City Commission - Regular Meeting

I now have a perfect personal attack attachment to that football player. Mr. Ward does too over at the South memory middle school, because now probably the most known national figure that just went pro is a gray ghost.

Yes.

And that reminds me that that concrete statue reminds me of none other than Fernando Mendoza. Uh, he is a gray ghost and that's a great. And Mr. Mayor, uh, last thing I want to thank, uh, commissioner Steve Kaya and, uh, Commissioner Rodriguez and you, Mr. Mayor, as we are getting ready to engage in what I call somewhat of a battle to try to get that Ludlam Trail back up and running. Commissioner Bonich, I know you're ready to battle this too. We spoke about it. uh no sunshine laws were broken we talked separately but that said um i look forward to working with you all because there really is now a push we've gathered a group of people to really make this thing happen and you know it's all about the squeaky wheel getting the oil but again i want to take i want to thank commissioner kaye for briefing me on explaining to me where you're at but more importantly publicly also want to thank commissioner dade county commissioner orbis That's also working on it, and I had the pleasure of being appointed to the Miami Loop by a former employee of South Miami, now Commissioner Ralph Rosado.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. The time is just after 7.05 p.m. We'll now call to order this regular meeting of the South Miami City Commission. Before we start, if you please silence or turn off your cell phones, we greatly appreciate it. Madam Clerk, if you could call the roll, please.

Yes, Mayor Fernandez.

Yes, present.

Commissioner Rodriguez.

Here.

Commissioner Bonish. Here. Commissioner Kaye. Here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. If you have not signed up for public remarks, we do have a signage sheet still here with John in the front. Please feel free to add your name. And let's begin with a short prayer followed by the pledge led by Commissioner Kaye. This evening, I'd like to offer a short prayer for the soul of Roger Duarte. Roger was at one point the owner of my ceviche here in South Miami. He was tragically lost at the age of 42 last month in a helicopter accident in Africa. I want to offer up my condolences to both the Valls family and the Duarte family for his loss and want to read this brief prayer. O God of mercy and tender compassion, hold this grieving family in your gentle hands. Let your light pierce the shadow of their sorrow and your peace settle upon their restless hearts. In the silence where their child's laughter once lived, plant seeds of hope that will one day bloom again. Surround them with the warmth of love unbroken and the strength to bear what feels unbearable. May their memories be a soft lantern in the night, guiding them through the valley of loss. And may they feel, even in the ache of absence, the eternal embrace of the one who conquers death. Amen. Commissioner Kaye. 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.

Please be seated.

BEFORE WE START TONIGHT'S AGENDA, MR. MANAGER, ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING ITEMS TO BE DEFERRED OR REMOVED FROM THE AGENDA?

MR. CITY ATTORNEY, YOU'RE RECOGNIZED. THANK YOU, SIR. ITEM 10, WHICH IS THE CITY HALL GROUND LEASE, THE FIRST READING IN THE GROUND LEASE, THAT HAS TO BE RENOTICED. THERE WAS A CONCERN RAISED LATE THIS AFTERNOON REGARDING THE NOTICE, SO IN AN AMOUNT OF CAUTION, WE'RE GOING TO RENOTICE IT AND BRING IT BACK TO YOU.

For those in the audience, I saw there were some names on public remarks. We will still be taking public comment on that item, so you'll be recognized to speak. Okay. Any other items, Mr. Manager, that need to be pulled or deferred?

No, sir.

Okay. Then let's move with the agenda set showing item S10 is withdrawn and will be re-noticed. Let's begin with public remarks. You want to do the cheerleaders first, not a problem. Yeah, so that's right. So with the public's indulgence, we will recognize our South Miami Grey Ghost cheerleaders. If you'd like to come up. Madam Commissioner, would you want to introduce us?

Our cheerleader team, the Grey Ghosts, are going. Well, because it's not just girls. There's girls and boys. You know, it's like, we don't know.

Okay, great.

So tell us a story. You were raising funds.

Yes, we're raising funds for the competition, which is November the 8th.

Before you start, if you could give us your name and address for the record. I apologize.

My name is Terry Vickers, 6104 Sideway 68th Street.

Terry, you're recognized. Go ahead, please. Thank you.

OK, we're raising funds for the competition, which we have to take the girls to two different competitions, November the 8th and the 15th. The first one is at Florida Memorial. The second one on the 15th is at Broward County Convention Center. So we need funds for hotels, food, bowls, their shoes.

In other words, pretty much everything that we can possibly update.

Yes.

OK. And we committed here, actually the four of us, to donate, personally, $300 each. So we get you closer to your goal. Yes. Thank you so much.

And Terry, if you can, can you confirm who it's made out to be? I just want to confirm what you mean by that. The Grey Ghost Booster Club.

Booster. OK. And do you guys have a Zelle?

We have to get it from the president.

OK, so that we can send the money in there.

Yeah, let's go through Nikki. Terry, if I could ask, how much are you trying to raise in total, if I may?

In total, everything I did came out to $5,000.

OK, so you're trying to raise $5,000. So OK, I'll up my amount to $1,000. OK, anybody else want to? Anyone else want to match?

I'll up mine to $500.

OK, there you go. I'll do my $500, too. OK, there you go. Thank you. So that's 40% of the way there.

OK.

That's $2,500.

$2,500. So we get to 50% of the way there. If there's anybody else who'd like to make a contribution out to the Booster Club?

Yes.

Mr. Manager?

I think we can identify some funds to cover the balance.

Okay. So we'll figure out the way to take care of the balance then. Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming out. Thank you for your good work with all the kids, okay?

Okay. So we will either be giving you checks. If you guys could text us or text Dan the Zelle, and then we'll just send that through.

No, that's to write a check.

I GOT IT. I JUST WANTED TO CONFIRM THAT. BY THE WAY, IT IS A NONPROFIT. IF ANYONE WANTS TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION, IT IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE. WHILE THEY'RE RAISING, I'LL BE. WE HAVE A KIND GENTLEMAN IN THE

Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate that.

Well, thank you.

So notwithstanding his generosity, I'm just going to say that we get, there are ongoing needs, not just for this one event, right? We've helped before with tents. We've helped before with registration fees for kids who can't afford to pay the registration fees. So if you have the means, this is a legacy program in South Miami as our city changes, right? And it has changed quite a bit. Yes. We want to keep the culture and history of the great ghost part of our community. So if you're inclined, stop one of these lovely ladies here, get their information, and make a contribution. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Okay? Please win it for us. Okay. Okay, let's take up the other presentation item since we're on presentations. We've got a proclamation for a diaper awareness day. Is someone here to accept the proclamation, Madam Clerk? Yes. Hi, good evening. Please, your name and address of the record.

My name is Scarlett Navarro, I'm from Miami Diaper Bank program director. Thank you very much. I'm from Hialeah But this diaper needs awareness week. It's something that we're doing like Nationwide and we really appreciate what you're doing. Thank you very much. I have a speech here. I

You can read it very briefly. We'll give you two minutes.

Go right ahead. Good evening and thank you so much to Major Javier Fernandez and the City of South Miami for this incredible honor and for recognizing Diaper Need Awareness Week. On behalf of Miami Diaper Bank, I'm truly grateful to us at this proclamation. Diaper need is something that many people don't realize is a serious issue in our community. Here in Miami-Dade County, An estimated of 68,000 children ages zero to three are experiencing diaper insecurity, and nearly half of families nationwide reported experiencing diaper need in 2025. For a family already struggling to make ends meet, having enough clean diapers can mean choosing between diapers, food, utilities, or even missing work. At Miami Diaper Bank, we believe that every baby deserves to be clean, dry, healthy, and safe. We're grateful to the City of South Miami for helping us bring awareness to this issue and for standing with the families and babies who need us the most. Thank you for helping us make diaper need visible and for being part of the solution.

Thank you for your comments. Before we let you go, and we recognize you're the proclamation, if someone's interested in helping, how can they help the organization?

Well, this month we're having a Diaper Hero Challenge. If you can go to www.MiamiDiaperBank.com.

Can you repeat that one?

www.MiamiDiaperBank.com.

All together. Yes. So MiamiDiaperBank.com. Okay.

You can make a donation, and we have a system that will double whatever you donate. Fantastic.

So your contribution gets a dollar for dollar match. Excellent.

Okay. Exactly. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Yes, Commissioner Kaya, you're recognized. Do you also have, like, donation banks or places that we can do drop-offs if we communicate with the community? Absolutely.

Absolutely. In Hialeah we have our warehouse and we receive all the donations. All those donations go directly to families in need. We have various programs and one of them is our mobile pantry. So we go to the places And a lot of people in need go there for diapers. We also help families and institutions in need, such as Lotus House, McDonald Foundation, all places that really, really need diapers right now. And with all that, at this moment, we have distributed more than one million diapers.

Do you have a relationship with our children's clinic here in South Miami? If we do not, can we have someone on staff as your manager connect them with them? Because they are an organization that could probably have families that could use some inventory as well.

It also is a location that we can do drop-offs in the local community. It's hard for the people in South Miami to go to Hialeah, but if we have a centralized location here where we have all the divers go, you can come and pick them up and distribute them.

If you would like it, I can leave a hero box here.

That would be great. That would be great. Yeah.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for reaching out to us and your partnership, and let's come forward and take a quick picture.

One, two, three. And I'm going to take one with flash.

Okay, madam clerk does that conclude all the notice Presentations. Okay. I do believe we have one constituent who want to come forward Robert Would you like to come forward and address the Commission here at the start of public remarks? Good evening, sir.

Good evening. It's actually Rick Oh We are the family that the crocodile attacked our dog and killed it two weeks ago So I wanted to I put a little presentation together kind of to educate and then at the same time I have some potential solutions That hopefully we can implement at some point I CANALS CAN HAVE WILDLIFE IN NEIGHBORHOODS. THE PROJECT WAS INITIATED BY GOVERNOR BROWARD. The project was initiated by Governor Broward in 1904 with both political and financial motivation for future growth of Miami-Dade. The canals created links to Key Biscayne, allowing large wildlife previously not found in urban areas to move unrestricted through the manmade waterways. Interns has caused the attack that we had two weeks ago And the city of South Miami is Reno urged residents to take extreme caution near canals and waterways So this is our backyard where Until recently we were kayaking paddleboarding fishing all the time and There are several crocodiles in the waterways now. If you're looking at this, you might be familiar with this. This is the little park on 68th Street, I believe. Or you have a sign about the wildlife, and you have the crocodile right there where the steps are. That's a closer look out. This crocodile is about 14 feet long. As far as we know, it's a male, because the females don't get quite that big. In addition to that, the residents that I've spoken to report fewer Muscovy ducks than Egyptian geese along the Twin Lakes canals. I've gone and taken pictures of all the canals from the Miami-Dade side down all the way down to Snapper Creek. On our side, this is down the street from my house, I only counted five ducks. I haven't seen any Egyptian geese in a while. Other than the... Ibis there's a good amount of ibis, but these they've all disappeared so This is an apex predator This thing has run out of food It's eating all the ducks the geese in the area And it's like I said 14 feet This is it at the bridge where the construction is going on down the street from my house I mean, this is where you can kind of you can see the size of this, you know of this crocodile and So one of the issues I find is that all of our culverts in South Miami are eight foot culverts in diameter. You could fit two dozen crocs through there at any given time. There's nothing protecting these waterways. So this is an example that was done by the Miami airport to keep the manatees and other animals from getting across. This is obviously a lot bigger than what we would need. But there are other options. There's fixed and adjustable grates. These are what they call trash grates. You can see the one on the above. It's fixed. I know that's above water, but it's the same concept. The one below it, it's not a great picture, but it has a handle. It could be pulled up to be cleaned. And at the same time, fish, other small animals can get through, but it will keep the larger predators like this out of our waterways. So the Twin Lakes Canal, starting over on, I think it ends up being like 50th Street and 64th, it extends from there all the way to Snapper Creek. And you can see that Snapper Creek is the darker blue or aqua line, more pronounced line that goes all the way out to the Biscayne Bay. So the crocodile's natural habitat is the coastal areas. This is a saltwater American croc. They can survive in brackish water, which is what we have. But unfortunately, all these canals, when they were dredged, they never thought of preventing large animals getting in there. We've had manatees get trapped in our waterways. These crocodiles, like I said, they don't belong in urbanized areas. And I know they're federally regulated, I mean, protected. They went from being endangered to threatened. They were reassessed about five years ago, and they left it. They didn't delist them. And that's not what I'm here for today. But what I'm here for today is to protect our waterways, which we've got a lot of neighbors living on these waterways. Everyone that I've spoken to has said that on many occasions over the years. They've called the police department or FWC reporting the crocodiles. As far as we know, none in the South Miami waterways have been removed or relocated somewhere else. Normally they relocate them to the sanctuaries in the Everglades for them. And it's something that, you know, FDBC has told us that they're not going to get this crocodile out of our waterway. And they say that they will return, which is understandable. And with that being said, I think we need to address preventing them from crossing back into our waterways. Because right now, our dog was sacrificed. I'm going to say it that way. Tomorrow, it could be a child fishing, throwing bread at the turtles that are in the water. It could be a parent sitting there in the evening fishing, grab a fish. They go to grab it from the water. These things can be underwater for an hour just watching you, waiting to attack. You know, I don't want to be the alarmist, but these are facts, you know, they are predators, you know They when they're younger they eat their own You know as they get bigger they start looking for bigger, you know bigger animals, you know bigger fish turtles birds larger mammals It's very concerning, you know, there's I don't know the exact number of homes on our waterway But it's not a small amount I'm sure it's upwards of 200 homes or more. I Again, it extends. The city extends all the way down to Snapper Creek and up to Miller. So it's quite a ways, and the waterway splits up and connects and other parts. This is a big threat. This is an example of one that in April 26th, this is on the north side of Miller. This family, they called it in. FWC did come out. As far as I know it was still there when they got there and they were able to Capture it and relocate it. I don't know. This may be the same crocodile that's in the canal today You know, I was seeing that when you go just further north of this this canal also connects to a lake That's between I think 50th and 48th Street There's people there that have floating trampolines and things and slides in the water and Just the thought that this creature can get in there and unknowingly kids could be there playing and jumping. I understand that's not South Miami, but still, these are our neighbors also. I mean, just the possibilities are just really scary. So my plea to you is to see if there's something we can do to start addressing these culverts, possibly put these trash crates in know and it's it's it's a twofold thing where one if like this particular one and that you know it'll trap it in our canals so now if it's easier to catch and then once it's removed well it won't get it won't be able to pass snapper Creek to get into our neighborhoods snapper Creek from my understanding by FWC Tommy is filled where crocodiles and alligators In a snapper Creek for those of you that don't know Connects goes out to the turnpike goes north to the Tamami trail goes back down to to the airport lakes it goes to all those other residential areas in Westchester and West Miami connects to all those homes and In addition to, once it gets to the airport, it also connects with the Miami River, and it also connects with the Gables Waterway through all sorts of other canals and culverts that are out there. So I don't know what can be done at this point, but I'm offering a potential solution. I've talked to one of the vendors that are out there that does some of the canal cleaning and maintenance. He's telling me a culvert like that is probably somewhere in the range of $5,000 to $15,000 installed. Again, I know there's a lot more involved when it comes to government, you know, and I'm sure there have to be studies and whatnot, and I'm sure that number increases. Just right out of the gate. I'm not getting a number of $100,000 to put one great I'm getting a number, you know, basically a tenth of that and it's I think there's something that we can work with I understand all these Culver so most of you know, they're over date County roads So there had to be some cooperation with the county And that's where I'm why I'm coming to you all because you know, you guys are the ones that have you know direct site to the county and work with them hand-in-hand and And I'm willing to talk to the county, too, along with the neighboring cities. We've got Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay. All these cities have the same problem. But theirs are sometimes even worse because they are connected directly to the Bay. There's nothing to stop them from coming in. I've talked to friends that live In by Deering States and you know all along old Cutler telling me about Crocs have been in their pools dogs. They've disappeared Our known dogs that have been eaten by them, you know the only reason we know that it got our dog is one because I saw it and two You know, for those that don't know the story, it killed the dog, it dragged it over to Miller, stuck it in the culvert, because when the animal's too big, when its prey is too big, they store it, let it rot, and they come eating it, you know, a bite at a time. The ducks are appetizers for them, you know. And if any of you live in the waterway, I'm sure you've seen there is almost no ducks, you know, and along with the geese, and who knows what other birds, other native birds this thing has been eating. And I get it, that's its natural prey. But again, my biggest concern is what if a child gets killed? What if a person falls in and then this thing comes out of nowhere and attacks them? We don't feel safe going in our backyard anymore. We don't feel safe going out on our kayaks. I mean, I could show you dozens of pictures of me and my son and his friends fishing out on kayaks on a little boat that we have in the back. It's a very plentiful, you know, lake and canal system. And it's full of all sorts of local, you know, native fish and some that are not. But, you know, we can't be scared in our own backyards. So, you know, and again, I just wanted to bring that up here. And I don't know if there's something we can do through the, what's the system we have, the click and the thing to report stuff?

