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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 1.
Hi everybody, Commissioner Laura Dominguez here with Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez and we're here to uh have the public safety and neighborhood quality of life committee and with me on the day deis are the fabulous Stephanie Ray Brooks, assistant city manager Mark
Taxis, equally fabulous and also pretty cool is our chief deputy city attorney Rob Rosenwald. Uh Stephanie, do you have announcements to share with us? Hi, good morning. Yes, we have a couple of announcements, but first, this meeting
is a hybrid meeting with members of the committee in person and members of the public in person or attending via Zoom. If you would like to call in, you could dial in by calling uh 1888-475-4499 and the webinar ID is 878-3352956.
Um, the only announcement we have right now is that there was an addendum item added and it is discuss the development and implementation of a one-year pilot program for a one-way valet parking service at the Miami Beach Bandell utilizing parking lot 106 and such other
municipal parking lots as the administration shall determine for vehicle parking. said program to allow event attendees to drop off vehicles at the Banshell entrance and retrieve their vehicles from parking lot 106 or other designated parking lots at the end of the event. That is the only announcement
we have for today. Okay. So the first item Okay. So the first item will be item number nine discussion regarding naming the flaming Oh, sorry. No, wrong item. Uh yeah, sorry. Item number nine,
discussion regarding naming the Flamingo Park baseball field after Skip Bertman. This item sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and co-sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez, Parks and Rec. Hi, John. director,
seven beachy graduates from a time when I was maybe not even born came to me about uh Skip Bertman who was a wonderful um football and baseball coach at Miami Beach Senior High. Um
they would love to name the baseball field after Skip Bman. I think a lot of people would be really happy. He had let's see from 1984 Burman led a I mean he was coach at LSU he led Beach High and I believe they won
a state championship under Skip Bman but he was beloved by the Miami Beach community by many Beach High alumni. So I don't think that this is a very controversial item and um according to this the price will not exceed uh
$10,000. So John, do you have anything extra to add? Um, not much extra. I mean, what an impressive resume he has being Miami Beach um, born and raised and go on to such a a wonderful career. And just to clarify, this would not this
would be naming of the field. So, if this was to pass, it would be, you know, Skip Burman Field or something like that at Flamingo Park. It's not the naming of the stadium because there was some question about that. And the the budget is estimated because we we don't know exactly what that naming will look like.
you know, we'll be at the scoreboard. We'll be So, we're estimating 10,000 or less to um How do you envision naming it for Skip in a way that's meaningful? How do you envision naming it in a way that's meaningful for Skip Bman?
Well, that's what I I'd love to speak to some of the um the residents who brought this brought this forward to you to see if they have any ideas. We usually reach out to family or friends that that bring this forward or the commissioners, see if they have any ideas that we we work um collaboratively work on that. There's two things that come to mind. It could
be um often these namings are done on the scoreboard because you know everyone's looking at the scoreboard and there's some sort of you you know um mention there or it could be on the facade of the of the um the field itself. I think we should make a motion to send
this to the commission with adding his name to the scoreboard. Okay. Are you I have a question. Uh what other names are um in that area on the field? I know uh that I sponsored something for one of the fields. Um and how does this conflict with that? There's no conflict at all that was
reviewed before this was was brought forward to committee. Um we do have the Are you putting me on the spot? We did two namings over there. We did the Arie Nokin, which I believe you were you were the sponsor at the softball field. Ernie Nkin, I believe it was the Nokin. I believe that's the one you sponsored. You
definitely sponsored the softball field which is a completely separate field than this. So no conflict and there's nobody else on the scoreboard or in the past in in Flamingo the we found no record at all that the field was named after anyone. Okay, great. I just want to make sure
that that's respected that if there was a a name from the past that we don't later on hear from residents saying hey we have some historians that reach out to to us and he's really beloved just so that you know he Skip was a graduate of a Miami Beach is a graduate of Miami Beach High
School class of 1956 starting player in both football and basketball he spent from 1962 to 1984 as a teacher at Miami Beach Senior High and spent 11 seasons as the head baseball coach coach at Miami Beach High School from 1962 to 1974 where his team won a
state championship. I tried to figure out what year but I could not um which included and yeah and was state runner up twice. So he is very beloved and I don't see a problem with putting his okay with that.
Okay. So there we go. Take it to the full commission. Yes. All right. Thank you. Okay, Stephanie. Next item. The next item is item number eight. discussed making the pilot neighborhood tennis court reservation program permanent and extending the program to the tennis courts at Beayore Park and selecting Van Dalen Tennis LLC as a
contractor to provide oversight of the courts due to their established relationship with the tennis program at the Miami Beach Senior High. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez and Parks and Recre will be presenting. Okay. Uh Commissioner Fernandez uh will be coming in later hopefully. Um John,
would you like to tee this up? Absolutely. So, as as you you may know, you probably received emails over the years. The neighborhood courts um tennis courts that were sometimes not accessible for the residents because what was happening was a lot of
unauthorized teaching um and tennis lessons. So, first, you know, you you had a code violation um take taking place, but then it was tough, right? Because then you have these residents like this is my neighborhood, this is my coach, we'd
like to take the lesson. Um, and then you those who just wanted to play, it's like my courts are never available because people are doing business at the courts. And we we were trying to find some way. And also I want to mention these pros that are doing business, they're not only doing business without a, you know, maybe the proper licensing
and permission. They also weren't gone through a background check like we would background check anyone who works with the public from the recreation um for recreation department. So we came up with this model. We started as a pilot to see how it goes. And that was to always maintain, you know, at least one
court available, you first come, first serve, right? But also create a reservation system for those who just wanted the convenience to know before I get in my car and I drive over there with my my friends, a court's available. and and then also to to provide a way
for people that live in the neighborhood to take the lessons they wanted to take within their within their neighborhood, but also make sure that coaches has the right qualifications and was vetted through a background check. We've done the pilot and it has been amazingly
successful. Um the the compliments we're we we're getting are incredible. There's much order. I think you may have received some emails from some from happy residents that they're just so thankful that this exists. So, since we did it as a pilot, now it's we're we're in front of you today to we're
recommending that we can make this permanent and that making it permanent would just mean an amendment to our two tennis contractors um agreements with us, which we'll we'll handle separately as a separate commission item. But also, we have Beayshore Park coming coming on
very soon. Very exciting. Six courts. Um, it will serve as the home home courts for Miami Beach High School. And I know they're going to be thrilled that they can just come right there. They'll have six courts instead of driving up to Normandy for their practices. But after what we've learned over the decades is we want to start pretty sure on the
right foot like not go ahead and have the Wild West there after we open. So ahead of time to go ahead and have what we call the pilot to have this reservation system available because that'll also make sure control for Miami Beach High School to get on and off those courts. And then well who would we
select? We're select we were recommending Miami our partners for Miami Beach Tennis Center and Vondall and tennis. And why? Because right now they already have that relationship with Miami Beach High School teams. They're working with the the children, the students, the student athletes up at
Normandy up at Normandy Shores Park. So, it makes sense for since they have that relationship with the kids already and we want to we want to start off on the right foot at Bay Shore to just go ahead and also add that those courts to their contract. I think I don't know about you,
Commissioner, but um I received a lot of positive response the last couple weeks about this. It was a very well executed good news for a change. Um, so I'd like to move the item. Yeah. No, this has been a long-standing problem across many of our tennis courts
and the commercialization and not being available. So, this will all be administered with you guys. Okay, that's fine. I approve. Thank you. We'll take the full commission. Okay. Yes, we have item number 18th, a monthly
update on the status of the Fifth Street pedestrian bridge and the Mandarin Hotel Miridor Condominium Baywalk projects. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and it will be presented by CIP. Thank you. So,
thanks. So, the last uh few months um it's been the same information that they found electricals that they were looking to move it. Um, have we had any progress? Physical progress is harder to define. Progress on the project. There's been
significant progress. Um, we did uh run into an issue with an existing 20-in water man that's being relocated that we needed to look at a little further and that unfortunately delayed some work in the field. That has, to my understanding, been resolved and it
we're pending a a final approval from the engineer record so that they can resume. So, you're not going to hardly hear you. The water No, I think it's the the mic is so low. I've complained about it before. Um, the water man being found
that's been resolved. The concern about the existing water man and what had to be done to make that connection has been resolved. Um, they And what about the other utilities? They've encountered several utilities that were either out of place or needed to be upgraded and they they've been working on that as they go. The big
issue in the last couple of weeks was that water line, that water man. Okay. And and I do have Hector here to describe further their progress if you Yeah. Yeah. I would like to know. Okay. Hector. Um and I have Mastic here as well. Um in
case any details trickled in um what it's accurate what's what's been said. you know, we we've we've the water man that we were doing on the south side um which would have been a pretty quick installation. Um but we did find some uh valves that were off off where they were
supposed to be. And once we started exposing further, we found that the the water line itself wasn't um wasn't reinforced. So, we've had to do that. We have to do some calculations and it's kind of taken an extra four weeks on on that process. So, on the overall with the utility impacts, we're kind of very
behind on schedule right now, 3 to four months. Um, so we're trying to get the structure and FDOT permit approved so that we can actually start installing structure in the ground hopefully in October. H are all of the utilities that were found
have they been addressed? Can we currently being addressed? Okay. What we've had to what needs to happen next? So we need to finalize finish the installation of the water main um on the southside. Uh that's going to take a few more weeks and you can Allan can correct
me if I'm wrong. Um and then once you do that we can we can get it get it finished and we can get the structure started. Has that been started the structure the um the installation of the water on the south side? Yeah. And when will that's all the areas excavated right now.
Okay. So that that hopefully we could get that finished with um with a final a final okay from the engineer of record and we can get that finished in the next couple weeks. Once that that happens, we just need FDOT to give us a final permit. Um we've had because of the utilities, we've had to revise the
structure substantially. So a drawing revision is in peer review right now. You guys have a third party peer review the structure. Um I think there's another week or two weeks left on that review and once that happens it can go to FDOT for their final review to get a permit issued. Okay.
Permission. Um what what does that mean that you guys have to revise the structure? Is it going to look different that correct? No. No. So essentially the piles all underground. Yeah. All underground. All the piles and the foundations themselves will have to shift and move and sizes and depths have
changed in order to work around the utilities are there. Um but that has to be reviewed by a third party and then by FD again. So shovels in ground in October and expecting hopefully FDOT delivers their their their permit. It really depends on FD
and expecting to be finished when the we were shooting to be finished the be at the end of the third quarter of 26. Now, we're looking at the end or the start of 27 if we can't make up time, which is
obviously the the operative uh the operative thing here is to try to make up some time. Wow. Okay. But the the the the we were supposed to be drilling piles starting the structure in May and June of this year and we still haven't started and we're looking at five months now behind schedule on
getting the first piles on the ground. Okay. I get a lot of questions about that. So, I'm glad you have this update on here, Commissioner Dominguez. It is it is our primary focus to get this done, get started on the structure and get it finished. Okay. Well, thank you for the update. We
have public We have Commissioner Magazine on Okay. Commissioner Magazine, if you could please unmute yourself. Thank you. And thank you, Madam Chair, for hearing me. Um, I'll be blunt but respectful. This is
unacceptable on every level. every single level. We we hold some fancy ribbon cutting. We've been promised for years. This is years behind schedule. And to sit here and say we've made progress because we say we we found
something that could have been a potential issue, but it took us a month and we figured out it's not. And that's our progress update. This is unacceptable. Okay. I don't get this luxury. I answer to our residents. I don't have this luxury to stand at a
podium month after month, year after year, and say, "Oh, we're waiting for a permit. Oh, we're waiting for this." Enough's enough for the Baywalk. I got an update yesterday that we're still in conversations with 800 West Avenue. I
went back and read city meeting minutes from 2004, 2005. We're we're 15 20 years and we've been saying the same things that we're in discussions with 800 West Avenue
enough. Wh does it when do things start moving forward at an acceptable level? Okay, there's no accountability. But me and my fellow elected officials, we are accountable to the residents and we can't sit there when we're stopped at
Publix and people are saying, "When do I finally get to walk my child at school over the bridge?" and we said, "Well, you know, we found some underground utilities and, you know, it's been years in the making and we're waiting for permits." No, we don't get to say that. We need to move things forward.
This is just getting out of hand now. This was supposed to be completed 3 years ago, I think, the overpass, and now we're talking about 2027. Enough's enough. Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing me to be here. Okay. Can I respond or chair? I guess on on
the Baywalk I'm not sure what conversations are happening 800 we have a finished the sidewalk that needs to be done to to open the Baywalk it's substantially complete so I'm not sure what conversation different segment so it has nothing to do with us on that point on the second point with the bridge we the utilities aren't it
wasn't just thinking we found something is at every turn we found something at some at one point we've had to be excavating with a a vacuum truck and basically spoons out there to uh to find these utilities so uh it's minimizing the impact that's happened to us. Um,
we're currently sitting on a million dollar claim to us. So, there's there's much more involved in in the overall picture. Hector, with respect, you guys are building 50, 60, 70s story buildings all over town in 24.
You're very good at what you do. Okay. So, to sit here and say, "Oh, we have these surprises, so that's why we're three and four years delayed." Is not acceptable. Okay? We're talking about not knowing that there's underground utilities. Okay, this has been years in the making. You built a 45tory
building. A 45 story building right next door. And to sit here 5 years later and say, "Oh, we just found some underground utilities that we weren't aware of." That's unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. I don't agree, but
well, we get a lot of pressure from people asking us about it, why it isn't done. You know, we signed the agreement, you know, for the building and we got the park. So, people, you know, ask us all the time. So, we look like we're not holding up our our end of the park.
100% agree. You have to really be vigilant with DOT to get this permission as soon as possible. And it's been it's been our target for the past few years. I agree with Joe Magazine on that. It's been sitting with with with FDOT for an extremely long time. Um, and now with this revision
because the utilities, it just kind of it makes it worse. Um, but it is our focus to get FDOT to to finalize the permit. Um, and get started on that ground. For us, we need to finish and start this the same as what he said. This is part of the the five park project. Um, we finished the the 45story
building in record time ahead of schedule and we just can't seem to get out of the ground on the bridge because of utilities. every time we turn around there's a utility that's in the wrong place or it's the wrong utility or it's it's not where it's supposed to be. So, we're trying our best and we're trying to we're trying to make up the time that we're 4 months behind now.
Thank you. Appreciate that. Um but we do get grilled by the neighborhood associations and uh the residents at large. So, all right. Next item. Next item is item number one. Discuss take action regarding possible amendments to the residents right to
know ordinance to enhance transparency notice and accessibility for Miami Beach residents. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez uh co-sponsored by Commissioner Ba and it's going to be a multi-EP department presentation. Good morning.
