Community Relations Board - Regular Meeting

the Community Relations Board on October 16th. And I'll call this meeting to order. We'll do a roll call.

All right, I'm going to do the roll call. Chair David Karp.

Here.

Board Member Kayla Azari-Gorminto. Here. Board Member Mary Henderson. Here.

Chair, you have a quorum. Great. Fantastic. No, please. We'll go through our agenda and anything, is this where I ask if anybody wants to add or change something? Anybody want to add or something? My name's on a lot, but these are Joanna's.

And to move things around, is this item as well?

Yes, it's agenda and order of business.

Okay, so my name's on a lot of these, but these are Joanna's. I can just repeat what I heard last time, and if Frank had any updates, we'll call him to talk about them.

Through the chair, just wondering if maybe you want to move up the Singerfest item for Commissioner in case he may have to leave early?

Okay, is there a motion to bring up 60?

I'll have a motion.

Second?

I second it.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. Thank you.

Okay.

Did you want to move up 6D to 6A?

Yes. Just put the device. Vice chair just arrived.

I'll start off by saying I will have to leave a little bit early today, but I hope to stick around for as much of the meeting as I can. Not much that's new, but I did want to just say, you know, on behalf of the Commission, I think our last two events, the Public Works Luncheon and the Pizza Conferences, both were really nice, and I know greatly appreciated by the Commission. I think the Vice Mayor was at both of those, and yeah, just really a nice... presence by this board in the last month especially, so I appreciate that. If item 6A is on the agenda, 7.6D is now the 6A, I will have something to say there. I wanted to update you too. I have not heard back from the contacts I had in Miami Beach High School about the debate event. And I want to make that happen. I'll be frank, I know that when I sort of first had the idea for this board that was proposed to us by Dr. Murphy. I envisioned it as having the role that it currently does, doing great things to bring the community together, but then also helping to discuss the politics in the town and to make that better. And I realized that part is challenging. And I know that on the commission, there are different points of view about that role. And the debate event is super interesting to me. Did you get pushed back? Just a little bit. The topic came up at one commission meeting in passing, but it remained at that level. I just will say that if any of you talk to the other commissioners and want to try to make the case for that, I think that would be really helpful. want that to be part of our work, especially as election season comes up and these old political divides kind of resurface. I spend a lot of time thinking about how the work of this board can make that situation better. But I can't talk to my fellow commissioners outside of the meetings, but you all can. And I encourage you to, if you have thoughts on that subject, I encourage you to express them individually to the commission. Otherwise, I'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have. about the commission's work so does the commission some of the commissioners have opinions like they don't agree like well you know it's you know it reminds me a little bit of what happened in the pushback that we got about the um how to talk to your neighbors about politics event last year where i felt it was very superficial that this is my personal opinion here right that some of the commissioners saw the the wording of the flyer and somehow object they may be triggering to some without really understanding the deep purpose behind it. So I think it's not a very thought out judgment, but it could still be a strong reaction. And that's kind of what I'm wrestling with a little bit.

To the chair, I agree that we already have the tourism board, which throws events. I don't think we're supposed to just be an event group. I think we're supposed to figure out ways for our community to get through hard things, to come together during good times, bad, whatever it is, and take into consideration that some topics are difficult, but there exists, whether we do things or not, can we make it better for us to all exist together and deal with some difficult topics? I think the words debate, politics, bring in a certain sort of like, you're not supposed to talk about this stuff. But I think in the world we live in now, we do. And we're not saying we need to have people agree with any of us. We don't even have to talk about actual politics. It's about... talking about global things and small things here in a way that's constructive and not tearing each other down.

And part of what I want to invite others to speak as well, but part of what I love about this agenda today is that some of the items coming up, the resource fair, the gun violence prevention event, touch on difficult subjects that the tourist board doesn't engage with. So they get at that other aspect of the board's mission and charter, and it's just that political angle that is difficult. And I want to keep working on how we can be part of that. Sorry.

I guess for a charter first, do we need their approval? And second, the first event, having Isaac Carter, having him mediate it, maybe at the end they thought it was a good idea, so maybe having him again. Just like someone that we know is a professional, we know it won't get out of hand. And we're not taking it into our own hands.

Do we want to maybe... take a little time, figure out how we present what this is to the community, and maybe sometime leading up to the March election, which is another election that's gonna be important in this town, maybe think of it in that way so we have a little more time to create the structure, how we wanna present it, not use, you know, lightning rod kind of terms that get people feeling like it's going to be something combative and think about how to do it in a way that, so does that make sense?

Pushed off a little bit? I feel like if we put it right by an election, then maybe they'll push back even more about politics. Maybe now it could be a soft launch and we could again do it in March for the election. But I would like to have it more often, not once. For when they need it. For all the times they need it. So maybe we could now do just like broad topics that no one is so...

I don't see the debate on the agenda, so can I still add it so we can talk after?

You could add it on their agenda, on their business.

On their new business? New business, okay.

And then, okay. Because I think we'll talk more about it then. Any recommendations you have in case you're gone? No, you know, I...

So would that mean, like, the topic that we picked to discuss should really not be too... You know, it could, you know, I feel, I mean, again, this is just my opinion. I can't speak for the whole commission. Like, the... For example, like, the... some of the ballot questions for the November election might have made good-to-date topics because they were uh but the timing of that will be you know well it doesn't work out um yeah but I also think it's just really to try to make a case for the and I can I can think about how to do this myself to the commission to make a case for this event and for this aspect of the board's work um publicly. And it might be too late for the October agenda of the commission, but we have a November meeting coming right up, the way the calendar works. So I can try to put an item on the November agenda to kind of... Bring this out. Right. And through the chair to answer Board Member Azari's question, I don't think we need, you know, we don't need approval of the commission per se, but the existence of this board, like any board, kind of is at the commission's grits. Yes. And so, you know, we want to be mindful.

