Hey everybody. out. That's Fire. Fire. I'm a Hey. Hey. Hey. Feel well feel well.
All night. I want you. What are you doing? Double data. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey, Heat.
Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Please take your seats. The meeting is about to begin. Remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record. Please stand by. We are going on air in
5 4 3 2 one. Good morning everybody. Uh we have a pretty full audience here and I'm sure there's a lot of people watching online. Uh special shout out as I just uh see you our former honorable mayor Mattie
Bower. But everybody welcome to our July 2025 finance and economic resiliency committee meeting. We have an absolutely packed agenda today. Um I don't know why because we just talked at our budget meeting that we have no more money to spend. So I think everybody can go home. I'll uh I'll cut the anticipation, but
it's been great and thank you for coming. Um I kid I kid. Uh but we are in the middle of a uh very robust and healthy uh budget process and discussion. We truly set some good wheels in motion uh last Friday for what is one of the most important things that
as elected officials we can do. setting our budget, setting our millage rates, um and uh that is uh process that's moving forward now. But here we find ourselves at the July 2025 uh FIK meeting. So why don't we go ahead and
get started. Mr. CFO, Mr. City Attorney, I'll hand it over to you all before we uh take our first um time certain. I welcome uh Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez is our uh third member. Uh as of now, you'll be a voting member. So welcome to the crew. Wonderful. Well, thank you guys for
having me this morning. All right, good morning. Today's meeting of the Finance and Economic Resilency Committee has been scheduled in a hybrid format with a quorum of the committee physically present and remaining members, staff, and members of the public appearing either in person or virtually via Zoom. In order to
participate in today's meeting virtually, members of the public may dial 1888-475-4499 and enter the webinar ID which is 8636059-5462 pound or log into the Zoom app and enter the webinar ID which again is
8636059-5462. Any individual wishing to speak on an item must click the raise hand icon if they are using the Zoom app or dial star9 if participating by phone. Thank you. Uh chair I do have a few
announcements. Uh MB11 is withdrawn. The following items are deferred. MB1, MB6, MB10, OB1, OB12 and MB15. The following two items will be linked if heard. OB1
and MB12 related to MDPL and OB8 and MB20 related to residential parking rates and a parking update. And we have four time certain for today. Uh first up is uh at 10:30 we have MB22.
Uh at 10:35 OB1 and MB12, 11 a.m. OB3 11:30 MB4. There's it chair. If you like I can read in the first uh time certain. Uh let's do that. And commissioner, I know this is uh something that's uh
important to you, so I'm glad you're here for this. And then if there's other items that you want to get to, uh we do that hopefully quickly, we can hear the NB22, but go ahead. Um yes, I wanted to make a motion to reconsider on I don't know what the number of the
item is or such. Um an item that we heard last time um about alcohol sales on the beach. Can Jason can you give me the number of that item just so that I have a tracking? Uh I not sure if we have that item on our
agenda. I have to So do we have to hear Do we have to if I make a motion to reconsider this item? How does that work? I just make the motion. Well, I believe you were here when the item was approved. Uh so you would make a motion to
reconsider, which I think you just did. Okay. And there's a reason why. Um, I wanted to get the best deal for the city and I pushed through this 25% revenue share, but they did a market study on this and they came back and they said it just doesn't work. So, instead they're
offering a $250,000 upfront payment, 18% of gross revenue up to 5 million, and 20% of revenue um after $5 million um um on this alcohol sales on the beach.
Now, I still think it's a pretty good terms. Okay, so the terms that they came up with because initially the city um I I suppose well that this is what the Buchets came back with. Okay, cuz it it's an amendment to their agreement. So, initially the city
had kind of negotiated a 15%. I went up to 25% cuz I said that's not enough, right? And so then what the compromise was was 18% up to 5 million and then 20% once we hit 5 million. And I believe
there's an upfront payment of 250,000. I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed. I wanted a higher percentage, but I mean, you know, listen, based on the projected revenue, it's definitely going to generate, you know, a decent amount of revenue. Was that minimum uh or the upfront payment
included in the previous discussion? No. No. So, they're offering an initial $250,000 upfront, I believe. And how I'm looking at this what I would envision, right? Uh because
we're not like a venture capital fund or private equity firm. Uh I'd rather burden the hand. Do we have any type of Is there anybody here represent? Okay, Ralph, I assume you're here on this.
So, we're getting an upfront payment and that'll come out of the revenue share. So, essentially, we're giving up some upside, but we have greater certainty for a guaranteed payment. Oh, I thought it was an upfront payment of $250,000 plus the revenue share with
this new percentage. It's uh 200 Excuse Well, good morning uh chair and members of the committee. It's 250,000 to be upfront to be applied towards future revenue share. What are you projecting overall sales in the first year?
Well, what it you know it's not going to happen overnight. Um but eventually we project over $10 million a year in sales. Okay. So this would be about roughly I mean if you look at the 18% up to 5 million and then over it's roughly $2 million a year. I don't know if you guys
would like to somehow earmark this revenue source for something in particular. Um when you say $10 million that's if it becomes more expansive or just in the pilot areas that we've talked about. So I'm I'm glad you brought that up
commissioner. That would be in Lumis Park. We we project a million dollars per block. There's nine mill there's nine blocks that we're working with in Lumis Park, I believe, from 5th to 14th. And then um we need 21st Street. I know it was limited initially to Lumis Park.
But the reason we need 21st Street is because in order to obtain the state license, we need a fixed premises. And the only fixed premises that we have under our agreement with the city is located at 21st Street. It's a concession building stand that's there. So we would also ask that um the the
program be extended to Lumis Park and with that excuse me to 21st Street Collins Park with that that would make not continuously we're just talking about Lumis Park and then the addition of correct and then the add right which would make 10 blocks and we project a million dollars in sales per block um
which gets us to 10 million and we that's conservative we hope it will be better than that eventually but what are we let me let me explain because I feel like Matty Bower is asking me what what is is what it is. Um, Mayor Bower is
right now you can only get um a drink on the beach if you're staying at a fancy oceanfront hotel where it's like $20. So, we wanted to add and we're trying a one-year pilot program to allow for alcohol sales in Lumis Park, which I
think is very competitive. When you look at the Miami River and you see the economic activity that's happening here and the upscale way that we're that they have shown us that they're going to do this, I don't think I I think it's it every other eur major European city. I
don't care if you go to Capri or San Trope or even on the beach, you know, in places in Long Island, you can um have a glass of wine on the beach. So, that is what this exploration is. And it's a one-year pilot program. if it's something that we don't like and it's
going to generate roughly $2 million for the city at a time when we had a huge donut hole in things that we wanted to fund. So, um I don't know if we earmark it for education or if we earmark it for you're looking upset if you want to.
I don't understand. Is it on the park side that you're referring? No, the on the beach. Only on the beach. On the beach. On the beach. So, it's already happening at the hotels and things like that. And this would expand it to the Lumis Park Beach. This is a new concept
if you would like Madame Mayor. Yeah. Um, I think it's so trying to figure out the logistics here. However, well, what you have right now is illegal sales happening up and down the beach. You've got people walking up and down the beach and they're selling cocktails and drinks and we're not making any
revenue on it. And it's not there and there's no regulation. This way, we're going to make the revenue. It will be controlled and it will be something that we can actually profit um off of. And but it's a one-year look, it's a one-year pilot program. I'm not opposed
to it because I've I've traveled far and wide and every place from Marba to Mayora to Bisa. I mean, it's this is this is what makes the beach experience uh fabulous. And right now, what you have are people marching up and down if
you were to go out to Lumis Park right now. Um and they're selling illegal drinks. So, we want to legalize it. And how are you going to control it? When you say you're gonna control it, how are you going to avoid that people get drunk on the beach?
And now you mean like rowdy behavior. That's why we're doing a behavior. Well, that's why we're doing a one-year pilot program. If we I think that we have spent the city you all a lot of time trying trying to clear Ocean Drive,
trying to make it safe for everybody, trying to avoid exactly what now is being proposed. And I would say you want to try it out,
give it three months, not a year. We could we could up to you. I'm not a commissioner anymore. Thank God. Commissioner, if you wanted to do if you felt if if Commissioner, if I might add one thing, we I I believe what we the discussions we've had with the city. We've a you
know, the city has requested that the city manager have the authority to suspend the program on 24 hours notice for a period of 60 days if he believes there's a problem. So, I think that would address any concerns that former mayor Bower has. Um, you should also
know that more and more beaches in Florida, there's about 10 now, are allowing alcohol sales. We talked about something very upscale. If we can, we talked about the merits of this last time. Right. Right. So, now, as I understand, the motion to reconsider is based on the
location, but then also the revenue share. Correct. Right. And if we're going to give up our upside, which you guys agreed to, right? So, if we're going to have a lower percentage, I need more guaranteed financials, right? Like I said, I we're
not a private equity shop, so I'm fine with giving up a little upside for more of a guarantee. And that can't just be a single year. If we're going to essentially lock into these percentages, we need a guarantee each and every year, not a one-time upfront payment that can
come from the revenue share, right? And I'm talking more to our city who's going to be negotiating this as much as I am to you. If we're essentially taking that revenue share from uh 25% to 20, whatever we're agreeing to, I need to make sure each and every year we have a
guaranteed minimum, right? You you can sit there and promise us oh uh uh 99% but if we don't have any sales that does me no good for our taxpayers right this is a revenue raising opportunity which we're direly in the need of
and if we're giving up upside don't need just a one-time upfront payment I need that each and every year that this is an operation that we have a minimum guaranteed amount that we're getting each and every year regardless of where your sales are. So, if you have $500,000 in sales and we're getting 20%, we still
get that $250,000 upfront. That is agreed. Uh, Mr. Chair. Okay. So, that is the guaranteed minimum. And at the end of one year, we can renegotiate the terms of this, too. One-year pilot program. Yeah.
I I'm I'm okay with it at the 20%. Commissioner Bot and I'm not voting on it anymore because uh Commissioner Suarez. Yeah, I'd like to hear what you guys have to say. I'm lukewarm on this. Uh overall, I've got reservations. Um I am willing to
give it a shot. I am very um appreciative of the fact that the city manager can suspend this at basically a moment's notice because I I share some of the concerns of former mayor Bower, but I am also cognizant that this is a a trend and it is something that upscale
beach towns offer around the world. So, I am willing to suspend my reservations to hopefully be proven very wrong about them. And I will be the first to be at the city manager's office saying it's time to to pull the plug on this if this goes out of control. Um, it's incumbent
on you guys to make sure that this goes well. I mean, you have basically a monopoly on the beachfront um and and the concessions therein and um you have a very embedded relationship with the city and um
and so you need to make sure that this is absolutely top shelf that that there are no um underage drinks served that um un uh inappropriate behavior is curtailed immediately um that you figure
out the staffing because I don't want our police dollars and our park ranger dollars going to um unruly behavior that is not of our making. You know, this is on you guys and I would love to be proved wrong. Show us that it's fabulous and that people love it and it generates a ton of money for the city. But if it
doesn't, man, I will be the first in line to say pull the plug. Yeah. Yeah. So, happy to happy to move this forward with the revised terms if we're getting that guaranteed minimum upfront. I do want an operational plan if this gets approved by the full commission an operational plan to come back to FK. And uh I'd be remiss if I
didn't shout out Fernando on Third Street. While they do uh do a lot of the beach, uh me and my family are proud proud uh patrons of Fernando's for some time at Third Street, so I don't want to sell him short. Look, I think it's going to be upscale. I think it's going to be I can't because
now that he's gone make the motion. Oh, go ahead. You don't want to make the motion? I don't think you settled it. Let me make the motion. Go ahead. Okay. Well, I'm not I mean, he's walking over. I can if I if I can assist I I think from from what I'm hearing here. Obviously, it's not on the agenda, but I
believe what I'm hearing is a motion to reconsider a previous direction related to the beach concessionire amendment with a new direction. It's to return to commission with a favor recommendation to consider the revised terms as presented related to revenue, share, and upfront payment. Yes. And then also that you said the
21st Street that that's like Rick, is that a legal requirement? I want to just go and expand this for no reason. No. Um, in order to have a liquor license, you need to have a structure. And when this initially was discussed, I assumed that there would be a structure
built somewhere near Limus Park. But um I I have come to understand in my discussions with facilities that the the plan at least during this pilot program is to use the the existing structure over on 21st Street. So we can add add location to that. So
uh who um who's making that motion? Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez. I'll second. She cannot. She is not a member of the committee. Commissioner Commissioner Suarez seconded by I'll second commission magazine. Okay. Uh, all in favor? I passes three nothing.
And just for purposes of clarity, it's the revenue share is 18% up to 5 million and in excess of 5 million 20%. Just want to make sure the record reflects that. Yeah, I left the generic so that the you're working that with I think those are the the terms that are being approved by the committee.
Was that not subject to further negotiation with staff? It's 18 up to five and and 20% in excess of 5 million. 18% up to 10 million up to 5 million up to 5 million and 20% up to for anything above in excess of 5 million. Correct.
Over five. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, chair. Should I call the first time certain? Uh you know what? We will call that afterwards. I'd like to uh I didn't put it on the time certain, but I do want to
give our neighbors in Sunset Harbor um treatment that they deserve. Uh I'll call. So if we can call them and then we'll go to our time certain. Sure. Uh that is OB9. So we'll be calling OB9. Uh discuss the possibility of the city assuming control and
managing the Sunset Harbor Towers, town homes, and yacht club pump station. OB9. Good morning, uh committee members. My name is Mark Halpern, Halpern Rodriguez on behalf of the Sunset, uh Harbor community. Um, as many of you will
recall, we've we've we've been here in the past. Uh, we originally were uh in front of the commission uh regarding taking over the pump station that is uh and has been acting as a public utility uh run by a private entity, namely uh
Sunset Harbor South for ever or as long as the community has existed. Uh we discussed previously uh a variety of concerns uh ranging from our frankly inability to continue to um to run this station to potential uh environmental
issues and um related to backflow and uh that is that has actually occurred uh at the town homes uh community. Um this was advanced um and um the commission asked for um the specific sort of financial
issues to be uh investigated. We've gone through that. the city uh performed an extensive study um um and we have since sat down with public works to discuss uh our uh commitment financially. Uh and
we've essentially agreed um to uh fund the uh amount the actual amounts that uh it would cost for the city to bring the station to a level that they were comfortable with. I think we are in the neighborhood of about $187,000
for that initial uh and remaining work. We've already put in hundreds of thousands of dollars to the system and we also discussed a three-year commitment of about 30,000 a year for u just maintenance. Um um you know that
included amongst other things and this is was more of a city requirement than than something that we you know thought necessary but I think it's got literally weekly visits of a fiveman crew. I'm sorry weekly daily visits uh which is the bulk of that 30,000 um you know but
u we have we have really um I think shown our commitment to from a financial standpoint to this um dilemma. Um and so um that's really what the discussion is and then the ask is today.
Rodney. Sure. Good morning. Rodney Nolles, the assistant director for the public works department. Um the public works department did in fact meet with the representatives from uh Sunset Harbor. Um a few weeks ago, it was a very productive meeting. Um very frank honest
with you. Um we put a lot of things on the table just discussing um some of our concerns. Um and on their end they presented the same thing. They had a study that they produced from uh their engineers. Um of course there was some disconnect between the numbers that they
presented versus the ones that our consultants uh presented. Uh we needed a little bit of time to do our due diligence on our end just to make sure that um there's nothing that's being overlooked. Um and we're just combing through the data and we're happy to come back um to FK uh to discuss when we've
arrived at a proper landing point for this. So any caveats with what is being presented here or we're essentially at a um I think it's the meeting point where both parties are happy
and M long-term major concern um and just just maintenance just being able to stay on top of this and setting a precedent for future requests. So, um, that's what we're really looking at. Uh, because I think that, uh, comparing some of the, uh, solicitations on the private
side versus what we would be getting from the city, our numbers are going to be different every time. So, is there a material incremental cost that the city will be absorbing? That's something we're coming through right now just to make sure that we're not putting the city in a situation where we're already impacting a utility
fund that is already hurting. Ju just real quick, I just because this this continues to come up and I want to be abundantly clear. There has been this allegation or or um suggestion of a presidential effect and I think that that is a it it's false
red herring. It's a red herring. And so I I challenged the city almost a year ago to show me one private community in the entire city that is acting as a public utility for their neighbors. We got a list of about 15 properties, none of
which fit that description, most were commercial, and to the extent it was private uh or residential, it only serviced that particular. I mean, I I think there's going to be fireworks flying at the county today about cities absorbing uh other utility
work for other cities, much less a private entity doing it for their neighbors, right? Um and that's reached its way up to the Tallahassee levels. And like anything, you know, talking insider baseball here, but has uh ties back to Miami Beach and things like that. Um, but point being, this is
controversial enough for a neighboring city doing it for another city within their jurisdiction, uh, much less a private building doing it for their neighborhood. Right? And I just want to be abundantly clear. There is absolutely no presidential effect that would allow any
other community uh commercial establishment or otherwise to ask what we are asking because we are very unique in this situation. So Mr. CFO is there anything that we'll have to add to our budget here or uh given the financial agreements that they've come to terms with where Sunset
Harbor will shoulder this essentially will be uh this won't be incremental to our budget. I think my understanding of it from the public works perspective is that they've just received uh you know sat with them and received comment and they're combing through that. So I don't think that the the administration is ready to to make that determination yet.
I think that they're close. They'll be ready for my understanding is they'll be ready at the next FK meeting to be able to definitively state that the representations were made financially which is obviously what the interest was and I think the FK and previous discussions was that they were maybe amicable to the concept but wanted to make sure that we were you know the the
rest of the rateayers were made whole. So I think at this time what we're requesting is this item to be returned to F returned to the next FK meeting where public works can make that definitive statement about what the budgetary implications are and that they agree with the the terms that'll be worked out. Well and during the meeting you know
like there is a chart that has our numbers and their numbers. There's only $10,000 difference. So we said you ran the report 40,000 you provided a price and we said if the quotes come in higher we need three quotes come in higher we will pay that that amount. We agreed to
everything except the fact that $60,000 to maintain it with five people checking it every day is not right. So we came up with $30,000 per year for three years until you know so they feel comfortable and our numbers to maintain it today us
is $1,500 a year unless we have emergency that we have to bring the trucks and that cost a lot more money. The city has the trucks, we don't have the trucks, we have to build it in. We have to wait until they come. That's the only difference that there is. And we're still working on submitting a pump
station with with the sewer all all upgraded. How much time do you need, Randy? Right. Through the chair. Yeah. How much time do you need to reconcile? We'll be ready for next meeting. Great.
So, if we can, chair, we can hear the the show the item is heard and return uh to the next FK meeting with uh public works to give their final uh representation. Sure. Okay. Thanks Mr. Chair. Thank you to our city staff, our neighborhood. This is true community
collaboration. I know this has been ongoing dialogue started with heels dug in on both sides. So it's great to see our city working with our neighbors. So thank you all. Thank you guys for your for your time. Why don't we go to our first time certain Mr. CFO? Sure.
