another heat Heat Heat Please take your seats The meeting is about to begin Remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record Please stand by We are going on air in 5
4 3 2 1 Hi everybody Um Commissioner Laura Dominguez here and I'm chair of the public safety and neighborhood quality of life committee and I'm joined by the fabulous Stephanie Ray Brooks our
assistant city manager uh Mark Taxis and our deputy uh city attorney Rob Rosenwald and um our vice chair uh Alex Fernandez is up in Tallahassee uh helping to fight some bills on behalf of
our city So thank you uh Commissioner Fernandez for that And uh thank you to um our committee member Alternate who is here today Joe Magazine And um Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez will be here
soon And uh Commissioner Suarez has a few items so he's here today as well Okay So with that Stephanie do you have any announcements Good morning Yeah we have some items that are being deferred We have item number five item number 10
item number 12 item 13 item number 14 item 16 item number 17 item number 21 item 22 item number 31 item 32 and item 33 that will be deferred to next month's
meeting We have a couple time certain items today We have item number four will be heard at 10:00 a.m We have item number three that will be heard at 10:15 Item number six and item number nine will be heard at 10:30 together And
those are our announcements for the day Great So let's get started with number four Item number four is discuss the possible installations of aeroponic gardens at the location to be determined in the convention center campus This item was
sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and economic development will be presenting the item Good morning commissioner vice mayor um colleagues I'm Heather Shaw assistant director economic development I'm here to talk about hydroponics or aerial ponics um at the Miami Beach
Convention Center In December of uh 2024 um Commissioner Dominguez and Robin Jacobs and I were given a tour of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando and they have a large aeroponic um program that's um within the
convention center It is uh state-of-the-art It is where they grow inside the convention center herbs and and and vegetables and leafy vegetables And it's a great demonstration of the sustainability of the convention center
and they use the the produce um from the garden to um integrate it with their their their menus It was really inspiring to us It it showed how um sustainability can be integrated into something that can be educational
inspirational and also um can be costefficient because it saves on growing having a garden outside We have been trying for um at least a year with uh growing a garden outside by the venue and the rum room And if anyone has been
by there you can see it really attracts our iguanas It's a little bit difficult to do So we thought why not do something on a smaller scale that um do an aeroponic um garden in the convention center or on the convention center campus It's again a way to show
sustainability It helps with the competitiveness of the convention center it it's also um educational We can in include the community to come in and see how plants are grown and how a garden is grown in a sustainable way And it also can be used to um incentivize clients
who are now more interested in in um booking with a a convention center that is more sustainable The actual food would not be to the the volume of feeding through all the events in the convention center but it could help with um the venue and the rum room And
there's some photos that I've added in the the menu on how it can be used I'm joined today by the vice president of Sedexco who is also our partner and also who also um uh started the program in the Orange County Convention Center if you have any questions for him And I'm open to questions One of the things that
we would like to do is explore doing this on the campus and um your direction on doing that There are some costs associated with it We think that they're very small gi given with what it will yield in terms of reputation and um the opportunity to make us stand out Thank
you Thank you uh so much for that information I think we have public comment Yes if we could unmute Robin Jacobs Robin you have two minutes to speak Good morning commissioners Thank you for the opportunity to speak today I'm Robin
Jacobs chair of the Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board At our January 14th meeting the advisory board unanimously recommended that the mayor and commission support the funding procurement and implementation of small aeroponic gardens at the Miami Beach
Convention Center These gardens would cultivate lettucees vegetables herbs and edible flowers bring fresh hyper local ingredients directly into the cent's culinary operations Our inspiration ca came from the centerto table gardens at the Orange County Convention Center and
Sedexo live currently the largest aeroponic garden public venue in the US Commissioner Dominguez embraced the vision Thank you so much Together with Heather Shaw we recently traveled to Orlando to see this innovative system firsthand Their commitment including a 6
a.m Bright Line departure and same day return reflects the passion behind this idea We believe this initi initiative aligns with Miami Beach's values of sustainability innovation and responsible sourcing Beyond its environmental impact the garden would provide fresh nutrient-rich produce for
use and catering and hospitality throughout the venue and rum serve as a living educational showcase for echoconcious event planners visitors and serve as an inspiration for local schools including our Beach Eye culinary program It would also enhance the
convention center marketability as a green destination setting a new standard for excellence in the hospitality industry We respectfully ask for your support to move forward with exploration budgeting and planning together with Sedexo Live to bring this meaningful initiative to life Thank you again for
your support of this amazing initiative Any more public comment No more public comments Okay Uh colleagues I I think it's fantastic Uh in addition to all the things that Miss Jacobs just mentioned about uh the sustainability and everything that's very much in line with
the direction that we're going in as a city I also think it provides something unique to the convention center I spent a lot of time there and one thing that I I kind of lament is not having anything incredibly unique that tells you that you're in Miami Beach Um and I think this goes a long way towards that So uh
with that happy to make a motion to refer this to the full committee uh to refer to the finance Second Yeah Great Uh so by acclamation um we'll uh move this on to the full commission And with that we'll go to number two I mean number one Thank you
Thank you Item number one is discuss update on geo bond log cabin project And this will be presented by CIP and it was sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez Okay Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez this is your item Um as you all know the log
cabin was um taken apart in I believe it was 2018 December of 2018 Here we are 7 years later Um we were able to get a million dollars in GEO bond funding to put the log cabin back together It is currently being stored um on the site
where the Kitty campus is on one of the West lots in air conditioned uh containers And um it's time to put the log cabin our historic log cabin that many residents love uh back together So I wanted to understand where
we were in the project I know we passed a resolution prioritizing the log cabin because it is so important to so many people and um I look forward to hearing what CIP has to say As I've said before it's great when I come before you and I
have good news So I'm happy to be here this morning to to give you a status update The resolution you mentioned was passed because the log cabin was originally scheduled in tranch 2 of the geo bond That resolution allowed us to bring some money forward and and utilize
some funds There was a budget amendment following that They gave us some funding so that we can do that At the commission meeting I updated that we had been having a hard time finding a consultant that would take this project on We had gone through four or five different
consultants The good news is we did uh make contact with a consultant that is interested gave us a a reasonable proposal We've issued a purchase order They've begun the process We issued a notice to proceed for design and they've begun their due diligence of looking at
the pieces and and getting the information they need so that they can start design And when do you project that they will begin And when will we have the log cabin wrapped together remantled rebuilt The design and
construction documents are scheduled to take approximately 8 months to complete including review and approval by the design review board Uh followed by 36 30 to 60 days per for permitting and then commencement of construction So a year a year and a half possibly Uh beginning of
26 is when we'll issue the ITB Okay Well that's wonderful news Um I'm looking forward to it And now I have an answer for many of my constituents who care deeply about the log cabin So thank you That's great news All right
Do you want to close up this I don't think we need to take any action You know what I would actually like it to come back in six months and get a second another update just to make sure that we're on track October October would be fine
Okay That would be my motion Okay Item two Okay Item number two is discuss the relocation of the city hall early voting site and extension of the early voting period for runoff election This will be presented by the city clerk
Morning everyone Morning commissioners Morning vice mayor Uh to recap if everyone recalls the department of elections required that all cities have five weeks between their general and their runoff election At the March 12th
meeting I gave a preliminary uh recommendation and this body asked me to do two things see if the elections department would give us four early voting sites during the runoff and to ensure that the parking at city hall garage would be available during uh during the runoff election And the
problem is that our runoff election coincides with our Basel So that is a problem that we're anticipating if we have a runoff election We have worked closely with the Department of Elections and they have agreed to give us four early voting sites as this body requested So those those four would be
the North Beach Library which we already have City Hall which we already have In addition it would be Must Park and North Beach and in addition will be the Southshore Community Center on South Beach So where the traffic is most impacted South Beach we will have two
early voting locations during the runoff The idea is that if you couldn't drive at least you could walk to most of these locations in South Beach because they're centrally located The second thing that you asked me to do was to ensure that the short-term parking lot here at city hall would be available for those voters
who still wanted to vote at at at city hall That that parking lot is normally used as uh valet parking for our Basel The parking department says that they have no problem The elections come first we will have that location as an as a parking site for the voters So my re my
request from you is discuss if this is acceptable and if so send it to the full committee So we can formalize that in a resolution Yeah I feel like this covers all of Miami Beach pretty well Yeah thank you for doing that Let's move the item Ralph
can I just ask one question Would there be any possibility to have uh something further south Uh obviously south of Fifth is a highly populated dense area and to provide a walking option uh in that neighborhood and we have a lot of city property down there The problem is
well we tried getting as close to fifth That's why we chose uh the Southshore Community Center which is on Sixth Street Uh but the statute requires that they be either community centers or city hall or city halls or or courouses So there's no other facility in that area
except the Southshore Community Center library We have a library on Alton Road The problem is that the library on Alton Road we looked at it the parking is across the street you would have to cross a a uh a large area plus the
library wouldn't be able to move those the the equipment they have where we would need So the elections departments thought based on parking that we have an adjacent parking lot at the Southshore Community Center and that we can uh shuttle anyone that you know it's a small parking lot ample enough for a
runoff but the workers could be uh parked at the at the fifth street garage that we have there So based on those logistics and the size of the large room at the Southshore they felt that that would be the best location Okay
that's it Thank you everyone Okay and with that no public comment so we'll move it to the full commission Item number three is up next Discuss increase in graffiti stickering across the city of Miami Beach This was sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez and Code and Facilities will be
presenting the item Um good morning We've noticed an increase in people stickering literally tagging um city signs electric boxes with um propagan not just propaganda but
advertisements for their brands and uh graffiti And we had a constituent come to us who literally dedicates every single day to walking around the city and scraping off these stickers He spends many hours I'm sure you know who
he is at this point because I'm sure have you ever I'm not sure if you met him but he came to our office and it was really incredible to see uh how the stickering and graffiti is organized It's not just random It's certain artists that want to tag our bridges
with these stickers and signs and our um what do you call the power boxes and even in the new park He recently sent us a photo yesterday of Morris Gibb Park that was already stickered by an artist So we were hoping that we had some plan
to um to get better at removal but also in terms of what can we do to enforce this by adding more signs I don't know So by
