Youth Council - Regular Meeting

Well, I'd like to call this meeting to order. Could you please call the roll?

Chair LeCour? Here. Vice Chair Garcia? Here. Council Member Azarri?

Here.

Council Member Tevedo? Here. And Council Member Travalle?

Here. I'd like to start by welcoming Vice Mayor Paul. Thank you so much for being with us and for being our liaison. Do you have any remarks or anything you'd like to share?

I'm not sure, but I want to thank the youth council for supporting and promoting the biophilic cities that the commission recently passed and we're looking forward to the partnership.

Thank you. Okay, so moving on to order of business, are there any motions on the floor to add anything to the agenda to change the order?

Yeah. Can I motion multiple things at once or do I have to motion each one?

You can motion multiple things at once. As long as you make your motion clear and you have a second from somebody and a vote, then yeah.

Okay, so I'd like to motion four more items. One is the geese scooter video. The second one is just an update on the biophilic cities. proposal. The third one is the internship and job database, an update on that. And the fourth one is March Gazette.

I don't type that class. Bioclinic cities, job database, and March Gazette.

I second this mention. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, and then moving on to the approval of minutes, does anyone have any amendments or changes that they'd like to make to the minutes? Okay, then we can move on to public comment. I need a motion to approve them. Oh, okay. Yes. All right, we welcome a motion to approve the minutes from the January 8th commission meeting. A second. So moved.

Huh? You need to motion it.

Yes.

I motion this as well. All right, I second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. And so I'd like to open up the floor to public comment, but seeing as I don't think there's anyone here, we can move on to our discussion items. So the first item we have for discussion are questions we have for the Surfside lobby. So thank you so much. Are you able to hear us?

Thank you so much.

Of course. Thank you so much for joining us. So we're really happy to have you with us. We have a couple questions for you, and I think Vice Chair Garcia is going to just ask you a couple questions, and then we'll go from there. Thank you.

Hi, nice to meet you. Thank you for coming once again. I know that our lobbyists work during the legislative session, but I have very limited knowledge on what that entails and what the lobbyists advocate for for Surfside. I guess my first question would be what type of policies are usually passed or what do we usually advocate for?

Sure, our firm mainly is engaged by the town service side to do the town's appropriation or state appropriation request. So this year, the town council has put up four different requests. They're generally issues dealing with the water main issue that you all have in town, walkability side projects, the underground utility That's generally kind of what we do as appropriations. Now, we also are engaged in keeping an eye on other activities by the legislature and what they're doing that could impact the town as a whole, whether it be condo assurance issues, if it could be sovereign immunity that affects local governments, if it could be that the town has As beautiful coastlines, it can be water and beach erosion issues. So we kind of, our main focus is on the appropriations issues that we're asked to advocate for. But beyond that, we often keep an eye out on other issues that could come up from the legislature that would impact local governments, if that's helpful.

Yeah, thank you. And just to clarify, is that like looking out for those policies or like bills being proposed? Is that only during the legislative session or is that throughout the entire year that you're kind of looking at that?

Sure. Well, the formal legislature only meets during session, which is a 60-day session in, let's see, in the year 2025. In October years, the legislative session is from March to May. And then in a number of years, it's from January to March. It's a 60-day session. And the only thing that the Florida legislature is constitutionally mandated to do is to do a state budget. Now, obviously, that's not all that they do. They focus on and look at a myriad of issues of electing and electing local cities and governments and all of those members of the state. They do schedule what are called mid-weeks. prior to, generally a few months before session starts. They'll do a couple weeks each month to begin and start some of the committee process for some of the legislation they move forward. So all in all, the actual action of legislation the state is working for is about four months. In between that, there's constantly issues going on with the governor's office and different agencies that could be affecting, making permanent issues that could affect the town. So, but for session, session is a constitution mandated 60-day time period. Other states have full-time legislatures, so they meet year-round. But in Florida, we have what they consider, which is kind of interesting, because we're the third largest state in the nation, they consider we have a part-time legislator So they're only mandated to meet during the 60-day session.

And you mentioned all the priorities that you sort of advocate for during the session. Where do these come from? Do they come directly from the commission, or do they, like, who's your point person within the town?

