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e e e 1th 2025 we are going to get started in a few we are waiting for our mayor and one of our honores once they arrive we will begin the recognition portion of the
meeting I apologize that we're running a little behind but one of our honores hasn't made it as yet and we are also waiting for our mayor so thank you and thank you all for being here today [Music]
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we are going to begin our meeting now with the presentation portion of the meetings I'm going to I am joined by my colleagues commissioner Paro commissioner gabella commissioner Coro I just saw him a second ago and our
mayor Francis Suarez and I'm going to turn the mic over to the mayor to begin our presentation portions let me let him do it okay I'll just put up you want me you want me to hold this for yeah I can do this thank you it is
uh really an immense pleasure uh something I could not miss uh to recognize Apostle Chambers um Apostle Chambers has been such an impactful and important leader in the city of Miami and in Miami dat
County his work and his ministry with the Believers of authority events like the back to the hood Youth Empowerment event and his leadership over many many many years of the ministerial Alliance we would just really like to take this
opportunity for someone who just became 70 years young to give him the keys to the city of [Applause] Miami was a surprise this is the best when you don't know and it's a surprise cuz they would never
agree to this for their humility [Applause] we are also joined by uh former commissioner Ken Russell I saw him just a second ago where are you come would you like to join
us as this would mean a lot to you as well come on wow this is Far and Beyond my imagination I really want to say thank you so much you know when the Lord have you doing something it doesn't really
seem like a job it's really good it's just what you do and the funny thing is I tried to leave Miami four times and had to come back I wanted to live in California boy God knew I sure don't want to be up there with those fires
okay but thank you so much all treasure this for life and just realize my step are really ordered by God and may I continue to be a blessing to the city of Miami and all its constituents thank you
[Applause] [Applause] s so the the next uh set of honors is we
are extoling the virtues of our Miami Police Department who was recently in Washington DC on a very very very cold cold day for the inauguration of the president of the United States on January 20th 2025 and I can tell you I
was there and it was extremely cold and they were outside when a lot of the festivities were inside and so we want to thank them for their participation we want to thank them for always thank you guys for always participating and being
called to action by our nation in a variety of different contests whether it's a political convention whether it's a presidential inauguration whatever the case may be our officers travel from Miami from their Comforts of their warm
homes to often very very um substandard uh conditions in the cold and I've seen some of their living conditions too and some of the places where they have to stay with no air conditioning Etc so we just want to commend them and I'm going to give them each an individual Proclamation but we're not going to do that right now
we're just going to commend them as a group and then I'll give the chief the mic and I'll give him the proclamation so he can distribute out to his officers thank you Chief thank you Mr Mayor good morning everyone thank you for being here and uh what you see here is a group of all volunteers it's a long tradition
of the mayi police department to answer the call for assistance and since I've been here in 1994 uh we've had a track record of always going to the sending a group to represent the Miami Police Department and to assist our our fellow law enforcement agencies up in DC during the
inaugurations this year uh our group was led by assistant chief uh Cho Butler so I let to say a few words on how it felt what it was like and and how it is to be part of of one of our most sacred and and protected duties to defend democracy
so thank you so these group of individuals that you see standing here there there's a few of them missing but let me tell you they went and with they were able to withstand such frigid temperatures now you know coming from
south Florida we had no idea exactly what we were walking into but not one time did they complain not one time did they uh say I don't want to go back out uh not one time did they say uh Chief I need to sit down longer each time in
their rotations they got up with enthusiasm and they went back out to serve their country I felt so patriotic in that moment I felt that it was my patriotic duty to protect and serve and it felt great to do it amongst more than
10,000 other officers from around the country we enjoyed every minute of it and just the bonding that I had with these guys I will never forget I want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for standing there with me and
being beside me during this time I only have about two or two more years to go and I wanted to do it and the chief allowed me to do it and it felt great to do it this group of guys standing behind me so thank you guys so very [Applause]
much well I I don't believe it's a secret that I am one of the biggest supporters of our men in blue our men and women in blue cuz I could never forget our ladies out there doing it they do what they do and um they never
disappoint I get a text message from the chief almost every day about how they have done something to keep the streets of District Five safe and I know all of my colleagues I hope get the same text I know they do um and they're just amazing
I I cannot say enough about our men and women in blue and I am honored to serve with you I'm truly honored to serve with you and I hope that I show you that all the time through my actions and my interactions with
you thank you [Applause] let's go back to work go protect the city protect hello good morning okay uh we want to give a
proclamation to a person that uh helps distri one a lot uh city of May Proclamation whereas one one in three teens in the US experien some kind of abuse physical sexual emotional from someone they're romantically inv involved with and about 40 40% of