adding more stickers and signs obviously not But anyway it's a real problem So I'm I'm looking forward to hearing your um your presentation to see what we can do to clean it up Uh good morning Madam Chair members of the committee Hernande Cardino director of code compliance So I can tell you that over the last two-year
period we did see an increase from 631 to 106 um incidents where we have either stickering or graffiti And over that 2-year period we've referred 207 of these cases to our expert remediators in facilities uh to either paint over or
remove these Um what we're doing now is I mean we're just adding it to an area of focus for our neighborhood code officers Uh that's what it boils down to I I know police also has made some significant arrests uh recently where uh they arrested a
tagger and then uh his tag was recognized uh in some other parts of the city So additional charges were uh were added But um well it's not hard to seek out these taggers because literally they're putting their websites or
hashtags or handles on the stickers So I think we need to really get better at following up when we see that every single park is tagged or you know across a neighborhood all of the signs are tagged with the same artist or the same
brand Um I think we one person somebody should just be dedicated to this at this point So just additional background when we do get the hashtags um we do trace it back A lot of times it's promoters and we issue those violations Also
um for graffiti abatement uh you all changed the ordinance recently and it's 48 hours for commercial or non-commercial properties uh before it used to be uh 10 days or higher Um so we abate it if the property owner does not and then that becomes um a hard dollar
cost lean against the property So the reason I brought this item forward is that I think we might need to have a conversation about something that we could potentially do legislatively or create some sort of task force to follow up on it because as you can see um it's doubled nearly doubled
year-over-year Um possibly right now um when you catch somebody or find someone who is tagging you said you arrested them so that is a a criminal Actually that's the police department Yes that's a criminal violation Are we finding
these um taggers at all Especially the stickers I think the stickers are even more egregious because when it's graffiti we can just paint over it but the stickers have to be like copiously scraped off all of our signs and it's creating a real problem right We actually do both We abate and then we
also uh issue the violation to uh the promoter or whoever it is that may be putting these stickers on Is there a fine related to the violation And if so how much Because I think we could create legislation
um to increase the fine to make it disadvantageous Of course Yes Uh Commissioner Bod Commissioner Bod if you could please unmute yourself Hi everybody Um this is great Uh
Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez thank you for bringing this item I've actually been speaking with Officer Julio Blanco um about this this issue as well Um we are seeing it all over the city and especially up in North Beach And um I
think there's an opportunity for code and police to put together um a a joint strategy um to arrest as often as possible I mean there's nothing to deter you like being arrested Um and I think
that whenever graffiti gets identified you know identify the person um there needs to be comm communication with the um with the police department So it's not just that they get a a fine that they may or may not pay but um that it
is it's something that is um handled by the police as well because as my understanding is that it's a it's a criminal offense as well as a code violation Um so I think uh education and
deterrence would benefit us all And I would like to encourage um Hernand to um sit down with the the police and come back in a month and give us the updated plan of how how we're going to do a a concerted joint uh effort to not just
mitigate and and vi you know issue violations but also to um in every possible instance um arrest somebody So I think we could increase the fines or the initial fine is $250 How do you
guys feel about increasing that doubling it Yeah Madam Chair if I may Um so the fines are $250 but then on the criminal portion of it there's um the court's order restitution for whatever that hard dollar cost is for either the owner or the city to mitigate that So what is the
cost of sticker removal for example It it depends on how many location Same thing with graffiti size location Are you guys keeping track of this What's the average cost of Um good morning Um Elizabeth Mirro
assistant director for facilities and fleet management It can vary depending on the time we have to invest It can be anywhere from $250 to 300 Depends So my suggestion to send to the full commission thank you Would be to double
these fines How do you feel about that First offense 500 Second offense 1,000 Third if you're caught three or more times doing it we're going to charge you 2,000 What do you think Yeah I I certainly think uh this is public
property Um when we talk about public safety it's it starts with the small initiatives Uh I want to be careful that we don't get into some uh sort of game where we're antagonizing people and uh inviting them to almost uh beat us here But I think uh increasing the severity
of the penalties uh is proper Um perhaps also now that we have the real-time intelligence center we can put this on the police's radar as well uh for better monitoring Um and I think there's different levels of find So my So I
would move to send this to the full commission and double the fines for um for graffiti and sticker tagging Are you guys okay with that And then I would like to bring this back I know that I
know you don't want to keep I know you want to get rid of items but I also find that if we get an update for example in three months we can see if you know there was any change was there less graffiti and also um I would say that we should double the fines um but also do
some sort of marketing campaign on social media about how important it is to you know like to not like a a scary type of campaign but some sort of like beautifification campaign like don't come to Miami Beach and Sticker because we are increasing our fines and I think
you know people need to know and I would target you know like a targeted social media campaign What do you think in addition I think so that that's where it gets into I don't want to create some sort of like a cat and mouse game where we're actually encouraging it Yeah
Encouraging me Right Okay So then for now we'll just do the doubling of all fines related You okay with that Go to the full commission It has it would have to go to the full commission And I would like to thank Renee Contraras I don't
know if you're here the audience but he is the gentleman who every single day scrubs off stickers to make our community uh cleaner because he does feel like this sticker and graffiti pollution is very damaging and he's seen what it's done in where he used to live
in LA and that's why he's dedicated himself to now cleaning up our city and helping us So thank you And by the way if you see a sticker or graffiti please you are use our egovernment app take a picture of it we will go out and have it removed
Commissioner public comment The only other thing I wanted to add to that real quick is that um our three area managers kicked off this week they're direct reporting directly to me Um and we'll make sure that we place a priority on the area managers looking as they're out looking for things to look for these
this graffiti and these stickers And they'll work closely with both code and facilities to make sure that we we address this Wonderful Thanks And Commissioner B has her hand up Commissioner you may speak if you unmute Thank you
Um I believe I'm unmuted Can you hear me Yeah we can hear you now Okay Um uh I would also like to encourage as part of this um item that's moving forward to the commission is an urging
for code and police to put together a game plan to um work together to identify the people who are doing this so that in addition to a violation um if this the circumstances warrant there's also an arrest made That's that's a
suggestion that is coming from the police department Is that something that we would legislate or just That's already on the books So we would just work in conjunction with the police department Okay So we'll bring it back in three months You know Commissioner Magazine I
think you're right Like a boogeyman style campaign wouldn't work but you know what would work Like a PSA to residents saying "Hey listen If you see a sticker or some graffiti in your neighborhood take a picture send it to us and we will come and clean it up So I
mean I think that kind of social media campaign could be really positive Yeah agree uh just in the age of social media today um I'm hesitant to I I agree with you on this last portion but sitting there saying you know what if you come
here and fine we're increasing it'll create like a little social media cat and mouse game but I'm happy to go forward with you with uh a PSA to our residents Okay So as part of my motion I would do a public service campaign I don't know where Melissa is just
educating our residents about our ego app I think that that should be like an ongoing campaign because I find that um that in all of the meetings that we go to when we tell people about reporting stuff uh they don't know that this app exists or Oh they do know it exists Well
some do but we were in a we were in a room last night where several people said "Well what is that app How does it work?" So absolutely So if I may through the chair just to give you some insight just this fiscal year alone 225 of the complaints that we receive for our
department for eubs 62% are graffiti that's 139 okay so that's great I think we could do even more because people see it around they don't know what to do sometimes they might call 911 when they don't have to or who do you call to report it you know maybe they call city
hall and then they get bounced around so okay so the doubling of the fines and the social media positive social media campaign about what you can do to clean up graffiti and stickering That's it So that we'll send it to the full
commission but with an update to this committee in three months Yes Great Then we have the next item is item number 26 Discuss timeline for construction of Miami Beach Convention Center hotel headquarter hotel and anticipated opening date And we have
Evette who will be presenting the item Okay great And I think it's closing today Hello everybody Batista from Terara and BMU for the hotel We are happy to report that we're closing today and schedule doesn't change Uh I need to finish an
exhibit for Tais That's amazing news We're very happy Amazing news Um so happy to hear Um and then I'd like to bring it back next month to hear about uh groundbreaking next steps uh all that
good stuff Congratulations Thank you Congratulations for the city as well for getting a hotel Yes We have item number six discuss the potential creation of a special taxing district to fund the implementation of guardgates and/or implementations of
other security features in Venetian islands This was sponsored by Commissioner Suarez co-sponsored by Commissioner Magazine and facilities will be presenting the item Uh Commissioner Suarez Thank you Madam Chair Um for there's a lot of people also on Beayshore and North Bay Road
Would it be possible to call both items together because I'll have two similar presentations Madam Chair yes absolutely Okay I'll read it in just for the record Discuss the potential creation of taxing district to fund the implementation of security features in Beayshore and North
Bay Road neighborhood So this would be item six and nine will be combined Okay Um first I'd like to start off by saying u you know this was resident driven Um there has been concerns with u
public safety crime Um and in some cases traffic uh there's um been talk of traffic measures specifically on Lower North Bay Road Um that kind of fell flat in the last couple months Um I think
what I'm going to propose is is a little bit more um surgical for for what we can accomplish Um the way I'm going to break this up is through three or two different presentations Uh I'm going to start off with the Venetian Islands Um
David Gomez here has a similar presentation than what I have You'll have a little bit more details Uh and then after Venetian I'd like to move to to North Bay Road uh and Beayshore Um I want everyone to know and listening that
this is a going to be a very long process Uh possibly 2 years but the sooner we start I I think the better Um and I want also everyone to know that this is ultimately not up to the commission It's not up to the people up
here It's up to the to to to the residents of of their neighborhood if you if you want to move forward with this Uh I'll go into a little bit more details on that but ultimately I want to make sure that everyone understands the the power is in your hands the vote you
ultimately decide if this is something that you think is appropriate for for your neighborhood Um so with that being said uh PJ if you could put on the Yes thank you very much Okay so um want to
start with the Venetian Islands If you go to the next slide please Um as I said before you know residents have voiced their concerns with uh safety and access to their neighborhood Um Commissioner Magazine and I sponsored this this item
that that's before you today Uh along with the Bay Shore and North Bay Road one Um and we're here today to discuss is this going to be a good fit for your community Go next slide please So I I pulled I pulled a lot of data actually
Um I pulled data for Sunset Islands and Venetian Islands and I looked at a few things in in response to crime Um and believe it or not I I compared the the stats between Sunset
Islands and Venetian Islands and the difference was was pretty significant Um on Venetian Islands there's about 350 households On Sunset Islands there's about 250 households So I use the rates at which there were thefts and reported
