Policy Council - Regular Meeting

Commissioner Gilberts. I'm here. Commissioner Millian-Orbus. Present. Vice Chairman Gonzales. Chairman Rodriguez.

Present.

Core members present, you have a quorum.

All right, please stand for the prayer this morning led by Commissioner Orbis.

Good morning everybody, please bow your heads. Dear Lord, please gather us here today as we meet to make decisions for the future of our community and guide us. Guide everybody who's in this room, guide the administration, our commission, and look out for our community. In your name we pray, amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, All right. Real busy committee meeting. All right. Madam and Mr. Attorney, can we move into reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard? Yes, you may. All right. Well, reasonable opportunity is now open. i have no uh speakers registered to speak so reasonable opportunity is also now closed can i have a pen thank you um is it in order to set the agenda at this time yes it is all right i'll entertain a motion motion to set the agenda short move by commissioner second by commissioner cohen higgins on favor signify by saying aye all opposed nay show the agenda set all right any bifurcations to my colleagues All right, show 3A bifurcated.

I move the balance of the agenda, Mr. Chair.

All right, show the balance move by Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, seconded by Commissioner Orbis. On favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, nay. All right, on 3A, I was actually going to bifurcate it as well, Commissioner, but I'll let you... I'll let you... Be recognized first.

Well, I just had questions because I think there's like a substantial monetary difference, but the point didn't kind of track with that. And I was wondering what was the deciding factor in actually moving on. Do we have people here from those companies?

Is Namita here?

Good morning, how are you?

I'm looking, sorry, Chair. Let's see, where's everybody?

I kind of want to know what's funny.

The director is on her way.

okay all right so here's here's what i was and i'll let commissioner gilbert kind of hear his thoughts and i think he but i actually was going to pull this or bifurcate this item as well colleagues because i did see that the the so so this is a debris removal uh contract just to i guess monitor it like the the management company of our debris only in the event of a uh of a disaster right of a hurricane so this isn't like something that that i understand we pay for you know, every year is only one activated. But the difference between the recommended Bitter and the second place bidders about 10 points. It's not so big difference and but the second place bidder is nearly a $1,000,000 less expensive in a time when obviously we're discussing budgetary cuts left or right. Are you replacing nominate this morning.

Yeah, I hear Nomina's on her way, but I can speak a little bit to the contract. So this was a competitively bid solicitation. Our department, I'm sorry, Olga Espinosa Anderson, through the Chair, I'm the Deputy Director of Administration for Department of Solid Waste Management. So we are, our department is the heaviest user of this contract. As you said, this contract is only used in the aftermath of a disaster. So basically, in order for departments to get reimbursed from FEMA, you must have a monitoring contract to kind of keep the other contractors honest. They basically have folks that follow the different other vendors who actually go out and pick up the debris and make sure that they bring it to our staging areas and make sure they don't stop and pick up other debris along the way and that they only pick up debris from the areas in which they are assigned.

If we could just interrupt. I appreciate the answer. I know what they do. I know the importance of it. I think what I was questioning, I think the chair was questioning is, there's such a small difference and it's a big monetary difference. And so we want to focus on the correlation and that delta. So I think that's probably what we're looking at right now. So we understand it's very important. We understand who uses it. So all that stuff being established. You have one person who is like ten points more and the other person who is a million dollars less. And so we won't probably get into that. I think that's what, so you could drill down on that, that'd be great. Thank you.

Okay, I think Nomura would probably be able to answer that a little bit better than I. I do know that it was competitively through a solicitation with a committee who scored the different vendors. I wasn't on that committee, so that particular question, I thought you all had questions about what the contract was for.

Thank you, Olga, and thank you for trying to fill in. I know that you were just trying to help out.

My pleasure.

So I appreciate that. But look, again, unless Namira shows up and reveals something unexpected, but I had my team do some research on this because That stood out for me, right? So, and I remember not long ago, colleagues, we were discussing on this day is, and I forgot what it was. I want to say it was, I want to say it was like the seaweed, like the sargassum at the beach, right? And we were doing kind of like the same conversation. The difference there was, and this is what I had my team do research, the difference in that scenario was that The second place bidder, the lower bidder, didn't really have the qualifications for it yet. Of course, they said they would figure it out and they had the right partnerships and all, but they hadn't really done it before. And I wanted to make sure that that wasn't the same case. So I had my team look into it and the second place bidder has many, many contracts of this magnitude throughout different states and throughout Florida as well. And in fact, found out in their research that three of their top executives actually come from the top from the from the number one recommended you know company so I don't know I think they're both very qualified they get the job done and to save nearly a million dollars I I I would I would look to move forward with the second place bidder at this time second

I'll move that.

hit the points running ahead mr chairman um especially if no one's here to answer the question uh ten points relatively uh insignificant a million dollars relatively significant and people with the same expertise as was doing it before and and sometimes i think you know i know the the provider that's recommended was people who actually we were using before i believe and so i i know we get we fall in love you know that's what happens we fall in love here at the county where we're using you we'll likely go back to using you

i've been a proponent of not doing that so i'm very comfortable moving the item all right uh moved uh by commissioner gilbert seconded by commissioner orbis recommending uh i guess it's called thompson consulting services um and commissioner cohen higgins you recognize

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a large contract. It's a five-year contract with a cumulative value of $95 million. And I'm going to support your motion. But I have a lot of questions about this. And what is perplexing to me is that it's 915. It's policy council. And we don't have someone here to answer questions that are pretty basic questions on the item. So that is very concerning to me. And so I will support the number two moving forward to final hearing. But between now and then, I would and I will have questions for the administration regarding this procurement and why this particular company was recommended as the number one bidder when there is a second ranked company that was a million dollars less expensive. That's not making much sense to me, but I'm sure there's a valid reason, but it's not being provided to us this morning. So just kind of message to everyone that pays attention to our hearings. When we have committee hearings and there's items on our agenda, we would greatly appreciate someone that can be here to answer our questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner.

Yes, I just wanted to add to what Commissioner Cohen-Higgins said. I also had some questions because I wanted to know how much weight was put on the cost. I think that should be one of the most important points that a vendor receives. So I had some questions, but absolutely I support saving money. I think in this moment that we're facing, we need to find every cost saving that we can. So thank you for bringing this up.

Of course, thank you.

Well, with that, Commissioner Gonzalez. And maybe this question is for the chief. Is there really nobody here that can answer any questions as to the formula that was used to come to the, because I'm sure there has to be somebody.

Yeah, it's been- Sorry, through the chair, I apologize profusely. Nomada and her number two are on their way here, and so I'm not quite sure what the delay is. We actually spoke about it this morning, but I don't want to misspeak. I'm not that familiar with the detail, so I'm- I'm going to call the vote.

Would that all in favor signify by saying aye? Aye. All opposed, nay. Through the chair, we had just arrived. It's too late, I just called the vote at this point. But I think that Nomada and their team should definitely get with our offices and explain it. To the attorneys, any further business on the agenda itself?

No, the bifurcated item was the only one to be considered. The meeting minutes were approved with the setting of the agenda.

All right, show us adjourned. Thank you all. Thank you.