed to be defined by light. So, thanks everybody.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next our first virtual caller is Robert Golding. State your name, address, and you have two minutes.

Robert, please go ahead. Unmute yourself. PJ, let's go to Johan Moore. [clears throat]

Good morning, commissioners and staff. Johan Moore, 717 Jefferson Avenue, a resident of Flamingo Park Neighborhood, a member of Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association, and a member of Meridian Court Community, but not speaking on behalf of anyone other than myself. Uh, I would urge State Representative Basave in line uh with his desire for an audit to ascertain whether or not City of Miami Beach is correctly uh spending its money and not misspending any of it. I would think that he would uh endorse uh a recent proposal that we put forward, excuse me, that was put forward uh calling for bond policy reform. Uh, I would join in the mayor's sentiments hoping for an end to mass murder. Uh, but I would advise that that has to be a universal requirement. Uh, and that our sorrow over deaths should include all deaths of innocents. I would also express my support for Commissioner Bot's item to incentivize conversion of short-term rentals uh to residential, an issue of much importance in our neighborhood. I would also urge that as you consider uh the item before you to discuss the location of the fire station that you not conclude that you need to demolish our historic and muchloved Southshore Community Center in order to build a fire station whose primary purpose at this point in time is to serve the high-rise buildings not located in our neighborhood and which we in fact hope will not in future be located in or immediately adjacent to our neighborhood.

I am supportive of the renewal of the Southshore Community Center lease uh so as to uh thwart any future efforts uh at demolition. We appreciate Commissioner Lumingus, I should say I appreciate Commissioner Lumingus uh item R9 AK uh to discuss the loss of parking in Flamingo Park, but would caution that while that is an important issue, parking cannot come at the expense of the public commons uh and the desire to reclaim roads for pedestrians and micromobility from vehicular traffic. Thank you, sir. Your time is up. Thank you. Go ahead, please.

Good morning. My name is Juice Bach, 500 Northshore Drive. Today, I'm going to be delivering a legislative update for Representative Fabian Basabi. The representative is focused on rebuilding and strengthening working relationships [gasps] in Tallahassee with legislative leadership, the governor's office, and state agencies. The work has expanded access to state resources for District 106, including Miami Beach. As a result, the district has secured record levels of funding supporting storm water and coastal resilience, infrastructure improvements, beach nourishment, biscane bay protection, public safety, and efforts to help residents remain in their homes amid rising costs. The representative has also delivered legislative results, including support for diabetes prevention and care, expanded access to overdose reversal medication for first responders, and consistent advocacy for public safety priorities. In education, Representative Vasabi has supported parental choice paired with accountability, emphasizing transparency and measurable outcomes so taxpayers understand how education dollars are spent. As committee weeks resume in mid January, the legislature will begin advancing proposals on education, insurance affordability, housing pressures, infrastructure, public safety, and environmental resilience. Representative Vabi will remain actively engaged to ensure district priorities are addressed early in this process. And before I close now, I want to add a brief personal note. Many of you know me, and over the past several months, I spent a significant time here in Miami Beach City Hall, learning how state and local government intersect. As an 18-year-old and a first-time voter, I've been especially impressed by Representative Basavi's collaborative, resultoriented approach, and I've seen that translate into tangible outcomes for this community. Thank you for the opportunity to share this update today.

Thank you. Our next virtual caller is Sharon. Sharon, state your name, address, and you have two minutes.

Hi, this is Sharon Weiss, 233 81st Street, and uh I am calling today uh regarding item C7BW. Uh I would urge the commission to embrace Representative Bastab's uh uh uh getting uh an audit uh of of our operations. Uh it's not something that should be looked at as something punitive. This is something that's great. The audit committee at the state uh was unanimous in agreeing that uh an audit was required. We are outside of Orlando. We are the number one uh donor of taxpayer money to the state and um we should welcome their audit. This is uh this should we the our commission needs to work hand inand with both the county and the state. uh we're all in this together. This should not be viewed as something that is uh adversarial or punitive. Um in fact, perhaps the state will come up with ideas to make our government run more efficiently. Uh while the plural of um anecdote is not data, uh from my conversations with other community members, there seems to be unanimous support for this. So, uh, I would urge you to hold off on, uh, censuring representative BAB, uh, unless and until the audit comes up that we are perfectly perfect, then I think the commission could say, "Hey, this is punitive and and wrong." But until that point, we should be welcoming, um, Representative Basab's efforts to assist us. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next, please state your name, address. You have two minutes. Go ahead, please. the young ladies. You

ma'am, are you okay? Good morning. Okay. Fabian Basavi, Nine Island Avenue. I am your state representative and I represent the people of this city, not this day, not political careers, not insider interests. Before I address the upcoming audit, one brief point on public safety because policy has real consequences. A Jewish teacher was attacked near Lehman uh Leman Community Day School by a repeat homeless offender. Also remember a transw woman was murdered by a repeat homeless offender living on the streets in Miami Beach. Different victims, same failure. These outcomes were foreseeable. The local homeless ordinance weakened enforcement and failed the public. This ordinance should be repealed. State law should be enforced. And if you disagree, then put it on the agenda for public discussion right here. Let's debate the two approaches. Yours protects private contracts and the status quo. Mine focuses on solving homelessness by getting the people that need the help the help they need off the streets without recycling them through arrest, release, arrest, release. Now to the audit. This body is attempting to push a challenge to me through consent agenda. For the public watching, that means no discussion and no vote. It's designed to pass quietly without debate. That is not transparency. That is evasion. Several of you in front of me today have privately told me that this audit was needed, including the mayor's most trusted adviser, with whom I had a long conversation. I'm now told that that communication is no longer permitted. Let's keep in mind that the city staff are not personal employees. They are paid by the taxpayers. They work for the residents of Miami Beach. They should answer when I call. Miami Beach already produces a CAFR, which is a comprehensive annual financial report, which is an shows revenues and expenses. It does not examine how decisions are made, how contracts are awarded, how lawsuits are handled, or whether taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. The auditor general does that. This audit

cost taxpayers nothing. The office is funded year round. No new appropriation, no added expense, just accountability. Thank you, sir. Our next our next virtual caller is I can comment and I invite my colleagues to comment. So, first of all, uh, Representative Bavi, I welcome the audit. I have no issues with the audit. We get audited all the time. Actually, this the the state. No, no, no. No, no. You you spoke, I speak.

I welcome the audit. I have no issues with the audit. And if the audit does find something that is I welcome it and if but you have made accusations against our city and it's not even relating to the audit. The reason why this item is on the agenda is because you move from issue to issue saying things that are completely fabricated, untrue, and have no basis in any evidence whatsoever. That is inlerable. You talk about the homeless statute. I'll talk to our city attorney. First of all, our homeless numbers are at historic lows. We do not do that audit of of a homeless census. that is done by the homeless trust out of the county, not us. You talk about issues of prosecution and uh it it is an issue that our city commission and when I tell you there is not a city in Miami Dave, there's not a city that you represent that has done more for law and order and to help reduce crime, clean up spring break than our city. What I see is someone who you have difficulty within your own party in Tallahassee getting items passed. So, you're a failed legislator and you have used the forum of Miami Beach, which is an international city, to get headlines for your own political gain. I'm sorry. I have to say what I feel. I've held it back for too long. And that's why I put this item on. I go on and quote and quote numerous numerous things that you have said that you have never backed up with any basis of fact. You talk about our homeless statute being being uh I mean you've used terms of financial mismanagement, inflated contracts, diversion of funds, poor fiscal oversight, cronyism. What evidence do you have whatsoever?

Want some? No. a contract that you gave as commissioner to someone who wasn't in good standing. Yeah, you are out of order and it's in your email and I'm going to turn to our city attorney to address that because you what you're saying is actually if this is going to be a debate, you should have an open discussion. There's not a debate because I I I refuse everything you say. So why I am going to turn to our city attorney and to refute the the literally writing you have it in your box. Mr. Mayor, we have rules of procedure for conduct in this stasis. And no member of the public, no elected official is allowed to behave in a way that no other resident, no one is afforded special treatment in our day is and that's why we have a sergeant- of- arms to

and that behavior is reflective of the unbecoming behavior. This is what we deal with. Literally unbecoming behavior. That challenges me. When you're ready, we should have a public debate, a public discussion. You and me anytime. Name the place. Name the time. I'll be there. Mr. Mayor, it's a waste of time. I spent two hours with a representative trying to find peace with a representative extending another yet another olive branch. And it all centers back on him. It's not about the public. It is all about him and elevating himself and demanding people to issue written statements using Excuse me. is speaking demanding demanding me asking me

to issue a written statement on city letterhead endorsing him supporting him. Yeah. You send me one from North Bay Village. Excuse me. You you sent me sergeant of arms. I am asking you to control this meeting. We cannot have the constant interruption. Control the meeting. Censor my speech. I'm not There is no censoring you. There is no censoring you. There's no censoring me. You know that. So, this is reflective of the unbecoming behavior that our residents should not have to be. Don't fall into his trap. I'm turning to our city attorney to address the issue you just mentioned. I got the cops. I'm asking what he wants me to do. If he's going to keep talking, I'll listen. Are you done?

If they're saying my name, I'll be here to listen and to respond. Are you done? I am asking our city attorney, please, Rick. Thanks for the constitution. the uh the FBI uh security services was administratively dissolved on September 24th of 2021. The city, our city attorney is speaking. If you can't be quiet, please leave the room.

The the the corporation FBI Security Services, Inc. was administratively dissolved on September 24th of 2021, which was 4 days before they were reinstated. At the time that the city entered into the contract, they were in good standing. What year were was that contract issued? April of 21. April of 21. I was elected November of 21. That sounds right. But the bottom line is they were they were they were in good standing at the time of the contract. Correct. You could send multi-million dollar and do we have that contract with that service anymore? But it welcomes a conversation. We we do not and I would like the record to

I'm going to ask I I we cannot conduct we cannot conduct a meeting discussion one day. Okay. And if I'm wrong if I'm wrong,

Mr. Mayor, no other resident, no other public official would be allowed to engage in this unbecoming conduct that is disrespectful to the public and to everyone else, the taxpayers who we serve who are in line to speak about the real business of this city and not political theater that we are experiencing here right now. It is so unbecoming. This is what we deal with. This is why Miami Beach does not have proper representation in the Florida House of Representatives in Tallahassee. I am actually so grateful that our new county commissioner Vicky Lopez is here because we had to knock on that door so many times representative looking for real true professional public service and representation for our city because the alternative was extremely unbecoming. So Mr. mayor and and I and and I also want the record to reflect that after I got text messages from Representative Basave about [clears throat] that security contract, I called the inspector general to my office and I let the inspector general of our city know about the text messages that I received. And part of the reason why I did that was because I actually felt that I was being pressured by someone that's supposed to represent us. I didn't feel that I was coming from a place of good government. I felt I my intuition, my gut at the time was like there was someone he was pushing for which was the reason why he was advocating for what he was advocating at that at that time and that concerned me and and I that time I reached out to our inspector general. I brought him to my office and I let him know about it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I'm glad you reminded everyone about our inspector general. Many of the issues that we're addressing, we have an independent inspector general. I believe we were the first city in Miami date to have an inspector general voted in overwhelmingly by our residents about 80 cent 80% clip couple of years ago. they're no longer on and I'm not going to mention names but there was an effort to weaken our inspector general and I was took a very strong stance that we cannot in any way weaken the ability of the inspector general to conduct audits and anything that he and his team need to do uh to get proper transparency from from our city. I would like to turn to Rick to address since the homeless statute was was referenced. Uh I'd like you to to articulate uh what exactly our homeless statute does, which is actually quite strong.

Sure. Well, our our ordinance is actually stronger than the state statute. The state statute uh prohibits camping overnight. Our ordinance prohibits camping at any time during the day. And would you give an estimate how many times Representative Fab Fazabi has mentioned what he did today about uh erroneously about our statute and that you have corrected him in writing? I I have not kept track of that, mayor. I apologize. Is it numerous? I believe more than once. I'm not sure that I've actually uh corresponded with him.

Okay. I I've seen uh Commissioner Bot. Um, you know, it's funny because I don't um bother responding to Fabian Basab's comments um when he posts them because they are just so facious. Um they are based in who knows what motivation and it's really disappointing to see that an elected representative who's supposed to represent all of us. We're all residents here. Um spends his time attacking the city, its leadership, and its residents, its police officers, its fire department. I find that really disheartening and and um sad. Um but I don't bother wasting my time trying to correct the record because I know it falls on deaf ears. He's got his own agenda and nothing we say or do is going to change that. As you all just saw firsthand, but I would like to support the mayor and echo everything that he said. I too and I think all of my colleagues welcome an audit. We have absolutely nothing to hide. Um and if there are opportunities for improvement, great. we will embrace them. Um, what is not okay is the one-sided vitriolic attack on our policies, the truth, individuals, um, with no with no backup. It's exhausting. We see it throughout the country. It's not it's not unique to us, but we, you know, generally are a collegial city with collegial representation up and down the ranks um, at all levels. And we can do better. And I know that as a commission, a united body sitting before you, we are determined to do better here locally in our city together.

We don't agree on everything all the time, but most of the time we can do it in a proper respectful way. And it is really sad that our elected official in Tallahassee doesn't have the same skill set or more importantly desire. So I welcome any questions um directly. I'm sure my colleagues, not to speak for them, but I would imagine my colleagues would welcome questions as well if you want to learn more about anything that you think is is a a concern. Um, but we're very confident about what we're doing here that we're doing the the best we can to do the best by you with the facts and tools and resources that we have at hand. Thank you. Smith, Commissioner Magazine,

couple things. I, as chair of the finance committee, I welcome an audit. uh it is good for our taxpayers. Transparency is always good. So, it's not something I shy away from. And if there are uh missteps, then let's get them out in the open and let's fix and address them. In terms of some of the other things that we're talking about here, I will work with anybody. Doesn't matter political party, gender, creed, color. I will work with anybody. You know why? Because this isn't about me. This isn't about us. This is about you, our residents. So, this can never ever ever be personal because then we're putting ourselves above the city, right? And that is not why anybody should be getting into public office. It is to serve the greater good. And sorry if that sounds altruistic, but that truly is what I believe. Um, in terms of the homeless ordinance that was referenced, I I I took some offense that Miami Beach and our ordinances were somehow uh responsible for absolutely tragic incidents that happened. uh as somebody that was personally a victim of a homeless repeat offender and a violent crime where I would want partnership where we could work together because like I said this is about working together. This isn't about us. Let's fix and it's not at the Miami Beach level. This is where we can use our partners at the state the revolving door of criminality. These were people that committed these atrocities that were arrested and gone through the system and released numerous numerous times. People that had no business whatsoever being on our streets. And I don't mean in a homeless fashion. I just mean outside of the prison system because these were repeat violent offenders. So, if we want to truly make our city better, if we want to make our region better, let's work with our partners at the state at all levels to try and fix that broken criminal justice system. So, thank you,

mayor.

Thank you. Um, I wanted to echo something you said, Commissioner Magazine. I'm sorry we're taking so much time on this, but it's important. and Commissioner Bot if it was just and and [clears throat] you're right for two years our our city commission has pretty much taken taken the beating and the hits and we haven't responded. The problem is I came to the reckoning and I thought people will say you know what I know this is just political theater but I came to the realization that not everyone realizes that when there's no response when pe when we don't offer an alternative to what's being said cuz I heard during the campaign some very very intelligent smart people that I respect who actually believed or thought why don't you guys ever respond to this and I realized you know what without a counter people are going to believe it and it's It's not about me or any of us because I actually haven't been the target of for pretty much of the attacks, but our city has. And in my opinion, it got to the point where this is damaging to Miami Beach, which means it's damaging to you. It's damaging to our residents. It's damaging to our businesses when you constantly hear these arguments. By the way, I welcome the policy debate. I welcome the city audit. But when you have comments that our statute is unconstitutional, when it's not, it's actually been up not ours, but the similar the same wording has been upheld by courts. When it's actually stronger than the state statute, not weaker. When you hear terms like mismanagement, cronyism, uh, corruption, it's damaging to you, our residents. Again, if it's true, back it up. Provide some evidence. The city of is just the latest. And if there is things that we can do better or should should do better, absolutely absolutely we'll do it. I mean, if I again, I don't believe it's true, but if someone did something that's fraudulent, they should be arrested and go to jail. Again, no evidence of it. But the point that I'm making now and the reason why I did it now and we're doing it together

as a body, we're we're bringing these items to the floor is because this has been going on for two years. It goes on from issue to issue and then there's never any evidence. zero and then goes on to the next issue and makes another accusations. No evidence. Move on to the next issue. And we as a body have to protect Miami Beach. We have to protect our residents. We have to protect our businesses because eventually misrepresentations, falsehoods, lies gets into the consciousness. That's what propaganda is about. I mean, I don't want I don't have to get into propaganda during the Holocaust, other things. I'm sorry to make the analogy, but that's what happens when you constantly have a braiding without a counter. And now Miami Beach is making decision. We are gonna counter. You want to make an accusation? Back it up. Mr. Mayor,

Commissioner Fernandez. Oh, but before you go, I'm sorry. One last thing. I do want to echo what you said about uh County Commissioner Vicky Lopez. We're going to hear from a moment. We also have County I'm I'm so I'm so happy that you are now our county commissioner representing us. This is a big big win for Miami Beach. Also, I don't want to be uh remiss in not mentioning Commissioner Mickey Steinberg who's always been there for us as well. We we have really good representation now in Miami Beach and the county and I'm and I'm very I'm very very much looking forward to working with you. I'm sorry. And I'd be remiss not to say at the state senate um you know and it's again it's not a partisan thing. Our Republican state senator Garcia who we may disagree on some issues on but she is a professional. We go to Tallahassee. We knock on her door. We sit with her. We talk with her. We we bring her to the district. She walk she walks the streets of our district with us. We work with her. It's not about partisanship. Not at all. She is a public servant who cares about the issues, who has dialogue with us. And it does and she doesn't make it about her. She doesn't make it about making headlines. She makes it about the issues of the district and the people of the state of Florida. Just as our state senator Chevron Jones, our state senator Shron Jones always an open door policy with with us in in Tallahassee. He comes to the district. He sits down with us. It's professional. It's never theatrical. It's never childish. It's never these these baseless allegations uh thrown at us. And lastly, I'd say, and I'll say it again, right after my election, I didn't need anything from Representative Fabian Basab other than a good collegial relationship because we have a common constituency, people that elected him and people that elected us.

and I sat down with him for a long lunch and and and he air dropped me a letter uh from an elected official in another city in official city stationary. Okay, which which quotes as a commissioner of blank city, I am proud to endorse Representative Fabian Basav and asking me to give him a letter like that from my from from me in order to find peace with him. I'm sorry. I am not going to use my official city resources, my city letterhead, my city seal that represents every single resident on the city of Miami Beach, number one, for campaign purposes. number number two to go into a partisan matter that when I represent Republicans, Democrats, independents, and everything in between. I do not use my office for campaign purposes the way that I was being asked to do by the representative that alleges to be here speaking for the people. That would be a misuse a misuse of my office resources. And he asked me to do that and I didn't do that. And then what was it? A week later or two weeks later, we're getting audited by the state of Florida. Let that sink in. Thank you. Okay, I think we can unless anyone else wants to speak, we continue.

We're going to go next to our Larry Schaefer on Zoom. You have two minutes. Please state your name and address, please.

Larry Schaefer, 23381st Street. Good morning. I I hope you don't mind if I try to lower the temperature in the room by starting by saying congratulations to all that were elected. Special congratulations to our new commissioner and vice mayor, my friend Monica Matteo Selenus. I'd also like to say congratulations to recently appointed Miami Date County Commissioner Vicky Lopez and I hope we can develop a better relationship with the county. I'm calling to comment on the same item being discussed about Mr. Basab. Uh on Monday, Mayor Miner in his inauguration speech said that he doesn't get complaints, he gets suggestions. And that was pretty funny. And I think if we can just kind of maybe tone things down and say, "Hey, Mr. Bave has made suggestions here and actually followed through with an audit." Just looking at it a different more softer way. Um Mayor Miner and the commissioners also agreed to place the words in God we trust prominently near the ceiling of the commission chambers. Well, in God we trust, but everyone else should be subject to an audit, including the city. Instead of passing this resolution, I suggest the commission consider referring this to FK where many of the items are related to city finances. Mr. State Rep can bring evidence substantiating the complaint complaints and the public can participate in the process or we can have a town hall with citizen participation. Citizen MA Commissioner Magazine, the chair of the finance committee, has advanced items related to financial accountability. In fact, he has excellent items on the agenda in front of you about requiring line item budget next year. With or without this resolution, the state audit is happening. Perhaps the commission could defer this items until the results of the audit come back. If there's evidence of corruption, mismanagement, the resolution is not needed because there are multiple options here. I think that maybe one of the commissioners could pull this consent agenda item if it hasn't been already discussed so much already. um and then to see if it should be discussed, referred or deferred. Finally, I'd like to wish everyone happy holidays and in the spirit of the season

of love and light, can we try to reconcile our differences between the state rep and this commission so that we can focus on the needs of the city and its people instead of political and partisan arguments. Go ahead. Please state your name, address. You have two minutes.

Hi, my name is Linda Koko. I'm a resident of Collins Park and a small business owner. I do want to thank you, mayor, for what you said re just now and thank you for the moment of silence. Okay, I'd like to start off with C4T, C4 AP, C7BX, and R7 AC. And I want to express my support of these resolutions to bring back the rainbow colors in our city on bike racks, plaques, forever proud light pole banners, and a replica of our rainbow crosswalk. We are a welcoming city and remember the LGBTQ annual purchasing power in Miami Dade County is $15 billion. Okay. C7J, I request a six I request that you approve the six-month extension of the agreement between the city and the Miami Design Preservation League for the operation of the Oceanfront um auditorium, 101 Ocean Drive. It's a popular resource for our tourists and our community who are interested in our art deco history. They host wonderful informative free lectures. In fact, there's one tonight. And they run a terrific art deco store. I also support our, let me see, R9J to negotiate a three-year lease agreement with MDPL for the same location, 101 Ocean Drive. Now, R7Y, Byron Carlile. I am surprised we are again discussing what to do with the Byron Carile since the commission unanimously supported the thriving cultural community center including three movie theaters with activations that appeal to all ages. The project, which has been created with input from residents and community arts organizations, envisions a multifaceted community arts complex that would include the three movie theaters, art studios, and gallery space, recording studio free to students, classroom space, rehearsal space. Let's keep the

original plan supported by our commission. Thanks.

Thank you. Our next virtual caller has a screen name of Bolari. Please state your name, address, and you have two minutes. Hi, this is Wayne Roberts. That's my joke of the morning. I'm I don't know. So, good morning. Um, I wanted to talk about uh uh I don't believe that there's any any uh uh legal issues for the city of Miami Beach relative to their contract, but it is misspent. I'll give you an example. Uh recently most of you in a day uh recommended and and and supported uh a fire department contract where the average fire department and EMS employee makes $350,000 a year with benefits. Uh that that's equivalent to what our city manager earns. Uh it's four times what uh the average resident earns in the city. Um uh we're building a firehouse that that looks like a Taj Mahal. Uh where um I don't think that's needed. I think they need a new firehouse, but it certainly shouldn't be to the size and and accommodations that we're talking about. Um, it should be placed where it is exists today so you don't in interfere with the lives of people that bought or built commercial property uh in neighborhoods where uh you're planning to put it now or city property otherwise. Um that's been there 100 years. Uh if there's a sewer problem, fix the sewer problem. Uh but you're mismanaging money by by and it's political. These these fire people are at our polls. They're calling our residents for for you guys that that were elected uh during elections. They which is

inappropriate and it should be a policy within the city. They cannot do so. Um that's the crux of the problem. It's not corruption. Well, it's not it's not illegal corruption. It's it's lobbying by and and and the fire department makes up over a quarter of our budget. [clears throat] Uh we haven't had a death from a fire since 1977. Sir, state your name. Thank you. I'm sorry, Ralph. May

um Mr. manager, because there are a lot of people here today and a lot of people listening, I don't believe that that um statement that the average firefighter makes over $300,000 a year is accurate. Could you please address that? [clears throat] That number certainly is not accurate. Um I don't know what the exact number is, but I believe it's less than half that. Thank you. Go ahead, sir. Good morning. Morning. My name is Stuart Blumbberg, 7532 Cutlass Avenue, North Bay Village, Florida. And it's first time I'm back in here in 16 years. Welcome. It's changed a lot. Uh including

I'm here to talk in support of the naming of the baseball field at Flamingo Park for Skip Bertman. Um I want to thank Commissioner Fernandez. I want to thank Commissioner Dominguez for their help in moving this forward. Um, it's long overdue. Um, I've been a friend of Skips for over 70 years. Uh, he has brought great honor to this community where he was raised, went to school here, went to Beach High, was an all city catcher, went to the University of Miami where he was an all-American catcher. came back here to Beach High, taught for 11 years, coached the baseball team to a state championship, and then went on to LSU where he is now the legend by winning five national championships and in the Hall of Fame uh at the college baseball. Um, this honor for him is welld deserved. uh he coached many of the people that are not in the room today but are uh in this community. Um he is a credit to the city of Miami Beach and to support this effort to have the field named for him. U it's an honor for me to stand here before you uh and ask for your support. [snorts]

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. We have elapsed the time for Sutnik. who wish to proceed. May I give one minute? Yes. So the next caller is David Simon. Mr. Simon, state your name, address. You have one minute, please.

Mr. Simon, please unmute yourself. A PJ, let's go to last name Kenny.

Please state your name, address. You have one minute. Hi, my name is Noel Kenny and I'm at 110 Washington Avenue and I strongly oppose the fire station being built south of Fifth, specifically at Commerce Street and One Ocean. This area is already extremely congested and it is a residential area that would be very disrupted by the additional noise and lights and something about South that makes it so special is the community around here. So, um, I'm hoping that you guys will move forward with the location on Sixth Street as it's already logistically and financially a much better option. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Start. Go ahead.

Good morning, Miami Beach. Good morning. Congratulations, Commissioner Fernandez. Congratulations, Commissioner Dominguez. Congratulations, Vice Mayor Matteo Selenus. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. So, I just want to officially state for the record that I do accept the results of the election and I just want to thank everyone for their participation. Let's take a deep breath. Let's talk it out. I do have as a matter of record my position is for the audit. Uh beyond that, I just want everyone to continue to do what you said you were going to do. I made a lot of promises on about immediate impact on day one. And even though that I was not victorious, we've continued with that. We are already going on the fifth week of our neighborhood leadership academy. We are moving forward. We're still talking to the business owners. So, let's continue to move forward, support each other, work together, and stand by your word,

Mr. Mayor. Yeah, Luigi, the mayor also won. If you're going to congratulate elected officials, of course. Absolutely. Of course. It [snorts] was abbreviated for for with respect for time. It's all good. Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner Fernandez.

And thank you, Luigi. And it's good to see you. And you did win because whenever we run for office, we strengthen our democracy. You help our community by running for office. You you foster good debates. you put out some good ideas out there and and you are more engaged in the community now. So even though you didn't win electorally, you did win in the community because we always win when we run for office. We we meet neighbors, we get more involved, we offer good ideas, and you did good by running and thank you for having had the courage to stand up and to do it. I think Thank you. I think that's where that's Commissioner Fernandez's way of inviting an opponent the next time you run. So, uh, [snorts]

thank you. Thank you. Our next caller has a EJ, the the phone number, please call that person next. Uh, 15 is the last number.