Oh, Summit Connect? Summit Connect, yeah. You can certainly report the spotting of,

I don't know if we can see what kind of data we have, calls within the last couple of years from the police department and the other system, other people reporting it. I mean, I guess I could reach out to FWC and see if anybody can provide me any information. Or maybe from your end, it would be a lot easier to get.

Thank you for sharing that. OK. I've got one as the app. Thank you.

Not to mention the iguanas. When I first moved in, there was hundreds, if not thousands of iguanas. I don't see that many iguanas anymore. I know they're invasive. Not everybody likes them. Come to Saber Creek. You'll see them there. Just like the Muscovy ducks. They're not cute, so people don't really care too much. But they're still being, you know, this thing is, you know, they're in the waterways, and this thing has run out of food.

Yeah, so I'm sorry for your loss. I think I say that for half of all us up here We I think we need to have the managers the attorney follow up with FWC. I know I've gotten plenty of calls From folks before typically the response we've gotten is if it's not being something acting in a threatening way towards people They're not a candidate for removal But we can certainly find out what we can do if it's just as they catch them and rerelease them start putting on a tracking mechanism and so we know where they are real time, that would certainly be an enhancement. But I think we need to do a little bit more homework on our side, and we can certainly consider the solution you can offer. I think it's one worth studying.

Colleagues, any comments you want to share? No?

OK. Appreciate your time. I appreciate it. We'll stay in touch. Thank you. Yeah, we're going to open up the floor for public remarks. You can speak on any item you'd like in a second. I just want to recognize him first, since we knew he had this recent incident. OK, with that, let's open the floor for public remarks. I'M GOING TO GO IN THE ORDER OF FOLKS WHO HAVE SIGNED UP, IF THAT'S OKAY. AND WE WILL START WITH JORGE. PLEASE COME FORWARD.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, COMMISSIONERS, MADAM COMMISSIONER, CITY ATTORNEY, AND CITY MANAGER. I'M HERE AGAIN. FIRST OFF, LET ME START BY SAYING THE LAST TIME I WAS HERE, WHICH IS THE LAST MEETING, I was concerned. This is all new to me. I moved into your area because it's amazing. It fills every joy that I want in my life. And I moved from Los Angeles to take care of my parents. So immediately after the meeting, the next day, I believe, I got a call from the mayor. That left me with an impression that I matter, that we matter. And walked around the city, gave me time. And I'm not saying this to pat you on the back in front of people. I'm just saying thank you. It was magnificent. The whole morning, like an hour, walked around and we talked about the city and how beautiful it is and what can we do to help with our situation in front of the Valencia condominiums, which is on 6001 Southwest 70th Street. And there's 301 units in there. One is a leasing unit, a leasing office. So today, I come to you with a little bit of an upset because it's gotten worse. I thought it would get better. The Valencia condominiums are directly across from 5959 Southwest 71st Street, and that's where the construction project is. I believe it's called Somiwak?

That's correct.

Right.

What concerns me is that now that where we live has no meaningful noise mitigation, no dust mitigation, or other protecting neighboring residents from any of the impact from this construction. Do you know that? That by regulation they should have, and it should be documented, and it's not even being used. They're not even scrubbing the streets. Nothing. The dust goes willy-nilly wherever it wants to, and some of our residents have pulmonary disease and are experiencing distress, and it's not okay. They have to do these things by regulation, and they're not. And they, I mean the construction project manager, whoever's managing the project and ownership. I would like the city to tell us what mitigation measures are required under the project's approvals, permits, development agreement, and applicable city requirements, and whether those protections are actually in place and being enforced. Notice I didn't say are happening. Are they in place? They could be in place and they're not using it because nobody's enforcing it. If I call the police out, which I did this past week, immediately they came out and handled the situation based on working an hour and 15 minutes past their curfew time. That means an hour and a half was taken from our peaceful living. And that's not OK. If you set an hour, if you tell a police officer they're supposed to manage it, if Coastal Enforcement's going to manage it, then guess what? Then you better hold to your times. That's your deal. You have to abide by the times. But they don't. This is directly after, confronted. So they're not changing. They're getting worse. So this is not simply a temporary inconvenience that should be dismissed. As part of construction for the people living directly across the street, including children, elderly residents, families, long-time homeowners, prolonged noise, dust, disruption can have a cumulative lasting impact on their homes, their lives, their quality of life, and their health. When you can and you have a chance, I want you to go tell the people that have pulmonary disease that it's okay that they struggle breathing, because that's what's happening, because that's the underlying statement that's unsaid. So there are reasonable measures that can be taken, meaningful sound barriers, which are part of regulations, Stronger dust controls, which stronger than what? Nothing? Stronger at least something, yes? Reasonable limits on disruptive work and direct communication with the residents most affected. We have not even ever received a letter that this was going to go on, ever. It was never sent to our 301 units. So I don't know if the city received any communication. we have not and we're directly across the street no notice so i'm asking for the commission to help bring the developer the appropriate city officials and affected residents to the table and to establish meaningful mitigation and protections i'll be there you tell me whatever time it is i'm at the table i will be there whatever time it doesn't matter because If it's something that's happening, you've approved it, right? You've approved it. And it's impacting us. That's it. They can do whatever they want? No, they have guidelines. They have laws. They have regulations. And they're not being abided by. So I ask you that you do something about it. And I'm going to hand off to the city clerk what I just talked about so you don't have to remember. Thank you, we appreciate that. It'll be easier for you to look up laws or regulations. And one last thing that is very quick. We need to acknowledge one thing, and it's the brief recognition of women's progress. And I say that because we lost someone, Gloria Steinem, last week on the 2nd. And she is magnificent. And she has helped every woman in the United States access to credit mortgages. Equal opportunity in education and employment. Protections from pregnancy discrimination. Equal opportunity in athletics for women. All of this is for women by Gloria Steinem, who is the lead person that led this drive. Greater representation in leadership in government. And the reason I say that is because I honor you. We have Madame Bonnich here with us, and I honor you because maybe there wouldn't be a you here if Gloria Steinem hadn't.

Some people would probably be really happy about that, but I thank you very much.

No, and it should be said. It should be said. It's not the norm that somebody stands up here and speaks to one individual gender in such a way. But we have this great human being that did all of these great things for ladies, for women. So lastly, I'll just give you an idea. On this commission, we have the lovely Madam Commissioner Bonnich. serve as mayors we have mayor karen bass of los angeles who i am a friend with and i've spoken to various times they become judges justice katanji brown jackson They serve in Congress, Senator Elizabeth Warren. They lead corporations, Sherry Lansing. She was the first American, first woman, to head up a major film studio in the world. And she started as a schoolteacher in Watts. And she was the CEO of Paramount Studios. I worked for her for six years.

I respect her will to speak. We need to wrap up. I apologize. Thank you.

I'll wrap it up. And we shouldn't wrap up the fact that women are very important. We should continue to celebrate them. So I think we should honor women like Madam Commissioner, that she's doing her part for women in all our communities. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. And if I can ask you a quick question, were you contacted by the developer yet or not?

Zero. You've been the only one that cares.

Okay. I'll follow up again. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely.

May I approach and give the documents? Please.

Yes, please leave with our clerk. Okay. Next on the list, Elizabeth Holtz, please. Good evening. Good evening.

Good evening, honorable assembly of the South Miami City. I don't come here to complain, because like the word says, complain is too plain. But I would like to make a positive suggestion, because like you know, we have this construction going on now, and I see it really as positive, because I like, you know, the projects, you know, related group is doing, and I think it's also important to have, you know, that the workforce has a nice place to stay. But we will have four years in front of us. And I spoke to the related group, to the manager, to the construction manager. His name is Mr. Ricardo Damas. And he's a great guy, very open. And he helped already that the street, you understand, is not full of their cars. The street are parking inside the premises. It was a great gift, you understand, especially for me because I live very close there and also for all the other neighbors. But there is something. When I was there and spoke to him, I asked him because my son was living when he studied economics. He lived in New York on Roosevelt Island in a building from a related group. And I asked him, I said, when they did this there in New York, I mean, it was much more protected. There were higher fences. And he said, we would, he said, can you do this? And then he said, there's a problem. He said, because South Miami is not really, you understand, doing this because the standards for the fence are only, you know, I think, I don't know how many.

So let me stop right there. This is not a project. And I apologize that you're living There's circumstances you're going to have a 15-story building across from your single-family home.

It's OK. It's OK. I'm not scared about that. No, I know. But it's not OK.

It's not what we wanted. It's not what we've planned for. It's not what we would have allowed. The truth is it's being built on county property under the Live Local Act. And so it's being built under those standards. And so I just want to clarify because we get these complaints because we're the first line of contact and we're probably the most responsive line of contact in terms of the governments that you will access. The fence standards are standards that the county has allowed.

The county, you mean from Miami-Dade County? Miami-Dade County, yes. But we are here in South Miami, so I am a resident also.

No, and I agree, and I just want to be clear, because not just for your benefit, but with respect to this project, and we're happy to get you in contact with the right people, but we have no regulatory authority. We have no permitting authority over that project. It's all being done. At the county under a state law. And so again, we talked about this the last time I've actually written an article about it and community newspapers. If you go outside, you can pick up a copy. About the cost of the affordability at the cost of local control. That's what we're all dealing with here with this with this act. And so I'm happy if you want to just to spare you the time. If you want to, I'll be happy to have the clerk give you my cell phone number. I'll connect you with the appropriate office so they can get, if you want, I'm assuming you're asking for a taller fence to provide you a little bit more protection.

But they said, you know, a related group said that South Miami, you understand, is responsible for that. That's, you know, otherwise I wouldn't come.

No, and I respect that, but often the sponsor is as misinformed as anyone else. And so, to the city attorney, again, I just want to make sure that I'm speaking facts into the record here. We don't want you to get the right information. Sure. Do we have any regulatory authority over the permitting of the fence on the construction site being governed by the county under the Local Act?

Yeah, the entire site is rapid transit zone. Correct. And it is regulated by the county. Okay, so...

So they may have to go to a meeting there, correct?

We would, but rather we'll save you the trouble of having to do that. Let's get you to the right office so that you can get some assistance, and I'm sure happy to follow up. So, Madam Clerk, if you can take yourself a number or a good number for you, for myself, and the city manager to follow up on, we'll get you to the right person.

I need to say a little thing, you know, because this is also in the interest of the South Miami City, because you have a school there, and you have a little clinic there, and they're all the time children.

Correct.

So when they play ball, they don't care. If the defense is only like this, they get over it. And I think also they need more protection there. Anyhow, thank you so much. Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you.

OK, Suzanne Kaptur? Good evening. Welcome.

Mayor Fernandez commissioners other officers of South Miami South Miami residents and other plant friends Thank you for listening to these words. I come here to beg for the mercy for Jean Willis Park Flower and Tree Park It's very important to the city of South Miami Not only our residents and to the Tropical Flowering Tree Society, of which I am a member, but also many volunteers from many organizations have worked to make it the beautiful place it is today, from South Miami High, Florida International University, the University of Miami, church youth groups, other things like that. The arbors, for example, that are on the two sides giving access to the park from not the street, were built by South Miami High construction arts students and installed in the park, and they host beautiful vines now. One of them is no longer accessible because the park is closed in that corner. The park has many rare plants, large, beautiful specimen trees. It's a peaceful, quiet place with a lovely gazebo and picnic benches. And the canopy that is provided by the large trees is important not only for shade, which is wonderful in our hot climate, but it fixes a lot of carbon and does the ecosystem service of cleaning the air for us. And we are in this location, kind of near US 1. We're a heavily urbanized spot. So we can't deny that the big trees are important. People who say we can move the trees, I don't think that they can be moved successfully. Often people say they can be moved, and it takes at least a year to root, prune, and all this stuff. And then they often die anyway. And if they're replaced with smaller trees to replace the canopy, that amount of carbon fixation, air cleaning, is much, much smaller, because the volume of a big tree is so important. So I think this is a park that could be a beautiful feature in the new developments that are being planned to redo City Hall, the library, all this area. And so the residents who will live in that structure would appreciate the park too, not only we current residents. So please save this park. We would appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next on the list, Dr. Phillips, you're recognized.

I have two pieces of documents that I would like to give to you. One of them is 187 signatures on a statement saying we would like to protect and keep the Jean Willis Park where it is. The plans that I have seen, and they date back about a year now, show Jean Willis Park being protected taken over – that space being taken over by a garage and then an apartment building. And I don't know why, but putting Jean Willis Park or relocating Jean Willis Park next to the Metrorail, which is part of the plan, is going to make it be – first of all, those trees, which Suzanne just mentioned, would cost about ten thousand to twenty five thousand dollars each if it were properly root pruned over a year and transplanted but there are trees with shallow roots that you can't do that to if those sixty one plants that are part of that property are going to be relocated and they're going to spend the Whomever I guess the developer plans to spend that since he she it is going to relocate the park They're going to be spending could be up to a million some odd dollars a million five hundred thousand dollars to do the to do it with no real you know, guarantee that the trees are gonna survive. Also, because of the prevailing winds, which are coming from the east most of the time, all of the fumes from US-1 blow right into that area, so that the people who might be sitting there, exercising there, enjoying the park, not only have the noise, which we in my area can still hear a half a mile away, not only do they have the noise, they also have the toxic fumes. Now, having an underline next to toxic fumes would be fine, or next to US-1 would be fine, and will be fine when everybody's driving an electric car. So I don't know when that'll happen. To move that park is not reasonable. It is much more reasonable to put the garage and the apartment building right next to the metro rail, just like they are doing further up north along US 1. The soundproof windows will help. And if you put the garage on the ground floors, by the time the sound gets up there, it's going to be diminished. To put that park there is ridiculous. And so I really, really, again, as I have before, ask you to rethink the plan that this developer has submitted to you. I don't know why, with all those fancy curvy buildings they've got, they can't put fancy curvy buildings next to the Metro Rail and leave that park where it is. It's one of the two historical things that exist in South Miami. One of them is the Silver Martin Building and the other is that park. The Silver Martin Building, your plans have no indication about what's going to happen with that. And again, I don't understand why the history of this town have to be destroyed because it's inconvenient for somebody to build around it or incorporate it into an adequate design. There's no reason why that building can't be a gem in the middle of a setting. No reason why that park can't be the entryway into these humongous apartment buildings and office buildings that are being planned. I don't understand. And since no one else has had to keep by the time, I will keep by the time.

