City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good.

Okay, good evening, everyone. It is now 7.15 and we will call to order this meeting of the South Miami City Commission. Today is Tuesday, June 9th, 2026. Again, please silence or turn off your cell phones. We appreciate it. Madam Clerk, if you could please call the roll.

Yes, Mayor Fernandez.

Present.

Vice Mayor Corey. Present. Commissioner Rodriguez.

Here.

Commissioner Bonish. Here. Commissioner Calley. Here. You have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Let's rise for a moment of silence and then followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Would one of our scouts like to lead the Pledge of Allegiance?

Raise your hand.

Anybody want to volunteer?

Raise your hand.

Did you get a public speaking credit? There you go. Come on up.

Come on, both of you. Come on up, guys.

Come up to that microphone right there. I'll tell you when to get started, okay?

That's green.

Okay. Okay, gentlemen, go ahead.

I pledge allegiance to the flag 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, before you sit down, can you give us your names, please?

Andrew.

Andrew, what's your last name? Do you have one? Torrea. Torrea? Great. Where do you live, Andrew?

Coral Gables.

Awesome. How about you, sir?

My name is Carlos Guerrero.

Carlos, and where do you live? How old are you guys and what grade are you just finished?

I'm 12 years old and I just finished sixth grade.

Awesome. And how about you? What badge have you earned so far? Are you guys bears or what are you now in the scouting process?

We're both tenderfoot. Tenderfoot. Second class.

Second class. Okay. Awesome. Thank you guys. Appreciate your help. Okay, we're going to move on to public remarks. If you have not registered for public remarks, there is a list available up front. Please come up and register. On the list first is Joel Valdez, Master Road. Sir, good evening. You're recognized.

Good evening. How are you?

Great. Just name and address for the record, please.

My name is Joel Valdez, and I come representing Master Road Finishers Court. And I'm here to say that there is a big mistake being made here today.

Just to clarify, you're here on item two?

Yes, item two. Thank you. There is a $1.4.5 million mistake being here made. I ask that you extend the award date because we would like to have our company re-evaluated. We are more than capable and more than qualified for this job. We are bonded for over $20 million, which is like four times the value of the project, and have extensive experience in the field, and we can present any evidence that you would like, references, whatever. whatever you guys need, which we already presented. For some reason or another was looked over. So we ask that we could extend the time and present.

We appreciate your comments. What I'll do is, since it's an item on the agenda, when it comes up, it's not a public hearing item, but since you're here, if you wait, once staff makes their presentation, if you want to add something else into the record by way of clarifying remarks, we can have some more conversation on that time. Okay? Thank you. Thank you for coming. Elizabeth Holtz, you're up next. Good evening.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Elizabeth Holtz. I'm living 5871 Southwest, 67th Street, and the house I'm living in, my son is Rafael Hessmann. He's the owner. I'm his mother, and I'm here to, first of all, to thank you, to thank you for your great team, for Mr. Alex Munoz, and also for Carlos to help us to make this street, what is a very complicated street, you know, close to the school to make it a little bit more better. Thank you very much for this first. The second point is we know that you do this building, building urban related. Four years ago, my son wanted to do a building on this lot, what is next to the house and what also belongs to him, but he was not allowed to do a two-story house. So now I see that the city is allowing, you know, to do 11... unit building in front of us, right in front of us. Before, you know, it's said that you would do little family houses like, you know, like townhouses in front of us. But now it's not like this.

I'm sorry to interrupt. What is the address you're referring to again?

5871 Southwest 67th Street. It's right next to the school and to the little children's hospital. Okay.

Hi, my name is Gloria Brown, and I'm also on the same street that Elizabeth lived on. My address is 5899 Southwest 67th Street, and I'm pretty much having the same concerns as Elizabeth. She's having. And we want to thank you guys because you did come out, like she said, that we did get some results because we had very bad parking over there. So thank you for that.

Yeah, no problem. So let me clarify. So we all level set. The property across the street, as you know, is owned by the county. It's been a public housing site historically. The building that's being built, unfortunately, it's not being approved by us. The county has the authority to take preempt our zoning powers, and in this case they have, and they've designated part of the rapid transit zone corridor, and so they have assigned the zoning to that site, and they are approving the project that's going on there. So with this board, we approve the first phase, right, under our rules, which is why it's very different in scale than what's being proposed there for that site under the county's rules, okay? So I am vaguely aware, personally, of what's proposed for the site plan. I know it's probably north of about 650 units. It's a lot. I'm not sure how tall it is any longer. Understand the concern, but unfortunately we are unable to really do anything about it, sadly.

So who can do something about it?

We'd have to direct you to the county, your county mayor and your county commissioner.

Okay, I understand this point very good from your side, but maybe you, you understand, it's a city for pleasant living because this is your slogan. You could do also something because I live directly next to the school, and there's even now, you understand, it's vacation, but even on Sundays there's loud music. People do barbecue inside of the street, and loud music comes from the swimming pool. We have earphones in these days. I cannot sit in the garden during the day, absolutely not, because it's always loud. The music is really, everybody has a different taste. But everything is happening in this little corner. The person, you know, the people, you know, who are collecting blood, you know, the guys there, then the other people with the fruits. Now you have the Sobi building on this other side, and there's an unbelievable beautiful park behind. Why the city, you understand, cannot, you know, make a little balance, you know? There is a balance that not everything is in this corner. This court is day and night open, so sometimes even the night, What school? I'm sorry, what school are you referring to? The school next to it. It's not a school.

It's the gym. Somi or the gym? I'm sorry, that's why I'm confused.

No, no, no. What is the name of the school? You know where the gym is also?

The gym and the school are not at all related. Yes, the clinic, yes.

There's a school there.

On the south side? Yeah. Okay, so you're at 5871.

Yeah, right away there at the

Okay, so the next block down is the school you're referring to.

Yeah, it's right away on the other side.

Okay, okay, that is Somi, yes.

And I think there could be, you know, when the city would make a little balance, you know, like a little balance because this building, I see all the people from this building going also to this school and in one way could be also very dangerous one day. And when you, when this building will be there, you know, with a, you know, like so high, and, you know, public building, you know, whatever, I think, you know, then it gets really, really, you can hardly live there more. I mean, it will be very difficult. So we are really dependent on your help. We are really dependent, you know, that you see it also, you know, from our side, because when you would live there, you would understand it better, you know, so.

No, we understand it, and I will say we have another conflict like this that's being created on 62nd Avenue, and we've decided individually that we want to jump in and work with the development team to make sure that we don't have the same imbalance on that side. Unfortunately, this one, quite honestly, my understanding, it's already been approved at the county administratively, so I don't want to make any promises that we can do anything here really to intervene.

And we just want to make sure that when this project is going on that... to know, because it's going to be a mess. We already know that. It's going to be a mess.

So on that point, Mr. Manager, this is not being permitted through our auspices, correct? It's being permitted through the county? So even on the building side, I just want to clarify, it's being reviewed by the county? So all the conflicts around construction staging and construction management where we may require a construction management plan, we don't have any purview over that. It's all being handled at the county. So again, we're happy if you want to have staff speak to you and put you in contact with some of the District 7 staff so you can kind of meet with them and they can tell you how they're going to manage this process.

Yeah, because I know right now we're already having problems with the apartments on the other side with the parking. Sometimes I come out and my mailbox is being blocked. My driveway is being blocked.

And that we've been working on because that is something we've been managing. We created no parking area on the west side and started to clamp down on the enforcement there and on the northern street, I think, where you live. So hopefully that situation has gotten better over the last year or so.

But the thing is also, you know, sorry, I don't want to interrupt you, but you have so old, I mean, I was born in Germany. I was educated in Germany. But I'm wondering, really, when I travel to Europe, You know, that a city, you know, has so old signs there. They're looking like 150 years old, 200 years old, some of them. And, of course, people really can't see how long they can park. When they can only park there four hours and there's a sign, then they know that they only can park four hours because we have always to go there. We have to call and this and this and this. And a lot of people, you know, they park there all night because they don't go in the building and they don't want to pay the parking. I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING.

YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT ON 67th STREET? YES. WE CAN WORK WITH YOU AND MR. RIVERALE TO SET UP A RESIDENT PARKING AREA THERE AND HELP MANAGE THAT WITH, YOU KNOW, YOU ALL GETTING, YOU KNOW, ALFREDO DECALS. THANK YOU FOR THE WORD. DECALS SO THAT WE KNOW WHO LIVES THERE, RIGHT? AND WE CAN ENFORCE THE CARS THAT ARE JUST PARKING ON THE STREET WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION.

We are the only from the streets who are going here and speaking to you, you know, and make us visible to you. It's not easy, you know, because before, you know, this building is very, very, very hot. I'm already very happy that the street is now good. I hired, you understand, a person who's going once a week there now with a blower, you know, a very nice person who does this because the city by itself obviously, you know, cannot do it. But, you know, when I go out of the house and I see, you know, all the, I don't like it.

Well, your house looks immaculate, so thank you for that.

I like it. I like to live pleasant, like you said. South Miami, pleasant living. So really, thank you for listening to us, and please help us a little bit that we get a little bit balanced about the noise. So to talk to the school maybe, so to have better arrangements. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Mr. Riverall, you can speak to him about the parking decal program, and we'll get... No. Carlos is there. There you go.

Carlos did a very good job. There you go. I did not know him from face. I talked to him on the phone, and he's very polite, and the whole city is great. You have a great team, really. I have to tell you this. This is wonderful that we can talk to you, and thank you again.

Thank you for coming. We appreciate it. Okay, next on the list, Ms. Gloria Brown. We got you already. I'm sorry, Gloria. Mr. Ward, you're next on the list. I apologize.

I'm going to talk about my favorite subject tonight called elections. I don't know if it was Facebook or neighbors that mentioned just briefly that there's an election coming up in the city of South Miami, and three of you are going to be there. And I thought about the last couple of elections. And I was talking to Commissioner Corey before the meeting. And I said, I wish you all could establish a maximum amount of money you could collect. But he mentioned that's probably not legal. And I said, I think you're right. But at the same time, I do wish that we could encourage candidates to at least be reasonable. Managed 11 campaigns in this city and the most money I ever raised was just a little over 18,000 for a mayor's race that was Rabina and Most of the time you could get elected with as a commissioner for around fourteen thousand dollars easily today, I think You could take a good candidate and probably easily win an election in this city spending no more than $25,000. That would be a lot. And that's one of the reasons I quit managing campaigns is because it became money and not personal contact the way we used to do. And I know, Mayor, you're up for re-election and the people on each corner of the dais, they're up for re-election also. Take into consideration, I tried to get people to run for office in the last two elections, and all of them, there were five, and they told me point blank, I can't compete in an election like that. Why? Raise that much money? Just briefly telling you, 18,000 up until about 2022, And since that time, we've had one person in 22 that raised 64,000, a little over. We had one that raised 33,000 and another one that raised 18,000, which was almost okay. In this last election, I could not believe the winning candidate raised just right at 68,000. The loser raised $102,000. We have roughly 13,000 voters in the city. I believe I'm correct in which there was just maybe 4,000 voters. And if you divide dollar... by the number of votes, $102,000 and 13,000 voters. If you got them all, it'd be out of sight. So people, all three of you that are gonna run for reelection, keep that in mind. You can do it at least no more than 40,000. You could make it easy in 40,000, and being an incumbent, you could probably make it easy in about 20.

Thank you, sir. We appreciate the comments. Mr. Williams, you're up next.

