Sustainability and Resiliency Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome everybody to our monthly Sustainability and Resiliency Committee meeting, which is Thursday, August 21st at noon. We have an invited guest, and as a point of privilege, Liz, I'll let you introduce yourself.

Sure. I'm Liz Castro-DeWitt. I'm the President and CEO of the Florida Beverage Association. Welcome.

So the next item is the agenda and order of business.

Any items to walk on or change the order? I have a question.

If the deadline passes to get something on the agenda, but then I speak with somebody that has information that I'd like to share, is that new business? Or can I not present before the next meeting?

That is new business. You're going to walk on an item where the majority will vote from the board. But if you just want to give an update, you can do that as well, but that will be new business. Okay. Can I do that?

You can.

Do you use Tiffany Trucks, though? Of course. Okay.

So, anyway.

That's who I spoke with yesterday.

So, I will ask, in the future, if you plan to walk on an item, you can still send a write-up to the clerk.

Oh, perfect. You can send me a memo that I can just distribute to the board, and then you can just walk on the item during the meetings to adjust everyone's paper ahead of time.

With the read-ahead, it will give us an opportunity to familiarize ourselves with whatever the item is. But if you want to make a motion to add an item, it will be 6D.

It will be 7A, Chair. That's new business.

It will be 7A.

It's just like an informational thing. Yeah, it will be 7A.

Just make a motion to add item 7A, whatever the type is.

I have a motion to add that. Can you repeat the motion, please?

A motion to add an item. To add an item.

I apologize, it's a little too loud. What do we need to say? Yes, say it again.

I make a motion to add an item on the climate walk and talk to item 7a. 7a. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It is done. One day I'll get it. We have our vice mayor here today who is our liaison. If you have any items you would like to share with us.

Sure, but yesterday we did have a special meeting and it was to vote on the undergrounding project as far as we're getting closer to the actual cost and it's nearly double what the previous vote was to fund IF THEY STILL WANT TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THE PROJECT AT THEIR COSTS. SO WE'LL BE PUTTING THAT ON A BALLOT IN NOVEMBER, AND THERE ARE A FEW OTHER QUESTIONS, BUT THAT'S THE MAIN ONE. IN READING THROUGH THE AGENDA AND THE NOTES, I DID NOTICE, AND I APOLOGIZE, THAT WE DIDN'T MOVE FORWARD WITH THE URGING RESOLUTIONS. for the moving the boat buoys. I believe the town manager was at that particular meeting and said he would take care of it. And nothing's been presented to the commission, so I will follow up with that. Because he was going to reach out and get the templates for the resolutions, and really it just kind of didn't happen. So I do apologize for that.

No need to apologize, but we appreciate you.

I will follow up on that, yes.

But it brings up a good point. We've been trying to track action items because we don't want to waste anybody's time, not the members of the committee, not the members of the public, not staff. It's really not the commission. So if we advance something, we're going to re-delegate.

And I think that's simple enough that it should have been done. I thought it was timely. But if there's still time to do that, then we'll make sure we get it into September.

In terms of... If you can, in terms of budget.

Yes, that's the other thing. I was going to say the budget meeting, I believe, is our next meeting is September 8th.

And that's for a screening of the millage? I believe so. And... Can you share with us the temperature of the commission in terms of budgeting for a chief resilience officer?

It hasn't been, you know, at the very first meeting when I presented, you know, I mentioned it, they were open to a part-time. I'm not even sure if they're open to part-time at this point.

I gave something to Jerry, but I don't know if he ever... No. Okay. Okay. I think it was the last meeting we discussed something that I was going to give approval to hire a full-time sustainability and resilience officer for him to present. Because you weren't at the meeting.

Right, I was at the meeting.

And so I sent it to him, but then he said stuff was getting pushed back for the budget meeting.

And so I just don't know if he ever submitted this. I haven't seen it. Okay. Did I send it? No, I can't send it to you.

No, you can send it to our clerk.

Okay. I'll send it to you. There's a chance to mention it at the next, but, you know, I can't keep mentioning it. Yeah. Okay. And that's September 8th now?

It is.

Okay, so I'll forward this to the group.

Thank you.

To the clerk. I did do my part.

To you. To both of us. I'm sorry. I feel like I'm the coolest.

Anybody but us, directly.

Okay, got it. I've been good at that.

well there were other things in the report about the solar panels on town buildings I would like to pursue that so I'm not actually sure how to you know move that forward to the commission and I did finally the kind tiles it was on the agenda for a long time as discussion so finally that went forward And the manager met with them. He gave us an update. The costs don't seem that high, but it's incomplete. We don't have the installation costs. So I asked for him to make that an actual discussion item, not part of his report, because... You know, it needs to go back to the Commission for a vote, obviously. But I'm really hoping we can get the kind tiles on 96th Street Park, and then depending on that success, we can do that on the other students.

Okay. Are you, not because of the Commission, are you getting to the discussion items in your meetings?

We were, and then, you know, I'm always surprised when we get to them, because we were, and then sometimes we don't, so...

The reason I ask that, I'd be glad, I think the solar PV on town facilities is, the right path is to add it as a discussion item for the commission, and I'd be glad to work with you on that. The cover memo that lays out the history, consideration, and what the plan is.

Well, I know you had done that for the, I think it just wasn't right at that time.

Oh, no, it went out on the street, and the administration's changed.

Yeah. And I think with the 960 Park, it might be good to start there. Absolutely. Especially the way the roof is designed. Yep.

So the offer is out there. Well, I appreciate that. So just let me know, and if I don't hear from you, I may bug you.

Yeah, no, that would be great. If I get it on there in September, then if we don't get, you know, we'll get to it eventually. Like the kind of tiles, it was a

All right. That brings us to public comments. We do have one member of the public. I don't know if you have any comments at this point. If you don't, that's fine. If you want to speak on any of the discussion items that are on our agenda, you can just raise your hand at that time. But thank you for joining us today. The next item is the approval of minutes. There were two Scribner errors that I should have sent to you in advance, but I didn't. One is the spelling of our town manager's wife's first name. So under public comments, it's the third paragraph. Unless it is somebody else, it's Dahlia. Thank you.

On page five, correct?

Yes. And I know we've had this conversation before. This is under item 6B. And it's deep, but it's attributed to me, so I just wanted to raise it for you. The chair spoke about the importance of transport for beach remunerishment. It's this second type of issue. He insisted the state was at fault for the lack of beach. I cannot possibly attribute fault to the state for the lack of speech. Where and what page?

I apologize.

That's my other request. If we could have page numbers on the minutes.

Yes. Okay.

I don't know.

Yes, the agenda has the page numbers, but I can add the page numbers into the minutes as well.

So for item 6D, I'm going to count from the bottom paragraphs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 paragraphs. Yeah. Oh. If that could be, if you want to track the record, you're more than welcome to, but maybe the strike at fault for the lack of beach, and replace that with responsible for beach renoushment. The context is the state created the beach?

Okay, we'll check the record.