Good morning, mayor and commissioners. Um, nice to meet you. I'm sorry I'm not there in person. My name is Lisa Garcia and I'm the new executive director of the Miami Dade LGBTQ plus and allied chamber of commerce. I am here in support of the resolution C7BX um for the forever proud banner initiative. Um this is a visible fiscally responsible way to affirm inclusion and recognize the LGBTQ plus community's economic contributions. As previously stated, it's in the billions of dollars and um I'm just here in support of that. So I thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your service and happy happy holidays.

Thank you. Go ahead, sir. Mitch, you used to be the first one at the deis. I'm slacking. I'm slacking. That's correct. [laughter] Well, good to see Good to see you, though. Thank you. Thank you, Mitch.

Congratulations and good morning, Mitch Novik. Uh, hiding in the consent agenda. I found 800,000 to Playboy, 600,000 to another wellness organization. Increases in our water rates. I would ask you to put this into the light. Uh as the budget conscious commission, your objective should be uh reducing our budget which has doubled uh in the last dozen years, reducing our staffing which has increased by 500 employees in that time. In October, we had utility billing, water rate increases, which were not reflected on our November uh and October uh utility billing statements. Apparently, the city moved over to a new system. Uh do we really need a glossy magazine? Can I have 30 seconds, please?

Go ahead, Mitch. Thank you. Do we really need a glossy magazine distributed quarterly at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars uh by the office of marketing and communication? Our transportation and mobility department has decimated the historic character of Jefferson Avenue without proper board review. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Our next virtual caller is Barbie Martinez. State your name, address, so you have one minute.

Good morning. My name is Barbara Martinez. I live at 400 South Point Drive. Also want to reject plans to put a fire station south of Fifth. As was already stated, this is a very busy area. It's already high traffic. There are days when you cannot even get from South Point Drive to Fifth Street without 30 to 45 minutes of traffic. It would require crossing Fifth Street for the vast majority of calls. So, it does not make sense to put a fire station at the very southernmost point of its service area. Additionally, we will be in the next 3 years having construction at one ocean, what has been the Pier Park, now known as Nikki Beach project. And to have additional traffic in that area, which when it's completed is expected to host up to 1,000 guests per day would be very difficult for everyone. Finally, it's also a transportation hub. Right opposite Joe's. You have the Miami, it's the South Beach trolley. You have the

Thank you so much. I apologize. Uh Mr. Navet, go ahead, please. You have one minute.

Thank you. Good morning. Uh Miami Beach. I'm Valerie Navaret with Favlla Miami. For the past 34 years as a volunteer, I do homeless outreaching, helping them to get off the streets. For the past three years, I have a contract with the city, a program that I was created by our mayor, which the sole purpose is to get our sheltered individuals to find jobs and rebuild their lives and eventually move from shelter to um their own housing. What I would like to share, most of you already know, but what I would like to share is that nationwide the people that does that do what I do here, they success rate is between 30 and 70%. And I would like to tell you that your trulies over here, my success rate has been 78.79%. Which is huge. You guys can clap. Thank you. Thank you. Um, yes. So I would like to share this is a very important program and I am very appreciative that you guys renewed the contract and here's some data. Thank you.

Our next virtual caller is David Simon. You have one minute sir.

David, please unmute yourself. Let's go then to the next person on the podium. Go ahead, please.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Mayor and commissioners. My name is Patricia Agnello, 2555 Collins Avenue, and I am here today to speak in strong support of restoring and preserving the Byron Carile Theater. The Byron Carile is one of the last remaining historic landmarks in North Beach, a place filled with memories and meanings for generations of Miami Beach residents. We already have the funding to bring it back. $30 million in voter approved jailbond funds and $7.5 million from the Dovll public benefit. That's more than enough to renovate and reopen it as a firstrun movie theater and family entertainment center. Something that serves families, seniors, and visitors alike, all while staying within budget. But instead of moving forward with restoration, the city is considering a plan to demolish the theater and replace it with a so-called cultural center stacked under housing. That plan would cost about $20 million more, require hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to operate, and is based on a funding model that even the administration admits is uncertain. May I please have 30 seconds more?

Go ahead, please. Thank you. [clears throat] We've seen this story before. Projects that promised community benefit, but ended up serving developers and insiders instead. North Beach does not need another high-rise or another broken promise. What we need is to [clears throat] preserve our history and bring back a gathering place for everyone. Restoring the Byron Carlile keeps our history alive, strengthens our community, and uses public money responsibly. It's a project that makes sense financially, culturally, and morally. Thank you so much. Please vote to save the Baron Carile and help us protect a vital piece of Miami Beach soul. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. Hi, my name is David Ston. I am the chair of the Cultural Arts Council and 30-year plus resident of the city of Miami Beach. I'm here today to do something I never thought I'd have to do, and that's to defend arts funding in the city of Miami Beach. If you don't understand the value of art in this place, I have two words for you, Art Week. Yes, the city spent a lot of money to bring in organizations and arts activation from all over the world, but it brought in over half a billion dollars to this economy. And more important than the half a billion dollars to me was that the city of Miami Beach was for one week the center of the world in the most positive way. This anti-arts funding is at the heart of the item that wants to revert the Byron Carile back to a commercial use multiplex cinema. That is a purpose that had failed 10 years ago in that same location, that had just failed on Lincoln Road, that is unfortunately failing across the country. It is no longer a viable business model. Why don't we spend $30 million to turn it into a blockbuster video? It's not Can I have 30 more seconds?

It is not a good use of our money. We need to support arts and culture. The existing plan would have three movie theaters in it in addition to a a blackbox performance theater, an art gallery, a a free-touse recording studio. It would have multiple uses that would be transformative to North Beach and Miami Beach. I ask that you support moving forward with the item that we've been working on for two years. Thank you.

Hi everyone. Welcome to the season of light. My name is Brenda Jordan. I'm a resident 2316 Bay Drive and I'm here again as an artist. And we just talked about the arts. Arts, as you can see from Art Basle, is a very big business. And for a program to be set up for artists with no artist involvement, you know, I know you're trying to do your best, but it's not best. We're artists. We have to be involved in setting up a program. A lot of people are being displaced that have been in this program. And I think the idea was to not have sloppy tables looking like junk, you know, places. And I get that, you know, as an artist is disrespectful to me. But what I'm asking is that we set up a real program. The first program didn't work because it didn't involve artists. And this one does not involve artists. the what is art and what is not art is being dict dictated by a a lawyer which great you're you're his client so he's going to narrate so much and direct the constitution according to how he sees it but I have case in point I have letters for everyone it's not fair to me it's not fair for real artists I'm an artist and a beach res Go ahead. It's your turn.

Hi. Welcome, Mr. Mayor. How you doing? Congratulations on your win. I did tell you that you would win. And I did ask you that. Say your name, please. My name is Janet Figarero and I did ask you that we want equality for all the artists. I'm one of the artists that do not live in Miami Beach and was left out not to participate. I did an evaluation and they considered my art

non expressive enough. Okay. Now, as an artist, I will ask you and as the mayor of Miami Beach, I don't have to live in Miami Beach to be part of Miami Beach. Okay? But I do come here every day for one hour and a half of driving to be here in this city and be part of it. Okay? And I feel as the mayor that you are and all the commissioners here that they've been reelected, you almost felt what it is to be unemployed by yay much, right? Thank you so much.

Yeah. Give me a couple of seconds. I'm going to relieve myself. God bless. Okay. Thank you. I feel that Mr. Suarez, what you done to this opt optin that the new writing is biased. It's discriminative. You're only choosing it for the residents of Miami Beach. Miami Beach does not live on residents only. Most of the people that come here to work in this city, come from different burrows and different areas to make this city a whole to be operational. Equality for all, Mr. Mayor. That's all I'm asking. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next virtual caller is Michael Grio. Mr. Grio, go ahead please.

Good morning everybody. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Okay, great. Good morning. This is Michael Grio, your most recent former former state representative. And I got to tell you, I wasn't going to call in today, but I was pretty pretty disappointed with the exchange this morning. I was texting with a few of you up in the day. I got to tell you, let's this issue I think we lost you. Go ahead, please. Can you hear me? Okay now. Yes.

Okay, great. Sorry. The reason I'm calling in is guys, you've been treating our firefighters, especially the ones that serve at a station like political pawns for 15 years. It's time to let the rubber meet the road. Sixth Street is the place to put this thing. Let's do it. It's 80 90% design. The money's there. As somebody who's now an EMT and has actually done shifts over in station one, not as a tourist, I can tell you these guys need to be treated like the service that they provide. I know a lot of them are in there today. So guys, today's the day. Let's let's let's do this. I'm going to come into the into the chambers in a little bit. Thank you so much. I want I want to say there go ahead please.

Uh good morning, mayor and commissioners. My name is Vivian Martell. Um, I'm here to speak about the importance of making and keeping the bar in Carlilele as a permanent arts community asset for Miami Beach and for North Beach specifically. North Beach has incredible diversity, history, and creative talent. But as long uh has been underserved when it comes to accessible art spaces, the Byron Carile is more than a building. It's an opportunity to invest in the community, connection, and creativity and young talent. As an arts venue, the Byron Carlile can provide affordable performance spaces for local artists, cultural organizations, and um uh and it can activate neighborhoods year round. Programming support with uh will support local economies creating cultural anchor um that would add an arts commodity and uh economic development. For every dollar spent to the arts, 42 comes back.

Thank you. Next, please. Good morning, commissioners and mayor. Congratulations on all your recent elections. Um, very quick comments this morning in support of R5 AG and C7BS brought by Commissioner Dominguez. Thank you. U, these are some meaningful first steps in treasuring our marine assets right off of our coast. I think we saw the power of what Reef Line was able to bring out this last weekend or this weekends ago during our Basil. There's a lot of excitement out there and we were seeing people explore this new space and then move on to the jetty and move on to our natural reef track and really start to see this as a tourist and conservation project that could bring so much value to the city. um as someone who has been hooked by by um fishing equipment out there um that is already actually against the law to fish in that manner where this is this is really important that we move forward with this um and the restrictions on the land-based um shark fishing equipment. Um I believe someone's going to show you what that hook looks like in a little bit, but it's really important that we move forward with this. So, thank you all and have a wonderful time out.

Yeah, thank you. I'm sorry I didn't catch your name. David Grezer, 1754 Meridian. Thank you. Thank you, David. Um, we're going to take a time out from the uh from the open forum because uh county commissioners Vicky Lopez and county commissioner Mickey Steinberg, who are are representatives from the county, uh need to go to another meeting. So, I'm going to give you the form and then we'll continue. Thank you.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of this incredibly esteemed group of city commissioners, it is such an honor to finally say I represent Miami Beach officially. [applause] I have worked so closely with so many of you. Congratulations to those who have been reelected and elected. Um, I I am, as you all know, I spent three and a half years as a state representative, and even though uh I did not represent Miami Beach in District 113, I always felt like I did. Um, and I it was such a a privilege uh to be able to work individually with each one of you to not only bring home to you all and your residents uh appropriations that you really needed for infrastructure and for nonprofits, but also just to be there to listen to what was the for the good of the order here in Miami Beach. And so it is with an esteemed honor that I now am your county commissioner and that I can officially say Miami Beach is home to Vicky Lopez as well as the mainland. And I'm looking forward to working with each and every one of you. Commissioner Bots's already reached out to me. We're going to work on microobility devices which was a a really big uh issue that I worked on uh as a state rep. Uh, Commissioner Fernandez and I've been working on housing for it seems like a decade and I'm so grateful, Commissioner, for your leadership uh in what I know is probably the number one issue we're all facing, which is uh affordability for housing. And I just am excited to work with each and every one of you and as a body collectively. Um, I know um that there is different needs here. Uh it is as diverse in Miami Beach as it is on the mainland in my district. And I know that each and every one of

you represents every little pocket of of residents that you are close to. And I uh very much am looking forward to having you connect me to those who you are very close to so we can collectively begin to represent the beach in a manner in which it deserves. And so you have my commitment to be there for you. I hope the residents who are listening today and those that are here know um that that is my commitment to everyone and I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to come back to the beach. I've been here several I've been a county commissioner for 28 days. I believe I've spent at least 10 of those here on Miami Beach and I'm grateful um grateful for that. And so u I'm wishing everyone a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, happy Kanza and let's hit the ground running um right after the new year. Thank you so much everyone. Thank you, Commissioner. And I will confirm that I feel like Commissioner Lopez, I feel like everywhere I go, I see you. So, I think it's even more than 10 days. And not to lobby from the day, but I'll throw in uh help with funding the water taxi. But, uh [laughter] time for that, Mr. Mayor. I I'd be remiss not to say because you you mentioned your work in Tallahassee on behalf of Miami Beach and in the house when we needed a sponsor for for our landmark public private partnership to revitalize the east end of Lincoln Road. You were the one that helped us get the public funds we need to revitalize to bring new life to improve our beautiful jewel of Lincoln Road. So, you're now officially representing us, but as a public servant, you've always had Miami Beach in your heart, and it's I'm so proud to call you our county commissioner.

Um, Ralph, uh, we're going to we're going to turn for a moment's uh to the North Beach CRA. And before we do that, Mayor, I'm not sure if Commissioner Lopez can sit for the RDA also. Yes. Okay. Okay. Then, we have a full on. Yeah. So, if I don't know if you want to join us up here for a minute, please. Uh so we're going to uh recess as a city commission meeting and we will be doing the redevelopment agency item. It is item one. It is amendment number three to the Kubiche 105 at 1555 Washington Avenue adjust rent of 10% RDA1.

Sorry, we're doing the kissing. [laughter] kisses. The official welcome.

Welcome aboard. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Go ahead.

Good morning, Mayor, City Commissioners. Azie Dominguez, division director of asset management for the city of Miami Beach. Uh we're here to talk about item um the kubiche item which is a percentage rent request. The kubiche has been a long-term tenant of anchor shops on Washington Avenue. Uh this area of the property itself has struggled with traffic uh and they are requesting a rent reduction uh percentage rent of 10% of sales with operating expenses for the next 3 years. uh administrative is supportive of this with the expectations that we have the tax collector's office opening up very soon bringing up a lot of traffic to this area. They're right next to them. Uh and also with the hopes that the lunchtime traffic will pick up for them. [clears throat]

You want to move the item? Yes, I'll move the item. It's not on. Oh, sorry. Excuse me. I'll move the item. I'll second if I may, Mr. Right. Azie, am I correct that it actually took some time for this restaurant to open? Uh, yes. Actually, the restaurant was under a full renovation. They spent probably about $3 million on their renovation. In 2019, they opened. Then a few months later, shut down due to CO 19. So, they have gone through a series of struggles uh to get up, but it's a beautiful restaurant. And I do want to say I believe that there were some permitting issues as well that prolonged their opening.

Correct. And while we have focused, we've been steadfast in reforming our permitting process. Uh you talk about the cruel irony that business in our own city-owned building has permitting issues. What does that say out there for the mom and pop? So, while this commission has been very steadfast in moving our permitting process forward, uh that really speaks to the help that we continue to need from staff uh to really fine-tune this. Thank you. Let's call a vote. Uh all in favor of item RDA1, please say I. I. Hearing no one opposed, the item passes. Thank you very much.

Congratulations and welcome. [laughter] Thank you, Commissioner Mayor. We are now we are now convening as a North Beach Community Redevelopment Agency and we welcome Commissioner Steinberg to the dance. [applause]

The first item is North Beach CRA 1. It is amend North Beach CRA commercial facade improvement program. Good morning all. Stephen Anthony, economic development director. Um this item is really just to expand our current uh commercial pride improvement program. Uh what we've gotten is the feedback from business owners uh throughout North Beach that says, "Hey, you know, this is a great program, but we'd like it." Initially, the pilot was really focused around the Normandy Fountain area. And so we figure here's an opportunity now to expand it within all of the North Beach CRA um area. And so that that way we can open the open the program up. I'll move the item.

I have a question. Um, I would like to propose that we slightly amend this item. I think it's a great item, but I think we should allow for the expansion, but actually have it so that we revisit it in about 18 months, 24 months and gauge its success. Are you guys okay with that? Yep. I think that's great. So, accept the motion. Commissioner Brat. Yes. As amended. Commissioner Steinberg, you seconding. If so, may I call Collarwell? Yes. All in favor of North Beach CRA1 as amended. Please say I. I.

Hearing. No. One opposed. The item is approved. We have a companion item. Item two is amend North Beach CRA residential facade improvement program. And that would be the same kind of recommendation. I'll second your motion. I have a motion and a second. If there's no discussion, may I have a vote? All in favor, please say I. I. Everyone opposed. The item is approved unanimously. Thank you, Commissioner Syberg. Thank you. Did you bring chocolates for everybody like you used to when you were a city commissioner? They're on their way. Oh, they're on their way. Look at that. [laughter] Motion to reconvene as a Miami Beach City Commission. Second. By acclamation, we are reconvened. It is now 9:49. May

Thank you for bearing with us. you. Hi. Uh, yes, please. Next. Say your name, address. You have one minute. Good morning, Mr. Mayor, commissioner, city manager, and staff. My name is Jose Frizz, NY Alton Road. First, I would like to congratulate Mayor Miner on your second term. Now, [clears throat] you can continue and finish what you started. May Miami be the best city of the country. [clears throat]

Thank you. I would also like to congratulate Lara Dominguez as well as our new commissioner Monica Mateo Selenas. It truly makes a difference to have a commissioner who lives south of F and walk around the marina around the neighborhood almost every day. Secondly, I [clears throat] would like to congratulate and thanks to assistant city manager Mark Taxi, code enforcement director Hernando Carloso and his entire team. and Miami Beach Police Chief John Wayne and Captain Losano Andy Losano and his department especially now that we have community police policing south of Faves [clears throat] and that and thank you to you all. Can I finish and thank you you to all of you mayor and commissioner. The improvement we have seen at the marina regarding safety a quality of flight particularly with the previously out of control charter vessels is control out vessel over the last couple months we can clearly seeing a real and positive difference. At the same time I want to emphasize the importance of no lowering your guards.

Thank you sir. continue and consistent enforcement is essential to proceed this game. Also, I'd like to support Mr. Mayor R5 to roll back the hours of operation on the charters uh vessels. Thank you so much. Our next virtual caller is John Porter. You have one minute, sir. Hi, good morning. Uh my name is John Porter. I'm the general manager for One Ocean Condominium um located at one Collins Avenue. Um I'm uh speaking regarding the the fire station. Uh One Ocean is supporting the Sixth Street location. Um and that's all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Go ahead, sir.

Hello. My name is Patrick Brushik. I live at 1754 Meridian Avenue. Uh congratulations to everyone who was reelected or elected for the first time. I'm here asking for your support for R uh 5 AG, the restrictions on landbased fishing gear and resolution C7BS, which is the enforcement of the already existing rules on spear fishing near next to the jetty. I've been hooked by fishing gear. My mom, who's 67, has been hooked by fishing gear out there. So, voting yes on these resolutions and continuing the progress on our marine park will only make this a better place for ecoourism for our residents and our visitors alike. So, thank you for your progress on this and congratulations everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

Good morning, mayor [clears throat] and commissioners. My name is Tom Hawkins. I live at 1300 Monet Terrace. First, I want to congratulate everyone who ran in the election on their resounding election results. Really is. So, thank you for everything you do. Uh, and I I'd like to thank uh, Representative Basabi for cutting in line early this morning and hijacking our sutnik hour and harming our residents because we only have a few seconds to speak now. So, with that, I want to urge the commission today to please vote for the motion that reconsiders uh, R5P, which is the ordinance regulating uh, neighborhood associations and condominium boards. Uh [clears throat] the uh the commission should be commended for making the changes it did at the second reading to shift disclosure from the residents to the developers. That made perfect sense. However, there were other amendments that stayed in that uh that uh second reading that are harmful to civic participation. I've written you all before about this. I think you know how I stand. Please do what you need to do today and reconsider that. Thank you.

Next, please. Good morning. Congratulations on your elections. I'm Spencer Roberts, 411 Northwest 43rd. I'm a marine ecologist at the University of Miami here to speak in support of Commissioner Dominguez. Ordinance R5 AG and resolution C7BS. Land-based shark fishing involves the use of drones and commercial fishing gear to bait sharks near the shore where they are then hooked and then dragged onto the beach. Smaller harvestable species are typically killed for a jaw trophy or used as bait for bigger sharks. These larger prohibited species are often illegally held for social media photo shoots. Tracking studies estimate that roughly a quarter of these sharks die within a month. Um on in April, a critically endangered great hammerhead was found dead on Miami Beach with a hook just like this. Um this land-based shark fishing rig was found by Mera, a swimmer off uh the reef line. It in uh includes 300 ft of braided thread, 300 more of thick monofilament, and this 2-in wide hook. 30 seconds, please. Bait it with the head of a blacktip shark, indicating the intent to attract a larger predatory species like a protected lemon, a endangered hammerhead, or even a great white. You shouldn't be afraid of sharks, though. Uh thousands of people coexist with scores of sharks every day off the uh off coast of the beach. But this peaceful coexistence can change into a chaotic frenzy with the introduction of bait and the killing of sharks prey. I urge you to support C7BS and have a petition of over,200 people supporting the sharkear prohibitions in R5 AG. Thanks for your time.

Ralph, you could add me as a co-sponsor to that. Same here, please. Okay. And me. Me as well. Everyone or Sure. Okay. So R5 AC and C7BS. Got it. Next, please.

Right. Hi, my name is Grace. I live at 411 Northwest 43rd Street. Um, my introduction to the underwater world near my home was Miami Beach at South Beach. When I first moved here, I was afraid that I was going to have to drive to the Keys or up to West Palm Beach to be able to explore the ocean. But I have actually been very excited to find that I can bring all of my friends and f family who visit here to the South Point Jetty. I feel that it is a safe and easy place for me to bring seasoned swimmers or brand new divers. The only concern I have, however, is that they are going to get entangled. I myself have been entangled and I always carry a knife, but I believe that most tourists don't, including people who bring small children and simply when you fly on a plane, it's not easy to bring a knife. The shark fishing gear that was shown earlier isn't a major concern as well because even those of us who carry knives may not have a strong enough knife to quickly cut the metal leaders that can tangle upon us. I urge the commission to help instate laws that keep people safe and protect our ocean to try and prevent bringing in more shark fishing and also to enforce spear fishing bans and ideally to continue to put pressure on the local.

Thank you so much. All right. Thank you.

Next, please. Good morning. Sangeita 2900 Northeast 7th Avenue. Um I ask why do we allow fishing where our children are youngsters are either jumping waves or just sunbathing? My daughter who is a teacher in New Jersey was visiting was jumping waves and got entangled in this fish hook. She bent down to deentangle herself. Her big toe was entangled in this hook. And then her middle finger got entangled on the other side of this fish hook. She would have drowned that day. My other daughter and my husband were in the water. They carried her out. She was transported to the hospital. They had to surgically remove the hook from her toe and her middle finger. My question is, why do we allow fishing where people are just having a good time? Isn't that what Miami is famous for? Why can't we just allocate a special place for people to go fishing

so that we are not stuck with these hooks? Thank you. I urge you to please pay attention. Thank you. Next, please.

Hi, Pile So, resident at 2900 Northeast 7th Avenue. I want to speak up in support of the ban on spear fishing at the jetty as well as support uh for eliminating shark baiting um along the shorelines of Miami Beach. I'm an avid open water swimmer. I've been swimming in Miami Beach for many years and there have been numerous instances uh very much recently as well when spear fishers have been directly fishing in the waters near open water swimmers. On Sundays, we have groups of up to 150 swimmers swimming in the morning, triathletes, uh sunbathers, families on the beach, and it is extremely irresponsible and dangerous to have spear fishing gear uh in very close proximity to the beach and swimmers. So, I urge the commission to continue supporting the safe and um familyfriendly beach activities that we've all come to love in Miami. Thanks so [clears throat] much. Next, please.

We probably need a minute, an extra 30 seconds. Good morning. My name is Dave Dobler and I live at 8000 West Drive. I'm here to support Commissioner Suarez's item C7 BC and R7T. I've been working on storm water and pollution in Miami Beach since 2010 when I first stumbled across the marine debris crisis while kayaking in Biscane Bay. What I discovered was simple and alarming. trash from our streets was flowing straight into the bay because we were failing both on upgrades and maintenance of our pollution control systems. In many ways, every plastic reduction policy I've helped craft over the past 15 years exists because our storm water systems were never upgraded to keep trash out of the bay in the first place. In 2013, when the city installed its first pump stations, we were told the Vortex hydrodnamic separators were the solution to trash and pollution. But experience has shown otherwise. They do remove some trash and sediment, but they don't capture the most polluted runoff the first flush. Uh, think about what that actually washes off our streets during the first rain. Tire particles, oil, dog waste, fertilizers, bacteria, the pollutants you can't see but that do the most damage.

So, I need you to wrap it up. Sorry. Wrap it up, please.

Yes. Um, the truth is that the real solution was not vortex or injection. It's both. Um, it is important to note that while the city has 49 pump stations, there are 367 outfalls by any reasonable measure, the majority of our out of our system is still legacy gravity based and still needs modernizations. They can barely capture trash and were never built for today's pollutant loads. If we're serious about protecting Biscane Bay, I'm sorry. Uh, we were I was I prepared for two minutes. This is what I expected in that debacle this earlier this morning. Thank you. If we're serious about protecting Biscane Bay, we must prioritize first flush capture at every outfall using a layered approach. If we continue to discharge untreated first flush storm water into Biscane Bay, that is not a lack of knowledge. That is a policy choice. Thank you.

Next, please. Thank you, Dave. And just for the record, the gentleman in the white shirt behind Mr. uh Muhammad is the last person speaking.

Go ahead, please. Good morning, mayor and commissioners. My name is Matthew Gautanoff and I live at 125 Jefferson Avenue. I want to speak this morning on C2C, which is the trolley contract. Many people have reached out to me concerned about proposed service reductions, and I urge that this be considered today. Thank you. And also, I want to talk about uh the slow streets. I want to congratulate you all. They are under construction. I want to thank for the funding that this commission has allocated or the previous commission has allocated. This is the kind of thing that moves a city forward. It's forward thinking. It's visionary and many people even though it's not completely finished have reached out and are using it and have said how wonderful it is. So I also want to invite any of you on the deis to uh walk, bike, roll or drive along there. I'd be happy to give you a tour and to talk about the future of the project. So thank you very much. Next, please.

Good [snorts] morning, everyone. One to Jamon, 8305 Cresby Boulevard. Um, congratulations to all that were reelected and elected. I'm here to speak regarding the Byron Carile project. I'm all for it. Although I'm against the housing kind of component of it. I'm asking the commission to please consider this. Um we have an infrastructure problem throughout Miami Beach. North Beach is getting uh I mean the building is just out of hand. Secondly, um I'm going to speak about the trolley. Um I think there was a consent something a consent to minimize the hours and the frequency of the trolley. I don't think this is very smart. Um I'm for the uh the furry but you cannot take from Paul steal from Paul to go to to give it to uh Peter. So please consider the trolley uh extensions and uh the ferry. I'm for it and um Commissioner Bat, I know this is your item, so and I know you're dear to this, but uh I'm all for it, but please consider the housing.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Next, please.

Good morning all and happy holidays. I may need an extra 10 seconds if you wouldn't mind. Um my name is Frank Cerak and I'm a 29-year-old member of the city's Next Generation Council. Our mandate is to raise and support issues that affect Miami Beach residents under the age of 40. After rebuilding, we are proud to be an active organization with nine engaged members. Our volunteer group has been meeting consistently for the past 12 months with the goal of improving the commission's responsiveness to our younger demographic. So with that in mind, the Next Generation Council strongly endorses the commission's initiative to institute a permanent water taxi service. As an initial route, we recommend connecting Maurice Gibb Park with the Omni Terminal in downtown Miami. Furthermore, we endorse a water taxi service that is complimentary for Miami Beach residents. We applaud the leadership of commissioners Dominguez and new commissioner Mateo Selenas as well as as Mayor Miner in championing this issue and we are ready to collaborate with the commissioner on future initiatives that benefit our young population.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for meeting with me recently on this. It's great to see uh young leaders uh coming to the forefront in our city.

