City Commission - Regular Meeting

strenuous activities and wear lightweight clothing. We should also ensure proper hydration and know the signs of heat sicknesses.

Florida, it's time to level up your ride. Ride smart, ride safe, ride like a leader. Start with the basics. Helmets and protective gear aren't just for looks. They're your first line of defense. Whether you ride a motorcycle, scooter, or moped, gear up. Be seen and be ready. Stick to your lane. No lane splitting. Ride clean, ride respectful, because safety starts with you. Scooter riders, do you have a classy license? If not, it's time to get one. No license, no ride. Remember, once you pass the basic rider course or the updated basic rider course, you've got one year to get your motorcycle endorsement. Without the endorsement, you can't ride. Miss that window and your course completion card expires. That means starting all over again. And remember, visibility saves lives. Wear bright colors. Use reflective gear. Stand out in the day. Glow at night. And drivers, this part's for you. Check your blind spots. Give riders space. A few seconds of distance could save a life. Florida, let's ride smart, ride bold, ride proud, and lead the way. Visit www.RideSmartFL.com because smart riders set the trend. This message is brought to you by the Florida Department of Transportation, District 6.

You come to an intersection which is blocked by other traffic. You should... A. Go slowly until the traffic ahead moves. B. Get as close as possible to the other car. C. Stay out of the intersection until you can pass through. D. Sound your horn to make the cars move up. The correct answer, C. Entering a blocked intersection can cause gridlock and may be illegal. Only move forward when there's enough space for your vehicle to fully clear the intersection.

On average, 800 pedestrians and bicyclists are fatally injured on Florida roadways every year. Speed was a factor in approximately 30% of these fatalities. We all need to share the road responsibly. Drivers, pay attention to traffic signs and speed limits, especially in high traffic areas. Slow down and obey the signs so we don't need to use this one. Don't let one preventable act ruin countless other memories. Alert today. Alive tomorrow.

Trees are an important part of our environment, providing shade, clean air, and homes for wildlife. But sometimes, trees need to be removed due to disease, safety hazards, or other reasons. If you live in the city of Miami and need to remove a tree on your property, you must apply for a permit from the city. The permit process helps ensure that trees are only removed when necessary and that new trees are planted to replace them. Applying for a permit is easy. Just visit the Miami City website and follow the steps to complete the online application. Remember, it's important to follow the rules and regulations when it comes to tree removal in the City of Miami. Let's work together to keep our city green and beautiful.

Who can report an illegal 2.3 incident in Miami? Reporting an illegal 2.3 incident is very important to resolve the problem without wasting time. Residents can report an incident For more information, please visit our website at miamivegoweb.com in order to get rid of illegal waste. This is an important cooperation between the community and the environment. They are able to report all illegal waste by Crime Stoppers in 305, 471, 424, 317. We earn a reward of $500 for a crime that causes irritation or arrest.

Hello everyone Captain Freddy Cruz with the City of Miami Police Department's Public Information Office and today we want to discuss a little bit about pedestrian safety. So basically as you can see we have an intersection here within a residential neighborhood and what we want to let everyone know is to please if you live mid-block or if you're visiting the area

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Morning. Settle down, folks. Welcome, everybody, to the first meeting in May. May is a pretty beautiful month in the city of Miami. First of all, it's May. But second of all, we celebrate the diversity of our community through Haitian Heritage Month, Asian American Pacific Islanders Month, and then also Jewish American Heritage Month. And I think it is very fitting to have so many different types of people who share one thing in common, that they are residents of the city of Miami living together, caring about one another, and thinking about one another. So it is my honor on behalf of our city commission to declare this month Jewish American Heritage Month. And we have our wonderful friends from the Jewish Federation and other spots here. If you all would mind wanting coming up and then perhaps Josh, we could present a proclamation to you and share a little bit about your work and the meaning of your work in these times where sometimes anti-Semitism seems not only on the rise, but dangerous.

Mayor, thank you, and to the mayor and to all of the commissioners, thank you so much for this proclamation and for acknowledging Jewish American Heritage Month. My name is Josh Sales. I'm the Vice President of External Affairs for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. Our mission is to create a thriving, vibrant, engaged Jewish community here in Miami and Israel and around the world. But I also want to acknowledge so many of my friends and colleagues who are standing here behind me, not only because they're my friends and colleagues, but because it's not just the Jewish Federation that is represented here. We have representatives from ADL, AJC, JCS, Holocaust Memorial in 3G, forgive me, am I missing anybody else? The point is that this is a representative not just of the Jewish Federation, but of so many advocacy organizations and Jewish community organizations throughout Miami-Dade County. And we are, This proclamation means so much to us, in particular because we spend a lot of time talking to elected officials and to community leaders about the dangers of anti-Semitism, especially the rise since October 7, 2023, when the terror organization Hamas attacked Israel. We don't spend enough time reflecting on the contributions that the Jewish community has made here in Miami, and so we, while it's important to combat antisemitism, we're grateful to be acknowledged as equal and thriving citizens here in Miami, and we thank you for doing that, and it's needed really at this point in time as much as it's ever been, so thank you so much.

Josh, do you and everyone want to come up here? And then I'm sure my colleagues want to say a few words of welcome and the things that they feel during Jewish American Heritage Month.

Do you want it back here?

Under the seal. We always do it under the seal.

what you guys do for our communities how you doing Well, good morning. My name is Rolando Escalona, City of Miami Commissioner. I wanted to thank you for expressing your voice. Thank you for doing what you do for our community, for showing the real history of what happened in the past. I want you to know that in City of Miami, you have all our support. Thank you.

Jewish history is Miami's history. I want to thank you for the contributions you've made to the arts, the sciences, a variety of fields. Hate is never acceptable, and we want to confirm that we absolutely stand with you. Thank you for being here.

As my colleagues have said, and our mayor, May is a celebration of many, many issues and organizations. The city of Miami stood with you, the Jewish community, after that tragedy occurred. And it's things like this that we can never forget. Hate has no place in the universe. Bigotry has no place in our universe. And we stand for, I stand for love and light. And killing anywhere is wrong. Killing children is wrong. And families is wrong wherever we stand in this world. And we will continue to stand against such atrocities. Thank you.

Hi, Damian Pardo, Commissioner for District 2. I've had the pleasure of working with your organizations over decades of activism. And I really want to thank you from the heart for standing up for truth and justice. This isn't just in the Jewish community. This is for all of our communities. Your organizations have been right there on every fight that involves discrimination and living with dignity and flourishing in the city of Miami. So thank you very much. Very much appreciated.

We just wanted to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for what you do. Thank you.

All right, we have pictures. Thank you all so much for coming in, for all the work you do to make every resident of this community know and reminded of the contributions of our Jewish community, not just today, but far into the future. We appreciate you and love you very much.

At this time, we are going to have Pastor Ray come and join us. He's going to lead our meeting in prayer. Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning. God bless you. Thank you to the commission. Thank you to Mayor Higgins. Thank you to all of you, and a special thank you to Commissioner King, my commissioner, District 5. If we could all stand, that would be wonderful. Let us pray. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Dear God, we thank you for this day, for this opportunity to gather together and to do the business of this city. We pray the blessings of God upon this commission We thank you, Lord, for the unity of this community. We thank you, Father, for all that you have invested in us and all that you have invested in the citizens, residents of the city of Miami. Pray, dear God, that your peace would prevail, your wisdom would prevail in this council, in this commission. Pray, dear God, that you would give us all a mind to do the business for all of the residents of the city of Miami. particularly those who are not able to do for themselves. So we just commit this meeting this morning into your hands and pray the blessings of God, the wisdom of God, the compassion of God upon each and every commissioner, dear God, as they do their best to provide for the citizens of this city. We thank you and we praise you. It's in your holy name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. Madam Mayor, would you like to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Yes.

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.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming to our May 14th City Commission meeting. To the clerk, show that all commissioners are here. I think we can call the meeting to order. So again, welcome everybody to the City of Miami Commission meeting on May 14, 2026 in these historic chambers. Procedures for the public comment will be explained by the city attorney shortly. procedures for the swearing-in of parties for the planning and zoning and or quasi-judicial items will also be explained by the clerk. The members of the City Commission appearing for this meeting are Miguel Angel Gabela, Damien Pardo, Rolando Escalona, Ralph Rafael Rosado, and Christine King. Also appearing are City Manager James Reyes, City Attorney George Kiwaisong III, City Clerk Todd Hannan, and myself, Mayor Eileen Higgins, Chair. Mr. City Attorney, would you please state the procedures to be followed during the meeting?

Yes, Madam Mayor, thank you. Good morning. Detailed information about the processes, order of business, rules of procedure, and scheduling or rescheduling of city commission meetings can be found in Chapter 2, Article 2 of the Code of the City of Miami. which is available online at www.munico.com. Any person who is a lobbyist pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 6 of the City Code must register with the city clerk and comply with related city requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the city commission. A person may not lobby a city official, board member, or staff member until so registering. A copy of the code section about lobbyists is available in the city clerk's office or online at www.munico.com. Any person making a presentation, formal request, or petition to the City Commission concerning real property must make the disclosures required by the City Code in writing. A copy of the City Code section is available at the Office of the City Clerk or online at www.municode.com. The City of Miami requests that anyone requesting action by the City Commission must disclose, before the hearing, any consideration provided or committed to anyone for agreement to support or withhold objection to the requested action pursuant to City Code Section 2-8. Any documents offered to the City Commission that have not been provided seven days before the meeting as part of the agenda materials will be entered into the record at the City Commission's discretion. In accordance with Section 2-33F and G of the City Code, the agenda and the material for each item on the agenda is available during business hours at the City Clerk's Office. and online 24 hours a day at www.miamigov.com. The meeting of the Miami City Commission is a limited public forum. Any person may be heard by the City Commission through the chair for not more than two minutes on any proposition before the City Commission unless modified by the presiding officer. Public comment will begin at approximately 9 a.m. and remain open until public comment is closed by the presiding officer. Any person making offensive remarks or who becomes unruly in the commission chambers will be barred from further attending city commission meetings and may be subject to arrest. No clapping, applauding, heckling, or verbal outbursts in support or opposition to a speaker or his or her remarks shall be permitted. No signs or placards shall be allowed in the City Commission Chambers. Persons exiting the Commission Chambers shall do so quietly. Please. Members of the public wishing to address the body may do so by submitting written comments via the online public comment form. Please visit www.miamigov.com forward slash meeting instructions for detailed instructions on how to provide public comment using the online public comment form. The comments submitted through the comment form have been and will be distributed to the elected officials, their staff, and city administration throughout the day so that the elected officials may consider the comments prior to taking any action. Additionally, the online public comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the elected officials, their staff, and the city administration up until the presiding officer closes public comment. Public comment may also be provided live here at City Hall, located at 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, subject to any and all city rules as they may be amended. If the proposition is being continued or rescheduled, the opportunity to be heard may be at such later date before the City Commission takes action on such proposition. When addressing the City Commission, the members of the public must first state their name, their address, and what item will be spoken about. Any person with a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids, and services for this meeting may notify the City Clerk. The City has provided different public comment methods to indicate, among other things, the public's support, opposition, or neutrality on the items and topics to be discussed at the City Commission meeting, in compliance with Section 286.0114-4C Florida Statutes. The public has been given the opportunity to provide public comment during the meeting and within reasonable proximity and time before the meeting. Please note, commissioners have generally been briefed by city staff and the city attorney's office on items on the agenda today. Anyone wishing a verbatim record of an item considered at this meeting may request it at the Office of Communications or view it online at www.miamigov.com. For planning and zoning items, PZ items shall proceed according to Section 7.1.4 of the Miami 21 Zoning Ordinance. Parties for any PZ items, including any applicant, appellant, appellee, city staff, and any person recognized by the decision-making body as a qualified intervener, as well as the applicant's representatives and any experts testifying on behalf of the applicant, appellant, or appellee, may be physically present at City Hall to be sworn in by oath or affirmation by the city clerk. The members of the City Commission shall disclose any ex parte communications to remove the presumption of prejudice pursuant to Florida Statute Section 286.0.115 and Section 7.1.4.5 of the Miami 21 Zoning Ordinance. The order of presentation shall be as set forth in Miami 21 and the City Code. Staff will briefly present each item to be heard. The applicant will present its application or request to the City Commission. If the applicant agrees with the staff recommendation, the City Commission may proceed to its deliberation and decisions. The applicant may also waive the right to an evidentiary hearing on the record. For appeals, the appellant will present its appeal to the City Commission, followed by the appellee. Staff will be allowed to make any recommendation they may have. Please silence all cell phones and other noise-making devices. And lastly, this meeting may be viewed here live on Miami TV, the City's Facebook page, the City's Twitter page, the City's YouTube channel, and Comcast Channel 77. The broadcast will also have closed captioning. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you very much. Mr. City Clerk, will you please state the swearing-in procedures to be followed during this meeting?

Thank you, Chair. The procedures for individuals who are providing testimony to be sworn in for planning and zoning items and any quasi-judicial items on today's City Commission agenda will be as follows. The members of City staff or any other individuals required to be sworn in who are currently present at City Hall will be sworn in by me, the City Clerk, immediately after I finish explaining these procedures. Those individuals who are appearing remotely may be sworn in now or at any time prior to the individual providing testimony for planning and zoning items and or quasi-judicial items. Commissioners, are you comfortable with all the notice provisions set forth in these uniform rules and procedures that we have established for this meeting? Chair, may I administer the oath for the planning and zoning items? Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. If we'll be speaking on any of today's planning and zoning items, those are the PZ items. May I please have you stand and raise your right hand? Do you solemnly swear from the testimony you're about to give at today's hearing is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and your response is? Thank you.

All right, thank you very much. Mr. City Manager, do you have any items you would like to be deferred, withdrawn?

Good morning, Madam Mayor, Madam Chair, Commissioners, City Attorney, and City Clerk. At this time, the administration would like to defer or withdraw the following items. PH6 to be withdrawn. PH6 to be withdrawn. RE2 to be deferred to the May 28th meeting. RE2 to be deferred to the May 28th meeting. RE6 to be withdrawn. RE6 to be withdrawn. SR5 to be withdrawn. SR 5 to be withdrawn and PZ 1 to be indefinitely deferred. PZ 1 to be indefinitely deferred. And that concludes the items.

Sorry, can you repeat the PH?

Sure, Commissioner. It's PH 6 to be withdrawn. PH 6. Thank you.

All right. Colleagues, do you have any other items you would like to see deferred or withdrawn?

No.

All right, I'll take a motion to accept these. So moved.

Second.

All in favor say aye. Aye. All right.

And my apologies, Chair, for the interruption. I just want to briefly state the sponsor and co-sponsor requests during the order of the day. Yes, please. Commissioner King was inadvertently left off the agenda as a sponsor for RE15. Commissioner Escalona will be co-sponsoring RE9. Commissioner Rosado will be co-sponsoring RE15, SR1, and SR3. And Commissioner King has a pocket item. that the city attorney can read the title into the record before the public comment period.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. In ordinance of the Miami City Commission, amending Chapter 38, Article 1 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled Parks and Recreation in General, by amending Section 38-18, titled Naming of Facilities at Hadley Park, more specifically naming the skating rink located therein as the Railroad Shop Roller Rink, containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date.

Do we need to have a motion on that, or that's just added to the agenda?

It's been added to the agenda, so we can now move on with public comment.

All right, thank you. All right, colleagues, today we have a couple of items that are pretty important to get through, particularly because the supervisor of elections needs an answer next week from us. Certainly that includes the three remaining items about the timing of elections for the crisis in our public safety infrastructure and that bond proposal. And then also, we've been hearing a lot from residents about our three committee, which I think we'd like to get set up today. So I'm going to take those three items out of order. We're going to start with RE4, the public safety bond. And on each of these items, I will be opening public hearing and closing public hearing only on that item. And then we will move to the full agenda and have public hearing and reasonable opportunity heard on anything else that's on the agenda or on our residents' minds. So with that, I'd like to take up RE4.

So move. Second.

We have a motion and a second, but gentlemen, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have to hear from the public.

And, Chair, my apologies again for the interruption. RE4 will be amended to add a resolution number in Section 4 of the legislation. So do the mover and seconder accept the amendment?

Yes, yes.

Thank you, Chair.

Okay. I'd like to now, for members of the audience, if anybody is here to speak on RE4, please line up. Thank you very much. Mr. Cruz, you ready or no?

Could you let the other gentleman go? Yes, please.

Thank you. RE4 only. All other items will be heard later.