Thank you very much. I appreciate you keeping to the time. Mr. John Plank, you're next, please. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, John Palencha, 7641 Southwest 65th Place, mayor, commissioners, and other officials. I'm here, again, to speak in support of leaving Jean Willis Park as it is. I think South Miami has a lot of things that we're proud of, and we're proud of our legacy, and I think that Jean Willis Park is definitely part of our legacy. It was originally conceived by a group of plant enthusiasts, including Larry Shockman, who was the director of the Kampong for years, and other plant enthusiasts. The dedication little... monument there, which I'm sure you've all looked at, has the names of Jean Willis on it, Cathy McCann. I believe Anna Price's name is on there. We were talking about great women here in at the City of South Miami and certainly Commissioner Bonnich, there have been many women that have gone before and sat in the Mayor's seat here, including Sally Phillips who just spoke. We can't keep throwing away our legacy. Everything is not disposable. This is, you know, we've got to say, wait a second. This is important. This place is important. These plants are important. This space of quiet repose is important. Moving closer to US-1 I don't think is going to improve the situation at all, whether or not the trees survive is up for debate. So I think that we can be more creative. I think we can really be more creative. We can say, hey, these things are important, and be an example to maybe some of the other people municipalities that may be throwing away these kind of special places. I'm sure the creativity of this developer can see and improve the plan to incorporate this special place that we have As a continued place of refuge. It's it's it's an amenity That I think can't be really replaced and and it's super important to the city and and our redevelopment so thank you very much for your time and I I think we can do better. Thank you.

Thank you. John John. We're always again I invite you to have a further conversation with me or any other commissioners directly to talk about alternatives I know we had some conversation, I think, with Susan and others, but we haven't had a chance to sit down. The goal is to, frankly, just address this issue. Right now we have a lovely park that doesn't get utilized at all. I mean, we can have staff speak to the facts. I actually had them track utilization over a period of time. I agree it's lovely. The goal here is to try to create a green space that not only preserves the canopy, but also brings the quiet repose for people to enjoy. Right now that's missing. But thank you for your comments. Joy Klein, you're next.

Good evening, county staff, commissioners, and mayor. My name is Joy Klein. I'm moved to South Miami, and sorry, my address now is 6817 Southwest 83rd Court. I'm just on the other side, your neighbor, but I've lived in South Miami for 30 years. And I'm just off sunset, so I'm in South Miami usually at least once a day. I moved here in 1985 after working for the Botanical Gardens and Parks for the government of Jamaica. I moved here to work for Fairchild Gardens for two years where I was a horticulturist. And for the last 40 years, I have worked for Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources. I am a botanist or horticulturist and was one of the first internationally certified arborists in the state of Florida. I have run the tree permitting program for the county for many years, and I can tell you, relocating trees, if they're more than two years old, is nothing but a cash cow. You have 95% failure rate. The trees will die. And a lot of those old trees, you will not be able to even find those species anymore. So I have personally invested lots of time and money. I have planted at least four memorial trees there. I was with some of the first groups that formed in Miami, the Flower and Tree Society, Million Tree Miami, Adopt-A-Tree. I have planted my own trees there, and I have also spent a lot of money because I was the silent partner of Commissioner Walsh. I was his tree supplier, but don't let that get out. So I have considerable interest in South Miami and that park. I know there are human cremains there from some of the trees. So to me, it's kind of a sacred spot. If it's not being utilized, maybe the city needs to promote it more. This is the only tropical flowering tree park in the continental United States. Do you realize that? You need to promote it. That's why people don't know it's there. It's a hidden gem. When I lived in South Miami, I could barely, I heard Metrorail. When I moved just over to Glivore Heights, guess what? I still hear Metrorail. So what we need are more trees to help buffer that area in the green space. I also am on the front ground. I work for the environmentally endangered lands. I'm the one who sees what is happening with climate change and trying to stop it. We have moved to another climate zone. Removing trees is not the thing we need to be doing right now. We need to be planting more. And putting a little stick in the ground is not going to sequester the kind of carbon that a 40-year-old, 50-year-old, 60-year-old tree does. I also was involved with the park after Hurricane Andrew. You can see I helped Fairchild come up, and I also worked at that park. I want you to know that when trees fall over or they're relocated, 95% of them die. Please don't attempt this tree massacre. I also want to caution you in that I spoke today with the Arbor Day Foundation, and I have spoken in the past to the state forester. There's a very good chance that the city will be stripped of their Tree City USA by making this move. You need to be more creative. If you want to make more things accessible to the park, put in a bathroom, put in a drinking fountain. Promote the park. Don't move it, please. Thank you.

Please note, we don't allow clapping. If you want to put your hands up in agreement, that's fine. Ma'am? Ms. Klein, if you can come back to the rostrum.

I just have one question for you because I think I misheard you. Did you say... Human remains?

Yes, cremains.

Cremated remains.

There are memorial trees in that park. And I've heard the rumor through the years that some of Jean Willis's family has sprinkled her. They're ashes. OK. I just thought I missed. Ash is good for trees.

I thought I misheard you.

But to me, that also makes it sacred. I mean, would you build over your grandparents' graves? ma'am that's a talk for another day but but anyway the way to the way to do it is promote it put some more amenities in there a drinking fountain would be great also for people's dogs but i've never seen any promotion except a tiny little youtube from the city yeah about this park people don't know it's here and it's beautiful so please thank you please think again about trying to relocate thank you for your comments uh miss deborah powell you recognized

I'm here just to speak as a concerned community leader in reference to a bill that was recently signed on April 26 by our governor SB 1134, and I know that you're familiar with it, but I'm just going to kind of give you a quick overview of what that bill basically says, and then I'll talk about what my main concern is. That Senate Bill 1134 prohibits counties and municipalities from funding, promoting, or taking official action related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And the reason I'm asking this question, because I'm very concerned, as the president on behalf of the South Miami Black Cultural Affairs Foundation, we've done a number of cultural events and cultural programming and so I'm very concerned as to what will be the impact, if you will, of this particular law and how will it locally impact the kinds of programming and cultural events that we have. And so on that note, If perhaps I could hear from Ms. Powell, if we could have him address it for us.

Oh, wonderful. Our city attorney. Would anything that is in that prohibit us from doing anything that we have historically been doing?

Yeah, the big categories. The city cannot fund or promote directly or indirectly or take any official action, such as enforcing ordinances, resolutions, or any policies. as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion. That's obviously a very broad, very hard to decipher subject. It has not been tested in the courts. So every city is struggling with exactly this. This is not unique to South Miami. There's another provision that says a municipality may not expend any funds. regardless of source, to establish, sustain, support, or staff a diversity equity inclusion office, or to employ, contract, or otherwise engage a person who serves in that capacity. ANOTHER CATEGORY, ANY MEMBER OF THE GOVERNING BODY OF A MUNICIPALITY, WELL, THAT'S JUST THE PENALTIES. AND THEN FINALLY, A MUNICIPALITY MAY NOT PROVIDE OR AUTHORIZE ITS FUNDS TO BE USED BY EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, VOLUNTEERS, VENDORS OR AGENTS TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION INITIATIVES. So these are three very broad categories, limitations on what the city can do. What we have advised is, just generally speaking, is to try to address, try to promote things without similar cultural activities, keeping them away from race-based activities. CLASSIFICATIONS AND RELIGIOUS-BASED. I KNOW IT'S DIFFICULT. I UNDERSTAND. BUT THIS IS A CHALLENGE THAT ALL OF US ARE HAVING.

ARE WE DISCUSSING THE DEI STATUTE?

YES, GENERALLY. QUICKLY TO THE CITY ATTORNEY. BUT THAT'S ONCE IT COMES INTO EFFECT IN JANUARY.

JANUARY 1ST.

Now it hasn't come into effect. So one of the things that, well, in discussions with the mayor and with James McCance is trying to get this done before that date to, for example, for the Unity Festival.

So I guess that was my question. Is that something that's possible? And I guess it's left up to the interpretation, if you will, of the law. And so we are very concerned as to how that will impact a lot of cultural programming in the city of South Miami. So we're asking in advance and trying to be proactive instead of reactive.

Ms. Powell, so if I could just interrupt so we don't have a long discussion. If we could, we have a sense of the activity funded historically here, including the Unity Festival, among others. If you can give us an analysis, Mr. City Attorney, of what activities would arguably be prohibited so we can come back before the next budget hearing and have an understanding and maybe take some action either in October or November and address the concern that they have. Okay? Can we proceed? Okay. One last question.

Is it possible just to kind of hear briefly from each commissioner what their interpretation of that, how that will impact?

I think it's best if we're guided by counsel at this point. If I could just demur on that and say, I think it's best that we get an interpretation from counsel as to what is permitted or not before we all chime in with our respective opinions, which frankly may not be informed by reading the statute, certainly not mine.

OK. All right.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm going to go out of order. There's a young woman who needed to come in and speak. She's got a special needs child at home. So I have to give her the floor. Please come forward. Again, your name and address for the record, please.

Good evening, Mayor, commissioners, everyone present. My name is Deborah . I've been in South Miami now for, well, since around 2018. Prior to this, I was a resident of Surfside. I grew up in Miami. And I'm an advocate for protecting the environment and protecting the wildlife. Fell in love with our home at 63 81 Southwest 62nd Terrace because of the lovely waterway the lovely view and I do have two kids one is fighting a lot of special needs situations and You know, he's a nature boy. He loves sitting out there on the water and I have to tell you I was nervous and as, you know, any mama would be with that waterway. And I didn't realize how threatening it was, the situation with the crocs, until a few years ago, when I personally called Fish and Wildlife. I don't even know if I said my name, Deborah Simadevilla. And I understand government. In Surfside, I served in the Sustainability and Resiliency Commission Committee, and I was a Basically, we created an ordinance to protect our ocean from construction debris on the person that fought the Four Seasons when they contaminated our beach with 14,000 cubic yards of contaminated sand. So I am a wildlife and nature girl. But this is outrageous what has happened. And as our elected officials, I am asking you, I'm imploring you to advocate for us Number one, to ask that this crocodile and others get taken out of the water. And I will tell you why. I know we have our rules. I know we have our laws, federal laws. But you know, this law is outdated. This law, it needs to serve the people. There's a matter of safety, health, and welfare here. And years ago, I called Fish and Wildlife, as I observed, maybe this same croc, maybe it's another one, just gingerly get up in the lawn of other neighbors. I called the police. The policeman came. We literally stood in front of the, in the yard of the neighbor, and I took pictures. I begged Fish and Wildlife to come out because I knew a tragedy would occur at some point. I just saw how comfortable this animal was with getting up on our, you know, my neighbor's land. And now this happens. Now, that Amazing creature as majestic as it could be it's not thinking Whether it's an animal a child an adult. They're not afraid It was right in front of my one right on the wide area of the lake and it goes right there right in front of Us and it has hunted Our natural, our native ducks, our birds, I see it, okay? We have guys building a bridge and that guy goes all around them. I've seen it, okay? This is another tragedy waiting to happen. I begged Fish and Wildlife to come and get it then and they basically wrote me off. And I believe it is a responsibility of our government to take charge on this. How many tragedies need to occur? I support my neighbor. We're not living in the South Miami jungles. There's a municipality. Yes, we need to protect wildlife, but we need to protect human beings and pets as well. So I am asking you, begging you, to please, If you could, advocate for us. Speak with state level, federal level. Listen, nothing is impossible. Me, little Debbie, created a law to protect our beaches so that developers have to put in clean sand. We can do this. We are begging you to please make sure that Fish and Wildlife comes out to get this guy. Because I just saw him the other day again in front of our house. And what I wanted to tell you is this. I have observed a multitude of children swimming in that lake, in that water, right across from us. Kids dive in. I think there's a house that's like a UM house, something like that. There's always kids in that water. We used to paddleboard. We used to kayak. My son sits there and chills out. It's his zone out area. And that 14-footer can very easily reach up and grab him. OK? We are paying a lot of taxes. And yes, this is important, what he stated. But they need to come out, and they need to get this guy. And by the way, he's not the only one. OK? So I think it's a responsibility of our elected officials to step in and represent us. Okay? And take charge. It can't happen again. So please, I'm asking you, please. And I will do whatever it takes. I called. I begged. They wrote me off. And now this happens. You know, this guy's pet here, my beautiful neighbor is here. It mattered. This is a family pet. It's not a native bird or a duck that's sitting there. No, it's not. So we need you guys to represent us in this. Please, could you do that for us? Could you approach Fish and Wildlife and demand that they come out and get this animal before it kills a human being? Because that's what's going to happen next. And I hope, I pray to God that it doesn't happen, but it's very close to happening. Because I've observed it many times happening. It gets up in our yards. Okay, guys? Thank you for coming on. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your help. And by the way, the native birds, the native ducks, they've disappeared. Disappeared. It's not those. Those guys aren't native. It's the other ones. Disappeared completely. Thank you. They matter too. Anyways, God bless you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you for calling me. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Good night. Jason Lopez, you're next.

Hello, Jason Lopez, 7730 South of 65th Place. Good to see you guys again, everyone. On behalf of the Jean Willis Park, while I know that trees can be moved for high prices, there is truth that over time, as the storms come, those trees tend to fail and the investment is lost. And it doesn't really make great financial sense. On that note, finding new parkland is difficult, as we all know. And there is an argument being made against this space and that it's underutilized. And I respect that, and I would agree that it is underutilized. But that's partially because it's surrounded by a police station and a city hall. If it's surrounded by residents and tall buildings, those people are going to need a space. And as opposed to pointing to this space Misused or underused it could be reimagined into a space that actually benefited these future South Miami residents that we are all waiting to welcome to the city and so it is a space it is central it exists it has history and preserving it is a lot easier to do on paper while they're still drafting the plans for the space versus going back as we've seen. There's some things we lose in the city because things move too fast. We're at a space now where we can design around this building. we can save the city hall building, which I know I grew up in this neighborhood, and I have a lot of pride in that building. I think it's awesome. We're planning to keep it, so. Yeah, it's one of the coolest things. And the mystery there, too. So it should definitely be incorporated. And I will go ahead and I will add to this. In the South Miami Library parking lot are huge mahogany trees. And I would say now is a great time to start planning ahead and making sure that those mahogany trees serve the future residents of these buildings that are being built. The Jean Willis Park continues to be a space that honors the past. They say Larry Shockman. You've got Joy Klein sitting here. She is like, we all owe her a great debt of gratitude for helping this county have trees in it. There's some people here. And so that space, it carries a lot of value. And it's really easy to send it over to the metro. The developer would be happy to do that because it makes their job easier in designing it. And it does make for a less desirable space. We have the underline. Let's have something separate. Let's preserve it. And let's think forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Jason. Levi Kelly, you're next. Hello, sir.

How you doing? Good to see you. Thank you for having me. I'm here tonight in a two-fold, I guess, position. I'm the business manager for the Black Cultural Affairs Foundation. And I'm also a longtime resident of this city. I'm probably one of the few that was born and raised here in South Miami. And I'm concerned. that we're losing not only our identity in terms of history in the community I live in, but I'm concerned that we're not being heard. And I think it's time that we raise our voice. Unfortunately, it is crazy law that's coming out is basically trying to make us disappear. And I say us, I'm talking about black people. It hurts. It's sad. We've got so many people in this little community that's contributed so much to making this a vibrant city. Unfortunately, the stories are not to be told. We have Hall of Fame baseball players. We have football players. We have doctors. We have lawyers. We have, you know, you name it. And as all the foundation started at J.R. Lee School, which has unfortunately been ready to be erased, another part of our history. I went to school at J.R. Lee. I'm 82 years old. Eighty-two. And I can tell you some of the best days of my life was at that little school. Unfortunately, most of the people that's living here now never realized that was a community school. Oh, that's where they sent all the bad kids. It's things like that that our organization is trying to keep alive. We've done so much with so little. And it's just sometimes it gets to the point where you just want to say, you know, I give up. But that's not in my DNA. And I will fight to the last breath to protect the history of my community. It's there. It's vibrant. It's good, wholesome. we got some good people still in that community we're embracing the change it's changing fast and we want to embrace that change but we also want to make sure that our legacy is there that story needs to be told and it's just not being recognized right now so i just wanted to put that out there and i echo what President said in terms of our concerns about the DEI situation and hope that We're able to have some good Honest conversations to come up with ways in which we can make things happen continue to happen as a community Thank you.

Thank you, sir Mr. James McCants Good evening.

