Remarks by Vicki L. Lopez
190 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 8
- Play at 4:37:25
“Was there public input regarding this particular issue?”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 4:37:38
“Do you recall anyone opposing the idea of a salary commission? No. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 5:22:11
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I don't have any county parks in my district, unfortunately. But I want to caution, I have had a lot of issues in my district with digital signs and the way the residential communities view them. So you may want to consider after, should this pass during the implementation of this to potentially exclude digital signs. A lot of our county parks are in residential areas. And you just have to see what that looks like at night with the lights. You'll have the same problem I had in my district with just digital signage in the urban area and how it was impacting my…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 5:49:14
“So the county attorney has a motion to read into the record.”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 5:49:44
“Mr. Chairman, I would like to put my comments on the record because of this. So I don't know if everyone has been following. In the urban area, we have very little green space. These two parcels that I'm removing from the RTZ zone is because they are the traditional and Alan Morris Park in Brickell. There was a bone of contention around what would be happening to those two parcels. In particular because they have been used as a park over the years. This will return it back into the, I'm not accepting them into the RTC. They'll go through the city of Miami's permitting process. I think the…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 5:55:39
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I just wanted to say that I'm grateful for the information that was given to us, but it's not what I was looking for at all. So here's what I was looking for when it comes to CBO funding. I was looking for the name of the organization, how much money they receive federally, state, and locally. And how many years they've been receiving funding. I mean, I think that this was a good start, but it is missing so much information that I'd like to work with the administration. I think at least how I read the resolution that was passed that generated this report, there was…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 5:57:17
“Does that item show me complete details, the number of years that we've been funding them, where they get their funding? That's what I'm looking for.”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 5:57:32
“So I guess to help us during the budget, even though I know the mayor has kept the CBOs harmless, I still think that we have to understand what are our priorities as a commission? What do we want to fund? And in order to make those decisions, we need to understand every single CBO that is funded and where they're getting their money. How much do they get from the federal government? How much do they get from the state government? What have we been funding them? How many years have we been funding them? How many people do they serve? I mean, I know this was a big item of discussion in the last…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:00:06
“Okay, well, I appreciate that. I just remember that when we fund things, like I've had CBOs say to me, if you don't fund me, then I will lose the matching funds. from the federal grant that we have, right? So those are important decisions to make because obviously we're able to maximize funding from other sources to be able to fund. But I still look at a lot of this as what are the priorities that we want to be funding? What areas? Is it vulnerable populations? Within that, is it elderly and young children? I mean, for me to make a decision, It is very difficult based on what I have, but I…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:22:23
“Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. So I had a quick question. I noted that we have 525 million in outstanding county debt as of last year. So my question is, a couple things, and if you don't have it, you can certainly get it to me. But how long has this debt been outstanding? It's almost a half a billion dollars.”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:23:14
“Okay, so as a follow up question, so I know that Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, we passed a resolution to see if a third party could do better than we're doing. And I noted that you said that only 8% you thought were eligible for sale to third party collection agencies. And then you went on to say that this was based on legal risks, data validation challenges, and impacts to constituent services. I don't understand that only because there's lots of doctor's offices that have lots of confidential information that always send their receivables out to a third party. So can you expand as to why only…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:24:30
“So wait, so the 525 million includes Jackson or does not include Jackson? Does not. What is, do you have what Jackson's debt is? What is that?”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:24:41
“2 billion? Mm-hm. Okay, so you can imagine why I'm somewhat stunned by these numbers, especially when we are struggling to find revenue streams. So what is Jackson doing to collect its 2 billion? Do you have any idea?”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:25:21
“So at what point do we write off bad debt? I mean, you're telling me that four to 30 years. I mean, at some juncture, from an accounting standpoint, and I'm an accountant by training and by trade, I don't understand any of this.”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:25:56
“So can you provide me with the amounts that are four years, five years, I mean an aging of these- We can, we can provide that to you separately. Yes, and separate them out between Jackson and Woods County Department. Definitely, we can do that. I would urge my colleagues to recognize- One moment, Commissioner.”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:26:21