Good morning. My name is Juan Cuba. My address is 165 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Pearl Gables, Florida, 33134. And let me just start by saying it's incredibly refreshing to see the makeup of the city commission and have a lot of hope and expectations for what you all can do. I rise to speak in concern with the bond. And Madam Mayor, one of the promises you made when you were elected is to do a deep dive into the audit into the city budget. That feels like a necessary first step. Recent reporting said that together, salaries and benefits of the city's 5,000-plus employees account for 77% of Miami's operating budget. The police department saw its annual operating budget increase by 50% over five years, a $138 million jump to $450 million annual operating, driven largely by personnel costs, which account for nearly 90% of spending. At least over 100 City of Miami employees now earn over $200,000 in the current Fiscal year, more than double the number that was two years ago. I believe in government. I believe in paying our employees fairly and treating people fairly. But there's a line you cross when it moves from public service to serving yourself. It undermines all the hard work that you all are doing and the trust the public must have in government for our democracy to function. Since a large share of the bond will go to the police department, we have to ask why hasn't the police department been budgeting over the years to fix their workplace conditions? And now the public is being asked to foot the bill. And Mayor, there's another promise we ask that you deliver before making this bond the cornerstone of your first year, and that is that you promise to revisit the 287G agreement that the police is conducting. Thank you. This is incredibly important because we are giving such a large share of the bond to the police department. So we ask that you and the commission ask the hard questions about what's going on with this program. I have a personal family friend who left this country because not just ICE, but all police agencies across Florida, state and local, are now participating in this program. So we ask that you revisit that, ask hard questions about the program. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Elvis Cruz. On RE4, we've seen this movie before. In 2001, the city wanted $255 million for the neighborhood improvement bond. Then 9-11 happened, so they cleverly added the name Homeland Defense. This sign at Morningside Park promised swimming pool improvements. 25 years later, they never improved the pool, they demolished it. Another of the many victims of the city's addiction to deferred maintenance. It makes no sense to reward and feed an addict more of the same drug instead of stopping the addiction, but that's what's proposed. It's deja vu all over again as the city now wants a $450 million bond to demolish fire and police stations because they weren't maintained. so they can build new fire and police stations that they also won't maintain. Over my 45 years of civic activism, I've learned the city of Miami loves to do things for its own comfort and convenience, even if it's at the public's discomfort and inconvenience and expense. $450 million is about $1,000 for every man, woman, and child in the city. A deep dive into city finances was promised. I did a shallow dive and found the city already owes $288 million on general obligation bonds and $900 million in principal and interest on special obligation bonds. That's almost $1.2 billion of pre-existing debt. This Miami Today article reports taxpayers are on the hook for $3 billion of debt from the Marlin Stadium scam. Before you consider any more debt, please have the city post how much we already owe in a simple online spreadsheet listing all current bonds, debts, and obligations. Similarly, despite repeated requests, The present public have not been able to get a clear accounting of the Tree Trust Fund. Please have the city post an online spreadsheet showing income expenditures and the running balance of the Tree Trust Fund. Transparency is essential to a fair, honest, and financially responsible democracy. Thank you. And Commissioner King, railroad shops, I like it.

Mr. Kennedy.

Hello, my name is Thomas Kennedy. I reside in 6601 Northwest First Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33150. I'm here to speak against the proposed municipal bond. I have concerns about its fiscal impact on our city. but also the continued role of Miami's police department in immigration enforcement under the city's 287G agreement. According to a state database, figures put out by the state of Florida, Miami is the city with the highest level of immigration enforcement encounters in the state. I have brought a printout of the dashboard for your awareness, which I will share with the city clerk after my comments, so you guys have them. The figures are concerning, and city officials should clarify them. Before asking our residents to consider footing an additional $450 million, with which interest will compound to well over a billion dollars over time, over the life cycle of the bond, the 27G contracts need to be addressed by this commission. And if commissioners won't do it, Mayor, you have the power to fulfill one of your campaign promises in this matter. You could address this matter and put this on the agenda. As a matter of fact, I see your name as a co-sponsor of the bond item. And I also see your name as a sponsor of the item in the page before that. So, I respectfully ask this body to defer the bond and address the 287G agreement, which is a matter of urgency for this community. If the commissioners won't do it, Mayor, you have the power to do it. Thank you.

Lisa Margulies, Rice Street and Center Grove. Miami residents support our police officers and firefighters. But loving our first responders does not mean taxpayers should be expected to silently accept a $450 million bill without serious scrutiny. Have multiple independent estimates been completed? Have actual scopes of work, timelines, or competing bids been posted for public review? Trust us doesn't work anymore. We want full transparency. Our mayor campaigned on doing a forensic audit of city finances. Has that been completed? Because a lot of time has been invested in making Instagram reels to tug at our heartstrings. But has anyone taken the time to look for ways duplication or bloated contracts before deciding taxpayers should once again be the first source of cash? If not, how can our commissioners confidently say the money isn't already there?

This city bends over backwards for developers and large private interests.

In fact, Miami has become famous for an environment that creates multimillionaires and billionaires. And yet, taxpayers are being presented as the only solution. Why not explore alternative funding? For example, when businesses seek special treatment or favors from the city with waivers, exceptions, favorable leases, zoning changes, or public land deals, why not require meaningful investments back into the neighborhoods they impact? The hangar in Coconut Grove is just one example of granting lease waivers with no community benefit attached. Why not negotiate a direct investment for Fire Station 8? They are the first responders to hangar events and emergencies. This firehouse could directly benefit from the lease deal. $450 million is not only an astronomical amount, it's a huge burden to put on the backs of taxpayers. We need leadership creative and smart enough to find solutions beyond simply treating us like an ATM machine. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Miriam Haskell, and I'm an attorney in the city of Miami. I represent, among other people, individuals who've been caught up in the deportation machine, either unnecessarily or illegally in many cases. I'm here because this bond item does present an opportunity to address the 287G agreement. And as you all know, Miami has more immigration encounters than any city in Florida. This is shameful and must be reconciled with. So we ask that you defer the vote on this bond until after this urgent matter can be readdressed. And simply breezing past this agreement again without reconsidering it would be unacceptable. Thank you.

Albert Gomez, District 2. I still have opportunity to speak in the public comment period, right?

Yes. Thank you so much.

We need your name and address for the record, please, sir. Sure, sure. 3566 Vista Court, Albert Gomez. I'm speaking on RE4. I'm in manufacturing and I deal with maintenance pretty regularly on equipment, et cetera. Continuing maintenance is something I've been harping on for years here. And I've also spoken about how the budget has been whittled into the general fund. Every item that was registered as a maintenance item for parks, what have you, was moved over to the general fund and became a bargaining chip afterwards at the commission. You guys all saw it, it's happened. And realistically, what I've been asking for is that when we put money for bonds or anything, especially for something as important as police and fire, two departments which I collaborate with regularly, I wish that we would incorporate a very clear distinction of maintenance included in that bond so that we don't run into this issue and we have a little bit of runway to fix the budgeting. As you go into the budget season now, you can start to ask for that continuing maintenance moving forward on all items so that we don't get into this problem again because I saw the videos and I agree with the videos. It's a horrible idea, but then us just putting a blanket bond doesn't make sense. Furthermore, I've also asked... many times that we start posting the liabilities for each of the departments. It used to be very prominent. They'd post it so that we understand bad actors, we can clarify bad actors within those departments, and we can right the ship. So let's try to be fiscally responsible here and start putting deferred maintenance on these bonds if we put them forward and also start talking from the days when the budgeting season comes that we put maintenance in play because it has been put into the general fund and we no longer have it. Everything is a bargaining chip and it shouldn't be.

Good morning, Commissioner. Good morning, Mayor.

My name is Maria Bilbao. I work with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that supports immigrants. And I also was an undocumented immigrant for more than 17 years. I'm asking the city of Miami to end the 287G agreement with ICE. This program allows local police to work with ICE. It's made many immigrant families afraid to call the police, report crimes, or ask for help. According to the state Florida OWN data, the Miami Police Department is one of the top agencies in the state for immigrant-related encounters. This means Miami police are playing a major role in helping ICE target immigrants in our community. Today, you are discussing a $450 million investment in public safety. Real public safety means that everyone in our city feels safe, no matter where they were born. Miami should not continue a police that creates fear in our community. Please end the 287G agreement with ICE. And you, Mayor, please put in agenda to be vote. This is a message for you. Thank you.

Madam Chair, Madam Mayor, Commissioners, I speak on RE6 and 13. There is no urgency to make bad policy.

I'm sorry, we're only taking public comment on RE4 at this time, so we'll do that next. Okay, thank you. So you've got a few extra steps in, so we'll get you up here in a minute. All right, continue. Thank you.

Hi, Katrina Morris, 4130 Liebayer Avenue. I get that our city needs maintenance. It's a little obvious. I'm wondering if we could revisit impact fees as the reason that we're going to need more police and more maintenance, more buildings, et cetera, is that we are increasing in size. So the way that we increase in size is we're increasing a market for developers. So I feel like the developers have reaped the rewards of building luxury condos. And we have 500,000 residents, but we have 28 million visitors who come through every year. So the tour operators and the hotels and the... the Airbnb people, they are reaping the rewards of all of that tourism, and our police are amenities for them. So while we get the benefit of having a great police force, The operators of the businesses and the builders are the ones reaping the amount of rewards for us paying for services for them. So I think our impact fees haven't been addressed in 20 years. I think that before we go into another bond, it would be nice to have a deep dive, have I just feel like we keep making really bad decisions with money and that there's a fire hose of money going out to... Thank you. Yeah.

You all want to line up on both sides, please? And we're only again on RE4. The elections items are not being spoken about yet or any other item, just RE4. Thank you.

Yeah, good morning. Madam Mayor, city manager, commissioners, thank you for having me. My name is Rob Piper. I'm at 1401 Southwest 17 Terrace. I am commenting on RE4. And this is for just as much as everybody in the room as well. We are borrowing almost a half a billion dollars again. And I don't know if anybody else knew this, but did you know that in 2024, the city of Miami had about 240 billion in GDP? That's a lot of money, but yet we find a need to borrow more money. They're almost, I'd say my numbers might be a little bit off because it's early, but about 200 billionaires and sent to millionaires that live or reside here in Miami in some way. Our finance industry is one of the biggest in the country, if not the world. But there are no franchise fees getting charged for financial transactions. We pay franchise fees on utilities, internet, what have you. But one of the biggest industries, including logistics, finance, doesn't pay. So I wonder, who is underwriting this bond? Likely somebody in the finance industry. They're gonna make a lot of money paying back all that interest over the years. So that's why I'm just asking, instead of approving this, this bond, can we at least take a really hardcore look first about where we could find other sources of revenue in order to pay for these badly needed repairs to these facilities for police and fire? I don't know, maybe create a revenue generation task force or something to seriously look at where we could find other sources of money as opposed to borrowing it again and again because aren't we almost a billion dollars in debt already? Thank you.

My name is Ramon Ventura. I live at 3220 NW 7th Avenue, Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

I have been a member of Corpus Christi Catholic Church for 32 years. I would like to request to the city of Miami to eliminate the 287g law, which is an agreement with ICE. This law gives the city of Miami police authority to work in alliance with ICE. We have a lot of immigrant families who are scared of calling the police to report crimes and or ask for help. We need a safe city for all of us regardless of where we are born. Miami should discontinue this regulation which creates fear in our community. We need this alliance with ICE to come to an end immediately. Thank you and God bless you.

Good morning, my name is Mercedes Rodriguez and I reside in the area of Allapattah District 1. And I'm in support of this item, the Safety and Ready Bond Initiative. And it's very simple. This is the 911 emergency call to our residents regarding the situation, regarding their infrastructure, their stations, and there's been a lot of valid points mentioned so far this morning, and many probably agree with them, but there's a process and there's a time, and that conversation will probably happen during the budget process to look at the overall budget of the city of Miami. Unfortunately, that is not what is before you today. What is before you today is the bond initiative. That has to be a decision made by the voters, by the residents of the city of Miami. And it isn't easy for me because the fire department has always been there for my family when my father was sick. I am a member of the CERT program, and I've gotten to have the experience to be involved with what they do on a daily basis. They are property owners, they are voters, they are residents. It's never time to give them what they need. They have been out there, and it's been a joy to work next to them. They were out in Surfside, the task force, day and night helping us going through all the crumbles of what that situation occurred. They were out there in Overtown in the fire a couple of years ago, and they did an amazing job. That was the biggest fire we have had in 25 years. So I think there's a time and a place, and the time is now, to put this item before the voters, to give our fire department and our police force what they actually are requesting is what they need. Thank you.

Good morning, commissioners. Madam Mayor, congratulations again for an Annamondi resident from the South Grove on item RE4. I've been a longtime advocate for public safety, always have called for additional officers, our firefighters, our police department, extraordinarily important in a city like ours. But today, I respectfully ask you to slow down, hit the pause button, and exercise the fiduciary responsibility that this moment requires. Because this isn't just a $450 million bond as advertised. With interest and 30 years of debt service, this actually approaches over a billion dollars in long-term obligation for taxpayers at a moment that we all are aware of the financial precarious situation not to mention the economic uncertainty where the Florida legislature might possibly eliminate property taxes and cities don't know what their revenue model will look like if that happens. To be clear, this is not advocacy for a vote against police or firefighters, quite the contrary. It is a request to defer placing a billion dollar bond on the ballot until residents and the public can first fully understand what they're being asked to finance. If buildings are moldy and leaking, if firefighters are in trailers, that's evidence of years of deferred maintenance and admittedly poor management decisions. This proposal also involves major land decisions, potential property sales, and long-term development implications. Those deserve sunshine meeting workshops and a hearing by the Finance Committee, which is the typical protocol, by the way, that is done historically, not in this case. We still don't know what's going to come out of that June special session, as I said. Please defer this. Hold public meetings. Show the accounting, the true accounting. Please publish the true debt cost. Present a district-by-district plan. Should we fix these buildings? Absolutely. Should we prioritize public safety? Of course. But first, show residents the full plan they are being asked to pay for in what would be the largest bond referendum in the history of the city. Over $1 billion. Thank you. Please defer.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Madam Mayor, James Torres, President of Downtown Neighbors Alliance. Here's a novel idea. On the $450 million bond issued, instead of siphoning millions of dollars from Brickell and downtown families, take the hostage tax of $21 billion, transfer that over to the 450, and release the residents of the hostage tax that we're currently paying. Let that sink in, Commissioner. Police, fire, and paramedics do deserve this. However, we should look for ways to make this work. There's a better way to invest this double taxation that residents are constantly paying, and a way to do that is to shift the money from the DDA to the bond that you're asking for, Madam Mayor. Thank you.

Good morning, Mayor. Billy Corbin on RE4, the billion-dollar bond boondoggle. Don't be fooled. It's not $450 million. With $20 million a year in debt over 30 years, it will be over a billion dollars. And most of that money isn't going to firefighters and police officers. It's going to interests, to bankers, to lawyers, to insurance companies. We all support our first responders. We do not support you bankrupting the city. Mayor, you've been on the job for less than five months, and you've already surprised us with the largest bond in the history of the city. Before fulfilling any of your campaign promises about transparency and financial responsibility, this is the wrong plan at the wrong time. First, Tallahassee may cut our property tax revenue. Second, the city is currently negotiating expensive new contracts with all four major of your city worker unions while already spending 77% of the budget on salaries and benefits. Third, do you know we have to start paying the massive balloon payments on the Marlins Park Bonds this year? It's true. $130 million in interest on $103 million in bonds. And we still don't have any of the accountability for the Miami Forever bond that the mayor promised. So what's the rush, guys? For example, Mayor, why are you pushing this for an August election instead of November when there's higher voter turnout? And please, don't believe the science fiction poll. You saw it, right? That the mayor's political puppeteer and unregistered lobbyist Christian Ulver released? It's a lie. It's propaganda. You know how I can tell? Because during the entire campaign last year, the mayor did not mention this bond scheme one time. If it was so popular, she would have run on it instead of keeping it a secret from all of you and the voters until after she got elected. Commissioners, please, despite the mayor hijacking the gavel today, she is not a strong mayor. You have the power. Please be responsible stewards of taxpayer money. This deserves more public scrutiny, more financial review, and more incremental approach. Remember, the strong mayor initiative lost by a larger margin than the mayor won. Don't let the tail wag the dog. Thank you.

Good morning, Mayor, Commissioners, City Managers, City Attorney, and members of the administration. My name is Enrique Santos. I'm a nationally syndicated radio host with iHeartRadio. I'm also proud to serve as a reserve police officer with the city of Miami. I am, for the past 16 years, I was a reserve officer here with Miami. I'm a homeowner in the city. Both of my parents reside in the city. This city is deeply personal to me. I come before you as a concerned citizen who loves this community and believes deeply in the men and women who protect and serve it every day. I'm also grateful to the city for the honors it has bestowed upon me, including proclamations, one initiated by Commissioner Gabela just months ago, and the key to the city. When people receive the key to the city, everyone always asks, what does this key open? Well, today I know it opens the door to responsibility. Responsibility to speak up for the people who protect this city. So today it's not about me. Today is about the brave men and women of the Miami police and fire departments. Before you today lies a decision that will prove that we not only respect and appreciate our first responders with words and ceremonies, but that we are willing to give them what they need to do their jobs. The conditions that many of our officers and firefighters are working are unacceptable. Leaking roofs, mold, sewage issues, broken air conditioning, a parking garage at the police headquarters so unsafe it had to be demolished before someone was killed. Outdated and insufficient equipment. Fire stations. It's embarrassing that Miami is a world-class city and our first responders should not be working in third world conditions. Yet these men and women show up. They don't complain and they serve this city with pride. The problem has been kicked down the road for far too long. The time is now to do what we all know is right. To future-proof our police and fire facilities. And to give... The residents, the opportunity to vote on this issue. I ask respectfully that we let the people of Miami vote on it, give it a chance. The people who protect the greatest and safest city in America should not have to work in conditions that belong to another era. Let's do what's right for them. Let's do what's right for our city and its residents. Let the people choose. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, seeing no other speakers. Oh, one more speaker. Here we go.

Sorry, I'm late to the party. I haven't quite rearranged my schedule to starting on time, but thank you Commissioner for being here and Madam Mayor for being here. I'm glad I showed up though, because I thought a lot about this referendum and

We will need your name and address for the record.