I'm going to echo the sentiments of the chair of the Black Cultures Affair and also Mr. Levi Kelly. I want to start off by thanking Chip for your staff. I just want to point out Parks and Recreation for what they have been doing for our organizations and our functions. We just had an estate planning workshop, a series of two Saturdays. We did it at the senior citizens building. It was well attended. Magnificent. Your staff did a great job. That's just one of many things that all your staff do, public works, the police department, everything. So kudos to you. Next thing I want to talk about is Dr. Anna Price. And we talk about history being lost. We're talking about a park that was named after her. and a plaque that should be put on that part. We had some talks and still up for some more discussion. Maybe something more can be done to recognize the past history of other people, along with the first and only, I believe, black mayor in this whole history of the city of South Miami. something that should be up for discussion. And I heard from her son. He's concerned about the lack thereof of doing something in honor of his mom. So I wanted to bring that up. The next thing I want to talk about is the gentleman that has given Christmas trees to us every year for a long time. I'm talking about thousands of Christmas trees. And if anybody has been in South Miami and come across the corner of 60th Avenue and 64th Street, they know what I'm talking about around Christmas. We have hundreds of free Christmas trees that we give away to communities every year. Anyway, this gentleman passed away all of a sudden. And he has done so much for us. His name is Chris Winkler. Now, I was going to have his wife and his sons come here today so we can recognize him, but I'm holding off so maybe we can do something special to honor this guy. All the Christmas trees that we have ever gotten for so long come from this gentleman. And he's reached in his pocket to even help homeless women living in cars with their children. And we have so many stories that I can tell you about Mr. Winkler. But we need to do something to honor him and what he's done to put smiles on people's faces, the kids happy. And the trees that he donated were so magnificent, their flock, all different kind of colors, green, blue, purple. It's just a beautiful thing that he's done for all of these years, not just one year, two years, three years, a lot of years. So collectively, if we can, let's do something to honor him through his wife and his child, something publicly again. Okay? Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Sedona Webb, good evening.

Hi. This is actually my first time giving public comment, so super excited. I'm here to sign that petition to bring it from 187 signatures to 188 for you. I'm also here for Barbara and Levi and Cultural Affairs against SB 1134. DEI is of the utmost importance to us, and sitting with our hands tied is not an option. You should break free, protect your people, be an example of why local government is important. But I actually came here for Jean Willis Park. More development, more people. I can't even ride my bike through South Miami. There's barely any bike racks. It's the city of pleasant living if you're a car that likes to sit in traffic or someone who loves the urban heat island effect. I live closer to Van Smith Park, and no one goes there either. And I'm there quite a lot, and I frequent the mini library there where I gather and give back stories that have taught me something. I'm a public health professional who specializes in understanding the synergy between environmental health and human health. Currently, both are lacking here in South Florida in general, and more development is not the answer. I currently work in the climate sector, and I'm here to let you know that in Miami, we are screwed. Through my training and my basic empathy for nature and my community, I have learned that there exists empirical evidence that supports green spaces' positive effects on human health and well-being. There is less empirical evidence that pavement poured over land that was once promised to us has any benefit other than poisoning the soil and posturing luxury in a city whose citizens increasingly can't afford luxury and are already so far removed from nature. We are so far removed from one another and our communities, going from our homes, to our cars, to the traffic, to work, to traffic once more, to publics, to home. To speak to your point about utilization, our sidewalks start and stop in random places. The streets are dangerous due to traffic and the lack of public transportation. It's no wonder that you can't get to a park. Commissioner Hernandez, you yourself said that new development should be concentrated in areas with the infrastructure to support it in your article, which I thank you for. Well, sorry for everyone who develops in Miami, but by the end of the century, this entire area will be flooded more often than not. That means way more alligators and way more dead dogs. And the solution is not more pavement, more construction, and more noise. It's taking care of what we already have. Enough buildings sit empty and unused. Stop the land grab. Developers are coming for every last bit of green space. And there will be no place where we can just be outside of our apartments and cafes that charge us $12 for a coffee for you to exist in some semblance of community. keep the park the people will come if they can get to it i currently work in the climate sector and we are trying to get more people outside more parks more people out to just exist as a public health professional sedona webb who lives at 715 southwest 59th avenue i think that's my address there's so many numbers i suggest more parks to gather community i suggest more trees to protect us i suggest not succumbing to developers and i suggest building a miami for miamians thank you thank you certainly did a great job

Elvis Cruz you're next Elvis Cruz 631 Northeast 57th Street commissioners You have a fabulous opportunity to do something wonderful tonight. You can show your voters that you care more about preserving their quality of life than you do about the concrete cartel. Some people cynically say that this is all a done deal, that politicians get campaign contributions from developers and their minions, which greatly influences the decision making process. Tonight, you can prove those cynics wrong. You can do the right thing and protect this wonderful park from destruction and show that you have not succumbed to the plague of developer greed. Some people see parks as vacant lots for construction. If I said that instead of building the high rise at the park, you should build it immediately across Sunset Drive from City Hall, you'd probably look at me funny and say there's something already there. And you'd be right. Yes, there is already something there, just like there's already something at Jean Willis Park. Parks are something, and they are certainly something worth protecting, even if they are not vertical concrete. Building high-rises on parkland is a sort of political sleaziness that happens in other cities, like the city of Miami, where they want to build high-rises on Watson Island Park and Allen Morris Park. But this is South Miami, the city of pleasant living. Surely here in South Miami, the city commission will seize this opportunity to show that they place a higher value on the beauty and history of this city than they do on enabling developer profits. I look forward to singing your praises when you vote to save Jean Willis Park. Thank you. Thank you. John Edward Smith, you're next.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the commission, city administration, John Edward Smith, a resident of South Miami for 52 years and a business owner since 1983. I have a couple of things to address. And then you're not going to be opening. I mean, number 10 is off the agenda. So if I want to speak to it now, speak to it now. All right. So I'm going to add a couple of seconds on that. Number one, one of the legacies and fine traditions that we have in South Miami is the Parade of the Elves. I had the pleasure of being involved in the first one back 43 years ago. I know it's 43 years because my daughter was six months old at the time, and she sat next to me as I drove the Grand Marshall car down Sunset Drive with Skipper Chuck. and one of the things that always attracts me for parades are bands and one of the things that we've had a situation with in terms of funding with Dade County Schools a number of these programs are cut I have and am going to continue to support having the South Miami Marching Cobras in the parade. And I have a check to present to the city in amount of $500 so that we can have our Marching Cobras in their uniforms, which takes about $500 to clean. So I'll be doing that. Second item, dealing with your consent agenda. I'm pleased to support. the mobile food truck. As the managing director of the Dr. John T. McDonald Foundation, I'm pleased to say that actually a couple of our grantees were presented today. We support the Miami Diaper Bank. And coming this Thursday, our board will be approving a grant to the children's clinic as well. And we have supported Caring for Miami for a number of years. We support their mobile dental clinic, and we support their mobile pantry. So it's really great. Thank you for that, John. Thank you. It's one of the things that I get a lot of joy out of is to write and speak to these directors of programs and say, I'm pleased we're going to be giving you $50,000 this year. It's a lot of fun to be able to do that. You've heard a lot of people talk about the Jean Willis Park. I reiterate that. I'm concerned about that. We also have in addition to flowering trees. There's a memorial tree planted for Dr. Not dr. Jay Beckman commissioner Jay Beckman who was unfortunately Murdered so that we have a tree planted in that park for him nowhere in this papers deals with the disposition of the silver martin building and that is a point of concern and has been a point of concern of mine for many years one of the first iterations for redeveloping the City Hall campus was that the Gene Willis, excuse me, that the Silver Martin building would be where it is and that there would be a park in front of it like an apron for the Silver Martin building. I am concerned because over the course of a couple of years, I've heard a couple of different things about the Silver Martin building. Number one, it would stay where it is. Number two, the developers would have the money to move it. Well, I told you before, speak to Don Selesnick, who was the director of the Dade Heritage Trust, who tried to move a coral rock building, and it collapsed on the truck. I mean, you're not going to move it. And I heard from one of the commissioners that we're going to use parts of the building as an entrance feature to the new city hall, and we'll put a plaque there. And I've heard more recently that we're going to move it and reconstruct it there.

I think, let's take a step back.

When are we going to respect our history? How are we going to enshrine our history and preserve those things that are important to this community? The Silver Martin building not only speaks to our history, but also the history of the United States with the WPA projects. There's a lot to learn. There's a lot to learn. So I think this is an important evening for you, even though the item is being withdrawn tonight. But you need to be looking at A plan that includes a park that new residents in these apartment buildings would appreciate. I heard from somebody today that they have lunch at the gazebo that they work at the interval. And they have lunch in the gazebo over there. So I realize that it's not tremendous utilization. When we have more people around it will certainly be the use and I think this is an opportunity for the city to say Let's take a look at all of this all over again It's a valuable piece of property the developers will be here And you just need to lay down What it is that you want? And you want to preserve this, you want to preserve that. And give us the plan. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Michelle Litwinski is the last name we've got registered. If there's anyone else like to speak but has not signed up, please make your way to the podium. Thank you. Good evening.

Hello, good evening. Thank you for having me today. I am a neighbor of Rick. I live in the same street. I heard about it, about you guys meeting tonight, and I came over because I did move to South Miami recently, a year ago. I have little kids. My little kids throw the ball outside, and I do have a fence, but they often want to go grab the ball on the lake, and a year ago when I moved, I saw that one of the humongous crocodiles that are there. And the thing is that you can't really control kids going after a ball to grab it in the lake. And the crocodile has passed by there with the construction of the bridge. And sometimes I have guests that have little kids that are grabbing the ball by the lake. And we try to protect it. And my biggest nightmare with my kids is something happening with them, with the crocodile. My dad has called me about that and said, we shouldn't move here because of the lake, because they might not be taking care of that. And I asked the seller before I bought the home, and they said, no, there's no crocodiles here. And then after I moved here, then all the neighbors told me, no, there are. And I agree with Rick. And I think that you can't control every single thing. But we could put fences in those gates. I am a financial advisor. And I understand about spending. And I understand about budgeting. And I understand that it is not a huge cost to be able to put those fences. I think it would stop a lot. It would reduce a lot. And I came here to ask you guys, because I do have those little kids. And they are trying to go by the edge of the water. And no matter how much I try to protect them, I'm really afraid. So thank you so much, and thank you for hearing us tonight.

Thank you for coming. Is there anyone else in the chamber who would like to address this commission in public remarks? Chris, come forward. Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Christopher , 6802 Southwest 64th Avenue. I'm not going to repeat all the wonderful and positive things that have been said here tonight, especially about the park. But I'll just say a couple of things. Regarding the croc, I saw that crocodile several weeks ago. You probably have all seen the photographs. It's a toothless old alligator crocodile. If that was a bear wandering our neighborhoods, if that was a panther wandering our neighborhoods, would there be any question as to whether it was going to be allowed to stay or not? Of course not. So why? Just because it's in the water, it gets a free pass to stay.

That line of reasoning is ridiculous.

If I have a 40 by 70 foot pond in my backyard, if that crocodile ends up in my pond, Is my backyard now a native habitat? I mean, there's a certain point that sanity needs to prevail here. So I think all the suggestions that it should be relocated, not harmed, but relocated, that makes perfect sense. Regarding the proposed campus here, I've seen pictures of what has been proposed in the past. All I can say is If any of those plans come to pass, South Miami is going to look like anywhere USA. I am an architect. I take pride in designing things that are site-specific, that when you're in South Florida, that's a South Florida environment. The projects I've seen, the proposals I've seen for the South Miami campus could be anywhere USA. They're just boring. So please. Incorporate, ask for designs that are, when you come down the road, you say, oh, that's South Miami. That's something special. And add it to something special would be keeping the park. Now, my master's thesis was in adaptive reuse architecture. And that is where you take an old building and you breathe new life into it, sometimes by juxtaposing it with daring new architecture next to old, handsome, worthwhile architecture. This building... is a handsome example of the architecture of when it was originally designed. It's not an ugly building if you know anything about architecture. Why can't we come up with an adaptive reuse plan that uses this building, saves the Sylva Martin building, and does some other design that showcases, by contrast, the history that this building and the Silva-Martin building have in contrast to the daring and new, as opposed to what I've seen is just like generic, modern, boring boxes. So thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you for your time. Please come forward. Good evening.

Hello, Roberta Neway, 1236 South Alhambra Circle, Carl Gables, 33146. I live about a mile from here. So South Miami is my downtown. I remember South Miami from before they built Dayland. Happy to have you here. I go way, way back. Please keep Jean Willis Park where it is. I agree with everybody who spoke for it. And it's the safest thing to do environmentally, and it's the best thing to do for the city. It's a beautiful park. I remember when I came upon it, you're right, not many people go there. I didn't know it was there, and one day I was walking around and there it was, and I thought, this is a great place. And with the future underlined, we're going to have a lot more people walking around South Miami, and I think it's good to encourage them to go a little bit off the beaten path and see the things the city has to offer. So please ask the developer to be a little bit creative and keep Jean Willis. Thank you and have a nice evening.

Thank you for your comments. Is there anyone else in the chamber who would like to come forward and speak in public remarks? Please come on up. Good evening.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city manager, city clerk. My name is Arlene Ferris. I live at 7510 Southwest 64th Court. And I have... No notes, and I have a million thoughts and so this one may not be connected to the next So one of them is I'm so proud of my fellow South Miami residents who speak so beautifully in ways that I wish I could sit down at home and prepare remarks ahead of time about what's at stake and and and what's important and and all these reasons and um to save the park or to have more trees or to have green space or to have drainage or to you know personally i have a note on my bulletin board and it says developers roam the excuse me lobbyists roam the halls of congress lobbyists roam the halls of congress and that's how i see our federal government and i take the name developers and i replace lobbyists with developers So I was visiting family over the weekend. I'm always talking about development and too much development and what's happening to Miami. And I moved here in the early 70s. And there was nature galore. And I could hardly believe it, being from North Jersey. And I said, so I was talking. In our conversation, I said, you know, the great fortunes of the United States were made on extraction industries. We had forests. We had oil. We had rivers. We had coastlines. We took land when we needed it and eventually took it off from the people who lived here before, but that is a whole other story. And I said, now, what is the extraction industry driving development today? And I said, it's empty space. Anybody wants a piece, anybody. If they see a piece of empty space, they're going to build on it. And even New York City, where I was born, they're building, you know, buildings. I read in the New York Times, you know, it's so tall, but they only have a skinny space for it that no one is sure it's really secure. So, you know, I just turned a certain age with a zero on the end, and I've seen a lot in my life, a lot. And everything is changing. It's so mind-blowing. And I want to say that I don't envy any of you. I thank you for doing what you do. I've never wondered if you got – I mean, I have wondered, but never asked or found out if you get paid. But I can't imagine that you – Well, I guess I needn't ask. But I don't know how you fit in thinking about all these huge issues with any other kind of life. It's unbelievable to me that your brains can even take this in once every two weeks.

It's hard.