We get our directions from the commission, not the city mayor. Okay. So the commission reads them on, and then it comes up with their legislative party's proposals. That generally starts several months prior to the two-section. They take a look at kind of some of the town, what the town needs are, what they have coming up, if there's shortfalls. Obviously, you're aware that there were some significant issues that occurred in the town of Surfside several years ago that greatly impacted your area. So there were other kind of issues that needed to be looked at. So we take our direction from the town council.

The town council has a

as public meetings where they discuss kind of their, what their, let's say, priorities are going to be, and they have to approve those priorities, and then we get what we call our marching orders from the commissioner.

And as of since now, are you able to share sort of what those priorities are right now for this coming up session?

As of right now, what we've been given by the town are their budget proposals. Right now, you have a, there's a, an upgrade of the water caning system. We're seeking, if I can pull up the proposals. There's underground utility work that needs to be done in your area. So you're looking for funding from the state for that. And then there is another, I don't know what I just said. I just sent them over to the House of Senate today. So let me pull it up for you. But that's generally what they are.

but we've been asked to do is to appropriate and there's one more appropriation which i believe is a rocket study that we're waiting to see thank you um yeah so just um kind of separately i've also heard of dade days um is that a different time of the year and if so is it like that people from tallahassee come down to local areas or is it that the lobbyists go up to tallahassee or how does it work

Sure, so during what they, they start, some of them during the community weeks, the 60 day legislative session, they give, for instance, Miami-Dade days, and what that is, it's the opportunity for Miami-Dade County to come to Tallahassee. They send a very large contingent of several hundred people from Miami-Dade County come to Tallahassee, and they highlight Miami-Dade County for the rest of the legislature. The legislature is also comprised of, there's 120 members in the House and there's 40 members in the Senate. And obviously not all of them are in or near Miami-Dade County. But frankly, some of them may not have been to Miami-Dade County or had the opportunity to experience some of the wonderful industry and people and food. that you can get in Miami-Dade County. That's kind of what we do, but with the intent of Miami-Dade Days is a lot of the leaders from the county commissions to a lot of the different city commissions come in. It's an opportunity for them to meet with not just members from Dade County, but the other members of the legislature, because like I said, we didn't ask by Surfside to advocate on their behalf for some appropriation projects. You know, there could be, and then the way structurally this works is that, you know, you have your advocate for an appropriation project. It goes through the appropriation committee. We'll just say your water main project, right? That's going to go through the agricultural committee because it's a water project. And then it's going to go through the full appropriations committee. Now, there could be some members from Miami-Dade County on those two committees, or they're made up. So Miami-Dade Days is really a great opportunity for the local missioners or business entities to come to Tallahassee and meet with members that are from Miami and kind of advocate for some of the missions we're looking for. It's great for people. It's always great to have some folks up during Miami-Dade Days. And then we, for them, set up meetings with the appropriate committee chairs, or corporation chairs, or representative members, and they need to say, hey, the reason why Surfside is looking for this water grant project is, and they go through and they'll talk about the project, because somebody could be from Galapagos, or they could be from Ocala, or they could be from Tallahassee, or Iowa, actually, and they may not fully understand, yes, they can see the proposal, the request, but they may not fully understand the importance of what that project is. So every county has their days, if you will, in Tallahassee, and they're generally on different days. Some of the smaller counties are somewhat forced to kind of share their days because they don't quite set up as much of a large contingent. Miami Day Days, obviously, is one of the bigger days in Tallahassee, I believe. It's a two-day event. and hundreds of business leaders, liberal leaders, advocates such as yourself come up and it's a great time for individuals from Miami-Dade County to kind of show up Miami-Dade, show them how the rankings are going, show them off on the industries that they're doing, and then kind of show folks from around the state what's going on in Miami-Dade County.

And do you know who's sort of the person who organizes the Miami-Dade County delegation? Like, do they work for the county, or is it like each city sends a certain number of people up to the session?

I don't start to work with the Miami-Dade delegation or the Dades. I can look that up and kind of get you guys information. The Dade delegation has contact information. But with the Dade That would be great, thank you so much.

um it wouldn't be too late at all for to like submit any new requests because not i know that you said that it needs to be approved by the commission so it would be a lengthy process right and it's already yeah it's already february so it would be it would be every county commission is in the same commission is slightly different but it generally does require you know um depending on what the issue is like there could be a

a subject-specific committee that would then push up a request to the county commission. The county commission would need to have some form of a public discussion about it. And then they would probably vote to go forward. I will say that that would be completely up to the commission. We don't tell the commission what they can or can't do. If they threw something at us last minute, they throw something at us last minute. I will say that we have the deadline of the 14th for the house to submit their proposals. So to be able to get all those public meetings and that discussion done, I would defer that to the city manager and those folks to see if they can time-wise get a publicly noticed meeting and follow all the criteria for those things. But we as a lobby firm, We don't limit the number of proposals or initiatives that the town sends us. We just, we get our hearts going right now.