That's right. Hello Matt Rosenberg pass safe flamingo park south beach track club people love flamingo park it's just quick and easy and sincere welcoming and congratulating all the commissioners who are just elected reelected for Alex Fernandez Laura Dominguez congratulations Monica Mateo Selenus for your first election and of course Mayor Miner for bringing it back for another time we just want to say on behalf of the hundreds of people have already contacted you and the thousands and thousands that use Flamingo Park we love it we look forward to a great future together and wish you all great success for your next term. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next, please.

Good morning, everyone. Lori Bacham on behalf of Power Access and the South Beach Jazz Festival. First, our heartfelt congratulations to Commissioners Fernandez, Dominguez, Matteo, Selenus, and Mayor Miner on their elections and to each and every one of you on the DAS for serving our community. Miami Beach has excellent representation and we all know it and appreciate it. I'm here on Commissioner Abbots's item C7BJ. This is waving special event fees for the upcoming South Beach Jazz Festival. It is a nonprofit event. These are for our free spaces and we greatly appreciate it. It's a tiny amount, but for a tiny organization that does big things, it means a lot to us. We also want to invite everyone to the upcoming 10th annual South Beach Jazz Festival January 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th throughout Miami Beach. So bejazzfestestival.com. Most of it is free. And yes to the Byron Carile. We do need that programming space in North Beach. Thank you.

Thank you. Next. We'll be there for the South Beach Jazz Festival. Haven't missed one. It's great. Great festival. And Mr. Mayor, I'd like to join as a co-sponsor with Commissioner Bod. We love supporting uh the jazz festival and the great work that they do for members of our community with with disabilities. So please list me as a co-sponsor. I think it's C7BJ. Go ahead please.

Good morning everyone. Christina McVet spell is thank you all and congratulations um to those of you who are here. Um so I came in today focusing on C4P, C4I and R9K. um really targeted for condominium neighborhood financial impact items. So, you know, residents now in condos are really overwhelmed just when basic questions arise where they can turn to for help that's not going to be at a a state level. Um it's not a single condo issue. The condo I live in, Bell Isle, uh is about to uh embark on a $70 million uh project cost, by the way, was $30 million uh less than half a year ago. So, when we talk about condo collapses in Miami Beach and how Miami Beach is reflected and who comes here and why they love it, um it it needs to be still a place where people can stay in their homes. The 70 million didn't get to 70 million based on inflation alone. there's a level of oversight that's uh needed and a level of oversight and the ask that I have for the uh commission is to consider appointing a condo task force or maybe an advisory committee of sorts for condominiums at some point in time.

Um thank you so much. Next.

Good morning. I may need a little more than a minute if possible. Good morning. My name is Anna Marie Fer Melo. I'm a resident here in Miami Beach, 4779, and I'm the president of the Mid Beach Neighborhood Association, which includes condominiums and hotels from 24th to 63rd Street along Indian Creek Drive and Collins Avenue. MBNA strongly supports item R5Q, the reconsideration of the second reading of the ordinance regulating neighborhood associations and condominium boards. It is essential to reverse provisions that discourage residents, neighborhood associations, and condominium boards from meaningfully participating in these public in the public process. MVNA thanks the commission for pulling C7CF and modifying the extension from 17 days in Mid Beach Park in 46th Street to 7 days, which will reduce traffic and disruptions in Mid Beach related to the boat show. MBNA strongly supports item R7T and commends the city for directing surplus funds toward long-term preventative investments. These include addressing first flush storm water runoff as a citywide environmental and public health necessity and establishing a targeted mechanism to reduce costs and streamline permitting, particularly for condominiums now facing heightened safety obligations under the new legislation. Preliminary findings from the NIST investigation into the Champlain Towers South collapse indicate that the failure likely initiated from a pool deck and

Thank you so much and not um and through the Sears process and structural deficiencies are being identified and special specimens opposed and timelines are compressed. This demand that we're being placed if we don't have a quicker process and permitting or process that is more efficient. What we're seeing is that residents are having to pay additional assessments and additional fees. And what we're requesting from the city, although we really appreciate the city administration saying there's a 10-day turnaround, that's not what we're hearing from our MBNA condominium and property owners. And there we needed something to focus. If we don't support this item, please provide an alternative for condominiums with the increased legislation. We need um Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next, please. Muhammad [clears throat] welcome,

welcome. Good morning our mayor and commissioners and all distinguished person here. Uh my name is Muhammad Islam. Uh living in North Beach uh uh about 30 years. I work with the city board member. Uh today I came for the agenda uh R5A which is the tobacco issue. I have a lot of friends they are our community and they maintain a business uh small business uh but the small business concept is selling tobacco and alcohol. This is the main uh item of the selling. So but here uh city of Miami Beach somehow they restricted to sell tobacco. So that that's the one part of the business is totally off. So they cannot survive because Miami Beach is a expensive area. people pay a lot of uh you know rent uh what is called uh employee cost and other things. So I I have a humble request to our commission to approve this to sell tobacco to small business to survive here.

Thank you. That's all. Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning. Antonio Maldonado 111 Venetian. I'm speaking on behalf of ordinance 2023 4550 section 8272 honorable mayor and commissioner this ordinance allows it the problem is noise disorderly conduct unwilling behaviors not the voting itself yet the solution being proposed is not targeted enforcing its blanket shut it its only blanketings shutdown of our industry by 7 p.m. Other establishments in the city's restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and venues also have documented noise violations on record. They're fined, cited, and monitored, but they're not being forced to close by the time restricted, only the charter industry. This is an unequal enforcement. The ordinary provides escalating fines, business taxes, pensions, a revocation of authorities. These tools exist. They should be used against violators, not against every complaint operator. In July, the sun sets around 9 p.m.

Thank you, sir. Can I get 15 more? Go ahead, sir. Thank you. At uh in July, the sun sets at 9:00 p.m. Our guests, they come from the hotel. that want to see Miami's beautiful city will no longer be able to do charters after 7:00 p.m. The city issues permits restricting lands uh uh restricting landings creating congestions and now proposed restrictions on every and on and on very operationals that follow the rules. Let's be clear guys that noise is the problem. Enforcing noise equal u equally but not shutting down the waterway is what I'm asking. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, please. [snorts] Good morning, Mr. Mayor, commissioners. Uh, thank you for your service. I'm here today to urge you to set aside the consideration of the new fire station building at the Flamingo Park, west end of the track. I've been a lifelong resident of Miami Beach. Many people use it. Uh, I'm not here to debate whether we need to give. There is no debate about giving our firefighters, our paramedics, our law enforcement the best facilities possible, but the western end of Flamingo Park Track is not the place to locate a new fire station. You're going to take a quality worldclass facility and destroy it by doing so. we have a viable alternative on Sixth Street or maintain it where it is and rebuild the fire station and uh this process could have been long it long long over. I mean we could have built the fire station in the time that it was approved back in 2021.

Thank you, sir. Please table this issue. Your name, please. Thank you. Haskell Meyer. I I agree with you about Flamingo Park, but and we're going to hear the item right after uh the sub forum.

Next, please. Good morning. Ray Brlin here. One of the very first things I did when I was appointed to the historic preservation board was to vote to approve the fire station to be at the South Beach Rec Center on 6th. It was the best plan and many people uh liked [clears throat] it at the time. Then all of a sudden we went backwards. Let's talk about the 21st Street Rec Center. We used to have one at 21st Street. If we decided to save that, we would no longer have a ballroom with the convention center. All those services were relocated to acceptable locations. And that's exactly what would have happened at Sixth Street. And that's where the fire station should go. You've spent millions and millions of dollars on a new fire station and you've gotten no place. Step up to the plate.

Thank you, [applause] [snorts] Ray. I think you just won some fans.

Good morning, everybody. Uh, I'll be quick. Uh Kevin Krueger, nine-year resident and uh recently returned baseball player. So I'm playing uh baseball since July the first time at age 51 now. And with the gentleman that was here earlier, I've been meaning to talk to you guys and share my passion for the sport and flamingo field in particular. I emailed John Reebar last month to compliment his team of three who are out there dedicated every day keeping that incredibly professional. It's natural grass. in the summer. I had presented to you guys briefly. I don't love the astroturf that we have at um the football field. I think it's carcinogenic. It creates injuries and if we want to be the worldass sports facility, I would recommend going back to grass. I know the softball field is converting to ash turf. Um and then lastly, as he said, dedicating the field in the name of a a a famous coach. Likewise, Miami Marlins uh Sai Young award winner Sandy Alcantara had won the 2022 Sai Young and he's his name is not specifically referenced on the beach at Sixth Street. Um it should be listed with his name, the Sai Young Award, the Marlins. It's a great connectivity for sports tourism.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning. Can everyone hear me? Hi, Abby Ginsky Snider. I'm a second generation native from Miami Beach. We are four generations strong here. Um I am here today for the second reading for changes in disclosures for uh private parking lots and signage. Um I am now up to 177,000 views for my tower heard around the world. Um, so I'm hoping today that we are going to become a more welcoming city and that we are going to have proper clear uh signage requirements in private lots so that any person who is in a private lot knows exactly where they're parking and that when they come back and they were towed for $400, they know exactly why. And this really also protects um our handicapped community because they are the community who's been impacted by this the most. They think that they can park in private parking lots and not pay. So, thank you guys so much for your time and support on this matter. I think it's very very important for our community and all the tourists and everyone that come visit us to show that we are welcoming and that we are clear and that we are disclosing. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you for your advocacy. You were here at our last commission meeting uh speaking as well and I see the views keep going uh keep going up. So, yeah, we've got over 800 comments and I mean it's so this would mean a lot. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I I want to thank Abby because we my my office and her together with staff we met several times to craft this ordinance to make amendments to the ordinance. You have given so much time to meet with us to get it right and to ensure that we really protect the consumers. That's ultimately what we're doing. We're protecting the consumer, our residents and our visitors. So, thank you for working so closely with our office on this. It really has been such a pleasure to to advance this through teamwork. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you everyone. Um we went obviously a little bit over but uh extremely helpful to hear everyone's feedback and comments. Certainly we're also available uh to meet in person, text, emails. Uh this is a a very responsive commission so please do have your voices heard. Uh let's vote on the consent agenda

actually. So, first I'm going to announce the separated items from the consent agenda. Commissioner Dominguez is separating C4J and C2C. So, C4J, C2C. Commissioner Fernandez is separating C2C. Commissioner Matteo Selenas is separating C7 A and C2C. So, Matteo Selenas C2 C7 A C2C. Commissioner Suarez is separate separating C7 AR, C7BX, and on your list, you don't have these two. So if you want to add them to your list, C7 AS, C7 AY. So Commissioner Suarez is separating C7 A R, C7BX, C7 AS, C7 AY. And for the record, Commissioner Suarez wishes to vote no on C7G when the consent agenda is called. So we will make that notation into the record. Uh, and also we when when I get a motion for the consent agenda, this does not include any of the addendums. These will be heard after 5:00 pm. So, may I have a motion for on the consent agenda, please?

I'll move the the consent agenda. Mark me as a no. Also in C7. Motion by Commissioner Fernandez, a second there by Commissioner Suarez. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Hearing? No. The item is approved as stated with C7G as a no would be Commissioner Suarez. Thank you, sir. Okay. Our first item of the day, we will start with our esteemed fire department and the fire items R7 AE and R9 AI.

Yes sir. We will do this item under R seven AE. R7 AE is build fire station 1 at 8336th Street Southshore Community Center. Uh, and we are doing the companion item R9 AI, discuss, take action, selection of location of fire station number one, R7 AE. I'm a big believer that we can never thank and recognize our first responders, our fire department, our police department enough. So, thank you for all that you do. And uh I echo the sentiments that it's unfortunate that we've been pantering about this item, but I'm confident that this commission will find a landing uh on this item. Something that our residents need and deserve to allow fire department to quickly respond to emergencies, but uh also for our fire department who deserve first class facilities for the work that you do. It's not.

So, it's R7 AE R9 AI. Um, the we're going to go in order. R seven AE Commissioner uh Suarez. I moved by. Well, while you do that, I'll recognize our fire chief, DNA. Thank you so much. And CIP director, David Gomez. Thank you. Do we have a motion on the table? Mr. Mayor,

Mr. Here I would like to suggest is we with together with nine R9 AI. We had previously requested an RFLI and the purpose of the RFLI was to see what interest there could be out there in the community uh for for private properties to accommodate a new fire station uh for for the city. You know, we've had very political conversations about Flamingo Park. We've had very political conversations about um about the Southshore Community Center. We've had very political conversations about lots in in other areas. I don't have a recommendation, a professional recommendation from the city administration. I know that we have a list of sites that are not viable. We have a list of sites that are viable. I don't have one recommendation that is the professional recommendation and I would like for us to have one final professional recommendation come back to us whether it's the Southshore Community Center, whether it's Flamingo Park or whether it is uh the the the alternate private site that's been identified now that is not Parkland and that is not a uh a historic building. I we need a professional recommendation of of what is best for the city before I can say that we can take an action and I respect my colleagues for bringing forward their own items on this. This is the point where we just need to put politics aside and and take a professional recommendation and advance the most professional recommendation of what is best for the life safety of our residents. Yeah, Eric,

do you have a professional recommendation today?

Thank you, mayor. Um, so if I could just briefly related to R9 AI, um, we were directed on July 23rd of this year to go back and there were actually five requirements. [snorts] prepare a request for letters of interest to determine if private property owners are interested in partnering with the city and including a fire station as part of their development process. Two, exclude Flamingo Park and the Southshore Community Center from further consideration as potential sites for the fire station. Three, allow 60 days for receiving ideas [clears throat] from the community, elected officials, and the administration. Four, following that, city staff will have an an additional 60 days to explore and evaluate the feasibility of those ideas. Five, all viable options excluding Flamingo Park and Southshore Community Center will be brought back to the city commission for review and a vote. Um, we've reviewed 24 sites in the last 10 years looking for a location for the fire station. Um, we did the RFLI. I'll be honest with you, I wish we had done it earlier. Unfortunately, we got the um RFLI results in early December. We got one interested party. Um that interested party has not given us a full um suggestion of what their offer would be. Um, it is in what we refer to as the Joe's parking lot or I'll call it the 800 block of Commerce Street. Um, that site is large enough to house a fire station. However, there are operational concerns. There is no fatal flaw that I'm aware of today for that site.

However, we have not pulled that string to its final ending point. Um the only other two sites that we have identified that are viable options for the fire station of the 24 sites that we've assessed are the Flamingo Park site and the Southshore Community Center, which are the two sites that we were directed not to consider. So what we've presented you today is a a list of the most recent group of uh I believe it's 10 sites that we've looked at. Um and unfortunately none of those 10 sites we can sit here today and recommend.

But what is your professional opinion of the two sites? Of the two sites you recommend both [laughter] both sites are viable. Both sites have pros and cons related to them and we don't have a recommendation here today between the two sites. Madame Vice Mayor, if I if I could be recognized. Yes, you're recognized. Commissioner Fernandez.

Thank you. Um, and so that's what I need. I need a professional recommendation. And we're not saying that we're going to put it at Flamingo Park. We're not saying that we're going to put it at the Southshore Community Center. And I'm not saying that we're going to put it uh at at South of Fifth. Uh but what I am saying is that before we go forward and do something touch something so sacrosan such as park space or we go forward and we demolish uh what is an important you know I would say it is architect architecturally significant even though the historic preservation board said otherwise. I want to make sure that before we touch that, since we have this other option available to us now, that you have the time to tell us, hey, listen, this is feasible or this is not feasible. This improves response time or this doesn't improve response time. Uh we don't know if we end up saving the taxpayers money by going ahead and and using uh public private partnership opportunity. We don't know if they're interested in a public private partnership opportunity. We don't know if they're interested in leasing land to the city, selling land to the city. We don't know what could come out of this that could potentially uh save us uh money. Uh so I would like for for us to make a motion at least to know what we would be rejecting to know at least what would we be rejecting before we move forward to say demolish an architecturally significant building. I

have a question. in uh Six Street Community Center. There are act activations there. If that were the site, uh is there a viable location in the area that we can continue those activations and the services that we offer today? I don't know that we have a very clear alternative. We had always been focusing on the daycare and we had come up with an alternative location for a temporary daycare to make sure that we didn't lose that. Um I don't believe that we have an alternative location identified for some of the other programming.

What about the well the the current use of the fire station where that's going to be could that be a viable option? It could be could be

and and I kind of think I I have the same concern that you have Mr. mayor like not knowing where these programs are going to end up, you know, be great for at the next meeting if you can bring your own professional item, your item brought by the administration with okay, which is the locations and if if it ends up being the Southshore Community Center, well, where then do we house and relocate the services? I think we have 200 people uh that are getting 200 elderly that uh that that usually suffer from food insecurity that are getting services there. And we also have the child care services uh for people in in limited incomes that serve our workforce uh that's housed there. And I don't know today where those services would go if we move forward with this item. Mr. Mayor,

Commissioner Magazine and then uh Adonis Garcia, the union uh chief for the fire department wants to speak as well.

And 100% respect that viewpoint. Commissioner Fernandez, city manager, if I can ask you, it's been the longstanding recommendation over years that Sixth Street was the recommended site. Correct. Until we put another viable alternative, uh, Flamingo Park, which wasn't previously considered before the countywide referendum. So, but that had been the long-standing recommendation. Correct. Uh Southshore Community Center was the location that we were focused on, I believe, from 2019 through 2023 and Flamingo Park was a viable alternative. We tked you and your team to go out one last time, right, because you've done so over years, and find other viable sites. And I heard a lot of the conversation putting it in layman's terms, just make it simple. Is there any other alternative? Yes, there's this thread dangling out there at the Joe's parking lot, which one doesn't seem viable, but also we have received in the course of 5 days since the agenda is published a 100 times more push back on that than anything we've received on the previously recommended site. So, putting in layman's terms, are there any other viable alternatives besides Sixth Street Community Center and Flamingo Park?

Like I said, there there is no fatal flaw that we've identified on that one, but we also haven't pulled that thread to the end to see whether or not it would make sense. I don't know what the offer is on the table. I don't know whether they're looking to sell us the property outright or whether they're looking to do a development deal with us to include I think there was recently in the city of Miami a fire station built in the in the first floor of a of a a residential building. But point being, even if it is viable, we've received more push back against that site in the course of five days than the cumulative push back against the original location in the past 10 years. So to me, it becomes it's a simple decision tree, right? Do we need a new fire station? Yes or no?

And the answer is yes, right? So let's move on to the next one. Do we need it now or can we continue kicking the can down the road and coming up with various alternatives and proposals and designs at the cost of millions of dollars of taxpayer money and jeopardizing a statewide grant that we have for how much? [snorts] Believe it's 10.9 million.

$10 million. Should we continue? Do we need it right now? [snorts] Yes. We can't continue kicking the can down the road. So then you go down to the decision tree and say what are the viable alternatives and over 10 years of analysis we essentially have two right and with respect despite whatever your professional recommendation of both of those are viable alternatives I will never ever ever ever vote to put it in Flamingo Park. Right? I go out there and that is the lifeblood of our community. There are hundreds of people that use that every single day. Right? And we can't ha we can't find an alternative for that open green space. We can find an alternative for the programming Southshore Community Center. I think the current fire station is a tremendous alternative. We've also had uh public private partnership uh opportunities there. That [snorts] doesn't need to happen right now. Right? We can give a little bit of leeway and flexibility for you to make that decision. But right now, if I run down that decision tree and I come down with, do we need to move forward for a fire station, [snorts] then there are two options. It's a binary choice, Southshore Community Center or Flamingo Park. And like I said, despite whatever your professional recommendations may be, whether it be today, next month, or next year, I will never ever ever vote to put it in Flamingo Park. So that leaves me with one alternative, and that's what I'm going to go forward with. I I concur about Flamingo Park. I I was always not a fan of it, which uh [snorts] I've stated in the past. The first street option also to me is not an option because we don't even have the property. So, we're starting such a long road and I'm determined that we got to make this decision hopefully today. I mean, if at the I mean, literally a minute. [applause]

Um but but it but certainly in short, that's not to take away from what you said, Commissioner Fernandez. Um, but we owe it to them and we don't to talk about a property on First Street besides obviously the the the feedback that we got. It's just it's not even viable. I mean, we could we could end up in a year of negotiations over the property. So, that's that to me is a non-starter. Commissioner [snorts] Suarez and then I know Adonis Garcia like to speak. So, Commissioner Fernandez brings up a good point. So, in essence, you recommend both locations, correct? I I believe that both locations are viable.

Correct. So it's upon it's a policy decision at this point whether we need to decide either at Flamingo or the Sixth Street. Correct. If we do not want to delay any further, it it is certainly within the confines of the decision-making authority of this body to give us direction on where to land the fire station. We're the politicians that you speak speak frankly. Yeah. Just speak directly to us. Hey, so thank elected officials. Of course, we invite Adonis to speak, but you know, I've made a motion. I I I don't want to waste any more time. I I think, you know, I think we've all made up our minds and let us let us move forward finally and let's just make a decision. Let's just not kick the road.

Commissioner Fernandez, Mr. Mayor, the one thing what the the one thing that I think is also very important is to recognize the importance that transparency is to the public trust. Transparency is so important to the public trust. We told our residents just a few months ago that we would exclude Flamingo Park and the Southshore Community Center from further consideration as potential sites for the fire station. Mr. Clerk, we have a resolution directing pass directing or or or giving authorization to build the fire station at the Southshore Community Center. When was this resolution put as an action item? Uh when when was R7E put onto the agenda as an item for action today?

This was R7. It printed with this agenda. So it's a new item, not on October. Okay. But is is this is this an add-on item or is this or

it was it was moved from it was supplemental. It was originally as a discussion item and it was then moved. So, but that's my point. It's it's a it's a supplemental item. [snorts] I don't know that the community really knows that we're going to be taking the drastic move today to go back on what we said about either Flamingo Park or Southshore Community Center. I don't know that the community knows this. I don't I don't know that they know that, you know, for four years and at least two years, the last two years, this building has been off the table. I don't know that anyone really knows that today we're about to vote to go back on all of this. And I'm not saying that it shouldn't go there. I'm saying the community should know. The community should know. They should be aware of of of the decision that that that we're making. This is a historic building. Uh I know that the historic preservation board does not agree uh that it's a historic building. Um but it is a community building and the community should be aware that we're about to take this this action, that we're about to reverse policy, that we're about to move forward with this. And I just do not know that the community really knew that this decision, major policy decision was going to be taken today. And the one thing that I do know is that if they do not know that we're taking this action today, we're going to end up full circle again. [snorts] People are going to come out. They're going to say, "We didn't know that this was happening. We have kids that go there. We have senior citizens that go there. They're going to come, their families are going to come again back to to to us. and it's going to be full circle because we have not given I believe sufficient notice to our residents that we're doing this today.

No, thank you, Commissioner Fernandez. I appreciate I appreciate that. Um and I'm contemplating what you're saying. At the same time, this was this was the location for four years. And um and I'm I'm going to ask uh our city manager to make a commitment that we can we'll make all efforts to find locations for our youth activities, our senior meals. Um I I did want to hear Adonis Garcia uh wanted to speak as well.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um to say at this point that this has not had um public input is a joke at best. We've been going around this circle for years years. I personally have been waiting 15 years for a station. The only political pawns here are the firefighters who have to sleep in those conditions every night while everyone here sleeps in their homes very nicely. The sad part is that we're here again. Again, I ask when we talk about bravery and politics, I ask for a little political bravery today and know in your hearts what is right. And what is right is giving us a station at Sixth Street and making that decision today and not punting the ball again. We should be ashamed of ourselves that we're at this point. And for those of you who do agree with us, I thank you. And I thank you and I thank you. I thank you for those poor people that have to sleep in those conditions every day that we wouldn't even have prisoners sleeping in. Prisoners we wouldn't have sleeping in. It was backed up days ago. Okay. Sewage backed up 4 in in that station. This will not be tolerated. I have stayed quiet. I have stayed peaceful till today. Today I'm insulted. All these firefighters insulted. We do nothing but risk our lives every day. And all we ask is for conditions to sleep in. I ask you to do the right thing today. I'm going to give you a little perspective. That station was built in 1967. I want you to think back to Miami Beach in 1967. What was here? There wasn't a Portoino tower. There was a racetrack. There were no highrises. There's 50story towers. We need a new station to fit our equipment to service these people. When I hear about First Street, think common sense. Our zone is from First Street to 15th Street. Sixth Street is right in the middle for the best response times that we can offer all these residents. And that's why

people pay their taxes, guys, for safety first. Please don't forget that. Thank you very much, [applause]

Commissioner Fernandez.

Yes. And of course, much respect always to our fire union and to our firefighters. I don't think anyone is questioning whether this conversation has not been very known and all that. What I'm saying is that people did not know that this vote was going to be taken today. That is what I am saying. People did not know that this vote was going to be taken today. People knew that Commerce Street was on the table and they came out and they and they gave us their opinion about it. I spoke with people from Flamingo Park. Um I spoke with people from Flamingo Park yesterday. There are people that do not know that we're taking this vote to today. That's the only thing I I have to say about it. Yeah.

Why Why do you say people are not aware of it? I don't believe that people know that we are reversing the policy decision that we took and that we are moving forward today in approving the demolition of the Southshore Community Center. That this vote is going to be taken today on the agenda. That's right. But but I'm asking you why do you think it they're not aware of it? Have we heard from anyone? We we don't even we haven't even No, I it's on the agenda. I mean there's just I'm not I'm not questioning you. I don't I don't think it's not a cross- examination. I'm just

I don't think I I don't know. To me, it seems like the neighborhood did not know that this was going to be an action item, that this was going to be a resolution on today's agenda. I think people knew we were going to have a discussion. Um I think this item when the agenda got printed it got printed as a R9 item as a discussion item. Is that correct Mr. Clerk? Yes sir.

