Village Commission - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress

Good evening, everyone. I'm going to call the June meeting of the North Bay Village Commission meeting to order. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Commissioner Acosta? Here. Commissioner Cervone? Present. Commissioner Darrell?

Present.

Vice Mayor Cook? Present. Mayor Streiffel?

I am also here. Let's all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

OK, our first item tonight. Welcome neighbors. It's really nice to see so many of you. I assume you're here for our scholarship presentation and it's great to see you all here. So before we get started, we're going to decide the order of business for the evening. It's my understanding that we have a few items to add to the agenda. I think some things are being pulled. And then we're also going to be pulling items from consent. So from the dais, who would like to speak? Madam Mayor?

Yes. First of all, I'd like to pull item 11G from consent.

That's great. We're going to pull this from consent. My understanding is that our village attorney, Tony Ruscio, is technically on vacation, but has offered to zoom in for this item. So we'd like to do this item at the very, very top so that we can let the man go back to his vacation.

Is everyone okay with that? No, let's ruin his vacation.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, 11G we're pulling. And I'd like to add, since at the last commission meeting there was some misstatements about RM40, RM40 for discussion.

Okay, I'm happy to add RM40 as item 14H. Does anyone else have anything?

I would also like to add a discussion item discussing the new community center and our North Bay Village soccer program. There's been discussions about changing the hours around and we have an updated schedule for the program that we've negotiated with AFA that I'd like to discuss with everyone else.

Okay, I heard from the mayor emeritus about this this morning. He would like to speak on the item. I think he has some clarity to provide, and he will be here between 7 and 7 30. So can we all agree that, you know, in a reasonable window, when the mayor emeritus arrives, we will take item 14 I out of order.

Yes.

Any objection?

It just depends how long 11G is going to take for discussion.

Agreed. He said he has until about 9, so I think we're going to be safe.

Okay. That should be fine.

Okay. I would like to, if at all possible, to do the discussion. on solid waste service alternatives and recommendations. This is a presentation 14F. This is a presentation from sustainability and resilience vice chair, Dave Dobler. If possible, I'd like to do this at a time certain at 8.30, as close to that as possible. Do I have any objections to that?

No.

Okay. Is there anything else that needs to be pulled or deferred?

Yes, thank you. I would like to actually remove 14A from the agenda. We'll discuss that at another time.

Okay, for 14A, I spoke to the lobbyist for this proposal. I specifically requested that there be a publicly available presentation in advance of any commission discussion so that the community can review it and weigh in. Just an FYI.

Who do you talk to?

Marvin Wilma. Oh, okay. Okay, let me just very quickly glance at consent and ensure there's nothing further that I want to pull. I want to pull 11E.

11H?

E, it's our agreement with CAP. Since we're having this discussion about the fee schedule, I also am pulling our professional services agreement with CAP.

Okay.

I think we should defer that one actually, but if you want to just discuss.

Let's pull it and then if we're going to defer it, we can vote on a deferral. Okay. Does anyone have...

I'll make a motion to approve the order of the agenda. I'll second.

Okay. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll on the order of business?

Commissioner Cervone. Yes. Vice Mayor Cook.

Yes.

Commissioner Acosta. Yes. Commissioner Nodaro. Yes. Mayor Streiffel.

Yes. Okay. Before we do anything, we're going to do the presentation of the Maria and Sophia Saidi Scholarship Award recipients. And because this is an effort of the North Bay Village Resident Services Advisory Board and their commission liaison is Vice Mayor Cook, I've asked Vice Mayor Cook to lead us through this presentation this evening.

Thank you so much, Mayor. So tonight, we're recognizing four outstanding North Bay Village students who were chosen as the recipients of the Sadie Sisters Memorial Scholarship. As many of us know, in June 2022, right here in North Bay Village, Three lives were tragically cut short just outside the entrance of Harbor Island. This was a family who called our community home. A mother and her two daughters, 12-year-old Maria and 15-year-old Sophia, were killed in a hit-and-run crash on the causeway. North Bay Village has been mourning the loss of this family, and our hearts go out to Mr. Samir Saidi and the rest of the family. Maria and Sophia had a massive impact on their classmates and teachers. The two were outstanding students, skilled in both creative writing and the arts. So these scholarships were created to carry forth their artistic and academic legacies for years to come by supporting the young artists, writers, and scholars that we have right here in North Bay Village. I want to thank the Resident Services Board. Our board has helped guide our staff throughout the process to make sure we found the right recipients for these precious awards. So without further ado, we'll call our first recipient of the Sophia Saidi Scholarship, Daniela Tovar. So Daniela is a 12th grader at Downtown Doral Charter Upper School with a passion for pediatric psychology and creative writing. Drawing on her own childhood experiences, she's developed a deep empathy for children navigating difficult emotions and uses, journaling a way to process and connect with others. Inspired by Sofia Seyidi's love of writing and poetry, Daniela hopes to one day combine her writing with a career helping children feel seen, heard, and understood. We were so moved by her essay's honesty about turning a hard childhood into a calling to help others, and by her teachings, and also by her teachers and her classmates' massive recommendations. Congratulations, Daniela.

Thank you.

Next, we have Cesar Aguado. Cesar.

Hey.

Cesar is a 12th grader at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, whose Thai-Cuban American heritage and love of philosophy shape how he sees the world. A member of the school's peer ministry and a competitive wrestler, he founded Souls of Hope, a service project providing shoes and school resources to children in Thailand after a trip to his grandparents' hometown. Cesar credits writing and reflection, much like Sofia Seyedi's own creative outlet, with helping him turn self-doubt into purpose. His submission was a remarkable, thoughtful piece on faith, identity, and service, and it's clear why his recommenders spoke so highly of his character. So congratulations, Cesar. Thank you. So let's take a picture with all the recipients, Daniela Tovar and Cesar Aguado before we- Let's also present them with their certificates and checks. Yeah, of course. I got them right here.

I just wanted to mention Daniel was actually part of our internship program last year.

Oh, awesome. Congratulations to both of you. Congratulations to both of you and to the families.

How are we doing? Yeah, one roll. Perfect. Three, two, one.

Great. I'm tired.

All right. Three, two, one. Right here. One, two.

Congratulations again. So now we're going to present the two winners of the Maria Saidi Scholarship. So we're going to start with Max Dechtiar. Max is an eighth grader at Miami Beach Nautilus Middle School and a multi-talented writer, musician, and athlete. He's currently working on two books, a post-apocalyptic novel, and a self-help guide for young people. He also plays piano, guitar, violin, drums, and bass, earning recognition at Superintendents Honors Music Festival. Wow. Through the Names, Not Numbers program, Max helped document Holocaust survivor stories, and he credits the Sadie sisters' legacy with pushing him to stop waiting and start creating. We were especially impressed and moved by the maturity in his essay and by his drive to finally start the books he'd always talked about writing. Congratulations, Max.

Congratulations, Max.

And also, we want to recognize Gaston Esquivel. Gaston is a sixth grader at Mater Beckel Academy with a love for creative writing, piano, and folk dance. He's working toward playing Bohemian Rhapsody on piano and performs Hopak and Kazak, traditional Cossack folk dances. Having arrived in the U.S. in fourth grade, Gaston has grown quickly as a writer and credits Maria and Sofia Seidi's legacy with inspiring him to pursue his passions with originality and heart. His essays, video performances, and teacher recommendations showed us a student who pours genuine creativity and effort into everything that he's done. Congratulations, Gaston.

Thank you.

Now let's take a picture.

If nobody would come join us for some photos, that would be great. Present your words.

Thanks, guys.

So impressive.

Congratulations. Yes.

Great job, man.

I want to read the Pacific Paralytic novel. Me too. I'll let you know when it comes. What year did you set it in? 2026? Real soon. Real soon.

Right over here. Three, two, one.

Congratulations.

One, two, three. Thank you, congratulations.

Congratulations again to the families.

Congratulations to the families, congratulations to the students, and congratulations to the members of the Resident Services Advisory Board for their time and dedication reviewing essays and soliciting applications for these awards. I think it's a really wonderful thing that we do this and I look forward to it every year. Great job, Vice Mayor. Item 3B is a presentation of a proclamation. We're going to recognize National Code Enforcement Officers. You know, we appreciate code enforcement, right? Everybody does until it's you that gets the code enforcement violation, right? So we have a great love for our code enforcement team here in North Bay Village. If you'll just indulge me, I'm going to go ahead and read this proclamation. Whereas North Bay Village wishes to recognize its code compliance team for their professionalism, dedication, and commitment to preserving the health, safety, welfare, and quality of life of residents and businesses throughout the community. And whereas the village's code compliance team works diligently to promote voluntary compliance with the local codes and ordinances, while fostering community pride, protecting property values, and maintaining the high standards that contribute to the village's unique character and quality of life, and whereas code compliance officers serve an essential role in safeguarding the public through the fair and consistent enforcement of building zoning, housing, environmental, animal control, fire safety, and other municipal codes and regulations, and whereas through their daily interactions with residents business owners contractors and visitors code compliance officers together with administrative and support staff provide exemplary customer service and educational outreach for the betterment of the community and whereas the efforts of code compliance officers often go unnoticed despite their significant contributions to achieving compliance resolving community concerns and enhancing neighborhood appearance and livability And as the village extends its sincere gratitude and appreciation to the members of its code compliance team for their dedicated service and commitment to excellence and continued efforts to enhance and protect the quality of life in our community. Now, therefore, I, Rachel Streifeld, mayor of North Bay Village, and on behalf of the North Bay Village Commission, do hereby recognize and proclaim June 29th, 2026 as Code Compliance Appreciation Day and witness where I've here unto set my hand and cause the seal of North Bay Village to be affixed this 29th day of June 29, 2026. Before I let our co-director Orlando say something, I want to just share that I got a phone call from a resident on Treasure Island just this weekend who was having a bit of an issue with the construction site next door to him. He reached out to our building official and to some others on Village staff. And the responsive recipients of that email was Orlando. And Orlando worked to organize meetings and was incredibly responsive. And this particular resident had nothing but amazing things to say about your community service. It comes as no surprise to me. you are often on the front lines of our engagement with residents and you do a phenomenal job as does your team and last but not least residents say well why don't we pass an ordinance does this or why don't we just regulate this or why don't we just force people to do this no rule is good until it is enforced and we do not have the ability to do that without our code compliance officers and you do a great job so thank you so much orlando it's my pleasure to present this proclamation to you um and before we do the actual thing do you want to say something sure

Well, thank you, Mayor. Commissioners, fellow team members, it's a pleasure to be here. Appreciate those kind words. I have some words myself to want to say about my team who make our success possible. Firstly, you know, COVID, as you mentioned, is a very unique and challenging job. We kind of have this anomaly that happens to us where we get all of the calls that people don't know what to do with. So, you know, there's an iguana in my pool or my neighbor's Mr. Fan is hitting my house or, hey, how do I deal with this? And, you know, we accept all of those because every day is almost like a new challenge. We never know what we're going to get, what type of call we're going to receive. And we know that every one of those new challenges is just a new opportunity to meet a resident and, you know, give them that service that they call their public official for. So we're happy to do that all the time. Go ahead. Oh. So firstly, you know, our department is 66.6% made of women. Two of them, my Dominican sensations, we call them. They both happen to be Dominican. One of them is here this evening, Scarlett, Sid, if you don't mind coming up. Maria Tovar, unfortunately, cannot be here this evening, but we would be here unless if we didn't mention her. She has been serving in the community here for nearly 12 years now, believe it or not. And I think she's reached what I like to call Brian Collins status in the city. She is like a celebrity here. People see her on the street. They wave at her, Maria, you know.

Undercover situation.

Yeah, she is well-known. And, you know, over the years, they've come to love and respect her and, you know, respect the job that she does because it's just a job. And, you know, people know as long as you treat them with respect, you come in, you educate them, there's no hard feelings. So she does a great job of that. So thank you, Maria. Wherever you are, if you're listening, we appreciate your hard work. This young lady here, Scarlett Sid, has been with the city, believe it or not, five years now. We actually, yeah, it's been five years already. We actually got Scarlett from a temp company, Robert Half. She came in as a temp. She did such a great job with us. We go ahead and extended the offer. We poached her from Robert Half, and she's been here ever since. Scarlett is basically one of the faces of the village, I believe, on the third floor. Anytime any visitor visits, Resident comes here, she will likely be greeted by Scarlett 90% of the time on the third floor. She's the first friendly face you'll see when you come see us in the village. Her attention to detail, her administrative work. For those of you who don't know, code enforcement administrative work is very detailed. There's specific criteria that's needed by Florida statutes. She has mastered that. All of our evidence, case photos, everything are just up to date. She does such a great job. I wanted her to know that today. We wanted to present her with a little something here. Oh, awesome. So she knows how valued she is. She has her cousin. Oh, is that your mama? Shut up, girl. I'd like to give you this, Scarlett. It says her name and appreciation of your commitment and dedication to the residents of North Bay Village. And also, I know Congratulations.

I just want to say I'm grateful to have a great boss and a great team and I enjoy working with everyone here.

We're grateful to have you. Yes. Thank you so much for everything you do.

Thank you both.

One last thing. This gentleman brought up a good point.

I just want to thank you. From everyone, we know the village has gone through some challenging times. I appreciate you sticking with us, with your loyalty, with your resilience. All I can tell you is that as the village continues to grow, we're going to make sure you grow with us. So thank you for that.

Yes, thank you so much, Orlando. You know, with the magistrate, every time I've gone to those meetings, it's impressive to me that you can go through so many calls and everybody has something good to say. I don't ever have never seen anyone arrive there angry or saying anything negative about the village. You really your entire department is the best space for a village. So thank you again. Thank you.

I'm just going to pile on. In my professional life, I represent property owners when they have code enforcement issues. I've done a lot of this representation across Broward and Miami-Dade counties. I really am very biased, but I still think that our code enforcement department is the most consistently fair and respectful of private property rights of any that I have ever encountered. Thank you for holding that bar very high.

Thank you, man.

Let's take photos.

Thank you.

What? It's the time of the year.

All righty, this is your comment bar.

Thank you.