Good evening. I hate to correct my former assistant principal. There's 13,000 residents in the city, roughly 7,300 registered voters. So I just want to correct the record. And I know. I'm going to read something. Miami's rental crisis is no longer just a talking point. It's now officially the worst in the nation. Out of 182 US cities ranked by WalletHub for rental affordability, Miami lands dead last, underscoring the growing divide between the city luxury fuel growth and financial realities facing each and every day residents. While high profits and billionaires including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Zuckerberg continue to flock to South Florida, many middle class Miamians are struggling to keep up with the soaring housing costs and stagnant wage growth. According to Zillow data cited in the report, Miami's average rent now sits at around $3,150 per month, while the median household income hovers near $62,000 annually, leaving many residents spending well above the recommended one-third of their income on housing. The findings also paint a broader picture for Florida with no city in the state ranking within the top 100 rental affordability, highlighting the mountain pressure affordability challenges and placing our community across South Florida. What are we gonna do? We're building all these apartments here and the people that I know, middle class people, are struggling to stay in them. South Miami has a lot going on, whether it be the city of pleasant living or the city of expensive living. Thank you, Public Works Director, for talking to me about the CIP projects. I agree with we should do a full zoning of the city as far as the zones and breaking it down. About the traffic calming and everything because it's out of control in my neighborhood. I can't speak for all the rest, but it's out of control in my neighborhood. I already told you my horror story. What else I wanna talk about? Oh, 64th Street. So after over a month, we haven't heard from the county about the lights. So I guess I'm going to have to email Mayor Carver again and the chief of public works of the county again, like I did with US 1, because this is ridiculous. I mean, I'm about to have eye surgery on my left eye from diabetes. I'm already impaired. in the daytime, but at night, I don't even wanna, I'm scared to cross that road. And just a month ago when we had the food trucks at my Olive, I almost witnessed two kids get hit by a car because those lights weren't working. And we were talking like two months ago. So infrastructure, I mean, come on. We can do better South Miami, that's all I can say. We do a lot better.

Thank you, Mr. Travis. John Edward Smith, you're next on the list.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the Commission, City Administration, John Edward Smith, a resident of South Miami for many years. Matter of fact, that's what I want to talk about this evening. Upcoming this week, June 14th, is a very important day for me. It has nothing to do with the UFC or... That's certainly a good thing. It's the day I moved into South Miami one year after the Knicks won their last championship. So that was 1974 that I moved into South Miami. And as we look to celebrate our 100th anniversary coming up, Delighted to know that half of my life has been spent here in the city of South Miami and pleased to be part of the history of South Miami and making the contribution that as a As a child, I was always taught, you need to give back. You need to be part of something. You need to make something happen and be part of change. And I'm really delighted that I was able to do that over these years. We've had a lot of changes. I remember when my daughter was born in 1983. In May, that was the year that the metro rail came in. And I remember holding her as a baby in our backyard and thinking, you're never going to know what it was like not to hear this noise. And sure enough, I think it's gotten worse over the years, frankly. That's because we never had the budget together to put rubber tires on the metro rail to start off with. But anyway, so we're dealing with that as well. But it's been a good 52 years, and I'm pleased to continue to contribute to the city. And thank you.

Thank you, sir. We appreciate you. Elizabeth Marin, next on the list. You sure? Okay, no problem. Javier Banos. And Javier, I won't comment on the uniform, I promise.

What's up, man? Hello, sir. How are you? Long time, long seat.

Long time. Last time I spoke in this commission was 2012. So it's been quite a bit, OK? So I still own my house at 4240 62nd Avenue in South Miami. I am a transfer to the Gables. I am the charter organization representative for Troop 16, who are they all here, Boy Scouts in San Teresa, Boy Scouts in Little Flower.

Why are you all here this evening?

Oh, well, I'll get to that mayor in a minute, OK? Always you're ahead of me, sir. But before you guys were all elected, I sat on one of those chairs. And I'm happy to see that Mr. Moore is here and Mr. Williams is still here.

And Edward Smith is still here.

Where are you? And the only one I miss is Jeremy McCain. So I don't know about you guys.

I think we're good, but thank you for mentioning her.

So anyway, but it's nice to see that we still have the same comments. But at any rate, so just a few remarks. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner, city staff, scout leaders, parents, and members of the public. My name is Javier Banos. I am here today with Scout Troop 16. I want to thank the city of South Miami for welcoming our scouts and giving them the opportunity to observe local government in action. Today's visit is part of their work together. They merit badges involving citizenship in the community, communications, public speaking, and learning about government and civic participation. But more importantly, it's an opportunity for them to see the government is not something far away in Washington, D.C. or Tallahassee. Government begins right here in city hall, commission chambers, neighborhoods, parks, streets, schools, and everyday actions in effect on family and residents. For our scouts, being here is a lesson in citizenship. They're learning that public service requires listening, preparation, patience, respect, and a willingness to hear different points of view. They're also learning that participating in government is not just a right, but a responsibility. Whether they are speaking at a meeting, volunteering in a community, helping a neighbor, or simply paying attention to the issues that affect the city, they're already beginning to understand what it means to be active citizen. Scouting teaches leadership, service, duty to country, and duty to others. Those values are closely connected to what's happening in this room. Local government gives young people a chance for leadership in practice, not a little, but a service to the community. On behalf of TRIP 16, thank you for allowing our scouts to attend or serve and learn. We hope today encourages them to stay involved, ask questions, speak respectfully, and understand that their voices matter in shaping the future of their community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Banos. And to you and the other fathers and mothers who volunteer, thank you for your service as a volunteer to Scouting.

Thank you very much. Okay. Boys, if you would like to speak in any way, shape, or form, okay, and you wanted to give your speeches, you're welcome to do so.

It's public remarks, so it's open. You get three minutes. You can come talk about anything you want. We've got to listen to you. Sir, come on up. You gotta come to the microphone. Might as well take advantage and get a public speaking badge while you're here.

Is there a water fountain?

Okay, so just in case, there's a bathroom out the door to the left, okay? Can't miss it. If you want a water bottle, we've got one right behind the clerk here. So if you're nice, they'll get you one, okay? Anybody else wanna speak? Who's brave enough to come up and say something? Mr. Leon, you're recognized. Floor is yours. Let's go, sir. Mr. Leon, should I get our officer in the back to come and escort you up to the microphone? No? No takers? I promise, we don't bite up here. Actually, you know what? Let's sweeten the pot, literally. Do we still have cookies left over?

They are?

Okay, anybody who comes up and speaks, there are chocolate chip cookies in the room. You can walk away with. Mr. Bass, you get paid to speak. No double dip, okay? If you're a Boy Scout and you want to come up and speak, oh, hey, oh, look, this mayor is taking us up on the offer.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, staff. The question that I had before is one that's not strictly related to South Miami. I live on that little strip of 42nd Terrace where part of my street is South Miami and the other part is unincorporated Dade County.

Yep.

I understand that South Miami is doing a project to have a septic to sewer conversion. And I understand there's probably going to be some comments on that later in the meeting. What I wanted to know is what are the chances of getting involved in that? Because it would be really nice to be on the City of Pleasant Living's sewer system as opposed to being the septic person across the street. That was my question.

Great. So the basin that you're talking about is not part of the project that we may award this evening. It's our priority basin at the southern end of the city near Dante Pistole Park. So we've been working on a series of priority basins, that basin and one near Twin Lakes. our top two priority basins. And so those will probably go first. At some point in our master plan, resources permitting, we'll hopefully get to the rest of the city, okay?

Thank you very much, Mayor. I'll wave my right to the cookie. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, boys, chocolate chip cookies on the line. Who wants to come up and speak? You get your mayor badge and a cookie. Okay, we're gonna give it a going once.

I'm eating the cookies.

Yeah, going twice. Not one? Wow, okay, well then, we're gonna go ahead and close public remarks unless, Madam Clerk, is there someone online?

Anyone on Zoom, please raise your virtual hand if you'd like to speak to our public remarks.

Okay.

Kim Shakaya, you wanted to say something in public remarks?

Mr. Bonius, I had a question for you. I just had a meeting today about other scouts. I forgot what number they were. But they were really interested in doing some community service projects collectively with other PACs and stuff like that. Is that something that we can kind of get more people involved as a community service? I mean, I don't know what the age requirements are, if it's older, younger, so they can start working on that. But there is a lot of opportunities that we have in the city that we're gonna start working on where we can have a lot more help from scouts like that.

So part of scouting, part of the education process, so there are two levels of scouting. There's cop scouting, which essentially it's from five years old to fifth grade. And then from sixth grade onwards all the way to 18 is your former scouts. But as they go through that, they have to go through advancements and merit badges. And that requires them to actually do public service, besides the fact that one of the one of the sections of the Scout law is that the Scout has to provide service to the community. So we're more than welcome and we're more than happy to participate in any activities you guys are available. It's just they've done tree planting, they've done service with the American Legion in the retirement of flags, they typically go to the cemetery. They do all type of activities, and it can be physical in nature of them building something out, or they can just be cleaning. But again, you're talking about four scouts from sixth grade all the way to most of them is 16. This is primarily middle school to early high school activity.

Keep your mind open if you're looking for more activities.

We are. The mayor has my contact. I'll be happy to give it to you. I know you guys are going to talk to each other unless you're up here.

We're not taking action on Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts. I don't know. I can pass your number.

You're about to have an election, Mr. Mayor. Things are touchy. But sure, I'm happy to volunteer. Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, guys. Appreciate it.

Thank you guys for coming. Okay, we're going to close public remarks. And Mr. City Manager or Mr. City Manager, any item that we need to defer on this agenda?

Okay.

So, okay, the agenda is otherwise set then. Okay, no deferrals, no requests for non-action. Which are the procurement items we need to take up first? Two? Are we doing anything on the cost of the pictures or anything? Yeah, we have a birthday boy in the house, Mr. Steven Kulik, who's our procurement director, so we wanna help usher him. Happy birthday, sir. We wanna try to get him home to his family, so item two. Any other items? Two, three, four, are those the only items we have?

Three or four, I mean, they're just agreements with consultants.

Okay, let's, can you read to the record item three and item four, Madam Clerk? Let's get the two last. I know, but let's get the two last since we do have a potential objector.

Item three, a resolution of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of South Florida approving a proposal and project agreement with Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. to provide owner's representative project management services for the septic to sewer conversion sub area K phase two project, an amount not to exceed $169,178.

If you can read item four as well.

Item four, a resolution of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of Southern Florida approving the proposal and project agreement with SRS Engineering Inc. for construction phase services for phase two of the sub-area case sanitary sewer improvements project in amount not to exceed $200,465.28. Okay, colleagues, any questions regarding item three or four?

Can I get a motion on item three, please?

I'll move it.

A motion?

I'll second.

Okay, and a motion by Commissioner Boniche and a second by Commissioner Kaye. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Yes, Commissioner Boniche? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez?

Yes.

Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passed is 5-0.

Is there a motion to adopt item four?

I'll move it. Okay, I'll second.

A motion by Commissioner Kaye and a second by Commissioner Moniz. Madam Clerk, if you can again call the roll, please.

Yes. Commissioner Moniz. Yes. Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes. Vice Mayor Corey. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Item passed is 5-0. Okay.

So let's take the harder one up now, which is item two. If you could read that into the record, please.

Yes, item two, a resolution of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of South Miami, Florida, selecting and awarding a construction contract to Favon Engineering, Inc. for the Phase II Septic to Sewer Improvements Project in the amount not to exceed $6,670,067, pursuant to invitation to bid number PW2026-03.

Thank you. Attorney, before we start, since I know that Mr. Valdez was here on behalf of, I guess, Master Road, is there anything from a procedural perspective or any... Is it okay if I recognize him for two to three minutes in terms of allowing him some rebuttal at the staff representation? You can certainly hear him out. Without prejudice to our position on the issue? Correct. You can certainly hear him. Fair enough. So, Mr. Valdez, what I'm going to do is have staff come up and give us their presentation, their rationale for making the reward. You can listen to it. If you want to then add something into the record for us to consider before we act, I'll afford you the opportunity once they're complete. Okay? Okay, so Mr. Manager, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mayor. We'll have our Director of Public Works, Alex Muñoz, come up. As you know, we were working on phase two of a septic to sewer project. Right now we're in phase one, closing that out. This phase would continue that project, this part of the project. Phase one had a pump station included in the design. This phase is really just pipe work. And I'll let our director go through the project and this bid award recommendation.

Thank you, Mr. Munoz, you're recognized.