Our uh first time certain is MB22. NB22 discuss the proposed new lease agreement between the city of Miami Beach of Florida Municipal Corporation Landlord and Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Centers of Miami Day County Incorporated tenant waving by 57th vote the formal competitive bidding
requirements as set forth in section 82-39 of the Miami Beach City Code finding such waiver to be in the best interest of the city for the use of approximately 2,690 ft of ground flooror city-owned property and an adjacent playground area having
approximately 7,600 46 ft located at 8336th Street, Miami Beach, Florida for a term of 9 years and 364 days and further and authorizing the city manager to finalize and execute the lease agreement MB22. Good morning, Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair,
Commissioners Azie Dominguez, division director of asset management for the city of Miami Beach. Uh, as uh Mr. Green was stating, this is the daycare lease. It is currently on a month-to-month um extension which expires at the end of this year. So we are uh requesting um
the uh F team to uh consider a new lease for 9 years 364 days. The lease will continue with a 60-day for convenience termination at the city's uh request. I move it. This is for where?
Southshore the Rainbow Daycare Center. And we're month to month when when did it start going monthtomonth? It started many years ago when there was a discussions of uh uh the Southshore Community Center uh being
considered for another venue and so we instead of renewing it at that time we kept it monthtomonth I would say about 3 years. I'd like to defer this item. Okay. I I there's a motion to it.
Deferral takes precedence. Commissioner Bud, can I say something? Can I apply on this? So, this poor daycare has been unable to make any improvements for the children to the playground um because they're on
a month-to-month lease. Um so, as we defer this, and I'm not quite sure what's embedded in a deferral, uh we for a daycare, but wouldn't you like the children to have updated bathrooms? Wouldn't you like them to have a more,
you know, updated uh playground? They can only do that if they get the assurance um that they can be there long term. So, as we defer something, there are many small children and I know you have toddlers running around. Okay? So, just picture
your little toddlers running around and you know, so by they might not get the upgrades that they need. So I I would like to understand the I would like to understand the psychology behind the deferring. If it's monthto monthth right now, what are we missing out? What what what is
preventing this from from we need to have a um a permanent lease established because of statute of limitations on it extending beyond the 10 years. So, the fact that it's just run so long, we need to have a permanent lease, but it will continue with a
60-day termination right um on behalf of the city. And but what I'm saying is what is by by extending this lease, is there something that's preventing any sort of upgrades at the facility or at
the for the program? Uh typically when you don't have a secure lease, it makes it difficult to receive grants to receive any loans. So that would be probably would what would prevent them from being able to make any major improvements. Mr. How long are you looking to defer
commissioner? One month. One month. September. And could you explain why what your what your motivation is behind the deferral? Uh listen, I I'd like to defer the item. Um, I think it's important to,
um, considering what's going on with the Southshore Community Center, I want to make sure that we have all options on the table. I I'm not sure what that means because what's going on with the Southshore Community Center is that we have a robust summer camp going on there now.
We have um food for seniors being planned for the next two years. We have um the police moving in for um with their part of their training facilities. We've got all kinds of programming planned. Um, and so I'm not sure why we're penalizing I'm not sure why we're
penalizing Excuse me. Let me finish my thoughts, please. Thank you. Um, I'm not sure why we're penalizing one of the best long-term uses of that facility, which is taking care of our community's children. Um, it's common sense to not want to, even if they had money at their
disposal, to not want to invest any of it into upgrading their facility in the playground if in two or three months they could be booted out at at, you know, after having invested $100,000 in playground equipment. So, I'm not sure what a what a deferral until September gets anybody. And I have yet to hear any
compelling reason for a deferral. Well, we're going to be hearing an item for today for MDPL and there might be options on the table for relocating them to the Southshore Community Center. And so I want to make sure that we have all
options on the table um for for this specific location. I'm not ready today personally to move forward with a 9-year uh extension for something that I I'm not ready to do for. So all I'm asking for is September commissioner. I I don't
see what the big deal is. I I don't I don't see I'm I'm going to opine here. So I'm reading between the tea leaves of things that have been presented to me from the community, not other commissioners, but people that have reached and I'm going to say this and then I'm going to second
the deferral. And we're not going to get any further into this discussion because I'm not going to have this meeting derailed by a secondary issue that's readily upfront. And this is about I am predicting we're going to have a fire
station discussion on next Wednesday's commission meeting. If I'm wrong on that, I am reading the political tea leaves wrong. Uh but we're essentially going to uh be confronted with are we moving forward with it in the park? And if we're not moving forward with it in the park, then where are we moving
forward with it? Uh is it the Southshore Community Center again? Or do we essentially start back to where we were 10 years ago with no option in place? Um, so for one month I will back this. If that is the wrong reading of that, then we can come back in one month and
have a further discussion. But I'm not getting into a prolonged fire station discussion at this meeting, something that is quite literally being going on for 10 years. We have painfully other items on this agenda, capital improvement projects that have been
going on for 10 years, right? It is becoming a commonality in the city that these capital projects don't even take 10 years to complete. Take 10 years to put in motion, right? We're not talking about building things in 10 years. We're just talking about moving forward with plans in 10
years. I went back to the 2016 agenda. How boring must my life be? Right? Think about the Baywalk. Another item. We're in the same place as we were 10 years ago. And you know who's on that agenda? The fire station and the
Barkley. It's insane. So, we're not going to derail this meeting here. I will second the motion for a one-mon deferral. I am confident I'm reading things right that we'll have some further heated robust debate about the fire station going in
the park, the implications for other things uh in the future, and then we will return to um this year. May, Mr. Chair. quickly because we're not getting into a discussion. I'm just going to say that um I'm I'm really flabbergasted that
apparently everybody in the community knows that there's um an item coming to commission next week uh to discuss derailing the fire station. And I am one of the champions along with Commissioner uh Fernandez and Commissioner Rosen
Gonzalez um of of finding this this excellent solution um put forth by originally by a resident. Um, and so, um, this is a comment to the community. If anybody has anything to say about the fire station, please feel free to reach
out to my office because I I'm not often left at uh, at a loss for words, but I'm I not happily um, at a loss for words at this. This is not okay, Mr. Chair. Yes, I'm going to Well, yes, go ahead, Commissioner. And so I I'll just say
this uh given that that you know I've heard through the community that there is a pending discussion about the future of the fire station. I think that the most prudent and responsible thing for us to do as policy makers is to defer any discussion that that there could be
about long-term leases with the Southshore Community Center because if there's any action taken at the next uh city commission meeting, I believe that the most prudent thing to to do is make sure that we have all options on the table because our foremost responsibility is the community's
safety. And we do have segments of our community right now that are being uh that are being underserved in their in their emergency response times. And so, uh, given that there's the question mark of what action could potentially be taken, if any, at the next, uh, city
commission meeting, I do believe that it is most prudent for us to just maintain any and all options that we have, uh, at the table. I I agree with that. And again, if I am totally misreading the tea leaves, we will presume all of these discussions uh
at the September meeting, but until then, um and I'm I'm not trying to be cryptic here, but members of the community uh have reached out and they're clearly um you know, looking to raise this issue, which they've indicated could uh could come at the uh
next commission meeting. I think we'll all probably know in the next couple of days when we see the agenda published, but until then, Commissioner Fernandez, I agree with you. I don't want to essentially box this into any type of corner. Uh so with that, I will second Commissioner Suarez's uh motion and defer this to September.
If all in favor, I I no sure the item passed two to one. Uh let's hear um we next time. Yeah, that's fine. Thank you. The next time certain uh is
two items we heard concurrently uh OB1 discuss conflict of interest ethical concerns re uh my uh MDPL's multiple roles and NB12 a discussion to consider proposed new management agreement for the use of
city-owned property located at uh 10001 Ocean Drive Miami Beach Oceanfront Auditorium with the Miami Design Preservation League MDPL for a term of 5 years and one renewal option of 4 years and 364 days MB12. Good morning, commissioners.
Good morning, Azie. Uh, so the lease for MVPL expires at the end of this year, December 31st, and we have perhaps two requests for discussion. One is an extension of that agreement for 6 months while commission
and staff discuss what the future is and what path we're going to take on this. And what was the lease term of this lease? Um I was uh for 9 years 364 days I believeing that for six months given that that would be past 10 years would that be maybe there's a Rick question anything
with the city charter given that they were just under that and now we'd essentially be extended beyond 10 years because at the time that the lease was entered into it was for less but it's not a lease it's a management agreement. Thank you very much. Um, and that will allow time to discuss what direction we
want to go in, if we want to get into negotiations for a new lease with MDPL or if we would want to go through the RFP route. Um, and discuss any other opportunities through the chair, just so the public is aware, what what what are the favorable terms for MDPL at this particular
location? Uh, the the proposed terms uh we haven't gotten into. Well, what is the current? Uh, well, they provide they provide free access. I know what they provide, but what are we providing to them? What are we providing?
So, just to lay the groundwork, we're talking about the visitor center at Tenth and Ocean. Correct. Okay. That is city-owned property owned out to MDPL. Do they have the entirety of that building? Yes. Or is that subleasased? They have the entirety of the building.
They do. Uh, they do have a How much do they pay in rent shop? I'm sorry, sir. How much do they pay in rent? Uh, they don't pay they don't pay rent. What they do pay is operating expenses. They pay their repairs and maintenance and their utilities. Okay.
All right. And so, Mr. Chair, I have these two items called uh together. This is a followup from the conflict of interest we had um I think I believe it was a few months ago where I raised some serious concerns. Um, and are members of MDPL
here? Okay, great. Uh, well, I I I have a I have a presentation uh that I'd like to that I'd like to present. Um, I did a little bit more research
uh further back and I found some other conflicts of interest that I think the public should be aware of. And before we make any sort of decision on renewing uh this lease, I think there needs to be
a a really robust discussion on transparency and ethical discussions um for how we are going to move forward on this because what what what I'm starting to find it's it's
very concerning uh above and beyond what I've already shared with um with the city Miami Beach. So, uh, through the chair if it's possible. How long will you need for the presentation? 5 minutes. If we can accelerate that a little bit, run through it. Uh, sure.
Yeah. PJ, if you could put up and George and Roger, if you want to uh come up and represent MDPL, I'd welcome you in. It's the other It's the other file. Uh PJ and thank you for the work that you've
done stepping up in the interim. Well, okay. So, I I I did a lot of research on a couple more case studies that I found was very alarming. Um and I I want to bring it to my colleagues attention. I just want to give some
background. MDPL is a 501c3. Uh they manage the visitor center like we just said on Ocean Drive. They are guaranteed seats on the historic preservation board, a seat on the preservation board. Um they also have
special standing appeal to HPB decisions. Uh they receive money from the city uh from grants and inind donations, public donations. Um, you know, they operate the visitor center rent free as part of its lease agreement
with the city. Uh, it has a very unique status, combines nonprofit, uh, contractor and advocacy roles with elevated influence on city preservation, influence boards, and even the commissioners.
Okay. So, um, one of the issues that I raised was MDPL uh, advocates for policy. Okay. Uh, including upzoning, uh, believe it or not, and height and F increases before the city commission and city boards, uh,
without disclosing donations from developers and lobbyists who seek city permits and and zoning approvals. So while there is a a a city permit uh or while there's an approval process uh
MDPL is receiving funds from developers and lobbyists. Uh MDPL's dual status as both a city vendor and a grant recipient intensifies the need for disclosure and recusal mechanisms. Advocacy for contributors without
transparency is undisclosed lobbying. Preferential access to policymakers may violate city code 2449 on gifts and influence and city vendors must disclose financial interest that may influence city decisions to avoid perceived
conflicts of interest. So um issue MDPL receives city funds in kind grants uh while engaging in political advocacy before the city commission and even our boards. Uh if city funds are used for lobbying, it may
violate procurement integrity rules. City funding agreements restrict political or legislative advocacy even for nonprofits. Using city- funded programs as leverage for advocacy blurs a line between service and corrupt influence.
So, everyone talks about North Beach Town Center and how it it is uh we have buyer remorse, short-term rentals, tall glass towers. Um, and so when I dug into this, I found this pretty alarming.
In 2016, the city adopted plan novi a master plan for North Beach. On this on this plan, two MDPL board members, Nancy Leeman and Kurt Pascal, sat on NOB master plan committee. They were also
part of the HPV on the HPV. In 2017, MDPL signed a deal with a developerrun neighborhood association called the North Beach Property Owners Association, agreeing to publicly support a major density F
increase in North Beach Town Center. This led to the biggest upzoning in North Beach and possibly Miami Beach's history, uh, benefiting developers and real estate interests that donated heavily to MDPL. there. This is an internal email from
previous executive director Daniel Saldo where he basically says the F increase for the ballot is on November. Um the developers understand that they will likely need MDPL support uh in order for the ballot for the F ballot to to pass.
Um, it says, "We've been working with Kurt Pascal and North Beach Neighborhood Alliance on a compromise that would see the Tatum Waterway added back to the local district, which by the way is useless now because of live local. Uh, and MDPL will publicly support the F
increase in Town Center. So, here is an internal email saying that MDPL will support the F increase in town center and height. So there was actually a contract written between the developer and MDPL.
And on that contract was two HPB board sitting board members at the time, Nancy Leeman and Kirk Pascal. And this contract says MDPL agrees to send a letter to the mayor and commission supporting the F increase. MDPL agrees
to distribute a letter through their email distribution and MA MDPL agrees to support the F increase through use of social media uh and other means. This is the developer at the bottom of the agreement, Matis Cohen. Uh Michael
Larkin was the uh lobbyist at the time and Daniel Saldo was the executive director at the time. Now, what I found very interesting was that Russell Galbat for 72 Park, just
one month before the November 2017 vote to allow the high-rise in North Beach, donated $10,000 to MDPL. After the referendum passed, Galba built 72 Park. It's actually the first building that is built right today.
Okay. Um, Matis Cohen is um the first high-rise built under the new rules allowing bigger buildings in partnership with Matis Cohen and the North Beach uh properties owner association. And and here's just a news article
that's saying the Galbat family and Matis Cohen acquired the development site with a $98 million loan. Okay, just so everyone is aware, I've never even heard of North Beach Property uh owners association. It's dissolved.
Uh it does no longer exist. So, this Makebelie Neighbor Association was just sprung up to uh get this support passed on on the ballot referendum in cahoots with MDPL at the time.
Okay. Um, in fact, in the Herald article, it's uh they mentioned it's a historic instance of preservationists and developers joining forces to support uh the quite possibly the largest F increase in the history of Miami Beach.
That wasn't commission approved. It was um u the voter referendum. I was going to say you're going to have to put an asterisk on your digital ads. Uh the development interest and the historic preservation community are encouraging Miami Beach voters to support a referendum to increase the
maximum allowable square footage for buildings in the center of town uh of North Beach Commercial Corridor. Again, for the public to be aware, these are the 13 developments. Short-term rentals were allowed uh go up to 22
stories, 230 ft tall, uh 1,500 new residential units. So when everyone in North Beach complains about parking and uh not parking, traffic and understands why there's so much development,
this is why. Okay. Um case study 2, Ocean Terrace. And in June of 2016, the city commission approved the ocean terrace height to increase from 75 ft to 235 ft pending historic preservation approval. In
December 2016 and November 2017, Ocean Terrace Holdings gave $50,000 to MDPL. In January 2018, the HPB unanimously approved the Ocean Terrace Plan. In in um in December 2018, Ocean Terrace
Holdings gave another $25,000 to MDPL. That's $75,000 to MDPL from developers. In September 21, the HPP revised the Ocean Terrace plan and gave another approval. Here's a check from Ocean Terrace
Holdings to to MDPL for 25,000. This was one of uh three. So, here are the um the contributions. NDPL pushed for Ocean Terrorist to go through the Historic Preservation Board.
And you can tell by the Miami Herald article. It says Daniel Seraldo, a preservation officer with the league, raised the height issue with commissioners and placed this confidence on the historic preservation board. Historic preservation board has the final authority on the project and that's a good thing. Okay. But what I
realized was that three of the members were on MDPL at the time. I'm sorry, were on MDPL and sat on the HPB. Um, and that doesn't take take into
account the MDPL board member who was appointed by MDPL. That's four votes. That's you you have the majority of of HPB. If I could, Commissioner, maybe legally or from MDPL, is there any type of cone of silence,
whether it be from individuals of MDPL or as a board with the MDPL appointed board members, or are you able to converse and maybe do you well, and that that and you you touched up on a great point, comma
of silence. They're they're a nonprofit. They're not a they're not a government entity where we would be bound by statute to to prevent any sort of dialogue between uh funds or developers and pending projects. And I'm glad you
brought that up because that really brings to the heart of the issue here. We as elected officials are bound by um rules and transparency, public records, sunshine laws. But when you have an
organization that is literally taking tens of thousands of dollars from from developers and then pushing an agenda uh that suits their needs, I find that very very troubling. uh in 2021
uh Ocean Terrace came back to HPB and of course MDPL supported the position to add increase the unit count and I believe another floor. Um another I wanted to bring some more issues here. 8701 Collins Development a
$10,000 check to Miami Design Preservation League. Uh Kobe Karp, I love Kobe. uh he's donated tens of thousands of dollars to MDPL um during and after uh many items. Uh I
don't know what you know Blue Buffalo Company is. I I the these amounts are issue and and the fact that we don't know why these donations are happening while this organization is driving public policy is a concern to me because
when we get uh contributions everything is public and and we know um to to a great extent uh why someone is donating for for a cause or for the city. Uh even here's another developer uh the
Comrades family. I believe he gave three or four uh $9,000 checks to MDPL and you can close us the presentation. So uh look, I I think I said this at the last meeting. I I I do support what MDPL
does, but before we get into any sort of extension of a lease, I don't feel comfortable with this. Okay. Um, the fact that just recently David Martin gave uh contributed I think
five or $10,000 to MDPL before the uh the Doville redevelopment uh where literally MD uh you have the executive director at the time saying this is going to be even better than the previous Dville.
I I I I don't know. I it's just to me this this is very concerning uh and this is exactly why what's wrong with government politics where money when money gets involved we
don't know what the true intentions are and um when I see something like this I I don't want to be I don't want to live in a city where you have these special interests that are getting money from developers literally really working hand
in hand and and driving public policy. So um you know when we we give favorable terms to MDPL we give one of the best location probably the
best city- owned location um to to MDPL to to bring good and well-being and historic um education to visitors of Miami Beach.
But I I think personally MDPL ever since probably Maddie left has really gone arry. Um and their mission has has been tainted by uh a few bad
actors in the organization and and I'm not going to stand for it. And you know, I would like maybe someone from NDPL to come up here and really explain, you know, h how do you think it's okay for you to receive developer
money, hundreds of thousands of dollars before or after major upzoning approvals and and and and think that, you know, elected officials and the public is going to be okay with that?
Because I can guarantee you most people do not know this. Most people in the city of Miami Beach when they're in North Beach and they see a short-term rental building that's 25 stories tall and they say, "How did it get there?" This is how it got there.