Okay, so our next item is the open forum. We don't have anything quasi-judicial on tonight's agenda, so every single public comment is gonna happen now during this open forum. So if you're a resident, a developer, a land use attorney, an elected official, this is your opportunity to come and tell us what you'd like us to hear. You will have, Abba, is it two or three minutes? I always forget. three so you'll have three minutes just uh when when you're recognized to speak you'll come up to the podium you'll give us your name and address for the record and you will say your piece um please be respectful of the time and i will now open the public forum madam clerk do we have cards yes we have miss ashley gant Ashley Gant, folks, this is our hope. Please.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Ashley Gant. I am the current state representative for House District 109 to the west of here. And I am the candidate for Senate District 34, which includes the city of North Bay Village. And I am here to introduce myself. So for those of you who don't know me, I am an attorney by trade, a former educator. I've been in the House of Representatives since 2022 so the last four years and i've worked very closely with senator chevron jones who is currently in the seat and is seeking a congressional district 24 seat and so i um I'm a former educator and I've taught at the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, but I started my career for Teach for America in the Mississippi Delta. So I'm born and raised here in Miami-Dade County and I own my own law firm. So I'm a small business owner. So I am uniquely interested in supporting small businesses and 100% choice for parents, no matter if it's public schools or not. And I have been a staunch advocate for local governments and the rule of law in the form of home rule and allowing local governments to respond to the community as needed, as I do feel that local governments respond best while we're up in Tallahassee. with the shenanigans. And my, oh, I did not say my address. My office address is 5400 Northwest 22nd Avenue, Building C, Suite 101. So I just wanted to say thank you, Madam Mayor, for accepting my phone call when I reached out and allowing me to come here and inviting me to your meeting today. And it was nice to meet you all. I don't think I met Commissioner Acosta before, but it's nice to meet you. And I will be here. The election, obviously, is on August 18th and in November. So I will be in the community getting to know the new parts of the Senate District that I have not had the opportunity to represent or become familiar with while I was representing the House District that I currently sit in. Thank you.

Thank you for coming.

Madam Clerk? No other requests, Mayor? Okay.

We have a speaker.

Okay.

I hope everyone can hold on to the warm and fuzzy feelings from the special presentations. Good evening. Leanna Kozlowski with Shubin Law Group. I'm here this evening on behalf of Sunbeam, and I am joined by the Senior Vice President of Development, Orlando Carrillo. Our comments and concerns tonight are specific to item 11G, which was pulled from the consent agenda. As you all may know, the Florida statutes were very recently amended, and as amended, they no longer permit local governments to rely on valuation-based methodologies when you're calculating building permit fees. And that's a pretty significant change to the way this has been done historically in the entire state of Florida. Why did the legislature do this? Two reasons primarily, to increase transparency and to improve accountability. And the state has essentially said that the fees need to be based and limited on the reasonable cost of permitting, plan review and inspections. What we're seeing in other municipalities as a law firm, we follow all of this and we are seeing municipalities issue memos, backup materials, and it gives the development community some comfort, some peace of mind as to how these fees were calculated and knowing that they are based on the new legal requirements. We have no such backup materials tonight. We have no memo. What we did do, we calculated what's being proposed, $5.75 a square foot for multifamily. And we end up for the Sunbeam project with development fees that are just over $8 million. And almost to the dollar, that's the same amount, $8 million that would be calculated based on a value-based system. So without any backup materials or memos, you might imagine we have some concerns, we have some questions. So I'm here tonight really to just ask the village, ask your building department to be more transparent about this methodology. I'm also here to formally preserve Sunbeam's right to object to the actual application of these fees. to the extent that we do not believe the calculation is lawful based on the statute as amended.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Amr Zakarni with High Brown and Development Company, LLC 2850 Tiger Tail Avenue, Suite 800, Miami, Florida. I'm also here to discuss item 11G on the agenda. Mine's a little bit simpler math. I think previously the fee, the permit fee was a percentage on the cost of construction. Assuming a 1 million gross square foot building, very easy math, times $200 a gross square foot times 2%, that's a $4 million permit fee. Today, that fee, and assuming, again, it's 2%, not 1.88 for easy math, That same fee today at 575 for a million gross square feet is 5.75. So while the math in that example was the same, in this specific example, it actually has gone up. So we were just hoping for, again, just some transparency and hopefully maybe working with the stakeholders and happy to get together as many times as we need to analyze this and help analyze it on behalf of the community if possible. Thank you.

Okay, I want to reiterate that this is the only opportunity for public comment. So if you are here to make comment about any item, whether it is building permit fees, island walk, solid waste, anything, this is the opportunity to speak. Going once. Going twice, you know. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. The open forum is now closed. I think that it would probably well, let's do the approval of the minutes. um do we have no minutes we don't have any minutes to approve um do we have any advisory board reports we do not have an advisory board report okay commissioners are you comfortable with moving item 11g ahead of our reports this evening

Yeah, sure.

Okay. Let's go ahead and take 11 G. I'm going to go ahead and call the item. This is coming from the village manager. This is a resolution of the mayor and commission of North Bay Village, Florida, approving an updated fee schedule for building fees. In accordance with House Bill 803, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. I understand that there are concerns from the developer community. We have individuals from the building department is here. Our building director is here. I believe we have representatives from CAP. who are here to speak on this item. The village manager is gonna introduce it. And then of course our village attorney, Tony Rocio, out of the goodness of his heart is also here with us. Hey, Tony. So Frank, why don't you go ahead and set the stage?

Good evening, commissioners and members of the public. We have spent quite a bit of time working on this project. taking all the issues into consideration from our aspect. And to kind of at least say the position that we're from is that the common theme that I'm hearing is that we backed into our current numbers by coming up with a system that gave us the same or the equal amount of money, and that was not the case. We have put together what we feel is a representative fee schedule that covers all the expenses that we're entitled to as a municipality in providing this service. That being said, With the timelines that we have, my recommendation to the Commission stands that the fee schedule that is before you tonight be adopted, approved, so that we're in compliance with the state laws of July 1st, so that we can continue with business. What I will say to those developers that are here, and I've had that discussion with several members of the DAIS, is that if it turns out there's some adjustments that have to be made and you have participated in the current system with the fee schedule that we have, and there are reimbursements that are due, we will gladly make those in accordance with whatever new fee schedule would become. But in the meantime, we need to continue to do business here in the village. And the developers and those that need to have permits need to, we want to see their projects get moving. So I can assure you that this is not a program to try to make money. It's not a money-making enterprise. It's not that kind of a facility. It's a service. And we are due the costs that it takes this village to provide that service to the community. And with that being said, I guess Leilani can come up and I think Carlos is here too also, right? And if there's...

So I want to invite our building director to speak and Leilani, if you would respond a little bit to some of the comments that we've heard from the development community, that would be great. And Carlos, same thing, you'll have an opportunity as well.

Yeah, it's really been a team effort. We've worked together with

Yes. Because he's on vacation out of the country, but we'll do our best, certainly. I know that the proposed fee schedule that was included with the agenda online is not what is being presented to you guys tonight. It is and it has been updated. A few items have been reduced for the proposed fees, including what they have, what the two developers have brought up. Specifically the one for a new multifamily or commercial build out or not build up, but new construction over 10,000 square feet originally was proposed for 575 a square foot and has been reduced to $4 per square foot. And the same thing goes for the MEPs, for new construction. Originally, I believe what was proposed is around 70 cents, 60 cents per square foot. MEPs, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, et cetera. And those have been significantly reduced to 24, 25 cents a square foot, depending on the trade that they're applying for. This is ever evolving and has certainly been a group effort to try to figure out how to maintain the level of service that the building department provides. I am one of two full-time staff members for the building department. Everything else is services provided by CAP, and they are here today. So if you have any questions, specifics, whatever questions you may have, I'll be glad to try to answer. And whatever I can't answer, they certainly can.

Okay, let's hear from CAP.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Carlos Zalpino from CAP. And with me here is Miguel Nunez, also from CAP. He is one of our building officials. Our building official assigned to the village is not here today. He's out. He had a pre-planned PTO, so he's not here today. The House Bill 803 was recently approved and comes into effect on July 1st. The new law requires that as the attorney very well said, that the permit fee schedule will be based now in something different than what almost 95% of all municipalities in the state of Florida follows, that is the construction cost, the construction value. Permit fee based on construction value is not the way to go going forward based on that law. So an alternate method needs to come up with. Construction square footage is the most accurate way to... to go with to calculate the new permit fee. Why? Because it takes into account the complexity of the projects. And it directly reflects on the level of service that each project will take. As Leilani was mentioning before, the many tries and runs were done to make sure that all the aspects of the service was included in this permit fee schedule. And she was already explaining the particularities. Perhaps at the time when the first round was provided, we were still working on that. and the permit fee schedule that you have today is lower than the one that had been published before. That includes all services for highly qualified plans examiners. That is the type of qualification that the type of construction that we have here have. Highly qualified inspectors and electronic systems and all other associated cost to provide the service.

Okay. I'm reading through the proposed fee schedule and I'm seeing under inspection fees, we have a re-inspection fee where a permit holder shall pay a fee of $100 for each additional inspection required to assure compliance with applicable building codes beyond the initial and one follow up inspection. What are the fees for the initial and one follow up inspection?

They're included.

they're included with your with your with your base permit fee okay understood and then it's a flat fee of a hundred bucks for an additional inspection whether it's a structural inspection or an mep inspection it doesn't matter as a 100 fee regardless of the amount of time that it would take regardless of the amount of time that it takes okay Okay, do you have, look, CAP is the third party outside building department for many municipalities in Miami-Dade County and I think in Broward County as well. I don't know if you're statewide. So as you are modifying how you operate as a business, do you have any information that you could provide us in terms of the actual cost to you as a company? to perform these additional inspections. Are you making money off of additional inspections? Are you losing money off of additional inspections at a $100 fee? Can you share?

Well, $100 for an inspection, it doesn't cover the actual cost of our people. So it's way, way below of the cost for us to provide the service.

So that must mean you have to make up for your overhead in other ways, right?

Yeah.

Has CAP considered potentially modifying how you charge for additional inspections?

We would prefer to continue providing that service to the communities that we serve. That way we don't transfer that cost to the communities and we have to be able to with efficiency with the base permit fee to cover all those additional services that we may be providing with additional inspections.

Okay, but the legislature is telling us that they want our permit fees to be more transparent, right? And you're our building department. So if you're losing money, charging $100 per additional inspection beyond the base, that's complimentary or with your permit fee rather. How do I know how you're making up those funds? That does seem like a lack of transparency to me.

Okay. We can do a study for the actual cost of the inspection.

I would imagine that over the course of even, let's say, if you were to take just the last year, how many third, fourth, fifth inspections has CAP performed as a company? If you want to break it down across municipalities, that's fine. I love, you know, crosstabs. That sounds good. But it would be good, I think, for, and I don't run your business, but now I'm the mayor of this community and we've got a development boom and I've got several of our projects who are... something is delayed months now because of this permit fee issue. And that's a significant detriment to my community over this. So I would like also to see more transparency from you all in terms of how you're making money, because the fees that they pay, we cover salaries and our rent. Right. And maybe a little bit of our plan plan review. But this is this is caps money. You know, I mean, we're not making money off of this. So I think I need a little bit more clarity. So, look, what you said is accurate. We have to pass this tonight to comply with state law. Everything I'm saying is on the record. I may be doing a disservice to the village in the event that we have litigation over this. But this is I'm just going to be honest. I would like to see more explanation of how these fees are being calculated. I think that there is more transparency needed and it's interesting because the example from Harbor Island Development Company was based on an a million square foot project. The example that I got from Andy Anson via text was also a million square foot project and the figures came out completely different. So there's confusion, obviously, around how we're calculating these fees. And I think we just need to do better. But I'm going to move it tonight. I'm going to move it because we need to pass it to be consistent with state law. But I'm going to make a commitment to the stakeholders in this community that we're going to work to get this right. And you will see a revised version at the July meeting. Do I have a second? I have a question.

Okay. When we talk about this deadline of July 1st, we're not alone. There's many municipalities that are undergoing the same case, and nobody better than Cap to tell us how we compare, because we're trying to be ahead of it and be probably one of the first few municipalities who are doing it, and that's why I'm not so clear on this July 1st. I know the deadline. I understand that.

Leigh Ronnie, do you want to answer Commissioner Acosta's question in terms of the deadline? I would assume that we're maybe one of the last since it's June 29th and July 1st is on Thursday, but I don't know. I mean, but she has a point. You guys have been assisting every other municipality that you do building work for. You know, how do we compare?

Yes. Aventura authorized the city manager to adjust the permit fee based on whatever study they're doing. We're helping them to get to that permit fee. The first step that they did was to not require to go to commission to change the permit fee. They're giving the city manager authority to adjust it based on the permit

on their study on the on the market how it goes uh what are what are they what are they studying it doesn't have to go to commission that's what you just said have they made the change already to the city manager that's what i'm asking yes that was already they assigned that authority to do this correct but did the city manager already make that decision because i'm just trying to understand the rush that we're having is based on this deadline which makes total sense uh but there's also a lot of information that we're missing here

Yeah.

I don't like to be pressured into this type of decisions. If we can also show that we are making.

We have to pass it. We can change it after we pass it tonight. It can come back in July. It just means that look, I know the village manager has communicated to everyone who has submitted a permit application and is waiting on a permit. The manager has said. If there's a discrepancy and we owe you money, we're going to pay you back, but we really want to see your projects move forward. I mean, specifically for some being the was approved in December of 2022. In December of 2022, I am beyond frustrated that we still don't have the demolition of the Grove by the Bay building. I've been waiting for it. But I also understand, you know, the lack of clarity on this issue. But again, we have made commitments in writing and in person, and we're doing it here on the day, is that if there is a discrepancy, you will be reimbursed for the money that you are owed. Please, please, please, please, you know.

So you mentioned the city of Aventura, for example.

Yes, and also Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade County, I believe, is going to commission tomorrow IFMIN to approve the new permit fee based on square footage.

Do you have any idea what numbers would that be for them? No, we'll have to. I know it's a different size.

Yeah, we'll have to.

So is everyone coming up with their own calculations? So whereas we're deciding that it's a cost per square foot, what is Aventura doing?

They are studying, they're hired a consultant to study the permit fee and they're waiting on their consultant to provide them with additional information. That's why they have provided the manager with authority to approve that as soon as they get it.

So they haven't made that decision yet?

They made the decision to assign that to the city manager.

I'm just trying to understand what other municipalities have arrived already to a conclusive, this is our amount.

Biscayne Park already did. Aventura is going tomorrow.

Do you know what Biscayne Park is doing there?

Biscayne Park is mainly single family homes.

Yeah, respectfully, I don't particularly care about whether or not they've made the changes consistent with the statutory deadline. We're going to make the changes to be compliant with the statutory deadline. That's, in my view, an absolute essential thing that we need to do.

We are totally different. animal we have we are multi-families we have single families and we have small buildings and a lot happening also at the same time correct so we cannot compare ourselves to aventura we cannot compare ourselves to city of miami we cannot compare ourselves but what i find important is that the public can hear that there is other municipalities who are going through this because people listen to this and they think we're making distressed decisions and it's not they all know that there's other communities something similar I pulled this item for another reason. I'm the only single family owner in this stage. And I noticed originally, before I received calls from the developers, and this is another reason why I pulled it today, that there's an item here now that we're charging for exterior painting of a home, a fee, which we had decided we're going to do away with. Minimal. It's $175, but we have to do it because the state is mandating us to do it. Except... We're in a flood zone. And any work, whether it's mechanical, plumbing, electrical, paint, whatever, under $700, $500, the calculation went up. There's no permit required. Yet we're requiring a swatch of color. I want to know, and I've been on this dais now a good long time, what's our color palette?