Then you see the same people, the same people. We are the ones who live close to the seat of power being you all. South Miami has 12,000 residents or 13,000. Are they ever here? No, they don't have a clue. They don't read the agenda. Just like I didn't read the agenda when I worked. And even though I lived in South Miami, I was busy. But what if we could reach the 12,000 people? Would they agree with some of the things? Maybe. But poor you guys only see us. We're like the cranky ones, you know, who keep coming. And you're going, where's the rest of the people? They may not even know where City Hall is. They live up there and over there. And I can't ever figure out the boundaries of South Miami. And one more thing about trees. I saw the new Baptist Rehab Center where there was a big bunch of oak trees. Maybe there were 20. I saw along 80th Street where there used to be little duplexes, funky little duplexes with oak trees, all gone. I don't know. I only want to encourage you. Of course, I did know Jean Willis through my work at Fairchild Tropical Garden. I did know she was a commissioner here. I did know she was a very elegant and very professional woman. But please understand that the city just cannot fall prey to every wish of a developer. We cannot give them an extra inch on less grass or bigger, you know, one and a half parking lots per car. You know, again, I don't envy you. I've never been in your position. I never will be. But anyway, you know, nature isn't important just aesthetically or anything. spiritually but drainage and you know and trees otherwise people go insane okay this is my last thought what if there was a theme park and you went to the theme park and it was a place with no nature you know maybe that would let people know how important are the things that we don't really see but they're there thank you thank you arlene anyone else in the chamber who'd like to speak

Okay. Madam Clerk, who do you have on line? I see Mayor Robina. Would you like to address this commission in public remarks? If so, please unmute yourself. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Can you hear me? We can. Yes, we can.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Commissioners, city manager, city attorney, Madam Clerk. I'll be brief, but I've got I'm going to use up my three minutes. I just want to start by thanking Enrique Pomares. It's nice to see a resident that went through something as painful as losing a pet and have taken the time not only to present the problem, but also come up. with solutions i remember sitting where you are mr mayor and you commissioners and we used to have a lot of people come with problems but no solutions i want to thank mr primaris for his research and his ideas for solution and uh mr manager i won't hold you to this because it's been a very long uh public remark session but i'd like to get with you and see how quickly I can work with you because I'm still waiting for my appointment to the Fish and Wildlife Commission. Oh, there you go. And I know that I would love to do something to make our canal safe. This thing, I don't know if you all know, I got friends in New York and New Jersey, and this news made national news in New York and New Jersey. The last thing I need is for this thing to become an embarrassment. to the city where someone gets hurt. And the issue of the ducks and stuff, oh yes, they're gone. This creature is running out of food. And finally, I remember the days when the manatees would come into the waters. And to get them out was just a job of a very patient group of people. So anyway, wanted to share that with you. My second point. This is very interesting, because I'm going to speak on the Jean Willis Park preservation. It's funny, because as you all know, my third comment's got to do with the Ludlam Trail. Here we are fighting to create another park, a linear park. But Jean Willis Park is now, I guess, up for grabs. Let me tell you something very personal to all of you. My father, Julio Robina Sr., Hand built that gazebo, hand built that gazebo for for the city and would go back and sit on it. And until he was still able to walk and so forth, would go and spend time in that gazebo. There are employees that go there. I'm going to ask you all, I don't know what the process is or the progress of what's going on, but at minimum, if the trees can be saved, please do. And I'm going to ask you for a personal favor. If there's any way to save that gazebo that my dad built by hand, because he worked for the city of South Miami in public works, I would ask that you do your best to preserve it. I hope that we can do something, like many people spoke there today, that we can salvage that park. That park is just historical. People don't come to it now, but wait till all those Class A office buildings are filled and all the development is up and running. I'm sure some people are going to walk to that park, and at worst, if it's not salvageable, for whatever reason, maybe not within your hands, please try to locate it or relocate that park somewhere else, because Gene Willis deserves to be recognized, and my dad's gazebo should definitely be kept if possible. Finally, An update. And I'll be done here, Mr. Mayor. No problem. Take your time. Yeah, on the Ludlam Trail, I want to thank, you know, two of the commissioners up there, Commissioner Rodriguez and Commissioner Kaye. They've been hands-on with this. We've been to a lot of meetings. We've had a lot of movement. And for those who don't know what the latest is, as you do know that the county finally chose a design team. Mr. Mayor, I thank you because I know you also spoke to Mayor Cava yesterday. and had a lot in convincing her that we needed to move that project that was stalled for 25 years. They have now chosen a design team, and the greatest news that I got from the Parks Department last week is that myself and Victor Dover will be involved in a meeting with the new chosen design team not to try to guide them, but to give them what they call, you know, information and historical information on what we've done. I encourage all of you there to get involved with this. This is one of a kind. Eventually it will tie into all the Miami Loop projects. And that's it for me tonight. Again, please, let's act on Mr. Primaris' ideas. We know these individuals that do this. And I think if Miami takes the lead, the next thing you're going to see is Pinecrest and Coral Gables and all these other municipalities are going to follow suit because everybody deserves to live in a safe environment with those canals. Thank you very much. I hope I kept it under my three minutes. You all have a good night.

Thank you, sir, and thank you for your advocacy on the trail. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else online, Madam Clerk, who would like to address this commission in public remarks?

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

Okay, seeing no one else, we will close public remarks at this time. And again, for anyone who'd like to discuss Union Willis Park, my cell phone number is on the city's website. I'd welcome direct conversation. Again, line of communication is always open. Thank you for coming out tonight. Mr. Manager, Mr. City Attorney, when will the item be rescheduled so we can just walk away with folks having an understanding of when that likely would come back to us?

We expect we could have first reading. We didn't have time to notice it, so it would be September 22.

I thought we were talking about bringing it back the first meeting in October, given the campaign item.

We have to come back for two readings.

Okay. So September 22nd. Let's certainly talk before then. I look forward to it. Okay? Again, thank you for everyone who came out. Moving on with the agenda, Madam Clerk, is there a motion to adopt the minutes of August 18th? I'll move them. A motion by Commissioner Bonich. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Second by Commissioner Kaye. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll on that item.

Yes. Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez? Yes. Commissioner Bonish? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Minutes past 4-0. Mr.

Manager, report please. Madam Manager, Deputy Manager, good evening.

Good evening. Last week, the city's deputy city clerk, Lydia Fernandez, celebrated her 45th year with the city of South Miami. She's very private, so she's not here tonight, but I thought it was important to acknowledge her publicly. And Ms. Payne, you can tell her privately that we acknowledge her. So congratulations to Lydia for 45 years.

Thank you, Lydia.

On the special event side, we have the Alexander Street Naming Ceremony. That's Friday, September 25 at 2 PM. That same night, we have a Murray Park movie night in the park that's featuring our police department. They'll have officer meet and greets, vehicle displays, basketball experience, and free food for the community. On Saturday, September 19, the city is participating in International Coastal Cleanup Day. So individuals will receive volunteer hours for that. That's in conjunction with PAC 280. And I'm also happy to report that we do have now a system in place to consistently welcome our new residents. As you know, we have these beautiful resident guides, and we didn't really have a way to give them out. So we've been working with our consultant that does our GIS And now every month we receive a list of new homeowners in South Miami, and our team in community affairs goes out and personally delivers these packets, welcoming them to the city. So we're happy that we have that up and running.

Thank you. Any questions? Okay.

That's awesome.

Thank you very much, Madam Manager. Mr. City Attorney, you're recognized for your report.

Thank you, Mayor. No report this evening.

Okay. Let's move on to the discussion items. Item M1, Mr. Manager.

Mayor, we're going to have staff present on this item. We've been looking at composting opportunities for quite some time, different ideas. There's a lot of moving parts, and we wanted to bring you the information from a discussion standpoint. So we're going to team up here with Francesca and Alex. Oh, it's a duo.

OK, Mr. Munoz, Mr. O'Malley, good evening. You're recognized.

Good evening. My name is Francesca Gemelli, and I'm with Administrative Affairs Department, joined by Alex Munoz, who's sitting down, our public works director. Tonight, we want to bring the commission up to speed on a residential composting initiative staff has been evaluating. Here's why. About 40% of South Miami's residential waste, roughly 1,252 tons a year, is food scraps that we currently landfill at about $92.78 a ton. And that cost keeps climbing. Diverting it extends landfill life, cuts methane emissions, and gives us finished compost that can be used in landscaping, parks, and community gardens. This isn't a guest. The city of Pinecrest has already diverted nearly 59 tons through a similar program, a drop-off site, and our proposed vendor, Compost for Life, has diverted 4.9 million pounds across Miami-Dade and Broward since 2020. Based on that track record, they've proposed three program options for South Miami, from a small drop-off pilot to full citywide service. Alex will walk you through the cost details in a moment. Before bringing this to you, we visited Compost for Life's farm directly and walked the entire process with founder Francisco Torres from collection through active composting to the finished product you see here. So we did some pictures of the collection truck. They have an active pile. Then it goes to maturation pile. Then that is ready for sifting, which they have a sifting machine. And then that gives us the finished product. It's a real working operation, and it gives us the confidence in bringing this forward. With that, I'll turn over to Alex to walk through the costs and the data behind each option.

Thank you. You do have the full report, and I'm just going to highlight stuff out of the report. Alex Bunyos, Director of Public Works, just highlighting some of the items out of the report so we can talk to you, as Francesco was saying, the company we've been talking to, and even looking at some of these, some other options that are out there. But just to give a lay of the land on the profile of our cost for garbage and just give some highlights here and what we're going to do here is the primary focus as we said is the compost for life model which I'm going to talk about we're going to talk a little bit about the offset that's potential because of recycling we're going to go through that and obviously some guidance from you all and how we proceed would be great just put the big numbers here so you'll see these and I'll talk about these as I go through The $109.90 that you see there is what Compost for Life would charge for processing. That's higher than what we pay because they're doing a lot more handling. They're not just taking it from one point to the next. They take it to their farm. They have to process it and handle it. Just so to remind, what we have is $92.78 is the all-in, what we pay Miami-Dade County for disposing. And then, you know, $17.12 would be the difference, the net difference.

Just a question. The $92.78 is our disposition cost or our all-in cost with us actually picking up the raw material?

That's the cost for tipping and transfer.

Okay, but there's no reflection of that cost of our handling costs?

No, like the staff costs, no. Correct, okay. I mean, I have a handle on that separately, and I've looked at what it costs us to, it's over $500 per household, what we pay for handling. Okay, thank you. With all in cost, separate analysis. But we can, if you want to see that, we can share that at some point as well. So what our garbage profile looks like, our baseline is 2,863 homes. That's what we service. And we do 3,120. And that's just from one year. But more or less, it falls around that number. of solid waste that could be, this is what we would be targeting is that number. Within that number, this is important for the planning assumptions and for the analysis that we did. So 20 to 40%, up to 40% could be food and items that could be composted. The range, more realistically, probably 20%. But we just wanted to give a range of what the research shows that the industry estimates on what could be composted within waste streams. And again, this is the garbage inside your house. This is not trash. This is not the trash pile. This is the garbage inside the house. Below here in the green, on the bottom there, you see what it costs us to dispose of that. So it's $290,000 roughly to dispose of our garbage, not our trash, to dispose of our garbage. So that's the number that we're targeting. That's the universe that we're targeting. What we looked at primarily, because it's the Cadillac version and everything else would be a step down from here pretty much, what we looked at was what the company calls and the industry calls empty in return. So in the empty in return, this would be a city-wide program. You get the bucket. They empty it out. They come to your house. They empty it out. And they give it back to you. That's a five-gallon bucket container. I'm going to cover those costs here a little bit later. But that's something that would be part of the program and something also that has to be paid for. It's pretty much an all-in service. They handle logistics. They handle communication. They handle the data, the tracking. They're sending reminders to the customers that they're coming. So they handle all of the logistics on the collection side of this. down below you see there in the beige the challenge with this program and you know is that you're paying for everybody going to everybody's house and picking up whether they fill the bucket up or not whether they have a little bit in the bucket or the bucket is full you're paying for that pickup because they have to go there and they have to service it so there's really no good way of avoiding that cost so the city is absorbing the full cost EVEN AT A LOW PARTICIPATION RATE. SO THAT'S THE RISK SIDE OF THIS. SO I WANT TO PAUSE THERE ON THE PROGRAM SIDE BEFORE I GET INTO THE NUMBERS BECAUSE IT GETS KIND OF HEAVY ON THE NUMBER SIDE. BUT BEFORE WE GET THERE, THAT'S THE PROGRAM PART BETWEEN WHAT FRANCESCA AND I COVERED. I DON'T KNOW IF THERE'S ANY QUESTIONS.

QUESTIONS, COLLEAGUES.

ANY CONVERSATION WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT WITH LIKE THE BIODEGRADABLE BAGS RATHER THAN JUST HAVING A BUCKET FULL OF BONES AND

Yeah, we did talk about it, but it's just cost. It's just more to do. It's something we could build into analysis. We still have a lot of decisions before we get there, because probably we have to go out and do some kind of contracting. So that's something we could build into a scope.

I just think it'll encourage people to do it more, just because it's like another trash bin.

Yeah, less handling for the person, less touching, I guess.

Yeah, it's better than just having a bucket full of food under your sink or wherever people keep it.

Understood, yes. So getting to the number, sorry, if there's no other questions, getting to the number, so I think just try to give a picture of what this would look like for the city. So we took that, I'm not gonna walk you through all of these, because I don't think we need to. This is one scenario divided up. So this is the empty in return, what we talked about for composting, where they pick it up at the house. We have been talking to the company for a while. And we could start at the top, because the top really shows you what the entire program would cost. So we were talking, remember, at the beginning I started with the amount of tons that would get diverted. That's the 1,200 that you see there. That's at that 40% level. So if we were to take that to the landfill and pay for it, that's the $116,000 that you see where it says city cost. Right next to that is the difference that we would pay if we're paying the composting folks. This is just one company to do it. It's an additional $21,000. With the buckets, for the whole city, buying buckets at $20 a pop, $57,000. And then you see that total year one city cost. is the $194,000. So the delta to run this program citywide would be roughly the $78,000 that you see there.

So you're subtracting the 116 from the 194? Yes.

OK. Yep, exactly. So we did the different scenarios at the 100% level, 75% level, whatever. The ones I want to go down to and focus on is the 17% level. That's the minimum level for entry. If we were to do like a pilot program, Compost for Life wants us to at least target that. That would be the entry level that we would have to come in at. I think it was about 300 homes to come in at that level to be like a minimum to run a program. That would just be a pilot to really find out how it works and participation. Obviously, these numbers don't include education, outreach, and what it would take to really change the behavior and have people participate. So this is what it looks like on the financial side. In no scenario does it save money. It's a net cost in all of these scenarios. Maybe not a significant number, but it is a net cost, at least for this service. Looking around, we haven't really seen a service that's a savings, but this one did.

WE HAVE A QUESTION ON THE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS. COMMISSIONER KAYE, ARE YOU RECOGNIZED?

THANK YOU. JUST BEFORE WE GET OFF THIS SLIDE HERE. THE CITY COST IS ONLY TIPPING. THE CITY COST HERE, THAT'S THE SECOND COLUMN.

CITY COST IS TIPPING AND TRANSFER. OUR COST TO DISPOSE. THAT'S THE 92, THE HIGHER NUMBER.

But we don't have the actual cost for our trucks and our manpower to pick up the garbage currently, right?

I think, Commissioner, the assumption is that they're going to continue offering the same service for MSW. So there's no net savings on the operational side. I don't understand. So you're still sending out your trucks for your biweekly pickup for regular trash? Mm-hmm. You're just diverting part of the waste into the compost service, but you still have the same level of effort, at least initially.

Later in the presentation, I was going to talk about that. The mayor's right. That was actually brought up at the Green Task Force. Can you have fewer crews and fewer service because you're diverting? You can. You can do anything you want, policy-wise. But people's behaviors don't change. You're still putting out garbage the whole week. You used to have a smelly diaper on Monday. You have a smelly diaper on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, every day of the week. It's not being, oh, I'm composting now. Do I really need to put out, you know, my other garbage? So the assumptions here, as the mayor said, is no, we're not reducing the crews just because we're doing the composting. We're still providing that service for garbage twice a week.

At that same scenario, though, if we get to a break-even point where instead of going twice a week, we can do once a week on garbage pickup, right?

If you did that, we'd have to run different numbers to see how you reduce a crew. And you're talking about a whole different scenario. Like I said, anything is possible. We'd have trash. We'd have garbage. We'd have to figure out how to do that with those employees and run a different operation. I understand the question. That's not here because of the assumption. And if we want us to change the assumption, we can change the assumption.

COMMISSIONER BENNETT- Commissioner Rodriguez, do you recognize? He's got a question. COMMISSIONER RODRIGUEZ- We spoke about this. I spoke with Francesca about it also. Can you bring the numbers back? So obviously it's $78,000. And I said I'd be on board with this if we took the savings from doing the recycling pickup.

We're going to get there.

No, I know. But I'm going to ask, unless you already have the numbers, what that delta would be? Do you have the recycling? Yeah, thank you. Mr.

Manager, you wanted to add something to the record?

No, I was just trying to clarify when Commissioner Kiley was talking, if you meant garbage or recycling when you had mentioned the changing the frequency. OK. Thank you.