Okay. So so so this item originally was a discussion item and then it was moved from the discussion items to the regular agenda as a resolution afterwards. I don't think I don't think the public necessarily knew that that that today we were going to be taking this vote on a resolution to undo the policy that we did back in back in July. Mr. Mayor,

and I'm going to call Christian I'm very sensitive to what you're saying, Commissioner Fernandez. At the same time, when we when we took the fire station off the table several months ago, we specifically stated that we we wanted to bring this back to the commission. We'll have a new body, a new electeds, and that we were going to finally make a decision on what to do and that we have, honestly, it's been a lot of political uh passing the buck. So I I mean yes maybe I I I could see your point, but I mean I I think we really telegraphed that once this new commission came into power power I hate using that word sorry came was elected then uh you know we were going to act but uh Commissioner Suarez

I could speak to Commissioner Fernandez's some points you know I met with Scott Needleman the the chair of the Flamingo Park neighbor I told him um a couple days ago that this is going to be on and he's not here he's not he's He's not discussing it. He's not calling it at Sutnik. Um, and the reason I turned it from a dis a discussion, well, the discussion was actually to decide if it's going to be at the current location or Sixth Street. And after speaking with the professionals, um, they both informed me that it's better at Sixth Street. Um, so I just narrowed my my my item to one location. So,

so I So, madame vice mayor, if I can, you recognize. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. Mr. Manager, we have a recommendation because now I'm hearing two things and I'm going to be very clear. I expect I expect items like this moving forward to be coming from the administration. This is something that affects our fire department. This should not be a political item. This should be an administrative item. an administrative item as to which is the best site for the fire station. If this is if this is the site that you guys felt professionally that was the best site, why does one commissioner get that recommendation? Because

I was referring to Adonis. Well, because I'll I'll tell you the the professional recommendation I got was actually Flamingo Park. So, to me it is which is not which which again I don't think is is right either. from who? So, huh, you said it was a recommendation from our city administration. So, to me, it's it's very concerning that on such a serious item,

we're getting one recommend one colleague is getting one recommendation and another colleague is getting a different recommendation. This is why this cannot be a political item. This is why we hire a city manager to bring forward the professional recommendation, not political recommendations as to which are the sites that cover the areas best, which are the sites that offer the appropriate response time and the proper facilities for our for our firefighters. So, I have an issue that you get one recommendation and then I get a different recommendation because then it creates this problem that we have here today. And I'm sorry, Mr. Mr. Manager. It should be a unanimous recommendation. It should not be one colleague hears one thing and then another colleague hears another thing. We cannot operate that way. [snorts] I don't believe that either of you heard a recommendation from my administration. You heard from one colleague that you heard something from the union representation. Um and Mr. Commissioner, I believe that you're referring to a conversation that you and I had that said that the lean right now might be in that direction. It was not a firm recommendation and and it's not a firm so there's not a firm recommendation and that's my point. There should be a firm recommendation, a final recommendation. The public should know what that recommendation what that professional recommendation is and then we should take a vote on that. voted up, voted down, but we should take a vote on what the professional recommendation is on something like this. That's that's all that I have to say.

Adonis Garcia,

just very briefly, Mr. Mayor. Um, professional opinions are a matter of opinion, right? So, I've only got 33 years in the fire department. Only 33 years and hold the rank of captain. Let me start with that. And common sense is common sense at the end of the day. Sixth Street is smack in the middle in the middle of our zone. That's number two. Number three, when we talk about recommendations, before this illustrious city manager here uh came into office, our former city manager, it was all recommended. It was all voted on. We keep going up and down. I ask for political courage today. Let's quit bouncing this ball. Let's do it today. We're going to be another two years here, Commissioner Fernandez, playing the same game. I don't understand how it's turned into this. Sixth Street is the location. Please vote it up. Thank you. If if I could respond to that. [applause] Matter of fact,

you're recognized. Commission Fernandez to Adonis. I'm I'm just responding. I want I want to get on the microphone. Go ahead.

Yes. Two years ago, one of my colleagues looked at me and said, "Commissioner Fernandez, how are we going to move forward in demolishing this historic site when we're going to Tallahassee and asking Tallahassee not to not to demolish historic sites?" And that's how we got here today. I didn't want to take the fire station off the table. One of my colleagues sitting on this deis looked at me and said, "How are we going to move forward to with demolishing a historic site?" Commissioner Brandis, if I may, if I may, you also you also again, I don't want to get into politics, right? But if we're if we're going to speak frankly, me and you had a conversation about the park and then you pulled out on that. So, let's have some political bravery today and let's make a vote. If you want to vote against me, vote against me or vote against the firefighters. But please don't tell any more about how we love the firefighters and then you're going to have us living in those conditions.

Again, Mr. Mayor, if I could, Mr. Mayor, again, if I [applause] could, and Adonis, with respect, we can't make any of this personal. Commissioner, I I know I I got you, Commissioner Fernandez. I'm very sensitive to your point about transparency and our people aware. And what I'll say to that is over the past 10 years, and it predates all of us up here, it was almost this boogeyman argument that was put out because there was never this huge outpouring of opposition against Sixth Street. I'm not saying there was none, but it wasn't this mass outpouring, like I said, that we saw within the course of four or five days on First Street, right? It was always these boogeyman arguments. Well, well, maybe people are working. Over the course of 10 years, we've probably had 20 people that that have been in opposition. So, it doesn't surprise me that there's not a lot of people out here because that's actually been the track record for the past 20 years that besides for some people, and I don't begrudge them because like I said, this is a binary choice. Put it in point A or point B. Uh, I think why we don't see a lot of people out here in opposition to that isn't because they don't know. It's because that really tracks with what we've seen over the past 10 years. Uh, we all went to the Southshore Community Center and there were a handful of children that were in there in the classrooms. Many of them weren't Miami Beach residents. And you have my commitment. Everybody has my commitment. I'm the father of an 8-year-old. It's on the PTA. education's not it's paramount importance to me. Um and I was a single father that needed to rely on those social services uh for my child care. We need to task our administration with not kicking the can down the road for finding viable programming alternatives for what will

be lost at the Southshore Community Center. But bringing this full circle, I don't think we don't see a lot of opposition because people didn't know. It really tracks with what we've seen over the past 10 years where there just hasn't been that same amount of opposition that we see when we proposed Flamingo Park or when we pro proposed First Street, which kind of tells me we're over the target there.

Chief of Chief Abello, what's your professional recommendation? Good morning, Chief Abalo, mayor and commissioners. Um, we spent 10 years debating whether or not we're going to save a lapidous building on Sixth Street or the historical track in Flamingo Park. And while we continue debating everything, 1965, I'm asking the men and women that service zone one, 15th Street to First Street, to prioritize and look past the history and forward for serving our residents. Again, we're getting into the weeds of Sixth Street and Flamingo Park historical response times. We're talking 1 11,553 calls to date today from First Street to 15th Street. That's 34 calls in a day. one call per hour. At this point, our recommendation, we went six street since 2018. 2018 historical board preservation, everything. We are shovel in ready. Commissioner B came in. She was directed to take uh the lead in finding a different location. Six Street was out of the question. We affirmed the park was the appropriate choice because that's all we had. We started that design and now we're back here again. So recommendation Takeaway Park, Sixth Street. That that is what's the viable option. Outside of that, as far as responses,

that is the prime location when it comes to accessing our Star Island, Hibiscus, and Palm area. That is where majority of our prime calls are is between Fifth Street, 10th Street area. They will do anything we ask them to do, but their their conditions, their health is priority. and not getting to the calls. Every time we start going back and forth, we're just delaying and delaying and delaying. We're we're shovel in ready and that's one of the reasons that

Mr. Mayor that's one of the reasons I'm I'm ready to take that vote today and I'm going to second the motion. Mr.

Commissioner, well, we haven't heard Commissioner B yet. Commissioner Bot. So, I have committed to the fire department that I would not kick the can down the road today. Um, I respect and understand my colleagues concerns about proper notification. Um, and the concern that perhaps not everybody has known that today was, you know, poof or get off the pot day, but it is. I just want to say for the record that if this is where we were going to end up two years ago, um it's really a travesty that my colleagues voted unanimously at every single opportunity. If you go through our item R9 AI, at every touch point that is listed as a commission decision, the vote was 70 or 6 to support exploring alternate sites and getting um a a referendum item on the [clears throat] ballot which passed unanimously, including in every single district voting precinct in in Miami Beach, including Flamingo Park. We could have been in construction now, but my colleagues supported this. There are concerns about green space and I share those concerns. And so I came back um a few months ago to have a plan that not only replaced the green space that would be missing, but would add an incremental an incremental 28,000 square feet of green space over the next few years. There is no plan for permanent daycare. We have um Tallahassee breathing down our neck to demolish our buildings and we're doing the work for them. But I know that doesn't matter to anybody in this room except for maybe a couple. So I understand that and that's not what I'm

playing on. But what I am playing on is the fact that we have people PJ, could you run that tape? We have people claiming that that far western edge of Flamingo Park is really used. It is not. The track is a thousand%. This is footage over the last 3 weeks. The weather's been spectacular. Everybody's in town for all the things. And almost nobody's using that western edge. So, I I I told the firefighters when I was running for office that I would not get in the way of getting them a new home. And I will not. I will vote today. I think it is heartbreaking. As my grandmother would say, it's a shondaa. It's shameful that we are putting this little edge of Flamingo Park over the well-being of an underrepresented community in South Beach. They are workingass. They are barbbacks, service people, elder elderly people who are not engaged in the civic process. They are not organized in powerful homeowner associations. And yet we are taking away an extremely well-built and sturdy building. regardless of if you think it's attractive or historic or important, but it is an extremely well-built uh uh building that houses daycare and senior lunches currently is going to has already started to, but is going to have the entire top floor used for the police department. And I know firefighters, you're like, "Ah, screw them. We don't like them." I'm just kidding. That was a little joke for Levy's per purpose.

Thank you. I appreciate it, Joe. Um, but you know, that's kind of a little dark spot in Miami Beach in South Beach. it is a good idea to have more activation there with police for those residents who are concerned about homelessness and safety. [clears throat] In addition to that, that facility has so many opportunities for community engagement, for not for-profit organizations, for social services, for nighttime activations for free that the arts organizations can host, that our parks and wreck organizations can host. We had a summer camp there that had a waiting list. So the idea that we are going to demolish and put into a landfill a really solidly built building where we can continue to reactivate that neighborhood for the greater good of residents who are not able to speak here for themselves because they're not engaged because of I'm not sure what the the drama is about an underutilized little sliver of a large dark. I think it's shameful and I am not going to not vote. I support getting this done now. My only regret is that is this is where we ended up now. Why did we waste two years with unanimous approval with unanimous approval. Everybody on this day is except for one who was not elected at the time. That's on you guys. Commissioner Dominguez,

thank you. Um, this is a very tough item. Uh, the firefighters deserve uh to have their new location. They have been going back and forth for years as the chief said. Um, initially this was a geobond project and um, I had voted for it and then since then as commissioner bot has mentioned it has come up twice and we all voted unanimously to take six street off the table. Um, the new location that came out uh on Commerce Street did get a lot of backlash. Um, also interesting that the reason why we do need new fire trucks and the station is to service south of Fifth and those highrises. Um, but then they're not willing to have it in their uh neighborhood. So that um is another situation, but um we're trying to move [clears throat] forward and find places. I know a while ago I had asked um Assistant City Manager David Martinez about the Walgreens and the two adjacent parking lots. Um, was that ever looked at as a viable location? It's a huge spot. It's on Fifth in Jefferson. Um, any feedback there?

We absolutely looked at that spot and I questioned, you know, multiple times what the outcome of that was. And David, you can talk about why we believe that that site doesn't work unless you were able to acquire an additional property to the north, which then ends up being a residential parcel. We would have to acquire.

We had [snorts] actually looked at that site previously and we looked at it again as part of this exercise uh in order for us to be able to accommodate the fire station at that location. It would be a backing uh condition from Fifth Street. It's a heavily trafficked street. So the the backing in of the fire equipment at that location is difficult. We just don't have the length on the property to accommodate the ramp to get up to the right elevation. So the building would be pushed all the way to the north limit. And really the way only way to get the ramp to work is to take the property to the north which is a uh it's it's affordable housing, senior affordable housing. Do we own it? We do not. Um the county

it is the county. Yeah. So that's that's the reason we decided that that one was too big a lift.

Okay. Um also, uh one of my colleagues mentioned that the western portion of Flamingo Park isn't used. And I I'm going to say yes, it is. There's a Habad right across the street and on any given afternoon, the kids that go to the Habad are seen there playing volleyballs and other sports activities in that area. So, um I'm I'd be very sensitive and I wouldn't support putting anything in the park. I've gone out um to the track. I've met with the people that use the track. I gave them my word. Uh so, I'm very sensitive there. Going back to the Southshore Community Center. Um, and I know that that was the location with the geo bond and uh, uh, the city was already at a certain percentage design, maybe 30 or 50.

We had a GMP in place.

Okay. Um, but what changed is we did pass a resolution just a few months ago taking it off the table and started to activate it. I thought MBPD was going to have a substation on one of the floors. Um there was going to be activities for kids and um daycare and then on top of that um the senior meals that we've been negotiating and doing that in the process. Uh so what I worry about because as we're having this conversation I'm getting bombarded with emails so I'm sure my colleagues are as well of people in the community that are watching that did not know we were going to make this decision today. And for me, that's what's of most uh concern, the transparency of the community thinking that we're trying to pull a fast one.

So, um, couple of things I just wanted to address. First of all, I know you didn't mean anything uh by this because these are votes that happened a couple of years ago, but uh I won't even mention names, but a commissioner mentioned that there were 60 and 70 votes. I actually had voted no a couple times and I have the record here to show um that I always uh that I had expressed skepticism at Flamingo Park and also had not wanted to take uh Southshore Community Center off the table and of course I got I got some heat for that but uh I felt it was the right decision to do that and I did and I took those votes. Um I it really comes down to me that unfortunately this not today I don't mean anything today but in the past this has become a political tool a political hot potato. Thank you.

[laughter] Thank you for the acknowledgements and I just I I feel like one of the statements we can make today as a commission and I believe me I understand the concerns and and and partly I I see the concerns that are being expressed by my colleagues but at the same time I think it's a real statement we can make as a commission day one that's something that has been kicked down the road so long that we are going to take the bull by the horns and say no this is this is enough. Our residents need this. Our fire department needs this. Uh and that's why uh I'm I'm going to support this today. I even though this is not a public comment uh item, I think it's such an important item. I am going to open it up for for [snorts] public comment if we can.

And Mr. Mayor just add something like I mean just doing a tally here on my notes on the direction that this is going in and you know I want to say I don't blame my colleague for putting this on the agenda because we have to move things forward. I'm going to be very blunt here. I'm very disappointed in our administration because this should be a professional item, not a political item. Mr. Mayor, you hit the nail right on the head. This has been a political football. Why? Because it's always the politically elected elected officials bringing the honors and all that are the the discussion item should have had a recommendation. And as I go into my second term, I'm going to make it very clear. I expect recommendations from the administration. This shouldn't be a political item. This should be a professionally decided item. If the administration has concerns, put the concerns if the administration believes it should go one way or or the other. But I am going to be expecting recommendations from the city administration. This is this is a matter of life and death for our for our residents. And I feel and I sense that the memo that we got was ambivalent because the administration is scared of politics. I'm being very blunt right now. This needs to be a political decision and not a this needs to be a professional decision, not a political decision. And I'm going to want to see recommendations from the administration moving forward because clearly it's very clear the direction where this vote is going in.

Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Bach,

thank you. Um I am not trying to cast any aspersions. I went through with Sarah, my aid, um all of the vote points that were in this memo and checked the records with the clerk's office. And based on that information, that's where I said backed up by what we believe to be correct facts that these items that are so maybe there was a vote that wasn't articulated in this memo, but based on the records and the minutes from the clerk's office, every one of these vote points in this memo was either 6 or 70. So, I'm not trying to pick a fight. I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus. I'm just saying how frustrated I am that we have wasted two years and $2 million if this is where it's going to end up because we had very clear direction. So please understand that.

No, please. And I didn't even mention your name about and I know I know I just said it. I know you meant it in in the best and and by the way it's almost irrelevant. Well, I just I had to correct just because it was my vote, but your point is well taken. It's just even if it's 70 61, your point is well taken. Um, but I'm happy to share the the the votes, but that's kind of a sideeshow. It does it doesn't it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I just had to say it. Um, I am going to open it up. Thank you though, Commissioner Bot.

And then, by the way, thank you for taking the lead. It's, you know, we we these are tough decisions. This is something that had gotten a lot of uh we did get a lot of public feedback in general. It certainly uh was very active out there on in the media and social media. Um, and and you did take the lead as well, Commissioner Watau. I I'm I'm I respect that. And ultimately, we have to make decisions and uh and unfortunately this process has been long, but sometimes you need to get to a landing space by going through an arduous process, which we definitely have done. Okay, Mr. Mayor, commissioners, give me one second. I'll call you right now. Just for the record, we have a motion from Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Mayor Miner, and Mayor Miner will be listed as a co-sponsor.

Go ahead, sir. You have two minutes. Uh, may I? Go ahead.

Okay. Uh, Mr. Mayor, commissioners, I'm David McKenna. I live at 1020 Meridian Avenue. Um, and you know me well. Uh, you've just gone through a campaign uh, and you've won by the voters's will uh, against wellfunded and uh, very uh, vocal opposition there. I would ask you to continue to do the voters's will and look back at the referendum which overwhelmingly stated by that neighborhood by by the city by the county where the fire station should go at 11th and Alton. Also, I would like to correct the record, Mr. Carpenter, one of your staff in sworn statement before the historic preservation board said that the uh current fire station could not meet the standards to be the daycare center. So that should be there. Also, I understand because you if you recognize me, I'm the crazy old guy that lives behind you on first there, but I would not put children where you do not want to sleep. And I think you should think about that too. Oh, there if you want a place, take a recreational place. Don't take a a school away from children. You're not that type of people.

And so, oh, um, I would ask you follow the will of the people. Uh, Mr. a magazine. You once told me that you were an applause meter and I would ask you not to be that because applause only measures the most noise. I would ask you to think about what uh is important to this community. The senior programs, the daycare are very important to people who can't who unlike me do not have a day to spend here. So, please follow the will of the people. Put the may uh put the um the Thank you, sir.

the fire station at 11th in Alton. Thank you. Our first uh virtual caller is Andrew Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell, state your name, address, and you have two minutes. I thought we were in line.

Um yeah, my name is uh Clark Mitchell and uh I'm a physician here in the area of South of Fifth. And uh as a physician, I like to say if I need cardiac surgery, I I you know um refer my patient to a cardiac surgeon. And in this case, you're listening to the firefighters and they're telling you what is the best place for their fire station. And I think they're the professionals in this. And I and I and I love our new commissioners. I love our mayor more. is one of the best um civic uh uh you know um groups that I've ever you know encountered living here 30 years and I just hope and pray that you will listen to the firefighters. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Um yes. Good morning, Clio Loose. I live at third 301 Ocean Drive and I'm frequently on Sixth Street and I'm uh begging you all today to vote with empathy for the people who are going to get kicked out and become homeless. Basically, the services that are absolutely essential. There never was a really good alternative for the daycare. That was kind of a misrepresentation from the beginning. It's kind of stupid to tear down a building and dump it in landfill. Uh when you have all of these essential services that are offered there, uh you have to have some empathy for the people who are going to get uh kicked out. There are no replacements for them. And um Sixth Street is really not the right place to have racing fire trucks. There are grandmas crossing the street with walkers. It's a pedestrian place. I go to the market across from this the South Street community because it because it's much more humane and local and friendly than Publix, you know. I mean, this is a neighborhood. Fire trucks having to make a turn, make another turn, make a third turn, make a fourth turn. The firemen have changed since I've been paying attention to this. Uh, they've changed their mind several times and they were okay with the Flamingo Park. It's a rapid exit. In two seconds, you're on Alton Road going faster than if you have to make five turns to get onto Fifth Street where there's traffic. I mean, I'm not, you know, they're not going to agree with me, but it's obvious empirically you're going to be zooming faster to an emergency and saving lives if you can jump onto Alton in uh 5 seconds. So, I would urge you to vote with empathy. We talked to the mothers who bring the kids over to that uh South Street Community Center. These are women who did not vote for you and they didn't donate to your campaigns. They work on the beach. They do essential services that we need every day. These people had no idea that they were going to lose the Southshore Community Center. So, you cannot compare

with the demographic down on Commerce South of Fifth are much more affluent and connected than the people who are going to get thrown out. So, vote with empathy and save sixth street. the character of Six Street. Thank you so much. Our next virtual caller is Karen Revo. Miss Revo, state your name, address. You have two minutes.

Good morning. Karen Revo, 4566 Prairie Avenue. I have had the privilege of chairing the Geobond oversight committee since 2019, and from the very beginning, building a new fire station has been the greatest priority. Honestly, folks, you have to show backbone today and move this forward. There have been numerous recommendations on Sixth Street. It is not a contributing building, and I have every confidence that the services in that building can be relocated appropriately. The most important thing for our residents is safety. Is safety. And that should be priority today. And I hope you have the backbone to go ahead and move this forward. If we had done this three or four years ago, that building would be built and our firemen would be in a better building. And so I'm hoping you are going to do what you need to do today. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Grio. Thank you, Karen. And K, thank you for your service in chairing the geo bond committee. This is obviously only one of many, many, many projects throughout our city that our voters have approved for general obligation bond funding and and and you do a great job chairing that committee. Representative, go ahead.

Good morning, everybody. Uh Michael Grio. I stand here uh in wearing many hats. One being a member of the South Beach Track Club. One being a zone one resident myself, one being the former state representative who helped secure that 10 plus million dollars in grant money that is going to be going to this facility. also wearing a hat as uh the former commissioner who when this issue first came up I was actually sitting up there back when we had spent zero dollars on this issue.

We have now as taxpayers spent over $5 million in soft costs to not build a fire station and today is the day as I said when I called in this morning where the rubber meets the road. This is the gut check for the commission to finally move forward and follow the you you got a professional recommendation. It was asked for by many of you. You got one from your own fire chief today. And I applaud her for standing up there and telling you what you need to hear. Put it at the Sixth Street location. And I'm going to tell you this one more thing. There's one more hat that I'm wearing. I'm potentially going to be a firefighter myself. I'm currently an EMT. I have the opportunity several times a month to ride with the station one team on rescue trucks. And I can tell you right now that facility, I knew it as a commissioner, as a tourist when they would put you on the tour. That facility is a dump. It's a dump. Okay. Our firefighters risk their lives and stick their necks out every day. And to have them not just sleeping, eating, being housed, having to be in that station, it's a dump. I remember when they had the poop flies back in the day. I remember all the issues. If you go up into their sleeping facilities, it is it's it's it's like sleeping in a prison. You have a responsibility to move forward. Please stop kicking the can down the road. The voters spoke and supported people that supported the Sixth Street location and we're asking you now to move forward and vote yes on Commissioner Suirez's item. Thank you. [applause] Our next virtual caller is Johan Moore. Mr. Moore, you have two minutes.

Good morning again. Uh it's no surprise uh if we're counting numbers that you would be getting so much objection from South of Fifth. There are thousands of people living in highrises down there. Uh we on the other hand were not uh the commissioner's allegation aside uh our community was not in fact in the least informed that this was happening today. If the allegation is correct and our neighborhood association chair knew of this, that would be grounds for a motion to remove him from office. But that's not what's before you today. Uh Flamingo Park neighborhood association's land use subcommittee in fact met on Monday to consider another issue before us and we uh had no information that this was coming before you today. Uh I want to thank the chief uh chief uh for uh declining to get sucked into a commissioner's uh I will say revengebased agenda uh against our neighborhood for various reasons that I will not speculate on. I also want to thank the mayor for the one ray of light uh that he's offered uh if in fact you should vote to demolish the Southshore Community Center, which is that in fact the current fire station could house some of the functions. But as I have pointed out to you all, as I was bombarding you with emails this morning, most of those who are most vulnerable and take advantage of Southshore Community Center live in proximity to it and would not want to shle all the way up to the park with their walkers for their lunch. I will end by thanking the commissioners who agree with long-standing community opposition to destroying this essential institution. But I will appeal directly to the newly elected commissioner. Please,

Commissioner Mateo Salinas, do not hold any you might have toward me against my neighborhood and vote against this proposal. Thank you. Go ahead, sir. Go ahead, sir. Uh thank you again for giving me the opportunity to possibly convince you this time around that the uh Flamingo Park is not the place. My name is Haskell Meyer. Uh Commissioner uh you've requested the professionals

uh input. They've given it to you time and time again. The epicenter of their zone is Six Street. To your point, Commissioner Bot, that the green space is unnecessary. I think [snorts] I've discussed it with you a number of times, but let me discuss it one more time with you and let me enlighten you about a track. You cannot put a 60 foot wall, tall wall 5t away from the track. You are going to destroy the quality of that track. That track has been there for 60, 70 years. Storied runners have come to this track and it's a great public amenity. The new fire station does not belong on the western end of Flamingo Park. It belongs on Sixth Street. And the reason I say that, I had the privilege of working Mr. Lapidus. That was his least favorite building. That lot is 45,000 square ft. If you don't want to level it, there's plenty of room to put up a fire station, which currently uses about 16,000 square feet on a 21,000 square foot lot. You have a great facility to utilize for a new fire station. Please, I urge you, you're going to destroy the quality of life of Miami Beach residents. Do not place that fire station on the western end of Flamingo Park. The right location is on Sixth Street. Thank you. [applause]

Good morning again, Ray Brereslin. First off, um when I was on historic preservation board, this was one of the first things came before us. How many of you have actually looked at the plan that we approved? How many of you? Okay. You know that there were several features of the Morris Lapidus building that were being preserved or replicated. We were also bringing in uh Apollo that was in storage from from the Versailles Hotel. It it was an absolute perfect thing. It was approved and for 2 years you all worked on relocating all of these services. Everything was relocated and then all of a sudden the hammer came down said, "No, we're going to save this building." And now you're acting like there's no place for these places for these services to go. There absolutely is. And think about it. After it's all done, you've got an old dilapidated firehouse. You can either tear down or renovate and move all of those services there right next to Flamingo Park. And it's a win for everybody. But to get from point A to point B doesn't happen with a snap of a finger. You've got to plan it. You've got to follow through with it. And you really need to do it. It's been four years now. Four years. And we're no further ahead. But we're at the right location. Please build it at at the Southshore Rec Center on Sixth Street. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next virtual caller is Mr. Wayne Roberts. Go ahead, sir.

Thank you, sir. Um, first and foremost, I want to I want to state that my my 350,000 a year is accurate. Um, I welcome the opportunity to sit down with Eric and review the number of employees that work for fire and em EMS and subtract uh ocean rescue, which is lifeguards, and divide the the wages and benefits associated with those employees, and you will come to 350 under this new contract. What's more, you gave them a two-day work week. Uh, that's right, a two-day work week. Um, third, uh, you I believe that they deserve good housing and they don't have it today, but where it belongs is not in the track or sixth street. It belongs where it is without a Taj Mahal facility. You they they could have adequate uh accommodations for for for sleeping and for for weightlifting and everything else on that existing property. And the sewer has to get fixed. It's got to get fixed if you put a firehouse there or you you tear down the firehouse. Uh it, you know, why it's not fixed, I have no idea. But uh that's where it belongs. And that's not in the discussion. And you don't have to upend the whole community to to help a politically connected uh fire organization who I think does a great job, but overpaid and and has too much political influence. Thank you very much. Go ahead, please.

Hi, Sarah de los Reyes. As a resident, I want to give you guys some input. I've been coming here for years and we've been talking about this for 10 years. We're very lucky that nothing has happened really big in south of Fifth. What you have, it's been recommended the Sixth Street community center. Why don't we move everybody from the community center to the old fire station right by Flamingo build a new one multiple floors and can accommodate all those services that are on Sixth Street. It it we own the property. We can do that when you vote say that you are going to do Sixth Street and and going to move all the services to where the flamingo close to the flamingo park and build a new building. We own it. We can do it. So this way it will solve both problems. And now you need to vote. This is very important. You need a state-of-the-art fire station. The trucks that are you need to go on those highrises do not fit in small fire stations. And I and I'm not a fire I'm not a fire person, but I know because of New York City. I understand it. I lived in the city all my life. So please vote and just get it over with. Everybody's like, we keep moving it and moving it and nothing gets done. And it's going to take three years to build probably. So make a vote. Just do that and give gift give the services to the other fire station. That's all. Thank you. [applause]

Our next virtual caller has the next virtual caller has a screen name of Cynthia's iPhone. Please state your name address and you have two minutes.

Hi, it's uh Cynthia Esavl, South Fifth Resident Sa member. Um, I wanted to first congratulate all the newly elected members of the commission. I'm very grateful for your help. It's a hard job. It's a hard issue. But the most important person that I two people that were very important that I heard from were our fire team. And when they speak, I listen. They're there for us 24 hours a day. This is what they want. Others have already relayed um wise comments from Commissioner Grio to um Karen Revo to others that are valued in our community. Please listen. Please listen also to the fire team. That's what they want. Um what they want is what I want. Thank you so much.

