Remarks by Daniel Dietch
240 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 10
- Play at 1:46:59
“Why are you... Because I've got meetings before and after, so I have to move the one after.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Feb 23, 2026
- Play at 1:47:59
“The problem is, we're at the end of our work day, but so isn't the town staff.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Feb 23, 2026
- Play at 1:48:12
“Nope. The 16th, what's the other one? Or the 23rd. 23rd actually works for me. Yeah.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Feb 23, 2026
- Play at 1:48:36
“All right. Well, thank you, everybody. I think this was a productive meeting. Welcome to your inaugural. Maybe you brought us good luck. If we could have a motion to adjourn.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Feb 23, 2026
- Play at 0:00
“Welcome everybody. Call the meeting to order. It is Tuesday, January 20th, approximately 12 o'clock, and we're here for the Town Sustainability Resiliency Committee meeting. And Madam Clerk, please call the roll.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 0:23
“Excellent. If we could have a motion to move the Town Commission Liaison Report after the approval of minutes, and if we need to, if she's still not here then, then move it to the last, or move it after the discussion of it.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 0:48
“Aye. Aye. Perfect. I do not see any members of the public, so we will move on to the approval of minutes. We have a motion to approve. Are there any edits that you would like to make?”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 1:06
“Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, let's move on to the discussion items. The first is the Recycling Services Assessment and Optimization Action Plan. I do not know if y'all have a chance to read the email that was sent out. There was an email sent by the clerk with some feedback from a member of the public and a volunteer on bringing up activities. Having read through it, I don't disagree with much of what he has to say. If you want, I can provide specific feedback to it. But I don't think that it changes the path that we're on, which dovetails into this discussion item, which is…”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 3:20
“We've had, and this predates your tenure, but we've had this discussion item on at least three times with what I hope was clear direction or recommendation from this committee. But we'd like to see some action because it is what I would consider low-hanging fruit. It helps us engage with the community in the lane of sustainability and resiliency and compelling people, making the case for behavior change that will result in higher quality recyclables, reducing the reliance on landfilling, and really demonstrating environmental stewardship from the town.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 4:15
“I want it to have some heft, because clearly it has not risen, and granted, there's been turnover in the town manager's seat, but I want our time and service to this committee to be productive. At least in this realm, I don't think it's been productive.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 6:38
“We've tried over the years of hosting forums to engage the community. Poor attendance is being challenged. But we have the opportunity through our vendor contract. We've talked about that in many meetings, but suggestions were shared, and hopefully that will find its way. We host a lot of special events. That's another opportunity to meet people where they are.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 8:23
“Sorry. No. There's opportunity. I mean, you get the three long, long secret fix notifications about waste bins overflowing in the business district. There's obviously an opportunity to improve waste management on the oceanfront. To me, it falls squarely into its quality of life issue. To most people, garbage is in sight but out of mind. If there's garbage, they'll look at it, they'll note it, The likelihood of them bending over and picking up a piece of waste that they see on the street and putting it in the proper receptacle is low. But it's an opportunity to elevate the Surfside experience.…”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 10:10
“Some of it may be changing the standards. If you have a waste receptacle, it has to have a lid.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 10:19
“Well, that's a separate issue. That's a code issue. But reminding people, we have side yard service. You do not need to move the waste from the side yard. Because that's, again, quality of life. It conflicts with vehicular traffic. There's a great opportunity to get our arms around this. And I realize it's not the only matter that you're responsible for. But we are ready, willing, and able to support you. to support the town in whatever way is necessary because it ultimately positively affects our quality of life. Okay, so if we could have a motion to... Which part?”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 11:42
“But by the same token, the vegetative waste is supposed to be, well, A, if it's a commercial service, they're supposed to take it away. So there's a compliance.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 11:57
“And it ends up in the curb and gutter and eventually in the bag.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 12:16
“I'm a little naive and a bit of an optimist. If you educate the customer, then it becomes a conscious decision whether they want to follow the guidance or not. But that's the role of, ultimately, code compliance, to make the case or tell the story, why is this important and what can you do? to do that.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 13:52
“Because it used to be Saturday. No, that sacred cow has been eliminated. It's been sacrificed.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 14:08
“Really? I mean, there were wholesale changes that were made. This is the walk down memory lane. Garbage collectors used to get the day off when they finished the run. And it was changed by an administration that didn't like that. So public work staff would then repurpose to other functions around town so that they worked a full day. One of the issues at the time was the garbage trucks would speed from stop to stop because they were incentivized to finish as early as possible. So that, and the process later.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 14:47
“I mean, we all need to have eyes on the town. So if the call comes in, waste has been placed out after the time. If you wait until the next day, even that's too late. I mean, the timeliness is critically important. And to have a record that you can leave with somebody. There used to be a garbage tag. I don't know if there's one for recycling as well.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 15:22
“Okay. And just to sort of tie back to what was shared with us from the plastic fisherman, he's absolutely right, but the labeling is one component. What we're talking about is a comprehensive assessment and action plan that understands the role of the visual to help people, right, when you get to the recyclable container, If that's all we relied on, we'd be fooling ourselves that it's going to be as effective as we want it to be. That's why we're talking about a comprehensive assessment. If we have a motion that expresses our committee's sense of urgency to the town administration to perform…”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 16:45
“And to develop an optimization action plan that hopefully can be implemented sooner but no later than next fiscal year.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 17:13
“If it is not handled administratively, then yes, we want it. Again, the goal is not to call anybody out. It's to call the issue out and direct the administration to take action. that it has greater it will achieve better outcome by directing the motion to the Commission then we will certainly amend it to do that well the motion is directed to the administration I can speak with administration to see if it's required to go before Commission I mean obviously the plan would probably go before Commission If there's any policy matters, then it should go to the commission, at least for situational…”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 18:40
“I don't need to be a part of this. I will help and support and I will do whatever I need to do to help the situation. Awesome. Next item is the fiscal year of 2026, sustainability and resiliency initiatives. Similarly, we've talked about a lot of these over the past many months, and we're really just hoping, I was hoping that someone could provide us with an update. While you're scanning, I will tell you that I did review the solicitation for dune project, and the resiliency dunes, the devoted dunes, are part of the project. So if it is awarded, this item, the second item on the list will be…”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026
- Play at 19:50
“Yeah, there's only two. One is at 96th Street. Surfside built half of a diverted dune. We could not get Bell Harbor to build the other half or allow us to build it on that portion of the land.”
Sustainability and Resiliency Committee · Jan 20, 2026