Alex Munoz, director of public works. So yes, the proposals were evaluated. The city received 11 proposals. And in line with the procurement requirements, they were evaluated based on responsiveness and price. In doing that, it was found that the three lowest proposals and that's reflected in the memorandum. The three lowest proposals were not responsive, missing information that was to be provided as required by the procurement documents, and the lowest responsive proposal was the fourth one, Pabon Engineering. On page two of your memorandum, there's a section there that says, while three bids received contained lower prices than the recommended award, the responsiveness review against the ITB requirements determined these bidders to be non-responsive. Specifically, the lower price firms failed to provide mandatory information required by the ITB. The deficiencies occurred in the following categories, proof of experience, personnel experience, lack of documentation. And the bid requires specific information on key personnel, similar projects in the past, amount of projects that are to be provided as examples, and certain safety information. So in the case of the three lower bidders, the information was missed in those categories. So the recommendation is based on the lowest responsive responsible bidder.

Colleagues, any questions of Mr. Muñoz? No. Just since we have the, again, Master Road finishers here, can you elaborate on what was missing specifically from their proposal?

Yep. Proof of experience, number of firms that were to be, number of projects that were to be provided. There was, on the safety record, there was two questions. They got the first one, but not the second one on the safety record. The bidder qualifications were not fully provided. The key personnel and similar projects detail also.

Okay. Any questions regarding those omissions? Yes, sir. You're recognized.

And the contractor that was chosen did provide these items? Yes. Thank you.

And just the record, Mr. Munoz, I recall when we discussed this in my briefing, there were roughly a checklist of 23 items.

Yeah. Yeah, it depends how you break them down, I guess.

Okay, but that was when I remembered my number being. So the, again, the contractor we are, you're recommending we select provided all 23 items? Yes. Okay. And do we have any information on what, again, from Mr. Valdez, so he can hear the detail, roughly how they graded out on requirements versus actually requirements satisfied on that checklist?

23 of 23 versus 18 of 23.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yes, you're recognized, sir.

Hi, so he had mentioned the bonding proof as a point, but you didn't mention that. Was that not a division? He complied with bonding, yes. Okay, thank you very much.

Yeah, he did comply. That's a good point. Yes, he did comply with bonding. That wasn't one of the considerations in his particular evaluation. He did comply.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Further questions? Okay. Mr. Munoz, we'll pause there. If we have any follow-up questions, we'll recognize you again. Mr. Valdez, if you want to come up now, I'll give you a couple minutes.

Okay, to the best of my knowledge, we did provide the experience and what was required.

Now, for us- I'm sorry, to the best of your knowledge, you did or did not? I'm sorry. We did. We did, okay.

Now, for us to be bonded alone, I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with the bonding process, we have to submit a number of things, jump through a number of loopholes. jobs completed, financial statements. You think about it, and we had to do it. So for a company to just bond us alone, I think that makes us qualified. We have the infrastructure. We have the capability. We own our own machinery. We own more than $8 million worth of machinery. I just think that it's a mistake. and we should be awarded the project. It's $1.4.5 million difference that the city is spending more for no reason, I would say, in my opinion. Two more weeks or one more week, reevaluate. I could submit everything, whatever you guys request, and you guys can save yourself $1.4 million.

Thank you for that. Colleagues, any discussion on the item? You're recognized. Thank you.

Do we ever reopen these things based on this type of conversation or have we?

So let me ask this question, if I may, just to build on maybe your thought. Is there an opportunity to cure on the part of the bidder if there's missing information? So were they notified that there was information missing, and were they given a chance to supplement their submittal? Was that offered to all the parties, none of the parties, some of the parties? Commissioner Bonita, is that where you were going, more or less?

Yes, but no, because what I'm trying to figure out is if... If we ever go back, simply because there is such a, as he does mention, it's over a million dollars. A million dollars is the parking lot at South Miami Park. So when you look at this, how often or do we ever say, hey, let's open it up again, reach out to these five people or whatever. Do we ever do that? I don't.

So, no, because we can't reach out to them in the way that you're constantly, well, what we could do is throw out the process and start over and re-bid it.

So then all these people would have to bid- Would have to re-bid, correct.

There's a way to do that. There's also a way when there are minor irregularities that those can be waived, when they're minor, when they're more significant. Those are not minor irregularities. This is the question of, and you heard Mr. Munoz mention responsiveness and responsibility. Responsiveness is, did you provide all the information that you were supposed to provide? We've already given you an opportunity if you- You've heard from Mr. Munoz the analysis that there were roughly 23 items and that this particular bid in question had only 18 of the 23 items. That the bid selected provided all 23 of the 23 items. That's what the staff analysis has revealed.

Can I ask a follow-up question to Mr. Munoz and maybe Mr. Kulik? I'm assuming we had a bit information session where people could come, ask questions, make sure they understood what was required in the solicitation by way of responses and documentation. Sorry to make you work on your birthday, Steve.

Yeah, we had a pre-bid meeting. I forget the date. And then we, with every bid, including this one, there's a time for submitting of questions, and then we respond back out in addendums. So everybody that either asked a question or didn't gets the benefit of those questions and responses, so they can help formulate their proposals. So there was a pre-bid and a question and answer process during the whole process.

Thank you. Colleagues, any other questions? Okay, let's just close questions. Let's discuss the item if you want, and then we'll entertain a motion. Madam Commissioner, did you want to start? You said your piece? Okay, okay. Commissioner Kaye, anything you want to add for the discussion?

I just had one question. The source of funding for this particular contract is the- It's a combination of local money match- Federal and state.

Federal and state, correct. Yes, sir. Further questions or comments? Mr. Vice Mayor?

For me, I just want to say, I mean, based on what it sounds like, it seems like it was fair by our processes. And just looking at the price, it is below the median of range within the proposal. So I'm not as concerned on the price side. Obviously, one was more affordable than others, but we followed it fairly, and it's below the median.

Okay.

Sorry to recognize you.

I mean, for me, typically, sir, I have been through the bonding process many times. I'm bonded in construction, not like you in underground work, but so it is, it's an audit that you get. Typically, I would just move on and say, you didn't submit what you needed to do. But when we're talking about, what is it, $1.4 million at a time where we don't know how the future or what the future holds, is that a big enough number where we want to, I don't know, analyze this a little bit more? Or is everyone OK with just moving forward?

Sorry, we're closed with any public comment on this, so.

It's just the number for me is the only deciding factor at this point.

I understand the reservation on the Delta. I will tell you this, the last experience we had, We went with the low bid, and again, that firm was bonded. To me, the bonding is obviously a minimum requirement. Part of the process, given the nature of this work, which is very much in your face, literally in the trenches with neighbors whose lives you're disrupting, is about making sure that you've got excellent communication. And I think that communication process starts with putting together a bid document that's fully responsive. To me, it's an indication of how much the person really took the time, energy, effort to understand what we're trying to accomplish to meet our goals and our objectives. I'm going to guess, without putting words in Mr. Mignonez's mouth, that was part of the reason why they were so exacting in their analysis to break it down to that level of detail. because I will tell you the last firm we worked with, not disparaging the quality of their work, but the communication was abysmal. And the coordination was abysmal as someone who lived that experience right on the street. So I would tell you we probably went the route of trying to save every dollar the last time. I don't know that it necessarily saved us the money because you all know that we've had to spend a lot of money on third-party consultants to manage the contractor given their performance. And so I just, you know, sometimes we can be penny wise and pound foolish with these choices. I had a long conversation with Mr. Munoz about it. I'm very comfortable with how they scrutinized this bid and the level of detail they went through. And I think it's a recommendation founded on, based on really that recent experience where certainly dollars matter. but it should not be the only measure of someone's responsiveness. And again, I'm not trying to cast any spurs on anybody in their ability to communicate or manage a job that bid and maybe did not provide all the documentation, but to me it certainly is, I mean. Sir, sir, the floor's closed. I mean, I didn't have to recognize you at all. We did as a courtesy. I'm not gonna have a back and forth on it. If you wanna follow protest, I don't know if you still have the ability to do that or not, it's your prerogative. And I mean, I'm sure you've got information about that in the packet as well. I'm just speaking from my personal experience, having lived this project, we're going, it's gonna be in my neighborhood again. You know, it's not an easy thing to manage, even though a lot of the work here is not as complicated as the first phase. But I think, you know, for my money, having someone that we know has kind of gone through the process, demonstrated their ability to kind of understand the documents, understand what we're looking for, deliver all that to me speaks volumes of the kind of contractor we're possibly gonna engage. My two cents. Any closing comments? Yes, sir.

Obviously, these processes are difficult because they're difficult from the standpoint of making sure you have a qualified bidder, but the state statute also dictates a little bit of what this process is. And as an ITB, there's a legal standard to be met, which is responsive and responsible bidder. And so what I caution us is that there may be somebody who has met those requirements. They may not be cheapest. And therefore, they'll have a claim if somehow those things are summarily dismissed, right? And that's just the nature of an ITB and state statute. It's just not only our own code. So yes, would I rather do something cheaper, of course, but I just want to bring that standard into this conversation. Mr.

Commander, you bring up a good point beyond the standard. I think we also need to think about we put out a notice, an invitation to bid. If we don't live by the terms, we're reducing the amount of predictability and it's going to reduce the amount of, I mean, we had 11 responses here in contrast to the last one. I think that also speaks volumes about the level of predictability people see when they want to contract with us. if we walk away from a solicitation and a process that we designed, right, and send a message to the market that could undermine our ability to get better pricing on future projects. I just want to make that closing remark as well. Do you want to come to the microphone? If you can give me your name and address for the record, please. Thank you.

My name is Lilianis Delgado. I'm with Master Road as well. So I did write an email early today on how to protest this ongoing situation, and I did get an email from the city saying that you guys don't have a proper way to protest. So I would consider something in regards to that. There should be a way to protest this.

There is. There is.

I got an email saying there isn't, that I should go through the proper...

If I may address. You may, please. Thank you. Thank you. There is a legal protest procedure. You are welcome to avail yourself of that. We do not have a separate protest procedure. That's the email that you got today. Got it.

So we don't have an administrative process. Correct. It is a legal process. Correct. So, again, you are within your rights to do whatever you feel is appropriate. Again, I... No. We look we hopefully there'll be an opportunity for us to contract. This is not a one-off project for for us Hopefully we'll see what happens with November and our ability to do more projects But again, I wanted to expand on the record loop as you understand Why we're making the choice that we're making it's not just about every dollar understood. Thank you. Thank you For the questions comments, no, is there a motion? I'll move it. Second. Motion by Commissioner Kaya, second by Vice Mayor Corey. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll on item two, please.

Yes. Commissioner Kaya? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez?

Yes.

Commissioner Moniz? No. Vice Mayor Corey?

Yes.

Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passes 4-1.

Thank you. Steve, happy birthday. Get on home.

You got consent too.

Yeah. Let's move to consent item one, please.

Item one, a resolution of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of Southampton, Florida, selecting and awarding a contract for construction through HG Construction Development and Investment Inc. for the Southampton Park parking lot improvements project, an amount not to exceed $1,107,029, including contingency pursuant to an invitation to bid number PR2026-05. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Colleagues, are there any questions regarding CA-1? You have a question? Go ahead, ma'am.

Can we please clarify where the funds for this are coming from?

Mr. Manager?

These are part of our CIP general fund. In our current, we have about $1.2 million. Obviously, it's a little bit short of that.

Thank you.

Further questions? Okay. Mr. Rodriguez.

No, no, I'm ready to move it.

Move it then. Move the motion. Is there a second? Second. A motion by Commissioner Rodriguez, a second by Commissioner Corey. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Yes, Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes. Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Commissioner Bonish. Yes. Vice Mayor Corey. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Item passed, it's 5-0.

Thank you. Okay, let's take up the presentations quickly. Mr. Rivero.

Oh, he was, and he stepped out?

Okay, let's take up another item while we're waiting then. Can we take up?

No, Mr. Mayor. Oh, Carlos Marenko from Lask will introduce our two companies that will be presenting.

Sorry, Carlos. Good evening. Good to see you.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager, Deputy City Manager, and City Attorney. Carlos Marenko, Parking Manager. So first, we're going to do the presentation. We have Sean Grimes, Up City, and partnership with Pay By Phone. And JAPA, just another parking app, we'll be presenting after virtually.