Andy Parrish, I've been here so much they know me. Almost as much as Elvis, 3940 Main Highway. We all support our police. We've known them, we trust them, and our firefighters too. But trust is the main issue in this referendum, Madam Mayor, I think. Nationwide, but also locally and countywide, a lot of trust has been lost in our elected officials. rightly or wrongly, but I think this one is gonna come down to trust as to whether people are gonna say, is the money, 450 million is a lot of money, not as much as the county's gonna be asking for in their bond referendum, which I've been told is in the billions. So to get it passed, it's gonna require trust. I'll just leave you with this. You can't keep doing the same thing in the same way that we've always done it. There's always been five commissioners. I know Commissioner Gabella is going to start shaking his head at me. I think this trust issue is very deeply entwined with finally what's going to be on the ballot referendum at some time for nine commission districts, which I support wholeheartedly. Not because I don't trust you. I just think we need better representation, more local representation. And when that goes on the ballot, it will pass. Take my word for it. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. All right, seeing no other speakers, public comment and reasonable opportunity on this item is closed. Colleagues, this is my item, so certainly I've spoken to a lot of our residents and have now visited every fire station and our police facilities. And so I want to share a little bit about, one, what I found and also what I've learned from our residents before we open it up to all of you for your comments and ideas. I began thinking about the state of disrepair of our public safety facilities last April when I decided to declare to run a campaign for mayor. And in every public forum, I spoke clearly about the fact that particularly in our police headquarters, we had horrific conditions, right? We had months and months where there were no bathrooms on the first floor. When the showers were dysfunctional, you would go catch a murderer, you can't even come back and shower. There were days and weeks where raw sewage running through the police headquarters building. Today, if we walked into the homicide department, and we're all sitting around trying to do a homicide investigation, there is a trash can, not an itty-bitty trash can like we've got under here, the kind you sweep your lawn trimmings into, that is four feet high, and it is under the roof in the middle of the homicide department, and it rains in there every single day. It rains in our city and has been doing so for years. The windows are so old in this 50-year-old building, they don't make the parts anymore. We, for the water intrusion, have to use duct tape to keep the windows closed. There is water intrusion literally everywhere. You go into the evidence room, you can't even use most of the bottom pieces of it because it floods on sunny day flooding because it was built below sea level because sea level is a little higher now than it was when this building was built 50 years ago. Water pours into the generator room. The electrical system is at its breaking point. If we want to buy a new computer and plug it in, we have to unplug something else because there is literally no electrical capacity in this facility. This facility houses our 911 call center for both police and fire. It can never go down. 24-7 operation. If 911 has any sign of an incidence with electrical or flooding, a life isn't saved. A crime isn't stopped. That facility's backup facility, and we have had to close that center due to flooding, is in a 100-year-old building. Worst case scenario, we'd have to rely on the county rather than our own people. These are not cosmetic problems. This is operational failures that are waiting to be a disaster. Our fire stations, actually, that's almost like working in paradise relative to what we have going on at our fire stations. You've got mold. You have exhaust in the areas where our firefighters who spend 24-hour shifts near where they are working, planning calls, where they have meals. Literally the exhaust for the trucks are in there because our fire stations are so old. Eight of our 17 fire stations are over 50 years old. Two of them are over 60 years old. Let me give you an example of the breaker boxes. At least two stations, the breaker boxes. You cannot buy the parts. We have to shop on eBay. and depend on collectors of old electrical parts in order to maintain our electrical systems. Fire Station 5, the air conditioning broke a couple of weeks ago, and so we obviously had to build in a portable HVAC system. Guess what? We couldn't plug it in because we didn't have the power to do it. We had to bring a diesel generator in. This is not the sort of facilities that our residents need in order to keep them safe. And I can tell you These buildings, this has been going on for decades. The investment has not been made. One or more of them are going to fail while all of us are still on the dais. And we cannot allow that to happen. Just because others have ignored the issue, we don't have to do that. So there are two issues here, right? Obviously, the facilities are failing, right? And they've been failing for a long time. And previous administrations have just ignored them. And it's easy to ignore that, right? Because we never have to say to our residents, guys, we have to invest in these. And you know what city, we invest together. Our residents help us with these things, right? That's what a bond does. We ask our residents, do they care about these issues enough to say, yes, I'm going to contribute from my own pocketbook to keep our community safe, right? So we have all of these infrastructure issues, fire stations, but I also have issues of response times. And our fire stations are so old and so inadequate, modern firefighting apparatus don't even fit in the stations. So in some cases, they're stored outside in the elements. But in other cases, we don't even have the space to do that. We have our fire vehicles and our ambulances stationed a mile and a half away from the place they are supposed to serve. And that impacts our response times. We are going to have a full presentation. Many of you have asked about what are the exact projects. This is very different from the Miami Forever Month. Miami Fever Bond was pockets of money. And the projects got figured out over time in whatever way the commissioners at the time decided to do. This is a project-based bond. We know what every dollar is going to go to. We know what facility it's going to go to. And Chief Hebbia is going to present the combined police and fire system to that so that you can understand what this is. But our response times in many parts of the city are so bad, you should be afraid. The national standard for response time is six minutes, right? That's considered excellent. You need to have a fire station and an ambulance be able to get to you to keep your home from burning down and rescue you if you're in there and to make sure you're in response, whether it's a stroke or a heart attack. There are parts of our city where the response time exceeds 10 minutes. There are parts of our cities where it is always over six minutes. And it's not minimum, right? We have the North Grove and the South Grove have some of the worst response times in the city. West Allapattah, among the highest. East Shenandoah, the roads, the rebuilt Liberty Square, the four far northwest corners of our city in D5. These residents are waiting. far longer than six minutes for an ambulance to come. And that is because in the past 45 years, we've only built four fire stations. Four fire stations have been built in the last 45 years. So we have huge holes in coverage where we have people, and you're not talking these high density, I know everybody's talking about density, we're talking about people in single family homes are living too far away from fire and rescue facilities. Every second matters. Every second matters. The other thing I've heard a lot about is let's let developers pay for this. So, we're gonna share some examples later, but the city has spent, the previous administration of the city did a lot of let's make a deal rather than let's build a fire station. And so, as a result, We have, in Brickell, no fire station. None. We have, in North Brickell and South Brickell, facilities that are in trailers. Trailers, because the previous people wanted to do a P3 make a deal. And so in those make a deal, one of which is over 20 years old, we gave them the land we, the city, owned. to a private company who then demolished our fire station so they could theoretically build a new one, put us in a temporary facility, which is a trailer and a tent, and haven't bothered to do that yet. 20 years in South Brickell, right? Remember, that's part of the Brickell City Center project. The other one, I'm sorry, that's the northern part. South Brickell, that's another one. They put us in trailers. By the way, those trailers are falling apart. Our fire rescue personnel can fall through the floor where that Mercedes-Benz building was supposed to be. We cannot depend on the private sector to ever care. What they care about is our land. And when those deals are executed, they're not building the fire rescue facilities. We did have one, I use the term extremely loosely, successful one. It's in Commissioner Escalona is where we have a fire station in a building with housing. That deal, this is how successful it was. When they tore down our fire station, we were in trailers for 18 years before it opened. So the idea that P3s are the solution, it's antiquated. The city has tried. The city has failed repeatedly and repeatedly to do that. This bond, and you will see, Chief Heavy will take you through every project, the cost of every project, the timing of every project. It will also, in addition to repairing some of our aging facilities, it will add four new fire stations, which completely transforms our response times. It gets every neighborhood down to that six minute or under response time, so that everybody here gets the same level of care when an ambulance leaves a station, no matter where you live in our city. It will also build us a new public safety building, so we will have a unified command. We need a unified command. That is the way every other public safety department in modern cities are run. Right now, we got 911 in that aging building with police. I got the fire headquarters somewhere else, and our emergency operations center is somewhere else. We need a facility that is Cat5 ready with redundancy and backups where everyone is communicating together. Now, there's been a lot of talk about this is rushed. I really don't think something that's been lingering for 20 years is rushed. I myself started thinking about how to do this and talked about it. I think you were at some debates, Mel. You know I always talked about our aging public safety infrastructure. So I absolutely spoke about it on the campaign trail. And I knew we needed to look at it. And so I have been here, I think in two days, I'll have been here five months. And five months is a long time to look at these facilities, to meet the men and women that work with them and talk to our residents. I wanted to share publicly, and I have through the media and through meetings, these needs with our residents. And I did that very, very openly and very, very actively for about two months, right? Before our meeting last time when we deferred this. So in that communication, I also wanted to say, how we doing on that communication? And so I did implement a pretty extensive poll. And the first question we asked was pretty simple, right? There might be a public safety bond on the ballot in August. Have you heard about it? Well, guess what? Already 34% of the people that were surveyed had heard about it. So that is a very high level of awareness. The very next question was, are you likely to support the $450 million? And I put the dollar in there, public safety bond. And without having any other information than what we had already provided, Nearly 57% said they were supportive. So our residents know they want to be safe. And they know that these facilities are inadequate and our response times are not up to par. When you began to explain and ask them with a little more detail, let me tell you a little bit about what's going on with police and the 911 call center, and let me tell you what's happening in our fire stations, the fact that our fire trucks can't fit, blah, blah, blah. That support for this bond initiative goes to over 67%. And that was consistent across all five districts in every part of the country now, of the city. Now, we're going to talk a lot about costs. One thing that is, there's two things. One is we do not need to change our bond millage because voters have already approved that. That's our bonding cap. We also have to tell the residents the truth. We build these things and we are going to have to ask them, do they care enough about this in August to help contribute with their own hard-earned money? We know that depending on the year as we phase in all these projects, there are going to be costs and our residents are going to pay for that. That's why we have to ask their permission. on the ballot. So I was very specific. The city manager, our chiefs, OCI, we have worked very hard on coming up with the phasing and so I've come up and you'll see the new numbers which I sent you in a presentation yesterday. But I started with very conservative numbers and I asked our residents another simple question. Are you more or less likely to support the bond if you knew that the cost of the first year would be about $4 a month, and over time, would be over $10 a month. And you know how they answer that question? Would you be more likely to vote for the bond? While paying this, like with the actual numbers, 62% of the people said they would be more likely to vote for the bond. Why? $450 million people can't figure out, but they sure as heck can figure out that, yeah, it's worth having an ambulance in my neighborhood for $10 a month or $4 a month. What we have done over the course of the weeks, and you'll see this in the presentation, is the phasing of this has taken those costs down. The first year is closer to $2.40. And then it will be about $9.20 over time. And that's because it's a phased project-based ban. So at the end of the day, I did not put this bond on our agenda lightly. I view it as a moral responsibility. When I see the response times, I know that lives are at stake and lives are at risk. And I could not live with myself if I, as mayor of this beautiful city, did not take the opportunity to say, we can do better for our residents, we can save more people's lives, we can make sure we continue to be a safe place, and we will not have any of our critical public safety infrastructure facilities fail. That's why I did it. Let me tell you, you see everybody hooting and hollering about this. I didn't do it because I wanted to be popular. I didn't do it because I think it's easy to run a citywide election after I just finished running a citywide election and trying to do that. I did it because it's the right thing to do. And this city for too long has neglected this and brushed this away and it is not going to work. One of these facilities will fail while we are all here and we can't be the people that allow that to happen. And then in closing, uh, um, Let's remember what we're doing here. We're giving the people the chance to say, yes, I'd like to support our police, our firefighters, our paramedics, and I'd like to keep my neighborhood safe. They are the ultimate decision makers. All we are doing today is allowing them to make that choice. With that, that's sort of my entrance. Commissioner Escalona, you're the co-sponsor. Do you want to speak or you want the Chief? And then Chief Hebbia can come up after you? Okay, call him up when you're ready.

Thank you. I have multiple questions that I understand our residents, but I also understand why they feel that way. Because a lot of things have happened in the past in the city of Miami. So I understand why they feel the way they feel. I met with multiple residents City Manager, I submitted to your administration six pages of questions last week. I would like all these questions to be public. By tomorrow, please. On the questions that I submitted, there are two that were missing. And one is, would you commit today to a public dashboard showing spending, timelines, and project status? Yes. Last question, would the city commit to quarterly public financial reports specific to bond spending? Yes, awesome. So those two questions, with all the other questions, six pages that I've submitted, I would love those to be public by tomorrow, please. I think this is going to answer a lot of the questions and concerns our residents have. Understood, Commissioner. And with that, we can go to Chief Robert.