Morning commissioners. Okay. Um all right. So for um the past year I have received speaking of getting grilled by neighborhood associations um many of them are very upset about residents right to know and most
recently somebody that is on one of our power boards called me livid because of an item that had gone through the track and he knew nothing about it even though he had keywords and things set up and I've uh spoken to you guys individually
um what's happening. So Frank, may I start please? So I want you to see what we do uh so you can visualize what we're working to try to get the the residents informed as much as possible. Uh doing this process
manually. Uh PJ, can you go to the clerk's website for a minute? Sorry. Thank you. So the out the outside PJ, I'm sorry. There we go. So if you see on the bottom on the center screen, there's a
resident's right to know tab. Can you press on that, please? So what we do manually, go down a little bit, PJ, pick the the last meeting, September 3rd. So we put in this web page everything that says residents right to know. We then create every item
from that meeting. And obviously my eyes are getting worse and worse every day. Uh so we put in there the short title so the residents don't have to read the full title. We give them the short title, the same ones we give you. We then tell them which you know they can press on the item directly if they
wanted to see the memo. And then what we do is we put the area of the city. So if they were only interested in items that are citywide, only interested in items in North Beach. So that PJ pressed the item and you can see that it goes to the actual agenda item. Uh
thanks PJ. So if you're only interested in a particular area of town, you can scroll down and just instead of citywide, it will say North Beach, Mid Beach, South Beach. We send what as soon as the agenda prints, we send an email to everyone who
was signed up to receive residents right to know uh notifications. We sent everyone to everyone to anyone who was uh signed up to receive MB resident connect notification and any resident uh association on file with us. So we
automatically blast that and tell them this is available. What's the difference between this and the old system? The old system if you re if you if you signed signed up to receive residents right to know items you would get an email for only the targeted area that you were
interested in. I can't do that. So, I have to send them the link to the entire list citywide North Beach. And I'll say something just um sorry to interrupt. I know that you're going uh through a lot of pain to do this manually and um the system's not working
and the residents are very upset. I get the complaints constantly when we move to the new system. Granicus part of the agreement said that they had this feature and my understanding is that they don't. My understanding also is that there's no other organization out
there that we can move to because Granicus has gobbled up the other companies. So, we're stuck with them. What can we do legally for them to fulfill the contract that they're providing to us? So, before we go on the legal side, okay, first of all, I wanted you to see what we're doing. But Frank got
but Frank is working with them now. So, we've gotten over that hurdle and I don't want to, you know, Frank is working with them now to basically institute the same system that we have, but and legally we got a refund for what we paid for as far as this system. So,
we've gotten that. Uh, but okay, Frank. Yeah, good morning. Um while it may not be of much consolation given how long this has been going on, um we have in collaboration with the clerk's office made a considerable amount of progress with uh Granicus on providing the
functionality that we need uh to get resident connect working again. So just for for clarity, Granicus does the agenda portion. Our team built um the resident connect app, which is what sends the emails out. In order for that to work, we need to receive a specific
set of information from Granicus to us that then we use and package and send the emails out. That kind of glue in between the two systems is what they weren't able to provide. Um they've gone through a considerable number of changes on their side. Um as Raphael and I have seen with our account team and the
people that have been representing us. Um there is currently a a daily meeting that happens on their side on the technology side all the way up the food chain um to their executive level. I meet with them weekly. Uh Raphael and I meet with or our teams meet with them um
for the other changes and some of the other things that we're looking at. So I'm much more confident today saying that we're within the latter part of this project working the way that it should. Um they've fixed a lot of the classifications for the different areas that came as as early as last week.
Earlier this week today, Tuesday. Yeah. So, we've we've looked at that portion already so that we can see the different whether it's citywide or North Beach or what area that had been a a problem there. Um, they've also worked on some of the performance problems that the clerk's office has had with um packaging the
agendas. And the last piece is they need to give us a way to be able to pull the links that Raphael showed on the presentation so that we can then email that link directly. What's the timeline? When will this be fully functional? So, we we hope to have an answer from them as far as timing for
that last portion by the end of this week. That's what I was assured of during our call yesterday. Um once Granicus provides us everything we need, um my team should have it uh totally built out within 30 days um for the development that we need to have on our portion. Okay. So, we'll keep this on the agenda
until October, which is a month from now, and hopefully there will be some good news. I appreciate both of you. I know that this has been very difficult and doing things manual uh is a backward process to how it was before, not easy. Um and I hope to get a resolution for
the residents commissioner. Yeah, it sounds awful and confusing. But here's what I would suggest too. You know, we're generating an email, but I think we're living in like the age of the smartphone. So, you know, when the agenda comes out, it
shouldn't it should be like a just a link, a text alert. Well, we well, we don't do the text alert. We do we have another system. So, this is the one that I sent to everyone who I know wanted this information. Mhm. In addition, we have one that's is sent
out to everyone who signed up to get the agenda and we provide them the same information. So, we are going way above as far as who I'm notifying so I don't miss anyone. So for instance, the the resident the neighborhood associations
were not getting these email blast, but that's one of the best ways for me to communicate with masses of people that the agenda is out if I send it to the neighborhood associations. How many people are on the list out of curiosity that requests the agenda that you email? That's not me. Meaning the request the
agenda part that's through our communications department. So I don't maintain that one, but I I can tell you that I can find out the number. It's but I do think a lot of our requests though should come through with like a text alert text alert to link boom you know when people sign up to communications
about say hey the the agenda is out I could talk to them I know it's sent through email that's not we don't handle that portion we just set it to send out but we can find out and but the people that sign up should get like mid beach south beach north beach hey there's going to be a change in your
neighborhood boom you get a text click the link that's well that's the intent of what this is done via email. I'm not sure if it's if text is available, but yeah, Texas is not available today. Um, just residents signed up using their email address. So, if we wanted to move forward and explore that, we would have
to have them we would have to have them register with their cell phone numbers. Um, they would have to opt into that. So, we can have that conversation with communications and maybe provide an update at the next meeting or or the one after. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, BJ.
Okay. Next item. Okay. Next item is number 19. Discuss timeline for construction of the Miami Beach Convention Center headquarter hotel and anticipated open date. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and co-sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez. Okay. Um so pulling up to city hall this
week. Uh those big mountain of sand. So things are are moving right along. Would love to hear the update. Yes, we continue working on the foundation and we have commenced to work on the vertical. The first elevated slab is going to be built towards the end of
this month, the second floor and we are on track to complete uh topping off in the summer of 2026 and hotel opening at the end of 2027. The mountain is starting to come down slowly
but shortly, so that should not be an issue. The hotel's going to take as long as the crosswalk, huh? Um, I wanted to bring something to your attention. What's going on on 17th Street is very weird. Anywhere else in
the world where there is construction, there is a protected walkway with access, right? Because there is no other place to walk on 17th Street. Right now though, when you cross the street from city hall, let's say I'm walking east,
there's a weird metal blockade that people are crawling through, okay? And then they're weaving their way in and out of 17th Street, many times walking on a very narrow street in traffic against traffic. And we have to pull this together. I mean, you guys need to
create a covered walkway for whatever. And you need to have access on the sidewalk. And this has to happen now. Like it's for safety purposes. I myself, you know, decided I've done it a few times. I go in the metal and then I
weave my way out of the metal and then I'm back in because it makes no sense. I've never seen that before. Well, I think we we just got approval on the on the diagonal crosswalk which will which will help that. Um because right now people are walking on the side of the project on the side of the construction site where they shouldn't be. They should be actually crossing
over to conventions over on this side. But but they're not. And you they're not following the signage. So, we're trying to update we're going to update the signage. We've been talking about removing a a bus stop and and and doing further items and and kind of upgrading the signage. Well, why why that? Okay. But that's the
sidewalk right there. There's two things. There's two sidewalks that we are impacting. One is on Convention Center Drive and the other one is on 17th Street. Convention Center Drive is Okay. So convention centered drive once we install the diagonal crossing which as
of now our plan is to do it in the next two weeks. Okay, that will help alleviate the pressure of people walking uh that they continue walking. I've seen it right on Convention Center Avenue. They will be able to cross to the west sidewalk in
front of city hall. But why can't our sidewalk be open like any other construction site where you see in any major city? They built a construction sidewalk that is covered and you have access. We wish we could. Trust me, we wish we
could. Why? Why can't we? We do not have enough space. This is a lot line to lotline development. You mean it's going right up to the sidewalk? We need to actually build. We need the sidewalk space for maneuvering and
storage of materials. I know it's the sidewalk space for It's such a small sidewalk. I I really would like that sidewalk to be open, especially before the season. That is critical. You guys have to have that side of East and West
sidewalks on 17th Street. I don't know who's in in you. I know you're in charge of this, but I don't understand why that can't be done. Well, the the plan for this the plan for the build the way the building the way the way the construction development was was planned was to close that all off. We're going to we're going to seal that
off with with uh hard panels so nobody can weave in and out. They shouldn't be doing that. Um we are we do need to take the entire cuz we have utilities running on there, the hardcape, the entire structure movement along the site in order to even build that that But you're not building on the sidewalk. That's our sidewalk. Take the sidewalk. So we we're we're
taking the signage all the way to the all the way to the outside of that sidewalk. But why the in order to build the building up to the edge of the sidewalk? Oh, the so the building is coming right up to the edge of the sidewalk. The construction required to build the
building requires us to use the sidewalk. And we submitted an MOT. We presented to the city multiple times our logistics plan. There's no setback from there setbacks, hardcape and all, but we also have utilities and a lot of things are running in those setbacks. We have to operate and and once we start building
the structure, the only the only way to maneuver around the site is in that setback area. So, it's it's essentially a it's a postage stamp project project. We're building two off four sides and we've got 15 to 20 feet if that around the property to move to to to move
around, store materials to to to get people in and out. How long will that be closed? The duration of of development and it needs to be like fully closed. It will be and we have panels. We have hard steel panels that are are going to
are going to align the perimeter of the project. Okay. I'm not happy about my tit project liaison for the city. I think it's what's going to help within the next couple weeks I believe is when uh actually less than that, right? Um the
artistic panels that you see that are back in the back of sidewalk today. They're going to be moved out. Actually, they're going to be brand new panels moved out to the front. So, you're not going to see that gap anymore. I think that's creating confusion and that's exacerbating the problem. So, that should be helpful. I think we've had
these conversations with them and I believe that maybe in the future there there might be an opportunity to explore a covered sidewalk once they actually have the shell up. You know, maybe it doesn't need to continue all the way through the end of the project, but we can explore something better sooner than
that. Okay. Thank you. Um so we'll continue with it that until next month and on to the next item. Okay. The next item is item number two. Discuss options to enhance enforcement
of quality of life offenses such as excessive noises from the utilization of outdoor equipment and smoking ban on the beaches. This was sponsored by Commissioner B and Commissioner Fernandez was a co-sponsor. Yeah, sorry. Commissioner B wanted me to text her. or has he been alerted? She's online and her hand is up. Yeah.
Commissioner Bot, you could unmute yourself. Hi. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Great. So, um this item is um born of the fact that we have lots of well-intended um and good laws on our
books, but we don't necessarily get the enforcement results that we would like. um not necessarily through lack of effort but because of the types of laws like you know smoking and open containers and excessive noise and things like that. So, I wanted to um
give the administration an opportunity to uh do some research and make some uh suggestions about how we can more effectively um enforce the laws that were passed to improve collective quality of life for
residents and visitors and businesses. So, with that, I'll turn it over. Good morning, Madam Chair. Hernand Cardin on behalf of code compliance. Um so we know that the um gas leaf blowers were banned in August, fully banned in
August of 2023. Then we have a phase out ban for the gas chainsaw uh with our goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. So when we look at what we've done up until now, we've had about 490
interactions uh with folks uh primarily landscape companies where we haven't found a violation, but it gave us an opportunity to hand out the city's uh halfpage little flyer on uh the ban and going to these electric um units instead. We've issued about 24
violations um and one warning and I think our compliance rate I mean it's a it's a balanced approach. Our compliance rate right now is probably around 98% on every interaction we have. Now that's not to say that uh you know
we're still hearing these disturbing sounds. Our neighbors wake up with this on Saturday morning. Uh it's difficult to enforce by the time we get there. Either the person's gone or the activity has stopped. But it gives us an opportunity to have that interaction and do the education on the ban on these uh
gas powered chainsaws. Commissioner. Oh, I guess it was Tanya. It was Commissioner Bot. And what about the issue of smoking on the beaches? I mean, it's the gas powered um yard tools. That's great. But
that's just one of the sort of um nuisance ordinances that we've um we've taken upon ourselves to improve our city by effectuating. So um smoking on the beach uh other things like that. So before I turn it over to Major
Campbell on that, um uh just to finish up on the gas uh powered uh leaf blowers and chainsaws, uh this distribution in the city is about 45% in our in our south district, uh 31% in the middle,
and 24% in the north district is where we find our complaints and violations coming from. Major Mag. Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners. Major Jovon Campbell, Miami Beach Police Department in charge of the patrol operation division. Um,
Madame Chair and uh, commissioners, we have a dedicated ATV squad of one sergeant and four officers who work from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. There are times where they adjust their hours fully dedicated to addressing all issues on the beach from South Beach to North
Beach. um as well as the uh prohibited smoking since May um and we've um dedicated or focused our efforts on the smoking prohibition. We've issued approximately 30 uh warnings and actually made one arrest. I can tell you
in um speaking with our officers and the sergeant that's over that squad, most of the people who they encounter who are in violation are tourists. So obviously um we give them warnings, we educate them on the ordinance and uh 99% of the time
we get compliance. Um yes ma'am, you arrested someone for smoking. Yes. In this uh particular case, uh commissioner uh this was a uh member of the unhoused community who was very uh
resistant um and belligerent and uh had been given issues. um in addition to uh the the prohibited smoking ordinance have been in violation of other things as well. So the officers used their discretion to take that individual to
jail that particular day. Um, major, could you um elaborate a little bit uh on this task force or or whatever this enhanced enforcement that you have um had in place and is that going to continue?
I'm sorry, ma'am. Can you repeat the question, please? Yeah. Can you I think you mentioned something about an enhanced effort of some sort over since May and that's where the staff came from the sort of more vigilant um interaction with people
who are smoking and educating tourists and things like that. Is that an ongoing um detail? Is that going to continue for the foreseeable future? Can you give us a little more insight into that? Yes, ma'am. um that is part of our ATV squad's normal course of duties um
ongoing. This is not something that's just uh temporary. Uh we will continue to enforce that um ongoing. Um, I can also tell you that in addition to the officers assigned to the ACV squad, all of our officers have been basically uh
trained and educated on the ordinance because from time to time, you'll have officers other than the ones that are assigned to ATV who have tasked with uh details out there assigned the details on the beach. Uh, for example, if we have uh spring break or any other special event, we have more than just
the four officers and sergeant that are normally assigned on the beach. So, we want to make sure that all our officers know what their expectations are and again you have my assurance that we will continue our efforts to address this issue. Okay.
Can we leave this on uh and just get an update in three months or so? See where we are and you know if the numbers are declining because the compliance is better or if it's a sort of an ongoing need because so many of our our beach users are visitors and just need to be
educated. We're also in process of updating the signs as people come onto the beaches from the beachwalk um which will hopefully be more easily accessible in to uh to people about what is and is not
allowed on the beach. So it would be interesting to see um if that is a factor in all of it. The next one is something that okay thank you. So, uh, we'll talk about it again in December. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.
And we have public comment. Mitch Novik, if you could please unmute yourself. You have two minutes. Hey, good morning everybody. Mitch Novik. I live in the entertainment district. want to commend our police, the drug dealers who for years were
congregating across the street outside my building have been uh missing at least for the last two months. And that's a good thing regarding noise uh along Ocean Drive, especially the 1,000 block. We have businesses which uh uh
pollute the public ride of way with blasting music creating an attractive nuisance. And also the golf carts are still a problem. I believe the problem begins with our businesses who blast noise which give the golf carts a green
light to uh again create noise and uh and havoc along our streets. Uh thank you. I'll mark that item to return in December. The next item is item number three. Discuss take action regarding an intergenerational program engaging
seniors to read or teach foreign languages to young students within the city of Miami Beach. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Magazine and Education and Parks will be presenting. All right. Hi. Um, does uh the commissioner want to tee this up?
