City Commission - Regular Meeting

We're going to give it a moment for Commissioner De La Torre. Okay. Today is Wednesday, July 15th, 2026. It is now 6 0 4 PM. And this is a regular city commission meeting of the city of West Miami. This meeting is called to order. Please rise for the vocation and the pledge of allegiance. Good evening.

Please bow your heads with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you've brought us here this evening. We thank you for your amazing provision every single morning and every day. We know that without the proper foundation, Lord, nothing that we build is built to last. Everything that we build then is built in vain. So God, give us the proper foundation, Lord, to know who we are, to know that we are building community, that we are citizens together. Lord, we pray and thank you for the opportunities we have to serve together. Lord, and that we have the opportunity to even go out into other countries and to help them in the midst of their tragedies. Guide us this evening. Give us civility with one another. Give us patience. Give us discernment. Lord, give us wisdom in every word that we speak. And in all things, may we trust that there is a higher power, that this is not just all in our hands. It's not about our intellect and our doing, but it is about what it says on the wall. that in God we truly trust. We thank you and we pray all these things in your name. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Roll call.

I didn't be roll call. Mayor Eric Diaz Patron here. Vice mayor, Ivan Chavez, Jr. Commissioner Juan Blanes here. Commissioner Gustavo Ceballos here. Commissioner Victoria de la Torre guns.

Thank you. Next item.

Item four presentation of minutes for approval for June 3rd, 2026 regular commission meeting motion.

You have a motion. Second. You have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Thank you.

Next item, please.

Item five, public comments.

Anyone for public comments? Public comments going once, going twice, sold. All right, next item.

Item six, report of the city manager.

Go ahead, Mr. Manager. Good evening, Mayor, Commission, and residents. I would like to start by having our... Pedro, come up to the podium and give an award out to Mr. Gonzalez, our sergeant, and also for labs and menace, please. And then I will continue with my presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission, Madam Clerk, Mr.

Manager, and Mr. Attorney.

So we have two awards, one of which is for Employee of the Year, which is Sergeant Abel Gonzalez. I wrote something up for him, and I'm gonna read it really quick. So it's with great pride and appreciation that I recognize Sergeant Abel Gonzalez as the City of West Miami's Employee of the Year. for the police department. Sergeant Gonzalez consistently amplifies the highest standards of professionalism and dedication Throughout his tenure, he has demonstrated exceptional dependability, integrity, and commitment to both department and the community he serves. He is a trusted leader who can always be relied upon to carry out and perform his duties. Sergeant Gonzalez is always punctual, he's reliable, and has a positive attitude that has earned him the respect of his peers and his superiors alike. He consistently leads, by example and serves as a role model to both new and experienced officers. His willingness to assist others, accept additional responsibilities, and ensure that departmental objectives are achieved reflects on his outstanding work ethic and dedication to excellence. So in addition, Sergeant Gonzalez has taken up upon himself other duties. He has helped us with creating our branding, our patches. He makes coins for the department and other departments. He's very skilled with arts. Sergeant Gonzalez has done this voluntarily, and he's done a great and exceptional job. The success of any law enforcement agency depends upon the dedication on the dedicated employees who consistently go above and beyond expectations. Sergeant Gonzalez embodies those qualities every day through his leadership, professionalism, and integrity and commitment to service. His contributions have strengthened this department and enhance its ability to serve the residents of the city of West Miami. So for these reasons and many more, Sergeant Abel Gonzalez is most deserving of the recognition of West Miami Police Department's Employee of the Year. We commend him for his outstanding service, dedication, and invaluable contributions. As you guys know, it's tough to select a person every year or whatnot. But this year, Sergeant Gonzalez was clear to us to nominate him for the Employee of the Year at the Police Department. So I'd like to congratulate him and welcome him up here. So thank you. We can take a picture with your family.

we'll get department first yeah

Great, can we have some? Oh wait, you can come on this side. Ready? I'm so sorry. Can you guys move over?

God, Mayor, get out of the way.

One, two, three. With your family? This is for Gigi. This is for Gigi.

Now we'd like to recognize our detective, Lazaro Jimenez. Detective Jimenez received a prestigious award from our Attorney General James Uthmeyer on May 20th. The award he received was in part for a case where he assisted, we had a robbery here in West Miami at our dollar store, where a subject actually brandished a firearm, and really scared the workers. We were able to then do a perimeter, try to look for these guys, and Detective Jimenez was able to coordinate with other agencies because this robbery subject not only committed a robbery in West Miami, but also in the city of Miami, in Broward, and in other jurisdictions within Miami-Dade County. Detective Jimenez was able to assist with their investigations to where the missing pieces to the puzzle, he came up with and was able to apprehend the subject. So for that, we nominated him for the Lee McGehee Award with the Florida Police Chiefs. And when they saw the write up and saw the type of case and the type of work that he put in, The attorney general said, no, we have to recognize Sergeant Jimenez, Detective Jimenez, and give him an award as well. So on May 20th, we were up in Tallahassee, where he personally received this award from our attorney general, Mr. James Uthermeyer. So I'd like to recognize Detective Jimenez, and let's give him a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you. Picture, picture.

Picture, guys, come on.

It's a fun day.

Ready?

Mayor, now I'm... Mayor, and I will continue with my report now. Yes, sir. Okay. While they're... Okay, the slide shows up. Good. This is my city manager's report that covers up through May. We start with public safety, which is apropos considering what we've just done. And although we've had a small spike between April and May, I do want to point out that it's substantially lower than last year where we had 67 cases, and this year we had 27. on our finance and our notable disbursements this shows our investments continue to play an active role in our capital projects in our water and sewer and in operating community center is sure it continues to show steady increase and i'm proud to announce that we just got another two hundred thousand dollars awarded to us from alliance for aging for our community center On our multi-generational center, it continues to shine. It's become a shining example of our city and our commitment to our residents, and we are in the process of adding new classes for our residents to enjoy. Passport acceptance has a little bit of a dip. It's showing a little bit of less revenue, but that's pretty standard for summer. communications and community engagement we continue increasing our new followers we adding our to our social media platform on a daily basis I'm building I'm building and permitting we're showing a substantial increase from last year this year from 273 permits issued to 354 which means that people are invested in the community public service and code enforcement. We continue to do our work. We are, we continuously are closing work orders as they come in. We have done over 1,060 work orders in the, in the first eight months of the year. And lastly, on our freebie ridership is staying steady. We've had, um, 12,636 passengers through our first eight months. And now I'm going to talk a little bit about upcoming things for our budget. Our first thing is we've had, and I think it's important to note, we've had a substantial period of tax relief by lowering our millage rate, which has given our residents a bill that's $952 less than it was four years ago based on current rates. We've had three years of major accomplishments. As you can see, we've had accomplishments in landscaping and street and public safety, our community events. And we've also had many awards for our financial department. And we've had a 16% drop in our millage over the last four years. Now what's out there right now is a proposal to amend the homestead exception adding another $150,000 in the year 2027 and growing that to $250,000 in 2028. The most impacted county is Miami-Dade County and that's kind of important because that ties into some of the things that the county is doing right now. But your investments, your tax dollars have really been making a major impact from daily meals for our seniors to an average police response time of 75 seconds. And we're always serving our residents through our public service department. Tax relief has been growing every year. and it'll continue to grow if this gets approved. The average annual savings in 2728 for a resident will be $567, and that'll grow to $1,152 in 2829. That does create some revenue pressures that we are aware of and we understand, but some of these are Water true up, which is a, a charge at the water department does to us that they've already announced that this upcoming year, our true up bill will be $256,000. They've already announced a 20% increase combined of water and sewer in our rates. Miami-Dade County's code administration fee has gone up 5% and there they have not announced what the sanitation fee for us for bulk pickups will be increasing to yet. We have assessed and we are positive that we can continue with the same quality and the same services that we have now, which is our meal programs, our after school and recreational opportunities, disaster preparedness, and continuing the maintenance of our parks, streets, and public infrastructure, along with our police department. How would we offset the homestead exemption? We expect that we'll be able to do so by managing expenses, by certain new commercial fees, by growth in our revenues in our property, by our praise values, and by finding new funding sources in terms of grants. By the year 2029, what the Homestead Extension will do, will take out over $1,208,000 of taxable values. I mean, I'm sorry, $1,208,000,000 in taxable values. That is real relief for our residents. It will create a savings based on a value reduction per household of $225,000 from your assessed values. Our property values right now Our number are 22 out of 34. Our average assessed value is 22 out of the 34 municipalities in Miami-Dade County. The average taxable value for the county is 318,800. Our average taxable value is 224,610. When this homestead exception passes, the average taxable value will not be paying money into the city of West Miami for our services. Right now revenue growth versus inflation. Our average taxable growth for all our properties is 2.9%. Inflation last year was 4.2%. The average growth for Miami-Dade County and all the other municipalities is 4%. That means we have a very steady residence and nobody wants to move out of West Miami. I don't blame them. But that also affects what we can collect in terms of revenue growth. Our taxable value comparison, the 2.9%, makes us 30th out of the county. The only cities that are less than us are Sunny Isles, Aventura, and El Portal. New construction, again, we're toward the bottom. We only had an additional $814,000 of new construction last year, which is one of the lower marks in all the county. Key takeaways, we remain strong. It's one of the most affordable communities in Miami-Dade County. Our average taxable value will be below the countywide average by over 30%. Low taxes help keep our property taxes lower for our residents, but we are committed to fiscal responsibility. Guiding principles, we will be maintaining essential services. We will be ensuring that we protect our infrastructure investments. Potential revenue offsets. We will continue to go out and seek grant funding. In terms of grant fundings, which is the next slide. Let me skip over that. We're looking, right now we're sitting on a $50,000 GIS grant that we've just received, $200,000 that I mentioned for our seniors. We have gotten a combined $300,000 from the state of Florida, thanks to our lobbyists, to our mayor and our commission. We just were awarded $33,000 for tree planting, and we just were awarded $112,000 for a storm water master plan. This is the way that we offset some of the revenue loss. Long term, we're doing now, we will be doing in the budget cycle coming up, multi-year forecasting. We will continue to keep robust reserves to exceed GFOA standards. We will be prioritizing our capital improvement projects. We'll be doing smart asset management, and we will be trying to relieve and reduce our debt planning to zero. Again, those are the legislative priorities for the upcoming years. Some of these are unfunded mandates, but it is what it is. We have to deal with them. And where does your tax dollar go? Well, let me go to this one. This is the best way right now, every dollar of your, every dollar that you pay for your property taxes, only 28% stay in the city of West Miami. That means over 72% goes to the county, to the schools or to independent districts. once if the homestead exemption is approved out of every dollar that you pay into taxes only five percent will remain with the city of west miami right now the first since 2021 when we started to reduce the millage rate you have saved 952 dollars on your tax bill That will be an additional $567.2728 if approved, and then an additional $1,152.2829. We will continue, and our plan is to ensure that we have strategic service revenues, that we keep our GFOA level reserves, that we continue to have surpluses, and that we have modest targeted fees that do not affect our residents as much as possible. with that we can say that we've actually looked at this we are ready for the change we feel that we can easily manage what's coming and our commitment is always going to be to this mayor our commission to our residents and with that that concludes this part of the project of the presentation but i do want to take another moment out i want to thank staff for a wonderful fourth of july event um i want to thank them for the watch party that we had yesterday out in the rec center which was amazing i want to thank the commissioners that brought forth the venezuela relief fund efforts and i personally want to thank the vice mayor for volunteering and being in venezuela as a good representative along with some other our residents that went out there and did their duty and i appreciate that highly with that i conclude my report unless you have some questions of me