Chief Javier, are you able to take our team and the public and the commissioners through the projects and some of the response time data. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, Commissioners, Mr. Manager, Robert Evia, the Director of the Department of Fire Rescue. Today's really about three topics I wanna cover. One, and the most important one to me as the fire chief, is response time and being able to get to residents who call 911 for an emergency. The working conditions of police and firefighters and also public safety coordination. I'm gonna walk through, I think by the time we're done with this, I'll have answered most of the questions that have been asked, but I'll stick around obviously and answer whatever you need. When it comes to response time, this isn't my opinion or the opinion of firefighters. This is fact. So on the screen you have two studies. One was published as recently as last year from the Academic Emergency Medicine Archives. The other one to the right and right is from the Journal of the American Heart Association. That basically says if you live far away from first responders, your chances of survivability decreases. Specifically, If we respond and we take longer than eight minutes to get to you, your chances of survival cut in half. If you have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and we arrive within eight minutes, you have two times the chance of survival, not chance of survival with us, chance of survival of actually walking out of the hospital. That's an incredible number. The American Heart Association, years and years of replicated studies, replicated studies with thousands of patients, has shown that for every minute that it takes us to respond and start CPR or apply a defibrillator, your chances of survival decreases by seven to 10% every single minute. So our business minutes count. Also, the studies show, these are large studies. These are studies with over 5,000 patients. These are not small studies. assess the distance to fire stations. And what they show is that if you live less than a mile from a fire station, your chances of survival are two times as high. If you live one to one and a half miles away from a fire station, you have 1.6 chance of survival. And if you live farther than one and a half miles from a fire station, the impact of EMS essentially dissipates. It's essentially no difference. So these are all great studies in academia, but what does it mean in the city of Miami? This is what it means in the city of Miami. And I really want you to draw close attention to this map. What you see in green diamonds are our fire stations. And the green diamonds represented in GIS mapping is one mile of travel distance. If you look closely under the green, you'll see a lot of yellow. Because yellow is where we're responding and arriving within six minutes. That's our goal, within six minutes. And you'll see that near the fire stations. Where you see peach is where we're taking six to eight minutes. We're already taking too long and there's a lot of peach there. But horrifically, you see burgundy. And when you see burgundy in the South Grove, in the roads, in Shenandoah, In Flagami, in Liberty Square, we're taking over eight minutes to arrive. This is not theoretical data. This is our data for the last 12 months placed on a GIS map. Specifically, these are the areas that have problems. We're taking too long to get there. Because you can see the gaping holes in the city in coverage where fire stations needed to be built and they were not built. These are the problem areas. So how are we responding now? How we respond now, you'll see the arrows. You'll see a station in Coconut Grove on Oak Avenue in Virginia traveling to the roads, or traveling to Shenandoah. You will see a station that's in District 5, at Station 12 traveling to West Allapattah to get there, it's gonna take too long. And then that station is without coverage. So when you have one station leaving to cover another station, their territory now is without coverage. So it's not like, well, that's not an area that I live in, that's not a concern. This is a citywide impact because the calls have, we have to respond to the calls, so the units are gonna come from somewhere. So what is it that we're proposing here? What do we say regarding our capital funding needs? Let's look right here. One station in Allapattah where we already have the city-owned land. It's a 12,000 square foot two-bay station that'll provide EMS coverage as well as fire coverage for $13.2 million. that covers the West Allapatt area, currently the busiest fire station in the city. The busiest fire station in the city is on Northwest 12th Avenue and 20th Street, and it is also covering an area with the worst response times. Next, you see this big hole here. This has been open for a long time. We've spoken about this over years. Shenandoah, the roads, the North Grove. Where are the stations coming from? They're coming from Brickell from a station and a trailer. They're coming from Oak and Virginia to cover that area, leaving that area without coverage. This is also a two-bay station, 12,000 square feet, $16.7 million. This includes land acquisition costs as well. These are all in costs with land acquisition, design, and construction for these costs. We have the northwest section of the city, a very busy area of the city for EMS. Very busy station. We have a rescue that's for that. This station doesn't even need the EMS truck because we have it, but it's residing in another station because they don't have a physical place to stay. This is 14.56 million for a two-bay station, also includes land acquisition and design costs. And we have our fire boat and develop it on Watson Island. There's partial funding through this for a public benefit agreement. It's a two-bay station, $13.36 million. This is essentially two fire stations in one, because you have a fire station for a fire boat, for all the water responses, and you have coverage for Watson Island. Currently, when we have alarms on Watson Island, you're taking a station from downtown Miami, the hazmat team, the urban core of the city, and they're traveling over a bridge to get to Watson Island. That happens today. or from Wynwood, one of the busiest stations as well in the city, have to travel from Wynwood, Miami Avenue, and Northwest 20th Street over to Watson Island to respond. That's how it's covered today. These aren't the only issues. Those are four new stations where we don't have coverage today. They do not exist today. But we also have stations that are beyond their useful life. We have two stations in particular that are over 60 years old. The station to the left of your screen is Station 10. You see when that station was built in 1964, a fire truck was a convertible. You see to the right is Fire Station 1. So let's talk about these individually. Station 10, that's Station 10 when it was built. To the right is Station Now. You see what's interesting about it is that there's a white extension, a white addition for the fire truck to the left. That's because in the 80s, in the early 80s, the station was too small already. 40 years ago, the station was too small. And they built that addition to fit the fire truck. Since then, we added another truck, and now we've needed to add another truck. Four trucks in the station, four trucks don't fit. So the fourth truck is residing on Beacon Boulevard. So the area that needs the truck, because we've taken strip malls to the left and converted them to five story mixed use, They can't respond in the area they are in. This is in Commissioner Gabela's district, but it also affects Commissioner Rosado because 50% of the calls are in D4 and 50% of the calls are in D1. Commissioner Rosado, you know the first day I met you, I spoke about this, how there's a fire truck that doesn't fit in the station that's responding from Beacon Boulevard. This is the inside of Fire Station 10. You see soot on the walls from the exhaust trucks that goes into the living areas of the station. You see mold. Because we've had partial funding for this station since the inception of the Forever Bond. Never been able to make up the difference. So I would think it's reasonable to say, how are we gonna invest in this station? We're gonna rebuild it, okay? That funding came in 2017. It's 2026. This is also the inside of Station 10. where we have no room for storage and the apparatus room is carrying the storage because it's not a modern station. This is also station 10. With a sanitary line that's collapsing, it has eroded the asphalt and we've placed a metal plate so the fire trucks can go over it because there was a sinkhole where the fire trucks drive over. We could talk about station one in downtown Miami. This is one of our iconic fire stations. This is the birthplace of EMS. For all of you in the stands, take your chat GPT out and you can chat GPT what fire department was the first fire department in the world to train firefighters as paramedics. It was the city of Miami and it was at this fire station. The fire station is aged. To the left is the skyline of Miami when that fire station was built. To the right is the current. Skyline. Same fire station, even some of the original bathrooms in that station. Same sanitary line, same electrical panel as when the station was built when the skyline looked like to the left. This is the inside of station one. The porthole to the right, modern fire stations don't have this anymore, that's an open porthole that the exhaust from the trucks goes into the living areas of the firefighters. We can say, well, you know, we haven't maintained it. That porthole closet was cleaned, pressure cleaned with chlorine and washed four months before that picture. That's not years, that's four months. These trucks are constantly moving. To the left you see a sign over a bathroom, a shower that can't be used because the water leaks into the dining area. This is also station one with age mechanical systems at their end of life, a boiler room that's nonexistent anymore. So this is station 10, and this is station 1. Station 10, we have partial funding through the Forever Bonds, some impact fees. Our current funding is 8.95 million. There's a shortfall of 15.47 million. This will be the first station to be built, Commissioner Gabella, because the plans are done. It's already in permitting. It's waiting for the remaining funding to be built. It's the one that would be the first to be built to be able to house all the stations in your, all the units in your territory. Fire station one is $44 million. This is a large station because it's home of the hazardous materials team. The tanks, the air tanks that the firefighters wear in the entire city are maintained at this station. Station one is a very important station. So those are four brand new stations and two rebuilt stations. But we also know, it's been widely publicized through the media, you've seen it, that all of our stations are in some state of disrepair. We have bathrooms that are old, we have sanitary lines that have issues, we have kitchens that have issues as well. We have plumbing that needs to replace. We've been able to do some. We have a training center that's 100 years old. Currently, we have 47 recruits there. We have limited shower use. We've had to use portable showers in the past because we don't have enough for the recruits. And we also have HVAC systems. So we're talking air quality for firefighters and police officers in the police headquarters. We're talking sanitation lines. These are the types of issues we're talking about in repair. We also have fire trucks in undersized stations that do not fit within the station. This is, Commissioner Escalona, this is in your district. You walked the station, so you're very familiar with it. You were there. You saw the fire truck. This is a $670,000 fire rescue unit that's parked under an awning because it doesn't fit in the station. A fire rescue unit costs $670,000. A fire truck costs 1.5 million. An aerial costs 2.5 million. We need to protect these units because they last a long time. We care for them. These are the repairs and modernizations projects throughout all the stations in the city. You'll see some of them are HVAC projects, some of them are sanitary lines. About just over 10 million in those facilities. Let's talk about the public safety building. I'm not gonna go in too much detail over the living conditions and the working conditions of the police headquarters, because I've been here, only been the chief for two years, but I've heard it numerous times here at the commission talk about it. I know that Chief Morales has spoken about it. So I'm not gonna give you any new news there. But what I wanna talk to you about is what a public safety building is. Any modern metropolitan city responds to emergencies from police and fire unified. You see that already. You see when we prepare for Ultra and we prepare for FIFA, we have a unified command post. We respond together because any major incident is going to require police and fire assisting them or vice versa. When the fire department responds, police assist us. It is a unified response. It's a unified response when we respond to calls in the stadium, during major events, during Kayocha, during the art festival, during any event at Bayfront Park, we have a unified command. Yet day to day, we have a police headquarters in a police building that's failing, we have a fire headquarters in another building, and we have an EOC in another building with no parking for anyone. And then we have a major disaster we all kind of have to meet. So a public safety building unifies that response, not for special events, but for every day, for every resident, 365 days of the year. That's what a major metropolitan city should do. We have our 911 center. Our 911 center's in the police building. Our 911 center has had to leave because there's been one working bathroom, the building has smelled like methane, and they leave to the backup 911 center that's at our training center, commissioner and part of our district, That's 100 years old. That is the 911 center, every 911 call. And we cannot have one failure. We cannot have one failure in our 911 system. So the public safety building addresses all of this. It addresses the needs of the police department, it addresses the needs of fire headquarters, it addresses the needs of having an EOC that is hardened with sandstorms, and it addresses the need of us in a unified response in a major metropolitan city in the world. The $305 million covers design and construction costs. So this is what our capital needs are. 68% for the public safety building, police headquarters, fire headquarters, an EOC, unified response, and combined 911. And also 145 million for those four new fire stations where our response time is taking too long to rebuild stations one and 10. and to repair and modernize all the other facilities, HVAC, sanitary lines, and all the other needs that it has. This is much different than bonds we've seen in the past. This is a project-based bond. You see, we know where the money's going. The funding we've asked for will complete the project from design all the way to construction. And we have a timeline starting from 2027, extends a seven-year phase timeline. You'll see that the public safety building takes a little longer. It's a big building, the design takes a little longer. You'll see the next one, Station 10, in Commissioner Gabela's district, which is for Flagami, Little Havana, and Grape Land. That starts immediately because we already have the plans done. It's going through permits. Just need a demo and build a new station. That will be done within two years. We have Station 1 in downtown, Station 3, which is a remodel of the Rescue Star Park parked outside, and constructing four new fire stations. This is a specific timeline, with specific costs, with specific years, that we will keep on a dashboard, that we will keep transparent to the public, and show them the progress moving along. There's no one that is more invested and making sure that we can respond to the community and these projects get done than a fire chief and a police chief. You have two chairs that are going to make sure that this happens because lives are on the line. We spoke, you heard the Mayor speak a little about temporary fire stations. Station 4 and Station 16 are temporary fire stations in the Brickell area. Station 15 that you see here is for the fire boat. Right, that is a fire boat temporary station. Where do these temporary stations move to in the time of a storm, in the time of a hurricane? They have to go to station one. They go to station 10. The pictures that I showed you of the stations collapsing are where these firefighters retreat to because they're in a flood zone most of the time. So I wanna give you a very, just one slide on what your fire department looks like. This is your fire department. If there's one take home slide, this is your fire department. We have 17 stations, and we say 17 stations in quotations because one rescue is living in another station, so you really don't have 17 physical stations. And you have an 18th station that's coming online soon, I'll tell you about that one. But let's really take a deep dive, because we say we have these stations, but let's see what it really means. You have two stations, station one and 10, that are over 60 years old, and you saw the pictures of what they look like. They need to be rebuilt. You have another six stations that are 50 years old. You have two stations that were built between 30 and 50 years ago. You have three stations that were built less than 20 years ago, and I want to highlight that Station 11 was a rebuild of a station. So the only two new service areas with a physical fire station that was built within the last 20 years, the Station 13 and 14, the Upper East Side and the 14 that's in Commissioner Rosado's district, those are the only two in 20 years. The rest of the stations that we have added, in quotation marks, They're in trailers, or station four is in trailer waiting to be rebuilt. You have station 17 that's residing at another station, and you have station 18 that's gonna come online now that's a golf pro shop. It's a golf pro shop that's being remodeled to a fire station. So when you look at our 18 fire stations, this is like a street light. Black is you're dead on arrival. Red is you're in real trouble. Red and black is you got one foot in the grave. Yellow is we need to start paying attention to you, and green, you're okay, of the 18 fire stations. So if I can leave you with anything is that we need an infusion of capital funding to restore operational readiness. We have to have it. We're a major metropolitan city. Major metropolitan city requires a unified response in a public safety building where you have your police headquarters, your fire headquarters, your 911 center, and your EOC. New stations are going to improve your response times citywide. Citywide, we showed you they couldn't be clearer on demonstrating what it looks like. And lastly, we do need to improve the working conditions of our existing stations. They're deplorable. It affects the morale of our stations. When you call 911, we act and we act now. That's what we do. The men and women that work for the fire department and the police department, they do that every day, deserve the best in working conditions. And with that, I'll answer any of your questions.

And my apologies, these comments are all off record.

Yeah, agreed. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. All right, colleagues, do you have questions for the chief or? Okay. Mr. Rosado, do you?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Okay, go ahead, please. Good morning, everyone. So I'll start with the toughest request first. Madam Mayor, Mr. Manager, there are a couple things that we need, and some of them have been addressed to some extent by my colleagues already. We absolutely need better budgeting for maintenance. This is not a new issue. This was foreseeable. And so we have to make sure that for the upcoming year and every single year, we budget more and better, more accurate dollars for maintenance. There also needs to be, I think, for the public's sake, there needs to be a much more clarity around the 2017 bond By my calculations, less than 2% of the bond was allocated for police and fire-related expenses. That's really important. So even though it was a large amount of money to address a number of things like flooding and roadway improvements, workforce housing, a number of things that we get requests for on a daily basis, less than 2% was earmarked for police and fire. And so that bond was never really designed to address the things that we're discussing here today. But I think there needs to be a lot more public-facing information about what the dollars were for, how they've been spent, how they will be spent. I know I did a very deep dive on the District 4 dollars, and I'm completely up to speed. but I don't expect that my residents are up to speed in the same way. I think we need to do a much better job, and this is not just about this particular issue, but about so many things. My number one consistent request is always gonna be let's let the public know in a way that is much more easily digestible. I agree with the notion of the dashboard. I think we need to make information as transparent, as simple and straightforward as possible on a regular basis, not just periodically, but on a regular basis. All of that being said, we're the oldest city in the county. It's not surprising we're going to have the oldest infrastructure in the county. Police and fire and 911 workers absolutely deserve much better working conditions than they've been subjected to for a very long time. As the mayor has said, the neglect is real, and unfortunately, it's gotten exponentially worse in the last few years. We're seeing it. the police headquarters garage being demolished. That is millions of dollars just going down the drain. That is something that could have been prevented, but was not. More importantly, this can be, and it should be to all of us, this is personal. So my parents lived just a few blocks outside the city. A few years ago, my father had a heart attack. And were it not for the fact that the station nearest to him got there so quickly, We know he would not have made it. So more than anything, I'm concerned about our response times and our ability to serve our residents. I, for one, would like to give them the opportunity to make a decision as to how they want to move forward on this.

May I have the chair?

Yes, Commissioner Gabela, please.

May I proceed through the chair? So I have several concerns here. And listen, I think we all agree here that this is needed. We are a big city, you know, and nobody disputes the conditions on the ground in the fire stations and pertaining to the police department. However, as for me, when I look at the yearly 2856 on the first year and then the 110, I, for one, want to see the formula, how you guys arrived at that number specifically. I'm a numbers guy. And I want to see the formula, how you guys exactly arrived at that number. I don't have that formula in front of me. So that's a problem for me. Number two, I think that August is premature. Why do I say that? Because you have a lower voter participation. I want a true feeling of the taxpayer. I don't want to rush this through to, oh, we got an advantage on August, let's do it on August. No, no, no. I want a true feeling of what the voter out there wants, because at the end of the day, he's the one that's going to foot the bill, okay? And, you know, I think, with all due respect, and again, you made a wonderful presentation, Madam Mayor, you really have, you know, and City Manager, and I commend the Fire Chief, you know, and I have yet to give the Police Chief a chance to to talk, but at the end of the day, you know, at the end of the day, for me, it's very important, you know, because you've got to balance things out. And like we said, we already know the need exists. Nobody is disputing that. The only thing we're disputing is the vehicle, the financial vehicle, how to get us there, in fact. That's really what we're discussing here, right? So I have that concern of the August. I don't want to rush it through. I want a crew reading of what the taxpayer is thinking out there, whether he does want to do this or not. And he probably does, but I want that to be so. Number two, I want a covenant because nobody's talked about When we sell the old police station, okay, which I'm thinking that's probably worth, that land's probably worth between 100 million to 150 million, what exactly, or if it's worth less, I don't know how much it's worth, what exactly is it that we're doing with that money? because that money can also go to reduce maybe the 450. Then we have another set of problems. The other set of problems is that nobody talks about that when they issued the $400 million bond in 2017, granted it was not for this, but here's the problem with that. Out of the 400 that was approved by the voter, 272 was actually sold, in other words, issued. And there remained a balance of 127, I think there was, that was 100 now, that was never issued, never sold. And apparently, we had it, but we never issued. So then somebody would say, well, hell, if you got the money and you didn't use it, why'd you ask us for the money? You know, that's number one. So the problem with that is that, you know, I don't want to see that happen here, and I think it's to your concern, Commissioner Rosado, you don't want to see that either, and I don't think any of us do. I want a true, you know, I want a covenant of whatever that land is sold for, what exactly is going to be done with that money, because maybe, you know, we can put that money towards the 450 to reduce the 450, on the new, you know, on what we're doing. And also, there's another set of problems, which might be realistic, might not. Tallahassee, Tallahassee, they're talking about, you know, property taxes, okay? And granted, what I heard the governor say was that we collected about $60 billion, I believe, last fiscal year, okay? And 20% of that is actually seniors, okay, or homestead, okay? Now, if they just go after the homestead, that's a $20 billion reduction, folks, $20 billion reduction, okay? And one more thing I want to bring your attention to. When you say that you're going to get a $450 million bond, really, it's much more money than that, because what hasn't been said here that it's my duty to say it, and some will get upset, but I got to do my fiduciary duty, and I got to protect the taxpayers, that when these funds are given to us, and they're not going to be given to us at the same time because we don't want to spend the money for money that hasn't been used yet, and I understand the mayor, we're going in phases here, But here's the thing. There are grants that are applied for. So that 450 really is more money. That 450 might become 600 or 650. And that's the other one. That's the other one nobody talks about. And I need to say it because if we're going to ask for the taxpayer for 450 and then we go out and then we get grants. Like, by the way, I asked the question on the 400 million. of the Miami Forever One bond, what actually did we get in grants? And we got a substantial amount of money. We got a substantial amount of money. But I know that somebody will say, well, we can't do it that way because that's not for sure. No, no, I know that. But the fact of the matter is, I mean, I don't feel good. asking a 65-year-old over 65 that he's on a fixed income. My dad used to say to me, 10 cents on the gallon of gas. The old man, when they put 10 cents up, I go, what are you worried about? He goes, because I'm on a fixed income and you don't understand that. I retired from the Dade County School Board and I don't get more money. To you, it's okay because you have your business and you've got years ahead of you. But I'm on a fixed income, but this for me is a lot. And then years later, I understood what, listen, I'm much older, I'm approaching that age now, right? And now you understand what my old man, my dad, which is up in heaven, was talking about. So that's the thing for me. I think Me personally, and you've made a wonderful presentation, Madam Mayor, and I know you have the best intentions in the world. And I'm not saying let's not do this. I'm not saying that, okay? What I'm saying is that we need to, I need that formula. We need some of this stuff revisited. And the November thing for me, that's an important issue because I want a true reading when we put this question to the taxpayer of what it's going to, and then I know the answer. Well, Gabela, the problem is that in November, There's a midterm. There's a lot of stuff going on. That ballot, that slate, it's going to be about four, five pages long. And then that question might be in the back, and nobody will get to that. I understand that. I know that. But at the end of the day, I can't... On the other side of the coin, if you have people voting for August, and not everybody came out, and then in November they come out, and then we find out that people really... weren't for this or were but had their reservations, you know, I'm not going to be, you know, I'm not going to feel good. I don't feel good doing that, you know, to the taxpayers. So for me, November is very important for me. Thank you very much.

Madam Mayor, I'm okay with moving the bond to November as well.

So you would accept a friendly amendment on moving this to November? Does the Seconder Commissioner Rolando, do you accept that amendment? Okay.

My apologies for the interruption. Commissioner Escalona moved the item originally. It was seconded by Commissioner Rosado.

Right.

We'll get you the formula today. We'll be able to do that at the meeting.

Okay.