college women report experiencing abusing dating behaviors whereas teenagers teenagers who are in violent relationships are also more likely to be in unhealthy or abusive relationships later in life whereas dating abuse resonates in our community to unmeasurable extent affecting not only
the parties involved but also entire families and communities whereas Community violence prevention initiatives are indispensable to prent to prevent teen Dating Violence from happening whereas the honeycomb house is committed to address this social issue by standing up against violence and sending a positive message of peace and
safety to our young adults Community now therefore our friend uh S as U Miguel Angel commissioner to hereby recognize and commend the honeycomb house for their outstanding contributions to the city of Miami would you come up please
[Applause] than so one of my favorite things to do as mayor guys in the front is to recognize the extraordinary work of our employees um I was a city
employee I was I worked in the parks department when I was a kid and actually it's interesting because Christy DTE who we're recognizing today who began in Miami parks in 2011 was a lifeguard which is what I was I was a lifeguard
for the city many many many many many many many many years ago I'm 47 now I was like 16 17 so 30 years ago and as park manager christe has successfully transformed maso Park Antonio maso park into a vibrant hub for
older adults establishing a highly popular active adults program in her current role as special projects coordinator She's Been instrumental in the development of the new park collaborating effectively with the capital division to organize groundbreakings and ribbon cutting ceremonies by the way they were
phenomenal those ceremonies they were great thank you um and her partnership uh her partnership with the city's grants planning budget and procurement departments have ensured the seamless funding and execution of vital projects it is with great pleasure that we congratulate Christie as being selected
as one of nrpa 30 under 30 recipients and so we want to commend her for her great work and we have a phenomenal parks department that every day is delivering Services is providing an incredibly
important infinitely valued asset to our community and one that we all cherish and want to see at its highest and best use thank you christe for all the work that you do [Applause]
good morning everyone I'm I'm Chris Evans I'm uh the director of our city of Miami parks department uh thank you Mr Mayor for for your kind words um I remember um we were talking about Christie we had our Leadership Summit earlier uh last year Mr Mayor is one of our keynote speaker Mr manager was one
of our keynote speaker a lot of what you talked about was Legacy and making sure that we do things the right way and make sure that we we're honoring our our parks department uh this journey kind of began a couple years years ago we had uh Barbie our assistant city manager was our Parks director she really charged us to make sure our master plan happen make sure we continue to be nationally
recognized as a department that does great things in our city and Christie is just another example of that as our 30 under 30 recipient she was honored in our national magazine the national magazine for the the entire Parks um Department um as being on the cover so I thought it was a great opportunity to
make sure we we congratulate her and continue to do great things for our parks department so congratulations Christi and thank you all [Applause]
thank you um now the next honor that um I'm privileged to bestow I get to bestow on someone who I've gotten to know over over 10 years and when I think of this person
there are two words that come to mind excellence and vision for a city which we consider an ecosystem to succeed certainly its government has to be proactive it has to
have great employees like we we've celebrated today in our police department and our parks department but it's important also that it has people in the private sector that really care our citizens our residents that really care and are willing to give back and
are willing to dream and are willing to push us sometimes because things don't happen you know accidentally they happen with momentum they happen with force of will they happen when people um have ideas and follow through on those ideas
and are dogged about accomplishing those ideas Nick came to me I remember I think I was a commissioner at the time so I was been mayor now for almost eight years so this was probably 10 years ago or more and he said you know we don't
really have a world class skate park in our city and you know underneath the 95 uh which is was managed at the time by our city manager at the parks I mean at the mpa he said we can do a we can do a really really cool cool really
interesting really unique um skate par I said sounds great to me you know it sounds amazing come on up Nick and obviously those things are not done without resources and one of the first things that Nick and his family did was
donate a significant amount of resources to make it a reality and with the help of the mpa and and I have to acknowledge Art's role art also had the vision and the ability to execute and to try something different because
we didn't really utilize you know the underline hadn't existed this idea of taking these underutilized areas and investing in them it didn't exist at the time and so um it's a gives me great
privilege to be able to recognize Nick Catz for his work put up your phones baby put up your phones put up your pH you can stand you can stand there you go nice it in baby soak it in soak it in
here you go and his family by the way thank you wow um my wife told me to project so I'm going to speak I'm going to speak speak into the microphone um let me put
this down for a second thank you Mr Mayor uh like you were said 10 years ago I came into these halls and you were the first person that I met with um I came into your office and you sat me down I showed you a presentation and you had just come back
from Portugal I think it was and um your kids had seen skateboarding for the first time they had seen a skate park it was on like a Malon somewhere in in Lisbon and when I presented you the idea the first thing you said to me was let's do it without hesitation and you were