Thank you. Just by way of context, I've been talking with Mr. Riverall about trying to enhance people's ability to kind of find parking in the district. Became aware of one of these vendors and forward along the information he then shared with me the fact that now pay by phone, which my recollection when I lived in D.C. used to have the ability to find parking on their platform is now partnered with Up City. So the idea was to have a conversation as we kind of started our budgeting process about whether or not we want to look at integrating some of this technology to manage our on street parking inventory and our off street parking inventory. in particular and kind of reduce the friction for people coming into South Miami, you know, shop, eat or dine, shop or dine in particularly, when I know we hear a lot of complaints about the scarcity of parking. Often that's not true, but people just don't know where their available parking is located. And hopefully this will reduce, enhance their experience with either or both of these technology options or others.

That's a good idea.

Yeah, they basically, so let's go through the presentation. They'll tell you how it works, but basically through these apps, you'll see that they will help you direct you to available parking inventory in the city. Just give us your name and address for the record, please. Thank you.

Absolutely. Sean Grimes from Up City. I don't live in Florida. If you still want my address. We'll let it go. Thank you. 2971 California. Thank you to the mayor, vice mayor, and the members of the commission for... Sorry. Giving us this opportunity to demonstrate our technology. So as you perfectly teed up, Mayor, we hear this about three to four times every single day probably. Common perception is there is no parking in my city. And we've heard that clearly working with members of your city as well, that the perception often is that there's no parking on street or off street. And we do have proposed solutions for this. As you mentioned, we have a strategic partnership with Pay By Farm. And this allows us to capitalize on existing infrastructure, but also, as you said, offer ways for people to find parking for constituents, tourists in the area. anyone with the pay by phone app. This is our technology. It is a sensor not a camera. It senses both people and vehicles but without identifying their faces nor their license plates and yet we're still able to show people where parking is. We can also scale for other use cases like pedestrian counting for economic development and we can also, we have a noise sensor as well here, which does not record anything but can be set to a decibel level and give the city real-time alerts as well. So some advantages to our technology, because it's a sensor, not a camera, it's low cost. We're going to get into that. We know that South Miami has very big plans here, smart plans for development, so we can scale with you. Each sensor can do all of these use cases. So as you see fit, we're going to go over the proposed zone here in a second. You could add sensors in the future. Also, it's mounted to a pole. It can also be mounted to palm trees that's been proposed as well. And so if you have any roadworks, sensor's not affected, which is helpful. And please interrupt me if you do have any questions, or I can take them later. Immediate Impact is really what we're going for here. Again, partnering with Pay By Phone. We have Steven, a member of Pay By Phone here with us today, in case you have any questions for him specifically. But in the last year, you all have had about 200,000 people using the Pay By Phone app for parking here in South Miami, about 40,000 people every month use it more than once. So, good user adoption already. So, immediate impact there. Typically, when we partner together at cities, this is for, it can be, These are generic statistics that don't necessarily correlate to every single city, but usually we see parking turnover improve, which small businesses, businesses of all size love, right? You have a person coming to do their business, but then they do their business and free up a spot for an additional customer to do their business. Congestion goes down, you have less people circling, and you have people finding parking generally about five minutes faster than they would without an app. We have three specific parking use cases in here. So people get to find a parking spot. The city gets its own pipeline for data for vehicles and people. And again, the data is yours. You will have this data to do with it as you will put in city dashboards, et cetera. And also we do have an app for guided enforcement. So an enforcement officer can sit there with their own iOS or Android app, see a double parking incident, issue a ticket. They can see somebody overstaying a particular stay in a parking spot, give them the ticket, but an officer has to do that. Here's our pricing for the first year. We're having a promotion with pay by phone to offset costs. Essentially, we co-lease these sensors. And the reason why we do that is we want to make sure that we're standing behind our equipment for the duration of the contract. So hurricane happens, something, we replace this on our dime. Or if somebody takes a skateboard to this, we replace this on our dime. So there's a lot of... Incidents, you know in the middle of hurricane and skateboard that we absolutely want to make sure our equipment stays You know in service So that is no cost to the city for the first year We do generally ask that cities pay for the installation and generally that's a good thing because cities Typically like to use their own folks to install these things for various reasons obviously we guide people train people all that's included in our services and And here's the pricing for the future. So I forgot to point out one of the most important parts. See, I told you I'd have a problem with the back, John.

There we go.

I work for a technology company. That guarantee statement. So if for any reason the city wants to cancel our service within the first year for convenience, you can do so. No charge. That's how confident we are in this technology and the solution. Should you want to renew starting year two, that's our pricing right there with some discounts for multi-year contracting since, again, we work with cities big and small all over the country. And we know cost containment's a big issue. So there's our pricing. As I said, I've got a couple of colleagues. Rock, who represents the Southeast, here in the black jacket and then the gray jacket Steven from Pay By Phone. So hopefully that was five minutes of time, but happy to answer any questions that you all might have either during this period or obviously offline.

Thank you. Quick questions, colleagues. Go left to right. Ladies first.

Thank you. So literally I'll be able to pop open Pay By Phone if this existed here and click find a spot and it would send me to wherever the spot was.

Yes, correct. So typically the way we deploy this is rather than showing an available spot, we show an available block. And that's a good thing because what if somebody takes that one free spot? We have logic that actually will take them to, well, like, for example, I had lunch at Cuba. Casa Cuba, yeah. Let's say one half of the block is full, the other half has five open spots. Well, we'll guide them there. But what if that whole street is completely taken? We'll take them to the next available block. But hopefully that answered your question. The other key thing here, it goes to my second slide, is let's say that whole block is completely full. The garage always shows on the wayfinding app. So again, if people think, oh, well, the garage must be full, Well, we have a sensor on the front showing it's actually not. And we have on good authority that that parking garage is, which is usually the case with cities, underutilized, right? So people on the way finding out will see, ah, why would I park right in front of the restaurant or keep circling to try to park right in front of the restaurant when the garage is right there? Any other questions?

Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you. I just had two questions. One, do you happen to know, just off the top of your head, what percentage of people end up using this through the pay by phone app, using the actual wayfinding and maps?

Yes, great question. So it's a user adoption curve. So we're partnered with Paperphone in the city of Paris. And usually user adoption, it starts slowly. If they're new to the app, what we're really confident about here is that the majority of people parking in South Miami are already using the app. So we're actually quite hopeful that we're going to get a very fast adoption rate, given that they're going to open the app and go, wait a second. I can actually see this, not to mention any broad marketing campaigns that we can do. So I can give you statistics for Paris specifically. Actually, I'd like to get those right, so let me send those to you offline with our team. But in conversations, obviously, between our two companies, we're actually quite hopeful that it will be much faster, given that that was a new feature to most in that location versus here in South America.

Yes, and the second question, I was excited to hear that most people end up adopting it at year two, and the free model for the first year is obviously amazing. I'm curious what type of KPIs or ROI do they look at to say, wow, I really wanna do this for the second year?

Great question. So there's two things, really. You could bucket most of it into quality of life, obviously, especially you all here are most concerned with people's quality of life. So we like to think the most important statistics are things like, again, the perception of parking in South Miami. Can somebody sit at their house and go, oh, I need to run an errand? Oh, I can do that. And how do you measure that? That's usually a sentiment metric, right? We can look at things like reduced circling, which is something that we can measure because, again, the phone is not tracking the person, but the phone is tracking an anonymized user in what they're doing, essentially. So circling is another one. There are benefits to the environment, obviously, with less pollution because of people going directly to a specific spot. And then, of course, there are, outside of the quality of life benefits, the financial ones. And actually, Steven from Paid by Phone here can diagram in great detail all of the transaction data, since you all first partnered with Pay By Phone back in 2011, that shows parking transactions and what that revenue flow is like, and obviously that revenue helps support a lot of great things in the city.

Great, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Rodriguez.

So I just have one question. So in our city we have, We have pay by phone, but we also have Park Mobile. So our residents or patrons have more than one option when it comes to paying for parking. Is this strictly just to pay by phone or are you on the other apps as well?

Right now no offense to pay by phone. No, no worries You know again, this is a system. That is your data and you all are our customer, so You know should we need to integrate with other? Adjacent technologies we have done that But but yes our initial offering is obviously especially given that the high adoption rate of pay by phone here and pay-by-phone is already built, essentially.

Yes, I guess it's used the most, or I don't know if you can, but either way, so for those who use the other applications, they necessarily don't have this technology.

This specific wayfinding feature, yes. But again, I mean, UpCity's policy, we are an open data platform, essentially, meaning we have open APIs, if you're familiar with those, basically, that are able to communicate with various vendors.

Okay.

I do want to give, I don't know, Stephen, you want to comment on anything else? No.

Mr. Kaya, you're recognized.

Thank you for the presentation I much appreciate it what is the typical installation for the hardware on the sensors how do you install that?

In terms of time or money or health or physical physically how physically yes yeah you're welcome to see this or I can pass it up there but normally there's a bracket on the back I didn't put a specific bracket just because it can vary depending on which what type of you just put it on a post yeah exactly usually it's on it goes all the way across censoring all the parking. Exactly usually about this 12 to 15 feet is an ideal perch in order to catch the multiple use cases so you can catch Pedestrian County you can catch parking things like that

And what's the distance between sensors on a long road, for example? How often do you want to have them, like any five, 10 spots?

Yeah. It's usually capturing, in terms of parking, about four to six spots. 150 feet is generally the sensing. It's a very wide angle sensor. Again, not a camera, but a sensor in terms of what it's able to pick up. But that's something that our engineers look at very closely. In fact, one of our engineers has already done a sizing plan that has been sent to the city that looked at actually Oh, my presentation's down. You'll see it on slide, I think, four. Thank you. Thanks, John. It's kind of hard to see here, but there is the size and plan.

So those are the central locations in blue? Correct. These are the proposed ones. The 82 that you're proposing?

These are the ones, the 82 that we are proposing, correct, yes.

And you said that the current usage model that you guys, what cities are you guys working with right now?

So currently in the U.S., we have deployed already in Columbus, Ohio, Dublin, Ohio, and Omaha, Nebraska. They were deployed mid-last year and not with this wayfinding solution specifically to do parking availability, but their parking is free, not wayfinding. The city just wants to know supply and demand, and they're also doing bicycle counting. OUR SENSOR CAN DETERMINE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAY A BICYCLE AND EVEN A MOTORCYCLE, SO THEY WERE COUNTING BICYCLES FOR BIKE LANE IMPROVEMENTS THERE. AND THEN WE ARE CO-DEPLOYED FOR THE WAYFINDING SOLUTION IN PARIS, FRANCE.

AND THE WAY YOU DEPLOY IN THESE SPECIFIC CITIES IS JUST AN API YOU ATTACH TO THEIR PLATFORM AND IT'S ONLY SPECIFIC IN THOSE AREAS?

Great question are we have a generic API that any tech company could integrate with that they would like to but we have a specific integration with pay by phone that yes like is specific specific yes so if you were to go to Paris right now download the pay by phone app yes you would pull up the pay by phone app that then uses up city centers sensors to ingest that data.

And maybe after this, maybe you can send us through somehow a demo of how the GUI actually works through the platform, how easy it is to find. And then obviously, you know, if we do decide to move forward with this, the ability to market this is going to be pretty big. I'm not really sure on the ROI yet, and I really kind of want to study that, but I would want to understand the go-to-market strategy and how do we get more people adapting to this. I just wanted to see what it looks like and how we can adapt it. I appreciate it.

We would love that too. I mean, with all due respect to technology, it's 2026, and I'm shocked that this isn't more deployed in most places in the world, and yet that is the case, unfortunately. Thank you.

Um, Sean, thank you for the presentation. Um, I swear I must have to pass the light because I remember experiencing this in DC when I'm barking at the National Mall. I'm not sure if it's ever been pioneered elsewhere under their platform. Yes, sir.