Fantastic. Okay. All right. So Commissioner Rosado, you okay accepting in November as a friendly amendment from Commissioner Vela? Okay. Commissioner Pardo, please go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. First of all, all of you have done a phenomenal job. And I want to thank you especially for communicating, going to the media, really pointing out to residents and everyone the kind of conditions that a lot of our safety buildings are in and our fire and our police. The one thing right off the bat, I know that 10 million shows up as repairs and modernization, and it includes like 12 to 15 fire stations. If there was a way to peel that off and make that happen without having to wait for a bond, I think that would be important and something to prioritize. And while that is the case, there's also the reality that we have a strong fiduciary duty to protect the taxpayer. And so what I've been working with you on and what I've tried to do, I want to continue trying to do, is peel away from the general obligation bonds all the things that we can peel away. Thank you for doing the phasing, because I think the phasing lowered from $168 to $120, and Commissioner Gabela alluded to it as well, but I had asked for defeasance of if that police building is sold, what will that look like? What is the impact to the taxpayer if we condition it to immediately come back to the bond to repay it? Something else that I had focused on is the other revenues, which we're not looking at with non-ad valorem tax. So special revenue bonds, any other kind of bonds, special obligation bonds that don't impact the taxpayer based on revenues that we expect as an example, Freedom Park, $10 million a year. What will that give us in bonding capacity? I'd like to see a rigorous application of the phasing. So maybe there's a way with that application of the phasing, we can also time some special obligation bonds, and again, peel away from anything that might impact the taxpayer. So I think all of those things would be very, very important to see before voting on the item. And again, I echo the transparency, the dashboard, guardrails, finance committee, all the things we've kind of been hearing as a way of making sure that we're doing as much as possible to limit the impact on the taxpayer. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. I feel much the same as my colleagues do. Just in public comments, I was doing a straw poll of my own, and only two public commenters spoke in favor of the bond. I've also been speaking to my residents and others. I know that Commissioner Pardo and I have had the experience of putting forth a bond for our CRAs, which took a year of planning a year of diving into what impact having a bond would do to our community, what projects. I've spoken to several people about this, because I'm no subject matter expert on bonds and the like. One person I spoke to said, OK, we have the starting phase. Now it's time to take out our pencils, sharpen up our pencils. and start to do the work, much like you just said, Commissioner Pardo. No one up here is against having our fire stations and our police headquarters addressed, but I don't think it's fiscally responsible for us to act on it today. I believe we should defer this item because we have to do the work for our residents. And I see many of the residents here shaking their head in favor of what we are saying. Mayor, you mentioned public-private partnerships. I teach Miami politics at FIU. I think all of you know that. In teaching Miami politics, we study a book called The New Localism, and there are three case studies in that book. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Copenhagen. Three cities that were in crisis and they didn't have bonds to rely on. What they did was lean heavily into public-private partnerships. Right now, we have an SAP in Wynwood that requires the building of a new fire station. There was a successful public-private partnership for a fire station in Coral Way. I didn't think that that would work because housing is on top and the fire station is on the bottom. And I thought, I don't want to live under a fire station because they're going out all times of day and night because they're there 24 hours. But apparently that's working. There was the brick wall issue, but that development has now sold to Ray Malindi, who I spoke to, and he is moving full speed ahead with the support of our mayor. He said that he spoke to you, and we're going to expedite that. I think we have to learn from our previous mistakes and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Public-private partnerships can work. We just have to learn from the mistakes that were made previous. And then there's also the issue of there are other issues that plague the city that we don't have resources for. A few weeks ago, you saw us squabbling over public benefits money, that pot of money. Where should it go? We have parks that need repair. I have a park that's been closed two months before summer. When kids are out of school, where are they going to go? They need to go play. And the park is closed because the playground equipment is so bad that it's hazardous. However, we don't have the money to go and replace the playground equipment. I have to wait until the next budget cycle to see if maybe. And I agree that if we move forward with this bond, it should be in November because then we would have had a little bit more time to do the work. But I can tell you that my residents are concerned and much like your dad, my father had the same issue. He couldn't support another $4 because I was helping him pay his mortgage. So if we're going to do this and we're going to ask our residents to pay for this, then it is our responsibility to be fiscally responsible, take our time with this. The difference between August and November is a month or so. But when you consider bonding $450 million, it is not something you do between two commission meetings. There is a win-win for everyone. I am completely on board with addressing the issues that we have with our fire station and the police. I don't know that anyone here is against that. Me personally, my best friends were firefighters. I've been team Miami City Fire Department for over 30 years now because my best friends were firefighters. I visited the fire station because they live there. I want them to have perfect living conditions. I want the response times to be the best in the nation. But I am also beholden to my community who elected me to be their public servant to serve them as well. No one wants, no one wants to put anyone's life in jeopardy. No one. But these fire stations won't be built tomorrow. And I think from what my commissioner was saying, Commissioner Pardo, we sharpen up our pencils. If we have a fire station that's ready to move right now, we need to work on it. I personally, every single time a developer comes to me for something, I get community benefits. Every single time. I ask for community benefits. I am going to have a development that's going to redo the police substation on 62nd Street, MLK Boulevard, because when I got elected, I toured all of our police stations, and I was told at the time I was the only commissioner to do so, and that facility is in deplorable shape, but through a public-private partnership, I have not one, but four developers that want to develop that space. We just have to decide when the projects come before us. But there are ways. Our city attorney's office, there's a ton of attorneys in there. They can write these contracts that will hold the developers accountable, that will get sanctions from the developers, that could even make them pay if they're behind schedule, put more money in. It's about taking the time to do the work and not trying to just go with the easiest approach. We can do the work. We all can do the work and everybody can win in this situation. And I'm just asking that we do the work for our residents because there's a lot of unreadiness in my community. Thank you.

All right. Any other comments or questions? We have a motion and a second on the table.

Hang on. For the November election. Sorry. Hang on. Yes, sir. Let's straighten this out a minute. Okay, so what are we actually voting for? We're voting for November, but this vote will have to be taken again, correct? No, sir.

No, no, no. I think we, well, for me, I would like to defer this.

Yes. I agree. Yep.

So on the deferral, we have been evaluating this now for over two months. This is critical life safety. We are talking about response times that are so excessive in some of our neighborhoods. And we are now saying we're going to wait another month or another two months before deciding to ask the voters. Deciding to ask the voters, our residents, who by the way are smart and intelligent and caring people about what they want the future of public safety to look like in their community. That's all we're voting on. We are voting to ask our residents their permission and their opinions. I understand that you are more comfortable with waiting till November. And November is fine. Bear in mind, I asked for this in August because I think this is a matter of life and death. Not a matter of voter participation. I love voter participation, right? In my normal life, I would say November, November, November. But we are talking about, we have neighborhoods where ambulances are not going to arrive in six minutes. While we defer. because the city has been deferring this for decades and years and months. We should take a vote on this item to put this on the item in November today. And then in the meantime, while we're getting all of this ready to explain to the residents and going out and having conversations with them, put together the dashboard, go through the detailed campaigns, And also look deeply at what are the options with our existing property in downtown. Because that property is worth money. And the question is, what is it worth? Is it worth, this is just a number, right? Is it worth $50 million if we sell it today? We also can do something very different. We don't always have to sell our land. That's been our mistake. We are giving our land with our police stations and fire stations to the private sector, who when they get it, don't bother for decades to build what they say they're going to build. So we could sell that land and folks could do whatever they want with it. We also have the opportunity to do something the county is more used to doing, which is actually doing an RFP and saying, what do we want on that land? And then we write an RFP and say, whatever it is we want, we want mixed income, we want affordable housing, we want mixed income housing. And then you generate a long-term revenue stream. I can tell you the project I worked on in Brickle generates over a 99-year lease. There's like the starting rent payment is $3 million a year. So you could have a long-term revenue stream that generates off this. We need to make sure that we're looking at all the possible options and showing you all the possible options for how that can be monetized and how we can make sure that that benefits the long-term success of our city, which by the way could be, we sell it, we take the money, and we immediately pay off the debt from this bond. That may be the most fiscally prudent thing to do, but we might be able to generate more revenue off of that land by looking at other options and holding onto it for the future. I really believe we should take a yes vote today on this item and move it forward to November and continue to answer your questions and the residents' questions between now and then. Thank you.

You know, I'll say it on the record, this doesn't work for me. This will not work for me, because then the rules of the game can be changed, and I'm not going for just me. I'm not going for that, with all due respect. Because here's the thing, we still have time to talk about this and still put it on the November ballot, and that's the fact of the matter.

Madam Mayor, I think the issue for us is the 450. If we vote on it now, we're locking into that amount, and I think that's been the primary issue on the days.

We have looked at this in depth, at what the cost of these projects are going to cost, and the costs are real. The costs are $450 million. And let me give you an example from the Miami Forever Bond, which put $7 million into public safety. That's $7 million. Because at the time, the commission 10 years ago said, oh, we're going to get grants, and we're going to get this, and we're going to get that. Put $7 million into Station 10, which was falling apart then. That is only the money that is available for design. Because this city just said, we're going to get other money. We have to make sure we have the money to construct these things. And then we offset them, because you know what? We are going to get some grants, but we don't know what those are going to be. At some point in time, the federal government may issue a grant, and we could get $20 million, and we'll offset some costs. You know, every now and then, we get a little bit of money out of the state to help with some fire things, and we'll offset those costs. And yes, we may find that we, as a commission, are going to make the decision that we have the sale of several properties, and we want to offset this. At the end of the day, we still have to build these buildings and the bond allows us to build them. And this is a project based bond. It's not like Miami Forever Bond where you just say we got $100 million for X and then over time the commission adds things in. These are the projects. The projects you saw in the presentation are the projects. So when they're done and paid for, if we don't issue $450 million worth of bonds, we don't need to issue $450 million worth of bonds. But it is irresponsible for us to not ask for what we need because we have constantly asked for what we don't need. We did that for Station 10 and Station 10 continues to not be built. We are only asking for money for design and not the construction. I really believe this needs to go forward today. I think we need to show the residents of this city that we care about their safety. We're going to get these facilities fixed and we're going to get them fixed quickly. And you can bet that we are going to look for other ways to offset this cost so we never have to issue $450 million worth of bonds. But we can't be Pollyannish like we did with the Station 10 in the Miami Forever Bond, where we never, ever had enough money to ever build that station. That's what's misleading to the residents. When we tell them the number is too low, And then they're sitting around going, I thought I voted for Station 10 and the Miami Forever Bond. And you say, oh, no, you just voted for the design. We never voted for the money. And so now we're sitting, particularly in Commissioner Gabela's district, with a facility that can't even house the ambulances and fire facilities we need to respond to that neighborhood. So I really do believe we should move this forward today. I think it's important. And I think it sends a big signal to this resident that is not business as usual at this city, that we are going to take the bull by the horns. We're going to address the things that need to be addressed. We're going to present truthful, truthful information to our residents. And we're going to ask their permission in November to build these facilities and help keep our community safe.

Well, I appreciate the gesture. Commissioner Gabela also has a lot of seniors. that are in a fixed income, and this is why I'm also concerned. That's why I want to revisit this with ample time. There's no time today, for example, for the covenant. Are we going to draw up a covenant in 10 minutes on what we're going to do with the money when the building is sold? I think it's better to move on to November. We're still going to do it. I vow that we know we got to do this. We're not saying that we're not going to do this, but we got to be very clear. and very responsible, and this cannot be like the $400 million that was issued back in 2017, which, by the way, out of the $400 million that the voter approved, only $272 million was actually issued, sold, and out of that, half of that was used, and then the other half is earmarked the way it was explained to me about a week ago. And then we still have another $120 something of that $400 million that was never issued that now we're going to issue it. OK, so, you know, we've got to be clear about this, you know, and I don't want to torpedo because I think we're all doing this for the best intentions. I really do think, Madam Mayor, that you did an excellent job, and you are doing an excellent job in presenting this, and it needs to be done. We know that. All we're saying is that we need a little bit more time to put this on the November ballot. And I, for one, you know, typically, like things have happened here in the past, that you say one thing, and then something else happens. You know, I want to see it on paper. I'm like Ronald Reagan. Trust but verify it. Okay, it's my model, you know what I mean? I believe everybody and guys believe me, but you know, when I tell you something, verify. And just make sure that it's done that way. So for me, you know, it's not gonna work voting now because I wanna see it in black and white, I wanna see the formula, I wanna study the formula, and that's what works for me. That's just me, thank you.

Somebody has to make a motion if you'd like to defer. Is there a motion to defer? Motion.

Second.

And my apologies, Chair.

Yes.

Sorry. To what date?

The next commission meeting.

Next commission meeting. May 28th. Understood. Thank you.

Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed to the deferral? Aye. So we have four for the deferral and show Commissioner Escalona is against the deferral. Thank you.

All right. I'm sorry. So that was unanimous or 4-1, Commissioner Escalona?

4-1. Okay.

Commissioner, I'm going to let you know. Understood. Sorry, I just want to make it clear.

Okay. Now, folks, so thank you very much for being patient. We're going to open reasonable opportunity to be heard on all of the other items. And then once that is finished, we will take up The election items, there's a couple. Commissioner Pardo, I will let you run that discussion when we get there. So please line up if you have any comments on any other items on the agenda. Thank you.

Hi, John Dolson, 4205 Lenox Drive, Coconut Grove. Hi. Interesting discussion this morning. I thought that was a great presentation. By the way, I'm in a purple zone, so whatever you do, make a decision here in the next couple of weeks. I'd like to thank the fire department. Made me meet those guys personally. Look, what I want to talk about quickly is first the tree ordinance, getting it committed together. It's long overdue. Just make sure it has teeth and it has the right people in it. People like Sparrow Lotto who know what they're doing with trees. Let's just make that happen. Secondly, on voting, RE3. This is a very confusing agenda on the even year voting. I'm absolutely in favor of it. Don't put it off. Get it done as quick as you can. I'm also an extremely strong supporter of Stronger Miami, which I hope gets on the ballot this fall, which would give us nine commissioners, nine districts, instead of the five of you. That means that I like what you're doing. I'd like to see a few more of you up there so the representation's a lot better. So, thank you very much.

Good morning. My name is Isabelle Benditti Pike. I live at 15720 Southwest 76 Avenue, Palmetto Bay. It's a pleasure to be here this morning. Mayor Higgins, Commissioners, thank you for giving me a couple minutes. My name is, again, is Isabelle, and I serve as the Senior VP of Development at Branches. Branches is a local nonprofit, and I'm here to speak in support and in favor of RE5. Branches, again, is a local nonprofit, and we serve families. And we partner with families to really help them build educational and financial assets, community, and hope. We provide two-generational programming for low-income families through our Grow, Climb, and Achieve programs. Our Grow and Climb programs serve children and youth. We serve students age 5 through 25 through our after-school and enrichment programming. but it's so much more than after school. Our kids grow up with us. We have a 94% retention rate year over year. Also, our Achieve programs serve our students' families. We believe in two-generational programming. The Achieve programs focus on financial wellness. That includes one-on-one financial coaching. We lead the VITA free tax prep program in Dade County. We have an incredible micro-business program. And again, it's all about getting families on that path towards long-term economic stability. We are very excited about the Branches Alapata project and we look for your support on RE5 and again are excited to bring this incredible project and all of our programs to the community of Alapata. Thank you all so much.

Ready?

Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Sandy Moise, 5910 Northeast 6th Court. It's hot in Miami, and yet Miami is in a full-blown tree crisis. And this tree committee is being proposed at a time when the very laws it is meant to protect are already being ignored, violated, and undermined. Across our city, we are watching protected specimen trees, including those in the public right-of-way, being cut down under the excuse that they conflict with construction activities. This is not policy. This is a failure of planning and a failure of enforcement. We are seeing arborist reports that are exaggerated, inconsistent, and sometimes so careless they misidentify the tree species. These flawed reports are being used to justify permanent, irreversible loss. At the same time, the city itself is removing trees without permits and without public notice. That is a direct violation of Chapter 17. Furthermore, the Miami 21 code requires, requires trees on every single lot, and yet those are routinely ignored. So we have to ask, why aren't we enforcing the laws already on the book? Because while this is being debated, Miami is getting dangerously hotter. We are living through extreme heat and expanding urban heat islands. There is less shade, hotter streets, and more exposure for workers, families, seniors, and children. And every time we remove a mature tree, we make that worse. Trees are beautiful, but they're not decorations. They are lifesaving infrastructure. They cool our city, reduce flooding, clean our air, and protect public health. And once they're gone, they're gone for generations. The city charter mandates protection of our natural environment. Yet what we are witnessing is the erosion of our tree canopy and our public trust. So yes, create this committee, but it must not be used to weaken Chapter 17 or to hide behind it. We demand immediate enforcement of Chapter 17 and Miami 21, a moratorium on non-emergency tree removals, independent arborist reviews, full transparency and public notice for every tree removal.

Thank you.

Thank you. So please protect our trees now. Thank you. And once they're gone, Miami gets hotter, harsher, and harder to live in. Thank you. You're welcome.

Folks, thank you means your two minutes are up.

Nelson Canizares, 2850 Tigertail Avenue, Related Urban. Good morning, commissioners and Madam Mayor. I'm here representing Related Urban in support of RE19. For decades, Wagner Creek has faced severe bacterial contamination that in turn pollutes the Miami River and our beloved Biscayne Bay. Related Urban, in partnership with Miami Dade County and the Jackson Health System, will be spearheading the redevelopment of the existing Jackson Medical Towers property, located directly adjacent to Wagner Creek. With funding from the city of Miami and state of Florida already secured, this multi-phase redevelopment will provide approximately 800 much needed affordable slash workforce housing units to the health district. A major employment hub in the city of Miami, an essential medical resource area serving residents from all over. Phase one gallery at Wagner Creek is slated to break ground in the first quarter of next year. As part of the adaptive reuse strategy for the existing Jackson Medical Towers, the adjacent green space next to Wagner Creek will be turned into a welcoming amenity where the community can gather and relax with the local nature. This may only be possible, however, if the environmental conditions are addressed and the community can feel good knowing it is safe to leisure in this area. Last year, Libra Lopez and Fast Cleaning Solutions LLC placed one water quality improvement device in the Wagner Creek area beside the Jackson Medical Towers. And since then, there has been a massive and noticeable reduction in the bacterial contamination. The results of this were reported in a TV news segment released three weeks ago by WPLG Local 10. Thank you Commissioner Gabela for sponsoring this item and identifying available funding within your district's budget to address a long-standing environmental concern in our community and for your dedication to expanding more affordable slash workforce housing opportunities in this great city. By committing now to join the efforts in cleaning up Wagner Creek, the City of Miami would strengthen their pledge in building a Miami for everyone. Thank you.