We don't know.

So what are we submitting swatches for? I completely agree with you. I completely agree with you. Yes. No. No. We have to. That has been the rule for years and years.

That is exactly it. That's part of it. I mean, this also falls into this conversation.

As a point of clarification, I know it's under miscellaneous permits, but we have to list it here for the exterior paint color compliance review. It is not a permit.

But how does zoning review your paint color? What code do we have?

There are apparently a few sections in our code. I don't know the exact sections.

Since I've been back, this has come before the dais and discussed at several meetings. And there's no decision on a pallet. There's a lot of discussions whether she be pastels, but it's not that simple. When you start looking at places like Carl Gables, you can't paint the same colors next door.

State law prohibits local governments from dictating to a single family homeowner the color of the exterior of their home. Unless you are in some protected historic district, we cannot tell a homeowner what they can do with their roof or what color they can paint the exterior of their home. We cannot do it.

And this is where it died the last time. So if somebody wants to paint their home black or purple, they can do that. And then when that was discussed, it was like, well, wait a minute, we don't want that happening. And not that we would have people doing that, but... that it just sort of died there because we're not supposed to be telling people what color to think their home.

Yeah, well, this needs, look, as we've stated multiple times this evening, this needs to be reviewed and revised in greater detail. Transparency and clarity on the mechanism and the methodology of how we are arriving at these fees also needs to be provided.

But those fees also need to be calculated and looked at. or the, calling it such, the average new home, because in the last, since 20, let's say 2018, there's only been one building that was started, which is Tula, Shoma, and Continuum. It's mainly single-family homes that have been either replaced or have come into empty lots. So we have to make sure that the cost for those homes is feasible for them as well, not only for the multifamily buildings. Correct.

Completely agree. I completely agree. I moved the item so that we can comply with state law.

I would appreciate a second so that we- I second it based on that statement.

Thank you. I want to bring this back in July. Mr. Manager, do you have a recommendation for how we might do better?

You know, we've put a lot of energy into what we've come up with. We'll review it. I'm sure there are developers who are gonna provide me with instances and where they think there are inequities and I'll be happy to receive them and we'll look at them. Some changes that we already made were the result of me receiving a couple of phone calls and me getting back to the billing official and say, listen, run it this way, run it that way, see what you come up with. And he did and he said, you're right, I gotta lower this one, I gotta adjust that one. So we will revisit it and we will, you know, I'm willing to have a meeting with the developers and with our building official and we can sit down and hammer it out.

We also have to recognize one thing. We need to be able to cover annually the cost of running the building department. Yeah.

Actually, the state line titles us to collect reserves for four years, which is important.

So we have to understand that that is part of the equation. Right.

It's part of the equation that needs to be calculated.

Another element that we will talk about that is important. money but not talking about fees. That is a concern that has been presented to me by several developers that when they need an inspection to be able to continue with the next step like pouring concrete, they need that inspection that afternoon, late in the day, early in the morning, those types of things. those services that we provide here, we haven't had one developer come to us and say, we've been held up because we're not having an inspection done. So we have adjusted through CAP to where they will have either extra people here. So it's not like we only do steel inspections Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We do it when we get a call, and that costs money. That's not a free ride anywhere you look at it. So that's an intrinsic cost, but a real cost to us And it's a real cost to developer because if you're held up for a couple of days, that's a real cost of money. And so the services we provide here, I think, are of a quality that maybe in some other places they are not. working to the will of the developers and the builders and contractors as much as we are. We're very responsive. We're very responsive to re-inspections. As soon as they call and say, hey, we've got this fixed, we get an inspector out there. We don't say, well, he'll be back on Thursday and he'll come back and check it because we realize that holds up the work and time is money. So that is a service that these fees are paying for also.

All right. Go ahead. Tony, I would like to hear a little bit more on your legal perspective on how we're covering and protecting making this decision today.

Sure. So the statute requires that inspection fees cannot be charged based on the value of the project. OK, that is the primary thing that we need to fix by July 1st. We don't charge separate inspection fees or review fees, the initial inspections, right? It's all bundled up into one permit fee. So we're keeping that aspect of it, and we are moving from a project value base to a square foot base. You asked about other jurisdictions. I can tell you South Miami adopted one a couple of weeks ago. It is based on a per square foot charge. for this kind of thing. And they had the same situation where they were charging one permit fee to cover inspections and reviews. The state statute only talks about inspections. We could conceivably come up with a split way to do it and charge reviews separately from inspections. That becomes unwieldy. So South Miami has chosen not to do it. The North Bay Village has chosen not to do it.

Again, going back, it's hard to compare because we're definitely different.

Right.

Will they make a big jump also in their fees?

They are at $3 a square foot for commercial and multifamily, which I believe is where you guys are at $4, I believe, a square foot.

So this feels so arbitrary to me. Correct. Why is South Miami $3 per square foot and North Bay Village is now $4 per square foot? But last week we were $5.75 per square foot. So the arbitrariness of this is deeply disturbing. Yes.

I can only tell you, yeah, they had fairly recently done a study of their permit fees, so they had the information fresh, and that was based on the running of their building department. That's what I can say as to them.

I would imagine the reports that we're running through, it's based on the cost of running, because you're not supposed to really make much of a profit. I mean, unfortunately, it's one of the things that you're supposed to break even, correct? Correct.

Well, you're able to build the reserves that you have to have for slack times. They got to be able to pay rent. We pay rent.

Correct.

They pay salaries. They pay our overhead costs. That is part of what we charge for.

We have the staff ready to go when needed, which is important too.

Well, and we pay for that. We pay for that. We pay cap, but we pay for those services.

Madam Mayor, I really agree with you on the pressure to stay consistent and also formalize our stand to follow the law. But I also agree with you on the transparency angle and how do we calculate these numbers? I would love to co-sponsor with you, bring this up. I'm not touching this as a 10-foot pole.

The manager is going to introduce this.

This is going to be the manager's item in July. Yeah, definitely went back in July.

Right now, we're in a construction boom. Yeah. As soon as the construction boom is over, we still have a building department to run. Yes, but you also... With an occasional house being built. We have to cover our nut.

I understand that part, but I also don't think people are lining up on the streets to buy units. So there's a cost. Same thing for homes. People building these houses are investors. It's rare to find a person that buys a lot and builds for their own home. It's a spec home. We also have other fees here that are for renovations. Fencing doesn't even have a fee here. How was the fee before and the fees now? Are these all changing, Lani? Or is it like all of these fees? I would like to have seen the before and after.

I mean, I can get you a current. I can provide that to you guys if you'd like to see a side-by-side. Our current fee schedule is... like 98% percentage based off job value. Fences, I wanna say right now is 5% of the job value. Driveways, 5% of the job value. Everything has a minimum fee of 125. New construction is 2% of the total job value. MEPs for new construction is 1% of the individual values.

Which was reduced from 3%.

Which was reduced from 3%. I want to say two years ago, I proposed that change and it was approved. Because especially with the newer, larger constructions, everything is a lot more expensive. So it's unfair.

And we're seeing the 40-year recertifications, the 50-year recertifications. There's a lot of this work that you see now, roofing, plumbing.

Roofing, for example, again, 5%. 5% of the total job value. It can get very expensive.

Okay. So we've already touched on the sort of strangeness of the fact that we were going to be charging $5.75 per square foot last week, and now we've decided that $4 per square foot is sufficient. It's a big difference. I spoke with Tony over the weekend when I was also on vacation. And what I said is it's not good enough to me for us to just be in compliance with state law. Our permit fee schedule needs to be defensible from a rational standpoint. It needs to be defensible from the standpoint of what is the cost to perform the plan review, perform the inspection, and then we need to figure out what the slight percentage markup increase is so that we are ensuring that we have the reserves to to cover for four years that's what we need to do and it needs to be transparent and it needs to be clear and and that's what i would like to see so if it's going to be a meeting with cap and leilani and the manager and stakeholders that's fine with me but there needs to be a lot more backup when we see this item in july and the last thing i'm going to say about this is we have a problem like everywhere else in the country of people not wanting to deal with permits because they're a pain and inspections are a pain and permits cost money and they don't want to deal with the city or maybe because they know they're doing something illegal and they want to do it anyway we need to make sure that our permit fee schedule incentivizes people to pull permits. This is a matter of public safety, right? The five-year anniversary of the Champlain Tower South collapse was last week. We have to make sure that people are calling for their inspections, that they're pulling their permits. And if we have a fee schedule that gouges builders, that disincentivizes development, and that pushes people to do things they're not supposed to be doing, it's going to be detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare. So please get this right in July.

And that the building matches the plans. Well, right, yeah.

And that, what you say, Commissioner Schiavone, is exactly one of the issues. Is it the inspectors that are going out on the private side, seeing that they meet the plans and they meet the code? Because what I'm hearing is that we go back out further along in the process and we find things that aren't done, it becomes very expensive for the developer to construct it with permits.

Right? So, Pressure. Anonymous. Okay. Reach out to the manager. Hi, Ronnie. Are you pulling? Before we go into the.

Here's a resolution of the.

The professional services agreement.

This is pursuant to our budget for FY2526, providing for authorization, implementation, and an effective date. Mr. Manager, is this time sensitive, or can we defer this and come back to this in July? I have not read the backup for this. We obviously just had a significant back and forth with CAP. I would like to defer this to July. It can be deferred. Okay. I'm moving to defer the item. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, will you call the roll on the deferral?

Item 11E, to be deferred to July, Mayor Schreifeld? Yes. Commissioner Acosta? Yes. Commissioner Cervone?

Yes.

Commissioner Adaro. Yes. Vice Mayor Cook.

Yes.

Mr. Anonymous.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Trevone for handling that. Okay. So I do not yet see the Mayor Emeritus. Let's go ahead and move into our reports section of the evening. Is there a commissioner who would like to go first?

I'll start.

Commissioner Adaro.

Okay. Starting off, happy to report that there is 100% designs complete for the sidewalks. Oh, my goodness.

I signed a $2,500 check to EACU this morning.

Is that what happened? Okay, that's good. That's for the 100% design review. It is two years behind schedule. But hopefully now we can prepare bid packages and get this thing rolling in the next month or two. So thanks for everybody for... for getting this thing across. In the last commission meeting, I was asked to reach out to 360 regarding the Island Walk to communicate. We did reach out, offer in-person meeting, subsequently Zoom meetings multiple times, but we were unable to have that meeting. We did have solutions, so listening to... You know what I wanted to share was for security and pet waste. I did have a proposal just as from Econ Smart City that could handle two of the common objections we hear with security and pet waste. which is cameras. It's security that could be on the island walk to add extra security and would also be able to see if there are any pet owners that are caught on camera with pet waste just as an option to provide there. The third and final thing I just wanted to add to my commission report is Vogel Park. We did clean up. I saw there was a lot of pushback on the Facebook channel about removing trees. I just want to confirm that these were all invasive species trees. It was a disaster. They should have seen the amount of garbage that was removed from there. There was literally a mound of garbage. So kudos to our public works team for really cleaning that up. It's going to be much, much nicer. It needed to get done. There was also a broken, rusted fence that was part of this. So I think people's just reaction to see some trees come down that is never the intent to take out trees. It really was an overdue cleanup, which is going to lead way now for our kayak launch. And also just it's a beautification project to the park. So I'm happy to see that done. And that concludes my commission report.

Thanks, Commissioner Darrow.

Good evening. It was a busy month, but lots happening. Two events for the opening of the North Bay Village Brent Latham Community Center. First was a wonderful community opening organized by Lily, Christine, and their team, which we all attended and enjoyed. followed by a week later as the village's representative at PFL's grand opening with AFAS President Chiquitapia and guests, Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado Sr. and State Attorney Captain Fernandez Rundle. June 17th, we had a very successful North Bay Village Against Hate Day as proclaimed by our mayor in an interfaith gathering with Father Tomlin of St. Joseph's, the Reverend Delievo of Unity on the Bay, and our own Rabbi Dauphin of the local Chabad. A great crowd, great interaction, making this program gain traction at neighboring cities. The mayor and I represented the village at the memorial hosted by the city of Surfside on the fifth anniversary of the Champlain Towers tragedy. Our first budget workshop took place this last Thursday, and a lot was accomplished. But since the state senate has created a new calculation in our trim, or truth in millage, making results in our budget even more difficult. I'm looking forward to our next workshop. Last, I want to remind my fellow commissioners and public that it is our responsibility, and by our I mean the day's, to create policy. This policy is not created by one or two of us getting together. Policy is created by discussion in public and a majority vote of the commission mandating the new policy. Then it's up to administration to act on our policy decisions and enforce it. It is not up to administration to listen to your proposal individually and obtain the three votes needed to incorporate the policy. All decisions are made transparently and publicly. I hope this is the last time I have to say this. Thank you.

Noted, Commissioner. Thank you. Commissioner Acosta?

Thank you. Good evening. First, I just wanted to reach out to our members of our community here in North Village who are affected by the catastrophe of the earthquakes in Venezuela. I will be posting on my page ways that people can donate. And I feel terrible for what's happened. It's, again, another hit for the Venezuela community and also for the people here in North Village. I feel that when we see our families suffer from afar, it's such a painful way because we can't even be there to help. So whatever little we can do as a community, I'm happy to assist in that way. We did have a celebration for our paddleboard community here in Northridge Village on Sunday. We do an annual celebration where we had around 35 paddlers, both in kayaks and paddleboards. I'm very happy to report that the club keeps growing and is getting stronger and stronger. I would like to know if it's possible to have a quick update on the kayak launch station work done. I don't know if Stephen could come up, maybe give us a quick update on that.

Let's do it during the manager's report.

Perfect. As we did last year, the internship program, it's already going on full force. I had the interviews and the students who were selected have been reached out to by our HR department. We're starting the program on July 13th. Another excellent group of students and we saw one of the students today being awarded Daniela, who was also part of the internship program last year. And one of the students who also was awarded, his sister is going to be part of the internship program. So it's wonderful to see our students and our members of our community participate and benefit from these programs. I wanted to congratulate also our Treasure Island Elementary students on their graduations, our fifth grade graduates. We have one here. And we're very excited for them. And we're very thankful for the parents who stayed with us in Treasure Island and supported the school throughout the many years. And I wanted to also announce, if you don't know, that there's a new principal for Treasure Island Elementary, Ms. Ines Meras. Welcome. Welcome to Treasure Island. And for our principal, Mr. Saperstein, who moved to New York, I want to wish him the best. And I wanted to say thank you so much for the work done in our school. And the last thing I wanted to say is I wish everyone a happy pride this month.