He is online. I will let him know. Um, Commissioner Magazine, if you'd like to mute yourself, I madam chair, thank you for hearing this. Uh, if I have uh Lewis there, he he can kind of help fill in. But just at a very high level, what we're thinking
here is, you know, I see two communities in our um u greater Miami Beach community that and often times uh operate independently of each other, but have so many synergies. And specifically what I'm talking about
here is our senior citizen community and our uh young public school uh any school community. Um and what I'm looking to establish and very open-ended about this. I'm not dogmatic in having anything uh kind of uh already planned
out is finding various ways to link our senior at oftentimes elderly community with our younger community. Uh it could be for learning opportunities for our children. Um one idea I had is uh especially given our elderly community
oftent times uh tends to uh be of Hispanic origin and speak Spanish. uh we could have um Spanish tutoring sessions, reading sessions, and the seniors, what they get in return uh is that comfort, that uh that sense of community and
well-being. I know when I take my daughter to some of the senior centers or senior events, their eyes just absolutely light up. They totally forget that I'm there and the entire focus turned on to Capri. So, uh this I want to work with the QEC, with Dr. Rosenfeld's department find
opportunities where we can essentially uh serve as the liaison to help facilitate bring those uh senior citizens singing community and our uh school population together. It I think this is a great idea. I love the idea of you know children and the
elderly together. It's very hard to do this through MDCPS though, but possibly through parks and wreck at the Southshore Community Center. You could because they have a senior population that's right there. Parks and Wreck has a room that they've been using. So, if you wanted to do something like that, you could probably run some sort of
program in the afternoon uh through parks and recreation. I guess you could compensate the seniors. They'd probably really like it and could use the money, too. So, yeah. I don't know about any of the specifics on that. That's the idea to hash it out here in committee, but it is
really to unlock what we think is the potential that our senior community has and to make sure that they can have this intergenerational efforts with our schools. Now, exactly how that would happen, I do agree that through MDCPS is probably a little more difficult and
through our parks department, which does a great job and through our education department as well that does an amazing job, that would probably be the idea that we're trying to do. But we're open to the specificities of how that happens. Leslie, if you can. Sure. Uh, good morning. Leslie
Rosenfeld, chief education officer. Currently, both Miami Day County Public Schools and our parks and recreation department have a very uh clear path uh to volunteer at uh any of our public schools or within specific um parks
programs. So any community member including our seniors could participate in that currently without any intervention. As far as uh what they would be doing at the public school site, that is obviously determined by the school site administration and where
they feel they need the most assistance. Uh and I'll defer to um our parks director uh Mr. a rebar on uh what what the utilization would look like for or what it does look like for a uh community member who wants to volunteer during a park program. In addition to
that, the city already funds uh reading interventionists at our four elementary schools and our middle school to support uh reading interventions. Uh those individuals are recruited by the city through our partnerships with uh universities across Miami Dade County
and they these uh specific um college students uh are on a track to either get a degree in elementary education or English so that they have experience teaching somebody how to read which is a very different skill set than simply
being read to. And so we do recruit and we've been doing this for several years college students. We place them at our public schools and then the principal makes the determination of how best to utilize them. They're usually paired with the reading specialist at the school site and then support children
that are struggling readers. I have Commissioner Bot with her hand up as co-sponsor. She would like to speak. Commissioner Bot, you can unmute yourself. Thank you. Um, so I obviously love the fact I'm co-sponsor with uh Commissioner
Magazine. It is such a tremendous opportunity given the demographics of our community and what what I had um sort of had in my mind's eye is like the programs that you see all over Europe and other countries where um as Joe
mentioned you put you know different populations together for the benefit of both. I was actually seeing it as less of a school intervention or or offshoot as something that we could do, you know, as we were talking about programming for the Southshore Community Center. Um, as
we talk about how to best utilize the log cabin, I'm bringing an item to to discuss that in um in more detail, but one of the things that could happen there is there could be this sort of hub for intergenerational connections. Um,
and it's it's not just to facilitate better language comprehension, but it's also the the connections, the bonds, and the the value gained by both parties when you interact with people who are not your immediate family, but um, you
know, and and not from your peer set. Um, and and who can teach you about life and their experiences and how to see things through different eyes. I think it's incredibly valuable. And I I just am, you know, leerary of it getting pigeonholed as an academiconly
um experience. And I do think there are ways that we can do it um with our own programming, with our own facilities. We have two excellent sites. So it's Northshore um with the log cabin coming on online. We could work with UniGod in in North Beach um potentially and we could
definitely do it at the Southshore Community Center. Um, and I would I would venture that if we put the word out and and made sort of an organized program that there would be people in the community who would be willing to help lead this and organize this um on a
volunteer basis. Um, you know, obviously if there's a stipend that'd be great, but but um I think there'd be a lot of interest in in kind of key like this. So, um, uh, just wanted to add my two cents about making sure we don't, uh,
pigeon hole our thinking just about doing it in the schools. Yes. I mean, I think it's a great idea. It would be better if a nonprofit organized this like Jewish Community Services or, you know, parks and rack. you did a
program I think it would be great like reading with the seniors you know how to vet people right for these programs we we already have the audience we have an afterchool program we have a playtime program we have a portal that allows people to register to to start the
process of being background checked to be a volunteer so I think the first step may be not creating a program but first um advertising and spreading the word of this initiative get the folks on board we could bring them right into our existing programs. And as that grows,
then maybe we do something at nostalgia. We certainly could look at doing another program. We may not need to. We have hundreds of school age children every single day, you know, with very few exceptions year round. So, they're already there and and we have seniors, you know, you go to the senior events,
we have what, 7, 8, 900 folks show up. So, I think it's just now just bringing this idea more formalizing, spreading the word, and see where it goes from there. Maybe just have some flyers if you wanted to get the volunteers. Have some flyers at Southshore and Northshore. Yeah. And the people who wanted to sign sign
up. We have a we have a database of the seniors. That's how they all they get to our wonderful events for them. And Leslie Leslie and I and our teams could work together at kicking something off with what we already have. Okay. Wonderful. Okay. So, it looks like um
continue to notify and spread the word on the existing programs. We're we're going to target our our our playtime program and our and our after school program. Okay. And bringing the intergenerational um idea into whether it's foreign language instruction or it's reading. We'll
figure that out. Okay. And Commissioner Magazine, anything else you would like? Yeah. And just just to Dr. Rosenfeld's point, while we do have a clearly established program, um like other things with our senior community, uh perhaps we just have to take the step to
help uh them facilitate that process. Um I agree it could be at one of the community centers, the one that is most natural just because the close proximity is South Point Elementary School in Rebecca Tower. It could be some sort of after school reading, open-ended,
whatever that is. Uh but perhaps it's um us taking a lead role. Like John said, we have the audiences there on both sides. That part's easy. It's just bringing them together and perhaps we could just play a role in helping the seniors go through that uh volunteer vetting process. So thank you, Madam Chair, for hearing this and uh thanks
for the team for working on this. Okay, great. Thank you. Um thank you. Um so on to the next item 20. The next item is item number 20. discuss and take action on the dying tree populations in North Beach Oceanside
Park. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and co-sponsored by Commissioner B environment will be Rosen Gonzalez. Yeah, we we have this update because a lot of the trees that were recently planted then died because they
were the wrong specimen, species, tree. So, we replanting now. Yes. Good morning, commissioners. Uh Lindseay Pre, deputy resilience officer and assistant director of the environment sustainability department. Urban forestry has continued to monitor the health of the trees that were
planted adjacent to North Beach Oceanside Park. Um the most recent evaluation took place in June to coincide with um the start of rainy season and we also plan to conduct an additional evaluation at the end of the rainy season. So far, the most recent evaluation determined that the current
survival rate is 69% for the trees closest to the beachwalk. Many of the previous struggling trees have seen new growth as a result of the rainy season, which is a positive sign, but the overall survival rate has still been declining since the memos that were
previously provided to the committee back in January and May of this year. Um, planning and procurement is underway for the replacement of trees in this area and we are implementing some recommended planting strategies of as a result of what we've learned. 81% of the
proposed trees that we'll be planting are either sea grapes or silver buttonwoods. The planting design will place trees in groups to protect each other and also use sea grapes as a barrier to protect trees that are a little bit more inland and more susceptible to direct salt spray and
have been declining that we've noticed. Um, most trees will also be purchased at smaller heights than they were initially. We're looking to do more juvenile trees at 10 to 12 foot heights. They should be able to adapt more readily to this environment and acclimate rather than nursery trees that
are installed at taller heights. Um, we are also proposing to increase the watering period from 1 to two years. Uh, and also requiring monthly checks on the trees by the contractor. Uh at the previous committee meetings, we were also tasked with um pilot
testing five potentially adaptable tree species and reaching out to FDP regarding the watering within the dune system and their irrigation requirements. In regards to the five pilot plant species, we selected five trees. Bay cedar, false mastic, Jamaican
dogwood, Spanish stopper, and white stopper. Those installations were completed this morning. Uh so bright and early this morning, our urban forester went out. Um the prices of the trees were initially unacceptably high. When we put it out to bid, it came out to an
average of close to $4,000 per tree to include handwatering. So we revisited that initial proposal. Uh as an alternative, what we did was we planted the trees on the park side, but still adjacent to crossovers where they would get direct salt spray and still have
that harsh environment that we're looking for. but it gave us access to the park's bubbler system. So, we reconnected a bubbler system there um to allow us to still test the effects of direct salt spray, but while also uh incorporating the required watering that
we believe we will need. Um we're going to keep that on for approximately 2 years. Um as a result of that replanning, the cost came down to an average of about 1,600 per tree. So, it was a significant savings by by re-evaluating that choice. Um, we will
continue to monitor those trees closely. Um, we also reached out, as I mentioned, to FDP regarding the irrigation requirements because in the past when we've done large-scale dune restorations, um, they've only limited us to one year of irrigation. Uh, so we reached out and
asked their perspectives on the committee's request to establish either permanent watering or extending the watering periods. the state's coastal construction control line program position for our region is vacant. So while that position is being filled,
they did generally indicate that their position on watering is based on not impacting sea turtle nesting habitat. And since sea turtles have laid nests up to and even within the dune system, they have to consider any wet sand that may
impact sea turtle nests. So, if there's an there's if there's a potential to water the sand, um they potentially could um not approve that watering. It would be considered on a case- by case basis depending on the area. And some of the evaluations to consider could be the
width of a dune system and where the irrigation might meet the beach. Um so, city staff would reach out to FDP on future um installations within the dune system on that case by case basis. Uh our staff would not recommend a
permanent watering system because it does tend to invite invasive species and out compete natives if there's a constant watering system. But we would recommend increasing that one-year limitation that they've previously instituted and requesting 2 years and then evaluating from there whether
bubblers would be possible. Um this could allow native vegetation to stabilize and grow the dune system. It's consistent with environmental regulations and the dune management plan. Can I ask you what is a bubbler? So instead of like a sprinkler, it comes
out in smaller quantities at the base of a tree. So there are exactly drip irrigation. Okay. So right now 30% of the trees are dead and we need to replant them. Do we have funding to do that? We do. We have geobond funding as well
as the urban forestry uh or forestry the United States forestry community grant um that we received a couple years ago. So we are looking to implement that as part of the grant and go program. Okay. Um and you're buying smaller sea grapes. Yeah. We're
which we know are resistant. Yes. And those are costing 1,600 per. Yes. It it includes that seems like a lot. We include a lot. Um, we include a warranty, the cost of the trees, installation, staking, instant to the warranty on the 30% that died.
So, at the one-year closeout for the Beachwalk project, they did survive at that one-year period. So, at the warranty phase, they they were alive. You should ask them for like a 2-year warranty if we're spending this kind of money on trees. Say, "Look, we don't need to keep replanting these trees." I
mean, sea grapes are not going to die, and even if you don't water them, they're still going to survive. So, I mean, I guess the lesson learned was sea grapes are the most resilient. We'll see with the other five trees. You just planted them this morning. This morning? Yes. Okay. So, that will be interesting to
see what happens. Um I'd get those planted as soon as possible cuz people do complain about the gaps. We're looking to do it very soon. So, there there should be some going in the ground um shortly and then over the next year as well. Okay. Thank you. Oh, by the way, what
happened to our trees in North Beach on that one block? Good timing. Our urban forester also inspected this morning since he was in the area. They had seen a decline over time. Uh there were six trees that were planted and they were satin leaf species.
During the dry season, they did desiccate significantly, but over the last few weeks, because we have had significant rain events, there are two that were previously on the edge of being dead that have perked up a little bit. Um, so we have two that were not doing as well, two that were in decent
condition, and two that were thriving. Um, but because of the recent rain events, they have done a lot better in the recent months. Is there any shade from them yet? I mean, there's not much. Satin leaves provide minimal shade and and because of the way that they were installed without um any
underground infrastructure such as silva cells. It was a pilot to test if we could you know planting concrete and bumpouts. Um they don't have the soil volume required to really give that full canopy effect. Um but there's some respite in the areas where the parking
spaces are adjacent to the triangular bumpouts. What kind of trees are there on Meridian? Like we know that those work. They thrive. They create shade. Those are calopylms. They do need a significant amount of soil volume. Um, and that species of tree, especially in
that location, took a hundred years to get to where they are today. Okay. We're working on it. Okay. Thank you. Is there any public comment? Because I know a lot of people were upset about this, right? There's no public comment at this
time. Okay. Um, so close. No, I think we should have them report back and I don't know, report back in six months on the five species that we planted to see which one was the most
resilient. Sounds great. Interesting. Right. They put in five. Yeah. Say April of next year. I just I want to add one more thing about this. If there's one thing that I want to do, it's create a tree canopy in
North Beach where there's no trees. And it's so frustrating to me that we can't seem to get it done. There is. And that experiment, I would say, I'm not saying it's a failed experiment, but I wouldn't call it successful. I know we tried to do it. Lesson learned.
What I would I would call it a lesson learned. I just wish that we could pick one street because, you know, we have this tree bonding money to, you know, create a tree canopy and that hasn't even gotten called. But maybe if we just
picked one block and really did it in one block, it would be so important. And what about the parking lot where we got the approval and that just hasn't happened because I thought that that would be the company that would come in figure out how to you know cut through
the concrete plant trees and we haven't Are you guys in char are you working on that project too? So I have a couple updates for grander North Beach plans. There were three items at finance that were combined into three that will be upcoming um at the
next or the following uh FK meeting. Uh in regard to the parking lot, CIP is leading that. Um but they are um they just emailed us recently to get the budget code to install the trees. So we're working on that. So it's getting closer on that um update as well.
Do you think that will be like next year? I believe so. Okay. Like I I would really love to see one street, like I said, just one street. Find out how to do it and really
do it seriously so that we could at least try to figure out. Wouldn't you like to see some canopy? I would like to see it everywhere. Yeah. If we invested in these trees and figured out how to do it and got the vendor and I think maybe now one of
David do we finally have a tree planting vendor the years after we approved the tree project. I just want one vendor who can cut through concrete and plant some trees because Lindsay is saying it's 100 years to get a canopy. Not 100 but to to get the
to get that kind of canopy. But I mean, you know, I I hear you. And they have to survive hurricanes and all sorts of things, but there has to be some native species that grow quick quicker. Um I'm assuming you're referring to the P63 project. I am. Yeah, we do have a contractor that is
taking care of all of it, including the landscaping. That's one of the reasons we've been in communication with uh environmental so that we can get the the cost code for the trees themselves. Um, and we are ironing out that job order contract so we can move forward.
And this man who's who we hired to do this, he would he is this company that we hired is an expert in like cutting through enough so that they have a tree bulb. What did you say that they need under the concrete?
Silva cells or suspended pavement systems. So there is a there is a detail in the drawings that show exactly what the contractor needs to do. It's following those steps and us making sure that they follow that that'll provide them the trees with sufficient infrastructure and soil so that they can
grow. And when do you think that you're going to break ground on this this past years ago? We were we were finishing the jock review over the last week. So within the next 30 to 60 days we should have a start.
Okay. That that's making sure dependent on the jock pricing fitting in the budget within the next 30 to 60 days. What do you mean depending on the job? This was funded. No, it was and I have a I have an estimate, but I need to make sure that they fit in that budget. Okay. But you guys shouldn't have to use
geobond fund tree money to complete the capital project because our capital project included the trees, but it used the geo bond funding for the trees to to pay for the trees themselves. That's how that's one of the ways we we lowered the overall cost of the project.
And you already know which trees you're planting there? Yes, ma'am. Yes. And you think they're going to they're grow quickly native create a canopy and and commissioner I I think you should rest assured we have a lot of great examples around the city that when suspended pavements are utilized and or
silver cells the trees are doing great and they're providing great canopy and so the investment is more but that's how you get the canopy and that's how the tree roots over time can grow and not be so constricted by the concrete. So we already have great examples of that. I would say the oaks on First Street look
beautiful. This is too bad we're ripping them up. Where are those oaks going, by the way? Um I think that's public works. We don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, given that trees are expensive. $4,000 a tree. That's a lot of tree money. We
should have a plan for those oaks. Jackie, we need to move on. Okay, I'm sorry, but this is really important. For me, planting these trees is super important. Could we have an item, Jackie, to place the oak trees? Do you guys want to work together to find a good spot for these oak trees when we
pull them up so that they just don't die? And we can also look back at the history. I know there were a lot of negotiations that happened as part of First Street to see if there there was a developed plan um for where the trees would be going even on a temporary basis. Yes, we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in ground.
All right, so on to the next item. The next item is discuss item number four. Discuss take action regarding a potential new adopt a storm drain program. This was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and co-sponsored by Commissioner Suarez and Environmental will be presenting.
