Transportation Committee - Regular Meeting

Bow your heads. Heavenly Father, Lord and Savior, we thank you for this day, the day we've never seen before and we'll never see again. We pray that you bless us, guide us, make us instruments of your will. Amen.

Amen.

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. All right.

I'm going to go ahead and open it up for a reasonable opportunity to be heard. Anyone wishing to be heard, please approach the podium. Give me your name, your address. You'll have two minutes. I don't see that I have any cards or anything. No one's approaching. Reasonable opportunity to be heard is now closed. Madam Attorney.

Good morning. The items to be considered today by this committee are those listed in the final official agenda and in the changes memo. The following items have been added to the agenda. Item 1G1 supplement, the fiscal impact and social equity statement for item 1G1. Item 3F, which is a resolution adopting the major update of the 2026 transit development plan. And item 3G, a resolution authorizing a maintenance map.

Any motion on agenda?

So moved. Second.

It's been moved by Commissioner Messon. Second by Commissioner . All those in favor of approving the agenda, signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? All right, show the agenda adopted. Let's go.

You have a public hearing item, item 1G1.

1G1. We're going to open public hearing for item 1G1. Anyone wishing to be heard on item 1G1, approach the podium. No one's approaching. I don't have any cards. Showed the public hearing on 1G1 closed. We can take up 1G1 now. Are there any questions from the dais? I need a motion on 1G1. Happy to move it. It's been moved by Regalado. Second by Bastien. Is this a roll call? Call the roll.

Commissioner Bastien. Yes. Commissioner Bumidez.

Commissioner Bumidez, your vote. 1G1.

Senator Garcia? Aye. Vice Chairwoman Regalado? Yes. Chairman Gilbert?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

All right.

For the record, Mr. Chair, this is an ordinance relating to zoning, creating section 33-39.5 of the Code of Miami-Dade County, Florida, providing for administrative acceptance and approval of covenants relating to the Live Local Act in connection with proposed developments located within transit-oriented developments or areas in the county under certain circumstances, providing criteria, requirements, and procedures applicable to such covenants and modification of such covenants, providing severability, inclusion in the code, and an effective date.

Thank you. I was wondering should we read that first? You want me to do another vote just to make it clean?

Yes, you can.

Thank you. Call the roll on 1G1 again. It's been moved by Regalado, seconded by Bastien.

Commissioner Bermudez? Yes. Senator Garcia? Aye. Commissioner Bastian? Yes. Vice Chairwoman Regalado? Yes. Chairman Gilbert? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

All right, what now?

It's our only public hearing.

Does anyone else wish to bifurcate any of these items is a good question, right? 3D. 3.

Over here, D. D?

3D.

I want to do 3D and 3E. 3D.

Okay, I'm hearing 3D. All right, so 3D and 3E? Yes.

All right, could I have a motion on the rest of the items then?

Second.

It's been moved by Commissioner Bastian, seconded by Commissioner Regalado. All those in favor on the balance, everything except for 3D and 3E, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed? All right, show that was adopted. Let's go to 3D. Read it. Let's open it up.

3D is a resolution authorizing a non-competitive designated purchase pursuant to section 2-8.1 of the county code by a two-thirds vote of the board members present. Authorizing additional expenditure authority in the amount of $24,980,000 for a total modified amount of $54,944,855 for contract number RFP01071. Bus passenger shelter program for the Department of Transportation and Public Works. Authorizing the county mayor or county mayor's designee to execute the supplemental agreement and exercise all provisions contained therein, and authorizing the use of the People's Transportation Plan PTP bond program funds for this project, which was included in the original Exhibit 1 to the PTP.

Thank you. Commissioner, Senator Garcia, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a question on this. By understanding how the bus shelter, we recently gave a bus shelter, bus bench contract to, I guess, Out Front Media. Now I'm seeing that we are coming back to ask for more additional dollars. Aren't they responsible for the building of these shelters? Because now we're giving them more money to, they're going to use county dollars to build these shelters?

I see the director approaching. I'm assuming she wants to respond.

Jimmy? Mr. Chairman, if I may, can you just explain the program to me? Because I remember a couple of years, I think it was last year, there was a contract that was awarded. And we make money off the advertising. I know they make money off their advertisements. My understanding, I think Hialeah had a program and sold it to the city of Dorau a couple of years back. My understanding how the systems work is that these bus shelters are are placed there by the actual company that's going to make the money off of the advertisement, and then we split whatever advertisement sales are there. How is this different? How about that?

Through the Chair, Stacey Miller, Director and CEO of Department of Transportation and Public Works. I'm not familiar with the other contracts that you might be referring to. This particular contract, we pay for the installation and maintenance of our bus shelters. They do advertise and we receive revenue from the advertisement, but we do fund the installation and maintenance of the bus shelters.