the first yes that I got in a many in a big series of yeses that would lead to lot 11 and um I am immeasurably immeasurably indebted to you for that first yes um when I heard that I was going to get the key to the city um the
fact that you would be bestowing it upon me as well as um Mr Nora who without him none of this would ever have happened um please give it up for Art thank you art seriously um I was really really really
happy and what an honor I I mean this is the administration that I that I um hoped would give it to me so thank you um I just wanted to say thank you to my parents and my brothers for their incredible support and generosity to my beautiful wife Tiffany thank you for
being there for me and you know helping helping me through all the difficult times all my friends and family that are here my staff from Andrew um uh Richie FS who puts in the long hours to make sure that lot 11 is clean and that all
the the problems are sorted out um and and everybody else who came out thank you so much this is an incredible honor and maybe one day you'll see me up here with the rest of you so sh sure
I'm sure hello kind like the sound of that it is not God [Applause] is I'm I want I want to
add that uh that Nick has been a great addition to DDA he's been fantastic and I'm so proud to be serving with him congratulations Nick I was say and thank you uh Christina
crespy and the DDA staff the DDA board commissioner Reyes thank you so much for believing in me and giving me a seat on the board it's really incredible I I'm really happy to be able to serve my community in downtown Miami so thanks so
[Applause] much commissioner I just want to say we heard you loud and clear so thank you for your comments on that and I like the I like the wava that you're wearing with that logo it looks really nice it was given to me by a a person
that I really like and and I respect a lot it happens to be the mayor of the city man thanks can I okay can I call them they came to see me the mayor and I were just having a fight about the young folks that have joined
us today cuz he wants to call them up and I was like no I want to call them up today we have Bridge Prep Academy there's a compromise and I'd like them to come and join me when we say the Pledge of Allegiance so come on up this is a whole civics class you know they
get to see government in action and we always want to celebrate our kids great minds think alike and at this time we are going to begin the meeting with prayer as we
always do and we have today Pastor James Paul Jr of St Luke Missionary Baptist Church that is going to lead us in prayer and then after the prayer the kids are going to say the Pledge of Allegiance with us pastor
thank you thank you so much thank you good morning everyone let's pray together Heavenly Father we come before you today in reverence and gratitude acknowledging that you are God who
Reigns Supreme Over All of creation we acknowledge not only that you are God but we acknowledge that you are good your goodness is evident in every aspect of our lives and for that we give you praise you have been good to us because you
have protected us from dangers seen and unseen you've been good to us because you have been our provider you've been good to us father because You' have been our healer our restorer of our minds our bodies and our souls we thank you for
being good not only do we thank you for being good God we thank you and we come before you this morning with hearts filled with gratitude David said in Psalms 103 bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not his benefits so we thank you Father for
the gift of life we thank you this morning for your unfailing love we thank you Father for your strength we thank you Father that we're able to stand in this place to do the work that you have called us to do we
ask oh God in this meeting that your presence will be with those who are gathered this morning that you would bless us with wisdom and that you will bless us with guidance we pray that you will continue to strengthen us father we pray for our mayor we pray for our
chairwoman we pray for the Commissioners and we pray for every public servant that has been entrusted to do this great work we speak your peace upon them we speak your grace to them in the mighty name of Jesus Christ we pray amen amen
thank you so much thank you Pastor thank you thank you and this time we're going to have Bridge purpose Academy join us in the Pledge of Allegiance start it offed of Ali flag I pledge alance I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the United States of America into a republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible of liberty and justice for all thank you
[Applause] and at this time we are going to get our meeting started with a statement from the city attorney thank you madam Chair George weong City attorney detailed information about the process is order of business rules of procedure and
scheduling or rescheduling of City commission meetings can be found in Chapter 2 Article 2 of the city code a copy of which is available online at ww. municode.com any person who is a lobbyist pursuant to chapter 2 article 6 of the city code must register with the city clerk and comply with related City
requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the city commission a person may not Lobby a city official board member or staff member until registering a copy of the code section about lobbyists is available in the city clerk's office or online at ww. municode.com any person making a
presentation formal request or petition to the city commission concerning real property must make the disclosures required by the city code in writing a copy of the city code sections available at the office of city clerk or online at ww. municode.com the city of Miami requires that anyone requesting action
by the city commission must disclose before the hearing any consideration provided or committed to anyone for agreement to support or withhold objection to the requested action pursuant to city code section 2-8 any documents offered to the city commission that have not been provided 7 days before the meeting as part of the agenda
materials will be entered into the record at the city commission's discretion in accordance with Section 2-33 f and g of the city code the agenda and the material for each item on the agenda is available during business hours at the city clerk's office and online 24 hours a day at ww.