All right, well, I want to start off by, again, thanking everyone for coming out to the Community Center Grand Opening. Great event of community and what's to come for North Bay Village. Thank you to the staff for all the hard work in making the event such a success. I want to thank the residents for their support, their patience as we work out schedules, which we are discussing tonight. I think we have a solution there. And around lighting and other concerns, we're constantly listening and improving to create the best possible product we can for our residents and something that works for everyone. And we'll continue to work on that. One of the concerns I've heard over the years here in North Bay Village is the need for a community pool and expanded recreational options. So in response, a few months ago, I began discussions with the city of Miami Beach to explore opportunities for partnership, particularly around sharing parks, recreation amenities, resources. And in May, I attended their finance committee meeting, and I proposed providing North Bay Village residents with free access to Normandy Isle pool the one that's right down the street over here that passed at the committee level and even more exciting I'm very excited to say that two weeks ago at the regular Commission meeting this item passed unanimously on consent so as a result all North Bay Village residents will have access to Normandy Isle pool at no cost and no cost to the village as well

At any time?

Yes, at any time.

And they just have to have like an ID?

Yeah, they just show their ID. And this is just the beginning. We're still continuing to explore additional areas of collaboration and reciprocation, including resident rates at Miami Beach Golf Club, tennis courts, parks, potential water taxi connectivity, shared programming and events, and a lot more. We now have... probably the strongest relationship we've had with our neighbors in Miami Beach, and we intend to build on that momentum. We've seen that when we work together with them and other municipalities in the county as a team, we advocate for each other's shared interests, like the bay that we share together and collaborating on bridge openings and parks, rec, police, everybody wins and our communities are all collectively stronger for it. Other than that, I also want to thank our staff for their great work on the budget this year. We had our first budget workshop last week. Everyone put in an incredible amount of sacrifice and effort to keep us fiscally responsible and efficient. So thank you to all the staff members. And that's all that I have.

Vice mayor, thank you and congratulations that resident benefit at the Normandy pool is huge. Congratulations. Speaking about partnerships with Miami Beach commissioner Tanya bot is. requested a meeting with me to talk about further partnerships between Miami Beach and North Bay Village for parks and amenities. And my sense is that they are going to ask for some type of Miami Beach discount to our pickleball and paddle courts, as well as our new athletic fields on Treasure Island. I will listen to what Miami Beach is asking for. And I will report back to you all, obviously. Pickleball and pedal courts are not a pool, right? I mean, a pool has a limited capacity, but a lot of people can use a pool, whereas the complimentary hours for North Bay Village residents on the Pickleball and Palau courts are much more limited. Also, Miami Beach has a lot more residents than North Bay Village does. I just want you all to know that I think that meeting with Commissioner Bott and Miami Beach staff is this Friday. I will prepare a report I'll have the manager circulate my report so that you all are up to speed. And then we can talk about what they are requesting and what they're proposing at the July meeting. But I wanted you all to have a heads up that that was happening. Um, budget, we are in the beginning of budget season. The state has sent more information messing around with what we can and cannot do. I wanted to just confirm that we are going to be communicating heavily to the public about budget season. And what I would like to do is to have all of the budget presentations available online. So, can we have the presentation that was given on Thursday night last week? Is that presentation available online now? Madam Clerk. It's part of the agenda, the workshop agenda that the PowerPoint presentation is available online. Right. Would you turn your mic on, please?

the actual budget, proposed budget is part of the backup, but not the slides.

I'm specifically asking for the slides to be posted online. And if possible, I would like there to be a link to the 2026, 2027 budget information. on our home page on a banner i would like all of the presentations the powerpoints to to live there so that it is easy for our residents to find the budget information if they so choose to take the time and look for it mr manager can you confirm that we'll be done yes ma'am thank you so much Okay, I have a new parks update. If you have been down North Treasure Drive, you will notice that we have taken the first steps to bring the Anson Family Park to life. The space in the, I think it's the 1600 block of North Treasure Drive has been graded. It has been sodded. We have sprinklers to keep that grass alive. And we're also in the process of adding some parking spaces. The work is not yet complete, but it will be very shortly. Is that my understanding?

I think the parking is redone. Steve, you want to give us a little something on that while we're at it?

Well, let me actually keep moving through my update and then during the manager's report, we can talk to Steve. Get comfortable, man. We're going to talk to Steve about the Anson Family Park as well as the kayak launch. There will be more community meetings to discuss what will happen in the medium term and the long term on that site. But for now, it's a great open green space in the middle of Treasure Island for people to... Catch a football, kick around a soccer ball, do some stretching. It is not a dog park. And we will be communicating to the public about the rules and regulations for that park. And given that it is named after the Anson family, I would think that the Anson family would look forward to adding more amenities to that park so that it's namesake, so that it sort of lives up to the namesake. The second park update I have is on West Treasure Drive at 7560 West Treasure Drive. If you've been down there recently, you will notice that there is a construction fence around the single family home at 7560 West Treasure Drive. The home is getting ready to be demolished to make way for what will be a stormwater facility slash sponge park slash passive park the sustainability and resilience task force heard from the university of miami we are going to be partnering with the university of miami and one of their engineering and architecture programs that site is going to be utilized by a team of master students, I think it's master students, as well as the professional mentors who are teaching in the class to do big picture visioning proposals for how to manage stormwater and accomplish a passive park at the same time. using examples from around the world of passive parks that double as stormwater infrastructure. And, you know, we will have abundant community engagement. Chief Resilience Officer Christina Vialla has been working very closely with the University of Miami on this. The presentation to the SRTF at our meeting last week was just the first in what will be a very, very consistent mechanism of public communication. We'll have probably multiple charrettes, but there will be a lot of opportunities for the neighborhood to weigh in as well as for the commission to weigh in. Whatever we ultimately choose to do with that park in terms of designs, well, A, be chosen by the commission. It will be our decision what happens to that park. B, it will be consistent with the professional engineers who are working on the Treasure Island Stormwater Master Plan, they will be bought in. They will agree it will be 100% feasible, no pie in the sky. The teams at UM will coordinate and collaborate with our engineering contractors for that park. So the demolition of the property of the home is happening very, very soon. And we can have conversations here about what it may be in the interim. I've heard an interest in a community garden. And what I said to the manager this morning is I need to see a critical mass of of volunteers committed to maintaining a community garden on a regular basis before I can be on board with allowing something like that to move forward because I just see it being a nuisance very quickly if it's not kept and maintained.

On the stormwater park?

Yeah. We don't have any design or plans or anything for this park. It will be paid for with our stormwater bond money because it will be infrastructure for stormwater. So we don't know what the cost is for any of this. The cost of the UN partnership is free.

Oh, there's a, it's 20, I think it's $21,000, something like that. My understanding was that I think there's a cost. Oh, okay. In the 20s. Okay.

Christina Villal, Chief Resilience Officer. The cost is about $23,000, which is significantly less than getting a study for the park from a landscape architecture firm.

Okay. And that comes out of the stormwater bond money?

Yes. We'll be working with legal on that, on creating a contract because it starts in August. The studio starts in August. So it will have...

But given that there's a cost, we have to prove that. That was coming in July. Okay.

Okay. That's coming in July.

Okay.

Do you have any other questions?

For the ULM portion is what's coming in July.

So we don't know what's going to go there, but we have parts of it?

They're going to do a study. ULM has got a team, as the mayor was explaining, that is going to do a study and make recommendations to have this as a state-of-the-art stormwater sponge park.

Sure. If I can add to that. So it's two parts. Stage one is it's going to work with U.N.

Pen. And. Grounded by.

policy very comprehensive landscape architecture is a part of it. And then stage two, the Center for Urbanism from UM takes it to the final, well, close to 30% design stage so that we have 30% design that we can hand off to another firm so that they can complete the project.

The property at 7560 West Treasure Drive has, in my mind, it's the lowest portion, it's the lowest area across the village, meaning it floods the most. It is also the exact location where our stormwater pump station for Treasure Island, the left side of Treasure Island is going to be located. We have 60 percent design for that pump station already. Prior to the acquisition of that property, the engineers were proposing the mechanical and electrical to power the pump station. They were proposing it on private property at 1455 North Treasure Drive without any easement without any eminent domain without any conversation with the board of condo before board of directors of the condo association the proposal was to have mechanical and electrical panels smack dab right in the front of the entrance to that condominium association and we have known for several years But that was not a feasible solution and that we needed an additional location on village-owned property to put the mechanical and electrical equipment.

That's the one next to the house. I don't know which property it is.

7560 is the single-family home at the corner of North Treasure Drive and West Treasure Drive. Oh, yeah, it's Island Place. It's Island Place. And so again, we were able to acquire that property when we modified the development agreement for the Sunbeam Special Area Plan. It is a waterfront property. There is significant tree canopy there that is worth preserving. And I would like to see the tree canopy preserved. Those trees also, their roots, provide meaningful drainage infrastructure. So it's a great opportunity for us to do something beautiful and incredibly useful. And we do have bond funds at this point to support those efforts.

What is the goal overall for the space, for the community?

We have to be realistic that as we keep drawing these funds, we have a debt millage problem. that keeps creeping up. So I'm very much interested in the general cost. Not only the $23,000, the $23,000 a U of M represents X amount of dollars to the park and expenses. I'd like to have an idea when, are we talking about a five-year plan? Are we talking about a three-year plan? And what is the cost? Because we are limited.

Yeah, let me just say, the fact that we have a waterfront property in the lowest point in the village, in the portion of Treasure Island that floods the most, the most often, is incredibly advantageous. we desperately need layers of stormwater infrastructure throughout the village but particularly in this location and so having this lot where we can not just have the mechanical and electrical to support the gray infrastructure which is the pump station that we've all approved over and over and over again because it's been part of our stormwater master plan. That pump station has been designed. We don't have anywhere to put the mechanical and electrical for that pump station, but for this park. On top of the gray infrastructure that's going to suck the water off the streets, hopefully polish it a little bit so that we're not pumping dirty water into the bay, we now have the opportunity to add layers of green infrastructure to the stormwater protection. This is an existential issue for the western side of Treasure Island.

No, I agree with you. And you know it better than anybody else. You live in that corner. That is your building. I get it. I'm just curious to know the overall goal of the property, usage-wise, cost-wise, planning-wise. I'm not against that. I'm just curious to know what a regular person, besides having that infrastructure access, what would be the community access? What are they going to use it for? That's all.

I'm curious because I keep seeing on Facebook being posted, we created a mental plan for the residents of Treasure Island as to how their streets were going to be.

Yeah.

We have never said that's been scratched off, which I know that has been scratched off. That's been scratched off the idea. Now we have a brand new idea. No, that's not true.

The one-way streets with the elevation and the... No one has deaded that plan. No one has deaded that plan. First of all, the one-way street plan was... It hasn't been designed because the Treasure Island stormwater and roads master plan hasn't advanced enough for the roads to be designed. That's why we have the item on discussion tonight to reissue an RFQ so that we can hire an engineering team that makes sense so that we can move forward for the third time.

This is third time. It's not my fault. It's not my fault either. But the residents want to know what's happening with their funds.

Of course they do. Of course they do. And I want them to understand too. I mean, this is why we're having this conversation. This is why the item is on the agenda tonight. We have, first of all, it's not like this hasn't been public. Okay. The sustainability and resilience task force every single month. We have an update on the stormwater master plan. Those meetings are public and we've talked about it every single month.

We have thousands of people that tune into the meetings to hear what's going on.

What do you expect me to do?

Why are you talking to me like this? Because I see a cost involved that's not being shown to us.

Okay. We have an item on tonight's agenda about the Treasure Island Stormwater and Roads Master Plan. Let's have that conversation when we hear that agenda.

Okay.

The bottom line is that- You can tell me about it now, though. Okay. because I'm sharing an update on what we presume to do with this property that we acquired because the Sustainability and Resilience Task Force has heard this item. They've heard the presentation from UM. This is a really great thing. It's really exciting. It's incorporating green infrastructure at a waterfront park that the village residents will have access to. This is a waterfront park, a new waterfront park for all of the residents.

And there you go. It's the term waterfront.

It is a new waterfront park for all of the residents.

I'm not against that. I just want to hear the details on it.

I'm sorry if that wasn't clear. This is going to be a new waterfront park for the residents of North Bay Village. Let's move on. Thank you, Christina. What?

Sounds great.

Yeah, it's going to be amazing. I just, I don't know what's controversial about this. Don't act like you're the only person who cares about the budget.

I'm not the only person, but I seem to be the only one that brings it up.

No, you're not. We're having this conversation. This is my commission report, man. I wanted to touch base about the tree removal at Vogel Park and piggyback off of what Commissioner Darrow said, because there were complaints about tree removal. And I just want to make sure that going forward, we get a heads up about tree removal so that we can anticipate these comments and get out ahead of them. But I do fully support the fact that the invasive, prohibited Australian pines were removed.

There's still one left.

They're deleterious to the environment around them, and there's no reason for them to have stayed there. I also want to ask if we have plans to replace the trees with palms or canopy trees.

I think when Steve is going to speak to that when he gets up. Okay.

All right, great. We'll look forward to that update. I want to congratulate you on your North Bay Village Against Hate event. I'm really sorry that I couldn't be here, and I know it was successful, and I think it's a great thing, and I would like to see us continue doing it.

We will.

Okay, fantastic. um you all got the email from the village manager this afternoon i wanted to just share in public that the governor vetoed our appropriation for the village hall and public safety complex unfortunately i really want to thank chief noriega for really sticking out his neck and penning a personal letter to Governor DeSantis. I want to thank our State Representative Fabian Basabe for hand delivering that letter to Governor DeSantis. I was in Tallahassee lobbying for this money. We all were following up with elected officials in Tallahassee. And then our lobbyists and our manager and our staff worked very, very, very hard to craft responses to questions posed by the state about that appropriations request. This is money that would have supported emergency response, first responders, police, and fire. And the fact that it was vetoed is... completely heartbreaking to me. I don't understand why. I don't understand the logic. This was the most meritorious project that that exists. And I am very sorry to report that we didn't get that money. But we do have $250,000 to retrofit our stormwater outfalls. So there's the silver lining. And the last thing that I wanted to talk about was construction fences versus retaining walls. We require properties under construction to have construction fences. We have a construction site maintenance ordinance. When a property owner builds a retaining wall on the property line, obviously they can't also have a construction fence on that front property line if they have a retaining wall. property is still under construction. And my understanding, and I'm seeing it actually in a couple of different places where the property is still under construction, the property is not well maintained, debris is ending up in the storm drains. And I wanted to ask staff, what can we do about this? And then separately, I've been approached by several residents who are in older existing homes and they're having stormwater issues when their neighbors are constructing these retaining walls. These are private property issues, but I wonder if there's anything the village can do to educate our residents about proper drainage and what their options might be if this is something that's happening to them, because I've heard now from several residents who are suffering the consequences of new single-family homes next door to them.

Very valid.

So it's two parts. It's the construction fences and retaining walls issue. How are we treating that from a code enforcement standpoint?