So, hi, Mr. O'Rourke. Tina Palm, one of the, Vice Mayor, actually. So, we did send you a list. I know it was like three pages of different... you know, initiatives that the Commission well supported in Tallahassee. I just received an email from someone regarding a bill that's happening now, which I'm going to circulate among the Commission. Are you aware of SB 452 by Senator Barbara Sharif? It's an amendment to the Resiliency and Safe Structures Act.

Okay, I believe that's a Henryville 750 by 700, I think it was. Let me just double check that. That one is SB 452. SB 452, okay. Yeah.

I believe that's something we would want to watch and propose. And we do have a commission meeting on the 11th, so it's possible that the Youth Council can provide their proposals that we may want to add to what we already have going.

You have that meeting?

February 11th.

Okay. That would be getting very, very close to the deadline for the house staff to be able to place a claim.

Right. I mean, because, you know, I know you're handling the appropriations. Actually, we were supposed to add a fifth appropriation for beach sand because we don't have much beach sand. Our beach has receded significantly. But aside from the appropriations, I'm pretty sure, I mean, this is definitely one bill we want to track and oppose. So I'm not sure yet what the youth council.

I can be clear on that. Okay. If you're talking about attracting a bill, attracting a bill that you guys may want to have some input on, that doesn't have a deadline. When I say there's a deadline, the deadline is for legislative budget requests. So any type of funds that you're looking for, from the state, they've got a system, they've got to put it in. If you're talking about a resiliency issue or like you said, the feature nourishment issue, I apologize if I wasn't clear. There's no deadline on that. What happens is people will say, hey, why don't you guys keep an eye on these issues? Did you see that? And we generally will continue to monitor and flag any statutes that impact local governments or these types of issues just so that we can an eye on and see how they do. And we'll sometimes get that magnitude thing and look at it. We can't be the subject matter experts on all of it, so we'll sometimes do this as we'll send it down to the town council, your city manager, and say, can you just take a look at this and give us what maybe you guys think, how operationally this can affect, do you think this will affect your town, and if you guys want us to monitor, track, engage, That's slightly different. I wasn't there on that part.

So, yeah, I do believe we have a fifth appropriation and that is a beach sand renourishment. Other than that, I have to find out what the Youth Council wants us to bring forward. It may not be an appropriation, just an initiative.

If there's issues, you all say, hey, could you keep an eye on this XYZ building that you just gave me? Yes, that's what we do at CPSC.

I have another question for clarification because you just said that the deadline is for legislative budget requests and that's something that they consider during the legislative session right so do you do you have a specific day that you go up to advocate for those or is it something that you just submit and yeah

No, there's no specific one day. It's all throughout the 60-day legislative session and the committee. So I met today with actually your state senator's staff, Chairman Jones, and your state representative's staff, your representative's favorite side is now. And I sent over 300 proposals. I wanted to get that in their hands because they received, some offices do hundreds of budget requests, some do to as many, so what we do is we want to get them in their hands as soon as possible so that I know that your proposal gets submitted in on time. So we start, the moment we get your proposals and they're finalized, we get them over and then it'll be for the next 60 days. We'll be meeting with not only the members that are gonna be sponsoring your appropriation, but we'll be meeting with members of subject committees, of appropriation committee, and of full appropriation committee, We'll be meeting with the speaker, the second president, consistently trying to advocate. The budget process generally, which you'll see what happened is, in probably the first two weeks after session starts in March, beginning of March 2nd, you'll see kind of the budget come out, and then there'll be kind of a waning time, because then they'll start focusing on policy issues, and then about three weeks after that, after that's about three week gap, then we'll start getting into more of the budget issues and dealing with the budget itself. Again, because like I mentioned earlier, the only thing that legally the legislature has to do other than concessions to the budget. Anything else other than any other policies, that's all in addition to the Constitution is the budget. But I was, from now until May 2nd, on the working world budget issues. And then even after, if we're successful and we get your appropriate piece of feedback into the budget, then we have the second tier, which is the budget is then sent to the governor, and the governor has the ability to do what's called a one-nighter veto, and they come through every single one of these separate projects, and they can veto those projects. So then we start meeting with the Office of Policy and Budget and the governor's staff, advocating on behalf of the town to make sure that we drive the funds that stay, that we get in the budget, stay in the budget.