Find the ways to make them okay with the idea. Yeah. Okay.

the gun violence prevention community since we have a speaker on it.

Sorry, through the chair, did you want to make a motion to add the item 7a to the agenda?

Well, the debate could be for new business. 7a.

You would need a motion to add.

Okay, is there a motion to move to add the debate item? item for discussion to add a debate for the discussion item all those in favor say aye motion passes okay and i'd like to move 6g up because we have a guest speaker I'd like to make a motion, or someone to make a motion.

I'll make a motion to move 6G up. So it'll be 6B? I'm sorry, 6G.

I know, but it will be after the Singer Fest, correct? So after Singer Fest? Yes, yes.

So to 6E?

So no, it will be, so before you arrive, Madam Vice Chair, they moved item 6D to become 6A.

Ah, okay. Okay, I'd like to move, I'm going to make a motion to move 6G to 6B. Second, is there a second? I'll second it.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay, thank you everybody. Motion. Okay, motion passes. Any public comments first? Okay, and approval of minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from last September 18th?

Make a motion to approve the minutes. Any comments on it?

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. I got a whole bunch from the library because they all came at once. So they have collective stories.

It's a single volume.

Yeah. I have two of these because they all again came at once. I thought they'd spread out. I'll pass it around. But this one here has a nice chronology of his life. pass that around. This one is mine. And then I have two children. They're a little scary. The Wicked City by Isaac Beshida, the singer. Beautiful artwork. Yeah, the artwork is beautiful. And it's monochrome. And this one is even autographed, Love, I.B. Singer. This is from our rabbis when he dispersed his library when he retired. 1972. And then this one is Joseph and Koza not signed. But even the prices, like this one is $4.95. For that day? Oh, sure. There's another one I have at the library. They got from the Library Conversations. They interviewed him. That's a whole book I've had. With the Miami Beach photographs?

Did you see the one with the Miami Beach photographs? I have one in my office where it's like a photographer doing photos in South Beach and then he's like, it's like an interview with him.

Oh, Barbara. Yeah, I got that one too, Barbara. Okay.

the library so there's some out there and they'll pull them from different libraries did we discuss in our last meeting that we would possibly partner with books and books to buy Yes. Is there something happening?

Yes, so I can speak to that. Through the chair, Frank has been ordering books. Books and Books wasn't able to order out of print books themselves, but Frank's been doing a good work of tracking them down on the web, and we have a small library of these collected stories. Great. um i'm working on getting permission from this publisher to photocopy and distribute the stories but it's been it's just been a little bit slower than i hope but i hope to have that and i want to talk to frank soon about sending an email that lets people know how to get the four stories um she's gonna say for the for the record and for the group um we're reading for the book club old world stories and two new world stories. Gimple the Fool and The Last Demon. And then the Miami-based stories that he wrote about are Alone and Old Love. And I didn't see Old Love in the collection, American Library Edition, that one you're holding. I didn't see Old Love in that one, but the Collective Stories has all four. This one has all four. So I think three of the four are in that same book. So I think, you know, if we hopefully some combination of the books we bought, Kindle, and some permission to photocopy and distribute should give us something to publicize for the book club. I didn't buy many on Kindle.

I think Amazon said it was available on Kindle.

So that would be a purchase. Yeah, but we could share the link with people. The Miami-Dade Kindle link didn't have any.

OK. Yeah, but the one we're looking for primarily is this one for our sales edition. I'm going to have to run, unfortunately, but we keep I'll call up with you tomorrow and see if we can prepare a communication with the information. Thanks, everybody.

Yeah, and Collected Stories is free on Canola. Oh, it is? On my Canola list, yeah. Read for free.

Okay, great. That's, yeah, that's great. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. All right, so I see here the date for it is November 16th. And anything we need to know, Frank?

Well, we're promoting it on the website. You're going to see a featured article in the Gazette, which is also online. So it's a little bit of a background article. We've got a photo there of him with former Mayor Kinzer. And then, of course, it has the event flyer, which we are promoting. um yeah we're just uh still have a few details to you know narrow down with uh the bender like i said we weren't able to meet with the tourist board this week to get any additional kind of guidance on the reception part of it but um you know i think we're looking good we're gonna have a plasma band we're gonna have you know A little bit of food and drink and the screening of the short film. So it should be nice.

And who's emceeing it?

There's no emcee per se. But I see a lot of good candidates here. I see a lot of community superstars waiting to shine.

We'll be there.

We'll step in.

Yeah, I mean, perhaps Commissioner Valdostegui will want to do that or, you know, we can have different people. Who's in charge of Daytona? The chair is Diana Gonzalez, but I'm sure we'll have teen volunteers. I know we're going to have a few park members helping us because the inflatable screen is a little bit tricky, so they need to be there to make sure everything's good with that, but we'll have some teen volunteers. And then, as Commissioner said, him and I will talk about just the rules for the book club once we've figured out are we going to be able to make copies, just so we can let folks know, hey, pick it up at the community center during these times, just so folks kind of know what to do.

What time is it again?

It's going to start at 5 o'clock. 5 to 6 will be the book club component, and then the reception will be immediately following. And then we were able to connect with the Miami Book Fair international team, which is great. They can't quite put it everywhere because it's a little bit like last minute, but they are going to promote it on their website and on some of their programming, and in exchange we'll help them promote their Jewish authors kind of programming for the fair. So, yeah, we'll have a little bit of cross-promotion there, and they're excited about it.

Okay, cool. It's going to be great. How many card copies do you have?

I think we have eight. I'm still looking for more.

The first lucky eight and then the rest on Kindle. Show them how to download it on Kindle.

You should definitely spread the word that currently, we can't say a month from now, but right now it is zero dollars on Kindle. So people with that app. Yeah, exactly. Maybe you could add it on the...

The Kindle, yeah. I can add it on the event listing. Yes, right. A little Kindle mention since it's free. Yeah, that's a good suggestion.

