Sustainability and Resiliency Committee - Regular Meeting

Hear ye, hear ye. We call this meeting to order. Chair Daniel Deitz?

Here. Vice Chair Patrick Manos?

Here.

Committee Member Tiffany Cannava?

Here.

Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you very much. Any changes to the agenda or order of business? Hearing and seeing none. Mayor, do you have a liaison report?

I do, actually. I have had Angie forward an email to the board that I received from Dave Duckler about the recycling program because I was made aware that the board was supporting the Every Bottle Back program. And when I mentioned it to Dave, it was a sustainability-centered, I think it was Game of Thrones, we had invited the board to. And Dave doesn't recommend going with the Every Bottle Back program. And so I... Why specifically? Because they're not really interested in recycling. They're interested in us endorsing the plastic bottles. He showed me a different program, Recycle Across America, and they simplified the labeling to be just four items. And so I think it's... I'd like, you know, a closer look at this, because as it stands, I don't know that I would endorse the every bottle back. I remember that when they came to us, we said slow down a minute. They'd send us the sample ordinance, and so now I saw it moving forward, and at the same time, because I mentioned it to Dave, and he said, oh, it's a better program. So I just, you know, that's one of my updates. The other update is good news, actually. It's... The Commission voted to, we're going to vote again, but they voted to move forward with the tread tiles at 96th Street Park. So it comes back to us with the full budget to vote on again because I think they had questions about the value of the program. And I'll tell managers to try to get more information. They wanted to know how it would actually look there, the value of the program, and how many other cities are doing this. Do you want to say anything about the DOOM? The DOOM? Oh, okay. Well, the DOOM project, it's questionable now what's going to happen with it, but I believe we're doing the RFP again, but we're not going to get it back in 30 days like we hoped. 30 days is unfair for any consultant for a contract to respond.

Why was the first solicitation cancelled?

I believe it didn't include all the areas because, well there's an issue with the area behind the Seaway surf club because they raised the dune themselves and they used the wrong sand mix. And so we need to kind of have that part included in the project that they'll pay separately for, which is how it should have been done initially, but, you know.

Having the sand that was excavated from the circle project, or is it a different project?

No, I guess the seaway. I mean, I wasn't on the commission when that went to final approval, but they were supposed to raise the dune behind the property there.

So essentially, anytime you have a development along Collins, along the beach side, that needs to take out dirt, they have to replace the same quantity back on the beach for nourishment in that area. not take out from there and just place it there. It's gotta be clean, it's gotta be a surfside mix out of a certain grain, which you all know. They did their replacement, the quantity they did, they did it for their permit, But Durham doesn't require the surfside mix, we do. So the surfside mix is what was missing. So what we ended up talking and negotiating is they will contribute to pay to add the surfside mix to that area. In front, I believe there's another area near 93rd Ocean. That's the main reason why we need to re-scope and put it back out. A subsequent reason which I will talk about, even though the commission, I'm not sure on their feelings, but I think they will agree with me. We only got two proposals that came in. proposals on top of what I would consider a significant amount of scope that wasn't already included. Instead of coming back with a change order, I thought that was appropriate. So the recommendation at the commission is to cancel and rebid. We are finalizing the scope now for the new quantities to make sure we have all the right quantities. But just from what is required to be out from a procurement standpoint, we wouldn't have made the commission anyway. So I said, okay, let's make sure everything is done right so that hopefully we can have it back in And then a secondary, which is not a part of the conversation in which the commission went too deep into, that we can briefly touch, is what is the threshold on the value of the project? The town now has two mandates when it comes to expenses. and the lower on revenue will need to go to a lower referendum. In our case, three points, I think it's like three points

No comment. Good luck.

Yeah, I know.

If I could pile on two items. Surfside used to maintain a special mix for the upper path of the beach walk. If you've been there, or anybody that's been there, you'll notice that behind not this, maybe the seaway, but it's really the project just north of it, they pile up sand on that path that is absolutely not that mixed. So as a user of the path every morning, you will see that people, walkers and runners, the majority of people will go down to the hard path to get past the soft sand and then come back up. Now, the good news is that sand drains very, very well, which brings me to my other point. The public works department used to do an incredible job at maintaining the grade of both the walking path and the hard pack. After a heavy rain, because it's compacted, it doesn't drain timely, and it's sloppy. It doesn't really reflect what I would expect as a level of service for the town. But there is a special mix. If you don't have access to it, Randy's going to share it with me. If you have it, I won't be able to send it. But it's easiest to identify where the puddles are right after a rant. And you can see it. We're going to have our guys take care of it.

Okay.

On the Every Bottle Bank, notwithstanding what you feel about endorsing the organization, we've been talking about this for the better part of nine months. We have money available. We have the willingness of waste management to work with us to make sure that the labeling is aligned with what the new process trains can process responsibly at their new facility. risk of kicking the can down the road yet again. Let's move this forward. Let's get the label and let's start the initiative to provide the tools to community members for what goes into the cart, while at the same time hopefully we're going to be moving forward with the internal assessment of what we can be doing differently in terms of our daily operations for our garbage and recyclables and our trash.

Right. Well, I mean, because when I guess it was listed, we presented And we were kind of ready to move forward with it, and I believe you had mentioned let's put a hold on this. And so a lot of time has passed. I agree we need to do something, but now another proposal has come before us.

Is it a proposal or is it Dave's opinion?

It's a little bit of both.

Can you share the proposal with us?

I shared the email.

I read the email a couple times. I'm looking for a proposal.

Well, yeah, the proposal pretty much was, it's aligned with what Miami Beach did. They did an ordinance about, so instead of passing the Every Bottle Act, we passed an ordinance that simplifies the recycling process. And then you have the labels with just the four items on there. And the representative for Recycle Across America wanted to be a representative have a Zoom meeting with us, you know, if we're not interested in it. So that was why I had the email forwarded. I haven't got back to them yet because I wanted to know how the community felt.

And we didn't have a meeting or I was out of town the last one. So just remind me, every bottle back is what's paying for the materials that we wanted to get out to the community. So if we don't go forward with every bottle back, will the town pay for it? So we can move forward?

Well, the Recycle Across America, they have... They will pay for it. They won't pay for it.

They will provide the templates and even where we could get it printed so that it's done right.

But it's disconnected, right? Waste management is aligned with the Florida Divergent Association in terms of... labeling money and supporting our program both external facing to our community and internal within the town hall.