Okay, thank you so much. Just want to clarify a lot. Yeah, thank you so much for joining us. Does anyone have any other questions that they'd like to ask? Well, we really appreciate your time. You were super helpful. We had a lot of questions about legislative session and Dave Days and stuff like that.

Absolutely. And if I can be of any further assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out. I can send my contact information over, and you guys can email me anything, any questions, and we'll figure it out.

Thank you so much. That was super helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. Have a good one. So I guess we can move on to the next item, which is the update on team survey. This is sort of a very general item. We haven't really had that many updates on the teen survey, but I've been seeing them in all the newsletters, and it was in the February Gazette. But did anyone hear anything about the surveys within their own networks or anything?

For me, I remember we were asking, this isn't really so much the survey, but I remember we were asking people that we knew if they were willing to take interns and stuff. I spoke to my boss, and she said she's willing to pay for teens that are of age to work there, but she is not willing to have interns. So that's the answer from her.

And we can definitely go way more into that when we get to that agenda item, but that's really helpful. Thank you. So next on the agenda, I think, was the e-scooter. Oh, sorry.

So to speak a little bit more about the teen survey and events, so we're trying to implement at least one teen event every month. So one that we're looking to implement, hopefully by next month, is a teen glow night. So it's pretty much a glow-in-the-dark teen night at the park that we're trying to see if you guys would think teens would be interested in coming out to the park with your friends. And there's a whole bunch of glow-in-the-dark things. You can eat glow-in-the-dark candy. You'll have the stilt man that's all light lit up. those like fun activities for you guys to go out there and like light up chairs and tables and you guys go out there and hang out yeah what do you guys think yeah i yeah we did receive an email from parks and rec about it um and that's right yeah um i think it's a really cool idea um i think i think it would be really cool you said it would be in march yeah we're looking to do that one for march and then i wanted to see you guys could maybe push out like a survey like you did the first time asking teens in the area what they would be interested in like bird style style teen events like what going forward or specifically about the glow night oh you can ask like one of the questions for the glow night people would be interested and also like on going on forward for other events so that's kind of what we wanted to ask you guys but we're looking to implementing that for march just to give you guys a heads up to blast that out yeah that's

It was also kind of related to the internship database, but I was sending out emails for it, and the lady who answered me is the aquatic supervisor of Surfside. She emailed me about the Earth Day Resource Fair event, and she said that that the youth council could be involved in that and I wanted to ask is that something that's on our calendar or is it just like a proposal?

So 100% she actually came up to me asking for trying to find youth to help us with our 5k and our earth day fair so that's why i was waiting to have a meeting to kind of propose to you guys see if you guys would be interested or have any friends be interested in coming out and volunteer for the 5k and for our earth day resource fair kind of like handing out the cups of water and like awards and things like that just so you guys can also start getting your faces out a little bit more and and then the 5k the date exactly the 5k is on the 23rd And then for the Earth Day, I believe it's April 27th.

April 27th is a Sunday. Yes.

Starts at 10 a.m. And also, if you guys are interested in any events that you guys see, you guys want to participate in or help out, you guys are more than welcome to reach out to me and I can definitely add you onto the list of helpers for the events. As greeters or working at a booth.

Or could we tell our friends about this and say they could get volunteer hours? Or is that not really something that's offered?

Absolutely, yeah. For events, we do offer special community hours. So whatever hours you work, you guys get the community service for it.

Awesome. Okay, yeah, and then, so what you were saying about the pushing out another survey, Frank did just ask that, he just said, or Mr. Triggero said that the deadline for the March Gazette is coming up, so we can definitely, let's meet again.

On the 13th, yeah, just to be right there.

Yeah. So we can definitely, I think we can definitely put together another survey and ask him to include it in the Gazette, and then we can ask for another Instagram post or something like that. And I think we could also just talk to people we know within the town to see if they would be interested in that.

Also, if you guys want to write down, we have two events in April, which is our Splash Into Spring, which is April 5th, and our Spring Egg Hunt, which is April 6th. So back-to-back events, if you guys are looking to get hours, that would be great.