I'm just hoping it's not free for us because we have Prime. Do you have Prime? Yes. I do. So someone who doesn't have Prime, just check. But if not, it's only $9.99. So it would only be $10.

Okay. That's all pretty good.

It's not that bad.

And that's all for Senior Fest.

I feel like everyone has Prime now.

Okay, I'm just looking to see where it is.

So do you have the Amazon app? Mm-hmm. So on Amazon, I ask for it, and then it shows a Kindle object. Okay, so if you hit the title, just say the name of the book, and then it will say Kindle.

Just say Kindle.

That's zero. But you have to have Kindle unlimited, right?

I think Kindle Unlimited might come with time.

It says read for free. Okay. Sign into Kindle Unlimited.

Yeah, I think it should be, and it may even be for people without time, but I'm pretty sure if you have time.

Okay, great. Okay, so, all right, we'll all start reading. They're short stories. Mm-hmm. So they start out real strong, and then all of a sudden there's a weird ending right at the end. Weird part.

Have you read all of his work?

No, but I've read like a number of them this past couple weeks.

Oh, nice.

Trying to get ready.

Okay, I'll start getting ready.

Go ahead. Okay, anything else on Singer Fest? Okay, 6B, Gun Violence Prevention Community Awareness Presentation, and welcome, Hilary.

Hello, nice to be here, thank you. So, I've been here before. Just say your name and address for the record. Yes, I'm Hilary Feldman, 9341 Collins Avenue, apartment 108. So, I think I talked about this maybe at the beginning. But the good news is, so I am a psychologist, also David's wife, and I have been the co-chair of a gun violence prevention task force through our synagogues for a number of years. And as part of that, we present a nonpartisan process. is part of, it's an educational component of Moms Demand Action in Everytown, and basically it's a way of promoting safety, and it's a non-partisan program, and it's really basically, it's called Be Smart, and it stands for secure all guns in your home and vehicles, model responsible behavior, ask about the presence of guns parents of young children, recognize the role of guns in suicide, and tell other people to be smart. And it's also a way of just having conversations. So I've been presenting, we've been presenting this through different PTO organizations and things like that for the last six months. Right before the pandemic. And I actually also presented it last spring for Bay Harbor for their police and pizza program. And they had like 60 to 70 people, which puts Surfside, wait a second Surfside, we've got to step up here. So I've been wanting to present this program. I actually did do it at the Citizens Police Academy, and again, that was before the pandemic. So a number of years ago, and I was going to do it again, but then that never happened. But I teamed up with the Youth Council, who are interested in sponsoring it, and we actually have a pretty strong... go likely December the 10th or the 11th of this year, which also corresponds, do anybody remember Aria Gray? So Aria Gray was a 15-year-old who, during the pandemic, went to... shot Aria and killed her. He is in jail. And her family lives in, she was from Surfside, and her family lives in Surfside. And Jerry actually knows her uncle, went to school, I think, with her uncle. And so one of the things, Surfside has a scholarship in her name, right? It's for rising, it's for seniors, for college, I think it's a scholarship. college scholarship. I believe this past year nobody applied and nobody got it. Is that correct? Nobody applied?

We have two. One is on her name. Was it promoted?

It's embarrassing. I'm good friends with the uncle. And he was saying, please spread the word. And I told my son, who was a senior last year, and all of the friends to do it. I didn't stay on them. They're college apps. Everything else took over. Not one of them applied. And I was like, it's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy.

It's money. It's silly.

Nothing. Not that. How old are you? Are you past high school?

No, she's way past. Yeah.

So, we thought that... We could do a number of different things. One would be to partner with the police, like sit in the police, and they're more than willing to do that. The Youth Council is really the active sponsor of it. And then we want to promote and honor Aria Gray. It turns out that her birthday, her 21st birthday, would be December 10th. So I had a little conversation with her uncle. Actually, her mother wants to come, I think. So her uncle and her mom right now are just trying to figure out which either the 10th or 11th of either of those hopefully will work for them. And he is willing to speak if Ari's mom feels comfortable with that. If Ari's mom wants to speak, obviously, that would be awesome. And, you know, I don't... And I just, so when I presented it to the Youth Council, one of the thoughts was community relations should be involved in maybe helping to sponsor too. And so Wood, Parks and Rec, because I think they're the ones that actually give out the scholarships. So that's why I'm here, is just to talk about it and then to see how we can promote it and just all work together. So part of it would be, I mean, The run of show that we sort of had talked about, or the youth council had talked about, was basically just setting the stage, having Aria's uncle talk, if that works out. Having, I think, a police presentation, or maybe I could do my presentation along with the police, because I would love for them to talk about safe gun storage and those kinds of things. And the other thing just sort of came into my mind the other day was, you know, is there something we can, I mean, what can we do formally to honor her? I mean, I think, you know, that would be a really amazing thing if that's something that the family would be comfortable with. I don't know if there's anything.

How do you see us involved in this?

I guess the question is just so that you know about it, that you attend. And also, is there anything that the community relations can do in terms of promoting it, helping to promote it? I don't know who the person is.

Yes, I'm currently not doing communications anymore, just focusing on tourism and supporting the CRB, but I can make sure that once we have, you know, once the initiative is well defined, so, you know, with all the different components from the Belize, from the Youth Council, I can just make sure that the communications team, you know, Includes it in the Gazette and that we have something robust on the website that it gets on social media I'll make sure it gets on all the channels, even though I don't manage them myself now But we just need to define, you know the date the time and then you know We will make sure that it gets on all the channels I'd like our committee to sort of help sponsor it also because that's why Commissioner Gerardo started this committee and when that happened that was a community crisis and

reasons this committee was, you know, brought into effect to help out with something like that. So I'd like to put our name on it.

Maybe through the chair, like where could the CRB sponsor, you know, because they have a little bit of a budget, whereas, you know, Parks and Youth Council, actually Youth Council might have a little budget, but Parks doesn't. So, you know, they have some autonomy if you wanted, you had an idea for something that requires a little money.