Good morning. Is it still morning? My name is Jocelyn Mahone. I'm here on behalf of the Clio Institute, 2937 Southwest 27th Avenue. I am here today to speak both urgently to the request for the creation of the tree committee and also to request a moratorium on tree removal until the committee has been fully invested. Miami cannot afford to lose tree canopy, certainly not now. Our city's heating up. We already know that extreme heat in South Florida has increased by 50 days per year over the last few decades. And heat is expensive for the city. It costs residents money. It costs them their energy for running more air conditioning. It costs our health care system in terms of preterm births, medical emergencies, and even an increase in mental health crises. And if the city is not paying these costs, the residents that you claim to serve are. Trees can be part of the solution for cooling Miami. In our opening prayer, we prayed for those who may not be able to be here or speak up for themselves. So on their behalf, I ask you to take care of them. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Eileen Broughton, 951 Northwest 10th Court, Miami, in the historic Spring Garden neighborhood. I want to make a comment about... I serve on the board for the Spring Garden Civic Association and this polluted piece of waterway runs through my neighborhood and once again it runs through your health district. We can try now with new technology to mitigate what's happening. I strongly urge you to protect this waterway and make this a safer environment for the health district and also for Spring Garden. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Lindsay Kane. I live at 333 Northeast 24th Street, Miami, Florida, 33137. I'm not only a resident of Miami, but also a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. And in my culture and modern science backs this up, each tree is a living, breathing being that communicates. And even in this room, we started with a prayer. The sign behind you reads, and God we trust, and are these trees not God's creation? I have a feeling that your office and the mayor's office, environmental resources, has experienced an uptick in emails, public comments, social media engagement, because it doesn't take an expert to see what's going on is wrong and it doesn't make sense. All it takes is one shred of compassion or an understanding that every single tree is a living being or a basic understanding of the ecological value that trees provide in a hot tropical climate to understand that what's going on and has been going on is a massacre and it's traumatized residents and the world which is now watching in horror on social media. People are donating to funds, signing petitions and asking me for any way to stop this. You call this a beautiful city, Mayor, and in all honesty, it does not look beautiful right now. So I came today to ask for an instant moratorium on all approved and planned tree removals. I don't know anyone who supports tree removals except for a few privileged developers and politicians. Amongst these 27 intended decisions, tree removals granted for the month of May alone, when we include the 57 trees approved for the pickleball courts in Coconut Grove, we have over 100 proposed removals in the grove alone, 22 removals in Allapattah, and 29 trees were cut in a lot in Edgewater without proper permits. And what happened? More removals were approved. Chapter 17, which is being abused, still isn't even enough to cover because it leaves too many species unprotected. Fruit trees that provide sustenance and give life are not being replaced or relocated, for which there is a fund for. There was a murder of a 100-year-old banyan tree recently which devastated the Edgewater community and has left a scar deep on the community and won't be mitigated by planting shrubs out there.

Back again. Good morning.

Good morning, Albert Gomez, 3566 Vista Court. Wish all the commissioners were here. PH3, PH5, traffic calming, request Miami-Dade County approve to fast track traffic calming projects in District 2, 4, and 5 in waiving neighborhood balloting requirements. Just want to clarify to Commission, sidewalks alone are not traffic calming. Hopefully this is not direct action related to Morningside. To be clear, removing neighborhood balloting as a result, fast tracking tree removals under the auspice of traffic calming, I hope that's not the case. PH1, PH2, plat approvals, technical subdivision replats. I noticed a little change that could affect potentially trees, and it would be hard to follow where these plats are. They are now charged. They basically denote the plat name. It doesn't have the address as traditionally was applied in the agenda. Please correct that. It is difficult for people to see where these properties are and if it affects their neighborhood. RE12, affordable housing access agreement. This might have tree impacts because they can prioritize staging over tree protection. We know a little about this since we fought this issue before and we are currently fighting it as there are staging equipment and materials on property and damaging critical root zones right now in various properties in Miami and we put the request for those sites to be stopped and fined. On the tree ordinance, my takeaway on this would be the mission statement, make sure that the verbiage is to strengthen tree protection. We take no less than five guaranteed community workshops. Community recommendations are included and not washed out through the committee. And to highlight the fact that the historic tree removal permit data has been requested by the CRC and the city staff has said that that's not available. It can easily be released by opening up the API and giving that information to the public so that they can- Thank you. Bring that forward to the city.

Thank you. Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Maria Lopez-Delbert, 661 Northeast 68th Street. I'm VP for Bayside HOA and President for Elmira. historic street. I would also like for the commissioners and the mayor to execute a moratorium on this item of RE15. I would just like to share some facts with you. Urban trees provide significant health benefits, including reducing heat-related deaths by up to 40%, lowering obesity, a risk by 40% and increasing stroke and prevalence. Figures of mortality and heat increasing trees cannot be 30% and European cities could prevent four out of 10 premature heat related deaths. A 10% increase in tree cover is associated with reducing mortality by 11 deaths. I can go on and on and on. Basically, what we need to understand is we're not against progress, we're not against development, but developers need to be mindful and to be kind and soulful to the environment around them that they're coming in to develop. For me, I believe that they're having a vision of just concrete and an attack, a hostile attack on the environment and the green spaces. I think it's time for the city to really understand that green spaces are important to the community. They're needed for the health. They're needed for the beautification. And more importantly, they exist. They have a soul. They have a life. And they should have been cut down because a developer says it's in the way of their construction. I hope that you will do the right thing, that you live up to your oath, which is for the people, by the people, and we the people, which is plural and not developers. Thank you so much.

Good morning, commissioners, Madam Mayor. My name is Brenda Berancourt, 1436 6th Street. I'm a reference of the secure bond that you guys are asking for. The presentation was very informative and to me it's very important to understand due to the fact that my radio show touch around 900 people a day. And I was asked many questions about this because when you do dial 911 for the city of Miami, most of the time don't get a person, you get a beep, somebody who's gonna call you back. So when you're asking for $450 million to fix a facility, what about the service? And that happened to me on Saturday over 10 minutes in order for me to get an answer for a human being. And you can go back to the recording since the city of Miami is supposed to record every single 911 call. And it's important for the citizens of the city of Miami who right now are expecting the state to cancel the property taxes for homesteads to understand what is going to happen if you guys put this in the ballot and eventually the voters will decide, even though it is so important for fire and police. It is important. So sad that we let it neglect the buildings. but it is the responsibility of the citizens of Miami to vote to see if we actually want to have an extra tax in our bills every month. So I'm glad for the presentation, and yes, every day I give you phone numbers of your office to the citizen who asked for it. to deceive you, because you are elected officials and you're supposed to answer the people of the city of Miami calls. Thank you.

Hi, Katrina Morris, 4130 Libyre Avenue. Firstly, I commend and support CA1 and PH7. These are just the sort of municipal expenditures that enrich and strengthen our city and address the needs of residents. And I am happy to finally see the Miami Tree Ordinance Advisory Committee formation on the agenda. I fear that it's to rewrite our code, but we have a unique opportunity to take stock of our tree canopy and not only halt the losses, but hopefully start adding canopy across our city, bringing shade, rainwater mitigation, and filtering, and a host of additional benefits to Miami residents. The studies are in. Trees are good for people. We've known since Roger Ulrich's 1984 study in Pennsylvania that a tree view outside a hospital window reduces the length of hospital stays, pain medication usage, and minor complications during recovery significantly, statistically significantly. If just having a tree outside a hospital window can show a statistically significant difference in recovery time, what can having adequate tree coverage throughout our city do for the well-being of residents, workers, and visitors? Developers may offer buildings with luxurious interiors, but nature is becoming a far more valuable luxury and one that is rapidly disappearing. Anyone can scrape a lot and pour concrete. It takes upwards of 50 years to grow a specimen tree. Now that's a luxury. Let's invest in our future happiness and well-being by not only halting the removal of all specimen trees, but by enhancing our city with a robust urban forestry plan. We have a chance here. Let's look back on this period with pride that we all worked together to build a climate resilient city to which other cities can look for inspiration. Please.

Good morning. Brett Bebo, Managing Director of the Miami River Commission with offices located at 1407 Northwest 7th Street. Miami River Commission Chairman Horacio Stewart Aguirre has a cold today and is therefore unable to join us, but he sends his regards and support for agenda item RE19. On behalf of the Miami River Commission, many thanks to Honorable Commissioner Gabela and the entire Honorable City Commission for securing the funding for water quality improvement devices to reduce the frequent bacteria violations in Wagner Creek and Seabold Canal. In partnership with the public and private sectors, this portion of the Miami River District is being transformed into a healthy and safe environment to live, work, and play. Thank you.

Stephen Lightner, 1131 of 2nd Street, Bay Harbor Islands. Hello, commissioners, and hello, Mayor Higgins. Congratulations. I hate public speaking, but I hate knowing that our tree canopy is being assaulted and mutilated. Please do not end today's commission meeting without taking concrete steps to deal with this assault. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon, commissioners and mayor. My name is Jennifer Diana, and I'm the general manager of Paramount Miami World Center, located at A51 Northeast First Avenue in Miami. I'm speaking today regarding agenda item RE2, the proposed 2025 bicycle master plan. I appreciate the city's efforts to improve mobility, connectivity, and alternative transportation options through the proposed plan. Paramount is not opposed to bike lanes, and we support thoughtful infrastructure and improvements that make Miami safer and more accessible. However, as the city moves forward with implementing this plan, I respectfully ask that the commission carefully consider the real world safety implications of bike lane design and placement in dense urban residential quarters like downtown Miami. Specifically, I want to bring attention to the conditions on Northeast First Avenue between Northeast 8th Street and Northeast 10th Street. This corridor presents a serious and ongoing safety concern. Since the opening of Paramount, the addition of street parking alongside the bike lane on this one-way roadway has created significant visibility issues for vehicles entering and exiting residential driveways and garage entrances. Drivers often cannot see approaching cyclists and until the last moment because parked vehicles obstruct sight lines. At the same time, cyclists and high speed scooters frequently travel through the corridor without slowing or yielding near active garage entrances. Unfortunately, we are witnessing accidents and collisions a couple times a month. Thankfully, no one has lost their life yet, but individuals have been injured, and many residents and staff genuinely fear that a fatality is only a matter of time if changes are not considered. We have repeatedly raised these concerns through public meetings and with various agencies. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance. You know, there's an old saying in politics, when politicians don't want to solve a problem, they create a committee. And that's exactly what this tree committee feels like. This is nothing short of lack of leadership, no accountability, but a political smokescreen designed to deflect the very policies destroying Miami's tree canopy in the first place. Because let's be honest about what's happening here. Trees are not disappearing because residents suddenly woke up one day and hated shade. They're disappearing because City Hall keeps approving policies and projects that make destruction inevitable. 20-foot concrete sidewalks being pushed into waterfront parks because the policies championed by Commissioner Damien Pardo, sidewalks forced through historic neighborhoods like Morningside, healthy legacy trees suddenly labeled replaceable, easy tree removal permits handed out while developers keep getting the benefits of the doubt, and residents keep getting ignored. Now, after years of public outrage, after residents have begged this commission to stop the destruction, the answer is a committee, really? Miami does not have a committee shortage, Miami has a courage shortage. If this commission truly wants to protect trees, you wouldn't need another layer of bureaucracy to study the problem while the chainsaws keep running. You would stop approving these policy causing the destruction. Residents are tired of studies, tired of task force, tired of advisory boards. What they want is action because every month City Hall delays more of these canopies disappear forever. Please do the right thing on this item. Thank you.

Still good morning, commissioners. So it's trees, traffic, and affordability. Those are always the three main topics, but today it seems like the trees have taken front and center, which probably they should because that's an emergency. I would just like to bring to the mayor's attention and to the city manager's attention, there was a HEP board meeting that went to 1130 just a couple of days ago. One of the big items was on Swanson Avenue. where there were two trees that were debated for like two hours as to whether what should be done with them. And the HEP board voted to keep them both, because they were both in good shape. But last night, FP&L decided that they would go in and take the matter into their own hands and decimated one of the treaties that PISA had spent two hours debating. So I don't know what you can do with FP&L. They seem to operate on their own. But this is the city of Miami. And I think between Mr. Whitesong and our mayor and you commissioners, we can send a message to FP&L that they are being looked at. They are not autonomous. They can't do whatever they feel like anytime they feel like it. And when you do that, then the credibility of everybody goes up because we know our city is protecting our trees. Thank you very much.

Hello? Sorry. Hello. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. Hello, my name is Michelle Yee. Address is 2937 Southwest 27th Avenue, Suite 301. I'm an FIU student and research assistant working on wetland and seagrass restoration, as well as FIU's lead organizer for GenCLIO under the CLIO Institute. It was FIU alongside UF that helped develop the urban tree canopy assessment in 2021, and as I'm soon to graduate, I wonder about the urban forest that was promised. With the hottest summers on record compounding, adequate tree cover is crucial for the well-being of the community across all sectors. They reduce storm runoff, lower electric bills, as well as improve air quality by absorbing pollutants. With the diminishing expanse of third spaces, trees also provide social benefits and bring communities together. By working toward codifying the climate action strategy plan, a request can be made to Miami-Dade's Evaluation appraisals to evaluate whether current development and tree permitting policies are sufficient to meet the country's 30% tree canopy cover and resiliency goals, as stated in the Urban Forestry Plan and Million Trees Miami Initiative. Removing mature live oaks in the city of Miami shows a possible gap between countrywide climate targets and local implementation. The Comprehensive Development Master Plan should prioritize preservation of matured native canopy. I'm so sorry. Maternity canopy require transparent canopy loss tracking by municipality and insured redevelopment does not create a long-term canopy deficit and heat vulnerable communities. As well, we have signed onto a letter with many other leaders in the community to address this issue and we are waiting to hear back on a response. Thank you so much for your time.

Hello, good morning. Thank you, Madam Mayor and Commissioners, for your time and attention. My name is Denise Tubino. I live in Coconut Grove, 2566 Trapp Avenue, 33133. I have lived in Miami for the past 14 years. Prior to establishing roots here, I lived in six countries, and I love this city. I have lived in Edgewater and Coconut Grove these past 14 years, witnessing drastic changes over a short amount of time. I'm a mother of two boys born right here in Miami. We love it here. When they're my age, I want them to still see the Miami of today. But Miami is experiencing an unprecedented boom. As an environmental consultant with a focus on environmental and social impact assessment, I see this boom coming at a very high cost to Miami's environment and its local residents. The rate at which we are losing our trees is out of control. In my line of work, we bring forth solutions to complex problems. One way to solve the problems is through nature-based solutions, which is a growing sector valued at over $220 billion annually. Here in Miami, we already have the trees providing critical functions for free in the form of ecological services, which are priceless. Miami needs to start viewing trees as part of the solution to Miami's complex problems such as flooding and urban heat island effect. As a community, trees are not a nuisance and they are an asset that should be viewed as critical infrastructure. As a community, we want tree conservation. There's a path forward. Let's come together and make it happen. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Amy Hertzig. I live at 3564 Linden Lane in Coconut Grove. I took the circuit here today, and I'd like to thank whoever, I believe it's our commissioner. It was wonderful, wonderful experience, and I'm hoping it takes me home as well. I'm here to speak about my personal experience as a resident of coconut grove and a homeowner for four decades and multi-generational and I have deep grief. I know feelings don't seem to matter in this society, but what I've seen happen to my neighborhood and my home in real time is devastating. I used to look out over majestic trees. There was always an avocado or a mango or things for all the children. And now I am sandwiched between concrete walls. I would invite all the commissioners and the mayor to come to my house and see what's happening. And the thing is, the developers and the whole situation now, there's no investment in the neighborhood, really. They don't care. It's not like it used to be before. On Linden Lane, we know all of our neighbors. except for a foreign developer that was able to buy a property that would have been lovely, an old homestead, and cut down all the trees. And I'm like, who is allowing this to happen? Seriously. It is a crime. And when I spoke recently to someone representing Coconut Grove, and they said, well, property owners have rights. Now, why do their rights to make property a profit off our neighborhood and destroy it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Why is that more important than the rights of children, the rights of nature, the rights of community? Thank you for coming.

Good morning. My name is Enoa Cleveland. I live at 5990 Southwest 50th Street. And I'd just like to thank all the tree huggers for being here today. Trees are living beings, and they can't be here to represent themselves, so thank you all for speaking up. Full disclosure, I do own a chainsaw, but I will say I've never cut a tree down. They come out, a chainsaw comes out in times for storm preparation and afterwards. Because trees have a value, and we spend a lot of time trying to put the price tag on a value of a tree. but it's more than just the monetary value. And obviously the developers have enough money that they can get around whatever kind of penalty you try to put financially on them. So I would suggest, think of it another way. When we have a violation of the tree removal, maybe we should suspend the developer's permits process so that they now have an incentive to do something other than just cut down trees, thank you.

Hello, Commissioner, mayors, mayor and commissioners. Jessica Johnson, 5262 Northeast Fifth Avenue, Morningside. Who do you represent? You are stewards of the city, not owners, and you are failing that stewardship on your watch. Your own charter says the city shall conserve and protect its natural resources.

Any public official who willfully violates this shall forfeit their office.

You are violating it. On city-owned land, every neighborhood. 411 Northeast 69th Street, city-owned property, an 88-year-old woman next door got a form letter saying, sorry, 10 days. Commissioner King, trees on city-owned affordable housing land in your district, I know you want to do better. These are not developers. Commissioner Pardo, 14 mature mahogany at Grove Station. Albert Gomez pleaded at this podium. The community pleaded. The trees were killed anyway. On your command. You cannot blame developers or the state. Mayor Higgins, you have said nothing. Not one word. Specimen trees are being destroyed across every neighborhood and you have been silent. And we know you hear us because you pay social media people hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. This is environmental justice. Every community, regardless of race or income, deserves equal protection from environmental harm. In Miami, that means trees. The difference between East Grove and West Grove, between Morningside and Little Haiti, is the tree canopy. But make no mistake, they are cutting down trees in Brickell, Coconut Grove, Morningside, Edgewater, Bayside Park on your watch. RE415, vote yes, appoint Dr. Chris Barilotto, it must have teeth. Follow what he says and everything Albert Gomez and Sandy Moise and the CRC. Who do you represent? Not us. We also don't want to pay for your events, PR, gimmicks, galas, perks. Tighten your belts, it looks ridiculous. More trees.