Mr. Munoz, continue, please. Yes.

This is just the different programs. And I'll get to the slide on the savings. The empty in return we talked about. There are other options, because I know everybody has asked about other options. There's a community drop-off option. City of Miami is doing that. Pinecrest does that. Some other cities do that. And there's a kiosk. There's different models with different companies. Again, we looked at the top option. There's also a subscription program where it could be citywide, and we're more of a facilitator than we are running the program. This one is city sponsored. There's other programs like that, but not as much buy-in to those programs. So to the numbers, which I mentioned at the very, very beginning, I would cover some of the savings. If we went the green slide there, Commissioner, is the savings from going to once a week. on recycling.

So if you... Not once every other week, right?

Sorry, thank you. Thank you. If you do that at 58, right, I'm going to come back here. It doesn't cover your year one because you've got to buy all the buckets, but it would cover thereafter where the column there that you see that says city cost, That's the ongoing premium is the yearly amount that's a net difference. So in all cases, $58,000 is higher than that. So it would cover. You wouldn't cover the buckets in year one. Also, we didn't do the detailed calculation of what the bucket replacement would be. We replaced garbage bins. We also would have to replace buckets. I don't think it's significant in the scheme of things here. So we really didn't do that here. That's the number that would be saved. To Commissioner Kaya's point, our assumption was that we would not reduce the weekly pickups, the two weekly pickups for garbage. So that's why there's not a number there. That was brought up, and we did think about it and talked about it, but we didn't think, because you'd still have 60% of your garbage distributed throughout the week. So we didn't do that. I'm going to skip through here. Your peers, the first one there, I'm sorry, I made a mistake. is not an opt-in curbside. The Village of Pinecrest is a drop-off site. City of Miami has drop-off hubs. They have five different sites. City of Orlando has a mishmash of programs, everything from a compost bin in your backyard to the subscription service to a drop-off, but they don't have the pickup service like we're looking at. Key West happens to have a drop-off service. So there's all types of different models. that are operating, but this type of service, we haven't really found a good model for it. And then for discussion purposes, obviously these are different areas, legislation as well. In Florida, I couldn't find any programs that were very, very similar, but the question would come up on legislation and how do we encourage folks to do it. I can pause there for discussion purposes and go back to the numbers if that's what the Commission would like to cover. And obviously, if we would need some guidance or some discussion whenever we're ready about how do we solicit this, how do we pursue this, do you want to see us put together a scope and get some folks to bid on this, or do we do some kind of pilot program? So I can pause there and take any questions you might have.

Colleagues, would you like to start?

Let the fury out.

Let the fury out. It's not that. I just think this is disgusting. I think it's gross. I think the idea that I'm going to store up for two weeks Food that is rotting in my house to like every other week have somebody come and pick up this smelly thing is anathema to me. The idea then that we would put this in a community site. Which community site would that be? A park? A parking lot? Our parking lot? So that then that place becomes anathema to everybody else because nobody wants to be next to something that smells. And so when I look at this, I say, you think this is so great? You have at it, Haas. I am a hard no. I think this is gross. I think that the majority of people don't want to deal with their garbage in the first place. The idea of them diverting it and having it sit in a little bin on the side of your house for two weeks Forget where I come from. I'll tell you my neighborhood, my backyard, which is your backyard down the street from your house. Not down the street from your house. We have, without any of this, Crocodiles. We have raccoons. We have a python. We have rats.

We have them too, by the way.

It's okay. Two pythons now. Sweet Jesus on the cross. So then, you know, we have crocodiles. We have alligators. We have raccoons. We have rats. We have the pythons. Foxes. Foxes. I mean, we can go on and on and on, and then we want to add insult to injury by putting this on the side of our house for two weeks. Yes.

Is it two weeks?

Every other week would be every two weeks.

They have both. They have weekly service and they have every other week, yeah. Sorry, go ahead.

And is the numbers reflected weekly? Every other week. By weekly? Yeah. And what's the incremental cost on weekly service?

I don't have that here, but it was a lot more expensive.

Okay. But like by order of magnitude, 10%, 15%?

Double. Yeah, it was almost double because we're going every week.

So it's $40,000 is the premium?

It's the per cost pickup. Let me think about that for a second. No, it wasn't double. It's the $1.72 per house, $2,800. Yeah, it's probably like another $10,000, let's say.

So that's what I think.

Okay. Mr. Roderick, as you recognize.

I think for a program like this, I think there are, many residents that will want to you know partake into this that's why i would i would put it more as a subscription base where people sign up for it because if they sign up for it they actually want it rather than forcing people like lisa or sorry commissioner bonich to have a trash bin full of rotting food and raccoons and alligators and crocodiles in her backyard. Just let people sign up for it where the city can, I guess.

So can I ask a question on that? I mean, so let's say their money's on an object and we splurge, so they come every week. What's the difference if it's sitting in one bin rotting versus another? I mean, because it's happening today. I mean, so our trash is sitting in a container.

It comes twice a week.

But still, it's coming weekly. So point being, whether it sits there three days or seven days, is it really that big a deal? I mean, I get that it's gross. I get that it's yucky. I mean, I'm thinking about who in my family is going to do it. The most likely candidate in my house will be my daughter, who's moving to Santa Barbara in 12 days. So one of us will have to learn. But the truth is, this is... Garbage is almost as big an existential threat in this community as climate change in some ways, right? We don't have places to put it. It's not going to get better. Bearing it makes no sense. And so if a city our size can't figure out a way to do this, It's not going to happen. I mean, I think it's worth trying. In my opinion, we're trying once. See how it goes. I don't believe in a subscription model because if you give people the option, they're not going to do it. It's almost like you need to hit people in the face. We have created a consumer culture where we throw everything away, so we still have water bottles on this dais, and it's not going to change until we say we can't do it anymore. I know. Congratulations. But that's the truth. I mean, you know, and it just ends up in a landfill that's otherwise. So I think we make it as convenient as possible. I've seen what Pinecrest and other cities are doing. I don't think that taking it to a location makes sense, personally. People aren't going to, I certainly don't want to put, if I want to put it from my kitchen table, right, where I'm making, kitchen counter where I'm making food into a container, I'm not going to take that container and then put it in my car to drive it to a city facility. That is certainly something that no one in my household would ever get comfortable doing. But taking it outside and putting it in a segregated container, I don't know that the five-gallon bucket is the solution. For someone else, I would think we almost need like another something the size of a recycling bin so that you can have it collected there. I'm not sure if the five-gallon bucket is what I'm imagining, but that seems too small. Those are my thoughts on the topic, but I think it's worth exploring, certainly.

I DO THINK THAT A BIG DIFFERENCE LIKE WHAT LISA SAID IS JUST THROWING I'M SORRY COMMISSIONER BONICHE SAID BUT THAT'S MY NAME MY NAME IS LISA IF WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO NOT INSTEAD OF JUST GETTING A BUCKET AND THROWING IT INTO THE CONTAINER AND LEAVING IT THERE WHERE WE HAVE biodegradable bags where, like your trash bag, because you're throwing your trash away, but you're throwing it away in a trash bag into your bin. So it's not just food sitting in your bin. If we can store it like that and then throw it into the bin, I think more people would do it. The bin is a five-gallon bucket. Whatever, but I'm saying like- So there's no second bin, unless there is like- If we get another bin like the mayor said, like a recycle bin. Right, a second bin.

There is another size bin that's a lot larger. You have the information.

So there's a larger five gallon bin that's usually used for the businesses. The five gallon is more appropriate for residential families because they are smaller and they don't use as many food scraps. I did ask Compost for Life residents that have been using the program if they had any negative experiences with smell or anything like that. He said that, for the most part, there hasn't really been any complaints because it has an airtight lid. So that should be keeping. any bugs or anything away from it. I know your concerns about the animals. Raccoons only have little hands, so maybe they could lift the lid. But aside from that, I think it should be safe. Also, personal, as far as the compostable liners, we could look into providing those, but that can also be a personal preference if the resident would like to purchase their own compostable liner so they don't have to deal with that. The only difference between the five-gallon is it does come with the airtight seal versus, I'm sorry, the bucket, it does come with the airtight seal, but the larger five-gallon one is like a normal trash bin that has the lid that kind of opens. They use it for drop-off sites, and they have a different way of making sure that it's lockable, but it's not used for their residential program.

I think we could always pursue the other model of having a unit outside that gets emptied as well. So you go from the inside to the outside, just more cost on the upfront cost.

Look, I mean, if you're recycling, you're segregating your waste already, right, your plastics. We have a separate recycling container in my house. You'd probably just need to have a, in your waste drawer, like we have a little waste drawer in our kitchen. You probably have a separate container where you can put your food scraps.

My daughter lives in Seattle.

Take it out that evening, and you take it out to the bucket that evening. There's three.

There's three. There's three containers.

The rest of the world has three containers.

A lot of cities have three containers.

The world composts. If you go anywhere else, South America, Asia, Europe, everybody's composting. We don't because we have the facility of throwing everything away. That's the problem. We need to start somewhere. And having sealed with waste, I mean, I'd be the first person to do it. And I do a little bit of composting. I'm very specific on recycling. Maybe I'm one of a few. But one turns into two, two turns into four, and four turns into eight, and it continues. We've got to start somewhere. So I'm of the opinion that, A, we need to get an understanding of the data. I think the pilot program will continue to give us more information. Obviously, we're all very data driven here. So I would love to start the opportunity to do so. I do think that the numbers when we there's going to be a number that needs to be a break even where we can maybe eliminate one one day of garbage. We could figure out if recycling is really not working. I mean, we've been here three and a half years, most of us, and we still don't know if recycling is really working yet. We haven't seen the data. Whatever, I don't know. But I do know composting works, more so than recycling, right? It's organic. Go ahead.

Yes, your recommendation.

We have... And don't kill me here. We have the phone numbers to most of the residents in this city. Why wouldn't we do a phone campaign and ask them?

I agree.

Ask them. Because we are dictating what they want. But we don't know if South Miami is full of me's or full of you's.

And I'm sure somewhere in the middle.

And that's the thing. You know what? Then does it make sense for our city to do that? If you told me I was going to get garbage once a week, I'd show up if I wasn't sitting here at a pitchfork to every single meeting. I'd throw my garbage in your front yard. You know? That's not nice. Well, I'm not nice. Yeah, right? I throw my garbage in your front yard. So I think if we're going to affect anything, it wouldn't be garbage. If we were going to have to take money from somewhere, I would say pull back. And lo and behold, the Green Task Force agrees with me. Take one of the recycling things out.

We 100% agree with that. We should pull back. I think we all agree with that. Yeah.

You know, I don't think we should do it because I think it's disgusting. But if we are gung-ho about doing this, do a phone thing. Call the residents. Text the residents. Do whatever. Ask people.

What was the number that we got for our recycling and how much of what is actually being recycled? Did we ever get that number, that data point from waste management?

How much is being picked up or how much is actually being repurposed? Both.

Both. Picked up and then we got that data point a long time ago, didn't we?

Not a long time ago, but it was when waste management came in and then the county was doing a countywide study. We did get volume and contamination rate. Contamination rate was around 30%. Volume, I think it was about 3,000 plus on that one pickup. 3,000 tons or sorry? Yeah, I think it was 3,000 tons, I believe, I remember, for one pickup. But let me go back and maybe I'll look for that report while I was here.

I mean, it sounds like a lot if we're only picking up 12,000 tons of trash every... No, no. No, it was recycling.

Our recycling. One pickup. No, our pickup. Yeah, 3,120 was the number.

And of that, 60% was recycled.

For recycling, tons. Tons, yeah. And of that, 70% was recycled.

Sorry, let's just, again, I'm now, what is our total?

Annual estimate.

Annual estimate. Annual estimate. Oh.

Oh.

Okay.

I was like, man, that's a lot of money.

You said one pickup.

I was like, that's a lot of money. Extrapolated. Okay. On one pickup, they extrapolated what that was. Understood.

I was just trying to understand if it was $3,000 for that pickup or $3,000 for the year. So thank you. I was going to have my mind blown all of a sudden. OK. And we have a 30% contamination rate, which is, the best cities, Coral Gables, have 5% or thereabouts.

Is that? I think they've reported around 8%. 8%. So we've got a long way to go in terms of contamination. But there's cities that are above 30, way above 30.

OK. So we still have a lot of work to do to make sure what we're recycling is usable.

By the way, those are parameters. Sorry, Mayor. Those are the parameters that we need to have KPIs and goals for for the city. That's something that should be attainable. I think that we should really start figuring out how we can get to 10% on recycling. How do we get a 30% and then 50% composting? Those would be things that we drive for as a city.

I'll reach education set at the beginning. For all of these programs, you'd have to do that. And we're about to run our trash pilot, so that's going to be another education need. After we run the pilot, if we find that it works, we're going to have to tell people, hey, this is how you separate your pile. That's going to take some work.

As we're building our marketing team again, I think that should be one of the most important things that our marketing team has as a goal. We complain here and we talk about garbage and we've been trying to solve this issue for a long time and we haven't done a dent. This is the time to start and this is the time to start having a marketing team get all that information.

Commissioner Moniz, do you want to be recognized? Yeah. That's a good idea.

And I think more than looking at the 30% of contamination, 70% usable, we have to look at the end result, not how much is actually usable, how much is actually recycled. It might be great that, hey, I don't know, that 30% is great. Let's pretend. And so 70% of our stuff goes to the recycling universe. Well, but maybe 1% of that 70% gets recycled, you know? So I think we have to continue. We don't have a window into that.

We don't have a window into that. How do we get that window? It's the reseller market, and we don't know. I don't know if Mr. Munoz, do you have any suggestions? I think it's a take it on faith, and you hope that it gets resold and repurposed. But I think this is where contradistinction to recycling, composting,

It's organic.

It's organic. And so here you can dictate that it gets reused, right? So the investment here generates the environmental benefit that you are hoping to get from recycling, which is why I think it makes sense for us to dial back on the extra recycling collection to mitigate some of this cost. And possibly to try this on a on a pilot base, and I think we should try it for a year to see what the baseline looks like. And we can reevaluate it just to be for the next point.

I think it's really important what commissioner bone each set as well as. Let's start getting the community involved and start getting surveys and data to make sure that we, you know, at least start getting at least. 200 people to sign up, you know, that should be our goal. And the next goal should be 500. So let's work on progressively.

The question is, what do we want to do? We want to do.

You guys know my opinion.

I don't know your opinion. I think we've said a lot of things. We've been given a series of options. If you can go back to the slide on the options, that would be helpful. We can go to a subscription model, right? That would be one option. We just have people, a minimum of 300 households have to sign up.

We facilitate. We get people to participate. And there's all types of scenarios there, whether we fund something, whether it's sponsored, the people pay for it. It just depends. So we could put numbers together on all of those, very detailed. Let's see here. This was the... That's the one here. This is the...

So 1745 is the subscription option. And then the Full Monty is the top line.

and this is everybody we're giving it to everybody whether you want it or not yeah yeah this is different participation levels of the entire city if i when i started with the green in the bottom because that's the minimum that they would take And then the top 100 is the whole city's participation.

Let's clarify. These are not options. These are financial scenarios. In these financial scenarios, there are two options. The first option, just let me clarify so we understand what we're talking about. The first option is a subscription option, which the provider wants a minimum of 17.45% of subscribers, which is about 300 households.

What is the bottom option? When I was presenting this, I mentioned this is just the pickup version and empty. At different participation levels. Okay.

What is the minimum participation?

The subscription one runs, we didn't do the deep dive on that one, but it could be from $58,000, $80,000 to $120,000. No. But it's subscription. We're not.

But they need to have a minimum subscription rate. So what is the minimum number of households?

They want 300. 300. Yes, that's where it gets.

I'm starting to get two as well.

There are the numbers there. Sorry, they're higher.

I think if we're going to do it, we're going to have to cover it.

You may recognize, yes.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Something to keep in mind, which I know nobody wants to hear is right now we're looking at a budget that has $40,000 in discretionary movement. And that doesn't cover these, any of these. And so when we're looking at what we want to do, wanting things is great. But you've got to be able to afford them.