Okay. Hi Amy. All right. Good morning. Um Amy Nolles, chief resilience officer. Um I'm pleased to provide an overview of this item. I believe this is your item, Commissioner Dominguez, and also co-sponsored by Commissioner Torres. Um so the item directed us to look at a few different
things. One um installing educational storm drain markers. Second um looking into a potential adopt a storm drain program for our community and then potentially merging these concepts. So the memo in front of you provides some background information and a
recommendation. Um overall we do support installing 200 markers for storm drains. You know all of our drains lead to the bay and the more education we have the better. There are already markers throughout the city, but it's a it's a good time to re-evaluate and update and and spread some more. So, there are
about 200 markers that I believe have been ordered by public works and then they'll be um examined for a little time to make sure that they are durable and and look good and then those can be expanded throughout the city. So, the markers um are a good thing to do and we can expand those within the current um
funded amount. Um, now in terms of the adopt a drain program, uh, there was some information here about the friends of Biscane Bay and their desire to create an adopt a drain program. I did reach out to that organization and it is a concept right now. It's not something that's fully developed with funding, but
the idea is that someone would adopt a drain. They would be responsible as a resident to either once or twice a month go out and clear around the drain. Um, and they would report that information. And it's really an all hands-on deck approach. It doesn't replace what public works does. They're already going out,
you know, once a year and in many areas more often um to to, you know, clean drains and clean out the whole system, but we all know we get a lot of rain and so, you know, those leaves um the different debris, it adds a lot of pollutants into the system. Um so, they're not quite ready for that
program. But there are also three examples from around the country. There's one based in actually the Twin Cities, Minnesota, which is a national program and that is run by a university and that is a a program where you can even name your own storm drain and you report on the cleaning and you're given
tips and um and safety information as well. St. Petersburg have a has a program where they require u residents to clean their storm drains around them twice a month to track it online and um they distribute safety kits like a vest and gloves and rakes and things like
that. and Hollywood, Florida, after the huge flooding event in April of 2023, they updated their program where residents fill out a form, they choose a storm drain near them, and they go ahead um and clear them, and they submit proof of maintenance, and they actually earn
points for that um from the city, and um they can uh they send in photos as well, and that's run by the public works department there. And uh they do really advise against those in selecting drains that are obviously in busy areas. We don't want people out on Alton Road in an unsafe condition.
Okay. So, it looks like um in reading the memo, the city administration supports installing 200 no dumping uh drains. Um for right now, uh no recommendation to move forward on the sponsorship. It costs money to maintain
the plaques and just not ready yet. Does this need to go back to the full commission uh to get approval for the 200 or um can you proceed? Uh we can proceed on that. Okay. So then we can close this item. Um when we'll be in communication when the
plaques or adopt a drain um looks like something that we can do in the future, I can bring something back. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Item number 21. Item number 21 is discuss the capture euthanization of iguanas pursuant to the
iguana remediation services agreement. This item was sponsored by Commissioner B and facilities will be presenting. Good morning, Madame Chair, committee members. Elizabeth Murro, assistant director for facilities and fleet. This item was last discussed on June 11th and
the committee did have two requests in reference to this item. One was to address the um iguanas on the waterways and also in the golf courses. So in the waterways with our iguana contractor they have found that addressing them directly in the waterways is a little
bit inefficient. So instead the curtail uh the iguanas on the actual uh seaw walls. Additionally in terms of the golf courses we have found that the population has been dramatically reduced there and so we have addressed our efforts in other hotspots throughout the
city. At current we service about 34 locations including 20 parks. Uh, is Commissioner Bot on to talk on her item? She is. Um, yes, I'm here. So, there was some discrepancy between
what a resident said could be done about iguanas on the waterways and what the vendor said. How did you navigate that? No pun intended. So, what we did with the vendor is that he found that it was very difficult to address the iguanas because of low
visibility on the waterways. And I know that I believe it's Chad. Um I know that he has a vendor that also addresses it in the waterway, but it's been a little bit difficult. So it's been more effective if we actually do it on the seaw walls. So you switched to the seaw wall?
Yes. Mhm. Oh, that's great. Cuz they are expanding. I you know I live a block from the bay and I never saw iguanas in my backyard and recently they're like in the interior of the island which is something we've never seen before. So
have you seen a big difference since you started the remediation go ahead from the bank? I'm sorry good morning commissioner. Um we captured our vendor captured uh 555 iguanas in August alone with uh most of the highest numbers the highest
concentrations coming from uh Northshore Open Space Park and Pine Tree Park in August and that's using the budget of 435,000. That's correct. They have actually eradicated since March 2527 iguanas just March alone from March to
the present. March to is that considered significant in the big scheme of iguanas? Yes. So I mean up to now we've eradicated more than 10,000 but just giving you a snapshot. So on a monthly basis it doesn't you know diminish. It's
it's been like you said 555 in August 639 in July. Okay. when when there are um properties that are abandoned or um owned but vacant. You know, when I
paddle board and and um kayak waterways, North Beach, I see a lot of properties like this and they are iguana hotels because it's a great place to hang out. Um how are you addressing those? Commissioner, if I may, are you referring to private properties?
Yes. So, um with access along the waterways though, the the the vendor you see you see, you know, families of iguanas hanging out um uh on the on the
seaw walls at these uh uninhabited buildings and also for that matter, you know, uh at the dead end of Camita Drive and you know, street ends um that are not as big as like the golf course or a big park but our urban settings where
that are very appealing to because um there's nobody there bothering it. So between our street ends throughout North Beach and I would imagine other places and the um uninhabited buildings that are on the waterway. So the the vendor does not um currently
service private property if the unless a private property owner calls them, retains them. We have a city of Miami Beach resident rate um that um is available to our residents. If I if I recall correctly, it's $1,500 a year uh
you know for 12 12 months worth of of service to your property. I just wanted to ask a question. that doesn't address the um our street ends um that about but the bay or uh Indian Creek um and
has there been any outreach to um the owners of these vacant properties because you know there's a a very comfortable nesting ground and and breeding ground on a private property it's and we're not finding a way to address it that's just
you know filling up the cup again I don't see why we're not just circling the entire waterway of the city and just plucking them. We're spending 435,000. How many iguanas did we get last year? I don't have that figure before me, but I can certainly gather that for you.
You said 10,000 total. Well, $10,000 since we started this um for lack of a better word, a blitz because initially we had contracted with four iguana remediation companies and then now we have just one but notwithstanding no we were able to
really control the iguana population. Do we have permission if we wanted to to if let's say that we hired the guys to just go along the waterways and pop do we have that permission? Would we be allowed to do that? Only in private um I'm sorry, only in
public areas. The concern is if you're, you know, from a contractor if they're shooting because they use a public gun towards a private, you know, property. But that's why they're doing the waterways. They just have a little hook and they throw them in the water and then they don't swim so well and then
they just grab them like that without shooting. That's something definitely we can explore with him to see if it's viable. Cuz let's say, okay, last year alone, let's say you bought 2,000 iguanas. Well, 2,000 is just a March to the present.
Just one from March to the present. It's about 2,000. Okay. All right. It would be interesting to see how many more you got. I'm glad you adopted the waterfront, of course, but Yeah. And I'd like to go back to the issue of um how we're addressing our
street ends and you know little parklets uh because that is public property um and we should be figuring out a way to to address that as well. Comm Commissioner. Uh when we get specific reports about um areas, you
know, city- owned areas that that have an uptick in uh iguana population, we deploy, uh the vendor, you know, to you kind of spot check those areas. Um and and that's why um you know, their their schedule is flexible in terms of the
amount of times they visit different sites because we do see um you know, seasonal upticks in in certain areas versus others. Well, I will tell you that the dead end at at Bonita Drive um on the north side
um there's a tree that that sort of has its roots in the water and it is a iguana condo. So, there should be some vigilance over there. Duly noted. Yep. Okay.
Okay. Okay. So, we can close this out and move on to item 22. Okay. Item number 22 is the monthly updates on the status of ongoing and future projects involving the use of Leonard Hurowowitz color palette for art deco buildings restoration in collaboration with Barbara Hulaniki and
this was sponsored by commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and facilities and fate will be presenting. Okay. So, contained herein. We do have an update on our existing projects. We did publish via a letter to commission um the renderings as were requested at
the July 9th uh committee meeting. Um at current we have already completed Colony Theater, so we're ahead of schedule with that and we're in the process still of completing Anchor Garage, which we anticipate will be done by the end of September. Yeah, I saw the colony the other day. It
looks really good. It just needs the awnings. Yes, that's a next project that we're bringing in. The awnings and we're doing a windows. Okay. and the Washington Avenue. When do you That's the anchor garage that's still slated to be completed by September 30th. Oh, that's great. Okay. It looks
beautiful. I think it really makes the colony pop. Have you gone by and seen it? Yeah. It really does make a big difference, but we need to have the the awnings up. So, thank you. Great. Nice. Okay. So, until next month on that one. Uh, next item number five. Item
number five is discuss using the portion of log cabin for community pantry with fridge. This item was sponsored by commissioner Dominguez and we have housing that will be presenting the item. Hi, thank you. So um a resident Clive
had uh reached out and given information uh suggestion for use of a fridge and pantry and Alba. You and I have had many conversations cuz I've done food distributions up in North Beach and seen the necessity. I know at one point there was a community fridge
that was vandalized and closed. So, we're looking for alternate locations. We we've tried various churches up there without success and wanted to hear the uh viability of this location. Good morning. Marcela Ruby, assistant director, office of housing and
community services. And as you mentioned, we were directed to explore the possibility of opening a community pantry within the log cabin, which is currently at 30% design phase and expected to be presented at the historic uh preservation board this month. So, in
order for this to be realized, uh we have to consider a few factors. The pantry would require refrigerator with a dedicated electrical circuit to properly store perishable items as well as shelving for non-p perishable items and uh possibly a handwash station,
sanitizer, and signage for um in order to be compliant with health standards. In addition, uh adequate space would be required for a waste receptacle and in order to maintain uh food quality at all
times. Beyond the infrastructure, there are also staffing that needs to be considered and possibly security in order to uh make sure that that there is no more vandalism and no um illegal operations within the community pantry.
Are there any grants that can help with any of these uh costs? Well, um there could possibly be grants, but we were looking for direction to see what the parameters of the community pantry as far as volume would be considered to not only incorporate that into the design of
the log cabin, but also consider what funding could be available to potentially fund this. And I was on the log cabin call recently and uh this item was brought up. I felt that it was uh the residents that were on board, the
community were supportive of that. Um there was also an uproar on the location um that came up. So I know that there's a lot of different factors going on. Commissioner Rosen out, I'm so happy about the log cabin getting
built, but we have so many complaints about the homeless population in North Beach, and we're going to build a log cabin in the middle of the park and then put an open fridge in the center of it. Is that the plan? because I really don't
know if that will so if it's inside the log I just think that's an invitation to say come be homeless in the park homeless you have residents that they don't have enough food yeah but why would we do it in the center of the park if you want to do this and you want to have a food pantry why not have these guys have it at a
community center like like I think that the community p I I'm just saying that to have an open fridge in the center of the park where we're constantly getting complaints about a homeless population doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. And it's not that I'm being
uncompassionate. I'm just saying our our police department is working overtime to try to, you know, solve this problem. And I feel like this is I think you're misguided. This is not to feed the homeless. This is something completely different. But it will feed the homeless
in the middle of a park or res. I understand. I understand. But you want but this is not the place to to to do this. There has to be a better place if you want to have a community fridge that people can come and pick up food. I think it needs to be administered from
the Northshore um community center. Um what is it? It's Northore Parking Center. Yeah. Okay. from the hours. You could say, for example, between the hours of 8 and 5 and you can have a space outdoors where people could come and pick up the food and that way somebody is
administering it. But to just have a fridge in the middle of a park next to the dunes where we have this criminal element that's hanging out, that's kind of like, hey, come and camp here. We can agree to disagree and I'd like to move the item to the full commission so that the seven of us can discuss. I'm not voting for that in the middle of
a park. So, yeah. Well, there's an item. There's an I No, it doesn't fail. It goes without a recommendation if it goes to the full commission. Why don't we just wait? Okay. All right. Fine. We can't wait cuz this is in the middle of being um designed. And second,
Commissioner Bot has an item to move the location. So, it's not going to be in the park. Um if you move the location, I would support this, but as is I you're asking. Do you realize what we disagree? Yes. Yes, I'm proposing
that the food insecure people in North Beach that have homes but not enough food have access to some. Okay. Well, this makes no sense to me because it the food pantry makes Well, no. I Why don't you just Could we just defer
it for a month? What I worry is so that you have a new location design phase of where we're at and not being able to help people in North Beach with this. Good morning. I'm David Gomez with Capital Improvements. We are scheduled
to appear before DRB uh this week. Um and it is important to noted as minor correction, it was said HPV earlier. HPB orders are binding. DRB orders are not binding. So the commission has the ability to change those orders should
they deem necessary. Um the addition of a refrigerator and some shelving to the space itself does not alter the design of the building. That's good news because we could if we defer this to add a refrigerator to it that could cost us
tens of thousands of dollars. Um, David, I am supportive of a community fridge. I understand that idea and I I am supportive of it. I just think that it should be should be regulated and not necessarily in the middle of um in the
middle of the park. And so, and moving it doesn't really matter, does it? As long as you're in the design phase, does it matter? It would matter. Yes. That's a a different that it it would require different due diligence and different
studies and other additional efforts. David, I um put in a request um that you work to um delay the appearance of DRB because we have a lot of unanswered questions regarding the site and the
size and the internal design and all those things. Is that something that And I did the same. I sent a message to the city attorney. Yeah. And I I did pass on that request. I haven't received a response yet. Okay, I listen as an activist and a
resident of North Beach long before state commissioner very very very involved in the long cabin debacle and it is truly a debacle the way it happened the way the administration um members of no longer here um told
residents and activists one thing and then went ahead and did the complete opposite with no warning reneging on all kinds of greed upon on conversations. Um, this is something that is very important to a lot of people in Northeast. I know for the rest of the
city and possibly staff and and colleagues on the on the comm on the commission, they don't get it. It's just the law cabin. Who cares? It's going to be reconstituted in some fashion. You know, get over it. But that's not how the community sees it. At this point, I
don't think there is consensus with where it is, what it's going to be used for, and how it should look. The design is lovely. It does not look like the log cabin. And I am not going to support anything that moves it forward in its current iteration without having those
conversations fleshed out more fully. And I understand that it's going to take a little bit of time, but we're not getting a second crack at getting our log cabin back. So those conversations need to be had and heard and honored. So
I'm I'm very okay with the idea of in some way incorporating a um a a a fridge if it's not in the park and it can be managed in some way that doesn't um you know put
the facility and it its users at risk. I understand that the pantry is not intended for homeless folks, but I also understand the concern that's being raised that if it's sort of nestled into a park that already attracts folks, um it it may be counterproductive. So, I I I get that. I just think we are moving
this forward too quickly without the correct inputs and um trying to force fit something into um a place and in a configuration that is not quite there yet. Okay. So, I will hold on to this. I also
make a comment that if I'm not mistaken, the commissioner that saved the log cabin and sponsored it was Mark Samuel and um it was something that was very passionate for the community and uh remembering how he always fought for the residents. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. Can I just say
something about this? Commissioner Bot, I would appeal to you to build it where it is because this happened in 2018 and here we are in 2026. It has taken us
seven years, 7, eight years to get to where we are. We finally have the funding. We finally picked a vendor. We finally have a design. Um, I think, you know, we agreed many years ago to to build it in the park. And I'm not saying
it's ideal. It is not where the log cabin once was. But to stop this process when we've already finally finally found somebody who can restore the log cabin is just going to cost us so much money.