Okay, awesome. How is that for the meeting? So if there's motion to accept it or adopt the meeting minutes, was it to...

Noted motion to accept the meeting minutes with the amendments presented. Second. Okay.

Um, that brings us to a handful of discussion items. First one is recycling services assessment and optimization action plan. So as I. Our goal is to move these items from discussion into action. So this item has come before you many, many times. And it really seems like it's an opportunity to get our house in order. to make sure that there's alignment between our education and outreach and the actual practices, and line that up with, now that we have the report on contamination, it raises the point, are we communicating all of the materials that are identified by material type and subtype? For example, if we can put foam plastic in our recyclable containers, That should be communicated because it's unclear at the moment. It actually raises an issue because in my home, I've used some succulent soil and put a bag from the soil in my garbage receptacle and was moved to my recycling receptacle. So I moved it back into my garbage recycle because I was under the impression that thin film is not part of our recycling program. And having said all that, we have a representative from the Florida Beverage Association. So we'll turn the floor over to you and then we'll get back into the discussion.

Thank you so much. Who moved your recycling? Who moved the bag from your trash to your recycling? Probably. Which is amazing. That's awesome.

I was curious because that's what we always say.

We're fortunate in town. We have side yard service for recycling. Oh, they come here. Five days a week. So recycling is once a week. Garbage collection is five days a week.

Okay. That's impressive.

So when you're walking out of Town Hall, if you walk to the right, if you go out the main door, you'll see that we have packer trucks. Okay. And years ago, one of our packer trucks was dedicated for recycling. Okay. We moved away from working with the county in their program, and we now collect it ourselves and deliver it to the university facility to process it.

Perfect. I think Jason told me about that from his management. That was one of the reasons I was excited to come work with y'all. I think that's a commitment to recycling and we're contained here. We're a fun-sized community. Do you have a clicker, too?

I do not have a clicker.

So I can give you the keyboard and you can just...

All right. I am Elizabeth Castro DeWitt. I'm the president and CEO of the Florida Beverage Association. So we're non-alcoholic beverages in the Sunshine State. Some people are a little disappointed to hear that, but I just told them. We made the mixers for some of them. But I have been talking to Francia about some of the projects and the things you've done. I'm so excited. Jason Neal, who's also on the phone. And so I wanted to first of all talk to you a little bit about... where our commitment is as an industry on recycling, and then how we think that could fit into a project that might be a good fit for your community here at Surfside. So as mentioned, we represent the non-alcoholic beverage industry. So my members, oops, is it, do I push the arrow there? The arrow, yes. Okay, thank you. So my members are listed at the top there. Hopefully you know some of them. We have Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, which handles the peninsula for Coke. PepsiCo and Pepsi Refreshment Services. So you probably know these are really fierce competitors in the marketplace, but I have a really unique opportunity to represent them on the issues where we're aligned. And so some of those things for us are health and wellness. We have an initiative to reduce calories consumed per person by 20% by 2025 through less sugar and smaller portions. Economic development and sustainability. So I'm going to talk to you about sustainability. But one thing I did want to mention is I think like most Floridians, our employees live in Florida because we enjoy being outside in the natural beauty of the state. And so one of the things that we're really proud of is our community grant program. So we're in our 10th year of that program. We've given over $400,000 to communities across the state. In the South Florida area, we've given to Coral Gables for reverse living machine projects. We've given to Bill Baggs Cape State Park for recycling bins in their state parks. We just give a grant to Queen Miami Beach for their classroom on the sand and microplastic art. classes they have for kids there. And then we also gave some money to Friends of the Underlying. So really trying to engage in the communities across the state. When you look at us from an economic standpoint, we provide about over 21,000 jobs across the state. When you look at jobs that are supported in some part by our industry, we support about 326,000 jobs. So that's jobs in grocery stores and convenience stores and those sorts of things. and we have about a 21 billion dollar economic impact and provide about 124 million in charitable costs But what I wanted to talk to you about today was our campaign called Every Bottle Back. I gave you some materials in your folder to look at, too, if you have time. It also talks about some of our other initiatives. But it's an initiative that launched in 2019. It was a comprehensive effort to really reduce our use of new plastic and keep plastic out of places where it doesn't belong, like oceans, beaches, waterways, all those things that, you know, we don't want to see our bottles littered any more than you guys want to see them, either. So trying to work with folks to make sure that doesn't happen. So that initiative is sponsored by the big three beverage companies here, the Coca-Cola Company out of Atlanta, PepsiCo, and Cure Dr. Pepper. And then we also work with some environmental NGOs that help us with measurement and tracking and help us amplify what we're doing with our investment. So that's for Wildlife Fund, Recycling Partnership, and Close Loop Fund Partners. And I will talk to you a little bit more about those groups as we go through the slides. This gives an overview of what the initiative is about, but we're committing $100 million to communities across the U.S. to be leveraged into a nearly half a billion dollar investment focused on education One of those is just made to be remade. As the name says, made to be remade at every bottle back. We want our bottles back. They're developed with the MRF engineers to be fully recyclable, including the caps. I know sometimes people get confused if they should keep the caps on or off, but you want to keep them on the bottles because otherwise they'll get stuck in the machinery at the recycling facility. And also you may have noticed, and I should have brought a bottle with me and I didn't, but sometimes we've light-weighted our packaging. Sometimes that cap actually has as much or more plastic in it as the entire bottle. You'll see that. So we really want those caps back. But, you know, it's an intentional move that we're making on our part to make sure that our plastics are fully recyclable. So we don't consider them single-use plastics because they're made to be remade over and over again. Our bottles are made out of PET. Y'all may or may not be aware, but it's a really valuable commodity in the recycling bin, along with HDPE, which is plastic number two, which would be like your longer detergent bottles and milk containers. But we know that it has a really high demand, especially here in the southeast. So a lot of times you hear about policies where people won't take plastics. That doesn't apply to PET. And here in the southeast, there's the strongest market for textiles and carpeting. So my industry is actually in competition with textiles and carpeting to get PET back to put in the bottles. We have to use food grade PET in our bottles, and so that's why we actually look our bottles back, whereas textile and carpeting, they don't need food grade plastic. I would say also... PET is the most recyclable and recycled plastic in the U.S., and it reduces energy consumption by 79% and emissions by 67%. So I think that's a part of your program here. We just want to encourage people to keep recycling their PET. I think we'd also be remiss if we didn't mention our other packaging in the aluminum can. And I'll let you all read kind of what some of the benefits are, but it is a resource that can be used over and over again to infinity. Just a couple things to remember. One is that the reason we're focusing on messaging around air bottle back is that I think most of the public's already aware that aluminum is fully recyclable. That message has been out there for a while. But there's some confusion about recycling plastic, and so we're really focusing on the bottle message for this campaign. The other thing to remember is every lunch you put their liver in the trash can and their recyclables in the recycling bin. If you don't recycle aluminum and you have to mine for new aluminum, it actually has a worse impact on the environment due to greenhouse gas emissions than plastic. So the overall message is let's just recycle all the packaging and we'll all be in a much better state. The other thing is we know we really have to remind consumers to recycle. And like I said, I should write a bottle, but you'll notice now that bottles have the recycling message on the cap, several places on the label. We know that folks need to hear things over and over again for it to resonate. And so we're taking advantage of all our valuable real estate we have there. We used to hear that it took people an average of seven times to hear something before they remembered it. But now we hear 17 times, and I can avoid that because I have two boys, and it seems like I'm constantly inviting them. So I think we really have our work cut out for us, and that's why we wouldn't have community partners to do that messaging out there. We also are using social media and advertising campaigns. We have ads on the morning news networks and national news networks, and also during football, I'm sorry, during sporting events like the Super Bowl. This is actually a link to an ad. I don't think it'll work on this presentation. I'll send that to you afterwards, but just so you have an idea of what's on our ad campaign. So, like I mentioned, Behavior change is a big component of improving recycling. So I pulled some rates for Florida, just so you know. So the average recycling rate for PET bottles in Florida is 6% compared to 33%. When you look at the rate in Miami-Dade, it's 1% compared to 33%. For aluminum cans, the state of Florida is at 14% versus 43% nationally. And here in Miami, it's 12%. So that's a little more on par with at least the statewide, but a lot of work to be done. And I think there's some reasons that we have some challenges here in Florida on that recycling rate. So a few things. One is under state statute, and this is at the county level, but each county has to select a minimum of four items from a list of eight to begin their kind of recycling program. What that means is that you have a patchwork of recycling regulations from county to county. And then you layer on top of that municipal programs for recycling that may take different products. So it's just overall there's a lot of confusion. The other thing is, we have six times as many tourists as residents, right? So if you figure, not only are our residents confused about what goes in the bin, but our tourists who come from other places aren't sure what should go where. And we also know that we need to make things easy. If you don't have the recycling bin twinned with the trash can, you know, people won't recycle. They won't walk across the sidewalk to their second recycle. So a lot of best practices and things that we can do in Florida, but a lot of what we're doing has to do around education. So as I mentioned, one of the things we also need to do is improve our recycling infrastructure. You're probably aware that Florida gets 900 new residents a day. So when you think of the infrastructure here and trying to keep up with that, there's a lot of work to be done. And Jason can probably talk to you about that too. I know Waste Management is bringing some new landfills and recycling facilities online. Not landfills, I'm sorry, recycling facilities and processing centers. I think when I've talked to other cities and counties, there's concern about landfill capacity just given you know, the population and can we divert through recycling and other measures there as well. So we worked with both these organizations. Are any of you familiar with the recycling partnership? You are?

