[music] Come on. [music] Me. Get it up. >> [music] >> N feel. enough. Another
time. Heat. Heat. down. Down. Heat. Heat. Thank you. [music] Thank you. Thank you. Hey, hey, hey.
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Heat. Heat. Baby. Hey. >> [music] >> F. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Please take your seats. The meeting is
[music] 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.
>> Good morning everyone. Welcome to the July 15th, 2026 meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee. I'm Alex Fernandez, the chair of the committee. I'm joined by our vice chair and our vice mayor Laura Dominguez, our our member commissioner
Monica Matil Selenas, and our alternate member, Commissioner Tanya Bod. I'm going to pass the floor to uh our our liaison Stephanie Ray Brooks for this morning's announcements. >> Good morning. Today's public safety neighborhoods quality and life control
committee meeting is a habit meeting. The members of the committee will be physically present in the commission chambers. Members of the public who wish to attend this meeting or provide public comment in person may appear at the commission chambers. Members of the public who want to participate or provide public comments virtually during
the meeting may join via webinar or zoom. We have a couple of announcements today. We have two supplemental items that were added. One was for item number one uh present an update on Miami Beach prominade master plan. The supplemental was an email from MBNA. And we have a
supplemental for item number seven. Discuss take action regarding a city-wide review of boards and committees to improve operational efficiencies and streamline advisory functions. The supplemental item was the FK item that was heard last week. And we have item number three and item number
four will be heard after 10:30 a.m. >> Thank you, Stephanie. So with that the uh the agenda will be followed as printed as us as usual with this committee uh for the benefit of the public so that everyone can follow the uh meeting. We always follow this agenda
as it is publicly printed for the public's benefit. With that we're going to open up the floor to the public forum. Citizens wishing to speak can approach the podium. You'll have two minutes to to speak. If you are on Zoom you're welcome to raise your hand on
Zoom. So members of the public wishing to to speak, you can approach the podium. For fairness, we grant all members of the public up to two minutes to speak. >> Good morning. If you can state your name for the record. >> Good morning. My name is Janet
Figareroa. I'm one of the artist vendors. I know we supposed to be on the meeting at 3:00 and today at 9:00 by any chance, but all I'm really want to um say is that the change of the ordinance and going
through all these extra programs that these people are just submitting information and ideas, which I understand me as a member of the program since 2016. I don't live in Miami. I live out of Miami. I'm a person that um
I'm very well educated. So, they should be happy to have people like me here. Well, they could have a choice. I have the homeless people running around here, but I am one of the type of persons that I have a lot to bring to your community, even if I don't live here. So, all I'm asking is to be grandfathered into the
program. And if you guys want to keep the ordinance that you have, you keep it, but be fair to the ones that have been in the program all these years. I think that's more than fair
when you have people that they have degrees behind their back and they out there and I'm was an auxiliary police officer for eight years in the city of New York and I'm offering my services for free to this city when they need an ambulance when I need to call for a homeless person attacking one of your
tourists. I think you should be more happy to having me around than having the other options. >> Thank you so much. And what's the status of this of this item? Uh is this item before this committee? Is this item currently pending at another committee?
>> I don't think it's it's it's not a >> it's just going back and forth back and forth back and forth and more things get added into the the game. Really what we were concentrating is the ordinance and to be fair to the people that been in the program all these years and just grandfather them in. That's all I ask. I
don't think that that was you need a rocket scientist to solve that. >> So I'm hearing it's currently pending where >> I will look exactly where it is pending but I do believe that >> land use I'm hearing from one of my colleagues. So the item is currently pending at land use. Okay. All right.
Thank you. Thank you for your participation. >> Thank you for your time. >> Uh it we're going to go to Zoom. Uh members of the public wishing to speak on Zoom, you're welcome to raise your hand. Robin Jacobs, welcome. You have two minutes to speak. Good morning, Chair Commissioner
Fernandez, Commissioner Dominguez, Commissioner Mateo Selenus, and Commissioner Bach. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Robin Jacobs. I have the privilege of serving as chair of Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board. I respectfully ask that you reconsider the
recommendation to sunset the convention center advisory board. The Miami Beach Convention Center represents a public investment of approximately $650 million and remains one of our city's most important economic engines. While the convention center hotel project is
nearing completion, I respectfully submit that the completion of the hotel is not a reason to eliminate this board. Our mission has never been about overseeing the construction of the hotel. In fact, our mission states that
the convention center advisory board exists to act in an advisory capacity to the city commission on matters regarding operation of the convention center to ensure the highest quality and management and operation by the management group of the Miami Beach Convention Center to monitor and consult
on the relationship of the Greater Miami Convention Visitors Bureau with the Miami Beach Convention Center and to ensure the highest quality of maintenance of the facilities. Those responsibilities are not ending. They are continuing in many respects become even more important as the convention
center and hotel begins operating together. The board's mission has remained the same from the day it was created. To advise the commission on the ongoing operation, management, maintenance, and success of this extraordinary public asset. If administration workload is the concern,
there's a practical alternative. Rather than eliminating the board, transition it to quarterly meetings consistent with the recommendation for the majority of other boards and committees. This preserves transparency, meaningful public participation, and
independent community input while reducing staff demands. I respectfully ask you not to censor a board whose mission remains just as relevant today as when it was established. Construction is only one chapter. stewardship, operational excellent, accountability,
the ongoing mission, and I believe this board continues to have an important role in fulfilling that mission. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration. >> Thank you, Robin, and thank you for your service on on the committee. I see Mitch Novik with his hand raised on Zoom. Good morning, Mitch. Welcome. You have two
minutes to speak. >> Good mo good good morning, everybody. Mitch Novik working out in a hot hot sun doing yard work. hadn't planned on speak so I'm uh pretty cold in that regard. I want to speak to you about waste something I've spoken about who knows
dozens of times over the past uh several years uh in in front of the uh commission body. Uh last week we received that wonderfully designed Miami Beach magazine, that glossy
magazine uh made by our very own office of marketing and communication. Uh our water bills have have gone up for the past dozen years automatically every October. All you need to do is check
them. Our staffing has increased by 500 employees within that dozen years and our budget has more than doubled. I would ask you, especially it being budget season, to uh focus in on the
waste that occurs in our city and uh bring back prosperity to Miami Beach and allow uh not chase out long-term residents who can no longer afford to live here uh entirely due to the waste
that the city has created. So, that's my two cents and thank you for your time. Have a good meeting. Bye-bye. >> Thank you, Mitch. Thank you for your participation and your public comments. Michael Goldberg, good morning. If you unmute yourself, you have two minutes to speak.
>> Uh, good morning, Chair Fernandez, Vice Chair Dominguez, Commissioner Bot, Commissioner Mate Selenus. Um, I had the pleasure of being the chair of the Convention Center Advisory Board. At the same time, I was chairman of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce from 2013 to 16. Uh, I'm here to speak on the
possibility of that board being sunsetted. Um, on August 14th, 2012, the residents of Miami Beach passed a 1% resort tax increase to help the funding of the $650 million renovation of the convention center. I was proud to
actually be the MC at the groundbreaking for that. And great to see that the residents believe that the convention center needed a major rehaul as the convention center is the number one economic driver in the city of Miami Beach. um also participated in spearheading you know in educating the
residents on that and then of course the hotel component which came later uh on November 6, 2018 the residents of Miami Beach made the great decision by the way with a super majority vote of more than 60% to tell the city it's okay to enter
into 99-year lease with the developers David Martin and Jackie Sofur to build the convention center hotel which is critical to us being able to bid on the conventions that we want to get back the heads and beds. Um it would be a mistake to take this away. Um the stakeholders
and the residents of Miami Beach, the convention center advisory board is the way that they stay engaged with it. Um they're stakeholders and they have to have a continued seat at the table. This is probably to me one of the most advisory boards, important advisory
boards that we have in the city of Miami Beach. And um I would appreciate when it gets to the commission that they reconsider sunsetting it, agreeing with my friend and chair of the CCAB, Robin Jacobs. At a bare minimum, go to a quarterly meeting if not keeping it um
monthly, but quarterly meetings would work, but please don't take this away from the residents and the stakeholders of the city of Miami Beach. Thank you very much for allowing me the time to speak. >> Thank you, Michael. Johan Moore, good morning. You have two minutes to speak.
Uh good morning, commissioners. Um the last uh speakers, the previous speakers raised a a couple of of questions um that relate to uh Commissioner Dominguez um well-intentioned uh item. Um, I will
say anecdotally having spoken to members and or former members of three committees that everyone I've spoken to has actually being quite sanguin about the possibility of doing their work in four meetings per year. Um, now I don't
want to speak obviously on behalf of any committee and so I won't I won't mention any names because some uh committees may in fact be considering uh requesting exemptions to this or uh in fact a different structure for a given committee in question depending on how
important it sees its ongoing role as being. I think that that is really the key question for much of the public or there are two key questions. one uh not one one size does not fit all for committees. Some may be able to very well do their work quarterly. Some may
in fact need to continue meeting uh 11 times a year. I was surprised to read that apparently some committees uh do in fact meet in meet in August. But in any case uh a cutting back to every two months may in fact be appropriate for
some committees. So I urge you all uh to consider how to make this flexible uh so that there is not the sense that residents voices are somehow uh failing to be heard. Uh I'm also somewhat
surprised that there seems to have not been uh a push back as opposed to support understandably of course the support from staff uh in that some departments may in fact well deserve a greater role uh and I think of course of
the environment and sustainability department in that respect. The other question that this very well-intentioned item raises is where can we save more money? uh and more efficiently uh such as through other uh municipal expenses
that could be cut or reduced. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Bruce Gold. Good morning. You have two minutes to speak. >> Good morning, uh Chair Fernandez, Commissioner Dominguez, Commissioner Matteo Selenus, and Commissioner Bot.
Um, as Chair Fernandez mentioned, my name is Bruce Gold, and I'd like to echo what uh my co- uh board members have already said about the Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board. I
respectfully ask uh that you reconsider the recommendation to sunset the convention board. The Miami Beach Convention Center is not simply another city facility. It represents an investment of approximately $650 million and remains one of the city's most
important economic engines supporting our hotels, restaurants, retailers, small businesses, and thousands of jobs. I believe it is important to clarify that the convention center board has never existed to oversee the convention
center hotel um where it's go going to be sunsetted after the hotel is completed. While the hotel has certainly been an important topic uh over the past few years, it has never defined our purpose. Our role is always been to
serve as a bridge between the convention center, city leadership, resident, neighborhood organizations, the greater Miami convention center, uh convention and visitors bureau, and other stakeholders to help ensure this remarkable public asset operates at its
very best. The responsibility does not end when the hotel opens. A convention center is never finished. Its success depends on continual collaboration, communication, and adaption. Every event brings a new opportunity, new challenge,
and new ways to improve the experience for residents, visitors, meeting planners, and our business community. Over the past several years, the board has helped build trust with neighboring communities like Palm View, strengthen
relationships between residents and city staff, foster collaboration with the GMCVB, and provide a constructive forum where concerns can be addressed before they become a problem. Those relationships have taken years to build and are an
asset to this city. >> Thank you. if efficiency is concerned. >> Thank you, Bruce. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Bruce. >> Thank you, Michael. Good morning. You have two minutes to speak. >> Good morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners.
Uh, it's Mike Yurente, 2625 Collins Avenue, and I'm calling as a property owner and a part-time resident of the Ocean Fern Plaza, which is right at the center of the Miami Beach Prominade. First, I want to thank Commissioner Fernandez for spearheading the effort to beautify and improve this incredible
amenity which my family and I use daily when we stay out of our condo. Um, I just saw this item on the agenda literally 20 minutes ago, 30 minutes ago, and I decided to call because I'm a little concerned about the recommendation to approve what is being
called the organic path. Uh this option in my opinion would eliminate a wide open clean pedestrian pathway by installing what appear to be kind of like landscaped medians throughout the prominade. I understand this is a matter
of sort of aesthetic and personal choice. I personally don't like it. I think there's a beauty to kind of open wide pedestrian walkways and feel that the plan would install um like narrow lanes almost like traffic lanes along
the prominade. But again, my opinion is mine alone. It's one of many. The committee memo says 76% of pled residents prefer this option. Um so I may be outvoted here. I don't know anything about the poll, how it was conducted, how many people participated,
but I would simply respectfully request deep community engagement before uh embracing a path forward. That again, maybe this has been done. Hundreds of my residents and neighbors have embraced the organic path. Uh which is fine. In
that case, I'm outvoted and there's no problem with that. But I would simply ask respectfully that the city conduct extra outreach uh before transforming this incredible community asset. I am a little bit concerned that there have been no public comments on it. Um, so in
any event, I just wanted to call and register my one opinion of many and thank you all for your commitment to uh improving this incredible asset. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mike. Uh, are there any other members of the public wishing to speak
in the citizens public forum? Seeing none in person, none in Zoom with her hands raised, we can go ahead and uh close the public forum. Then we'll go to Yes. Oh, I'm so so sorry. >> No, no, that's okay. >> Good morning.
>> Good morning. Um sorry, >> please have you said your name for the record. You have two minutes to speak. >> Hi, my name is Carara Scarupa. I live at 650 West Avenue, also known as the Fidian. Um I did not intend to speak today, but I am happy to have the uh opportunity. I sit on the board of 650
West. Um, this gentleman behind me also does. Um, we are here today to talk about um the hopeful bridge or walkway um over Fifth like Fifth and Alton um in that way. Um I know there were some
issues with regards to FPNL and some sort of cable that was a super secret surprise to everybody. Um, but we want to just let you know that definitely in our building and in our neighborhood, this is a really big deal. Um, having
that walkway just improves so many different things. Safety for one of them. If we choose to go um like Tamontes [laughter] um we have to walk across Alton, we have to go east, then we have to go south
across Fifth, then we have to go back [laughter] west against um Alton. So, it's it's really trafficy. That whole intersection is just a mess. We have a lot of accidents there all the time. The other thing is
too, I think having that bridge would also benefit a lot of the businesses on West Avenue. Um because we don't have a loop. We don't have like a real um thorough fair in that way. Um so that's all I wanted to say. >> Thank you, Hara. Thank you for your participation this morning. Good
morning. Welcome. You can say your name for the record. Yeah. >> Sure. My name is Brett Benz. I'm the president of the board of authority. Good morning, commissioners. So here to talk about the same thing Cara is, but I'll specifically talk about the security as it relates to the Flidian. This causes a major problem for us. As you know, right now the bridge was
designed to dump out pedestrians on into Canopy Park. Now, if there's an alternative route, it will route people directly onto the Baywalk behind Bentley Bay. Now, I'll let Tim Carr talk about Bentley Bay because I'm sure he's going to have a lot to say about what that means for their building. What it means for our building is that we're going to
have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on security because our building is wide open to that Baywalk. So where before it was reasonable to assume that people would walk through the park and enter on the north side of our building, they will be entering on the south side of
our building now. So we have a 360 degree security issue now if if we do an alternative method here. So that has to be considered. Um the fact that we're here, same developers, same problems. I won't get into that today. You all probably have the same opinions about
this, right? Um what I will say is I ask one question. If we change this bridge, what's the public benefit? Because we negotiated for the park and the bridge for five parks development. So I'll leave you with that thought. How
does this benefit the public? and how do we let a deal that was made a long time ago this developer off the hook for that? Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you. And I think just for the the public benefit, no one is suggesting
that a developer be relieved of a public obligation or contractual public benefit. I don't believe any of my colleagues who have sponsored items regarding this have ever proposed anything like that. So, I just want to be clear that in any alternative, I do
believe that the public expectation is for the public to for the developer to deliver to the public what was promised to the public in a referendum and entered into through a development agreement. Uh, with that, we'll go to the next caller on Zoom ending with
number 5600. If you can unmute yourself, you'll have two minutes to speak. You are muted. If you could please unmute yourself. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. My name is Christina Vega, founder of
Cyber Money Laundering and Real Estate Investigations Corp. Yesterday I called into the historic preservation board hearing regarding the CNC bank project at 1011 Fifth Street case HDB26-0694. I notified the board that the applicant
NF Street LLC uh not only listed incomp inaccurate name as an owner but completely omitted the 50% joint coler LLC from the application. This commission means the applicant
lacks the legal standing and capacity to petition the city for the application. Despite our formal notice of false data, they approve the application. This is not an uh isolated incident. We see the exact same false land ownership claims
with the Bank of America project at 1414 Alton Road case BRB24-1061. They are zoning application claims. GCD development LLC owns lot five. However, their deed legally conveys only lot six
and seven to GCD meaning they have not uh they don't have the right for title. Therefore, cyber money laundering in the real estate investigation corp is submitting the emergency petition uh under the bank secrecy act to the United
States secretary of treasury asking for the injunction against the city, the bank of America and PNC Bank. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Seeing no other members of the public wishing to speak at this time, we're going to close the public
comment opportunity and we're going to uh proceed to item number one. >> Item number one is present an update on the Miami Beach Prominade master plan. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez and CIP will be presenting. >> All right. Thank you, Stephanie, and good morning, David. Um I'm just going
to quickly introduce uh this item. Ever since uh being elected, one of the recurring uh items [snorts] that have come up to to to my office and I think to to all of my colleagues has been the conditions of the Miami Beach prominade
that extends from 24th Street to 29th Street. It runs parallel just west of of the beachwalk. It's a beautiful prominade behind a number of of condominium buildings, but I would say it's it's one of these public areas in our city that probably has had very
little investment as it relates to capital over the past 40 years. A number of years ago, the city attorney's office together with my office and the city administration, we engaged in an effort to establish the ownership of the prominade and and verify through title
that my that the city of Miami Beach is the owner of this property and that we can go ahead and engage in improvements of this. And back in 2024, with the support of the of my colleagues on the city commission, we secured funding to
engage uh in a master plan to address the long-standing residence concerns of the prominade. Everything from cleanliness and maintenance and the overall conditions and how do we beautify uh this this area. Over uh the
past year, we've engaged with Curtis and Rogers um to perform both a feasibility study and a master plan. We've had a total of five uh community meetings including an on-site char zooms with
individual uh condominium associations uh in addition to um a a um a public meeting on this very master plan uh that we had last week and I want to thank uh commissioner Tanya Abad for her
participation in that in that meeting as well. So now we are at this 50% mark uh of this master plan that has been uh very much uh championed and supported by the Miami Beach by the Mid Beach Neighborhood Association. Uh I want to
thank uh the capital improvements team that has really led this effort in engaging in a bottom up effort uh engaging directly with neighborhood associations, engaging directly with the broader community and really taking the
time to sit through many and countless hours of community meetings to get the feedback from the residents to get this master plan to the point that we have it at today. So, with that, I'm going to uh pass it along to David Gomez to present to us the options that we have before us
and hopefully we can pass along a recommendation to the full commission. Good morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners. David Gomez, director of capital improvements. You did a a fantastic job of summarizing where we are today. We've we've had a numerous uh public
engagement meetings and and one-on-one meetings. We have received voluminous feedback on what the residents would like to see and and their vision for this segment of the city. Uh we've been able to incorporate that uh into our
proposed master plans. I want to emphasize that we are at a master plan level. This is not a final design. There will be more to come once we engage a consultant for the final design. There will be more details. There will be more meetings. There will be more engagement.
