Remarks by Maureen Porras
392 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 16 of 16
“Second. And also to co-sponsor? Absolutely.”
“Councilwoman. Thank you, Mayor. So I have a couple of concerns with this item. First is this plan is actually based on the strategic session from 2023. The solicitation was placed about a year after that session, if I'm not mistaken, February of this year. and we've had another strategic session since then. I think that the scope has changed and new comments from this strategic session, from this year's, should be incorporated. Also, I actually have a concern regarding the scoring. The firm being proposed came in fourth place during the first evaluation. and then came in first place during…”
“Thank you. I just want to thank everyone that's really involved in preparing our community to go back to school. This week is the first week of back to school, so I want to thank everyone for that. And also, Mayor, I know you mentioned the Central Park opening. I actually had a discussion with the manager where I expressed that this opening is such a big deal and event. It took a lot of people to make this happen, including those of us that are sitting here, those of us that have sat here before us. And so I would like to actually see our city communicate directly with the county…”
“Mayor? Yes. I agree that we should, we really don't need to coordinate with everyone. I mean, I think there should be an invitation sent out to legislators. I mean, it's, it's, and to my understanding, that's what's happened, right? You've sent out a letter, but you've also done a manager, if you can correct me if I'm wrong, you've also done already some outreach to the commissioner's office and the county mayor's office, right?”
“Yes, ma'am. Yes, and there's a date proposed that it's a week after the 24th, correct?”
“Yeah, so I would say, again, it's up to all of you guys, but I think that there are some people that should be part of this opening, and moving at one weekend is not going to be sufficient. Do we have to take a vote on that right now?”
“I'm going to leave it up to you guys, but that's my opinion. I think we should have done that from the beginning. I mean, again, I think this should have been done from the beginning. I don't think it was enough to just send out invitations. So maybe for future events we need to do that. I think, personally, I think it's important to have people that have been part of this process from the beginning. But I'm going to leave it up to my colleagues if there's no consensus that we should make sure that we at least have county here with our park opening, then that's up to you guys. But that's what…”
“Through the mayor, I'm gonna propose this final thing. I think maybe internally, the five of us should speak individually with the manager and see if there is a way to do this. If not, we should just keep the same date. I also don't want it to be delayed. So if there is internal conversations through the manager that you can do with individual council members, and see if there is a way to find consensus. If not, I think we should just keep the same date because I also don't want to delay. I think this was a process that should have been done from the beginning. And we find ourselves now in…”
“of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
“Okay through the mayor. Yes Actually, no, we will have time. We have a speaker that's by Zoom, and it's for C, and she's going to be on until around 6.30. I think we can get past the first few, right? Okay. I think so, yes.”
“Through the mayor, may I have just a quick comment? Thank you, Councilman Cabral, for bringing this item up. And I'm very proud to support that our city recognized Edmundo Gonzalez as the legitimate president of Venezuela. I also want to make a quick comment on an opposition deputy leader that's currently imprisoned, Williams Davila. We urgently call on the international community to intervene in defense of the freedom of opposition deputy, Williams Davila, who's in critical health condition due to the kidnapping by the Nicolas Maduro regime. Davila's situation is a reflection of the…”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Thank you, Laura and Cesar. So just to reiterate, this is a program that UF offers at no cost to residents in the city. And so with this, I would like to ask my colleagues to support the following recommendations. TO DIRECT THE CITY MANAGER TO CREATE A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH UF TO RECOGNIZE UF AS THE CITY'S OFFICIAL PARTNER FOR COMPOSTING TRAINING AND EDUCATION. DIRECT THE CORRESPONDING DEPARTMENTS TO ORGANIZE THE COMPOSTING TRAININGS AVAILABLE TO THE COMMUNITY PRESENTED BY UF. and I was also informed that the late Morgan Levy was a big environmental advocate, so I would also ask to…”
“Through the mayor? Yes, Councilwoman Portas. Yeah, just very quickly, for the hero housing, if we can just specify city employees as city of Doral employees. Perfect, will do. Through the chair?”
“I also met with the applicant and it won't affect my vote.”
“I've also met with the applicant, and it will not influence my vote.”
“Thank you, Mayor. This year, the Florida Legislature passed a law that would amend certain provisions of state law regarding motor vehicles parking on private property, which became effective July 1st of this year. This law makes several changes to private parking operations, which allows municipalities to regulate including signage, invoicing. I think it calls for more transparency, information. And so I wanted to propose an ordinance for the city to also take part in amending or regulating some of these operations. And so I asked my colleagues to support this item and the ordinance is…”