Sustainability and Resiliency Committee - Regular Meeting

So I want to welcome everybody. We're calling this a special, this isn't a special meeting. It's a special meeting. I want to welcome everybody to the special meeting of the Sustainability and Resilience Committee. It is the 27th, or 12th, 10th. I'll recall the meeting to order.

Chair Veitch?

Here.

Vice Chair Asafi? Here. Committee Member Manos?

Here. We didn't really get into that. Mark, so if you don't mind, I would like to bring that up just to have a quick conversation around it. Did you make a motion to add that back?

You cannot because this is a special meeting. You cannot add any more items. We don't have an order of business. Okay.

I'm about to catch on this before. We're going to come back to it.

Is it part of the sustainability initiatives? It could be.

Good, thank you. All right, so let's first go to the greening of town hall operations. So I did put an item together, I think it was part of the agenda package, but it's something that we talked about. Even though we're living in a period of erosion of home rule, and Tallahassee knows best, we're on the record, Tallahassee does not always know best. There's a reason why home real is so important. But still navigating within that context, there are opportunities for the town to enact policies as well as perhaps legislation that guides what we do as a town, especially in terms of the signal that we send to the community. So I know that it's something that we have been focused on over the years, but let's sort of gather up the loose ends and see what we can do. It really was started by something that Miami-Dade County did. I know we talked about it many, many months ago. That was included as an attachment in terms of what the town does within its facilities, but also who it contracts with. So we're fortunate that through the tourist tax board, they host a lot of events in town and they are well attended and have high visibility. So why not use that as an opportunity to show people how we can preferable. We know that there's an impact associated with every event. For example, I'm not suggesting that we do what Miami Beach has done in terms of contracting their contractors for Pepsi as a sponsor of events, and they only use a little bit for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Anyway, so there were a handful of policies that were provided, but really what I'm hoping for is a discussion now and a motion to advance this to the town administration to select what they think is most appropriate for the town.

I think that sounds great. I think it's important, especially right now.

And we talked about it two weeks ago at the farmer's market. So rather than getting into an argument of, well, that's Balharver and this is Serbs. To the public, they can't tell the difference. We should be working with other units of government to demonstrate leadership and lead by example. So that's certainly an area where we could... we should be putting it into the contract because we're supporting in some ways the company that manages the park. What I've seen in other jurisdictions is part of the motion is to offer our support to the administration but ask them to bring back what their recommended approach is. before it goes to the commission just so that we can have a further discussion around it and offer our input before it goes to the commission.

In your memorandum when you mentioned here eliminating single-use plastics and styrofoam at municipal facilities, can you just give me some examples of where we're using plastics and styrofoam? It's in the discussion item in the memorandum.

I was looking for a single-use plastic water bottle.

Sample.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not here anymore.

Okay, awesome. What about at special events?

We're trying to stay away from everything that has to do with parks and rec and anyone. We're using the one that comes in a carton or metal. Okay.

Awesome. So great to hear. When we're buying paper, what about your paper? Is it, there's a few certifications that indicate whether the paper is... I forget the organizations, but there is a stamp of approval that it is systemically harvested lumber. There's a whole host of things. A lot of lumber are contained in here. And it used to be on the leading edge. Now it's what a lot of organizations are. Is it more expensive? Marginally. It can be marginally more expensive. But if you're buying the cheapest quality paper,

you know looking at the big picture one of the things that i do see on my walks almost every single day is the bands that the pool gives people to go out on the beach they're everywhere so the people are ripping them off and just throwing them perhaps another way that we can or that the pool can have control without having to give and use paper that's ending up in our beaches

So something that I've seen at farmer's markets, wooden tokens, and, granted, that's sort of a rule of currency, or it's a form of currency, but maybe the town could do that, or a stamp to indicate that they vetted through the front.

It comes off in the water, though. That's what I was thinking. I'm sorry? It might come off in the water.

Yeah, maybe a waterproof stamp.

Okay.

But a token, it's really just to get the chairs. Yeah, it's just to get, right, exactly. So if I'm using something that is unusable, there will be some theft. Just like, if you want a keepsake, they have these wonderful life rings out on the beach. Right. The little bag container. Yeah. Those seem to be... Popular.

Yeah.

But still. Right. Yeah. There are alternative approaches. And again, send the right signal. And the other is there are campaigns. You may be familiar with the Pitch In campaign as part of the PSA. So we also have a public access station that's looking for content. So we can celebrate what Surfside is already doing. also solicit ideas from the general public. There are no doubt recycling PSAs that can be sourced at an imaginable cost. So there's lots that we are doing, that we could be doing, and then amplifying the message. But what I've learned is, at least as it relates to our vendors, it has to be in the contract, what we expect from them.

At the last meeting, did we ask for the contract for the vendor, for the farmer's market?

I don't think so. I think you did not.