And, I mean, it could be, I think definitely in the survey also we could include that, like, would you be interested in volunteering or something, like, in these future events for volunteer hours? Because, I don't know, I feel like, I didn't really know that you could give out.

Yeah, that's our fault for not.

No, no, no. But, no, I think that's really cool that we could definitely highlight that, especially because I know that would attract a lot of kids that want to volunteer.

Even the teen team, like I was trying to say, if we can get that little company going again, that also is volunteer hours. So you guys come to teen team and you get volunteer hours for being there.

And yeah, I mean our last survey we got about like I think 30 responses, which is not bad.

And that was what, like two weeks?

So just, those are sort of the numbers.

We're looking to not get Huge numbers, of course, because we're trying to reach a teen population, and most of the times that people are answering those are probably adults. But if you guys can try to spread the word throughout your own friends and try to get more answers, that would be great, just so we have an idea of what to keep going for these teen events that we're also trying to budget for for next year.

And then I know in the email, I'm sorry, I'm looking at it now, we asked if it would be possible to sort of like advertise that non-residents could come to the events, like people, teens could bring their friends like for a fee. Is that, are we able to advertise it at the festival?

I can tell you that anything that's happening at the park currently, we're not shying away non-residents. Now, for example, at my event, if we're giving out away food or giving away things, it's primarily just for residents. But we're not shying the guests or any non-residents away from coming into my event. So if I have rides, they're able to go on a ride. If I have certain activities they're able to do, they just wouldn't be able to get any of the free things or things that we offer for our residents. But like the snacks and stuff, like popcorn, confetti, they can get all that.

So they don't even need to pay a fee? Like it's really, like you could say, bring a friend.

Not bring a friend, that's a part of it.

And do you guys have a flyer for the Glow Night already?

No, not yet. I'm in the process of actually creating the flyer. I was actually going to bring it today, but they told me to just bring it up to you. But I can for sure email you the flyer once I have it ready for you.

Okay, cool. Thank you so much for bringing that up. So we'll definitely come up with a survey, and we'll send it to Mr. Chagoras, and we can email you once that's done.

I feel like you guys, in between each other, have gotten a lot of responses from your own peers. You guys can always email that to me, too, anything that you guys have heard.

Right.

And then, sorry, did you say there was a specific date already set, or not yet?

For the glow net? Yeah. We're looking to do it sometime in March. Yeah, just March.

Yeah, probably it will be sometime around spring break, around that area. Yeah, probably the weekend before spring break actually starts. Okay.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, because daylight savings comes back, doesn't it? It's March 13th. So it will get darker earlier. No, it will get darker later. Oh, it will get darker later. Yeah, just kidding. It's going to be dark around 8.30. Oh, yeah. Um, okay, so we can... Also, just a heads up, we have the Sweetheart Dance this Friday, if you guys didn't know. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Um, and do you guys need volunteers for that, or...?

Not necessarily, but I mean, if you guys just wanted to go just to, like, represent the new councils there, that way we'd sit back.

Okay. Sorry, when did you say that word? This Friday.

Okay, then I think we can move on now just to the e-scooter update because I know you guys have a lot of updates regarding that, so if you guys want to just talk about that.

Yeah, so just to announce something, Denise, Hannah, and I, we met with the chief of police and Officer J, and we recorded pretty much all the scenes. I completely finished editing. I would say it's around... like 75% complete. We have two scenes, I think, that we need to reshoot. But other than that... With the officer or is it just... No, we have an actor. Yeah.

Okay, yeah.

And I think I should make progress on the route track. Yeah, I saw it. I designed it. I don't know. Do we know when we're meeting up again to film those other two scenes? When we want to.

Wait, I have a question. Because we have a friend that participated in helping us, and he doesn't live in Surfside, and he kind of just did it out of his kindness. And Sunita and I were wondering maybe, is it possible for him to get any community service hours? It's totally fine. I don't know who would have to sign off on that. And I don't know if he... I just wanted to do it to thank him for being there, but I don't know if that's possible. Because he was the main actor in it, and he did a lot of help.

If I may add, I don't think that will be a question of creation, because he does work for the police department, so I will reach out to the police department to see if they can sign off.

Okay, thank you. I was just wondering who to ask.

And then generally, for community service, like for youth council things... Who would you go to?