I'm not sure it really requires, I mean, The money piece, I don't, I mean, so I think if it goes with Pizza and the Cop, the pizza piece can go through, but I have to make sure that that's true, whether they can sponsor the food, because it could be an event that they're both sponsoring, and it could be part of the Pizza and the Cops, but we can find out if there's anything else that they need, and the idea was that if they could do it, because I think they would like to get larger events. I'm just...

brainstorming here, but maybe we can do something along with you. I just for some reason always think towards arts and I know Should we just have something along the lines of like the wishing tree we do, something else that's maybe creative. We could do maybe a big canvas where everyone works together on something in Aria's name or in the idea of gun safety. Something that, I'm just thinking something healing, something that kind of gets the community in a way that's interactive. I don't know, just...

Do you think, I mean the question is would there be time at that specific event or maybe we could do another event where that also occurred?

Depends on what is planned. It could be something not that doesn't take hours and hours. Even just something like a big canvas where as the evening's going on, people come up and just paint a little more on it or do something, you know, whatever it is, it can be.

Or a pledge, a pledge to check for guns or teach their children and just have signatures. Right.

Through the chair.

Because you're going to, sorry. So you mentioned the youth council, like their staff liaison is the Parks and Recreation Department.

So that would be with Parks and Rec would help them promote. Okay, great. And we were also thinking of actually expanding it beyond Surfside, so maybe Bay Harbor, maybe Bell Harbor.

That would be nice.

And maybe, I mean, so I was going to even talk to our rabbi at our synagogue about the youth group being involved. But I think that's the other piece is trying to also get the youth involved because I think is to see how they can expand it.

Just a question that I'm probably very wrong about, but I know that there's been a lot about pediatricians are kind of handcuffed and are not allowed to ask certain questions. They can now. They can now. Okay, so we're allowed to ask and do anything regarding guns. Not anything, but things regarding guns and what we talked about.

I mean, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, gun safety is good. Yes, yes, yes.

Well, why don't we keep it simple this first time? We can always do another one. We can do the gun, like the Be Smart, the police presentation.

So, I mean, one thought I had was maybe for me, I mean, I was going to do the presentation or part of the presentation. The presentation is actually towards adults, but it can be adapted and it should be adapted because, I mean, in my thought process, if the kids had left, and said, we're out of here. There was, you know, maybe a tragedy could have been averted. And again, in my experience, I was doing a workshop basically with a youth group and somebody remembered that when they were like 15, they had a party at their house. A bunch of people came. Their parents were not there. And a friend brought a friend, and the person whose house it was noticed that the person who they brought had a gun. And she said, immediately she freaked out. She didn't know what to do, but she did the right thing, which is say, I really don't feel well. I'm sick. Everybody has to leave right now. You know, and people, she said, but I never expected to be in that situation, right? I mean, you know, so these are two... that I know of, you know, between Aria Gray and this, you know, and I know there are many more. And so, you know, for somebody to realize we just have to get out of there is one thing, you know.

So it sounds like we're not going to come up with anything to add to the agenda of the night. We may not need to. It's just a matter of maybe it will cover some of the expenses if Parks and Rec, doesn't have that, well, I would like to, through the chair, maybe do we need to say we're going to cover whatever expenses for water or anything else that needs to be purchased to make the event nice. Is that a word?

What about the art project or the signature?

Well, I don't know if we need that. It sounds like you've got the...

Pledge, I think, would be awesome. A pledge at the top to teach your children to ask... Yeah, I mean, a pledge... And we can talk, I don't know if I can say this right now, but we can, I can talk with the police and, you know, is there a pledge that you can sign to say, we're going to do X, you know.

Like a parent teaching their child, oh, you're going over? And then the parents, it's really the parent's responsibility. It's the parent's responsibility. It's not the child's responsibility. Do you have any guns around? If not, they can come to my house. You know, that's the pledge almost, right?

Right, right, right. I mean, and the pledge also may be, I'm going to store my guns safely, and I'm going to tell other people to store their guns safely.

Through the chair, what if we, with those pledges, they pledge, we have them read it, and through that, you take their name down, and then maybe, as like a way for people to actually look at this pledge, instead of being like, alright, I'm just going to pledge, you know what I mean, to be a good citizen, what if we make it kind of like a raffle? for like a gun safe or something. Some of those locks.

She has some locks.

Yeah, and they're much better, you know.

Something that actually promotes the safety, but also gives people that pledge that they actually want to be in the care.

And that would be a perfect role. trying to prevent anything like this happening again, we're teaching. And then we can also put it in the Gazette, here's what we've done, and here's what we encourage. Okay, so I'm going to add this to, is there a motion to, how much money do we have, Frank?

Well, it's a new fiscal year, so you have new budgets. I would just make a motion to cover miscellaneous expenses.

Okay, is there a motion to cover miscellaneous expenses?

I'll make a motion to cover miscellaneous

expenses all those in favor say aye motion passes and then I'll put this on the agenda to decide how we're going to come up with the pledge activity yep and I would like to talk to the

to chief from press?

Yeah, I was going to say, through the chair, I mean, maybe the pledge should go with police as well, because they probably...

I'm thinking we could make the, we could do the poster board or something.

Yeah, anything, I would say, sorry, through the chair, if, if, I would like to see maybe if we do get involved in anything that maybe has something to do with Aria, just because the police can take care of any of the, you can take care of explaining what you do, and the police can do that, and maybe we just, if there is something since it is on or around her birthday, maybe just one more thing that we do there is for her.

Did she have an interest? Was she an artist, or was she... I can ask Walter.

Do we know if she has a break at the community center? We could donate some books. Oh, that would be awesome.

Let me ask Walter.

Oh, that would be awesome. Like a break.

Yeah, I mean, they have the ones that you can dedicate. I'm not sure what their process is. How much is that? I don't know. I don't know. I'll have to ask Parks. I know it goes through them, but yeah.