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry about that, Commissioner. No, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think these are very large numbers. Clearly, two billion from Jackson, half a billion for the county departments. At some juncture, we either have to collect this or we have to write it off. But we can't continue to carry this kind of huge collectibles. They're either receivables or they're not receivables. At which point I don't even know anymore, but I will once I get the aging. So thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:39:17
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I would argue that if you have 525 million, that is outstanding. And you only have so much personnel to do 41 million right now. Here's the question. Is the receivable amount actually real? Because if it's 30 years old, I'm going to argue, you're probably not going to get it. Which is why I have asked for the aging. Because as an accountant, that's what we do. We look at receivables and we look at aging and we say, that's probably now going to be a bad debt. And you write it off as uncollectible. So I don't know that $525 million is actually receivables. I get…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:50:05
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So thank you, Chief, for pointing out the chart. I'll give you a perfect example. There are ten accounts under Public Works that total $64 million that have been 30 years. Now, it's ten accounts. I'm pretty sure that we could probably say, and I'm sure the administration could tell us, the number of hours they've spent trying to collect them over the 30 years, right? This is a perfect example of the kind of thing that you would send to a third party. Because either they get pennies to the dollar, and we get something, because so far, ten accounts have been outstanding…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 6:57:55
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So this has been an item that I have been following since I was in the House. And as you all know, we appropriate funds to begin in the fiscal year beginning July 1st. And I'm always in awe over the fact that we don't sign contracts for six months with the recipient of funds. So now I'm finding this item. that we still have outstanding items from 2024's legislative session as well as 2025. And I guess I would like to know, I want to be helpful in making sure that monies that are appropriated to the county actually come to the county so that we can do the work that we…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 7:01:14
“So I just had a quick question on 3B2. So I noticed that we entered into a contract with Microsoft licensing, the nonprofit licensing, because there was an emergency situation. I'm just curious why we would enter into one for three years as opposed to a shorter period of time to address the emergency. That's the only question I had of the administration.”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 7:03:53
“Thank you. I just wanted a question to the administration with regards to getting grant funding from the Miami Foundation or any other organization to fund the operations and activities of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Is this something that has happened before? Is this like a pattern where we get grant money to pay for operations?”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 7:16:57
“Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to congratulate Commissioner Bastian. She is the chair of the housing committee and has done an amazing job drilling down on area median income. I'm really grateful to see this item come before us. And I will say that even within my commission district, and I think it's important that we know that The report calls for them to do AMI by commission district. I would almost say you got to drill down even further. So Brickell and Little Havana are contiguous communities, and the AMI in Brickell is not the same as the AMI in Little Havana. And as…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 8:28:31
“All right. Just a quick comment, Mr. Chairman. Go ahead, Commissioner. I know that our committee, the one that Commissioner Millian, Orbis, and I chair, has decided to take a deep dive into all of the departments, including solid waste, because despite the fact that it is like an enterprise fund, we said that's the one that gives us the most heartburn. And so we're committed, Mr. Chairman, to doing that in August. Remember, we said we wouldn't take a recess because we really wanted to look at all of the county departments that touch general revenue, but also this one in particular. So we're…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 9:07:29
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for placing this discussion item on the agenda. A number of advocacy groups have asked me about the implications of Senate Bill 1134, which is affectionately known as the DEI Bill, on the impacts on the county. It doesn't take it into effect until January 1st of 2027, but that falls within the fiscal year of our 2026-27 budget that we're currently reviewing and will take up in September during the first and second budget hearings. Those same advocacy groups have expressed concerns about the impacts and have expressed a desire for the county to challenge…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 9:09:17
“Thank you, thank you. So I would just move to direct the county attorney's office to research the county's ability to challenge the validity of Senate Bill 1134 or alternatively ask a court to clarify how it applies to the county and then brief each commissioner individually regarding the results of their research. I continue to feel very uncomfortable about the law. I've read it so many times, as has the county attorney's office, and it continues to give me lots of reasons to be concerned, especially since the law is specific on promoting directly or indirectly any activity or program that…”
Board of County Commissioners · Jul 21, 2026