I mean, um, the Pricer Irrigation does a lot of the commiserative models. Oh, because most of the events are good.

Yeah. Thank you. Um, okay, so yeah, so we have the e-speeder, editing,

going on and then we'll send that to frank but whenever it's done um i did speak with uh frank today he did let me know that he wanted a little update so if you can email him or any one of you to just update where the video is at that's really helpful thank you for letting us know yeah i can send him the video so far

Okay, so we can move on to, I mean, this is sort of just like an update about Biophilic Cities. As you guys all know, I think everyone here was in attendance at the meeting where we spoke, and it got passed, so that was really fun, and really satisfying. It was a long meeting, but... And then, so Ella and I had gotten on a Zoom meeting with... Tim J.D. Brown. J.D. Brown, yeah, sorry. J.D. Brown, who's sort of, he's like the vice president or something of Biophilic Cities Network. So we had gotten on a call with him the night before to sort of just discuss like opportunities for youth within the network. And he mentioned a really cool idea about like starting sort of like a youth board or something, board within Bioflex Cities Network where like youth from all the partner cities could sort of get together and like, I mean, they get together and have a lot of events just within the network themselves, but to sort of establish like a youth division that could come together and have sort of certain events and stuff like that so i think that could be really cool and i was wondering if like anyone's like would be interested in that or it would be just cool to like get together with a lot of like sister city events like i know um by smear paul the sister city aspect was really important and i think that's really cool like to learn from youth from all around the world um but i was wondering if anyone would be interested in that or i mean it's there's nothing concrete but just to know if we had any like people who want to participate

Yeah, I'd be interested, like, what is it, like, did he specify, like, what it consists of?

No, it was, it was, like, very, like... Oh, no. No, this is for biorepresence. Yeah. Um, it was... Generally, they're very open to whatever we have. So we could come up with a proposal and say we want to be involved with these kinds of things. We want to see the behind the scenes of how you implement these initiatives in towns. It would sort of be up to us to sort of bring something to him. He's not just going to be like, OK. But he said they're pretty flexible. He said they're very flexible. So if that's something we're interested in, we could definitely start putting together a proposal. This is what the youth board would exist of. This is what we want to see happen within the Bible and Seeds Network.

And how would that be different from what we're doing here?

With the Youth Council?

Yeah, with everything that we're talking about for biophilic cities.

Is that just like a deep part of the biophilic cities? It's part of biophilic cities. Oh, okay. So it's completely kind of separate almost? It's not anything part of the Youth Council. Oh, okay. We would send out a survey for all sorts of residents. I just want to bring it up now so it's on the agenda. Okay. But yeah, that was just a really cool thing. Because they're very flexible, so it was cool that they'd be open to that. Okay, the next item, I guess, does anyone have any? The next item is the job database, the job and internship database. So Ella and I sent out, I think, about 30 emails each, I think, last week, just reaching out to local businesses and stuff. One got back to me so far, the Four Seasons. So we're trying to schedule a meeting with them because she was really nice. I think her name is Daniela. Yeah, yeah. She's super nice. She sort of wanted to meet with us.

And then Ella had the thing that I brought up. Yeah, the Earth Resource Fair.

And I think, what was her name, Mariela?

Mariela?

She had a, she said she had ideas for us, like ways that we could circulate like our job internship database instead of just like cold emailing businesses. But she said she would include that in like an email to the town. So that's just going forward. Maybe we'll have more success if she has a good suggestion. But yeah, so we're trying to meet with Grand Beach, or no, sorry, not Grand Beach, Four Seasons. But besides that, there isn't, there hasn't really been, I think one person responded to me and said no, and you, like, said no.

One lady responded to me and she said no, but I'm impressed.

I'm like, okay.

But, wait, so Hannah, so you did reach, you reached out to the person and the dog? Yeah, so... No, it's like a dog groomer's place. And then I also reached out to the vet. They haven't gone back to me yet either. But I work like next door. So if anything, like after work one day, I can just stop by and say like, hey, I kind of sent you something. But other than that, I asked my boss as well. She's more of like a small business owner. So it's like... What's the company called? It's called The Dog's Best Friend. Um, yeah, you've been there?

No, no, no, I remember writing this down, like, a couple days ago.