Yeah, they're a client.

They are? Okay. The Recycling Partnership or Closed Loop Recycling? Okay, so they really focus on the education component of recycling. They work with residential and curbside to make sure that folks know what to go in within and help reduce contamination. And then Closed Loop Fund Partners are venture capitalists and they're focused on improving recycling infrastructure. So we know that those two pieces need to go hand in hand. The infrastructure investment is not going to come if you don't have a clean supply chain. But vice versa, you're not going to have a supply chain unless you have the education there. So I think that's important that we work with both those groups to try and close that circle a little bit on recycling. So over the past few years that we've had the initiative, we've made improvements in 65 communities that are collecting nearly 950 million new pounds of PET over 10 years. So we feel like we've got some momentum. We're trying to make a change. We know we have a long way to go, but making those incremental steps along the way. So one of the projects I wanted to mention was in Jacksonville. We did a $1.2 million investment in Jacksonville for a Feed on the Street project. And you may be aware of what that is, but do y'all, have you heard that before? And you guys might be a little different if you have someone already from your staff going out to curbside. But it was a campaign that was focused around education and contamination rates. They had select communities, and they would flip the bin before the recycling trucks got there and let folks know if they had the right things in the bin or if there were wish cycling, putting things in there that they couldn't recycle. And then they would put a sticker on the bin that said, good job, or this shouldn't be in here. And they had collateral materials that went out that helped with that. And then at the end of the campaign, they went back out and measured, and they had a 23% reduction in contamination, which was really large for that community. Anecdotally, it was funny, they said their biggest impetus was neighbors being had the warning label sticker, so they said it was kind of fun to watch people out on our watch, seeing like, oh, who got tagged for that? But that's one of the projects we've done, and so we're really proud of that, and we're looking to do some other projects also throughout the state. And then we also know we're only as good as what we can measure, so we partnered with the World Wildlife Fund. They have a tracking tool called Resource, and they just make sure that we are making the reductions we say we're making, and they offer us a lot of guidance and best practices on moving forward. So we do have a coalition. I'd be happy to give you some information that we're asking folks to sign on and help us get the word out. And we're just doing simple things like if you have a meeting where it makes sense for us to do a presentation, if there's social media, we have a social media toolkit and you could repost what we have out there. But we do have that coalition as an option. And these are some of the groups that we have on board so far. So a lot of folks out of Tallahassee. I work in Tallahassee quite a bit. But some local folks as well. So if that's something you're interested in, let us know. We'll be helping you on board. But what I did come to talk here today was maybe doing a project in Surfside. And Frances has been great to work with helping us spearhead it. I think one of the things she mentioned was that there was some contamination level issues. And what was the contamination level?

We'll ask one of the . This particular report's from January to June, even though it's the August, but it's for a six-month period. Okay.

So, and one of the things we know is that consumers need to see things time and time again. So we thought it might make sense to do a project where we could help you all and have labels placed on the recycling bin that focus on what items you build with it. So we have some funding for that. It's kind of a one-off for us, so there's not a formal reporting process, but if you came to us with a proposal, we'd be happy to help support those labels. We could work with you and your designers in-house. We have some, TRP actually has a really good tool kit on that too. But we thought that might be a good way to help reduce contamination and help y'all get the messaging out here. I will say that we find that if you put too many things on the label, people get confused so you may consider putting you could have everything on there but maybe focusing on the top three to four items that have the highest commodity value in the bin just to make sure those items get in there and then that will help also pay for the municipal recycling program and for us we want our bottles and cans back and then do have some of the higher commodity values in the bin so it's a win-win for us too to try and get some of that material back um i think i'm trying to So I think what would need to happen, and Jason, I'll let you step in too if you're on the line there, but if you all have a plan kind of put together, I'm going to be a little less formal on it than maybe you have to be as a city entity. But if you come up and say, I think 1,700 councils need this many labels, and I think we have this, I can't remember if we got the size of label you needed yet or not. I think we did. Okay. Okay. all about labeling and work with y'all and see if we can do audits pre and post and they would do that and see if that actually made a difference. I think the one thing y'all would have to think about is doing the collateral side, which would be some sort of education campaign as well. Because you can't just put the sticker on with no education.

And my perspective is in two directions. It's customer facing but it's also staff facing so that we're creating alignment because it is going to require some behavior change and we want to make sure that the messaging is clear. Correct.

So that's kind of where I'm at. So if you all want to I have some discretionary funds available and we'd love to fund a project here.