Hi Matt Rosenberg pass again. Uh same flamingo Park Group. I tell you what, I have never spoken to Adonis. That kind of passion got me excited. We have never taken a position other than that. We love the park. You know, thousands of people use it. We have no vested interest financially. Love that park. Love that space. And by the way, Commissioner Dominguez, those same Orthodox Kabad students that are playing volleyball came up to me a few months ago. How vot they asked me that because I informed them. And by the way, Mendy, who's in charge of that, I know communicated with all of you. What? Not you. You weren't here yet. Uh about their feeling that kind of passion. We don't know what anyone was recommending, but I do know the passion that we feel at the track. I do know the the thousands of people, the children. Talk about parents and children and the love of a track and space. And yeah, you need space. No, you don't need a 60 foot building right there. These guys work hard. We don't know what it's like to sleep in the area that they sleep in. We feel for them. We love this community passionately and we trust you to do the path that you take, which we think will be best. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Our next virtual caller is Lindsay Lavvel. Miss Lavvel, you have one minute.

Good morning, mayor and commissioners. U most of you have heard from me already this morning. Um with a very brief note, um but I felt compelled to call in since we reopened public comment. Please stop kicking this can down the road. My entire residency in this city, we have been talking about this from what former representative Grio talked about to what our neighborhood association has been talking about for years. It was planned to go at Sixth Street. I understand there was opposition to that, but overwhelmingly I will say that even those people didn't want it in the park. And they didn't want in the park back then until they realized the only option was Sixth Street. And and I have to say that we need to stop kicking this can down the road. I've met with the current chief. I've met with the former chief. I've not met with Adonis, but I'm sure I'd be happy to do so. I've seen the heat maps. I'm sure they're outdated by now because the ones that I looked at were years ago. We've got to move forward. Please, please, I am begging you, do not kick this can on the road again.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Go ahead, sir. Yeah. David Adams, 1242 Alton Road. I uh support the resolution to have the fire station built on Sixth Street. Uh I joined the fire service 42 years ago. I'm an EMT and uh response time is everything. Sixth Street is the ideal location. It supports a good response time to south of Fifth. And um I don't think it's fair that our firefighters have to put their lives on the line, sleeping in conditions with mold and sewage. And we've been uh talking about building this fire station and we need to vote today and get it done. It's for the greater good of the community. Thank you. [applause] Our next virtual caller is Juliana. Juliana, please unmute yourself, state your name, and you have one minute. Hi. Um, I'm a resident of Miami Beach Flamingo Park area and an architect and I'm begging you not to build on to our precious Flamingo Park area. We need adequate green space. We certainly don't have enough per resident right now as we are increasing our density and building more highrises and there was a report done stating that we don't have sufficient green space. Uh, we need the green space to combat the heat island effect and we need the green space to also combat storm water drainage so that the streets aren't having to do all that work. We need the precious green space to absorb the water. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Novik. Mitch, go ahead, please.

Good afternoon, Mitch Novik. I would kindly request you give me an extra due process minute as I own a Henry Hohouser designed apartment building across the street from the proposed site of the uh new fire station. I've been living in this community since the late 80s involved in historic preservation. Since that time, in the early 2000s, there was a fight to save, a preservation fight to save Fire Station 4 on 69th Street. Uh the former or original fire station was designed by an architecturally significant uh or significant architect. It was an architecturally significant building. Ultimately, uh uh it was demolished. uh trailers were brought onto the site and a new facility was built at the site and in an ideal world that's what I would like to see at Jefferson Avenue in 10th Street. And moving forward, uh I would be amendable to the Sixth Street site, which I opposed since its uh first uh inception 10 years ago since uh I I was here opposing it uh when Commissioner Fernandez represent uh mentioned the uh sewer flies and the commission voted to move forward. all all I could do was jump on board and do my best to make it better. Uh, as many of you know, I spearheaded the effort to save the Jack Stewart mural. Uh, it was uh removed from the former uh annex of the Versailles Hotel. Over a million dollars was spent in conserving that masterpiece.

Thank you, Mitch. Uh, wait. which was incorporated into the fire station design at uh at the uh Southshore Community Center. If that uh uh approval is still in effect, which includes the mural, I would be in support of this uh uh for what it's worth. And I would not like to lose uh any of the uh parking space as a result. parking spaces that uh my tenants uh have today as a result of the uh the cycle lane uh bike way that was recently put in place. Thank you.

Next virtual caller is Paula. Paula, state your name, address, and you have one minute. Oh no, I need I'm at 345 Ocean Drive. Paula, we couldn't hear you. Said start again, please.

Hi, uh Paula Allen, 345 Ocean Drive. I'm calling uh there was a lady that spoke about three people before I think right before Cindy and her idea or what she said about putting the uh community center the senior community and the daycare at the existing current fire location uh directly across the street from Flamingo Park. Um, if that can be done, that would be a win-win because the Flamingo has so many activities. So, basically, I mean, of course, yeah, the plumbing, all that I'd hope would be all redone and the building and, you know, brought up to code, etc. Because the seniors and the children could take advantage of so many things at Flamingo Park going [clears throat] swimming, doing a a senior aqua aerobics. the kids could play by just simply going across that street. It would expand their experience, the seniors and the children's. So to me that was a great idea.

Go ahead, Mr. Rosel. Andresion uh mayor commissioners uh when the more established building was contemplating being demolished and wanted to be saved. I got together with Kobe Karp to try to find uh a way of being able to do a copy paste of that building and move it onto the west end of the park, putting it onto Alton Road. And taking that building exactly the way that it was and moving it over to the park and moving the field over one foot would have made it happen without creating the building that was being created right now which what was proposed at the last meeting incorporated 911 dispatch which made the building the width of Alton Road which was never part of the plan and I don't know how that became part of the plan because it's not the same thing. I just want to say that the firefighters when they were originally proposed all the options, they loved that option the best. In addition to that, it creates a campus for the firefighters because now the the firefighters could train. Mayor, can you please give me the two minutes? The the firefighters could also use the track to train. And in addition, whenever there's a football game, a soccer game, running, you have firefighters on that field 247, seven days a week to be their first responders to all the people there in the park. So, there's a lot of pros and cons. And at the end of the day, the firefighters just want this thing to get done and passed. So, [snorts] for the fire union, they're like, just give me Sixth Street. If politics-wise, this is not going to fly and we're not going to be able to get the site on Flamingo Park, which is obviously on Alton Road. It's the main commercial street. The fire trucks come in and out right off of Alton Road. They they originally wanted it there, but they at the end of the day, what they want is a fire station. And if the commissioners tell them that's not going to fly, you got to do it on Sixth Street, they're going to go and ask for

Sixth Street because at the end of the day, they just want it built and they deserve it. Thank you so much. Our next caller [applause] is Richard Rosinski. Please unmute yourself.

Yes. Good morning. Uh my name is Richard Rashinsky. I'm president of a homes association of Alton Road on Alton Road. Um we've gone round and round about this fire station. I think the uh the uh the firemen need a new station. We obviously know that. Um and Flamingo Park is just unacceptable obviously to myself and all of our residents in our community. Um Sixth Street is a much better option. Um I don't know why you can't incorporate the present building that you have on Sixth Street with the new fire station design. That would be the best option. But I believe that we should um make a decision on this and I think you should uh change the plans for Sixth Street and and incorporate the uh present building in uh in the design of the fire station. I appreciate your time. Thanks.

Thank you. Next, please. Seeing no one else, I have Allison's iPhone. Please state your name. You're next. Allison, unmute yourself. Then let's go to Ronald Starkman. Hi there. Okay, go ahead. Can you hear me? Yes. Sorry. Allison Herman, Portino um towers president as well as the VP.

Um I'm I you know I hope we can all agree that the most important thing for our residents is safety. Um you've heard from the professionals as I heard one commissioner um ask, you've heard from the fire team, you've heard from Chief Abeo, you've heard from the captain that unequivocally the best location for response time is Sixth Street. It's directly in the middle of the corridor it's going to be serving. This location was previously approved for demol demolition. It's been vetted and it's more than viable and it offers the best response time. Today, you as a commission need to stop with the hot potato. You need to move forward on this essential project. The firefighters deserve a new station and the neighborhood deserves you to support our safety. Please vote today to move forward with Sixth Street. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next caller is Ronald Starkman. Mr. Starkman, you have one minute.

Okay.

Yeah. Hi, Ronald Starkman, 300 South Point Drive. Um, again, as you've heard, the Sixth Street station seems to be the optimal from a a life safety standpoint. I'd like to address the the angst some of you have about about the votes that were taken previously. Let me just uh remind everybody that that that I think the sixth street was almost ready to go forward and then what the argument that was made was wait don't want to delay it but let's look at other alternatives. Let's see if there's something better. Let's try and do that. It was on that basis that people voted to defer this or to take the Sixth Street off the table. Now that we've completed that whole process, it turns out that Sixth Street seems to be the only viable alternative. So, I don't think you're being inconsistent if you would now vote for the Sixth Street location. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. Everyone who originally was online has has spoken. Okay. Thank you, everyone, for your comments. We have a motion in a second. Let's call the vote. Mr. Mayor, I just want to make sure Commissioner Fernandez. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to make sure that as Yep. I think I think we know the direction this is going in. Um I think I had sponsored at one point uh an item um regarding the Apollo murals to incorporate it into the design for fire station one. I don't know if Maria Hernandez is here. Um I don't know that's still on the table. I don't know if we need to reinccorporate it as part of the motion that we're approving today. Um,

we love that idea, but can we can we make sure that uh that that's still incorporated here? Welcome, Maria. Hello everyone. Um, I believe that legislation is still valid. Okay. Um, I don't think it has um expired.

Okay. And also I want to I want to provide as part of this motion direction direction to the uh city administration because you know I got I got the concerns that people have with the um with the people using the field uh the west end of of Flamingo Park. Um I know there are people at St. Francis that go to St. Francis that have told me that they used the lunch service uh over over at the Southshore Community Center. And so and and those are, you know, those are relatively poor people uh who we represent as well. They might not live south of Fifth. They might not live in luxury buildings or have the ability to be here or speak up, but we represent them, too. It It really It really hurts me. It It really It does. It does hurt me. And because it's [snorts] it's it's like if they don't matter like these are poor people.

I don't think that's fair. I I literally started this meeting by by discussing those individuals and and we're giving direct I was actually going to bring a separate item but we're giving direction to the city manager that we should as part of this we must find a suitable location for the Thank you. And I take that back and so thank you. I um you know I those people are important as well. those those are people who depend on the service and and maybe we never should have initiated the program but when we create programs like these we create a dependency on these programs and these are residents who we need to look after so thank you Mr. Mayor I apologize

no and that's okay but I I know your passion and and and you're right and I'm fully fully supportive it's actually why I mentioned at the beginning that we must find uh concurrent with no breakup in their services that we provide currently and a suitable suitable location uh in the vicinity.

Thank you. And as I said earlier, you know, I don't blame my colleague for bringing this item because we need to move forward. Um but but moving forward, I need to see our city administration take greater leadership. These are administrative needs. The memo that we had today from the administration should have had a recommendation. Period. End of story. We should be guiding ourselves by the recommendation of the administration. Well, you know, we have our fire chief here who's who's speaking now and and and the manager. These things should come properly. They should come properly through the agenda in the memo where everyone can see what is the recommendation of the city administration. And I expect that moving forward. I I expect a little bit stronger uh recommendation on these types of items when we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Let's call the vote. A

motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by the mayor, co-sponsored by the mayor with direction to find alternative location for the services in the vicinity and incorporate the Apollo mural. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Anyone opposed? Hearing none, the item is approved. 70. That's R7 AE.

Thank you. [applause] and and congrat and congratulations to our city and I and I think what and I think I speak on behalf of anyone of everyone. I don't like to do that you always but this is uh a robust discussion but I think everyone here in their heart has such appreciation for what our fire department does the men and women do every day and uh unfortunately the process takes some time but I think we landed in the I know we landed in the right place. I

I thank you so much for this commission for taking the leadership position. It makes me emotional but I will say Commissioner Francis I look forward to working with you on trying to find help for the people with the services that are moving. I feel just as passionate as you do. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Thank you. [applause]

Let's call item R 5D as in David. Mayor, before we do that, I don't know if you want to set the calendar. So, because we need those dates for the ordinances for for the second reading. So, at some point, we need to do that. Let's do it now.

Okay. We are going to do um item excuse me R seven I R seven I is set dates for 2026 city commission MBRDA and NBC meetings. Everyone here has a calendar in front of them. We put it on the deis. We've incorporated all the requests that have been come that have come forward regarding uh conflicts. So we've we've done everything that we have been asked for. So I don't know if you wish to have a discussion or have a vote on the item. Do we have a motion?

Moved by Commissioner Dominguez. I'll second on. It depends. So on the light blue it is uh on those dates. Let's see. It's winter break. Miami Day County Public School in January. We have low key everywhere. So there will be no meetings in January like we have in 202 and 2023. Uh we have two meetings in February. We have six presentations meetings. We've taken into consideration holidays scoop. So the light blue is the light blue is a school system, public school system. It usually is. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Boat stuff that we usually have so much traffic or conflicts at.

But the green and the red are the the meetings. So I have a motion by Commissioner Dominguez, seconded by the mayor. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Item is approved. Thank you, sir. I'm sorry. Y was there rationale and you may have given it and I didn't pay attention why we're not going to have the meeting in January. Commissioner Dominguez is out from for two weeks and the mayor's out for one week. Okay. We really couldn't accommodate. Okay. So, so two a meeting in early February and then the regularly scheduled late in February. It's the mayor's world. I'm just living in it.

I don't know about that. I think there were multiple uh actually I think there were multiple commissioners. Every request that was made, we accommodated. Yeah. I think there were multiple commissioners and it just the dates didn't work out. So R seveni is approved. Yes, sir. What item? R5D as in David. Yes, sir.

R 5D is an ordinance to the mayor, city commission of city beach, Florida amending the code of the city of Miami Beach part B entitled land development regulations by amending chapter 3 of the Miami Beach resiliency code entitled concurrency management and mobility fees by amending article 2 entitled concurrency by creating section 3.2.3 2.3 entitled imposition of collection of concurrency mitigation fees to establish provisions for the waiver of applicable concurrency mitigation fees by amending article title mobility fees by amending section 3.3.3 entitled imposition and collection of mobility fees to establish provisions for the waiver of applicable mobility fees and providing for codification repeal of ability and an effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. The item requires 57's vote. It is item R5D.

I move the item second. Commissioner Fernandez, co-sponsored by me. We have a motion, a second. Let's call the vote. It is a public hearing. I see no one on Zoom and no one in the audience requesting to speak. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Mattel Selenas, yes. Congratulations on that. The first vote. Um, Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Bot, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Mayor Miner, yes.

Motion carries. The item is approved. That was R5D. Let's call R5H. R5H is an ordinance of the mayor of city commission of city Miami Beach, Florida amending chapter 82 of the code of city Miami Beach, Florida entitled public property by amending article 3 entitled use of public property by amending division one entitled generally by amending section 82-72 thereof entitled commercial vessel activity hours of operation of publicly owned marinas by further restricting the permissible hours for commercial vessels activities of public marinas and public marine facilities and providing for repealer servability gratification and effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. It is item R5H.

Thanks. I'll just tee it up very quickly. Uh couple of years ago, we we didn't have uh limitations on charters. We had a lot of problems with the public marina south of Fifth. I put on legislation approved by our commission to make it till 9:00 p.m. We uh unfortunately last year we started having problems again, so I put on legislation to make it till 7:00 p.m. But we have an exemption for operators who have not had a violation. I think it's good legislation. It shows that if you're a good operator in general, you're going to be rewarded. And if you're not, um, we're going to have to protect our residents and businesses. Were we were we co-sponsor? And you're a co-sponsor. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Suarez. Yes. Well, on the on the 900 p.m. I think we were.

Yes. But uh ultimately the South of [snorts] Fifth Neighborhood Association worked with the charter operators and and were amendable to keeping it at 9:00 p.m. for those who have not had any violations cuz I uh and thank you. Um there's a good operator there that has the Meisner's dream and they they they're on the north end of the pier. Never had a problem. Um and they do sunset tours. I think it's like wine and cheese. And uh I certainly hope that they do not get affected by this and I don't think they do. So Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Fernandez,

so I have a question on this. Um and thank you for for bringing forward this policy with the amendment for the good operators. Um I believe right now there's legislation going through Tallahassee having to do with business tax receipts. Um and the enforcement of this is tied to business tax receipts. um how do we properly enforce this if in Tallahassee let's say there is legislation that does go forward is there any other way we can tie this uh is there any other avenue that we can use besides business tax receipts to regulate these operations

sure and I think there may be some confounding uh the the allowance for good operators to operate past 7 p.m. is not tied to BTRs. It's tied to uh code violations which could include a BTR violation, but there could be other code violations as well. So, I think we could cross that bridge if if we need to uh down the road because if the BTR legislation moves forward, that would have significant consequences all over the place for us. Okay. All right. So, so we don't have to be worried about that now. Not at this time. Okay. All right. The item I move it. Let's call the vote.

A motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by the mayor. Never mind. Okay. It is a public hearing. I see no one on Zoom and I see no one in you wish to speak. Go ahead.

Hey guys, I'm back again. How you guys doing? Um, basically, I just want to make sure that we're very clear. I've been running a charter company for now over 20 years out of Miami Beach Marina. It's a way where tourists come enjoy our city. Our city has grown. It's a very beautiful city day and night. Your restriction was taken into serious consideration at 9:00 p.m. during the CO act, which was a little chaotic. All those things have changed. Now, the issue is the noise violation. The same noise violation you guys have in the city, in your bars, in your restaurants. I think there's a count of 1,800 in some cases in Miami Beach alone. Noise violations. Those violations can be enforced by restriction by b basically penalizing them with the BTR, but setting a limitation of time, it's not a fair thing to do. 7:00 p.m. on a July, it's still daylight. Restaurants have opened up in the beach and outside and people want to come visit Miami and go take a nice cruise with their family and go out to dinner. So, what we want to do here is just enforce the issue at hand, which is the noise. Maybe the best thing to do is inside the marina, there's no loud music, period. It's a great restriction to avoid the noise violation, but but setting a time of charters a little unfair unless you're going to do it to everybody else in the restaurant business and the bar business. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

But but this doesn't this this doesn't go to 7 p.m. This is only it only it excludes charter operators who had violations. As long as it's violations, fair enough. Yeah. Otherwise, it's 9 p.m. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Was I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Antonio Maldonado. I spoke earlier. I see no one else on Zoom. No one else requesting to speak. May I call the roll? Yes. Commissioner Mattail Selenas? Yes. Commissioner Dominguez? Yes. Commissioner Fernandez? Yes. Commissioner Magazine? Yes. Commissioner Bot went to the restroom, but she she's a yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. Motion carries. The item is approved. That was R5H.

Let's go R5K. [snorts]

R5K is an art of the mayor and city commission of city of Miami Beach, Florida amending chapter 74 of the code of the city of Miami Beach, Florida entitled peddlers and solicitors of article of article one entitled in general by creating section 74-2 to establish permit and business tax receipt requirements for home solicitations to establish hours of solicitation conduct standards and permit display requirements to create city maintain no solicit no solicitic itation list that solicitors must check and comply with to provide for enforcement penalties and revocation and providing for repealer shability cut affixion and effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. It is item R5K. Commissioner Magazine.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh so have been working closely with uh a number of different residents across the border on North Bay Road uh in particular. They they've had some significant uh security concerns, quality of life concerns. Uh that neighborhood in particular is made up of a lot of single family homes. They've had a rash of breakins. Uh and one of the things that uh happens quite often is they will get a lot of solicitors and some could be valid. Uh some could be not. A lot of them look to be almost uh uh people that are out almost staking the neighborhood under the premise that they are out there soliciting. Uh to be clear uh this in no way would violate uh first amendment rights. Political uh campaigning is still protected. Uh there are still the protections under the constitution. But essentially what this does is it ensures our neighborhood quality of life. It promotes and provides better public safety. Uh it essentially when you are looking to solicit for commercial business uh put some rules and regulations around that uh you have to register so that way we know who is going doortodoor. Just in the past couple of days we've had the police respond numerous times for uh people along North Bay Road that were going doortodoor ringing doorbells uh at times actually running away from that. So, if somebody has a true viable reason to be there, uh, this does provide their path to register with the city, let the city know who is going to be going to our neighborhoods doortodoor. Um, and gives us the ability to vet them and check them out. Uh, but it really ensures our neighborhood quality of life, protects public safety, uh, but really doesn't take away people's, uh, constitutionally protected rights for things that they are able to go doortodoor for. if uh city staff if Rob or Mark wanted to follow up on that, but I do think uh uh we vetted that out at first reading and

this is pretty straightforward and I think that you've covered it. Uh the only amendment between first and second reading was to provide for a public education campaign and also that any first offense would be a warning as opposed to uh an actual citation. Correct. Please add me as a co-sponsor. I'll second the item. [laughter] Call the vote. I have a motion by Commissioner Magazine, seconded by Was it the mayor? I think Commissioner Fernand Fernandez. I just wanted to be a co-sponsor. Got it. And the mayor is a a co-sponsor. Commissioner, it is a public hearing. I see no one on Zoom. No one in the audience. Commissioner Fernandez. Yes. Commissioner Bot is out. Commissioner Dominguez,

yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Mattel Selenas, yes. Mayor Miner. Yes. Carries. The item is approved. Great. Uh why don't we take a break for lunch while we'll reconvene at 1:00. And we're taking the group picture now. I didn't picture today. Yeah. Don't give us an update. We did them. Okay. Or not.

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I have a question. I want I wondered if um any action has been taken against the uh people who stole the campaign signs during the last election. It may have been in the papers, but I may have missed it. But is any action going to be taken against those people? May. Yeah. Um not to my knowledge. I'm not pursuing anything. I do have a campaign uh generic item on the agenda to discuss uh for future campaigns, but you know, campaigns are rough and tumble and things happen and it's not the first time.

Well, every every I could probably tell you that every single campaign probably has some guilt in changing or removing signs. It's something that really shouldn't be done and uh hopefully this item will help future campaigns do better. Thanks very much. So we are starting subnic mayor. Yes. I have no one on Zoom.

Okay. Fabian Basabi, Nine Island Avenue. I'm glad to hear the commission is uh saying that it's welcoming the audit. We'll soon find out how welcoming that really is, including how accommodating you are to the audit teams who will need space, access, and cooperation inside city hall. Saying you welcome accountability is easy. Living it is differently. Let me be clear again because I was cut off earlier. The audit costs taxpayers nothing. The auditor's general's office is funded year round. There's no new appre appropriation, no new added expense. It's just not an attack. It's just accountability. Now, for the record at this day, as Mr. Mayor, you asked the city attorney how many times he countered my position on the local homeless ordinance. He answered several times. Moments later, he said he was not sure if he ever interacted with me. Both statements cannot be true. So, I submitted a public records request today. the documents can answer that question and transparency resolves contradictions. Spin does not. Uh this matters because public policy has real consequences. Uh briefly I want to address Commissioner uh Fernandez. Uh you tried to insinuate that my scrutiny over a security contract of which I know no players had something to do with a personal agenda. That accusation or attempted narrative is baseless. Uh as as are the other things. They've called me a lot of things. My opposition have called me a lot of things and the one thing they haven't called me is corrupt, and that's because numbers don't lie, as we'll soon find out. Um, as far as the endorsement, I do not wish, nor have I ever sought your endorsement. And I would never take it unless you give this city an apology. And that's what I made clear at a lunch of friends that you brought in who you didn't name, but Robin and Melissa, who arranged the lunch trying to see if they could build bridges, which I showed up to in good faith. The letter that you referenced was not leverage. It was to show you an example of actual leadership from another elected official who publicly acknowledged being wrong and then correcting the record. That distinction

matters in leadership. You endorsed a campaign that engaged in false and unsubstantiated attacks with no evidence, no due process, and no facts. Silence in the face of that conduct is also complicity. Mr. Mayor, that's something resonates well with you. Uh anyway, this issue is not about a character. It's about accountability. So, Mr. Mayor, if I could, Eric, uh, we've had this conversation in private, Mr. City Manager. Uh, I'll say publicly, I'll

I don't think we need a legislative item. Um, we we can do that. But to be totally clear and transparent, chair of the finance committee is a sitting commissioner. I implore you and your team to fully cooperate in all ways possible with an audit. and I know that you will. But just to clear the air about, well, it's easy to say, but it's another thing to do. We've had this conversation in private, you have totally committed to that. Your staff is totally committed to that, but we might as well uh have that similar conversation out in the air. So, I appreciate your commitment to that.

Absolutely. We we are going we look forward to cooperating with the state in this audit and I look forward to anything that they may have to share after looking at it as closely as they would like.

Yeah. And I've and I've had those conversations with you, Eric, and and I've heard nothing from you other than a willingness to cooperate and nothing from anybody on this day as for willingness to cooperate. I mean this commission and I have brought a number of items several other of my colleagues have as well to make items public that were not public before. Certain audits that are now available. Uh conditional uses of permit uh conditional use permits are now publicly available. Things that used to take months to get in storage and archives are now available. The fact that we have an inspector general. So and we have been audited by the state. This is not the first this is not the first one. And by the way, the the audit itself is those are always good things. If there's something we can do better, we all welcome that. It's the it's the it's it's comments without any basis and backing and evidence that are concerning to me, not the audit. The audit is welcome.

Thank you. Our next virtual caller is Jane Crup. Please state your name, address. You have two minutes.

Hi, Jane Crup. 1390 Ocean Drive. Um I had my hand raised earlier when there were more people in the room and so I'm going to bring this out this afternoon. Um just to bring to light in the open uh a continuing problem we have here in Miami Beach regarding storm water runoff. I've been here 20 years and have watched the alleys filled with rivers of sludge coming from the commercial owners on uh property owners restaurants where they hose down their kitchen equipment, their mats, their dumpsters, and the water flows down the alley. They've created erosion where the paths are of the water. And particularly where I see it on 14th and 13th Street, the water goes directly into the storm drain with no filtration. The water is supposed to be not go beyond the property. I have complained about this for years. We get a lake out of 1410 Ocean Drive every morning. runs right from them cleaning out their dumpsters and it takes with it all of the stuff on the street straight into our storm drain. I we've had inspectors here, code here. Nothing has changed in years. So, this is a big problem. Waste water dumping into our storm water drains is illegal and the city is doing nothing about it. So, my suggestion is take the $200,000 that you're going to give to the Playboy private business and put it towards cleaning up our streets, [clears throat and snorts] holding people accountable, holding these owners accountable that are polluting our storm water instead of and and apply it to infrastructure and our health, not to some business startup, a big corporation. They can go

to a bank and get a loan. Why is it coming out of our taxpayer money? Thank you. Good. Next, please. Thank you, Jane, and thank you for emailing us about that. I know we've got you sent several emails um communicating that with us. So, thank you. Go ahead, please. Go ahead.