Anyone have any questions for the manager?

Just comment. Beautiful presentation, Mr. Manager and staff. Thank you for preparing that. I think our constituents were worried about where the city will go if this amendment does pass. And thank you for delivering. We asked, we wanted to make sure as this commission that we were prepared because we do believe it might pass and it'll We'll go forward in November. So knowing that our city has plans and we have a strategic vision of where we want to take it, I think this eases a lot of the concerns that a lot of our residents had. So thank you. I commend you and your team for putting that beautiful presentation together.

Any other questions, concerns for the manager? All right. Thank you. Next item, please.

Item seven, report of a city attorney.

Anything unique?

Yes, one item that the commission will have to take up at its next meeting, but I mention it now so that you can think about it, is the appointment of an audit selection committee. I would say not a big deal, but state statute requires a three-person committee for a municipality. The chairman has to be one of you elected officials. The committee itself has to be selected by the governing body. That's you folks, of course. And two other members. That committee, I remind everyone, will be a sunshine committee, meaning they cannot talk to each other. They're allowed to do anything you want them to do, but primarily, the statute even says this, their one duty is to look at the... proposals from auditors and recommend one to you but because of the sunshine law you can't talk to each other between now and the next meeting about what two residents you'd like on the committee or which one of you'd like on it you could of course talk at this meeting if you wanted to either now or talk at the you know for the good of the for the good of the order but that's why we put it for next time so we didn't want to say to you right now pick among yourselves and right now pick two citizens without any notice so the official action will be next time you can have any discussion you'd like now as to as to this issue if you wish

Okay. Uh, first of all, um, again, we don't take this right now, but does anyone volunteer to chair up that committee?

commissioner. Okay.

Perfect. Um, so we will, I mean, if the commission doesn't have an issue with that, um, for next next commission, we will have an item to, to, uh, officially appoint the commissioner, uh, as chair of that committee, and then also bring names for the other two of their slots, resident slots, correct?

Yes. Okay.

Perfect. Alrighty. Sounds perfect. Anything else? No, that's fine. Thank you. All right. Next item, please.

Item 8, report of the city engineer.

Our city engineer is not here tonight. He sent me an email. I will read it very quickly. The Phase 2 water main project has commenced along 14th Street and between 59th and 62nd Avenue. The Phase 3 water main project bids will be received on July 22nd, and they will be awarded hopefully by the September-October meeting. The 10th Street road closure plans in the 60th Street traffic circle. The proposal was submitted and approved. They are doing the survey next week and will commence to sign this month. It will be ready for bid construction, according to our city engineer, by October of 2026. THE 12TH STREET DRAINAGE PROJECT. THE CONTRACTOR IS WORKING ON GETTING THE FINAL PRICING FOR THE TRENCH DRAIN THAT WILL BE INSTALLED. THEY WILL HAVE PRICING SOMETIME IN THE NEXT WEEK OR TWO AND THEN THEY WILL BE MOBILIZED AND HOPING FOR A COMPLETION BY THE END OF JULY. ADDITIONAL PERCOLATION DRAIN ON 11TH STREET. They will add additional drainage in 11th Street as part of the 60th Court Traffic Circle Project. The 9th Street residential drainage issue, that that's been something that we've talked about for quite some time. We finally figured out what the solution is. It's a simple fix, but it will not be done until the phase three water main construction project is commenced in that area. The drainage problems at 59th Avenue and 10th Street is still waiting for his assessment. The one way street at 11th street park for the veterans park. There will be a proposal sent for the traffic engineer for a study and we'll provide proposals for final design and it'll be ready for construction hopefully before the end of the year. And lastly, the chicane that was installed has been a problem, a problematic, um, there's options that are going to be coming forth to you at the next meeting, um, to fix it and get it approved. So we can finally get that behind, behind us, behind us.

Okay, so on a lot of these items, I think this is my list. A lot of these items, I want some harder deadlines from the engineer for next meeting on planning and construction deadlines that we can use as benchmarks, real benchmarks. In regards to the one-way veterans park, I mean, I don't know how we can have construction deadlines there. I don't think we've even taken that to, I mean, aside from posting, putting it on a commission meeting, I don't think we've had any talent halls on that. So once we get the initial design, we will have some construction designs. Yeah, we should start having that talent hall for that. Any questions for the manager on the engineers report? Go ahead.

I JUST WANT TO VERIFY, YOU STATED THE TRAFFIC CIRCLE WAS 60th AND 11th STREET, IS THAT CORRECT? I KNOW YOU SAID A LOT, SO A LOT OF GOOD THINGS COMING. THAT WAS THE ONE THAT YOU REFERENCED IN TERMS OF THE PERCULATION.

IT WILL BE RIGHT AT THE END OF THAT WHERE THE LINEAR PARK IS.

THAT'S GOING TO BE IN OCTOBER AND THAT'S GOING TO TIE IN THAT DRAINAGE PROJECT ON 11th STREET AS WELL. THAT IS CORRECT, SIR. THANK YOU. ANYTHING ELSE?

Nope.

Next item, please.

Item nine, committee reports.

Anyone for committee reports?

We haven't had a rec meeting, but there has been a conversation that I've been having with the manager, and I'd like for him to explain. We're looking at doing something known as a charrette over at Cooper Park. Fancy word for what the manager's about to explain.

A charrette's basically a planning study where we'll invite the commission, we'll invite the residents to come out, we'll break out in teams, We will have the plans out. We will allow input from all the residents from our parks and rec board and try to come up with a long-term plan for the future of Cooper Park. We will announce a date shortly for that if the commission so wishes to move forward with it. And then we will have that probably set up for Saturday. It's a half a day event. Those are usually pretty successful and allows the residents to have some input as to what our future of our city will look like. Perfect.

Anything else? Anything else for committee reports? All right. Next item, please.

Item 10 under unfinished business. Item 10A, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of West Miami authorizing the City Manager to accept a mitigation offer in the amount of blank for court enforcement liens for court violations at the property located at 6437 Southwest 16th Street, West Miami, Florida, providing conditions for compliance, providing the failure to comply will result in reinstatement of the original lien amount and providing for an effective date.

Mayor, if I may, the attorneys for this property had an emergency, and they will not be here tonight, and they asked for a deferral until the next meeting in September, please. Motion to defer.

We get a motion? Motion. We have a motion. Second. We have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. And again, hearing none, next item, please.

Item 11 under new business agenda items, 11A was covered already. It was the presentation of employee of the year, item B. This is a second reading and a public hearing continued from June 3rd, 2026 commission meeting in ordinance of the mayor and city commission of the city of West Miami, Florida, amending section 2-23 of the code of the city of West Miami entitled polling place designated to permanently designate the West Miami Recreation Center located at 1700 SW 62nd Avenue, West Miami, Florida 33155 as the official polling place for the City of West Miami Municipal Elections, providing for codification, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.

This is a public hearing. Public hearing is now open. Anyone who wishes to speak for public hearing on this item? Seeing none, public hearing is now closed back to the table. This is my ordinance. I thought we enacted it after 2022, actually. But looking back at the minutes, we had actually not done so because we needed an ordinance and it was never brought back. So this would standardize our city elections with our national and state elections that we have at the REC. And obviously the rec is now a much more suitable place than the community center, uh, going forward. So does anyone have any questions on this item?

Motion motion.

We have a second, uh, call the roll, please.

For clarification, who seconded the motion?

I did.

Commissioner Blanes. Thank you. Commissioner De La Torre-Gans, how do you vote? Yes. Commissioner Ceballos, how do you vote?

Yes.