I think that's why I really wanted to host the workshop prior to doing the labels so the residents and staff get a clear understanding of everything that needs to happen and what they should be looking for. And so that way, you'll get a greater benefit from the program. And also, in terms of the labels, as a sustainability board, what do you guys want to see on the labels? Is there something particular?

So I'm glad Jason's on the line. We want to make sure that we're aligning our program with what waste management's new capacity and new capabilities will be when the recycling facility opens. So I think that's good that we have some time to get organized on the town side so that we can get ready.

I just wanted to ask also because this is mainly geared toward the households in the neighborhood, but we also have A lot of condos, and we had the same issue of people not putting the right items in the bins. I've even printed out the sign from the town website and posted it in several locations, and you can just see it. You open the bin, and there's things that don't belong in there.

So what do you suggest for that, because we've been talking about that a lot, is that condos are not understanding, or the staff isn't understanding, or residents aren't understanding.

It's more the residents, because we do have staff that will have to... Not our staff, the condo staff. Yeah, no, we do have, the condo, we do have staff that has to, because they've been constantly move things. So I'm thinking I separate some of it, but I don't know.

I guess if you've seen a successful way to educate condo people, because that's different than putting a label on it.

Yeah. I just want to see that we reach both parts of the community.

I think there's just as many people living in condos, if not more, than the residents in the houses.

I know TRP did a project for multi-family in Jacksonville, so let me see if I can get some data on what that looks like.

And I'm sorry, we just need your name and address.

Okay, my name is Michael Messing, Dr. Michael Messing. I live in 9341 Collins Avenue, Marbella, Illinois. Your first, early in your presentation, you showed the plastic bottles, the drinking industry. In the recent past, Coke bottles or drink bottles where the caps were attached to the bottle itself, to the ring and that little attachment so that they're not separated and lost. Is that an effort that's being pushed forward in the production?

So there's been talk about that. That's currently a technology being used in Europe.

Yeah, Europe, that's right.

Yeah, I see that a lot. They're looking at it. I will say they had some mixed messages from American consumers because some of them did not like the cap hitting them while they were drinking. But I think the bigger issue, so you definitely want to keep the caps on, but the bigger issue is recycling the overall product too. Definitely want to keep the caps on. I'll keep you posted on that because I've had people ask about those caps. But I know they're currently doing that in Europe, but not

Okay, my second question is focused on the beverage industry. What about the chemical industry, laundry products, other chemicals and such, that whole industry of recycling? Are you having any impact on that?

Are you saying chemical recycling? No, like laundry detergent. Oh. and make investments there. So that's a little bit out of my purview, but I know the consumer brands groups are working on improving that recycling as well.

And I have one more suggestion. As a condo owner, it may be helpful if we have blue containers and regular trash containers, if we can assist the owners to have color-coded trash bags units instead of having to go all the way outside and walk all the way to the building on a daily basis or whatever.

I do know, I think the recycling partnership at one of the condos did almost like a valet service where they had big totes that people left outside their doors with recycling in it and then the condo owners?

We used to have, you know, it was the recycle was left in the room. We had to change that and have residents bring the recycle downstairs because the maintenance worker spent the whole day collecting all the recycles from every floor and didn't have time to really clean the building and that was an issue for a lot of our owners.

I like that idea of a different bag color.

Well, but you That's what I see the first thing when I open the containers. So it needs to be opened and inspected. I mean, I think it's, before our building implemented that policy, I saw it in another condo in South Beach where they required to bring their recyclables downstairs to the different bins. And actually, the place in South Beach had a bin for glass. But the town, a few times, why it's on this stuff, I would think it would be easier to recycle if things were separated.

Maybe from a segregation standpoint, it sends a signal, but ultimately it's processed as single stream. So as long as it is the right products, the right resources in the recycling stream, the system, the recycling system, can handle it incredibly well. The problem is when they're non-recyclables or contaminated recyclables, that's what makes up the 33% from the report.

And I think a lot of people think contaminated recyclables means food waste, but it's not. It's like putting your old Christmas lights in there or electronics and other things that contaminate them. But you're right, they do use single stream waste management. It's gone to that model, I think, almost all of Florida. I think the only one who doesn't use it is Alachua County.

And Seminole.

And Seminole too? Okay. Thank you.

Just if I could ask you another question, because in the town we would try to move away from the plastic bottles and we could have water at a lot of our events. We've tried different, you know, there's the cardboard ones that have plastic tops, there's metal cans. I'm just wondering from your perspective on the beverage side, what would be the best route for us to go? Because we're trying to promote sustainability within the town. We're still distributing plastic bottles. You know, it's a mixed message because we'll have cans at our events or the boxes, and then we run out and the plastic bottles appear.

No, I think, I mean, I will say employees in our industry also have reusable water containers that we use there that are refillable. I think one of the things about our products is they're convenient, right? And I think the plastic bottles at the tap that screws back on is convenient for people that go to the beach too and they can drink. I think you have to do what's right for your city. I think one thing that we've seen is that some cities, if they have event contracts, they put in the event contract that the person who's running the event has to bring recycling capabilities with them. So that even if you're distributing plastic has to have a collection for all these recyclables and then you help reuse them so we don't consider them single use. But I know what you're saying. I don't know if there's one correct answer. You kind of have to do what's right for you. I think, Jason, is that aoseptic containers for water, at one point I thought they weren't easily recyclable. Is that right or wrong?

It's on the material list.

It is on your material list.

Well, it's on waste management's material list. We need to align our communication with what is acceptable.

Yeah. It may be. Sometimes I hear that it's hard to separate out because that plastic film that's in the aseptic isn't easily...

Is this presentation available on your website, or would we be able to? Yeah, I can give you a copy. Oh, great. I think it would be valuable to show that to employees, because a lot of, you know, you try to get your, if you get your house in order, you can. That's right. And we have that issue here when we have found events where things end up...

I know. I used to run races and there's so many plastic bottles and they would keep thrown on the ground and I was like, oh my gosh. Or even my kids play Little League and it's like getting recycling at county parks. It's just all over the place. So there's a lot of work I think to be done. And you have to make the decision that's right for your residents, of course, but I think we do.

And even with the kids, knowing that they're valuable and It's some of the offense and the time they end up in the trash.

So, I mean, one strategy that has worked out. large-scale events, small-scale events. If you have ambassadors at the waste stations, it's a public touch, it's an opportunity to educate, and it decreases contamination dramatically. So whether you reach out to this committee or the Youth Council, I think that we can get volunteers. I mean, I've seen it just on the smaller scale.

It's at the senior branches. where they'll have the different ways for sexicles, but stuff just ends up being the same one.

I think you also have to make sure that it's really recognizable, like, unfortunately, picture, a graphic. Like, people unfortunately don't take time to read, so you just have to make it, like, there's almost, like, no excuse for them not to, right? It's next to the trash can. You have to make sure the recycling's always empty, because if it's overflowing, or the trash is overflowing, then they'll end up doing each other's stuff.

It's also an opportunity to enjoy the experience. folks that are actually going to the event, who wants to be the recycling champion for these events? And get somebody to step into that role.