So, um I I welcome um Roger to come up and speak a little to this because, you know, I for one, I'm not going to support uh the the extension for the uh the Ocean Drive. Unless there's some
serious changes to the way your organization is run, I for one think that you should not be receiving a dime from developer money and still be able to lobby us and our boards. You can't
have both. So, in my personal opinion, if you want to take developer money, fine, be a nonprofit. This is America. It's a free country. But you shouldn't be coming to us and lobbying uh the commissioners or the boards. Maybe where I could go. Roger, I don't
know the right form to carry this out. It is important discussion. I want to give you your fair shot to have this air down in public. We're not going to spend all day here going back and forth because I'm not even sure if there's anything actionable that's coming of this. Following on
Commissioner Suarez's point, I think my biggest issue would be, yeah, you could receive whatever money you want is a 501c3 and you can even lobby us, which is fine. I think where what really starts sparking things in my mind where it's
like if the organization is raising money from people that were prohibited from borrowing money from and then actually making decisions on a quasi judicial land development board. I think that's where I probably have my antennas
up the most. Right. It it's one thing for you to lobby us and that happens, you know, in the public right of uh view. I think where my biggest concerns rise initially, this is my first time seeing this, is if as a board you have
appointees on the HPB and then your organization collectively receives money to take a position. I'd love to know kind of then what that communication tends to be with those board members. If there's a cone of silence there, there's a cone of
silence. if you would say, "Okay, here's the people that we appoint on day one and we'll never talk to them again for their term," you know, all is fair. Uh but if there is uh kind of, you know, some backdoor lobbying, I think that's where my antennas would go up. But Roger, let me turn it over to you.
And just just to your point, Commissioner, uh Mr. Chair, it's not just an appointee. They actually had MDPL board members serving on the HPP. So it gets it gets even more complicated. And they they had a majority. So please
okay uh all of this is in the past right right now for instance Mitch is on the board but he's no longer on our board he's on the HPB. Uh things have changed an awful lot. Uh thank you for that.
Well when did they change? About uh when when when you brought up the uh several months ago. I believe we we did a a thorough checking of what's going on. Daniel left. Uh
uh we have a new interim uh executive director, George. Uh different focus, different personality, different way of working. Uh I'm I'm chair of the board. Uh different focus. Uh
want things to to be right. You mentioned you were chair of the board. The last person, what was his name? Joel Lavine. Joel Lavine. Why did he resign? Because he was here last time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was
I know why. He has significant health issues and he was not willing to um exacerbate them in in this environment. Yeah. Yeah. when I spoke to him, you know, he he had he just said he he didn't want to deal
with the politics in MDPL and of of course because that would greatly affect his health and it would affect my health too if I was on board. Um, but what specifically have you done as far as bylaws and and written uh
agreements? Uh, because I'm the one who brought this up. I certainly haven't heard anything from MDPL other than when I first had a discussion maybe a week or two after my first presentation. Okay. Uh to be honest, we've been awfully busy answering uh IG requests
and your requests. We have one staff person who's been working full-time on that. Uh and we only have two other staff people in our office. But we are we and just just just to your your point uh I don't know what the IG is doing but
I only ask for just simple donations. I mean I I don't have that many requests. Okay. I just ask for the sponsorships and and donations that go back from 2012 I believe. Okay. Roger would it be fair to say we can hear this in September if you come back
with an actionable plan where you say you know what and George thank you for your work as well. This is an important organization to our city, right, as evidenced by getting a free lease at possibly our most valuable site. So, it's important not only to get this
right, but to be sure that not only is there everything above board, but the sense and the public's trust restored in this helps you and it helps us as well. I just want to say a few words if I may. Uh, George Ner, I'm the interim executive director at the Miami Design
Preservation League. I'd like to start by saying I was the director from 91 to98 and it was a flawless period of time. All of these kinds of things never existed. They would not have existed. Our focus was on preservation, education
and so many laying the groundwork for us to have moved up and and moved into a wonderful space as you've described by uh uh the art welcome center. I want to say that since I've been there and it's been three months, I mean, we've turned
the the entire place around. And so, our focus is on we have we've had four international lectures since I've been there. We've changed our programs or to educational with our tour programs. We started a uh a high school um internship program or we're ch uh educating
students. Uh they spend some time with us. Um we've uh began our tech weekend planning months earlier. We've worked with the city. We just uh worked with um the mayor's office for the Galleria which is on Ocean Drive which we just premiered.
I I don't want to cut you off but the last commission meeting we specifically asked for changes to We've done some of those. He'll, you know, he's done some of those and he can bring those as you've suggested. But where are they today? Because I've been waiting for this for
almost 6 months. I've only been here for 3 months. So why don't we set in September okay before you know the lease negotiation you come back with a plan of action and let me ask and then I'll I'll hand it over to uh Commissioner Bot and then
and then Commissioner Fernandez um I hear one side of this right from Commissioner Suarez I go whoa this is eye opening right but a lot of issues in life if you only hear one side you go oh wow but then if you hear it
explained away you go okay that makes sense Is this wrong? What we're seeing like or or is there an easy explanation away that exists or when you're seeing some of these things brought up is what happened wrong?
I mean, I'm I'm happy to say that the my predecessor is no longer there who caused so much of the concerns that the commissioner has right now. But are his concerns warranted in your view? Uh yes. And I and I said I ran the organization for nine years. We never
had those kinds of issues. So I I mean I as the intro and director and having been speaking I was thinking while I was sitting there to commissioners since 1992. I'm like back up here after so many years. Um but it's so important for us
to deal with these kinds of things. I get it every day from people. So by by having my my predecessor not here, it makes it so much easier. But many of those issues were caused during that period of time which is now over. Okay. So we'll go to Commissioner Bot.
Commissioner Fernandez in please may I jump in please? I want to say that MDPL is an organization that is very needed here. It's worldwide known for the art deco district and that
we need this organization. So first of all, let's start by separating the organization from what happened because that person is gone. A new person is in now. Do I know that
you've been waiting for something? I would suggest that MDPL should send updates to the commission to the mayor and all the commissioners of what they are doing maybe every two weeks and and
let you know how it has changed. I truly believe that it was horrible. I spoke up to many people, many people what was going on and I knew it was
going on and I can say uni that never gets a developer uh money because we don't have anything to sell. So that was to me a very telltale organizing and I didn't have real knowledge because
everything was changed. I think that the organization needs to give you updates. Have they changed the way the bylaws and what did they change? Just let me let me finish. What have you changed? Because
if you don't tell them, they don't know that you did them. And the way to resolve this issue is piece by piece. I think the board never knew anything. Some of the boards
I believe knew what was happening and some of the boards were kept unaware. I think that they need to tell when they get a new member realize what their
responsibility is. So the board member knows when they come in that they have to look at the finance for people to stand here and say they didn't know where the money was coming from. They didn't know where the money board members. It's a terrible issue. That is
your responsibility. You need to know everything that's happening. You need to know that he's supporting this whoever is there or not supporting. It's like a little city the executive director. But I think that
they are trying very hard to come forward. Now, do you need to know? Yes, I do. Do we need MDPL? Yes. So, I want you to separate. If you want to do something of what happened, don't let it
happen again. And Mie, I think I think we're all in agreement. I I I know you I believe in MDL and and I want MDPL to be but ask for reports little by little as that's why we're here today. Okay. Let
me another thing is you could appoint somebody to that board. We used to have a board member there. Yep. I appreciate it. Thank you. Gentlemen, before you do, I think we have one more public comment, then I'm going to hand it over to the commission to wrap this up. Okay. Can I just talk for like one
minute? What? Anybody else want please say something? Okay. We we we have a search firm looking for permanent uh executive director. I sent you all copies of the announcement to pass around to anyone. But that's but
wait, please, it's it's my one minute. Uh we are working with very active board of directors now. Uh before I don't think they knew what was going on. We're we're trying to be open. We're trying to uh
we're trying to do everything right. We we really are. Uh I I'm I'm the one who speaks in front of the historic preservation board. It's it's cost the city nothing. And uh it is from the advoc advocacy committee which is made
up of members uh the executive director. No one else has any control over what we say whether historic preservation board listens to us or not. It's up to them. We just give our opinion. But it it's a good operation. It's a wonderful operation. You all should come and see it for
yourself and give give us give us a chance. Roger. Thank you for leading this charge. Let's come back in September with a more robust and ironclad list of the changes that are going to happen to be sure that this resolved. And and Mr. Chair, I I want to be
perfectly clear. Look, I understand that you're going through change. You're you're getting a new executive director, but there's nothing stopping you from hiring an even worse u than the previous director that you've had. Okay. And that's what my concern is. What
safeguards do we have to ensure that that doesn't happen? And again, and one of my red lines, okay, is that if you want to lobby us, the commission and the boards, you cannot take developer money. We can't take developer money as elected
officials. So why does an organization uh such as MDPL get to have it and still lobby uh and drive public policy? That's that's is that let me look while you're here. Is that something that you're willing to do not take any developer money moving forward?
We're working on the wording for that in our new board of director and in our new bylaws. And are you also comfortable with sharing and being transparent with all expenditures because if you're going to be taking city money, I want to have a line item uh breakdown
of all expenditures from MDPL. Okay. You see why not? Yeah. Okay. Great. Natalie, let's go to public com and then I'm going to hand it over to Commissioner Bach, Commissioner Fernandez and wrap up, please. Daniel's iPhone, please unmute yourself.
Yes. Hi, good morning uh members. This is Daniel Seraldo, previously executive director of Miami Design Preservation League. This is uh the second meeting about MTPL uh in David Suarez's hunt for dirt
during election season. I had offered to Commissioner Suarez, as you all know, publicly uh before uh the first hearing, to meet with him, to go through everything. He didn't want to do that. The old chair, frankly, when you talk
about politics, it was all about David Suarez's witch hunt. He didn't want to be involved in that. And who would? And so, all I can say to you is that all of our donations are public on the MDPL website. I know Maddie, maybe she's a member now. She hasn't been one for many
years, but we sent that out to all our members to celebrate the contributions of the businesses and residents who give to MDPL. It's a very sad day in Miami Beach to see MDPL back where it was about seven years ago when there was an
attempted takeover by Mattie Bower and Randy Hillard where they gave $50 bills to buy ballots to try to take over MTPL. Jatania was on the board at that time. And so I'm happy once again to be
involved in the conversation, but this is all David trying to get some air time, you know, trying to maybe run for mayor. And that's all I really have to say. I love MDPL. People have said I'm the best director in its history, and I think my record speaks for that. And I
don't think the city should be bullying nonprofits like O Cinema and MDPL. Thank you so much. Thank you, Daniel. Um, Commissioner Bach, Commissioner Fernandez, then we're going to move on. Um, yeah, I wanted to uh correct the record on a couple of things. I I think
it's um I I think it's unbecoming this body to ascribe motivation to people who are not here. Um Nancy Leeman who is an esteemed member of this community is in a assisted living facility um suffering
with dementia and I don't think you can um impugn her reputation without her being able to be here to to talk about it and that's not possible. Uh I don't know if you reached out to Kirk Pascal to talk to him about his um how he felt about
this um this I'm just laying facts commissioner. You're asking a question. I'm just simply laying facts of what what I what I uncovered with with a conflict of interest. I don't I don't necessarily need to interview the people involved. Well, if you don't know,
and by the way, Nancy Leeman is a dear friend. Her, believe it or not, her grandson is one of my close friends and her son is my accountant for my business. So, like, well, perhaps I thank you for answering the question. Perhaps if you had reached out to Kirk Pascal, you would know that
he was incredibly conflicted about um supporting this compact um to allow some additional F um because he and I talked about it as friends for for quite some time. He was very conflicted about it. But in the end, the um the protections
offered to the Tatum waterway were worth it to him and to the other folks who made that decision. You said it's irrelevant now because of live local. PJ, I don't know if you can pull up that slide. That is factually incorrect. It is not part of the live
local area. So this entire um Tatum waterway area, which you see up in gray, anything that's in blue is is um subject to live local. All of that Tatum waterway area is protected and is not subject to live local. So I'm not
arguing with you. I'm just correcting the facts for anybody who is here and anybody who is listening. So, let's speak about facts and let's get informed information, not just taking things out of context. Um the the um question I
have Mark, maybe you're the right person to answer this question if you don't mind. I don't mean to give you a pop quiz, but the location that the um MDPL facility enjoys now is adjacent to literally in the heart of uh the art deco neighborhood. It is where people go
to find out where they're looking, what they're looking at, how to learn more. Um and I think you tell me how many people come through tours every year. It's a staggering number. Approximately 8,000 including private tours. 8,000 people.
Please speak into the mic, please, for the record. Can you Can you come up to the mic? I'm sorry. Can you just speak into the mic? Sure. We have a slideshow show presentation, but approximately 8,000 people take our walking tours every year, not including
private tours and and not including art deco weekend. And not including art weekend. And the visitor center does approximately Matt uh probably does on average busy day 5 to 600 people a day. Uh and so somewhere
in the neighborhood of 280,000 people a year. We're probably the busiest welcome center uh south of Orlando. And those people come in and want information. and we don't get bad reviews because I also I hire people that are local that are
invested into the community. Uh the gift shop I support local artists so local artists are represented. That's what makes our gift shop unique. Uh same thing in the in the in the uh exhibit center. Uh I we do we have a wall just
dedicated to local artists and uh uh residents and locals get into the museum for free. We have programs in the museum for free. If you take the walking tour, you get into the museum for free. People come in. And I developed a special map just for the art deco district about six
or seven years ago because and now the city's actually using it to develop their own map because people used to come in and say where's the art deco district and you know you know what do I want to see and so um you know uh we're
one of the most valuable uh pieces of property on the beach. introduce yourself. And my name is Mark Gordon and uh sorry, what's your position, Mark? I'm the deputy now I'm the deputy director for the preservation league. So, um, and I'm not political.
So, moving the art the MDPL organization into the Southshore Community Center or to an office in the old city hall would effectively kill all of that. Yeah. Um, we are uh we are watching you watching MDPL expand their offerings to
the community. Art uh the Art Deco Neighborhood Association has events there. There are events that that are made possible for city events, for neighborhood events, for community events. Um I I share the concern that my colleague has raised about the messy um
influx of of funds that have come in from various sources over the years. In fact, um, when I was the city appointee to the executive committee, um, Kristen, actually, Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez had had appointed me to that position and I raised that issue at that time.
There were a lot of us who were concerned about the the conflation of developer money with the mission that we had at hand. And we were overruled. And um, you know, as a board works, just as this board works, majority rules. The
advocacy advocacy committee has always been independent and whether people do or don't take their their um advice, it's up to the people listening to the advice. Um but like any organization, it is, you know, you can make your voice
heard and you can you can advocate for what you think is right, but it doesn't always go your way. I think that I think that punishing this organization and stripping it of its location, which we know that lots of people are very eager
to get their hands on, developers have said to me out upfront over years that they would love to get their hands on that piece of land. Um, so stripping this organization as a punitive measure from the the the site location which is
in the heart of the art deco neighborhood where it turns casual passers by into raving fans of art deco history I think is beyond the pale. I completely agree. I I hope Ira um Giller is working on the bylaws because I
worked on them with him um when I was still on the board and he is excellent and I expect to see a really robust, strong, protective bylaws coming out of this organization. I have I have every confidence that this will be handled in
the manner in which we all need it to be handled. Um I think every two weeks is not realistically, but I think a monthly update would be a realistic letter to commission. here's what we're doing. Here's what we're still working on. Because the other thing, and I worked on the bylaws when I was on the board last
time, um to tighten up things that were, you know, going poorly at that point. Um you want to be right and so you want to spend the time to get the bylaws right and it's not something you're going to slap together to accommodate somebody's um
you know, self-imposed man-made deadline. it is something to be done correctly with research with discussion and debate and so I'm confident that we will see that I am not in any um I don't have any um I don't think we need to impose
fictional deadlines I think a monthly update and coming back every quarter to tell us where we are where you are is the right thing to do and I think that that separating the past from the future is the right way to go and I will absolutely um be looking forward to
seeing good improvements made to make sure this never happens again. There. Oh, I'm sorry. We need to rein this in. There's nothing actionable that's happening here. This is We cannot stay on this track. Commissioner Fernandez comments and then we're going to move on. We're going to see you all
in September. Thank you for the work in turning page in the new direction. Commissioner Fernandez, then we're moving on. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so and so just aligned with the with the points that you know all institutions are bigger than an individual. There's no one
individual can that can define any one institution. Throughout this city's history, this city has had people that have come and gone that have sat in our very chairs and they don't define who we are and they don't define who the city or what the city of Miami is or believes
in. And so and so the organization stands stands for itself. stands for its historic work uh in the preservation of art deco and our renowned architecture beyond art deco uh throughout Miami
Beach. What I just want to make sure is that is that as the organization talks about its future and its governance for the future that the proper safeguards are indeed placed there that as an entity that has a management agreement
and that's what differentiates MDPL from any other organizations. There are civic organizations like MBU, like FPNA, like MBNA, like ABNA, like ADNA. Those are civic organizations. They're independent organizations. They're not
affiliated to the city. And if and if they want to, you know, engage in donations from from from private sector, that's up to them. They're private entities. But what differentiates MDPL is that it is an entity that has a
management agreement. It is an entity that has standing on preservation matters that is granted in our code and that because of that unique position that MDPL has in that manner. It should agree that it's fundraising in its
fundraising efforts. Number one, it won't get monies from developers or vendors or anyone doing business with the city. And then number two, also that perhaps it's fundraising be an independent arm of the organization.
Friends of MDPL, an independent arm that is not tied to the policy recommendations that MDPL makes to our to to to our city commission. And lastly, I feel that as an entity um that
does occupy publiclyowned property and that does have certain standing within our city code that any contributions that it is receiving that there should be some sort of transparent reporting requirements, some sort of transport
transparent reporting filing with the city clerk's office. uh just so that we can make sure that that that no conflict of interest exists. And we make these recommendations. I believe at least I make these recommendations because I
believe in MDPL and I want to see MDPL remain strong. I want to see preservation remain strong in Miami Beach because now more than ever our community needs the advocacy of MDPL. We are under attack. our preser our our our
historic districts are under threats from inside and outside our our community and so to the extent that I make these comments they're not criticism but they are supportive to help strengthen the future of this valued organization in our city. Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Mr. CFO, can you reflect that we're going to hear this discussion about the lease renewal in September and MDBL MDPLO will be returning with an update with the uh steps that they've taken to uh restore public trust and their operating procedures.
Uh yes, uh chair, we'll show the items were heard in the return to the September and MDPL will be presenting organizational changes as discussed. Thank you. Can we move to OB3? Sure. Joe, please. Guys, okay, we're moving on. The
Barkley, please. Comment as someone who's been a long time a mic is on the mic. What it all comes down to exactly as Commissioner Bots said, it's the site. A lot of special interests
want that building, want that site. Please don't lose sight of that site. That's what that's what's behind all this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next item is OB3, update on negotiations with 1940 Barklay Partners
LLC pursuant to request for proposals RFP number 2023-115-KB for the redevelopment of the city-owned property located at 1940 Park Avenue, the Barklay for a development and ground lease agreement OB3.