Commissioner Blanes? Yes. Vice Mayor Chavez, Jr.? Yes. Mayor Diaz-Padron? Yes. 5-0. Item passes.

Thank you. Next item, please.

Item 11c, this is a second reading in a public hearing, which is continued from June 3rd, 2026 Commission meeting, an ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of West Miami, Florida, amending the city code related to city board appointments, providing, four standardized appointment procedures for city boards, providing that board membership shall be tied to commission seats, eliminating alternate members unless otherwise provided by law, providing for appointment terms, providing for reappointment and removal, providing for codification, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, and providing for an effective date.

So this is page 25 of your agendas. This is a public hearing. Public hearing is now open. Anyone wish to speak for public hearing on this item? Seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Back to the table. Does anyone from the Commission have... I know there was a little couple details in the last meeting. I think they were included. But does anyone have anything... that they would like to discuss or change in this ordinance. And page 25 is your operative page.

So just confirming each board member is going to be assigned to a specific member of the commission. Correct. Moving forward.

To a seat, yes.

I believe they implemented the change on the seven members that Commissioner Ceballos suggested about the majority vote of the board itself for seven member boards. They run concurrent with the terms and can be removed by the commissioners without any sort of special procedures.

Yeah, and previously the different boards were mentioned here. Just to confirm, because it was brought up in the past, the branding board is going to be a board that we're going to have moving forward, correct? I think initially when we talked about it, like we added it to the ordinance, the branding board?

The branding board, the, is the branding board a, the branding board is a, I mean, it's a board of appointed members, right? How many members is the branding board though? It's a five member board.

It's a board of appointed members. And I believe it has five.

So it would fall into the category of five member boards.

Yes.

As was the art board and the veterans affairs board and planning zoning. Go ahead. Go ahead.

The one thing I did want to point out that I don't see it in this new ordinance is, um, how do we determine the chair? It's not written.

I mean, that's a good point. Chairs are typically determined by, by votes of the boards themselves. Um, I don't know if we want to spell that out or not, or if that's,

If it's not spelled out, which is the which is the situation, then it's a board of the it's a vote of the board or committee. And I don't think it's necessary to say that because under Robert's rules, they have all authority that is not otherwise taken from them or specified in their creating document, which means appointing a chair.

So basically if it's a, it's a board of the voters themselves, unless you wanted to amend it, that the commission picks the chair, which is something we may or may not want to do. I don't know. So it depends what you're looking for.

Um, and future board creations or the current ones where maybe there's commissioners sitting on the, on the board as a chair.

How many members is the parks and rec board? Seven. It's a seven-member board? Yeah. It might be smart to spell out. I don't anticipate this being an issue, obviously, but in the case like the parks and rec board, it would be rather ridiculous if the vice mayor, for example, wasn't chairing that board. Um, and forever would have, for whatever reason. Um, so maybe that, that should be spelled out when there is a member of the commission serving as a, as a board member. So for example, the parks and recreation board, the vice mayor serves as chair. Does the parks board have its own, uh, I can't remember. Does it have its own resolution where that's spelled out or.

i do not believe so but um in most cases commissioners do not sit on these boards correct except for one case right now but of course there might be future boards where where we choose to do that well i'll tell you

This doesn't apply to task forces, right? So it's like the charter review task force that's in our, this ordinance would not apply to that task force, right? Okay, good.

Um, vice mayor, how do you, how do you, how do you want to, uh, I guess it would be where any board where a commissioner isn't directly involved in that board would be selected by the board itself. But if there's a commissioner, a member of the commission in the board, then it automatically falls under their chairmanship.

Right. If it's the will of the commission. Um, right. All right.

So we could say, and we don't need to say where we put it. It would probably be a new section two D Delta in any case in which a, an elected commissioner serves on Uh, any board covered here in that commissioner shall serve as chair. Perfect. That what you're seeking. Yep. Okay. Can make that motion and.

I don't know if we should limit it to commission because what if city management or staff wants to sit?

Yeah, but they typically wouldn't chair that board, nor are they usually eligible to sit on the actual boards. Go ahead.

And Commissioner Ceballos used to chair our planning and zoning board. That process for your selection, you feel moving forward that the folks that stay on planning and zoning are happy with that selection process?

Well, there wasn't a process when he joined us.

Right. It was an obvious choice at that. Right. But there may be cases where someone doesn't want to step up and chair a board. That might be an issue as well. So we might have to enter.

I mean, typically someone will volunteer eventually. If the juries can figure it out, I'm sure a board of people who volunteer to be there can. I'm not concerned. Boards can select their own chairs.

Sounds good.

Commissioner Ceballos, anything on this ordinance? My only comment was, I think I mentioned it before, code enforcement. I don't know if we need to create a carve-out. It says it can be reappointed or replaced by the appointing authority, and I'm pretty sure that we just need to spell that out because code enforcement is born in the state statute, and I think only members can be removed for cause.

I think that that's taken care of for you in section 4B, where it says at the end, subject to applicable law.

You're right. I didn't see it underlined.

Does that satisfy your? That's fine. Okay. Anything else on this ordinance? Nothing for me. All right.

Go ahead. So just moving forward, are we going to get a list of all the board members and who exactly is assigned to us? And then moving forward, we would be able to hash out who's staying, who's going. Obviously, after speaking with those folks, making sure they want to continue serving.

Okay. Yes, like appointed or reappointed. Okay.

I think we're finally ready to move on this item. Do we have anything else? Okay, who wants to? Motion. There we go. Wait, motion as amended?

Motion as amended.

Second.

We have a second. We have a motion and a second. Call the roll, please.

He's commissioner Bland is on the boat, yes, commissioner and a lot of the guns, yes, commissioners, the values, yes, vice mayor Chavez, junior, yes, they are just a drone, yes, I see what I didn't pass it with amendments.

Next item, please. I am Mr. Mayor. Just for clarification, motion as amended this. It was in what's in front of you was amended. So that motion as amended meant that oral motion

Correct. Everyone's confirmed?

That new motion, today's motion.

No objections to that interpretation? Alright, perfect. I'm going to ask that we skip item D and come back to it just for the benefit of people in the audience. I know we have items E and F and we also have people here for item... What item are you guys? Which one is it? K, yeah. So is there anyone in here for another item that is not E, F, or K that needs to present? No? Okay. Let's take items E and F.

Yes item 11 E public hearing waiver of black application WP 2026 0, 0, 1, 6051 Southwest 15th Street applicant blue nest homes 515 LLC 6051 Southwest 15th Street was Miami for the 3 to 1, 4, 4, The applicant blueness homes 15 LLC request a waiver of plot for the property located at 6051 Southwest 15th Street was Miami for that 3, 3, 1, 4, 4 to subdivide one existing parcel consisting of approximately 12,000 square feet, 120 feet wide by a hundred feet deep into two separate lots, each consisting of approximately 6,000 square feet. 60 feet wide by 100 feet deep for the future construction of two one-story single-family residences. The subject property is located within the R1 single-family residential zoning district zoning ordinance 282 section 4.18.

Can you read the ordinance as well?

Yes, this is a first reading an ordinance of the city was Miami, Florida proven a waiver of blood for the property located a 6051 Southwest 15th Street West Miami for either to allow the subdivision of one existing parcel into 2 separate single-family residential lots providing for conditions of approval providing for recordation providing for conflict providing for several ability and providing for an effective date.

Okay. This is a public hearing. Public hearing for item E and F is now open. Anyone wish to speak? Let's come forward. Yeah, of course. Yeah, you can. Just do me a favor and state your name and your address for the record before you start.

My name is Diana Pedraza. I live in 6036 Southwest 14th Street. Robert Pedraza. Robert Pedraza. We're the house directly behind, well, at least one of them. So when we received the public hearing notice, I noticed a word that kind of concerns us. They intend to construct two one-story single-family homes. I just want to make sure that the intention can have a confirmation, I guess.

What is your, I'm sorry, it's not meant to be back and forth, but what is the one story, two story? That's your concern, okay. Understood.

I just wanted to thank you for cleaning up that eyesore, and the cops have been called to my house so many times, so thank you very much.

Was it a problem? I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

That house was a problem for a long time, way before us.

Yes. I know we've spoken about it. Yeah, yeah.

So we're glad that, you know, there's going to be new construction. This is going to increase property value. But we also, you know, we're subdividing. We're going to have extra people, extra residents. So we just want to know if it's going to be one store or two stores. Okay.

All right.

Okay.

Are you guys the house right behind it? Yes. The nice new house? Yes. I played baseball with your brother here at the rec with David. Nice meeting you. He's told me for a bit that you live there.

We love you guys. Thank you.

Is the applicant here? Okay, perfect. We'll let you present. Let's just get through some public hearing. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. Ivan Chavez, 5911 Southwest 9th Terrace. As I'm reading over this, I'm kind of like dissecting it because West Miami is a beautiful neighborhood, and it's that way because of its characteristics. And particularly back there, it's like one of the most beautiful streets in West Miami, again, because of its character. I don't mind what I'm reading here. It's one 20 by a hundred. Half of that is 60 by a hundred. So your typical lot in West Miami more or less. My only question is, is this going to be something that in the future requires variances to like encroach into the, you know, the standoffs between the neighbors. I don't live there, but as a resident, I would be concerned if all of a sudden, in the future, they're requesting variances to kind of get onto the property line to maximize the amount of space, square footage of the house. They can go backwards, obviously. So that's my only concern is where does this lead to next? And that's it. Thank you.

Anyone else for public hearing on this item? All right. Public hearing is closed. Or will the public hearing open for the applicant? For the applicant to present? I'm having a slow day today.