It's complicated because Dave said that essentially waste management is not true recycling. So basically we can support this but we're not really, according to his opinion, we're not really supporting true recycling. Whereas recycle across America is more true recycling. Because he said, you notice that if the trucks aren't labeled that they're recycling, then they're not recycling.

It's different because we're collecting recyclables as a town function.

And going to that plant, going to the plant specifically.

It's going to a waste management facility. Have you been to the facility, the old facility? No, I haven't yet.

I actually drove by it the other day and I was like, oh, this is where it is.

It is common. So for a project I'm working on with Broward County, we surveyed, we issued a number of surveys to the residents of Broward County and it is it was clearly articulated that there is distrust of recycling.

Yes.

But that doesn't mean that recycling is not occurring. So if people are placing non-recyclable materials in their recycling cart, waste management has the opportunity to reject the load at the time that it's unloaded on the tipping floor. By and large, they are not doing that unless it's egregious. But if it's garbage in, that is going to come out as residual and it's going to go to a landfill. Everything else that is recyclable is going to be segregated, and bared, and sold.

So they're not rejecting the bins anymore? Because... I mean...

When you say bins, the carts are at the homes, the truck is what picks up the carts and delivers it to the Reuters recycling facility. They have the ability to reject it, and the town can either pay, for disposal, correct me if I'm wrong, disposal at that point, and we do get, we haven't seen the residual report in a while, but we've previously been provided a copy of the residue report, so we know what our level The goal is to get the right materials in the right place, and that's why we want proper labeling, but it is a misrepresentation to say that our recyclables are not being recycled. The recyclables are, the residue is not. There is no community in the United States that has perfectly clean recyclables. There are communities that are pushing 50% contamination, many of them, but that's not us.

So I just wondered why you had paused it when we, after the presentation, we were kind of ready to move forward with it, and you had sent an email to hold off. And so that, you know.

I would have to go back through my notes to see why.

Yeah, because I'm not sure why, but then, you know, I kind of, yeah, I kind of, I agreed with it, you know, with holding off. about it as well.

In the last meeting we had, we were moving forward.

Well, that was our recommendation, but then we...

I was absent, but I read the minutes, and so, yeah.

So let me ask my colleagues on the committee. Are you of a different mind, or are you still supportive of bringing the item to the commission for action, the recommendation to join the Every Bottle Back initiative, secure the grant funding?

What's the downside? of supporting every bottle back. I guess that's what I'm just...

I'm not saying that... I mean, I was all on board. We don't want to get in bed with an industry that is promoting something that's misaligned with the town. They're saying that plastic bottles or beverage containers are recyclable, and let's do everything we can to get them into the recycling carts and get them processed.

the flyers and everything that they're funding is not just every bottle back. It's all recycling.

It's specific to Surfside. To Surfside, right. What is acceptable.

And they're going to pay for it to be printed and then we can distribute it. I mean, so, I mean, how many people, I mean, I think it's all fine, but I don't know enough why we wouldn't align ourselves. But how many people will even know that we are aligned with them, but we're going to have these awesome flyers that they're going to pay for that we can distribute everywhere to help our recycling efforts. I don't know how many people would be like, oh, but you're aligned with every bottle back. I don't know if the residents would even know that. But in the meantime, we're cleaning up our recycling with the stuff that they're giving. Because I just know how hard it's been for us to get anything approved in the budget. So if we don't have the flyers approved, we just have templates, there's no guarantee they're going to be printed for distribution. So every bottle back is giving us these flyers. They're paying for them. so at least we can clean up our recycling. I guess I don't know what the downside, I don't understand the downside.

I've been in conversation with the city of Coral Gables and with their director of sustainability and they partnered with Florida Beverage Association with other initiatives that I'd like to bring to our city including the reverse vending machine. That's a centralized vending machine where residents come and return their plastic and then they get a coupon um with an affiliated store in town um and they didn't express any um any hesitance you know partnering with them um i again i i feel like we would need to have some kind of uh objective information as to what are some reasons that we shouldn't be partnering with Florida Beverage and not just someone's opinion. Because it's really what it is. It's someone's opinion, but there's nothing substantial here that would make me feel like this is not an additional resource that our town currently doesn't have. and that if we shy away from it, that we are not going to reap the benefits of the economic gain that we get from partnering with them. And the education piece. We already established in our last meeting that this is a multi-pronged approach. This is not just the stickers. This is partnering with the city. This is doing the audits. This is leading from a top down, right? Not just saying, you know, putting all these stickers out and then our city's not doing what we're saying we're doing. So this is all hands on deck and this just feels like an additional tool that's going to help us reach our goal.

I don't want to speak for you, but I'm going to call the vote again. But just reviewing the meeting minutes indicated that there was time to bring this to the commission last week, and was it on the agenda?

No, it didn't make it because it would have had to go through the town attorney, the resolution, and she has a certain amount of days, I'm pretty sure, to review the resolution, so.

And there were multiple pathways to qualify for the grant. It wasn't just a resolution. I think there was also a letter of commitment. So I'm going to pass the gavel. Thank you, Amanda. the vice chair that we reaffirm our support for the Every Bottle Back initiative and we leave it to our town manager and town attorney to identify the best vehicle to sign up. you may hear some frustration in my voice that we meet month after month and we talk about matters and then it just sort of So this is something tangible that puts us on the path to better and more responsible management of the recyclable components in our district. And I would like to see a follow-up with the internal assessment of what we can be doing so that we are not just collecting what's put in a cart. If the collection team noticed that there's non-recyclable materials that the homeowner or the property owner is notified so that we are meeting them in real time with improvements that they need to make to continue participating in our program.

How do we enforce that particular piece?

That's another discussion. Let's get this relationship off the ground. When we get to the initiatives for this year, I hope that we can get consensus in our direction to the town administration to now focus on the internal operations. Understood. That was a long-winded motion. Let me clarify. I want to reaffirm our commitment to the recommendation that the town commission discussed.

I'd like to motion that this committee move forward the Every Bottle Back initiative and move it through the town manager and the commission to see what is the best way to be able to gain participation in the program.

I second the motion.

All in favor?

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. There it is.

for throughout the afternoon. And I have a meeting at one o'clock. Could we move item 6A and 6B? They appear to be somewhat similar. Can we move that up together so that we can also have our advocate in Tallahassee be able to talk? But next week being the holidays, most people are out, and there's some very pertinent items that I need to move forward on.