Stephen, are you uh running point person as the city? I am. tell me how we are going to revitalize a historic city asset um help move forward uh a bladed area in a prized neighborhood and have housing to
help uh affordability for our residents. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um again, Stephen Anthony, um economic development director, city of Miami Beach. Um this is regarding so the Barclay has been um this is a follow-up to the finance committee um that was sent in September
um where there were two uh recommendations that came out of the committee that was set to go forward um to commission. One was uh negotiating the upfront payment um as a part of uh the agreement. The other was was set was around the consideration of set aside
for market rate um or affordable affordable units. Um following that that conversation there was there was some changes that had occurred uh to the developers grow city subsidy that is being requested from the developer. um they they're now delivering a more
reduced scale uh version of the design um that incorporates a modest affordable affordable housing component uh to that. Um but the biggest the biggest piece of this is really to understand that now the the with the new the new design that's going forward. Um is that there
is no there is no city subsidy that is being asked for from the developer. um the number of of units have actually been reduced um from from where it was previously uh recommended from from the developer um and I believe there are the developers here to give some additional
context around around that um but what we've what we've now worked in and of course with the recommendation of the committee can certainly set aside we're looking for additional feedback around uh the the terms um in terms of their agreement uh we certainly can can
utilize some some additional recommendation from the committee regarding had. But we do believe that the new the new proposal that has been set forth is the is the the best the best proposal that has been put forward to actually get uh get this site built and and put forward and and and re uh
activated. Donna, do you want to run through high level what those terms are? Uh so we're building within code as of right. Uh the Barkley is being restored. What is going to the the payment to the city and what's going to be the mix of unit type? Absolutely. Uh very much appreciated.
Don Hugh Peoples the third here. I am the uh CEO of Legacy Real Estate Development. We're the selected respondent for the project. Uh it's been uh a long road. You're not even that young anymore. I know. I know. That's how long this has been happening. This is as of August 2nd, it will be 30
months. Uh I'm looking at a committee agenda from 2017 and they were discussing the Barkley Plaza. The longer we wait here, the more we are at risk of losing this cherished asset and even more importantly to me, the longer we take
from taking steps to add housing for residents. Absolutely. And and Commissioner Magazine, I couldn't agree with you more. Uh this project prioritizes expediency. It prioritizes impact. Uh we are compliant with existing height and F
regulations. So there will be no as my colleague mentioned developer subsidy necessary to facilitate the development. What that also does is it allows us to move forward more quickly. No extended entitlement timeline. Uh the project is fully capitalized. Uh we'll be in total
105 units. Uh we'll have set aides for uh 160% AMI missing middle units and our pro-form rents are within workforce standards. So what that means is that though there are no restrictions placed upon the project and though uh there are
no city subsidies unlike other projects in Collins Park that have delivered workforce rents, our rents will naturally through market conditions be at workforce levels which proves among other things that live local legislation is superfluous and that without height,
without density, we're able to build a project that satisfies the missing middle requirements without uh causing adverse impacts to the community as a whole. These will all be rental units. These will all be rental units.
So, let me interrupt and and I'll give my thoughts of where we are, what we are doing and not doing for housing affordability. The anybody that tells you the way to help housing affordability that does not include
material impact in adding supply is lying or is fundamentally miselling the truth. Okay? We cannot help housing affordability in this city or in any other city by government putting their finger on the pulse and trying to
facilitate affordable housing or workforce housing. We've not done that in 10 years. We've not done that. No city is successful in doing that. However, Miami Beach has come up so short in terms of facilitating any type
of housing. Okay, I got stats from our planning department and over the past 10 years, if you take out any project that's on the water because that is not helping attainable housing. That that's not where people are living and that's not helping foster a community, right?
Including five parking lot. In 10 years, this entire city has added 149 units of housing. That is embarrassing. And that is why Tallahassee has come down with a heavy hand. That is totally
nuclear option. But it's because we've sat here and done nothing to help foster housing affordability. When we talk about overdevelopment, it's not overdevelopment, but it's how this city has grown. those same stats I got from our planning department and help me understand how any type of planning goes
into skewed stats like this where we had 149 residential units and 88 of those just came in Collins Park in the new development but during that time 1,500 transient units have been added with another thousand in the pipeline think
about that 2500 transient units have been constructed in the city over the past 10 years hotels short- term rentals uh whatever they may be and 149 housing units have been here. So while
it is important the mix I am of the firm adamant belief if you add market rate housing in infill areas that don't demand premium numbers because of the location i.e. the waterfront. That is the best way to help solve housing affordability, even if it is not quote
unquote affordable or workforce or attainable housing. Right? Simply adding supply, which we have come up short in doing over the past 10 years, is the best way that we can provide affordable affordability relief to Miami Beach residents.
I I agree with you. I agree with you uh completely. We do need housing inventory in our in our city and uh and and we got to find a way to to facilitate it. I do think we we need to find the way in which we make
sure that at least as it relates to the public property. When public property is being used to facilitate the increase and the housing inventory, we need to make sure that the public purpose does remain addressed and we maintain a certain level of of affordability. So
whether whether it be through AMI, which I also think is kind of complicated at times, or whether or or whether it be even through a simpler, you know, rent cap formula that can be adjusted uh over over time, which from my understanding
is typically less volatile. Um when it comes to financing for for for the developer, there is a great need for the for the added inventory in our city. Um I with market rate it just gets very tricky. Uh because ultimately when we
talk about housing we always talk about housing from the context well the housing for our workers for our workers so that we address the traffic issue in our city. If we go purely based on market, you have to create so much
inventory, so much inventory to have an impact uh on the on the market rate that that it's going to be, you know, decades before you have sufficient housing in this city to address the needs of our workers, of our city employees, of our
doctors that work in the hospital, of our teachers that work in the in the schools, of the workforce in this in this city. So to so until we get to that point where we have that level of inventory that that that causes the market rate to fix itself to so that
becomes affordable to our to to our workforce. We need to somehow put certain measures in there that helps uh serve that segment of the population. Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner M. Um Mr. Chair.
Yes. you know, um, Mr. Peebles, it looks like you put pen and paper. You made this work. Okay. Um, would you be willing to help the city out on another project um that we are apparently having
to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for as far as a study uh, and I believe that's the Byron Carile. Um we're we're we're actively reaching out to well we're we're we're engaging with a consulting firm to give us a good idea
of workforce housing and so that we don't um uh get bamboozled by developers. Assuming you don't have any interest in the property in developing it, would you be willing to help us decipher or have a a third opinion on how to move forward
with that? because that is going to be workforce uh housing and you know we would value your uh input on that. Commissioner Suarez, uh Byron Carile is a project that's near and dear to uh to me. I'm a North Beach resident. Uh I
drive past it or walk past it nearly every day and the opportunity to do something transformational from a cultural center standpoint, from a workforce housing standpoint is meaningful. Um, our team has been working diligently to understand the site and would happily assist the city
and forego uh the opportunity to develop uh the project uh should the city bring us on board uh to help uh put together a framework that uh that puts everyone in the best position to be successful. Well, if you're I mean, look, if you're
interested in perhaps bidding on it, you know, don't worry about it. But if you're not, we certainly would would u love your help in figuring out what is the best course of uh action and engagement on on that particular property because, you know, we're having
to spend I think Commissioner B, correct me if I'm wrong, $200,000 on a study to just tell us what what direction is up, right? Uh and and avoid what happened at the Collins Park. Um understood. I think from from my
perspective, I'd like to do whatever uh I can to be the most additive to the city process. Uh we'll do uh whatever whatever city staff and and certainly the commission directs us with respect to the Byron Carile. Uh it's a great asset and uh you know, any group would
be lucky to lead the development there. Uh however, if our efforts are better suited assisting the city in framing the RFP, we'd welcome the opportunity to do that. I will emphasize you said proono. Yeah. Can I say one thing before I leave?
Yeah. Um, Commissioner B. Here's what I would tell you. The neighborhood is really upset. It's blighted. It's boarded up. It's an eyes sore. So, get it done. Get it restored. Um, per the conversation we had, I told
you what my experience was after going and studying the NMR. Um, which was that the two-bedroom units leased much quicker than everything else. And so once we give you this, if there's any way that you can reconfigure it to give us more 22s instead of studios, if you think that that's even viable, um the
the larger the units, uh the easier they are to lease, that would be my only comment. And um it's been too long. So here we are. Commissioner B. Yeah, I actually I second that about the the the unit size mix. If there's a way
to recalibrate a little bit, that would be great. Um, you know, this has come before us and and precedes us by years and it has been kicked around, kicked down the road, kicked like a like a
deflated football. No, just go there, commissioner. No, like a deflated football. It It's been It's been atrocious. And you have come back to us with multiple proposals that have been um exactly what we asked for. And this commission has
said thanks, but we just changed our mind again. And I am I am appalled at that. This has been sittingow um to be generous uh in the dilapidated state for far too long. It's embarrassing that you come out of a worldclass one of the best convention
centers in the world where we are busy building a worldclass convention center hotel to attract the biggest and best conventions anywhere in the world. But you have to kind of put blinders on as you walk past what used to be and could again be this gorgeous building. And not
to mention the fact that we have a need for housing has been articulated so clearly. So I won't reiterate that, but it's it's absurd. So um I have two questions. Um just confirming that there is um that you are profering a covenant that runs with the land in perpetuity
for no short-term rentals. Confirmed. Okay. would you be willing to consider because I know market rate currently gets us to even though it seems expensive to me it is um it is within the AMI um parameters. So would you be
willing to um offer something that that would cap um rent increases tied to CPI so that there's no opportunity for all of a sudden somebody to be notified that the rent is doubling. I think that's a conversation that uh I'll need to have with my capital
partners. Uh the project as it sits today is fully financed and ready to move forward. Uh we're excited and chomping at the bit to deliver something that'll ultimately be transformational to the community. Uh I understand and and you and I share that sentiment with respect to workforce and affordable
housing. uh given current market conditions and uncertainty with respect to the hardcost environment uh and with broader I think American uh macroeconomic sentiment it it gets a little difficult uh for us to commit to
something uh as austere right now. But what I can commit to doing is working extraordinarily collaboratively with the gentleman to my left as we move through iterations on the term sheet and ultimately to a ground lease very quickly to get something back in front of the city commission that speaks to our shared objectives.
So I would I would make a motion to to move this. I would encourage you and I think you guys have worked together before in DC, right? We have. So thumbs up or thumbs down on working with him? Um it depends on how this goes. Yeah.
Um, I listen, I I want to get this done. I I think that if in as you go through the process, you can look at the mix and increase the number of of two-bedroom units versus not. Um, and find an option down the road at some point to try to keep rents affordable because what we
saw happening three years ago, four years ago, was people, you know, getting a note slipped under their door saying your niece, your lease could be renewed, but at double the the current rate. and I want to make sure that doesn't happen to the best of our ability. Um, but I would move this with a favorable.
So, if you're not for the rent cap, I'm guessing we can't have a government owned grocery store on the ground floor. Unfortunately, uh, we wouldn't have the floor plate for it. And, uh, just have one question. What's the breakdown of the square foot of unit sizes? It's all in here, of course. Uh, our studio units average,
uh, a little north of 450 ft. Our onebedrooms are just a bit larger than 650 and our twobedroom units are just shy of a th00and. They're about 2 930 ft. That's a that's a great mix. Thank you.
So, I'll also I'll also note here um as well uh and and just to address a few things. uh one for what Commissioner Ba just mentioned and also what Commissioner Fett is. Um I'm also looking to include within within the agreement a set aside for a number of
units for senior housing senior housing vouchers. Um so one we'll have affordable senior housing vouchers that will be included as a part of the agreement. I'll second the motion. Okay. So, I think we have Commissioner Bot making a motion to return uh to commission with
the favor recommendation on the updated uh proposal to redevelop and activate the Barlay property. Seconded by Commissioner Suarez. All in favor? I think about the rules you to apply to me at Tuesday morning breakfast. Want to clarify? I know I
apply those rules. I can't hear. You know, you should have a mic that speaks up a little bit in the area for people like me that can't hear. I forgot to put my hearing aid. Let me have a
I just wanted to clarify the rents. The city I want to thank you for including the housing authority first of all because that was I spoke to him and it's very nice and you have included us and I appreciate it very much. Okay. and
that the housing authority section 8 place pays $2,214 a month. The studios apartment average would be $2,576
a month. The onebedroom it's going to be $3,55 a month. and the two bedrooms is going to be $4,982 a month. And so I want to put on the
record that I am not a member of MDPL that is $25 or $50 uh uh a year because if I had to pay any rent like this, my whole pension
would go on one month and I live with that. So when you call affordable housing, please put the rent on the record because those words sometimes are very
only the section 8 could be in this in the seven apartments that we're going to get because nothing else for the people that work like me that I make almost a year
with the two pensions that I have 50 or $60,000 could not afford to live in any of these. So when you think of affordable housing and you think of the bikini that
you are maybe going to do a a park or a recreation or whatever, think of the housing authority that really could do affordable housing. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Next time certain
commissioners public comment. Oh, sorry. Schaefer, please unmute yourself. Hello, Larry Schaefer, 23381st Street. I believe that Commissioner Bot uh advanced an idea of doing CPI based rent increases as a form of rent control. I'd
like to note that I believe that that's illegal at the state level where Dantis has signed into law uh sweeping legislation to keep local municipalities from uh from enacting rent control and many other things. So I think whatever
is being done here certainly needs to be have a visit through legal and uh like the applicant uh I have extensive experience in uh as a section 8 landlord for over 20 years and for both of these projects this one being considered now and also the buying car. I'd like to
donate my time to give advice to the commission and this in this committee related to section 8 matters. Thank you. Thank you Larry. And one thing and then Matthew I'll turn it over to you. uh that has been discussed adnauseum leading up to this, but I know that this
was a briefer conversation, but to enter on the record, one of the huge public benefits that the developer is providing is not just an increase in the supply of housing, but it's actually restoring a historical building. And you could just give a thumbs up or thumbs down, but
you'd be able to provide lower rents if you bulldoze this property and built fresh from a new. I hope they would. Yes, though the economics there get relatively complicated. We would likely need uh additional zoning concessions
like height and F uh to deliver the proposed impact that uh would make a difference from the supply side. But where I'm going with this is it actually costs you money that is then baked into rent cost to restore this asset that the city wants restored. Yes, that's exactly right. Thank you.
And if I may, Mr. Chair, I just want to mention for me personally, while that might seem advantageous to some, this is Washington Avenue, which is a main thorough affair in our city. This is across from our convention center. This
is surrounding so many hotels. Preserving the character as much as we can, is so important. And there you have right there you have in that corner the Mansfield uh plaza which is such a beautiful building and so many other buildings that are there of its time that reflect the architecture of Miami
Beach. It is an asset to our city to your point Mr. that you are preserving this because for many people who come to the convention center, you know, that will be their exposure to our historic character in our city. Preserving and adding on
um which it's preservation. Matthew, thank you, Mr. Chair. My mic is working perfectly up in my office on the fourth floor. I wanted to move forward. I'm not against the I'm not against the problem.
help. I'm just staying at five. Help our former mayor to my office where she can hear things even better up in the fourth floor. I kid. Go ahead, Matthew. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Matthew Ganoff and like many of you, I've ridden my bike. I've taken the trolley and I've driven
past this site for many years and I followed the saga of the Barkley and I think it's great that it finally appears that it may be moving forward that it can deliver over a 100 housing units. as you've correctly pointed out because coincidentally I was just doing research
on how many housing units and what classification whether condo or rental have been built into the city over the past year uh excuse me past 10 years and it's it's a very low number as you all know when I was on the planning board I supported uh building more attainable
housing on Washington Avenue and I watched commissions bend over backwards to build more luxury housing but not housing for our workforce for the hospitality industry. And I think while it's only 100 units, it's definitely heading in the right direction and
hopefully this will be something that can be delivered to the community soon. Thank you, Matthew. Good afternoon. Michael O'Hara, executive executive director, Housing Authority, City of Miami Beach 200 Alter Road. Just want to let you know that myself and Donnie have been working on this for the 30 months that it's been
going on and we're proud to have an agreement to include seven um affordable housing units in the property for elderly um residents. And I just wanted to uh Commissioner Magazine just add to your uh number of completed units. 119
units uh developed by the housing authority on Southshore Drive will be added to your list this summer. Absolutely. Just wanted to let you know. Absolutely incredible. That's exactly what we need. Thank you. You're beautiful. Thank you, chair. So, we we'll show there was a motion by Commissioner Bot, seconded by uh Commissioner Suarez, and
pass. The item passed three nothing. Thank you. Let's get to uh another time certain. The trolley contract. Yes. MB24. We'll hear MB24 next. Uh request for advisory review of final selection and negotiated agreement and substantial
form is set forth in exhibit A with limousines of South Florida Incorporated pursuant to invitation to negotiate ITN 2024-008- ND for municipal circulator services transportation mobility department. I want to tee up before you start Jose
where I'm at on this. This is a 7-year contract. This has the implications of having millions of dollars of impact to our budget. Not to mention a critical critical need and usage across our city.
Um we got this as a supplementary item uh over the weekend. I think what 100 pages maybe Christina. So it this has been a very very robust process. I understand the time frame it's on. I myself would be hardressed to think that
after seeing a presentation, I'll come down definitively on an answer. I'm starting out wanting to get more direction and familiarity here and then we have one-off discussions going into keeping this in committee and hearing it
further in September. I don't want to spend the next five hours on this which could totally be justified. Uh but I want to let you all know my colleagues know where I'm going with this where I'd be hardressed to think where I just say you know what green light go ahead make
a decision here this is very introductory and exploratory for me for a very very important uh and lengthy process Mr. Chair. Yes I'm going to want to defer this because we did get this yesterday. Um,
why why did why are we getting a 100page document the day before FK meeting and expect us to digest it? I believe the supplemental was issued on Friday if I'm not mistaken. Yes. Yes. And it was released on Friday.
It was released on Friday. Um, I believe the Friday 10 p.m. Friday night. Yes. Um, and uh, but how do you guys really how does staff really expect us, you know, because we're part-time, right, to digest over 100page document? That's something as pressing as this has.
That's been going on for a year. How long has this RFP process been going on? 12 months. It's been Yeah, the negotiations have been going on for approximately 12 months. Yeah. Yeah. And then I never got a a request for a briefing perhaps you you know on
this on specifically this unfortunately due to the Kona silence we were unable to have briefings um relative to the Okay. Well, that being said, I think wouldn't it be prudent to give us more time instead of, you know, I mean,
because this is not the first time staff has done this to us, you know, right before an important item. And I don't I want to make sure that staff gets the idea. I hope Eric is listening that you
know the if you're going to if you're going to give us a boatload of information before an important uh item that um it's probably best to ask for a deferral for the next time so that we can digest it and make the best judgment possible.
And Mr. Sure, if I may. I you know and I and I agree I I agree with uh with the vice chair. Um but it's also you know these items get placed on the agenda is not staff's prerogative whether an item is heard on an agenda or not. It's their job to provide the information.
Sometimes this information is is submitted late. Uh but they don't get to choose when items are placed on an agenda or not. They're just in the queue. But I agree with you. You know, an item of of this nature and this uh substance does need more time for us.