Agreed, but I think we can find ways to afford it. As we just heard, we've got some offsets, and there's the ability to figure out the extra $20,000 from the very surface you just quoted.

It would be $20,000 if we offset it with the recycling. Correct, yes. That's correct. I'm good at trying it. I mean, it's not going to hurt it.

I think you're not a fan.

No, but you know what I worry about is... I don't see anybody subtracting anywhere. I just see, hey, we think this is great. Hey, let's offset it. It still has a cost associated to it. And I hate to be the one that's always saying, we can't afford that. Haven't we thought about the money for that? Because I understand that while it constantly comes out of my mouth, it is something that you guys are considering. But I think that before we say we're going to do something like this, we need to have somebody look at what this number is. It's a given. I don't want to do this. I think it's a waste of money. Same way I think recycling is a waste of money, because as we sit here, we don't know where it's going. So I think if you guys really want to do this, you have to look at, how much it's going to cost, how it's getting offset. Can we get out of our recycling contract to do this? And then when we look at all of that, where is this money coming from? Where are we taking money from? And I think we need to be very clear. We are taking it from ABC. We are taking it from the universe of money, because as we just spoke, we have parts that we want to take care of. There are different things that we have as priorities. And I'm not saying this might not be a priority to someone. I'm just saying that we need to be extremely transparent when we bring this back, if you guys decide to bring it back, of how we're going to pay for it so that people who may be listening out in the world understand we took this from your, and I'm making this up, we took this from your trash can budget on Sunset Drive to add it to your compost. Because that's the real, I think, full picture, at least for me.

Agreed, and I think staff has considered all those things and why we have these many of options presented to us to consider. So yes, it's not, it's not, you know, we've got to figure out a way to defer these costs. One of the options, which we've talked about for a long time is, is it worth having a second recycling pickup? That saves us $58,000 of the $78,000 of incremental cost. So now, go ahead.

$78,000 is only the first year. After that, it starts diminishing.

It becomes $21,000 a year in net cost because we're hopefully not buying buckets on a one-for-one replacement annually.

But we're also still saving $58,000.

And again, we don't know. We're not counting on savings from tipping fees in this analysis because we're assuming that everyone, it's a wash. So there may be additional savings, but I think it's conservatively modeled. And we've got to, I mean, I think it's worth trying. Now, that's my opinion. I would say we go Full Monty, because if you don't, you know, you don't push people on these issues, it's very hard to change behavior. Some people may choose not to participate, but I think if we wait till we have 300 people subscribe, we're never going to get started. My personal opinion, I know that, you know, most people don't think about these things until we're forced to think about them. And I think the message that needs to go out with this is that we're doing this because we are looking at substantial year-over-year cost increases in our tipping fees. And this is a way also to make sure that we're bringing that part of our budget into balance in an area where we don't control cost escalation, right? Because we're subject to the mercy of the county and its vendors. I think that should be part of the messaging in public education if we decide to do this. Commissioner Kaya, you want to bring us home? And Commissioner Rodriguez, any thoughts?

Yeah, I'm going to disagree with that, bringing it all in. I think that this deserves a pilot program. I think that we need to build knowledge base and market the product. You can't just go full Monty and expect everybody to start going on. I think you need to start building momentum. And so I would be of the opinion to start a pilot program. Whether the minimum is three or four or 500 households, that's what I would do. How would we choose the households? Yeah, exactly. They subscribe.

But if they don't reach 300, that's it.

Then we don't do it. I mean, the idea is that we market this incorrectly and then people want to subscribe. I think half of the people here get sent people to do it. We can meet mass critical, critical mass, sorry. So we just need to try. I mean, I don't like the idea of force feeding the whole city just to go do it, and they're not going to do it. It's a waste of money. So that's just my thought process.

Commissioner Rodriguez, what do you think?

mean at first i said subscription letting the people but i agree with you and the fact that i don't think every we'll get the the subscription but again if we go out and educate um for the simple fact of i know my one constant is recycling service bi-weekly without we have 58 000 now to play with i would probably probably try yeah I would say just to start I would do the the subscription model and see what what well how many people actually buy in but we're gonna have to do a lot of educating because I think I said on people you're gonna have that sitting there and and I do agree with Commissioner Kite we're gonna be blowing money for no reason for people just keeping their bucket in their garage look I think it's I

there's waste embedded in the system, economic waste either way, right? Because right now we're taking an asset we could divert and it's becoming a cost center. We could become something that's cost neutral. So I would just encourage everyone, if you've never read a book called Nudge, this is the perfect case study. That's the thesis of that book, which is there's certain human behavior If you don't force people into it, whether it's for savings or retirement or other behavior, they never take the action. That's why if you look at companies, the automatic default is an opt-in as opposed to an opt-out. We're talking about a subscription model which is an opt-in model. Those opt-in models never work. If someone doesn't want to participate and they want to opt out, I think we should certainly allow them that opportunity. And the way they do that is they just don't participate. But if you give people the choice, the choice is to continue doing what they're doing, which does not work for the broader society, certainly is not going to help us save money. Which is frankly the main underlying premise for me over the long term, because again, we are subject to substantial cost escalation. In a cost system where we do not control what happens with this cost get passed along to us in the county. So I think it's worth, you know, following the science here. The science is you create a system where people can only opt out, and the opt out is you don't participate. But that's the only way to change behavior.

Mayor, we're only talking about innovative stuff. There's also the innovative curve. You have early adopters, you have adoption rate, and you have plateau. That's the same thing.

It's not a market-based product. We're not going to market with an iPhone. We are. No, we're not. I disagree with that.

Sorry, go ahead. You're recognized. Director Munoz, in the subscription model, the resident would be paying for it?

That's an option, yeah. That decision hasn't been made, but there's a model in the industry, yes, where the resident option.

But there's a subscription where we cover, and there's a subscription where the resident. I think if we give it and the resident has to pay, we're going to lose them. I think the one constant has to be that this is something that the city is providing. Whether we go subscription or we go full Monty, the city has to cover it.

That's why we focused on this. Correct.

I think the city has to cover it, because if you Go to Lisa's house and tell her she has to pay $50 for this. She's going to tell you, no, here's your bucket. Thank you.

You're right. But I think maybe the first step of this, and I'm going to say it again, is call our residents. Reach out to our residents.

I would do door to door.

Something. Something. We are 12,000 people or whatever. Even if we get feedback, and I'll pretend knocking on doors, even if we get feedback from 600 people, but those 600 people come from Bird Road all the way to Kendall, 57 to 67 or 68 or whatever number we want to say, we get quantitative feedback before we change anything.

The question is, what do you ask?

What do you ask? We are faced with an option right now. We can either continue to recycle every other week, or have recycle once a month, and have compostable things once a month. This is how it will work. Which one would you prefer? Don't give them the nothing option, because then you'll have universes of me saying, forget it, whatever, nothing. But it's as simple as the city is looking at this. Would you be amenable to this? Would you participate? Two questions. I mean, how much does it cost us? It's got to cost us less than the cost difference for the year.

I just think- 15 cents a text. So divide that by 12,000 people.

Well, no, because it's not 12,000 people.

We're 2,686 households. 2,600. $400. There you go.

Thank you.

$400 for what?

Do you want to text poll everyone on this issue, every household?

Thank you for that fast math. You know what?

I don't think we're going to get reliable data personally, but I mean, at this point, we don't need to belabor this. If we want to study it, that's fine. Do we want to send out a questionnaire on this? Or do we want to adopt any of these options or none of these options? I think staff is just looking for direction.

I would rather ask people.

If you guys decide something else. Do we want to poll the community? Am I right?

I think we should.

I think it should be part of the process. So it should be two in one. So we'll start talking and communicating and getting polls. Okay.

What do we want to ask them about in terms of the options? Subscription, non-subscription?

I say if we're going to ask them is, are you amenable to this?

I don't think we confuse the recycling and the composting conversation because it's two very different things. That is a financial decision for us to make.

Okay, well then why don't we ask them, are you amenable to composting?

I think the question is, that's number one. And in what form?

Are you interested in composting or not?

I would just ask one question. Are you interested in composting? Yes? No. Are you interested in curbside composting? Yes? No.

Well, it's not free.

They're paying for it.

No, no, no.

Guys.

If they got to pay for it, everyone's going to tell you no.

I understand, but I'm saying we're making it sound like this is free. It's part of the budget. They're paying taxes. It's not free.

So there's a cost of throwing it away right now. So again, I think from a perspective of cost, it's neutral because it's going into the landfill at a cost. Or it's going to a composting facility at a cost. So the question is, how do we make it cost neutral? That is our problem to figure out. The question is, how would they want to subscribe, participate in the service? Are they willing to subscribe for it only? Or do we want them to bring it to a location, which is another option?

I think we're complicating this, especially because like five seconds ago, the three of you were kind of on the road to put it in the bucket, have somebody pick it up. And now we're kind of walking it back.

I'm in the bucket of put it all in the bucket, pick it up weekly, and make everyone do it.

But that's why I'm saying that I don't think we're asking people, do you want to drop it off somewhere? I don't even think that's an option for us. So I think we take that off the table. You just text people. Are you interested in curbside composting? Yes? No.

And if it's no, you go on. If it's no? Yes. Then you start, great.

Or not even. You don't even have to ask any more questions. If we get a yes, and we ask 2,000 people, and we get 600 answers, and 400 of those people say yes, you have something to go on. If you ask 2,000 something people, and 600 people answer, and 400 of those people say, are you crazy? which is not even an option, it would be no, then we'd have our answer. But the minute you start asking multiple questions, you're gonna get less and less and less feedback.

I think you have to definitely ask, at least get a, have them provide their address so you know who's the one saying yes. No, it's by phone. You don't know their address because of their phone number.

That's again, that's just one suggestion of how we could do it. Sure, we can.

We don't have to table that right now. Why don't we just give the opportunity to have our marketing team and our community services team start getting all the answers to the survey, get them to give us an idea, an operational plan of what we can go do.

Respectfully, I don't think our marketing team is competent enough to do a statistically valid survey of our constituents despite Without any disrespect intended to them. Okay, so That all said what there's many of options of what we want. We have an option to pursue Are there any of them that we want to give staff direction to finalize because I would imagine We're gonna try and do this in the context of this budget since we do have to make some budget choices around it so if we're not gonna if we're not It's either now or frankly never in terms of the window when we decide to do some of this.

And you're saying don't ask anybody, just unilaterally decide?

No, if you want to ask everyone, that's fine. We've got to give them direction to put together a survey, work with someone who can help them do it. But we have to give them a window or a menu of the options that we would want to ask people about what they would be willing to service by. Do you want to subscribe? Would you prefer a full service pickup, weekly pickup of your composting at your door, right?

Weekly?

Yes. I thought we said we were switching with bi-weekly.

Yeah.

Think I think that's probably I'm sorry. I know we're keep repeating it, but I think it's Overcomplicating I think it's are you interested in composting? Picked up weekly and just set up set up whatever the model is we decide that's what we're gonna present to people They could either say yes, I will opt into it or no I will not opt in until we get critical mass and that's it and I get critical mass and you go, okay It's pretty simple

OK, so what is the direction?

OK. If you can repeat it. Yeah, yeah, please. I agree with you. We tell our team to build a marketing plan to go ahead and get an estimated whatever, Director Munoz said it was 300 minimum households. That is our goal. Until we get 300, then we don't go. So we have to get 300 to start the program. Let's go get those subscription people. Let's see how many people actually apply. Build a marketing, build community services, get a plan together, and go get those 300 people. That's it. That's all it is.

I think maybe marketing come back to us and say, look, this is the options of what we have as far as going out to the community, whether it's knocking on doors, whether it's text message, whether it's newsletters, whatever it may be, emails, whatever it may be, just let's start there.

The same way we pushed Sobe Connect, that's the same thing.

Do we want to then direct them to cancel or plan to cancel the recycling?

Not until we get mass quantity. I think we should do that off the back.

They need six weeks notice at the county. They told us they could do it in writing, just six weeks notice.

My point being, if we don't believe the service is worthwhile, why not bank the proceeds and build a fund so we can further mitigate this cost with the savings? I agree 100%. Whether it takes us a year, it takes us a year and a half to get to a minimum of $300, at least we've got dollars to offset the cost of rolling out composting at some point in the future. That would be my suggestion, particularly if we don't see any marginal benefit to the extra service.

No, that's to get rid of the do recycling biweekly.

Yeah, I agree we should do recycling biweekly no matter what we do.

Okay, so if I can summarize the position of the majority of the board, right? Number one, we think we should reduce the recycling from weekly to biweekly. the savings that that financial savings that it generates we should use to offset the incremental cost of a composting program for the city. Okay. And we want staff to survey households or ask households to subscribe

No, no.

To a compost, if they would. No, no, no. The question is, I don't know. Again, I'm hearing you guys say we want to get to 300 subscriptions before we start the program. Yeah, you have to ask them. Well, there's a difference between asking and doing. So we can ask, and until they say yes, we're not going to start the program. So what I'm hearing everyone saying is we want to send out an affirmative solicitation of the 2,863 households. from whom we collect waste and ask them to subscribe to a composting service. And once we hit 300 subscribed households, we would begin the composting service. On a biweekly or weekly basis, again, the incremental cost being about $10,000 to $20,000 as opposed to being A $21,000 premium service, it would be a $40,000 premium service. Mr. Winters, is that roughly?

Yeah, it's about $4,900 a week for the pickups. I've got to do the math on the tonnage. Okay.

So it's about $30,000 extra. to do it weekly, which I would say to my colleagues to the left points yucky factor and people's reluctance to participate. If it's picked up weekly, I think it would make it more likely that people would participate because they don't want the waste accumulating in a container in their yard. OK. Is that where we are?

I just want to preface it.

Mr. Munoz, are you clear with what we just tried to summarize?

It can't just be one marketing campaign. If you do it once, you'll get people who miss it or that. It's going to have to be multiple campaigns. to get people to subscribe.

The initial outreach is the participation for the 300. Correct. You want to opt into this program. It's not the citywide we're going to run this program. It's getting us to 300 to start running the program. And then.

That's going to take a couple. It's not going to happen on the first go around. That's all I'm saying.

Oh, yes. Agreed. It'll take more than one outreach to get to 300. Oh, yes. It'll take multiple. That's all I'm trying to say. Yes.

Okay. I think we've definitely beat that to death. So, okay, moving on. Let's go to M2, another fun topic.

No, let's defer to the next meeting. Are you sure? We're never going to get out of here if we start talking about this.

Let's show that defer without objection. Madam Clerk, if you can read items 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the consent agenda.

Yes. Item 1, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of South Miami, Florida approving the reappointment of Justin Puente to the Pension Board of Trustees. Item 2, a resolution of the City of South Miami City Commission approving the reappointment of Andrew Valero Arias to the Pension Board of Trustees. Item 3, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of South Miami, Florida approving and authorizing a waiver of certain event-related fees and costs an amount not to exceed $10,235, restoring to Section 15B-6 of the city code for a special event known as Caring for Miami Mobile Food Market, presented by Caring for Miami to be held the fourth Tuesday of each month, beginning September 2026 and continuing through September 2027 in front of South Miami Children's Clinic, providing for applicability of other code requirements. Item four, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commissioner of the City of Southern Florida, meaning the city's scheduled fees to remove specific rates and charges related to police department off-duty employment, including the police equipment vehicle fee.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Colleagues, any item we want to pull from the consent agenda?

Nope.

If not, can I get a motion to adopt items one, two, three, and four? Motion by Commissioner Bonich. Is there a second? I'll second it. We have a second by Commissioner Rodriguez. Madam Clerk, please call the roll on items one, two, three, and four.

Yes, Commissioner Bonich. Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes. Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Passed 4-0.

We've tortured our guests here in the back for quite some time. Can we read item 6, please? Item 6.