It just won't get done. I mean, it will get done. It it will get done. And this is not derailing the process. it is doing it thoroughly and the fact that it was approved in 2018 and hasn't gotten moved until now is not because
we've been working that entire time to try to move this. It's because it was just not up in the queue before. So, in fact, it's actually been fairly quick about you know I don't a year maybe two um which in government terms is reasonably quick but so you know pegging
it this back to 2018 is not correct. I'm not willing to support moving it, keeping it in the park if the entire community of North Beach is is against it. And I think the right thing to do since we are the elected representative of residents is to hear what the
community is trying to accomplish and to tweak what we need to do. And maybe maybe we find a compromise. I'm not saying it's all or nothing, but let's have those conversations. but find the best path forward and not just do it for
the sake of crossing it off the list. Um, I do think that there needs to be a community meeting face to face on this because I attended the virtual session and I felt like there were a lot of people that were unhappy and angry and
nothing got fleshed out from that forum. Are we allowed here to create a a resolution to have a face-to-face form for the law cabin or would we have to go back to the commission to create that? I don't know if we could hold I think you need to submit it today cuz the agenda uh will close later this
evening. So get it in. I mean I don't need to I like we can hold the log cabin meeting. What I would co-sponsor if you put something like that. I don't think we need to I I I don't think we need to take commission direction to hold a city meeting on the log cabin. I think we can initiate that together if we wanted to, but I do think
we need to have a face tof face session. Um, yeah, join you in support. I hear you. I, you know, I lament the fact that we finally got to this phase and and we're going to make changes, but I guess that's just part
for the course. Just cost a lot of money when we move forward and then make these changes. It's expensive. Okay. So, we'll hold on to this item here. And there's more to be done with um location and other factors with the
log cabin. All right. Thank you. And now we'll go to item number six. Item number six is discuss converting the Bikini Hostel property to permanent affordable housing. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and co-sponsored by Commissioner Bo
and housing will be present. Okay. So, um uh O'Hara, Mr. O'Hara had sent um an email to all of us for consideration. I think a lot of things have changed, but um uh
Alba, if you wanted to give a quick update and then we'll close this out. Alvat Office of Housing and Community Services. The approved development agree the approved development agreement states that the developer shall close on the property by September 19th and
vacate within 14 days and issue certification to the city of as as such. Within 30 days of closing, they must file a demolition permit and commence demolition on the hostel within 30 days of obtaining the permit. So that's what
the current development agreement states today. Yes. How many units do you how many units could you convert in that bikini hostel? Let's say you went in renovated that have kitchens that have bathrooms. We would need to do a study on it. Um right
now as the the approved development agreement is for demolition. So we would have to go back in and and have a study on it to see what I'm not opposed to renovating it and making it like workforce housing for teachers. It would
be cute because I it actually does have sizable units, right? Well, we would need to see what the what the current structure can hold and if so, what conditions it's in. So, how would you feel about making this doing something referring this to the
commission and asking that instead of uh demolition if we turned it into workforce housing for I don't know uh teachers, employees in Miami Beach? I think that's I mean it's slated for demolition so we again we would have to see the
conditions of what the current property is and at this point I mean it's slated for demolition not because it's an unsafe structure it's slated for demolition because we said okay demolish but we don't have to maybe what the cost to demolish with a
couple hundred,000 and we add in a few more $100,000 we could get built housing and just renovate it's actually a cute property isn't it. Um there's a couple buildings and some houses that make up the campus for that. I'm happy to move
this to the full commission and we can have a discussion about it. Okay, let's move it to the commission and um what are we going to make a recommendation or just to explore the idea of a workforce or affordable housing? I feel like you guys could do
that. If we gave you that building and we gave you some cash, you could completely renovate it, manage it. Um we could have smaller units for you know so that we could attract teachers for school and it doesn't just have to be teachers. It could be you know just any employees of the city of Miami Beach. I would love that
young police who want to colleagues I will just remind you that this came up I proposed this very thing as commission and it was resoundingly shot down. Um, just so you know, I think we should I I would like for you
guys between now and next week if you can see if you can get in there and take a look around and see what it looks like. Just go walk it so you can report to us. I would support you to buy. I'll co-sponsor the item to make this um affordable or workforce depending on how
big the units are. I think it's a great idea. It is so expensive to build new. And here we have a structure. It is not an unsafe structure. It is actually kind of cute. It's just had the wrong use all of this time. So, it's been a nuisance property.
But this, if we added it to our portfolio, cost us really no money. I really think you just need to kind of go in, renovate the bathrooms, paint, you know, and and I don't think it's a huge renovation. You know, over time you could change windows, change the roof,
but I don't think you need to do that because you have a fully functional property, right? I mean, people are paying to stay there. Whether you're homeless or whether you were a hostile resident, it's not like it's not a functioning property. I don't believe there's kitchens. There's fully operate. There are there are kitchens, gas
kitchens, believe it or not, gas stoves. Well, I think we need to go in and and take a look, but I as of right now, what I can recall from the hostel site, it was being used as a hostel for group boarding. So, there may not necessarily be uh kitchens in specific spaces, but we can take a look at it and can you
guys go just take a look? All right, take a look between now and and I'd be willing to move it forward for something like that. How do you feel? Can you share? I do, too. And uh we have public comment. All right. Tim Carr, if you could please unmute yourself, you have two minutes.
Hello everyone. Thank you. This is Tim Carr, Soie West Neighborhood Association. I really appreciate the discussion here and the movement of what's going on with this property and this is eyesore of our community and I appreciate you thinking out of the box. Uh the twotory structure, like you said,
could definitely be something that's explored for housing options for the community. I do know that's ex what it was originally. And uh the roof is in very bad condition right now. It's covered with a blue tarp. But again, I welcome the feedback once you go in and
investigate what we could potentially do there. But for the house, you know, the houses that are on the other portion of the property, I would encourage you to consider just tearing those down uh because they really don't kind of complement the neighborhood. And perhaps consider that site for a neighborhood
garden. Uh because again, I know South F has a couple of neighborhood gardens and this would be something good. uh for our neighborhood and I know uh Tanya is promoting blue zone as well and this would be another opportunity to build you know vegetables and stuff like that
for the community uh right in our own local neighborhood. So that would be my recommendation. Thank you. Okay. So, we could send it forward with a recommendation to explore a community garden where the houses are and a possible workforce or affordable housing
in the current site, which it was, and I think Tim is fine with that. Um, that would that would be the recommendation. And I would love to walk it with you guys. Can you can you reach out to the developer between now and next week? And um I would love to go over to the Bikini Hostel and let's just take a walk through.
Okay. Commissioner B, I invite you to come if you if you want. You might have to sunshine it. Thank you. Come on. Yeah, my co-sponsor. So, uh, Commissioner, you had an item you wanted
me to call it next. Yes. So, this is for the oneway valet parking program. I do not see Bill here. I see Alberto. Okay. What item is it here on? So the parking department has
she needs to read the item. What item is it? 32. Item number 32 is one second. Item number two is discuss the development and implementation of a one-year pilot program for a one-way valet parking service at the Miami Beach
Banshell utilizing parking lot 106 and such other municipal parking lots as the administration shall determine for vehicle parking and said program to allow events attendees to drop off vehicles at the band shell entrance and retrieve their vehicles from parking lot
106 or other designated parking lots at the end of the event. This was sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and parking will be presenting the item. So before I turn it over to you, do you want to be called William, Bill, Will, what's the either Will or William? Okay.
If possible. Will. Okay. Um, we challenged Will because we know that in North Beach it has taken us a very long time to build that$und00 million parking garage. And I know that the nights that we have band shell events, all of the other surrounding businesses have issues
finding parking. This is really the only time according to Will's uh study that there are parking issues for the businesses in the neighborhood. So, this would allow um residents to park their car um drop it off at the
valet. We'll park it. They pick up their keys on the way out and they meander through. So, um Will, if you want to present this and we can hear from the Rhythm Foundation, too, to see if you're in agreement and you like this idea. uh because it was very innovative and I think it solves a problem that we have and it solves it immediately. So
congratulations. Uh yes, Will McDonald, uh director of parking for the city of Miami Beach. Um commissioner, so what this is is we understand that when there are band shell events, especially during the season, during the busy time, uh parking
in North Beach can be a challenge. Now, we do have a lot of un underutilized assets uh throughout North Beach. However, they are at a bit of a longer distance than most people like to walk. Um, on top of that, because of during
turtle season, uh, the lighting isn't There we go. During turtle season, the lighting isn't always the best. So, there may be a sense of I don't want to walk a longer distance without lighting. What this does, it just allows us to uh have talks with our current provider
with valet first class about setting up of a one-way valet service that would be able to offer an accommodation for anybody arriving um to come see a band shell event to be able to pull up early,
go have dinner, and then at the end of the event, walk out, grab their keys, uh walk through the new ocean terrace, walk north, walk south. I know we mentioned parking lot 106 which is the library lot and the reason that that was a primary one because it would um allow residents
to walk through businesses whether they wanted to have a glass of wine, a beer, a burger and a milkshake, a hogenaz ice cream or any one of the number of uh uh amenities or services that the businesses offer uh after the event. but also through the data of looking at how
many actual charges and what the length of time for those charges are inside that lot. We feel that in the immediate term that lot has some underutilization and then however we are not limiting ourselves to that lot because we
understand that there are other opportunities throughout. We understand the Doville garage is uh coming online here within the next several weeks hopefully. Um and we can offer a lot of different alternatives for individuals to say, "Hey, we can park your car here, we can park your car there." Um but what
we want to try to do is just get off the ground of starting to find a way to accommodate more individuals in this area where it is uh is tightly contested on nights that there may be a concert or maybe something. I have a few questions. So, how often
are there potential events? Is it once a week? Is it twice a week? So, I would defer if I 10 times a year like what is it? Yep. Good good good morning everybody. I'm Adam Donuza from the Rhythm Foundation
in Miami Beach Band Show. We have a partic we have a busy schedule. Um, and though every single one of those shows is not necessarily going to be sold out, uh, if it will. So, um, on average, it
would probably be something like once or twice a week during during season. That's And how late do they go? How late do the shows go? It goes uh, Sunday through Thursday, it we close at 1000 p.m. And then Friday and Saturday nights is 11:00 p.m.
Okay. So, it sounds to me my understanding is that um we do have residents that park overnight at the library, but that is metered parking until 11. So, it wouldn't affect residents because your shows are only
until 11:00. Um so, I think it's non-issue. But anyway, those were my questions. Uh Commissioner, yeah, I think it's a win-win. It's a super innovative, forwardthinking parking system. people can prepay their park and we're going to get good at it
because possibly when the Byron Carile if we ever get a shovel in the ground and get that project going at some point we're going to need valet parking for them too. Also at the fountain there is no parking right now and so you know this type of solution is really
necessary uh especially at you know as the businesses grow we see economic development happening so I'm happy that uh we heard it here. Was this sufficient enough for us to move this forward? Yeah, absolutely positive. That was the main concern if residents were going to be affected, but if the shows are till
11. One other question I had, why the library? Why not um across the street where uh on 73rd? Maybe I'll I'll defer that one to you. Yeah. So, the reason that we chose the library um and not across the street to
73rd is two reasons really. one uh we want to try to minimize the amount of additional foot traffic that we are putting to cross the street. So for example um when we are valeting the vehicle the vehicles that are crossing Collins Collins is extremely busy at
this time. Two that is already a prime parking spot. So this is the place where everybody knows to go um to park if they are going to North Beach. However, one of the things that we have found is we are looking for underutilization and and the library lot for a few reasons. One,
there's not a whole lot of people that go up to 75th want to make that right in there and go behind the library cuz they forget about it. It's out of sight, out of mind. So, it's it's kind of outside outside the area. Also, because of the lighting and and this isn't, you know, because of the lighting, especially
during turtle season, that lot can get slightly dark at night. And so there's probably some people that don't feel that comfortable. I want to make it very clear we have had no security or safety issues in that lot in the evening times. I go up there as well, but I'm sure there's a lot of people that probably avoid that and look for either on street parking
street on the the library lot on 75th. Oh, because it's right on the beach. It has to have the lower lighting because of of of turtle season. Um and so therefore, there are probably some people that avoid it. However, if we uh maintain certain amount of spaces for
valet, um then I think there's going to be some people that are going to love the ability to go there, drop off, be right there, and then because of Ocean Terrace, this will give people the opportunity to be able to kind of walk through Ocean Terrace and and and look at what uh businesses have to offer
between there and the library. Um and I think it' just be a great opportunity for us to to take an amenity that hasn't really been in North Beach and offer That's great. Let's move this to the full commission. Okay. Wonderful. I think it's innovative. I look forward to a day
when, you know, we have smart parking across the city that's affordable and easy to do. And I've never I'd never really heard about this oneway valet parking before. So, thank you for giving us a new smart idea that's also great
for our local economy. Thank you. Okay. Number seven. Thank you. Okay. Item number seven is discuss repaving parking lots P18 to P21 and wall painting adjacent to P19 lot at Lincoln Road Mall. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and parking will be presenting.
Okay, Commissioner. So, as I walk around the city, one of the things that I find very bothersome is that simple maintenance is not being done on any surface lot. So they look old, dirty, there's potholes, the walls,
you know, facing the garage are not painted. So I thought, what would it look like if we just went through just pave it and clean it up and it's going to be such a stark contrast that I'd like us to do all of them because I don't think it's a really huge expense and you're an enterprise fund and really
it's the face of the city. People are coming to our city center and I want our parking lots to just look look nice. eventually maybe have a tree or two but you know I think there are some trees in a few of them. Um so with this commissioner so
first things first um I 100% agree one of the things that I am really focusing on with our partners and facilities is to create not only with our I I look at our surface lots and our garages in one they offer the ability for individuals
to park their vehicles and um you know visit the businesses visit Miami Beach and see what Miami Beach has to offer. So, one of the things that we are going to start doing is taking a holistic look at every single lot, every single garage, and create a long-term
maintenance plan. So, generally, we look out 10 years and have a better understanding of, okay, this lot, what do we need to do with it right now? What does it need to have done every year? So, do we need to do a slurry seal, a retar, repaint? What needs to be done in
order to keep these serviceable? because it's a lot easier to maintain something than it is to create something new. As far as these lots, one of the things I'm glad to report that the wall on P19 has already actually been repainted. So, we have our own maintenance team in house
and so these are some of the things that we can move very very quickly on. Um, as far as the reservicing, I've already uh worked with uh our team member that we have that works inside facilities to reach out to the vendors because some of these might not require a total
reservicing. We might be able to do a slurry seal and a restriping. Um, some of these are going to require uh most likely a complete redevelopment. Now, that may trigger um some code issues in some of them. Um, so that may that may
trigger a complete redesign of a lot. Um, but we can look at that on a lot by lot basis. Um, also just to make you aware, there are going to be some things that we're going to be looking at that are more sustainable surfaces. So whether that means a concrete surface um
that would last longer, be a little bit cooler to the businesses around us because what we don't want to do is create heat islands or one of the things I was able to pick up in my time on the West Coast is in Los Angeles they are using a new coating on top of asphalt that actually uh it essentially turns it
a lighter gray and so that reduces the heat island effect by about 15°. So the businesses as well as the residences that border these lots um would have a savings uh uh would have a savings in their electric bill from having to cool
these down and also would make for a much more pleasant walk through these to not turn them into a heat island. Um however, we are currently in the process of reaching out to our vendors to make sure we can get some quotes um because I understand there may be some drainage issues on some of these um that have
exacerbated the problems and put them in the state that they are right now. Do you want to try do you want to should we just defer until you come up with your entire maintenance plan for everything or would you like to try to move forward and do something interesting and innovative with the
pavement on this lot just so we can see what it looks like if we did? Yeah. So, no, I I'm actually I don't want to say, hey, we need to hold off on the entire plan. That's going to be more of a long-term issue. So um however we are already engaging our vendors to look
at these specifically to let us know what would be each individual one and what steps we can take immediately. Um like I said some of these might just be a resurfacing and it might be very easy. Um, some of these might be a little bit more extensive, but I think I can come
back um 60 to 90 days with a with a plan on what it would look like costwise um for all of these and if something that we can recommend to move forward with immediately or if it's something we need to take a little bit more time on. Wonderful. Are you okay with extending this for 90 days? Sure. I love that. And if you could like in 90
days come through and you know show us the map so we can see what we're fixing, what it's going to look like, um what it's adjacent to, what the state of the asphalt. Some of it's pretty bad. Have you gone back there and seen it? It's like potholes and it's terrible. And you
know what? As you're doing this, um I would price out what would it cost for new signage and speak to communications, too. even though it's not part of this, but I think that there's an item to have new signage for Lincoln Road. So maybe you could just take that and parking
because if you've seen the signs too, a lot of them just like they look worn out and they look tired and I think just painting the wall, having a new sign um all of it. So 90 days for everything including signs. Absolutely. I mean the pay to park signs look good. Okay. So the private sector's signs look
great. Only our signs that don't look so great. and we have a sign shop within the parking division. So we can we can speak with the communication division, speak with Lincoln Road to see if there's a particular type of branding that we want to do um for Lincoln Road. Okay. So we'll hear an update in
December and then we'll move on to the next item number 23. Commissioner But okay. Hi. Um well, I just wanted to also um remind you, I'm sure you're thinking of this as well. Um I love the idea of reducing the heat island effect. I think
that's that's a great improvement in addition to everything else. But one of the um items that was passed over the last year and a half has been about um using materials in city projects to reduce the flooding effect as well. So I don't know if they're mutually exclusive
or I would imagine there's stuff out there that works together to do both things at once. I just want to make sure that's front of mind as well. Absolutely, Commissioner. So when we talk about um asphalt or new asphalt or new cement, there is actually porous asphalt, porous cement, they they they
do require a little bit more maintenance, but that's obviously part of the investment um in not only the sustainability aspect here on Miami Beach, but I can promise you, Commissioner, that is absolutely the top of my mind. Great. Thank you so much. Okay, so let's move on to item number 23.