Let me ask you a question about the cone of silence. If this would have been submitted a week earlier, it's my understanding. I I spoke with No, I I wanted to correct myself. I think I texted you. The con of silence applies unless it's been a there's been
a recommendation to the commission. And what we have now in the FK memo is a recommendation to the finance committee. So, in order for the cone of silence uh to be lifted in so far as the manager being able to brief each one of you, and it would be the manager who would have the uh ability to do that, the manager
would need to make a recommendation to the city commission. Okay. So, let's not spend more time on this point. Hopefully, uh conveyed. Um I think you're in the same place as I am. Then likely I'll ask to keep it in committee,
but I do want to have introductory conversations today. Let's cap this at a 20 or 25 minute discussion. Um, but I want to have an introduction here and so we're not starting a fresh just in a new month. Commissioner Bot, any kind of
forewarning you want to add or can we just get uh kind of hearing the presentation? Nope, it's all good. turn it over to you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate the opportunity to uh present to you this item. Uh PJ, if you could
put up the presentation. So, the item essentially presents the administration's recommendation to award the municipal circulator service contract to limousines of South Florida, LSF, and we'll also present the key terms for that um seven-year agreement
as you pointed out, Mr. Chair. So just simplistically, we're being asked for two things, right? One is who the selected operator is going to be, but then secondarily is also kind of what
level of service or what part of that is going to happen. Is that correct? primarily the the vehicle type is the decision that we would um like to have from this body and from the city commission so that we can order the vehicles because the vehicles do have a
long lead time uh of 18 months to begin to be delivered. So for that reason the sooner a decision could be made the better. Okay. So um little overview next slide PJ please. A little overview on our our
current trolley system. For the for the past 10 years, we've we've operated via Limousines of South Florida, LSF, a citywide interconnected trolley service based on a fixed route, fixed schedule.
Our current fleet is 33 vehicles, 21 in operation. We use 12 vehicles as we operate uh six loops within five different routes. two loops in South Beach, one in Mid Beach, one in North Beach, the Collins Express, which ties
the three loops together. And then um our more our more recent addition uh to the portfolio was the Mount Sinai link that connects North Beach and Mid Beach to Mount Sinai Medical Campus. Our hours of operation are Monday through Sunday
from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. So we operate 15 hours a day every day of the year. And our average service frequency is approximately 20 minutes. Next slide, PJ. So, this uh depicts our our current vehicles. I'm sure you've seen them all
throughout the city. It's a hometown trolley. It has a diesel engine. They're about 30 ft long. They um they seat about 40 passengers, 24 passengers seating, 15 passengers standing. We currently, as I mentioned, we have the
fleet of 33 vehicles. 12 of those are low floor and that's the image on the right and 21 are high floor. That's the image on the left. The lowf flooror vehicles are very convenient for boarding and a lighting because they provide for level boarding. They kneel
down and they essentially come down to the curb, you know, at the same level, at the same grade. Uh, but we do have more highf flooror trolleys. Those are the ones on the left and those uh passengers have to navigate a series of three to four steps to be able to get
through. So what is the benefit of that of the Well, the um the low floor is a much more convenient vehicle just for passengers uh all around, right? But we have 21 high floor. So
what's the what's the benefit of having a high floor versus a low floor? Well, the f the high floors were the first uh the first vehicles that we purchased, the first edition, if you will. As a matter of fact, back then, 10 years ago, the low floors were not even available in the market. Okay?
So, we we had to go with the high floors. And then as we evolved and brought more loops into into play, then we purchased the low floor. So, as we're going forward, there's really no added benefit of having the multiple stepups. Uh essentially, we'd
look to have the low floor. Correct. Yes. Next slide, PJ. So, over the past 10 years, we've operated essentially two different uh service plans, if you will. The service plan on the left, we call the pre-
pandemic, that was pre-COVID service level. It was a more um robust service level. And the service level that you see on the right is our current service level that we've been operating since the pandemic, since 20 um 2022
thereabouts. Uh I went over the hours of operation. Uh you could see po precoid we operated 18 hours a day versus 15 hours a day. Currently we were able to um start our service at 6:00 a.m. and capture that
very early morning uh market. Uh we had more vehicles in operation precoid. We had 25 versus 21. And I will tell you that four vehicles does make a difference in terms of uh headways and frequency of service. Uh prior to to
COVID we operated um headways of approximately 15 minutes and we're currently at 20 minutes. Um our wrership uh still very high wrership. Prior to CO we uh were close to 5.3 million riders a
year. Since CO that's dropped a little. We're at 3 and a2 million passengers a year, but still that is quite a lot for a municipal circulator service. So we are Jose, what is the chicken and what is the egg? Do we have less riders because we have less vehicles or do we have less
vehicles because we have less riders? We have less riders because we have fewer vehicles. The decision to have fewer vehicles in service was purely a budgetary decision due to to co and as you all know uh our transportation fund is one of those um funds that that are
in a certain financial situation but um so we have currently 12 spare vehicles. Would we not we could put them into circulation should we choose to. It's just a question of operational cost. Correct.
Okay. And why does it cost more to operate a low floor than a high floor? The capital cost of the vehicle is higher. So the capital cost of the vehicle is built into the hourly operating cost
of the of the operator. Uh in terms of annual cost, uh approximately 12 million prior to COVID, we're currently at 9.3 uh million. Uh there you also see the current hourly rates for both the high floor and the
low floor vehicles. And our average cost per uh passenger has hovered around the $2 and a quarter range which is actually very good for mass transit service. Next slide, PJ. So to help inform the competitive
solicitation that we're uh discussing here today for our new transit circulator service, we conducted a trolley optimization study. Um in a nutshell, this the study essentially corroborated uh some of what we already knew which is
the fact that our you know our trolley system is very well utilized 88% satisfaction from riders. However, our current trolley vehicles are not heavyduty vehicles. They're not truly mass transit vehicles, if you will. Um,
one of the key findings of this analysis was that we should transition to a heavier duty vehicle that is capable of carrying the millions of passengers that we carry every year. And as a um recommendation of of that uh trolley
optimization study, the uh consultant recommended replacing our current trolleys with twodoor lowfloor heavyduty transit vehicles. Uh the Gillig uh trolley was mentioned as an example of a vehicle and you'll see Jose I saw on a previous slide uh you
broke down per cost uh ride per cost and there was a difference between the high floor and the low floor. So is the upfront cost not only different but then the ongoing operating costs for the buses are different depending on it's high floor or low floor?
That's that's correct as well Mr. Chair. There's it's not just capital. It's also the maintenance associated with a low floor vehicle which is more expensive than the high floor. Yes. How much more? Yes. Than a high floor. How much more? Okay.
Um next slide BJ. So this this next slide will show the the two vehicles that are uh being that were considered as part of the uh solicitation. There you go. So, the
hometown trolley on the left, the Gillic trolley on the right. You'll notice that they're very similar in appearance, uh, but they're they're they both have their distinct, uh, nuances. Uh, both vehicles are low floor, uh, carrying about the
same number of passengers, available in different types of engines. They're both heavy duty vehicles, more or less the same length. uh different chassis, however, and that does make a difference in terms of the ride, the the ride, the experience of the ride. Um, our current
trolleys, if you've written those, it's a hard harder ride, if you will, than a um a bus, which has softer suspension and an overall just better ride. Um and in terms of the delivery, I I mentioned
earlier that these vehicles have a long lead time of approximately 18 months to receive the first vehicle. Um so in terms of the different manufacturers, it it's approximately a couple years and a
few months before all the new vehicles will be in service. Jose. Um, so the for hometown the first vehicle would be in service in a in a year and for Gillig it would be 18 or that's when production would literally start.
No, that's when Well, yes, that's when production would literally start. However, once the production starts, they're able to uh produce the vehicles fairly quickly, every two weeks. And which did you say the Gillig was the softer ride? Uh, yes. Okay. just the it's more of a
chassis related issue, but yes, they tend to have a softer ride. They both said they both say air ride. They do, but the the chassis is just different. The fact that it's a different chassis has we see that, you
know, with with our trolleys which have the same. Are there any are there any municipalities in nearby area that use a Gilick trolley? I believe uh City of Coral Gables uh used a Gillic trolley. I'm not sure.
I'd like to I'd like to go on one and see what Absolutely. We'd be happy to uh to make one available for a ride. You don't have to make it. I'll just go. Okay. All right. Um next next slide, PJ.
So, this is a closer look at the hometown trolley. Um, you'll note that the hometown trolley has more of that classic American trolley uh look and and feel um you know on the outside as well
as on the inside. Both uh both vehicles are very u similar as I mentioned but they've got their their nuances. Um and as compared to PJ the next slide is the the Gillig trolley. Okay, next slide.
So, as I mentioned from an exterior perspective, both vehicles are available with that full classic American trolley look and and and feel. Um, however, the most important aspect of any transit
service is really the reliability of the service and it does come down to the vehicles. Uh currently we we are experiencing some reliability issues and it's because our vehicles are quite old and they're breaking down more often than when they were new.
So the best way Jose I'm sorry. Are we buying the vehicles? Are we leasing them? So the the vehicles are uh leased if you will by the operator and amortized over the term of the contract. So I played rugby in college. Uh, my
coach would say there's no such thing as stupid questions, but just stupid people that answer them that ask them. So, I I'll ask a stupid question here. Why would we care about the depreciable life or lifespan if we have a seven-year lease?
The depreciable life you highlight as a pro for the Gilliger lifespan. If we don't own them, we're leasing these. Mhm. And that's well in excess of our lease term. Why would we care about a longer lifespan? So, well, the contract is it's a
seven-year term, but it can be extended. There's options to renew up to a a 10year term. And so, we would like to purchase a vehicle that has a solid good 10 years worth of Wouldn't we renegotiate that at the end of seven years to make sure that we have
new trucks? We we could. Do we have the option to extend this lease that we have to extend our current lease the oh with the existing vehicles? So um
they will need to be extended already if just for the production just because of the production schedule at least for another two years we'll have these vehicles in service. Uh but our current the current vehicles have been fully advertised.
Yeah. Okay. So, um some of the uh key disadvantages um that I wanted to point out associated with with the uh hometown trolley uh has to do with u not only the
comfort of the vehicle but also the reliability of the vehicle. Um Gillig is a manufacturer that is proven. They've got a proven track record. uh they they've been manufacturing mass transit heavy duty vehicles for many many years
and uh and just the overall vehicle itself is a more solid type vehicle than the hometown trolley vehicle. Uh hometown trolley vehicle uses many third-party parts uh for example which may uh be difficult in securing those
parts uh down down the line. They also uh require the diesel engine in a hometown trolley uh requires what's called regeneration, which is basically um a few minutes that the engine needs in order to recover and rebuild the
pressure uh in order to keep operating. And the the hometown trolley engine just because of by virtue of the engine that it brings requires more regeneration than the Gillig trolley. Again, another elementary question for me just trying
to understand with so much emphasis uh especially in a city like Miami Beach moving towards um greening infrastructure and resiliency. Uh run me through the thought process of why going with diesel model versus a hybrid. Uh I
know when I'm behind if I'm riding my Vespa and I'm behind some of those Miami date county buses or even our current trolleys. Oh my god. I mean this I'm not you know I'm not Al Gore here uh but it's disgusting.
Well I think the the next slide can can also help in in that discussion. Um so this table compares the reduction in emissions for each Gillig propulsion option for the 2025 vehicle model and
compares it to our current uh diesel diesel engines. Uh clearly we want to be a a and and are a green city and and a blue zone city as well and we want to have you know the best uh vehicles from an emission standpoint. So a quick look
at this table we we compared three different types of um emissions if you will carbon dioxide equivalent or greenhouse gas as it's commonly known nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. particulate matter is what often creates
that soot uh that you see on walls and buildings close to roads and um the pollution um if you will. So um a quick look at these numbers we see that the hybrid the electric hybrid which is a hybrid
between diesel and electric overall gives from an emissions perspective the best the best results 32% CO2 reduction as compared to our current vehicles 92% nitrous oxide 99% particulate uh matter
however there's uh and the and the CG is u I would say probably uh close second probably at at at par with with the clean diesel. Uh four key challenges though associated with both
the hybrid and the CNG models. The first one uh as we some of us that drive electric vehicles myself know lack of adequate infrastructure. We're still not there in terms of the infrastructure
that's needed for electric vehicles and particularly a fleet of buses. Uh, you know, 30 30 plus vehicles that all need to be charged at the same time. Where do we store our current trolleys? At the um at LSF's facility in in the
city of Miami. And I'll get to that. That isn't equipped to accommodate hybrid vehicles. Uh, not at this time. Not currently. So the lack of adequate infrastructure uh also the higher capital cost uh electric vehicles are approximately 43%
higher in purchase price than um the diesel um vehicles. They also have a higher maintenance cost. This is pursuant to information that we received from the manufacturer from from Gillig. And you're telling me really from a environmental standpoint, the only
material difference is just a couple percentage points uh delta in the PM reduction. Yes. Jose, you said you received that data from the manufacturer. Has that been independently verified through parties that are not associated with anybody
competing for the bid? No, we we requested that the manufacturer provide their specs, if you will, for these vehicles. So these are based on manufacturers specifications for the different vehicles. And quite honestly, I mean it if it's a Gillig,
it's a Gillig. They don't they really don't mind whether we purchase the clean diesel, the hybrid or the CNG. They can whatever we ask. They manufacture all all three types. Yes. Okay. I is there a possibility where we
might start off with um you know 90% of our fleet as clean diesel and we start adding hybrids and you know anytime we need to replace one we can continue I mean I I think part of part of my concern is is
flooding and you know it it may be easier to keep the buses running longer if they're diesel versus an electric. So that's a little bit of a different conversation. But if we do ever want to get to um a cleaner fleet, we do have to start someplace. And maybe if with a 43%
upcharge, replacing the entire thing at the same time isn't viable, especially as there's no existing infrastructure. But maybe as part of, you know, if we're buying whatever it is, 20 vehicles, maybe we have 18 of them currently um
diesel and two of them um a hybrid. And then as we need to replace them, we start swapping over. The technology will get better, the charging options will get better. Um hopefully the cost would come down. Is that something we could look at as part of this?
I think it's something we can discuss with with the operator. Um I we've discussed a potential transition plan. Uh as some of you may know, we've we've applied for funding from the federal government for electric vehicles. So we
have had but just very preliminary discussions. When is that um when was that application? I mean if it's currently I think that's probably not if I think I can can answer that is yes we've applied and it's been cancelled. Okay. So I don't anticipate that change
in the next few years at least. So um it the funding would need to come from someplace else. um or we would just need to commit to it and say two out of our fleet or three out of our fleet will be green and we will move towards improving that as the opportunity presents itself.
I I I think it should be part of the conversation because otherwise every time we do this every 10 years unless somehow, you know, all of a sudden we've got magic vehicles coming down, we're going to have the same conversation. It's always going to be cheaper. It's always going to be easier to go with the established infrastructure.
But if there's an opportunity to make that mix and start that shift and it's little by little then I think we get there. Sure. Uh I totally understand. I think we can have that discussion with uh with the operator. We'll continue discussions negotiations
with them if you will and we'll we'll raise that point. Okay. Thank you BJ. Next next slide. So uh chair Mr. Chair, to answer your question, it was really a an evaluation of a lot of factors. It wasn't just the
emissions. It was the the uh of course the cost clearly the the the cost and whether what we can afford versus what we cannot afford. Um the city's uh image our our branding, the fact that we've had a trolley service that's that's
that's very well-renowned. As a matter of fact, just u I would I would say it's probably the most successful if if or probably the most successful I'm going to go on a limb here in the state of Florida uh in terms of municipal
circulator service in uh based on the the number of vehicles that we have and the pass the number of passengers that we carry. For example, city of Miami carries a comparable number of passengers, but they have twice the number of vehicles in service. And would
it I mean you mentioned other cities. Uh I believe that we have the same or similar Charlie system as city of Miami or at least Bickl, right? Have we thought about uh is there any type of um benefit in volume? Do any of these other
neighboring municipalities or sister cities have their contracts expiring at the same time so we could make a more bulk uh acquisition that would lower costs? Have we a merger in other words between cities and have so us in the city of Miami go out with
uh kind of similar proposals uh perhaps instead of ordering 20 trucks if we order 50 it's a low at a lower price. I'm not sure if that's a possibility. I'd have to reach out to city of Miami to see where they are yourself on it, but you know, perhaps if you just do some exploratory
work there, try and wrap up and again, you're not trying to get to a point where we're making a decision here, but give us your synopsis. I'd like to hear public comment because I think it's important to have a mosaic of different ideas and things that are brought to our
attention. And then my motion is going to be keeping it here committee here one more time in September before we make a final recommendation to commission. Okay. All right. I only have about a couple more slides. Next slide, PJ. So, um, as I mentioned, based on an overall
analysis of of emissions data, the city's image, branding, uh, as well as the cost, we're recommending a 40ft clean diesel. Uh, one thing I want to mention, the emissions data that I just showed you in the prior slide were based
on a 2025 model. The 2026 model per uh, the manufacturer Gillig is actually even cleaner. The clean diesel is actually those metrics. Let's call them RFP respondents for lack of a better word. They actually have all the same vehicles. It's just through a
different means or provider. That's that's correct. All three, as you know, we were directed by the city commission to negotiate with the top three ranked vendors. All three uh vendors um profered, if you will, the
the Gillig uh trolley vehicle. Again, a lot of that comes from the trolley optimization study that we conducted that corroborated that we need a heavyduty mass transit vehicle with a proven track record. I I mean so listen not to say price is
the overriding factor feature in everything but I'd have to be see some pretty compelling things on some of the verbiage to justify that change in price. So it's not as if it would be a harder decision
if okay this is uh provider we drive view is giving the homestead at X price and then LSF is giving the Gillig and then we're like okay well what's better Homestead or Gillig and then you know factor in price but all three vendors are essentially if we would say okay
let's go forward with the Gillig apples to apples comparison it is at at this point but I do want to mention that when we started negotiations because the the solicitation was written very broadly. We didn't say this is the
type of vehicle that we want. We did have certain criteria in there. We shared the trolley optimization study which recommended a mass transit heavy duty vehicle, but we didn't say this is the vehicle that you must uh propose on. So that actually simplifies things in my
mind. Uh I I wasn't aware or appreciate that that essentially the vendors are all coming to the same conclusion on the same trolley. Now we're just saying okay from an apples to apples standpoint which is the best proposal and I'll get
into the details between now and next meeting. Um but you know I mean it's hard to think that anything is able to justify the the price delta there. with Commissioner Fernandez. Yeah. And guys and gals, just kind of jumping in formally. Yeah. And just a question because I
stepped out. I'm coming back in. The contract is is it only for the vehicle or is it also for the operation of the service? So the contract is a full turnkey contract. And what that entails is the purchase of the vehicle, the operation,
the maintenance, the repair, the drivers, the fuel, the insuranceances, all. And that's where I want to make sure that I want to make sure that we truly are secret shopping before we commit to
one vendor. Um, I've heard complaints uh about drivers who are not respectful towards passengers. I've heard uh complaints about you know people I I
just think yes it's it's great when you look at the vehicle and the hourly rate for the vehicle and side by side well yes clearly one company does offer you a clear better deal but does that
ultimately translate to a better user experience for the passenger and now we can improve head time which we should improve had time and we should go back to the precoid levels that 15 minute head headway. Uh I think we should set
that goal but nothing will improve passenger ridership on our trolley service than the experience that the passenger experiences themsel and so and so so that's where I think we we we need
to focus on as well making sure yes we can get beautiful vehicles but unless the experience and the interaction that they have with the drivers and those drivers being well trained is there, then then we're not going to get the best bang out of our buck.