Okay. So someone could just make a motion to take items 6A and 6B next, and we'll deal with 5A.

Yes, and David.

Oh. So A and D? Right.

So we'll talk about the various initiatives and move their legislative priorities. A motion to move items 6A and 6D to our next items of discussion. Second? Second. All in favor? Aye.

Thank you. As I said, it is done. So we'll come back to public comment in the meeting minutes. So 6A. Thank you. That's our representative on the call.

Can you hear us? Does he hear us?

First is a question to our account manager. What is the status of legislative priorities being endorsed by the commission? Is that already done for this legislative session or is that to happen?

So I'm aware that on a yearly basis, the commission has, whether it's a workshop or an item, come before them that talks about the various legislative items. This year, because legislation starts in January, My first week on the job there, the town's priorities were due for state appropriations. So there was no time to hold any type of workshop or anything like that. So I carried forward the 2025 legislative priorities with our advocate, moving forward since those were already adopted. And from there, has on a day to day operations and from a capital improvement

because it was already approved. If I may ask a question of our representative, what are you seeing as headwinds for projects or funding requests related to resiliency, sustainability, specifically?

I think you're going to see a lot of this with what the Senate President and the Speaker both have their priorities of sustainability and resiliency projects dealing with that well. And I'll say that we are, again, being told, as generally we have every year, that it's going to be a very, very tight budget year. So to get your projects in early and often, I will say Surfside was, for us, one of the first ones that we got sent, that we received, and we got into the system. and having conversations with the speaker's office on priorities issues on behalf of Surfside. As far as logistics on your projects, you guys have been on your deadlines. The last thing left on your proposals are the attestation forms, which we're waiting for the final form members, which actually just came out today, so we'll turn those around to you guys for the forms. But as far as what we're seeing, and as far as the priorities, the center president and the speaker you're going to see a lot of those type of the focus will be on on projects for that that are going to be uh targeted towards resiliency and just sustainability mr chair if i may um so in my experience i've worked in government affairs

I will tell you that this year, and I was actually just having this conversation with the commissioner earlier today, the states, especially this year, one of the reasons why you saw such a big budget fight last year, and Gerardo, please correct me if I over-exaggerate or misrepresent anything, because I haven't spoken to him about this, but essentially one of the big reasons why you saw a fight of about almost $10 to $12 billion. And so the state had to do a lot. A lot of legislative members, what they are trying to force is many municipalities and counties got very project happy when it was flush with cash. So what they're telling municipalities for the most part is these projects are not... appropriations requests, they should be going through the grants and the loans that the individual departments have and that appropriations should be something different. And so they try to push back that as much as possible. And last year they were telling people if you get one project to be happy and you might get none, don't put in more than two. Of course, people still put in more than two, and then why did we only get one? Well, we told you, you weren't gonna get more than one. So this year kind of continues on with that kind of reality, and you have a difference of opinion between the governor which is not necessarily in line with the governor, although the governor hasn't come out supporting anybody, so it could be. But there's those difference of opinions. So yes, residency and so forth are important, of hearing of water and sewer projects, and we've been pushing that narrative for about 10 years now, and there's a lot more that we have to worry about, which is why you hear a lot more almost kind of like showing their hand of push that through the grants and their loans that are already available and for the most part underutilized as opposed to coming through the appropriations where they're limited in what kind of funds they can bring to their district. They have a little bit more leeway with the grants and with the directors and that, of the reduction of ARPA. Our projects are still kind of in line with protecting our natural resources. The ones that we've submitted, Gerard, correct me if I'm wrong, we've got a drainage improvements in Hawthorne, sanitary sewer improvements on Byron, and a safe streets throughout the town. Those are the three that we've put in, and they range between anything in my overview that wasn't wasn't what you're seeing or hearing or

And it doesn't mean that there will be any less advocacy for the project?

Thank you. You answered the question. It's clear that those three projects from a sustainability standpoint are what you're focused on because we have 37 items that are on the list. They're not all From my perspective, you answered the question. You identified those priorities that you're pushing for without forgetting about the others, but looking at other avenues. I would just add, because we have had a bit of a revolving door in your position, I would just like there to be some Some reminder for whoever's sitting in the seat, when to start the process so that we can give it a fresh look and involve, as it's appropriate, the various boards and committees that we have in town, just so that there's a full look. Oftentimes, it was just the commission working through our lobbying team and the town administration that would identify the priorities. But with our committee structure, let's involve them in the process.

for your May or April meeting. At that point, Going beyond that becomes very problematic simply because all grants and appropriations requests will require some type of funding match, and we're very limited on funding. We're much better than other places, but we still have a cap. Our needs are very high. Now, are there things that we can do internally from an education standpoint, from an operations standpoint, that is not going to add but can streamline and improve upon. I think those are things that from a month to month we can work on together to do, but in the April, May timeframe is when you can now start saying in anticipation of the commission budget season, these are what this committee deems as important CIP type projects or initiatives we would like to put in there. They have enough time to then consider that, find that, and then that gives us a, okay, match that means we need to have this kind of threshold they can kind of take a look at that as opposed to and not with all due respect 37 legislative priority yes but it's going to be you're not going to get 37 like we're going to fund all these things sometimes it's just a matter of support for a certain initiative that doesn't really carry an operational of narrow that's the right window because you're looking forward and then Gerardo next committee week start when for for the 26 27 session session session starts January 13th so so you know we are now The governor, budget has to be in by May. Governor has to sign off on the budget by the end of June because it starts July 1st. After that, when is the next session?

Oh, okay, next session will be March that year.

March that year. So then you then put priority on the town budget and then we can be planning and how that moves so that... Yeah, because there was an election issue, so that's why it's earlier than what it typically is. So, thank you. I know that's a lot.

Well, it's going to be a lot for our clerk. If we could have a motion that basically accepts what our account manager just shared, that we set for our April meeting and every year thereafter that this committee still exists. We're not going anywhere. I'll ask you that in the middle of March. That we, as a committee, focus on identifying legislative priorities to transmit to the community. Can I just ask something first? No.

What other committees in town are involved with identifying those one, two, three priorities? It's not just us, I would imagine.

Well, I don't think we were involved. I don't think we were involved at all. No, we weren't.

We weren't. I know. We were about the prior year, but not on this one.