Yeah, because there was a resident at the event that pointed it out to me. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

But that's something we've been talking about as a committee. What can the town do to lead by example? So there's a lot of resources that are available that we will avail ourselves of, but we need to lead by example.

Well, I will tell you, you would be our first community in Florida that we would be making this investment. So by that part, you would be leading by example for what other communities can do to improve. And hopefully we can get some best practices from successes that you have here.

And that's why it's important that we have an action plan because we're going to be looking to the commission for support, we're going to be looking to the administration to implement, and there has to be clarity about the role and responsibility of each one and why we're doing it.

And I've been working with Waste Management. We've had that conversation. I'll give you some of the time.

Jason?

Hey, good afternoon. I'm sorry I didn't hear you before.

okay uh and i heard that there was a question for me that i didn't quite hear something about a bottle oh i was asking jason aseptic containers are recyclable because sometimes i hear it's hard to separate the plastic from the paper i was just curious what waste management does with that so again i apologize i'm having a hard time hearing in the rain here uh with the question about

paper label on a plastic bottle?

No, like box water. Aoseptic container recycling.

Oh, the box water. Yeah. The aseptic boxes we can take right now, there's not a whole lot of value. What happens is we mix them in with a mixed paper load. As a practical matter, we don't get a whole lot of those, but we can take aseptic containers or juice boxes, those type of

be using those then? Are we better off with the plastic?

I mean commodity value, Jason correct me if I'm wrong, but commodity value the plastic is going to have a better return and you can remake it into an actual bottle again or the aluminum into a can again.

Yeah if you're looking strictly from an economic point of view the plastic definitely has a higher value. If you don't like plastic for other reasons other rationale behind it. But there is a very good market for PET bottles, the ones that beverages come in. The issue we have, and I think, Liz, you might have addressed it if I heard you correctly, the real issue is we only get about a third of them back in the recycle bin, which means two-thirds are going somewhere else. So that's the real issue with bottles.

Right. Or Miami-Dade's 1% recycling rate.

It's too low, and where they're not being recycled, Yes, the best case is landfill. Not that that's great, but the worst case is, you know, the main roads and off the streets and where it starts to break down and do all those nasty things. But if it's handled properly, you know, there's great markets for it.

Is there a company that's figured out how to do, like, a refillable water station that's portable for events? Like, if I bring this, I just refill it. I don't need a plastic water bottle. I just refill my own water bottle.

It's called a cooler.

No, but I'm saying, like, when you have a big event, that there's, like, a water bottle refillable station.

Like what the airports have been.

Yeah, or like I think Amphitheater now. They have like tons of these Yeti, what are you, I don't know, whatever. But you fill your water bottle now. You bring the water bottle and you refill it.

I don't know if they're portable ones.

That's what I'm saying. Is it portable ones that just have enough water in it? And like that would solve the problem because then people... carry around water bottles now. I mean, look at us.

We're all carrying around a water bottle. I love carrying them when I travel.

So if we have that kind of, I don't know if it exists, but that would send a message to people like, oh, look at me. I've got a water bottle. You're using the plastic stuff.

We've done the giveaways of water bottles at some of our events.

You have to be able to refill it. You have to be able to refill it. You know? Anyway, I just wanted to throw it out there. Like that seems like the best. Liz, I have a question, sorry.

Are there any towns or cities that implemented a reverse vending machine monetary incentive similar to what happens in Europe?

So we did a project in Pearl Gables at their municipal community center where the incentives were that you got like a discount. They partnered with local businesses. Like a discount at a local theater or a restaurant. The issue, so reverse vending machines are great, I think, really for marketing and education purposes, but quantity and volume-wise, getting the amount back that you need, essentially, that's where it gets a little tricky. And you still have to have someone empty them and make sure all those things are there. So they're great, I think, you know, if you have the best time, I can see if one of my companies, they'll sometimes bring a reverse vending machine with them to an event. It's kind of like a marketing, like let's talk about imports and recycling. But, and Coral Gables did great, but if you're trying to increase volume overall, it has to be in conjunction with it. Right, in conjunction, yeah.

Liz, is the Florida Beverage Association involved in advocacy in Tallahassee, and specifically around home rule? We stay out of that. And what about, you mentioned PSAs. Are there PSAs that if the town determines that they're appropriate for our community, could those be shared with us? We have a public access station, and I don't know if you're still looking for content, certainly much improved over the last couple years, but it's an opportunity to use that channel.

Yeah, let me check with our comms team on that and see if they have... what new materials are out there besides the ad that I'll send you all to. And that might be something you can use too, but they probably have shorter snippets than they do.

And the last thing, again, we're trying to move from discussion into action. You mentioned the opportunity to join the Every Bottle Back Coalition. Do you have a sample resolution? I do. I think it's in the agenda.

Simple letters. Sorry, I only brought three.

Okay. So that, I guess it would be prudent for us to review it and maybe bring, have an item at our next meeting. And if we're in agreement, it seems like a good idea to spend a little bit of time making sure that the town's on board with it. But that could be something, Vice Mayor, that you could bring to the commission.

Well, I'm also trying, that's why I was asking about the plastic bottles and the boxes, because We're using all three in the town, and the idea was to streamline it and use one to promote recycling and sustainability. And so it would have to do with purchasing whoever is purchasing these items in town, because then we should probably end those boxes and stick to the canvas.

There's a startup called Refresh Miami.

that is actually here. Don't buy that plastic bottle refill you're standing instead. This Miami startup is making it easy. Maybe we can partner with them. I don't know, they're a startup.

I know the reverse vending machine company we use.

Okay, I will.

That could be fun for, like, you know, okay. There was a company a few years back called Woosh. I think they came to work for them. And they were putting, like, water stations in parks, and you paid a small fee to refill your bottles. I don't know what happened with them. Yeah, I just don't know if they're portable. No, they're not. They actually had them in North Shore Park. They didn't work.

So to bring this item back, let's bring all the pieces together.

They were in a pull truck. That had to be portable. Okay.

What else needed from this committee to move forward with the work that's already going on in town? and the opportunity to the Florida Beverage Association on Waste Management to put together a comprehensive recycling education outreach program. that is an opportunity to secure support and including financial support for that and that's absolutely a component of it but it's also training continuing to train our staff having a connection with our community members whether they live in a multi-family property or single family property in terms of What is recycling? What is the life of a recycled product once you put the right product in the right container?

So I can tell you that I know anecdotally from residents, when they don't get something picked up for recycling or garbage, it's because they're using the wrong container, as an example.

So that is going on. Is there an education component with that, meaning a leave behind so that folks understand why it's not being collected?

That part of it, I can tell you there is a disconnect because not everyone is aware of why something isn't picked up. that in part may be on us to not leave something, because communication skill-wise is challenging, and plus someone may not be there, but they should have some kind of notice as to why something wasn't picked up. getting calls later so we need to implement something along those lines because i don't know that we do and maybe friends there are stickers on the person violating across the street from me they had like eight stickers on their recycling bin at one point and then they finally got it i know my wife has done the same thing she'll print out stuff i think it was your guys that did like your public works did it yeah yeah so there's a sticker i just don't know if they know what

I mean, they were putting their garbage in the recycling bin.