Could we look at that? Yes. And then, yeah.

So actually, I did, before we get to the motion, if you could send us the agreement with the vendor.

The farmer's market?

Mm-hmm. Before we make the motion, just to bring it up to speed, we're on the item, I'm talking about greening townhouse operations. We recognize the townhouse is doing quite a bit already, and we have provided a number of policies from neighboring jurisdictions that we are asking you to the administration to look at and see where the opportunity is to continue to use that example. Thank you. And we would like you to, before you bring it back to the commission, bring it back to us so that we can offer our thoughts and hopefully I'll endorse it so that it has a little bit more form when it goes to the commission. Got it. Okay. So if we could have a motion to that effect.

Motion.

Second. Any further discussion?

Okay. All right.

All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed?

We are advancing the agenda item with the backup information related to policies from neighboring jurisdictions to the administration to put together a more robust sustainable town hall operation plan including for special events to hold our members accountable for advancing the same philosophy and interest in creating a sustainable community in the events that they are leading.

And you're still okay with your motion? Yes. And you're still okay with the second one, Sharon? Yeah.

all those in favor say aye in particular glad that you came to this because we We have identified and prioritized sustainability and resiliency initiatives and unfortunately last meeting we did not have an opportunity to speak to it. We ranked them because we recognize that not everything can be done at once and we were hoping that you might be able to provide a status update I can be more specific. We talked a little bit about this last time.

It's item 4B. Oh, item 4B.

Hiring a chief resilience officer. So we know and aware that you're hiring a grants person. Our hope was that I know we talked at the last meeting about budgeting for a Resilience Officer, whether it be contract basis, part-time basis, or full-time, but recognizing that while our town has financial strength to do it, we don't yet have the personnel to dedicate to it.

Because the commission hasn't budgeted for it. That's the reason. So, I don't know if there's interest in that the vice mayor would be the one and the liaison to see if there is. And I don't know if she's going to bring it on the 8th or not, but I will have it as part of my report nonetheless. If they want to take it up, they will, and if they don't, they won't.

Okay. Fair enough. Earth Day, we've been talking about, and I guess the question is, Is there anything that we can be doing to further support that event?

I'm not aware specifically what is planned. It says here P&R Department. Department of Recreation. So there will be an event.

Has he seen their plan or not? Yeah, I corresponded with the director. We actually submitted an item for the Gazette on their behalf of promoting it. Okay. But yeah, it's something that has been historically done. impacting the community in a positive way in ways to sustainability. off my head, who is going to be represented there. Typically, through our support, I don't know if it's happening this year, but through the support of the Arbor Seabird Station, that is when the seabird release typically occurs.

I'm going to have to check with Tim, is the bottom line. If you've spoken with him, I'm going to have to check with him. He hasn't advised me of a plan, so I'm not aware of it. Okay. So the town has a June management plan? The town also has a June improvement plan pending with the state.

Okay. So one of maybe our search site was the first community in the state of florida that installed diverter dunes so we have two of them now one is at 96th street and the other is in front of the circle and there are opportunities for more historically we've partnered with the youth environmental were those permitted

Okay, so I'm not sure if that's part of the permit pending with FDEP or not, and I'm not changing that permit because it's too far along. So if it is, then we'll obviously do what's permitted. If it's not, then that might have to be a separate item. time to get that going. Right now you may have noticed the dune is being elevated. I think it's going to point to plus 12 in front of 90 and 92 Street. Basically from the Arte building up to 92 Street. That's part of the development order. The town is looking to do the rest, north and south. the same notification. Does that depend on tournament? Yes. And I'm told it's imminent, so as soon as we get that, we plan to start that.

So are you familiar with the diverter dune?

I know which ones you're talking about. But in terms of why they're so important?

The significance? No, I'm not. It's brief. So we, as you probably remember, we used to have a continuous dune with the steps walking over it. The steps weren't maintained. Eventually they were taken away. The dunes were cut so that people could access the beach. But what that means is when there's storm surge, where the breaks are, the water is going to come rushing into surface. So obviously it varies based on the amplitude and magnitude of the wave. But just as we want the water, we know the water's going to come in, we also need it to wash out. So the diverter dune is simply a triangular-shaped mound that knocks down the wave energy before it comes rushing into surfside. But because it has the channels on the outside, basically the triangle, it allows the water to also wash back out. So relatively low impact, but it essentially creates a continuous dune, but it's in many ways better because it provides the protection when the waves are coming in, but unlike the continuous dune, it allows the water to leave. So in the past we have partnered with the Youth Environmental Alliance. They bring in the labor. And I think that we have supported it by buying the COs and watering them just during the establishment period. But a very good partnership. And if appropriate, I've spoken to Lee Gottlieb, who's the representative of the Youth Environmental Alliance. He would love to come speak to this committee about the work that he has done elsewhere in Surfside and how we'd like to pursue the work in Surfside. So I'm sure you're well aware that is about to embark on their project. Yeah.