Yes.

Public hearing is still open. Please come up. Thank you.

Hi, good evening.

Good evening.

How are you?

My name is LaSonda Carlin, and I'm representing the applicant, Blueness Homes 15 LSE, located at 6100 Waterford District Drive, Miami, Florida, 33126. Okay. Go ahead. So just to address your comment or your question, it will stay a one-story single-family residence. It's R1. It's already zoned that and we'll keep it at that and maintain it. The home is going to be an estimated square feet of a little over 1,800 square feet, three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath. We don't plan to make any changes. We're not applying for any variances here. It's going to stay as is R1 and within the zoning requirements that were allowed by City of West Miami.

And just to, just as a FY, in the city, while I'm not necessarily a fan of the process, and I am a victim of the process myself, we do have a very strange two-story ordinance where you have to come to the commission to actually get a two-story, you have to go through a two-story special use application that goes in front of the Planning and Zoning Board and then in front of the commission. Just to clarify on that point, but go ahead.

We did submit some images. I'm not sure if you guys have them. If you'd like to take a look, show the residents that are here to see what we're hoping as far as renderings for it to look like. The only thing that may change is the color scheme, but it won't be tacky, I promise. Oh, Mercy's gonna bring it up.

You're not putting in pools, are you?

I'm sorry? Pools? No, no pools. It wouldn't fit.

But no, no, no pools.

And I'll just show them while they're here. It's on the screen now.

So this is the home that we're proposing to build on each lot. Oh, I can? Sorry. Impact windows, I mean open concept layout. Oh, sorry. And that's it.

Okay, is there anything else in the application? That's it. Okay, can we get staff up here to present and... Went through any details, relevant details and recommendations.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. So, yes, to address the public's comments, this item did go in front of the Planning and Zoning Board June 24th, just last month. And when they first applied for the waiver of plan application, one thing that I did ask for kindly was for renderings of the future project. simply because to make sure and know if it was going to be single story or two-story because if it is a two-story like the mayor said it does have to go in front of through the special use process for planning and zoning approval followed by recommendation by City Commission so this property um it is ten thousand I'm sorry twelve thousand square feet splitting it down the middle which is their intention and what they're looking to do DIVIDES THE LOT 60 FEET BY 100 FEET WIDE, WHICH IS A STANDARD FOR MOST, IF NOT ALL, R1 SINGLE FAMILY HOMES HERE IN THE CITY. AND LOOKING AT THE RENDERINGS AND THE SITE PLANS THAT THEY DID SUBMIT TO US FOR REVIEW THROUGH THE ZONING DEPARTMENT, I MADE SURE THAT THEY DID COMPLY WITH SETBACK REQUIREMENTS FOR SINGLE STORY FAMILY HOME. I ALSO MADE SURE THAT THEY COMPLIED WITH LOCAL COVERAGE. and landscaping and all that. So they did comply. So basically given that they do get this waiver of that approval, one thing that we did include in the ordinance is that they have to have that recorded prior to the issuance of building permits. They have to have two separate folio numbers. They do have to comply with the R1 zoning requirements, which they do. They do need to have a separate utility connections for each lot. And compliance, again, with driveway landscaping and impervious area requirements. Cost recovery and impact fees will have to be due up front. And separate building permits for each future residence would have to be separate. So that's it.

All right. I'm going to defer real quick to our resident expert on the commission. Uh, can I share some values or anything? I know you love, I have one real question.

Um, can we condition the approval of the waiver of the plot to the site plan? Not sure who that question would be to.

We can add it into the ordinance as a condition before it goes to second reading, I believe. But that's, I think, a city attorney question.

The applicant seems to have tied it together in the sense that they present it to you I'll rephrase my question.

Is the applicant voluntarily proffering to covenant this approval to the site plan provided? Yes. Yes.

Yes, for the record. Thank you. That resolves our concern.

Good call, all.

All right. This is a first reading, so this is going to come back to our next meeting, correct? Should I get out of first reading here today? Does anyone have anything we can take care of first reading here? Nothing? Okay. So on second reading, we expect to have that addition to the ordinance. Can we get a motion? Motion. Oh, hold on. Did I ever close out public hearing? Public hearing is closed anyways. All right. Go ahead.

I just had one question for the applicant. I see one rendering here. There's going to be two homes. Yes. Are they going to look identical? Same build, same color, everything? Yes.

Maybe the color might be different to just give it some kind of, you know.

Character differential?

Yeah, differential. I would definitely encourage that. Yeah, same. Yeah.

No, no, and we're open to taking any feedback from the residents and anyone on the board. We're excited to build something this night in the city of West Miami.

It looks beautiful, absolutely, and I think it would be great in that location as the residents stated what was there prior was an eyesore.

And I'll take into consideration, I'm so sorry, with lighting fixtures and things like that because they don't make a difference that people don't think so. As far as landscaping, we'll obviously apply with everything needed and do what we can to kind of although it's the same square footage, we plan to do the same throughout for the build, for the cost of build, everything else, but for its uniform, but that way they have their own kind of... Yeah, no, I definitely understand from a cost of build perspective, obviously.

I know in the city of Coral Gables, they're obviously, and we don't have this in our code, so I will never impose this necessarily, right? But they're obviously, they don't allow two structures of the same... anywhere in the city, right? Or it'd be ironic for our city, because our city is largely built in that fashion, right? Because, you know, the way we're built, the houses are mostly the same builds. But and you know, over the years, things change, obviously, and you can't tell as much now. But yeah, to the extent possible, let's definitely be mindful on some of the fixtures and things that can give each houses an identity. Go ahead, Commissioner.

I was going to suggest that, you know, different lighting, different numbers, different mailbox, different color, you know, give each one a character. Absolutely. And your product will look so much better. It will be more appealing to the prospective buyers. I agree.

But this street is one of the best streets in the city. Once that property was taken care of, I believe so. I love that street. So let's get this to the next meeting so we can talk about it one last time. All right. Motion. We have a motion. Second. We have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Sorry, call the roll. Today is a Wednesday. Call the roll.

Commissioners and I thought the guns, yes, commissioners, the values.

Yes.

Commissioner Blahnik. Yes. Vice Mayor Chavez, Jr. Mayor Dias Padron. Yes. Five zero item. I didn't think you all have a wonderful way.

Thank you.

Thank you. You did a great job. Thank you so much. Thank you guys.

So may you're moving to 11 K, right?

Less item. Okay, please.

Item 11K, a resolution of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of West Miami, Florida authorizing and directing the City Manager or the City Manager's designee to negotiate, execute, deliver, and administer a partnership agreement in all related documents to establish and implement the CMURP EHP Revive Program, a preventive care and self-insured medical expense reimbursement program designed designed to provide supplemental health and wellness benefits to participating employees, authorizing the expenditure of lawfully available funds and the execution of related agreements, providing for implementation, providing for severability, providing for conflict, and providing for an effective date.

Okay, Mr. Biggs. I'm happy we're bringing this item, so hopefully the presentation doesn't sway me the other way.

Thank you for that vote of confidence. We have some visual aid.

Yes, do we have the presentation?

Before we get started, just so you know, I delivered some additional information. The very last page is a white page which actually has the text of this presentation.

Thanks for running a second.

I told my kids it's televised. They're going to watch me.

All right, good. Can we get that full screen? There we go. Perfect.

How do I go back?

Look at you. All right.

How do I go back? Can I go back? Just keep that picture there. That ugly guy. There we go. All right. Good evening. That's correct. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, City Clerk, City Manager, City Attorney, Staff Administration, and all citizens of West Miami. My name is Daniel Biggs, and we're going to discuss a topic called CIMRP. It's actually a win-win for the employer and employees. If I were to phrase the next phrase in the form of a question, I would ask, What if there was a health care program that pays you to participate and reduces health care costs? Would that interest you? What does the acronym CIMRP stand for? It's Self-Insured Medical Expense Reimbursement Program. I want to emphasize the word reimbursement because we're going to touch on that here in a little bit. EHP is your full service partner to execute and manage the CIMRP. They do employee eligibility, onboarding, payroll integration, compliance, and audit protection. Now, Revive actually provides all the services and benefits associated with the healthcare wellness and prescription drug program. The great news is the City of West Miami qualifies for the SIMR program. An organization or company has to be able to qualify for this. How do you qualify? You must have more than 25 employees that are full-time being paid with a W-2. Currently, the City of West Miami has 89 full-time employees. The second component is each participating employee must be covered by a qualified health insurance plan offered by the City of Miami or their spouse's employer. I have to emphasize one detail. There is actually no change or disruption with the current health insurance carrier or plan. The CIMRP is simply an enhancement to the current health insurance plan that you have. How do we save money? FICA tax savings. What is FICA? FICA is simply Social Security and Medicare that is deducted from the employee's paycheck, every paycheck. But the employee is not the only one that pays FICA tax. The employer, being the city of West Miami, also pays FICA. The IRS actually offers an incentive or reimburses a portion of the FICA tax for those that participate in the CIMRP program. How much does the city of Miami save? $52,477 per year. How much do the employees save? As an aggregate, the total of all the employees per year is $104,124. If you break that down per employee, their take-home pay increases almost $100, $97.50 per month per employee. What you're actually doing when you're implementing this plan is giving your employees a raise. How is this done is the savings is actually processed through the payroll process, each paycheck. And it's managed by EHP in conjunction with ADP because ADP is a city's payroll service company, which means that there is no additional resources that are required by the city to manage the reimbursement process. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever thought about how much you pay in copay for doctor's visits, and prescription medication. What if you didn't have to pay that? I think my daughter threw in that little bleeping thing. So with this plan, there's actually no cost and no copay. You have 24-7, 365 days a year access to certified doctors from primary care, urgent care, and mental health care professionals. There's also a smoking cessation and weight loss health program with GLP-1 medication and wholesale pricing. I highlighted the prescription drug program. There's because there's no copay with over a thousand medications that are available and also a pharmacy discount card. Uh, you can actually see how a medication that's prescribed by other healthcare providers that are actually in the, the, the, the main healthcare plan. What that means is I can tell you, I saved $65 last month from this. It gets better. The employee, spouse, and five dependents, a family of seven, have access to these benefits. I'm going to tell just a brief story to sum all this up. This is about an employee named Joe. Joe told me that he had flu-like symptoms in the middle of the night. Couldn't sleep, achy body, sore throat, congestion, fever. He said at 4 o'clock in the morning, he got on his phone and asked for an appointment with a doctor. Within minutes, he was talking to an urgent care physician. After the assessment or consultation, the doctor prescribed antibiotics that were sent to a 24-hour pharmacy near Joe's home. On his way to work, Joe picked up the medication and was quickly able to start the process to feeling better by taking antibiotics. How much did this cost Joe? Absolutely nothing. No copay for the doctor's visit, no copay for the medication, and an intrinsic benefit for the employer because he went to work. Summary, we save money, both the employer and the employee through the FICA tax savings and the no copay or no cost for the healthcare wellness benefits and also the prescription drug program. It enhances employee health care benefits. It actually improves morale and productivity. It also reduces the amount of sick days that an employee may take and also workplace accidents. And finally, I'm just going to reiterate there is actually no disruption or change to the current health insurance plan coverage or carrier. That concludes my presentation. However, I'll show my pretty face again so everybody knows I am a financial advisor. I actually do a lot of private consultations, but I also work with groups. I actually look at the tax consequences of financial decisions, as I used to do tax. There's very few financial advisors that do that, and also help people make sound financial decisions with their money. So I'm here to serve. I'm here to help. God bless you, and I do appreciate your time.