I'm just wondering if the committees that are involved can come together to identify these, you know, and then we present our recommendation as town committees. How can that work?

Yeah, so depending on the scope capital improvement project so the parks and recs committee just because I see our director sitting here he and I believe you're you had some I thought there was a conflict okay we'll talk about that So their priority is going to be on the services that the parks and recs has. Now they might talk about what park features and things they want, but for the most part they're talking about the services, where the seniors events are going to be, the programming that the department's really going to be having. So they're more focused on that end than on capital improvement projects. They also look at the resort and tourism committee. They also look at what projects are maintaining in these structures, right? The hard pack, the beach, the community center, things like, so it really depends on each one as to what they're going to be looking at. Planning and zoning, they don't look at, we want to advocate for a new water line or something like that because that's not really within to have all the boards come together. priority to the Commission officially right which part of your minutes but hey we want an additional you know report as part of the managers report or whatever the case or anything like that or you all approve your your chair to give a presentation that into consideration I will tell you this your Commission apart from just those who are in attendance they do pay particular attention to what every board recommends and says they want to find and accommodate as much as possible because they know that you all are volunteering and you're taking a ton of time out so they do take your recommendations very seriously There's always restraints when it comes to actual implementation sometimes. And that becomes difficult. I'll tell you from a town manager and my experience, you're only looking at it from the residency standpoint. And that's just one component. But I have to put that in line with everything else that's going on. And then you start juggling where your priorities are from a day to day. in a building, and all of a sudden everything I hoped to do is no longer done. So you try to manage as best as you can, but I think if you follow that process and you do that, it becomes, I don't want to say indoctrinated, but ingrained in their mind as they're looking at the and the commissioner have been like, this is important, we need to move forward on this, do not let this drop. And two days later, this is important, do not let this drop. So they do advocate for the priorities of the board.

So I like your motion, but I don't think we should wait until April is my point. I think maybe the February meeting, you know?

I would rather do it earlier because potentially this board could sunset or we may not reappoint it.

Yeah, I mean, if we have a conversation in February, then at least if we have to bring in other people, depending on what we're putting forward, we can do that. So it's ready in May. I just know how things move slow.

I'm going to challenge you. Put the agenda item on for the February meeting.

You mean put it in? What do you mean? I submit it.

You submit it. I submit it. Something to remember. Okay. If you could please remind that she agreed. She accepted the challenge to submit a legislative priorities discussion item in February for the February meeting, which means you need to submit it. Like today.

It's okay.

As a matter of fact, it doesn't go out that far. It goes to January of 2026. Oh, no, we got a new one in the last meeting. Yeah, we have a new one now.

Chair. That was from last meeting.

Yeah. So since you have it, you know the date. February 6th.

Okay.

Great. Thank you.

So we don't need a motion then because you were going to put it as a motion, but I'm going to submit.

Well, the motion is that we will request that it be a standing item every February to discuss. Okay. Okay. But I'm challenging you to actually prepare the discussion. But there's already one.

So, through the chair, who's going to make the motion?

I'll motion for February to have that stand-in discussion to discuss the legislative priorities.

Second? Second.

Okay, 60 or so, and we're now quarter of the way through our fiscal year. We've been talking about various initiatives that we included on page 126, the list that we've been talking about for quite some time. Mr. Manager, I will say that the first item is the hill that we want to die on. And it has not been received with the urgency by the majority of the Commission. It's out of the budget.

Yeah. So I'm definitely not going to be able to do that in three months. I think it's important that you keep it as a primary aspect of it and to keep it as a you all kind of want an eye on is, is there enough for there to be a full-time chief residency officer, right? And if there is, is there something that can be done in the meantime? right and that might be partnering with our neighboring municipalities um to help um find the interlocal or an mou a memorandum of understanding um to be able to partner with them their initiatives their staff do things together it's always better to start a pilot and then to allow that to organically grow to a point where everybody's like yeah we need more help I'm not authorized to just...

It was transmitted to them prior to the budget being approved. Yeah. And we tried to be flexible. We were told, oh, what we really need is a grant writer. So we created a job description that combined the two, which is why I find it ironic that we have grant funding for the recycling initiative. The value of it is being questioned. But you'll notice a couple items below is increased intra-governmental cooperation. So we used to have a different sort of relationship with our neighboring communities, and we think that that is a critical success factor. So we support that idea. So again, we don't want to get involved in the means and methods. That's why we have a town administration. We are simply community members that have an interest in sustainability-related matters, and we serve as an advisory board to the commission.

Yeah, I was looking through some of the sustainability and I really hope that we get a chance to work over a sustainable amount of time together because and where you can feel that you have a lot of fruit bearing from your efforts. I think there are some areas where, and I'll give you a couple examples. Rewriting a bit of our code on the purchasing to ensure that we're looking at renewable and stuff like that. Other cities have done that, right? So you all could be a huge leverage for me to kind of narrow some of that kind of language down that then can be proposed over. Then looking at other type of projects. a program for improvements in the building code with regards to sustainable material and storm impact stuff and all that kind of stuff, those are areas where you all should be a little bit more on the think tank process that then can be translated into an implementation area opposed to figure something out that's sustainable and then you're kind of spinning in so many different directions. Yeah, I just realized that. There's so many different directions that you guys can go in, right? And so when you start going in a lot of different directions, you tend to then feel like nothing's moving, right? So if we can become a lot more strategic and knowing that, hey, these are examples that much bigger. I'll tell you one project that I don't know if it's able to but I think long term there should be a conversation and these two are going to look at me like you've never told me any of this before is going to be, I think the town should look at a way of purchasing all of the seawalls within Surfside and either through an easement or whatever the case may be and then upgrading them to a seawall to using town font, whatever the case may be, because many of the sea walls typically are not properly maintained, and then we have issues with erosion, we have material that's now part of the bay, it's protected, and you're seeing a lot of cities starting to take that on themselves, and I think that's something that we should be looking at as well. As well as, I'm not happy with the amount of coastline that we have going east to west, not north and south. There's more of a focus and a think tank at a 30,000 foot level that I would love to operate with you all that will get you a lot more wins and hopefully quicker wins than here are 50 different things we did.