Um, but this is giving our consultant direction on the two viable options for a master plan for this section. We are only about 50% complete with that process. And what we're looking for is for this committee and commission to uh
accept or approve direction on one of the two options so that we can conclude that master plan. Um the and I'm I'm not sure if PJ has the presentation. >> Nope. No, that's not it. >> Um unfortunately, our consultant was
unavoidably detained, so I'm kind of winging it for him. Um there were two options that they prepared. one uh if it could be desri described as the organic option uh essentially provides some uh softer more free flowing paths and and
additional landscaping. >> How far away is the consulting? >> Uh he said about an hour but that was about 30 minutes ago. Um and I'm fine with proceeding if you if you prefer. I think this is an important project
that the residents of this area have been waiting many years for and this committee deserves a proper presentation on which we can base our recommendation to the commission. And so I am going to
continue to the next item on the agenda to wait to give time for the consultant to to get here. But I need the administration to please when we have these presentations, when we have these items on the on the agenda, it's for the benefit of the public that they know that this is the first item on the
agenda. As you saw, we have members of the public calling in on this on this item. So for the respect of the committee, but more importantly for for the respect of the public that is participating at this meeting, if someone if someone is being paid to do work on behalf of the city and they're
expected to be present at the committee, they have to be present and it's unfair, you know, to expect us to make a formal recommendation without the benefit of the presentation. >> And I apologize on behalf of CIP and the consultant. >> It's not your fault. Okay. So, we are
going to move on to item number two and once the consultant gets here, we'll go back to that. >> Item number two is a quarterly update on operation clean water and park view canal. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez and environmental
and sustainability and public works will be presenting. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, commissioners. Amy Nolles, chief resilience officer. Um, thank you so much for the opportunity to present this quarterly update. We're very committed to transparent information and
all the information we have on Park View Canal as we work on this case. Um, as you know, since 2020, we uh became aware that there was excessive um intera Canal in uh North Beach. We have 81 acres of storm water in that watershed
that is making its way into a very small canal that is shallow, that is very angular, that is part of a a larger canal, the Tatum waterway, and then part of the broader Biscane Bay. So urban canals do have these challenges and we are working diligently to try to get it to the point that it is actually
swimmable and that we can open up that canal um kayak launch. Um last uh time we presented we shared a couple of presentations. We shared information on the UV disinfection project from University of Miami and we also shared the evaluation of pump station 23. So
both of those items um were concluded. We're continuing uh additional many additional initiatives to move forward. So today we wanted to focus on three items and John Norris will help me to present those. Specifically, we'll be focusing on the enhanced watershed sanitation plan which is something um
that is very important that we do that above ground housekeeping and PJ can bring up the presentation. We'll be focusing on hydrodnamic separators um a way that we're going to be able to add storm water treatment uh early next year, keeping in mind the system is so
old that the outfalls don't have storm water treatment. And then we'll give an update on the weekly water quality sampling results which were directed by uh the sponsor and commission um that we began last fall. And we're happy to answer any additional questions. >> Sure. Thank you.
>> All right. >> All right. Good morning. John Norris, public works director. We're going to start with the enhanced watershed sanitation plan. We are continuing to have a lot of extra service up in the area. The main intent of this service is
to move remove solids from the street. This includes enhanced mechanical sweeping in the drainage basin, enhanced hand sweeping, and the hand sweeping is extremely important in this area due to the on street parking. I live up in this
area and I see our crews out in the morning. They have to get around these vehicles where the mechanical sweepers cannot access. In addition, we're sweeping the alleys with our multihog sweeper, which is a little bit of a smaller sweeper. We have daily litter
service. Crab alley and the area around the Park View Canal has never looked better. They're there picking up trash with pickst sticks, emptying trash cans daily, replenishing the pet waste uh bags. So all in all, we are doing everything we can to keep that area as
clean as possible to keep sediment and debris from entering the storm drain system. The reason we're doing that is bacteria can attach itself to the sediment and debris. So the more we remove before it goes down the storm drain, the better it is for the health
of the waterway. We're also inval evaluating environmental disinfection options that includes hydrogen peroxide which was suggested by University of Miami. There are some challenges to that. It's be very very labor intensive
to essentially spray hydrogen peroxide over all of the imperous surface throughout the North Beach basin that we're talking about. We are looking at some options, looking at where we can target that application to get the biggest bang for the buck, but that it
would be very challenging. In addition, we would like to keep the hydrogen peroxide from going down the storm drain. So, that creates another challenge. So, we're looking at that, looking at the environmental impacts of the hydrogen peroxide and targeted options.
So, we've got a project that we're working on right now to install hydrodnamic separators in this drainage basin. I've got a cool video. It's a very short video that's going to come up that'll explain this a lot better than me. But essentially, this system filters
out solids to prevent those solids, trash, whatever that solid might be, sediment from getting into the waterways. In addition, there's bacteria that will not make it to the waterway because we're removing the the host for
that bacteria. Now, some bacteria will always get into the waterway just through the water. This will capture about 100% of all the floatable trash and debris and it's easily cleaned up with the use of our back trucks which we have in public works. Yes, ma'am.
>> So, so let me just ask you. So the uh cleansing that we're doing last year we had or earlier this year we had Dr. Solo Gabrielle from M come and present to the committee on the sanitation uh efforts. And of course as you mentioned Amy the
one of the key findings as we well know in the report is the uh elevated levels of the entroxide on the untreated surfaces uh within the basin uh the the 80acre uh basin. And part of those
findings was that uh the cleaning of these surfaces reduce the fecal bacterial contamination that ultimately runs off into into into the canal. the uh level of cleaning um that that we are
doing in uh in in in the basin. Is this consistent with what were the recommendations of uh of the University of Miami study and Dr. Solo Gabrielle as as far as the mechanical sweeping
hand sweeping? Yes. Now, there were some ideas that were brought forward that are unconventional, and that was the use of hydrogen peroxide. So, I wouldn't call it so much a recommendation. Amy, do you know was it? >> Yeah, it really is like that probably the best best recommendation we could do
is to actually scrub the sidewalks and the streets in that area. Um, you know, one of the things she pointed out that was so interesting is where we have trees on 73rd Street specifically, we have birds and there are birds sitting in the trees and they are doing what birds do. And so, you know, there's
intericoxide that is landing and on that sidewalk and is attaching itself to leaves. So, she was really encouraging that scrubbing and then that spraying with the hydrogen peroxide, which I think um resource-wise, logistically was was pretty difficult when your team
considered that. And I and and I think it's also important to to to highlight that one of the key findings was that straight sweeping achieves a material basin scale reduction of these levels of bacteria. And so and so I just want to
make sure that going into the next fiscal year we have funding in place to continue uh to continue this level of sweeping that we need in order to control the bacteria that runs off into the canal.
>> Absolutely. We have the funding and the resources to do it. We are considering it indefinite at this point until we get improved water quality. Then we will adjust back to normal operating levels. >> Okay. Before we continue with the hydrodnamic separators, I'm going to recognize uh Vice Mayor Dominguez.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh where else are these hydrodnamic separators being used? >> I have a long list of them uh throughout the city. >> They are throughout the city. >> Miami Beach. >> Yep. We have right now 32 of them in place.
>> They're all underground. These are huge structures. You would never know they're there. We just recently installed one on Linux Court. >> And how big are what's their size? Oh, they're very I would guess they're about a a 10 foot diameter that for for scale
purposes. You can see in this photo, >> they're very large and very deep. >> And are they noisy? >> No, not actually. There's nothing mechanical about them. >> So, you you'll see in the video, it's just a vortex that's established within the structure that removes all the
sediment. And uh >> And does it operate 24 hours a day or as needed? >> Always operating. Yep. And we're currently working I know we're currently working on a procurement item to acquire these hydric dynamics
separators. And how far are out are we uh before having an item on the agenda to acquire these? >> So we should have uh [clears throat] right now we're in the invitation to bid phase. The construction is estimated to start early in 2027.
So we're we're getting very close to the installation of these. [snorts] Great. Okay. And so this is about 70 acres of drainage basin that we're talking about. That's why logistically scrubbing every sidewalk on a regular
basis with a disinfectant would become very very challenging. We also have the back. >> When you say with disinfectant, you mean with a hydrogen peroxide being uh proposed? >> Yes, sir. because and one of the things I asked you last time you know is there a way that we can you know dilute this
into the water that's being used with pressure cleaners and all that and you expressed some challenges with that so there would there would be challenges because you would have the additional chemical essentially being added to the pressure washing but I think the biggest concern is hydrogen peroxide going in
the waterways as well we want to make sure that that is a recommended [clears throat] practice and right now we're still researching searching that to see if that's recommended because it is a disinfectant so it could have unintended consequences. >> Okay.
>> We also have uh the Northshore D project coming in the next few years and that's going to be a more robust project that's going to address a lot more of the area. But in the interim, this project will address the um direct drainage basin. [snorts]
Okay. >> And here's another picture that we just saw. We can uh keep going. This is [clears throat] a video that really shows you what the hydrodnamic separator will do. >> Sediment and hydrocarbons from storm water runoff. The treatment process
begins as storm water enters the system through one or multiple inlets. The inlet flume guides the treatment flow into the unit's separation chamber where water velocities within the chamber create a swirling vortex. At the heart of the CDS system is a unique indirect
treatment screen. Unlike traditional screens that can easily become clogged, water velocities within the swirl chamber continually deflect debris [music] off the specially designed screen to keep it clean. The combination of swirl concentration and indirect
screening forces floatables and solids to the center of the separation chamber. 100% of floatables and neutally buoyant [music] debris larger than the screen aperture are trapped in the chamber and sediment settles into an isolated sump.
Pollutants remain in these sections of the unit until they're removed during maintenance. Storm water then moves under the hydrocarbon baffle and the treated water exits the system. The baffle acts as a wall for hydrocarbon containment and prevents agitation of
hydrocarbons when high flows spill over the diversion wheel. >> Uhoh. Is that the end of it? >> That's it. >> That's it. Okay. And so, uh, Amy, I just want to confirm, uh, we've received state funding. Uh, I I believe it was was part of last year's budget and we
received it. close to $500,000 for the acquisition of this. >> About $427,000 towards this um through an FD grant >> and we already have our class two permits from Durm for their installation. >> Yes sir. In August they were issued to the department. >> Okay. So I know we we had anticipated
earlier on a third quarter construction date of this year uh for um for for these hydrodnamic separators. Obviously we still have we still haven't put out the procurement for them. So, how far away do we anticipate uh being able to
see the the the installation of this technology? >> Well, in speaking with public works, they're looking to start construction in January of 2027. And I believe you're in the invitation to bid phase and then the item will come to city commission for approval of the result of that ITP ITP,
right? >> That's correct. >> Okay. Grain and construction should be under a year to get all of them installed. >> Okay. So you've confirmed for us that we have the uh the required funding uh in the proposed budget to maintain the enhanced level of sanitation going into
the next fiscal year. Uh where are we uh with the um with the nanobubble technology? >> Sure. Well, the nanobubbles is going to to be a very very important uh part of this plan. We are in the permitting phase. Um, this is a technology, you know, as you're aware, that will
introduce oxygen and ozone into the water body itself and really, um, hasten all of the natural, um, cleanup of the water. It's going to address the bacteria. It's going to clear the water. It's going to address the muck in the bottom of the canal. And we're in the permitting phase. The system has been
designed. We received the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. And we are still waiting on the county as well as Softwater Water Management District. We do have the proposal already for the construction of it and as soon as we get those permits that will be brought to the city commission. Then we expect
about uh five or six months of construction. And again we really hope that this also is timed with the hydrodnamic separators for early next year to begin the construction. >> Wonderful. >> Thank you. And that is also um budgeted uh and within next year's budget.
>> Amazing. You'll see that coming [clears throat] >> um a couple questions. Couple of questions for you guys. Thank you for the update. Um, I know not all the parts of the plan have been implemented yet, but a lot has changed since this all
started when I first reported it as a resident um on Parkview Island. Can you address is there sort of directional data that indicates improvement so far? Can you give an update because I know it is out in the community as um a punching
bag if you will that nothing changes, nothing's getting better. So is there data that you can share that indicates that while it is not completely resolved, yes, things are getting better and are continuing on the right trajectory or are we not there yet? Um it's a very good question and water
quality data is highly variable particularly in a canal such as this and so we wish it were simple but we have seen through the um University of Miami studies that we've seen statistically significant improvement in the canal um and we have seen overall for example if
we compare 2020 to 2025 we saw a 76% reduction in the average in teroxy and 59% reduction in the median so we have come a long way since 2020. We're not where we need to be. And I'd be happy to show the I have a couple slides
on the weekly sampling results we're seeing. So, we're not there yet. Um, we're looking at three important standards. One, we have the Department of Health standard, which is that 70 NPN, which is swimmable. That's what they use for the beaches. That is what we're really trying to get to. Um, we
have 130, that's another standard we would love to reach, which is for class 3 waters for just overall recreation. And then EPA also has a standard for kayaking which is 371 interoxide. So we have some different standards. We're going for that 70. It
has gotten better, but it is highly variable. It's very tied to rainfall events. It's tied to the heat and again it's kind of a slowm moving canal. Um but we're still working at it and we'll continue to do so. >> Would you like to show the slides? Is that useful?
>> Sure. Be happy to. Okay. Okay, so these are the actual outfalls that the hydrodnamic separators are going to be located if you'd like to see that. We have about seven outfalls and these are also very tied to um our sampling events that are happening. So
we began weekly water quality sampling at the direction of the item sponsor and the city commission in November. And this is important because most of the time in canals there's not a lot of sampling done and this is giving us more information and I'll be able to test over time as we see improvement with all
of these new things we're doing. So we've had 31 sampling events that have been provided in the weekly or in the routine LTC's. The results do show spikes in the fecal indicator bacteria levels after rain events which is something we were advised um
statistically significantly from the um study. So, this really happens and we see it, you know, it rains and those results go right up. Um, and then we did look for the lowest week, like what is the best week we've seen so far and that was in February and it was a very dry uh, you know, sunny week and the weekly
average among the five spots was 182. Um, and each of the five spots is variable in and of itself. Um, this is just a a picture of the descriptive statistics and it just shows how how widely variable this is. I mean,
we've got minimums of zero going all the way up to um over 24,000 which is the highest detectable. So, it is very v variable. We have um you know, a median that ranges from 98 up to uh 693. We're seeing a bit of an improvement at
the Biscane Beach Elementary outfall which is important because you know that was identified as a significant hot spot and then there was that you know major force main spill. So we look forward to continuing to track these but just to give you a picture of really how variable this is.
The next slide shows uh what the median results are in comparison to those targets that we're trying to achieve. Um again we're seeing that there's a lot more work to do. We're seeing some improvements. Um we're seeing that for example the 75th Street end is a very
large outfall um tied to that very large uh watershed and we see the results being very high there. Um conversely we see Bonita Drive which is right at the end of Park View Canal and it's experiencing that flushing from the Tatum waterway and it is in in much
better uh condition. So we will continue to uh follow those and and report on those as we implement our new initiatives such as the hydrogenic separators as well as nanobubbles. We'll be doing more intense sampling. There will be a sampling plan as part of that
with a lot of other uh parameters and that's going to be very important and that is required by the regulatory agencies as well. So we will have more information as this moves forward. Thank you, Amy. And um and let me just ask you also because I know dredging has been an
important topic of conversation. Where are we with the permitting and with the process with dredging? >> Yes. So dredging is is still budgeted. We have the full design that was provided to us as staff very recently. It is a huge package that uh we are reviewing and we will be providing as
soon as we are comfortable with it to the manager's office for their signature so that we can apply for permits. Um it is quite complex and a lot of questions from the agencies of course but we're working through that >> and so but and and and I want to tie this together with with nanobubbles with
the discussion about nanobubbles because one of the things I've I've learned in this is that with the insulation of the nanobubbles you know obviously you have improvement in the in the uh in in the water quality um but it also it could
help make the drying more efficient uh because of the more it's not only the microbial contaminants that the nanobubbles address, but it also addresses the physical cleanliness of of the water. You can tell us a little bit about that.
>> Yeah. So, what we've learned um about nanobubbles and that in other areas where it's been employed, it's actually kind of eaten the muck. So, it's it's had such processes that it starts to address the muck that's gathered and the contaminants within that muck. So that's really really promising and we're going
to see you know how that how that works. Um we think nanobubbles will move faster than dredging. So it's going to be important to study that but it may be very helpful for the dredging. >> This is not only addressing the the harmful uh pathogens but uh the but but
but also the I guess the algae growth in in the water. >> Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Okay. The chair. >> Yes. >> Sorry. I just I had a couple questions still. Um Um the hydrogen peroxide scrubbing I know
it's labor intensive. There's an opportunity maybe to do it at hotspots. You had mentioned that you wanted to rightly so study to make sure that it didn't um affect delletteriously the water quality which is ironic given the topic and the need for it. Um but if
it's coming as a recommendation from um M has that not already been confirmed that it would not be harmful? >> Well, everybody has different specialties, you know, and I think that the professor would would want uh us as a city to be sure that it would be okay
with the regulators. It's not really in her area. She felt comfortable recommending it. Um it turns into hydrogen and and water. [clears throat] So, I think that she's an oxygen. She's okay with that. I think it's it's a matter of how is that going to um [snorts] you know really be perceived by
the regulatory agencies and we don't want to cause any issues. >> Got it. Um secondly um part of the frustration beyond just the fact that we have a contaminated can canal is that you know it happened basically minutes after the um kayak launch was was
installed which is very frustrating. Um, I happened to live, um, when I, you know, back in 2020, I was living across from Bonita Drive from that end of the street. Um, and I know that that it's, you know, just a few houses in from
Indian Creek Canal and, um, it's a lot, it's easy to get out into the cleaner water without having to circumn the island. Is there a possibility of installing a temporary canal uh temporary uh kayak launch on this street
end of Bonita? Because I know there's work being done there. I'm not sure what it looks like when it's completed, but um people would launch their their kayaks there and teach their dogs how to swim there. Anyhow, because of the naturally occurring slope and people could grab onto the the trees that were there, the sea grapes, um could we do
some kind of floating dock that's temporary until this gets cleaned up and the permanent one gets reopened? >> So, Commissioner, we'd have to really look into that. I think it's a it's a fantastic idea. Even a floatable dock, temporary, would would need permitting. Um it would have to be done safely and
it would have to go through a review a review process. Even even a floating dock. Okay. Could we um How do I do that? How do I um make a referral to I guess it has to go back to commission to be referred back here to look into that.