suspicious activity um for for each uh area Uh and so Venetian Islands as you know does not have a guard gate There's no security Uh Sunset Islands has a guardgate and roving security Um and so when I looked
at the analysis from 2020 to 2024 um believe it or not Venetian Islands had almost a three times more thefts than Sunset Islands Um the the theft rate per household was 127% higher And by the way
anyone who would like my a copy of my analysis I'm more than happy to provide Um and another thing that really stuck out to me was the suspicious rate the the suspicious person rate per household And the suspicious person is basically a
resident calling in or a homeowner saying "Hey there's a suspicious person here He's wearing a ski mask or uh you know they keep on circling the block There's that That's a suspicious activity." It's 188% higher in Venetian
than it is on Sunset Island And so I I think these these numbers show really how much of a difference that these uh that having a dedicated patrol service and security g guard would make toward
uh safety and even the perception of safety If you go next slide please Okay Uh so what is a special taxing district Um it's a way to fund extra security guards guard gates cameras uh beyond what the city provides
Uh it's paid through the residents Uh and it's on your property tax bill Uh it's not a citywide tax Um some examples are Allison Island Biscane Point Norman Shores Biscane Beach Sunset Islands In the county in Day County there are over
a thousand different special taxing districts Uh next slide please Okay So um what is possible You go to the next slide please PJ Okay So there's a menu of options
that a uh that a special taxing district can choose from Uh there's security guards obviously You could be stationary uh roving it could be manned at the guard at the guard gate Uh there's technical there's tech there's license
plate camera readers there's RF ID gate access So when you're coming up to the gate you have a sticker it opens up Um and then of course there's fixed guard gates So for some of the tax roles that I pulled these are some of the the
numbers of how much extra and then you divide that by the special taxing the households there Um so Allison Island last year was $282,000 for the year Uh and Biscane Beach Biscane Point Normandy Shores are
almost roughly the same Let's next slide please Okay Uh so how it works Uh and this is just a very rough estimate I'm I'm going to have one of our city attorneys also go over this Uh there's a
letter of intent So 10% of the property owners need to need to sign a petition to kick things off Uh and then there needs to be a 50% plus one of residence owners who agree on the boundaries of where the special special taxing
district will will will be configured Uh there needs there's going to be a county approval Uh I believe that's an administrative review at this point Um there's going to then be an election of people in your district uh that say yes or no And then uh the
city is going to step in and you know Miami Beach adopts the the the configuration Um we could also take it over later with an agreement And as I said in the beginning this timeline you're looking at about 2 years And that's everything from where we are
today to the construction of a guardgate if there is a guardgate Next slide please Okay So uh the cost the cost really depends on the area of the district Uh and I'll go over what that
means I think at the next slide Um but it it also depends on if you're going to have guard gates if you're going to have roving security If you're going to have more than one roving security so if you have a large area such as like beayshore I think only having one is going to be sort of ineffective I think you're going
to need at least two Um and then uh the payment So the payment gets added to your property tax um as a special assessment and I showed the uh the estimates U this was just a copy a
screenshot of the uh the tax rules You go next slide please Okay So let let me and we're going to have staff also present but this is sort of what I'm thinking as far as Venetian islands And again this can change This is sort of
the the the most that we could do as far as security on Venetian islands This is a combination of a guardgate and roving security And so every and you'll notice that there's numbers There's 1 2 3 4 5 six
So you can have a maximum of six tech special taxing districts So on Revo Alto for example if Revo Alto North which is five only wanted to do a special taxing district and Revo South did not you can
set that up If Re if Revo Alto as a whole wanted to do it and share resources that's also possible Um so let me let me give you what I envision would be the best approach So the yellow circle is where the guard gate would be
Okay there's more room there because it's the first cross street on both north and south And you'll notice that there's a red barrier on the west end of the island The red barrier and and the reason I would do uh a red barrier there
is because we would limit it just one guard gate and the guardgates would be all on the east side of Venetian Island north and south And so the red barrier could be um a burm or a a definitely a barrier
that you cannot cross Um and so there would only be one access point in and out And you're probably wondering why does it have why is it not closer to Venetian way Uh that's because you need to have a queueing distance uh between
uh the the main road and the guard gate So if there's like three or four people who are waiting to get let in uh you do not want to cause a traffic backup on Venetian And so that's that's the idea And and again uh you know Dolito North
can say "Look we really want a guardgate and roving security." And Dol South says "Well you know we're just okay with a guard w with a roving security." Those would be two different special taxing districts Um so it really depends on on your
neighborhood and if if this is something that you would like Um so next slide please PJ Okay so um just just some background information The Venetian Islands uh everything is public Uh the streets are
public Uh the need the the gates would need county approval There's a there's a very streamlined process for that Okay we're going to have to have if this moves forward we're going to have the traffic team do a traffic flow study Um I think believe David Gomez has already
a lot of that for today Um and the costs for the studies and gate constructions come from the district once it's set up Um so again like I said there are already four special taxing districts uh in in Miami Beach There's Allison Island Biscane Beach Biscane Point Normandy
Shores There's also county special taxing district which is Palm uh Habiscus and Star Um okay And if you could just go to the next slide PJ just just to list off a couple things I already said in the beginning You know you're going to have
an you would have an enhanced security and I think I already proved that with the data at least between Sunset and Venetian Uh peace of mind You know I I think there is there's a obviously a lot less crime on Sunset Island There's when I looked at the stats I think there was
only one car theft in the last five years as opposed to North Bay Road where it seems like it happens once a week Um and those are people still in Sunset Islands that still leave their keys in the car Uh this is again this community
uh led This is really not up to us This is up for everyone here to decide in your neighborhood if this is the right um plan Uh also you if this gets forward that you do also have the benefit benefit of uh boosting your property
taxes Um and yeah I think there's also something to be said about you feel much safer in your neighborhood knowing that there's someone and PJ you can you can cancel the slide Um I think there's something to say that you know having
someone dedicated to patrol your neighborhood is is invaluable right Um you know if you're going to go out of town uh on vacation for a week or a month you know you can tell you the security guard hey look I'm going to be out of town If you
see anything that's wrong you know let me know You don't have to rely necessarily on your neighbors um and you have a really dedicated um patrol for for your neighborhood So um I wanted to just quickly go over
North Bay Road Uh it's a much smaller presentation BJ if you could put that up So that that was Venetian So North Bay Road now they've had other challenges I mean they have a lot of challenges other unfortunately between uh a spike in car
thefts and um and traffic If you go to the next slide please Okay So this is what I'm thinking for uh at least lower North Bay Road Lower North Bay Road would have the
guard gate on the south at Michigan and North Bay Road And what you see with the blue sort of barriers Those wouldn't be guard gates Those would be fixed automatic gates that are read
through an RFID scanner Um and there would the the access point for non-residents would be on the south end where where the yellow circle is All the other access points would be accessible to uh the residents of North
Bay Road the residents of uh Sunset Islands 1 and two and the residents of on Alton uh on road because a lot of them use uh the side streets to turn around and loop around Um so this would
a in a sense also have much greater visibility um and eyes on the ground for for suspicious activity Um I'm sure my colleagues know that it seems like we get a notification from the police
almost weekly that a car gets stolen on North Bay Road Um this will also cut the through traffic in the afternoon um and really discourage like your Uber drivers uh your the people that don't live here to think that they can just
cut through North Bay Road and get off on Chase We go to the next slide please Okay so like I said cuts you know reduces cut through traffic restores residents access improves safety and maintains public access Next slide please Okay So uh
Beayshore uh Beayshore there's it's pretty much unfeasible to do any sort of guardgate option here I think the best approach for Beayshore would be at least two roving security patrol officers Um
where that's what you know they have a dedicated route Um and they they monitor our neighborhood Um go to next slide please Uh yeah again flexible staffing rover
you know they can be armed or unarmed Um and you can even have a choice between private security or offduty police officers like even FHP Um like I said minimum I think would be two roving patrol vehicles Um and I
don't think that it's possible with a guard gate or or um fixed um gate PJ you can cut the slide So uh look I I I've done a lot of resident outreach um for each
neighborhood Um I I'd really like to welcome public comment because this is really a committee where we're sort of checking the temperature uh of the residents in the neighborhood to see what they would like to do I understand the president of the Venetian Island
Homeowners Association Chad is here Um there's there's also many people on Zoom I believe that would would love to chime in and and and kind of Let's hear from the city administration Sure So there's also the legal um Nick
and David if you want to come up and and give your I I don't you don't necessarily have to give a presentation And I think I covered most of it but um maybe give us some of your thoughts on um on setting this up Good morning David Gomez director of capital improvements
and commissioner I would like to welcome you to CIP should you ever choose to change careers Um your your presentation was on point and and expansive I don't think I need to add anything to that I think to give a little bit of an idea of what this might look like the guard
house for Sunset Islands 1 and two uh has a similar dimension to what we could fit or accommodate in these areas Uh the difference being that that guard house has bathroom facilities that are separate We would look to incorporate it within the single structure There's a lot of due diligence It still needs to
be done uh we need to ensure that underground utilities are cleared and we need to coordinate traffic studies with the county but that would come later in the process when when we know exactly what the residents would like to do so we can move forward from there Um but
generally speaking you hit on all the points and and would you agree that this is a then through the chair would you would you agree that this is a two-year process I mean what what is a what is a standard timeline I think probably the longest part of this is getting the special taxing district set up Uh once
we have that then it's just a regular design and construction project Okay And for our city attorney Nick um I understand that Sunset Islands 1 through 4 is a little different right And they were set up a little different Can you maybe talk about that u as
opposed to how it was set up for you Allison Island Pom Hibiscus Sure So so Sunset Islands 1 and two and Sunset Islands 3 and four each have a mandatory homeowners association Um those are are
typically uh created when a neighborhood or subdivision is initially developed Um I found early records for Sunset Islands uh three and four dating as far back as the early the early 60s could not find
the initial records for one and two but um but those mandatory homeowner associations have you know it it they they run with the land So you're required to be a member of the association if you purchase property Um you have to be approved by the association but their annual dues can be
used toward funding security guard services Um so I think because mandatory HOAs are typically incorporated when a a neighborhood is first developed I think the the um the the clearest path here
would be to initiate the process uh through Miami Day County to create a special district Right And and if you can enlighten everyone so if you're going to do it through the county it's a 51% vote right But if you're going to do it through the city it's 60% Correct So
the city actually does not have a process for security guard special taxing districts when we have gone uh when we have created special districts in the past like for utility undergrounding um we have adopted a 60% threshold and if if we wanted if the neighborhood