Thank you. And just to sum up some of this stuff. So when we sat down on this initially, um, you know, I, I understood it pretty quickly, but just to sum up, make sure from this, from the city's perspective, there is no new costs, correct? Correct. Perfect. The city keeps more money that it would otherwise pay out in FICA, uh, taxes, every, every payroll. Correct. Correct. the employees make keep more of their money every payroll correct the employees get added health and wellness benefits for free correct and then the administrator which in this case EHP obviously is taking a portion of what we would have paid to in FICA as part of administration of the program that's correct all right pretty simple any questions

Go ahead. So who does HP do they partner up with our insurance coverage of choice for the urgent care for the telehealth platform?

So Revive offers, I'm sorry, did you finish your question? No, no. My apologies. So Revive is the actual health care company that provides those services. So EHP manages the FICA tax reimbursement program, everything, compliance and everything. So they're the manager, and then Revive offers all the services for the health care component. Okay. However, they have to work in conjunction. You can't just take the FICA tax savings reimbursement without having the health care component. This is a very innovative way of health care. It's actually designed to drive down health care. Because imagine if it's like you have your health care here, and then you have an umbrella sitting over it, which is the SIMR, the additional health care benefits. And if you can drive more traffic to the supplemental health care, you're going to drive down costs here, which you can go back and negotiate the following year after that with your health insurance company. So that's the foundation of this as proposed by the federal government as an incentive to drive down health costs.

So essentially, there is no way to take advantage of the SIMRP savings for employees or employers without that administration level of that health care provider, right? That is correct. Okay.

Sorry, so follow up. So we're partnered up with HP who helps with the management of revive as a healthcare company. If we have issues with revive that they're not following through, they're not giving us timely consultations. Maybe they're not following through with a referral for a specialist or a medication. Who do we seek to help mitigate those things? Is it HP?

That would be revive. Let me just clarify something. So if an employee actually needs to physically visit a physician or a scans or blood work or whatever, they have to go under their traditional health insurance plan. Not, not revive. Okay. Not the summer of the summer up is for, for a quick, immediate response. There is one requirement for compliance. Every employee has to meet with a primary physician through revive one time per year.

Tele on telephone, telephone. That's it. Yep.

Okay.

If they want to take advantage of their benefits, right? So we, like for example, us as a city, we don't have to babysit making sure that every employee sets up that meeting, right? If they do not set up that meeting, that employee is not factored in as part of the program, right?

So they will be a part of the program. That's what EHP's job is because they can see who visits, who doesn't visit. So they'll be reaching out to employees like, hey, you know, it'd be good to visit a doctor, annual review, nothing wrong with that. Stay healthy.

Right. But I'm saying is it doesn't it a single employee deciding that he or she does not want to partake in and set up that one, you know, three minute call, right? That doesn't hurt our program on a general scale, right?

No, sir. Okay. And then an employee can opt out. But what employee would opt out of getting additional compensation?

As long as at least 25 employees are part of it.

Or more, yes.

I mean, as the mayor stated, there's a ton of great benefits. As long as there's no catch, it seems like a no-brainer.

Well, I mean, that's where my concerns are, that I just want to make sure that there's compliance and that we're being able to manage revive if they're not holding their part of the bargain, because this is a great benefit for our employees and for our staff. But I'm a health care executive. Sorry. So I've seen this before, you know, where they offer a great program and then they don't deliver and then. We have our staff that was promised great services, and now they're not getting it, but we still already paid all the money.

If there's a formal complaint.

No, no. I'm just saying future.

If there's a formal complaint, I would also want to know.

Okay.

Okay?

All right. Thank you.

Because my name is behind this, too.

and your face as we thank you all right can we anything else I had one brief question um just in case because everything that sounds too good to be true sometimes is although I think this is a great system um my only question is this partnership agreement is that for a certain period of time what how long are we committing to can we opt out of the city we decide to I'm just wondering there's a release valve do you want me to answer that

Okay, so there is a, the city attorney should have the agreement, but there is a clause in there, you can opt out for any reason. There are certain time periods where you can't, which is around the time where it's going to renew. But other than that, you can opt out for any reason as an organization. So there is no time frame. There's no time commitment. It's not like a cell phone contract. Okay.

Thank you. Any questions, concerns, motions, other things? Motion. We have a motion. Okay. Second. We have a motion. We have a second by Commissioner Ceballos was louder. Commissioner Ceballos. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none. Next item, please. Let's go back to the order of the agenda. Thank you, Dan. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Going back to the original order with item 11 D. This is a second reading and a public hearing. An ordinance of the city of West Miami, Florida, establishing regulations for parkway improvement within public rights of way in areas without curbs, providing for permitted permeable materials, providing for engineer approval and parking limitations, providing that such improvements constitute a revocable license, providing for maintenance and liability, providing for codification, severability, and an effective date. This is a public hearing. Okay.

Public hearing is now open on this item. Anyone who wishes to speak on item D, this is your opportunity. Seeing none, public hearing is closed. Back to the board. All right, what changes have been made to this item, if any? Mercy, I don't know if you want to come up.

Good evening again, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission staff. So minor changes were very non-substantive revisions for clarification and consistency. Some of the revisions include clarification of the terminology throughout the ordinance, changing the word swale to parkway. minor grammatical formatting and typographical corrections, clarification of the definition and code references. The definitions, because this ordinance was previously codified in the code, the definitions are seen in the back. I think you'll see them in blue. Other revisions requested during the first reading, a discussion that do not change the intent of the policy of this ordinance. We're still going to make sure that the parkway improvements remain permeable. All improvements will receive city permit approval before installation. Property owners are going to be responsible for the installation and the maintenance. The city and utility providers retain full access to the right of way at all times, and property owners will be executing and recording a hold harmless agreement and covenant running with the land as a condition for the approval.

Okay, two questions before we dig into this ordinance. And what impact does the new and there might be a couple of bills that are now law that better play but the one I'm familiar with is the ordinance is the Florida the Florida statute now that deals with owner builder $7,500 thresholds not needing permits. I think some of what we're doing here is kind of contingent on that they would come in for a permit.

Right. So from my understanding, that statute is for building construction to the residential home, if I'm not mistaken.

What are we suggesting here? That it's public land? And that's distinguishing?

These swales is on public lands. But on top of that, even with the $7,500 restriction, we will be asking for them to come in and pull a planning permit. As an example, if you're doing a fence that's less than $7,500, we're still going to ask the residents to come in and do a permit application through the planning department just to make sure it's on the right-of-way line and not impeding on somebody's property.

And we looked at that bill to make sure that that would, that we feel comfortable that would be, okay.

We will look at it some more, Mayor, but yes, we feel that that first interpretation is correct.

It was confirmed with our building official. Yes. Okay.

And then the other question, just before we dig into it, is should we have any issues with the ordinance and need to make amendments, changes, or cancel completely? Is there anything that I'm missing that would vest people that didn't submit applications and any sort of rights to... to be able to do this? I mean, I just want to make sure that... No. Okay.

Actually, an interesting point about government permits is that you can have a permit issued and work begun, and they realize they made a mistake, and that permit's no good. I mean, government is not bound by its permits, interestingly enough.

All right. Let's, uh, let's, let's dig in for whoever wants to start off from the commission. Any, any volunteers?