miamigov.com the meeting of the Miami city commission is a limited public forum any person may be heard by the city commission through the chair for not more than 2 minutes on any proposition before the chair before the city commission unless Modified by the chair public comment will begin at
approximately U 1010 and remain open until public comment is closed by the chairperson any person making offensive remarks or who becomes unruly in the city commission Chambers will be barred from further attending City commission meetings and may be subject to arrest no
clapping applauding heckling or verbal outbursts in support or opposition to a speaker or his or her remarks shall be permitted no signs or placards shall be allowed in the commission Chambers persons exiting the commission Chambers shall do so quietly members of the public wishing to address the body may
do so by submitting written comments via the online comment form please visit www.miamigov.com meting instructions for detailed instructions on how to provide public comment using the online public comment form the comments submitted through the comment form have been and will be distributed to the elected officials
their staff and City Administration throughout the day so that elected officials may consider the comments prior to taking any action Additionally the online comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the elected officials their staff and City Administration up until the chairperson closes public
comment public comment may also be provided here live at City Hall at 3500 panamic Drive subject to any and all rules as they may be amended if the proposition is being continued or rescheduled the opportunity to be heard may be at such later date before the city commission takes action on such
proposition when addressing the city commission the member of the public must first state their name their address and what item will be spoken about any person with a disability requiring assistance auxiliary AIDS and services for this meeting May notify the city clerk the cler the city has provided different
public comment methods to indicate among other things of public support opposition or neutrality on the items and topics to be discussed at the city commission meeting in compliance with Section 28601 1144 C Florida Statutes the public has been given the opportunity to provide public comment during the meeting and within reasonable
proximity in time before the meeting please note Commissioners have generally been briefed by City staff and the city attorney's office on items on the agenda today anyone wishing a Verbatim record of an item considered at this meeting May request it at the office of communications or view it online at www.mo.com planning and zoning items
shall proceed in according to section 7.1.4 of the Miami 21 zoning ordinance parties for any py items including any applicant appal and app appal City staff and any person recognized by the decision-making body as a qualified intervenor as well as the applicants representatives and any experts
testifying on behalf of the applicant appellant or appal may be physically present at City Hall to be sworn in by oath or affirmation by the city clerk the members of the city commission shall disclose any expart Communications to remove the presumption of President Prejudice pursuant to Florida statute
section 2860 1115 and section 7.1.4 point5 of the Miami 21 zoning ordinance the order of presentation shall be set forth in Miami 21 and in the city code staff will brief briefly present each item to be heard the applicant will present its application or request to the city commission if the
applicant agrees with the staff recommendation the city commission may proceed to its deliberation and decision the applicant may also wave the right to an evidentiary hearing on the record for appeals the appellant will present its appeal to the city commission followed by the appal staff will be allowed to make any recommendation they may have
please silence all cell phones and other noise making devices this meeting can be viewed live on miam TV the city's Facebook page the city's Twitter page the city's YouTube channel and Comcast channel 77 the broadcast will also have closed captioning pursuant to advisory
legal opinion ago 2020-33 issued on March 19 2020 the Florida attorney general appin that consistent with prior attorney general opinions a member of a local governing body who is physically unable to attend a meeting because of medical treatment or due to medical reasons May
participate and vote in meetings where a quorum of other members was physically present thank you madam chair thank thank you Mr City attorney Mr city clerk would you please read your statement and any other information that we need to be
aware of thank you chair the procedures for individuals will be writing testimony be St Planning and Zoning items and any quasi additional items on today's City commination agenda will be as follows the members of City staff or any other individuals required to be sworn in who are currently present at City Hall will be sworn in by me the
city clerk immediately after I finish explaining these procedures those individuals who are appearing remotely may be sworn in now or at any time prior to the individual providing testimony for planning zoning items and orost of judicial items Commissioners are you comfortable with all the notice Provisions set forth in these uniform rules procedures we have established for
this meeting yes and thank you chair May administer the oath for the planning zoning items please thank you chair good morning ladies and gentlemen if we'll be speaking on any of the Planning and Zoning items the pz items May please have you stand and raise your right
hand do you solemly swear confirm that the test that the testimony that you're about to give at today's hearing is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and your response is thank you chair thank you Mr city manager do you have any
items that will be deferred or withdrawn from this agenda good morning Madam chair Commissioners Mr City attorney Mr city clerk at this time the administration would like to defer and or withdraw the following items
re4 to be deferred to March 13th F fr1 to be deferred to February 27th ac1 to be deferred to February 27th di4 to be
withdrawn and pz7 to be deferred to July 24th that concludes the items thank you at this time I'm going to ask my colleagues if they have any items that they would like to withdraw
or defer Vice chair not just uh time um commissioner Cabella no the only thing I want to say if I can the uh if we can do one of as one of the first items the re6 because the gentleman is here and I think I I talked to re6 okay um but we