Okay. In ordinance of the Mayor and City Commissioner of the City of South Mayfair, amending Article 3, zoning regulations, Section 20-3.3, permitted use schedule, and 20-3.4, special use conditions of the Land Development Code, to provide for a physical fitness facility as a special use in general retail district, and to amend hours of operation conditions based on an application submitted by ChemCode South Miami 634E.

Thank you. Colleagues, we had a presentation from staff on this item before. Do we have any questions regarding the item? Mr. City Attorney, it's unchanged. Okay, this is a public hearing item. If there's any member of the public who would like to address this commission on item six, please come forward at this time. It is a change to special use conditions to provide for the allowance of physical fitness facility use in the GR, GT, sorry, General Retail District. Seeing no one in the chamber and no one online, we will close the public hearing. Madam Clerk, is there a motion to adopt item six for the record? What's going on?

I might want to defer it.

You might want to defer item six?

You might want to defer it.

We're not going to get it.

We're not going to get four votes on item six, or they'll pass 5-0 the last time?

I voted no last time.

No, 4-1.

We went 4-1 last time.

Oh, OK. Can I inquire what the objection is to the use?

I just think we opened the door to more and more and more of this happening. I understand the goal of this particular business, but not every other business is this business. And I know it's not a popular conversation about what happened before with a fitness center. And the residents' response to that was extremely unfavorable. And if you look at the near past, something as simple as a truck container in that location was cause for alarm. from a large series of residents.

It's really just one, but that's fine.

Well, no, it wasn't just one.

It was one in the association on her behalf, yes. I mean, I will concede that point. But so, okay, so you're not in favor, which means the item would fail. So there is a request to defer the item to September 22nd.

Okay, is there a motion to defer?

Let's move it. Motion to defer. Okay, is there a second?

One of you would have to second.

I'll second.

Okay, so a motion by Commissioner Kaye and a second, sorry, a motion by Commissioner Rodriguez and a second by Commissioner Kaye on a deferral of item 6 to September 22nd. Madam Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Yes. Commissioner Bonish? Yes. Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez? Yes. Mayor Fernandez?

Yes.

I defer to September 22nd. Okay.

Thank you. Let's read item 7, please.

Item 7, in ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Southland, Florida, amending Article 4, other regulations, Article 5, procedures and applications, and Article 12, downtown so many district regulations of the Land Development Code to reorganize and amend notice requirements for public hearings.

Colleagues, do we need a presentation on this item? We had one last time. Again, is the item unchanged? Mr. Attorney? Okay. This is a public hearing item. Any member of the public would like to address this commission on item seven, which is a modification to our procedures and notes requirements for projects in the downtown Somi area. 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'll close the public hearing. Is there a motion to adopt item seven?

I'll move it.

Is there a second? Second.

Who moved it? Okay, Bonich moved it.

Okay, so motion by Commissioner Bonich is second by Commissioner Kaye. Madam Clerk, if you could call the roll, please.

Yes, Commissioner Bonich. Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes. Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Item passes 4-0. Okay.

Let's go back to Item 5.

Item 5, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Southland, Florida, approving the proposal and two-year coverage agreement with Public Risk Management of Florida for renewal of property and casualty and liability insurance services in an annual amount not to exceed $640,985 for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute the agreement for services.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. Manager, just for the purpose of the record, the reason we're doing a two-year contract here is to book additional premium savings, correct?

Mayor, yes. Two things. One is approving the program for the fiscal year, for the next fiscal year. And secondly, take advantage of an offer to a two-year coverage, which would generate a 4% decrease based on the rates.

OK. So we basically, by extending the term, we book additional premium savings.

The rate, not necessarily premium, because the premium could be subject to certain losses, so the premium can fluctuate. But the unit cost of, let's say, if it's $1 for every $5,000, that unit cost is held, the rate. But the premium could change based on prior losses or things like that.

Thank you for the clarification. Colleagues, any questions? Okay, let's open this up for public hearing. If there's any member of the public who would like to address this commission on item five, which is a two-year agreement with Public Risk Management of Florida for miscellaneous coverage, 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'll close the public hearing. Is there a motion to adopt item five?

I'll move.

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

Yes, Commissioner Kaye? Yes. Commissioner Rodriguez? Yes. Commissioner Moniz? Yes. Mayor Fernandez? Yes. Item passes 4-0.

If you can read Item 8, please.

Item 8. In Orders of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of Southman, Florida, approving the Third Amendment to the Lease Agreement with the Girl Scout Council of Tropical Florida Inc. in connection with an existing franchise providing for the continued use of the property located at 6609 Southwest 60th Street known as the Little House Reserve Park, authorizing the city manager to execute the third amendment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. Manager, Mr. City Attorney, any changes to the item since we last heard it? No. Colleagues, any questions on the item? No. Any clarifications? OK. We'll open with public hearing on this item. Again, this is a third amendment that we are approving to a lease with the Girl Scout Council of Tropical Florida Inc. for the Little House. If there's any member of the public who would like to address this commission, please come forward at this time. Seeing no one in chambers and no one online, we will close the public hearing. Colleagues, is there a motion to approve item 8?

I move the motion.

We have a motion by Commissioner Rodriguez. Is there a second?

Anyone want to jump in? I think Commissioner Bonich is going to graciously move, second it.

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

Yes, Commissioner Rodriguez. Yes. Commissioner Bonich. Yes. Commissioner Kaye. Yes. Mayor Fernandez. Yes. Item passes 4-0.

If you can read Item 9, please.

Item 9. In Ordinance of the Mayor and City Commissioner of the City of Southman, Florida, repealing Sections 15-24, 15-25, 15-26, 15-27 and 15-27.1 to comply with Section 790.33 Florida Statutes, which preempts local regulation of firearms and ammunition, including the purchase, sale, transfer, taxation, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage, and transportation thereof. Amending Sections 2-44, 14-5, 14-9, 15-15, and 15-18 to delete references to firearms.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. Secretary, does this require four votes or just a simple majority?

This is a simple majority.

OK. Great. Thank you. Any modifications to the items since we last heard it? No. OK. Colleagues, any questions?

I have a question. Yes, sir.

Your recommendation.

What happens if this doesn't go through?

If this doesn't go through, then the original complainant is free to pursue whatever his rights are under the statutes. In other words- I don't want to acknowledge that he has any of those rights, but he could try to pursue that. Interesting, okay.

Okay, colleagues, further questions? Okay, this is a public hearing item. If there's any member of the public who would like to address this commission with respect to the repeal of various provisions in our city code relating to the regulation of firearms and the sale of ammunition, please come forward at this time. Seeing no one in the chamber and no one online, we'll close the public hearing. Madam Clerk, sorry, is there a motion to adopt item nine? I'll move it. Motion by Commissioner Bonich. Is there a second?

Second by Commissioner Kaye madam clerk if you can call the roll, please No Okay, so we'll bring it back on the 22nd It fails let's uh, I'm on anyone's on the prevailing side I

Who is the prevailing site? Correct. There is a prevailing site. So I'll move to reconsider it. The no vote is prevailing.

Okay, so I'll move to reconsider it.

Thank you.

Is there a second on the reconsideration? Reconsider.

Reconsider, yeah.

Okay. A motion and a second by myself. Any objection to reconsidering the item?

No. No.

Okay, then I'll move to defer the item to September 22nd.

Is there a second to defer? Second.

A motion by myself, a second by Commissioner Rodriguez. Any objection to the deferral? No. Hearing none, consider it moved to 922. Since we just made such incredible progress, I know everyone wants to go home. Can we just deal with your discussion item? That way we'll complete it. No, 10 has been drawn. So all we have left is the discussion item. And I know the commissioner graciously wanted to defer because we were running long, but we finished the balance of the agenda in almost record time. So let's hear her out on her thoughts.

I think we should look at our LPR school speed zone data and see where we're at. hold it up against what we see happening in the rest of the state with the flock cameras. I am on record from the very beginning saying I think that they are an invasion of privacy. I think that we're already, as the mayor had pointed out during that conversation, people have ring cameras, people have this camera, people have that camera. I don't see where mailing you a ticket other than generating revenue for the city is changing someone's Behavior I think that every time the car drives by there It captures your car people say no we've learned differently But I think it's worth a second look and we get some clarification on that point.

So mr. Chief if you could clarify for us The difference in the technology what I was gonna say look at what we have and What is being I understand I so my so my understanding the universe is a flaw camera is indiscriminate and and that it captures every plate that the LPR picks up, Chief? Correct. Whereas our school zone cameras only recover the data when they spot an infraction, correct?

Correct, sir.

Okay. And is the same true for our red light cameras? Do they only record the information? Okay. So, Commissioner, I think it's an important distinction. in that you're only captured in the database of the system for the two that generate revenue. I would say very clearly change behavior certainly changed mine the first time I got a ticket on sunset during the school zone.

I've never gotten a ticket of those by the way.

Because we all know you drive very fast cars very slowly, talked about that before. The rest of us have ambitions of being Mario Andretti. Yeah. So the flock cameras, we do have a flock camera, correct, that we have in our inventory.

What do we use that for, Chief?

Investigative purposes. So I can briefly comment on them. Please. To your point, sir, the automated enforcement cameras, which would be our red speed, our school zone cameras, as well as our red light cameras, are for infraction based only. The flock cameras are standalone cameras that are for investigative purposes, meaning you could search them. To the commissioner's point, they do capture every tag that goes by that it can read. So if you don't mind, I'll just read a little speech here to kind of give you an overview of our program and how it differs from other municipalities nationwide. I want to briefly address the use of our automated license plate reader recognition technology. because I recognize that technology can raise legitimate questions about privacy, civil liberties, and government oversight. Those are important questions. And as a chief, I welcome an opportunity to explain how we're addressing them. Our ALPR system is a law enforcement investigative tool. And I distinguish those between the enforcement and the standalone cameras that we would call flock. That is just a brand name, but that is at the topic of discussion. Our policies and safeguards govern how the technology is used. Access is restricted to legitimate law enforcement purposes. Officers are prohibited from using the system for personal reasons, curiosity, harassment, or political purposes, or any other purpose outside of official duties. We also have accountability built into the process to conduct a search. An officer must identify a crime an investigative purpose and enter an associated report number and document the reason for that search. That creates an electronic record of the officer's activity that can be reviewed. The technology itself provides another layer of accountability in that Phlox system maintains an automated AI and organizational audit record, identifying who has conducted searches, when it occurred, and the purpose associated with that search. Those records allow the department to identify and investigate any potential misuse and their consequences for that misuse. Any unauthorized improper use of the system is a violation of department policy and may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal and termination of employment. or where appropriate, referral for criminal investigation and prosecution. We do not consider access to this technology a privilege without accountability. This is particularly important because on August 20th, the International Association of Chiefs of Police issued an official statement addressing the responsible use of license plate reader technology. The IACP, along with the Miami-Dade Chiefs of Police Association, supports the law enforcement ethical use of ALPR to prevent and solve crimes, locate missing and endangered persons, recover stolen property, and improve officer safety and journal investigative leads. At this same time, IACP and the Miami-Dade Chiefs emphasizes the safeguards including documented lawful purposes, restricted access, comprehensive written policies, audit records and supervisory review, cybersecurity protections, and appropriate retention and consequences for misuse. Those principles are consistent with how we operate our program. There is another important distinction. An ALPR alert is an investigative lead. It's not proof that someone committed a crime. Our officers must verify every information and establish appropriate legal basis before taking any action. So I don't want the commissioner or our residents to simply take my word for using this technology responsibly. I want you to know that we have the established policies, access restrictions, documentation requirements, and audit capabilities, and disciplinary consequences designed to hold our people and our personnel accountable. We recognize the powerful technology, and precisely because it's powerful, we must be used carefully, lawfully, and responsibly. Our objective is straightforward. Use available technology to make our community safer while protecting constitutional rights and privacy interests of the people we serve. That is a standard I expect of the department, and that is a standard I will continue to hold us accountable for. In light of that, I have some wins, if you want to hear some of the ones where we've used the technology and how it's provided us a, I guess, a lawful and conclusion to solving some cases. Just bear with me a moment while I get that. A detective investigated a theft of a wallet that had been accidentally dropped by a victim in a small mall drop area. Surveillance video showed a male arriving in a distinctive purple Dodge Charger taking possession of the wallet. Shortly afterward, the victim's credit card was used at a nearby gas station. Surveillance footage from the gas station showed the same individual attempting to use the victim's credit card. The detective used the flock LPR information to identify the purple Dodge Charger traveling the surrounding area during the relevant timeframe. LPR information helped connect a distinctive suspect vehicle observed on surveillance footage to a potential suspect, providing investigators with a lead that was independently investigated and corroborated. Vehicle burglaries and airbag thefts. During an investigation, multiple vehicles were burglarized and the theft of their airbags were stolen. Investigators used the flock LPR to identify a vehicle believed to associated with the offenses. Identification of the vehicle provided detectives with additional investigative lead and helped move the investigation forward. Identification of the vehicles associated with recurring or patterned criminal activity. Vehicle burglary, theft, and fraudulent use of credit cards. Two vehicles associated with subjects were captured by LPR technology, location of the original burglary and stolen property. The vehicles were later captured traveling along South Dixie Highway after the victim's stolen credit cards had been used at several locations. Investigators combed the LPR information with surveillance video and investigative methods. One of the vehicles associated with the subjects was subsequently reported stolen. Information developed during the investigation also assisted the Miami Shores Police Department in closing a separate burglary investigation involving the same suspects. An injury in a hit and run, a detective investigating a hit and run crash involving injuries initially had limited investigative leads. LPR information assisted investigators in identifying a vehicle involved and provided additional information that contributed to identifying, ultimately arresting the subject. The LPR technology provided an additional lead in an investigation that otherwise would have been limited in information and available to identify the vehicle and or driver. So those are just some wins where we've used the technology from an investigative standpoint. Some of our policies and procedures. So these alerts that come through are transmitted to the officer. I think I sent the mayor kind of a picture of that. What it does is it just captures the rear license plate of the vehicle and a distinct description of the vehicle. So if it's a Dodge, it may have a bumper sticker. It may have damage to one side of the vehicle or so forth. It doesn't take pictures of your face. It doesn't take pictures of the front sides of the vehicle. It's only the rear of the car as it passes by. And then from that perspective, our policies also shift to only supervisors and our criminal investigative division personnel can actually search that technology. So the average officer on the street is not able to search for that vehicle or any license plate.

Chief, just a clarification, but they do get notifications if there is a LPR report issued on a vehicle being spotted, correct, through dispatch? Yes.

So there are. So there are alerts that come through. So, for example, a stolen vehicle would pop up. It would trigger a sound, much like an incoming text on your phone. The officers can get it on their city-issued phone, and it will just say, stolen vehicle, and give the plate number. The officers can look at the photo. and compare the photo to the tag that's being displayed. So there are misreads from time to time depending on the angle of attack from the camera, so the officers have to verify that that information is correct before they do initiate any stops.

Yes, you're recognized for questions.

Who other than our police department has access to the data that is on any one of those cameras?

So from the alert standpoint, the alert comes through as a general picture of a license plate that says stolen vehicle, license plate number. They can look at the photo and they can look at what the printed text says. It doesn't identify a driver. It doesn't provide any information as that. But as far as searching the data to search your tag, only a supervisor, our dispatchers who are dispatching these, as well as our criminal investigation personnel.

Yeah, but I'm saying once you get outside of our department, I'm going to do it. Stupid comparison. Okay, I'm in my car and I passed the red zone camera click it takes a picture Obviously you guys can see it.

It's in the city of South Miami who outside the city of South Miami can see that Well, again, we got a distinct between the two ones an enforcement camera.

Mm-hmm

And that would just be us and the company that we have that technology with.

OK, so let's say Orange County, with a flock camera, Orange County can't look at what South Miami captured on their LPR?

On our LPR, they can. We share within the state of Florida.

Yeah, but it's not so. The enforcement cameras are segregated to us and our vendor. The flock cameras are on a statewide database.

We choose who we can share that with. If it's the will of the commission that we never share that data, we could do that. We share within the state of Florida because it provides the overall state of Florida. How many flock cameras do we have? We have six flock cameras.

Can you tell us where they're deployed?