We have a request to supplement that with the representative from the county working with the Army Corps. No word yet on if that's going to happen. The initial response was going to benefit the water comes to shore and pushes sand southward. That's the initial. It's just not on the beach. It doesn't creep fast enough? I'm not saying it does. I'm just telling you how that started, and then we said that that's not enough, so we need to get on the... on the same schedule, and it's pending with the county.

The last time we got re-nourished took 20 years. Took 20? 20 years. I should say the duration from between the last re-nourishment and the most recent one was a 20-year period. It really was because much of that time, apparently nobody was advocating for it. We put a full court press on. So the reason that's on here, my concern is that it is, we're not applying it on this for sure. Can you bring it as a question?

Is there a full court press to... Well, I'm not going to define full court press for you, but I can tell you that there is constant communication with the county representative that's responsible for the implementation of the Army Corps project. Okay. That's the press. Whether that's full court or not, that's the press.

And it was identified as a legislative priority for this session?

Yeah, I believe so, but it's... I'm sorry, no, no, no. With the state? No, because the state has nothing to do with it. They don't.

I thought it was a... Feds. I thought it was three-party then, the county, the state, and the fed.

No, apparently the state is not. It's the county and the feds. That's how we were advised. But if you have different information, let me know, and I can incorporate that person. But in terms of legislative priorities and appropriations and things of that nature, no.

Okay.

Because the state has nothing to do with it.

I'll go back through my notes. Okay. So unfortunately, Roy is no longer with us, but he hasn't left the community. But one thing that we identified is that there's still an opportunity to extend the work of Syracuse's work, the design studio that has connectivity with UM, with Pratt. So I'm not sure what it means, but there are academic institutions that are immensely interested in surf science future, and we can utilize them. I'll leave it to you, but they are a resource that can help the town, especially with messaging and showing what a future Surfside might look like.

They have to get with the architects and designers and the owners that are...

So one of the potential opportunities is tasking them to look at our zoning code and make recommendations of how it might be modified to incentivize more sustainable design.

That it would be a practical approach for them as students. Well, the design review is going on as we speak before PMC with the planner. venue, I think. Obviously, we passed a sustainability ordinance to try to deal more with programs that kind of reward designing structures that way by returning monies you know it's kind of to incentivize them to build a certain way in an effort to get their deposits back otherwise it's going to be left to the town to use for sustainable purposes so we can't

direct the planner to reach out to the professors? No, but you could participate as residents in that process too. I guess what I'm suggesting is if you can connect the folks from Syracuse or from the design studio, because they're actually from New York, Syracuse and Pratt, pass out their contact information along to the planner and see if the planner could engage with them as part of developing the design guidelines.

Yes, but everything has a cost and they're not the team that the town has employed for that purpose. it's an open forum i don't know if any of them have any interest in coming and participating in that shedding some light onto how we develop and design review guidelines that's all i'm saying i you know i don't know how to bring them here or make them come here you know he's a neighbor too right the guy in 88th street that was on the school So see monitoring what's going on and see participating. So many hours in a day. So I don't know how to get them engaged. If you feel it's important for them to get engaged, I would invite him, since he has the connection to Syracuse, to tell his folks to participate in the design meeting. Okay. Just because, you know, it's ongoing. And when is it happening? Is it happening at every plane and zoning board meeting? Not everyone, but it's all published. I think there's one coming up. May. Is it part of today? No. Not today?

The next one is May... May 14th at 5 p.m.

So we need to ask Floyd to stop the alert.

No, I would just alert him to the fact that this is ongoing. And if there's an interest by the people or students to participate in that process, that would be how to do it. Just show up and see what's being proposed.

All right. Let me take that as an action item to speak with Roy and share the information and ask him to reach out and work on it.

Yeah.

It's been a long time since that signed a new guideline that's been revamped.

Also, they were going to connect to their website. Remember, they were going to, like... like that could still be done, right?

So, I mean, I have connected some of the design studio folks with other nonprofits in South Florida and other institutions, so I know that there is a platform search site website. There is a question, how do we connect their website to the town's website?

Yeah, I think we talked about that. That's a part of, I don't, you can look back in the notes, but I think we talked about having something on the website available so that people could access it.

You mean what we did in the past? What they presented? What the universities presented. So the citizens could be aware visually of how to information.

So is that something?

I thought it was out there, that's why I'm checking. It's on the website now?

Or there's a link to it.

I think the link was added, but I don't want to say it was. I'm going to check.