I am aware of one particular place that comes to mind. And I was waiting for Leilani to get back from vacation because I've had the discussions with the code compliance director, and some of it falls within the building department. So I want to get with Leilani and see exactly what the criteria is for removing the construction fence. And so that's one issue. And you and I discussed this morning the complications of these retainage walls and the impact they're going to have on the surrounding properties. The people with the property that have the retainage wall are in pretty good shape. It's the people around them that are going to suffer the consequences. And as these buildings continue to get built and capture these smaller, lower-lying properties between them or among them, the issues are going to are gonna grow with the rain. And certainly I don't have an answer to it, but I can see, we can all see just from the few that have been built, the impacts that they can have and they are having. So everybody was draining every which ways and now we're starting to restrict the drainage except for that property that's got the retaining wall They're good. They've taken care of their requirements. Now it's the surrounding people that their water hits up against the retaining walls and can't escape.

I know that several property owners have reached out to Leilani and to Orlando. Can you sort of track where these issues are popping up? Like maybe just keep a running tab or like a document somewhere so that we can track it. And I'd like to, this is only going to continue. And I think it would be wise for us to try to be proactive and helpful in some way in terms of educating property owners. The last thing I want to see is a bunch of litigation popping up in the village, property owners versus property owners over flooding. Maybe there are resources that we can point people in the direction of... I think if you're living in an older home and the property next to you has now upgraded and redeveloped and it's higher and they've got a retaining wall, but you still want to stay in your older home, but now your property is flooding because you were using the property next door for drainage, maybe we can help a couple of people stay in their homes if we can proactively find them some resources.

We will research it.

OK. Speaking of resilience and keeping people in their homes, while we were at the grand opening celebration for the community center, which was an extraordinary night, it was like top five nights of my life, there was an older gentleman who lives at um 1801 i think south treasure drive the apartment complex right across the street from the community center and he approached me to tell me that he was getting ready to list his apartment for sale because he couldn't afford the special assessment for the recertification for his building But then his neighbor told him about the North Bay Village condominium special assessment assistance, and he was able to secure that assistance, pay for his special assessment, and he's not selling his apartment. So that was a really heartwarming success story. I think we've been frustrated a little bit that some of those resilient funds weren't moving, but a story like that really should make you feel good that the programs we're creating are meaningfully assisting people staying here in North Bay Village. And that concludes my commission report. Madam Village Attorney.

Mayor, I shared with you all an email on the Javits appeal. The third district court of appeal has denied Dr. Javits appeal or petition. So we'll be meeting later this week internally with village staff to go over next steps. And then as far as the Island Walk update, I will wait until that discussion item comes up later this evening.

Okay, thank you. Mr. Manager?

Steve, why don't you come up and give comments on a couple of the items that were brought up by the mayor and by Commissioner Acosta.

Okay. Stephen Buckland, Public Works Director. So I'll start with Vogel Park. I worked with the HRA director for the Islander about – removing those hedges and invasive species that were in that, not right away, but on the property line. There was also a very old and dilapidated fence. Once we did the survey, we found that the fence was about anywhere from five to 10 feet off of the property line and that we actually own more property closer to the islanding. So we moved to remove all the invasive species. We wanted to remove the Australian pine as well, but the Australian pine is about 90% on Islander property. So it would have had to have been a joint effort between both of us to agree to remove it and the residents at the Islander wanted to keep the Australian pine. So what we're getting ready to do now is now that that's been all cleared out, we're going to be grading it. We're going to be putting in a Calusia hedge along that entire border, just like right along the front of the Islander. And then about 10 feet to the south of there, we're going to put a fence so that the asphalt path now is the main path directly back to where the kayak launch will be. And then we're going to make a couple of reconnections inside the fence in the park so that the paver path continues all the way around so that there's that continuous path there. So that's the update on Vogel. If anybody has any other questions.

Is there a way to incorporate one or two canopy trees into the Calusia hedge so that we have some shade as you're walking down that path from the sidewalk to the kayak launch?

I'm sure that there will be the possibility of that, but I believe that there are some oak trees that now that some of that stuff has been removed will fill out and provide that shade, but I'll take a look at it and and provide you with my findings.

Yeah, I would like you to look into native so we can actually use natives rather than any other. A crucia is fine, but I mean, if you do canopy, you know.

Okay, yes. I'm not going to use invasive species. And speaking of which, so all of the vegetation that was removed was invasive species or Eureka palms. And there was just a small section of the Eureka palms, which... Unfortunately, harbor rats and other rodents, not a good idea to have next to a kid park.

So that's why we elected to leave that tree. I feel bad because it's a big tree, but it's also an invasive one that was left behind.

Any canopy tree that is planted, we have to buy a more mature tree to make sure that it's taller. So when people are walking with their kayaks over their heads, they're not hitting the ranches and knocking all the ranches down. Yes, sir.

What's the ETA on the kayak launch?

Dock and Marine submitted for the permit with Durham to reopen the permit. Durham rejected their application so he had to reapply with another exemption and I've tried to get some updates from him this week and last week and I honestly have a little bit of a lack of response so I cannot give you an exact date but I've spoken with the manager about it and if we don't get some traction out of it as soon we're going to go to a different contractor.

Why did Durham reject the permit?

I'm sorry, I don't have the exact reasoning for me to give you for that. But it was an exemption because it was partial closure from when it was originally done. But the exact reasoning, I'm sorry, I do not have.

How are we doing on budget?

I'm sorry? We're still following budget. Yes. And the other work, putting in the hedge and putting in the fence and repairing the paths, that's not going to stop just because the kayak launch has been launched. Got it.

Thank you. We're excited. How can we?

Good. So hopefully we can get some traction on that soon and get that done. So I guess the next update would be the Anson Family Park. So yes, we did get the sod and the irrigation and all that done. We put in a parking area along Pirate's Alley so that when the families and the kids go over there and they play their soccer or whatever, they got plenty of places to park. We are going to be securing a restroom trailer to put over there. We anticipate that this is probably going to be a couple of years before anything permanent goes in there so we're actually purchasing a restroom trailer as opposed to leasing one the cost will be about almost a wash just the first over a two year period the lease versus the purchase plus once when we're done with it we build a regular restroom we can sell that restroom trailer for a minimum of half of what we put into it so that would save the city money on that so no more leasing of restroom trailers like what we have at Schoenberger Park

Once the park starts, are we still going to keep the parking for the KLA staff to use?

Yeah, the parallel parking along North Treasure has not changed. We're not changing that whatsoever. That's why we put that parking on the north side of the park for the people that use the park. And starting tomorrow, we're supposed to be putting up a four-foot chain link fence. at the edge of the parking, so we can close that off. The sod's been in for about a week. We want it to set for a minimum of 30 days to get the root structure a good time to bond and get a good grasp, and then we will open up the park for pleasure.

Thank you.

Is there anything else for me to touch on for you?

Thank you. The other item I have to report on is the temporary construction easement at Civic Park. It's sort of a misnomer. It says Civic Park, but it's really the area south of where the park itself ends, and it's where the Village Hall pump station, sanitary sewer pump station is. FDOT has approached us to they're gonna be raising the road in that area. And right now the water runoff from where our sewer pump station is, rainwater, goes onto the causeway and goes into their system. And once they raise the road, it's not gonna be able to do that. And so there's gonna be a ponding in that area. And so they have proposed coming in and putting in a structure and a storm drain and going underneath the raised road and connecting directly into their stormwater system so that we're not going to have that problem. And they would pay for it, install it as part of the project with the street. However, they need to have a permanent easement for that structure to be in there that they would maintain. And at this point, I have signed off on a letter that the attorney can speak to. I gave her, you've got a copy of that, but it's a, what do you call this? The minimus impact letter.

Right. So that's what I find kind of a joke, the de minimis impact. And I don't, you know, the manager and I spoke about this during my briefing. I asked that going forward, we don't sign letters without, you know, the elected officials being advised. FDOT has moved ahead with their bridge redesign project, largely without us. Correct. We had to force them to even conduct the statutorily required sea level rise impact projection analysis. They made it through 50% of PD&E on this bridge design project without looking at future sea level rise. And the only reason why the vertical height of those bridges was revised is because this dais forced them to do the sea level rise impact projection um so long and long story short is i don't trust fdot to design drainage that doesn't negatively impact north bay village so as we are negotiating this easement that they have requested i would like us to require them to submit their drainage plans or their drainage calculations and their roadway plans and basically everything to us for review. And that will be a condition of us granting them an easement. And I hope that you'll all support that. I just, it could very well be. It could very well be that FDOT takes five years to rebuild those bridges and this community ends up flooded as a result of that. And it is our job, fundamentally, to make sure that that doesn't happen or to at least do the absolute best that we can to exercise any and all oversight opportunities that we have. And the fact that they're asking us for an easement for drainage is a great opportunity to exercise that oversight.

That also should include whatever design plans that they may or may not have us on now. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, but overall, like the pipelines and all these other things that are supposed to be planning.

That we were at, the mayor was at, I was at, you were at, and Steve, you were at as well. FDOT agreed to have a meeting or a town hall or whatever you want to call it with the residents of North Bay Village explaining to us what they were going to do.

I'm still waiting. Well, we have followed up to have that meeting. And they've told us that they don't have the plans far enough along yet to be able to come and have a meaningful discourse. Then they're not far enough along to get the easement. Well, that's true. They're saying that right now they're not asking for the easement. They were asking for this determination that they could consider putting the easement there. The alternative to not have an easement.

I'll consider it at the right time.

Well, listen, the alternative to saying no. is that they said, fine, we'll just raise the road and you're going to be stuck with the water.

We're offering to do it.

Well, I'm saying that's what they have presented to me.

What they can also say is we're not going to do new bridges. They can say that at any time, but our bridges are under 40% of livability, which is a danger for them. It's FDOT who will be sued, not North Bay Village. Let's be realistic. I hear you. And if you want another meeting with them, I'll gladly ask for it.

What's the latest?

What's the most recent communication that we've had with them? I guess just dealing with this item is the last time I've had. Have you had anything else with them?

Actually, I've had communication with them as early as today. So they are close to 90% design of their drawings. And we have to be part of nothing. Oh, no. We were given drawings at 30% to review. We were given drawings at 60% to review. We've also brought on Adora to review the plans and make sure that it... complies with our water and sewer master plan that we're working on. So they've been a big help with that. The most recent is that the fact that we're going to have to relocate our water main and our sewer force main. So we're looking at different ways that we're going to have to do that.

We need to do things right away. What?

Yeah, so the bridge.

We also need to see these designs as they come in.

You're talking about southeast of Civic Park, right? At the bridge.

Yes. So the bridge is not only being, the bridges are not only elevated. And the force main, we expect that the water main, which is attached to the side of the bridge, will have to be redone. But the sewer force main that runs underneath the bay was put in close to the edge of the current bridge. And where they're looking to put the new piles has an impact. And There's not conclusive evidence that the piles will hit the pipes, but they're close enough that the vibrations could cause a disturbance and could cause failure of the pipe. So we definitely don't want that sewer main to burst while they're building the bridge. So they're looking at relocating the force main. And then our door is also taking into account the future growth of the village. And if the process is going to have to be to put in a new force main, Should we keep the existing 20 inch or should it be increased to a larger size?

It should be increased to a larger size. What relief and protection do we have as this moves along? Thank you, Mayor.

What I have recommended is that we have one of my partners who handles eminent domain and right-of-way acquisition work. He's a prior FDOT attorney. He's worked with the village on other eminent domain matters more recently. And so I've suggested that we work with him to try and get the best easement, whether it's a temporary construction easement or a perpetual easement. But this relocation of our main... This is the first I hear about it. So that's... Not de minimis. Not de minimis at all.

Not de minimis. Right. And it's obviously separate and apart from the quote unquote drainage easement. Right. But this is a really big deal. And just off the top. Well, right. Obviously, that's the big question is who pays for it. But off the top of your head, where would we relocate this infrastructure? Right.

Well, we would just go with the current water main.

We just put it in Civic Park?

No. The current water main is attached to the side of the bridge, so what they would do with that is then go subaqueous with that water main as well. But the current sewer main is subaqueous underneath the bay. Oh, really? So it would just – Add on to that. We would just take – on either side of the bridge where the connections are made, we would have to make a new subaqueous entry into the bay.

Who pays for it?

That's being discussed at this time. So the FDOT's cost estimation for this is roughly $5 million. It's the village's stance that it's FDOT's responsibility to pay. We are awaiting their response. And depending upon their response, other heads will have to be involved.

Can we make sure that Pete is on your next discussion with them? I can do that.

Can we have, do you think a quarterly update is sufficient or do we need a monthly update on this? I mean, at this point, well.

But it depends how quickly they can move on.

This makes me so nervous. I mean, this is an agency that is notorious for not caring about other jurisdictions. They do what they want to do. And I don't want us to be bullied. This is a really big deal.

Well, I'm not allowing us to be bullied right now. No, of course. I have all the faith in you, of course. No, no. I brought the village manager in on the loop on this yesterday and bringing you in on it today. These are just recent.

I think it's time to meet with Danny.

But they haven't told us that we have to pay for it. So, but I was going to see what, I sent them a response and justification of why we should not have to pay for it today. And I'm just awaiting that response.

Wow.

Stephen, where are we with the reports that I was preparing?

I'm sorry?

The reports that you guys were working on.

The water and sewer master plan? The water and sewer master plan, that is moving, progressing quite a long way.

So I signed a check to them, like $123,000 for that, and there was a project status report as backup to the check that I signed. Why don't you circulate it?

Yes, please. If you can send me that, I would really appreciate that. We'll do that. What is the expectation, you think, of that report to be completed?

The 100% commission report, I believe, is in around December.

Okay.

Thank you. Wow, wow, wow.

And this is probably just the beginning as we... Not yet.

We don't know. Not yet.

I say this is probably just the beginning as we get into some of these other... buildings that are looking to come up, looking for their allocation letters for sewer and water. At some point, we're going to reach where Glenn's going to say, you don't have the capacity. And those are going to have to be addressed either in the DAs or through our projects or however. These lines have got to be increased. And once we get into that, it's like, where do you stop?

Do you have anything else?

No, that's my cheerful analysis for the moment.

Okay, the Mayor Emeritus has joined us. Let's move on to our soccer field use hours item 14I. Vice Mayor, do you want to introduce the item? I want to invite the Mayor Emeritus to please join us at the podium. It's good to see you, ma'am.

Sure. Well, essentially the last time we had this discussion on this, we were talking about the soccer program and the hours and the needs for our kids soccer program. Um, I wasn't too pleased with the response we gave the parents that day. And, uh, I've been working with Mayor Emeritus Brent Latham and some of the soccer parents. We have Lorena here and a couple others, Indira Shakti. And we've been working on adjusting the schedules, finding common ground with AFA and seeing where we can make adjustments to make it work for our soccer program, make it work for AFA and for their academies as well. And we think we have a really good solution that works for everybody. So right now here we have, I'm going to pass these around. These are the proposed soccer schedules that we have.

where we're going to make some adjustments to give our kids the extra fuels that they need.

especially on weekends. So we seem to have, we have resolved that issue. And then we also, I'm proposing to also have the soccer committee be part of the resident services board. We want to have a subcommittee within that board. That's actually a separate discussion. So, but for tonight, we want to talk about the schedules and the hours. So that's my introduction, Mayor Emeritus.