How do I >> And which location is this? Is this an area that's currently contam that's experiencing contamination or we have a sheet reduced level? So, it's at the end the Bonita Drive um street end which already is significantly lower because
it's so close to the Indian Creek um canal and it gets flushed out. So, if you go out straight to the Indian Creek Canal um it you sort of circumn all the contamination. I just you and and I want to hear from from Amy if um I just want
to make sure that you know we really you know I know there's times we have achieved a minimum of zero but I know we've also achieved a maximum of the maximum that you can achieve >> and the and the average is not that great. Um, and so, you know, I just want
to be mindful of that if Amy feels that our numbers are there to safely do it 100%. You know, I'm for because we want the community to have the amenity. They've been asking for it for a long time. I just want to remember a couple of years ago this the same conversation
or similar conversation came up and I just had a pause you know not knowing okay are we still in a flu fluctuating state of water quality you know is it fine today um but in another period of
of the year when uh when there's a different type of algo growth a different type of pathogen whatever existing there does a water quality then deteriorate. Uh so I just, you know, I'm going to be very differential to Amy. >> No, of course. But this is just to have that conversation because this isn't
something that I would want the team to uh answer on the fly here today. I'd like you guys to go back, take a look at it, take a look at how long it would take to get permitted because, you know, if it's going to be a year and a half, will we do you anticipate that the results will be good enough in a year
and a half to reopen the permanent kayak launch? you know, like I want to I just want to have a conversation about it. >> You understood, Commissioner, and it it's a valid point. You know, canals are are very difficult locations to select for things like this because they don't have the flushing of the ocean. So, a
lot of times when you see kayak launches and canals, they're not necessarily even trying to meet this 70 target that we're looking for in Parkview canal. We do have fluctuation. We have variables. We would have to dive into the data, probably track it over time. We couldn't
say for sure it would be safe. Um, a lot of guidance from cities in general is that 2 days after a rain event, please stay out of the waters. We know that they're going to be carrying a lot of um, you know, pollutants. So maybe general guidance like that we would have to be comfortable with.
>> So again, out of deference to the rest of the agenda, I don't think this is the time and place to have a robust conversation. And I, you know, I would like you guys to to put some thought into it and and let's just come back and and hear what you have to say and see if it makes sense or if it doesn't make sense then that's fine.
>> Yeah. It's part of the next quarterly presentation if you want. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> No problem. >> Any other questions from the committee comments, are there members of the public wishing to speak on this item? Seeing none in person and none on Zoom
with their with their hand raised. Amy, uh, John, I want to thank you for how serious you all have dived into this issue. Um, I I'm so excited about the technology from the hydrodnamic separators to the nanobubbles that we're working on, the progress that we're
making on the permitting with this, the funding that we have allocated with us. And I know with Durm, we're just, you know, finalizing some minor things. We've been, it feels like we've been working on this for a year already. and that hopefully [clears throat] there's some light at the end of the tunnel with
that permitting. Um, and I just want to express, you know, my optimism just having heard and seen from different areas that have experienced perhaps even more serious environmental issues in their waterways and the effectiveness that this technology has had. I cannot
wait for us to get that final environmental permit from Durham and see this technology here as I really have great optimism and to you John for your work in continuing the heightened level of sanitation so that we improve that water quality before it runs off into
the canal. So I want to thank you both. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. With that we'll we'll proceed to item so number items three and four are going to be heard after 10:30. Has a consultant arrived for
for Okay, so the consultant's not here yet for item number one. So let's let's proceed to item number five. >> Item number five is an update on timeline for construction of Miami Beach Convention Center Hotel and anticipated opening date. This item was sponsored by
Vice Mayor Dominguez and Commissioner Fernandez. >> Commissioner Dominguez, uh this is your item if you want to present. >> Uh yes. So, um, we've been hearing a lot about the progress. I'm very excited.
Uh, I think July 28th is the, uh, topping off ceremony. I'm going to be out of town, so I will miss it. But, uh, with the anticipated opening date of December 2027, will that be before Art Basle during um, and please tell us any
updates. >> Hi, >> good morning. >> Good morning. Um, yes, the intent is to be open before Art Bassel of 2027 and our construction schedule is on track and we're topping off next week.
>> Wonderful. >> Thank you. Um, given how far along with this, I'd be fine to close this item out. >> Okay. I I still would like to keep it on on committee because I do want to I want to get a comprehensive update next month on the parking. Uh I know you all are
are working on on finalizing an agreement with 1691 uh Michigan Avenue >> that actually has been signed and it's complete. >> It's been signed. Okay. So where are we with that? >> Yes. So the updates since last meeting
are um we signed the parking agreement with uh Reani. So, and we submitted to your attention a memo summarizing all of the parking spaces with exact numbers that we are committing to have on site
for employees and offsite as well. So, we're covered for employees. We have >> How many parking spaces do you have secured for your employees? >> So, we have more than what we need. We have secured in our parking agreement at uh 1691 Michigan Avenue 3 up to 350
spaces >> up to 50 monthly spaces and the ability to scale up to up to 350. >> Are you going to be able to scale up to those 350 spaces on a regular basis or is that depending on on their capacity?
>> It's depending on our needs. >> On your needs. Okay. >> And we have to communicate it within a month ahead. Yes. Okay. And for your employees, how many is that for your employees or are those for visitors to the facility?
>> It is intended for employees. If we need additional for visitors, we may use it for that purpose. >> And one of the questions that Commissioner Matel Selenas have brought up last night was relating to the cost. As we know that parking oftent times providing for parking can be expensive.
At what cost um is is is have you guys analyzed that yet? The the how much you're going to charge your staff for parking? >> No, we have engaged a parking consultant that's going to give us a report in 30 days or so. It will take us actually 60
days if that's okay for us to pretend present to you. Yes. >> The report from our parking consultant um to provide that level of analysis. I'm so grateful for the progress that this team has been making in securing additional parking. I was very concerned
on the impact that this was going to have on the surrounding parking garages because I I do believe, you know, once once all the new retail opens up on Lincoln Road, once the new hotels end up opening up along Colin Sam, there's just
going to be a lot of extra activity coming into the area, which is going to be great for our economy, but we also want to make sure that we don't end up with a greater parking deficit than that that we already experienced and you all have taken seriously our concern and I'm
grateful for the progress that has been made. Commissioner Selenas, I know you had raised some of the concerns. I don't know if you have any questions or comments on this. You're good. All right. Any any other questions or comments from the DES? Seeing none, are there any members of the public wishing to speak on this item? Seeing none in
person, none in Zoom, we can continue this item to our next meeting which would be in September. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. With that, uh, let's proceed to item number six.
>> Item number six is monthly updates on the status of ongoing and future projects involving the use of Leonard Horowitz color palette for art deco building restorations in collaboration with Barbara Huliniki. This item was sponsored by Vice Mayor Dominguez. >> Commissioner Dominguez, this is Madame
Vice Mayor. This is your item. Um, welcome to Liz, if you'd like to give us uh the latest update. >> Absolutely. Good morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners, committee members. Elizabeth Muro, um, assistant director for parks, facilities, fleet, and beaches. Um, so since our last meeting,
we were asked to go ahead and proceed with painting the restroom pavilions on the 6th and 14th Street. Um, we will begin that project in the next two weeks. So um the completion date has been moved a little bit further uh from July 30th to the first week of August
and given that we will gladly issue an LTC with a completed project um images >> and those were not the Barbara Hulaniki projects. >> No, that's correct. Okay. Secondly, you asked us to work with our economic development department um regarding other properties that were
potential uh can be used for this program. And they have a program called the art deco painting incentive program that was established pursuant to resolution 2024 3363 which allows for partial funding up to 50% or $20,000 per
application. and they have completed one of those projects which is the Beacon Hotel at 720 Ocean Drive which was completed in April 2025. Um I will defer to our colleagues and economic development to provide either updates on this program or you know on the future
of this >> and for that program that includes Barbara Hulani. >> Yes, that's correct. Okay. Um I think we can close out this item and then I'll meet with uh your team individually periodically to see for opportunities. I
think maybe in the last meeting Commissioner Fernandez even mentioned um Lincoln Road section uh the Ritz and some of the other places as opportunities. Uh but happy to meet with you um individually in the coming months
on other opportunities. >> Absolutely. >> Great. >> Okay. Thank you. And and thank you, Commissioner Dominguez, for championing this. I have to say, uh the product of this of this item that you've carried through has been great. Uh and it's beautiful to see our pastel colors, uh
throughout our historic districts. So, thank you for your leadership. >> Uh well, it came from a previous commissioner and I was happy to pick up the baton from her and continue it um along with you. >> Thank you. Thank you. With that, we can show this item closed. We can move on to item number seven.
Item number seven is discuss take action regarding a citywide review of boards and committees to improve operational efficiency and streamline advisory functions. This item was sponsored by Vice Mayor Dominguez. >> Good morning, Vice Mayor. You're welcome
to present your item. Uh this item was brought up because um a few months back I was having a conversation with a city administration and they mentioned in passing that uh working on our committees takes up almost 50% of their
workload at city hall. And that really struck me because that is a lot of time to spend uh on an advisory committee taking away from them doing their jobs. So I've had conversations with the city clerk. I've also met with U. Maria
Hernandez, our assistant city manager, and we've come up with some possibilities for us to discuss and move forward to the commission for final decisions on um how these things work. >> Morning.
>> Good morning, committee members, and thank you, vice mayor, for that um summary. Um so what we've been trying to do with the item is find a balance um between um the workloads that we
currently have and the committees that we manage as an administration. Um so the purpose of the item um well first of all the the vice mayor had asked us to
look into um ideas um that of how we can restructure committees maybe um that would maximize the use of staff resources. So this item has been prepared jointly between the
office of the city clerk um and the administration. It took about a year to gather all the information that we needed to gather in order to make a sound uh recommendation. Just so you know, um you know, we have 48 advisory
boards. Um and 41 are uh resident committees, four are land use boards, which are more, you know, quasi judicial. And then we have three commission committees of which this is one. Um and it took it takes 18
administrative departments about 20,000 hours a year um to manage all of these boards and committees. Um but that does also does not include the time from the city clerk's office and the time from the city attorney's office.
>> How do you calculate that 20,000 number? >> So we uh met with every department and we passed out information. So the way we we did the analysis is we first started
with how many um hours long is each meeting. Then it went on to how many hours um the department that staffs that
meeting spends in its totality. um meaning everything they have to do for the meeting. Um and that um and it's in the it's in the memo that >> but but not all of our committees
achieve quorum. >> I'm sorry. >> Not all of our committees achieve quorum. And so so I'm just trying to to understand you have you have how many committees? >> We have 48. >> You have 48 total committees. Yes. Okay. And assuming they all meet 12 times a
year, that's 576, you know, hours if they're each one hour. But, you know, let's assume each one meets, let's say, 2 hours. That's, you know, 1,100 hours. That's still a lot of extra work um to to get to 20,000 hours.
Well, um, what we >> first need I think we need to go back and look at that number because I'm not sure when we say 20,000 hours. I'm not saying that the intent of the item is wrong and that we shouldn't do these efficiencies. It just seems a little bit exaggerated to me.
>> Well, we spent a long time um looking at the data. Uh what we did is we asked every single department to tell us how many people are involved in every single meeting per month. That doesn't mean
that every committee meets 12 uh times a year or 11 times a year. But each department knows how much time they have spent in every committee. And we have it totaled by department. We have percentages by department of who spends
the most time and who spends you know not a lot of time. We have that in a in a breakdown. It averaged it came out to about 20,000 I want to say you know 19,900 and something so we rounded up. Um again
that doesn't include the city attorney's office. It doesn't include the city clerk's office. So I'd be more than happy to share that information. Maybe we can take that to commission when we take these items to commission and we can take a deeper dive into exactly how much time it is. But um but it is a lot
of time and the committees you know have grown over time. Um so that's also an effect the number of committees. So >> so what are your recommendations? So on the item what we recommend
are basically um on the uh it's several things. First of all, generally speaking, we recommend that the major we well, first of all, we recommend that ad hoc committees uh sunset after their
purpose has been satisfied. And we are recommending some sunsetting. Of course, it's up to you all to accept that recommendation. >> And which are the committees you're recommending to sunset? Um, we have the iguana committee which
already sunseted. It actually sunseted just recently. So, that one's off. >> Um, we are also recommending sunsetting of the health advisory committee. They never meet. So, we're recommending that they sunset. We're recommending that the mayor's 41st Street committee um sunset
once the geobond construction project is completed. It's still going to take a while. We haven't started construction. Um, we are recommending we had recommended uh on the memo that the CRA advisory committee uh maybe sunset after
the 5-year master plan is completed. Um, we also recommended that the convention center advisory board sunset after um the hotel is complete and you know your your constituents uh called in
about that. Um the production industry council, we recommend that they sunset. Uh they were very needed when we had um uh when we had uh a film uh a department
or a section of film with u a section of the tourism department dedicated to film that has been deleted from the department. So we would recommend that that really happen more in like an as needed basis. Um and so then the
commissioner has put forth her own recommendations that we transfer the committee of the homeless to the police uh citizens relations committee and merge them because that's another thing we'd like to do is maybe merge some of these. uh the ad hoc nightlife task
force that could go under the newly formed small business advisory committee. The ad hoc um the nightlife committee is going to naturally supposed to schedule it's scheduled to sunset in September. Um that committee was really
formed as a result of spring break and I think we have a good handle on spring break now. Um so we recommended that that uh be sunsetted potentially or merged. And then um we also recommend that all committees get cancelled in the
month of August um because that aligns uh more with um you know the commission's um uh recess period. And then um then the ultimate thing is for us to we're
recommending that all committees meet quarterly not monthly. Now just so you know >> not all committees >> not all committees because we're recommending only there's a bunch of committees that already meet quarterly.
There's about 20 of them and some even meet less than that on an as needed basis like once a year or twice a year depending on what their function is. So there are about 21 that we feel could
definitely go to quarterly and they would still provide input to the commission that would still have their voice. Um thank you but the workload would substantially be reduced. >> Thank you. uh commission uh vice mayor, are there additional recommendations that you have besides those presented by
staff? >> Uh I'm open to hearing what my colleagues uh uh suggest on the day is and then uh Mayor Miner had a similar streamlining item um that's going to commission. So I'd really like for this to go to commission next month. >> Sure.
>> Or this month so that the two items can be heard and considered. Um, but I think it's important that we do something and uh bring something forward to alleviate uh some of the extra work that's coming about from [snorts] managing uh some of
these committees. >> So, um I'll I'll just, you know, chime in here a little bit. Um I'm fine with sunsetting the ad hoc uh iguana remediation advisory committee. Uh I'm fine sun sunsetting the health advisory
uh committee. Um Ralph, what policy do we have in place if committees are not meeting? If an if if six months go by, if an entire year goes by, there's not quorum or the committee is just simply not meeting.
Is are we being notified of this? because I do think you know regardless of this if a committee doesn't meet for a certain amount of time if it cannot achieve a quorum then just tell us and we can you know then consider it at that time >> we excuse [clears throat] me uh Ralph
Gernado city clerk uh we put on every agenda item R9A the attendance report >> understood >> so u that's our way of communicating that there is no mechanism right now that's something that's an excellent idea to consider when we propose ordinances having some type of automatic
reconsideration of a committee that doesn't meet every certain period of time. >> I think I think that that is important that per perhaps we just adopt an overarching policy that committees that do not meet uh after a certain amount of
time it gets brought to the city commission for its sunset. um because I think it it helps it it would just create that efficiency that naturally occurring efficiency that you're that you're seeking. Um with the 41st Street
committee, um I'm going to be differential to the mayor on this because this is the mayor's 41st Street committee. Um, I do think that there are a number of issues that 41st Street has relating to
traffic, relating to safety, relating to economic development, relating to pedestrianism, just to so many things that are unrelated to the general obligation bond. I think just seeing it, Maria, I can see how from your
perspective, if we only see it from the perspective of Maria Hernandez, I could see how 41st [laughter] Street is about general obligation bond, but if I'm seeing it as a city commissioner beyond the perspective of that, there's so much more that that is going on with with
41st Street that I think I would want to see 41st Street >> and I attend regularly and I know that there's more than that. um that goes on. Um >> yeah. So, okay. So, I would suggest that
we uh keep the the 41st Street committee. Um Maria, tell me your thinking as it relates to the convention center advisory board and sunsetting that once once the hotel is completed. >> Um well, as you know, I'm very familiar
with that project um you know, from the past. Um I just feel that once the hotel is complete and we have completed this entire campus um we're turning it you know over and we
have a lot of stakeholders meaning um our convention center um Freddy Peterson and the management uh people of the convention center as well as the Greater Miami Visitors Bureau. I
I feel that it's up to the staff to really manage the project and make it successful and do all of it. I think it's our responsibility. Not to say that I don't completely and totally respect the people that called in. I'm I'm I'm
>> I like them very much. Um I just feel that that responsibility needs to be on us. >> Sure. And so, um, you know, it's a lot of work >> to get those agendas done. >> I have a a couple thoughts on that one.
Um, [gasps] can that committee be rolled under like maybe we approach the Chamber of Commerce and see if it's something that they can manage under their wing or the GMCVB has different committees. If the
chamber does not want to manage that, maybe under the G GMCVB, have it have it be one of their committees. Um, does that alleviate workload or would that still be the same for the city? Well, as long as it's the staff that has
to staff the agendas, create the agendas, do the meeting minutes, make sure that there's quorums reported, you know, uh, on a constant basis. as long as we have to do that um you know that's
still the workload on us um at least doing something quarterly uh is a big change um rather than monthly monthly is every 3 weeks you know every 3 weeks we have to start thinking about all these things again
and again um so we could take that into consideration of course I'd have to do more research maybe before the commission meeting. >> Okay. >> Um so we could take that into consideration but but >> and as you mentioned I also have a lot
of respect for the people that came in championing this committee. I know the work that they've done. I've attended the committee several times and do understand its importance. >> Um I want to ensure that we find a balance. So if we could do some research between now and the next commission meeting that would be amazing.
>> Yeah. And I and and and I think that's great. I mean, I just want to point out since 1997, we have had a Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board. And my ch my challenge with this recommendation, again, you know, Maria, I respect you tremendously.
um and [snorts] we've worked together for a long time. But if I'm looking at the convention center advisory board just, you know, from the optics of completing the hotel, well, then I get I understand how the convention center advisory board might not be needed upon
the completion of the hotel. But since 1997, the Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board has been the residents voice on behalf of residents who, you know, who provide feedback to the city
commission on this important asset, advice and give input on budget, review the marketing plan and the manage management group. Monitor the booking policies and approve any recommended changes. Recommend on multi-year
contracts of the Miami Beach Convention Center. Monitor management and user contracts and and and agreements. Review on a quarterly basis the maintenance of of buildings. And they're doing that on behalf of whom? on behalf of of the
residents who have also invested $600 million in what are one of the economic engines, one of the lungs of of our city. And so I see their role to be
beyond just the scope of of the hotel and you know the renovation of the com of the convention center because it goes back 30 years. Yeah. here and here we would be sunsetting you know a 30-year uh in institution in our city which by
the way is also one of his responsibilities is to monitor and consult on the relationship of of the GMCBB uh with with the convention center and ensure we have the highest quality of maintenance of of of the facility. This
is one of the lungs of our city. You know, this is what keeps, you know, not what we've had in the past, trade shows coming into the city. No, high level conventions that we want to come into our city. And now that we're going to reach our our peak with the completion
of the hotel, we're going to sunset them. I want to thank you, Vice Mayor Dominguez, for, you know, agreeing to perhaps, you know, keep this on a quarterly basis. Uh I would suggest that we keep it under the purview of the city
because when we look at their purpose the mission of the board is to act in an advisory capacity to whom? To the city commission on matters regarding operations of the convention center and I think then that is should stay under the purview of our city governments.