I'm sorry, Mayor. I just, is there any capture of, you know, false positives or sort of any errors in the system that the system is able to later on capture?

Sure, great question. So we always start by saying there is no system that is completely 100% accurate. Anyone who tells you that that's the case is not telling the truth. But we're dealing with relatively simple use cases, right, of counting people and assessing both real time Availability in this case of a parking spot because of a vehicle being there So our false positives are more about What if somebody puts a big storage container in a parking spot It's probably gonna it's gonna show occupied even though we do have so For the purpose of this audience, essentially what it's doing is it's a lot of object recognition, right? Is this a person? Is this not a person? Is it a car? What size car? In fact, you would see in the wayfinding app in Paris, you can actually put in your own car size, so a smart car might be able to fit in a small spot. Although South Miami from what I've seen Very well delineated spots, but you know somebody with a giant truck with a trailer They can put that in and find a larger spot, you know if this the system is configured that way But yeah in terms of false positives you are gonna find the odd Something's blocking a parking spot and then on our app. It's gonna say it's blocked and Are solved for that is we do have a lot of analytics which show wait a second That parking spot has been occupied for a long long time. Something must be wrong there And that's also what's helpful about the the real-time map for enforcement or anybody with the city It's not a public facing app. It's it's for you all in the city to see Wait a second. There's a storage unit in that parking spot things like that and You know, we also comment, you know, somebody wore like a giant thing of, you know, like a giant Halloween costume or something that extended from their body, the system might not count that person, right? Because they'd be like, what is that? but you'd lose account of a person when you're trying to generate economic development down your downtown. You're not recording a person who's obviously dressed in a Halloween costume who could obviously be identified. Does that answer your question? Thank you. Thank you.

No problem, sir. Again, my only interest is in understanding if we were to adopt this and work with you and pay by phone, whether we can actually message proactively to registered users the existence of this feature so they actually can get something at a touchpoint as soon as we deploy it.

We have the capability to message to the users within the app. So if they're accessing any of your locations, there's the capability for you guys. You guys are doing some of this with your downtown area for registrations, things like anything of that nature you can place into the app in a messaging space. There's some limitations on characters, things like that, but it's certainly something you can message within the app.

Great. Good to know. Okay. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Carl, we've got Joppa next. Do you want to introduce?

So from just another parking app, Joppa, we have Matthew Magno.

Matthew, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Good evening. Thank you for your time. My name is Matthew Magno. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Java. I just want to clarify.

Matthew, give us one second so we can take down the other presentation. There you go. Now we got you on screen. Excellent.

Okay, cool. Well, my name is Matthew Magno. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Joppa. I appreciate your time tonight. Just before we start, Joppa is an acronym for just a parking app, but we're a lot more than that. We're a smart parking technology company, and hopefully you can help solve a lot of the problems in South Miami. But I want to get right to it. I know we don't have too much time, so the topic at hand is parking. You might feel like this a lot of time just hearing it. I know mayor tonight. You've said that you've dealt with some parking frustrations. Um, this could be a lot of the drivers in South Miami on a busy Friday night, circling, getting frustrated. Probably not spending money at local businesses because they're too frustrated and can't find a space even though, like you mentioned earlier, there might be a space around the corner that they just don't know about. Right before we built this presentation, we really wanted to understand the problems around the parking in the city. And what we heard was around 2 problems, right? You have way of finding an economic activity and then you have enforcement and coverage when it comes down to way finding economic activity. it is really important to get that commuter satisfaction up and get less complaints from people. People are going to say they can't find parking when there might be one around the corner, and it's going to cause the city to maybe have to build a $60 million parking structure when it's not really needed. And especially that economic activity, turnover is the name of the game when it comes to parking, especially with cities. You want more economic wealth somewhere, whether it's someone going to the sandwich spot down the street, buying an extra sandwich, or going to the library and renting out some more books. And when it comes down to enforcement, a lot of people, we're working with the DMV right now to do ADA placard fraud, but people are swapping it left and right, overstating their times, not really knowing the rules of what parking, where they can park. Well, that's where Joppa comes in. Uh, we developed a full stack parking platform and a computer mobile app that shows them real time. Parking availability gives them directions and way finding, um, straight to the available space. Similar type city. If that space is taken before they get there, we recommend we direct them to the next closest available space. Um, a little bit of difference between us though, is that we'll show you each individual spot in real time. Um, and then we utilize sensor technology. And then on the back end to take care of that whole cycle of parking, we give that data back to you, your city managers, your planners to really understand what they need to do for the city. Do we need to take out parking over here? Because it's underutilized. We need to put a bike and scooter program here because we have a lot more space, right? Or do we need to direct them straight to the garage? So we can get that that turnover flow. Um, the way it works is we put sensors on every space or at the entrance and exits of parking lots or parking garages. These all work indoor outdoor on street off street. So we detect a vehicle in real time. We send that information up to the cloud. Once it hits the cloud, we put it through our parking algorithms. And then we distributed to on the computer mobile app that we showed you, or the dashboard for your city management. And the best thing about this is we understand that, you know, the climate out in Florida, you know, floods happen, the humidity is 24-7. Our sensors are built for that. They're all pressure tested, pinpoint tested, weather tested. It could sit in a pool of water and work totally fine. And it could take up to a double-decker bus without breaking. Our system is all battery operated. So there's no trenching, no wiring, no conduits. You just literally plug and play. You take a sensor, stick it on the floor, just like any road marker, and you glue it down. We have around 99% accuracy when detecting a vehicle. And we're already live in Florida in multiple places, Boca Raton, University of Florida in Tampa. Similar to we have an open API. We already partnered with park mobile pay by phone where they have the integrations into our app. So, the computers have 1 app to open if they, they could choose to use park mobile or pay by phone and pay pay for it with just 1 app to use. And everything's privacy. Finally, we don't take any information. No user information. We work with a ton of hospitals. We have MSA with, like, Kaiser hospital too. So totally totally fine there. When it comes to smarter enforcement, there's a lot going on here. Like I mentioned, we partnered with the DMV because they're going digital now, right? And now we can recognize with our sensors, hey, is this someone parking here and are they accredited? Do they have credited credentials for ADA? If it flags that they don't and it doesn't pass it through our system, then we're going to flag that there's a potential violation there. On top of that, too, we do time zone violations, right? A lot of people are parking in 20 minute, 30 minute hour time zones. They don't know when their time is up. It's hard for them to know, right? So on our app, we tell them, hey, you have 10 minutes left. Go ahead and move your car. If they don't move their car, you have another touch. The city management or the enforcement will say, hey, here's the violations here. And then now you're going to be able to get all this data on all your ADA spaces. Likewise, you want to send a message out to your commuters on our dashboard. You can send a message, and it'll pop up another notification saying, hey, all the ADA spaces are taken on the north side. Go straight to the south side if you guys have an event going on or something like that. Now, when it comes to turnover, like I mentioned earlier, that's the name of the game, right? You want more people in and out of those spaces. You don't want them circling around. You want them to be happy. So what we've done with the city of Vacaville is they got plagued with complaints. People can't find parking. We looked at their data. Right they were going to build a 60Million dollar parking structure. And after we looked at the data, we said, hey, why are people complaining? Your parking is only at 70% occupied 73%. You still have around 30% occupancy to leftover. We turned on our mobile app for them. They launched it out for the city. People loved it. Their commuter complaints went down. It took them around 12 minutes to field one complaint each. It went down by 30%, and we increased their parking up to 90% occupancy. They didn't have to build a parking structure anymore. It's all about optimizing the assets that you have. um and the path is clear we're already partnered with omnia so you know the procurement process could be as simple as just signing a contract and the timeline is you know if we can get a scope by july 1st we can have you up and running by october 1st now this is aggressive but it's because our installation is a breeze it takes less than i want to say three minutes to install one sensor no downtime no no disruption to service our team can come out at night too So if you're ready to start parking smarter and stressing less, come talk to us. Thank you all.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Any comments or questions? No, no, nothing from over here.

The hardware is individually on each parking. Is that what it was like a small beacon?

Yeah, so if you see on the front right here at the bottom, these are our sensors that we put on to the parking spaces. And then, like I said, they can be used as car counters too. If you put them at the entrance and exits, or the ingress and egress, and then they'll count cars and get occupancy for your lots. You won't get the real time of every space, but you'll still get that general occupancy. So you'll be able to save a lot of money for the city by not having to do anything. A lot of our customers too. They'll put occupant sensors in the ingress and egress, but then put sensors on their specialty spaces, like their EV charging spaces or their ADA spaces. So now you're starting to get all the information at a smaller cost.

But if you want individual spaces allocation, you would need to put it on each spot, right? Each parking spot?

Correct. We do have a camera system that now, if we can situate the camera to recognize the spaces pretty well, that is an option as well.

And do you have a cost structure on this? I don't remember seeing that in the presentation.

Yes. The cost structure comes when we come to a scope, because the cost structure scales with the size of the project. I believe our sales team will discuss that moving forward. But it's very similar to UpCity, where we do a leasing program. You guys don't have to worry about the hardware if something goes down. We actually have a client success manager that actually lives in Brickell in Miami. So you guys will have the quickest service to anything.

So, okay. Yeah. I mean, we do have a lot of parking spots. So, I mean, we allocate 1,200 to 1,500 spots. You know, order of magnitude, we want to understand, like, what that would look like. I understand the first year. I mean, I just don't understand the cost structure. But if you can give us an example, that would be great to understand that.

Yeah, we charge anywhere between $100 of space up to $200 of space, depending on the size. And that's an annual cost. First year, like I said, everything's leased to you all. So operation and maintenance comes with it. And installation comes with it, too, unless you guys want to do the installation yourself. Then we can make the cost structure cheaper there.

Yeah, sorry. Go for it. I was going to say, the last question I had was that you need to download the app that you guys have? Or is it fully integrated with what people are already using for parking?

So we've done both. So we launched our app and then had like park mobile integrated into our app. So people are using our app and we had the vice versa too, where park mobile integrated our data into there. So if they're already using it, same thing with pay by phone, like this is open API. They can just pretty much recreate it onto their app. So, um, I think for your guys' situation, we'll just probably integrate and like, we'll talk to the reps at, at, at park mobile pay by phone and pass over our API data so they can recreate this into their app. I think that would be great. Okay.

Madam Commissioner.

Thank you. So that little black circle, you put it on the floor of the parking space? Where does that go?

Yes, yes. That goes right in the middle of the parking space. And so when a car drives over it, we have a magnetometer and a light sensor in there. And then that's how we detect the vehicle with 99% accuracy. Thank you. No problem.

Yes, sir. Hi, thank you. Just quick question. Up City had mentioned that it was also able to track pedestrian double parking, things like that. This is mostly just focused on parking and parking spaces, correct?

Yes, we can identify double parking and violations around parking, but we do not identify people tracking. We do have a partnership with Siemens that does that, so we can introduce that, but Joppa itself, we do not. Okay, thank you. No problem. Did you get, I'm sorry, I stepped out. No, I'm good.

Okay, really appreciate the presentations. I had seen this presentation before, so I don't have any questions. Colleagues, the point was just to kind of bring information forward since we're heading into a budget cycle. I thought if we have an interest, we can maybe task or ask the manager and Mr. Riverall to kind of explore or come up with a recommendation about adoption of this or, you know, technology, similar technology from another provider and see if it's something we want to consider incorporating into our fiscal year 27 budget if we think it makes sense. I mean, my goal was simply to Try to use technology to minimize friction and enhance customer convenience so that people who are coming or thinking about coming to South Miami will make that extra trip, not worry about parking. Certainly tried this with the transportation side, had less success. I think probably this would be hopefully slightly more successful than our past forays with, you know, rideshare. But if there's an interest, my goal was simply just to put it before us and see if we want to just continue the conversation before wasting staff's time.

I love the idea of sensor technology, especially ones we can adapt as the technology gets better. I mean, right now we could also just put a printed sign with an arrow that says 200 spots available to our garage, but eventually we are gonna need to get higher tech.