I think it would be at the community center. Yeah.

We could do the unveiling that night. Right.

And then we could use that tree as like her wishing tree.

No, I think they were thinking of doing it at the 96th Street Park. Just to say what I heard from the Youth Council.

There's a big tree there on the jewel palm tree. Could work for that by the park.

Let's just keep it to this. Because your activity by itself is just perfect. Because there were a lot of little kids coming by. And right on the way to the pool, or the beach. Okay, so I'll put this on next. We'll think of the activity, and then Frank will let us know how much the brick is. See if we can cover that.

Okay, so you'll be here next.

So next meeting is the 20th. If you can come, we'll put you on the agenda. you let me know when you see me run out the door 10 to 4 there you go when I put my swim on Okay, we'll move to the, which is now 6C, the recap, the pizza and palm fronds. I thought it was very good, except we didn't have enough palm fronds or pizza. But I thought the interest was there this year.

Well, we had enough pizza. We always have enough pizza. It's just that you don't know how many people are going to show. So I don't want to order 10 and then have it so cold. So the thing is, we had kids that liked to repeat a lot. So there were four or five kids, but they kept wanting to be fed a lot of pizza. So we ordered several times. I think we spent about $500. Plus a few drinks as well. But yeah, we kept it coming. The pom-poms, I will say, yes, we were a little bit short. We did get a delivery right before the event. I think like 20, I mean, not tons, but like 25 pieces. But then one guy came and took 23 of them, like two minutes before it started. And then we were out for a long time, but we did get more towards the end after you came by. And we had a nice like big dump. maybe with like half an hour left, but there were still people coming by. So that's definitely something we'll arrange ahead of time and also not realizing that some of the staff that helped with that last year for Public Works is not here anymore. So, you know, some of it fell through the cracks, but overall I thought it was good.

So put that on the calendar for next year. But it was really well done. A lot of people came to talk, just to talk and hang out with your family. Yeah, it was really nice. And other people were there, and then the town manager was there, so he was filling questions, we sent questions over.

Yeah, vice mayor and commissioner were there. The only thing that wasn't great was the weather, so I thought we were going to get canceled earlier in the week, that's why I didn't have the sandwich board sites made, because they can be expensive, but then, you know, it's one of those where it worked out. Yeah, and it wasn't as hot. Thank you very much. Sure.

Okay, and 6D, recap of the public works appreciation. It was excellent, too. It was great.

I enjoyed it. Tremendously, and I think the most importantly in the sanitation workers public works department. They seem to really enjoy it. I love Flanagan's. They really did a great job. They gave us the coins for free drinks, so we played trivia. different street names and then we gave points to the people who have been there the longest and then everyone got coins and it was just really, really fun and a bunch of us were there and it was just, I thought, a great day. I enjoyed it so much. You emceed it perfectly.

Like, I didn't know what to say. I couldn't even talk to them. They were all big, you know, and they were sweating. They're great.

And now even more, I always got love from our sanitation department, but now when I see them... Now you're the queen, yes.

I know, they're kissing, throwing me kisses.

It's the greatest. Now I should have been. Yeah, now you're the queen. They always leave my garbage right out of the sun.

Yeah, she really schmoozed them, you know. And her nightdress.

As I told them, when people say... They're schmoozing. When people say, why do you live in this perfect town? And I say, people think it's the beach. because having our trash picked up as often as it is is such a joy, and they take everything. I've seen the roads too often. I've lived other places where it's not the case, though.

You were great. Yeah, and that for us. Did you get any feedback from any of them?

Yeah, I mean, they all really enjoyed it. Flanagan's was amazing. They gave us huge discounts. Like, huge. Like, left and right, they were giving us discounts. Do you want to write something?

Yeah, I'll maybe stop it. We use their a lot, though. I'm embarrassed to say, but I'll stop there and mention again, the manager was great.

Sure, yes, he was phenomenal.

No, it was a nice touch. Okay, very good. Thank you. 6E, Community Resource Fair and Wishing Tree. And I have Frank down for that.

There's more you guys. Let me know what you want to do.

The gun violence thing could be a good reason. That's actually not a terrible idea. That's December. I mean, I don't know how many resources we've had yet, but the one we've got as another resource. Down there to tie her. Yeah.

She could sell her locks. Frank, what do you think about that? I think they could be free. combining the resource fair with the gun education.

Okay, so wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah, Vice Chair was asking about combining the gun education with the resource fair.

You could kind of make you know combine it and maybe do like do it at the community center maybe you do the fishbowl for the gun prevention so that it's more focused and you have a screen and you have walls and then you know you can have the resource fair with the wishing tree out on the green space so i think you could do both together i mean you'll probably get a bigger that's from thinking Draw, if you combine.

That sounds really appealing to maybe have more for each of the events. If some people are just coming for the wishing tree, you'll come to the gun prevention too.

Have you been able to contact any resources?

I have, yes. I've been speaking to Tamara Oppenheimer. And she has a list of resources of phone numbers for us. And I haven't gotten the list yet because it's been a lot of the holidays. But she is getting us a list of everyone. She's the... social worker for Beach High, so she has a ton of good contacts. I already have some communication going with the children's bereavements, and then poison control. We've got a doctor we know who's the I think we have other ones that we've all talked about here, but yeah.

So how do we envision it? So Hillary's would be the main event with the youth council, right? What's the fiscal? Is that the fiscal?

The fiscal, yeah, just the other room at the community center.

So it's not going to be at 96th Park?

No, I mean, unless you wanted to, but I would recommend the community center for that.

So that would be the main event. And then we have tables for each of these volunteers.

Yeah, and we could do that all in the green space. I mean, you could have, you know.

And then the wishing tree, you said?

Yeah, all of that could be together, the wishing tree, the different tables, you spread it around. I like that.

Okay.