wanted to do it through the city would it still require a 60% Uh it that would be up to the city commission but likely yes Okay Okay And what are the pros and cons between doing it through the city and and to the county I think the the the biggest benefit of going through the
county is the county has a a dedicated team to to handle the creation um and at least in the unincorporated areas management ongoing management of of special taxing districts um the the this
they have a staff that's dedicated uh to to to supporting neighborhood residents who are interested in pursuing a special taxing district Um and then at the end of that process what they've done in recent years is transferred control to the city so that you know we we take
over at the point where the district has been created and and we can administer it Got it Okay Um and Madam Chair also I um I asked the vendor for Sunset Islands 1 and two and and um the full disclosure
I I I've never met him He's actually right there Um and I asked them also to maybe feel some questions that some of us may have um for cost um and uh any sort of functionality that
that that they offer uh for for for their special taxing districts the the benefits So if any of you would like him to speak he's he's also more than welcome to Uh thank you I'd like to hear from Commissioner uh Magazine He's a
co-sponsor Yeah Yeah Thank you Commissioner Suarez Uh you and I had an item Yeah Thank you Commissioner Suarez You and I had an item on that was heard in public safety and then at the full commission over a year ago about some of the escalating crime on North Bay Road
uh and on the Venetian Islands Uh that these incidents have continued This is going to escalate to something that has catastrophic consequences So uh I am very glad that we're being proactive rather than reactive after something like this happens The these are uh
quality of life crimes but this also presents uh serious uh personal safety concerns as well Um what I'm thinking about is we need immediate relief right We are getting these incidents weekly whether they're cars stolen or people
have reached out to me about uh intruders actually approaching onto their property um we're going to have an incident where either uh somebody gets shot that's entering one of these properties or a resident is harmed Um I had an incident at my home where a gun
was put on me So I understand uh people's need to feel safe in their homes So with that being said I wonder if the best way to go about this is is a bifurcated process So we set up the special taxing district uh with the first order of priority of establishing
immediate um roving patrols uh because the guard gates are going to be like you said a two-year process um because there are the design concerns utility concerns and things like that And I wouldn't want as we discuss that more comprehensive
vision to hold up getting uh our residents here absolutely needed an immediate relief And I think that we go after the lowhanging fruit first as we continue a uh separronged approach and discussion about whether to whether and
where to add those guard gates Um so me uh I would certainly be supportive and like you said this is communitydriven neighborhood driven So uh these neighborhoods are going to have to vote on it themselves Uh but what I'd love to see is a process where uh we take an
immediate vote on the need for these special taxing districts that would uh prioritize setting up the roving security patrol and then as a bifurcated process we talk about the guard gates and things like that because I think the most pressing thing is to get immediate
solutions over here Uh it'll cover the entirety of North Bay Road Some people uh have already reached out wondering that um the Venetian Islands beayhore and we could look at this for other neighborhoods I know Lake View has had uh issues as well Um Nick I see you standing up So maybe uh something that I
said uh flagged legal but I think that's what I'd love to see is to try and get immediate relief and security in these neighborhoods through uh the special taxing district that would first tackle the roving patrol and then we could have uh more prolonged discussions and
planning I do not want to go to our friends and neighbors in this community and say you know help is two years away Um and uh being your friend and colleague for the past uh some time I I know that uh you are also an immediate uh solution person as well So I want to
see uh how people feel about that And I also want to hear from some of our residents because uh without being keyed in I don't think I appreciated the severity of the problems here And I think it's important to get that out front and center Commissioner
I'm fine with this I was you know it first started to get really bad when I don't know if you remember during CO when the bike gang came over and they stopped and they punched that one father Um you know so on the Venetians I understand the need for this immediately
because those bicycle gangs do come across I also read a report that's really scared me that somebody was driving up to their home and they were held by held up by at gun point gunpoint outside of their home in Miami Beach on the Venetians So that I understand few
questions that I have Um is this going to be private security vehicles or will they be offduty police and will the neighborhoods be able to decide Because I know I've passed a resol we passed a law saying that neighborhoods could hire their own security Correct I think I
passed that last year and it was for Allison Island at the time that wanted their own security vehicles So are they going to be able to choose what they what they want or the the initiative that that you sponsored Commissioner was specific to Allison Island Um the way that this typically works is that is
that first of all Commissioner Suarez went over each of the major steps to to create the the the district um perfectly The the only thing I would say is the the first immediate step is for the residents of a particular area to sign that initial letter of intent and that
letter of intent has to include the boundaries of the district uh and the purpose of the district So if they wanted to include uh roving security only then that would be the point where they need to make that decision if they wanted to include uh a guard house and Roven security or offduty police Again I
think that that that that needs to be part of the initial decision whether to sign the the letter of intent But generally speaking the since these are public roads uh the guardouses in I think every instance are public property
Um the this the city would be uh using our private security provider or our police officers for for offduty Now um and and Liz can go into greater detail on this Our private security contracts do allow the security each each district
to decide what level of of guard what level of training uh you know they'd like to hire and obviously there's an additional cost but there are options under our contract Okay that's correct So I would just tell the neighborhoods that want to sign the initial letter of intents to be as explicit as possible in
terms of what you envision in the form of security And also I was at the Sunset Islands one and two um annual meeting last weekend and it was really impressive to see this private security um company that is in charge of the
entire island and the level of security that Sunset want and two um have So um I have no problem because neighborhoods are going to be voting on this anyway If they choose for security then they get it and if not um you won't So that will
be up to you to run successful campaigns so that you can get the guard aid that you need You know I know that the streets will continue to be public but I do think that you know it's a deterrent And also on North Bay Road it's not just security I think it's also the traffic
People can't seem to get in and out of their homes during rush hour So you know people who know will be able to go through the gates and people who don't won't If you know you know So okay I
mean I'm on board with this I would make a motion to move it to the full We have a lot of public comments Um and uh so one minute each person Okay Do we have any public comment in person You guys could line up and you guys could
if you want you could line up behind the chair and then we'll do one in person and one online Good morning Uh Chad Braver Venetian Islands Homeowner Association President uh 801 West Toledo Drive Uh while VIHA
cannot take a position on C4 of course because as you all mentioned it needs to go to vote Uh security remains a a serious concern for us In 2023 over 1 in 10 Venetian Islands households had some sort of theft or burglary Uh and it
really came to a head Since then we have installed license plate readers and made some dent in that but we we need more help Um as a major entry point to Miami Beach and a contributing neighborhood we ask the city for a dramatic increase in
protection Uh I appreciate Commissioner Suarez and the committee's care in the neighborhood Um if certain measures aren't feasible due to the layout uh let's focus on ones that are Uh on our end VIHA is investing in uh our LPRs and
then also working on getting PTZ cameras that we hope to connect to your uh real-time crime center But we also need a real police uh force increase to help us in the meantime until some of these things get worked out Uh so thank you
very much for your time Thank you Uh Adam Bergman here I lived on Miami Beach for around 15 years I just bought a house on North Bay and within the first month my car was broken into or at least attempted at 2 p.m on a Saturday Okay Armed I think an armed
masked uh gentleman My kids are scared We haven't moved into our house yet My kids don't want to move I live right now in on Nautilus They want to stay They don't want to move to North Bay because they're scared We have a gate that's not good enough They're petrified of moving
So this is just not realistic to have a situation where uh we have a great community and there's no security That's on top of the fact that there's a major traffic issue So I just plead I want to thank you guys for your commitment dedication to security safety to the
community We have an amazing community in Miami Beach but we have a security issue and we need to address it And I think what you're doing is incredible So thank you from the bottom of my heart I'm also a resident on North Bay Road uh
on 30th and I am totally in agreement I couldn't thank you Your name Pardon me Mariela Perez I'm a retired beach high teacher for 38 years So I can teach you math but I'm not into politics But I can
tell you that what you're saying both of you couldn't be more on point We need more immediate solutions And definitely the traffic here is beyond anything that anyone can imagine Not even the traffic getting out of
beach high at 2:30 in the afternoon Uh that goes away in 15 20 minutes We have this from 3:00 in the afternoon till 7:00 at night And someone actually counted the cars and it was something like 1,400 cars And we have city we have
uh school buses uh construction vehicles you name it It's like we're actually you know um prisoners in our own home I don't know how parents do it to take their kids to activities in the a in the afternoon There's just no way And so we
do need I don't even know how the roving security is going to get through be honest with you So there has to be something done to alleviate this problem It is not sustainable And the other issue is my house had two incidents as
well once I had a concussion from it And uh you know I don't like to talk about it but uh it needs to be resolved It needs there has to be some measure put in
immediately to solve this problem It is not sustainable So I thank you dearly from the bottom of my heart for taking your time and effort to do such a thorough job And we thank Ellen Freriedman of all people She has been
this person spearheading this but she's not in town So I am speaking on her behalf And I am telling you it is severe The traffic the crime the car thefts you name it it's happening on North Bay Road on one of the supposedly high-end
streets Thank you Thank you If we could have the next Hi Uh my name is Romesh Singh I'm a resident on San Marino I want to first thank all of you uh David Suarez and Commissioner Gonzalez and uh Commissioner Magazine for your support
commitment to this issue It's really important Uh I also want to appreciate Chad for his leadership on this issue for the Venetian Islands homeowners and all of the members of that organization as well as the people have spoken so far
Adam your story is terrifying Absolutely Uh this is simple It has to happen Everybody here knows it and I want to just echo Joseph Magazine's comments It has to happen now and let's do what we can now The roving patrols I think are
the easiest ones to get done for all of the reasons we've mentioned why the you know the gates will be difficult Um but it's we I've seen the bike gang I've seen the bike gangs on Alton Road I've seen them on Venetian Causeway again And we just don't need this and this is
something simple and in our control So please support and uh we're all behind you and thank you for thank you for everything Thank you Next Anyone else Hi my name is Julie Michael I'm a resident of Sunset One and two and I'm on the HOA
board So thank you all for your time I appreciate it Um Commissioner Suarez I was curious in your imagining how would uh residents of Sunset Island I just want to make sure those blue lines are indicative of areas where residents would have access
through RFID grades And two questions is that are that we already pay for our security um a relatively substantial amount We want to make sure that we would not be double charged because we also have access through those gates No
we wouldn't that the way I imagine I mean so Nick you can come up and you can confirm that but okay basically if you're if you live on Alton Road uh lower Alton Road and Sunset Islands one and two you'll have just access because you'll you'll have an RF ID but we our
staff are you know there could be temporary passes for guests potentially so that we're not because we already have to go we already go through a gate so if we have to queue through multiple gates That's you know correct It would if you