>> If I may I think it's an excellent recommendation during doing it quarterly. Uh we recently uh brought up the there's new membership on the board with the neighborhoods >> that has reduced at least to me a lot of the complaints that we would get when
they're involved now in the convention center. So I think that's something that could definitely work. >> It's a good compromise. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Commissioner Mattel Selenus. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Great item, Vice Mayor Dominguez. I support these recommendations. I do have a couple more
suggestions. um if it'd be okay with you, Vice Mayor. So, the first uh uh suggestion that I'd like to make is that the committees can only do one event per year. I know there are some committees that have multiple events per year and that takes up a lot of staff time to set
up and break down and the speakers and the chairs. And so, I'd like to propose that we limit the events that each of these committees have to just once per year. >> I agree with that. And I just have a question for our attorney. With the new DEI bill, can we still hold events such
as uh Women's History Month, Hispanic Affairs, Hispanic Heritage? >> Yes, almost all of those uh uh categories have been exempted from the DEI statute. So, we would answer them on a case- by case basis as they came up. I
wouldn't want to make a broad statement here uh from the deis, but yes, almost all of them would still be allowed. Okay. So then um I'd like to make that suggestion that there we're each of the committees do one event per year and then I'd also like to suggest that um I
know some of our committees have more than seven members where we get to nominate two or three. I know one committee actually they self-reduced where they asked us to reduce them from 14 or six however many there were to seven members because they felt that
they couldn't get enough [clears throat] done because so many members they just they felt like it was better and more efficient to reduce. So I'd like to look at having each of the committees the resident committees have only seven members um you know versus 14 or 28 or
whatever number. And I, you know, know that that might be an issue if we're folding the homeless committee into the um police committee, but you know, all these committees are open to public input from the public. They can attend. So, it might it might work. Maybe we
sunset the homeless committee. I'm not sure. I know that one doesn't meet because there's no quorum. Um, and I know all of these committees do great work. I mean this is kind of heartbreaking but at the same time you know I think that there there there's a way to make things more efficient and I
think reducing the members will make things more efficient for the most part at least I've seen that on the women's committee that chose themselves to reduce so if we could look at that vice mayor I'm not sure if you guys what you think of that both of you >> yeah I think that's great um and I think
there's more comments >> yes commissioner bot Um, a couple of questions. The transportation committee, I don't see that in here. Or am I missing it? It's likely that I'm missing it. >> It's on um, it's one of the committees. >> In other words, there is no
recommendation. The recommendation would be for it to meet quarterly. >> Okay. Right. >> There is no recommendation to anything but quarterly. >> Okay. Perfect. Um, I would like to, um, request my colleague support to keep the North Beach CRA advisory committee
intact. % I am very okay with it meeting quarterly unless there's something pending that needs to be um addressed but there is going to be an enormous amount of money coming into the CRA and I think there is um a very vital role
for this advisory committee to sort of screen the projects uh and be the voice of of the neighborhood to funnel information up to the deis uh in order to best steer this this um influx of capital. Uh 10% of it by law has to go
to affordable housing. So that's good. We know where that 10% is going, but there's going to be hundreds of millions of dollars coming into North Beach. And we need to make sure that over the next number of decades, it's being spent wisely on things that the residents want, not that developers want.
>> And I I completely agree with you, uh, Commissioner B. In fact, one of the recent recommendations was the expansion of the commercial lease subsidy program that we have in South Beach to cover also areas in North Beach within the CRA. And we have an item coming uh to
next week's city commission meeting regarding that. And in addition to that, you know, um there's still going to be a board of directors for the North Beach CRA. So all that we're going to be doing is we're going to be if we sunset them, we're going to be silencing the voice of
the stakeholders, but the board of directors, which is the city of the city commission, is still going to exist. Well, I'm sorry. We're here to represent whom? Those residents and those stakeholders who who sit on on on that CRA. So I completely back you and support you in keeping that that
advisory committee alive. So, um, Maria and Ralph, when you prepare this for next week's, can you make that amendment, please? >> Yes. >> So, just to be clear, what we're doing next next week is pre presenting a resolution saying, "Hey guys, get to work."
>> In other words, we won't have those ordinances ready obviously in two days and we haven't advertised. So, the first reading would be in September. The reszo is accepting the recommendation of the committees to go forward and and and do that. >> Okay. and with the changes that you all have requested. >> Commissioner Matel Selenas,
>> I just have one clarification that I want to make very clear. When I suggested seven members only, I don't want anyone kicked off. I want it to be when their term ends, >> just like the women's commission did it. When their term ends, >> yeah, >> then there's no other seat that opens. >> And that would we would also want to
review every committee to make sure it works. For instance, I don't think it would work for the quality of education committee because it has representatives of school, right? So on the ones that do we would come forth with a recommendation with >> to perhaps identify those that it might be prudent to have some amen members
instead of 14. The one thing I would also say you know and I and this is staff's recommendation. I don't I don't think it came from the sponsor of the item transferring the committee on homeless to the police citizens relations committee as a subcommittee. I want to be careful on that because
oftent times, you know, homeless individuals are perceived as being criminals and homeless individuals are not criminals. Often times some may be criminals. But I think if we now, you know, take a committee that is here to
look at, you know, how do we address homelessness in a in a in a comprehensive way and put them now under the purview of the police citizens committee, I think it creates a bad optic and and a bad look. Also, you
know, homelessness is is an is a multi-ep departmental issue for many departments to address. You have fire rescue that addresses it uh when they have to respond and and and take people in. You have the office of housing. You have community services. You have
sanitation that's involved. Often times you have code and you have so many different departments. I would hate to just put this under the police, you know, stigmatize for, you know, create a further stigma of, you know, putting them under police as, you know, an issue
of criminality. And also police does is not the only department that deals with homelessness. And so I I think we actually do a disservice uh by putting that one committee under under the police citizens relations committee.
>> I'll share where that came from. Um I think initially when the homeless committee was uh formed years ago, it was an advocacy committee to help the homeless. A shift came when the camping ordinance was passed and it no longer became the advocacy to help the
homeless. It came with the element that you described. And since the police department has the homeless outreach um expansive program, we thought housing it there made sense. But if you do not
think that, I would recommend eliminating the committee altogether because it's no longer what the initial intent was. I think we just have to find the right balance for it. I don't know that putting it directly under the police citizens relations committee is the
right solution. Um you know so I don't know it's some food for thought I would say is is is food for for thought. Um Maria let me ask you since you've done a you've done a lot of work uh in in into this how many
committees do we have? >> 48. >> 48. >> 48. Okay. What if you were to tell me which are the committees that take the bulk of staff's uh time the percentage of staff time supporting committees which you
know because we have the land use boards and we have >> I'm sorry >> yes >> um it's in the memo uh we have the breakup um the pie charts
so 41% of our time is spent spent on resident committees. 40 >> 41% 41% spent on 48 committees. >> The 48 >> 40 It's It's actually It's funny. It's the same number. If you look at the both charts, 41% of the time is spent on 41
committees. >> 44% of the time is spent on three committees, which are our commission committees like this one. Um and then 15% are land use boards which are four committees.
>> Okay. So 44% of staff's time that's the bulk is spent on only on three committees. >> It's a lot. Yes. >> On three [laughter] committees. Okay. And three committees. I my staff was doing the numbers and Stephanie I think I think you were you were looking at the
numbers. We have in general I think between all the committees open out there about 150 referrals floating around between all the committees. Is that about right Stephanie? >> Between the three. Okay. So between the three committees, we in essence have the
same amount of agenda items as a city commission meeting divided between three different committees that staff has to attempt and that that is the one that that is the group that actually takes up the most amount of of staff's time. What recommendations
uh do you have on on on the commission committees? >> None. We're leaving them as is. >> Okay. It's up to the commission to decide what they want to do with their own committees. >> If we are looking if the goal is to be efficient, >> if the goal is to be efficient and we're
saying, okay, we are now, you know, taking residents from meeting on a monthly basis and getting their feedback and their opportunity to participate in their local government from being on a monthly basis to a quarterly basis. I feel like we can't impose that on our
residents and then us that we are generating the bulk of that of that work and not see how we can further streamline ourselves as well. And so, you know, I'm I'm open to, you know,
whether whether we just, you know, eliminate the committee structure and we go to just you two commission meetings a month and uh and you know, you have your main meeting and then you when whatever you don't cover in your main meeting,
then you carry it over to a second commission meeting so we can actually get through the agenda of the city commission or, you know, reducing our committee meetings to meet quarterly and we limit the amount of referrals that we have out there. So that instead
of having 150 open referrals out there, a commissioner cannot have let's say more than you know five or 10 open referrals at any given time. Because what happens is that with 150 referrals out there, that means that every month
staff needs to work on a memo for each one of those referrals. And that means that staff not only has to work on a memo on each one of those referrals, but staff has to be ready to answer questions that we may have if we choose to call on one of those items that may
or may not be called at a committee meeting. And so I'm going to put this out there um to see um to see Commissioner Dominguez, this is your item, but I want to bring it up as part of this item because you know we're asking residents to restructure how they
go about their input and if our goal is to be more efficient with staff's time. I think we need to look at ourselves and see how we can support that as well. >> Uh that's very bold and I find it interesting. I think it's worthy of being included in the memo and moving
this to the full commission so that all of us can weigh in on it. >> Yes, Commissioner. >> I'm sorry. >> Just to make sure I understand. So, you're suggesting that we that our committees only meet quarterly or all together? >> Listen, I if it were me, I would say,
you know, let's just have two commission meetings a month. Mhm. >> Let's just have two commission meetings a month because right now, you know, three meetings, three three meetings a month. In addition to the city commission meeting, you have to have assistant city managers. You have
directors here. How many directors do we have in in in the room? If the directors could raise their hands. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 directors
in the room and assistant city two assistant city managers. >> The city clerk attorneys. >> Oh, three three assistant city managers in in in the room. Okay. We have two chief deputy city attorneys in in in the
room and the city clerk. >> I would support this >> where and so and now this is this is neighborhoods. This is neighborhoods. The same thing for land use, >> you know, the same thing for
>> for for finance, you know. I and I and I think we have to we have to see and by the way, you know, that's not counting the ones the directors that we have, you know, participating on Zoom also. Um, and so I I feel that if we're going to
be pushing for efficiency and we're asking our residents to be efficient, >> you know, with with staff's time, well, I think we need to lead we need to lead the way on that. And so I would I would love for us to pass along to our
colleagues, you know, two two options. Let's just do away with the with with the committees and have two commission meetings a month as the city of Miami Beach, by the way, used to have years and years ago. Miami Beach used to have
two city commission meetings. I think when Mayor Durmer was a mayor, I remember we had two commission meetings. >> Did they have committees? Did they have committees? I know I know committees existed, but they did not exist the way that they exist today.
They would discuss issues high level. And you'll remember, Maria, when you started in in the city back in 2010 when 10. >> Oh, that's good memories. You see, back in 2010 when you started, how many items would we have in a commission committee agenda?
>> Like maybe 10, 11. >> Um, >> well, we actually looked into that. uh in but but not in 2010 more like in 2019. 2010 is really really long ago. Um
2019 was kind of the last uh normal year that we had before COVID and then everything changed a little bit after that. But yes, you know, the the the commission agenda has grown um since then. Uh and it's, you know, grown by a
lot. And yes, there's a lot of work to manage that. But um you know, one of the reasons why we need our our time is to be able to do that right and do it efficiently and do it correctly and and keep up with the demands of the city
commission today. Um we kept up with it years ago. Um, it's just coming to a point that we feel that it's just, you know, really taxing our time to the point that we're going to start making mistakes, failing, not being able to
really be thorough, you know, it it comes to a point that, you know, it's it's just too much. Um, so it's grown by about, you know, 126%. From from my perspective, I much rather see us as
individual commissioners work with staff closely on an item, place that item on the agenda as an action item that then gets discussed at the commission agenda, then continuing to put these referrals on the agenda. Because what I've learned with these
referrals is that oftentimes we put referrals on the agenda to have a discussion about something, but we have a discussion that often times might give us an update. It's it's the same it's a we can solve the same thing by reaching out to staff and having a meeting with
staff having a conversation with staff and I don't know please give me your feedback because I don't know if staff feels the same way uh and Mark feel free to give me your your feedback but a lot of times you know after committees you know we all have the conversation you
know we'll talk to to to someone in administration or to or to a director and we all feel well you know that item could have really just been handled, you know, in a meeting, in a conference room, could have just been addressed with a phone call, you know, rather than having to, you know, have a city
attorney write a referral, get it pulled from the agenda, litigated at committee, then just to have it discussed at at at committee and then again at commission. Well, the administration is going to do whatever it is that the city commission
decides, but uh when it comes to commission items to commission committees, it's up to you all to decide if you want to be more efficient or not. Of course, we would benefit if you would, but it's up to you. It's not up
to the administration. >> Commission Selenus. >> Thank you. I I'd like to make a motion then to move this item with a favorable favorable recommendation to the commission including our comments about everything that we discussed up here the um [clears throat] suns setting and uh
the events and the members and then also include if you two are okay with it the um eliminating the commission committees the three commission committees I support that >> and I'm I'm fine with that. I would love uh feedback from my colleague
Commissioner B on that. >> Yeah, there's public com >> I um you know back when I was um >> back when I was um on the board of Miami Beach United, we advocated for a different way to conduct commission meetings. Um part of it was driven by
the desire to get residents more involved. So the idea was potentially to start later so that more people would not have to take time off of a workday. Um, I know some municipalities do it that way, but the other part of it was
um to sort of lessen the impact of of at what was at the time 12 hours plus um for a single commission meeting. I mean, we don't have that anymore, but that means that we don't get through our our items. So, I'm very open to discussing
really overhauling the way we conduct business at city hall. Um we are talking about um trying to trim our budget. Um I would dispute that we're in a crisis. I know some of my colleagues, not here at the moment, but some of my colleagues um
claim that there is a a dire crisis of foot, which I don't share that opinion, but I think the exercise of finding efficiencies is a valuable one and probably long overdue. So I'm very supportive of of that. Um but you know I
I have my colleagues have heard me say it because I joke to um staff I joke to all of us up here I I make fun of myself that we're a micromanaging commission and I think that has been the trend over the last decade um that instead of being
a board of adviserss um we are really getting our our our hands dirty in the best possible way in with all good intent to try to make the city as good as it can be. But in that, you know, there needs to be a balance struck between getting um new ideas and and
synergies and um you know, fresh perspectives um in balance with professionals who have been doing this for their careers and and have a great deal of expertise. There's always a way to do things better. That's not the question. And I
think fresh ideas always make every discussion better. But um you know the three committee meetings, commission committee meetings plus a commission meeting um as [snorts] we've discussed takes up an
inordinate amount of time and I would be very open to the discussion of um getting rid of the committee meetings in favor of two effective commission meetings per month and limiting um the number of items each commissioner can
bring. I had an item, ironically, I had an item on the agenda co-sponsored by Commissioner Magazine that wasn't called for two plus years and I finally gave up and withdrew it and thankfully Commissioner Matteo Selenas had a similar item um when she joined the
commission and it was called and was adopted. Um and so it's not identical, but is very close. And so the net effect is is the same. And I I think that is the right direction um for us to move in as we look at overall efficiencies,
financial staffing um and other efficiencies for how to make this engine run more more smoothly and with better results. >> And and thank you for for those comments, uh Commissioner Bond. In addition to that, unlike in the past, now we're also going to have a regularly
scheduled um I guess what's it called? What we the new thing that we approved >> workshop a regularly scheduled workshop uh where we all get together with the administration uh with with the city attorney's office to discuss the issues
of of importance. And so, and so I think now that we're introducing that workshop, you know, perhaps it is a good time to pass along uh this this item that it also proposes. I would say if you're open to amending your motion,
Commissioner Matel Selenas, you know, let's propose the elimination of of of the committees. Uh it seems like Commissioner Ba was in favor of it. I didn't It seems like Commissioner >> and I'll second the item. >> Okay. So, are you happy to amend your
your item to propose that? >> I think I said it. It was in there to to eliminate the committees, the three commission committees. Yeah, >> let's get more work done better. >> Okay. All right. So, with that, we're going to keep uh geob bond, >> not geo bond. We're we're going to keep
the 41st street committee. We're not going to sunset that. We're going to keep the North Beach CRA. We're going to keep the uh convention center advisory committee. We're not going to sunset those. They'll they'll meet quarterly instead. Um and uh we're they're still
thought to be given on the committee on of homeless. Uh but I'm going to be differential to the item sponsor. Um we're going to merge the ad hoc advisory nightlife committee into the small business advisory committee. Cancel the
meetings in August and have a maximum of 1 one and a half hours per per meeting. and limit one event per year for each committee >> and also look at which committees can be reduced to seven members. >> Seven members. Correct.
>> And Mr. Chairman, the motion regarding the commission committees and the two committee commission meetings a month was for a carry one meeting and a carryover meeting, meaning there would only be one agenda per month. Is that correct? >> I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?
>> Yes. that the what the what what the uh committee is recommending to the city commission regarding uh ending these commission committees and having two commission meetings a month. The second commission meeting would be a carryover meeting. A
>> carryover and there would only be one agenda per month. you have one agenda per per month is is how the county for example the county they have a county commission meeting and when when they don't reach all the items on the agenda then they have their carryover meeting and that and and that way we have
sufficient time to discuss the items at length without having to to to rush them. Um but you know we're giving us ourselves two days uh to to get through that agenda >> and we would definitely need assistance
the clerk's office to do that because you're adding up workshops and you're adding now an additional meeting. So just >> well but we are eliminating but we're going to be eliminating >> correct we don't do that. So I'm just saying some of that help that you're eliminating from somewhere we're going to need it at some point.
That's only one agenda >> and the workshop will be a short agenda. >> Yeah. >> Right. But but to Ralph's point through the chair, if I may, um the clerk's office does the followup, the minutes, the afteraction. So now instead of doing that for one long meeting, um there will
be two meetings plus the workshop. So it >> it's something that we can work through, consider it. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. >> One uh final comment. I think maybe we need to define uh define the events. Um I know that um the sister cities
committee has an event during art basel. Uh we had an event with the Jaguars uh as part of FIFA and there are other meaningful events that take place. So I would hate to cap them when the whole point of that particular committee is
our relationships with out of town uh sister cities. Um we we have an event on Sunday a cleanup with Sophie Ringel. So um I wouldn't want to limit it limit it to one just yet um until we define more
what the event means. Uh >> okay, we'll work on it. >> Okay. as long as a bunch of staff time isn't, you know, like the Hispanic affairs, there's just so many departments that all throw that together and there's a cost to it. But it sounds like sister cities is different their
events. >> But what I would like to see though is one overarching policy that applies to all the committees because otherwise, you know, if if we're going to say one policy applies to one committee, then we're going to be getting phone calls from the other committees because to
them that's important. Mh. >> Um, for example, you know, unfortunately, you know, we have a change in state law with um with with DEI issues, but the LGBTQ advisory committee, you know, they have uh multiple uh events throughout throughout
the year as well. So I think we just have to make sure that if we say that this is the policy, it is a policy that applies fairly across all all the committees >> and it will we'll define events and how those are >> clarified. Okay.
>> All right. Um I'm going to open up the floor to public comment. Anyone wishing to speak on this item, feel free to approach the podium. Members attending via Zoom, feel free to raise your hand. I see Johan Moore with his hand raised. Good morning, Johan. We have two minutes to speak.