They didn't have a garbage can.

Right. There are residents that use their recycling bin as garbage. As their garbage can, yes. But now they have a garbage can.

So is there anything that we can be doing to advocate more, to roll up our sleeves and help put a plan together? Well, we have a certain communication channel.

more communicating with the community through social media and other sources. You know, the emails, the email blasts, the Gazette, obviously. But, you know, I'm open to suggestions, but it's like, how many times are you gonna hammer the same point and try to bring about change in behaviors? It's not easy. But, you know, putting labels on, leaving some kind of card when the garbage isn't getting picked up, that helps to change behavior because people don't like the garbage left behind, as we know. But that's effectively what we're doing and using our communication channels. I don't know what more you foresee.

Well, I foresee a comprehensive approach to that. aligns what the town is doing, what the town could be doing, and will do in the future. And we can partner with professional associations And if the town doesn't have the capacity to put the whole plan together, I would advocate for finding a consultant that would help connect all the pieces. So there is, in fact, an action plan that can be communicated to the community so they understand why it's important and what they can do and what they can expect from the town.

Yeah, well, I think that has to come from within. to be a son and to live it up.

So I'd like to suggest an action from our... item, is to direct the town administration to engage a qualified consultant and or a qualified industry organization to conduct a recycling service assessment and develop an optimization action plan.

Yeah, everything sounds good except the consultant part because that involves procuring the person, bringing them aboard, paying them X dollars, and candidly, I would like to task someone specifically to do that from within and and then we move down that road before I need to go outside. Okay. Okay. Does this say my name again?

You do.

Michael Messing, 9341 Collins Avenue. When I moved here, I learned that the town instituted no plastic straws. Is that still enforced? The question is, is that still an ordinance? Because I do remember that it became an ordinance at some point.

It became an ordinance, yes. Is it being enforced? I'm not even sure if it still is. I have to look. You're asking me about that.

I don't remember if it was changed. Could the town enforce or imposed a fee or a tax on plastic bags in the shopping industry?

That was the essence of my question, about home rule advocacy. Oh, home rule. Well, Tallahassee knows best. They have preempted the town from regulating single-use plastic bags. And Charleston, but we already have it on the books. It was amended to accommodate ADA. Two companies. ADA considerations. Some people need straws.

It is still on the books. Maybe it's not being enforced, but the straw, as far as I know, it was never repealed.

besides plastic and paper.

Agreed.

Thank you.

All right. We're not sure. It sounds like the manager is on board with our conversation. We appreciate you, Liz, for coming and sharing and extending information. this opportunity to partner with you for a fun and meaningful project. And waste management as well.

We're excited to work with you, so let us know how we can help. And we can help with some of the...

I'll share the link that Liz sent for, I guess, designing toolkit to the board members if they want to take a stab at it and share your thoughts on what they would want to see.

The principal just restarted their curbside recycling. So they did a big project. It's an opt-in method there for residents. So they have a lot of education materials too.

Generally, I would favor kicking the can down the road. But if Jason is still there, if the new recycling facility is going to be operational early in 2026, we have a little bit of time to get organized so that we're messaging once. without changes or changes. Once the stickers go long, we don't want to send folks over to Sharpie to add something.

And we'll work with Jason to make sure everything's on it. But yeah, I send her the templates that we have, but if you guys want to put a twist on it, I need some help too.

Yeah, we'll do that. I think once that's completed, we can probably sit down and look at a perfect timeline to host a community workshop. by Jason if you want to join the Zoom for all condos, residents, property maintenance guys to come show up.

Monday with the manager and the newsletter? You know, so. So we can.

So we can get the ball rolling on the pilot program. That sounds great. I'm hoping, hopefully before the year we can get started on the pilot.

Okay. Do we still have the, there was for new residents, do we still have that? What kind of kit? Well, I don't know. I mean, I never got one for somebody. I never got a kit.

No, you've been here for too long. It was a welcome kit. It had information about our business district, our services.

I know there's a resident guide. I do know there's a resident guide.

So this should be in there, the recycle information. It should be added in. That was my point in bringing it up.

That should be added in there.

I know in the condos that's a big issue. I don't always get to do the interviews for new tenants, but when I do, I bring up about the recycle has to be brought downstairs. That's an issue I see in the condos, and probably in hotels as well, is that people don't know. And if you have new people or guests, if you're not told, oh, this is how we do this, you don't know. And so I think if there is still a kit for new residents, it would be good to, yeah, like Tiffany's neighbors that didn't have a garbage can. You don't think they didn't know? They don't have a garbage can anymore?

They don't have to containerize it when they put it on the curb. But it may be something you want to bring to the commission because it did exist and it probably should exist again. But because it's a matter of effort, you may want to bring it to the commission.

Right. Well, I remember a previous town manager mentioned that's how I found out about it. He had went to the commission.

Was it a QR code or was it printed?

No, it was actually a whole package because there were also donations from local businesses.

I was also putting it on USB. That was how it was brought to my attention.

All right. So I think, I mean, are we clear that the town is going to work on it? Yes. available to assist, and if you need the help of a consultant, then sometimes we can figure out whether that is the actual field that's needed.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Another question, let me ask. Michael Messing, 9348. Quick study. I'm looking at the Batteries are downstairs.

Where is it located? Right downstairs. In the lobby?

Yeah, near the police department.

And then electronics, there's a dumpster in the back. A dumpster outside. But you may want to come in, talk to somebody at the front desk so that you can walk out there. No, it's just a matter of courtesy. I think there are cameras out there.

Oh, okay. What about medications?

So we periodically partner with a multi-organization event to shred paper, to collect pharmaceuticals, sharps, and the like. It's usually held at all of the park. And it's a quarterly, twice a year.

I think it's only once a year. It was a little more frequent. But it's been in other... That's a multi-jurisdiction.

So there's no receptacle here for people to drop to be able to dispose of their unused medications? had their own program. Duly noted.

And usually either just before or at the beginning of hurricane season, the town hosts a household hazardous waste collection event. in the parking lot across the street. And all of these are noticed. If you haven't signed up for text alerts or email alerts from the town, I would encourage you to do that so that you're getting all the information directly from the town. The next item relates to a joint meeting with the Youth Council. We had settled on a date because of We're looking at another date. But we also want to identify some topics. I will share with you that the chair of the youth council did share a couple things that they would like to talk about. Those include biophilic cities. So now that we are a biophilic city, we have an opportunity to amplify that. So working with the Youth Council to put in ways to amplify our engagement with that. Pollinator sites at street ends. So that's simply planting pollinators. I know not everybody is aware, but On the back side of the community center is a pollinator garden. It was an initiative many, many years ago to create a pollinator path from South Beach all the way to Oliva Park. So this would simply be amplifying the town.