Hi. Hi. Uh my name is Natalie Msika. I am here in support of the 40th Street Overlay. Um I have been involved with UI the organization that is um backing this uh initiative for over 10 years. Um, I was a student in a past life and now I've come back to Miami Beach as a resident and I am hosting students in my home and I see that the way that they have their space set up right now, it's not conducive to the amount of people that they would like to host. Um, a lot of their events are done outside. Shabbat dinners, um Torah classes, they're all they're done outside and the the students like are at the mercy of the weather or um or anything that might prevent something from happening outside. Um last week we had a Shabbat dinner and it was hosted all outside and it was very nice that like the weather was cooperating with us. um we had about 40 students there and I think that a building of the the size and the magnitude that they're requesting will allow them to continue to grow their initiative to continue to grow their um organization and to like and to um bring more young Jewish professionals and young Jewish students to the community. Um so I hope that you vote in support of the overlay. I think the vote is this evening and thank you Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. Our next caller is Goldwatcher. Mrs. Goldwatcher.

Please unmute yourself. Hi, my name is Ali Shaba Yushiron. I was born and raised in Miami Beach. Hello. Yes, go ahead, please.

Okay. My name is Ali Shaba Yoshirun. I was born and raised in Amy Beach. I now live here with my husband and two kids. I just wanted to come on to show my support for UD as well and more specifically the 40th Street Overlay. I've seen firsthand just the evolution and the building of UD and how important their organization is. I saw it when it started in the founders's home with a small office in the garage. They serve so many young professionals and college students, helping them develop into strong adults who are leaders and how important it is for them to go and give back to their community. I just want to show support for their new building so that they can expand their incredible programming and offer even more to our community and our neighborhood. Um, and I also hope that you vote in favor of that. Thank you.

Thank you. Go ahead, please.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Jake Martyr. My wife Natalie spoke earlier. We're both Miami Beach residents. Uh we specifically moved here to Miami Beach to support Yudi. Uh I me and my wife personally out of appreciation for the changes that Yehudi made in our lives. Um before I met my wife, uh you know, we were just going along life and Yehudi uh put a lot of meaning into our lives. And thank God we now have five kids. We just had twin boys last year and uh we picked our whole family up, moved to Miami Beach to support their mission. Um there's not much that I can add to what my wife said. We're I personally joined Yehudi's board to assist them uh with some of their programming and and finance management. And I see firsthand the demand for Yehudi's services and programming. Um, and Yeudi right now where they are is having a hard time meeting that demand. And it's not just for the students, but for the future of the community. The students add a lot to the community. Um, besides for what it does for for their lives and we feel that if you had the the proper building, the proper structure, it would allow them to to grow. And and I think I I don't just speak for myself, but for the whole community when I say that uh passing this this uh overlay approval would bring real change to the community, bring more youth to the community, and would just be a benefit overall for everybody. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Our next virtual caller is Sarah Bandu.

Hi. Uh my name is Sarah Vanuo. I live at 2931 Sheridan Avenue. I've lived in Miami Beach about 5 years. I actually converted to Judaism here in Miami Beach. And Yehudi has been a really big part of my life and making friends and joining part of the community. I'm a single girl here in my 20s. I I'm tempted to say Yehudi is the only organization around catering to my demographic, if not one of the only few. And I'm here all of the time and a lot of the events unfortunately do get rained out as Ben mentioned before. and we're packed into spaces that no longer accommodate the need. So, I want to show my support of the overlay and I hope everybody also votes in favor of it.

Thank you so much. Next, please sir.

Yeah. So, hello. Um, my name is Gregory Regano. I am a citizen and resident of Miami Beach. I'm also uh an environmental lawyer and I'm here to help. So, in no unclear terms, uh, the city of Miami Beach drinking water supply is highly contaminated with PFAS chemicals that are more than 1,000 times higher the EPA health advisory levels published in 2022. The city of Miami Beach has a duty to provide Miami residents with safe, clean drinking water. And this is a demand for action to immediately address this contamination in our vital drinking water supply by immediately warning the public that they should be using widely available filtration in their homes, schools such as carbon filtration which is very easy to implement. It reduces 80% of the PFAS load and reverse osmosis which is implemented by the municipality of North Miami Beach as well as the Halia plant in Miami Dade which removes 99% of it. Um, so the reason why this is so important is the city of Miami Beach buys its water from the county of Miami Dade and that aquafer is by the airport and you know the white firefighting foam that has the PFAS chemical in it and 3M the corporation that manufactured that that is now being sued in a class action suit$10 billion settlement third biggest settlement in the history of the United States um has contaminated that water supply which is an aquafer by the airport. is really important. So, the problem with PFAS chemicals, according to the EPA, is that they're called forever chemicals because they never leave the body. Specifically, they can cause reproductive effects such as decreased fertility, increased high blood pressure in pregnant women, developmental effects and delays in children, including low birth weight, accelerated puberty, bone variations. This is all from the EPA. Uh various cancers, including kidney cancer, testicular cancer. I'm a kidney cancer

survivor. Hello. Um, most importantly, if I could just have another 30 seconds, in the Miami Beach Water Quality Report, it states that on the website this information is published, it says, quote unquote, the water quality report is designed to inform you about the excellent water of the Miami Beach uh, excellent water the city of Miami Beach delivers to you every day. And it shows actually children drinking water, smiling. Um this is this is a major issue and it would be wonderful you know to have it addressed. I have deep expertise in these chemicals and cleaning water and I would I would love to help. Uh I'm very available. Thank you.

Thank you mayor. That concludes Nick.

Okay great. Let's call R5A. R5A is distance separation uh exceptions for tobacco and vape use an ordinance of the mayor city commission of the city of Miami Beach amending the resiliency code of the city of Miami Beach by amending chapter 7 entitled zoning districts and regulations by amending article 3 entitled overlay district section 7.3.10 10 entitled North Beach Commercial Character Overlay District to modify requirements for tobacco and vape dealers by amending article 5 entitled supplementary district regulation section 7.5 entitled specialized use regulations to modify the minimum distance separation requirements for tobacco and vape dealers in North Beach and providing for codification repealer servability and effective date. This is a first reading public hearing. Commissioner Dominguez.

Thank you. Uh so I inherited this item uh from previous commissioner um Muhammad Islam came to speak on this item earlier. It was requested by the owner of a small business specifically a convenience store in North Beach and they're seeking to compete with other convenience stores in the cities that are allowed to sell those products. The ordinance applies to a very limited area in North Beach, specifically the portion of Collins Avenue corridor between 65 and 67. It does not allow standalone uh tobacco or vape shops. It only allows the sales as part of a convenience store and the products can occupy no more than 5% of the square footage of the store. With that, I move the item.

Um Mr. Mayor,

Commissioner Suarez. Tom, so is there there is other legislation moving forward or we just passed increasing the distance separation in in specifically in North Beach? Can you The proposal here would be to uh reduce the distance [clears throat] separation to create a narrow exception from the distance separation requirements that is in place now for uh entities that have retail sale of tobacco and vape. And um as Commissioner Dominguez correctly pointed out, this would be limited to the area between 65th and 67th Street and would only be for convenience stores that sell tobacco and vape.

And was this referred also by the planning board? This was not recommended favorably by the planning board. The planning board recommended unfavorably. What were the votes on that? It was, I believe, either 6 or 70. Uh 70. any reason why they were opposed to it?

Um, they were concerned that the proposal could create a pre precedent that would lead to others asking for similar exceptions throughout the city, for example. So if somebody in another area of the city wants to do tobacco and vape within their convenience store, they could then petition the commission to say just like the uh exception that was created for the area North Beach, we'd like something similar for this area. Mr. Mayor,

Commissioner Bot. Um but this is something my understanding and Muhammad maybe you can come forward and be able to answer these questions. My understanding is that um Mr. Islam has a state license already. He's not applying for something new as opposed to somebody who is opening a new business or changing their business use. The um anybody can get a state license if they qualify for it. The city does not approve state licenses. So even if you get a state license, you would still need to comply with local regulations for the sale of tobacco and vape products under our code. Right. But he already has it. So this is not somebody coming

a lot of people have one. I mean you people that have had them that obtained them after this ordinance was adopted. Even though they may have one, that doesn't mean that they can sell tobacco and vape within Miami Beach unless they meet the distance separation requirements. Similarly, if somebody goes out and gets one tomorrow, that doesn't mean that they can sell tobacco and vape. They are just authorized by the state subject to local regulations. And Mr. Muhammad, when did you get your state license?

Hello. Yes. Uh most of the not only North Beach in the South Beach also there is a six store. They used to selling tobacco but there is some contradiction with the uh with the tobacco and vapor two different thing normally the grocery store there's a two item major item is the tobacco and the alcohol uh but tobacco is the most important part because the people buy in the grocery something they buy one cigarette they cannot buy a cigarette they have to go another store you know this is uh I've been trying to be explain this situation uh because they are they are paying lot of brain you know so we helping to the small business owner in order to survive the situation you know it is not the like we are requesting something that is state already give them a license like a tobacco and alcohol both of the same time 2AB is license number but unfortunately only block with the tobacco sell item.

But but if I may, the question was and for also this is for your store in North Beach, right? This is for you. Yeah, it is North Beach and it's your store. Yeah. And so the question was when did you get your state license? It is about uh about a long time because they the the guy you're operating now he bought it the from the previous guy. He used to selling the tobago and unfortunately next door they have a cloth store. They're selling tobacco.

So what I'm trying to get to and Tom maybe you can help. If the business was previously selling tobacco and the state license pre-exist the the change that we made. That's a very narrow exception. Very narrow exception.

Um if if that is the case potentially that's a narrow exception. I don't know if that's the case with Mr. Islam's store because um his CU was pending approval and we indicated that we could not issue a CU with tobacco and vape because of the distance separation issue. We could issue a CU for a convenience store without tobacco and vape. But to add the tobacco and vape to it, um he would need to meet our current distance separation requirements.

Madam Vice Mayor, if I may. So, and I think this is perhaps where my friend and colleague was going with this is [clears throat] Mr. Islam was already selling these products and we passed an ordinance saying there has to be a minimum distance separation. Why is he not grandfathered in? Well, I don't know if he was. What I know is that with regard to his convenience store that he's proposing, um that was a new CU and um that new CU requested tobacco in vain, but it was already being applied for when this ordinance was passed.

Well, no, he was he applied for that recently. This was like within the last year. This legislation was adopted in 2017.

These store, excuse me, uh these store used to be selling uh tobacco and alcohol. There is a state have a license one license cover both of them uh tobacco and alcohol. So this is I've been operating three business before the same thing all is Miami Beach. So I'm I'm surprised that they holding the cigarette and they can sell beer. The people like a customer I'm sorry to uh taking little more customer come to the store buy alcohol beer or wine beside that they buy previously buy one packet of cigarette or we cannot sell because it's restricted. This is the issue here and this is the uh this is the way state government the give the license to the two APS that means like a beer alcohon plus took but at the same time

so so I guess I'll ask Tom what would be the rationale if we have this ordinance that's broadly applying I could get behind some sort of carveout if he was already selling it or and for whatever reason it wasn't grandfather in or even if he was applying for a CU. I think that actually happened on some Lincoln Road properties where there was some uh ordinances and you said if you already have an application that was uh kind of pending, you're essentially, for lack of a better word, grandfathered in. But what's the rationale for the carveout here?

Here the carveout is to essentially allow Mr. Islam's store to introduce tobacco and vape sales um because he does not meet the distance separation requirements from other tobacco and vape entities.

So I I guess and with all due respect because I from everything I know you're a tremendous community member, tremendous. And I know you have a great amount of respect in the local community. In fact, when I was campaigning, I I came to your building and knocked on your door and I remember it vividly. [snorts] you weren't there. Um, but I remember your building vividly. And but where I'm stuck is there's really not a rationale for a carve out. If there was already an application pending or things like that, I could see that. But other than just saying, well, you know what? Uh, because we know this person, we're going to carve him out of this ordinance. That that seems to be where this is going. Right. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm hearing from you right, it's not as if he's grandfathered in or even a CU was pending when this ordinance passed. So, he kind of got caught up in a timing issue. This is just to say, well, we have this ordinance on the books, but we're not going to apply it here. Correct? If there was a basis for him to be grandfathered, then that's something that we would have seen and he wouldn't have had to ask for this relief. But because he was not grandfathered, because this proposal came after the tobacco and vape legislation was in place, um unless he could meet the distance separation, which he can't in the store, his only option was to seek legislative relief because you can't get a variance.

And if Mr. Islam had been selling it previously. Can you take one more crack working with him with your department to see if there are any rationale for a carveout without introducing new legislation? Sure. If there's evidence that where they're seeking a CU for a convenience store with tobacco and vape was operating as a um ret operating with the retail sale of tobacco and vape prior to the adoption of this legislation. We can certainly take

I think that's where I'd be comfortable. I personally I I don't want to start introducing new carveouts. But Mr. Islam, what I would like is for to put our planning staff to your full disposal and see if there if you have previous records and you applied and you're already selling that this legislation may not even be necessary that you're essentially grandfathered in. And if there's a rationale for that, then of course I'll be supportive, but I don't think I'll be supportive of introducing new legislation. Well, Commissioner Fernandez and then Commissioner Suarez. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. So, I just want to make sure I understand properly. Um, was there a CU application pending or not?

Uh, I believe Mr. Islam's CU application was made earlier this year for a convenience store with earlier this year. Was that CU application before the adoption of this ordinance or after the adoption of this ordinance? After the adoption of this ordinance?

It was after the adoption of the ordinance. I would suggest that we let's refer this back to the land use committee to see if we can iron this out so that we can have a landing that doesn't hurt Mr. Islam, that doesn't hurt the city, that doesn't place the city in a position of litigation, which is something that I that I get concerned about where we end up losing the entire ordinance. Uh which which is so important. Um but certainly we don't want to hurt an existing small business and we don't want to treat them with a disparity uh when they can just go to Publix and Publix you know has it but then the small locallyowned business uh can't uh can't cater to the community. So, uh, Commissioner Dominguez, if if you would be if you would entertain what would suggest, uh, to ensure that we have a productive completion of this item, maybe let's send it to the landings committee. Let's work with the planning department and with Mr. Islam to see, you know, how we can figure this out.

Yeah, I um I'm fine with that. I inherited this item. This is the first time I have it on the commission uh to hear, so having it flushed out at land use makes sense. So guess I mean did you did you already vet this or did you already look through if there's any sort of possibility that he can be grandfathered in Tom because I understand this has been on the agenda for a while commissioner Rosen Gonzalez response to this and things been on here for 6 months. I would assume you've already done that. Yeah, based upon what's been presented to my staff to date, the CU application with tobacco and vape is new and would have to comply with the distance separation requirements.

Let me ask Muhammad. Muhammad, yes. What? Whyure why did you apply this year earlier this year when the ordinance was adopted in 2017? Like what uh why come now instead of back then? uh because uh this store previous owner he just sold it last year. So but he used to be operate both of them same time. So when any new owner take over the business then is a issue coming that tobacco restricted but just because they purchase the business doesn't mean that they have to apply for a new PTR or

well like I said if there is evidence that the use including the sale of tobacco and vape had preceded their current CU application we can certainly take a look at that evidence and if there's evidence showing that they did have those sales before then and they can establish that the non-conforming use had not been abandoned. We can take a look at that. But what we've seen to date, so you're telling me that we don't we don't know. I I guess Manny's walking up, but we don't know if he was originally selling tobacco and vape at that location. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. Manny, you're the director of finance. Tell me.

I'm I'm not the director of finance. It's Green Finance. Yeah, good afternoon. Manny Marcus, assistant director of finance, customer service section. Um, Mr. Muhammad Islam purchased a business uh this past year. That business did have tobacco. They had alcohol. It was a convenience store. They had beer and wine and and they did sell cigarettes. So, he purchased an existing business business. It's a brand new business. So, they have a brand new BTR application. But the previous business last year, two years ago, when they had their BTR did have tobacco. They did or did not? Did they did? Yes. Okay. So, why why aren't they grandfathered in?

Okay. Like like I said, it was my understanding that this was a new CU application for a new business where they were introducing this for the first time. If there's evidence that they were operating with tobacco and vape previously and that non-conforming use was not abandoned, we can take a look at that. Okay. So, so Muhammad, it's very very easy. Let's let's Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Next Door. They're selling dress cloth. They have the tobacco license. Yeah. No, we we we got that. But Commissioner Fernandez, perhaps a referral to land use.

Let's send it to land use because it seems like the use existed. It seems like the use was not abandoned. It's a non-conforming use, but a non-conforming use, unless it's abandoned, it can continue existing even after the adoption of an ordinance. And we and we do that specifically not to hurt the existing businesses in in in our city even when they change ownership. And the change of ownership only applies I think when it's a cup but here there's not even a cup. Um so I would like to make a motion to refer this to the land use committee to see if we can iron out the details of this and bring this to a smooth landing.

I'm gonna be supportive of that. You know, we both sit on the land use committee, Commissioner Fernandez, but from what Tom is telling me, if he just presents documentation that he was in fact selling or this business was in fact selling vape and tobacco products, there's nothing that we need to do at a at a committee or at a commission level. Correct. It would be administratively, right? Correct. If it's determined that the previous non-conforming use had not been abandoned, [clears throat] then we would be able to issue that new BTR. Okay. Um, but we would just, like I said, I would need a little bit more information because some of this I'm hearing for the first time and I wouldn't want to make a decision on the fly. So, and and land use give us an update, please. Okay.

So, that in case in case we do need to make any tweaks to the item or we can discuss that and and pass along a more proper and full recommendation based on the feedback we've received from staff. With that, I I made the motion, madam vice mayor, second it. Yep. Second. Someone else second it. So, oh, am I calling the vote now? I think it's a public hearing item. Okay. I don't know. We need a public hearing. He's back. It is a public hearing. I have no one on Zoom and I know one in the audience, but if it's just a referral to land use, we could do it by voice vote. I have a motion by Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Commissioner Bot. Call a vote. All in favor? I. Item is referred to land use. R5C.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners. I appreciate for your kind help to at least uh do we need some uh some documents to provide you or Thank you, Mr. R5C.

R5C is an art of the mayor and city commissioner of city of Miami Beach for amending the code of the city of Miami Beach sub part B entitled land development regulations by amending chapter one of the Miami Beach resiliency code entitled general provisions article two entitled definitions section 1.2.1 2.1 entitled general definitions by adding a definition for habitual offender by amending chapter 2 of the Miami Beach resiliency code entitled administration to review procedures article 4 entitled amendments to comprehensive plan and to the text of the land of the land development regulations by amending section 2.4.1 entitled generally to establish procedures to address outstanding violation fines fees or other open bills for applications to amend the land development regulations or comprehensive plan providing for codification repealability on an effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. The item requires 57's vote is R5C.

Commissioner Fernandez.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh so this is an item that uh I've placed on the on the agenda uh to make sure that no one is rewarded with special zoning privileges while actively violating the rules the rest of the community has to follow. We have uh zoning regulations. We have code regulations. Uh and it and and it and this is very straightforward. If you want to request a zoning amendment, whether it's a private application, whether it's one referred on behalf of a private entity, you must be in good standing with the city. What does that mean? No open code violations, no unpaid delinquent fees, no outstanding safety issues. We've also um defined what it means to be an habitual offender uh as someone with three or more adjudicated violations in the last 3 years. Uh because these are the type of applicants who should not be rewarded with special treatment. What happens is you have a private property owner who let their property get abandoned um only to push the city into a corner and strongarm the city into granting them special zoning privileges and say, "Look at my property. This is all I can do with my property because look at the conditions it's in. It's not economically viable." Well, I'm sorry. You decided to engage in code violations. You decided to accumulate unpaid delinquent fees. you decided uh to create outstanding safety issues and you're a bad neighbor. You shouldn't be entitled to very profitable uh zoning amendments. Um so this reform applies uniformly to everyone. It gives property owners a clear incentive to clean up their act before they come and ask the city of any zoning privileges. And I want to thank my colleague, Commissioner Suarez, for joining me as a

sponsor of this item. And with that, I move the item second. Call the vote. It is a public hearing. One on Zoom. No one in the audience. U I have motion by Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Commissioner Suarez. Commissioner Mattel Selenz, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Commissioner Bot, yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. Motion carries. The item is approved. That was item R5 C. For the record, on item R5K, Commissioner Bot is voting yes. R5B.

Sorry, Mayor B. Yes. And boy, this is a north of the mayor, city commissioner of the city of Miami Beach, Florida, amending the code of the city of Miami Beach. So, part B entitled land development regulations by amending chapter two of the Miami Beach resiliency code entitled administration and review procedures. Article 2 entitled general development applications and hearing procedures by amending section 2.2.4 entitled public hearing to modify the public notice requirements for land use board applications and providing for clarification repeal servability and an effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. The item requires a 57th vote. It is item R5B. Commissioner Suarez. [snorts] I move item. I'll second vote.

It is a public hearing. I see no one on Zoom. No one in the audience. On item R5D, I have a motion by Commissioner Sores, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Magazine, Commissioner Suarez, yes. Vice Mayor Matio Selenas, yes. Commissioner Fernandez, yes. Commissioner Bot, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. Motion carries. The item is approved. That was item R5B. Let's call R9 A and R5P together.

Yes, sir. R9 A D is discussed. Take action. Motion to reconsider amendments to lobbying ordinance. R5P is R5P is an article of the mayor, city commissioner of city Miami Beach, Florida amending chapter 2 of the Miami Beach code uh entitle administration article 7 entitled standards of conduct division 3 entitled lobbyist by amending section 2-481 entitled definitions to amend definitions applicable to the this to this division by amending and revising the title for section 2-483 exceptions to registration written disclosure requirements for persons excluded from the definition of lobbyist to clarify and restate the written disclosure requirements for persons excluded from the definition of lobbyists by amending section 2-485.1 penalties to clarify provisions relating to enforcement by the Miami date county commission on ethics by amending section 2-485.3 contingency fee prohibited to adopt clarifying amendment to the prohibition on the giving or acceptance of a contingency fee in connection with the appearance before the city and finally by amending other sections in se in division three to effectuate the intent of this ordinance and providing for repealer clarification servability and effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. That was item R5P.

I think procedurally we need to do R9 A first. Yes, Commissioner Bot. I'd like to make a motion to reconsider this item. Second. Second. Any discussion? If none, may I have a motion on R9 I mean a vote on R9 A. All in favor, please say I. I. Anyone opposed? we can reconsider the item.

Um, so I would like to I respect the intent of the item. I think it is not um in its best final form and I think the proper way to vet this with all the neighborhoods um who have reached out to all of us uh is to bring it before land use or neighborhoods to um to have this conversation and figure it out to do it in a way uh so that the effect is what was actually intended rather than having negative effects. So I'd like to make a motion to to move uh to uh refer this item.

Mr. Commissioner Suarez. So would it be possible to bifurcate this the issue that the neighborhood associations have with checking the box that instead of having to come every time um when they want to discuss an item that they have to check a box and keep everything else for example the compensation because I don't want there to be a moment in time where there is a possibility for a project that be pending on a the pending the city and money exchanges hands between, let's just say, a neighborhood association and a developer. So, is it possible to bifurcate the two and reconsider just that checkbox portion?

Commissioner, now that the motion to reconsider has passed, the ordinance is back before the body for second reading. Um, if the commission wants to take up the ordinance today, you could make changes to it and adopt it as revised. Um, otherwise, Commissioner Bot made a motion to refer the ordinance to committee. If that motion is seconded and passes, then the entire ordinance would be referred to committee. So, maybe you can give a little bit more background for those of for those of you who are watching of why would we reconsider this uh item and just the the general history of it. So the um the city attorney and I have met with uh with a few representatives of neighborhoods.

Let's start with the ordinance itself. What did it do? What was the intent? So the the ordinance amends the article of our code that addresses lobbyists registration um by making there a number of cleanup changes um but it also makes changes to the written disclosure that representatives of neighborhood associations are required to file with the city. that seems to be um the the major issue that the neighbor associations have raised concerns with. Um the ordinance also uh makes other changes to the commission at second reading amended the ordinance to require lobbyists to disclose when consideration is paid um in the amount of $1,000 or more uh in exchange for a neighbor association to support or withhold its objection to uh to to an item. And it also

so if we don't if if this gets reconsider well it's already reconsidered but if we don't amend this um right now there could be a developer or a lobbyist that can make a very substantial compensation to a neighborhood association for example and we would have no way of knowing or we wouldn't be required to know

that right that requirement now that the ordinance has been reconsidered for for the time being does not apply. Okay. So, is it possible to leave the the majority of the ordinance intact and remove the or modify the issue for neighbored associations to every time that there's an item that they have to apply? Can we simply say that they can apply let's just say once uh one time a year or what what what did you suggest Nick? That that's possible if that's the will of the body to make that amendment the commission could make that change today.

Yeah. So I colleagues I I don't feel comfortable leaving us vulnerable without transparency uh of another project that could be coming down. And I know there's one project looming in south of Fifth um where there might be a a development there. And I think if we open up this this ordinance that gives not only us but the the residents more transparency on who's exchanging money. I think that that'd be a disservice to us. I think the real issue that most neighborhood associations had was that they don't want to have to register each time and be liable for ethic violations. And I totally understand that. But I think with just a simple amendment to require that they only uh sign up once a year or possibly just once really just solves the issue entirely.

I second that. I think if if today we can just say, you know, we want to make sure that lobbyists have the responsibility to disclose when they're giving money to an association, whether when they're coming before the city, and not put disowners on neighborhood associations or on residential condominiums or co-ops that whenever they're coming to speak on an issue that they have to disclose. just do a a yearly disclosure just so that we know which are the active associations. Um I think that that's that that's fine. Um and I'm I'm happy to support an amendment in that nature today. So Mr. Attorney, if you could guide us.

Sure. I mean, one consideration, uh, going back to Commissioner Suire's original question would be to adopt the ordinance to include just that amendment that was made to require the disclosures and then to to start again with a first reading of an of an ordinance that addresses the other issues relating to disclosures and or um registration requirements.

Okay. Maybe maybe maybe we should do that just um passes on the issue of the monetary disclosure the monetary and non-monetary disclosure and then bifurcate the neighborhood association disclosure on a separate ordinance that perhaps we can take through committee to make sure you know we get public input and is properly vetted. Nick, you you look like you have a sour face on your No. Is that okay? I mean, can we keep the monetary compensation?

Yeah. So, the ordinance makes a number of changes. What what I think I'm hearing is the commission could adopt it um with with an amendment not to require uh disclosure uh by res registered neighbor associations on each issue. It could be either a a one-time registration per person or an annual an annual disclosure. I like annual because it it shows who's active like you said,

right? But I that part I want to take that part by committee because I want to make sure I want to make sure that I understand well who is each person. Is each person an officer of an association? Is each person maybe someone that's designated to speak on behalf of of an association? What if someone a resident is is is covered by an association but comes to speak on an issue but they're not an officer of the of the assoc? I want to make sure that we have clear definition so that our residents don't feel like they're being caught in a catch 22, which is what happened last time. Good good policy, good public policy to enhance transparency, to enhance ethics, ethics to safeguard the public, but then residents were caught in an unintended consequence and we didn't none of us meant to put them there. Uh so this part that directly affects the residents, I want to make sure we just take that through committee. Let's send that to the neighborhoods committee uh so that we can iron that out and make sure we get resident feedback as to how this would affect them while keeping the the monetary compensation.

Yeah. Pressure box. Thank you. Um I I'm reluctant to do things on the fly because that's how we got to this point now. We thought we had corrected it on the fly last time sitting up at the deis. So, I definitely want the neighborhood association component to go through the um the neighborhoods committee process so there can be um a clear understanding of what we're trying to accomplish and how to best accomplish that goal without creating an undue ownorous burden. Um so I'm fine with bifurcating the issues but I don't want to make any amendments on the fly at all.

Yeah, bifurcation. Well, that's what we're doing. Yeah. Thank you. I'm stating it for the record. Great. So, Nick, we can bifrocate this, correct? I mean, that that we're going to we're going to bifrocate solely the issue of neighborhood registrating registration either annually, one time, so not to burden the neighborhood associations. And and by the way, th this wasn't part of the intent, right? I mean, this requirement for neighbor associations has been around since when? um 2004 I want to say. Yeah.