have to hold yes commissioner Paro no none commissioner Reyes are there any items that you would like to have deferred no ma' I don't have any okay at this time may I have a motion motion second all in
favor motion carries unanimously um Shar my apologies if I may um during the order of day I would just like to State commissioner gabella will be co-sponsoring re13 and re1 14 commissioner Paro will be co-sponsoring r E7 commissioner Rees will be
co-sponsoring re6 commissioner Paro has a uh pocket resolution uh urging president and Homeland Security secretary to maintain TPS designations for law abiding Nationals of El Salvador Haiti Honduras Nicaragua Venezuela and other designated countries while conditions persist that preclude their
safe return commissioner C has a pocket item uh a resolution pertaining to the acquisition of real property located at 1702 and 1714 West Flagler Street and commissioner Rees has a pocket resolution it's a grant of easement to fpl for the city owned property located at 7121 Southwest 3rd Street thank you
chair thank you madam chair I have a second U uh pocket item uh that I will be presenting now well in this meeting not oh do you want to present it now um if
you like I'll present it now but if does the city does the City attorney have it so we could read it into the record and it be considered for um public comments yes ready um this is the additional
pocket item a resolution on the Miami city commission urging president Donald J Trump and the United States Secretary of Homeland Security to maintain temporary protected status designations for law abiding Nationals of certain countries calling for a comprehensive review of conditions in TPS designated Nations before any policy changes
directing the city clerk to transmit a certified copy of this resolution to certain officials providing for an effective date and there's additional language if you'd like me to read that please yes the whereas the city of Miami urges the president of United States Donald J
Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security Christy gome to thoroughly assess the situations in these countries and take into account all perspectives and wait that's the wrong section um I'm sorry the additional section is whereas the city of Miami likewise urges the president of the
United States Donald J Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security Christine neem to apprehend and Deport any illegal immigrant that has been convicted of committing crimes to any American resident or property so that is pocket item uh and I'm going to get to that
just right now so chair I was going to just um if if it's the will the body uh pi1 will be commissioner paro's pocket item um pi2 will be commissioner coro's pocket item regarding the acquisition of property uh pi3 will be commissioner C's
other pocket item regarding TPS and then pi4 would be commissioner re's pocket item op Pi 1 through 4 what can you describe the other pocket items please um yes so commissioner uh parto has a pocket item it's a pocket
resolution urging uh the president and Homeland Security secretary okay okay uh you have your two pocket items yes and commissioner Rees and then commissioner Rees has a pocket resolution granting uh it's a grant of easement to fpl for the city owned property located at 7121
that's fine do you motion for do we need a motion for those uh no I think what we'll do is after the public comment period then uh you can vote on all those pocket items afterward okay at this time I'm going to open
public comment for re6 only anyone here to speak on behalf of re6 the code designation for Reverend gilo would wait anyone here to
come good morning Brenda Bor 1436 I 6 Street and support 6 Reverend uh has been always been uh with us and um as a non-cuban citizen on this city I have
always received a support of the Reverend he's been part part of the community in all the different en that we live here and he's always been there he's always supporting us and he's always there to answer the call every time that we need him so to me I think
it's an honor for us to have done this uh proclamations and dedication of his time I think it's more than than right to do it so he's always there for us and I hope that him and all his family will
receive this as a thank you from all the cities in the city of Miami thank you thank you is there anyone else here who would like to speak on behalf of re6 good morning Commissioners good morning to all Miguel soliman 1436 Southwest 6 Street I'm here in support
of re6 commissioner um Reverend guoa uh has always been a pillar in our community he's has been an exceptional individual and he has always served and dedicated
his life to serving uh therefore I think it's it's it's a pleasure for me to have this opportunity to stand up here and support thank you very much thank you seeing no one else for public
comment on re re6 mam shair yes commissioner Reyes yes I I I want to add to uh all the things that through the years I i' stayed over 40 some years he has been always there
for the community not only for the Cuban Community for every for all the communities every time that that there is an act every time that they need an invocation that he is there and uh he has been a a pillar
to this community and uh that's why I I I'm co-sponsored I congratulate commission GAA for his initiative and I will vote for it and it is a it's an honor
to thank you is there anyone else that would um like to comment on re6 at this time seeing none public comment period is closed for re6 at this time may I have a
motion motion and before I make the motion go ahead just wanted to say that it's it's an honor for me to uh honor he's out there Y and uh it's an honor for me because he's always like man said and uh
commissioner R said and everybody that spoke he's always been active in our community helping wherever we can so uh it's an aor from me in my office to uh to name do this uh street name thank you thank you I have a motion Madam chair because it's somewhat of a surprise to
the uh honorie could I just read the title so that pleas um re6 a resolution of the Miami city commission by forist affirmative vote pursuant to section 40 54-3 7 of the code of the city of Miami Florida has amended city code waving the restrictions related to Street renaming
contained therein Cod designating nor Northwest 15th street from Northwest 33rd Avenue to Northwest 37th Avenue as re Reverend guo a rala away honoring his contributions to the city of Miami and the Greater Miami area further directing
the city clerk to transmit a copy of the resolution to the here and designated officials thank you I have a motion in a second all in favor I motion carries unanimously congratulations Reverend I look forward