Yeah. And and we will never truly solve traffic in this issue. We could do things around the edges without getting people out of their cars, right? And the only way that we can get people out of their cars is offering them as convenient as possible alternatives. Can I go back to the slide where it
showed um the particulate matter? Yes. Um and the difference. Did we ever consider anything that's purely electric? We did early on. We did and the uh again the issue there commissioner was the
infra the lack of infrastructure to maintain 100% electric vehicles because you know again I want to maximize our efficiency. I want to make sure we can get stuff up and running and keep it running even during high water events etc etc. But at the end of the
day we're dealing with perfu island which is not caused by bus particulate matter. um detritus, if you will, but but we are finding that our streets are filthy and it goes into the bay. And so
the the more we can reduce um uh the the PM that comes out, the better off we'll be. So I you know I especially in the neighborhoods where things are more um where there is more bus usage um you know if you are between
two stops or you know in a heavily traffked area where the lot there is a lot of um of uh routes coming down then I I think we need to look at that as well. I I I really think the that the more that we can incorporate a
hybrid model into our our model of replacement, the better we'd be. I don't know if anyone from um uh sustainability is here or or for the next meeting. I don't want to drag this out, but can can talk about that a little bit more because I don't know a lot about this. It just seems like that would be the
case. If they tell me that, you know what, actually it's not an issue, then then that may not be such a big discussion point. But if it is actually contributing to all the stuff that's washing down our drains, um, we should have that conversation be a bigger part of this conversation. Why don't you go ahead and wrap up,
team? Appreciate the work that went into this. I feel much better informed now. Um, and then I want to hand it over to public comment. Okay. All right. Well, um, PJ, if you could just go to the key terms slide.
this one just to uh give you a snapshot of some of the key terms that have been negotiated um thus far. Um seven-year term we talked about with three optional one-year renewals for a total of 10 years. In terms of the routes, we're keeping current service levels. So, the
same routes that we're operating today with just minimal operational modifications to improve efficiency. Uh we talked about the vehicle type, the fleet size would will be our current service level as well, hours of operation, current service level, frequency, the 20-minute headways, which
is the current service level, and then um performance penalties. Commissioner, you brought up customer service and we are um keenly aware of some of those complaints um and have brought those up to you our our operator and they're
taking steps to improve particularly customer uh service. Uh but what we're doing with this contract is we're putting in a performance penalty that is tied to the mystery writer uh scores or secret like the secret shopper as you
mentioned Commissioner Fernandez and the let's say if we go with the proposal you're recommending that that's the base case uh what would be the financial impact uh kind of above and beyond where we're at now. Uh I know we ran through it in the June
budget meeting. Correct. Uh uh we spoke I think at the budget uh retreat in May. Um my understanding of the budgetary impact not for 25 or for 26 but for 27 uh is approximately $5.4 million additional would need to be found to fund the difference in these contracts.
Now it's important to note this contract uh rates haven't been increased in over 5 years uh and we know what inflation has done over this last 5 years. So, you know, a lot of that makes sense at the end of the day. And I know chair, you had spoken uh during a briefing about when you send this back to commission approve the contract, but interest in
retaining the item to discuss the transportation fund overall and either curtailing certain routes or additional uh services in transportation or finding additional revenue sources to offset this so that we don't get you're a year from now and dealing with the budgetary
impacts. But um but yeah, in September, you know, budget can work with Jose to provide more because some of these things you're talking about about going up could cost more than what was initially recommended, which is still a $5.4 million. And if part of coming back in this in September, if you can have a preliminary
just brainstorming uh analysis of other ways the transportation fund can raise revenue. Absolutely. Let's hear uh public comment. Matthew, something tells me uh Matthew, you're not here for the 100 Jamaican palm trees
in Lumis Park. Might be a great might be. Good afternoon now, Mr. Chair and committee members. Yes, I'm here to actually came here today to talk about this. This is a very important item for
the city. You talked about it. Um first, for the record, my name is Matthew Ganoff. Resident 125, Jefferson Avenue, South Beach. Um, over 3 million people ride this every year. Used to be 5 million. Two years ago when there was a
commission race uh group that I'm part of, we did a a survey of all the commission candidates and mayor candidates. Nine out of 10 replied and they all responded either rarely or never do they take public transit in the
county, but many of our residents do and many probably would want to as well. And I think the survey data showed most of them are tourists. Anyway, um I want to get to the good stuff. The good stuff is the recommendation for a 40 foot transit bus, not a conversion, not a truck
chassis, is great. Two doors will make a huge difference in efficiency. Right now, when you're when you're on the trolley and someone's getting off, people who are boarding have to wait and that means that it takes longer at each stop. That's called dwell time. And that means that if you're in a car behind, that means you're waiting and it's
blocking traffic. Um, so that's good. Two, the look. Why are we using these vintage trolley trolley kits onto transit buses? Does anyone know the answer to that? Because people find it funny.
Also, that probably also distinguishes us from the county buses. It does, but is there a cost to this? Is it I mean, you know, but people use it. It's part of the reason why people use it. Makes it friendlier, more approachable. So, it might look better from the outside, but if you ride it on the inside, you find people say that these
benches, these wooden benches are extremely uncomfortable. And the memo, by the way, says that the trolley look costs $120,000 more per bus. That's over $3 million total just in capital costs. So, I think it's something to consider. Many of the
people that you want to ride to help reduce traffic, they want to see a sleek, modern looking fleet, not an old rundown diesel, which is another topic. Well, that's objective, right, Matt? I mean, I understand what you're saying. It makes a good s You make a good point where it's $120,000 more for the look.
And is that correct? That's That is correct. It's So, we're paying $120,000 more per bus just because we want it to look like a the the trolley pack. So, it could What would it look like otherwise? Trolley package a bus. What would it look like otherwise? A bus. Could we wrap it to make a look
uh to give it the vintage look? Because if we could wrap it to give it the vintage look, how many if we're if it's 120,000 more per bus or per vehicle, how many more vehicles then could we get like could could that help
us offset to increase the the uh to improve the headway or just save money, right? Well, I I think we need or the other. Yes. And also I would suggest you don't have to spend the money. I would suggest this is an opportunity to think critically about our branding,
right? Like you know the the the kind of warm and fuzzy vintage trolley thing is cute but it's kind of dated and you know we're having this conversation about Ocean Drive. We're having this conversation about a lot of things. you know, for the fraction of the cost of the the add-on kit, we could do this incredible um wrap series where uh you
know, we highlight the different kinds of architecture in ocean in in the city from myo to to art deco. We could u make them all look like portions of our beaches and natural resources, you know, the bay and the beach and the the parks. I mean, we could do we could have so
much fun with wrapping buses to make them look sleek and modern and still very appealing to tourists. make them, you know, make them Instagrammable almost, right? I I think, you know, I think the the cute little trolley thing is kind of played out. I think of the
trolley at M and I think of some of the other kind of older tourist destinations where they don't have a lot else to to brag about really. And that's biased, but I would say that I would just say that I remember when I worked at the county was middle sentence.
Oh, I'm sorry. It's okay. I would suggest never end sometimes. I wasn't sure calling the kettle black, my friend. Um, I would just suggest that we look at this as an opportunity um and maybe um
cut that that 120,000 per and and think creatively about how to to get the branding we want. And Commissioner Bot brings up a good point and correct me if I stepped out. There's branding, right? Do we is there like a rev share on the advertising
that's on the buses that so where does that play into? Thank you for bringing up uh advertising commissioner because I I did not mention it previously. Uh but currently as as you all know there's advertising on our trolleys on the exterior of of the
trolleys. That's done independently through a separate contract through an advertising contract and there's a vendor that the city has for to perform those services. With this contract, the idea would be to bring that inhouse. So, it's all under one contract. Now,
advertising is its own um you know, it's its own world. So, that's going to require some additional negotiations just for the advertising component. And yeah, naturally our communications. Don't you think that should be done with this? Don't you think that the
advertising component should be done with this negotiation for this particular it could be done together? It could be done separate as long as it's brought under the same umbrella. I think that's what's what's important all under one contract. And the advertising revenues would be used to offset the operating uh
cost uh which they currently are not because it's two separate contracts. I have a question, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure because I know in other instances where they have used more bus looking vehicles
where the ridership was not doing great and then they introduced a more traditional looking uh trolley even I think through wraps and then all of a sudden the wrership went up and so it'll be great to see like is there is there
any tie between wrership and how the public perceives leaves uh these these vehicles. Mr. Chair, if I could for some insight, I was in Colorado last month and one of the towns we were in, a a resort town,
they had a fleet of 100% electric vehicles by the same manufacturer and they were extremely comfortable. They were written by people of all different economic classes and I it's my understanding they're very successful there. The town is Veil, by the way. You
might have heard of it. Did you go did you go hiking, Matt? I went mountain biking. Oh, nice. So, chair, if I if I can, I think one of the directions when it comes back in September is uh you for uh transformation to show the financial
impacts as we talked about and and Jose is that something that you could if you want to look at the option of what the numbers would look like if we went with just a standard bus look with just a wrap instead of that $120,000 kit. they can look at what the financials would shake out is. Is that something that you'll be able to have that discussion
with them and get new numbers by then? But we'd I'd also really like to see what the advertising, you know, component could bring in as far as revenue because I mean, you know, with the right with the right kind of, you know, advertising vendor, you know, it it
should cover a good significant portion of the cost. And we we'll we can have that information for September. We can have that the a slide or two related to sure the representative from Ike is here. Maybe he can uh give us some good deals. So So chair was
Is there other public comment sir? Hey Commissioner, we had public comment only because I see you standing. I'm not trying to invoke you if you don't have uh not at all. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity. Good afternoon. uh Max
Lawner on behalf of uh MV Transportation with Becker Polyoff at 2525 uh Pon Stillion Boulevard. Um respectfully uh MV Transportation was going to request that the committee uh consider uh deferring the item before you uh not just for the points that yourself, Mr.
Chairman, and Commissioner Suarez so eloquently raised, but I'd also note that the item before you is, you know, seeks advisory review by the committee. So, I would encourage you not just to look at the proposal before you, but all the proposals uh received by staff and
ensure that you're not just getting the best price uh for this service, but the best quality service uh that your residents and uh constituents and workers alike deserve and perhaps solicit presentations uh from the other vendors. And with me today is uh Tina Linhardt, uh vice president of business
development for MV Transportation, should you have any uh questions or concerns. Thank you so much. And Rick, what is our cone of silence uh still going forward in terms of being able to hear from various vendors out of a public setting? The the cone of silence is still in
place, but we can go through the presentation that laid out at committee. It's okay. Yeah. Or if we have a sunshine meeting, can we do a sunshine meeting? If it's a sunshine meeting, I don't see why not. Okay.
It's a sunshine meeting actually removes the cone of silence because that's what this is, right? Well, vendors are speaking. Huh? And the vendors are speaking. Correct. Right. No. Right. Okay.
Comparison. Uh what's happening here today versus the county? Have you been following the playbyplay? Um no, but I'd rather be here than at the county right now. I'll tell you that much for sure. Uh Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Mike Yurente with LSN Law. We represent limousines of South Florida. We're grateful for the
administration's uh recommendation uh and and as always, it's been a long but great experience negotiating with your team. I just wanted to address a couple of the things mentioned just now. LSF didn't just rank higher than MV Transportation, uh but our price of
approximately $120 per hour is considerably lower than MVs, which is about a 50% increase. So again, uh, respectfully, we urge you to continue this conversation. It's understandable that for an item of this magnitude, you want to have, uh, have it fully fleshed
out before making a decision, but we urge you, uh, to accept the, uh, the, uh, administration's recommendation. Thank you very much. I miss, please. And this goes to everybody. If you want to speak, come up, be assertive. uh don't rely on me
calling you up if you're you know just kind of uh around but please introduce yourself and uh happy to hear from you. Yes. Thank you chair and the commissioners to let me have this opportunity to make a comment. I would ask if you evaluate the RFPs when this
first came out or the proposals when this first came out there's a there's um like for example the criteria changed over a year and a half it's actually been throughout the time frame and for example facilities we are proposing a
facility that will house and hold all electric vehicles charging units everything so amount of different mechanics you may have. You know, somebody might be proposing just CNB mechanics and maybe only five or another
company's proposing qualified uh terms. I mentioned I heard somebody mention customer service at 88% here. We operate St. Lucy, Core Gables, Palm Tran. All of our customer service um surveys are much higher than that. So customer service is
part of the contractor that you go with and the opportunity to have a baffle where it comes to knowing exactly the fleets you're looking at so that you can downsize facilities that will save cost. Uh MB we don't take shortcuts. So our
facilities I'm sure the best that you'll see of the proposals and we also have internal teams for zero missions. We build facilities and transit for LA different
uh communities because of our teams and the experience you get with our teams. So I'd like you to consider all of that and that if there's an opportunity to baffle so that you can streamline what you're actually asking for so that that we don't have four different
um options to go with than what we've proposed because of um the service that you're getting here. So, where do you personally call home if you don't mind me asking? Burman Beach, Florida. Welcome, Miami Beach, and we appreciate your interest in doing business here. Thank you so much.
Chair, if I can, there's one public comment online, but I know after that's done, um, Jose wanted to give an update on the existing contract. Uh, because I have to come back. Larry Schaefer, please unmute yourself. Hello, Larry Schaefer, 23381st Street.
Uh I am one of those victims of the pollution of the particulate from the trolley system. I'm also a victim of the noise created by the vehicles. Um we are on 23381st Street sandwiched between uh basically we're in the middle of a highway. Three lanes going north on
Holland, three lanes going south on Harding and right we're right in between two trolley stops. Our outdoor furniture, our home is constantly covered in black particulate. our pets, our outside pets, animals covered in pollution. We are 100% behind 100%
electric. We think that these applicants should come back with options that are 100% electric and then if we need to wrap them to make them look like trolleys, then do that and focus on the electric component and not necessarily the appearance. Um, I would like to
offer something very constructive in that I have a location identified for an electric charging station. It's actually called parking lot P112. It's north of the West lots. It's a 15,000 square foot parcel that's
immediately across from an FPNL uh substation. So, uh it is not in use and it's actually 2/3 of it is grassland instead of parking. And I'd like to suggest that these applicants take a look at uh maybe establishing a location
there to charge electric vehicles and ask themselves, how much do you pay to store your vehicles in Miami? And how much traffic are you are you producing when you drive those trolleys across the causeways? And how much time and money does it take to pay for the diesel to power those vehicles as they leave our
island? I'd like the city administration to take a look at this parcel, parking lot P112. It is at 87th Terrace in between Collins and Harding and it's unused and could really be helped here. Thank you. So, Mr. Chair, last thing I wanted to
mention was as we're negotiating with um Limousines of South Florida for the new agreement, uh I mentioned how there there will need to be a transition between the old system and the new system. And so the the uh let's call it the current system will need to remain
in place until the new system comes online as a result of that. And as our uh CFO mentioned um the current rates have not been uh escalated in several several years since after uh CO since
about COVID. So the um vendor is requesting an increase to the current rates um not the rates that you saw those rates went through the solicitation process and whatnot, but to the current uh rates to allow for the
increased cost during the transition period. a fine request 15%. No, but he's asking as friends or it's part of the contract. Uh well, it's it would be it would be as
part of the current uh agreement, our existing agreement, but what we're trying to do is to dovetail the transition into the new agreement. So, it would be ultimately part of the new agreement. And so, it came up because we're going with the same provider. Correct. This is if if we go with the
same provider. Yes. So they just wanted to to highlight that again. We can we'll come back in September. I think there's been a couple of notes on uh some slides and some additional information we provide but I think um we have what we need. Yes. For now and we'll be back at the September.
Yeah. Perfect. Uh do we have time? Thank you so much for your team. I truly appreciate it. Thank you for everybody uh submitting an application that wants to do business in Miami Beach. Um, do we have time to hear the security item? Uh, yes.
Do we have a hard stop at this committee or can we just keep going with that? Make a motion to extend if needed. Okay. Um, I actually I I have to leave in five minutes, Mr. Chair, and parking. There was a parking item
that I have on the agenda. Motion to extend. Can that be quick? and we'll make a motion to extend so we can hear the security since I've already uh made the audience so excited that we'll be doing so. Okay. So, it it sounds like we'll handle the the two parking items which I think will be quick and then we'll have the
security and that'll be the end. Let's make a motion to extend now in case it goes over that five minutes. So, we'll show have a motion to extend to uh handle the the items as discussed parking and Thank you. And which of those uh Commissioner Fernandez? There was a parking item that I am
sponsoring if I can. They would be they were linked uh in the notes. Uh OB8 which was a parking update and MB20. If I can I can read them into the record quickly. Okay. Uh OB8 discussed a resolution the mayor commission city of Miami Beach accept in the the recommendation of the finance
and economic resiliency committee at April 19th 2024 meeting to accept the city administration's update on the city of Miami Beach's parking department enforcement efforts. That was OB8. And then MB uh MB20 discuss the suspension of the annual
consumer price index to residential parking rates and evaluate the possibility of a cashless option at all city- owned garage MB20. Will how are you finding your time in Miami Beach? Sir, every day is a great day in Miami Beach. It really is right. Um and so Mr. Chair, I mean usually we
increase uh parking every other year or certain rates. Is this every other year that we increase? Is that right, Will or is it every year? It's every year. Annual CP uh we have annual CPI. There's other fees we do every other year. Correct. This parking we do every year and this
would be this item is to suspend it for for the resident rates. Yes. If I can forwill to help expedite in time is Yes. The recommendation is and the discussion with yourself was the administration was okay with recommending the ordinance change to suspend the 2026 residential rate
increase. So if FK was okay with that, we would send it back to commission with a favor recommendation and we would send it directly to ordinance so we could get those readings which there's two meetings in September. But I think no. Yes sir. So uh there are two it would require two readings. However, those the second reading wouldn't occur
until after October 1st. So what we would request is that we hold those into place um until the second reading and then once that happened uh make them retroactive. And well, there's a fiscal impact associated to this, but by changing our garages to a cashless
payment, we're mitigating or being able to cover a lot of those uh fiscal impacts. That is correct, Commissioner. There is a fiscal impact of approximately $100,000 to freezing the residential rates for the next uh uh fiscal year. However, um by also going cashless, we
we reduce the expenditure of of of many costs within our garages for accepting cash. And uh we would offset that by approximately $60,000. All right. So colleagues, if so, I have a question. Is this um suspending it just for one year and then
it would resume every year, a raise every year? Yeah, the recommendation just like last year is just an a one-year suspension of that because we could always evaluate it through during the budget process. And uh Will and his team and you know MB uh looked at all of that. We're the administration's uh recommending this.