So a couple things. Thank you. We accept. You heard that. That's long term, I said. Well, no, we're going to push short term as well, because there's... I'll leave that where it is. Sub-serving. So you may not be aware, but there is a climate action plan that was adopted in the 20th decade. The town declared a climate emergency. So we missed out that time, you know, on the officials. I was wondering if you were going to... through the units of government, through the Resilient 305 program, through the 100 Resilient Cities, Surfside was a participant in that, even though we were not the city of Miami, Miami Beach or Miami-Dade County. So we want to recapture that enthusiasm and progress for the benefit of the community. The challenge that we have is, you know, politics is simple math. to reliable elected representatives, she doesn't get it done. So we need the support of the administration, whether it's to make the business case, to sort of shine the realities that are facing our community, because otherwise it's too easy to kick the can down the road. Why invest if I'm not going to get a benefit? There's a community benefit. So we're fortunate to play the game with the community rating system. So we... have a great benefit, but we can start backsliding. And there are uncertainties for the federal government because clearly they do not see climate risk as priority.

Agreed. And the beach is a perfect example, right? That Ball Harbors project, which is actually the Army Corps of Engineers, is a $15-plus million project. That's a lot of money for Surfside to throw into it. So we need to activate the federal government But at the end of the day, what is the return on investment year over year with tourism? And we can make the case that that is an investment worth doing above another CIP project, for example, right? And so sometimes we need to be able, we need to know who our audience is, and we need to be able to make the case not only the benefits from the environmental side, but also from the business case of why this is a good idea. the Vice Mayor was talking to me about, she heard a presentation at the League of Cities afternoon session, was it last week or the week before?

Yeah, last week.

It's this holiday. There was a program which the City of Miami and I think Coral Gables had done where they're reducing their trying to put something together so that we can bring to the town as well. So there's things like that that sometimes are low-handed fruit that, like you said, are shorthand and get people excited about something that can then proceed to bigger conversations. But yes, I think we do need, and from your perspective, what I'll tell you for February, we need as a priority for the committee is to have federal advocacy. Gerardo, you're great at the state, but we need federal advocacy to ensure that we get the same type of treatment that Ball Harbor gets with the Army Corps of Engineers and other departments to ensure that we're not being left behind.

Well, you know that we had a re-nourishment in 2020. Fowler Harbor has the benefit. They get the bypass sand from Bear Can Alley, so just on the other side of Hall Over. But it took the better part of 20 years with 10 years of... really intense pressure to get the county to take the lead in working with the Army Corps of Engineers. And that's how we got there. But if you want to start, even if it takes 10 years, you've got to start at one point. Personally, it's driving me crazy because I don't pay attention the way that I'm used to, but I have not heard discussion at the commission level that we are engaging the other units of government and our consultants to start the conversation. Because I can assure you, though, when Jimenez was the mayor of Miami-Dade County, he looked at these meetings every which way to not support it. And then when he found a pathway, which was to take money from, there was a land, there was a source of funding to buy sensitive lands. He barred against that to push the federal government. And that's how we ended up getting funded for re-nourishment. But it does take a full court press, administratively and politically.

And I'd like to try to do something from a federal level during this administration simply because there are so many South Florida connections within the administration's inner circle that we should try to be taken advantage of. The fact that Marco Rubio is the Secretary of State and he is a local Miami Dade, we need to take advantage of those relationships to be able to identify Yes, I'm going.

I'll share with you that in a meeting when he was a senator, he wasn't willing to talk about the root cause of the challenges of the climate crisis, but he was very much focused on providing support for solutions.

We just need to find a solution. We don't need to argue the root cause and stuff. Difference? Yeah, difference of opinion. You're still willing to give me the $20 million I need? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, then. Great. Leave it at that. We've got the money to do what we need to do. That's what we need to focus on. Because if we don't, it's going to be too late. And we can't let it just end there. Committee members, Vice Mayor, Commissioner, thank you so much. I really do apologize. I promise next month I'll be able to sit through the whole thing. But I've got to go.

If you don't mind, I'm going to do my best to schedule.

Thank you. All right.

So I added a couple new items just to sort of elevate them. One, we haven't done it in a long time, but Miami-Dade County does offer rain barrel workshops, and we simply have to connect with them and identify whether it's at the community center or the community garden. or at our, I don't know what they're calling it now, the Butterfly Park or whatever, that spot. But we can do it, we have a lot of options. We can do it at the 96th Street Park. But I think that, again, as we raise awareness about the things that individuals can do, for the collective benefit. Restoring and maintaining the hard pack, that was what I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting. The sargassum removal, there was an article in Miami Today not too long ago about other communities that are working with the county to get funding for that and beneficial use. I think that that is something that we should be focused on. And then I mentioned it last time, and two months ago I reached out to the Youth Council. Gigi has not been as available as she has been in the past to write the Sustainability Corner, so if anybody wants to write that. We missed the deadline for January.

I'm not a good writer. I'll meet with people and argue.

Do you like writing?

I reached out to you. Okay.

through the collective, please. Are there any objections to the items that are identified as priorities? Basically the first.

So this is my lack of knowledge, but I don't know what a rain barrel workshop is.

Oh. So a rain barrel is... The way that it's been done in the past, through cooperative extension, it is a 55-gallon drum, plastic barrel, that they come, they give their spiel on why collecting rainwater is good. But basically, you set up a roof drain into the barrel. There's a spigot at the bottom, and you can use it to water your garden.

And you would, it's something that once the community knows about it, you can go out and buy it for yourself.

Well, the idea is that you go to the event with like-minded people, you get your rainbow, they often have, it's like a party, you decorate them, and then you take it home.

Oh, okay.

Got it, okay. So any objections to the prioritized items? Those with a one or no? No objections.

I mean, I guess I'm hearing from the town manager, should we really maybe dial it even more like maybe a one through five scale or something? Like what really are our ones? Because we maybe have too many ones. And I think maybe what's short term, like what is a short term thing to get done versus a long term thing to get done? I don't know. Maybe we can break like host a rain barrel workshop, that seems like that's something that could be easier to happen versus hire a chief resilience officer.

I think that we remove the number from that, and that just is our headline.

That's the headline.

Let that stand. But I agree with you.

But even like the dune management, that can be a one, but I see this as being a one for a short-term project. Even like the climate walk and talk. Can we just get that done? Like, you know, like, so that's a 1 on a short term. But then the ones on the long term, I don't know, just to break it up, because I think we can keep adding to this. But if the town knows, like. This is the short term priorities for this committee, and these are our long term ones. Maybe we can divide it that way.