So we also prioritize increasing intra-governmental cooperation. So I don't know how active we are on the South Florida Regional Climate Contract. Other municipalities, unfortunately, Diamond Beach has been also a leader in this regard. Diamond Gate County has been a leader. because of the history of religious people in Florida. There's a suggestion that we can't be the son of a tribe. But it's not something that we have been active in doing other than we had a last meeting with a guest speaking about a youth initiative that has been outside of government but is impacting how governments are. So is there anything that we could be doing to support the administration? Are we active in the self-aware recontact?

I'm not. The overarching notion is that

and there is There are benefits to be gained by working cooperatively, as there are regional initiatives that move the needle, as opposed to each municipality doing it by themselves. The South Florida Regional Compact, which is a member of, I'm not sure that it's being

Is there, like, any upcoming events or anything like that? Is that the one that they do the conference in December?

It's a generally topic between the four counties.

So maybe, I don't know, Tina or who they could assign to go to that in December? Like, what do we do? Can we support that? How do we support that?

Thank you. It's an annual conference.

There must be something between the two. They're doing a lot of connective things. I've had informal contact with just people I know who are on the Sustainability Board in Miami Shores and at Biscayne Park. And I would love to figure out how to... I don't know what the mechanism is, but they're doing a lot of interesting things. They're doing the... Kind Designs is doing the seawall project that looks really cool and it's cost effective and does all kinds of things to encourage marine life just by using a different design for the seawalls. And there's things like that that other music colleagues are doing that we can learn from, right?

No doubt.

But how do we... I don't want to add stuff to your plate, you know? It's all about time. So how can we... Well, it also helps us not, you know, we don't have to repeat, we don't have to do our own research because other people have already done this stuff and we can see how it's working there.

I mean, listen, if there are items that this compact has generated that is something you can implement, then by all means, let me know, let someone know. And I'm not sure if the town's code already deals with it or doesn't deal with it as it relates to construction activity and redevelopment. You know, we're doing- That was just an example. Like, I mean, there's like a bunch of things. We're doing things. We're doing things, but we can always do more, right? I mean, we're doing the doom type of, know improvement project to deal with that we're looking to increase the size of other storm water piping underneath our streets to capture more running i know sea walls are being increased you know again to keep the water out from the town um those are just some At the end of the day, it's always about that. I'm not going to those meetings. I'm not scheduled to go to that summit.

I mean, I'm just asking because I don't know how these things work, okay? So, like, if Tina is not available or the commission is not available, could we ask our chair to go?

Or vice chair.

Or vice chair, you know, yeah.

Or member, you know. Those can be requested. And, yeah, of course, if that's something that this group feels is important to.

If we were to identify and assign a budget to participation, would that be helpful? So whether it's a representative from the commission or a representative from this committee, so that at least we're setting the intention that it is not at zero cost?

There's not gonna be, I mean, I can imagine there's a registration fee probably. It's in West Palm, it's not like it's far. So I can't imagine it's gonna break the bank of the town. It's just a matter of identifying town can easily implement. That's really the challenge, is finding the time and the person that's willing to commit to it.

So without being glib or facetious, that's why we're advocating for a chief executive officer, somebody that is dedicated...

I get it, but that has to come from a higher source than me. Because that may or may not, I don't want to speak to them, that may or may not be the priority.

That's not.

We may need to go to us. Okay. Got it.

I'm going to jump over the solid waste one and come back to it. You mentioned the stormwater project. Yeah.

Is there also a stormwater master plan being developed, or is it just this? There is one. There is a plan. This is just one part of it, and I have that plan, yeah.

Can a stormwater master plan be shared with this committee? Sure. Yeah. I want to come back to the solo which was like management. Gigi is now here and on the start line here. Thank you. You've arrived. So we previously had a presentation from Compost for Life. That's another thing that the town can do. If the town was so inclined to contract with them, both at Port Town Hall, if there's going to be food served at the 96th Street Park, certainly at the community center, we could also connect our community garden with them and start collecting organic waste at for us for events. So that's an opportunity. And how would we, besides identifying and advocating for it, what else could we be doing just on that one dimension?

Anything that's, you know, at the end of the day, it's going to circle back to what the commission wants to do. If you want to recommend composting and the commission wants to adopt that, then they will. As an example.

So, walk us through what it would take to do that. Because we've been talking about it.

Right. So, I guess I'm growing tired of talking and I would like to see something happen. So, the way, you know, you have to generate recommendations to your liaison to present to the commission to advocate for. Of course, you've got to get her on board with that advocacy. I'm not sure if she is or she isn't. I don't want to speak for her. So whatever you think is the priority that you want to implement, make that recommendation to your liaison for presentation to the commission. An action, whatever that action is. You want to see compost station at the community garden or elsewhere on town property.

That should be the action item. And all things have to go through the commission as opposed to, right, you have a spending authority. I do. And if you view it as the right thing to do for the community, are you saying still...