Mayor, if I may, if I may, there is one thing that was brought up by commissioner Torreganza about, um, enforcement we would like to add not into the order itself but into the covenant and hold harmless a section that will state the following the standard water evaluation the presence of standing water within a swell should not by itself constitute a code violation a swell is intended to temporarily temporarily retain and convey storm water following a rainfall event. Standing water that remains for more than 36 hours after the end of a normal rainfall event may indicate that the soil is not functioning as intended. In determining whether a violation exists, the inspector and city engineer shall consider the amount and duration of the rainfall, soil saturation, groundwater conditions, and any other factors that may reasonably affect the drainage. A code violation may be issued if it's determined that the soil has been altered, obstructed, improperly maintained, or is otherwise incapable of performing its intended drainage function, resulting in a standing water beyond the 36-hour period or causing flooding, ponding, or adverse impacts to adjacent properties or the public right-of-way. That basically states that the only time that this would become an issue if it affects drainage.

Okay. All right. To the board. Anything?

uh just going over the few options here i see that turf is an option i think the mayor somebody mentioned it prior there's different qualities of turf some look like rugs some don't look very great so to make sure that we that the intent of this is going to be utilized by the resident there's no way to circumvent it with super cheap turf for example another thing another concern is with the grass creed if we're going to allow for the grass in between that's something that we do have to police because the moment that that comes out, let's say if it's natural grass and it dies, it just looks like a slab of concrete along our soils, which isn't going to look great when it's all said and done. Additionally, the word was changed from soil to parkway. What was the thought process there? And you can describe the difference because I feel that swale is what a lot of us have in front of our homes versus parkway.

GOOD EVENING. THE REASON FOR THE CHANGE IN THE LANGUAGE IS THAT WE USE SWALE AND A LOT OF OTHER PLACES IN THE CODE TO MEAN SPECIFICALLY THE PARKWAY BUT THE PART OF THE PARKWAY THAT FUNCTIONS FOR DRAINAGE. SO WE WANTED TO JUST SEPARATE THE WORDS SO THAT WE DON'T INTERFERE WITH ANOTHER AREA OF THE CODE. IT WAS THAT SIMPLE.

So if we wanted to improve the piece of grass between the sidewalk and the street in front of a residential home, that would be a parkway. That would be the parkway. Okay. And then the last concern I have, it's not really a concern. It's a great presentation, great options along, along 16th street and along 62nd Avenue. I think we have to be careful. We allow there, especially 16th street has a very large parkway slash soil. So I think in those areas we have to be careful, especially with future potential projects coming.

The intent of this ordinance is for the majority of the city that doesn't have curbing. So if 62 Avenue has their curb, this is not going to be an option for them. This is intended for the residents that don't have a curb, which is mainly, I would say, the east side of the city and then parts of the south side, you know.

But I believe, hold on, if I'm not mistaken, you said 16th Street.

And 16th is a concern with how large their parkways are.

Does 16th have a curb? There's no curb there. There's no curb on 16th. And I think the concern that Vice Mayor has is I know while we still need to take it to public hearings and that nature, we do have grants. that are intended to go towards the bikeway, pedestrian and bikeway on 16th, which would in theory cut in some of the swell, which obviously we don't want a situation where people are investing money and then

one thing that I have a mental note that I will promise not to forget is when these permits begin to come in if I see a street where I feel that there will be a future city project I will take that into consideration speak to the manager and go from there before I approve or allow them to

So we do not have to issue that. I'm just clarifying. I don't want to come back after and say this owner had a right to do this under this ordinance. We are able to reject that permit without this ordinance will not vest rights to the applicant.

It certainly will not on government property. Okay. And I don't believe, as I understand the configuration, that there's enough private property to be of concern. Right.

The ordinance also contains the city's right to rescind the ability to park your car on the parkway. That was put in there.

rescind the ability to park your car, right, right, which is not our intention on 16th. Regardless, right, because they have such a large Parkway, the intention would only be to eat into a portion of it should to be cool with that plan. But I mean, so if our only option is to rescind parking, that would be obviously a very dramatic.

But I'm saying it is an option for the city if there's a safety concern. For example, if you did implement a bike lane along 16th Street, which doesn't mean you have to do that. We often have parking on the outside of bike lanes. Right. We don't like it always, but we do. You would still have the authority to, in a sense, revoke that permit. OK.

So we feel comfortable, right? I just want to clarify because I don't, we feel comfortable that under this ordinance, we will be able to manage somebody coming on 16th street or anywhere else where we have a city plan project and not have them pull a permit and not have the best rights. Right.

That's mayor. If you can give me one second, I would rather put some language in here. Yep. Just to cover all our bases. I think so. One second, please.

Okay.

Mayor, if I may, on Section 4, permission to use the public right-of-way. It states, approve the parkway parking improvement of this ordinance, constitutes permission from the city to install and maintain such improvements within the public right-of-way, such that the permission does not grant ownership of any property rights, does not grant exclusive use of the area, may be revoked by the city at any time that the parkway shall remain public property under the full control of the city. I would like to add to here, Southwest 16th street, South, um, Southwest 16th, 62nd Avenue, and any street that has a curb shall be excluded from this program. Okay. That way we've just covered ourselves.

Yes. All right.

Go ahead. I think that's great. Cause the intent behind this is to improve swales for parking. If you have a curb, you're not parking on the Swift. So that meets my concerns.

And it also excludes 16th and 62nd. Correct. Go ahead.

So Vice Mayor Chavez brought up a great point and the maintenance of the green. I thought that in our first discussion that we were talking about a certain percentage just to make sure that it doesn't get the city parkways or swales don't get graveled out and then we become concrete city instead of the green city that we're trying to build. So I just wanted to see if there's language that we could propose to.

Again, my proposal for that would be to put that into the covenant and not to the ordinance itself. And in the government, we'd say if Grass Creek is used and more than 50% of the grass or gravel that's being used in the Grass Creek has deteriorated to a point that it's no longer visually pleasing, that will lead to a code violation.

And in the renderings here, there's hedges around the gravel examples. Those hedges are required additional greenery from what I understand.

That is correct. Those will be required, sir. That was one of the requests that we had at the last meeting from the board.

Right. Yeah, that would address multiple residents having gravel back to back and there's green breaking it up.

it's up to administration and staff to restrict multiple houses in a row.

Okay. I think ultimately, no matter how long we debate this, we are, at some point, hopefully for just a minor reason. Right. But at some point going to have to go and make an amendment to the ordinance. Right. Just in practice. Um, it's not like people have not installed these things themselves without a permit, you know, before. Right. So, um, you know, we have to, we have to put a process that protects the city's aesthetics and protects the neighbors and their property values. Um, So let's just try to get as good of an outcome here that hopefully helps residents, doesn't damage their neighbors. And if and when we have to make minor amendments, we will. On that note, does anyone have any other questions?

questions on details or anything on this go ahead one quick question uh mr manager you you mentioned that if a resident wanted to do the gravel on the parkway at both ends he would have to have a green a green area right at both ends he would need to have a i think it was three foot section of green areas and if it's gravel it's got to have a concrete ribbon around it at a minimum So that will actually add some green. That's, that's correct.

Just so it's not a complete street of gravel. Yeah. Okay.

All right. Is there anything on this? You're good. All right. Um, Motion. Second. We have a motion. Hold on. We made amendments, correct? Yes. Hold on, hold on, hold on. The public hearing is still open on this. Did I ever open the public hearing?

Yes, it's still open.

Not anymore. Public hearing is closed. All right, go ahead. Make a motion. Motion as amended. Motion as amended. Second. We have a second. Call the roll.

Yes, commissioner to that of the guns, yes, commissioners, the values, yes, commission of the line is yes, commissioner Chavez, junior, yes, may idea for drone, yes, 5, 0, I didn't pass it.

Thank you. Next item, item G, I believe we go to item G.

This is a first reading and ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of West Miami, Florida, amending Chapter 5, Article 9 of the Code of Ordinances relating to certificates of use, repealing and replacing Ordinance Number 9304, establishing definitions, updating certificate of use application, issuances, inspection, renewal, enforcement, and appeal procedures, revising certificate of use, and residential Accessory use certificate fees providing for repealer, codification, severability, repeal of conflicting ordinances, and an effective date. This is sponsored by administration.

Okay.

hello again so uh good evening mayor vice mayor commissioners tonight I'm presenting the proposed certificate of use ordinance for first reading the purpose of this ordinance is to modernize the city certificate of use program while preserving the city's long-standing tiered fee structure so the objective of this ordinance is to update a program that has served the city for many years while improving clarity administrative efficiency and consistency it also maintains our existing approach of charging different certificate of use fees based on the type of the type and size of the business rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all fee So why update the ordinance? So just a little background, the current certificate of use ordinance was adopted in 1993 while it has served the city. Well, it hasn't been comprehensively updated in over 30 years. This ordinance modernizes administrative procedures without changing the overall purpose of the certificate of use program. Some key improvements. Some of the major improvements include adding clear definitions to the ordinance, clarifying when a certificate of use is required. Updating application review issuance renewal suspension revocation and appeal procedures Clarifying that certificate of use are personal to the business and are not transferable establishing clear administrative authority and inspection procedures overall these updates improve consistency efficiency and enforcement and The fee schedule updates. Another component of this ordinance is updating the certificate of use fee schedule. The proposed fees better reflect today's administrative review and inspection costs while continuing the use of the city's existing tiered structure. The ordinance also establishes inspection fees that do not currently exist under the 1993 ordinance. That's one thing that I was looking to implement. So whenever there's a new business starting in the city, we would have an initial inspection fee. If it needs to get reinspected because they're not ready to operate with that use, there'll be a reinspection fee of $50. And if they need it as soon as possible, there'll be an expedited inspection fee. Fee comparison, so this is a table of the inspection types and the fees. These fees were not currently in the current ordinance from 1993. uh fee comparison so i checked our neighboring cities uh that is our competition city of corey gable south miami city of miami and also checked with smaller cities city of village of el portal and town of medley the majority of these cities i noticed upon my research is that they do have a flat fee schedule common sense tells me With the amount of commercial businesses that they have, for example, City of Miami, it's easy to just establish a flat fee. With the City of West Miami only having the commercial businesses in our city perimeter, it's best to go with the tiered fee schedule. Reason being, it's not... fair to have a small office of 500 square feet have the same rate as a 220 unit apartment building. So the tiered fee structure as mentioned, a small office generally requires much less staff review than an apartment complex, even a restaurant or a school, and also a medical facility recommendations so in summary the ordinance does repeal this new ordinance will repeal and replace ordinance 93-04 it's going to modernize the city certificate of use program improve administrative procedures and updates the fee schedule while preserving the city's long-standing tiered approach staff is recommending approval of the proposed ordinance on first reading And if you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer.