So I'm going to be bold. We have limited time.

Yes. You're going to do that?

Well, no. I'm going to say what I'm advocating for now. Because some of these, you've got to take the first step. So we just heard the manager talk about beach for nourishment. We've got to start that process now. That's there. So I'm putting that as something that within the administration should be started as soon as we make a motion. Okay. The town is managing the dune management plan. We heard about the solicitation to deal with that, so I don't think we need to remind them.

So does that come off our list if it's happening or not?

Well, what I'm going to do is prioritize the list, make a motion, and then it will be reflected in the minutes, and then I'll carry it forward. So he also said increasing intra-governmental cooperation. That should be an ongoing activity, but we want to endorse it.

We've got to start it.

The reef protection, I mentioned the relationship with the reef line folks. I will reach out to them, and I'll bring an item back on that specifically next month. And then bringing the town's operations and improving the effect. It's always recycling management. I'm going to die on this hill, but there's a lot that we should be doing leading by example and starting the process of developing standard operating procedures for our garbage and recycling team so that they know what is expected of them. to line up with what is expected from the homeowners, the property owners, and the result is a well synchronized operation. And there are certain practices that aren't understood by most homeowners, so explain to them. It's easy to think that if, you know, on Thursdays, our recycling collection day, that if garbage bags are, you know, run from the side of the house in place next to the recycling cart, they are not getting, the garbage is not being thrown in the recycling truck. We have to explain it to people so that when they see it, they're like, oh, no, no, I know, there's going to be two vehicles that are picking, two different vehicles picking up. Okay. Good. I mean, the rain battle workshop is an easy one. The hard pack, I think, hopefully he heard the message and that will become part of what we do. And climate walk and talk, just to identify some cookies.

I mean, I didn't even think he needed to be on this list. I thought it would just happen.

for free i just don't understand so if we have a motion to prioritize um well we're going to leave the chief resilience officer and intergovernmental cooperation as our headline and then four priorities advocating for mutual nourishment with our governmental partners uh the reef protection greening town operations improving effectiveness of our southwest recycling management the rainbow workshop and the climate walk and talk just to focus priorities. Sure. Is there a motion?

A motion to reprioritize all the above-mentioned items.

I second. Do we have to mention them again? Nope.

All in favor? Aye.

Any against? Awesome.

Okay, so let's go back to public comments.

Do you have any more questions for the representative?

Yeah, but we're going to hold you for another 20 minutes and then we're going to have one last clarifying question. Thank you very much for joining our meeting.

So 9148 Proud Avenue. I wanted to quickly mention two things as possible discussion items for the committee in the future. So maybe one of the committee members would like to bring these up. About the dune restoration, I did notice at the last commission meeting There was kind of wavering support, perhaps, or questions about the value of the project, specifically what the dune does to protect the town. And I think at least one commissioner seemed to think that if the dune wasn't high enough to block a storm surge, that it didn't do anything at all. You said then, by the way, that this is precisely the kind of issue where we could use a sustainability officer because the benefits of this are wide-ranging. They go beyond just a simple barrier. I think that we will have to do something. It sounds like that bid won't come back in January, but anything this committee could do to help inform the commission about the value of the dune. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that that project, you know, there's a state grant for it, but it's a carryover from a previous commission. So the kind of commitment to it needs to be let's say. So any experts that we could engage, anything like that would be helpful so that when the bids do come back, it's kind of clear what the benefit of this is. And again, I took the opportunity at the last meeting to say that this is a good example of the kind of thing where we could use a sustainability officer to explain the value. So I put in the plug. I also wanted to mention, I didn't know how this fits in, but in the talk of recycling initiatives, The county has a new website that I think they've developed in partnership with a nonprofit called Dream and Green. I wonder if anyone knows it. It's called Recyclepedia. in your municipality and it tells you exactly what's recyclable in the municipality. I used it this morning because I was not sure about aluminum foil and it tells me that aluminum foil is recyclable in Surfside. It has to be clean. that's a resource that I'm hoping, if it's, you know, I want to kind of find out, do people approve of it? Is it right? And if so, maybe we could be publicizing it. It's complicated because they take a more fine-grained approach to what's recyclable and what isn't. And I think, like, Dave's philosophy is just be very simple, like these four things and nothing else. So there might be a little bit of a tension between the way the two initiatives work.

um but i did want to ask the board whether you're familiar with this initiative and whether there's general endorsement of it maybe we could start publicizing that as well through the yeah i would just ask that there be coordination between public works and waste management because they're the receiving facility right right so newsflash i think everybody got it they're now recycling to go cups the big red cups red cups Silver Cups and one other product. So the facility that is about to be commissioned is far more robust than the facility that it's replacing. It uses a lot of automation, AI, optical sorting, air separation. It's incredible. So it has the ability to segregate materials and part of the challenge of this part otherwise hard to recycle materials is having an end market. There's no point in segregating material if you can't sell it out the back end. I just want to make sure that if we're going to endorse or communicate that here's a tool that is available, we just have to make sure that it's consistent with what we offer.

I mean, as long as it's updated for Surfside. If it doesn't work for Miami Beach, that's irrelevant to us. It just needs to be updated for Surfside. And if it's accurate for Surfside, we can promote people to go and ask questions. Is that accurate?

It's not the only app, but where we're looking for community partners, let's look to those that are already operating within our geography first before we go beyond. So it's a great suggestion.

In regards to the dune restoration, will this item go in front of the committee again at some point so that perhaps we could have an expert from a local university speak before it's voted upon?

Well, it's supposed to come back to the commission. I think that's an excellent idea to have someone to explain more to the commission the environmental benefits. I mean, because I live by the beach, it's... I mean, when the dunes were first being raised behind the seaway, I questioned it, because I questioned how it was presented to the community, because it was being presented as a benefit, but it wasn't going to benefit the entire town until you do the entire town, was my feeling. And I felt it was a miscommunication on the former manager's part claim it benefited the entire community when you were clearly only raising three blocks, not the entire. So, but yeah. So this committee wants it to come to them as well?

