Remarks by Alex J. Fernandez
292 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 12
- Play at 3:39:41
“You see, and that's and that's a critical part there. And that's my, you know, with I like the thought of selecting the mission critical projects. My concern is that we have, for example, I from what I'm hearing, a project like Lakeview, where we have homes, we've had residents come here crying because their homes have been flooding. Would that make it into that five-year mission-critical list?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 3:40:28
“Okay, so something, for example, Not elicited. By must park. By must park, we have the projects by 44th Street and Royal Palm, that area there that has been flooding. That's a critical needs project as well.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 3:41:11
“No, I'm not picking and choosing, I'm just asking questions to understand, you know, I'm not proposing that we select one project over the other. I just, you know, want to understand when WHEN THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR IS SAYING, YOU KNOW, HE WOULD HAVE TO DETERMINE WHAT MOVES FORWARD OR NOT. I JUST WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WOULD MAKE IT INTO THAT OR NOT.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 3:42:30
“So there's logic to doing the 10-year funding as opposed to five-year for the longevity of the program.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 3:47:58
“I have a second. I have a question on that. We also had a motion to defer. The first option one is I would want to have a discussion about this one before we contemplate raising the water and sewer rates.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 3:49:13
“So Jason, just so that I understand, and my goal has always been, what is the lowest impact to the people who are at the lowest levels of affordability? It's the reason why I sponsored the moratorium, and the majority of us support is the reason why I've been inclining towards the all-Geo bond version, because it offers that. I wanna be able to be mindful of tenants, but it's hard to find a way that we can give that same level of relief to the tenants. So I'm trying to see what is the best that we can do for the majority of the people who have the lowest means. And that would be looking at…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 3:50:43
“I made my point already about the tenants. I want to be able to figure out how we can help tenants, and unfortunately there's no avenue here. Whether you do a utility rate increase, you're still going to pass a burden to tenants. Whether you do a general obligation bond, you're still going to pass a burden onto tenants, but there is a segment of lower income individuals who are on fixed incomes, a lot of them who are dealing with the challenges that we might be able to address through this. And so what you were answering me, the property tax reform passes. What would be the impact to them?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 3:51:57
“The average. Okay. And so if the property tax reform passes, they're going to be based on $250,000 less?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 3:52:40
“NEW SPEAKER SO THOSE $300,000 CONDO UNITS, FOR EXAMPLE, THAT YOU WERE SPEAKING ABOUT EARLIER. Yeah, like I guess Commissioner Suarez was mentioning Tower 41. That is a model of many other buildings. It's a sample of the experience and the situation of many other condo buildings in our city. If the reform passes in year two of the reform, YOU KNOW, THOSE $300,000 UNITS ARE REALLY GOING TO BE TAXED BASED ON A $100,000 VALUATION.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 4:08:31
“That's not what caused Parkview to be contaminated.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 4:19:37
“And. Mr. Mayor, I just need a clarification. Please, please. I just need a clarification. It's an important vote. Because I heard two things, two different answers. Commissioner Suarez asked you about affordability, and when he asked you about affordability, you said that the all-geo bond option was the one that delivered the most affordability. And then, Vice Mayor Dominguez asked you about affordability, and you answered that the hybrid model offered the most affordability. And that is the one issue that I care most about, is delivering this in the most affordable way to the residents that…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:22:23
“If I may, Mr. Mayor, because I'm the sponsor of the item. Mr. Mayor.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:22:30
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So in South Beach, we have had a number of businesses that have come into the area, and the whole idea was to get spaces that were occupied by vape shops, liquor stores, check cashing stores, and different uses that we've established that we no longer wish to have there. So we've been able to identify, for example, Charlie's. Charlie's on Lincoln Road is a... It's a restaurant from Spain. And they opened their location here. We've also had a tech company. We had a tech company that opened up. Edgewood. Which one?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:23:15
“Edgelord. There we go. That has... that has opened up on Washington Avenue and Lincoln Road, I believe, as a result of that. And we've had a number of other companies that have been able to use the grants to come in and replace nuisance uses in our city. And I don't know if the Economic Development Director would like to add to that.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:24:41
“And I want to, through the chair of the CRA board, I want to publicly thank Heather Shaw, who worked with us on the original program in South Beach. When I sponsored that original program, she helped us create a framework for it, and I'm glad now with the leadership of our current economic development director, we're working on expanding it in North Beach as well.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:45:00
“So we're taking the vote on the hybrid model?”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:54:17
“CAN I ASK A QUESTION ON THAT? PLEASE. OKAY. SO GOING AGAIN TO WHAT IS MOST COST EFFECTIVE FOR OUR RESIDENTS, OKAY, BECAUSE FOR ME IT'S NOT YOU KNOW, WHETHER IT COMES OUT OF THE UTILITY BILL OR THE TAX BILL, THE QUESTION IS, WHAT LEAVES THE RESIDENTS' POCKETS AT THE END OF EACH MONTH? AND SO I WAS WEIGHING BETWEEN ALL GEO BOND AND HYBRID. THE ALL GEO BOND HAD THE LEAST FISCAL IMPACT, ESPECIALLY TO THE PEOPLE ON THE LOWER END OF THE BRACKETS. with this model that Commissioner Magazine is presenting to us, and when we're looking at, I guess it's about half of the depth capacity? All right, so…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:55:18
“I believe it's just short of $800 million. So we would be looking at about $400 million as opposed to $800 million.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:55:35
“That's on the hybrid? That's on the hybrid. Okay. All right. And with Commissioner Magazine's proposal is how much? Purely 450. 450 between water and sewer and storm water. Correct. Then to me, then under those two scenarios, that is the option that then I would imagine, and Jason, you're our CFO, is would that have the least impact on our residents? Sorry, which? The Commissioner Magazine proposal where you're cutting the debt in half.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 5:58:00
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:03:27
“Correct. Mr. Mayor, if I may, I think the challenge that we're facing is that We don't have the support to do the progressive tax that takes away the burden and the weight from our most cost-strained residents. We don't have that support, obviously. Now, the goal of the moratorium was never to... Can I just ask a question? Do you mean legally? because of the tax structure? The votes. We don't have the votes. Okay. Yeah. We don't have the support, you know, to... We'll call that a progressive tax, but okay. Well, I mean, I'm just barring Commissioner Suarez's... I don't know. I'm barring his…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:07:32
“So we don't determine which projects get funded. You have your orders of priority and those projects that fall within the budget of that list of priority are the projects that end up moving forward. I will bring my recommendation to Commission. Well, I mean, what I would say is that we should not deviate from what the professional recommendation is. It shouldn't be because one group organized and sent emails and one group made phone calls. The recommendation, we have a chart and that chart exists and the projects in that chart were the ones that were going to get funded in order of priority…”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:09:15
“You know, I'm being flexible because I'm not going, I'm going to prioritize the needs of our city, which is infrastructure and affordability. But what I will not vote to do is, you know, in essence politicize then which ones make it into the $400,000, into the $400 million.”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:11:12
“So I have a question because Commissioner Dominguez...”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026
- Play at 6:11:31
“Well, because I guess my question is what Commissioner Dominguez is proposing is the same thing as the option two, just bifurcated into two questions. putting you know giving people the option to you know I liked it because at the end of the day I wanted affordability and if people voted yes on those two questions is the same effect as the option that that I preferred was which was also true is that not correct okay I seen this wrong so if Rick could you help me understand this if neither of those options get approved by voters then a”
City Commission · Jul 22, 2026