It's got to go to the commission? I am suggesting to you, yes, I have purchasing authority. It's capped at $15,000, so we're clear. But if I'm going to do something on town property, they need to bless it. Okay? So I'm not going to, you know, I'll give you an example. Someone wanted to donate a turtle to the town.

Living turtle?

No, you know, our sculpture turtles, as an example. And they want to place it on town property, donate it. No cost to the town. I'm going to get the commission's blessing on that, as an example. Because anything that's going to be kind of permanent, I want there to stay. That helps.

Yeah. So I think we're clear. We've got to present an item that our liaison can bring to the commission.

Okay.

but we may have to gather a little bit more information if we want to go that route. Okay.

So should that be an agenda item for the next meeting then? Is that, like, another? Okay.

So I guess in a form that can easily be taken from this agenda package and moved it into a discussion item on the next agenda.

Yeah, you can call it, you know, your own agenda item that you can easily change the title of as a commission agenda item. Okay.

And then the other piece of it is there's clearly a disconnect between the services the town provides and the way that our community are meeting or complying with that program. So part of it, a large part of it is education and outreach and holding people accountable for what they're placing at the curb. So we know, I think some folks took a tour of where our recyclables are processed. There's an understanding that Whatever we send them, unless it is deemed to be not recyclable, and more than the minimum amount of waste in the recycling stream, it gets processed. But above a certain level of contamination, we are backcharged for that. It's unfortunate that we're backcharged for it, but I don't blame the processor. Because if we're not sending them clean material, relatively clean material, then once it's accepted, everything goes through the system. So it's not like recycled materials are being landfilled, just the residue is being landfilled during the process. But anyway, we've got to make sure that all operations are appropriate. I'm going to give you a specific example. Last week, shame on me for not taking a photograph of it, but my recycling cart was taken from the side of my house as it was supposed to, brought to the street. But what was also placed in my recycling cart was a garbage bag taken out of my garbage receptacle. it was all placed in the recycling cart. I am not confident that at that point that it was going to The lid would be opened, the garbage would go in one truck, and the rest of the recyclable materials would go into a recycling truck. So I would like there to be an audit of the town's operations so that we can identify whether the material is being recycled. take it from the curb into the vehicles the way that we expect it to, which is recyclables go in the recycling stream and the garbage goes in the garbage stream. So part of it is assessing what is going on today and having confidence that all the staff are trained in the appropriate procedures. Because we can't ask the residents to do it if then they see that it's not happening. Right. So once we get our own house in order and have confidence that everybody is trained and doing what they're supposed to, then we can start training the residents. What Miami-Dade County has been doing because Last year, they had a composition study on the recycling stream, and approximately 50% of what was collected as recyclables was, in fact, non-recyclable material. They then did another composition study a year later, and they noticed that it had gone down quite a bit. High 30s. Still not great. But they're using that information to have a physical touch with every homeowner on the collection route. It is not inexpensive, but people aren't going to do the right thing if they don't know what the right thing is or they're not coached. So Surfside is small enough that we could have that done. Once our own house is in order, literally walk and look inside every recycling cart. If there is more than a de minimis amount of non-recyclable material, take a picture, fill out the tag, and actually have a conversation with the homeowner.

I want to explain something regarding the recycled material. It depends on the provider that you have to do the recycling. So we could have different information about plastic, for example, and we understand that all this plastic is or could be recycled, and not all. Even when you have the same number, the PET number one, that is a more valuable plastic that people want, not all the same PET one or service waste management asset. So I was talking with different people in this county and other counties, and there is a confusion there. Some people understand that they are doing the things right because they think everything that is sometimes clean and dry in the basket, but then they realize that all the things that they put there, the 80% of the volume is going to be on the landfill. And for us, it creates the contamination. So it's important to understand how it works in our community. Depends what is the service that have my MBBs, depends the service that they have in Broadwater. We need to understand what's going on here and trying to explain people that they are not doing the things wrong because they don't have the right information. They have in their mind plastic, they put all together. But when you realize that when you use a plastic bag, for example, because I have the opportunity to go with Gerardo to the facility. and that plastic bag is in the machine and it's broken, so they have to stop three times per turn the machine to clean and put in the work again. So if you're in a neighborhood and you live in a building, not in a house, in an apartment, a condo, and you put all your plastic in one plastic bag and then you throw it in the basket that you have, it's going to be contaminated. So there are tiny things that we can explain and also provide. We have a training that we did in Chile, with the counties there, and it's different the way that the recycling happened there. And we have to teach the people from the beginning and say, the plastic bag to the public in this case, because they accept that. But also, the other day I went to the public to throw the bomb, and it was not there. It's not there anymore. No, no, it's there.

It's in the parking lot. I was in the parking lot. Maybe it was, there was one day recently that I went with a whole bunch of bags, and I couldn't find the right thing.

But it was clean again, because I put my kids to do the exercise, to separate the things. I do it on purpose to try to teach them. And then they went to the public and discovered it.