Thank you. This is the first reading. Does anyone have anything unique they want to bring up on this heading hopefully to a second reading?

Well, it's been 30 years, so I think it needed to be redone.

I think there's a lot of ordinances in the back there, probably business licenses, one you should look at next.

That was the next goal, but there is a Florida statute, so with the fiscal year fastly approaching, I wanted to start with this one first. No, I agree with you.

The business license one just has some very... Nasty words in it even. So, all right. Motion. We have a motion. Second. We have a second. Call the roll, please.

Commissioner Ceballos, how do you vote? Commissioner De La Torre, Gans. Yes. Commissioner Blanes. Yes. Vice Mayor Chavez, Jr. Yes. Mayor Diaz-Padron.

Yes.

Five-zero. Item passes on first reading and public hearing will be advertised for August 5th, 2026 at 6 p.m.

Thank you. Next item, please.

Next item, item H, first reading, an ordinance of the Mayor and City Commission of the City of West Miami, Florida, creating regulations for mobile food service vendors, providing for purpose and intent, providing for definitions, establishing permit requirements and fees, providing for regulations for mobile food service vendors, establishing classification of vehicle types. regulating safety, operational standards, documentation, location hours, and enforcement, providing for serverability and providing an effective date, sponsored by administration.

This is the first reading, Mr. Manager. I know we spoke with some statutes that we have to interplay with.

We have to follow some state statutes, and we are also trying to codify this so that we can allow it. I mean, if you want to hear from staff real quick, they can talk about it a little bit.

WE HAVE A PRESENTATION IF YOU WANT TO HEAR IT. WE DO HAVE A STATE STATUTE THAT REQUIRES THAT A CITY CANNOT NOT PERMIT FOOD TRUCKS OR FOOD SERVICE VEHICLES OF ANY SORT. THE STATE STATUTE ALSO CATEGORIZES THEM INTO DIFFERENT CLASSES. THAT'S WHAT WE'LL GO THROUGH IN THE PRESENTATION. BASICALLY IT'S TRUCKS THAT MOVE AROUND AND DO A ROUTE. WHAT YOU WOULD COMMONLY SEE AT CONSTRUCTION SITES. THERE ARE THE TRUCKS THAT USUALLY WILL STAY IN ONE SPOT FOR THE WHOLE DAY OR FOR LONGER THAN THAT. TRAILERS, SAME OPERATION, THEY STAY IN ONE SPOT. AND THEN THE STATE ALSO DIVIDES OUT THE PUSH CARTS THAT ARE NOT MOTORIZED OR THEY MAY BE MOTORIZED BUT THEY'RE NOT ROAD VEHICLES. AND WE DID ADD ANOTHER CLASS FOR A TYPE OF TRUCK, THE ICE CREAM TRUCK, WHICH WAS ONE THAT DOES A ROUTE, BUT IT MAY GO THROUGH THE RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD. WE CAME TO THE PLANNING BOARD ON JUNE 24TH WITH A FAIRLY LIBERAL SET OF RECOMMENDATIONS, AND THE PLANNING BOARD HELPED US NARROW THAT DOWN TO WHAT THEY WOULD FIND APPROPRIATE. WE HAVE DEVELOPED A SORT OF WHERE AND WHEN SET OF REGULATIONS, TO SUMMARIZE IT VERY QUICKLY. AND ESSENTIALLY WE'VE BOILED IT DOWN TO BASED ON THE PLANNING BOARD, THEY WOULD BE OPEN TO SEEING THIS AS SOMETHING THAT'S ALLOWED IN ALL OF THE COMMERCIAL AREAS ON SITE, NOT ON THE RIGHT-OF-WAY. SO AND THIS IS A TYPICAL instance that we see them. We already have one on 67th Avenue at the Casa Cultura. There's a burger truck there. We think that's a very appropriate location and it's something that does stimulate some activity. Most people like it. It also is something that helps the existing businesses to reestablish themselves if they need to do it or they just have another use that they can use during their off hours. IN REGULATING THAT, WE HAVE NOT PUT IN REGULATIONS FOR THINGS LIKE PARKING BECAUSE WE THINK IT'S AN ANCILLARY USE AND WE WOULD RATHER LET THE PROPERTY OWNER WORK THROUGH THAT. WE CAN EASILY OVERREGULATE THESE AND PRETTY MUCH KILL THEM. THE BOARD ALSO SAID THAT THEY WERE NOT INTERESTED IN SOME OF THE RESIDENTIAL AREAS EXCEPT FOR THAT WE WOULD ALLOW A lot of people like to have a party for their children or a party for themselves, and they may have a food truck at the party. West Miami is challenging because it's very small lots, but we've written regulations that if you do that, it will not be on the swale that we've talked about so much. It will not be in the street. It'll be on your driveway and nowhere else, which means most houses could fit one type of truck. That will be allowed only for one day. It's a special event kind of thing. For parks, schools, all the civics areas, it would be by special event permit. There is a place where we would expect with some special event, there could be multiple food trucks, but they would all be on site. They have to be in legal parking spaces. There's a lot of regulations in there for safety that says where they have to be, not near a fire hydrant, not near signs, etc. And overall, the planning board advised us they were not interested in having anything except the ice cream truck on the right-of-way. So that's the quick version of that. Times of operation would be 9 to 7. Is that what we had? Yeah. 9 a.m to 7 that includes setup time and breakdown time again that's mostly to protect residential the residences who are always very near to the commercial establishments and pretty much that's it we would have a local business tax for a truck for anyone that has more than six months in one spot because now it's an actual more or less stationary business otherwise we would not require that the rest is by special event permits and the Special event permits will have additional regulations that staff will give for where the truck may be, if it's a park, if it's a special event that we have, we permit it, and so forth. So bottom line, other than our own special events and special events, somebody's driveway for a residential party or on the commercial sites.

Okay. Vice Mayor? Yes. This would be more for a second reading, but you mentioned nine to seven. I think we would like to discuss that time, but then for parks, you mentioned special event, Mr. Manager, I know in the future we've discussed potentially having permanent food truck type items, maybe at the rec or a Cooper park. Would we have to add that into this?

We can, we basically are exempt from this.

We can, you're the government.

And that will be something that we're working with. We've been working with commissioner. but with all commission to try to do a food truck event that we will have at least once a month, and that will be coming forward soon to the commission. But we will be able to do that, and this is basically strictly regulating mostly private entities and a resident. If a resident wants to have a nice shaving truck for their birthday party, this is saying you can have it, but this is where.

I agree with the Vice Mayor. We'll look at the time before second reading. I know the only food truck that I know of is Casa Cultura, and I think that the regulations would kind of regulate them out of business on the burger side, for example, which I think has been pretty popular. So we'll take a look at it before second reading. All right. Anything else unique to bring up before? All right. Can we get a motion? Motion. Motion. Second. Second. Call the roll.

Commissioners values Yes, Commissioner did after the guns. Yes, Commissioner Blahnik. Yes, vice mayor Chavez jr. Yes, mayor. Yes, but Ron. Yes by zero item passes on first reading and public hearing will be advertised for August 5th 2026 at 6 p.m.

Thank you next item

Item I resolution of the city of West Miami, Florida, determining the proposed millage rate for fiscal year 2026 2027, setting the date, time and place for the public hearings required by state law, directing staff to transmit necessary documentation pursuant to the requirements of Florida statues and the rules and regulations of the Department of Revenue of the state of Florida and providing for an effective date.

Mr. Manager.

This is setting our maximum millage rate for the upcoming year. And we're proud. We're, we're pleased to be able to say that we're recommending the same exact rate we have right now of 5.7, seven, um, 4.7, seven. So city of West Miami and one millage is for the parks board, but it's a combined total of 5.7, seven, no change from our current rate right now. And that's obviously our maximum.

That's the maximum rate. You can go down, but you can't go up. Obviously, we'll be doing our budget reduction exercises as required by state statute and as we wait for what will be a pretty significant vote coming November. Any questions on this? Concerns? Comments? Motions motion. We have a motion. Okay. We have a motion or a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none. Item passes. Next item, please.

Item 11J, a resolution of Mayor and City Commission of the City of West Miami, Florida authorizing and directing the City Manager to negotiate and purchase a bus for municipal purposes. Authorizing the City Manager to negotiate, procure, and execute financing for the acquisition of the bus. Authorizing the City Manager to designate a designee or exercise the authority granted herein. Authorizing the execution of all necessary documents, providing for surveillance, providing for conflict, and providing for an effective date.

Mr. Manager?