Thanks, Johnny. Appreciate that. Good evening, everyone. Mayor, commissioners, city manager, ma'am, village attorney, ma'am clerk. Good to see you guys. Rest of the crew. It's very nice in here. I like what you've done with the place. Looks bigger and more open.

We're in a post-COVID world. There's no glass.

Kind of nice, yeah. A lot of things to deal with. Kind of glad I don't have to deal with all of those things. But what it is important to deal with is the well-being of our kids and families, I'm sure you agree, and our community. And I know that you know that some of the folks in the youth soccer community came away a little dissatisfied with the discussion last time, maybe a couple months ago, on the hours for the field usage. And hearing what that interaction, it struck me that there was more room for discussion than I think maybe some here in the room understood or conveyed. And so I just took it upon myself, along with the support of the vice mayor, to go to AFA and PDL and speak to them about the usage of the fields for the youth soccer program, knowing that when this deal was negotiated many years ago. And we're talking about probably five years ago that we first sat down and talked about the split of the field hours. We were living in a very different world in terms of what the size of our soccer program was, how many kids were utilizing it and what the needs were. And so when we came back five years later, It's been four or five years and we finally got this thing finalized and we're able to open, thanks to the hard work of a lot of people in the room, the community center and very soon the fields, which is super exciting for our community. Thanks for everyone for your support in that great event earlier this month. Um, we, we saw a need to try to revisit these hours right and and see if we could work out something that was a little more appropriate for the time that we're living in and I found a very receptive partner, as usual in the alpha PFL folks, they were willing to sit down and listen to what we thought we would like to have for the kids. And so what we did, and again, these are just suggestions, thanks to the support of the vice mayor and putting this on the agenda and discussing with it. These are suggestions that we can make to you as a governing body as to how you can improve on what had been proposed many years ago. And so what we have here. It's a schedule that we feel works for everyone, particularly the soccer program, but for the city in general. It does four things in general, and you're free to ask questions and look through it. But the first thing it does is give more hours to our community soccer program at times that they can use them. And one thing that it does is it gives all the hours on all four of the smaller fields between the hours of 530 and 730, Monday through Friday, to our community soccer program. It also provides our community soccer program with four fields. I'm sorry.

Can we get a copy of this so we can look at it while this discussion is going on?

The other thing that it does is give our community soccer program the fields on Saturday morning as we usually use them. In exchange for that, it provides PFL AFA with some of the later hours that were previously ceded to the community soccer program during the week, hours which they can utilize for their rental purposes. It provides for a weekend collaboration. We had a long discussion, and this was a little bit sticky issue to work through on the weekends because there are a lot of folks that want to be involved on the weekends. But to improve the distribution of weekend hours, what we've come up with is a system by which AFA PDL, Mariano Perse, and The Village, or its representative, perceivably the youth soccer program, but someone from the village will need to get together on a regular basis, perhaps a monthly basis, and work out a weekend schedule by which North Bay Village Community Program would get access to all of the fields during certain weekend hours, one weekend out of the month, And in exchange, half a PDI would get the same. So there would be essentially an exchange of hours so that the fields can be utilized for something like a tournament or a larger event on a once a month basis. Again, it's something that needs to be sat through and worked through in a partnership so that we can maximize the usage of the fields for everyone involved and create a win-win situation. The fourth, and this is a very important tenet, and it's something that came up as we discussed how the hours were laid out originally. Without taking too deep of a dive, essentially what we have when you look at the field schedule are four different buckets of hours. And it's important to understand this. So the first thing we have are hours for the AFA Academy. The next thing that we have are hours that were designated for our community program for the kids to play. The third thing that I would say we would have is hours for rent by PFL as part of their business model to recover the costs of building the community center of the fields. And then the fourth thing that we have are general North Bay Village hours that were allocated for the community to be able to get the free usage of the field that's been allocated to our community. So in discussion with the PFL folks, it occurred to us that a win-win here would be to find a way to pool the for-rent hours and the North Bay Village community hours. And what does that do? That creates a situation where the fields are more widely available, but they're also more efficiently used. So there wouldn't be, under this proposal, and again, this is something you have to review and agree to, there wouldn't be hours specifically designated for rent or specifically designated for North Bay Village community free use. Instead, there would be a pool of hours under the administration of PFL because you need some sort of mechanism for people to reserve fields. And North Bay Village residents would have access to the field at all those times up to the allotment of free hours that we have given here. So if you, Dr. Trevone, want to go over and play soccer with your friends or utilize the field on a weeknight when previously it was allocated only for PFL use, you could now do that free under the north bay village allotment now you wouldn't have to be beholden to only the hours that were reserved for north bay village that creates wider use for north bay village residents and it also creates an efficiency where instead of having fields reserved and potentially empty waiting for residents to use them they would be able to be rented by pfl so that they can recoup some of their costs in the case that they're not used by north bay village residents so we think that creates a win-win that's in here um so my recommendation to you and i'm happy to answer any questions about the process or or take deeper dives on any of these things my recommendation to you is you look at the information um sort through it give it to madame attorney and her group to go through and what you would need to do is ask her to come back with essentially an agreement that codifies this to take back to uh the app of pfl folks uh and make the agreement I think that it is very, very important that you pay attention in this process. And this is something that looks like it needs to be defined. I don't know. I haven't been part of the discussions, but the process for residents, for reserving fields and for being able to access and reserve the free hours. For me, that's going to be a very important thing in making sure that there's resident satisfaction with this process to make sure that you align that with PFL.

Yeah.

So those are my recommendations, sir.

I just want to speak directly to that concern that you flagged because it was something that I flagged in our meeting when Frank and I met most recently with Mariano. Right now, there are three separate apps that schedule meetings. the entire complex there's one app that schedules for pickleball and pedo there's one app for community center spaces and then there's a third for the soccer fields, that's not user-friendly at all. And we specifically asked if going forward that they would take a look at that to maybe have all of the scheduling for the entire facility through one streamlined user interface. Mariano said he was open to it, that he would talk to their engineers. I know this is something that our community engagement director is aware of in terms of this concern or this issue that we have. But he also was, and you know this, he was adamant about the need for the fields to be reserved and to be scheduled and for everyone who sets foot on those fields to go through the check-in process. And I understand the need for that, but I also anticipate that there will be issues and instances of frustration and dissatisfaction. I would love any recommendations that you have for how we get out ahead of that.

I mean, I agree with you on the concern. I think that's going to be the pain point for residents is being able to we have ample free hours for residents to access the complex. And at the same time, you can understand the need on the side of the people who are managing it to have some sort of system to control access and understand who is out there when and why they're out there. I don't have any particular expertise or recommendations in terms of how to manage that, but I can tell you that it's something that has to be discussed thoroughly and kick the tires on how that works for the user experience. What does it mean to be a North Bay Village resident and get free access? How many people need to be from North Bay Village? These are things that need to be fleshed out. My only goal here, as I've told you in our conversations, was to get the access that the kids needed. you know, to be able to continue the soccer program. And that's what I set out to do in the process. You know, these, these things came up, which is like, we, you know, this needs to be looked at. Certainly conversations are being had that I'm not privy to, but at the same time, these are concerns that were raised to me and things that I think are important in terms of making this function well. So it's going to take an effort and, you know, you, you need to start before, before this program kicks off, you're going to have a lot of upset people at

You hit the nail on the head by saying that conversations are taking place. I remember right before you left, you appointed me to take over AFA. Warren jumped in and very well handled, I'm not complaining about it, handling AFA. Then the mayor decided that she wanted to be part of certain conversations. She joined in. We need to have cohesiveness be amongst us as to who is going to be that person that's going to be the point person to bring it to commission and bring it to them and discuss all this. I mean, I saw on Facebook, they're having a wonderful event coming up, but it's just popped up and they're asking for certain asks that I don't necessarily agree on all the asks.

Okay. Commissioner Tremoney, if you allow me, I don't have anything to do with appointing you.

I know, but I'm saying you hit the nail on the head. First, we need to appoint somebody.

Let me point out, the reason that Vice Mayor Cook has become involved in this is he happened to be part of the discussion amongst the parents where they expressed these concerns and offered his support in terms of bringing a solution to the commission. And then a lot of hours went in. I want to thank the the parents and the leadership group and Indira who have put in a lot of hours to negotiate this and get what we need, what we think we need, again, from a community soccer point of view. But that's only one piece, right? And that's one thing that I've also, and I would suggest that you guys take this to, the commission and mayor takes this to heart and also messages it a little more thoroughly the utilization of this community center in the fields is not just one constituency group, right? It's not just the youth soccer program. This is for the entire community. So each time that we're negotiating one thing for one group, we have to be conscious of what we're producing or taking away from the rest of the community or the rest of the group and understand how that affects it. So that's one thing that I've messaged them and that's it. But in terms of how the interaction with the folks from afterworks i mean each of you needs to develop your own relationships but the the gentleman sitting right here ultimately would in my opinion would be the representative of the city to the group because he has to bring it bring the information back to all of you equally i agree with you on that 100 especially so that it's distributed equally amongst all of us it seems to me i'm always finding out at the last minute things are happening conversations have happened

And it's really not a shared vision, I think, except for what we want for the community. I don't see that we have a clear understanding of what can be or cannot be done. And I appreciate you're working on fixing a problem that was created. So it's really important because five years ago, 10 years ago, we've had a soccer program Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays and the schedule that is fixed. And we all know the schedule right now that we have also affects the paddle courts and the pickable courts, like, you know, having access at noon, for example. For the residents rather than other hours. They're also I heard again, but not are you not, you know, unified information here but I also heard that they're trying to increase the fee for the pickleball or whatever. So these are moments that we can take advantage of to really protect the best interest of the kids because it is a partnership that works in so many different levels. I'm definitely supportive of bringing any kind of option that will help us get the schedule that we've had for years. This is not a surprise to know that we meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays or weekends. So it's important that we manage to make that happen. So, So the best thing would be, I guess, is like you're saying, giving that power to a city manager once you presented this option. And hopefully we'll get, I don't know how soon we'll get people.

Yeah, but just to add, Commissioner Acosta, we did have this discussion on the dais a couple of months ago. And the parents asked for more fields, more access, more hours to support the kids' soccer program. And the answer that we gave collectively was, well, this is already pre-negotiated, nothing we can do.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's nothing we can do at this time. We said that we would work on that. We made a public commitment. We made a public commitment that we would negotiate. And, you know, I asked the mayor emeritus to do it. You asked the mayor emeritus to do it because this is the guy who was involved in the negotiation from the very beginning. Correct. And so that's how we ended up where we are today.

I think the confusion is that when we looked at that schedule that was presented to us, it was almost presented as we just did this. And what we said was, no, this is a set schedule that was part of the agreement that we definitely are open to changing because we're well aware of the need of the community. But at no point was this like, well, okay. What I would like to-

What I would like to do, this is your item. I want to clarify. Is your item exclusively getting direction on a recommendation to the village manager? Excuse me.

I'm not going to sit here and be scowled at, so I'll just take my leave. What are you doing? Ignore her. I'm not going to do it.

If you're making faces at me, this is ridiculous. It's a public meeting.

Let's all be on our best behavior. I put in a lot of time on this. I know. And I'm very grateful to you for doing that. I know there are people that are very upset when they see problems solved by other people. But you know as well as I do, I don't have time for this. I'm here for the kids. I know.

And that's why I'm trying to move the item along. I'm trying to move the item along right now.

It's unbelievable. This is your, this is your, you are not here for the families. You're only here for yourself.

I need, I need you to please stop. I don't, this is, this is your item. Is the item one fold or two folds? Because what I would like to do is give direction to the village manager and the village attorney. to propose revisions to the schedule for the fields and modify the agreements with AFA and PFL in a way that reflects the deal that Brent worked out on our behalf. Can we do that?

That's all we need.

I am going to make that motion now.

Before we do, can I read a section from the existing agreement we have with

PFL.

Sure. This is the agreement on programming of activities. PFL shall use the facilities or make the facilities available for use to the public as set forth in the programming schedule attached here to as exhibit D, the programming schedule. That's the schedule that is up discussion for. Which programming schedule may be amended to or supplemented from time to time as negotiated and agreed to in good faith by the parties. The programming schedule shall include time blocks reserved for free by the general public use, by the AFA International Soccer Academy as defined below, and rental of facilities to the general public. the village and PFL, along with a representative of the school board, shall negotiate and update the programming schedule within 15 days prior to the beginning of each school year Okay. So it's not just us and PFL. School board has to have somebody in on this also.

Okay. My motion is to direct the village manager and the village attorney to incorporate these scheduled changes into a proposed revision to the associated exhibit. to contact the school board's dedicated representative to initiate conversations, get them on board, and ratify the changes to the exhibit consistent with the terms of the agreement. That's my motion. I have a second. Is there any other discussion?

No, that's all.

Madam Clerk, will you call the roll?

Mayor Streiffel? Yes. Commissioner Acosta? Yes. Commissioner Cerboni?

No.

No. Commissioner Dorrell?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Cook?

Yes.

Motion passes 4-1.

Okay. Thank you for the time. Good night. Thank you. Thank you for the effort and the time.

You guys really need to use the resources you have in this community and stop dividing it.

Enough. Thank you. Is there something else that you wanted to discuss or do you want this subcommittee to cover another agenda?

We can have this discussion another time. Really, the intention is to actually, I want to actually make sure I have approval, general approval of the commission to look into creating a soccer, actually a sports subcommittee as part of the resident services board. This board will serve to, it will be part of the resident services board. We don't have to create a whole new

That's a great idea.

Committee and yeah, exactly. We'll have just representation from some of the families to do that. Can I have discussion with the village manager to discuss that and then come back in a month or two with a plan?

I'm happy for you to do that as long as you're consulting with the village attorney about the structure.

Okay. Sounds good. That's all.

Okay. All right. It is 828. We're going to move on to item 14F. I see Dave is here, and he's got a whole squad of environmentalists here with him. So 14F is the discussion on the solid waste service alternatives and recommendations from the Sustainability and Resilience Task Force. This is my item. I'm going to give it to Dave. I just want you all to be aware. as we have gone down the path of discussions here on the dais both in the form of agenda items as well as in workshops about what it means to privatize solid waste and whether or not we are going to privatize solid waste the sustainability and resilience task force is having very the weeds conversations about what that looks like and as a result of those very in the weeds conversations dave has taken it upon himself to invest a lot of time and solicit from experts in the field as to what An ideal, in a perfect world, situation might be for how we deal with trash. food scraps, landscape debris, recycling, run-of-the-mill regular garbage. And so you're going to see this presentation, and it's important to note that this presentation has been endorsed and that the concept has been supported by the Sustainability and the Resilience Task Force, which is made up not just of... folks who live in condos, but folks who live in single-family homes. And I think it's really important to point that out because one of the major disagreements that we have heard from residents is that single-family homeowners are particularly touchy about the concept of privatizing or trash hauling. So this plan has the buy-in of, you know, people that I believe are, you know, representatives of that population. So without further ado, Dave, I think your presentation's loading, but I'm going to give you the floor to show the commission what you've been working on.

Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Is this on or off? Name and address for the record. Sure.

Oh, that means it's on. All right. Fantastic. I've been doing enough of these things. I figure I would have figured out how to work with microphones by now. Hi, everybody. My name is Dave Dobler. I live at 8000 West Drive at Moda. And I've been on the Sustainability Resilience Task Force for about two years or actually three years since I moved to North Bay Village. And I love it here. I want to first start by saying thank you, Commissioner Costa, for yesterday's North Bay Village Paddle Club. We had a wonderful time, and thank you, Commission, for supporting this effort to get everybody out on the water. As you know, I mostly pick up trash out of the water. That's what I'm known for. um as i try to solve the problem of waste and trash in our ocean and in our bay i've been working further and further backwards because how we deal with our waste how much we create and what we decide to do with how we treat our waste is a root problem of trash in the bay and so um I got into the waste crisis about three years ago after our county's incinerator burned down and realized that, boy, we've got a really big problem on our hands. And so what we've proposed, what we've been working on at the Sustainability Resilience Task Force is... a new way of thinking about what we throw away. This is not a recommendation on privatization versus staff. What this is, is rethinking what goes into our landfills. So Miami-Dade County generates 8.4 pounds per capita of trash per day. This is twice the national U.S. average, eight times the worldwide average. We create a lot of stuff and we throw it away. 69% of our stuff was landfilled, 19% of it was recycled, with a 40% contamination rate, and 0% of that was composted. And so those numbers should actually be flipped around because organic waste represents about 35% to 40% of what's in those trash cans. So... after the incinerator burned down and our landfills are almost at capacity, what did we decide to do at the county level? We immediately said, we got to figure out what to do with our trash. And so we decided we're going to put them, our trash on trains to Central Florida. We are exporting our trash and making it someone else's problem in Central Florida, where they are facing water contamination issues now. So that's not really an effective long-term strategy for how we deal with our waste. And so what we have been working on is three steps that we think North Bay Village should work on. First of all, implement a new program for us, but not new for the rest of the world, something called pay as you throw, or as what the county is going to be calling it, save as you throw. which is aligning the household, the village and the hauler around reduction and diversion away from landfill. The second is to add optional composting to divert food waste, food scraps and yard waste. And three, fix recycling. We have weak participation and very high contamination. And so I'm going to go through each of these individually. So the first is that when we look at our electric bills, my electric bill is about $90 a month. I keep my thermostat set at 74 degrees. My next door neighbor, they're complaining because their electric bill is $120. But they set their thermostat to 68 degrees. I save money because I don't use the electricity. And it is unfair. It would be unfair for me to pay $120 right next to my next door neighbor who's $120, right? So we don't charge for electricity as a flat rate. So why are we treating trash at a flat rate as well? So the right way is just like electricity, water, fuel, cell phone, we should pay for landfill by the amount and the volume that we throw away as an individual or an individual home. That's what makes a lot fair. So the step one is to implement what's known as pay as you throw or save as you throw, which is a matrix based pricing where a homeowner can choose their cart size and their frequency of pickup. Not every household needs a 96 gallon tote empty twice a week. I have a family of two and because we compost and we recycle and we reduce the volume of waste that we create, we have about five gallons of trash a day. You know, those 13 gallon trash bags, we fill that up less than half every single week. I don't need the same level of service as somebody who consumes a lot more. And so this, so the save as you throw gives me the option to scale down the frequency in which I, my trash is collected.

Even though you live in an apartment? Sorry, I just screwed you up.

All right, keep going. Keep going. So yes, we would need to get into the differences between single family, multifamily, and commercial. This is primarily talking about residential because the family and the resident has their own individual trash container. But I do want to say, This model is exactly what multifamily and commercial do today. We're just applying this at the residential level. El Presidente, or the Presidente supermarket probably has a big dumpster and they get a couple of times a week. The Shell gas station has a little rollaway cart and they probably have it emptied once a week, right? It just makes sense to figure out what size cart you need and then how frequently you want it picked up. And so in this model, A large cart might be... Go back a sec. Thank you. Your monthly rate for a large cart picked up twice a week would be $60 a month. Well, a medium cart picked up once a week or every other week should cost significantly less. So now... In order to get there, you want to reduce or divert. And so because food scraps are about 40% of your trash, and that's what actually smells or would collect bugs, the bugs fly around, if you leave it out too long, We want to add composting. We have two composting services here in the audience. We have Fertile Earth and we have Compost for Life, who are both scaling up composting now that Miami-Dade County has effectively made composting legal, right? And so wet organics actually weigh about four times as much as your regular dry trash. And so... There's no reason to throw these organics into a landfill because if you put them in a pile and you flip it over a couple of times, you let it sit there for 30 days or 60 days, it's gonna become nutrient rich soil. It doesn't make sense to throw that in a hole. And then, so if you add, if you take step one, which is save as you throw, and step two, which is composting, you actually end up spending the same or a little bit less than what you're spending now. And that, like right now I have composting, but I'm paying a premium for doing the right thing. Why do I have to pay an extra $25 because I want this stuff composted? So what this does is this allows the homeowner to add composting without increasing their monthly bill. This also saves the village money because we are paying by the ton to put stuff in a landfill. And if organic matter is four times as much as regular landfill stuff, we're going to lower our village costs. As well, this is going to slow our long-term increases of costs for landfills. It's not going to get cheaper to put stuff in a landfill because we don't have any room for more landfills here in Miami-Dade County. We have to send our trash away if we want to put it in a hole. In addition, this gives us cleaner streets because it is the wet organics that drip the leachate onto our streets. That smelly stuff that's dripping from the trucks, that's food waste. That ends up getting washed into the bay as well. And we're going to spend a lot of money with pollution controls. Well, if we keep it off the streets in the first place. The third thing is we need to fix recycling. Now... I share the same frustration with you about how poorly recycling works in the entire county. It is not just North Bay Village. People put contamination, they recycle, they put stuff in plastic bags, they throw random stuff in the recycling bin. They treat the recycling bin as landfill overflow. But that's exactly the opposite. There are steps that we need to take in order to fix recycling. And that starts with proper labeling of our dumpsters and our bins. That means that we need to do contamination audits, which in our residential neighborhoods is required through our interlocal agreement with the county. And we need to require a chain of custody to make sure that the trucks that are picking up the recycling material actually end up going to the landfill. I'm sorry, end up going to the recycling facility. How many people question whether our truck, whether those trucks taking our recycling actually make it to the recycling facility? I have no idea. I don't know that anybody here can tell us for certainty, but every truck that is picked up goes to the recycling facility. That trust issue is a real problem because then people are going to stop doing it. And once you stop doing it, they just put it in the landfill and then we're back to square one. Okay, next please. So, fast forward past this. Okay, I think that there might've been an incorrect aspect on that past slide, so I didn't wanna harp on it too much, but I did wanna say that In the debate and discussion on privatization versus keeping sanitation staff, it is my opinion that if we keep sanitation staff working for the village, they should not be in charge of landfill. Anybody can do landfill. We need trust and we need auditing of our recyclables. And so if we're going to have anybody on staff doing anything, they should be adding value in the recycling aspect. So our recommendation from the Sustainability Resilience Task Force is one is to direct staff to develop, to figure out a save as you throw strategy where people We can build people based on the volume that they throw away and they dispose. And there's some nuances here that are in the bullet points. I won't read them out. You're welcome to read them. They do need to include a carve out for composting. Because if we sign an agreement with the traditional waste hauler, they are going to categorize organics as solid waste, and then they are going to not allow us to contract out with a composter. So we need to make sure that in any language that we use, we have a carve out for organic material. Then we should have the staff develop an RFP for composting with also matrix pricing. I get my compost picked up at a five gallon bucket once every two weeks. I could have more frequent if I needed it. once every two weeks is just fine for a family of two. And then third, we need to implement fixes to the recycling. And it is the Sustainability Resilience Task Force would love to be a part of reviewing any draft RFPs and being on any RFP scoring. So I think that's all I really had in general. And I do want to mention that we do have Randy from WSP. He is the county's zero waste consultant, and the county is going to be releasing a a zero waste master plan on July 10th, I believe. Mayor Levine Cava is going to be introducing it. So I don't know what he is at liberty to say that is in there, but if you want an expert that is not Dave Dobler, feel free. You have some resources here for you as well as two composting vendors. So if you have any questions.

Dave, thank you so much. I want to open it up to the rest of the Commission. I've seen this presentation and we've discussed this at length at sustainability and resilience. So I would love to hear from my colleagues, the questions and the thoughts that they have.

I love the proposal, especially it encourages saving and encourages less waste. I think it's awesome.

I appreciate you coming over actually yesterday. You brought so much garbage back on that paddleboard. It was very impressive how much you pulled in. And it was great to have the opportunity to also talk to you quite in detail about the proposal. And I went over it again. And I really do appreciate all the work that went into it. especially when we're also becoming an example as the heart of the Bay, where other communities can do too and work together with Miami-Dade County. I see this as not just a positive addition to our community, but a great way to show that even a small village like us can make a big difference. So thank you.

Same. David, thank you for your efforts in explaining it to me this week. I expressed that I'm supportive of it. The only concern I had was adding a little bit more of an administrative task to somebody within our office who is going to be in charge of the differentiating of services. So having that delegated would be the only concern I see.

I'm the single family homeowner. They're all condos. How do we make it work for them? That's number one. I like the idea in general. I don't think our city at this time is capable of dividing it into different pay rates for different homes. And how would you handle, hey, I had a party this week, so I went home. overboard in my amount of garbage. Give me a favor, pick up this extra two bags this week because it's going to happen.

So in other communities, because we're not going to be trailblazers in this in the rest of the world or the United States, how some other entities will deal with that is they have sold tags that you can put on the bags of trash. that you buy the tags, maybe from Village Hall. I don't know how that would work out, the nuances of it. And then that trash could be picked up.

You're basically charge extra for whatever... You charge extra for... You charge extra. Whatever extras you have that they find at the location of the customer. Yeah. Again, being handled by... And the idea...

This is actually... The idea is great. The idea is wonderful. Don't get me wrong. This is actually a great point. It's a spectacular point. I used to throw parties all the time at my old place. We used to have a... It was on South Beach. I don't know if you travel that far for a party, but we used to have parties of 50, 60 people, right? Our New Year's Eve parties. And I still only had one bag of trash. How did I do that? Because I didn't buy a whole pack of 100 solo cups. I had reusable cups. I had 50 sets of silverware that I bought at the store, at the Goodwill. I throw zero waste parties. This is exactly the idea.

It's to motivate people.

It's to motivate people to not generate so much trash in the first place. That's what we really need to get to. The idea that we can throw a party and a celebration and everything just gets swept up in a plastic tablecloth and thrown in a trash bag is exactly the problem that we're having that's gotten us into this mess. And so if you think you're going to throw a lot of parties or you're going to create that waste, and by the way, nobody changes anything in their selection unless they opt in to this, right? Everybody would still get the twice a week, the 96-gallon tote, unless they opt for a different adjustment and to add composting. So I think the root of the problem is this idea that in order to celebrate, we have to generate vast amounts of trash. So your point is valid. And if all we were trying to do is get the smallest bin that we can, but still continue our ways... that's kind of not really connecting the dots. And that's something that the community needs to start realizing because nobody, everybody hates when you want to increase stormwater fees, when you want to increase trash fees, when you want to increase anything, everybody loses their mind, right? They expect things for free and that's not the way that it works. So I would challenge people that should, generate all those vast amounts of waste, there's alternative ways to do that.

And for family buildings, how would you handle it?

Multifamily apartments.

So multifamily right now, they are already, like I know Moda, it's five day a week landfill pickup, right? And they have big dumpsters. We need to fix recycling. My condo building is mostly okay now because I added signage. I kind of harassed management a little bit that they need to like get control of this. And they started finding people who weren't breaking down their boxes. Somebody gets a big box of dog food from Chewy and they throw it unflattened and it takes up half the dumpster space. A recycling area used to be a mess. But now management and new residents got the memo. And so now we are doing much better on the contamination. Our contamination rates are significantly decreased. In that situation, what can happen is they are already doing the matrix pricing. And so they can opt in for composting. And if they opt in for composting and offer compost to the residents, then they can actually scale back on the amount of landfill pickups that they have or right-size it.

So let's use a hypothetical. So if my condo board at Island Place... voted to have a Compost for Life rollaway cart, for example, in addition to just the trash chute. Under this scheme, we would be obviously paying for the compost for life service. But in theory, we're reducing what we're throwing down the trash chute. And we now need less frequent trash pickup. And so we're saving money there. So there's an element of... Building by building, there is an obligation on the part of the boards, essentially, to communicate, hold meetings, and sort of take a vote of the residents whether or not this is something they want to do, and then to communicate and obviously enforce.

Enforce? Enforce.

Mm-hmm.

which is the hard part.

Yeah.

I mean, that's how recycling started.

I will say... In theory, it's a wonderful idea. Don't get me wrong. And I back it 100%. I have seen neighbors in those homes, single-family homes, that don't know that there's side yard pickup, or they don't want side yard pickup, and they pull the trash up front. I've seen neighbors walking their dogs For people that decide to pick up trash from the street, go to one of those dumpsters and throw this stuff out. Whether it's recycling or whether it's garbage. Depends on the day that the bin goes out. But, you know, it's not your bin. Why are you using somebody else's bin?

So my service, compost service, it's a five-gallon bucket with a sealed lid. So I have to close it. You want to open that thing up, you've got to work at it. It's not just picking a little lid up.

That's composting, but I'm talking about garbage. A person has a normal... let's say, pick up three bags once a week. I mean, two of us in the home, we don't have that much garbage. If I would put my bin out, it would be used and abused by my neighbors and by the people who walk my island.

Because they're putting their dog waste in?

Not only dog waste, they're putting anything that they have in their hands. If they ever have a plastic bottle of water or whatever, they'll throw it in the garbage. Not even in a bag, just throw it in the bin, which is even worse.

Even worse is when they just throw it on the ground. So the fact that they're using a bin at all, if somebody wants to use my bin to put their trash in instead of throwing it on the ground. But you're right about how people would... put trash or dog waste in a recycle bin, right? That's because you cannot tell the difference between a landfill bin or a recycle bin. There's no labeling on it. The recycling bin does not say recycling on it anywhere.

They may not say recycling, but all of them are a different color and they have the sticker of what's recyclable.

They don't have stickers.

Oh, they put, they put stickers on all the bins in North Bay Island with what's recyclable.

Are we, are we, are we, have we put those? We have?

Yeah.