So is there an opportunity, if it's not done already, to teach our community at events such as Earth Day? Exactly.

And one of my suggestions is, despite we could write something on the cassette, or we have to do a workshop, not all the people are going to pay to the workshop. But we have a huge acceptance in the events that we have, and also in the farmer market. So I think that farmer market could be a nice opportunity to use one spot to teach people, and also to put there the correct baskets. Also the composting thing, because many facets that they are there, they are built, so people say, how can you do this? So I think that we already have the opportunities. We need to improve the patient part there. So that's it.

Thank you. Thank you. So, to me it's an operational consideration. Do you see this as a priority?

Well, listen, I think we need to do more educating internally as well. communicate with our sanitation team because their primary language is not English. And I'm not sure what they understand or don't understand with regard to recycling. And that's one challenge. The other is practical. I don't think it's practical what you just described for someone to stop, tack, write. I don't see that happening by our sanitation folks. I just don't.

Which name would be?

Creole. Creole. It's mostly Creole.

Okay.

But we have, I mean, there's a ton of Creole interpreters. Like, that's not, I know a lot of Creole interpreters.

No, we have, I mean, listen, you could translate, I'm sure.

So that shouldn't be a barrier.

What training is provided? And let me be clear. Our solid waste team is probably one of the more beloved groups of municipal employees. I say this not to be critical, but to identify how are they trained today and how can we line up how they're handling it so that we can then turn to the community and have them sort of line up what they do so that there's greater consistency and reducing contamination and ultimately holding the community responsible for not putting the wrong materials into the recycling bin. And we'll address the resources if It's not an internal function that can be accomplished cost-effectively. We do compliance work throughout California that's now on organics from landfilling, and we are out doing this auditing work. I'm not suggesting that it's our firm that does it. There are others that can do it at relatively low cost that can work with the municipality to supplement the resources before they're there. What sort of on-the-line training is provided?

I wouldn't say maybe formal training as in, you know, training that you would normally do, you know, for certifications, anything, nothing like that, just the day-to-day, hey, this is what you recycle. Well, more so like what the residents receive, this is what you can, this is what you can't. We've emphasized with the guys, you know, daily you know practically daily of what they should be doing and what they shouldn't be doing and like we spoke about the tagging if it's not in the correct bin if something is in there just tag it just don't pick it up but then you also get the calls from like hey they didn't pick up and so now here we are And hey, they're dumping it in the garbage, it's recycling. Well, it's already contaminated. We have that mix. But for us, it's just really speaking to the guys. And they pretty know, I think, language aside, some of them do speak English. Corell is just their primary language. But some of them do have working knowledge of the English language. So they understand and they know. Could we all use refreshers? We're never going to say no to that. So we're OK with that. if it means bringing in a professional. I'm pretty sure Waste Management wouldn't have any issues coming in and speaking to the guys just to emphasize the efforts of recycling. I know They've confirmed, and I don't want to, just in case they don't, but they will be at Earth Day, and I did put something in the Gazette saying, hey, if you have questions regarding what can be recycled and not be recycled, this is a perfect opportunity to come out and learn and educate yourself. So other than that, anything, form of form, we'll know, but the guys know.

So do we have enough events? One thing that I've personally learned is if you can meet people where they are, folks that are willing to volunteer. It just requires some organization. That's why I keep harping on the resilience officer. But at all of the Thursday, all the tourist board events, it's an opportunity to talk to the community about what they can do to make our town more sustainable. I used to have the conversation with different managers. We have this wonderful program where you can register your bike in town, where you can register your pet in town. Why are we representing that at every public event? We do home safety surveys. from the police department. Some people know about it. I figure the website will know about it. But bring all of that to the people at the events that they're coming to. We're a small town, so it's an incredible opportunity. Same thing with educating folks about solid waste management, especially where we're serving food.

And if you need help in the way how to communicate this, to try to engage, to get some ideas, I can help on that part. It's part of my work daily. And I think it doesn't matter the topic that you have to talk about or you have to train about. It's trying to understand what people feel about women. Because sometimes when you have to receive an instruction or something that you don't know, You could think that something is trying to teach you or trying to say that you have to change the way or you are doing something wrong. And I don't think it's that. I think that it's trying to understand what are my capabilities, what are my opportunities, and how I can engage that part to move in a different direction. So I could help that part.

So maybe what, as a starting point, what would be helpful is if you could share with us the reports from waste management of how much tonnage we're bringing to that facility, and then what is the contamination, so that we can start to tell the story. Why are we doing this? I think we know that answer.

We know the answer. We contaminate roughly a third, 33%, 35%. It's contaminated, which is not... It's pretty good. It's pretty consistent. Not great. It's not great, but yeah.

But we have a baseline and we could improve on that baseline. Yep.