Item number 23 is discuss handicap parking. This item was sponsored by the entire mayor and commission and parking will be presenting this item. Okay, sorry. Um, so the handicap parking, so Miami Beach currently has one of the uh
uh most amendable uh handicap parking uh programs within the state. So, the way that state law reads is that there are two classes of uh uh vehicles or two classes of license plates that receive
free parking on um any metered area or any garage or any municipal parking lot. And that is DV. That's a disabled veterans plate. That is a plate that is given to a veteran that has been rated as a 100% disability by the Veterans Administration or a
vehicle that has been permanently modified. So this is a vehicle with hand controls um or other any other permanent modification i.e. a a a wheelchair ramp in the vehicle things of that nature. Then state Florida statute also states that anybody with an accessible placard
and that is a blue permanent or a blue placard or a temporary red placard which is given for six-month periods is given the ability to park on any metered uh uh on street parking. Obviously, that's our parallel parking on street for 4 hours.
That is state law. What Miami Beach has done is said, "We will expand that and say that we will offer free parking in any garage, any lot, or on street to
anyone with a placard or with a an accessible license plate. as long as they come into the office, they fill out a paperwork, fill out a form, um, show the placard, register, and then they do not have to reregister
until, for example, if their placard is good for 3 years, they will be asked to reregister in 3 years. But all we ask because Florida happens to be known for uh receiving fraudulent placards, um, there it is a rampid problem here.
Um the city of Miami Beach says, "Hey, we'll go farther than Florida statute and we want to do what's right for the visitors to the community as well as the residents and we just ask that you come in and register for the duration of the placard." So your recommendation is to keep the
program as is. So does this item need to go back to the full commission so that everyone hears the update? So I would I would leave that up to the committee. Um, our recommendation is to just Let's ask the city attorney.
I'm sorry. So, does the placard item he gave us the update, does it need to go back to the full commission or can we close it out? The city's recommendation is to leave it as is. Oh, you can leave it as is if you don't want to do anything else. Okay. So, we'll close that out and then
go to number 10. Okay. Item number 10 is to discuss the city potentially implementing a drone uh vacation watch program. This was sponsored by Mayor Miner and myself and we'll get an update from the police.
Uh good morning. My name is Captain Delvin Brown with the Miami Beach Police Department. Um So, this program uh was proposed based on uh what I have here is a member from Elizabeth Police Department. Um and it's
for a drone watch program. As you all currently know, our vacation watch program requires an officer uh residents are allowed to request a watch order placed on their property if they're on vacation and we dispatch officers and they check the property throughout the
course of their shift. Um what this item proposes is that drones kind of do the same thing. Unfortunately, uh Florida law is very very restrictive right now. Uh in regards to what we can do with drones and surveillance. So um you know
due to the legal restrictions, you know, our recommendation is that we hold off on this or explore more ways to come up with uh policy for transparency based on legal recommendation. Okay. So, I do understand that MBPD does
use drones for this specific program and I also understand that more research needs to be done and uh it's currently not permitted under the Florida statute. So, let's close this item and go to number 11. Can I ask for a favor? Can you reopen
the log cabin item one second so that we can request that the administration hold an inperson meeting? Absolutely. Okay. can re I just want to tell everybody that yeah on that it's bothering okay
is that okay so we're reopening it please between now and the next neighborhoods meeting we would like to hold an additional log cabin meeting someplace in North Beach it has to be face to face no Zoom please
and thank you Okay. Item number 11, discuss, take action. Discuss, take action regarding enabling the city of Miami Beach to implement the executive order of unleashing American drone dominance. This item was sponsored
by Commissioner Dominguez and police will be presenting. Okay. And then I doesn't it I know. Um, so the administration, from what I understand, recommends that Miami Beach Police Department continues to purchase drones. Um, there is a grant that if we
turn in nine drones manufactured in foreign countries um and um there may be an exchange or something so you can speak more on that. Yes. So I'll provide an update. Um we
have we are in compliance with this directive. Um the our previous drones, nine drones were turned in uh and we received nine additional new drones that are Americanmade and we're just in compliance. Our entire fleet is uh manufactured by American American
manufacturers. Okay, that sounds uh great. And let me see the next page um is a dupe, right uh Stephanie? All right. So, uh, we'll close that out and then we will move on
to item 12. Okay. Item number 12 is discuss a potential Miami Beach Police Department pilot program for the Grappler Police Bumper, which would allow police officers to safely and effectively bring fleeing suspect vehicles to a stop. This item is sponsored by Commissioner
Dominguez and police will be presenting. Okay. So, uh, my understanding, um, from reading through the paperwork that the administration recommends that we table this for a future budget. So, um, unless you have anything else to add. Uh, we'll close this item out and then in the future we could bring it back.
Thank you, ma'am. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have anything to say? I mean, I feel I mean, there's plenty to say, but I I think the the biggest issue right now is is just getting through our current budget process, and then this is something that we would probably look at for the future and and evaluate a little
bit more to see if we could if it's cost effective. The Grappler police bumper. Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. So, we'll close that item and move on to number 13. Okay. Item number 13 is discuss potentially installing additional cameras and leveraging technologies along the beachwalk. This item was sponsored by
Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and police will be presenting the item. I'm not a fan of the surveillance state. I'm really not. But I will say that we know that we have criminals embedded in the dunes. They're literally coming in
and out of the jail system and they're going straight into our dunes. So given the fact that we have those cameras there and we now got the Fus software, how are we going to somehow send an alert when we see some sort of behavior
that we see like, you know, if you see like an aggressive behavior, somebody grabbing a suitcase or smacking, can we leverage the technology? Where are we in that? And I'm interested to hear what you have to say. All right, Delvin Brown, Captain Delvin Brown here again
from the Miami Beach Police Department Tech Services. So, in relation to your question, the uh ingestion of Fus is something that was just recently passed in June if I'm not mistaken. So, we're in the procurement process of actually
acquiring the software eventually once we have it. Um, and this will segue into something later on if it's called uh we have to work strongly with it and collaboration to make sure that our systems ingest all the data. All right. So although we get all of these live
feeds and things like that, we have to make sure that we have the support to be able to monitor it and what it actually does. So that's one thing. As far as this actual item is concerned, the update as far as the project for the CCTVs along the boardwalk is it's
ongoing and is supposed to be, you know, uh fully operational to some degree uh by fall of 2026. So wait, the you mean integrating the feed by by this fall? No, no, no. The feed. So, okay. So, so
two things. So, you asked about fuses. It's under we don't have it yet. And then when you're saying work with IT, you mean work with the experts at Fuses to explain to them what our needs are so that they can then program the software in theory and also with our city IT with our city IT department as well to make
sure that we have the infrastructure because uh Fus utilize but that comes with a variety of features but once we have it we'll be able to see what we can and can't do, what our limitations are
because a lot of stuff is based on uh servers uh storage capacity. How are we, you know, we're watching it in real time versus recording live and capturing the data. So that's a
Did we build when we built the intelligence center, did we make space for servers that we might need to purchase? Obviously, no, we did. We did. We did. But it's it's it's it's but it's uh it's it's a it's it's it's always going to evolve and it's something that has to be revisited and
constantly monitored as to what the current needs are. So what we like to do in the police department is be very very judicious in our approach about what we acquire now because it could change in two or three years based on the community's needs. Want to come back? Thank you. You want
to come back in six months and get an update on where we are. Okay. 6 months update on fuses and the integration. Sounds good. Okay. Thank you. Okay. The next item is item number 26, monthly
update on efficiency and enhanced enforcement related to excessive vehicular noise. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and police will be presenting this item. Good afternoon again, Madame Chair, commissioners, uh, Major Jovon Campbell, Miami Beach Police Department here to
discuss this item. So, at the direction of the commission, uh, we started a detail on June 27th to start uh, focusing more on loud noise coming from vehicles, whether that be mufflers, loud exhaust, u excessive use of horn,
particularly at the uh, during the night hours because of the complaints from the residents. Uh so what we do now is assign we have our shift commanders assign officers at each area of the uh city between 9:30 at night and 2:00 in the morning focusing on the Fifth Street
corridor, 41st Street corridor, the Collins Avenue corridor between 43rd and 63rd Street as well as uh 71st Street. And um I can I I was told that stats were provided to you all, but I got them here. you have you have them know for your convenience I can also uh
share them uh with you so that you can see the uh substantial um increase of citations that were issued um in June we issued 36 citations and in July we issued 134 uh citations for the year
from January 1st uh through the end of July we're uh at 344 so it's a significant increase uh to be exact 332 uh 332% increase uh from May 2025 um compared
from where we were at in June of 2025. I'm sorry. Um this is a 272% increase from June 2025 and a 332% increase for May of 2025. Some residents have asked if it's helpful to have signage saying resident
zone, quiet zone. How do you feel about that? Will that make a difference? Will people pay attention? Based on 30 years experience, I don't know if additional signage is going to help us. It it may help neighbors be more neighborly, but the majority of the
people that we're seeing that are that are committing these offenses are either people that don't live in our city or people that are here as tourists are passing through. So, I I think the Florida statutes that are already in place and the things that we've been enforcing is going to get us better results in the long run. But, uh, we're
open to any kind of suggestion that might get residents who live in the city to be more compliant. Okay. Um, I'll leave it on so that we we can hear an update again because now residents are starting to come back and they were the ones that were really
complaining about it. Did you have more? Yes, ma'am. I just wanted to to take an opportunity through the chair to uh commend Major Campbell and on his leadership on this item because as the patrol major, he's tasked with, you know, a myriad of different uh competing
priorities and he has to redirect the workforce on a consistent basis. So, based on his leadership, we're seeing the results that we're seeing here and and the hard work of the men and women that are on the street every day. So, I just want to take the opportunity to thank him and commend him publicly. Thank you. Really appreciate that.
Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez. Thank you. Thank you. That's a huge increase. Good. Because we we want to change that behavior. I just had one question. What happened to the noise monitors that we were going to have that were going to issue a violation automatically? Did we ever install one? Where is it? How's it
doing? So, my understanding of that project is it was it was a test to see if the technology itself was effective and then we needed to overcome the next hurdle. if if we found the technology was effective, then we needed to overcome a state statute that would
enable us to be able to use those cameras for that enforcement. I I don't believe we're there yet. So, I think that the the information we got from the test of the cameras themselves was mixed. Uh a lot of times if we had trucks that were just loud in nature, uh going by, it would alert for loud noise.
Uh there was also difficulty in determining which particular vehicle was generating the loud noise because of volume of traffic. sometimes and things like that. So there's some technology challenges that we need to overcome and then if we're able to find good technology then we need the state
statute to enable us to use cameras for that. So see we still we still need human beings. Um enforce it's true. Um that's great. I would love to see that enforcement south of Fifth and Collins Avenue especially when those loud cars go by the sound
travels up into those condominiums. We get so many complaints. So, thank you. By the way, most of the citations that you issued, do was there a particular place in the city where you issued more than any other place or I could find that out for you,
Commissioner. I don't have that, uh, specific. So, the areas we're specifically focusing on for this initiative is, you know, Fifth Street, south of Fifth, um, Mid Beach, 41st Street, Collins Avenue corridor. So, it's that 43rd Street to 63rd Street area of Collins and then
North Beach uh along 71st Street, which is when we've gotten the most complaints. I'm sorry if I misunderstood your question because I had previously stated that. I thought you was asking for No, I just wanted to know where you got the most people. Were there more people on Fifth Street? Was it Collins Avenue? Like where do you think where were the
most the noisiest? I can tell you that I believe that it's Collins Avenue because it's the, you know, larger area and then, you know, and these were like the people cranking it and drag racing and stuff like that. So, good. I I I would guess if you will, um,
Collins Avenue quarter as well as the Fifth Street because of the people that's coming off of uh, MacArthur. Thank you. Please keep this up. Thank you. Appreciate the support. Thank you. Okay. Um, next item. Okay. Item number
24 is discuss enhancing public safety through technology and community partnership. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and police will be presenting the item. Good afternoon. Uh Delvin Brown, Captain uh Miami Beach Police Department Tech
Services. Uh, so this was um I think this item came as a result of a meeting I had with the Venetian Islands um president. He's here too. I know that we are looking to deploy if we haven't
already a decoy police offic uh car. Um, so you can So yeah, so with the with the Venetian um homeowners association, uh, we've been in partnership, if you will.
Yeah. Um, to explore different options of as far as leveraging technology, what what we have as the real-time information center as well as what some of the communities want to provide their residents with additional uh security
features, if you will. Um so based on our partnership uh we recommend that moving forward that whenever we enter partnerships like this um that we have more like a an item uh an itemized
I guess uh prescription if you will of what they should have as far as needs and capabilities to assist us if that makes sense. Yes. So I I met with based on our our our the last committee meeting I met
with Major Garcia who was very helpful. We went through and uh planned out. So we're going to add uh fixed and PTZ cameras that will connect to the Arctic. Um and uh yeah, it's it's a little bit of a test and see because of LTE
coverage and uh you know, all those pieces. Um but uh but we're excited about it and appreciate the uh police department's support in uh in helping us. On the on the topic of the decoy cars, the LED decoy cars, um you know,
that the camera systems have worked or the LPR systems that we have have worked really well for helping with your investigations. Um I I I don't have the stats in front of me. It was something like we were around 15 or 20% arrest rate for major crimes and now we're at
80 so far this year. You've used the LPR systems quite a bit. We thank you for that. Um we saw the you know within 10 minutes of a major crime you know they're they're using them. So that was a big piece that you know quite honestly we were concerned about was is would the
you know would these tools be used and uh uh the police department has definitely um has shown us that they will use them. So we're excited about adding the uh live view cameras. We understand that they won't be able to watch them uh you know like a security
guard uh that they'll be used when there's a call for service uh or for investigations because they're also recording. Um and then we of course in a related item we hope that in the future that AI technology will help us uh um
make it where it's more preventative as well as uh helping with arrest. Yeah, a question just informational. The license plate readers that you guys installed on the Venetian um that information goes so you installed the
LPRs and then the information goes directly to you and and is one of the reasons why we want the Fusive software because we want everything integrated into one screen type situation. Yes ma'am. So again, this uh the program
that we have with the Venetian Islands uh so so the committee understands is uh as a city or as an administration is very hard for us to um absorb all of the cost that's associated with again the cameras, the LPRs, the different needs.