to attending the street naming ceremony thank you and at this time I'm going to open public comment for items that are on the agenda
today doing it commissioner Russell hello good morning Commissioners it's been a few years it's an honor to be here and I'm very happy to see all of you unfortunately I'm not here on good news R14 is an effort to break the promises of
Miami Freedom Park at this very lecturn 7 years ago David Beckham stood and made the promise to us and the city he said I am doing this for your children and your children's children and his development Partners made the promise to us which resulted in legislation which was our
promise to the city and the mayor signed that legislation which created a lease and part of that promise is for the land that was going to be taken up the green space that would disapp here for the stadium we would find rezone and fund new parks throughout the city we
identified those four parks and they are in districts throughout and we rezone those parks and we funded it with half of the $20 million contribution now commissioner gabella it has been an honor to watch you over this last year as people underestimate your
character and intelligence you have proven them wrong every step of the way by changing your mind when you see things come to light and I promise you when you see the math on on this this is not an additional $10 million gift to your District this is an additional $10 million to the Moss family and their Development Group because this actually
defunds one of the new parks would would have be G that would be going into district one and the money that they are going to use to build up that Park is already meant to be spent by them Miami has a history of recalling Mayors who
make bad decisions on sporting deals and we do not want to see that happen here mayor Suarez has been a friend of mine for over 10 years but if the promise of this deal is broken I will be the first signature on any recall effort for any
elected official who tries to break the promises of the steel because it is my Integrity it is your integrity because you carry the promises of commission's past please vote no on re4 thank you thank you good morning good morning
Elvis Cruz 631 Northeast 57th Street r e 14 a gift of $20 million to the billionaires behind the soccer stadium and development scam our city commission should be committed to preserving and protecting
our Parks not giving away cushy contracts for private developments on them this soccer stadium scam should never have been on the ballot if the city did not want that land to be a golf course anymore they should have turned
it all into one big glorious park for the people and not give a hugely lopsided deal to billionaire friends and campaign contributors this is just another Money
Motivated manipulation at Miami city hall please vote no thank you thank you good morning good morning Commissioners thank you for the opportunity Edward marcho's offic is at 2800 Pon Boulevard I'm here on behalf of Waste Connections
one of your um larger waste haulers and I want to speak about F fr2 uh I was here a few uh meetings ago a couple meetings ago and raised some important objections I want to say thank you to you all for listening and thank you to your staff for making very critical
changes to the ordinance I think it's dramatically better uh we also at the same time have to ask for some minor refinements those refinements are really nuts and bolts issues and I it's my understanding the administration's position is that they could be resolved
through an RFP process but it's a fundamental point of law that an RFP cannot go contrary to what's in the code so my request to you today is if you're not going to defer the item together with the other waste item I ask that you
please uh make it clear that we need to between first and second reading clean up some of these issues that I've already raised to the City attorney that I've also raised to the administration so that we can make this thing really watertight thank you Commissioners I appreciate your time thank you good
morning good morning uh Albert Gomez District 2 Resident um through the chair uh commissioner Paro the F4 item thank you for removing uh fiscal waste uh but I think the process of submitting a permit is still necessary removing the
fees shouldn't be there but the process of putting in the permits is I think it's important it shows the city wants to care about its own regulations um again through the chair uh commissioner gabella thank you for honoring the honeycomb house I've seen their work through the women's fund and little uh
different groups like that but I can't see the benefit of honoring groups like that while we're dismantling boards that support those uh specific issues such as uh the board on women's uh health and and equity and and status of women I
don't see how they don't Co they're exactly the same thing please allow that vehicle for the community to speak to our legislation on these issues to stand as well as all the other boards if you have one or two that you have an issue on graft or or fat do please step in
place people on the boards and let them do your their job they're useful um and then through the chair on the Freedom Park issue I was here in the gallery when it was passed uh you know you got to honor your commitments if you go back on your
commitments and the mayor wouldn't bring it up if he didn't have the votes so if he's saying he has the votes you guys would be going against your commitments that's in bold face I think you can do better I really do I I I think there's a a big opportunity for the city to show
up here for past choices you guys made a decision you negotiate it honor it and I don't want to hear Chris uh fighting for budgets when you're ready to give $20 million out the door that could effectively go to maintenance within
Parks uh more green spaces it doesn't line up well giving this gift out to a private entity if we're about removing government let's be smart about it thank you thank you good morning hi good morning my name is Laura Kelly I am chair of the Miami day Democratic party
I am here to thank H commissioner Paro for his resolution um on the recision of temporary protected status for Venezuelans and I'm here to support that resolution and urge all of our commissioners to support that resolution I am also an immigration attorney and
small business owner I understand that the recision of TPS for Venezuelans will not only tear apart families and our communities but will have a devastating impact on our local economy so this resolution while it may not change uh
the outcome at least at the very least it demonstrates to the administration where we stand in this city um for our immigrant community and especially our Venezuelan immigrant community so thank you commissioner part Paro and I hope all the Comm Commissioners here will