>> Oh, good morning and thank you uh chair for allowing me to speak on this issue again. Um I'm going to start with a bit of a reduc but I I feel like I I need to channel Mitch Novik here. If the claim is that
half of staff's time is spent working on committees and that obligation is removed, then I I can just hear him saying, "Well, then that gives us all the reason to uh what's the polite word? Um well, I don't know, fire half that
staff." As I say, that is of course an absurd reduction of of the discussion. But I and while I was initially rather alarmed at the implications of that because of the impacts on services to the public as well as not wanting to see
staff members uh fired uh simply to serve to save money. Um but I think it opens up some opportunities. Um and and I've been arguing for a while that we really need to have a broaderbased discussion in light of alleged uh
budgetary uh restrictions as to where we best save money. But the percentage of staff's time uh compensations in other departments being allowed for uh that is in fact saved as a result of say the more ambitious item that you all have
cobbled together today. Could that not somehow uh along with a policy of of staff attrition rather than firings lead to a slimmer municipal workforce uh and a uh uh either more limited budget or
the possibility of reallocation of aspects of the budget say to housing or historic preservation or sustainability and environmental and resilience needs. So I just wanted to put that before you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Uh Mitch Novik, good morning.
You have two minutes to speak. >> Good morning once again. Uh I I agree attrition should be the way to go. Not firings, but also uh you must consider the uh salaries that that that our employees make. uh you know I know the
uh salaries are were were raised years ago in order to keep employees but what you've given everybody is uh that that uh bridge to becoming a millionaire on our dime. Uh I didn't listen intently to
the discussion. I'm doing something else over here. But as far as the monthly meetings to many of these committees, uh I I think perhaps it should be uh that they should meet just quarterly or or
even less uh depending on what the nature of the committee is. Thank you again. >> Thank you, Mitch. Any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item? Seeing none in Zoom and none in person, we can show this item adopted
unanimously. >> Thank you, Maria. And thank you, Ralph. to all the staff leaison. I do I do want to highlight and I would be remiss uh if if I did not thank each and every one of the employees of the city of Miami Beach
who who take on the extra responsibility because not all the employees have assigned a committee that they are there to assist but a select few volunteer to take on that extra responsibility and Maria how much extra money do they get
paid for that extra responsibility? >> Zero. So to all those employees who take up that extra work to support our residents and make sure that our residents have a voice. Thank you for the service that you do to our city. And
with that, we're going to uh do we have the consultants. Uh okay. So with that, I'm going to go back to item number uh one. And then after item number one, we're going to go to items number three and four regarding the fifth street
pedestrian bridge. So let's go back to item number one. >> Item number one is present an update on the Miami Beach Prominade master plan. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez. >> Okay. Um welcome back David. >> Good morning Mr. Chair. >> So what let's why don't we proceed with
the presentation on the master plan and the concepts that we have before us. Um, quick introduction. Uh, our consultants, Ralph Ferrer from Curtis and Rogers Design Studios with us this morning. Uh, and we do have a presentation for you. I think you have
it up, PJ. Morning. Good morning, members of the committee. Thanks for uh, having us here to present. And we're uh, going to present this project which we are uh, very excited about. Uh, the Miami Beach Prominade. Go to the next slide. So, as you can see here, uh the
prominade runs from 24th to 29th Street, and it's uh it's a stretch of uh city rideway that runs between Collins A and the beach. And the goal is really, you know, back up a sec. Um really our goals overall is to really improve the
condition and the overall aesthetics and resiliency of the prominade. uh making it safer, more walkable, uh strengthening the resilience, um creating really a cohesive prominade identity as it is right now. It's kind of um kind of disjointed in that way and
really o improving the overall uh quality of life uh along the prominade. So here you can see again uh where the prominade lies and you can see that area dash there falls really within a unique condition between uh private on one side
of the buildings and then on the other side of the prominade you have the private amenity decks that belongs to the corresponding buildings on the other side of it. So what we've done so far is uh well first of all we've done a uh we've performed an assessment and feasibility
study uh we've performed the topographic survey geotechnical studies so we've really done a thorough assessment of all the conditions of the prominade uh but including in included in that assessment is really extensive community engagement and it's really uh been spearheaded with
uh commissioner Fernandez and we've had several uh meetings uh you can See here we've had um we've had six in total and we just had uh another presentation last week and what we've taken from it here you could see here the the the yays and
the nays and what people uh along the prominade residents and others that use it what they are looking for and they really want improved security. They want uh more shade. Uh they want access to their maintenance uh along the buildings. Uh clear access to the
amenity decks. uh really upgraded pavement, uh improved drainage. Um and some of the things they don't want is they're concerned with maybe loitering, maybe attracting too many people, uh areas where crowds may gather, um and lounging or furniture that can encourage
people to stay and lounge for a long time. And that's been the feedback we've been receiving. We met at the golf club uh early on back in November. We've had several virtual meetings. We had another shared workshop on the prominade itself where people came by while they were
walking their dogs. So, it's really been a thorough uh assessment of community uh engagement. In addition to that, we've also had an online survey that ran from October through February. So, let's go to the next slide. So, what we've taken
from all these meetings um is really these uh community preferences and visual examples. And this is what we've taken. They want uh they want limited seating, but they want seating and high visibility areas. They want incre in increased shade. Uh they want to have their own local character uh that
reflects everyday neighborhood use. Uh they want family and dog friendly open lawn areas. They want protective ballards from vehic vehic vehicles coming onto the prominade and also reducing uh microobility or high speed happening through the prominade. And of
course lighting and CCTV. they want it to be vising visibility and safety. So what we did uh is we developed two concepts. Uh we first developed concept one which we called organic paths and we
then developed concept two called linear paths. Both of these concepts were based on not just the assessment and the study but based on a lot of the input that we received during these sharetses. And uh so what we did is that we created these
strategic nodes um at every building with openings for uh visibility from the buildings but also to create uh kind of a a flowing curving prominade that would discourage high speed. At the same time
we also received feedback on people wanting it to say kind of how it is right now which is kind of really like a straight shot. And we did that in the second concept providing kind of a secondary path that had um geometric connecting uh access to it. So we'll go
to the next one. We'll look closer at concept one. And what we did here is we show here uh kind of the important exit and entry points to the buildings and to the amenity decks and showing how they can circulate. Again, this was important. This was uh important
feedback we received. We also identified uh these areas that were identified for public art and for wayfinding zones. Uh what we noticed is there was very really a lack of signage and wayfinding uh while you're on the prominade as it is right now. And we identified these zones
really at the key thresholds or nodes that occur along the prominade at the key intersection. So those are areas that we identified. And we also found in the survey that the art was really important to a lot of people along with walkability and the pedestrian
experience. So here you can see in this um concept one you can see all the goals of the project uh being implemented in here and you can see again uh ideas an accessible walkway uh pavement that's cohesive
that's unified that's permeable that helps with with uh [snorts] storm water uh building access points uh waste and recycle receptacles dog waste stations um using uh bio retention um rain
gardens and bio retention areas to really treat storm water and improve water quality with a really uh native uh resilient landscape that can help in treating that water and using green infrastructure and increasing tree canopy and shade as well. So you can see
here it implemented in concept one. Let's go to the next slide. And then here you can see other views of it. You can see what the 50-ft uh public rideway is and how that cross-section of the pro typical cross-section of the prominade would occur. And the image to the right,
you can see how it would appear as people looking down from their buildings at the prominade. And an example of one of the one of the cross streets uh this one at 26th Street, which we identified as an area that can have removable ballards. uh we had meetings with public
works and they stressed the importance of having some access for some of their maintenance vehicles to maintain the lights and whatnot. So uh along with this I mentioned lighting uh and what I want to show you all here is how we're illuminating the
prominade with this concept. Uh and it will be a combination of pedestrian lighting um ballarded lighting and then landscape up lighting to really improve the quality um not just during the day but in the evening making it safer and more aesthetically pleasing for a lot of
the members at our residents. Um and by the way this was something that in our engagement with the mid beach neighborhood association which I neglected to mention earlier they've also been involved and these were something that they were looking for a unified vision. Okay. So uh next year we
look at concept two linear paths. Again same ideas maintaining access to the buildings and to the amenity decks the art zones and wayfinding zones all pretty much falling in the same place just in a different concept. And you we'll go to the next slide and you can
see again same idea. We're implementing all the same goals. It's just in a different context and different geometry. On this one there's a much wider prominade which some people requested. Um and here you can see how we're implementing the bio retention,
the lighting, uh the camera, the access points. And same idea of a unified accessible permeable uh pavement system. Again, here's the uh same same as we saw with concept one. Here you can see how it will would look looking down from the buildings. Uh you see the open green
areas. You see the cross-section of this one having a much wider uh 18 foot wide path and the same condition at the uh at the intersections. One of the things we we found we we wanted to do was really protect these intersections and make him
really these nodes and these thresholds uh almost these landmarks within the prominade that identify where you are at but also protect not just with the ballards but with landscape and vegetation and buffer from the street.
Uh same idea here you can see the lighting. Uh you can see how we have landscape lighting the light bothered lighting and pedestrian lighting to illuminate and all this by the way making it uh compliant with FWC meaning turtle friendly uh and also reducing the
uplighting that's coming up from the prominant as it is right now that really disturbs a lot of the residents. We've been hearing that from the uh public engagement. Um so in the end you see regardless of the concept that we end up going with um you can see here the
improvements uh the lighting the ballards the CCTV the amenities the improved signage the improved hardscape and pavement and of course the landscape. So in the end uh what we did is we provided a professional recommendation
uh based on many factors based on the study uh based on the community input that we received and our overall assessment. You could see the the community poll that we had uh back in February when we presented the two concepts where everyone voted on them.
Uh it was unanimous for the organic paths. Uh and this is a combination uh it's not just Curtis and Rogers the landscape architecture firm but we also have sub consultants that um I didn't mention at the beginning for civil engineering for environmental engineering for lighting engineering and
for signage and wayfinding and this is also their professional recommendation as well included in ours. So uh the reasons it's they improved circulation and connectivity and really creating a unique space uh that really is different
and um more pleasing than what is there now providing shade cooling and making a walkable uh improved drainage. You know there's been storm water issues. Uh this system uh allows more areas for bio retention areas for bioils and for the
rain gardens. uh it supports more open a more open lighting approach CCTV and really creates a distinctive prominade character and creates uh strengthens the sense of place. Uh so here you can see the project timeline. Uh you can ignore the portion
that says June when we originally prepared this presentation. We were going to present it back then. Uh but we just had our um our 50% um our second 50% master plan meeting last week as I mentioned and uh the idea is that we'll
move forward after presenting this we've given our professional recommendation uh after this maybe August [clears throat] uh maybe September we will have the final 100% master plan uh with one of the concepts and then after that that will get presented again uh to
stakeholders at the city and and from there on it it it goes on to um to the city >> and that's our plan. >> One of the uh one of the things that Ralph did not mention is that part of this process was to meet with all of the
city user departments including PD, fire facilities, parks, um sanitation just to get their feedback as well on on the layout and the plan. more details need to be to be incorporated and obviously as part of the actual design we'll we'll
iron out a lot of those needs. Um but that those conversations have happened as well. >> So which are the subconsultant disciplines that have been engaged as part of your of your feasibility and your master planning? >> Sure. >> Um we started off with uh surveying. So
we have surveyors on board uh geotech uh studies and reports. Uh we have a civil engineering, we have uh environmental engineering, we have lighting uh engineering um which also includes the CCTV um and we also have signage and
wayfinding and um and these um these subconultant disciplines in addition to the public voting that showed 3 to1 I think it was 75% support for for the organic path. These uh these subd disciplines have also endorsed the
organic path. >> Yes. >> Tell me you know drainage is is a big issue uh in this area today. You know there is uh some storm flooding uh there. Uh tell explain to me you know how what is the improvement uh that um
that the organic path offers as opposed to the linear path. it it it provides uh more areas for uh to allow for the bio retention areas. So what we're what we're employing is to improve the storm water management using green infrastructure and more of these
medians that run along the prominade uh in addition to rain gardens that would occur along the buildings themselves. What we found in our study is that there are a lot of uh outfalls or downspouts from the buildings that let out their storm water onto the prominadon. So
there are moments during heavy rain events where they suffer from flooding and they also have uh currently an imperous uh pavement system. So that increases the storm water runoff. So the idea is the concept uh I mean really both concepts would be dealing with
these issues. Uh but u there are slight improvements in the in concept one for this. David, uh, let me let me just ask you because there's a number of items that MBNA sent over to us. We've included it as a supplement so that it travels with the item as part of the
record. But some of the issues just so that we know at what point these issues get addressed such as the street end drop offs and access points particularly those at 23rd and 29th, but also 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th. At what point uh do
these access points get addressed? the the concepts on how they're addressed will be included in the 100% master plan. Um the details on on the exact systems and foundations and other stuff that's part of the design work. We did get the email from MBNA previously and
we had shared that with the designers. They're going through that to make sure they address those comments. >> Is there a way that we could include the conversation regarding the shower locations as part of this? the showers do directly abut uh this this prominade and I do believe you know when you look
at at um at the feedback that we received from from the public their priority is safety you know and and and tied to that you know you see you know these it's most mostly used when early in the morning and in the in the evening
and so of course safety is is very important so people are concerned about people loitering and the use of the showers and all that. Um, you know, it's something that would like us to see is that something that we can address because the infrastructure is there at
the at the entrance of the prominade for these showers, but also where you have these beach entrances that have the showers on the opposite end on the east end, you have water fountains uh right along the beachwalk. And maybe we could
see as part of these of this project, can we swap swap the location? You have the showers maybe closer to to the beachwalk and have the water fountains uh closer to to to the prominade so that
you address that concern of of the um of the showers. I' love if you could explore that. >> We would be more than happy to look at it. When the uh beachwalk was first constructed, the showers were placed there due to some of the requirements from FT and the state. Um but we're
happy to look at it and see if we can if we can swap those structures. >> Um regarding uh and and it's a point that Commissioner Bond brought up uh in our in our last public meeting uh SAPED police um you know review of of these
plans. Uh where are we? Has police has has the consultant spoken with police? Have you shown them these these signs? Have you been receiving feedback? Yeah, so we we had initial uh during our assessment we had uh meetings with police and with lighting uh from the
city. We met out on the prominade and we discussed uh what were the strategic areas where the CCTV cameras would be. Uh at that time we were working on the feasibility. So we didn't have these two concepts yet. So uh they have not reviewed that but we have met with them. So the idea is that they will be
reviewing the concepts >> and it that is part of the process for all of our projects that that they get septed reviews. >> And my last question um ballards and vehicular axis >> uh at what point do we start defining the type of ballard and the type of of
vehicular um of of protection that we put there for this? That really is going to be a design level decision once we have the the project started. Uh I think for for master plan purposes, what we're looking for really is which street ends specifically need access where whereas
which ones we can close off. >> Okay. Thank you. Are there uh committee members with questions, comments? >> Commissioner Bach. >> Yeah, I'm I'm um very excited to see this come to life. I just want to I know that SEPTA is always a part of the the
procedure. I get that. Um but we're working so hard to make sure that we don't have homeless in encampments in in the dunes. Um I don't want them thinking that this is a cute new place to upgrade their neighborhood um with a beautiful sort of wavy path. So let's make sure we
just have a really good eye to that when you do go through that process. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. So, I love for the committee to entertain a motion to recommen to to recommend uh to the commission approving concept one um and directing staff to
complete the master plan using this concept. Uh I'm not able to make a motion, but if one >> I'll make that motion. >> All right. It's been moved. It's been seconded. Uh >> I'll second. >> Okay. And any opposition? We can show this adopted unanimously. >> Oh, wait. Members of the members of the
public wishing to speak. Sarah, >> I just have one question. Sarah de los Reyes. I do own a property on Triton Towers and most most of the building do pay today to do the landscaping. So once you do all this landscaping, the city's
going to be maintaining all that, right? I just wanted ask the question because if each building has a different landscaper, they might change things in the future. So, I'm assuming all this all this beautiful landscaping is going to be maintained by the city, not not
the owners of of of the buildings right along that. I'm just >> And that and that was [laughter] one of the questions that came up in >> I'm in the finance committee there. So, it will save us money >> in the future. >> That was one of the questions that had came up in um in one of the of the meetings. David, if you want to respond
to that. Under the current configuration, it it's fairly easy and we follow city policies where the properties are responsible for their rightofway swale area and and landscape maintenance. In a design like this, it's hard to do that. It's it's especially hard to get everyone to agree
>> provide the same level of maintenance across the across the project. >> Really, it's an operational and a policy decision that'll be part of the creation of the project. Once the commission decides to establish the project and fund it, we'll establish how it gets maintained. >> And and and from my perspective, this
is, you know, a capital improvement. And with every capital improvement, something of this nature, it's almost like when you're designing a park in essence, that that's kind of what this feels like. You're almost designing a park. So, you need to budget for capital renewal and replacement. You need to
budget for operations and management. And from my perspective, once you have a product like this delivered, it has to be the city that want to maintain it because you also want to preserve the quality and you want to preserve the investments that that that you have
placed there. So, yeah, that's that's my feedback. >> Thank you. I just want to make sure. >> Thank you, sir. All right. Any other members of the public wishing to comment on this item? Seeing none in Zoom, none in person, we can uh move on to our next item.
>> Thank you. Thank you. >> So, uh since um we had deferred items three and four to later in the meeting, why don't we go back to those two items? >> Item number three and four is monthly updates on the status of the fifth
street pedestrian bridge and the modern hotel miridor condominium baywalk projects. This item was sponsored by Vice Mayor Dominguez. And item number four is discuss the feasibility of replacing the planned fifth street pedestrian bridge with an overwater connection linking the Baywalk south of
Fifth Street with the Baywalk north of Fifth Street. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Mateo Selenas. >> All right, Vice Mayor Dominguez, if you want to introduce your item. >> Okay. Um, so the pedestrian bridge on over Fifth Street was something that was brought forward by the late Commissioner
Mark Samuel and I was proud to take this up and continue on the vision and uh legacy and uh public benefit that he had proposed in order for um uh Five Park and Canopy Park and uh the
Baywalk in the back to be part of a consideration. Uh so this is something that's personally very important to me. Um and I know that we've run into some hiccups with uh the location of the utility. And my latest briefing I in my
latest briefing I was told that um the developer was hiring an independent consultant to review. [snorts] So, uh, my thought would be let's wait to see what the independent consultant comes up with and
maybe defer this item for after the, uh, break. >> Uh, David Gomez, director of capital improvements, you're correct. Uh, madam commissioner, the the developer did hire an independent consultant to look at all aspects of the current design, where the
utilities are, the information that that we have today so that they can provide a separate uh informed opinion on whatever challenges there may be. Uh we have not gotten the feedback yet from the developer. We're waiting on that. So for number three, I'd like to move it
until September uh to get an opportunity to hear from the independent consultant of where the utilities can be moved. >> Commissioner Matul Solenus. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I I'd support that. Um I'll second that. I just want to make sure that the developer is that a a fair and safe timeline for the
developer or is it going to be in September? He goes, I need six more months. >> They had told us previously that they would get it within a week or two for our review, but they haven't delivered it yet. So I I would assume that by September we should be fine. >> Okay. Obviously, you know, there there
was a commitment that was made to the public. >> Um and all efforts must be exhausted to determine whether we can deliver that commitment. Um what I so I completely agree with you, Commissioner Dominguez. Uh let's give the time so that so we can
determine that. What I don't want is for this to keep on extending beyond September because I don't want this to be death by a thousand cuts. Uh when it when it comes to to to this project, I'm going to throw a little cur curveball that came to me this morning that I
haven't spoken with staff about. Um you know, if I hate doing this, throwing something out there without speaking to David, putting him on the spot. If this doesn't work at this location,
um might it be feasible to look further east um at the at the intersection of Alton Road of Alton Road and Fifth Street on the east side um which is already past
the the the overpass. Uh it's kind of where where that Romero Breurto Palm is at. um you know connecting from there which is the public's location to the south side of Fit Street. I would
imagine the width must be generally about the same. Um perhaps there might be more rightofways available on either end and we might not have the same utility issues that we have um at the
currently proposed location. Uh so you know I just want to put that out there uh because maybe it could be something that could be looked into. >> Uh interesting suggestion. I'm happy to look into it. My first concern would be real estate. We don't own
[clears throat] property outside or adjacent to the to the right ofway. I think the rightway is about the same width there. Uh the same distribution line and transmission lines that are in our way next to the seaw wall actually travel in that direction. So, we'd have to look at where those are as well. I
think by that point they're further out towards the center of the rideway. >> Yeah, because they they kind of converge. They converge when you look at the map, they converge towards the middle, >> right? So, I I think that's that would no longer be a problem, but I need to see if we've got the real estate to actually build.