All right. So, and we're just now we're finally getting around to clarifying what is a neighborhood organization, what is a lobbyist, how often should they register, and so again, Mr. Maybe I should be asking the city attorney. Sure. Um how do we bifurcate the two where we leave intact the protections for monetary compensation? There would be a motion to amend the ordinance on second reading to include solely the section that relates to the requirement for lobbyists to disclose compensation and everything else is removed from the second reading ordinance and then you do a referral to neighborhoods to discuss the ordinance that relates to the other issues.

When you mean everything else, what exactly do you mean? from what from I think what the the body is going is we the sole the sole um issue is requiring neighbors associations to register. I think what you're saying is leave the monetary compensation disclosure but there was a litany of other things and I want to make sure that those also don't get abandoned because those are protections for us and the residents.

Sure. Um to be clear, so there's section that includes the definition of lobbyist. So this section which also includes the requirements related to neighborhood associations. That part of the ordinance could be remain as is. Um and then there's section 2-483 um which is the written disclosure requirement for persons excluded from the definition of lobbyist. U that would be reconsidered. I don't believe that there's any issue with the the changes to the contingency for fee prohibitions, which was just clarification. Um, so we want to keep that as well.

I I believe that that the intent is to simply send the sections that relate to the neighborhood associations to committee. So, Mr. Mr. Clerk, um, is there public comment on this issue?

So, can we hear from the public before we um define this? because we once again up here there is not clarity on what is trying to h what what we're going to be doing next and that's how we got here. So I I resend my prior comments and I I actually think that maybe the whole thing should be referred so that we're not finding oursel in the situation yet again because just talking about it here there's confusion. So I'd like to hear what the residents have to say about this before we um go far too much further down. Well, I I wasn't I wasn't I wasn't finished asking questions, but I'm glad you brought that up. And like I said earlier, is that if we undo this, there's a possibility that a developer lobbyist will will make a compensation for a development project and we won't be required to know about it. And I certainly want to know about it. I mean, this happened just this year at the Standard Hotel where the Standard Hotel made a $1.2 million payment to a neighbor association that by and large did not tell the residents before they signed that contract. I had a whole town hall here with hundreds of people and they were upset and livid and this is where this legislation comes from. And if we move forward without having that protection, that can happen again. That can happen again right now at the standard. So, I don't want to make sure that we're protected, the residents are protected, neighborhood associations are protected. I think the biggest gripe that they had with this with the unintended consequence is they don't want to have to register each time. And I get it. It's very cumbersome. And I'm simply saying let's bifurcate that particular part of this ordinance which is the most troubling and has the most heartburn and let us stay protected uh a and work out the details at at a committee.

Madam vice I think that's fair and reasonable. I I just I I think we should have more protections and transparency. I mean we talked about transparency this morning. So I don't see why we'd want to not have transparency especially when money's involved. So if I may just for clarity then I had a question I wanted to ask Fernandez.

Thank you. So Mr. Attorney, when we look at the at the ordinance, tell me, guide me specifically, if we were to reconsider this ordinance today and we were to take a vote where we would keep the monetary disclosure um of by the lobbyists um and refer the rest on the on the disclosures by the neighborhood associations. We would send that to committee. tell me which sections of this ordinance we're keeping and voting for and which sections we're redlining from what we're voting on today.

Okay, so section 2-482 is the registration uh disclosure requirement which requires the lobbyist to disclose any consideration paid valued at $1,000 or more. Okay, that one is clearly I think what I'm hearing you and your colleagues say is that you're good with um so we would be keeping that and what we would be voting on today. That is right. There were other

and the definition of lobbying. A lobbyist shall be required to disclose in writing to the city clerk if the lobbyist provides or has agreed to provide directly or indirectly consideration valued at $1,000 or more to a neighborhood association or his designate for purposes of supporting or withholding its objection with regard to a matter before the city commission or any city board of committee. That definition of lobbyist does not include a neighborhood association. Currently, neighborhood associations are excluded from the definition of law. So, we would be keeping that in the ordinance that we would be voting on today. And what else would we be keeping? And what would we be redlinining?

Well, if if everything else wants to if if if the body wants to send everything else to committee, that would be the only thing that would be included. Everything else that is shown as a as a black line uh as a change would not be effective until it goes to committee. There were a few cleanup changes. Um but if you all want to discuss those as well that do not directly relate to neighborhood associations, then the only section that you would be keeping today is 2-482. And would we meet would we be able to adopt the definitions as they were printed to section 2-481? Will we be able to keep those definitions or do there need to be any amendments there uh before we vote on anything today?

Well, there are some definitions such as a definition for city personnel um which we made to clean up the ordinance, but it's not critical to include that at this time as relate to the issue of the neighborhood associations. Germaine to the issue of neighborhood associations. Are there any changes to section 2-481 that we would not want to amend today that we would want to refer to committee as well? I don't believe so, commissioner. I think that the that change is in 2-483b.

Okay. So, so with that, what I would do is that the ordinance that we have before us, I would I would do a motion to adopt section one and section two of that today, which are the amendments to section 2-481 and the amendments to section 2-482 today. I adopt that today and refer the rest sections 3, four, and five to committee which are the amendments to section 2-483, 2-485.1 and 2-485.3. Send that to committee and only adopt uh the real Germaine uh uh issues having to do with uh lobbyist payments. Does that make sense, Mr. Attorney? Would that make sense?

Yes, it does, Commissioner. Okay. So that's my motion. And and just just so that we're on the same page because I think we're we're tracking in the right direction. Anything with monetary compensation would would be uh is still there is still a requirement to disclose. Correct. Yeah. That's what section two which is on the on the ordinance on your ordinance. That's the amendment to section 2-482 which would we would be adopting today. Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Bot,

wasn't and I'm just asking I not trying to trying to pick a fight. Wasn't one of the concerns by the resident groups, the the homeowners association boards, etc. the con the concern about the definition of a lobbyist whether or not they fell into that because I don't want to

I agree that we want to know about developers paying people. I got that and I agree. My concern is there was at some point at one point there was a lot of concern from residents that I heard about being labeled a lobbyist and what that meant and what that line was. And so I want to make sure we're not calculating on what we're trying to fix.

So, so we are excluding from the definition of lobbyist that's already in the ordinance a person acting on behalf of a neighborhood association that does not receive separate considerations. So in other words, if a neighborhood association hires a lobbyist, that person is a lobbyist. But if it's a board member or an officer of the neighborhood association, they are excluded. Um, and then just to, you know, to that's why we have this ordinance. Correct. Correct. Um, I also want to point out that the definition of neighborhood association, um, this is something that the city has done and that the county does already is that condominium associations are treated as neighborhood association. So, they as well are excluded from the definition of lobbyists.

And madam, vice mayor of just just for the if I may, through you.

Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, it this specifically says in section 2-481 that the term lobby specifically excludes any person who appears as a representative of a neighborhood association without compensation or reimbursement for the appearance whether direct, indirect or contingent or contingent to express support of or opposition of any item. the ordinance that we already have in place independent of what the commissioner was sponsoring that was already uh part of of our laws and the original ordinance didn't amend that. That has been a longstanding definition exclusion by definition uh within our code.

Correct. Which is why we're here today, right? Correct. because we we want to make sure that neighbor associations cannot get paid and not tell us for supporting a project and that's why we're here today. So, I certainly don't want to upend that and leave us without knowing. Okay. Okay. Ready to bring it home? All right. Yeah. Well, I believe there's a motion. Well, as amended, correct? Yes. amended to a motion to adopt uh sections sections one and two of this of this ordinance and refer sections three, four good

and five uh to the to to the neighborhoods committee, but we still need to hear from the public. Correct. I need a second first. I'll second. Okay. So, it is a public hearing. I see no one in the audience. First uh caller is Adam Kravitz. Mr. Kravitz, state your name, address. You have two minutes. Kravitz, [clears throat] please unmute yourself.

Yes. Hi. So, I I found it. Thank you. Yeah. Um I mean, I guess that first of all, my name is Adam Kravitz. Um, I'm here kind of on behalf of myself as as the president of the Alton Road Homeowners Association, but not on behalf of the association. Um, since this affects me personally. Um the I guess I'm not look my view is that um I've looked at the ordinance extensively and there's quite a bit of bad drafting in it which has led to a lot of confusion and for example um I don't think there's any debate that people who receive compensation for advocating an issue uh need to disclose that but then that takes them out of the definition of neighborhood association acting without compensation and makes them a lobbyist. So, I'm not quite clear on what the urgency is. If a developer goes to a uh neighborhood association and pays people to speak at a at the meeting or pays people to advocate, they become a lobbyist by definition in the in the ordinance. Okay. What what I particularly object to, however, is that nowhere in the ordinance was there ever because because neighborhood associations were excluded persons were excluded from the definition of lobbyist. They were never required to register at all. Not once a year, not once per issue, not not ever. They're required to disclose that if somebody gets up to speak at a meeting or somebody is acting on behalf of a neighborhood association, they're required to disclose that fact that they're require that they're acting on behalf of the neighborhood association. But I don't see why that's an issue or a problem because most people acting on behalf of neighborhood associations are eager to disclose that fact. They're not

out there pretending that they're acting on behalf of themselves. So, I know that in talking with the other presidents of neighborhood associations, the the real goal here has been to move this back into committee where it could be really reviewed thoroughly and perhaps there could be significant changes to the to the ordinance to clean it up. Mr. Mr. City, can you can you address some of the concerns that Mr. Kravitz brought?

Sure. Well, the the one clarification is uh the statement that neighborhood associations have not been required to register. Um there is a requirement that has existed for many years that the persons that are excluded from the definition of lobbyist which include representatives of neighborhood associations shall prior to communicating with the subject city personnel disclose in writing to the city clerk their name, address, and principal. So there has been a requirement. It has come to light recently that this requirement has not necessarily been enforced over time. Um but but the requirement has been there for some 20 years.

Our next virtual caller is Elizabeth Leone. Miss Laton, you have two minutes.

Hi, good afternoon. I would be there, but I'm sick. So, um I I feel like that a lot of things are happening on the DEAS right now and not everybody is um really sure of what's happening. Um we I feel like we need to refer this whole thing to be reconsidered. Um and I'm going to speak on behalf of MBU. Um we are concerned and I'm not being a lobbyist, I'm not paid. uh MBU's concerned that the amendment unintentionally burdens volunteer neighborhood and community activists who advocate to the city without compensation. And that also is for condo association presidents and anybody that happens to be on one of the boards of the condo associations. Um requiring those volunteers to file forms for every issue, list contacts, and face potential enforcement by the Miami Dade Ethics Commission is excessive. It discourages civic participation and it silence voices. Um, MBU urges the commission to completely revise the ordinance so that uncompensated members of neighborhood condo and HOA and other nonprofit community associations can freely associate community issues without any registration or filing requirements unless they are compensated and that must be disclosed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I commissioner Fernandez

because I don't think there's any confusion on this day as to what we're doing. I think I think we're pretty clear as to what we are doing. So to to to the color, we're very clear as to what we're doing and in fact it is consistent with what MBU sent us where it said MBU supports the recent amendment to chapter 2 article 7 division 3 requiring disclosure of any compensation monetary and non-monetary from developers or project sponsors to individuals or associations communicating with the city. That is what section two of the ordinance we have before us is. However, MBU is concerned that the amendment unintentionally burdens volunteer neighborhood and community activists who advocate to the city without any compensation, requiring these volunteers to file forms for each issue, list all contracts or face potential enforcements. That part of it is already law, but part of it is what we are referring the rest of it is what we are referring

back to the neighborhoods committee. So I just want to make sure that that that the callers rest rest assure we are aware of what we are doing and in fact it is consistent with the recommendation of Miami Beach United. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you

Sarah de los rees harbor neighborhood association. Yes I am clear of what you said and it was great that you're actually going to defer that piece uh just to clear it out. me as an association. Sometimes I speak on behalf of Sunset Harbor, but sometimes you have items that might that might implicate us in the future and I'd like to get up here and be able to speak without having to signing up. So the way to refer it to neighborhood is great. We will attend on your neighborhood to make sure that this is all cleared out that we don't have to fill up any forms as long as that we're not getting compensated. I'm very clear. Thank you.

Our next virtual caller has a screen name of EQSFL. Good afternoon. Um, my name is Cororeen Kirkland. I am a resident of West Avenue. I am a member of the WABNA Association. I'm speaking at this time mostly for myself. Um, but I am disclosing. I am not compensated for anything. Um, I really do support um, Commissioner Suarez's move to make sure that there's disclosure when um, funds are given to support a a certain measure coming before the commission. I like the idea that Alex is um, Fernandez is Commissioner Alex Fernandez is suggesting that it does go to the neighborhood committees and get cleaned up a bit, but I and so I would like to support the bifurcation move.

Thank you so much. Our next caller is Valerie Never.

Uh hello. Um I have a question. I have spoken in behalf years ago in behalf of other neighborhood associations. Not my not even my neighborhood association but other ones. How and I'm not lobbing I'm not getting paid of course. I'm just you know speaking on their behalf because they knew I would be there and since I'm super nice. Yes. So I have no problem in speaking on somebody else's behalf if asked. Would that be legal? Do I have to sign? Uh what is Can you please uh clear that for me? Clarify anyone?

The Pico? [laughter] Yeah. Hello. Maybe our chief deputy city attorney. Uh if I may through through the vice mayor, the chief deputy city attorney could respond to that question. It is a good question. Sure, commissioner. So So anytime an individual resident speaks in support of an item or in support of something that a neighborhood association has requested, they're not they're speaking on their own behalf, right? They're not speaking on behalf of third party. They do not need to register. Okay, Valerie, does that answer your question? And if not, you know how to reach us. So, our next our next our next virtual caller is Tom Hawkins.

Good afternoon, commissioners and and mayor. Uh this time, uh Bisabi can't steal my uh seconds. So, uh I want to to say that uh I support fully what you did in the second reading by uh changing the focus of disclosure from the residents and neighborhood associations to to developers. That makes complete sense. But I think it's important that when you refer these other provisions to the neighborhoods committee that you give it some instruction as to how it should be uh how you prefer it to come out uh in the end because this ordinance was adopted 20 years ago. It's never been enforced until the virus situation came up. And so what we're concerned about still is that we don't want to have to be filing things that are just you know for the sake of filing uh uh when it there's no reason for it. Uh you know clearly uh you know what's happened here if you if you look at the the city attorney's uh memo from 2004 they called the inclusion of neighborhood associations as a housekeeping matter. Now, the problem with this ordinance is that it's more than housekeeping because it has been used by uh people to get the Miami Dade County Board of Ethics uh to go after people. So, my concern is when it gets to committee, we need to just get this thing cleaned up as as as much as possible so that no resident is penalized and so it doesn't stifle civic participation.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next caller is Julie Michael. Yes. I'm just curious. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. We certainly appreciate it. And and we I am the vice president of the Sunset Islands 1 and 2 um HOA board and I am not compensated. But the fact that I'm like, you know, have everybody is having to say that now is obviously hopefully it points out a little bit how ridiculous this is. Um although we of course want to know when somebody is compensated or uh an organization in and of it as a whole has been formed by uh a developer for example. If a neighborhood organization or individual fails fails to register and are uncompensated under the current like reading of things, could they be prosecuted? if they spoke without, you know, without this registration.

Madam Vice Mayor, the um the this article of our code because it's in our code of ethics is subject to enforcement by the Miami Day County Commission on Ethics. Um the only instance I'm aware of where um the ethics commission has weighed in was on the balle situation where the ethics commission issued letters of instruction. Um but it's not a there's no it's not a prosecution. There's no criminal violation.

Julie, to answer your questions, Commissioner Suarez, you know, recently this year, we had an issue where um a developer paid $1.2 $2 million to a neighbored association uh on a written contract and it was contingent upon certain things such as board approvals and permits being uh issued and by and large the Bell neighborhood had no idea that that that money exchange had gone and taken place uh only until after the uh contract was signed. And so what we want to prevent in the future is any more instances of seven figure payments to unelected uh neighborhood associations for their support um when generally they're supposed to advocate for the neighborhood and unfortunately this didn't appear to be the case. So, you know, you you bring up a good point when um you know, on one hand, we don't want to encumber the neighborhood associations, but on the other hand, you were you think it is a good idea for us to know um when organizations or groups of people are getting compensated for for coming to us and lobbying us on um on a project. I certainly want to know if they're getting paid. I certainly want to know if they're getting paid $1.2 $2 million for for sponsoring a project. So, um that's that's where we're at the and I'm not sure if you followed, but we want to bifurcate the issue of compensation. So, we want to we want to still know for getting compensated or not if we're not getting compensated if others are getting compensated while advocating for a project for us, advocating, lobbying, whatever you want to name it. Um and at the same time we

are going to refer to neighborhoods uh a committee to iron out the details of how often a neighborhood association should come to us and advocate for non-compensation um matters. So that's sort of the crux of where we're at right now. Raphael, any more speakers?

Yes, one last one. Ken Coppel, go ahead, sir. Uh hello. Um f first I want to thank you for reconsideration and and bifurcation. It uh it makes sense. Uh I also uh I want to echo um for so be safe uh our uh agreement uh with a brief statement from you uh Miami Beach United uh supporting uh the disclosure of uh of of compensation from developers and project sponsors, but but uh being very concerned uh about what might be placed on reporting requirements on volunteers for neighborhood associations and HOAs and and similar uh organizations. Uh these people spend uh significant amounts of their time. They are not compensated. Uh and I would look very carefully uh at filing requirements. Uh if if if there are some that you deem to be mandatory for good reasons. Okay. Uh but I think this is a slippery slope. Thank you.

Thank you. There are no other requests individuals uh no other individuals requesting to speak. Second. Call a vote. Motion by Commissioner Fernandez. Second. I have a motion by Commissioner Fernandez. Seconded by Commissioner Suarez. Commissioner Magazine. Yes. Commissioner Matos Selenas. Yes. Commissioner Dominguez. Yes. Commissioner Suarez. Yes. Commissioner Fernandez. Yes. Commissioner Bot. Sorry. Commissioner Bot. Yes. Mayor Miner. Yes. Motion carries. The item is approved as amended with a referral to public safety neighborhood neighborhood quality and life committee. That was item R5P.

Okay, we have a uh several Marina items. Um, let's call them together. They're R9P as in Paul, R9A, and R9 AB. So, R9 D, R9, I'm sorry, R9 what? Sorry, mayor.

Sir, sure sir. R9P, R9A, and R9AB. The R9P is uh discuss take action enhance measures to remediate charter vessels issues at the Miami Beach Arena. R9A is discuss update on Miami Beach Marina lease agreement audit by Inspector General. And the last one was AP. You said yes. No. What was the last one again? A B as in boy. AB. Uh AB is discuss commercial vessels pickup drop off Miami Beach Marina. So I'll tee it up. Um

these items we we've already voted on the charter vessel hours of operation. So today what I'd like to discuss is the this with these three items covers. One is the audit issue. Uh that audit found that uh monies were owed are owed to the city of Miami Beach. I know we've been in negotiations with some techs regating the um stupid fuel sales pass through of utilities uh common areas and parking. Also wanted to discuss looking at a centralized pickup and drop off location at Monty's and also the public parking issue that the south of fifth area has mentioned uh public parking under some of the buildings.

Okay. So we we've made a lot of progress on on negotiating all those points with with SUNTX. Um, but we haven't we haven't reached a a final landing spot yet. Um, I think we're probably within we've been trying to schedule our next meeting with them. We anticipate that that's going to happen in within the next few weeks. We're just trying to schedule it between their schedule, our schedule, and the holidays, but but we're very getting close on a lot of these items. I'm sorry, on all of them. Did I mention

on some form of all of them? I'm not saying that it's a, you know, where there's a total agreement right now, but we have made a lot of progress in being able to try to a spot where we think we can land and and move forward. Um, in regards to the drop off, um, were you talking about where if if we're talking about where where the passengers are being dropped off at the Monty's location, that's been that's been addressed. um they've sent out uh notices to all of their their members and I believe that that's been resolved and we've made as as Jose was talking about this morning we've made significant significant progress on the parties and the issues that we were having there. So what what do you mean by Mr. the mayor commissioner Suarez?

What do you mean by month that's that's been resolved? So you're telling me that all the pickups and drop offs are going to be at the floating dock or going to be at the field dock? If we're talking about where people are dropped off to get take get on their charters, that was in the Monty's parking lot. If we're talking about where people board the vessels, that has not been resolved. And and

I think because I think that's what the mayor is trying to get at. And there's a big difference between where you're parking and then where you're embarking and disembarking for a boat. And so I think what the mayor is trying to say is has there been any sort of update on either doing it at the fuel dock or the floating dock? So, as far as as where the the the passengers would board the vessels, that's been problematic because of the size of the vessels and and that's something that that we haven't made a lot of movement on. And and I know that that Sunex is here, their representatives here to to address that that specific question. And and I and I I follow the mayor's concern on that because having a centralized point would make a lot of sense if you know you're on L do or a dock which is almost as far away literally the opposite ends of the of the marina. You know if you consolidate all the activity of embarking disembarking in one area you can have code there. You can have more of a police presence. You'd have a little bit more orderly conduct. What's the push back from SUNTX on having it out of the fuel dock or or in combination also the the um floating dock?

I mean I can let them specifically address that but at a high level I think the issue has been that there's different size of vessels and not all those vessels that it it's not it's not just an empty dock where we can do all of the the the boarding. I'm I'm intimately familiar with Miami Beach because you know I keep my boat there. I'm pretty sure that almost every boat that is inside the marina uh can fit at the fuel dock. Um maybe the ones on the outside, like Mickey Aronson's boat, I don't know, maybe he can even fit in there. But um I'm pretty sure that almost every boat there can fit at the floating dock. Not the floating dock, the fuel dock because that's where they get fuel. So may ask a question.

So maybe I don't know through the mayor. I don't know if you want to continue or have SUNTEX, [snorts] the representatives from SUTEX talk about this because I certainly would like to see a focus point on uh all the activity. I mean, I I I think it's I think it's a little chaotic when you have it on different peers at the marina. I myself when I come back from fishing um you know at the end of the day I see these party boats coming they're loud I smell a lot of drugs coming from the boat a lot of a lot of chaos and it would be better if it was just really pick up and drop off at the um fuel dock. From an enforcement standpoint that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Right.

Commissioner, why do we make it happen? A quick question. Are we referring to uh boats that are just landing there or slip owners that have a charter program? I'd say any sort of activity when it comes to embarking and disembarking for a charter for a charter. Um you know, I think that and that can apply to fishing. That can apply to scuba. I mean, it's it's plenty wide and and has enough area to accommodate P. And by the way, they already do that. I I mean I see it all the time when I get fuel there that they're embarking, disembarking at the fuel dock. Um and these are very large boats, okay,

that are in the marina. And even the ones that come that have a landing agreement, um what do they call it, Mike? They Yeah, they have a landing agreement where they're not even docked the marina at Miami Beach Marina, but they're allowed to embark and disembark. And I believe it's also at the fuel dock. So, that's a big concern for us. That's something that we've heard consistently from South Fifth residents is that they would rather have everything at a focal point um at the fuel dock. And for those of you listening, the fuel dock and the floating dock are basically on the same pier, just the floating dock is closer to uh land. Hey, Mike. Want to address it?

Please. Sure. Oh, good afternoon everyone.

Tell us it's going to happen. [laughter] Good afternoon everybody. Michael Grio on behalf of Sunex. Um I can take it back. I'm not an operations guy. So I don't want to speak out of school and um say that this is something that works doesn't work. Um the little feedback that I've heard is on the floating dock, which is the one that's right adjacent to Monty's. I think that there are some logistical issues with boat sizes regarding being able to uh have ingress and egress there. Um I don't know. um on an operational level at 30,000 ft whether or not there'll be any sort of embrace on doing all pickups and drop offs at the fuel dock, but I'll take it back uh to my team and I'm I'm so happy to see you up there. It's like I get I'm getting distracted by Monica being up there. Sorry. Um Oh, stopped. Come on, man. It's a long time code. I didn't This my first time to get I know you're throwing I know [laughter] I know you're thrown up.

I know. Sorry. Um, but I'll I'll take it back to my my team and I'll I'll the operations team and I'll get an answer back to you folks. You guys, I can just hit you up directly and uh we'll have that conversation. And by the way, through the mayor, this would this would probably clear up 90% of the concern that that South of Fifth residents have that are, you know, right next to the marina is, you know, they consistently hear um and not hear but see and hear issues of people just embarking, disembarking at their own designated peers. They leave their trash there. they're urinating, defecating in the uh backyard, if you will. Um, but if it really is concentrated at the floating dock, we can we the city can dedicate, you know, code and police where they should be and and make sure that everything is done properly.

I hear you. Um, look, even Jose even Jose came in this morning and said he was happy. So, you know, um, yeah, like I said, I'll take it back on the to the operations folks. Um, both the boots on the ground in our marina and then the regional guys as well. and I'll report back. Okay. Starting off on that tangent, Mark. I don't know. And we did get some push back, but we'll take that back and we'll continue to push. Okay. So, you want to continue, Mark? So, I mean, there's not a whole lot. I I don't have a resolution on any of those specific items on the the IG report. Um, but I can tell you that we've discussed every one of those points. We've made some movement. There has been we have resolved um small points,

a couple of small points. Do you think you can come back by February, the first meeting and and have a an update on I'm I'm actually going to I'll make it simple for you and for SUNTX. If we don't have a resolution by the next meeting, then I'm going to propose whatever the next action is cuz this I'm not blaming. I I think you're all working in good faith, but we're gotten to the point by the next meeting. I I I think we'd be ready if there were a January meeting. I think we would have been ready by then. So February is more than reasonable. Okay, just just be known if there's no agreement and it may not be of any fault. If there's no meaning of the minds, then this I will bring for this commission to vote on what the next step should be. We will have taken it as far as we can go by February for sure.

And I'll be a co-sponsor, Mr. Mayor. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Sounds good.

Let's do R5E. R5E is an order to the mayor, city commission of the city of Miami Beach, Florida, amending the code of the city of Miami Beach sub part B entitled Miami Beach Resiliency Code Chapter 7 entitled zoning districts and regulations article one entitled general 12 zoning district section 7.1.7 entitled color of exterior surface to suspend the procedures and requirements for the review of exterior surface colors on buildings and providing for codification repealer servability and effective date. This is a second reading public hearing. The item requires 57's vote. is item R5E. Commissioner Fernandez, I move the item. Let's call the vote. Oh, Commissioner Dominguez.

Uh, I'm concerned about this one because, uh, your next door neighbor can put neon green and I know that the city administration doesn't like this idea. And I, um, Tom, did you have anything more to share? I think for further concerns,

well, the the ordinance was amended after first reading. Um, one of the things that was changed is that this particular this proposed extension, the time period was reduced from 6 months to 3 months and also it would only apply to properties located in multifamily and commercial districts. So, it would no longer apply to single family districts. So, those were two changes that were made um in order to address I think some previous concerns expressed by the commission. And city's okay with these changes. You're not concerned about a hot pink built multi. We did not change our recommendation. We're continuing to not recommend approval.

Yeah. Madam Vice Mayor Tom, this is for both residential and commercial. multif family, residential, and commercial. And I'll tell you why I'm supportive here. Um I know one business reached out and he walked me through the process and this is a business that that young mom and pop business uh quite literally just had a baby uh less than a year ago. Um have a vital business in Sunset Harbor. and he showed me the color of the building and then we're telling him it has to be repainted because it doesn't fall exactly within the color pal. And I apologize if I'm getting some of the verbiage wrong.