We're funding the installation and the maintenance and they make money off the advertisement. Shouldn't they be also responsible for the maintenance of these shelters?

It's part of the contract.

They're responsible for the maintenance. We install and they maintain?

Yes, sir.

And what is the profit sharing that we have with them now?

We'll have to ask the team. I apologize.

I don't have to apologize. I got it. Cause this is sprung into you right now. I will, I have a couple of other questions, but I guess we'll, we'll let, let's have a conversation as we, this moves forward before the, the full board. I'm just not beating a hundred percent comfortable with happy to do so. Thank you. Appreciate you.

Of course.

Director, I think probably the confusion was your answer. You said that we were, we're responsible for the installation and maintenance. And then you say that you said that they responsible for the maintenance and we, profit shares. Are we responsible for the maintenance or are they responsible for the maintenance?

It's part of the contract that they maintain the bus shelters, pick up the trash, go out.

Okay.

So that as part of the contract, but they're responsible.

So they're responsible for that maintenance, the cleanliness and that type of thing. And we're probably responsible for the physical plant structure of the maintenance. So that's going to be the division. That's the confusion. You're recognized from .

Thank you. And I was going to say that because there was a whole long conversation about the trash cans that we added to them when we had that contract and how often they picked up the trash. I remember we went like two rounds on that. I know that the county has different rules for advertising. But I think that at some point we need to look at these rules again because, Senator, you mentioned Doral and obviously the City of Miami also. But City of Miami doesn't subscribe to Lady Bird, so they have a lot more flexibility than we do. But there are a lot of limitations on the types of ads that they can put at bus benches that was passed in the prior administration that were very controversial. But if we want to highly monetize these things, we can do it. So as we go into our transit cliff, we might want to rethink some of those decisions. The big moneymaker is that we do not allow political advertising. So our bus benches don't have that. And that was a decision the board made some time ago. But as we all know, there's a lot of money in that. So I would love when we talk about the revenue share to maybe kind of revisit that. because we're leaving a lot of money on the table here. I don't think we have to go as far as the city of Miami that has a bus bench that's sponsored by Absolute Vodka and has a sofa. That's the city of Miami thing. But I think we could, as we look at different revenue opportunities, get a little more dynamic. about these bus benches because we're very, very prescriptive. And I think we should probably kind of look at it and see what's happening in the market. And it's weird because we said no to political advertisements and all these different advertisements. And then all of our bus benches have weirder advertisements than those. I won't get into the specifics, but they're very personal in their nature. Let's just say that. They're around health decisions, which the neighbors get a little freaked out about too. So I think we should probably rethink that and look at making a little bit more money so that we can maintain them better and potentially also expand them.

Yeah, let me just get a motion on the item. Unless there's something else. Commissioner Bastian, you move it? Move by Commissioner Bastian.

Second.

Second by Commissioner Bastian. It's all those in favor. Hold on, I wanted to- Are you a question? You're right.

I forget, because while I'm not against the political advertising part, I want to remind everybody, and I want to make sure, Ms. Miller, as director, because we pass an ordinance that on our buses we had, today is very timely on this, that we make sure that the advertising, because that happened in my campaign, my opponent for a year put a fake picture of herself and put it all around our buses. And when we talked to the vendor, Their lawyer's argument was, well, you don't have any rules. Now we have rules. I just want to make sure that that doesn't happen again. And now on a day like today, which is a day after something occurred in the first case, I just want to make sure that people understand. follow the rules, and it be fair for everybody. So I want to make sure that this particular company, not only on the bus benches, but certainly on the other, because they do the advertising for our buses also. So if they could please make sure that they are following our ordinance that was passed on political advertising.

Okay, so yeah, the reason I was rushing to the vote is because I do remember that It wasn't a prior commission who put that regulation in place, it was actually us. Yeah, so- Yeah, we did the bus bench, not the bus benches. So, but what occurred yesterday? Did I miss something? You said something occurred yesterday?

Well, yeah, my opponent took a plea, so some of that money was used for some of the advertising, which is exactly why I want to make sure that we- Don't do this in the future.

I'd just be over minding my Miami Gardens business. I didn't even know.

Well, I know, but- I know, yeah, there you go. Well- I suffered it. So the bottom line is I want to make sure that the rules are the same for everybody. And when I talked to this company, not about the bus benches, but about the busses, their attorney sent us back a very nice letter saying, blank off. So for me, it's now that there's an ordinance, let's make sure that the company that does the bus benches and our buses understands our rules.