>> Take a look at that for me. And that's not to say that, you know, that we still wouldn't, you know, consider doing uh the um the overwater floating docks. um if this if the original option doesn't
doesn't work out, but I would love for us to consider that um as well. >> Okay. >> Or see or see if it's even worth considering. >> Yep. >> And my apologies for just I had the come to me this morning.
>> All [snorts] right. Um are there >> um Commissioner Matselinas? Okay. So, we're going to continue this item, both items three and four to September. >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh I see we have members of the public wishing to to speak on this item.
Uh if you're attending in person, feel free to approach the podium. Uh Jay Newman, you've had your hand up for for a while. Good morning. You have two minutes this week. >> Uh [clears throat] thank you very much. Um my name is Jay Newman. Um I live at
Five Park. uh and uh I'm the president of the master association board although today I'm speaking in my personal capacity. Um I I think that the the uh there's been a lot of misinformation and
perhaps disinformation uh put out by uh terror group David Martin and Russell Galba regarding the what they would like to say is the infeasibility of uh building the bridge uh as currently planned. Uh promises were
made, commitment was made. The development order commits the developer unconditionally uh to build this project. Uh and the fact that the developer may not have done the proper due diligence uh is uh
irrelevant. uh there is uh and the what I would propose is that whatever engineering and whatever discussion about uh the feasibility and relocating utilities or whatever else needs to be done should be now handled in a very
public process. And I would call upon the commission to instruct the city attorney uh and the uh city manager to begin to consider imposing penalties on the developer for the failure to deliver the project as originally proposed. Uh
all of the all of the residents of five park were induced in no small measure to buy their apartments because of the promise of a bridge which was meant to be completed over a year ago. Uh it is
uh as an engineering matter it is my understanding in an architectural matter that it is inconceivable that adjustments could not be made utilities could not be moved. What seems to be taking place is that the cost is maybe more than the developer
anticipated but having said that they were enabled to build a very large building uh you know in exchange for certain promises and those promises must be kept. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. And and I, you know, I do I do want the
record to reflect that FPL did do a significant amount of work in the area in bringing in a new feeder line into the city. This is a major feeder line that electrifies a significant portion
of our city and any potential impact to that feeder line uh would would represent a significant public safety threat uh and impact to the economy of of our city. So, it is it is I I hear
everything that that that the speaker mentioned and and and he's not wrong because a public benefit was promised and a public benefit of this nature must be delivered. There's no going around the commitment that was made to the
public and if we now need to consider other options, I believe that that doesn't relieve the uh developer from that commitment. But at the same time we need to weigh you know this isn't a developer that is uh saying where these
utility lines are at. This is independent companies coming in some hired by the developer other hire others hired by FPL and doing digging to determine where these utility lines are at. Um and they do pose significant
risk. In fact, even if you hit one of these lines uh which is questioned how deep deeply buried they are, you know, people could get killed uh in in doing this excavation. And so, you know, I share the same frustration. I think many
of us do. Uh I'm going to speak with the city attorney to determine what are those penalties in these delays. Um and also making sure that that you know I think we all agree with that speaker the public benefit needs to be delivered uh
period. Is that a bridge or is that a dock or you know a floating floating dock or what is that? We don't know at that point because those are the studies that hopefully September we'll have an answer for. Good morning. >> Good morning and uh thank you all for
your efforts here and your feedback. And David, I would ask that when you get the report and thank you for deferring to September because we really can't make an educated decision until we hear what the consultant has to say. But as my colleague Jay Newman said at B park and
good neighbor, it's really important that we get all the possible answers here and ask them don't just analyze the report but how can they possibly make it happen to continue with the pedestrian bridge if at all possible.
That's number one. Number two, we need connectivity. So whatever we do here and the collaboration that we always work on is we need to get connected because in our lifetime we'd like to see that done. And secondly, I was hoping that we could
go ahead and talk about the Miridor property today because that's just another example of something that's built and it's closed off to the public. And Commissioner Dominguez, you and I went to um Southgate the year ago and that's still closed off to the public
because of some financial settlement going on. We need to get to the bottom of all this and let's get these open for our residents because they deserve it. So, >> yeah, I think with Southgate um our attorney's office had sent them uh documents to review and they have and I
think they may have just sent it back to our attorney's office. So now the ball balls in the city's court, but let's talk offline about that one. >> Okay. And what about the mirror door? >> It should be open. >> It should be. >> It should be open. We we went through it. We met with the building manager.
They're responsible for opening and closing the gate. We were checking on a daily basis for two months and it was open every day. >> So if it's not open, we'll be happy to make that. >> Well, that's good. And my other question is just from a safety perspective, we're fine not having railings or anything like that. And is that going to be
standard for the rest of the uh Baywalk as well? >> Yeah, it is not a code requirement to have railings. So, it's difficult for us to force the developer to do it, but it under our city preference and under our city models, we are including railings on the other segments and we'll have to
see how we handle this one if we come back and add. >> Okay. I think it's something standardized would be important. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. What is the penalty to the property upon which you know there is this connectivity but they're not
opening it up. >> Oh uh it it would be a code compliance thing. Code code would go out and say >> that doesn't sound to me to be you know enough of a penalty. A code compliance violation for something like that is a slap on the hand. Yeah. You are dep you
know I get that like okay you're not maintaining your property the way that it should be maintained here. You are depriving your neighbors and the rest of the taxpayers who own that property or who you have a right to that property. You're depriving the rest of the taxpayers from access to this
infrastructure and no one person or entity should be depriving their neighbors or the other taxpayers of what of of the areas that they're entitled to. So, I want to see what's what stricter demand letter could we demands
could we put upon that neighborhood association. >> I'm happy to speak to the city attorney's office and see what we can do. >> Thank you, David. Amy Leos, good morning. You have two minutes to speak. >> Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Uh, thank you so much to the
president of the Five Park Homeowners Association also. summarized the situation very well. Uh what I would add to that is that it's imperative that this pedestrian bridge be built. This has gone on for far too long. Promises
were made. Um substantial benefits for those promises were given and are now being reaped. Yet it's the residents who are left without a safe way to cross from north of Fifth to South of Fifth.
right now and I invite and I'm sure the commissioners have done this but I invite you all to cross over from five park to let's say um the uh area behind the um icon. It is three uh
intersections that have to be crossed which are busy six lane almost highways in some cases. That's how quickly road uh cars rather are are barreing down the roadways. Um, and if you have a child in
a stroller, if you are with um, an elderly individual, trying to cross these intersections is really taking your life in your own hands. Um, I think you all know this already. Um, and I just ask for you to keep that in mind and stress that uh, we have dragged our
feet on this for far too long. this should have been done years ago and um whatever needs to be overcome um needs to be in an expedited manner. Um please consider that because it is an extremely dangerous route to take. It's a gauntlet
really and um time is of the essence and uh lives are in your hands. Thank you. >> Thank you. [clears throat] Thank you Amy. Uh with that I see no other members of the public wishing to speak. We'll close the public comments. Uh we'll show
this item continued items three and four to September. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. >> I have a question. >> Yes, of course. >> Should I ask you one, >> please? We're we're in a public meeting. >> Okay. Um I have a hard stop at 12
because I'm doing something with Deborah Martin. No. And pal. And um there are two items that will be very quick and I was wondering if we could take those two items out of order 10 and 14 if you were going to be running the meeting after
noon. Because the other ones can be finished without me even though I'm on it. Let's call and um please in the future just just let us know or I'd like to take the agenda for the benefit of the
public in the order in which it is printed and I kindly just ask the committee for that difference >> for the next time. Thank you. >> Let's go to item number 10. Item number 10 is discuss and take action on the installation, funding, and
planning of electric vehicle charging infrastructure on Normandy Island. This item is sponsored by Vice Mayor Dominguez. I'm parking. Um, so I'm going to be closing out this item, but just real quickly, I have had several discussions with Will McDonald and his team, and um, it's not really feasible
in the lots that we presently have because um, of uh, flooding and where they're located, but I do know that you are looking at future opportunities to bring more EV to North Beach. And then if you could quickly mention them and then we'll close out this item.
>> Uh, will McDonald, director of parking. Um, so we actually got some great news for DC fast charging as of yesterday at 5:00 p.m. in general for the beach as a whole. Um, uh, we have been working with FPL and our building department and we have an initial approval to install a
def DC fast charger at our P-55 which is 2600 Collins um, the large lot there. Also, we are engaging a different vendor that thinks they may be able to actually solve some of the problems that we are encountering in Normandy. Um, we have a
meeting with them tomorrow with the building department because really it all comes to flooding and the engineering of the units and if they can withstand flooding. And I have, I'll just say, tenative um hope that if the building department uh says that these
people can do what they say they can do, that we might actually be able to solve that problem and make an impact in North Beach and Normandy Isles. >> That's wonderful. So, the purpose of this item was to bring awareness of the lack of EV up there. I appreciate how you and your team have embraced looking
for opportunities to expand. And uh with that, I'll close the item. Thank you so much. >> Let me let me ask you because we had adopted an item on level three charging stations. The 2660 Collins Avenue lot was was one of them. Uh but we have many
other lots throughout the city. Where are we with all the other lots throughout the We had one south of Fifth. We had one identified in North Beach. And my understanding was that we we've been delayed uh by by by a device
that that the that is needed for the charger because you're running high voltage electricity into into this equipment and so it needs to be above the the flood elevation and they were getting rights res or or securing rights
patents on on a lift uh for these chargers. Where are we with all of this? So the the patent went through and the challenge is uh the rule and I I don't want to uh speak I I I want to make it very clear this is uh uh the layman's
version of what I understand. So it has to be >> I only speak in layman's version anyway so that's all good. >> BF plus one which is base flood elevation in the majority of the lots uh these are 8 ft and then it has to be plus one. So the unit has to be above 9
ft or the other option is essentially it can withstand flood waters that are BFE plus1. So it can be what I understand is fully submersible up to 9 ft. Um the FPL stand cleared P-55 by approximately 1.2
in. Um however all of the other lots the the stand is not able to clear that BFE plus one. So it kind of puts us back to square one at certain at the majority of the lines >> and and and my problem is that you know as it is we don't have enough electric
charging stations in the city and the majority of the ones that we have they tend to be in private locations and the whole idea of this of this partnership that we passed with Florida Power and Light was to identify public parking lots to test them uh and so and so what
I'm hearing now is that our challenge is coming from the building department that the building department hasn't hasn't been able to approve this yet or to review this yet. I see we have Alex from from from the building department approaching the podium. If you could
just shed some insights for us. >> Good morning, Alex Garcia, Tren building official. Uh yeah, so our local requirement ordinance is for BF plus one uh which is 9 ft uh all electrical components. So any electrical components need to be at that height. Um so a lot
of our you know um parking uh areas are well below us from and from the presentation that lift I believe raises it uh I believe it was 6 in or so above from what I was uh when we talked um so that still doesn't reach that that
requirement. But let me ask you something because you know lifting >> lifting these devices >> 8 feet or 8 ft plus one. >> Our base flood elevation for our zone is 8 ft and then the freeboard is plus one but it's just the electrical components.
I I I know understood, but it's pretty heavy duty electrical components and and so and so if the requirement is, you know, for these electrical components to be 8 ft above, we're not going to end up with any electric chargers throughout
the city. And that's that. And so and so we need to go back and see, okay, what what what can be worked as a as a solution? Um because it is it is a challenge. It it's if we're if we're going to say I mean these are pretty
much like transformers that now imagine that taller than a human you're going to have to put a lift taller than a human and then and then on top of that lift then you're putting that transformer. It's it's it's unrealistic. It makes sense if the entire lot the entire lot
is, you know, BFE, you know, at the BFE level. Well, then at that point, you put the transformer, you know, at that height because the entire lot is being raised to that height. Um, you know, I think we need to go back and and see how how we can address this
>> through the chair. >> Yes, commissioner. Um what hasn't been contemplated is the fact that we are about to open 150 parking spots in the Doville garage on Friday. Um that is 150 spots that will be permanently managed by the city. That is a built parking
garage. Um and I would imagine that there's an opportunity to put on the second or third floor some charging stations. >> So um yes, commissioner. So, actually we're actively talking to Tesla because right now, for example, we have a Tesla supercharger in our um uh G9 garage,
which are our our on Yeah. Pennsylvania garage. Um however, it is not the upgraded version that can accept any vehicle. So, we're actively talking to Tesla to get that upgraded. Um, we I I've spoken to everyone and said we would absolutely love everybody to be on the second
floors of our garages because then we don't have to worry about, you know, all of our garages are going to be BFF plus one. There is some challenges with the infrastructure cost because obviously now we're putting in a new transformer and then running conduit and so everyone's looking at that. But um,
>> and you have a transformer you actually has have to put there and that's that's part of the challenge, isn't it? >> Correct. is most of our garages are already pretty much maxed out on their load. So, we would have to upgrade um any electrical source for anything on our garages or obviously any parking lot
as well. Um however, I I do want to go back to >> But in the parking lots, it's easier because you can do the dredging and you can, you know, run the utility easier than through garage from what I gather. >> Correct. In that is absolutely the correct theory, which is why everybody is looking at parking lots. We again, we
do have a meeting tomorrow. I believe it's 1:30. um where we had a vendor reach out to us that state that their units because there's two options to maintain compliance. One is the installation and and one if I remember correctly it is completely encapsulated or >> completely floodproof. Yeah.
>> Yeah. So they're they're saying their engineers can claim that their their units are completely floodproof. That's why I wanted to get them in front of the building department because that sounds probably harder than in my opinion. But I mean, hey, I'm not an engineer, which is why we involve the professionals. And if they can do that, then that
completely wipes out, um, essentially any need for levitation and we could probably go move very fast. >> And so, um, so I, you know, I like Commissioner Bot's idea. Um, you know, I I think I think we need to take a look
at that. Um, you know, but we had 40 P55 401 Alton Road uh where where we had identified and we had passed legislation to partner with FPL. Uh, I was very proud to sponsor that legislation to to
to get these EV charging stations there, P10 at 14th and Michigan. We had identified that one as well. Uh obviously along the Collins condo corridor uh 26 and Collins at least that one is moving forward. But, you know, if
we need to sit down with the building department, see what we can do um to address um to address the heights of these of these uh chargers because we need the infrastructure uh at least in North
Beach with Commissioner Bots's initiative with all these parking spaces, which thank you Commissioner Bot for leading to get all those parking spaces because North Beach needs them. at least there, you know, we might have that opportunity uh to put it on a higher floor which addresses that that
that elevation issue, but we've been waiting for years. And Alex, we know you're the guy that's going to make it happen. [laughter] >> I will try my best. Yes. >> No pressure. No pressure. >> All right. >> All right. So, with that, let me Are there members of the public wishing to
speak on this item? Seeing none in person or in Zoom, we can show this item closed. >> Yes, please. >> Okay. And then uh the next item is item number 14. >> 15. >> 15. Well, you also have item number 14, but >> um Sarah's gone. So, >> oh, Sarah, I'm happy to call the item
clear if you want. Sarah here for it, but Okay. Um item number 15. >> Item number 15 is discuss take action regarding the city's procurement requirements for contractors and vendors and their impact on project costs. This item was sponsored by Vice Mayor
Dominguez. Uh thank you. So um I have been meeting regularly with Christie Vada and also included um some members of the community that had uh expressed ideas and interest in um our procurement
process. And what what uh worried me was that we have these uh major uh projects that come up in our city or opportunities for vendors to bid on and then we get one bidder and sometimes it's the same bidder and I wanted to do
a deep dive on why that was happening and part of the case is we did have some extra restrictions which people or vendors uh wouldn't necessarily um be able to apply for because of their businesses didn't qualify. But um
another thing that came up during my meetings with uh the director was that the state preempts us on a lot of these things. So some of our restrictions that made it make it harder for biders uh to come in and vendors to apply um are
going to um come to light in the next few months. So Christie, I will um allow you to share what you have and then we can move the item to the full commission should this committee uh feel. >> Perfect. Good morning, chair,
commissioners, vice mayor, Christy Bala, chief procurement officer. So the item encompasses a few recommendations, but before I highlight those, I just want to point out um Mr. Chair Alex Fernandez, uh, you had requested that I speak with the county
and kind of get a feel for where they are with the strip task force and all that. I have spoken to them. I've been following along all their meetings and they're not yet at the stage where the final recommendations of the task force have gone to the full board. Um, I do
have the list of their final recommendations, but the board has not yet approved them. my last conversation with the director of their procurement, their strategic procurement. Um it was stated that perhaps July they may hear it or September. So, I do have a
separate item um just to not to derail, but just to kind of touch on it that um Commissioner Magazine sponsored for myself to implement any of the recommendations that the county makes and to let you all know via LTC 90 days
following their approval of those recommendations. So, just to kind of highlight that. Um so some of the recommendations that you'll see here the first one is regarding the formal solicitations. Currently we come to the city commission
for the approval to issue RFPs, RFQS and ITNs. Um this is to perhaps streamline that process and not present those issuances to the city commission. Um the city of I also consulted with the city of Miami and Miami date county and neither of
them do present their issuances to the city commission. So that's one of them. Um I can continue to go through I don't know if you all have any questions in between or >> so you're saying rather rather than bringing the draft RFPs to commission uh you guys would put those out.
>> Correct. >> Okay. >> And you would be notified as you normally are when we release the con of silence once a month. all the projects are listed there or if you're amenable to I mean if if there's some other methodology that maybe >> and the county and the city uh city of
Miami neither one of their bodies uh approve the draft RFP before it goes >> correct okay >> the >> but but but let me ask you that um let me just ask you about that you know the draft RFP is a draft RFP I don't I don't
recall us really ever like changing ing the draft RFP. Um, you know, how do how would how would that affect the issue of there only being one respondent? >> So, this kind of came about because we
were asked to see what other process or things that we do that maybe we could streamline and that's how this one came about. >> Okay. I see. All right. Yeah. Because that can add, you know, easily an extra month or two, >> potentially three into the process. Of getting a solicitation. Okay. All right.