would have a a um a delivery for example or a guest they'd have to go to the lower part of Lower North Bay Road Okay Um which by the way it's not bad because then you have an extra layer of security that you're not necessarily getting taxed on Sure No and I'm I'm definitely
in support of this I think we definitely need to do something about the traffic and you know all the security in general I think it's a great idea Um we just had those kind of specific concerns Yeah No the way I imagined it would be residents of Sunset Islands one and two and residents of Alton Road they would have
access uh with an RFID sticker to to access those gates So they can freely access They don't have to go through the guard gate every time Okay Thank you so much Appreciate it Thank you Next Hi I'm uh David Dash I'm a resident of
North Bay Road uh in the 40s Uh one thing I was wondering from your presentation would gating that section of North Bay Road be possible Which section In the 40s Uh North Bay Road Middle North Bay That is another option
I we we certainly can do that Um and this is going to go to another committee which Commissioner Magazine and I sit on and I'm going to expand upon that So I didn't want to I I didn't want to I kind of wanted to check everyone's temperature today to see how
everyone felt Most of the people speaking today I've never met Um it's just like like you and um I wanted to see if this is something feasible like you know is there a need for middle north bay and upper north bay road for for something similar Now middle and
upper north bay road is going to have something very similar to lower north bay road where un for you would have to have maybe even two security guard gates because there's two major access points on middle north bay road and upper north bay road and again that comes down to
cost So um this is going to be an ongoing discussion The way so just so everyone is clear the way this is going to work is this was referred to this committee which we're in today It looks like it's going to pass and then there's going to be a finance committee which I sit on and Commissioner Magazine sits on
it and Commissioner Bot sits on Um and once it passes that where we sort of iron out all the details then that gets sent back to the city commission and then from there we'll approve the project in a sense where it can move
forward and residents can then start to vote uh on the 10% of yes this is what we want And then as my presentation showed that's that would be that those are the the immediate next steps Gotcha Well thank you Um like like Adam I've
seen numerous neighbors have breakins armed robberies I've seen people pistol whipped with a gun when I first moved on to the street in the in the 50s about 10 years ago But um yeah it's uh it's a problem and something needs to be done I'm happy that you're finally and the
city's finally taking this really head on and we appreciate you guys working on it Thank you Thank you Okay we'll take one more from the audience and then Okay two more from the audience and then we have on Zoom and we need to move on to the next item Hi again Thank you commissioners Peter and Katherine Kley
21105 Meridian Nav Last July we spent a few months in Boston and woke up at 2 in the morning to the video and the sound of a man walking through our house So we called the police They were unbelievable They got there immediately He apparently then hid behind the houses through the
bushes but based on our description they arrested him within hours He's gone through the whole court systems and um it was really very unsettling to say the least So yes I do believe we need more security in Beayore neighborhood and I
also want to thank the police again They were they were truly amazing Thank you Terry Beantock 2312 Bay Avenue Sun Island 3 and I'm here on behalf of our subsidizing three and four association
Uh appreciate what you folks are doing U our actual budget Commissioner Suarez is uh double what you uh what you had Uh we've recently doubled it um for security reasons The the point we want
to make are two things One is to the ex the complexity of closing off roads with gu with gates um on through streets You know we're not through streets Subset one and two they're not through streets North Bay Road Venetians some of those
are through streets and we just want to make sure since we only have one way on and off our islands that we're included like one and two would be included with uh you know the ability to access correct free access Uh the second thing
is um I agree with Commissioner Magazine that there's things that could be done now with roving Uh the residents don't need to vote They could just get together and create a group and fund uh roving gardens now and and start the
process Home values have changed so dramatically that the the cost of doing that is much more affordable now than it used to be So I would certainly encourage uh it it helps us it works for us and uh we'd encourage residents on
North Bay Road and Venetians etc to start the process now Okay Uh and not worry about the complexities public comment uh for because it's I think you're overly optimistic at two years I've been through I've been through these things It's it's a lot of years
Thank you Thank you And if we could move now to we're going to take two public comments online How many are online We have 11 Five Okay If we could Okay we'll do one minute Harry Rabar if you could please
unmute yourself You have one minute Hi how are you We could hear you Um I would just like to uh thank Commissioner Suarez for all the work that he did in preparing all this analysis And I want to also echo Commissioner Magazine
sentiment Um you know we're on the cusp of something really dangerous happening in uh I live on 2355 North Meridian We had a breakin two two houses down in the middle of the day recently Um and you know it it really is a recipe for
disaster So I I stress that to find some sort of interim solution to get roving security up as soon as possible is something that uh I would definitely be in support of Um so I just wanted to echo that sentiment Thank if we could uh unmute Yo Neil and
if you could please uh give us your name Good afternoon My name is Yanni O'Neal and I am actually going to echo the gentleman that was on Upper North Bay Road Um I guess when you if is it possible to send the presentation out
that you uh went through this earlier this uh morning I'm actually curious as to what the plan would be for Upper North Bay Road I I have it I I can I'd be more than happy I don't know if you got my emails but I'd be more happy to send it out and if you can also email me
And that would and that would would that encompass Upper North Bay Road or your plans for Upper North Bay Road meaning yeah I I can send you I can send you my my draft ideas for upper north upper and middle North Bay Road If you want to just go ahead and email me at davidiam
beachfl.gov I'd be more than happy to Okay if we could please Thank you for your comment If we could please unmute Richard Leans Richard you have one minute All right Well thank you first for uh handling this especially Commissioner Suarez Um North Bay Upper North Bay Road
has approached this city a few times over the past years about doing this as recently as November of 23 Um we've had uh a few conversations among residents and I think that uh we would have no problem
getting the votes to get this done So just passing that along and uh that's it Thank you again Thank you Um if we could have Verizon sorry Verizon to unmute themselves and uh announce your full name Hi it's Fred
Carlton 1800 Sunset Harbor Drive First I want to commend you guys the committee for even uh considering this and uh you know I want to speak specifically about you know how resident friendly
uh you know this has to be you know we're specifically in the traffic issues the the crime issues no question is just out of control uh with the stealing of cars and all these things but just to get out of
our driveway here just to give you a sense is incredibly difficult And to go about six blocks or or five blocks it's 45 minutes uh during rush hour traffic
Uh you know I've had to resort to getting a golf cart to get my kids to the JCC and actually go across Alton Road and drive on the golf course because the traffic is so backed up So I really think it's important that you know we address it I really commend you
guys for having the courage to address it And um that's uh that's about it Thank you Thank you And our last public comment Michelle if you could please unmute yourself and say your full name for the record Hi my name is Michelle Khan Um I
work with Julie Michael Also I am also a board member of Sunset Island 1 and two Um and I just wanted to um ask that we get state in uh informed of what's happening We only found out about this by accident where we were following up
on the public meetings on the left turn for Alton Road Um we were sent a memo and I happened to read in the third line in the third paragraph of the memo something about gating of North Bay Road We had never heard anything about it Um so if I don't know who's in charge of
the communications but Sunset Island 1 and 2 really didn't know anything about this before last week We're in favor of it We think it's wonderful Um but we would like to be added to the mailing list or the notifications please Okay Thank you And with that we close
public comment Uh thank you So um I think by acclamation we can move this to the full commission It's going to FK for another discussion Um and uh we can move on to the next item Okay So next will be item number 25
Discuss utilizing 7605 Collins Avenue as a potential base of operations for ocean rescue This was sponsored by Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez co-sponsored by Commissioner Suarez and building will be presenting the item Thank you Uh honorable committee and
councel uh thank you for this opportunity to speak Uh as you know there's also another intended use that's one of the 10 items that came as a result of the open house that was held on February 6th Um and I'm ready to
deliver those results if you'd like Um I'm actually going to pull this item because I think that there's a companion item There's a similar item right that's not just limited to ocean rescue but it's what the community thought that
they wanted They we were going through some community driven process Correct Yes ma'am That's the open house that was held on February 6 And like I said I have the 10 results that came from that open house Oh okay Do you want to give us those results We'll do So uh on
February 6 the open house that was requested by this committee uh was held and the community came back with uh several recommendations The first of which was to have a community cultural center uh at the 7605 property Uh the s
another one was to have a city facility to support the operations of the park and the beach The third was a beach club for residents was also one of the recommendations that came out There was uh an offer or a request to make it an
events venue for hosting weddings and things of that nature uh with its proximity to the park Uh the fifth is the one that's coming up for the land use committee uh which deals with an environmental marine science center
The six was a public safety um or also to keep it maybe perhaps as a police substation since Ocean and Rescue really wasn't interested unless it was the whole facility that they were going to be able to use The seventh was a library integration area uh perhaps with other
educational or community- based activities being hosted there instead of at the library which is literally across the parking lot Uh the eighth was an art and cultural programs area dedicated spaces for classes and things of that nature also
in support of the library The ninth was a tourist and community center a welcoming center if you would uh to act as a hub to the north beach area And the 10th was a public space improvement suggestion to remove the security wall uh there and repurpose the entire pool
area and create an outdoor event space So there was some overlap with some of the community recommendations but those are the result and again the uh there's an intended use that they wanted to be discussed and was referred to the land use committee uh later on
So I would just withdraw this item and let it play out in land use Okay Thank you Okay We will mark it And now we will have item number 29 which will be sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez
discussion regarding beach concessions regulations and layout to ensure that sufficient areas remain available at all times for public enjoyment of the beaches This will be presented by facilities and fleet Okay Um so Elizabeth if you'll speak on this
item Um good morning again So we have made uh considerable edits to the fifth amended rules and regulations for beachfront concessions and basically in addition to some of the items that were um addressed by Commissioner Fernandez ensuring that
the beach is always available to the public at any given time Um okay Uh so can we move this item to the full commission Yes Okay I will show it by acclamation fold to the move to the full commission We
now have item number 27 Discuss reorienting the city's code department to adopt a more proactive rather than reactive approach to enforcement and community engagement It will be presented by code and sponsored by Commissioner Bot Is Commissioner Bot uh still on the line
Commissioner Bot is still on the line Commissioner Bot if you would like to unmute yourself you may Yeah I'll I'll let the um my staff colleagues present and then I'll I'll in that Good morning Madam Chair Hernand Cardino
again Uh so this was uh before the committee I guess last month um I was not present but I think it came back for um opportunities to do more uh whether it was hiring more staff cross
trainining or egov apps Uh they also talked about identifying some of the areas of um frequent code violations I think at the last meeting uh Stephanie from my office addressed a misnomer about uh whether or not uh the service