I would say, Mayor, that I struggle with the ROI right now. I know it's a city of pleasant living type of thing where we can make facilities, and I love it. I think we should add it just to the discussions as we continue with budget. I just don't know where the priority lies this year coming up, but we can discuss it.

Yeah, I'm sorry. On the job of presentation, did you guys, I stepped out for a second to go to the restroom. I've had an ROI conversation before with one of your, can you- Well, the first one had an ROI.

Correct. The second one did not.

I mean, there's some use cases. There's a use case in California. I think on a campus, I forget, on a campus I was, anyhow, I think Mr. Riverall certainly can get us that information so you can see what the return on investment has been in some other use cases. and we can decide whether it applies here or not. I know we've talked about, you know, maybe each technology has its own use case, right? And some are better suited for others. So again, I don't wanna, we don't need to make a decision here. The point was, if there's an interest, just wanna get direction to the administration to work on this and maybe bring a recommendation forward. That was really the goal of today's conversation, so.

I'd rather look at some more information. I requested some information. GUI, understand how the interconnections are. The second one, Joppa, I just asked, the integrations, if it's paid by phone or not, versus the Joppa app and how that works. I just want to see that, because if we're not going to have people using it, it's kind of a waste of time.

No, I 100% agree. My conversation with Joppa, my concern was their app, to me, is not what people are already using. My goal was, since they have a backend API, if they can get on the other platforms. I think that makes sense, right? If it can integrate, I agree. I want to meet people where they're at, not try to offer them something new.

We're trying new offerings.

Okay. So with that, do we want to explore this further?

Well, I think we are. I think we requested for some information. Okay, great. Fair enough.

So let's move the conversation forward. And with that, let's move on to the next item. Thank you both for your presentations. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay. Colleagues, where do we wanna go next? Do we wanna go take item? We've got people here I know on the TSDD. We've got people, so let's see. We've got CRA, so you wanna take up item 11. That should be pretty straightforward. Madam Clerk, if you can read item 11, please.

It's item 11, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commissioner of the City of Southland and Florida approving and adopting the Southland Community Redevelopment Plan after making the findings required by Section 163.3607 Florida Statutes.

Thank you, colleagues. Any questions of the City Attorney or administration on this item? Anyone want to move adoption? This is a public hearing item, so let me open up the public hearing. If there's any member of the public who'd like to address this commission on item 11, which is the resolution approving and adopting the South Miami CRA redevelopment plan, please come forward at this time.

Anyone on Zoom, please raise your virtual hand.

Okay, seeing no one in the chamber and no one online, we'll close the public hearing. Is there a motion to adopt? I'll move it.

Second.

We get a motion by Commissioner Rodriguez and a second by Commissioner Kaye. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Yes, Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes. Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Commissioner Bonnige. Yes. Vice Mayor Corey. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Item passes 5-0.

Let's take item 10, please.

10. Item 10, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Southland, Florida, approving an application to amend the conditions of Resolution Number 032-17-14833, which approved a waiver applied to permit development of a two-story single-family home on a property located at 5975 Southwest 80th Street.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Does the attorney recognize me?

Thank you, Mayor. Application number 10 on tonight's agenda is quasi-judicial in nature, simply because the waiver of plat was originally quasi-judicial in nature. The clerk has read the title of the resolution. The public hearing that comes after this should include presentations by staff, the applicant, and any public comment. Commission may ask any questions either before or after public comment is closed. Following public comment, the commission may deliberate on the item. The procedures for quasi-judicial items require this commission to consider the evidence presented and base your decision on the applicable law and primarily on the evidence presented, whether by the applicant staff or members of the public. The hearing tonight is to consider a modification to a condition on a waiver of plat that is governed by criteria in 20-4.2 and the items in the staff analysis and in general law. The evidence considered must be substantial competent evidence. That means testimony or other evidence based on personal observation or relevant expert testimony that a reasonable mind would accept as adequate to support a conclusion. It's not a popularity contest. It cannot be based solely on non-expert opinions, no matter how fervent those opinions might be. If you wish to speak on an item this evening, just a couple of comments. You will be sworn in shortly before your testimony is taken. Please know if you do speak, you may be subject to cross-examination. Members of the public will not be allowed to cross-examine, but they can ask the commission to direct questions on their behalf to either staff or the applicant. At this time, if you wish to speak, please stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Madam Clerk, can you confirm compliance with the advertising notice requirements for this evening's hearing?

Yes.

Thank you so much. And then Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners, have any of you had any ex parte communications with either the applicant or any members of the public?

I have.

would you speak to and the substance of communication?

I spoke with the applicant. I've spoken to him many times outside of today. Okay. He just called to explain what was coming.

So about the application. Okay. Or the request. Anyone else?

I did as well. I had a conversation with Garcia last, I think it was last Thursday. Okay. He just briefly explained that he was asking for, I guess, a limitation on the number of stories that could be built on the lot. Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, I spoke with the applicant regarding the application and the reasoning behind it. Got it.

I did not. Okay, thank you. I did not add. Thank you. Mayor? I said thank you. Just quickly, are there any objections that are record? Anyone hearing an objection to the application?

of record objections? I'm not aware of any. Ms. Calvera?

Is there anyone here in the audience who's here to object to the application? No, okay. So we all have...

I believe there were members of the public who stood to be sworn in. Are you presenting an objection to the application or you are a proponent? She's here in support. Got it, fair enough.

Appreciate that. Okay, so with that, has everyone reviewed the staff presentation? Anyone have any questions of staff regarding the recommendation to approve and the modification to the conditions? No, okay. So this is a public hearing item, so we'll open up the public hearing again formally. Is there anyone in the public who'd like to address this commission with respect to item 10? Madam Clerk, is there anyone online?

Anyone on Zoom, please raise your virtual hand.

Seeing no one in the chamber, I know we only will close the public hearing. Mr. Garcia, unless you want to say something, we'll entertain a motion to adopt.

No, go ahead.

Okay, thank you. Who wants to move it? I'll move the motion.

I'll second.

A motion by Commissioner Rodriguez and a second by Commissioner Moniz. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll on item 10, please.

Yes. Commissioner Moniz. Yes. Commissioner Calle. Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes. Vice Mayor Corey. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. And I'll pass this by zero. Congratulations.

Thank you. Okay. Let's take up item eight, please.

Item eight, a resolution of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of South Miami, Florida, accepting a declaration of restrictions from South Miami Hospital Inc. as owner, anchor, Miami IRF LLC as developer and building landlord, and Baptist Health Rehabilitation Hospital LLC as operator, mitigating material non-compliance with development agreement conditions.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. State Attorney, do you want to walk us through this one quickly?

Sure thing. So this is the rehab hospital that was constructed on 62nd Avenue and Sunset Drive. Thank you. As you may recall, this came before you to consider their development agreement. At the time, they had agreed to two conditions. One, providing for enclosure of the loading area. because there was a concern regarding the experience of neighbors to the west and then another one of the conditions involved the facade improvements to the parking garage on along 62nd avenue it became apparent now that they're very deep into construction that those improvements were not made in strict accordance with the development agreement So they have come back and they are proposing some mitigation measures to try to address those conditions. That's what's before you tonight. Among those, it is my understanding that they have made certain improvements to the construction, including installing louvers onto the loading area to better enclose the area. It's still not fully enclosed. and they are moving a backflow preventer from up on the street to somewhere not quite as prominent. Now, the declaration of restrictions that you are considering this evening doesn't include those items. What it does include, however, are operational restrictions everything except emergency deliveries would be between 8 AM and 6 PM. That would be their use of that area. That includes solid waste, garbage pickup, or even specialized waste pickup. And then for the 62nd Avenue facade, they have a landscape proposal where they have a number of trees that they are installing along the facade of the garage facing 62nd Avenue. And I believe they are eight feet at installation. So that's what's before you this evening, that's what they're proposing. And they have proffered a declaration of restrictions to tie their hands to that.

Colleagues, you want to hear from any representatives from Anchor or Baptist? Okay. The floor is yours. Good evening.

Mayor, commissioners, thank you for taking the time today. Thank you for taking the time to bring up your concerns regarding our project. It's always been our goal to meet and exceed the expectations set forth in the development agreement back from October 2024. And so again thank you for taking time to bring those concerns to light so ultimately um we heard your concerns we take them very seriously so we went ahead and started to address those immediately uh through working with tony and the city to make sure that we you know, come to amends with however we can. So ultimately, we've already relocated the backflow preventer. We've already installed the 22 mash trees on the sixth second there to screen the garage enclosure. We've already released procurement of mechanical louvers, and we're actually working on obviously limiting operations and the loading enclosure. So again, thank you for taking the time to bring these concerns. Ultimately, our goal is to deliver a final product, a facility that you all are proud of, that the city is proud of. ultimately that serves this community. So thank you.

Thank you. We can take, you want to have questions? Okay, please, you're recognized.

Okay. Did you just say oh boy?

No, that was the only murmur. Okay.

I'm famous for not saying the nice thing or... Do you need a translation? Yeah, right. Do I need a translation? I probably do. If I were building my house and it was approved a certain way, and I'll actually use an example that I learned from Danny Rodriguez a couple of years ago. If I was putting a pool in my house and... For whatever reason, I pushed it too far back, and now the pool is in the area the pool is not supposed to be in. The answer was, too bad, so sad. Rip out your pool. Do it right. And I feel a lot of times we give people who have bigger projects a pass, or we try to find a way to play nice, and I don't think that's right. I think that you all sat here, you agreed to something, and now when it's kind of hour 11, those things don't exist, and it's going to give you eight-foot trees. I am five-five. I am definitely not covering the second floor of your garage, right? And eight feet, so what, eight feet? I feel like it's... You're offering accommodations that while they sound really nice, the reality is they don't do, none of those things do what the original agreement was, which was to shield the residents to the west of you from having to see, smell, hear garbage. or anything else y'all were doing, that just simply no matter how many pretty trees you put this side, that side, that's not going to happen now. So that's the reality. We're at the point where that's not going to happen. And with the trees on 62nd Avenue, totally not your thing, but there's trees across the street right over there. They put them in. When we saw the tree study, they put them in, I wanna tell you, like 15 years ago, they're still the same size. And they're the same size because there's nowhere for them to grow, right? And so then I'm like, are we gonna run into the same thing in front of your parking where the tree, okay, it's eight feet now from dirt to the top of the tree, and in 10 years, it's gonna be nine feet from dirt to the top of the tree, and I'll be dead before the tree covers the garage. So then I think to myself, OK, so what could the nicer things be? What helps us, who have now essentially been kind of scratched out of whatever the plan was. Because realistically, to say it nice, oh, it was an oversight. To not say it nice, hey, you know what? We got as far as we did, and too bad, so sad, South Miami, whatever it is that you requested. And if I recall correctly, it was really requested. It wasn't even like a passing thought. It was like very well thought out and discussed during that meeting. I'm probably not the person to say what would be the nice thing to do because even if I try to say what the nice thing to do is probably not gonna sound very nice. I'm like, okay, so you're a partner in a bunch of different things. How do we bridge that gap? And maybe I'm not the person to think about how do we bridge that gap because I've focused on kind of where the wheels fell off the bus. But if we have a great partnership, which I think that we most likely do, how do we find a way to kind of make this okay? And I'm kind of looking at you guys because maybe you have ideas on how that best works.