No, no, I was just going to say, we just planted a native species part, and that's supposed to attract pollinators and wildlife and all kinds of things.

That's it, the mango garden part. It just got finished, actually.

But yeah, it's an opportunity. So years ago, we spoke about this.

But my point is, if that takes off, well, we have other locations that we're looking to.

And there was an urban heat film screening. I have no idea what that is, but that's something that we couldn't get behind. But I would ask everybody to, if you have ideas of how we could be working cooperatively with the Youth Council, either amplifying the work that they've identified, or if there are priorities, and the next item is to talk about priorities for us for next year. But let's make sure that we are prepared for our joint meeting. So if you have items, if you could send them to a clerk, everybody wants a deadline for the next week.

Have we settled when it's rescheduled for?

Not yet.

I have a quorum for this committee. I am missing for the kids to let me know. So I am going to remind them because since they're back in school, they're not as active on the email. So then I remind them today.

Okay, so just for me, I'm only available today.

Yes, I saw. I saw you're available today.

I have a trip planned. Not sure if I'm going.

What is the tentative date?

September 2nd. September 2nd to the 4th is my tentative date, so I'm just still waiting on more votes from the rest.

Which brings us to the next item, which is we have a number of discussion items and actions that the direction that we gave. I appreciate the time now that you're joining us today. We'd just love to get an update on any and all of these initiatives.

Except someone left. That's supposed to be the point person on practically all of these things. But I can give you what I can give. Thank you. So let me see.

And I guess specifically, is there anything that we could be doing, if an initiative is underway or it is expected to be underway, is there anything we could be doing to support it?

Understood. So on the near short reach, I really don't have anything substantive to tell you on that. But I...

report because I saw that on here and you did not pass the resolution. I believe you were at that meeting and you were going to get templates from them. So nothing's, you know, I...

Nothing's moved on that, I can tell you.

So how do we move that? Because I believe you were at that meeting and You said you would handle it, and so I have not brought this to the Commission. I can do that, but I was expecting the resolution from you at the time.

It's not on my radar right now, so I'll have to go back and circle back to it now that I'm seeing it again. But I don't have anything substantive to report. The Commission already declined the invitation for a sustainability officer. Yeah.

Well, totally it's shut down? I thought it was... Yes, it's shut down.

So basically, I'm invited to tap other municipalities that have such an officer, like Miami Beach, and utilize them.

I haven't heard that update. I thought it was still a possibility of a part-time. When did that happen? They shot it down completely.

Yeah, it was at a meeting. It was at a meeting.

Which meeting? i brought it it's like it gets shut down every time but you know the first time i brought it up they were open to a part-time but not a full-time um so every time i bring up the sustainability uh residency officer they brought it down so what i heard i didn't hear about i heard the mayor and commissioner nelly just say we're not approving them

But I didn't hear a vote from the other three commissioners. They just moved it along.

Make it like this. I have no direction to bring such a person to board, nor is it in the proposed budget for next month.

No, that is correct. But every budget meeting, I've brought it up. There hasn't been a vote because they, I mean, I guess at this next budget meeting, things should be voted because it's mostly like a consensus. So it's brought up, you know, you review the budget. I brought up this item. No, it doesn't. No, it's not. It's been in those responses.

But to your point, if... if there are two people on the commission that are not supportive of it right and one is i'm going to argue that two are and there's a swing vote right the way to bring that to closure is And then we'll know. It's all we're done.

So we can have public clarity on...

And when you say tap into the other towns that have a resilience officer, how does that look? Do they just within the... Do I email it? Whatever voluntary support they would offer, basically. Okay.

So I don't know what their bandwidth is, as an example. You know, Miami Beach officer may have time to help another initiative.

Why would they?

Huh?

Why would they?

as a good, elaborate, good faith gesture. Tiffany, I'm not here to argue if they would or wouldn't. I'm just telling you that's the direction that I have. If you need some extra bandwidth, Reach out, see what Miami Beach can do.

So I got maybe I mean, my understanding from that meeting was that I didn't hear a clear note. I didn't hear a vote. I didn't hear a complete shutdown. I heard the mayor saying that. But I didn't hear anybody else agreeing with him. I mean, Nellie agreed to not fund the position, but... Ruben wasn't in favor of it.

I didn't hear that. He's not.

I didn't hear that.

I'm telling you, whether you heard it or not, I'm telling you.

Right. I'll bring it up again. Yeah, we can't direct you, but we can ask you if you could carry this item forward and just try to call it off.

I mean, I'll bring it up again at the meeting because... I've done that every time. No, no, I know you have.

But they just say, no, we're not doing that. I'm like, why do two people get to say that? I mean, I don't understand.

Whether to place solar voltaic panels on town facilities. I don't have anything substantive to tell you on that either. We just finished.

The good news is we discussed that before you joined. I'm going to work with our vice mayor to bring a discussion item to the commission.

I was just going to tell you that we finished our vulnerability assessment of the building and all kinds of things that we would have to do to... Which building? This one. This particular one. We can start at the 960 park. Yeah, that's a new facility. And they have a lot of solar exposure. I'll save that one. Got it. Green town hall operations.

Not those two. I know that we try to do that in our program.

You know, the events that we host. There are efforts that I know are pursued during those events.

There's a nexus with added sustainability environmental requirements to vendor agreements.

Yeah, and that is also something that we do regularly.

I know that we looked at the agreement for the farmers market. If it would be helpful, again, we're a resource to the commission and to the administration. If you want to send us vendor agreements that are currently in place, we can do our homework, scour them, identify opportunities for improvement, and share that.

Yeah, they're all publicly available. I'm happy to share.

That would be mostly the agreements for the events, you know, like the third days and the Sundays.

yeah I mean walkability that's pretty much my show Dostoevsky he focuses on that a lot so we are trying to bring about potentially additional sidewalks I personally still believe in what you attempted to do long ago, which are still painted. It's called failure. It's not failure. What I'm referring to is the one-way pairs that exist. At least you can still see the paint stripes on 89th and 90th Street. you know, from parting back and now building out sidewalks. You create portions of the roadway for walkability or bicycling or rollerblading, as my wife likes to do. And I think we're trying to extend on that. For instance, at the south end of town, Miami Beach has that kind of bike lane built into their streetscape that ends at Surfside. We're trying to carry that forward and the Commission already passed this Bicycling Association map through Surfside that basically takes the bicycle lanes off of A1A when you get to 94th Street and then into the neighborhood on Byron and then south through the neighborhood to Miami Beach. So we're trying to connect Miami Beach to Surfside with those bike lanes up Byron and around and through, I should say, the oval that exists down there. So if you can imagine, you know, bike travel up That's one thing we're trying to accomplish at the south end. And then also connect the walkways at 95th Street is where we're focused on looking at to bring those sidewalks connecting from the business district out to at least Byron. There's a lot of traffic up there. So those are some of the walkability initiatives that I know are being discussed internally, seeing the viability of those. I'll share this with you.