Yeah, so, I mean, like, my, she said she was willing to hire, like, um, other people to help work, but she, like, it's really, for her, it's like, it's, sometimes it can be difficult to get help, and then sometimes it's not, so if someone were to get a job there, it's really, like, on and off, on and off. Yeah, I only come in, like, She texts me every Saturday asking for my schedule for the month. And then I tell her what Saturdays I can and can't come in. And then other than that, she has another lady that comes in. But the days that she would maybe help on is maybe Wednesdays or something like that. And I don't know if that's super available for youth at this rate. But she said she was still willing to hire and stuff. But she's just not willing to have interns. That's really helpful. And so, she said, what did, did you ask whether she would be, like, willing to, like, reach out to any of the things that she knows, or? Um, no, I, I didn't ask, but I, I can ask, so.

Okay. Um, and then, sort of, because of how sort of little responses we've gotten so far, I was thinking that maybe instead of like making it just Surfside or just like, like really just Surfside businesses that we reach out to and compile the database on, I think we could also just like serve as like, it could also be like a database that includes like a lot of Miami-Dade County internships that like we can research and we can do a lot of information about and we can like compile into one database that that are really out there, but a lot of kids, they're not going to sit there and research for an hour trying to find an internship or trying to find a job. And maybe we could be that place that compiles all these things. So it's not just like we're relying on internships. We can also each do research and find internships in the area that are already out there and just put them on.

I know one place. Well, it's in Miami-Dade. I didn't bring it up earlier because it's not necessarily near, but you know Jackson Memorial Health or something? They have internships for literally everything, from marketing to HR, just basically everything. My mom, she works at Jackson. She used to be chief human resource officer, but now she's something else. I can't remember. She's basically head of HR for the system, and I know some of my friends that I've told, like, oh, you can get an internship there, and they have, so you wouldn't even have to reach out for them if they already offer internships to you. However, it's one of the harder ones to get into because it's a public health system that's known to a lot of people, so people can apply, though.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. These sort of obscure internships that we can put in the database and we keep in mind geographic area. We want to make it close, but it's anywhere in Miami-Dade County. I think that's a good direction to go.

There's a Jackson North and West and South. They're all over Miami-Dade, so something has to be there.

And we all have connections. I did a couple summer internships, and I can ask if they'd be open to having other people from Surfside apply.

Those emails that you were emailing, was it to direct businesses, or were you trying to go into the business and try to find the main site?

So we asked Mr. Triggers for a list of Surfside business contacts, and so we went through that list and sort of chose the ones that we think we could. Yeah. um and i think he got that list from like whoever signed up for the newsletter um but yeah so i think that's really all to do i guess the last item on the uh yeah the last item on the agenda that we'll sort of talk about is the march gazette so we'll definitely um send in the survey by the 13th. Is there, so sort of on the topic of the Gazette, we had, and I spoke with Frank like a couple weeks ago before the commission meeting, and he sort of showed me how like on the Surfside website, the sustainability committee has like their own sort of like section, and they like sort of do like blog updates and posts. Is anyone here like, like would anyone here want to be sort of that kind of person and want to keep up a blog? Is anyone really good at writing, or they love writing?

Because, like, I am, yeah. I've taken, like, I don't know if this is really helpful, but I took creative writing at Oxford, and I took creative writing now, so I'm a pretty good writer, and I, you know, we live in a book robotics team, so I'm really good at, like, updating and making information very specific, and just, like, step, even if we wanted, like, you know, if we wanted, like, updates on what we're doing, like, I could get, like, specific so people don't feel like they're just getting, like,

I think it could be cool to have a little blog post for updates. The only thing is that they have to be relatively consistent because you don't want to have a big gap in posts. I think sustainability posts every two weeks. Every Gazette.

Every Gazette. We have a, actually the person who helps us with the section, she's not even a board member, she's just a member who likes to help. Oh, really? Yeah, she couldn't be a board member, but she's a great resident and she helps us and she writes it and she gives it to the talk to close the Gazette.

So she's, she works, or I guess she like works with the Sustainability Board to sort of write the advocates?

Yes. So she's present every meeting. She is very advocate of sustainability in the town in general. So she writes little updates of what the committee does, and it goes every month in the Gazette.

Every month in the Gazette. And then also on that little section on the website? Are those specific also every month, or are they more frequent?

I'm not really sure. Yeah, that would be with Frank. I'm not really sure how frequently he does it on the website.

They're like time stamps, so we can look at those.