I am completely comfortable with enforcing our ordinance and Commissioner Regalado. I don't necessarily. I won't be rushing to put it on this committee's agenda, but I'm okay with the broader discussion. I think she had at the board. Because I think all of us need to be involved. I just, I've always been really weary about us. in what, how we regulate which speech is allowed on our assets. I've always been worried of that and so as we go forward in that conversation, I would just advise my colleagues be mindful of what you say on the record because it is perilous for us when we place ourselves in position as gatekeepers TO WHAT SPEECH IS ALLOWED ON OUR ASSETS. I VOTED FOR THE LAST ITEM. I THOUGHT WE WERE WALKING A VERY THIN LINE. AND SO I DON'T WANT US TO HAVE THE TYPE OF PROBLEMS THAT I'VE SEEN OTHER CITIES HAVE. I'VE DEFENDED OTHER CITIES WHEN THEY HAD THOSE PROBLEMS. AND SO LET'S JUST BE MINDFUL AS WE MOVE THAT CONVERSATION. COMMISSIONER BASTIAN.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, thank you for answering to our questions and being prompt in sending the information that we requested. I appreciate that. I have a quick question. So what is the timeline for installing all these benches?

That's an excellent question.

It is a multi-year contract and will take several years to deploy all of the new assets.

Give me an idea. What are we looking at?

I'm going to have to check back with the team. I apologize. I don't have that in front of me.

Okay. Will you be sharing that before the next meeting? Thank you.

Please follow up with the Commissioner on that. And then, Commissioner, if there are specific areas that you know, and maybe you could break it down for the areas that are actually in her district. Yeah. So let's just make sure that where there's specific need, there's deliberate action.

We will do that.

All right. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Those opposed, show the item passing and forward it to the... Board favorably, we have one more pulled item, was it 3E? Yep.

3E is a resolution ratifying a contract between Hitachi Rails STS USA and Miami-Dade County in an amount of $6,729,260 for the purchase of rail parts for Miami-Dade County's Department of Transportation and Public Works pursuant to resolution number R-896-21, section 2-8.1B5 of the code of Miami-Dade County, Florida and implementing order 3-38.

Commissioner, be me to ask you.

By the way, I have no problem with having a discussion on political advertising, but just one need to have the rules to be clear. I pulled this just to make a comment. This was awarded in December of 2023. And this maybe goes more to the administration, but this is two and a half years later. And I know that the 120 day window was Mr. Whatever we call it, but you know, two and a half years is whatever. Actually, yeah, two and a half years later is two and a half years later. So I'm going to support it. But I think if I remember correctly, when we went to Japan, Chairman, we even went to see these trains or went to the company that made it. So I think it would have been nice to have Not had a two and a half year wait to have it in front of the commission. So I want to put that on the record. I know that there was a changes in DTPW's transition and management for goods and services and all those things that we talked about, which I understand it. But this is the example of timeliness sometimes. You know, it could have been 180 days, 300 days. So I just want to make that comment on the record. I support it, Mr. Morales, but I wanted to make that comment so it could be taken back and the administration can at least hear it publicly.

Thank you. Move it. It's been moved by Commissioner Regalado, seconded by Commissioner Bastian. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, show the item passing and forward it favorably to the board. All right, do we have anything else on the agenda?

That completes the agenda. A motion to adjourn is in order.

Hold on, to the department, do we need to send any of these things, request any of these things be expedited? No, we're good? All right, Commissioner.

My appropriation meeting hasn't met in three months and I'm getting a little concerned about the budget.

It's your probation, what?

Appropriations has- Appropriations.

Okay, Jesus, I was like, what? You mean the chairman put you on probation? You need to enunciate, okay. No way.

I talk a little fast, it happens sometimes. So abbreviations hasn't met in some time and I'm a little concerned about the budget. And as you know, we've been talking about the transit cliff for some time and there's a lot of things moving. So I was wondering if we could have a discussion about the transit piece here in this committee next month, because I think we really, I don't want us to have the conversation Again, as part of a broader thing, and it get a little lost, I think that there is some opportunities for us. And there's a lot of other items that are coming to this committee that impact the budget. And I know that you brought an item about the smart plan and we've talked about it at different places. Um, so I just, uh, my, my humble requests that, um, we talk a little bit about it at our next meeting as we start moving closer to the budget so that it doesn't, um, get caught up.

Um, why don't you prepare a discussion item and submit it? I, I don't have a problem with that, but the chairman still has to actually, I'm just, I'm, I'm asking you if you're okay with it.

I'm fine with that. Okay. Happy to do it. I'll submit it. Thank you.

All right. Anything else? And the department, so you all heard her say she's going to request that, so you all can probably start to think ahead. I don't want you all to wait until the agenda comes out and then say, oh, by the way, we didn't have time because it was just approving the agenda. You all are probably doing some of that work already, I would imagine. But you're forewarned at this point. So all those in favor of adjourning, signify by saying aye.

Aye.