We don't want to slow down the process. I think that we can all do some research. So I will volunteer to put an agenda item on on the environmental benefits of robust... For the commission meeting, not for this meeting. I'm going to now, because we've got a meeting in January, probably coincide with the time that the responses will be received. They still need to be evaluated and then placed on the commission agenda. So if we deal with it in January, we should have plenty of time. It should be on the February. And thank you for connecting it with the Chief Resilience Officer or somebody performing that sort of function. In-house. Yeah. The Vice Mayor was on the commission when we had a full-time Chief Resilience Officer. And it is not surprising that when you think about resiliency, relationship between building resiliency and building a sense of community, there's so much more that the chief resilience officer can be involved with. So not just environmental matters, but activities for the tourism department. We've got an item that we're going to talk about next that's run through tourism, but there's an entire component to it. Thank you for the feedback and thank you for your continued advocacy. All right. Approval of minutes. Any comments on the meeting minutes?

I have a 1.45 meeting that I can save on my way home.

We're going to get started here in a couple minutes. So hearing and seeing none, if we have a motion to approve. Motion to approve our PD statements. Okay. Seconded. The next is the town vendor agreement. So at our last meeting, we were challenged with identify specific recommendations to include or modify within the existing agreements. If I may, let me just run through my list for your consideration. So, in general, it's a legal document. There are many instances where the term will and should relate to requirements. I'm suggesting that those become shalls to make them actual requirements. We have A special event permit that exists, I would recommend that we include a solid waste management plan to the permit requirements so that the town has a mechanism to say there's more that you need to do to be a vendor in our community. Eliminating unnecessary or unsustainable or other kinds of single-use decorations such as balloons, confettis, I think we may have some prohibition against balloons already. Be intentional about what is allowed to be used at a given facility. Where possible, utilize reusable event materials, whether it's tablecloths or durable work gloves instead of single-use items. And then, this doesn't need to be a shell, but encourage the use of local suppliers and products where possible to support the local economy, even if it is beyond Surfside. because that has benefits in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction from delivery and shipping. In terms of prohibited items, so every contract I've shared that has prohibited items, I would suggest that we prohibit all single-use plastic items. All of them. And the reason I say that is it was inconsistent contract to contract. So let's, just like with development orders, you have standard provisions. It doesn't matter. who you're negotiating with, it's going to go in the development order, and then there are other ones that are added as appropriate. And the other, personal capiv, no individually wrapped giveaway items. And then for fruit and beverage, I didn't see it, so that's a recommendation for vegetarian and vegan options. not only for the patrons, but also for the environment.

Appreciate that.

Require compostable serviceware items and food composting. So we've had lots of conversations with Compost for Life. If we want food waste composting, make it a requirement and offer a list of qualified vendors that can support it. For the non-veg options, choose sustainably raised or harvested seafood, free-range chicken, which is gross. and non-dairy alternatives. It sends a signal to the community, and it can be measured. If it's not being taken advantage of, then you have some data.

I like that idea, because I'm also a liaison on the Resort to Explore, and so they often talk about providing the kosher options, and the vegan-vegetarian is always

And even people that are not vegan or vegans will often choose those items. Use bulk condiments instead of individual packets. These are little things, but every little thing adds up. Allow participants to use reusable cups for beverages. So also having water filling stations at all events. And then look at options to donate leftover food to an appropriate organization.

So if we don't have a Chief Resiliency State Sustainable Officer, how do you move this forward? Who's moving this forward to make sure it happens? Or that's a discussion to even How do we even have a discussion to get what you're suggesting?

Yeah, my view is if the commission wants to take it up, take it up. Ultimately, you have the privilege of approving the contracts when they come through. I think it rests with the town attorney. It's the town attorney that should be identifying the best practices and provisions that reflect the values of the town in all the vendor contracts.

I think in order to instruct the town attorney, I would need the permission to vote to instruct the town attorney to incorporate these in the contracts.

Because I know some of it was done when we were back on the commission when we had the vendor at the community center and we specified sustainable products. I still don't understand how, you know, some of them get the wooden forks. I don't know why we don't have those here in town at our town events. It's still the plastic and it's the plastic that's compostable but it's not really compostable. Yeah. And some of our vendors, they get the wooden utensils. I don't know why we don't have those. Which are required.

So there is, if you want, I can email you the discussion item, the word document that was included in the package, and you can simply use that as the mechanism to add a discussion item to the commission agenda with the list.

Right. Because I know that the contracting special event And it's with a vendor who did composting at the last event they produced. I know there are a few of our vendors that actually they've all kind of tried to embrace sustainability, but we can do better.

Because it's not required right now. They're doing it because you're suggesting it. What we're saying is require it.

Changing certain things in the contract that make it a must and not just a discretionary. And so maybe some, just to piggyback on this, where feasible, have the vendors track the outcomes so that we can have a benchmark. and then collect some data and perhaps improve that in the future. Also just consistency so that similar events are held to the same standards and that the vendors, if they're using a sub-vendor, that the sub-vendor is also being held to the same standards as the vendor per the contract. Minimizing our waste generation in general, keeping the town property clean and free of debris. Um, and then clearly they were the way stations, uh, in high traffic food areas.

Yeah. On, on this point, I, um, I spoke with the vendor who did the Singer Fest event in November and, um, somebody with a great interest in environmental matters, they, they did compost You did mention to me that in the sort of interface of public works, there were some issues. I forgot exactly what the problem was, but that maybe somebody came and bagged and took the compost. Because they didn't know about it. There's not really the infrastructure or just the training, really, on the town side to interface with a vendor who's willing to do the composting. So we need to be ready, too, on our end, on the staff side, Yeah, yeah, we need to make it easy, you know.

I'm going to think real creatively. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a two-person ensemble? Yeah. Yes. Well, thank you very much for the specific suggestions. It will be reflected in the minutes, but if you want to send those to our vice mayor, she can add it to the list as well.

Do you want to just email me this?

Sure.

You could also include me as well so I can get a copy.

Okay. Okay. Climbing, walking, talking. I wish the lead out of this to all the managers here just to make it happen.

the youth combined meeting that we had, it seemed like the parks and recs people were ready to do it, but then I don't know what happened. So I have the contact for Resiliency 305. They're willing to come. We talked about doing it whenever at this point, but It's really just an opportunity for them to bring people together from the community to walk around the town to talk about ways that the community can become more resilient. It's like an education opportunity. And I just would, number one, I'd love to go on the climate walk and talk. It sounds like something very interesting, especially for this committee. But also to establish that relationship, like a stronger relationship with prison 305.

Rudy may have been scratching his head, why the hell am I at this meeting?