We've tried people to get engaged, we've tried to make a contest, we've tried to say, okay, we are starting at 52, we want to achieve 25 for the last three months, and we could do it. And then, you know, people like to do that kind of thing.

Yeah, yeah. the percentage or the tonnage that we generate waste. It's like a pig. Yeah, yeah, no, it's in there every month.

But if you're growing from with the composting thing, I'm pretty sure that contamination rate COULD GO DOWN.

I'M SURE IT CAN. SO WHAT YOU'VE ASKED HIM, AND MY APOLOGIES, NAME AND RECORD.

OH, SORRY. CHITELA GUTIERREZ, 9511 GONINZ AVENUE, APARTMENT 1410 SURFACE TOWER.

AND THE SOLE REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE PUBLIC. YES, AND FROM THE PUBLIC. SO WE ONLY NEED TO ANNOUNCE ONCE. WE GOT YOU. ONE THING THAT WE TALKED ABOUT WAS IN TERMS OF GREEN OPERATIONS, WE WILL BE ADVOCATING So moving forward with the recommendation for the town to engage with Compost for Life, and also put that into all of our contracts with vendors that are serving food. So whether they use Compost for Life composting within its facilities that the contracts with any service provider for vendors, they also need to do the same if they don't know where to go. Here's the company that we're using.

Also for vendors, they could incorporate the composting, I don't know how to say, boxes or tableware that they need. There is a company here in the U.S. I can send you the number to try to get... something that is composted also in landfill. It's not composted in a factory or in a machine. When you are in the middle of the training to people trying to understand the differences and they have an addict and throw everything away, it's better that the vendor has compostable things because if you make a mistake, that is going to be in landfill only six months. It's not the best thing, but in the meanwhile, I think that is something that could, and it could be cheaper also for the rentals. I can't remember the name.

So, in terms of other things that are in the short term. One more solid waste question. I know that Surfside self-collects in the single-family neighborhood. Do we have any outside parties collecting recyclables? Everything is surfside. It's a lot easier. In terms of the design guidelines, just because it relates with stormwater management, do you know if there's conversation about integrating bioswales or pervious pavers?

I've heard conversation about pervious pavers. So in that regard, yes. Bioswales, it's not coming to mind.

It's sort of in the same genre or flavor. The more pervious area that we have, obviously, there is a requirement for a certain percentage. I've got to start to pay attention. It gets a little weird when you count a pool as a pervious area. The pool you said?

Yeah, but that's in a different part of the code. Yeah, I understand.

And it's an idea that has been talked about and now sort of conflicts with underground utilities by taking the town's right of way and turning it into bio soils. It's somewhat disruptive, great benefit, but somewhat disruptive in conflict with underground utilities.

We'll see how that goes at the end of the year.

an experiment that I planted a palm tree under my electrical feet. Yeah. Because I think that I'm going to be cutting down the tree. The tree. Because the feet will remain there. Okay, and then, of course, improving walkability. Has there been any discussion about ways that we can sort of partition vehicular movement from pedestrian movement?

The focus really has been on, you know, trying to work with the county to get an interagency agreement so we can install speed humps and speed tables and roundabouts. That's been the focus on it. walking paths, if you will. Listen, I think it was when you were the mayor that that effort was attempted, right, on 89th and 90th. They're still painted.

Yeah, but it's Paul's sense of security. Lots of lessons learned. I'd love to have coffee with you. I'm telling you what the mistakes that were made.

A barrel is not a good proxy for a tree. Is it too grand to think of one-way streets? That's what was attempted. Okay. But not painted, I mean... Yes. No, delineated.

It was decided to do it in the southern part of town because there's so much vehicular movement on the north side of town that a pilot project was deemed to be too disruptive. So what, 89th and 90th were made into long-way streets on a temporary basis. There was a pedestrian lane that was striped. There were trees that were represented by barrels that didn't go over so well. But the concept was Slow down movement within Surfside. We focused on the east-west roads as opposed to the north-south roads. Actually segregate physically pedestrian movement from vehicular movement. But because of the width of our streets, that required removing parking from one side. Well, lo and behold, parking in front of one's property appears to be a birthright. sensitive topic very sensitive topic and I get I put on a record my wife gets upset when other people park in front of our house

He's not the only one.

Yeah. Well, the reason I share it is I see it at home, so I get it. And that somehow somebody feels it's valid, even though it's the public realm. But that, I think, I guess the big takeaway is there are too many opportunities to vote to be against it. And that's why it was so controversial. But the idea was to increase the tree canopy, so not the palm trees, but the shade trees, because there's a lot of people that walk in our community, children, that are always at risk of having to dodge cars behind them.