But monthly updates wouldn't be too bad either.

No.

At least they'll know we meet every month and they'll know what's going on.

Yeah, month, yeah.

And then if you wanted her to update it between them, you just, you guys get together and figure out, let's say if you guys got together two weeks before every month, you guys can try to update or add anything if you guys resolved anything.

So would it have to be like, would we have to write it like through her? No, you just write it.

So what you could do is you could write, your, normally it's a little section, it's not a full page. You could write your section, send it to me, and then I can send it to Frank, or you send it to Frank directly, whichever you like to do.

That's perfect.

Yeah, I mean, like, every month. You can send it to the vice mayor to review if they'd like as well.

Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you. Yeah, so you can, I mean, we still need to work with Frank, because I think they would need to, like, we would have to edit the website and add a new section and stuff like that, but we can definitely reach out to Frank now that we know that, like, we're interested in doing that.

And so, yeah, I wanted to bring up something that actually Tina introduced to me when I emailed her about the lobbyists, the pre-chancellery lobbyists. And it's something, it's a program for youth councils from the Florida League of Cities. It's called 2025 Youth Legislative Action Days. And it's kind of like a, I guess like a training to, not really for lobbying, but it's for advocacy basically. It's during spring break, it's a two-day program, and it says that there's a $50 fee per person. So just for this specifically, and also if we ever want to do anything like a field trip type of thing in the future, Who would we have to talk to about the budget, about just approval?

I do know the commission did not approve a budget for you guys. So you guys currently do not have a budget. That would be something that the Bicentenary Commission can make a wish for.

I don't think it was requested at the time. That happened to the Sustainability Committee. I didn't request the budget at the time, and then they asked for a budget, so we got it. So I think we can request a budget. It would be for things like that, for a field trip.

And I think with the shirts,

Those cost money, but we just went through Mr. Blumstein for those, but this is something different because it's such a big... Yeah, the acting town manager, I believe he allocated those from another budget, but if this is something that you guys want to continue to do, having coaches and stuff like that, I would advise having a budget just because it's just better. Yeah. But definitely, if you can send me that information about the legal cities, that would be appreciated so I can research about that. Awesome. Thank you.

Yeah, because I'll send it to you because kind of just the whole registration thing, I don't know if you do it as a town or if you do it individually.

Normally, we do it as a town registration. Normally, the clerk's office does the registration for legal cities, so I do want to make sure that I have a lot of information.

And the registration deadline is not even for like another month. It's March 11th and the program itself is 25th, 26th of March.

I just want to know how many of you will be registering? So I do know how much, and then we'll talk about the budget whenever that's brought up to the commission.

So if we discuss it sort of outside of meeting, and then can we email you?

Yeah, you guys are on the social anyway. He doesn't reach us, so you guys can talk about each other, let me know, and then I'll talk with the vice mayor and the manager. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

Is that something hosted online?

It's in person. They have the agenda here. It's in Tallahassee. It's kind of like a summer camp, but it's a two-day program. It starts at 9. There's instruction and then there's lunch and then you can visit the capital and it's just generally about like so you're gonna be planning on like trying to take a bus up there for those two days or or we could do individual and then just pay the fee like i don't know how much money we're gonna get on the budget but we can also like drive so kind of just register but then you guys get get over there without i mean we're we don't know for sure yet but like yeah like like that could definitely be possible this would be in taipasi yeah yes and what day is it Um, the 25th and the 27th. Oh, March. Oh, March. Okay. And it's, um, at least it's during the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Spring Break. There's a lot going on.

Was there something you wanted me to bring before the Commission as a legislative priority?

I think we might have to do a little bit more research and sort of like talk. Because I don't know, I don't have anything like currently right now that I don't want to sound like, I don't know. Introduce this.

We did give the lobbyists a three page. The sustainability and resiliency committee gave us their list of legislative priorities and those were included. The difficult thing is because it was three pages, they can only go to so many.

Could you share the three-page document with us? Sure. Do you have it? I think so. I'll have to look at it. Okay. That would be great. So we could just sort of like see if there's, like I'm sure the Sustainability Council and we share a lot of the same sort of initiatives. But yeah, that's sort of all there is. So I guess the next meeting will be March 5th, 2025. And yeah, I can adjourn, right? Yes. Okay, I would welcome a motion to adjourn.

All right, I motion to adjourn this meeting. I second.

All in favor? Aye.