Absolutely. Um the second is there's a few items in this one. This one is a result of a vendor survey that we did in 2024. Um we do either internal customer service or vendor surveys on different years. And the last vendor survey we had
was 2024. We'll be doing another one this year. But one of the main feedback um that they provided us was a need for faster and more reliable payment methods. So I'm working with actually finance is already kind of doing this.
It's incorporating electronic payments such as AC's. So this is something that's already happening. So hopefully we'll be able to get hopefully this will bring in some more vendors if they're seeing that we're able to offer this ability >> and that in essence allows us to pay
faster. >> Correct. Yes. >> Okay. The second one under the vendor survey is that currently there's, you know, different due diligence, vendor registration, affidavits, and things like that. So, we're working to consolidate as much as
we can with the affidavits. We also have federal affidavits that have to be filled out. So, I'm working with the city attorney's office to try to streamline as much as we can into perhaps what we have that the vendors all fill out. It's one questionnaire with all the questions. So anything we could incorporate into there that will
help streamline everything they have to respond to so they don't miss anything that would be helpful to them. They did you know mention that it can be complex. So that would be great. Another um recommendation that we had which we actually held our first um procurement
vendor fair workshop in April 2020 uh 28 2026. That was one of the recommendations which we actually already did one. Um, we actually held a vendor fair where they could come speak to the different departments, also speak to the procurement department. We showed
them where we post our bids and things like that. We had the different departments talk about any upcoming projects to hopefully gain some interest for more biders. Um, and we also held some workshops regarding different softwares related to vendors for like bidet etc. so that they can learn the
system. We had the representatives from Bidna also there. The third item is regarding insurance requirements. We're actively working with risk to review the different types of insurance. They are taking a closer a close look to see what we can streamline
regarding insurance to make sure that we're not that they're appropriate um to the requirements of the project. Also, I am currently working with the city attorney's office to review the different terms and conditions of contracts to hopefully streamline some
language and eliminate unnecessary terms and conditions that might impede or um you know perhaps deter vendors from submitting bids because they see terms that maybe they don't want to engage in and things like that. So, >> like what would it be? Give me an
example. um some that are very important that we don't necessarily budge on which is very important for the city obviously is like the termination for convenience and things like that. So that might not be one we touch but maybe we can take a look at different ones that can help the
vendor community um be more engaging. And the last one is we have an internal permitting process um with regulatory departments to expedite approvals for city-led construction projects. So this is something that I don't know that all
contractors are aware of. So we through the procurement department will make sure we promote that and hopefully gain more interest because I know sometimes they can get deterred based on the permitting process and things like that. So this will help emphasize that there's a hopefully a quicker process. Those are
administrative that don't require policy direction. And then we have two items for consideration that are more policy considerations for you all. The first one is the revisiting the minimum wage um and benefits local workforce
participation for construction projects. This is under our city code and requires that it establishes labor standards for workforce participation for any construction project that's above 1.5 million. So it will require about a 30%
um local workforce participation but also prevailing wages. We are now preempted um by the state for requiring prevailing wages on any contracts that are not federally funded. So this we won't be able to continue um doing this
effective forgot what the date is for the >> September. >> September. Yeah. And then the living wage one also >> 1st. >> Correct. And then the living wage one um is number two on the legislative which is also under the same uh house bill
restriction. We can no longer impose on any contracts effective after September 30th. So, I'm not sure if um this is to consider if we'd maybe like to consider on the current agreements that are grandfathered in if we'd like to perhaps
consider not impo not continue to index those along with the September 30th deadline that they're imposing on any new contracts. But again, that's um for your consideration. So if you guys are in agreement, I uh make the motion to move this to the full
commission for further discussion. >> So let me just ask the city attorney in the past on certain issues where as I living wage is very important, you know, and prevailing wages is is is important
as well, especially in our procurement contracts. And at times we get preempted by the state um on things but I don't know sometimes like there's a preeemption that may happen but you don't necessarily change your law because you're necessarily
preempted you know you don't because sometimes the preeemption may cease to exist uh and now you've changed the law or a pre or preeemption may eventually get challenged and you want to preserve you know what you instituted
uh give me a little bit of guidance on that as it relates to to to these living wage statutes and ordinances that we have in place. >> Uh well, you're right. Just because a preeemption statute goes into effect doesn't necessarily always mean that we
would repeal the uh the ordinances on the books. Just in the same way if they're found to be unconstitutional, what would be enforceable in court is if you tried to enforce them. And so uh in in some cases we might advise you to uh
to actually repeal the ordinances. In some cases you could just leave them uh on the books but the important part be to not enforce them. >> Okay? And and this is you know and what we're talking about some of these you
know relate to prevailing wages for people who work in our construction projects. We're talking about fringe benefits uh for these employees. I think you know as as it is we can't apply these ordinances. >> Correct.
>> Come October 1st. We can't we can't apply it. There are currently about 10 projects that are for the construction related prevailing wages ordinance and we would no longer be able to um enforce that starting any contract that is
executed after September 30th. With the living wage ordinance, there are contracts that have been signed prior to and some are very long-term contracts. So, I'm not sure if we want to consider the ones that are grandfathered in that were executed prior to September 30th if
we would like to consider not continuing to index those based on that preeemption or we want to continue indexing those and then anything that's executed after. >> Does the state law have a sunset provision that state statute?
>> No. I have it here but I don't think so >> because I mean you know if legislators come and go sessions you know and every session sometimes you know new sessions come in and fix the
sometimes the bad deeds of of the previous session. And so then I would hate for us to see re repeal something you know about you know the these employees you know that they must get a living wage and these are the employees
who do janitorial services, landscaping, the parking attendants, the security officers, the temporary labor and trash collection and all that. And these are individuals who do deserve in my opinion um a fair wage, minimum wage. uh and you
know I want to be hopeful that someday the state might come in and um and say okay no we need to go in and revisit this in fact even forget even living wage you know even heat policies you know heat policies of people who are
working outside under under the grueling sun yet you know there's all these preemptions that are limiting uh our our ability to to regulate this. Would you mind deferring action on this for today? Because I just want to understand a little bit better with our city
attorneys, you know, on the potential impact of this um I know that you're very sensitive to these issues as well. >> Of course. Of course. Um yes, let's defer it to September. >> Okay. >> Yeah. If you don't mind. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, let's let's show this item deferred to September so we can
study this more and maybe also gives time to the county to consider, you know, the outcomes of their >> also. Yes, because I know that they do have in the the strip task force did also recommend to repeal their living wage and so if if they accept it also I
can share that information with you all. >> That'd be great. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. >> And even though Sarah liked if you said it was okay to do 14. >> Yeah, let's call item 14. I would I suspect this might be quick. >> Item number 14 is discuss reinstating
the Miami Pep Parade. This item was sponsored by Vice Mayor Dominguez. So, uh, we participated in the, uh, Miami Beach, uh, pet parade. I think, uh, it was a couple years ago. We allocated $5,000 and Commissioner B,
Commissioner Fernandez and I were all judges of, uh, the dogs and cats that were there. Uh, it really was a fun time. Um, the more we can do events um that are healthy and beautiful for our
community, I think it's a great idea and wanted to uh find out more from the parks department uh what that would entail moving forward if we were to do it again in the future. >> Good morning, Cindy. Afternoon, Cindy Kasanova, assistant director for parks
facilities fleet and beaches. Yes, as uh Commissioner Dominguez stated, this event actually was held last year. uh March of 2025. It was held on Ocean Drive in Lumis Park on 14th Court and it was really spearheaded um Commissioner Dominguez championed the item and it was
spearheaded by residents Sarah Del Reyes and um Ken Copel um and it was a wonderful event. It was an event that featured a um there was um a trick and um treat contest. There was local vendors that came out. So it was it was a really a great experience for a lot of
pet uh owners here in the city. So we've been speaking with Sarah. We've been working with her uh building off of her experience from last year to see what we could do this year as a reimagined pet parade. And we thought it would be a really cool idea to kind of tie it into the theme of the celebration that we're doing for America's 250 and to do a pet
uh parade that was maybe themed um the Miami Beach Pause of Freedom Pet Parade. Um we would look to target something maybe in around October um as like a kickoff to Veterans Day and things that we're doing um along those lines. Um we committed to the same >> for purposes of time. What is uh the
fiscal impact? >> $5,000. Same as it was last year >> to support this item. Someone's willing to make a motion. >> All right. Send it to the full commission for consideration. >> Okay. Adopted by acclamation. Could we try to do some fast items because I um
Commissioner Dominguez, since you're still here and we called three of your items, maybe we can call a fourth of your item. >> Okay. >> Uh item number eight. Item number eight is discuss potential options to improve last mile connection for ferry rides upon arrival in the city
such as wayfinding signage, transit coordination and information concerning the Miami Beach trolley and city bike. This item was sponsored by Vice Mayor Dominguez and co-sponsored by Commissioner BS. >> Okay. Uh Commissioner Dominguez, you sponsored this item about uh the
connectivity. What was your idea? Uh so um as the trolley has really taken off uh particularly down at uh Morris Gib Park um and it's been very popular, people have been confused on where to find the bus and where to go next and
how to get to the last um uh next step in their process of getting to where they need to be. Um when I had my briefing um and speaking with uh the director, he gave me some excellent news in that um the trolley is going to add a stop on uh Perie Avenue so people don't
have to navigate and try to figure out how to get to the trolley at Publix and um if any of you's taken the trolley in that area, the Publix is also where they take their break. So people could be getting off the trolley, walking to Publix and then there's an empty trolley because that's um when they're taking
their time off. So, um I think this is encouraging. Um it'll be closer to where people get on and off um the trolley and if you want to say more, uh that would be uh great and I don't think we need to move this to the full commission. We could actually close it out.
>> Thank you, Commissioner. I'll be very brief through the chair. Uh good afternoon, Jose Gonzalez, transportation mobility director and commission, vice mayor. I have even better news. uh we can actually create an additional stop trolley stop within the parking lot of
Marie Skip Park which so that way it'll ensure seamless connectivity between the water taxi that stops right there at the floating dock and our trolley service so that passengers won't even have to walk over to Perie or or so it'll be even closer >> is that for both loops
>> and that's for loops A and B >> and that's the map that we have on page 316 of our agenda that shows the stop right there right off of the uh the trolley exit the uh the water taxi exit. >> That is correct. Right within the parking lot.
>> Thank you for for bringing the item. Is there anything any other feedback that you want to provide to the administration? >> No. No. And my co-sponsor, Commissioner Bot, thank you for that. Um and I think this will be great for the residents. >> Commissioner Bot, anything you want to add to this?
>> No, Jose. >> All right. >> Thank you. And the last thing I'll mention is we also extended Freebie. The geo fenced area of Freebie now extends into Maurice G Memorial Park so that you walk out of the trolley. I'm sorry, the water taxi and you can free right there.
Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Jose. Let's item number nine. >> Okay. >> Item number nine is discuss temporary wayfinding signage and construction activities of the 41st Street improvement project. This item is sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez.
>> And I place this item on the on the agenda because, you know, during during the construction phase of this project, which David I believe is supposed to start in January. >> Yes. >> In January, local businesses may experience reduced visibility and accessibility. And so, um, and so I
wanted to share with the 41st Street, um, committee, uh, the signage, got their feedback. We were able to go there, present to them. I think they were very happy. >> I I believe so. Yes. >> And we got some good feedback from them regarding the integration of branding
from the 41st Street bid. >> Yes, we did. >> And we received that feedback. >> It they're supposed to send it to me today. >> Okay. And so and so for confirmation, we're going to have the logos of the build of the businesses on these uh on
these signs. So we're going to have fronting fronting >> on the on the windcreens at face 41st. will also be putting banners on the street lights. >> Okay. And we're going to be making it clear that 41st Street is open to business during the construction phase. >> Correct. >> Going block by block first one side
whether the north side >> scheduled is one block at a time, one half or or north half and south half or south half, north half, however that the contractor wants to do that. >> Okay. Do you need official action from the committee? >> Um I don't believe so. I think just uh
uh the committee accepting the recommendation that we proceed with the signage plan once >> I'm happy to entertain a motion to accept the recommendation of the administration. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. You can show this adopted by acclamation. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh item number 11.
>> Item number 11 is discuss take action update from police and transportation departments on traffic congestion in North Beach and traffic light synchronization efforts. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Bot and co-sponsored by Vice Mayor Domingue. >> Commissioner Bot, you
>> So, I'll let Jose do the heavy lifting on this, but um we have all kinds of traffic issues up in North Beach specifically, but not exclusively, the intersection from Indian Creek to 71st Street and then north to Dickens and then also some of the side streets just
south of that. um going from uh east to west, it can take 20 minutes going from the Carolon to to Indian Creek. And um so we have all hands on deck trying to find resources and solutions to ameliate that not just for North Beach, but also
what we can learn and institute there uh could potentially be implemented throughout the other the rest of the city where there are other hotspots. So with that intro um all teed up, Jose, take it away. >> Thank you, Commissioner. uh through the chair. Um so this is a joint item
between three amongst three departments really uh transportation, parking and police. So I'll speak to the uh transportation update. Um you may recall that we are in the process of conducting a pilot program that's aiming to
optimize all the traffic, not all but the key traffic signals in North Beach. a total of 17 different signalized intersection across 71st Street, Indian Creek Drive, Abbott Avenue, Dickens, um,
Harding, as well as some of the site streets, 633rd, 65th, 67th, 73rd, 75th, 77th. So, it's a goodiz network of critical intersections up there in North Beach that we affectionately call the,
uh, Bermuda Triangle. And um the the idea is to >> I like to correct the record. It's not very affectionately called that at all. We call it that, but it's not affectionate. >> It's true. True. Um so the idea is to optimize drift uh traffic signal timing,
which some of these some of the current signal timing plans are decades and decades and decades old. They're old. They're stale. So it's due time that they be updated. Uh so we've taken the lead uh working with Miami date county of course because they have jurisdiction
and purview but we've taken the lead on this pilot program which has collected data and u >> when do we anticipate that data is going to be available? the well the data has been collected and the optimized signal timing plans have actually already been developed and we just shared them with
the county for review and hopefully implementation uh just last week in July early July. >> Let me ask you something. How often are we recynchronizing the lights in the area? So it's supposed it's it's really the responsibility of either the DOT or the
county depending on jurisdiction and how often it has to happen every 3 years. It is every three. It's so >> but the challenge is so the challenge is that I I think you know the real challenge is that obviously you know when you're going to cross the street you need to push the button and when you
push the button you know you I don't know how it works. I'm just a lay person, but it seems to me you trigger the light to stop. And then when you trigger the light to stop, then all of a sudden, you know, it's easy when you do it so many times, I would imagine they lose synchronization. And then on top of
that, to help manage traffic flow, either you have public safety specialists or you have the police officers out there with the pickle uh manning the traffic lights. And I would imagine the more that this happens and it needs to happen, the lights get out
of synchronization. Uh, and perhaps, you know, is there is there a way that we could try to, you know, now that we have um this optimized uh signal timing plan to make sure on on a regular basis, how do we make sure on
a regular basis that the lights are indeed still synchronized to that timing plan? Sure. So, it's always good business practice to every so often collect data and update signal timing plans so that they reflect actual
conditions in the field. And as you mentioned, uh, Mr. Chair, there are things that can throw the coordination, as I say, off whack. >> Um, it could be a variety of things. So, u, it's just good business practice to do that. The good news is that we have
purchased devices that collect the data. These are cameras that collect the data. These these are the devices that we're currently using in North Beach, but they're portable. So once we're done with this pilot program in North Beach, we can then take those devices and
install them at other other intersections throughout the city. So I guess how but I guess my my question to you Jose to address the issue of the traffic that Commissioner Bod uh is leading to address. How often are we going out there and
checking are these lights still synchronized the way that they should be? How often are we policing that? >> So most recently it's been it's been less than three years. I would say it's about two years. >> But I think we need to be doing this on a regular basis. I would venture to say like on a monthly basis, you know, high
high volume intersections, high volume intersections uh and corridors like this area in in uh in North Beach or like, you know, Mid Beach on 41st Street, areas of Collins Avenue. We just have to make sure on a
regular basis that somehow we go out there and we check, okay, is this still synchronized? Yes, it is. Okay, fine. It's not synchronized. We need to reach out to DT. we need to reach out to the county um because this is, you know, it's great to have the plan. I think
that that's great. We have this uh timing plan, but we need to make sure that the lights stay on that plan and we can't wait 3 years >> to make sure that that that they're still on it. >> Correct. >> How can we so what's that method like?
Like like how do we go out there and check to see whether the lights are still synchronized or not? Well, that could be done through a variety of ways. We have a traffic engineer, uh, but it's only one person who can, you know, look at if there's a problem area in the
city. Um, she goes into the county's signal system and checks if there's anything that is off. One of the things that could throw coordination off, for example, are broken detection loops. And that's that happens quite a bit throughout the city whenever there's
roadway work >> or construction work like what you're having in town center. We know that this happens. >> Correct. >> And and and in fact there was a big discussion about this at the county a number of years ago I think involving Miami Beach. uh because of the time the amount of construction that was
happening in the city the detection loops the detection loops were breaking and that was affecting the lighting the lights and so you whose responsibility is it to replace those detection loops >> we identify them it's the county's responsibility to repair them and there
is a backlog there's quite a significant backlog of damaged or malfunctioning detection loops >> throughout the county and in our city yes >> at that currently are not working >> that are currently not working correctly. >> Okay. For our September meeting, I'd
like to as part of this item get an update on that because that is concerning, but I think we also need to make sure like in areas where we know we have heavy construction, we're we're we're monitoring that. And if I can add on that, if if they're being damaged or or um broken irreparably by
construction, shouldn't it be um the responsibility of whoever is doing the construction? So, so that if it's, you know, and it's not the hotel. I'm just saying, for example, if if the Grand Hyatt had broken some, wouldn't it be incumbent on them to replace it, thereby
circumnavigating the county backlog? I mean, >> that's correct. There are so many issues that I hear, you know, we want to get the green back back lit signs that, you know, saying what the street numbers are um replaced because there are plenty of
them um all over the city, but especially up in North Beach that are completely illeible and we keep hearing that that well the county can't do it because there's a backlog. And so I don't know what the issue is with the county, but we need to find ways to work around that. Whether we, you know, do it
ourselves and then and you know, like with the landlord where you fix the the fridge in your apartment and you just withhold part of the next month's rent to cover the cost of the repair, you know. So I I don't know what the solution is, but we can't be relying on the county if the county has this
backlog. >> Yeah. So, so when we come back in September, it' be great, Jose, if you could kind of bring us a list of those detection loops that that might be damaged. Let me ask you this. Recently, I've been receiving complaints about 69th Street. 69th Street, that area, you
know, kind of between from Harding uh to to Indian Creek. Um, and I've experienced that that traffic myself, especially when you're going southbound on uh on Harding and you're going
southbound on Abbott and it and it all becomes a cluster right there. >> Um, in fact, people even trying to go westbound on the eastbound lanes. >> Let me ask you this. Is it feasible to look at 69th Street
um west of Harding and maybe during certain times of the day if not permanently and making it a one-way westbound street to to to provide more capacity for for the cars so that they don't end up blocking the intersections? Because what's happening is that there's
so many cars there during peak hour that then the pedestrians and the bicyclists feel unsafe because the the crosswalks are being blocked uh and the intersections being blocked. So it's the traffic the vehicular traffic blocking the intersection is impeding pedestrians
and bicyclists too. >> Do you think that there might be any feasibility in studying making 69 street one way during certain hours of the day? >> Sure. Commissioner, you um you're right on point. It will take a feasibility study. It will take a traffic study to
look at uh a one-way conversion of 69th Street, which is currently two ways. Just want to let you know that 69th Street, we're painfully aware of the issues that you mentioned and it is one of the corridors that's covered under the current uh optimization pilot
including the intersection of 69th and Abbott, 69th and Indian Creek and 69th and Collins and 69th and Harding. So all four intersections are covered but as a two-way street. what you're alluding to is potentially converting it
to a one-way street that would require a traffic study. >> But through the chair, if I might. So, we're we're looking at working with University of Texas at Austin to do a sort of holistic reimagining of how all those streets converge and what the behavior is and how we can make them
more um passable. So, as part of that, could we not incorporate investigating that as well? >> Yes, Commissioner. >> Okay. So, that' be great. So, it's once we get that ironed out, um, because I think there's an FOT grant to cover or a federal grant actually to cover that
cost from UT Austin. Once they come on board, we can make sure that that is covered as part of the scope. >> That'd be great. Anything else with this item for today? Would should we continue this item to September? >> Um, does the police have an update on anything at this point or parking or is
it just transportation? No. Okay. No police. and Will is gone I think so. Okay, I guess we can continue for now. Yeah. >> Okay, perfect. And thank you. You know, this is important and especially with all the growth happening, all the growth
that we didn't approve. >> Well, and I will say it's not just for North Beach because people, you know, circumn the whole city going from north to south and get stuck there. And so it backs up to Alton, you know, down 63rd. It it backs up to Collins at 41st. So
it's a whole drama citywide. All right. Uh, let's proceed to item number 12. I'm sorry. Are there were there members of the public wishing to speak on item number 11? >> I see none in person, none in zoo. So, we'll proceed to item number 12.