So I'll just, I'll need to just add a couple thoughts since I, you know, I was incensed probably. When I saw the condition, I was annoyed initially by the backflow preventer being put right at the corner of a very prominent intersection at an E building that I'm looking forward to inaugurating hopefully very soon. I'm grateful that you guys removed that. You've now put it up against the back column so it's, not visible from the right-of-way. That was not a condition of any approval. But it did trigger me as I was driving by. Triggered is probably the right word. I was driving by, bringing my son back from lacrosse practice and saw the loading area lit up and noticed that the roof was not enclosed. And so I did a pass by and pulled the conditions, watched the video, and yes, my vote was contingent upon those two items being incorporated. And so... We are where we are. They're not built in accordance. You know, Baptist has been an exceptional community partner. I have tried to make peace with the fact that we are where we are by at least making sure that this declaration provides some operational limitations on when that loading dock is in operation. It's not creating noise and inconvenience to the neighbors, right? We're both there today and neighbors that may be there in the future since things are changing. I think the declaration with respect to that goal, which was a goal of having a fully enclosed loading dock, which I think is a requirement of the code, is being achieved. The modifications that they're making to the what's the east side, eastward facing portion of the loading dock with the louvers, I think is a benefit to the project because it's actually making this internalized public space garden a more attractive place for people to sit and enjoy when they're at the facility recuperating, as opposed to looking at what is a screen enclosure with dumpsters in it. So those are positive modifications. The landscaping, the screening, I basically left it to staff to come up with something that worked. I really didn't want to dictate the solution there. I think our Land Development Director, Adult Services Director was okay with this. I'm sure it's not her optimal execution. Yeah, this is not an item that I'm happy about voting for, right? I'm inclined to vote for it, right? So I'm still disappointed by it, but I am grateful that They were willing to bring this forward in part. I wanted this as the talk to the attorney about this as a mechanism so we don't have to go through the rigmarole of also modifying a whole bunch of other related development orders. This was an easy way to kind of get something calendared, get in front and do the project no harm in terms of their ability to get to opening and operating, which they're probably a matter of weeks away from being in that posture. Achieving our conditions on the garage, to my understanding, you can correct me if I'm wrong, requires them to fully mechanize the garage because it can't be naturally ventilated with that screening. Probably something that should have been communicated to us when we asked for the condition, right? And we're not there anymore. And on the enclosure, you know, again, I've explained kind of the rationale for accepting the condition. I've made my peace with it. Again, just my personal position on it. But, you know, yes, I wish that the conditions would have been strictly adhered to. I'm not happy about having this conversation at all. Yes, sir.

So when I toured the facilities and we reviewed a lot of the things that were being discussed and I met with the management group and did a tour, the facility looks great. The hospital is going to be fantastic. I can't wait for you guys to open. But we did speak about those three things, right? So the enclosures and the louvers have been taken care of. The front piping system has been taken care of and the east side corridor has not. So an eight foot tree, which you want to stand up again, that's not a lot, right? And what we spoke about when I spoke with you and the team was that we were going to mimic the bullion windows going across. And it could still stay screened, just mimic it so it looks better. What I could do, Mayor, with your approval here, or just appease me on this, but if you are not happy with the eight-foot hedges, I don't even know what you guys put there. What's the plan?

Eight-foot mass trees. They're installed currently. It's like a hedge? It's a tall, narrow tree that kind of grows up.

How high can they grow?

20 feet, I believe, is maximum height for those.

20 feet.

And again, I'm going to call them, they look like a Christmas tree, right?

They kind of get bushy right at the bottom, so they do widen out.

So, you know, again, I had seen the mullion option. That alone to me would not, I mean, I saw the mullion option and it just basically lines on the green grade. I think it really made a difference in terms of people's perception of the garage. I thought the landscaping... would be fine. I didn't dictate the landscaping. I just basically punted it to our staff. And I think, again, I don't want to, Mr. Cabrera, if you want to address it as to why you thought this was an acceptable execution, happy to have you kind of share that with my colleagues.

I actually like the landscaping, and I think short of that, they would have had to redesign the entire parking garage because it would be an enclosed parking structure, so they would have to have a mechanical ventilation system for it. This is actually, I think, the best alternative.

Director, it would have been something that we're trying to do as much mature landscaping as we can. Is it something feasible that we can require? And I'm not telling you to throw these trees away, so just hear me out for a second. On the west side, we have a fence wall that lines and is neighbors with the apartment buildings. We don't have any hedge or landscaping on that particular fence. Is that accurate? Correct. Okay. Is it feasible? I'm just here trying to amend what my colleague wants here. Is it feasible for us to put those eight footers and kind of spread it across the back and fill it up as much as we can on the west side? And on the east side, maybe we can do the same hedge, just a little bit taller, a little bit more mature so it covers a little bit more. I think that it would appease you from an eight foot front and we can see a little bit more coverage and beautification of that area instantly. I don't think it's a big cost adder to you guys. Is that something that you would be amendable for?

Is there space on your property on that west side to even put trees? Or would you be then reaching out to the building of the residence to ask if you put it there?

I believe we're going to have to work with the neighboring property. I believe the property line ends at the back of curb there. So there is an easement right for the trash pickup for the 700 building. However, that back side of curb then belongs to the multifamily complex. And so we'd have to coordinate with them some sort of improvement in the maintenance agreement.

I thought the easement was at least five feet or something like that. You could fit something on there.

I could take a look, but I don't believe so.

There's about a six foot from curb to fence. About a six foot stretch as right now is just full of rocks. I don't know what the ultimate intent is for that space, but so about six foot wide stretch.

West of the curb. Yes, sir. And that backside is what we believe to be the neighbors. So again, we'd have to figure out and work with them on what we're able to do and then work on some sort of maintenance agreement for who's going to maintain these options.

Because I think visually we're seeing the fence set back from the back of curb. You're saying that fence is not at the property line.

That is correct.

Okay. So that's why there's a gap. So it's feasible, but it would require their cooperation. I mean, look, if we can get some more landscaping on the west side, I'm I think that's a positive improvement. I mean, what's the board's pleasure? What do you wanna do here? Danny, sorry.

I wasn't here for the development agreement, so my only concern was on the resident side. I don't know what you guys agreed for on the 62nd side, but on the resident side, I definitely want a hedge. I know I had the conversation with the manager, and we asked, is there space? On your property, there was no space, so I guess you're going to have to deal with the other property, and hopefully you can. That's my ultimate concern, is shielding the residents.

Of course, and we'll reach out to the adjacent property owner and start the conversation with them and figure out what they're agreeable to.

Okay, so what would we like to do here?

I will say this. I hope y'all are as agreeable with the city as the city is being with you because I know there's lots of conversations happening about the city hall property. I think that'll be interesting how those pan out later. Because I tell you what, these four gentlemen are being, I think, beyond gracious with y'all. Not with you, because you don't build the building, but with your team. Because if it was a resident building a house, I doubt we would be having this conversation.

Okay, with respect to the item that's before us, is there a motion to adopt it with an amendment? And then would we like to get the city attorney's recommendation as to what that amendment would look like?

Okay.

So Mr. City Attorney, my concern about the request is not that it's not unreasonable, but is their ability to perform, right? And so how can we style this so that it puts the onus on them to use, I mean, as a- Best efforts. Best efforts, commercial, you know,

Yeah, just best efforts. Okay.

I think that would be the... And what would be the time frame in which we would want to see that executed? Is it before CO or... How far are you guys from getting a TCO? Or do you have one already?

We hope to have a TCO by next week and CO by the end of the month.

Okay. I was going to say you could hold off on TCO.

Yeah, I'm happy to issue a TCO and then get this done before we issue the CO.

Yeah, okay, so what is your recommendation, sir?

So we're looking at best efforts to work with the neighboring land owner to install a hedge along the west side. A hedge along the west side.

Can I ask if it could just be landscaping, not necessarily a hedge?

Okay, to install landscaping?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean by that's wrong?

So we lost a lot of tree canopy with this project and there were conversations at a point of actually putting some trees in right-of-ways or even in the right-of-way of the adjacent property. So it really couldn't be done at the time. We looked at it, it just couldn't be done because of the timing, but it may be able to be done now because it's not really affecting anything else. So if we could restore some canopy, I would love to see that happen.

Perfect. I'm okay with it. So to install shade trees? Is that what we're looking at?

I don't know if there's space, I don't wanna.

And our goal with the landscaping, whatever form it takes, would be to screen the loading dock and the west side of the garage. So that length, I don't know if that's the full run of the property or not, or a portion of it, what are we trying to, I just wanna be clear, but what our goal is that we're trying to obscure. Those two elements, correct?

I hadn't really thought about that. I was thinking about the whole side.

Okay, so for the length of the western boundary of the property, it sounds like is the consensus here.

Along the west boundary of the property. Okay.

Yeah, because if not, it's going to look like broken teeth. It's going to look like broken teeth, you know.

She and her broken teeth.

Okay. So best efforts to work with neighborhood landowner to install shade trees along the west boundary of the property prior to... Patience of TCO. Prior to TCO.

Okay. Mm-hmm.

CEO, sorry, CEO, sorry, I missed it.

Issuance of CEO.

Been a long day.

I still want to be- Been a long day, sorry, not trying to give anybody a heart attack.

Well, you can get excellent care at South Miami Hospital if you do have one, so.

Okay, so- Is that intended to be a modification to the declaration of restrictions or a condition on this acceptance?

I think we need to make it a modification, because there's got to be a maintenance obligation on their part as well.

So it's got to be agreed to. Is this agreeable to- Correct. Yes, sir. Thank you.

All right. We're clear on what we're asking for? Yes, sir. Okay. So it's the installation and the maintenance along that western boundary. Okay. Yep. In addition to what's already in the proffer.

Okay. More mature trees on the east side, right?

Do we want to specify a minimum height for the trees? Three leases tall.

Three leases tall. I just think if there's stuff already there, it's like, what are you going to do?

Three leases wide?

It's going to be like the Oompa Loompas, only leases. You're okay leaving it? Yeah, I mean, at this point, we're going to rip out what's there. We know that it's...

So minimum made feed, is that what we're looking for?

At least. Well, it's already in.

No, no, no. That's what's on the east side. We're talking about the west side.

The west side?

Look, the east side, honestly, I don't know if the height personally matters that much. You're talking about a, how tall is the first door of the parking deck? Not even 10 feet, right? Yes, sir. So I would tell you, if we're going to go for size, I would ask them to spend the effort on the west side to protect the residents.

Especially because the city attorney searched it up, and these trees go two to three feet a year.

Okay. They grow fast.

They're fast-growing trees. Those are fast-growing trees.

So, okay. Yeah, they do. I call them a Christmas tree. They seem to grow quickly, and they grow wide. So I think they'll do a nice job of obscuring that frontage.

So we should focus our efforts on the west, which is where it's really going to be.

Impactful.

So do we have a height at planting? Is eight feet feasible?

Yes sir, eight feet's feasible.

On the west side we're planting the same trees?

No, I think we need something that has a bigger shade that would fit. I think we would go with whatever. Is feasibly like what an arborist would say fits the root ball in that space. Correct. And I don't know enough to even have a, make a guess at that.

So, well, do we want to make the condition, say the recommendation, is that our arborist, their arborist, who do we want to rely on here? Or any arborist?

At the very least, it has to be reviewed by our arborist. Okay. If their arborist has a recommendation, it should be reviewed by our arborist.

Fair enough. Okay. Okay, so you won't specify the form of the installation, it's just gotta be muster, okay. Is there a motion to adopt the resolution as amended? I'll move it. Okay, is there a second? Second. A motion by Commissioner Kaye, a second by Vice Mayor Corey. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes. Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes. Commissioner Bonish. Yes. Vice Mayor Corey. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Passes 5-0.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Okay. Let's move on to items 12, 13, 14, 15. What? What number are you? 12. 12 as well. So let's take up item 12. Then we'll move on down the line. Anybody else for any other items? You guys are here on 13? 13. Leave those flat.

Item 12, an ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Southern Florida amending Article 8, Transit Supported Development District to amend regulations to provide new definitions, clarify existing provisions, and modify procedures and criteria within the Transit Supported Development District.

Okay, colleagues, do you have any questions of Mr. Alvarez regarding this particular item? No, okay. This is a public hearing item. If there's any member of the public who'd like to address this commission regarding item 12, which is, again, an ordinance to amend the TSDD district regulations and provide for new definitions, clarifying some provisions and modifying certain procedures, please come forward at this time. Madam Clerk, is anyone online?

Anyone on Zoom, please raise your virtual hand.

Mayor, did you want to have the attorney just give a quick synopsis on it?

Do we have any modifications since we last heard the item?