We do we have a favor. So when we reconsider it for a future suspension, could we just not do it like every two years like we do with other rates that we increase and put it on the same cycle so it doesn't get the the only one that's really on a two-year cycle would be the BTRs which
is based on state law where we go 0% and 5%. U most are are tied to an annual CPI which should be annual reviewed and recommended on an annual basis. So, we would like to keep it the the ordinance as as read, but it would just be a one-year suspension just as we did in 25. So, is this potentially something that
we would suspend every year? I think every year that there could be that discussion and I think that's the discussion looking at the parking department, what their operations are um and if they're able to afford that, but we are comfortable for 26 that they'll be able to afford this. So, I just we need a a motion uh for
this item to return to commission with a favorable recommendation to uh suspend the 2026 residential uh parking rate increase. I'll second. I'm sorry. The motion was made by I made it. Okay. Commissioner Suarez makes a motion. Uh
Commissioner Magazine seconds. Uh all in favor? I I However, thank you, colleagues. Jason, I do want to dellink the one that you added, the update on the parking uh enforcement. I want to get into a more robust conversation, but in the interest of time, let's have that in September. Uh I
have promised the security services. Okay, sounds good. So, we'll show MB20 is returned into the commission and the uh other item will be uh returned in September to have just a general parking update and then I will read the security item. So, next will be MB19.
Discuss the resolution of the mayor and city commission of the city of Miami Beach, Florida, accepting the recommendation of the city manager pursuant to request for proposals number 2024-277- KB for security officer services authorizing the administration to enter into negotiations and the award of a
contract with to Dynamic Integrated Security Incorporated, the second rank proposer as the primary contractor and Goodguard Florida Incorporated, the third rank proposer as a secondary contractor further author authorizing the city manager and city clerk to execute the agreements after the administration has concluded
negotiations. MB19, please. Good afternoon. Christy Pil, chief procurement officer. Um this item was referred at the May 21st commission meeting for a further discussion regarding um a detailed evaluation of
the vendor specifically regarding local staffing past performance and inclusion of robust um employee retention provisions. Um I can speak to a few of those. I believe some of the I believe the vendor is also here in case um they can speak further to that. However, um
as a part of the RFP process and this has been customary um in the various iterations and replacement of this contract, we have required that the vendors, if you give me one moment, I'm just going to um the right of first refusal, which is
that the successful contractor shall offer right of first refusal of employment to those uh service employees who are currently employed by our current service provider. we did have to enforce these efforts um five years ago. Well, it's been a little longer than
five years, but when we did switch prior um so the awarded or the recommended awarded um vendor is also perview to that provision and does know the city's intent to um try to continue with the employees that
are currently employed by the current service provider. Also um regarding um Dynamics experience as the recommended primary for the contract, they have a contract with Leyon County schools. Also, they have several charter
schools in North Carolina. They also have um an association they provide security officer services to in western Florida and they are also under the state of Florida contract for security services um statewide actually not just
for any district in particular in the state but the entire state of Florida. Mr. Chair. Yes. Thank you Mr. Chair. Um, so, so the recommended company uh to negotiate with is uh Dynamic. Um,
do they have security guards in Miami date county? I don't believe they do. I don't believe they do, but I can there. I want to hear I I have a line of questions. So, okay. Yeah. So, so they don't
not from the records that I have. not from their not from what they responded with. Okay. And then the other company is and I'm sorry, let me just correct because the state of Florida contract
does also cover Miami date county. So they do have it through the state of Florida but not specifically like with Miami Dade County. Okay. And then um the other company that uh that is being recommended is GoodGard. Is that correct?
Correct. Good Guard is recommended as secondary in case um there's any issues with the primary and they're unable to provide services. Do they have any contracts that they when they responded to the bid, did they show uh any any meaningful security
guard contracts? They had um mostly contracts in California and they provided services for Greyhounds here in Miami Dade County. Okay. For some of their I guess bus um transportation facilities.
But really nothing large. No sir. And so so those are the two main companies that were being asked to negotiate with. Correct. And then did the incumbent respond that
the vendor that currently has a contract? So we currently have two vendors. It's FBI Security and Security Alliance. FBI Security was nonresponsive um during the bidding process and Security Alliance was ranked fourth. Um if you recall,
why did FBI did FBI become unresponsive? Their they didn't submit the correct cost proposal form. So they were nonresponsive. This is like a timing issue. Did they not meet a certain deadline or they just refused to? They submitted the incorrect form.
Okay. Was that an accident? So in the procurement process in order to evaluate obviously apples to apples and make sure that everyone is offered the same opportunity. Um when a formal change is made which is material to the
cost proposal form, they're all required to submit. If not, we can't evaluate them and score them accordingly in the evaluation process. So, they were deemed non-responsive. I don't think an administrative error should preclude a company that has done pretty well for us from from
participating in a in a bidding process just because of an administrative error. Rick, I mean, especially when we want to be able to compete for the best price and service possible. I mean, ultimately, at the end of the day, we just want the best proposal. I don't think an administrative error
should prevent the best proposal from moving forward or if somebody submits late for a city asset. Is it is it against procurement rules or am I missing something here? Well, procurement rules are very strict about submissions because you could imagine the situation where um you know
someone submits and then they might hear that somebody else submitted a different price. So they'll say well I made an error here's my revised submission. So, as a general rule, and I'm not familiar with the specific facts of of this particular procurement, but as a general
rule, it's not a good idea uh to vary from the rules of the procurement. Is it is it illegal? But so I just if if I can make peace I just had a series of questions and my ADD is kind of kick in and um okay so we had one one one vendor
that you know no security guards in Miami day county then there was another vendor that wasn't able to provide any experience and then we have the incumb one one of the incumbents that that that
did respond uh to this and and you know offered a full appropriate response and then we had another incumbent who was deemed nonresponsive because of an error in their in their process. The incumbent that responded security alliance
correct they do work for us. Do they do work for from the records that they provided do they do work for other cities also? And I just get concerned because like you know we do rely on our security
guard services a lot. Um and I know a lot of times during high impact periods we have to call call in the security uh guard companies to provide backup uh provide presence protect a lot of the neighborhoods. uh when we say these
areas are for residents only areas where you have to show your your your ID these are the companies that that provide that and a lot of times these are planned high impact periods other times these are moments when you know I remember during during during co the chief at the
time had to had to call in um a company out of the county because there was such a great need but the company that the city had at the time wasn't able to to fill the request
um because there was such a great need. And so then I get concerned being that this is a tool that the police department uses that we have in incumbents that have been working well with with the city meeting the needs of
of of our city providing the right amount of security guards. And then we have other companies that are being recommended. Some that have no experience in in in the county, no guards in in the county being able to show no active contact uh contracts. And
so that just concerns me. It concerns me. You know, I want to make sure that we really do have the best option available to us. And I get concerned when when I don't know whether I don't know just reading the documents and I I
question if this is the best option for us. Can I ask a question? You you said that one of the vendors said that they or that they don't have operations in Miami Dade but the gentleman is sitting here looking very concerned and and seeming to indicate that they do. Can we just
get for the record what's accurate? He good afternoon uh Mr. Chair, members of the board. Uh Ralph Andradia, I represent Dynamic Integrated Security. With respect to uh Commissioner Fernandez, your question, we do have uh contracts and a presence in Miami date
county. Just recently um at Alligator Alcatraz, we staff for the state about 50 officers, I think, you know, on 24 hours. I'm not sure you I just Ralph, I'm not sure you should have told me that. That might actually, you know, duty calls.
That's not the best example to give me right now. When a contract uh calls, you know, and that requires us to render service, we we render that service. And so, um get a full just just following orders, right? Just following orders. Just following orders is right,
Commissioner. Um so, we do have a presence here. I I I think frankly, um you know, with respect to the integrity of of the RFP process, this has gone on for I think about a year and a half now. um one of the vendors, your current
vendors, um you know, failed to submit a material document and was disqualified. I think you also have um Mr. Urente's client, which you know, we don't have any objection to them, you know, participating in the process. Um they've been here forever and so we would just
ask that you uh authorize negotiations and follow your professional staff's recommendation. and authorized negotiations with our client. Um, dynamic integrated security and and who whatever you decide to do with respect to, you know, the the second uh contract
is is obviously within your discretion. Um, but we would urge you to follow staff's recommendation. We do have a presence here in Miami Day County. We're responsible vendor recommended by your evaluation committee. And that's a good clarification because, you know, it's very different to have a presence in
Miami date county than not to have a presence in in Miami date county. So, thank you for for for clarifying that. But the other company, is there a representative here for GoodGuard? I'm not sure if there is.
Okay. And they didn't provide you any proof of any other than what I've um mentioned today, unfortunately. We know that's what we've received. No active contracts that except um the Greyhound in in Miami is
what they provided. Yeah. I mean, so you know, I I want to follow staff's recommendation. um you know that to me is you know staff you go through a process and I believe in the process and so and so you know
while while I I agree you know fine dynamic but good guard isn't even here to speak about their merits and they don't have a lot of contracts that they can point to yet we have our
incumbent security alliance who we know the work that they do every single day and they have employees employees that work in this building. They have employees that work in this city. And when we've been our at our moments of greatest need with our high impact periods, they've stood there
shoulder-to-shoulder with us and with our community. And I don't know, I I just, you know, how do we how do we say, you know, you've been there with us, but here, thank you no more. You know, Ela Vista, you know, I I don't know. I
is there any type of consideration that's given in this RFP or for any others where it's okay there's something to be said for the known versus the unknown and do we quantify or qualify
their track record of what they've done in the evaluation process for going forward because like I said everything I've heard is very positive feedback for security alliance so uh even if we would do some sort of dual system Right. Uh hybrid, maybe we're on hybrids over the
day. I I don't know. Um it just seems hasty to just say, "Okay, thank you very much. We've had no issues here." Is there without getting into the details? Well, I guess getting into the details without getting into the details, is there anything where you can sit there and truly quantify? Yes. This
is just why we didn't feel comfortable going forward with Security Alliance given that they're the incumbent. So the current agreements are we have two agreements where they both offer services. We have a co-primary setup which is with FBI and US sec uh not US
security I'm sorry security alliance. Um under this contract we were anticipating awarding a primary contract and a secondary contract in discussions with the police department. Um it facilitates having one vendor that can operate all
security guards. it's operationally easier for them and also um deploying securities and things like that. They're here if they want to speak to it, but um so it was determined that it was best to have a primary and secondary in case the services are
needed. Um that would be if something failed obviously with dynamic security or if there was something so urgent that we needed to vamp up services, they would have a secondary that they could call upon. Um therefore the decision the
recommendation was to negotiate with dynamic as a primary and the second ranked proposer was good guard to negotiate with them as a secondary. Do you conf do you negotiate not negotiate but do you confer with the police department on this on this procurement process?
Yes. Wayne, I saw you got up. Do you have anything to add? And they administer the contract, right? Correct. Yeah. Uh certainly. Uh good afternoon, commissioners. Uh Wayne Jones, please. chief for the police department. Um, but we have background. I've actually been
involved in the security um contract business for the past 24 years or so, give or take as a young sergeant. Actually managed the city's contract for the security uh guards at the time. It was security alliance that had the contract. It was also a secondary uh
security company as well. And please forgive me, I'm a bit nasal today. Um there's also a secondary security company, don't remember the name, that um was a part of that mix as well. Uh I can tell you in the conversations we've had with recruitment. Ideally, we'd like to deal with one security company
becomes rather cumbersome, particularly during high impact weekends when we need to staff up, spool up security guards and to work with them. Having to deal with multiple security companies is a bit bit taxing. So the preference would be ideally one security multiple security companies is what? It's a bit challenging to work with
multiple security companies. Um, ideally one. So you prefer to just deal with one. Yes sir. But we're moving forward with the primary and secondary. Correct. But primary the setup that we have now is co- primaries there. We have two contracts that they dy provide
security officer services. That's what we what we have currently as is contracted. this um award was primary secondary which means whoever gets awarded primary will receive all the work always until something
almost like a standby. I I guess to Commissioner Fernandez's point like okay well if our current incumbent didn't get selected and they're the ones with the biggest presence in Miami Beach surely they're going to come in second. It's like oh they didn't even come in second. Uh so these gentlemen have
affirmed that they do have a presence in Miami date, but we're saying the second place uh bidder does not have a presence here and they're essentially being asked to be on standby. So I could see if a primary company didn't have a significant presence. They win a big
contract like this, they go and staff up. Okay, maybe it's more ideal if they're already staffed up. But if you only win a contingency contract is the second place and you don't have any staffing levels in Miami Date, we're getting real fuzzy there, right? Like
I get uncomfortable because they're not going to go out and employ a bunch of people at a moment's notice. Yes. I have a big issue with that, right? um where if we have a company that already has a significant presence, they have
exactly what we need on a contingency basis, which is a contingency workforce, right? Am I thinking about this wrong, Chief? You you probably know this better than uh a general just procurement process, right? If you essentially are looking
for a company to be on standby, which is, you know, what I'm getting is the secondary, right? That'd be a pretty high priority that they have an established presence of employees in Miami date. Uh because like
I said, if it's your primary, okay, staff up, they're going to do that. But if you are just sitting there waiting maybe for Memorial Day, maybe for spring break I'm called, maybe I'm not, you're not going to go up out and staff in Miami Dade. Yeah, I I imagine it wouldn't be cost
effective, frankly, to do that. Um, and keep people on hold on standby for a moment's notice, provide X number of security guards to help us um provide support to the city. I imagine just be rather expensive. And I remember
that practical. I remember being with your predecessor on Ocean Drive during CO and he telling me that there would I don't know what the circumstance was. He had to go all the way to Palm Beach to get a company that was willing to come
to Miami Beach and send in people like we shouldn't have to deal with a situation like that. And we should be able to have if there is the necessity that the city needs these these these extra guards in the
city for a high impact period for an emergency or something we need to make sure that those are readily available uh quickly locally uh because if that secondary contract uh is is not properly
stable how do they do that? So, I I'd be comfort I'll let you speak, Commissioner Suarez, but um and I need to step out and I'm not a voting member of this of this, but I think we're aligned here where I'm going with this. I think I'd be more comfortable. Um I don't know the proper
protocol. So, Rick, you got us here, but Security Alliance, they have a presence even outside of our contract in Miami date. Correct. A significant one. Correct. Okay. So, where I think I'd be comfortable seeing this process go, who am I to say, you know, first place
winner, perfect. But the contingency contract, that just seems like a a showstopper to me that they don't have a presence in Miami Dade. And I'd be much more comfortable moving forward with um one of the companies, particularly the
incumbent perhaps responsive in um that maintain a presence that are able to go at a moment's notice on a contingency basis. you know, uh, so the proper Oh, sorry. So, chief, the current the incumbent,
they they can on a moment's notice expand uh their their capabilities like for high impact weekends. Well, that would be the expectation. Uh there have been moments in in the past where we've needed x number of offices.
Do you do you think that they're doing a good job relatively? Yeah, sure. You know, believe it or not, one of the residents contact me saying that uh during I think it was during Memorial Day or spring spring break, one of the
security guards um that was blocking that was there blocking the street. She said she's pretty sure that that was a homeless person and that um all of a sudden he just put on a a badge and a shirt and and a hat
and said I see this guy sleeping on the street now he's and now he's doing SC I I want to make sure that that capability isn't just picking off random people on the street. I mean are you I think I even may have mentioned that to you. I sent you that text message, right? You did. Um, I want to make sure that
that's not the case. That we're not hiring homeless people. Yeah. To be security guards. That's that's a quality assurance issue. Uh, Commissioner, I can tell you many of these security companies, they're all fishing really in the same pond. They're what? They're all fishing in the same pond for employees depending on the level of
guards you're seeking to hire. There are levels of guards. That comes at a cost difference as well depending what you want. Um, but by and large they all efficiency. I have a question. The current uh vendor the current vendors have they been with us during spring break during Memorial
Day during these high impact periods? Yes. How many like have they been able to provide officers for us? How many like how many officers do they have? They have been able to provide officers in most cases. There are some some cases where they haven't been able to fulfill
our entire needs and then we have to make a decision to prioritize where the officers that are provided go. Uh again the the they all fish in the same pond for employees for resources oftentimes doing high impact weekends. Not only they trying to provide fulfill our
contractual needs but also providing security services to other vendors other clients as well. So where I'm at with this and Commissioner B I'll let you go. Uh I would like to see us accept the the first place recommendation and then for the second place the secondary
contingency contract given security alliance has uh been a very wellperforming incumbent and maintain an existing employee presence in Miami Beach. I'd like to see them uh be considered for the secondary uh country. I agree with that. Commissioner B.
Yeah. So you left 10 minutes ago. I know. Hang on. Thank you guys. I you know I thank you Commissioner B. Why are why did security alliance come in dead last if they're the incumbent? What is the the mitigating factor? Because I I really I have a real I I
don't disagree with the concerns raised here. But I have a real issue if we start putting our finger our finger on the scale of a procurement process that is already contentious. I mean I listen I've done procurement processes with the Army National Guard and if you did not
have your ducks in a row that was I mean like they do not screw around and it is very serious business and we should be no less diligent and no less upfront and no less rigorous in ours. I mean we have a history in the city of Miami Beach. I
mean you know Miami is a sunny place for shady people. We do not want to backtrack on that. That is not directed at you. you know that but and that's one of the reasons you have the job is because the procurement process is so important and it is so important that we
uphold the maximum integrity in it. So, if there is a reason why our incumbent came in last, and I appreciate the fact that they've been with us for years and that, you know, maybe we've got individuals who do a really good job and maybe they can apply for jobs with the new company, but I I I'm very concerned
about what I'm hearing. And not that the the issues that are being raised aren't legitimate issues. So, there it's two parts to the question is one, why did they come in dead last? and two, how do we what are your thoughts on, you know, basically
throwing the procurement pro process out the window for the secondary position? And before you answer, I I agree with your sentiment. I always refrain from putting my finger on the pulse. This particular issue seems I don't want to say cut and dry, but a big issue. Um,
and it's my understanding there were a lot of applicants, right? There were 27 27, right? Security alliance was fourth, third or fourth. Okay. But but I I understand that. But you know, we might say, well, we know them and you know, it's it's only being
in the secondary position and so we're going to give it a buy for this. But I was just saying versus deadlines. No, I appreciate the clarification. Thank you. Um, but nonetheless, okay, we do it for this one. And then another commission down the road says, okay, we're going to do it for another one. And you know, all of
a sudden we've got trolley being, you know, well, just kidding. we're going to like the whole thing is seems to be disastrous. So talk to us a little bit please. So the evaluation was a combination of both experience um and their ability to
perform the scope of services but also cost. So cost was also a component that their cost was a little bit higher than those that ranked first, second or third. Um cuz their ranking was actually fourth out of the
so many that were um that made it through the process. Um as far as you know confirming the second the second awardees ability um we were able to verify some of their references which provided positive feedback on their
performance both the Greyhound contract that I mentioned that they had locally and a contract that they do have in California. Um we also confirmed that they have the proper it's the department of agriculture um security guard agency um lensure. So we confirmed that they
met the requirements of the solicitation and proceeded with them as a secondary. So So is it maybe not a a question of how we write and rank the RFP and the the responses? Because if one of our primary concerns is cost, that's one
thing. If one of our primary concerns is the ability to staff up as needed, um maybe that should be ranked higher. I mean to it's great to have somebody who's um more cost effective but not if they're not readily able to fill our needs when we need them and and I I just
I'm very if they're hiring homeless people and that information regarding the high impact weekends was provided to them. We do give them the estimated number of hours that have been spent on these contracts in the last 5 years. So all that information is provided to the
biders because it is important obviously for their knowledge that they know what the expectation is for the scope of services to be performed. But but if if to use um yours chief your expl uh expression of everyone's fishing from you know for the same fish in the
in the same sea um how are these people who don't currently have staff here going to suddenly magically find the staff to to fill the needs that we have? Should they be called upon to do so? I would ask this, right? They're a
company based in California, correct? No, I'm sorry. Um, Miami, they're here in Miami in Florida, but based in their experience mostly came from California. So, and they had the Greyhound contract for a bus station in Miami someplace.