delivery is proactive 88% of all investigations uh were proactive while only 12% were complaint driven Uh the area of uh most frequent violation citywide was uh sanitation and illegal dumping Um I think uh cross trainining
was also discussed and currently uh we crossrain our police officers on quality of life uh violations Our park rangers uh marine patrol and our urban forestry division and they can all issue code violations uh with their respective areas of
responsibility Um as far as um the opportunity to do more uh I think the area captains are coming online Um we're also doing a a public awareness campaign highlighting our neighborhood code supervisors and attending those
homeowners association meetings and also the business association meetings And with that I'll Great So let's hear from Commissioner Bot Commissioner Bot if you could unmute yourself Yeah So um Renan thank you for this
update Um I think that that the statistics speak for themselves and the um cross-pollination of staff and resources is exactly what we want to see Um you know we talked earlier about
graffiti and um code violations versus criminal enforcement I think there needs to be you know a concerted effort to work with the police colleagues so that when things are
um you know we're we're not just you know cleaning up a code violation a we're not just uh cleaning up something that is a code violation Um but we're also making sure that if it is a criminal activity that police gets
involved and can can follow up on their side So I think that's the only other thing that I'd like to see maybe a little bit more effort put into I know it happens Um I think it needs to be a higher priority to make it happen um all
the time not just occasionally Um so um I think that that's kind of the only thing we need to do on this for now And if we're not seeing once now that these area captains are coming online and uh
with more direction to work directly with the police on items um you know if we we don't see sort of the additional benefits of that uh we'll we'll come back and revisit it in in time in the future
Do we need to take any action on this or is this just an update to be more proactive in terms of code compliance And yeah this is just coming back to the committee for an update Okay Okay Okay So can this item be closed Y
we'll conclude this item And we have one public comment Michelle Comra if we could unmute her Michelle you are muted still We'll give you 10 seconds Um close public comment Our next item is number 28 Discuss take
action on reestablishing a nuisance abatement board This is going to be uh sponsored by Commissioner Bot and Code and Legal will be speaking on this Okay Commissioner Bot So this is something that um has
been floated around for a little while as a possible improvement to what we currently have Uh I'm not necessarily sold on it but I wanted to bring this item so that we could hear from our colleagues who are experts in the matter
and have a discussion and then either uh you know move in one one direction or another once and for all code is coming and they have any comment on this item Yeah Hernande Cardino Uh code compliance I would respectfully
defer to police because uh the items that are articulated in the nuisance abatement board and their scope of authority uh would be all criminal items um criminal law violations I think Margalo is coming While the chief makes it here I
can just highlight those uh criminal law violations It talks about the unlawful sailor delivery or storage of control substances Uh youth and criminal street gangs prostitution solicitation of prostitution illegal gambling illegal sailor consumption of alcoholic
beverages and dealing in stolen property Good morning Madam Chair Uh so as code director uh Cardino alluded to the majority of the items that are referenced with regard to designating a property to be a nuisance are criminal
related Um the process by which the city would go through to take action against the owner of a property that is become a nuisance is primarily held by code Um so we would conduct our normal law
enforcement operations We would partner with code and any other uh city entity that needs that criminal information to make a determination or the nuisance abatement board to make a determination as to whether or not this property is a nuisance and then we would partner with
all the city departments to move forward with that process Are you recommending this I am on behalf of the police department saying that we would support whatever effort the committee or the commission decides to go with My only worry is that we have so
many boards and committees and our staff is so focused on all the boards and committees that they actually can't get other work done because all they're doing is preparing for boards and committees And so as we add all of these and you know for example right here everybody's here in this meeting right
now So and I'm not I'm not opposed to it I want to do whatever we can to make sure that code and our police officers are are working well But um Commissioner Bond are you I mean are you 100% committed to this board I'd
like to hear from my colleagues on this What actually would be heard here Um are we talking about just noise issues Uh what would be heard under something like this Well uh they would be criminal law violations the the ones I just
articulated So I can go over them again if you'd like Uh the unlawful sale or delivery of controlled substance um youth and criminal street gangs um prostitution solicitation of prostitution illegal gambling illegal sale or consumption of alcoholic
beverages and dealing in stolen property Why would it be going to the news at the vaping board What's happening with where is it going right now Right now any kind of criminal violation is going to be handled either through our local prosecutor at the city level depending on the charge or at the state level through the state attorney's
office So you're saying have a having a resident appointed board handle these instead of No my understanding is that that whatever predicate offenses are occurring at a potential nuisance property would become primaaccia
information that would be used by a nuisance abatement board or a city entity to determine whether or not the city needs to take action against the owner of that property for not maintaining the property free of those nuisances or criminal violations That's my understanding of it
I um I think if I heard Commissioner Bach correctly she's not married to this uh item but she did want to have the discussion We've talked about it once before here Um I tend to agree with Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez that um the
city resources to have another board uh could be tough but I want to hear more from Commissioner Bot So um in addition to the concerns raised about staff uh I also have a concern
about having a resident staffed or populated board Um because we can't even find residents to populate boards that are actually really important our land use board our CRA advisory board Um so I
I worry about this I also worry about um if it becomes a vehicle for uh you know retaliatory measures in ways that we wouldn't anticipate Um I I I did want to bring it to the commission and have our
experts weigh in or uh to the committee rather and have our experts weigh in um and and just sort of flesh out what the pros and cons are I am inclined to think that um while there can always be and should always be even closer collaboration between code and police
because I believe they support each other um in in effectuating the change that we want to see and you know anything we can do to continue to encourage that um and and elevate that the better Um I I don't believe this is
a way to go Um so I am I am inclined to um close this item with no further action Um you know I think we've had a fair shake at this We've had a discussion twice now and um it just it
seems like it might have been a thing when the city was much smaller and um in a different time but I think it's it's just not appropriate for what we have now which is I I believe much more sophisticated and um effective in and
trying to accomplish what we need to do Thank you for the discussion Commissioner We'll move on to number seven which is also your item Item number seven is discuss naming the Miami Beach Police Athletic League building in honor of Arthur Walter Martin This was sponsored by Commissioner Bot and Facilities and
Fleet will be sponsoring will be presenting the item Okay Commissioner Bod Yeah So obviously art or now as we know King Art um for those of you who are at the funeral you you understand that um
reference but Art Martino was the heart and soul of of the police athletic league while while he was um running it for the last number of decades his his um widow Deb is now the president of of
PAL which is fantastic continuing on the the the work that art started Um and I wanted to find a way to um commemorate and memorialize the contribution that art had made Um for those who might not know anything about
PAL or not you know really have uh any reason to to be involved with it they would at least recognize by the name on the facility um what who this person was Um in
conversations with staff and and you'll see in the memo um it's a very complicated thing to undo a naming and redo a naming Um and also in the next few years the new police athletic league
facility will be contemplated designed and and uh built So I I think I'm going to support the well not I think I am going to support the staff recommendation to do a um statue a
plaque whatever we want to do there um and with a explainer um in front of the the facility um and then um name the new building uh after Art Martnau I think that's a beautiful
tribute With that I'll move the item Just a quick question Um certainly well deserved and I I love uh the initiative Doesn't this already have a name the police athletic building It does It's currently the A Brnik Youth Resource Center Yeah that's the current name on
the building So renaming it would require to go to elections and that's why we have recommended in lie of renaming to establish a commemorative plaque The new building however the one that's funded upon the 2018 geo bond
that could be named after Arthur Martino and apologies So where is this motion going What what are we saying Oh the plaque Okay perfect Thank you Okay So all in favor to full for the
plaque to the Yeah full commission and uh off to number eight Okay Item number eight is discuss upgrading the city's city's holiday decor This was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and co-sponsored by Commissioner Magazine Facilities and fleet will be sponsoring
Um Elizabeth uh let's talk about the holiday decor This came up I'll just uh mention it had a meeting with the Lincoln Road uh team and they are also here and we were discussing how the holiday decor across the city is a little tired maybe not enough in some
areas and um I know that some enhancements are already being made and there are discussions for the budget process uh for this year and some of the upgrades that we're looking at are city hall the 41st
uh street uh poles Normandy Fountain poles uh Julia Tuttle entrance uh Lumis Park Overall Collins Park Alton Road but I want to hear more from you Yes So most certainly Um so the city does have an inventory of holiday decor and we
supplement that or complement that rather with uh rented lighting throughout the city Currently our current service level is about 817,000 That's what we have allocated annually for the holiday decorations program Um
but in addition to that we have made some recommendations some areas that could be upgraded and we've given you a menu to select from because there is some cost estimates associated with that and it's much higher than what we have budgeted even higher than what we are anticipating as an enhancement for next
fiscal year So with that um we're just looking for policy direction in terms of what you would like to see enhanced what areas or any specific focus and we can gather additional quotes or select from those that have been provided to you Okay Commissioner Magazine I know that
you're my co-sponsor here Um are there areas in particular that um you see of concern that need to have refreshed lighting Uh what are your thoughts I didn't have any particular I think citywide
um I think around the holiday time uh we see such despite the diversity in our community of various religions uh or even not religious uh it's something that kind of brings us all together and especially in a town where it's uh one
of our peak tourism seasons it is something that leaves I think uh a good ROI return on investment upgrading some of this lighting so uh you know I I think we strike a fine balance of between uh upgrading things in residential areas but then of course in
our commercial corridors whether it be Lincoln Road or things like that uh where when people are here during December and the holidays they know it's special right There's something above and beyond uh when they would visit in September or October or April Um Elizabeth if we bring this to the
full commission it would then go for discussion during the pro budget process um about the 120,000 enhancement Okay Are you okay with that And I can make a motion Okay
Okay We'll move it We have one public comment We have Daniel Saldo You have two minutes Yes Thank you everybody Uh Daniel Saldo Um actually it's I think it's got the wrong name on it now but I'm not
speaking for MDPL I'm speaking as a candidate for Miami Beach Commission Group One and very supportive of whatever holiday lighting can be done Uh lighting helps uh show a sense of pride and they have it all over other seaside
towns in Europe in the Riviera and Miami Beach should continue on this I also wanted to mention that this year is the centennial of art deco and so whatever we could do in the fall uh going up to the high season to really highlight our beautiful art deco buildings would be
very much appreciated Thank you so much Thank you And move item number Stephanie Oh yes Can I say something Yeah we could hear you Okay Um I would just like to um
suggest that the Julia Tuttle entrance holiday decor is kind of fabulous The the um it doesn't always work Uh and I think it's more of fixing it rather than replacing it I think it's got some um