accept and approve this resolution today thank you thank you good morning good morning good morning commissioner re good to see you welcome back good morning everyone I'm here to talk about the Freedom Park my name is marela Lopez delber 661 nor
e68 Street and I just want to say that we don't live in a zip code we live in a planet we need to preserve it and we need to share it we need more green spaces and less concrete we have enough concrete as it is we know that we have a flooding issue in Miami we don't need to
put more concrete weight on it I think that uh the stadiums they're selected they're not for everybody to come because there a certain certain occasions certain times that people can go and we need more Parks we need to be real city that is embracing all the
citizens of all walks of life so they can go out and they can actually enjoy something and not be told that being invaded being invasive with more concrete we don't need to do that we need to remember your oath that you took we the people for the people and by the
people and that is what you should be doing every single day is representing us and not the other way around so save the trees save the green spaces and let's get going thank you thank
you hello uh my name is Juan Kuba and I'm with the Democratic party um but I'm speaking today as the son of immigrants my parents came to this country when I was 3 years old we fled a Mau gorilla group C luminoso and since then hundreds
of thousands of of families have fled oppression communism dictatorship authoritarianism uh in search of a better future here in Miami day and across across this country um you know I I I'm here to support commissioner
paro's res uh pocket item resolution urging the administration to restore TPS temporary protected status uh for Venezuelans and for others that have came here flee communism authoritarianism in search of that
better future um you know stripping that away puts them in a very precarious position uh it teres families apart it scaring our communities scaring people that you know are just here to work hard
and and provide a better future for their kids so I I I urge everyone Democrat Republican independent for all of us to be United and stand together and urge this Administration to restore TPS thank you so much thank you good
morning good morning um I my name is Nicole Crooks and I serve as a community engagement manager in Overtown I also live in Overtown and I'm here today to speak in strong opposition to sr1 which would include the permanent
disillusion of the Overtown Community oversight board this board was established to ensure transparency accountability and Community input in the face of ongoing development in our neighborhood and it was not just an O just not an advisory body it was clearly
an oversight committee a safeguard a necessary check and balance to ensure the voices of Overtown residents were heard whenever decisions about construction Redevelopment and public investment were being made and this board was also a key component of the
agreement for the CRA ending the oversite board could further erode trust between the community and elected officials and we know that the public meetings like this one are often scheduled at times when working people are not able to be here
in terms of our elders and so on and so forth um we also know that the way that the agenda items are recorded often make it very difficult for everyday people to even understand what's being discussed and so the oversight board gives an additional Safeguard to make
sure that the people are included in the process now since the board has um been unable to meet we've witnessed what happens when Community Voices are silenced Town Park residents continue to deal with development challenges and concrete is replacing green spaces um so
I know that my time is up I could keep going um but I don't want to I want to make sure that there should there should not be any development that takes place without Community oversight and our community deserves a seat at the table not just as an afterthought but as a
priority otherwise it's not it's not urban renewal it's Urban replacement and that's what we see thank you thank you good morning Grant Stern 425 Northeast 22nd Street I
wanted to start by thanking commissioner Paro for bringing up this item about TPS I was just on Newsmax television this morning explaining how Donald Trump's revocation of TPS is going to impact 500,000 Venezuelans who entered America illegally 180,000 in Florida and this is
very important because they cannot speak for themselves they are now intimidated their first amendment rights have essentially been revoked so it is up to us to speak for them I'd like to thank commissioner gabella for bringing up item re3 which will stop the city from
making payments uh for Commissioners who commit wrongdoing when they're being sued by their staffers their constituents uh their former police Commissioners Etc because we need a vote of the commission before the commission outlays These funds the commission has
the ability to make that decision responsibly and I agree with commissioner B on that but I disagree with the Mel re item and I'm going to tell you right now I'm not a slick lobbyist threatening you right here I am someone here as some that opposed that
from the beginning but I was denied the right to speak because the person sitting to my right violated the Sunshine Law to Comm been an egregious Act of public corruption to get that onto the ballot and lastly I'd like to read from a lawsuit that was filed recently this is in relation to di3
soarz and kto learned that in late January 2024 the Bayfront trust wired approximately $45,000 Joe Cado oo's Little Havana Fridays despite Bayfront trust having no association Caro's event nor deriving any benefit from a Caro's event in addition to that $45,000 the trust paid an addition $155,000 for
artists to perform at kyo's District 3 event which was apparently sent directly to a miscellaneous District 3 account the $60,000 was allegedly intended to enable Karo to pay artists to perform at the Little Havana Friday's event payment which was reportedly resulted in Booking commissions paid to ENT ities associated
with or controlled by Joe and or marjerie Caro where the proof thank you these are your friends that are putting you up to this worst to approv show one penny approved thank you may I have time to respond show one commissioner
commissioner please thank you may I respond no thank you thank you good chair I don't care if these same individuals that are sent here meeting
after meeting after meeting to attack me when to attack me but when they're going to the low level of attacking my wife something that even in politics in