So, I would ask we're going to need them not on a primary basis, but potentially on a one-off contingency basis. Do we have any of the representatives here? Please come forward. And that's what I don't want to be asking ourselves on Memorial Day weekend
and spring break. Team, it's your time to step up. Are you here? Oh, you're you're in California. And and so that that goes back to my question about the process itself. And and you know, maybe it needs to be weighted differently. like maybe um
maybe it's it's one set of criteria for number one, but for anyone who's not the clear obvious winner, this is what we're looking for because they have different needs. Right? If we're if we're if our primary concern is cost overall over the course of the year when we have, you know, sort of fixed demands and we know
what what it's going to look like and it's a vendor day in day out, that's one thing. But then for everything else, um and maybe it should be a separate RFP. Maybe it's somebody who specializes on in on demand services. Um I'm not I'm not comfortable awarding
the second place contract yet and I would suggest maybe we bifurcate them and you know move forward with a the because we hopefully we won't even need them um or not for a while but we move forward with the number one awardee um
or or um number one um ranked proposal and then we re-evaluate what it's going to do to us to have somebody who's not even here to discuss our concerns and and possibly go back out to the group and say we're, you know, this is what we
need and and re-evaluate it. I I because if we start screwing around with the procurement process in the in the abstract to try to address this particular specific problem, I think that opens an enormous can of worms. I would agree with your sentiment,
right? However, there's a reason why it comes to us for final approval. Right. It's not as if we're just like interjecting in a process. I mean th this is our duty to sit here and not blindly just take the recommendation.
Sit there, evaluate, say, "Thank you very much. We are th and I get the slippery slip indoors box that you're talking about." And I agree with that. Rick, are there state statutes for procurement processes or is it something that the city commission establishes?
Um, we have both. Um there are some state statutes that apply in certain instances. There's certainly case law. Um but most of our procurement rules are within our code and or uh in the actual procurements that we issue. So, the
rules for each procurement might be within the RFP or RFQ or whatever the the I think I think that I think that deserves a revisit and I I'd like to I'd like to put a hold on an item that I'm going to want to bring to really address these these procurement rules
that we have because, you know, one of the things that struck out to me was I know this completely off topic, but you know, we're spending almost double on a shade structure for a park in Lumis Park when a high school PTA got something for
less than half and and and it's all because of the procurement process. So, um I think there we really need to dig in and find out, you know, is this procurement process really benefiting the city of Miami Beach? Uh especially
during, you know, time when when money is going to be tight. Um because I'm to be honest uh I'm not really comfortable with with any of these these proposals considering that there was you know our our
incumbent was missed it because of an administrative um deadline or or or error. Um so I'm going to want to I'm going to want to address the procurement process in Miami Beach. Chief, you tell me. I mean, um,
do do you think for at least for the first place dynamic is is is the best option? I mean, considering like compared to what we have now, the incumbent, assuming the incumbent didn't have an administrative error, how would you rank them?
Uh, I I would say they're they're average to slightly above average. I don't I don't know dynamic. I've never worked with them. It's been a long time since I've been involved in direct oversight of the security guard contract in Miami Beach. Uh worked with Alliance
uh two plus decades ago. Um and they were if you had a if let's assume right now the incumbent and the number one ranked uh applicant if you had a if you had a choice because you you know what our incumbent is capable of and then you
were apparently there for the procurement process for uh dynamic. If you had to choose for the city of Miami Beach being the police chief who would you choose? Well you know I have never worked with dynamic. I don't know what their work product is like. I do know what that of
the incumbent is like and I would give him a passing passing grade. Um was not involved personally in the recruitment process nor were any of my um folks from my staff involved in it. That was by by
design. So I keep an L away from from the entire process. Um we're just looking for an organization, a security company that can provide us and meet and supply our needs when we need them most. uh at times that will require a a spooling up of resources. May not
necessarily be a high impact weekend. It could be in the wake of a major storm here in the city where we need additional resources to be our eyes and ears out there supporting the police department. Just looking for a company that can meet those needs and how do we make sure that they're not hiring just people off the street?
That's the quality assurance issue that I think we can figure something out internally to make sure that whoever is managing the contract for my police department is more hands-on and safeguarding against issues like that is dynamic here through the chair. Do you mind having
dynamic speed? So I brought up Sorry. Yeah, you can present your name please. My name is Zev Ragachan. I'm the COO of Dynamic Integrated Security. I want to mention one second. Zev. Zev. That's my son's name. Oh, really?
Um, yeah. So, one of the issues that I had, and I brought it up to the chief when it happened was our current provider apparently hired a guy off the street, homeless person. How do we how are we assured that this doesn't happen?
Let me tell you first what dynamic integrated stand for. We are the largest provider of safe school officers in the state of Florida. We go all the way from Tallahassee to the Keys. Um we have a significant present in Miami date especially in schools and again just to
give you an example we receive a phone call on a Friday afternoon about 12 from the Florida Department of Emergency Management requesting 20 people. I don't know for what but they request 20 people the license we were able to provide 50
people by Monday when they were supposed to be there. Um, another example, uh, we have the school district of Leon County. In the middle of a school year, it's Leon County in Tallahassee. In the middle of the school year, the sheriff unfortunately, um, do not have the
manpower to cover all the schools. So, they asked us to provide 30 certified safe school officers um for an undetermined time in in Tallahassee. And we were able to provide that and save the school year. That is
what dynamic stand for. We we protect life. That is I think is one of our first um priorities and and dynamic is a company who because of the virtue of what we do for a living. We just we just
don't hire uh homeless people to be there. Um actually 98% of all our personnel are retire retired law enforcement, HR28 and veterans. Um the reason is simple. We give them a different purpose in life. I served 10
years in the Israeli army and special forces. Um I'm a law enforcement firearm instructor and I believe in leading by example. Sorry. Can you go back to your credentials? I didn't I um served 10 years in the Israeli army in special forces. Uh I I uh I'm a law
enforcement firearm instructor. I'm a breaching instructor. I wrote a book about the school safety and active shooters. But again, we're talking about quality of service. We're talking about reliability. Uh, one of the reasons I'm
here today is on the last meeting, I wasn't able to attend. I was on a conference and it was mentioned in dynamic did not have the financial capacity to do this and it shocked me. We don't have the experience to do this. It shocked me too because it wasn't
true. Um, I am I I I don't I believe we do a disservice to try to tone down the other companies and if that is the way I I want my company to rise, I I won't do it. I don't think it's professional. I am here
for any questions you have for me. Okay. So, you're familiar with our I'm I'm assuming when you went through the procurement process, correct? Spring break. How many how many security guards do we have for spring break? total
that we need that that that our current incumbent. Yeah, I I can tell you off the top of my head right now. Um, Captain Matias has as your premier for me. 80. Yeah. Okay. And Zev, that's I I count I count 84. That was my calculation.
Yeah, we perfectly. And not only that, it by the way, our direction we're going is we want to have less of these. I understand. We we want to be more um efficient in what we do and probably the efficiency pass to our manpower and I
understand that. Now, we agreed and we want to to keep some of the most of the personnel that you have here as long as they are able to pass our background check and um we certify all our personnel in in um in CPR, EAD, stop the
bleed and youth mental health um which has been in our experience tremendously effective not just in schools but in over all our lives. Um so um so as long as they are able to pass that filter and also they will and they're willing to
work with us, they always have a place with us and they we we value their experience they're building because they've been in this community in these buildings long enough and and I think it's important. I think it's is they are important people and that's what we
sell. You see, I'm in the business of of selling service. Your perception uh perception matters a lot to us as Where are you based out of? Is that where are you based out of? I'm based out in Coral Springs. Okay. And we have an office here in a
satellite office here in Miami, too. Okay. After speaking, I'm I'm pretty comfortable. So, if you guys want to make a motion or I'll make a motion to accept the uh recommendation for the first uh the top bidder or move it to at least
move it to the city commission. Yeah. And I think we're aligned with that where commissioner Fernandez and I were aligned and granted differ from commissioner bot uh is on that second place the contingency contract. All the
more reason I think I I could twist myself into a pretzel and say, "Okay, even if you don't have a presence in Date County, if your primary winner, it's consequential enough where you're going to staff up." But having a contingency contract for a company that doesn't have a significant presence here
in Miami date, they that part makes me uncomfortable and I don't know how we essentially go about that. whether it's kind of Commissioner Bot's point, take the top four or five winners and I'm sorry, top four or five uh ranked and
sit there and re-evaluate them for the secondary contract uh or given that we have an incumbent that works, you know, recommend them. Um let me hear your thoughts, Christie, about uh how to take that. So for the secondary
contract, would it be fair and proper to sit there and take the, you know, we can't open it back up to 29 different companies, but the top four or five uh ranked entities and say, let's re-evaluate these for the secondary contract. Um, I believe that the commission should
give direction as to what vendor to go with for second place probably rather than reopening an evaluation by by the administration. So I guess if I can assist I guess the idea is to send this back to commission with a a favor recommendation on on the
primary contract which seems to be a consensus. The question then is on the the secondary or the secondary contract is there going to be a recommendation uh from this committee? Will it be no recommendation for award not to award? So there that seems to be the part of the motion that we just need to get
clarification on. Okay. So I I may differ from my colleague here. Uh but if somebody wants to back this, this is where contingency contract. Not comfortable going forward with the second place winner because they maintain no presence here, which I don't think is reliable when we're
looking to staff up on a contingent basis uh and therefore go with the highly ranked uh incumbent that we're already familiar with. And that's Security Alliance. Is that the one? Correct. That would be the third. So is the and I think Commissioner Suarez was
going to make the motion but I would obviously confirm is that we return to commission with favor recommendation authorize the administration enter in negotiations and award an award of contracts to dynamic integrated security as the primary contractor and security alliance as the secondary contractor is
that the actions being what I would like but you know I have other colleiance ranked where fourth and they're currently are they're an incumbent. Yes. Currently, Commissioner Bot, what do you think?
I mean, I'm just myself. I'm happy to, I guess, send it back to the commission. I'm not sure that I I I'm comfortable with the first. I think we all are. Yeah. So maybe we could send it back as two
different things and say we you know we we are comfortable awarding the first um and we need to discuss what we're going to do about the second. I mean Rick I'll ask for a little help is the motion could just be to to award uh to do security system as primary
contractor uh and then no recommendation was given on the um the secondary contract. Do we have to vote on a second contractor today? Can we say to the procurement team, let's restart the second uh vendor?
Well, that if I think if I can, then that would be the recommendation would be to award the primary and then to not award the the the secondary contingent contract and to reprocure. The the one thing I would mention, I mean, I'm sure that the procurement director will say, is having a procurement for a contingent contract
probably not going to get a lot of interest, but um Right. And sorry, did did I cut you off? Yeah, I I saw you come up. I wasn't sure if you The only reason was because I worked for D. Okay. And I wasn't sure if he was gonna speak. I got you. I want to make sure if
there's anybody that wants to speak on this item. How important is it to have that secondary uh contract? Defer to I defer to the How often do we use the backup? Well, during high impact weekends, you use both. All right. During high impact
weekends, we have used both uh companies uh because the need to staff up significantly um and one company not having the ability to do that for us. Ideally, I like a company that has the ability to do it on a moment's notice. A single company,
which is the award that's being proposed, correct? You want? Yes. Good afternoon, uh Mr. chair, commissioners, Mike Urento with Allesand, we represent Security Alliance. Just a few clarifying points
for the record. Um, Security Alliance, which is our client and the incumbent, has been the incumbent for five or so years. Um, services not just the city of Miami Beach. We service the city of Hyia, the city of Hollandale, Miami date county, Miami date college. It is a Miami born company. It's based out of
Miami. They have over a thousand security guards, over 500 just in this area, Miami date county area alone. Um, which puts us in a unique position because this contract's different. And if you ask our CEO, he'll tell you this is the most difficult contract he has
and he does work all around the country. We protect US embassies. Um, he'll tell you this is the most difficult one. And the reason is because on a moment's notice, the city asks for 30, 40, 60, 80 additional officers. It's much more
difficult to pull in on a temporary basis for three days or 10 days uh a staff that large. It's actually easier to ramp up and staff a new contract on a permanent basis than it is to just grab people on on a temporary basis. And so
the way that it works today is the city has two essentially co-primes. The reason that works is because anytime the city needs additional resources, they look at us. We're a thousand plus firm. They look at the second firm FBI. I think they're about 200 300 uh security
guards. And when they ask, it's it's usually us. It's usually security alliance that steps up and provides that supplemental uh force, right? Um I'll say to address commissioner the the concerns about a homeless person, we do not hire uh homeless people off the
street even if it's for high impact weekends. I I confirmed with security alliance this is the first we're hearing of it. So to the extent that it involved a uniformed person and not just a security guard uh homeless person pretending to be security appears that it didn't involve uh our firm. Um a
couple notes on the on the procurement commissioner bot because I certainly understand and and I think it's a it's a general consensus right a concern about messing with the procurement process. This is not a straightforward normal procurement process where you have three vendors and you evaluate them all. You
know, uh when you have a couple dozen vendors, by the time you get to vendor number 12, you kind of forgot what vendor number one was like, right? So, what you get through this process is a good sense of who's at the top, who's at the bottom. Security alliance in this case is the third ranked responsive,
responsible firm. I can tell you that uh we believe that it's in the city's best interest to have at least one co-prime uh with a robust presence in Miami Da County. We have hundreds of security
guards in Miami Date County. We are not here to disparage dynamic. I I personally don't know them, but read through their proposal, it seems they do a fine job protecting primarily schools and HOAs uh throughout the state. They
said in their proposal they have 127 uh employees which is a decentsized security company and they've built a great company. Uh it is our suggestion and strong belief that the city should have two security guard contracts uh so
that they can dip into those pools both pools when there's a need for additional services that happens here. This this our police chief is saying that he'd rather just work at one. I I I understand that, Commissioner. And and I guess where I'm coming from is just
based on conversations with the CEO of Security Alliance. He says, "Listen, nobody else asks for this." And it's not once a year. It's for, you know, 60 guards for uh uh uh spring break. It's 30 guards for New Year's Eve. It's 35 guards for uh you know, memorial for
Memorial Day. So um he says we do that for the city because they are a good partner to us. It's very difficult and I just want to be clear and these are conversations we're happy to have with the city and with your staff, but it's very clear to negotiate a contract where anybody would be able and willing to
pull 60 or 80 security guards into the city of Miami Beach on a temporary basis and then go home with no sort of continuous permanent presence on the beach. So what we would urge is that there be some division of resources to
to allow both companies to maintain a presence on Miami Beach and allow both companies during high impact weekends to uh go fishing in their pool of you know local security guards to be able to staff at the appropriate levels. What mechanism do we have to ensure that
if if we do have just one prime and they cannot meet that requirement? what is the recourse? So the contract will have a termination for cause or convenience and then we would have to seek um an alternate route. Obviously we would either have to
reprocure if time is given or that doesn't really help us in the middle of a crisis, right? Or like in the middle of a high impact weekend. We do have emergency under the clause under um our code. So if that is the case where we are found without a replacement contract that we can jump
into um we would be able to engage that to facilitate um security officer services. What is that contingency? Emergency there's under the code um if we had to declare an emergency to utilize security officer services
because we didn't have a contract. What exactly is an emergency? Mr. Commissioner, I can speak to that. Well, I'm Hold on. Well, I'm simply saying it's Memorial Day weekend or spring break and the company says, "Hey, you know, we're like we're short 20 people."
It could be a storm. It could be any type of one-off event that you're not But spring break isn't an emergency, right? So I'm saying is what what's the recourse if they if the if the if dynamic doesn't come up with the 20 and we're still we still need those 20
people and we and the city manager isn't going to call an emergency just because he needs to hire 20 security. Correct. It's an option. We also could look into a possible piggyback if we're aware. We can look at alternatives even the state of Florida contract that offers the security services. we could
possibly look into, you know, we would have to do this research obviously to see if we can piggyback them, but there's different options if we could maybe issue an emerent, you know, solicitation to get some contracts in. I'm assuming this is why we have a second backup, right? So that we can
have this correct also for that. Yeah. Well, how about we just how about we move this the how about we move dynamic and security alliance between to the commission meeting and then we can you know at the commission meeting between
now and then. Is it going to go in September or is it going to be in July? I mean is it this month? I would think that would be September. Yeah. I didn't have it on for I guess we'll have time to really eval I mean it's just we're just recommending right now but it's nothing's binding. Correct.
Correct. Everything's still under the cone too, right? Right. Correct. Yeah. So can I just ask a question sir from how do you find these last minute security people like who Yeah. Sure. Um who who is just hanging out waiting to be picked up by a
security company for a couple of days? I mean I cannot imagine these are that's a that's a great question here. No, I mean with all due respect to the people who do this um you know I can't imagine these are like the top tier folks who are like wouldn't you want this these folks to be police officers
or let me let me explain to you uh briefly um when we have a state emergency uh we have a pool of people who is normally assigned to schools and you have uh in Miami date we have probably
70 that we can pull out from. They are employed by us during the day during uh normal school hours that we can pull from. We also have a pool of people that this is what they do. They are in our short list because we contract with uh
we we are a short list for FEMA too and for Florida Department of Emergency Management. So when they need our help, we just jump and they just tell us how high. So that is the way that we do it. and and and you need to understand there's people who this is what they do.
This this is last minute personnel. What kind of screening is there for for folks? We do a panel tech 10 drug test, psychological evaluation by a law enforcement uh uh certified psychiatrist and we also do a um a background check
and fingerprinting and normally we try to get a batch from the city or the municipality. So those fingerprints are attached to that if they are get arrested because at any time we're going to get the hit too. Um and that's what we're looking for. Remember that you do a background check on somebody today
doesn't mean that he's not going to commit a crime in a week from now and they're not going to let you know. So we want to know that and we have a very extensive method of doing that because obviously we work with the schools and we can't put just anybody to protect the
kids. That answer your question? Thank you. Yes. Thank you. The background check is a requirement of the contract also. Oh, I should hope so. Make you snort. Make a motion. Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve this. And then um you know,
look, but if we're under the cone of silence, we can't even talk to the city manager about this. Once this is on the commission agenda that the manager makes a recommendation to the commission then the cone is lifted as between your communications you individually with the
city manager. So once this goes on the commission agenda where the manager will be a week before in the September meeting to to discuss this. That's correct. Okay. And if I can just to clarify the the recommendation would be waste a bunch of time. I'm using
Dynamic Integrated Services as primary and Security Alliance is the secondary contractor. Correct. I guess we've like learned a bunch of stuff. Yeah. Okay. I'll make a motion. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Suarez made the motion. Do we have a second on that? Commissioner Magazine made the second. All in favor? I sure it got passed. Three nothing.
Thank you. Meeting is adjourned.