Yes, mayor. We are our, um, parks department, our parks directors here, and you can attest to this. Our, our bus, our current buses, 1997 bus that unfortunately we have spent a lot of money in trying to make it survive a few more years, but it's just not working. The way we have to get it started now is we have to jumpstart it every single day. Our mechanic has to go out there and jumpstart it. The air conditioner is not working. There's a short in the electrical system. in short it's just become a hazard for us to continue to operate it we have found a 2025 bus that's got um a slightly bigger capacity is 32 32 seats um for a price of two hundred thousand dollars and we're cons we would like approval for this so that we can pay for it it's a five-year loan at thirty nine hundred and sixty dollars a month obviously we can pay it off beforehand if we if we so choose to and that is something that we'll work forward to but it's something that we need to have it'll give us an additional bus and allow our children and our senior center because the senior center might need to use it as well whoever needs a bigger capacity will get it but at least it'll give us two new buses for both the senior center for our rec okay do we have any number on how much the maintenance has cost i know we're jumping it every day but it's up there right and then how much we're spending on rent to rent additional buses at the moment well some of the buses we rented it's also continuing on the size of the field trip we might need to rent them anyway in the future anyway but this is a bigger capacity than what we have i don't have a number vice mayor on what we spend i know that we spent On one of the air conditioning things, we exceeded, I think it was over $30,000 in trying to fix it. Yeah. And it's just not worth it. It's just a very old bus. It's just not worth it.

Right. So getting a new bus is the only option at this point.

We believe so. That's why we're recommending it.

I'm shocked that parents haven't come in to commission meetings, frankly, or emailed on this that much. I mean, I think the kids are just, they don't complain as much as adults do, I guess. Right.

uh yeah the bus is an embarrassment I've been hearing from a parks director though yeah I do want to give a shout out to him as well he's here uh you might have the numbers on how many additional kids we have during the summer compared to years past how much more revenue is coming in because of that so 200 000 is a large number but there's ways that we're going to eat into that with additional revenue that the wreck is bringing in

Good evening, everyone. Yeah, the bus is pretty bad this summer. We're up to about $20,000 a week that we're collecting. There's like 30 kids more per week on average. It slowed down a little bit now, but.

Yeah. Yeah, and that bus, I mean, there's you know, I don't, there's any debating whether that bus should be replaced. So, um, I'm glad that the item came already. So, um, any other questions from, from your side, your side, your side, your side, we get a new bus, anything. All right.

Motion.

Second motion. We have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against hearing? None. Next item please.

Item 11L, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of West Miami, Floyd, approving the criminal justice non-terminal user authorization agreement between the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office and the City of West Miami, authorizing the City Manager to execute the agreement, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Mr. Manager?

This is a, the usual agreements that we have to authorize between the Miami Dade Sheriff's office and us is for the crisp criminal justice information system that we use in conjunction with them. And this is just something that we have to do on an annual basis. Housekeeping housekeeping motion.

Second. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. And against hearing none. I had to pass this next item.

Item 11M, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of West Miami, Florida, approving the recommendation of the Office of the City Manager to engage UnitedHealthcare directly as the city's health insurance provider and to procure ancillary insurance coverage for basic life, supplemental life, short-term disability, dental and vision through United healthcare and or its partners effective September 1st, 2026 authorizing the city manager or he's designated to execute all necessary contracts and documentation authorizing and directing the city manager or he's designated to terminate the city's existing policies with Florida blue and the related ancillary policies and the city's health insurance brokerage agreement with Brown and Brown and providing for an effective date.

Mr. Manager. Yes, mayor. Um, this will allow us to offer an insurance policy that's better than the one we currently have. It will allow us to keep our insurance rate for next year basically flat, which is a very good thing considering the period that we're going into. It'll keep our costs down and we've had a series of issues. with our current broker that have just not worked out. So this will just make us directly responsible for insurance. United health is offering a better plan than what we currently have at a substantial savings to the city.

Yeah. I mean, I, I agree. Um, I'll motion.

So we have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, item passes. Does anyone need to pull the consent item? If not, one item. Does anyone need to pull it? We'll save the clerk reading. Go ahead.

No, no, it's not on the consent, Mayor. I forgot to say when we were doing the millage rate, I would request a meeting for August the 5th for a budget hearing, and that's when we can bring back some of these items that need to come back as well, if that's okay. That's the first Wednesday in August. I would like to see if that's possible with the commission, please.

I will be out of town.

We have two. You're losing members.

How about August? When will you all be back? Would August the 12th work?

I'll fly back August 12th. I don't know the time, but I'll text you later on.

How about the 13th of August, which is a Thursday? I sound like I'm doing, hold on.

You might've, you might've lost me here.

Another issue is that we've, uh, we've already announced, uh, the public hearings, which to be advertised on for August 5th. Well, you can change that. Okay.

No, I'm here. I'm here.

Um, what August the 13th work for the commission?

That's a Monday. No, I'm sorry. Thursday. Thursday.

I'm here. That works. August the 13th. You're good? Good? I can make all those days work. Okay. All right. You got your motion orders there. Can we get a motion on consent?

Motion.

We have a motion. Second, all in favor say aye. Aye.

And then, Mr. Chairman, just for the record, as the clerk pointed out, could we have a motion that all references to the next meeting on August 5th are to be replaced with August?

13.

13. Just one motion we'll make.

This is for the second readings of the first readings we passed today. Can we get that motion? Motion. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any against? Hearing none, item passes. Good of the order. Anyone for good of the order? Go ahead, Commissioner.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to bring up some things. I want to thank the residents that participated in the CERT program, our Community Emergency Response Team. I think it's a wonderful thing to have residents involved in this program. In case of an emergency like a hurricane, most likely they'll be able to help the needy, the elderly and the young. So I really want to congratulate the residents that volunteer to participate in this program. Also, I want to thank your leadership, Mr. Mayor, and yours, Mr. City Manager. We've had so many community events occurring. We had the Zumba event. We had over 100 people. They participated at the multi-generational building, and they were raising funds for our brothers and sisters in Venezuela. We also had the... a party just yesterday that I missed, the watch party for the soccer world event. There was entertainment, there was food, and hundreds of kids again. I know we had another event. I can't think of it. But anyways, we've just had so many wonderful things happening in our city. And that's what makes community. That's what brings a community and neighbors getting to know each other. I also want to bring something up. On June 11th, I had a call from an elderly resident. She had an emergency. She had a major leak in her utility room. It was in the middle of the afternoon, so I went over there and sure enough, a pipe had burst. I didn't know who to call. I call my dear friend Frank Caceres. Frank Caceres is a very, very good handyman, and I pleaded with him, and I asked him to come and help out. And Frank came, and he came with all his tools, and he spent about three hours fixing these pipes that had broken. You know, a plumber would have charged an arm and a leg for this. Frank did not charge anything. as a favor to the resident. Like I say, she's the longest, she's actually the longest residing resident. But anyways, he came through and let me tell you, I can't thank him enough, and I wanted to publicly, you know, bring all of us to that attention. He is a wonderful, wonderful person and a good friend. I read something the other day, and I thought it kind of struck me. It says, I think politics has made us crazy. Everybody in this country has lost their minds. on politics. And we have forgotten that America isn't a government. America isn't a president. America isn't a Congress. Let me tell you what America is. America is your family. America is your faith. America is your community. And these are words spoken by our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. I think he would be very proud of what we're doing here and what we've accomplished here. I know that he sat right there where our vice mayor sits. So with that said, I'm very proud of what we're doing here. And again, thank you, my colleagues and the administration. I know that every single resident I talked to is very, very happy with what's happening, what they see. So, and I'm very happy.

So thank you. Thank you, commissioner. Yes, vice mayor.

So I made a mistake. I fly back on the 11th, and I work on the 13th. Can we do the 12th? I know that August 12th was the original date, Wednesday.

Did somebody else have an issue on the 12th? Was it you? I have a conflict, but... Is it a real conflict? Because we have a date already, so it's not...

This will be... I'll take this meeting over that meeting.

Cause I'm on shift the 13th. It's a, it's an adjustable conflict. Okay. Uh, priorities. Okay.

So, so August 12th.

Yeah. But if we, if we, if we do this, we have to do one amendment, do one little amendment again. All right. Are we good on the 12th? Did you, would you rather the 12th or you rather the 13th? The 12th is a Wednesday.

Administration is fine with either day.

Okay. Then the board 12th, 13th speak now.

I'll bring Pastelitos to say sorry.

You know, I did read somewhere that... Oh, you work on the 13th?

I work on the 13th. And I fly back the 11th. I thought I was flying back the 12th.

I read somewhere where on August 12th, we're supposed to lose gravity for six seconds. Okay, well, that happens. We'll all be together here.

I was just starting to miss Luciano until Commissioner...

So, Mr. Attorney, could you read over that... Just change it over to the 12th.

And so everything, if you just agree that the prior motion that changed everything to the 13th now changes everything to the 12th.

Motion.

Motion.

Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. And by the way, my wife.

My wife is very proud of Marco, too, because you think his first political job was here, but before he was here as a commissioner, he was an intern in Ileana's office. So we claim his first political experience.

Can I get a motion to claim him?

Ex-Commissioner Suarez texted me to ask Commissioner Blantes to stop talking so much.

I'm taking over.

That was so beautiful.

By the way, we did see so many families, young people walking to the 4th of July event. I've never seen so many people on the streets walking to get to that event. It was beautiful to see so many people. Thank you for sharing.

And we're doing last little thank yous. Again, thank you, Vice Mayor, for your work in Venezuela, from our community. Thank you to George Chavez as well, a resident of ours, Chris Perez, a resident of ours, who also took the service to go and voluntarily do their service in Venezuela, helping in search and rescue. And Commissioner, thank you for leading up the Venezuela recovery efforts here in the city. So, With that, there's no more business on the agenda. This meeting is ended.