Good morning, Commissioners, Madam Mayor, Ian Wogan, 2360 Overbrook Street. I'm a registered consulting arborist and a Florida ISA arborist. I'm also a father of three and was born here at Mercy Hospital, local. My professional practice focuses on integrating trees in the built environment through preservation strategies and urban canopy enhancement plans. The development pressures here in Miami are notable and significant, and I think we are at a point that's been heard multiple times over the course of this meeting, demand from the residents and also just opportunity as a global city that can lead the way in integrating trees as infrastructure. I've spoken on many panels on trees as infrastructure, managing trees during construction, relocating specimen trees, and I look forward to the tree committee and I just urge that there's teeth behind it. was a dear colleague of mine. And I respected her tremendously because she stood for the preservation of trees when seemingly nobody else really did. And I would suggest that we embody some of her spirit to carry forward to a new means of integrating tree preservation and enhancement in a way that aligns development interests and leverages PPPs so that we're coming together to enhance Miami as a whole and not squabble over silliness.

Good morning, Commissioners, Mayor. My name is Madison Kinder. I live in Coconut Grove at 3471 Main Highway, and I am here in support of strengthening Miami's tree protections with an advisory committee to consider revisions to the tree ordinance. In a city that is already facing extreme heat, flooding, and rapid overdevelopment, mature trees are not cosmetic amenities. they are critical infrastructure they provide shade reduce urban heat improve air quality and absorb storm water and protect quality of right for residents i strongly support prioritizing keeping healthy trees in the ground whenever possible tree removal should only be treated as a last resort not a routine development expense when removal is unavoidable the penalties and mitigation requirements must be significantly stronger Right now, for many developers, fines are simply absorbed as the cost of doing business. That does not create meaningful protection or accountability. Fines should be high enough to actually discourage unnecessary removal, especially for mature canopy trees that take decades to replace. I also encourage that the committee to prioritize stronger protections for mature native trees, transparent public oversight and enforcement, meaningful replacement requirements, and prioritizes that recognized canopy loss disproportionately impacts vulnerable neighborhoods, as well as requiring an urban tree canopy survey so that we can actually know how many trees are still stand in our city. Miami cannot continue losing its tree canopy while temperatures rise year after year. Development and environmental protection cannot be treated as mutually exclusive, especially as the city has already stated that they have a goal of reaching 30% canopy by 2030. Thank you so much for your time.

Good morning, Madam Mayor, Madam Chair, Commissioners. There is no urgency to make bad policy. RE 6 and 13 are very well-intentioned, but they are partial, incomplete measures. An incomplete reform can look like progress while leaving deep structural problems unresolved. Good governance argues for comprehensive reform. Miami's history matters. It needs reform, and it needs it now. More than 20,000 petitioners signed stronger Miami petitions because they believe the city has deeper protections, needs deeper protections for voters, especially protections against election manipulation. They do not want mere calendar adjustments. They want trust, safeguards, and accountability. These are hard, Commissioner, polarizing times in the U.S. It is not the moment for ambiguity about democratic principles. And that is why this distinction matters between these proposals. Miami doesn't need to choose between reform and public trust. However, RE6 and 13 ask voters to accept trades they should not have to make. If they want better governance, that they first must give up something to those already in office, that's the wrong starting point. RE3 shows leadership. The pattern is not by accident. It happens over the world, and it undermines citizens' confidence in the future. Good reforms strengthen trust, their motives should be clear. Defer RE6, defer RE13, bring together a better package that meets all the needs of the city. Thank you, sir.

Mel, we need your name and address for the record.

Mel Meinhart, 3075 Virginia Street.

Thank you, Mel. I know we know you, but for the record. Okay. Go ahead.

Thank you, Rob. Yes, thank you for having me again. Again, Rob Piper, 1401 Southwest 17 Terrace. I'm just up here to express my support for RE3. Yes, I think that is a good legislation. Thank you, Madam Mayor, for advancing that. But express my lack of support for RE6 and RE13. Begrudgingly, I guess I would have to support either 6 or 13. If I have to support them begrudgingly, then let's support the one that is going to bring us even your elections sooner as opposed to later. Thank you very much.

All right. Seeing no other speakers lined up, reasonable opportunity to be heard is closed. Commissioner Pardo, would you like to address RE3, 13, and 14? I think they sort of have to go at the same time.

I think what we did, Madam Mayor, is we rolled your item and continued with this one, going to even-year elections starting in November, but deducting the year from the group that is not yet, which means 2034 would be the first year of even-year elections going forward. And that's what that item is on the agenda. We withdrew RE6. Personally, I think 2030, taking away a year from the next set of election would be doable for me, but I also know that not everybody's comfortable imposing that on other people who already came in with the expectation of having regular terms. So as it stands, I don't know, city attorney, I do also want to add that the plus one, minus one year, which is something that's gone back and forth over months and months and months and months, really has depended on the legal opinions at the time as to what is most legally defensible. I know in the city of Miami, we had the experience of the challenges that were never expected and things that didn't work the way originally intended. And we definitely want to try to avoid that as much as possible. And the best way to avoid that is by following the advice of council and taking away that year on that impacted group.

So what that means is on RE6, which has already been withdrawn, that item would have added a year to everybody's term. And it was our best advice that notwithstanding the fact that there are cities and towns across the state of Florida that are doing this exact same thing, there's one in Broward that's doing it now, that the city of Miami is uniquely situated in that folks will sue. And we didn't want to, we advised you that it's better to move forward without adding the additional year pursuant to a section of the Florida Constitution. So that's why RE6 was withdrawn. And I believe- George?

Mr. Attorney, could you speak a little more clearly into the microphone? Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah, sorry. I was just saying that RE6 would have added an extra year to everybody's term. And based on a provision of the Florida Constitution, we felt that notwithstanding the fact that cities and towns and villages across the state of Florida have moved their election, and added an extra year or so. We just felt that the city of Miami gets sued in these matters for whatever reason, and we wouldn't want that to be a pitfall for your reform effort to change the dates of the election to the even year cycle. The only other thing that I wanted to mention was we were observing, so in the event that you move forward with RE13, we just have a quick change that, I'm sorry, did I say 13? Yes, RE13. We consulted with the supervisor of elections office and we initially wrote the item on the agenda to reflect their qualification period and in fact they had a charter review process where they were going to ask the county to change the provisions of article six of the Miami-Dade County Charter to mandate a certain timeframe for which we would have our qualification period. However, with the assistance of the clerk's office, we pointed out to the supervisor of elections that their numbers are slightly off, and that would have created a problem for us. Our qualification period would actually go four days beyond what they require, even though it's their period. So what we did was we are proposing adding a different qualification deadline which would be, however, commencing in the year 2030, an affidavit of candidacy shall be filed not earlier than 10 calendar days preceding the deadline for candidate qualifying as provided by the supervisor of elections for Miami-Dade County and no later than 12 o'clock noon on the day prior to the deadline for candidate qualifying as provided by the supervisor of elections for Miami-Dade County or during the qualifying period for a special election to fill a vacancy. What that means in simple terms is every year the supervisor of election puts out a little notice saying that the ballot deadlines are these. So our qualification period would count 10 days from their deadline backwards. And the reason that's necessary, we couldn't provide an actual date, is the state of Florida from time to time will move its primary cycles in order to be more competitive with other states and things like that. So the county could not assure us, or the supervisor of elections office could not assure us, you know, what numerical formula would work. So we think this is the best way to do it based on their determination of when the deadline is, and we start our qualification periods 10 days prior to that. That would be the only change to 13. 13, essentially what it does is every sitting commissioner would fill out their term. So if you don't mind, I'll use you, for example. You were elected in... 2023 you're up for election in 2027 the district 2 commissioner elected in 2027 will serve a four-year term then this charter amendment would on 2031 the next person that runs for district 2 would have a three-year term and then their subsequent term would be a four-year term So in order to align, because like we've maintained all along, there's no way to move it to the even years without gaining a year or losing a year. We thought it was sort of inappropriate, and some of you could have actually challenged if you had a year taken away from you. So we thought the best thing to do would be to move it down so nobody's affected. on the day is you would all get to fulfill your second four-year term, and then the first subsequent person running would lose that year. And then that would align everything. And then the last thing of note is that this would be on the November-December cycle as well. That's what the proposed change in 13 is.

And George, the only thing I would add to that is that from the very beginning, we've had two overwhelming goals. One is to increase voter participation, hopefully to that 70% number, and then immediately try to get this done as soon as we possibly can and pass. And it has been very, very challenging, and I think we've been working on it two years. So hopefully people can see the logic of what we're putting forward and open it up to the rest.

Colleagues, are there any discussions or questions? Commissioner Pardo, do you want to take us through the motions on those three items? I'll make a motion. Yeah. To the clerk?

And I apologize for the interruption. So RE14 must be voted upon first before RE13. RE13 will not only have the city attorney's amendment but there will also be another amendment for re13 which is to amend to add a date and resolution number in the 13th whereas clause in addition to adding a resolution number in section 5 of the legislation so re13 would be as amended and then re3 is in play so re14 has to go first george so we withdraw re3 um i'm not pleased about it but yes

Commissioner Porter, could you take us through the years? Just take us through the years just for clarification.

From the beginning? What is proposed ultimately? Okay, what is being proposed right now, and we'll use my term just for the sake of making it easier. So elected in 2023, it's a four-year term. Come due 2027. If we ever tried to touch an existing term that we're all sitting in, It's open, very open to legal challenges. So we start looking at the next term. The next term would be 2027 to 2031. And on that one, it becomes an issue of how many... voting for reducing someone else's term that would have a normal objection when they were looking at those original four years, if re-elected, right? So then that would be 2031 to 2035. So that one cuts back to 2034. That's the three years. So the folks in 2031 who get elected in 2031 will have a three-year term, and then they'll be aligned, and everything will go on for four years. And that was, you know, originally we had wanted to set this to voters, and the late Commissioner Reyes had been sick. We had missed like three meetings. We weren't able to get it to the voters, and then we tried to do it in 2026 as soon as possible, get it to 70%. That didn't work, that path was closed, and so now we've been here going back and forth with the legal aspects of what is the best thing to do at a year, take away a year, that is most defensible for the city of Miami, because we are very likely to get challenged. Like city attorney said, many other cities have done this. It really hasn't even been much of an issue, but in this city it will be, so at least we think we do.

Okay.

Correct. Did that answer your question?

It did.

Okay. Make a motion.

So motion. First, we have to go RE14.

Well, did you want to address RE3 first before?

OK. Motion to withdraw RE3.

So move.

Motion to withdraw. Is that correct? RE3.

All right. There's a motion and a second on RE3. All in favor?

Aye.

OK. Let's move on to RE14, please.

So move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, all in favor to rescind this, signify by saying aye.

Aye. No.

Okay, show that four to one with Commissioner Gabela being a no vote. RE 13, do I have a motion?

So moved.

Second?

Second. That's with the amendments.

With the amendments, motion by Commissioner Pardo, seconded by Commissioner Escalona. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

No.

Show one no vote. Commissioner Gabela passes four to one. Two, two, two.

King is no.

And King is all. I'm sorry. Three to two. Commissioner King as well. All righty.

And my apologies, Chair, again for the interruption. So we now have two ballot questions that have been passed for the August primary election. The one we just spoke about was the Marin City Commission even year election cycle. And we have another one, management agreement with Global Spectrum LP to activate and manage events at the historic Miami Marine Stadium and Flex Park. I just want to receive direction from the commission as to the order of the ballot questions. Would you like the election question to go first, followed by the management agreement with Global Spectrum?

Yeah, I think the election one makes the most sense, if you all agree.

Agreed. Good to go.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. All right, colleagues, we're just after noon. Would you like to push through the agenda? It seems like I don't think there's too many controversial things. Is that okay?

I would like to move forward.

Okay. All right, let's start with the consent agenda. Is there anything anyone would like to bifurcate? All right, seeing none, I would entertain a motion on the consent agenda, please.

So moved. Second.

All right, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Those items passed. Public hearing items. Is there anyone who would like to bifurcate anything on the public hearing items?

No.

All right, seeing none, I would, yes, Mr. Clark.

And just for the record, PH6 was withdrawn? Withdrawn. PH6 was withdrawn. Yep.

PH6 is withdrawn. All right, so we'll have, I'll entertain a motion on PH1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7. Motion. Second. Motion by Gabella, seconded by Commissioner Escalona. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Show those unanimously passed. Okay, moving into resolutions. Are there any resolutions that need to be bifurcated?

Nope.

None. Okay, so.

I do have one.

Okay, Commissioner Rosado, which one?

I think that your woman spoke before I did.

Yes, go ahead. Mr. King.

I'd like to pull RE15 for discussion.

All right.

RE15, okay.

RE15, any others? Commissioner Rosado?

Yes, RE17.

RE17, okay.

Okay, RE17. Okay, hang on a minute, please.

We can start with RE15.

Yeah, why don't I do a motion on everything else?

Okay, RE8.

RE8, you would like to...

Yeah. Okay.

Sorry. So for RE1, just for the record, RE1 needs to be amended pursuant to a substitution memo dated May 11, 2026. So RE1 will be as amended.

All right. So do I have a motion on RE1? Madam Mayor?

Yes, ma'am. I'd like to pull RE16 as well.

RE16. Okay.

RE16. Okay. Hang on, people. RE16. Okay.

So I'm going to recap, I think, what have been bifurcated. So we all know RE8, RE15, RE16, RE17. Does that sound correct?

You're missing RE5.

And RE5.

So what are we doing again? RE5?

Are you bifurcating RE5? Do you want to? No, no, I don't want to pull it. Oh, okay.

If nobody wants to pull it. Yeah, okay. No one has pulled it.

Yeah, okay. The items that are pulled are 8, 15, 16, and 17.

8, 15, 16, 17, okay.

All right. So I would entertain a motion on RE1, RE5, RE7, RE9, RE10, RE11, RE12, RE18, and 19. Motion.

Second.

Okay, motion by Commissioner Gabela, seconded by Commissioner Rosado. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Carries unanimously. Okay, shall we go to RE8? Who is the polling commissioner on RE8?

Okay, I think, was it me? I think it was me. So just in real brief, I know what's been trying to be... So can you walk me through again what is it exactly? Is this the one with the bench? And if that's yours? No, that's RE16.

RE8 is the municipal prosecutor.

Who's RE8? Who did RE8? RE8.

RE8 is the municipal prosecution. That's Commissioner Escalona's item.

Yeah, that's yours. Yes. And could you just walk me real brief? I mean, I don't have a main problem, but I didn't understand it quite well. So what are we trying to do here?

So the goal here is the state attorney is very busy. And there are so many cases that are being dropped. There are things that are happening in our city that I believe they deserve attention. And the main goal here is to bring couple of attorneys here that can take care of those cases, and we can move forward the city to a better situation, safe, etc. That's the main goal with this. Now I remember. And to my knowledge, there are other cities that have done this before.

Okay, yeah. My only concern was the money that this was going to cost us. That was my only concern, but other than that, I have no concerns.

So this is used for 90 days. action plan, so they are going to come back to us with a plan, and then if we don't want to move forward because it'll cost a lot of money, we don't move forward.

Okay, all right, that's fine. I'm good, thank you, Commissioner.

All right, anyone else? Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion. Commissioner Escalona?

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay, motion passes unanimously. Moving on to RE15.

That's the item I pulled. just need some information from staff in reviewing the backup documentation. When this came up, we talked about adding FIU, and I don't see that in the backup documents. It has FSU, but the whole reason why I requested that we have a committee of the community was because, for me example, I'm not a tree subject matter expert. And I didn't get into the fray of the tree removal because District 5 is planting trees.

Yeah, so are we.

We're not pulling trees up. We need tree canopy. Absolutely. And we don't have, in Liberty City, 100-year-old oaks to do away with. We just, my community doesn't have that issue. We need trees. But in here, FSU is, from what I understand, the mediator for community meetings. And I thought I was told in my agenda briefing that community meetings have been happening. But my appointees to the tree committee have said they haven't had any meetings. And I don't see FIU in here anywhere. And FIU is to step in as an expert with regards to trees and this ordinance, not to do mediation, but I don't see FIU in here. And that came up when we were voting on this. So have you had meetings in the community? And my, cause my tree advocates, one was here today. She's not gonna miss a meeting about this. And I tell you, it's from me speaking to our residents that I learned Again, not a tree expert that you shouldn't trim your trees during nesting season because the nest is going to fall on the ground and the birds are going to die. Little things like that, that. I or many folks I would consider don't know that kind of thing. So that's why it's important for me to make sure that the committee, the advisory committee is working in tandem with FIU and staff to make sure that we have a tree ordinance that makes sense for everyone.

Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Madam Chair, members of the City Commission, Melissa Fernandez-Steers, Assistant Director with the Building Department. I can directly answer the question regarding FIU now, but we're also prepared to go through a very brief presentation that will address the composition of the committee, as well as the work that has been done to date by the Consensus Center. So, at your pleasure, would you like us to go through the committee?

Well, okay, so there's work being done by the Consensus Center without the input from the committee?

No, so if you'll allow me to back up a little bit. Okay. So in July of 24, 2025, this commission directed the city manager to engage the consensus center through FIU to provide public outreach services, including stakeholder interviews, community workshops in each district, and a web-based public comment, all that would facilitate the public's voice in the process of crafting what would eventually become our revised tree ordinance. During that meeting, as you directed, Madam Chair, the city manager was also asked to convene a 10-member advisory committee that would be made up of residents that reside in each of your districts. The public service agreement was eventually executed with FSU in November, and FSU did immediately start work on its processes at that time. And the work that started at that time included To date, a dozen or so stakeholder interviews representing a wide range of perspectives, many of which are individuals that have spoken before you here today during public comment, as well as others who have been active advocates on this role. I can represent to you that one of the folks that has been interviewed is in fact an FIU community member, Professor Chris Barolotto, who we have the distinct pleasure of hosting on the committee once he's appointed. as Commissioner Pardo's appointment. So FIU will have a voice in this process. They will have a voice on the committee, and they will also be tagged as subject matter experts in terms of their expertise with respect to tree canopy and preservation. UM has also been tagged as part of that process. We've been in communication with them, and by we, I mean the administration as well as the folks from the consensus center, and they are ready to deploy their expertise on the matter. once we get this committee in place. I can also represent to you that we have a tentative integrated process plan. Once we establish the committee today by resolution, you'll be receiving names during the next commission meeting to fill out the appointments. We have nine out of the 10 appointments, and just so that you can rest assured with respect to the timeline going forward, our intent is to bring this committee and convene it at the end of June, early July. We will give them an orientation at that point, then we'll move forward with the public workshops in July, where we're gonna get feedback from the community during that time. Once we have that feedback in place, we'll bring it back to the advisory committee, we'll have a series of meetings with the advisory committee presenting to them what the feedback is that we've comprised from the community and look at options given on what the community has told us. So they'll put together options, then compile those options and bring back those approaches to the community for a second round of workshops so that the community can digest all this work that is being done. Again, all of it being facilitated through the consensus center, which is a neutral party that's intended to bring in the community and their voice on the matter. We hope after that second round of workshops, bring them back to the committee to develop a final set of recommendations. And all this being said, we're probably looking at some time in mid-2027 for draft recommendations to this body.