So my question is, for this actual event, will it be hosted at one of the facilities, or is this one that is walking through the neighborhood?

It's walking through the neighborhood. So it would be a gathering here, and then they could do a little education piece before they go on the walk, or when we get back from the walk.

So like a training session, a seminar, a...

I mean it's really, we can tell them what we would like, but maybe it's a walk and then

Well, there's a couple interesting features in Surfside. So the various parklets, street ends. We talk about the improvements to our stormwater system. You've got the sea level awareness polls at the community center. You've got what was the first ever diverter dunes in the state of Florida. It gives you the opportunity to also talk about the benefits of a strong and robust dune network. Just picking up on the work that has been done that is visible to a certain size and challenging to pick your mission and do something about it. You don't have to do everything.

That's a Miami Shores contact.

That's Miami Shores contact.

But Tiffany Troxler is the person that probably that flyer is just an example of what they did in Miami Shores. So that's probably the Miami Shores Parks and Recs contact.

And the prior contact that you had with Parks and Recreation, how far did the conversation go? Like, did you guys pick a date? Did you have an idea?

Say, this could be the time that we do it. I don't remember from the minutes.

Through the chair, so I revisited those minutes from the workshop, and I don't think a date was established. They just, they said, oh, just let us know a date and time, and we'll coordinate. But then it was that we got a new director, because they're staff members, so it just... Yeah, so it was just probably lost and they didn't have contact with me.

So I thought we identified a month that would be good.

I think we need to...

I mean...

Pick a month.

When can we do it?

Well, that's what I'm asking because I have to go back and revise what our department has in place and align it with what the town has in place and then I can see what date would be best for us to target that it would be

I don't want to call it a party.

It's like... No, for all parties. All parties. Okay, I was going to call it a party.

It's like very low lift, I would imagine. Very low lift. I mean, we could have like water and I don't even know if we need food, but I'd say water probably because they're all on the wall.

I would also want to be in contact with them to see where would it be more beneficial if we host it at the community center, if we host it at 96th Street Park. So those are all like details I want to follow up on before moving forward. So if you can share that contact information, I mean, I'll CC you in the contact back and forth so then we can actually move forward and we can actually coordinate this and make it happen for you guys. Well, for the town as well.

Yeah. So in terms of the structure, it's very similar to what was done with Dr. George, right? The historic tongue. So really, it's just different subject matter.

Yeah. Right. I mean, if you did tell them, like if we suggested these are the places, I mean, you know, what I would like to see happen is before it gets too hot again. Right. So that it's a pleasant walk, you know?

So during the winter season.

Yeah. Or that's hard to, you know, pick April as Earth Month.

Earth Month. Yeah. But I wouldn't go past April. No. I don't think people would, we'd lose people along the walk. It would just get too long. January is good, too, because it's,

It's just right around the corner.

I think January may be too close to promote it, but I can say the sooner the better, so whatever works for you, that works. Let's just do it.

I'm going to invoke Roger. Don't let perfection get in the way of performance. This will be the first one.

We hold our events to a high standard, so I like things done correctly, too. Especially if it has conversation on it. I mean, just, like, things done right.

Okay. I mean, I think if you wanted to talk, to speak with Tiffany about what, um... Like if there's certain areas specifically, I mean, they're not going to, there's obviously, I mean, the town is small, you know, it's not like a big walk, but maybe it's like along the beach path. But then what you're saying is the out, maybe that's presented instead of walked to, you know, so it's kind of, I just, however I can help.

And you can share that contact information so we can start those conversations. Great. Any new business?

I just want to update the committee that I was corresponding with Commissioner Cotto November 21st asking him to speak to our other committee member to really gauge her

First, continued interest, because we do need another committee member here. And he said that he would speak to her. I haven't heard back from him yet, but I did stress all the things that we spoke about at our last meeting. I also emailed Commissioner Velasquez on November 21st, just gauging whether she had any possible candidates that perhaps are in a queue of some sort. I haven't heard back from her, so I'll try and send a second email to see if she responds to us. Yeah, so you could mention what dates would be better for you.

Let me check what we have. thing for my medical issue that I can't move and it's on the same day as the January meeting.

So what I would suggest, work it out with the clerk, the dates that you're available, because the town's going to have to sync it up with their availability as well. And then once you have some potential dates, if we could just circulate those to the committee, we can figure out, we can land on a date.

Okay. Can we just throw out dates now? Yeah, just quickly. Wednesday, could you guys do Wednesday the 14th? We have a commission meeting on January 13th. I mean, yeah, the Tuesday, January the 13th. But we could do it Wednesday the 14th, if you can, at 12.

I cannot. No. Okay.

What about, can we do it the next week, maybe? Yeah, we could... We have maybe Tuesday, January 20th.

That works for me.

That works for me.

Tuesday the 20th is perfect. At 12 p.m. 12 p.m. Excellent.

Okay, great. Okay, and then just really quickly also on this next meeting. We have the May meeting that I sent you an email about that I accidentally scheduled your meeting during a Jewish holiday, the Shavuot holiday. And we need to change that date to be able to send you the invites and everything. So I haven't...

I'm sorry. Who is it affecting?

So I spoke to Sandra and she said in case any residents want to attend the meeting, we don't do... We don't do them on the Jewish holidays. So we're just not allowed to. So we could change that as well. That's scheduled for Thursday, May 21st. So if you want to do... Technically, that's Erev Shavua.

It's actually not until Sunday. Mm-hmm. according to my handheld computer. So it's not a holiday at that time.

Right, it's a few days, right?

No, but it doesn't start until Thursday night.

Thursday night.

So it is that day, but not at that time. So the public members could still attend. It wouldn't be against their religious requirements.

Right, but I think we have to change it.

It sounds like you're milking two days out of her. Yeah. All right. What's the date that you suggest?

Either Tuesday, May 19th, or Wednesday, May 20th, whichever.

The 19th is final, isn't it? Yeah. The 19th works better for me. Okay.

And can I get a motion to that effect, just to change the deadline date as well? I motion to change the May date to the 19th.

Okay. And the deadline date.

Yes. Oh, yeah. Can you do a new sheet for 2026 with that date?

Yes, I'll change that one. And then, do we have a second? Second. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And then...

I've got a motion to adjourn.

I'd like to put in a motion to adjourn our Sustainability and Resiliency Committee meeting.

Is there a second? Second. I want to discuss this for a little bit.