Yeah. All right. So it's going to be December 10th or 11th. Mm-hmm.

So through this year, do you have any resources from other events, like the police department, different, you know, community resources that we could kind of put together from the other?

They probably do. Keep in mind, I don't use them for tourism stuff, but I'm sure police and HR might have, like... Yeah, HR and police probably have different groups that have done things.

The cat and release, the vaccine and release.

I was the mental health coordinator, parent coordinator at Beach High when my kids were there. And so we would do a mental wellness and physical wellness program. And we had all of the, it was really, really impactful. So we had psychologists, all different people from different organizations come in and they're amazing. They'll sit one-on-one and talk to people and tell them all the different things that their organizations can do for children and adults. And I think I envision a little bit like that, where it's just, you can go up, interact, they'll give out brochures, sometimes they bring gifts for people. And when I was doing it, Surfside Police would come, they'd bring like the dog, they'd walk around, the kids got to hang out with the dog, so. In this light. I know. So. That adoption thing, that would be cute. Yeah.

Can we start like, what, the fire department, could they like come? Oh, that too. Yeah, just let's start, why don't we start with what we have here, and then we'll do Joanna's list, and, uh, So we should wait for the date, right? So we should have it by next month. And is that a weekend? No, it's midweek.

It would have to be evening.

She said it was around her birthday, so December 10th or 11th.

She said the 10th or 11th, and she has to confirm.

Yes. All right, that makes it harder for the community center, though, because it's running, and so we'll have to just check with them.

Maybe they're not hard set on the date.

And they have a new director starting Monday, which we've never met.

We'll have to talk to them.

Same thing, we still have to talk to them because there's programming and stuff organized, but we'll ask.

There's two rooms, right? So let's be prepared to get all that planned at the November 20th.

And as far as CPR, I mean if they have a bigger group, you mentioned a group. Did you mention a CPR group? I could do it too, but it's better if there's a whole group that could come and do that. I have only two mannequins, not ten. What about massages?

Sometimes that attracts people when you have the complimentary massage.

Is there anybody at your party?

No, but I mean, we could invite our dermatologist to the resource fair, Sarit. I'm sure she may want to come. We'll invite her, but maybe there's another, if you want.

We've had somebody doing self-defense classes.

I know a source for that, and I thought I was going to talk to you after, maybe through the chair. But like, for your own wife, another thing she could do is actually pair with people who teach gun safety. as another resource that she could do a little lecture before. I'll give you her number. But yeah, I know the person who taught me how to do the guns, and I have an Evian, I think maybe you've done something like that before. Your mother has her number.

I'll give you her number.

I'm sure he'll come and do a little training. We don't want to, we need to... No, just have another for sure. Know that the resource is available, right? We don't have to do a whole lesson.

All right, so let's be prepared November 20th. And if we're canceled November 20th, we'll have to have a quick meeting.

Do we ever have like a tele-meeting, like a virtual?

November 20th, wait a minute. Not allowed. November 20th, I think I will wait for that meeting.

That sunshine slows everything down.

Through the chair, I'm not going to be here for the November 20th meeting. I'm traveling. I won't be here either. I know, I saw that.

I'm not allowed to miss any more meetings.

So you'll be here. November 20th. But I mean, that can still be the research, unless you want to move it.

Sorry, when is the next one?

The 20th, November.

What about November? What does the town have?

Go ahead. We have an item for the next meeting.

Right, we could discuss it there.

So what do I do? Oh, I save that for this.

For 8-8.

You're keeping track of all these? Did we already approve money for the resource fair and the wishing tree?

No. Should we do that now, too? I mean, have you identified exactly what you want in it? Probably just water. Water, food. And then we need the... Why don't you make a motion to fund all the necessary items for the resource fair and wishing tree event.

Is there a motion for that?

I'll make a motion to fund all the necessary things for the wishing tree. And a second.

And a resource fair. Chairs, tables, tents.

Motion to arrange.

I'll get together. I'm probably not tense because in the winter, but I'll come back to you after the event with the list of expenses so you can approve the final.

Motion passes. Thank you, everybody. Okay. Lending library. Joanna?

Yeah. So just back to what we originally were talking about, some things that at the library in Massachusetts were expensive in time. Just telling you some of the things. I have a paddle ball set. They have a karaoke machine. They have a pasta machine. They have a metal detector. They have a bunch of tools and they have some other electronics and other things. But I just really think that, you know, I talked a little bit just to go back to it with the vice mayor about when the time comes maybe to pitch what's going to be happening with the house that we bought, maybe this is in the house that we bought. And it could be, it doesn't have to take up a ton of space, but I think it could, and a sewing machine, and just maybe one wall. It could even be self-checkout. We don't have to have someone monitoring it. We just go with trust your neighbors. And it's, I think, kind of easy to run and kind of easy to stock. And I don't know, I think it's a great, Because we have no storage in our homes, I think it's a way to create opportunities for people who don't have room for a sewing machine but always wanted to sew some curtains for themselves. Always want to try making pasta, but it takes up a whole cabinet. I know the biggest thing for us is space.

So, um, I have a camper, a 10 person camper and a king size sleeping bed I would like to add there. Okay, perfect.

So we get, we need like a period of time to do a collection so we know what we really have to catalog it.

Yeah, the collecting of the items, whether some of them are donated. I know some people would love to get rid of their pasta machine that's taking up space in their kitchen. I have some things that could probably be useful that I would be happy to donate, and then we could fill it and we'd find things on.

The library too, extra books and stuff. Yeah.

Yes, exactly. It really wouldn't take up a ton of space and I think could be really useful for, I know the big thing is also manning it, but I don't think we necessarily have to have it fully manned.

Maybe you should bring it full circle and have somebody lend, like borrow the pasta making machine and make everybody pasta. Exactly, why not? We can add to the lending library. I think one in my town is called Library of Things. We can call it anything we want. We can add to it.