Fantastic. We're the, we are the first, we are the first, you know, like, like, like City of Miami does half their bins. Miami Beach doesn't do any of them. So good for us. thank you for that because that was something that i brought up um yeah but i told you we were doing that like two three months i heard i heard that we were doing the contamination audits and we were putting the what i heard was that we were putting um you know violation stickers on i don't know that i understood that they were actually what is recyclable fantastic yeah wonderful yeah yeah

I have heard they were doing violations in recycling bins, but I have not seen one, to be perfectly honest.

I want to invite Steve to come up now and give us an update on where things stand with our privatization conversation so that we can have... this discussion in the context of the broader waste hauler privatization conversation. Steve?

Yes, Steve Buck on public services. To be honest with you, Mayor, we really haven't done anything on the privatization lately. We've been waiting on this meeting to see what direction we were given by commission. I have spoken to another contractor about a possible piggyback. And so we're actually running the numbers on that one versus the ones that we have looked at so far. And when we're given direction by commission about which way we want to go, we'd like to bring those to you. I believe that we're, Thank you. Hoping to go next month to bring a recommendation.

Okay. So at the July meeting, we're going to get a recommendation from staff on privatization. And you have, obviously, the Coral Gables Waste Management Program. piggyback option. My understanding is you are exploring a second potential piggyback option. And now we have this proposal for save as you throw, which would require, as Commissioner Doe pointed out, administrative more than administrative, legal work, drafting to craft the necessary RFQs, and then we would have an RFQ process, and it would be a whole thing.

Generally, the waste contract, when you go through the whole RFQ process, usually takes about six months or longer.

That's right. So given that we have a pretty urgent deadline to make a decision on privatization, what I would recommend, and I put this out there for discussion, is that we make a decision in July about what we want to do for the next... two years, let's say, a year or two, giving us time to craft the RFQs pursuant to the save as you throw scheme and go out to bid and see what type of interest we can attract from the private sector on compost recycling and solid waste to see if we have anybody who is interested in getting on board the save as you throw concept.

Off the top of my head, I'd be interested on the savers you throw as far as garbage immediately. Don't get me wrong. It's a great idea. You save if you don't have that much garbage. Now, am I interested right away in composting? I don't know enough about it to say yes. And recycling, I think I do a pretty good job with the recycling. Room for improvement. Don't get me wrong. But I do a pretty good job.

So staff is going to come to us with a recommendation in July. Based on your comment, I'm understanding that Let's say if option A is waste management. Option B is this other piggyback opportunity. Option C is doing nothing. And option D is going out to bid for save as you throw only for trash.

I don't think we're ready. I mean... I don't know how many of the roughly 500 single-family homes we have here have heard of the idea of the save-as-you-throw. They can be sold on it because it's a great idea. Don't get me wrong. But you have to present it to them.

Yeah, that's why I'm suggesting...

A short term, but I don't know if a two-year contract is going to be cheap enough for us and maybe have to be a three-year contract.

Do you want to weigh in? Well, I think the idea that the mayor presents is logical and it's timely. We're at the point now where we're having to get the third truck, correct? Correct to keep up? We had to hire a couple more part-time people, had to get another driver. And so it's really not cost-effective what we're doing. And I think that if we were able to get on an existing contract that would buy us time, it would give us the ability, number one, to really... try to educate the community at a higher level of what the advantages are of entering into a program such as pay-as-you-throw or pay-as-you-go type of thing. And also on the composting, as to how that would be handled and what additional... burden you put on the actual homeowner for doing that sorting rather than scraping the dishes right into the garbage can. I mean, it's an educational type of thing that has to happen. And I think you're going to have some pushback on the odor element involved while you're collecting if you don't keep the lid on tight and that type of thing. So I think by Getting a private hauler to take over for us rather quickly and then getting into this entire program and education with the public and see who really wants to buy into that, who wants to participate in the program.

We may be having a dual program for a while. Well, right now we're talking about privatizing or not privatizing. I understand that. Right. But if we go into privatizing for two years and we start training our family, our single family homeowners into the pay as you throw and see how we can work it into the buildings. That's a totally different story. Uh, It's going to take two years, I think, is a short time. That's why I said three years minimum before we go into it. And we may have to have both systems in place, a privatized system that goes to certain homes and somebody that just picks up garbage. Like in my house, once a week is more than enough, personally.

I think they're monitoring.

But remember, Dave's proposal doesn't force people to compost.

Right. No, I'm not talking about compost. I'm talking just about garbage.

But the save as you throw contemplates opting into composting because you're reducing what you're paying for trash by also composting.

We need to go step by step by step. You cannot throw at least me at this age saying that I'm going to go into composting. I don't know enough about it.

But that will be your option.

But that's only one element of it.

Exactly.

But think about going down this path. If you say pay as you throw, and I'll take me as an example, I only have to put my tote out once a week or once every two weeks because we don't generate that kind of waste. And we do recycling, break down the cartons, and I do all that stuff for the recycling tote. So... if we're gonna pay as you throw and I just do that, why don't I get a break? How come you're gonna come and pick me up two times a week and I only need to get picked up once a week? So they're gonna say, well, wait a second, if I'm not doing any composting, I need to get a break on my pickup. So at my house, you only pick it up once a week or you pick it up every two weeks. So that whole program has to be monitored and identified. And the people that are doing the pickup, I got to know, you don't just cause the cans out there. You don't pick it up because it's this house and they, they, you know, they don't get picked up once a week.

So there's a lot of, it could be a label on, on, on the actual law. Container. Let's be realistic. There's days we get pickup in the island twice a week. There's times that there's two half bags of garbage in that bag when they pick it up.

understand we're in the same boat and yet they come they come twice a week but i only put it out i tell the people in the neighborhood hey they're going to pick up they pick up on the holidays give the guys a break and so they go home on that holiday don't put your cans out on a holiday if you don't have them full just to well it makes a difference for the people that work just for that day when they get done they get to go home for the holiday So as you make choices, you make monitoring and policing and that type of thing more. Just take the bulk trash. You put bulk trash out, and it attracts other trash. Other people, instead of putting the bulk trash in front of their house, they go across the street and they put it on the other guy's pile.

Or the empty lot or whatever.

Right. And so how do you monitor that? Your ring hammer. Yeah. So I think that getting a A program that's in place right now for the length of time they have left to run, because some of them are going to run out in, what, a couple of years that we're even talking about. So that does give us time to develop a program to go out to bid for.

But when we piggyback on a contract, it doesn't mean that we're copying the amount of time left on that contract. It means that we're copying... The cost, the frequency, and that aspect. You can do it for three years. You can do it for five years.

Not if they don't have a renewal. They can only piggyback on what the contract is. If it's going to die, it dies. Ours dies with it.

I mean, Paul Gables is about to die in a year. Is it worth piggybacking on?

I believe it's two or three at the most. I believe they just renewed for a three-year renewal.

Yeah, I mean, from my point of view, it feels like piggybacking on Coral Gables, given that it's a two or three year deadline, gives us time to educate the community, to craft the RFPs, to talk to the private sector, to have community engagement. and to be thoughtful and to get it right while we are saving money for residents on garbage pickup and not having to buy or lease a third truck. That's the way it seems to me. I'm obviously just one vote. I think for the purposes of tonight, I want to advance this concept because I'm hearing from you all that you're open to this idea and you think it sounds not just economically advantageous, but better for the planet. The idea that we are quite literally putting garbage on a train to Central Florida is appalling to me. That's the county, right? But we obviously are contributing. So my motion is to direct the manager to include in next month's trash power agenda item an option with a memo supporting the option to advance this proposal administratively with the village attorney so that whatever decision we make on privatization the understanding is that what we would really like to do is in several years move forward with this concept as much as we can And move forward doesn't mean this is what we're doing. It means...

It doesn't because we don't know who's going to be sitting here.

No, right. Right. I mean, you're right. There's a limit to what we can do. Yeah, so that's my motion, is for the manager to include in the July agenda item... Mayor Mrakas, You know the option to move the ball forward on this particular proposal. Mayor Mrakas, While we make an immediate decision on on the immediate solution. Mayor Mrakas, Okay, thanks mayor seconds.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Excellent. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

If I could just say, we're basically doing choosing to do nothing. That's essentially what's happening.

Right now?

What do you mean?

Yes. What do you mean? You're moving something and we're going to move forward on getting a new landfill contract, a new landfill coming in here. No, no, no.

I'm not agreeing to that.

And there's no conversation or moving forward on any of this. That contract is up for three years.

This is not at all. That's not what we voted on. You're misunderstanding what we voted on. No, not at all. You're misunderstanding what we voted on. And respectfully... this is what was discussed at two sustainability and resilience task force meetings which you attended we understand that we do not have time right now to transition to this scheme that you are proposing we don't have A facility for our garbage trucks. We are leasing trucks on land that we don't own. That facility is about to be demolished and under construction. We need immediately to make a choice to go to a private hauler. That has to happen. We don't have time to craft these RFQs the way that you were describing them. So what we just voted on was to include a recommendation at next month's meeting when we ultimately make the choice on privatization to include the direction that we will move forward with community engagement and developing the RFQ to go to the scheme that you have presented tonight. And

Correct, in three years.

And to be clear, I'm not pro-privatization. I'm not moving towards that. I want to be clear that I agree with your proposal and I want to promote it to move forward. And that's going to be part of the future conversation, bringing it up in July so that then we can analyze whether we do move into privatization or not. I want this included into our proposals. That's the way I see it.

Yeah, there was no world tonight where we voted to direct staff to craft this RFP right now.

There is no direction to staff to evaluate and establish optional composting. Those can be separate items. They should, the cost incentive for people to compost will be if you negotiate, even with these waste haulers, right, today that we're talking to. They will do whatever we ask them to do, and sure, within limits of the contract that we're going to piggyback off of.

Your recommendation is unclear then. I'm sorry. I thought I was moving forward to adding this into our... We're including this as an option in our vote next month.

Great. Thank you.

Okay.

That's what I understood. 100%. Not to put it off for three years. That's not what I'm voting for.

two-part direction one is to bring if we bring to you a proposal to privatize to whatever we want to go to from the administration and to include in that another element to where we are going to move forward with pursuing this proposal at a future time when we've got, we know what we're gonna ask for the people to do.

Okay, so let me be clear. If we vote next month to privatize, please stop interrupting. If we vote next month to privatize, it's gonna either be a piggyback or a new RFP, right? Okay. There is a possibility that with a new RFP, pay as you throw and composting could be included in that. That's an option. You could make that recommendation. The commission could decide to do that. That's true. We could vote to privatize, piggyback, and not go out with an RFQ or an RFP. And that I would assume most likely will be the decision based solely on the time that we have. So I just want to be clear that while this is important, We don't have time. So whatever we decide in July is whatever we decide in July. But based on your presentation tonight, composting, save as you throw, are now on the table. They're very active and part of the discussion. We will be considering them in the broader conversation of what we're doing with trash when we actually hear that item at next month's commission meeting.

Are we going to have a price for them? Otherwise, how can we decide?

I think the decision is going to be an RFQ. I don't, I mean, would it be useful to have proposed pricing so that we can consider it? Sure. But in my mind, the decision is, do we have time to issue an RFQ or do we not? I mean, that's just how I'm looking at this.

If you're doing your piggyback on a current RFQ that exists someplace, you have a price. I don't know how much I'm going to be saving on a throw as you grow, pay as you throw, whatever you want to call it. I have no idea. We have no idea. We have not explored it. We have not discussed it to be safe. To say that we're going to be discussing it at the next month's meeting and taking a vote on it is a little bit premature.

Do we want to take another vote and direct staff to direct the CRO to provide pricing in next month's agenda item?

There is pricing in a piggyback.

There's pricing in a piggyback. Yeah. How do you want to weigh in?

Um, I'm not aware of any contracts that have all those aspects in place that we could piggyback off of. I mean, I will look into that to see if that's a possibility. But what if we decide not to piggyback?

We could decide not to piggyback. There's a concern here that we're not going to have a clear view of the finances of all of the options. We may not piggyback, and if we don't, we want to know what our options would be if we were to incorporate composting.

Right. I understand that, but I don't know if I could have those pricing to you by next month. Also, I don't know that a lot of vendors would be willing to release that pricing knowing that we've got RFQ because now they're We can give you an estimation of what we think it might cost after discussions with vendors. And, you know, you also got to consider the size of our city. So you got volumes, volume would change. So you're not going to get the discount pricing of say the city of Miami because of volume. So I just wanted to comment that I don't think I could get you good comparables by all the options.

Well, I think we can ask the manager to have Christina working with Steve to craft the recommendation with the input of Dave from this presentation. I would like us to have the option to consider going to it

full bore in July to select an option to do this program that Dave has presented, even with all the operational things that Dave brings forward that he says, I don't know how you're going to handle this. I don't know how we're going to take care of that. A lot of it is aspirational.

Yes, it is. But at a bare minimum, we can go out to bid for a composting contract.

Immediately. Just voluntarily? Separate from the contract, yeah? We can do that, but I don't know what the advantage is on saving money from that. In other words, we're going to pay...

we could have that conversation and we could get those prices from the compost companies that exist. And we would at least be able to have the conversation and make the decision. And then, you know, I know that there's interest in the community and composting. I mean, we've had compost companies attend multiple village events and they get great feedback. And, you know, I think You know, I'm happy to invite them to come talk about what they're doing and what their rates are here in North Bay Village, how much their subscription services have grown here over the last two years. I mean, it would be useful, I think, to know what the trend is in the community on composting. And so if there's interest in the community, why wouldn't we want to have a contract?

No, I don't disagree with that. But if we've got the two major composting companies here, they should be able to provide to us how many residents they have that are participating in the program now. That would give us an idea of what's out there.

I think the city of Miami and maybe Miami-Dade County have pilot programs in place right now where there are compost bins at community facilities. I don't know how well they're doing, but maybe we can invite them to speak at the July meeting to hear about that.

We can do that. But it would be interesting to see what's exactly happening in the village now. If we've got the companies here that are servicing the village that are now doing it, what kind of responses are we getting? How many clients do they have? I mean, it shouldn't be a secret.

I just want to weigh in a little bit. Through my involvement with the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network, I'm finding more composting pilots, not full-fledged contracts with individual households in South Florida right now. The city of Miami has a composting pilot with different locations all over Miami. Miami. And I also wanted to say that I'm happy to be, you know, I'm happy to find a happy medium between, you know, public works and our task force, because I do think this needs to be an incremental change. way that we go about this. There's a lot of opportunities for instance the cart sizing that's happening right now in a lot of different counties and cities. Miami-Dade County has it on their website. You can select your different cart size. So depending on how big your household is And since we're going to have a new contract, if we go private, we're going to have new garbage bins. So we could select to have our residents select the cart size, and then you have a fee if you change cart size. So Alachua County is doing that. Maybe the county has that on their website. I believe Humber Pines has that. Gainesville has that. So that's a really easy opportunity. I'm not sure. I haven't done the research to see if this is anything that we could piggyback on, but I just wanted to share that perspective. the tier-based pricing based on car sizing, and also perhaps a composting pilot just to get the community involved into composting before we decide everybody should do it.