>> Item number 12 is discuss enhancing beachwalk lighting south of Fifth, particularly near South Point Pier extending west, also introducing wrapping trees and white lights east of Smith and Winsky. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Matio Selenas.
All right, Commissioner Selenas. This is your item. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I did a walkth through recently with some of the residents south of Fifth and they um you know have expressed concerns about the
safety and the lack of lighting in South Point Park and also near Smith and Winsky. So, I put this item on the agenda to discuss uh what can we do to improve the lighting in that area. And I have some thoughts about some tree lighting, tree wraps, and also some of
the extending the Ballard lighting that is on um the beachwalk extending that west um on the cutwalk. So, John, I'll let you take it away and explain what you have found and what you have. >> Okay. We were able to look at um the tree wraps along it would be basically
if Ocean Drive continued itself through into the park. So it would be the north south corridor. It's very well shaded, very beautiful to tree wrap the the center of that walkway would be about um $24,000. That's electrified. Solar wouldn't work there. But the good thing is we have a power source in some
existing lighting. So that down that brought down the cost. Now as for extending the ballards, as you know, you know, we're right on the water. There's a lot of permitting and agencies that have to be involved in this. That would be a a more in-depth process of of permitting and whatnot. And even the
tree wraps would have to adhere to whatever the turtle lighting ordinance would be in that area. >> So, the tree wraps need to are affected by by the turning by the turtle lights. >> Yes, we turn them off at Lumis Park
during turtle season. >> And how do how do we do it in Lumis Park? They're they're not electrified during during the turtle season. >> Okay. It's just to me, you know,
I to me just adding the lighting makes sense. Having to go in and do an audit almost like a study. I guess you have someone a consultant come in. >> I we don't have one on board, but there are there are several that the city has used. Um, so we like to do as much as we
can with in-house staff before incurring the cost of of of different consultants, but we would need to get to do >> So we're talking about bringing in a consultant to do tree tree wraps. >> No, I'm I'm sorry. There's the the memo had talked about bringing a consultant
to look at lighting as a whole. Since then, I've had a conversation with the sponsor specifically about the tree wraps single project item. >> Okay. How much does it So, so the tree wraps, even though it's affected by the turtle ordinance, we're going to be proceeding with it.
>> Um, I proceeded with getting a cost for that. >> I I will I will meet with with staff the regulatory. >> Is there is there is there an opportunity to do amber lighting on the on the tree on the tree wrap so that we have the wrapping, we have the lighting,
but it's, you know, a different hue of light. >> We could look into that. Typically, >> I see we have our chief resiliency officer. T >> typically the tree wraps that residents like are the warm white, the cool white, but we could certainly look at an amber as well.
>> Yeah. So, so what we look for is that there's no visible lighting from the beach. That's really the the trigger. And so from from from the beach, we don't want to see any visible lighting. So, we can evaluate with the parks department on that. Um, generally just
the the the wrapped lights, we can't make them turtle friendly because you'd have to like put a little shield on every single light if that makes sense, even if it's amber. So during t turtle season, we don't do those if it's visible from the beach. So that that's our cue, but we'd be happy to
>> take a look. >> So if I may, >> well, I want to just add real quickly that so the the tree lights that are wrapped that will be next to Smith and Wolinsky wouldn't be visible from the beach. I don't want to say definitively yes or no because I'm not the agency, but I do not believe there'll be an
issue, but I we'd have to see it because we'd have to see what is blocking it from >> from there. They're pretty strict sometimes. >> Commission, I mean, from from from what I gather, this is the area west just west of Smith and Wolinsky. >> Yes, just east east of Smith.
>> East of Smith and Smith and Minsky. I mean, that's not very far away from the from the beach. Yeah. >> So, just to clarify, even the amber lights are too illuminated. Even the amber lights have to be covered. >> If they're string lights, yes, that's not allowable by by our ordinance, and
they would have to be somehow be turtle friendly. Um, but again, it has to be visible from the beach, and it >> we we can support you and take a look at that. >> Yeah. I mean, because I went out there also um in the same area looking at different things for for that park and it seemed like and clearly I'm not the
expert, but it seemed like the vast majority of it was not visible from the beach. So hopefully that's what you'll find as well. >> Right. In abundance of caution, I'm mentioning the regulatory agencies, but if we that's why we have a price, if all things line up, $24,000, you got that center path lit up and it wouldn't be a
problem with the sea turts. >> Okay. Um, Commissioner Metos, Selenus, this is your item. You can guide us in the direction. >> Sure. So, John, we can can we bifurcate and and move forward the 24,000 into um,
you know, full move that to the commission so that way we can get started on the tree lights west of Smith and Molinsky and then bifrocate the the lighting that would go Yeah. east of Smith and Molinsky and then bifrocate the other lighting that would um go closer to the ground uh on the cutwalk.
Can we bifrocate those items and pass >> tree lights? >> So we would take something to commission accept a recommendation to move for you know to recommend funding for the tree lights. We keeping the other stuff on on this on a at committee for further discussion or for just staff to further
explore extending the ballard lighting that's currently on the beachwalk down through the park. I'd love for staff to just further explore it because we already have the lighting the small B ballard lightings that are all along the beachwalk and I just want to extend that to um you know west now heading towards
Smithy and see what the price would be to do that. >> Okay. >> Well, you and I could talk offline specifically where you want to leave a walk the park if you'd like. But I'm happy to second your motion uh bifurcating uh the likes east of of Smith and Wisky uh and sending that to
commission perhaps if we can find funding in the current uh in the current year budget uh for them. >> All right. Can we show that adopted by acclamation? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Great. And see any members of the public wishing to speak on this item? I
no one on Zoom and no one in person. So we can move on to item number 13. Item number 13 is discuss and take action on the dying tree population in North Beach Oceanside Park. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Bond.
So, this is a long-standing item. Um, there's good news, there's slightly less good news, but overall it's better than we had anticipated, which is happy making. Um, there had been a reforestation effort. Um, and there it there is one ongoing and we've learned a
lot. We've tested a few things and uh I think we have a direction in which we can proceed. So with that, Lindsay, I'll let you do all the heavy lifting. Thank you. >> Good afternoon, commissioners. Lindsay Pre, deputy resilience officer and assistant director of environment sustainability. You teed that up perfectly so I can keep this update
brief if you'd like. Um so our survivorship percentage has decreased a bit since the last update. We're at about 65% survivorship. However, but what we've done now is we are considering some of those quote unquote dead trees as what we'd like to call
ecological calls. So, we're calling the trees and shaping them in different ways because they still provide environmental value, root stability, and habitat. Um, so instead of removing certain trees, we are keeping them within the dune system. We were also tasked by this committee to
test five different tree species. um because we already know that silver buttonwoods and sea grapes do very well and so we wanted to test five different species to see how they would do. So back in the fall we planted bass cedar, Jamaican dogwood, false mastic, Spanish
stopper and white stopper. Um bass cedar and Jamaican dogwood were very successful in their planting so far. We will continue to monitor. Um the false mastic went completely bare in winter but has shown regrowth potential. Um unfortunately both of the stopper
species are struggling so we wouldn't recommend those in future plantings. Um but we have learned a lot as you mentioned commissioner. So moving forward 81% of our tree planting efforts will include silver buttonwood and seagra species along the beachwalk in particular because of the harsh
environmental conditions. Um in December of 2025 we did plant 45 additional um trees along this corridor. All except two are doing very well and those two were actually as a result of vandalism. So it wasn't any sort of environmental
condition. Um so pleased to report that and more will be coming soon. There is an item on next week's commission as a regular procurement item to plant additional trees in this corridor along the beachwalk >> through the chair. >> Yes. >> Um am I completely making this up? Did
we talk at one point about extending the um warranty to two years? And if we did, where are we on that? >> That is correct. And that will be included as part of that procurement item. There is an option to extend to that 2-year um warranty period um just
to ensure that we have a little bit more of that wiggle room to make sure that they are replaced under those contracts. And and I think that that should become the standard uh with all of our, you know, capital improvement projects and with all of our general procurement of
landscaping. A a two-year um a two-year warranty on this. Anything else with this item? >> No, I think we're good. >> All right. Great. >> Thank you. We can show this item close. >> Yep. >> All right. Uh and with that, we have
item number 16. Item number 16 is discuss the potential transformation of the alleys located west of the west lots into a bicycle boulevard. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Bond. >> Commissioner Bond. >> So I do want to hear this item. Um I I
want to say though, however, I think the prudent way to proceed going forward is to fold this into um the reimagining of the West lots into a full-blown park where part of the scope would be to
improve um micromobility and you know alternate access. Um but I but that that one might take less time than the other. I would just want to make sure that whatever we do for the alley does not
become something that can't be reused as we reimagine the park. So, let's hear this item, then we can discuss it on the other side. >> Okay. All right. >> Okay. Good afternoon again, Jose Gonzalez, transportation director. Uh, just by way of very brief background,
Collins Court is an alleyway between Collins Avenue and Harding Avenue. It uh it's a pretty long alleyway. It extends from 73rd Street to 87th uh street. So about a mile if not more long. It serves as the back of house like many alleys,
the back of house operations for businesses. It also serves private parking uh for um commercial and residential buildings in the area. Uh and it has good east west connectivity between Collins and Harding at all the uh cross streets. So, it really makes it
a very good candidate for a bicycle boulevard given that there are no bicycle facilities along Collins Avenue um or Harding Avenue. So, uh, we're definitely, um, in support of this of this item, Commissioner, and we, what,
uh, we recommended was some sort of analysis that would look at the viability, like what would it take to change Collins Court so it could be safe for micromobility and bicycle users. And then bec just be because of the scope
the scale of this alleyway um we were estimating that a feasibility cost would be in the realm of approximately 80 to $90,000. We've applied for a permit under the
transportation planning organization and we were successful. It was it's funny because we weren't selected under the program under which we applied but we were selected under another program uh which is more they consider it more appropriate for bicycle pedestrian
safety projects and um the monies will become available on July 1st of 2027. We're trying to see if we can even increase our ask and maybe increase the scope to include design and maybe construction ideally. We're not sure if
that's possible yet. >> And what is the amount that has been granted? >> Um $86,500 >> so far, >> but that's just for feasibility. >> For feasibility. >> Let me ask you this because to me, and I, you know, and how long does it take
to do a feasibility study? >> Shouldn't be too long. >> Okay. But then we have to wait till July, >> correct? >> At least to get started. >> Um and then once you get that feasibility study, what are the next steps? Well, the feasibility study would include concepts as well. So, we would
already start designing this alleyway in terms of what it should look like, what changes would need to occur. The feasibility study would be comprehensive. It would look at lighting, drainage, u access, management, um, okay, >> all sorts of aspects.
>> I'm going to defer to the sponsor. I mean from my perspective I don't see like why we can't start working on this lowering the speed of the alleyway. I don't know what's the speed of the alleyway now if there is a speed but finding ways whether you know
to lower the speed or put ways to lower the the speed there now repave the word place mirrors and markings at the intersections and branding it for for you know bicyclists and microobility with >> you're saying without without the feasible study just makes
>> like it's like this it's like everything with government is study after study no and and it's like I think when we go there and you See, it's like common sense. Like it makes sense the bicyclist should be using this as as opposed to being with thousands of cars, you know,
going at high speed on Collins Avenue. We just need to make the area more conducive. And I have a feeling like if we all get together, like we know what we have to do to the alleyway rather than spending, you know, and I'm going to defer to your leadership on this. Um,
but I think we kind of know probably what the study's going to tell us. >> So, Hopefully in next week's meeting, the mayor will call an item that's been on the on the agenda. This will be the third month to approve Savino Miller as
um the landscape architects who will start the process of imagining what the West lots could be as a park. That is going to be a a time a timeconsuming [snorts] project. Even if we get the green light
next week, I think it will probably dovetail a little bit. So, I do like this idea of let's at least get, you know, let's get mirrors in there and signage because that's inexpensive. I'm not even sure I I was just up there looking at some parking issues. I'm not
even sure that we need to repave at this point, but if we can at least make it, you know, put put >> there's a lot of potholes. >> Okay. So, let let's maybe take a quick look up there and see what we can do inhouse um with our sort of repairing um
tools that are in our toolkit and buying a handful of mirrors and getting those uh installed as we go down the path >> at the intersections. >> At the intersections, >> striping intersections. >> Yeah. And taking the paths that the the signs that we've used on the on the beachwalk and you know, putting that up there as well to make sure people are
looking left and right. And, you know, we can we can have a a conversation about that. at the same time going forward with the feasibility study for the bicycle boulevard in conjunction with what Savino Miller will will look at um holistic with holistically with
the park. I think that it has to be one big conversation. Um but I do like this idea of doing some some quick fixes. Yeah. That won't be expensive and um will you know will make it much more useful. >> It's kind of like what we're doing with Alton Court. you know, with Alton Court,
we put aside funding to repave Alton Alton Court and Matthew, you were a part of that of of that of that discussion, you know, to repave Alton Court and seeing how can we make the intersection safer, which I I hope are we doing well, I don't want to mix one topic with the
other, but it's kind of like the same idea. The infrastructure is there, you know, at least, you know, low hanging fruit that we can do to make it >> safer. So, we will I mean, we're overdue for a um a micromobility task force meeting. Anyhow, so let's try and um get one in before the end of the month
before people go on vacation and that let's talk about what we need to do and um how we can get it done sooner rather than later. >> Should would you like to make a motion for the short-term improvements of the of the court? >> Does that even need to happen legislatively or can we just do it
through administration? Depends how much it costs, I guess. >> I'm not sure. It it will take various departments to do this in-house review because it would need to be a comprehensive review that would look at drainage, lighting, uh conflict points,
the condition of the pavement. So, I'm I'm thinking public works. I'm thinking uh >> but can we pull that together as an as sort of an administrative task force or do we need it to be convened legislatively? I think we need to just do it as a task force. Right. I'm happy
to to make a motion supporting the concept of of of doing these short-term improvements uh delegating to you, Commissioner Bob, for you to this is your item, you know, to work with the administration on this. And in the event that you need to take this to
commission, uh because it rises to that threshold, I you know, I I'm happy for the committee to give you uh a motion, you know, supporting this cost. That would be great. Thank you. saw that because I do I do think these are lowhanging fruits improvements that we
can do to make things safer so that people don't rely on going on on Collins Avenue and being with the traffic there. Uh and also just help beautify the area a little bit more. >> I'm happy to make that motion >> and I'll second that. And members of the public wishing to
speak, Matthew, >> thank you. >> Welcome. You have two minutes to speak. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Matthew Ghanov. And while I understand the intent behind using alleys as bicycle valves,
generally I'm opposed to the idea because the greatest danger is not riding within the alley. It's crossing the street at every block. Alleys often have limited visibility because of buildings, fences, parked
cars, and trucks, dumpsters, and service vehicles. >> [snorts] >> As cyclists can emerge from the roadway from a location where drivers are not expecting a bicycle crossing in a grid system, that conflict is repeated block after block. Other cities have explore,
excuse me, other cities have raised the same concerns. West Hollywood study alley studied alley bikeways and ultimately found that blind crossings, turning vehicles, poor visibility, service activity made the concept unsafe
and impractical. Their staff concluded that making crossings safer would require major major improvements such as parking removal, raised intersections, curb extensions, high visibility markings, lightings, and parking removal. I think I said that twice.
Hagerstown, Maryland also documented pedestrian and bicycle crashes near alley crossings and recommended similar costly upgraded upgrades for the plan to be safe and feasible. Before Miami Beach moves forward, the city should fully study every proposed crossing, including
site distances, vehicle speed, service activity, lighting, and the cost of proper safety improvements. The painted symbol or bicycle route sign is not enough. I urge the committee to prioritize protected bicycle facilities and trafficcom neighborhood streets
instead of directing cyclists into a series of potentially unsafe midblock crossings. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item? Seeing no one on Zoom and no one in person, we can close the public comment
and we can show this item adopted by acclamation. Do you want to bring this the uh the other part of this item uh back uh to to to committee or you want to show this item closed? >> Um I guess why don't we come back when you
know if you've gotten more funding for the for the grant. We already know. >> No, you you said you were going to ask if we can get additional funds. >> Additional funds. >> Yeah. And maybe give us an update whenever that is. >> Okay. >> By when would you anticipate? >> By September. >> September.
>> Okay. So So we'll uh uh try to to get this on the September agenda. And since we're all together, are there any items that US committee members want to ensure that we do get placed on the September agenda? And as you'll see, I try to, you know, not put more than a certain amount
of items because I don't want the public to think that an item is going to be heard and yet we can't reach it. But is there if there's anything in specific that you want to prioritize to make sure it makes it on the next agenda
18. >> So, Commissioner Matselinos wants item number 18 based on the agenda. Can I get back to you? >> Yeah, that's that's that's fine. If we could just let Stephanie know so that um
so that I can prioritize the item. I think generally today we were able to get through 15 items. Um so generally we get through about 12 to 15 items. So I try to be mindful of that. You know times when items aren't placed on the agendas because of that. Uh but yes,
just uh try to get to Stephanie. What do you like for September? I I would like to say um >> number 58 uh Commissioner Matelenas wants item number 58 on the agenda >> and uh item number 26 and then I'll get
back to you with >> item number 26. Okay. All right. And any other items that that that you want to prioritize? uh feel free uh to just um connect with with Stephanie. It's all of our
committee. So for as long as we have the committees um I'm happy to prioritize their items. >> All right, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you to everyone who participate who participated. Have a good day.