There were two minor modifications I think since the last one you saw was they have The version that you last saw had some waiver language to allow exceeding the maximum floor plate at the fifth and sixth floors on six-story buildings. We were kind of unhappy about that, and there were some questions about that. The more we looked at it, the less we thought it was ready for prime time, so we have pulled that concept out of here. We have, however, increased, we've provided one additional line for those six-story buildings, only those six-story buildings, to allow them to go to a maximum 30,000 square foot floor plate as opposed to 20, so that they can take advantage of the since they don't have really a tower component. It stops at 30,000. There's no way to really, I guess they could conceivably increase it through a waiver process of 33,000. That's the max that it can go. And that's what Mr. Alvarez had kind of done the math on, and that seems to work. We would like to come back to you with a waiver proposal that is much more fleshed out and ready later, at some later date.

Colleagues, any concerns about the modification as presented? No? Okay. Okay, we opened up the public hearing. We saw no one come forward in the chamber or online, so we'll close the public hearing. Is there a motion or any further discussion on item 12? I'm good, so I'm good on this. So seeing no discussion, who'd like to move it?

I'll move it.

Is there a second? Second. A motion by Commissioner Kaye, a second by Vice Mayor Corey. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, Commissioner Bonnish? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez?

Yes.

Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passes 5-0.

Can you read Item 13, please?

Item 13, an ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Southern Florida amending Section 8.8, Bonus allocations to amend regulations related to transfer development rights and payments in lieu of in-kind public benefits within the Transit Supported Development District.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Um, Mr. Attorney, do you want to walk us through any changes?

Yeah, only one minor change. Uh, last time there was the discussion about the cost deposit, um, for, uh, for projects because, because the actual, uh, TDRs would not be submitted to the building department until before, uh, issuance of the building permit. There's a whole review process that happens before, so we had, we had built in this concept of cost deposit. After looking at it a few times, it was a blank in your last version that you saw. We filled that in with 3% because we already charged an upfront fee of 30% of the building permit fee. So this would get it to about 33%, which is really in line with most jurisdictions in South Florida.

Okay.

Colleagues, any questions of this attorney? Okay. This is a public hearing item, so let's open this up for public hearing. Any member of the public who'd like to address this commission on item 13? Again, which is modification to the bonus allocation regulations in the TSTD, not related to TTDRs. Please come forward at this time.

Anyone on Zoom, please raise your virtual hand.

Seeing no one in the chamber and no one online, we will close the public hearing. Colleagues, any comments regarding this item? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adopt. Is there a motion? I'll move the motion. Is there a second? Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Rodriguez, a second by Vice Mayor Corey. Madam Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Yes, Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez? Yes. Commissioner Bonniche? Yep. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passed 5-0.

Great, let's read item 14, please.

Item 14, an ordinance of the Mayor's City Commission of the City of Southern Florida creating a new section 20-4.13, sustainable development, and Article IV of the regulations of the Land Development Code to provide incentives to promote energy-efficient home design, sustainable construction practices, increased climate resilience, and conservation of natural resources.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh, Mr. Attorney, just procedurally to make sure we're in the right posture, we're discussing this. Uh, if we adopt 14, do we need to take any action on 15 or does that item get tabled or withdrawn?

We would actually recommend that you withdraw that item. Okay. If you adopt this one.

Fair enough. Okay. So, um, colleagues, uh, do we need to hear a presentation from Ms. Cabrera? No. Okay. Any, so no questions regarding, you have a question, please go ahead.

I know we had had a conversation about you had to have a certain amount of points, which was something you had brought up.

So I think the way the ordinance had been modified, it basically we were essentially leaving the solar mandate in place. And this becomes a method for opting out of it if you at least satisfy tier one. And that keeps us in compliance with the governing state, the now newly revised state regulations.

Okay.

Okay?

And just to clarify one thing, if I may, which I spoke with Ms. Cabrera, it's not just one or the other, but if you reach the Tier 1, there are also bonuses. So there are rewards for getting it. So it's not just this or this, or you get punished. There are rewards for reaching the Tier 1. This is incentive-based. That's correct.

That's correct. In keeping with the statute. Yep.

And can we just get an example of Tier 1? Because not everybody will read this.

Sure. Ms. Cabrera, you want to give us a...

So tier one is 10 points. And when we looked at it, the reflective flat roofs that almost all modern homes have, the permeable pavers. Wow. Oh, the masonry block walls pretty much already go for the thermal. insulating and That's pretty much it. I mean they were we could pretty much get them there The things that are difficult to get is the operable windows on opposing sides That's not one that we saw very often, which I hope it would get The porches are just not part of this whole modern trend of architecture But you know for the more traditional looking homes that should be something that has a big incentive and Yeah, I mean. That's good. Thank you. Sorry.

No, that's okay. I just, I wanted.

It's been like three months since I last looked at it.

No, and I think it's good for people to like just hear that there are options and what even they look like.

Yeah, we looked at like five or six homes and we scored them. And there were a few that almost made it to tier two. There was one in particular almost made it to a tier two. Wow. But a lot of them were just about at a tier one. So just a little push will get them over.

Thank you.

Thanks. Yes, sir. You're recognized, Vice Mayor.

And I guess just like we've done with the zoning, if at all possible, as early as possible, the applications that come in, if we see any issues, revising this would be a great idea because I want to make sure that it has staying power and it's successful. So just like we've done with the zoning, if you come back to us, we're happy to make any adjustments based on what you're seeing.

Yeah, we're gonna be monitoring it to see how it's working. If we see that it's way too easy, then maybe we need to revisit the tier two, tier three, because we don't wanna just give away development, additional development. And if we see that it's just really not working, it's just very difficult to get there, we'll come back with you with that also.

Great, thank you. Just on that point, just to piggyback on his, Mr. City Attorney, sorry to steal your, for a second, but to the Vice Mayor's point, I'm sorry, I'm getting tired here. If we observe some issues with this, that in fact it's either not working or it's too easy for folks to satisfy the tier one requirements, What Senate bill is it again?

SB 180. 180. I'm less concerned about modifying incentives.

Okay. That's what I wanted to confirm. Yeah. So there's no issue with SB 180 because, again, we're not making our ordinance more restrictive than the date of that. Correct. Correct.

What we allow is what we allow. This is allowing something additional.

Just want to confirm for the Vice Mayor's benefit that we do have that flexibility. Thank you. Okay. Further questions? This is a public hearing item. If there's any member of the public who'd like to address this commission on item 14, again, which is the adoption of some new sustainable development regulations in our land development code, please come forward at this time.

Anyone on Zoom, please raise your virtual hand.

Seeing no one in the chamber and no one online, we will close the public hearing. Colleagues, do we have a motion to adopt item 14?

I'll move it.

Is there a second?

Second.

A motion by Commissioner Bonich and a second by Commissioner Kaye. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez? Yes. Commissioner Moniz? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passed, it's 5-0.

Uh, can I get a motion to withdraw it? Actually, Mayor, uh, I have, we're revising our recommendation just in an abundance of caution. Okay. Uh, the, uh, the moratorium, the way it was written would run through October 15th, 2026. We would ask because it did lapse on April 15th, that it just cover the period between April 15th and June 9th, just in case there was anybody caught in that time period. So we would ask if you are, because the sustainable ordinance did not exist until just now. Okay. That it run through just now.

What prejudice do they have?

They could amend their permit. That's always another option.

Okay. My personal opinion is just to basically withdraw it and allow them to travel under the new regulations.

That's fair. They could certainly do so.

Okay, so do we need a formal motion?

Uh, no.

Okay.

We'll show the item as withdrawn.

Fair enough. Okay, great. Okay, let's jump to item five. Peacock should liven up the conversation.

Item five. A resolution of the Mayor and City Commissioner of the City of South New Florida urging Miami-Dade County to re-examine existing protections for peafowl, peacocks, non-native, and invasive species supporting countywide PFOP mitigation and population management efforts and requesting regional coordination among South Miami-Dade municipalities, including the City of South Miami, City of Pinecrest, City of Coral Gables, and City of Miami.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Commissioner, the floor is yours.

We originally had something in the books for peacock mitigation, and it didn't pan out the way that we had hoped. We continue to have real and major issues in our city with peacocks destroying people's cars, their roofs, all kinds of things. They're pooping everywhere. While they're very pretty, they're also very destructive. This is essentially a mechanism asking the county to just re-examine where we're at because they're invasive. They're not, in my opinion, not safe to be around because we all know I am not a bird person. But we have to do something. Doing nothing, well, we all know I'm terrified of birds. Doing nothing is not an option for us. There are some people who love peacocks, some people who hate them. The reality is love them, hate them, they're destructive. And so that's why I brought this back.

Thank you. Was there any additional comments or questions?

I have a question to the deputy city manager. Where are we with the new, weren't you looking at the company that's now approved by Cor Gables?

Yeah, they officially approved a contract with a vendor, so we have all the documents and we're moving forward with piggybacking off of that contract.

And do they take it to a sanctuary or we don't know where?

Humane safe relocation is the scope of their contract.

Okay, thank you.

Great, thank you. And Commissioner Kaye?

No, I'm good.

Okay. I didn't have one either. I guess we could do both. We could have the city pursue it and we could still send something to the county without running a foul.

Oh, that was a good one. That was a good one.

Watch out. I don't get this opportunity very, okay. So with that, I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move it.

Second.

All right. Madam City Clerk?

Yes. Commissioner Bonish? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez? Yes. Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Vice Mayor Corey?

Yes.

Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passes 5-0.

And I believe the next item would be 6?

Yeah.

Item 6, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commissioner of the City of South supporting and uniting in solidarity with the Cuban people's right to democracy, freedom of speech, expression, assembly, and of the press, recognizing the historical significance of Cuban Independence Day, supporting the actions taken by the President of the United States in advocating for Cuban sovereignty and people's right for democracy. So cool. Thank you, Madam.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Again, Commissioner Winning, this item is yours, so you're recognized.

When this came across my email, I thought to myself, wow. At last, we have a way to actually voice our support in a unified way. I think that we often see people here, there, and everywhere. But I think rarely do you see it happen municipality by municipality. So I believe all of us received this in our email. The city attorney was nice enough to send me the ideas maybe from one or more than one of y'all. to reword some of this because I understand that it can read a little much. I get it. So there were two changes or suggestions for change. One of them was on page two, the one, two, three, four, It was six, right? No, it was the fifth one where they wanted to add authorized Cuban citizens' contract for their labor directly with foreign multinationals and not through state-sponsored enterprises. And I understand where that comes from. For anybody who's been paying attention, the Castros essentially own a company that outsources the unwilling citizens of Cuba the island of Cuba, to do labor in other countries around the world. They do not see that money. That money actually goes to this corporation, and that corporation is the Castro family. So not even the island of Cuba benefits from it. It is a private benefit. I agree with that, I think maybe it belongs in the next whereas clause because those really talk about, that whereas clause in particular talks about the electoral process where the next one, it says whereas the city commission believes that the realization of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, of association, of religion, of the press, a free and open economy. I believe maybe that might be better served there right after open economy because it kind of ties in to the process of them being able to make money for themselves. If whoever wrote that or any one of you have a better idea of where you think it would work?

No, I mean, I suggest that this attorney is a modification for us to consider. I want to support the item. I had a little heartburn about a couple of the statements in some of the recitals. I could understand. For me, that issue is a particularly personal one because I had an uncle who had a chance to work abroad in Canada. I call him an uncle. He's more like a fourth cousin, a third cousin. But...

He's your Cuban uncle.

My Cuban uncle, yeah. But literally he was paid by the state a tenth of what they were paying this foreign entity. And whether you were working abroad or working on the island... you're not allowed to contract freely for your labor, and there really is no freedom in any society unless you can actually earn money without the government as an intermediary. And so, I know I sound like a Republican right now, but anyhow.

You're warming my heart.

I know.

I'm sure I am. Here's the thing, though. You're right. I'm warming my heart.

No, Travis is going to pull my party card in the back there in a second. But anyhow, Travis even agrees with me on this point.

No, and the worst part is that not only, you say, the government of Cuba is benefiting from labor. They're oppressed, and then on top of that, THE PEOPLE BENEFITING FROM THIS ARE DIRECTLY THEIR OPPORTUNITIES.