And we're just strangling small businesses. We are strangling them. And we have been so clear, so clear to our staff for the past two years. Figure out the permitting. Figure out uh I'm I've been working with Mr. Nice Guy on Lincoln Road for two years. This is one of the most well-resourced, well-funded, most sophisticated hospitality companies in the entire world. Has been trying for two years to open a business and they can't do it. They're no closer today than they were two years ago. Okay. And we are held accountable. Yep.

To our residents when they walk up and down Lincoln Road and go, "What is happening here?" And we have one one of the most sophisticated hospitality companies in the world. They can't figure out our code and I've and I have written to every department head and you just kind of say, "Oh, we're we're here to help." No, we're not. Our codes are so complex that this company that just got a ninef figure valuation can't figure it out.

Okay? And I have asked each and every department head to sit here and come to me and come to us and say this is what is strangling small businesses. Where where is that report? Where where is it? Where is it?

Tom, it was the first conversation you and I had after I got elected when we met in the manager's office room. I go, I don't know the code. I'm not an expert in this. I need you to be proactive and tell me this is what's holding up businesses. Why can the most sophisticated hospitality company in the world not open up on Lincoln Road? And then you know what's going to happen? The building's going to crumble. And then the residents are going to say, "Not only did you not be able to get businesses on Lincoln Road, but now it's demolition by neglect." No, it's demolition because our code is so cumbersome, so burdensome, and so complex that it can't be navigated. and we just have a staff that'll sit up there and say, "Well, we're here to help." Actions speak a lot louder than words, right? And I have seen nothing proactive from staff. Yes, we're we're helping in the building department, but the help with this overly burdensome way to do business. And this is another point of that. I remember vividly on first reading when the response was, "Well, these guys can just go back to DRB. There's any small business owner out there. This guy had to close for the summer

just to keep making payroll and and have revenue coming in. We have businesses closing for the summer and we just throw out just go back to DRB. How long does that process take? 3 months, four months? How many lawyers and lobbyists do they have to hire? How much time does it cost? It's unacceptable. And I'm sorry, but what that leads to is then the pendulum swings so far the other way. And if we have to pass ordinances like this to give breathing room to these small businesses, then that's what we're going to have to do. Because I can't be more clear. I can't be more clear. We need our staff and administration's help in figuring this out. There has to be an internal task force. There has to be somebody that takes responsibility because we're all going to be taking responsibility at the ballot box, right? But we have all been unified and clear. We want these burdens off of our small businesses. We want a revived Lincoln Road. We want a revived commercial corridor, Washington Avenue. And if it is our code and our restrictions that perhaps some of us even are responsible for putting in place, I need our professional staff to come to us and say, "This is what is causing the holdup." And this is how this provides relief. And this is where I'm going to start with this uh supporting this amendment.

Madame Vice Mayor, Commissioner, Commissioner Magazine, thank you. You have expressed [clears throat] it's the complacency is frustrating. There's no other way of putting it. The complacency is frustrating. Um, almost a month ago, four days short of a month ago, I sent an email asking for bold, dynamic, and drastic policy changes that we need to help our businesses. And we and I said we should be initiating them at the December meeting. You know how many recommendations I got back from the administration? Commissioner Magazine, I have a good guess.

Zero. That was my guess. In this one,

I asked for bold, dynamic, and drastic policies, policy changes to help revitalize our city to bring back economic vitality, to streamline process. And it's almost like we are complacent with making it difficult for our small businesses. This week, I got a phone call from someone that was trying to uh respond to permits. They submitted a submission, a revision for permits on uh with a digital seal and and signature. The building department told them, "No, it has to be a wet signed uh seal and approval." They come back. The document now has a digital and a wet seal and and an approval. They send them back. Why? Well, because now you have both. You have both the digital and the wet. So they had to go back to get only a wet seal and and and approval. Wasting time, people's precious time, wasting people's precious money when the goal should be how do I remove obstacles? How do I make it easier? How do I streamline? It feels like let's nitpick the people who are here to help our city succeed. Let's nitpick them to death. Let's drag them through the ringer. Let's make it as difficult as we can when we're sitting here saying, "Let's try to help people. Let's try to help people." And and it was one of the first emails I sent after I got reelected. Bring me bold, dynamic, drastic policy that we can do to help our corridors. And I'm still waiting. And I'm still waiting. And I want that. So, this is a perfect discussion because I got two items on the agenda we'll call next. um we're going to hear about and one of them is a little bit uh brought uh last year. One of them is actually that I'm going to ask the city to come back and literally any regulation that

we have that is not related to public safety and life safety we should consider removing your example is a good one uh Commissioner Fernandez. So let's finish this item first. But uh this is this is an important discussion because there is we all know we're hearing it. There's so much capital that is moving here. It's happening. Two businesses just opened on Lincoln Road. They've told me they've never and they these are franchises. They have many businesses across the globe, not just and they said they've never been busier. They are ready within weeks of opening have expanded hours of operation. Had to hire more employees. They are they maxed out. That's great. And we have a lot of we have uh hedge funds, private equity funds moving here. Um, so it's an exciting time, but uh there is there is that that reputation unfortunately sometimes rightfully rightfully earned that we we need to to be better. That being said, I've heard some horror stories recently. I'm not going to say no, but I've also heard some good stories as well. I actually had some some businesses tell me that um they were they've seen the changes. So we're we have made some changes. I think what you were hearing from us and some of the frustration is we need to do it faster and and better. There's a motion in a second.

Public comment. Yes.

I love this conversation. I'm in I've been in applied status for uh expanding my solar system since July. Uh but regarding the colors, I urge for the passage uh and regarding Laura's comments, you have to be careful what you ask for. I recall two buildings and Tom your memory may serve better by a well regarded artist at maybe Carlos Alves uh building on 9inth in either Uklid and Meridian and the other one at 13th in Uklid on the corner both on the corner and the buildings were painted uh it reminded me of a burrito uh color scheme uh you know lot lot of uh lot of movement. Thank you.

Thank you. There's no one else on Zoom and I see no one else in the audience. I have a motion by Commissioner Fernandez, seconded by Commissioner Suarez. May I call the role? Yes. Commissioner Fernandez. Yes. Commissioner Vice Mayor Matos Selenas. Yes. Commissioner Suarez, yes. Commissioner Bach, yes. Commissioner Dominguez, yes. Commissioner Magazine, yes. Mayor Miner, yes. Motion carries. The item is approved. That was item R5E.

Thank you, colleagues. Thank you. Uh, let's call R9 A and R9 as in Nancy. R9 A is discuss from the get-go initiative for building permit review. R9 discuss take action streamlining the city's building permitting system systems. R9 AL and A. So, we've taken a lot of steps to try to improve the permanent process. Vince, you're one of those steps. Uh, thank you. And I know you're you're you're are making strides. We also had an ad hoc committee that a number of you uh brought. I think it was commissioners Suarez magazine and and bot. Um, we hired a consultant to uh come in here and and give suggestions. I brought legislation from the get-go, which essentially is that the city gets one first shot at it. Because one of the complaints we hear often is that inspectors come, they give their comments, then they address the comments, then another inspector comes in, gives new comments. Basically, the city gets one shot at it. You make your initial comments and let's let's move on and get the permit. Um, and by the way, one of the things I and I'm sorry if I missed somebody to say, one of the problems we have is when the process becomes so difficult, you have people who do not apply for the permit and do the work anyway. And that really is a problem. and we need to be in a position to uh to to avoid that and not give people excuses to try to circumvent um the process. Vince, why don't you take it away? What we're where uh what we're going to do regarding from the get-go. Well, good afternoon everyone. Uh and thank you for your time. So, this is an ongoing process that predated my employment um when I got here to the city and uh we had to take the bull by the horns. So, we had direction from the permit process improvement advisory committee, the ad hoc, and then the mayor's initiative from the get-go. Uh,

this included a multitude of facets and and improvements that we've done uh to date, and we are not complacent and still pushing and pushing and pushing primarily amongst some of those uh issues that we've been contending with and and addressings from 2024 to present and into the future. uh primarily is going to be recruitment and retention. So I've been able to bring a lot more staff on board to have turnaround times accelerated and sped up. Also training consistency in commentary within the various disciplines. Sometimes what you were specifically describing is you'll have one inspector that's specialized in one discipline, electrical, let's say, or plumbing. They provide a certain guidance of what they're looking at. They correct that. the next inspector comes for the next trade discipline. And if that contractor is not there and it's one person taking all this information that may not be proficient in that electrical, plumbing, mechanical discipline, that can be confusing, but that is the way the building code is structured. To the previous comment about the the way they sign and seal, that's not my policy. That's not the city's policy. That's the Florida administrative code 61G15. and that dictates how you submit documents as a design professional. An architect has different rules than an engineer and those are governed by their respective boards. So, we're stuck in the middle balancing this out. On top of that, we have issues with outside agencies that are outside of my jurisdiction. And we know Durm and they've taken massive strides as well in the same endeavor to streamline the process to those ends. even by the way that is a good point because one of the complaints I got recently on the it was a derm issue

I mean we try to help but yes it was a it was outside of and again outside agency I have a question on that if I if you may so so if someone submits a wet signed and sealed document it cannot have the digital one as well it conflicts so according to 61G15 yes you one medium because what the situation is which seal is more accurate. You would assume just by the date, but it's also how you submit and receive it. So that digital seal may have been altered and then the new seal superimposes on it. You can't track what the delta, the change, the modification

like to to me it's just like common sense. If you have a digital sign and seal and then you have a wet sign and seal, it's not sign and sealed once, it's sign and sealed twice. And it's like delaying people by bureaucracy and policy when for us it's easy because we're here, we get paid our salaries regardless. For these people that need to go back and they need to hire engineers and and go through the process all over again. It is their time, it is their money. Uh it's not our time and their money. We should be here to facilitate the process for them to streamline the process for them and not drag them down with a bureaucracy and what section this and subsection that says that just delays and delays and delays and the frustration is just beyond real and that's it. It's it's it's like we need to fix this or else it's just going to be constant excuse and we can't tolerate that anymore.

Understood, Commissioner. Uh but again it all depends on how the submission comes in for the walkthrough process. That's a paper process so we could get you in and out. We were recently in a meeting that we were secret shopper. The contractor came in in the morning and left in the afternoon with a permit. Okay. Those documents have to be physically signed and sealed because they're paper. I can't verify them electronically. For me to verify it electronically, it has to come through the port hole or through an email that I could verify that that seal. It's security and a protection for that design professional that signs that document that no one is stealing his uh his intellectual property or using his license in a way he wasn't it wasn't intended. Okay. So that's a security on their ones that established that not us respectively. 471 is the board that regulates or the statute that regulates the uh Florida Board of Professional Engineers and 481 for architects and uh architects and design uh interior designers. Okay? And that's where those rules come from. We don't have any input. If you want to change that, you could have the lobbyists address that with those respective boards to modify and change those statutes which will trickle down to those administrative codes. Locally, what I have done is even when people don't have a contractor, which is required for a permit application, I'll process it as a dry run, I'll just put a hold on the final permit issue because it has come where you want an approved set of documents that you could bid out accurately and get a real legitimate bid, solid numbers.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, if Mr. Magazine,

uh, and Vince, uh, I've heard great things about the improvements in the building process. Uh I I think when we talk about sometimes the permitting process, it's like this catchall phrase. You know, when you want to open a business, there's many different facets. And one of the issues, Eric, I think is you're the only person that sits at top everything. Am I correct in that? If if you want to open up business in this city, I think you're the only person that really oversees every single stop along the way. Is that correct? I mean, I'm the only person who sits on top of a lot of different things in the organization, but um I've asked Maria Hernandez to be the point person in trying to facilitate the improvements of the building permit process as well as since she's over top of uh economic development to be the point person on um helping to create the business concierge program

which we've heard you loud and clear. We want to facilitate the speed with which businesses can open in the city of Miami Beach that it's taking too long. I agree with you. It takes too long and we need to figure out how to get that faster. And so that's what I've tasked those teams with. But then point being, it also HPB's involved than planning department. And Maria's not over that. you're the only person that essentially has all of those reports under you. Um Vince, two things. Uh one, have we started looking at AI in the permitting process?

Uh yes, sir, we have. As a matter of fact, that's something I've been looking at since before I even got to the city of Miami Beach. There are several products out there. Unfortunately, there's a lot of u expectation and and not what we imagine where it's at yet. There are several homework and you come back.

No, no, absolutely, sir. And and there are several components to this uh to go back onto on track to from the get-go. We've implemented not only the walkthrough process, we've also brought in technology, not full-blown AI, okay? It's it's not going to talk back to you and tell you and redesign your project for you, but it will help funnel you uh through a series of of questions and answers to where you need to go. So, imagine a flowchart where yes, this is the answer. Okay, now you go to this bracket and so forth until you get your final punch list. Hey, you're going to need documents signed this way. You're going to need documents that have a minimum these dimensions, etc. So that you could go forward with your process. Furthermore, we've also brought in the early start permit process. So, while you're going through process once you have that first review, we can get going to the first inspection. It's it's a code provision that I'm happy to leverage. We have to police it to avoid, you know, bad actors abusing the program, but again, we have very strict rules so that they could stay within compliance.

Uh, furthermore, we let me interrupt real quick and my second point and talk to me like the simple person I am. Sure. I I come in for a building application, building permit, and I essentially hit five or six different silos that are different inspectors before a permit gets signed off on. Is that simplistically correct? That's that's pretty much right on the money.

There's different cities across the country that seem to be going towards the model. You come in, you're assigned one person. that one person essentially I don't want to say does the job of five other people because you know but instead of getting past the five different buckets that one person instead of having five people all with their own bucket one person runs through all of that and and to reference exactly what the city manager was discussing with the synergy with the economic development uh department that's what the uh city service concier is all about to take that small business by the hand and be that one point of contact and bring them to the planning and zoning department. Once they're done, they bring them to me. Then they'll take them to public works. So, they're dealing with one person even though the departments are still split up because we each manage different parts of statue and law. Do we have that for residents as well? Because what I didn't appreciate is I always thought, okay, this process is very difficult for businesses. I didn't appreciate how many residents that it impacts and entirely too much of me and my staff's almost every single day is just trying to coordinate. People are going well my permit is stuck here. It's taking so long and we reach out to you or planning or things like that. Um that concier service great that it's under economic development and I get that that's probably for businesses. Do we have that service available for our residents as well? It is being expanded to the individual homeowner as well.

What do you need from us to make that happen? Anything? Staff and a space. And I will say despite how conservative we were with our budget and you saw us, we sat up here and went line item through line item and cut millions of dollars. I want to say you were the only department absolved from that exercise, right? Because we understood how critical getting you the resources you need are. So, you know, I look forward to seeing the return on that.

Absolutely. and and again everything takes time to implement and then to to actually see what you sew bear fruit and we're seeing that through the walkthrough process. Okay, so that that's salvo one. That's the first shot across the bow and as we keep implementing and adding to the list of things that are included in the memo that's part of the package. Uh you'll see how those things will begin to bear fruit. But again, it's it's an education process. The homeowner comes in maybe once every couple years when they have to do their roof or their air conditioner, maybe their impact windows, and they don't come back. But that business that has that annual BTR or that expansion, hopefully business is so good, they're going to add now to their an outdoor cafe or expand their grease trap because business is so big or go to a new location and have a bigger more square footage, what have you. Those are the opportunities where that relationship, okay, and and that contact becomes more frequently utilized and more beneficial. Uh, in general, I personally take daily meetings non-stop uh to help people get over these hurdles. And recently, like I I mentioned in FK, we had a 21-day turnaround permit for yogurt shop. Okay, we've had a lot of successes, but it's

Thank you. And that's all about people coming in and making that right contact. So if you start on the wrong foot, it's hard to correct that right? But if you come in and you get you come in after your first rounds on Mondays, we have design professional day. Go over each one of your comments. If you've already addressed those comments, those reworks, and you upload them, sit down with the reviewer, on this page, I did this. On this page, I did this. You're out. Next trade. And that way we go getting it. We go moving the football down the field that much quicker. So you have ultimate success and you can open your business. You know, the downside to that is I've had frozen yogurt five days in the past two weeks. [laughter] Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Fernandez,

thank you. And I'm just, you know, part of this frustration that we have is that, you know, you see someone responding um I don't know to comments from the fire reviewer. Then it has to go to mechanical. It has to go to urban forestry. It has to Why is it that a review on comments from fire now needs to go back through all of these other trades? Now you're holding back all the other people that do need a response from that from from those trades on something that they don't need to look at because it might be a fire thing. You know, it it really is very frustrating. We need to we need to fix that. That has to be fixed. If you had comments on fire that you're responding to comments on fire, go to fire. But don't make these people then sit, you know, 30 days and going through the desks of everyone else and creating more work for people that already have a pile of stuff that they do have to review that is not a fire related thing. And the other thing I'm I'm going to say, you know, we all heard, you know, Jeff Bezos uh his comments to the mayor of the city of of Miami just just a couple of of weeks ago, you know, that there's no reason why AI couldn't review building permits in 10 seconds. And recently I was at a Florida legal cities um legislative conference and one of the cities um that has seen dramatic speed improvement with the implementation of AI is Alamontto Springs in in central Florida. They've seen drastic drastic reductions in things that used to take weeks to get approved. Now they get approved in minutes because they have successfully implemented AI. I believe Hernando County here in the state of Florida has has also uh implemented similar technology. We have to push the envelope.

We have to we can't wait for perfection. We we cannot let perfection get in the way of good. Is the technology all there yet? No. But at some point we need to start implementing this. Otherwise, we're not going to keep up with our competitors in the mainland. And we have a lot of competition today that the Miami Beach of 20 and 30 years ago did not have. So, we really need to up our game, Mr. Manager, when it comes to these things. We need to be more responsive, more efficient, if a responses to a specific trade, don't make everyone go through every single trade all over again. And if we have technology that other cities are already using to speed up the approval process, let's start implementing implementing that even if the technology is not perfect, but at some point we have to or else we will not compete.

Thank you, Commissioner Fernandez. Commissioner Dominguez, um I just want to make a a couple comments and maybe get clarification. So we had an ad hoc committee. They had we had a consultant and they give a lot of recommendations. I've seen a lot of the streamlining that has begun. So, that part is great. I did recently have somebody complain about um having to go to urban forestry and the explanation I received was that new building permits don't have to go through all of the different agencies, but that particular one was an existing permit and so that's what triggered it. But moving forward, we don't have to do that.

Yes and no. So on your initial submission, you go to all the departments and as you get checks in the box, you get approvals and you're coming and addressing the reworks for the ones that weren't approved, you don't have to go to who already approved you. Now when you come in with a revision, okay, when we had the the consultant uh from Moran Industries, they came in and we streamlined it, got rid of a hundred different work classes that were superfluous or extra. We got rid of all those and we went with each department. Exactly. Item by item, what do you have to review? And one of the things that kept coming up again and again is during the revision process something called scope creep. So you come in for an outlet, an air conditioning brand that changed. And while I'm submitting that, I'm going to also add a fence or I'm going to relocate a tree or something to that effect. And that's how they crept in or slid under the radar some other changes. And that's why the other silos or departments want to see it again. Now, I'm happy to sit down with any of you and we could go over it, but I would invite my colleagues as well so they could explain some of what happened during uh the Bob Moran analysis where we streamlined the process and the revision was the one where everyone's like this is a fail safe to make sure that what started out correct and compliant now is not non-compliant and seeking a variance through deception basically. Okay. So, that's one of the things that you see there, but like I said, I'm happy to sit down with my with my fellow directors and we could discuss any items that you want to try and readress as a result from from that Bob Moran study. But again, um we've made significant headway. We are not complacent in any way, shape, or form. And again, we're still pushing and making tweaks and adjustments as needed. One of the main things that I'm dying to see uh bear fruit uh is going to be design professional day. I think for the

bigger projects that's going to really really resound and produce a lot a much faster accelerated uh plan review time and approval process.

Yeah. Can I I can ask a couple of questions um just to encompass some of the things we've heard. I actually had a meeting recently on a presentation with Maria Hernandez and Frank Quintana regarding AI permitting. What's I want to hear your thoughts. Well, it was fascinating to me um because it uh and I spoke to Vince uh in detail about it and after the meeting, Frank came into my office and we talked about it a lot. Um accuracy is going to be the challenge. We have to make sure that if we start using AI that it's actually accurate. Um the accuracy levels that that particular consultant um told us were pretty high. It would be amazing if that was really true, but of course that would have to get uh put to the test.

Can we do a pilot program where it's not actually in use, but that it's in real life, but we're also using the II to see how accurate it is.

Of course. I mean, I think we're probably at a point, and I had this discussion with Frank, that this is coming at us, uh, you know, like a Mac truck. I mean, we have to get on board with this and at least try to have it solve the problems that we have. As an example, what you just what Commissioner Fernandez just described of things going to departments that we call NAS, which are not applicable just because of that second round of reviews. That's a problem we have and that's something that we're always trying to get ahead of. Um, but if AI could help us with something like that where it could read plans and automatically not um check uh or check items that are only what we need to review. It would be amazing if we could do something like that. AI can do that.

Commissioner Fernandez and I I think are uh you just [laughter] you just said something that Thank you. You acknowledged a problem that we have.

Yes. Because what is most frustrating is that when we highlight these things that it's like it's just like the the problem feels like it's not acknowledged, feels like at times is it's just tried to be justified, tried to be excused, there's a reason, there's a code section, there's a state statute, there's a lack of staff. Thank you for acknowledging a problem that we have. Thank you for identifying a way that we could potentially solve that problem. And Mr. Mayor, I think you know this is the future of our city. This is the time to start piloting this stuff. We are behind the eightball on this because other cities are already doing it. We're hearing about them in the state of Florida. They're doing it successfully and there's nothing wrong with being the leader. Miami Beach has always been the leader. even if we were the first and we're the ones testing, there's something to be said about being the leader on something and we should be moving forward in that direction. And I also would be remiss not to put on the record, uh, Mr. Director, by when do we expect that the expanded permit walkthrough program for small commercial retail spaces to be up and running? I just got to get buy in with with my other departments because again we've got to set up a framework similar to what we have for walkthrough for the homeowners, right? It's can only be a certain amount of pages. It has to be a similar use because again we have outside agencies for a change of use that might complicate uh or delay the process. The 21-day yogurt shop needed advice. They allowed themselves to be guided. So they went to Durham concurrently at the same time that they were with us. that literally.

So I need an answer. How long do you need? Second week in January. Second week of January. Second week of January. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. There you go. Concise to I I had previously brought an item about that every department should be looking at bringing in an AI. Well, now we're focused on the building department. Maybe we do this collectively. It doesn't matter. But picking a vendor that we use a pilot program for the building department. Well, picking a vendor, I'll refer to uh the IT director because again, platforms talk different languages. Some things play nicer with other things. No, I'm thinking bits and bites stuff.

We got to get this started because [snorts] as Commissioner Friend says, it's going to happen sooner rather than later and we might as well be at the forefront. If we're having some questions about how accurate it is, let's do it in real time. Sure. Let's start. Frank,

good afternoon. Uh Frankington, IT director. Uh I will reiterate what you've heard here is that we agree with what we're talking about here uh with the issue that we're trying to solve and that there are opportunities to do things that are more leading than than we you know than we currently are doing. Um the work that has been done to get us here from the people and process management part was a real stepping stone that we needed to take to be able to get to the point where we can automate these things. um being able to consolidate a lot of the process and the permit types that we did was was a huge thing that happened that was very um cross cross departmental. Um we are in extensive conversations internally about options that are out there to your point about having a pilot program. There are a couple of providers that we've seen that could presumably do some elements of this. Uh so we are actively discussing that and and we would like to be able to you know come back with a variety of options so we're not just on one and we can do that concurrently. do a bake off, do a pilot program, do something of that nature where we can really, yes, you tell us that you could do XYZ, show us, you know, and then we can have a scope uh to determine just how much is enough. To your point, it's not going to be perfect. This is a rapidly developing technology that we've adopted in various other areas within the city. And this is just another opportunity to do so, but in a very public fashion that's going to help our residents and our businesses.

And you can bring that back next meeting. Uh we can come back with some more information. Yes. Frank, why wouldn't we just do an RFQ for a partner? Uh we and base it on qualifications. We could do it uh we could do an RFQ for a partner as well. That's a way to do it.

Yeah, I mean it should be an an open bid process um for sure because especially if we do the pilot and it is highly accurate. For example, the presentation we saw they were claiming in high 90 percentage rates. Let's assume they're accurate and they're whoever whoever wins it. We're probably that's probably going to be the leading contender. So, yeah, I think it should be an open process. Couple other questions and I'm sorry if you kind of address this, but we had that business concierge day and and I actually went and spent some time there and businesses were like, "Oh my god, they were so happy. Literally came in, got their permit that day. How frequently can we can we get that up and running?" I'm so glad you said that.

Thank you. Hey, I'm [laughter] glad to bring awareness to that because that's one of the things that we've certainly had conversations around was just the lack of awareness around it. We've been doing it probably for the past since the spring. Um, and so we were initially set to do it on a on a yearly basis. I've made sure that we do it quarterly. Um so it's going to be a quarterly business license and concierge event which you know you you saw that uh mayor where businesses were like we never we never got an opportunity to just walk through the process talk to all these different departments got an opportunity to talk to all the different uh resources that were available to them as well and so I realized that one of the biggest things for businesses was communication and so making sure that we're doing it on a on a quarterly basis. But we're currently in process right now for the next quarterly quarterly business licensing and uh conc.

So I think I think what you're saying is that businesses weren't even aware that we were doing this quarterly. What [clears throat] are the prospects of doing it even more frequently than quarterly?

Yeah. Uh that's a [laughter] that's a that's a that's a task for you know for all of my my colleagues and and so we've we've certainly had conversations. I know it's it's it's certainly a little bit of a lift um for for my colleagues in in building and planning because it's it's going to take up their somebody from their staff. It takes their entire day. Uh we do it from I think from 9 to 3:00 in the in the afternoon. And so it is one of those things that where we we're trying to be cognizant of of folks in their time um and and staff time, but we can certainly certainly continue to look look at ways in which we can do it more frequently. Just seems like if you could, for example, I'm thinking if you do it like the first Monday of every month or whatever, whatever you choose, that's a good marketing tool because it gets publicized and people know, oh, the first Tuesday, the first Monday, and they know to come in.

That right, Mr. Mayor, if I if I could, and I mentioned this to the city administration, we have a reputational issue. There is a reputation out there that it is difficult to do business with the city of Miami Beach. And we have this business consurge program and we just waved mobility and concurrency fees for new businesses wanting to open our city. And we're doing uh uh an expanded walkthrough program for small commercial spaces. And uh hopefully we'll be for example live entertainment on certain commercial corridors. We're waving regulations. We're making changes. We're reforming things to create a more businessfriendly environment to support our economy, but these regulations, we can throw them out the window if if the business community that we want to attract is not aware of it. We need to address the reputational damage that we have had to our city over years that has made it difficult for us to attract good businesses and why we hear all the time b businesses they didn't even consider coming to Miami Beach because the reputation is so bad. I really feel we need to engage in crisis communication to restore this bad reputation that we have so that businesses know of these initiatives, Mr. mayor that we've been able to advance during during your term uh with the concurge program. the the South Florida Business Journal, the Miami Today, the the the large business public publications should know of these very deliberate steps that we're doing to reform our government to make it more businessfriendly and to shake off this reputation we have developed over the decades that is getting in their way so that people don't stop saying, "Oh, I'm not going to go to Miami Beach because it's just too difficult."