So to answer the question, walkability will be something that is improved once I can get the county's blessing on this agreement so that I could then implement some of the already designated areas for speed tables and circles that will also have the benefit of shading the town and like we have um you know these triangles they're called road features that mostly exist west in the residential area um those they're i've already worked with someone to make those green and provide a canopy that also will help the walkability tangentially and Those one-way parallels that I think they were termed back then ultimately would require county approval if that was ever going but my hope is that this next meeting we can get the residential parking areas designated which itself is going to help walkability because now people won't be able to freely park throughout the residential area as they now can so all these things should help walkability

So thank you for that item in particular. We recognize that this is a long-term play. It's very helpful to know that you have an immediate focus area that hopefully will provide some stability for subsequent initiatives. The idea is to try to get as many cars out as we can. So there's a nexus with all of that and the biophilic cities. Do you know if the application has been submitted and whether we designated a biophilic city?

We're waiting for the approval on the matrix.

Is that what you're waiting for approval from?

We already submitted, no, we already submitted the resolution and now we have to, she submitted us a sample of the matrix that I'm waiting to get approved.

Going to the commission and getting approved? No. Administratively?

Yeah.

Probably one of several things pending.

But it's in the queue. All the other items are a little bit longer lead time, but we know the value of more tree canopy, so it seems like you're dealing with that in certain areas. Is there a tree giveaway budgeted for this year? And if not, can it be budgeted for next year? Yeah, that came up. Remind me.

That came up. Did you get it?

It was, I believe, in your town manager's report.

You mentioned it, but that item was deferred. Oh, so it's coming up again. Okay. Coming up in April, I think it is.

Yeah. And I should say, everything that's on this list has been endorsed by this committee. Okay. All right. The photovoltaic panels on town facilities. So we own a number of assets from this building to the community center of 96th Street Park and the tennis center. There was previously a solicitation But back to 2019 into 2020 to have a qualified firm install solar panels on the community center with the election and uncertainty of funding that was not pursued. But the return on investment is there for these facilities. And again, we're looking for opportunities for the town to lead by example.

So if you wouldn't mind. They're going to reduce the energy costs significantly?

Yeah, so the return on investment is... Is it 40 years? No, it's between 5 and 10. Really, what the limiting factor is, group space. We're not going to go vertical on the community center. That's prime real estate for the tennis center, depending on what we're going to do in that building. But that, I believe, has a metal roof, very easy to deal with.

But these are small, right? I mean, how much is it going to cost to do versus the benefit of the enclosed space that's getting that energy? I haven't done that analysis.

So the reason that this solicitation was developed as design-build is... Part of the proposal is what is the return on investment? So they will look at our electrical usage at each facility and tell us what the return on investment will be. And then you can make the determination whether it's in the town's best interest. But as you know, the community center is not a... It's not old. And it's not a 20-year building. Regardless, it is going to be, hopefully it will be well-maintained and will serve this community for decades to come. Certainly the building of the 96th Street Park, same thing, it is not a 10-year building. But it's a lead, though, in gold. So, I don't know. President Platner was in Again, it's an opportunity for a town.

Yeah, I think those two primarily versus this building that's under analysis and a tenant center.

But again, while there is reputation of risk for issuing a solicitation and not moving forward with it, you could certainly get a level of comfort by reaching out to any number of the solar installers. around the county that would, I'm sure, be willing to give you a back-and-forth estimate of what the cost would be and what the return on investment would be. Because that's what they do for residential parties. And I think that that was done at the time by two folks before the solicitation was issued. And again, it was in 2019, 2020. It was issued in 2019. I'll be dated on that. Oh, it's definitely dated. But in terms of the solicitation, the bones are there. Okay. And I would hope that with the design guidelines being discussed, the next two items, the lead certification requirements and the requirement for previous payment, would be addressed by the planning and learning board. And greenhouse gas inventory becomes... Well, this is something that's been in play for a long time in terms of doing inventory. It's been started and stopped and started and stopped, but it's nice to know where we are today so that we can set targets to reduce our impact. That's not on my radar. Got it. Historically, we've been... partnered with a number of organizations to support the development of this and it is a great opportunity for a graduate student to get practical experience.

To do the inventory?

We know of anyone interested. Okay. So that goes out to the committee. Okay. Okay. So those are the main items that we wanted to thank you very much for sharing the status with us. We have some action items. to help but all of these items were previously approved by this committee and we've got to figure out how best to move some of them forward so we can work with our liaison and we do less talking and more action understood that would be the route thank you and where we can support you, don't be shy. And you can let us know. And we've been... Accepting volunteers. For all that.

Accepting volunteers. Yeah. As you know, a lot goes on down there.

Yep. Okay. All right. Anything further from members of the committee?

We're not supposed to walk anything on though, right? Not today.

But if you want to set the intention for what we can expect at the next meeting.

I was just in Tallahassee and I would like to follow up about legislative advocacy.

We'll talk about it. Members of the public? If we could thank you all for scheduling and facilitating this. And we'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed?

Thank you.