If you're at a yard sale and you see a croquet set, you just say, oh, here's a croquet and put it there. It could be anything. I think it just kind of goes back to what we are which is a community driven branch of this to get people doing things that they have always wanted to do but don't have the space in their home or the storage for these things. So I think that is a good place for it if anyone else has ideas and I know it might be a while before we actually have access to this place but The vice mayor thought it was a great idea, and I did as well.

So I'll just keep putting on the agenda until that house... I guess. The house is being rented, right?

Right now it is, but I think they really want to... It's being rented month by month. Month by month, exactly. So at any point, it can be taken back over by the community, and I think they just have to have some ideas that... They'll find out what to do with it.

They're lucky they can rent it out. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Do you think we should go present?

show that we're in favor of taking this building absolutely happy to okay so i'll just put on the agenda for this month the book clubs exactly this is what we're saying if it's if this space is it can be so many things that um we run out of space as we've talked about between the community center and 96th street park we run out of so if we can have one more space to do things whether it's a book club or people learning to play chess or whatever it is. Archives. Okay. All right, very good.

Yeah.

Okay, and monthly book club. I don't know why that's on there.

We all have the same alarm.

Was that you for the monthly book cover?

That was me, yeah.

So once we get that building, that would be a perfect place to have it. We could make a strong case for it if we have a plan. So we'll refine it next week. Keep thinking about it, everybody. We'll make a proposal, and then we'll go over to the commission. What was the date for it? It was supposed to be in November.

I think it was supposed to be in November, which is not going to happen. So I think we need to push it off for a bunch of reasons. I think we need to brand it, rebrand it to be not to feel too controversial. We want it to feel positive. I think we have a lot of stuff on the agenda in general for the town. Why don't we think about pushing it off a little bit past the new year? and maybe February, maybe March, and just keep figuring out how it's going to look. I think we also, the schools just came back in August, and they are busy. They start to slow down a little bit at a certain point, so we can probably get more buy-in from the debate teams. And we can figure out how we want to really do it. I think it's too soon to do it next month.

Okay, so there's no date on the ad. So that's good. And then has anybody, is that your phone number? Yep. Anybody called you? Nope. Do you know Joel Blumstein? Yeah. He might be interested. Okay.

You want to call? Yeah, I'll call Joel. Okay. Nice talking to you. Maybe I can give you a few days that he would be available.

Definitely. And, you know, if adults are not wanting to do it, then maybe we do have our teenagers involved. as the ones showing adults how it's done.

Yeah, I feel like they actually want to learn how to speak properly.

You're right, you're right. Yes, that could be actually even better. So I think we can maybe then partner with the youth council, we can figure out different ways to do it, but I think it's okay pushing it off for sure.

So do we want to spend some time now or for the next meeting?

I prefer to do it when Jerry's here because he has some good ideas for it too. He said he was coming up with something to present too about it, right?

Yeah. Because he has to present to the commission too. And it would be good to hear his input on how it's going to best be palatable.

Alright, so I'll put that on the agenda for next month also.

I have another new business. Can I make a motion to talk about an idea for next year that I just don't want to not say out loud now because I'll forget? which is the SUKKAHOP.

Okay, so is there a second?

I'll second.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

We need you here.

It's so far from now, and if I don't say it now, I'll never remember. Can you spell that for me?

SUKKAHOP. S-U-K-K-A-H.

Yeah, S-U-K-K-A-H. Super.

Okay.

I stick the H in.

It's like spelling Monica. There's 31 years. Okay. Shana Tavares, stick the H in. Yeah, I like that H. So, I just, again, it's like a year from now, but now that I'm saying it out loud, you guys will all remember since I'll forget. I think what would be a really great around this time is to do a little bit of a fun competition. best sukkahs in the neighborhood, and then we provide the kosher food, and we do a sukkah hut, where we go from those ones that we choose as the best, and we pick a night, and we all go during Sukkot, and we go from one to another as a community, and see the sukkahs. Maybe it's more than four or five, but it's whatever we choose. I know another town that did it, I didn't come up with this myself, but I thought it was really fun, and everyone just walked from sukkah to sukkah.

So through the chair, I wish I brought it because I have it in my purse, but I got sent to the house. There was a huge hookah hop from Bay Harbor, Bell Harbor, and Surfside. I separated it for each three.

So many.

And we should also maybe do another community one, but we have to look at the list of people we could possibly reach out to. It would be an education, too. I think so. And through the chair, Sukkot is that harvest festival that we were talking about with the tents and the palm fronds on the top that we just had that pizza event.

Yeah, I think one of the... first things we spoke about with this community relations board was to bring all of the different communities together. And the fact that there are SUCAHOPs going on, but a lot of people don't know about it, it's because it's only in very specific communities. And I think the beauty of it would be that we open it up to all of Surfside. And I think we can. I think we can do it through maybe even talking to the different religious leaders around and giving people to spread the word and then we can make it, you know, and it doesn't have to be that everyone's in each socket once, it can be kind of, you know, you parse it out and people go around in different ways so it's not overcrowded, but I think it can be really fun.

And maybe they could contact the leader there and figure it out for us next year.

Should we put this on for next agenda so we can discuss a little more?

Sure, but it's so far away. I'll just bring it up each month. We still won't know what we're doing until the day we are. It'll be perfect in a year from now.

Okay, next meeting is on here November 20th. Do we want to change it?

Yes, I cannot be here.

Are you guys available on the 13th?

Well, we could go if you like.

I am available November 13th. Are you available a little earlier than 4?

The reason is because we have commission meeting the night before.

Okay.

So you're tired or you want to get up early? Yeah, I can get up early. May I?

Yeah, I have an appointment. Are you okay? It depends, but my boss is chill, so it's okay.

I'm talking about like three. Yeah. I'm not talking about big.

Oh, yeah, that's fine.

Just because like right now, for example, it's a little bit more than an hour. Do you want to get up earlier? Three is fine, just so that she can make it.