warm and fuzzy associated um feelings for a lot of people So maybe one of the things to contemplate as we move forward is that we make sure that it always it's always working during the holiday season Like pieces of it do and pieces of it
don't rather than replacing it And I think that the the North Beach corridor Collins from 65 to 75 and then heading west along 71st Street um you know the Normandy Fountain area is really important It is um increasingly a place
where tourists come and stay uh and make their base when they come here as opposed to being down in South Beach It's a different experience and a different vibe and there are lots of people who enjoy that and for too long um North Beach has been the redheaded
stepchild who gets the leftovers at best and often don't doesn't even get that So I I would definitely want to prioritize that Um Lincoln Road here Hi Annabelle Yop's Lincoln Road Business Improvement District Um I just want to echo you know
Commissioner Magazine statement about Lincoln Road We are the commercial corridor of the city And while we do have currently a small footprint of light impact during the holidays I would love to see it be more expanded and more impactful um and have some really key
decor because not only is that the hub for our our citizens our residents but it also the hub of all our visitors who come here during peak season So please keep Lincoln Road in mind I know when when Elizabeth was um outlining some of the areas on the beach Lincoln Road wasn't mentioned So I'm just want to
make sure that we're included in in the thought process Thank you Uh can we add that Lincoln Road to one of the contractor upgrade considerations Absolutely Thank you Item number 11 is discuss the
implementation of blue light safety and emergency communication system along the beachwalk and Baywalk This was sponsored by Commissioner B and co-sponsored by Commissioner Magazine Fire and police will be presenting this item Um while fire and police here are coming up to the podiums I just want to say
that um what I'm proposing is a pilot program Um I think that as we are discussing how to make our neighborhoods safer um there is an opportunity to make our beachwalk
safer Um we see nefarious things happening there Um we have an in an a tremendous number of arrests of people who are living in the dunes or hiding in the dunes Um there are places that are
well trafficked at at many you know pretty much all times of day and night And there are also places that aren't well trafficked And so um not everybody carries a cell phone with them when they're out for you know walking the dog or um or uh going for a run Not
everybody um speaks English in a way that they can you know call 911 and ask for help Um and so I think it is important to to try this this pilot program and um make sure that we are
making the city as safe for everyone whether you're a resident uh an employee uh a visitor um as can be with as many overlapping tools to to effectuate that We're talking about it with um talking
about gated communities and and enhanced police and security measures Um this is another one that we should be talking about as well Okay Uh good morning Madam Chair members of the committee Um my name is Captain
Delvin Brown Miami Beach Police Department uh technical services division Uh I'm here presenting on behalf of Major Garcia who conducted who conducted this research Um I'd like to enter on the record that Chief Jones is in full support of this pilot program Um
so we have the opportunity to meet with the sponsor and uh do a comprehensive assessments of locations along the boardwalk um from a technical standpoint Um some of our concerns uh with implementing uh the blue light safety system would be
from a network standpoint and obviously a power standpoint Um how will we power these towers or you know poles and things like that So we did a comprehensive uh study and we uh identified some locations throughout the city uh along the beachwalk which was
22nd Street 36th Street uh 53rd Street and 79th Street Um and once we identified those locations uh we determined whether or not we could have a hard wired network um or have have it
solar powered Um based on that we made we reached out have Sergeant Melanie Oza here who contacted some of our local um colleagues FIU University of Miami Halia Police Department um who also use these
type of programs um and we reached out to the vendors to get some quotes um to see what pricing will look like to install this Um we have that information Um and I apologize cuz I'm I'm going
through some notes here Uh one of our main concerns with this uh particular uh pilot program would be the idea that in the event that we were to
engage um we need to make sure that that they work All right So that's part of the the problems with or it's part of the part of the concerns or challenges with uh with having these blue light towers
um along the along the beachwalk So the um after I researched the total approximate cost for four locations uh would be approximately $131,000 and then the maintenance that comes along with that is about $1,500 a
month uh to cover all the locations and and uh thank you question And how long would the pilot program be for Do we have an idea Do we know Uh I think that's I'm not sure that would be on this I don't I don't think we ever
discussed exactly how long it would be Yep So whatever staff's recommendation is um uh support my colleague uh Commissioner Bot here And with uh the police department seemingly uh supporting endorsing this I'm fine to make a motion to move forward with uh
the pilot program Um so I think the administration wanted some guidance on locations So maybe we need to bring this back next month with the locations um that we could uh move forward Melan uh officer
sorry captain uh Commissioner Dominguez Yes We actually have the locations identified and this research um and the cost uh presented in this recommendation are predicated on the the particular locations that we decided upon in
consulting in consultation with police offic um being considered um that's a fancy term technical stuff The memo didn't have the location So why don't we send it to the full commission so that we can recommend it to fur given the
substantial cost involved Are you okay with that commissioner bot Um I'd prefer just to go to the commission to be approved It's let's do that Um it I don't think we need to go back to FK because in the grand scheme of our budget costs it's not overly
substantial I mean it's not pennies but um if it comes to public safety and we you know we do this over the course of a year those costs will be amortized and we will have a very robust information about if it's beneficial or if it's not necessary
Great So by acclamation we'll move it to the full commission Okay moving into the full commission and then items just for the record item 18 and 19 will be deferred to next month since Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez is not here And then we're going to hear item number
20 which is discuss the deployment of operations and serve robot robotics AI powered sidewalks delivery robots in the city of Miami Beach This was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez and public works will be presenting
Thank you Uh so the owner of the company Serve Robotics had approached um saying that in different cities they have these small little robots that make deliveries And uh the idea was why have a 2,000B
car taking up traffic to deliver a burrito when you can have uh something with a smaller footprint and um uh not taking up space on our roads And uh Serve Robotics had some uh requests from
the city to help uh have this happen I think there are may already be piloting cuz I was um near the police station the other day for a meeting When I was coming out I saw one um around the roads But uh looking forward to hearing from
Brad Kane of Public Works Good morning Commissioner Dominguez Commissioner Magazine Brad Kane public works director So you know we've we've we've looked at this item and yes you are correct that they have not in a pilot program that's done by the city at
this point in time but they are operating within the city There's about I believe 20 to 25 of them uh in various hotspots throughout the city Um so uh I think some of the you know concerns that you know have been brought up and we
most recently got some complaints that they were taking up uh they were just parked in areas where potentially like ADA concerns and and and some spots sometimes that they end up being in and and sometimes you know when they're at intersections you know how they function
and things like that So I think that there's just you know I think we have to look at you know how we regulate them and enforce um oversight with them And I think those are some of the things that you know we have to just kind of you know make sure that they stay within I guess their lane and that they're not
causing any disruptes you know to our residents and community from how they operate Commissioner I really dislike these uh really dislike these I see these in Bickl Um and these are totally disruptive to pedestrian safety And
where I see them in Bickl uh they're actually better equipped Uh the infrastructure in the sidewalks are wider Um I see these operating in the Flamingo Park area and I saw one on West Avenue And uh we have sidewalks where at
sometimes you can't have two pedestrians crossing uh paths without one person actually stepping aside And if you add uh the robotics on here if anybody's pushing a stroller or any type of ADA uh
I think I don't see these taking multiple thousands of uh pound vehicles off the road I think this is kind of like a cute little gimmick as these companies prepare for what is next
Um I I certainly don't think that the end goal here is you know hundreds or thousands of these uh taking over our delivery infrastructure This is like a pilot program to kind of work on their technology Um I see no benefit to Miami Beach having this Uh I'm actually
proposing legislation Uh I have no idea if my colleagues will support it or not I'm not sure if I'm certainly bringing forward uh to actually not have these in our city because I I think uh we've really worked on trying to declutter our
streets our sidewalks Um we're already tackling you know safe rights of way creating bike paths bike lanes Uh these really just throw um a very chaotic wrench into things Now maybe when they
get past uh some of these kinks uh that are worked out in other areas they come back with a model that is uh better suited for our city Um but I just don't think that our streets in Miami be I'm sorry our sidewalks in Miami Beach are well equipped to handle this Now I
understand that this item isn't necessarily to uh get rid of this but uh as it stands now uh after observing things over the course of multiple months uh I'm certainly not a fan of these Um well I'm going to push back a little I It's not that I'm a fan but I
disagree Um I think that they uh do take cars off the road and traffic is a tremendous problem So if there's a problem of having them on sidewalks for pedestrian safety is this something um that can be put on a bike lane can they
be allowed to uh go there or uh a street I I I'll explain Because of the speed the way these robot robots can only operate on sidewalks uh on their own in these self-driving mode and they're supervised by remote pilots Um so and you know they have some kind of
insurance on them but they can't operate on the street They can only operate on the sidewalk because they only go up to 10 miles Also I don't think that we can pass legislation to eliminate them Uh I think we might be preempted by the state uh deputy city attorney
Yes we are limited The the the particular program we're talking today is whether the city wants to partner with Ser Robotics to create a pilot program where we would increase and facilitate what they do what they're doing now they're doing just on their own and that is allowed under the law We
have limited jurisdiction to regulate safety issues but as far as banning them outright I did uh I would need to research that but I believe you're right We don't have that authority Right Currently they're to to just help follow up on that They they're operating
under um Florida statute 316-540 um which is the re-registration of certain motor vehicles non-conforming with us So that's what they're operating under now Um they that's what they've cited as their statute from their own
people that currently how they you know here's what um I'd propose I'd love a discussion with the full commission so that we can brainstorm ideas if we're preempted by the state how can we make this better um and potentially have a
partnership where we can uh lay down groundwork and rules Are you okay with that m commissioner magazine Mr So I will make that Any public comment Yes we have um Commissioner Bot if you
could unmute yourself So I I share um Commissioner Magazine's concerns Um you know we have narrow sidewalks with so much clutter and disruption It's um I can't fathom how adding
something that doesn't have you know human eyesight and and reactions will be able to make things better I I hear what you're saying Commissioner Dominguez about um taking traffic off the roads and and that is a laudable goal that I
share I I don't feel like this is something that is beneficial for the city at all I think it's dangerous and um as we're working so hard to make sidewalks safer for pedestrians by getting um vehicles off it I just
throwing this into the mix um makes it worse again Um so I am definitely not in favor of this Um and just to reiterate we're preempted by the state they're allowed to be there And this is to help uh lay
groundwork and rules and partner with uh a company that's already allowed to do what they're doing Um okay Uh on to the next item Okay Our next item is number 30 Discuss take action on activating the
underly spaces in Altos Demar Park This is sponsored by Commissioner Ba and co-sponsored by Commissioner Schwar Okay Commissioner Bot Um so there are um Alto Delmare is a beautiful park It