The street end on 95th Street is the ocean. Yes. That was contemplated as phase one of a three-phase project, where some of the profits from the shoal would go to improve the second phase, which was... And then the third focus is connecting the business district to the residential district. And there's an opportunity to connect a sidewalk that's on the north side of 95th between Byron and Abbott. But the whole idea is to let's connect our different districts, you know, the high density on the beach, to the business district, to the single family neighborhood, but using the phase one as the template and then carry it through.

Yeah, not necessarily sidewalks throughout the whole of .

Yeah, and sidewalks is a third rail. So we tried to frame it as it's a public safety matter. So if you segregate the . and by adding trees, we've also addressed the need. I remember that making a much more inviting environment.

Part of what we're doing now with the commission plus funding for the speed tables and the circles, which we've started already. So the circles is really where you're going to see the landscape element and hopefully additional tree canopy. As we roll those out, they do take time, and right now we have a program to roll out the first six speed tables and the first three circles, and if everything goes well, we'll roll more out. Okay.

But along with that, it's sort of tied to greening town hall operations, is engaging with Congress for Life. So we had a presentation many months ago. This is a service provider for organics management. And one thought was, before we roll it out to the town,

So if I could speak on that just for a second. Former Vice Chair Charu, she had mentioned another company that she worked with at the 1960, well it was actually at the 90th anniversary party that was held at 1960 Park. And they seem more, you know, Compost for Life was a little bit expensive. Thank you. Was it renewable? Well, yeah.

No, the name of the company.

I don't know the name of the company. She did a whole report on how much was composted from that one event. And so I think if we get with that company, we might get a better deal because Compost for Life, I like them, but it's very expensive.

Again, the goal is not to make decisions, to make recommendations. Our recommendation is that the town explore an opportunity to engage in that kind of service.

This is why we need a full-time sustainability resilience.

Can we get a second? I think it's understood why we think it's a valuable position.

So, I mean, Commissioner Valdosta, he's had an item for discussion for a while. He keeps deferring it, which has to do with the Miami Beach composting. So, I mean, I can contact former Vice Chair and find out I mean, I would prefer to maybe just engage with one company. I think it's confusing if you're... Yeah. And the Miami Beach one is in Miami Beach. I think we need one in Surfside.

We have a community garden. That is a fantastic home base if we want to roll it out in the community. But let's start with town facilities. But we don't have to get to the ultimate end point in the first step. And that's why I was suggesting we focus on the town before we focus on having to reach the community, whether it's subscribing to the service or composting and pollution, small-scale composting and pollution. You already spoke about the intergovernmental engagement in terms of leveraging those relationships. But really, I'm trying to optimize how we engage with other municipalities. and if you want us to reach out, we can do that. We just don't want to step on toes, but we also know you're resource constrained, and I'm curious, which is why we need... That's why we need a full-time sustainability resilience officer. You can keep putting that in the message. During management, we got a status report through the clerk, so thank you for that. Reach for nourishment. Did you know about the...

I don't know what status you got, but we're going to go to a contract hopefully soon with the... Beach re-nourishment, so nothing really new other than we're engaging the county and trying to figure out when the Army Corps is going to provide additional re-nourishment here. You know what's going on in Bell Harbor. We're just basically trying to maintain status quo with the raking operation and I can't say when we're going to get re-nourishment. I don't have an answer.

Well, you know, at the appropriate time it'll come up again, but I think we can speak on behalf of the committee. It's priority for our lobbyists in Tallahassee because it isn't just one. But it's not a Tallahassee thing. It's really a federal thing. So I've been through it. Yeah. a lot of funny stories, but we put a hard press on the county. So the mayors from the surrounding communities put a hard press on the county, put us in touch with the state, and those are the channels that we work. But ultimately it's the Army Corps that has to bring light. it's better to build our coalition and go to the feds?

Yeah, I may just go to the feds, because I have a direct line to some of them. Can we get a motion? No, I know what I've got to do. Okay. Awesome. And then living seawalls, so that ties into, I think, the kind of... Tiles. Tiles.

I gave an update a little bit. So, I mean, I believe the direction last night was to have that as a discussion item, but...

I don't have the proposal for the actual contractor that would do that.

Also, there are individual property owners that are improving their seawalls. Not all of them.

That's actually the bulk of their work, to be honest. They build out seawalls, these living seawalls. Of course, ours is built out, but these are for people that need to redo their seawalls. All right, perfect.

Because they're just taking a very different position in terms of permitting them for a long time.

No, they got blessing. Oh, now they do. Yeah, now they do. Let's capitalize on it.

All right, that was when the motion on the commission on the direction was to... come back with a proposal from kind tiles it was also to present to the town planner to have uh the living seawalls as an alternative to homeowners that have to rebuild the seawalls so it would be good to get that information if we need to have a resolution for the pnz i mean these were things that were commission directed already awesome

So if you can get those to us, we'll give you feedback, and then we talk about the plan.

Okay. Thank you for coming.

Thank you. We'll take you as we can get you. Yes. Thank you. All right. So let's now move on to new business. There's one item that's added.

So I met with Tiffany Troffer who's with FIU and Resilient 305 and she said that they can do this climate walk and talk here in Surfside. They've been doing it in various neighborhoods. around the county, and so I think this could be part of an education piece of why a full-time sustainability resiliency officer is important.

But, anyway.

I don't know how to... I mean, I would make a motion to direct the town to coordinate the climate walking town.

That would kind of be done with the, I guess, with Frank, or the communications department, or...

The communications department and Cindy.

Right, but... It's not really their kind of thing, though.

So let's add this to the joint meeting with the Youth Council. Wouldn't it be nice to have it jointly sponsored? Yeah, yeah. The town commission and two of its committees are supporting this event.

I mean, this is just a flyer for one that they're doing in Miami Shores, but they're here in the description.

And we're getting into fall, so that's, you know, there's a lot more people.

I mean, it's just, again, it's just educating the community about what's going on.

But if you could submit that to the clerk as one of the topics for our church.

Okay. Can you send me a copy of, if you can give me what you have in your hand? Sure. From my records. Thank you. And I'll email one of those to you, too.

an email that just came in. I didn't officially do this, but is this something that can be sent out by the town of Surfside?

Miami Beach should send this out. It's about, people can apply for a... Oh yeah, the mitigation. Up to $10,000 grants. I think Surfside needs to know about it too. So that came out from Miami Beach. So should I, who do I forward that to?

So this will be our communications department.

Normally we'll forward this, but I believe the manager will have to give her direction. Okay, so who do I send that email to? The town manager.

The town manager. Our next meeting is on the 18th. Yep. I won't, I'll be out of town, out of the country. I was, I know, I was going to propose, you know, either I miss it or if we can move our next meeting to September 25th, which is the following Thursday.

September 25th at noon?

I mean, that works for me. That works for me. Please and thank you. Okay. I appreciate that.

And that brings us to adjournment. So thank you, everybody, for joining us today. And thank you for attending your first.

Who's making the motion to adjourn?

I'm winding up. I'm just going through the round of thank yous.

If we could have a motion to adjourn. I motion to adjourn our meeting for today. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Beautiful.