Frank? Yeah. Do we sign? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. Can somebody let Commissioner Gerardo know?

We will. We'll send out an outlook invite, and then everyone will know that we changed it.

Does that have to be part of new business? Community relations for 3 o'clock.

Our board member that has left us, does that have to be part of new business?

No, that's going to be in the commission meeting. Okay. It's actually on our agenda for October 22nd to see if they appoint someone.

Okay.

Right. Okay, so I'd like to thank L.D. for 10 minutes.

It's hard. Now, if we have anybody, do we recommend them to call to put in the application?

They could submit an application, yeah.

Oh, yeah? How do we have that application?

It's on the website. It's available on the website. We've put it on social media. There's actually a QR code. It's, I believe, in the cassette as well. If you go to the town clerk section.

Should we offer it to those people who got memory loss?

And they could submit the application right there.

I saw this on Instagram.

Yes. There's a commissioner who previously appointed L.U. without being the person who would appoint again.

Correct. Do you remember who it is? It would have been the state. Oh. So it will be his appointment. Gotcha. Okay.

Okay, so if you have anybody, you have them do that QR, and then he picks, right? Yes. And then if the board says yay, the first one,

they put their experience or strength usually the commissioners will take the time and call them

And just get to know them and see what they are.

So it wasn't like in the beginning when we picked our own.

Do you have research qualifications? Those were the good old days. Well, it depends because some boards do require qualifications. It depends if the board...

Oh my God, I'm literally spaced against Ben forever since we've talked. But I will, Gerardo and him are good friends.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll talk to Gerardo and then me and him and him.

Oh, no, it'll be over, so it'll be a recap. No, it'll still be three days before. Oh, okay, good, good, good. The gun violence prevention, we'll try to get the date, and then we'll tie in the resource fair and the wishing tree. We'll discuss the lending library of things and the monthly book talk.

I don't know if it's new business, but I guess we didn't mention the, not the lending library, the lending library book, the little book things and the dog thing? Yeah. Was that on the agenda? Next agenda. Next agenda.

Did you? Through the chair. Yeah. Sorry. We decided to include it under lending library.

Oh, I understand. Did you call, Frank, were you able to call anybody? to see if they would make us little books and boxes for them.

I haven't asked. It's the public works guys. I mean, I know right now they're a short staff. They're doing offices here. Then they're going to do some... I had one idea about the...

I love the dog one in particular.

Let me add this. Wait, wait, wait.

I'm sorry.

Okay, so I left out the...

book box and the dog box so let's talk about that wait do you want to add that with the lending library or separately though the lending library was that was different that we have to wait till that building so this one could be separate because as long as we get a So let me bring it up first, the book boxes and the dog boxes.

Already at the Flamingo Park we have a

a library. It might be nice to put theirs. I know I walk my dog around there, that little thing, and I see people do it all the time. Maybe that would be a good location to put the dog lending thing. And then we can even do something, maybe this is down the line, but people, when they lose their dog, there's no, it's hard to commemorate. So maybe we do something where we sell for not a lot, but it benefits the town or fundraiser or something. a little thing that we can put back there in the garden that has like a stone with the name of the dog painted on it, something like that. Or it doesn't have to be sold. Maybe it's just something we do where it becomes like a thing with the dog library, collars and things, and when people lose their dogs, they could do a little painted stone with the dog's name that we put in the back of the thing. Something like that. And to commemorate people's dogs.

Okay, so I'd like to ask Frank if he would talk to us. Now, for the dog boxes, it really wasn't that hard. It was just like a crate, and they threw in some rope, you know, to throw in the holes, and some sticks.

We can make an area for stone markers.

Okay, so that would be a book box, dog box, and then the last thing would be some stones. Do they have like, don't the Michaels have like a kit of a stone, you know, we could maybe find?

We could do bigger things where there's like stepping stones and things but I feel like it might be one of those things that if it takes off it could be a lot so I just we could do something where it's literally just like river rocks that have you know rover painted really nicely on it or etched into it depending on how much you want to spend and they're put out I think like around that garden area.

Is there a fence around it?

Um, nude. Is there a nude? I don't know. Yeah, there's fully nude.

Because I was thinking, like, a lock. You know how people are putting those locks everywhere?

Oh, that's a cute idea, too.

And then you just bring your lock, put it, like, even at the dog park. That's a nice idea. Of course, then there would be, bring back sad memories.

Yeah, everyone. They're crying. The dog park puts in locks. The wall of tears. Wall of tears.

Okay, I'll put that on for Jen. Everybody think of something that wouldn't...

through the chair, would you like me to contact a contact at Sanitation to see if they can build. I have some ideas of what we could do. Is it something that we want to... Frank, is that okay?

Or do you want to contact them? I think we should go through their head of their department. I know right now they're very stressed because they're short people and they're doing a lot of projects. But I can certainly ask. I have a few links and references I can show them. Great. I'll check with Andre and the guys.

Yeah, check on the possibility. We can just start with maybe one each somewhere and then we can add on each.

Yeah, obviously we'd also have to go through parks because it would be in a park and all that.

How are the boxes watered? We don't get snow so it doesn't matter, but we get the torrential rain.

Probably some kind of coating on it is good enough, yeah.

That has a glass door. For the books? It has like a little roof.

You could buy them. You could buy them.

You could make them. You could buy them.

How much is it?

$200. Oh, I was just confused about what a book box was this whole time, but I got it now.

Yeah, that's cute.

All right, I'll put that on the agenda for next month. So just keep thinking about these things. When you get the agenda... from Angie, just refresh your memory and come up with new ideas. So I have Singer Fest, Gun Violence, with the Resource Fair and Wishing Tree, Lending Library of Things, Monthly Book Club, and that'll be contingent on that house. The Debate Update, Soka Hop, just so we can think of some things, and then the Book Boxes, Dog Boxes, I make a motion to adjourn. I second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Thank you. Thank you everybody.