has not been historically um activated in the way that other parks are or that make um significant contributions to the neighborhood I will say that last weekend uh and this weekend there are two activations Last weekend was the the
holiday extravaganza spelled e g extravaganza and it was a raging success Um hundreds and hundreds of families were there Um people were really psyched that there was something like this in their neighborhood Um it's great to not
have to co-op the the sports fields um behind the youth center up there um because then you can have multiple things happening up in North Beach at at the same time Um so I think there is
um I think there's a lot of opportunity to do things um differently going forward Um we've got an item as well Um we've got an item that that is was
just discussed at the um North Beach CRA advisory committee Um and we are going to be bringing that in the commission meeting to wire El uh Altos Delmare um because it was not contemplated to have
electricity when the park was built So there is an inexpensive way to expand the electricity that um is park adjacent into the park so that there can be events happening there that don't require noisy and polluting and
disruptive generators Um so that's that's coming down the pike Um one of the biggest things um um that I want to see there um is a temporary art installation and um or or
a permanent art installation of some sort And um as as you may or may not know there are no art and public places um art arts um installations anywhere in North Beach except uh with one exception
that is about to come online as part of the Ocean Terrace project So that's great That's our first official one But in the meanwhile we can do better for the residents of North Beach and to to uh make Altos Delmare more active all
the time Uh during the day when it's full of kids and families it's great but as the sun sets and the playground closes um it turns into a um a hangout spot for unsavory characters And um you know the more we can activate it and
disperse those folks to you know ideally go away to their homes as opposed to being out in in public and and loitering and intimidating people and uh and worse the the better we'll be So um I'm very
excited to to see um to hear the presentation that will be made by my colleagues And uh with that I'll turn it over Okay So administration I will start John Reebar parks recreation director Um
we're approaching this as a a team effort between TCD and parks and wreck Um we currently have some programming there as commissioner mentioned We did some movies in the park We did extravaganza on Sunday That was Saturday On Sunday we did family archery day and we could continue those things um
without any fiscal impact and because what we did is we had some budgeted um budgeted funds for that We just moved the extravaganza so that was already funded We do have a um a recommendation for a $60,000 enhancement into our
budget to do additional family friendly resident oriented programs um if we want to expand what we're doing today There also is the art and cultural um arm to that which Lette is going to um speak on because we you know we do
have the opportunity for temporary art exhibits and maybe some theater in the park that we would work collaboratively on but Lette do you have anything to add Uh thank you John Good good afternoon um madame chair and committee members director of tourism and culture Miami Beach Uh as John mentioned uh to we are
partnering with our colleagues in parks and reccks Uh we're doing amazing programming up in Altosm Park We also do July TCD does the fire on the 4th uh July 4th program This weekend we have artistic recycling uh pilot program
launching during Turtlefest On May 10th we are doing a new event during National Pet through Miami Beach onstage program It's called uh Paws in the Park and it's an event that you can bring your dog We have pet portraits We have DJ Laspam
DJing Uh we have um uh movies playing uh that are pet themed So it's a really nice uh family event As it comes to the art piece um when we last presented this item I believe last month uh we presented partnering with FIU uh
sculpture department uh different other entities and it was suggested by the committee that we reach out to galleries in North Beach which we did which is Jupiter Gallery and um Central Fine they're proper fine art gallery So they don't have like storage of artwork to
exhibit Uh also challenges that we found from even from FIU was insurance Uh obviously we need to have funding to transport install the artworks and the protection of them Um we also reached out to Opera Gallery who has the current
program in B Harbor and they're very interested in extending uh what they currently do in Bow Harbor Village However based on their insurance they need confirmation of security cameras additional um things to protect their artwork And so we're still working with
that with our parks team I believe there are no cameras in that Correct the from a security standpoint the park is obviously patrolled by the police department and we have a roving ranger But as for a security camera system within the park or 24-hour security
which I think was alluding to that some of this artwork um needs that that would need to be worked out because it is doesn't exist at this time And so they are very interested in participating We just have to provide an environment that uh protects artwork
while it's there and it would be at no cost We mentioned that it would be similar to the village of Bat Harbor which they have five locations within the village that where they do place rotating uh sculptures uh at no cost to the city They incur all the cost to
install and insurance and what they need in return is to make sure that there are uh methods in place to ensure and secure the artwork Um Commissioner Bot so do you want to move this item to the full commission
Yeah I would I I'd like to if there's still um folks from the police department I'd like to ask a question of them Hi assistant Hi good afternoon Uh Assistant Chief Morgal for the police department Hello Um so obviously cameras are going
to be installed all the way up the beachwalk Um it's a a long process Um it's happening sequentially Is there any possibility of um putting up the Altos
Delmare section of cameras sooner rather than later So kind of jumping their the spot in the queue in order to help facilitate this this initiative
So I'd have to speak with our technical services major Eric Garcia uh to find out what exactly needs to be done infrastructure-wise to prepare that area for either the fiber optics connections or electrical connections that are needed for cameras and see if that is
built into any of the other phases that are going to happen with regard to that project Um so I'd have to do a little bit more due diligence to be able to provide you an answer Um also I would recommend you speak with
um facilities and I guess CIP um to talk about this um electrical boring Maria Hernandez was talking about this on a in a meeting yesterday where it is a fairly inexpensive thing to um bring power from
an existing spot uh in Altos Delmare to another spot by just sort of doing some some not open trench work but some underground boring that you can just pull the wiring from one place and move it to another So um if that's a way to
do this in a stop gap manner um since we're already going to be contemplating it for Alto Delmare for other reasons maybe this is something that can be incorporated so that we can move forward with this
um with this um art installation process Commissioners John Reebar um staff is already working on the electrical work um with your comments We'll coordinate with the PP PD to see if there's anything we could do at the same time that would facilitate the camera system
Okay Okay So then maybe we should bring it back here um before we send it to the commission because it sounds like we won't have all the information by April uh you know by the April commission
meeting So um um does that work one more time from the police department I think we can get the information through uh Major um Garcia and his team so that we can coordinate with uh with Parks and and everyone else
and have an answer by the time we go to commission Yes absolutely Okay we'll work together Okay Then then yeah let's bring it to the full commission to to discuss the item and by acclamation uh we'll get it on there Okay We have one public comment
Daniel Saldo if you could unmute yourself You have two minutes Okay Uh thank you I actually had my hand up for the last item If the chair would allow me to comment on that briefly Thank you chair So uh actually I I
really share uh the chair's position on this I will tell you as a resident of a historic district Flamingo Park there's nothing but joy when we see these little robots a lot of them have hearts on them going around Children they're smiling
laughing Um and and then more importantly for those of us who order a lot of delivery and I I blame myself for being one of those the efficiency of having this versus you know the Uber Eats you know you get one car and they
cancel and the next one I mean it kind of sounds like a no-brainer Let us lean into high-tech Let us not be typical old Miami Beach anti- everything Let's be pro business pro technology 100% support
Thank you Thank you We have item number 24 which is discuss adopting the city of Miami Beach Vision Zero action plan This was sponsored by Commissioner B and transportation will be presenting the
item So I'll uh I'll let transportation do the the detail work but this is so important that we adopt this and and orient ourselves to the goals We are already doing a tremendous amount of the work um envisioned with uh our
micromobility uh task force and the the work that has been done so far and is is being done going forward Um we are working with FDOT Um in North Beach for example there are four different FOT projects that are
happening They are not being coordinated at all Um and we are going to be having a a meeting with the four project managers all at the same time so that we can address how a change in one project might affect another project down the
road So um this just is a a cottification of those goals um and the mission and um ensuring that decisions that we make as a body um reflect the goals and and support them and move them
forward So hopefully you will agree that this is vitally important to to adopt Any comments from the city Thank Thank you Madam Chair Um committee members Jose Gonzalez transportation and mobility director and interim parking
director Uh Commissioner Bot I think hit all the highlights of this plan We're seeking your endorsement on a vision zero action plan And vision zero is in essence a safety initiative that has a goal of eliminating all traffic
fatalities and serious accidents in our city by the year 2040 Uh this is a two-step process if you will The action plan is the first step It's the blueprint um that will then allow us to get to the second step which is the
implementation plan And the implementation plan as as the name implies it's actually the plan that will make um hard recommendations for different types of improvements at different locations in our city to
improve safety Uh the statistics are really alarming On average our city uh experiences approximately 64 lifealtering and fatal crashes annually on an annual basis Uh seven lives are
lost every year And a lot of cities are developing these plans to really improve uh the safety of of everyone who uses our streets Um and the this this action plan what it as
I mentioned it's really a framework that identifies the um the what we call the six E of safety engineering education encouragement evaluation equity and enforcement We are hitting on all those
six E in partnership with um internal city departments as well as our partnering agencies at the state and county level Okay And if I may just um add one more point Um thank you Um the
64 fatalities or lifealtering um events per year in the city is the floor of the issue Um because what doesn't get captured in that statistic is um the
accidents that uh may not have put you in the hospital for 6 months but have may have left you with a total car that you now have to find the money to replace because insurance never covers the cost the replacement cost and injuries that stay with you for years
after um the the event So it the number in reality is much higher than 64 Um you know from personal experience my car was totaled and I am still dealing with a a um an accident that happened 10 years
ago Um so that wouldn't have been incorporated into that 64 um statistic Um so again super critical that we adopt this and use it as a guidepost as we
move forward as a city Okay So uh with that I'll move the item and uh by acclamation and we'll send it to the full commission Okay we'll move it And then just for the record we don't have public comment And for the record item number 23 will be deferred to next
month that was sponsored by Commissioner Rosie Gonzalez and we have actually a public comment now Hi good afternoon Matthew Galtanov 125 Jefferson Avenue I can't speak any uh any more highly of the importance of
this action plan adopting it and then ultimately leading to implementation of a plan to reduce the number of fatalities in a city to zero within the next 15 years This is probably the biggest safet public safety uh item facing the city Doesn't it doesn't
garner that much attention but you heard it you know there are dozens of people that are seriously impacted every single year And uh over the last 5 years dozens of people have been killed as well on our streets whether they're in a car on the bike or on their foot So really is
something important And I hope I know that the seven of you on the city commission and the staff everyone understands this and and it really is an important project I think it was funded by the US it was funded by a grant from the United States Department of Transportation It's really important and
hopefully many of the items that have been outlined in here will lead to to positive impact and making our city safer for everyone Thank you Thank you All right Okay So I think with that
um that concludes all the items uh that we were available to go over today Thank you everybody for being here and the meeting is adjourned