Um so through this when the associations are able to get their um their choice of whatever software because we don't want to endorse one particular brand or anything like that once they have their items and they
share that share those feeds with us we're able to you know enforce certain things and sometimes again it's reactive sometimes it's preventative um and we do both we also deploy our resources meaning uh LPR trailers mobile trailers in conjunction with whatever it is the
association has. So, moving forward eventually, we want to be able to offer this to other neighborhoods throughout the city. Great. I got really excited about this and I tried to sell it to all these other neighborhoods and they didn't seem so excited. They still wanted a security guard and a guard house, which I
understand too because it adds an extra layer. Yeah, I I think it's it's one tool in a broader toolbox, right? So, we have, you know, there's we need the police, you know, actual physical presence there. I think these LED koi cars are great. I can't really tell the difference. Um, so
putting they're great. They bother like they they're a real presence in the neighborhood. So, um, having LPRs, uh, having live view cameras, it's, you know, and and having, you know, roving security can help, too. You know, there's it's I think it's and
of course making sure people lock their car doors, lock their houses, use alarm services, have good lighting. I think all those things add up to a safer neighborhood. Um and so it's it's just about picking all the different tools and trying to build a good plethora of
them in your neighborhood, right? Okay. So, I'm going to close out this item. Um I do want to say thank you to MBPD, the team, the men and women. and they go above and beyond the level of service and the meetings and the extra mile by
meeting with individual neighborhood association residents. It's like a concierge. I mean, you guys are so and women are so incredible with what you do. Thank you for that. And um thank you to the neighborhood associations that
step up to the plate. So, but MPPD, thank you. Thank you for the support. Thank you. Thanks for the hope with the iguanas too. Number 24. Item number 25 is exploration leveraging technology in neighborhoods
experiencing high levels of burglaries and autothefts and discuss the best structure to implement technology centered security. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and co-sponsored by Commissioner B and police will be presenting. Wow, we were just there. It's kind of
the same item. So, I guess we can uh close it out. But you know, I what I would like to do is given the success of the Venetian Islands, how can the police department play a role in communicating this with neighborhoods that are constantly calling you and saying, "Hey, we're being burgled. We're being broken into." I'm on I don't know how many
Chads that with upset residents and I feel like maybe they should just install the LPRs. And if they don't want to install them and we know that they work so well that it's a city street, why don't we just install them if they're working so well? Well, through the chair um assistant
chief Margalo for the police department, we have um such unique geography as the city of Miami Beach that we're an island. So, we have very robust LPR capabilities on the city side. Um and it's been extremely
effective for us over the last decade to number one detect vehicles that shouldn't be in our city, robbery vehicles, stolen vehicles. Um, and from an investigative perspective, when we have a crime committed, our detectives can use that data and our CCTV cameras
to go back and solve crimes that other cities wouldn't be able to solve. So, any opportunity we have to speak about the successes that we've seen from technology as a department and going further, the public private collaboration and the success we've had
with this Venetian one, we're we're happy to do it. Um, we're probably going to start doing something like that through the community affairs unit when we have these different um, neighborhood association meetings and things like that. And we're always open to having a discussion with any neighborhood association that that you know wants to
find out about it, wants to hear about it, wants to see the results of what we've seen with Venetian. Would you guys would you guys consider holding a public meeting and inviting these different neighborhood associations so we could have an open forum discuss it because we
do have LPRs on 195, right? Obviously the Venetian is different because it's entrance, you know, to the island. Do do are we getting the constant feed from 195 on LPRs or not really? Uh yes, we are. But so uh to hold a public forum is one thing, but again the
individual needs of each association are going to vary. So what we encourage is what let contact us, we'll come out, we'll give you an assessment um and some recommendations uh because the needs of the Venetian Association may not meet, you know,
another community. So again, we don't want people to overinvest uh in certain things that we're not able to provide support with. Um and this is all rapidly evolving. I I think even just having a meeting just to say that, okay, you know, like having the police
department say, you know, we're concerned about your neighborhood. We have some technological tools, okay? And this is how we, you know, think it should work. and then just talk about them and then you can, you know, if the neighborhoods are interested, you can come out because in
the interim, we're going through this long political process to try to close off neighborhoods, which is going to take many years and might not ever potentially get done or could. Um, but we have these other solutions and it might make everybody's life a lot
easier, right? you know, because I think and it's just it's really that mostly the single family home neighborhoods are complaining about the breakins. Correct. It's not necessarily multif family. Well, thankfully our burglaries are down
and and our autothefts are down where earlier this year we had a a spike in autothefts. So, I'm very proud of the fact that our officers on the street and our leadership in the department have been very responsive and come up with great strategies to deal with those issues. But obviously we want to promote
neighborhoods that are safe and if the residents don't feel safe, whether that's based on, you know, perception or word of mouth or things like that, we want to do everything we can to mitigate that. Um, so anything we can do to help residents and visitors to our city feel safer, we're we're willing to do it.
Would you guys be willing if we held a meeting? This is how I envision it. To have your community resource officers from all the different from South Beach, Mid Beach, North Beach available like with their phone numbers to talk to people and then explain, you know, you invite the heads of the associations and
they could or could not choose to um attend. That would be my direction that I'd like to I don't know if my office I I would rather pass a policy. Would you rather me pass the full policy to do this? Can I do this at this level, Rob? I'm not sure.
I'm sorry. Repeat that. That's why they only called you kind of cool, Rob. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I think pretty cool. No, sort of cool. Okay, Rob, if I wanted to give direction right now so that we could hold a community meeting with the
different neighborhood associations and have the police resource officers there to discuss technologies that neighborhoods could use to organize. Can we do that at this level or do I have to pass that back to the commission? It's just an neighborhood meeting. You can
set a uh a sunshine meeting yourself with anyone else you want, but if you want it to be a city sponsored community meeting, city sponsored meeting with the police, send it back to the city commission with a recommendation to uh ask the
administration to have such a meeting. Okay. So, are you guys okay with that? Because I don't want to ensure again, I don't want to speak on behalf of the chief, but we're always open to whatever kind of meetings the city wants us to attend. It's part of our job to educate the community and to explain, you know, how responsive and receptive
we are. So, I'm sure we'll be open to it. Absolutely. The other option is if the administration is willing to do something that you're as a commissioner requesting to do and there isn't any further action needed by the city or the commission, then you don't need
Well, no, because there could be something coming out of this because neighborhoods could choose to install the LPRs. I want to have like a community conversation, see who's interested, have the meeting, and come back. I would move this to the full commission that the police department work with the
administration to invite the neighborhood associations and residents to a community meeting to explore um latest policing technologies um in single family neighborhoods. and and and and also meet your community
like resource officer so that they can get somebody's phone number so they know who to call and they don't have to call the general number. Would that be okay? Yes, ma'am. I want to check um public comment because I know Tim Carr had wanted to speak on item 26. I want to see if he's on there and while MVPD is here. Okay.
Um Tim Carr, if you can please unmute yourself. He's on, but he just hasn't unmuted himself. Oh, there we go. Tim, you're muted. Are you okay with my motion?
I have another public comment. Um, Larry Schaefer, you have two minutes. if you could please unmute yourself. Hi, it's Larry Schaefer, 233 First Street. Just calling to say that we had squatters move in uh to two properties
that are right next to us, one to the west and then one right behind us. Meaning both properties that we share a property line with had slaughters within the last 12 months, I believe. And we would just ask for anything you can do,
what technology can can be here for eyes and ears to see things because we're not feeling the law and order love up here. Um, you know, it's not a good time up here. We have drug dealing around Cresby. Um, excuse me, the Tatum Park.
And we know they're you guys are trying hard, but I don't know what to do about these squatters. We also have a development site um south on the next block where we had squatters as well. So maybe anyone can address that. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Okay. So is Tim Carr still on? He is still on. Can we try him again? Yes. Um Tim, you could please unmute yourself. His name's on, but he's not unmuting. Okay. So, while we wait and see if he
unmutes, uh, Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez, did you have other comments? No, just uh to move it to the full commission, I guess, to create this community meeting in conjunction with the police department. Thank you guys. Thank you. Great. We'll try him one more time.
All right. So then, uh, we'll move on to number 27. Okay. Item number 27 is discuss take action regarding the city's procurement requirements for contractors and vendors and their impacts on project cost. This item is sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and procurement will be
sponsoring. Uh so the reason for this item is that we often put things out for procurement and we don't get people that um sign up uh and bid for projects and if we do it's very very few. So I started looking at all of the hoops that different
organizations need to jump through to even apply to be part of the procurement process. So what I would like to do is for you and I to have a meeting and go through the different items so that I can bring stuff to commission uh to eliminate enhance make better so that we can streamline and improve the
procurement process because as it is now it cost businesses uh that want to bid on projects way more and I know we're not the private sector we're the public sector so there's different things but when I looked at some of the criteria that we had it was um there were things
on there that that I don't think are appropriate and um need revisiting. Uh did you have any comments uh about that further and if not we'll schedule a meeting you and I and then bring this back. That works. Absolutely. I you know the memo does have some items for consideration but we can go ahead and
discuss those and come back. That's what I would like to do. Perfect. Okay. So we'll bring this back um uh let's say yeah let's say in one month and then if we need more time we can do that. But thank you Christie commissioner. Yeah. Could you add me as a co-sponsor
on this item? I would love to make it easier to get better prices. If you I'm sure you know what the restrictions I mean I this is a long memo. I have not There's a few items on here suggested mostly administrative things that we can do. There's also um an item that was
sponsored by Commissioner Magazine um regarding that he took on September 3rd regarding some work that the county is doing um for us to kind of follow that and then come back with an LTC after the county's completed their task force um revisions. So I looked into a few things
um that we can streamline and and there are delineated in the memo. Some are just process that we can streamline to make things easier for the vendors and hopefully get more vendor participation. So, why don't we do this so that we don't stall stuff? I'll still keep this. Can we uh do dual? Can we keep it and
also move it to the full commission or do you need it to move to the full commission to streamline your existing items? I don't think anything on here per se would um require their approval. There was one recommendation which is more of a practice that has been in
place. It's not anything that's governed by code and it's that we take RFPs, requests for proposals, invitations to negotiate and request for qualifications to commission prior to issuing. Whereas for invitations to bid, we issue them. So, it's just a process and it's been a
practice, but it's not something that is governed by code. Um, so that was one of the items that was being recommended that is not necessarily something that's in code, but it's been a practice that the commission has been used to. So, so some of the things that you mentioned
in the e uh the memo that you could streamline, do you want to go over them um quickly and then um if my colleague agrees, we'll have you move forward with that and then we'll have meetings with you to see if there's anything else we can uncover.
So, the first one is the one I just mentioned about um us being able to issue requests for proposals or invitations to negotiate or request for qualifications. We would come back with the award like we normally do for invitation to bid, but it wouldn't require your prior prior approval to
issue the solicitation. Can I ask a question? Sure. This having to get the permission to do the RFP, does that take a lot does that add a lot more time onto any What it adds is the time to wait um for the next commission to be able to take
the solicitation and put it out on the street. Whereas if we didn't have to, we can just issue it. Um, and maybe there's a meeting ground, you know, maybe we release it to you all via LTC. There is the cone of silence which also lets you know what solicitations are out on the street and that is released once a month
with any solicitations. How do other municipalities do this? So, the county does not um go to commission for approval to issue and I it's I believe the city of Miami either. I've been trying to schedule some time with the county, but I've struggled a little bit because I think they're very
preoccupied with the task force. So, but they definitely do not. And uh Rob, are there any unintended consequences to make that streamline revision? No, not that I can think of. Okay, so that sounds like a good one.
Okay, the next one. Um, we conduct every two years surveys uh internal customer service and then also to the vendor community. The results were positive. We did it in 2024 and uh some of the recommendations that came from there was for us to look at
incorporating some efficiencies um regarding electronic payments. So I spoken with the finance department. They believe there's some abilities there to improve payment processing for vendors. So I can continue to work with them and make sure that that's something that hopefully comes to fruition and can help
some of the smaller vendors that you know to get paid faster and things like that. will help increase the vendor participation in our solicitations also at the end. So that's not anything we need to go back to the full commission. You can implement I think that is wonderful. Correct. Okay. Uh what else? The next one is something we can do
internally. The procurement department is to consolidate any forms that we have and also create a checklist for the solicitation because it is sometimes cumbersome what they need to fill out, what they need to submit. We can go ahead and add some checklist to the front of the solicitation document to help facilitate that. That's something
we can handle internally also. Okay, that's wonderful. Um the next one, these are all related to the vendor survey. The last one, the last one within the vendor survey is a vendor day. So, this is where we'll make ourselves available. Um we can also have other city departments there but to help
guide them through the procurement process, what they need to do in anticipation of a solicitation that might be coming out. Um and also give them information related to anything that might be on the street regarding the code of silence and you know help them with rules and guidelines that we all have to abide by. Um and that's
something again that we look forward to doing and we can handle internally. Okay. What's the biggest complaint you get from vendors about our process? So, these were some of the the three that I'm kind of highlighting were some of the major complaints that I felt we
can address. Um, one another one which is further down was um regarding the permitting. But my plan there it it's not a bad um it's my plan there is to help promote cuz I don't know that they're aware that there's a city
managed project permit expedite program. So one of our and this is one something that we can do in house um the procurement department is to promote that program so that they understand there is an expedited program for city projects and hopefully help engage more vendors in our procurements so that they
understand that there is a an easier way to get this done. And with every restriction and prohibition, it affects the price and that affects what the taxpayers um are ultimately correct uh helping foot the bill here. And many times
contractors, businesses, they won't bid on a project. And with less people bill bidding, we're limited and we're paying more. So we um this this is really critical. So thank you. Let's go ahead and implement the things that you recommended and um I will keep this on
here so that you and I can have a a separate meeting and talk about other things um that we can do that I can bring forward to commission. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So, item 29. Item number 29 is discuss the activation of alleys in South Beach Art Deco
Designs North Beach and MIMO signs. This item was sponsored by Commissioner B and Public Works will be presenting. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Is that 10? Oh, bot. Okay. Okay. Hi. How you doing?
Good. So, we have this item that uh was brought before us and we went through the process of looking at the alleys and looking at what the intent was from the item. And originally, it talked about pedestrian access in the alleys. And we
do have to keep in mind these alleys are essential to the businesses that use them. Ocean Court was one that was brought up in particular that we did look at. These alleys are there so that the businesses can keep the fronts of their businesses clear of trash cans and dumpsters and things like that. But we
also realized that pedestrians do use these alleys and they are kind of an attraction in some way, especially Ocean Court to the pedestrian traffic. What we did is we looked at uh our previous assessments of the condition of the
pavement in particular Ocean Court. Every 5 years we do a pavement management condition assessment on all of our roadways and it's a very intense process where they map every crack within the road and they assign a grade
to the roadway and we try to prioritize our resurfacing based on the scores. So this particular alley did not score terribly low. It was actually pretty good. Was resurfaced 10 years ago. Asphalt resurfacing typically takes
place between 15 and 20 years depending on the traffic volumes. We did however see some deficiencies in the alley. In particular, drainage. Nothing can make an alley look more dirty than standing water. Most of these alleys have an inverted crown, which means rather than
being a rounded roadway surface, it's actually a V with a valley gutter in the middle and the water then flows north and south to the side streets. There are some repairs that need to be made to the valley gutters, which would restore positive drainage. And we also see some
asphalt patches that need to be done. So, we're going to go back there and saw cut and patch the asphalt, replace the valley gutters in that particular alley, and coordinate with FPNL because lighting was brought up. This is going to be an effort between the actual
property owners, FPNL, and the city depending on what type of lighting we're looking at. And with that said, I'm I'm happy to answer any questions. We also do intend to move to mech mechanized street sweeping back there. Currently, we use
actual employees with blowers and different tools to clean the alleys every morning in that area. We would like to go to mechanized street sweeping and we'll be making that change fairly soon. We hope so. Okay. Commissioner Bot is the sponsor. Did she have anything to add?
Yes. Uh quite a few things. John, welcome. I think this is the first time you've um presented on one of my items. So, thank you. And I know this is an inherited item. So, I appreciate the comments on this particular alleyway and uh that's great. But I I've got sort of
bigger concerns. I'm less concerned about the pavement in the alleys and this is citywide. Um and much more concerned about um the lighting for safety reasons and the stand. It stinks. These alleys are
settled and disgusting. Um, I was walking to the microphone mobility town hall yesterday and had to literally cross into the middle of the street on 10th Street because the water coming out of the alley. I don't know who had cleaned what or whatever, but it just
like was this viscous, you know, cartoonish black water that was disgusting. Um, and it was so wide that you couldn't just step over. You had to go out Asian streets, just navigate it. So I I think there needs to be an assessment citywide of the drainage
issues um or lack thereof of the alleys. I understand that they are not connected to drains and that was a major you know miscalculation um 125 years ago but that's where we are. Um
how do we fix that citywide and and in in rank of of priority? You know what needs it the most? What's the most heavily trafficked? what has the most um egregious drainage issues and and how do we ensure that these things are lit up
properly? Um I know that there was where um we've had homeless folks literally bring furniture and set up a little uh home in some of the not not a home like lounge chairs in in one of the alleys behind Ocean Drive. um repeatedly they
it would get demolished or or you know just taken apart and then few weeks later they'd come back and do it again. So these alleys need to not only be able to be circumnavigated by the services that need them as you mentioned, but
they also need to be made more appealing for people to use them. Um to have people ride bikes down them as alternate paths, some of the more heavily roads because in doing so, those alleys then become safer in general.
Right? If you've got more eyes on the street, more people using the alleys, they they get better care um and and less nefarious happening. Um so that I I really want this to be a citywide effort, not just one alley, one block of
one alley. Um I'm very interested. I think Alex Fernand Commissioner Fernandez is the sponsor of the item to take some of the alleys that are parallel very street and make them very user friendly for micro mobility and bike.