So is Commissioner Pardo's appointee the participation of FIU, or is it his appointee and FIU? Because that's what I intended. for FIU to be a part of this process?

So the participation with FIU is going to be on a volunteer basis because we entered the public service agreement with FSU, and we're relying on FIU and UM to volunteer in the process as community participants. We have reached out to them. FIU has a long list of folks that they want to weigh in in the process, and through our work with the consensus center, we'll be sure that those folks will be tapped. As an extra step, I'm sorry, go ahead.

So that wasn't my intent. I wanted FIU to be brought on as a consultant for the process. So, you know, suppose they decide, no, I don't want to volunteer today or I don't have time today. I wanted to make sure that they participated fully in this. If you go back to that commission meeting, that's And then some of our public commenters said, why did we go to Tallahassee, where we have universities here that could weigh in? And their role for me, FIU, is not the same as FIU. FIU, as was explained to me, FSU, I'm sorry, are acting as mediators. FIU is going to, for what I intended, to serve as subject matter experts to help guide the discussions with the advisory committee. So I wanted FIU to be a part of this process, not in a voluntary role, but as a consultant for this process. And it is clear that the community is very engaged in this They stop me everywhere I go to talk about this. Grocery store, gas station, running, because I run in Morningside. I have the T-shirt, the tree T-shirt. So this is very important to me that we utilize our universities here in Miami to help us with this process, because it's very, very important. And the other day, I went out. walked into a store, walked outside, and it felt like I walked into an oven. And it's only May. So we have to make sure that we get this tree ordinance correct, and we have to continue to plant trees.

I just wanted to add to that, as somebody who walks around Morningside with my dog in the morning and at night all the time. Absolutely, these are all issues. We are very, very protective and want to grow our tree canopies. We believe that this process that we're starting on now, which we've already started a while back, is a good step forward. I understand FIU's participation would be fantastic. I would love University of Miami to be a participant and to be able to weigh in on these issues. They have very good expertise, and so I think there's a way to add all of this, and I think you guys are the ones in the best position to do it.

Wait, one thing, one thing, one thing. Because I am a professor at FIU, adjunct professor, not a tenured professor. I need to make a conflict of interest thing. I won't vote on that if you guys want to engage FIU. I'm not advocating for them because I have a connection with them as an employee of FIU. Be clear about that. My chief of staff just ran up to tell me that, you know, as an attorney, we got to George, you should have said that first.

Well, we discreetly spoke to your chief of staff.

There you go, there you go. So we're full transparency. I am a professor at FIU. I teach Miami politics and I'm in no way trying to violate any kind of regulation with me advocating. And I did that already in the commission meeting for that. So if I, George, do I need to refrain from the vote?

Since what it seems to be is it's advocating for a consulting contract, which is a contract, I would recommend that you, just the appearance of impropriety, I hate using that term, but I would just withdraw yourself from the vote.

So, if I may, Mr. Manager, do you have a way of ensuring that FIU can be added to this so we can actually get this committee established?

And University of Miami.

Madam Chair and Commissioner Pardo will ensure that we contract both with FIU and University of Miami. We will get that done.

Okay, so we're able to move this item forward today.

Madam Mayor, Madam Chair, I need to make the same disclosure with regard to FIU, so I will All right.

So I hope none of the other three are working at FIU, because otherwise we can't take a vote. And I don't work at UM. All right. Okay, so I need a motion from someone that isn't involved with FIU. So moved. Todd, you've got a question.

And again, my apologies for the interruption. RE15 will be amended pursuant to a substitution memo dated May 11, 2026, so this item will be as amended.

All right. Do I have a motion? I move.

Second. I'm not working for FIU, but I'm going to reach out to a college to see if I can have somebody on to it.

But not FIU. You've got to be recused on a different item. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Of the three commissioners that are able to vote, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Please show Commissioner King and Commissioner Rosado as recused. All right, RE16, I think, Commissioner Rosado, you may have wanted to speak on this.

I do. I certainly support the idea of adding additional transparency, but in speaking with my staff, we realize we've been holding these biweekly block walks in downtown and in Brickell, and it includes sometimes additional...

Sorry, on what item are you speaking?

RE16.

That's 17, the one that you're referring to.

Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Yes, correct, RE17, my apologies.

RE16, who pulled RE16? I pulled RE16.

My concern with RE16 is who's going to do this and how are we going to fund doing it? This is a lot of work.

They already have a system that they can see. You just have to make it public. Make it public, yes.

Through the chair.

Okay. Mr. Manager, if you'd just explain the process.

Madam Chair, we currently have a searchable database that we maintain the administration to keep track of all the administrative orders that comes from these bodies. So it would be a matter of making that forward facing and giving access to the public.

Okay, so this would not cost any, you know, monies. Is that correct?

Not this one, Commissioner, no.

Okay.

Also, we're always speaking about transparency. I believe 16 and 17 brings transparency to the table, and that's the reason we have these two items.

Yeah, but 17 is going to cost us money, I've been briefed. From the city? From the city.

Could we wrap up?

Can we wrap up?

We have a motion on 16 with Commissioner King. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Escalona, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. RE17.

I pulled RE17 because, as I was starting to mention, we're hosting these walks and they're outside. We do have, in some cases, additional commission members or multiple DDA members. I don't know how that kind of process, which I think has been very positive, how it interacts with this, which I'm generally supportive of, but are there any carve-outs for things like that? Because those are exterior walks. That's the nature of it. That's how they're going to continue. It's what makes sense, but I don't know how we capture it in the same way we might capture a meeting in the chambers.

So Commissioner, and I'll look to Todd as we've been working collaboratively on this item. I think if... A more palatable ask is for, obviously, all of the bodies capture minutes. They capture minutes, just like there's minutes of this meeting, for example, and they get published on our site. I think a more palatable ask, without additional cost, without an overbearing on those organizations, the very ones that you just mentioned, would be to publicize those minutes the same way, in the same format, that we do these. I do have a concern with audio and video to a whole host of legalities to include closed captioning and contracts that we would have to sign in order to bring folks on board to convert all the audio and video, plus storage costs, plus manpower hours as it relates to audio and video. But with that said, and I think this is what Commissioner Calona is trying to accomplish for the sake of transparency, Those bodies do keep minutes, as does this body, and I think the public should have access to those minutes in the same format that they have access to the minutes here. So, clerk, I don't know if you have any further input than that, but I feel comfortable with that.

Mr. Manager, you summed it up perfectly.

That seems like a great compromise, absolutely.

So, colleagues, I don't know if we can amend that on the fly, or do you want Commissioner Escalona to change this more into a directive of having it come back with the manager explaining how he would implement it so we would be... Can it be amended? I think it can be amended. The question is, can you amend it specifically enough to Todd's thing, or would you rather have it come back in writing? It's up to you, Mr. Clerk.

Mr. City Attorney, are you okay with the substantive amendment of moving it from audio and video to simply just minutes? The minutes that the lower boards, whatever summary, remain whatever type of minutes they produce, that those would be published to the legislative hub, along with the city commission minutes and the other boards.

So as long as it's clear, in lieu of providing access to audio or video recordings of all public meetings, it would be to provide... access to all all minutes of meetings of the city yes yeah we can make that change if that if the move if the sponsor is okay with that so the main reason you want to amend this item is because you don't add additional calls right

Additional calls and additional bearings on those organizations, Commissioner. So as you know, and I think our clerk talked about it, it's not only the committees and the boards, but it's subcommittees, so on and so forth.

Are they required to record all the meetings?

No, and that's another thing that what I think you're doing, even by publishing the minutes of those boards go beyond what we're required to do legally. So we're in compliance with the law. video and audio is not part of that.

And just so you know, Chapter 286 requires notice, opportunity to be heard, and it also provides for copying of minutes or taking of minutes. But it does not require verbatim minutes or audio-video recording. It just simply requires minutes. So we comply with 286. I think the fear here is that this, in its extreme form, would be asking every single board to be video recorded And that's where the cost comes in, I believe.

And the problem is keeping all that storage up, the administration of it, and then future liabilities of lawsuits in the future, right? Is that what you're saying, George?

Well, there's not so much, well, the liability is we'd have to provide all those public records once we create them.

Okay, so again, another, okay.

All right, do I have a motion on the item as amended? Commissioner Escalona, since it's your item.

Commissioner, are you okay with it?

You want to think about it some more and come back?

You want to defer it? Yes, let's defer it.

Yeah, it seems to make sense. Let's get this right. Okay, there is a motion to defer. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor say aye. Aye.

And what meeting, Chair? Next meeting is fine. Understood.

May 28th. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Mr. City Attorney, you had a comment on RE13 you needed to put on the record.

I just want to make a quick note. When we modified, the City Commission adopted it as modified. When I read that this relates to the moving of the qualification deadline, I said 2030. I meant to say 2034. But the item was adopted with modification, so I just wanted to let you know that we'll be making that change as well.

And to be clear, we are moving elections, not canceling them? That cannot happen in the city of Miami?

Correct. And to be clear, what you did was none of the two terms of the people that are here now, if they get elected to a second term, is affected. When we finish our terms here, it's affected.

Except for District 1, sir. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

All right, second reading items. Colleagues, is there anything that you would like to, you've got to read them. You want to read them all?

Yes.

Okay, let's do that.

All right. thank you madam mayor um sr1 second reading ordinance an ordinance of the miami city commission pursuant to resolution number r240225 adopted june 18 2024 amending chapter 40 article 4 division 2 of the code of the city of miami florida is amended titled personnel pension and retirement plan city of miami firefighters and police officers retirement trust more particularly amending section 40-203 to grant international Association of Firefighters members vested on September 26, 2015, the benefits in effect on September 30, 2010, and permitting firefighter members eligible for retirement to elect up to seven years in the forward deferred retirement option program based on the International Association of Firefighters Local 587 Collective Bargaining Agreement for October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2026, containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. SR2, second reading ordinance. An ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending Chapter 2, Article 11 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended City Code, titled Administration, Boards, Committees, Commissions, to combine the Audit Advisory Committee and the Finance Committee into the Finance and Audit Advisory Committee, more specifically by repealing in its entirety Division 4, Sections 2-946 to 2-951, titled Audit Advisory Committee, further amending Division 6, Sections 2-951, 1011 to 2-1018, creating the Finance and Audit Advisory Committee, containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date. Second reading, Ordinance SR3, an ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending Chapter 10, Article 6 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida's amended City Code, titled Buildings, Unsafe Structures, to provide a waiver for qualifying senior citizens and low-income residents to the cost of recovery in unsafe structure violation cases, containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. SR 4, second reading ordinance, an ordinance of Miami City Commission amending Chapter 54 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida as amended City Code titled Streets and Sidewalks by creating Section 54-19 of the City Code titled Transit Shelters, Use and Conduct, providing definitions and prohibited conduct at transit shelters, providing for enforcement pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 10 of the City Code containing a several-league clause and providing for an effective date. And lastly, SR6, second reading ordinance, in ordinance of the Miami City Commission, renaming the city of Miami Park, located at 971 Northwest 2nd Street, Miami, Florida, and identified by folio number 0141380030690. from Ruben Dario Park to Henderson Park. Amending Chapter 38, Article 1 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled Parks and Recreation General by amending Section 38-38 of the City Code, currently titled Naming of Ruben Dario Park to rename the property designated therein as Henderson Park, further directing the City Manager to take all actions necessary to effectuate the renaming of the park, including the replacement of applicable signage within 30 calendar days containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. And finally, SR 7, second reading ordinance, an ordinance of the Miami City Commission, amending Chapter 2, Article 11, Division 11 and 12 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled Administrations, Boards, Committees, Commissions, Reserved. More specifically, by amending Division 11, Section 2-1145 through Division... 12.2-1174 of the City Code to establish the Accessibility Advisory Board, stating the Board's purposes, powers, duties, compositions, appointment qualifications, and requirements for membership, providing for officers, rules of procedure, meetings, quorums, legal and staff support, assignment of personnel, waivers, other necessary provisions, and public notice containing a serability clause and providing for an effective date, immediate effective date. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

All right, take a breath there, Mr. Attorney. All right, colleagues, anyone want to bifurcate any of the second reading items? All right, seeing none, I'll take a motion on SR 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. Second. Okay, who moved it? Okay, moved by Commissioner King, seconded by Commissioner Gabela. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Carry unanimously. Okay, first reading, and I think the pocket item, right, is the first reading?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, can you read those? Thank you.

All right, so FR1, first reading ordinance, an ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending Chapter 38, Article 1 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled Parks and Recreation in General by creating Section 38-42, titled Naming of Silver Bluff Dog Park, to provide for the naming of the property consisting of approximately 5,250 square feet located at 2201 Southwest 26th Street, Miami, Florida, as Silver Bluff Dog Park, further directing the city manager to take any and all actions necessary to effectuate the naming of the park, containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. That was FR1. And I believe we already read the pocket item title into the record.

All right. On FR1, do I have a motion?

So moved. Second.

Okay. Moved by Commissioner Rosado, seconded by Commissioner Escalona. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. All right, we have BC1 for boards and committees.

Madam Chair, Madam Mayor, you forgot the pocket item.

Todd said we can do that out of order, right? Sure, absolutely. He told me I had to do it at the end, but I'll move it back up. All right, pocket item.

Yeah, we haven't forgotten.

We haven't forgotten. But we can do it now. Motion. Would you like to make a motion?

Second. Aye.

All in favor say aye. There we go. Passes unanimously. Now we'll do BC1.

BC1 is a resolution of the Miami City Commission waiving the term limit by a 5-5 unanimous affirmative vote as it relates to Maria Napolis as a member of the Art and Public Places Board.

Motion.

Second.

Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Passes unanimously. All right, now we'll move into the planning and zoning items. Would you read the titles, please?

Yes, Madam Mayor. PZ2, first reading ordinance. An ordinance of the Miami City Commission with attachments amending ordinance number 10544 as amended the future land use map of the Miami Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan pursuant to small-scale amendment procedures subject to section 163.3. 3187 Florida statutes by changing the future land use designation from duplex residential and major institutional public facilities, transportation, and utilities to low density restricted commercial of the acreage described herein of real property located at 145 and 151 Northwest 60th Street, Miami, Florida, as more particularly described in the attached and incorporated Exhibit A, making findings containing a servability clause and providing for an effective date. PZ3, first reading ordinance, excuse me, an ordinance of the Miami City Commission with attachments amending the zoning atlas of ordinance number 13114, the zoning code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended by changing the zoning classification from CI, Civic Institution Zone, and T30, Suburban Transit Zone, open to T4L, General Urban Transit Zone, limited for the property generally located at 151 Northwest 60th Street and 145 Northwest 60th Street, Miami, Florida, as more particularly described in the attached and incorporated Exhibit A, further recommending to the City Commission acceptance of the voluntarily proffered covenant attached and incorporated as Exhibit B, making findings, containing a severability clause, and providing for an effective date.

Commissioner King, these are both in your district, so I'll let you take the lead.

I'd like to just make a couple of comments. This project... If it was April Fools, I would move to defer just to give Melissa a heart attack. But this is an example of what I'm talking about with development and getting community benefits because I absolutely carved out community benefits, got additional affordable housing. There isn't a development that passes through District 5 that I do not advocate for community benefits for my residents. I think Melissa could tell you with much heartburn, because we've done a lot of projects in District 5. And the last one, the Adela project, where I was able to carve out a million dollars to address traffic issues, parking garage. I mean, now I have a parking garage that will allow residents to park for free every single day for three hours minimum. So I just want to reiterate that if we do the work, we can work with developers to carve out benefits for our residents and take some of the financial burden off of the city.

Thank you, Chairwoman, and thank you to your staff, because thankfully it's not April Fool's Day. This is a very challenging project. It was a small project, and it's turned into 100% affordable housing. So it's a Live Local Act project, but protecting the neighborhood. So it's one of these examples where development can be sustainable and can do everything that it's intended to do. So thank you. Thank you. And thank you for not April Fool's Day.

Commissioner King, would you like to move both of them together? Motion.

Yes. PZ1 and 2. And 3, I'm sorry. It's 2 and 3. 2 and 3.

2 and 3.

All right. I have a motion. Seconded by Commissioner Escalona. All in favor say aye. Aye.

No.

They both carry unanimously.

Sorry, is that 4-1? Commissioner? No. You're a no. Okay. So I believe it's 4-1. 4-1. Commissioner Gabela voted no. Commissioner Gabela.

Sorry, Chair. Okay. Mr. Clerk or Mr. Attorney, anything else?

We just, other than the pocket item, that's it.

We did the pocket item, didn't we?

We did. We did. We did.

You want us to do it again? We can.

No, no, no. I'm sorry. My apologies.

All right. Move your pocket item again just to be on the safe side. No, no, no.

We're good. I totally missed it.

All right. Well, then meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.