And so that is something we need to take a a good hard look at. We don't have a lot of room to build new bike lanes and we've got issues with the state and the county who are trying to um limit what we can do where on our roadways. So this is this is going to be a forwardlooking
project. Um the one thing that I don't see addressed here at all and it's it's you know not missionritical but as we go through and work with um property owners and and business organizations. I think
there are opportunities to potentially upgrade the aesthetics by not just having another boring FCL sign, but maybe have or light post, but maybe also incorporate neon lights that reflect the character of the neighborhood. Right?
So, not faceless and overbearing, but something that brings the character of place into the alley. If the front of the building is is Ocean Drive, the back of the building should have come flavor as well. So, um I would like to keep
this item here and have you guys come back in a couple of months with some ideas of how to implement a broader strategy on this and how to prioritize it and what the funding situation is um so that we can tackle the most mission
critical um alleys in South Beach and in North Beach um as soon as possible rather than you know letting it fade off and stay here. Okay, that sounds good. Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez, Tanya, Commissioner Bot, this is a great
item. I mean, it's really not that much fun or exciting to talk about the alleys, but it could be. He has, and you did a great job on this, by the way. So, you're saying $50,000 per alley to get new lighting, fix the drainage, and fix
any potholes, cuz some of them are really gross, right? Yeah. So, so that number was for resurfacing and that resurfacing would include replacing the valley gutter and restoring positive drainage and that is one of the most important parts is the drainage. If you fix a drainage, you fix
the deterioration of the asphalt makes it last longer. But it is a balance between spending the resurfacing money on alleys which are service alleys which have trash trucks going up and down them and keeping our residential streets resurfaced on a regular basis. So that
is why we do the assessment of the roadways. We have a score assigned to every roadway so that we can say this one's in worse shape than this one without, you know, it's it's less subjective, I guess. Do you need funding from us to do this first alley, the $50,000? Do we need to
refer this to the commission with a positive with an ask to fund the $50,000 to fix this first alley? We we could probably fit this within the resurfacing program and do it as a pilot type program, but I think we do need to look
at the alleys more holistically and balance those with the residential roadways and figure out how are we we don't want to spend all our money resurfacing alleys which by nature are going to get torn up quicker with the
heavy truck traffic and then not spend what we need to on the residential roadways and arterials. So, I see what you're saying. Um, okay. But this one, Alli, you're going to fix
this one. We can. My proposal was to go in there and make repairs to the drainage by replacing the valley gutter and fixing the asphalt. Since this was just resurfaced 10 years ago, it's technically not due for resurfacing.
However, at commission's direction, if we wanted to completely resurface this alley, we certainly could. So, this is the alley where the orb is, where the big and the Betsy alley, and it's going to cost $50,000, and they're
going to put in some money, too, for beautifification purposes or no? No, I'm not aware of it. I thought you said okay. I mean, look, I'm okay with this. I think it's I think it's a great idea. I would love to be a co-sponsor of this too because I do
think the alleys are something interesting to transform. You're looking at them from a purely utilitarian perspective, but I I I do think there's a way to make them a little bit nicer, but they're not. I mean, they're full of trash cans and cables, and you're right.
I'm trying to think outside the box. I I I know. I know. Oh, well that's I mean but you know but that I think is why you need a whole plan for the alleys. I mean is there some alleys that you think would that you could transform into something cool? You commissioner but you
should you should walk the alleys. I don't know if she's on or she can hear me. No, I am on. I have walked the alleys. you have you walk these alleys and pick one and just like, you know, do it up. Apart from this one, because this one is adjacent to the alley that the Betsy
did, but in addition to this, you should probably just, you know, pick one and really go for it and, you know, do lighting and science. Yeah, Jay Pink and Brad Kane and I did walk a number of alleys. Um, and that's what led to where we are now. So, um, John, I'd like to work with you further
on this. I think there's a real opportunity to look holistically in bigger picture on the alleys. Um, as I mentioned, you know, the more we can do to make them safe for pedestrians and an alternate path for um micromobility and
regular bicycles, the better off we'll be. And I think, you know, if we um put our heads together with transportation and um maybe even with parking, I'm not sure. But I think I think there are opportunities to go much bigger in terms
of impact with not a much bigger cost. You know, I think um talking about how things get painted and what kind of product we use and and all those kinds of things can really be transformative. Um because it's it's it's not just this
one specific item issue that we're trying to address. it is an opportunity to address multiple different issues via this item. So, um I'll work with you offline, but I would like this to come back in a few months with some bigger picture uh recommendations
as as you go ahead and use this as a as a pilot program. I look forward to seeing your first uh alley vision and having a party in the alley. I think it, you know, you really could activate some of these alleys. So,
all right. That's really great stuff. So, our motion on this, um, Commissioner Bot, would you like to continue to work on this and we'll hear it again in 60 days? Do you need 90 days? Um, I'll defer to John. Um, but I would
like to for him to start work on this within his existing budget and then come back and um discuss the potential for bigger bigger opportunities. Yeah, I'd like to defer for 90 days. That way we can actually get in the alleys and do some inspections and come
back. I'll have time to meet with you and prioritize which alleys we're talking about. Great. So, that's my motion. 90 days and we'll check back to see what's happening in the alleys of South Beach. Great. Okay. Uh, any public comment?
No public comment at this time. Move on. Okay. And I know that I got just one thing. It's not just South Beach. It's South Beach and North Beach. Oh, okay. Okay. Uh, so moving on. I know that we are deferring 31 and 17 because Commissioner Fernandez will not be uh
coming. So with that, we'll go to number 30. Item item number 30 is discuss the beautifification of sidewalks on Collins Avenue with mosaic design, landscaping, and decorative uplighting. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez
and Public Works will be presenting. Good afternoon again. So, this item is to beautify the sidewalks on Collins, which Collins Avenue is a state road. So, it does limit our ability to do
those upgrades without an agreement with FDOT. That agreement with FDOT would include the city paying for all the upgrades and maintaining them in perpetuity. So because of that, we don't recommend it
just due to the high cost to make the improvements that were proposed. We were looking at over $3 million to do stamp concrete along Collins from 5th to 15th. Question, was there any geo bond funding
for this or would this have to come out of the general fund? Isn't there beautifification money or tourism dollars? There has to be some pot to so we cannot use geo bond funding for stateowned infrastructure and that's why there are improvements being made in
other areas of the city with that geo bond money but because this is all owned by the state we are not able to do that I really think Collins needs something I feel like it's forgotten it just doesn't the state is bare bones and it's one of
our most iconic streets of historic buildings and if we upgrade it, it will pay us back in terms of people visiting and investing there and wanting to return there and the
hotel who live there. And if we start showing pride on that street, I feel like others will follow. So, I understand from your perspective that this is very expensive and I know that
we have no extra money right now, but I would like to refer it back to the commission to see how we can get this money some other way because I understand that from your perspective there are like alleys
and potholes and a lot of stuff that needs to get fixed and the last thing we need is decorative art. But it's Collins Avenue and I want to beautify this historic district. So my motion would be to refer this back to the commission
to do it and find the funding. It could be two years from now, but it's okay because, you know, maybe we don't have the funding this year, but in two years from now when we do want something beautiful for Collins Avenue, don't you agree? Uh, yes, we do. I don't agree on the price. So, let's move it to the full
commission with no recommendation and see if you can convince the rest of the colleagues to move forward. Well, this is from 5 to 15th. If you think about it, it's really not that expensive to get stamped concrete specialty sidewalks or our pavers. The pavers are 3 million. Yeah. But it's
it's a huge area. It's transformative. Agree. I've seen us spend way more on stuff that's not even nearly as transformative as this would be. So, I think like bang for your buck if we could somehow get this money from tourism taxes if our tourism taxes are
not terrible. And I do love pretty stuff. I I want that to go on the record. Look, but uh I like pretty stuff. And um yes, I understand from your perspective that why why the recommendation is such. But I would still like to argue this with my
colleagues because I I do think that sometimes we need to go above and beyond. And I went out to the state. I spoke with them. They said they were willing to let us do it as long as we paid for whatever it is. Um so let's see. Because I'll tell you, Collins Avenue, now that you're here, welcome.
If you go up Collins, you have to see the state of our sidewalks. Have you checked them out? The state side. Yeah, I live on Collins actually. Yep. So I All right. So you're you must be walking along and have you seen the sidewalk in front of the fountain blue and the Eden Rock. It is terrible. I heard you we did
repair it recently thanks to Jackie. But yeah, I'm only asking for 50. Yeah. And and one other thing to consider, and this is not a huge issue, but if we do pavers, when there's a utility cut, the repair process is much
more intensive. And with all the redevelopment that does happen in Miami Beach, that's one thing to consider. Every time somebody comes and does a utility cut, whether it be FPNL or or, you know, another utility, they have to come back and repair
something. The more artistic, the more difficult it gets. So, we do need to keep that. How do other cities do it? How do other I bring it back to the full commission? This is really transformative. I understand argue about the full commission. And we're going to move on to item 28.
I would just like to challenge you and say that in many other areas of the world, they have beautiful flooring and sidewalks and they make it work. And I think we need to get there. It's, you know, so anyway. Okay, thank you.
Item number 28 is discuss the maintenance of existing crosswalks along the need for installation of additional crosswalks in North Beach. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and co-sponsored by Commissioner Balt and public works and transportation will be handling this item. Okay, so this item
came to be. My uh aid lives up in North Beach and um has really given an inventory of places that need improvements up there for safety reasons and uh Commissioner Bot has co-sponsored and I'll let you give the update.
John, y sorry I'm getting into that. Yeah, hold on one second. Okay. So, we did an assessment on all the crosswalks and signage in conjunction with transportation department and we found that as far as
the crosswalks went, most of them were in good condition. 63 of them, 12 of them were in fair condition and 50 were in poor condition, bad condition. Street signs, quite a few of these street signs were in bad condition. We took all this
information, compiled it, and we have done maintenance requests to the appropriate agency. This includes FDOT, the county, and the city. The city has begun work on improving anything that falls within their jurisdiction, and we
are awaiting improvements from the other jurisdictions. In addition, we do have some projects coming up that involve resurfacing the road where these pavement markings will be upgraded and uh we will be waiting for those projects for them to be replaced.
Okay. So, um Commissioner Bod, do you have any comments? She step she's not Does this have to go back to the full commission or I don't see a need for it. We've identified, we've done an assessment, and we're in the process of having
everything updated that was identified. Okay. So, why don't we bring it back um in 6 months and see what progress has been made. Sounds good. Okay. Uh item number 14. Okay. Item number 14 is discussion on
reviving employee shuttle program and other transportation solutions for the Fontine Blue Hotel staff. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and transportation will be presenting. Okay. Um so I recently had meetings with um the Fountain Blue uh general manager
and then also with the HR department and they explained that there were surveys that were being done. But during my conversation, um the HR department told me that in the past they had an incentive program where people uh uh
employees that carpulled uh four-door a car would get free valet at the hotel. There also was years and years ago a shuttle program that would pick uh people up at their homes. And of course, I did encourage them to um
give first uh look at Miami Beach residents uh because that would help eliminate um having people driving in and out of our city. Uh Fountain Blue is the number two employer in our city as far as number of people and most of them
live off the beach. So that is a huge burden especially on 41st Street. and um I wanted to hear where we were with the survey if this is something that we have an answer for now or if we should bring back as well. So good afternoon uh madam chair I'm
commissioner Rosen Gonzalez on Rodriguez for the record system director with the transportation department. So, the Florida Department of Transportation funds several commuter service and one of them is the South Florida Commuter Services and this South Florida Commuter Services promotes and coordinates car
pooling, van pooling, public transit, and other services in our city. And the memo identifies a lot of the um different programs that they have available for different employees. Now, with regards to the survey that was conducted that was um at the uh in
partnership with Commissioner Alice Fernandez, there's another item where we're looking at other alternatives in our city um to um promote a broader workforce transportation solutions and employer partnerships incentives. And
like you said, u Madam Chair, u we conducted that survey with a fountain blue. Now, out of 1,716 employees that were surveyed, we only received responses from about 483 and
that is a 29% of its workforce. Now, the based on those responses, there is a strong interest in shuttle service. More than half of the respondents indicated that they would use a free dedicated employee shuttle to
commute from a nearby park and ride location with an additional 14% expressing conditional interest pending details such as timing and frequency of the shuttle. Now with the South Florida Commuter Services, um again there's different programs available. One of
those it's a guarantee ride home. Um it also provides 95 express three plus carpool program. It also has a vampoo program and also uh transit free and park and
ride facilities. So our recommendation is um to work with Fountain Blue facilitate that communications between um Fountain Blue and the software computer services so that way their employees can benefit from these programs that are currently available to them.
Okay. I agree with you and we need to increase the number of survey responses. 30% is not good or 29%. We need it over 50% close to 60%. So can we um bring this back for discussion um in 30 days
to see where we are with surveys and um if you need my help in meeting with the Fountain Blue again and and trying to get things um done. Yes. Just for the record, they've been great partnerships as part of us to try to get as many respondents available
and, you know, have their employees actually submit a response. They they made available incentives for their employees. But yeah, we could definitely go back to them and see if we can redo the survey to get more responses. Let's do that. And Commissioner Rosales,
thank you for addressing this. Believe it or not, Mark used to really try was trying very hard to work on this. What happened on 195 where they finally painted a lane for a bus and the bus was supposed to go from Erlington Heights
over to Miami Beach and I saw the lane and nothing ever happened with the lane. So that is for the Buzz Rapid Transit system that the county is currently deploying. That um service has been delayed. Uh we're pending there. There
are some constraints that they have on the county side. However, buses are currently using that lane to go around the traffic. So, even though the Buzz Rapid Transit is not currently in in operation right now, the current bus routes that do operate along east and
west uh along I 185 are currently utilizing those those lanes. And when is the county going to give us the BTR? Unfortunately, the BRT, correct? Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure uh an exact date
based on different constraints that they have uh on the county side, but we are in constant communication and we have expressed the need um to have that new service and service. What's the concern? We got them the lane and we need a bus
that goes from Arlington. My understanding has been that they have staffing um constraints. they have not been able to secure enough um drivers to to drive um the buses um to be able to provide the service to the adequate level.
So, it's a bus driver issue. That's my understanding. That seems kind of ridiculous that we haven't gotten the the the bus you should we you're keeping this on, right? And hopefully you can speak to we can definitely provide an update on on that as well.
Okay. Thanks. Yeah, that is also part of the other item that is currently at work constant following up on on hundreds of different initiatives. Okay. So, uh we'll bring this item back. Um um uh yeah, let's do that. And then um item
16, I need to defer it. We'll go to item number 15. Okay. Item number 15 is discuss the transportation, parking, bicycle, pedestrian facilities committee's recommendation for art week/art boso 2025. This was sponsored by commissioner
Dominguez and transportation will be presented. So the city is recommending that we do everything we did in 2024. You're also making some movements from Monday through Sunday, December 1st through 7th. Water taxis are increasing from 4:00 to 7:00. Uh as well as the
connector shuttle service from 3 to 5. Um I think it's important that we move this to the full commission given that our Basel is such an enormous event and um that the full commission should uh make uh any recommendations on tweaks or
anything with enough time as possible. Just um sorry again good afternoon madam chair. Um the enhanced multimmoal plan that the city has proposed is contingent upon funding availability right now. Um the city the transportation department
did submit an enhancement to be able to do everything that you listed to be able to increase the the shuttles uh available and also the water taxis and also providing the service from Monday through Sunday instead on Wednesday to Sunday. Right now the recommendation for
the enhancement has only been to be able to provide the same level of service that was provided in 2024. Okay. Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez. this has to be top priority. You know, we're talking about doing an art exhibit during, you know, our Buzzle, our own
art that we commission an artist to do, and that's fine, and I love that. But if I had to choose between having solid transit options and working functionalities, I I'd rather have both obviously, but this does need to be top
priority. And by the way, everybody loved what you did last year, the extra bicycles, the water taxi. Everybody's talking about it. and I saw Jose and he was presenting to the DDA and he was so proud of his initiative. 30,000 people got on bikes at the convention center
road to the water taxi. So I love it because I think there were lessons learned and I mean I support it. I hope that there's support at the full commission for this because this is really what our tourism dollars are for stuff like this and beautifying our historic district. That's why hotels pay
a bed tax. So, all right. So, we'll move this to the full commission and uh I believe that's the last item. Okay, that's good. Thank you. Is that the last item? Okay. Well, thank you everybody. The meeting is adjourned.