Miami has not been seen before it shows how desperate they are I dare this character here or any one of these people to show one penny that I or my wife have gotten for
anything my poor wife the only thing she's done is put hundreds of hours of volunteer time for this city something a character like this has never done she builds she doesn't destroy like guys
like him and I not going to stand here and keep my mouth shut if they're going to come here and lie through their teeth because this last BS
lawsuit is something that will be dismissed immediately once we get to court we have ample proof of our lies that they put down including many of them in Mr Jose
Alberto is his own words signature and statements now they know well that the trust not Joe CaRu nine members of the
trust approved funding for community activities a lot of it went to Liberty City over over time for Kats to be taught art how to
paint for soccer teams in Little Haiti for young girls in Little Haiti and yes 60,000 was
approved for entertainment in Little Havana and every penny of that went for that and they know that because if anybody that's an elected official in this town has
shown for years every penny that went in and went out of their bank account tax statements including my wies including her small business and they couldn't find a single
penny that went in in or went out that wasn't Justified so this is what they resort to getting a handful of characters like this after they file a frivolous lawsuit that it took him three weeks to
ask the federal courts to issue us a penis so they could sered and then when they served me yesterday uh in a press conference just before he got started at Bayfront Park for the ribbon cuty of our fountain
it was coordinated with little Billy of course Little Billy doesn't get paid by anybody he's a rich man of course so man and chair they could come here and live but don't hide behind a lawsuit and and and
let me say this to everyone that's listening the reason that you don't get that ambulance Chaser attorney that follow this lawsuit with his people the same on that's filed the lawsuit for the bar owners in a street and has filed
other suits against other employees in the city and more the reason they will not go publicly to say anything like that is because they know then that my wife will have the
opportunity to sue the crap out of them but unfortunately our laws are that you could put any lie no matter how big it is in a lawsuit or in motions and you can't sue in that and
this is what they're doing so then a character like this that's working hand inand with them can come up here and repeat it and they could try to defame me defame my wife because they haven't been able to beat me the Democratic way
they lost two elections that lost one recall and a recall by the way that you'll be hearing about it in the near future because they spent maybe as much as a quar million dollars of laundered illegal money in that
recall so Madame um chairman uh I I hope that you're going to uphold uh our laws in this city and in every other City commission or County Commission the state where people stick
to the item at hand he went way over what the item at hand was and keep family members out of it because if it's a free-for all with family members believe me uh I could go much deeper with
others thank you thank you pardon me you had you don't need to respond you had your two minutes commissioner gabella point of order point of order I think think it's fine that g spoke but from now on if he has 5 minutes on this
while we're doing this everybody gets 5 minutes you know fine no problem I will not deny you the opportunity to speak I will not deny any any of my colleagues opportunity to speak may I raise a point of order no now that he has spoken on the item I said no your two minutes are
up good morning good morning Commissioners I'm here uh my name is jiad Rashid 3629 Grand Avenue and just have some comments on re10 uh I received a call last night and it was some great concern but after I
came here I found that the measure that's been proposed is innocuous and and I could easily support it but I want to take this opportunity to say that there's a organization that represents Coconut Grove the Coconut Grove Village
West homeowners and Tennis Association and embodies represent government and it's your partner in representative government we have a measure in now that prohibits uh uh City officials from attending our meetings but to avoid
these kind of things that to express people this organization has been here since 1954 it's the most vulnerable organization and I would urge the commission to find a way to move around that because
everybody that's a member of that organization lives and votes in the Grove and they are they have a voice and a vote so in these era in these days where we're concerned about democracy and our voices being heard let's
reconsider that communication because if we're your partner and we want to do that I was summon here I had plenty of other things to do but they were saying they're going to take something over and it's innocuous and I said well while I'm here why don't I take this time and make
that request of you respectfully thank you thank you commissioner Paro I just wanted to make a point of clarification uh the reason that our staff doesn't attend the Hoda meetings or two other groups is because they have sued the city of Miami and under advice of legal
council we cannot have Representatives attending in those meetings we have expressed to those organizations this from the very beginning we kind of let them know listen we are available Javier Gonzalez is always there our office is available we just did several forums
with the Coconut Grove Community so we try to be extremely accessible I would recommend that you contact our office and certainly work through Javier because we definitely don't want to lose the communication yeah we understand him again we're your part thank you thank you good
morning good morning can you hear me my name is mar 6795 South 6795 Southwest 102nd Terrace and B Crest 331 I can't hear
you my name is Maria Corina Vegas 6795 Southwest 102nd Terrace pest Florida I'm here to thank commissioner Paro as um and to support his
resolution to support Venezuelan TPS and other TPS holders as a Venezuelan American myself who fled the Chavez regime and I understand what it means to have people go back there and the fear
our community right now has I have friends I have relatives and I have colleagues that are you know fear stricking and I really appreciate your uh effort to put this resolution forward
and I ask the whole commission to support it thank you very much thank you good morning good morning commissioner Rick Madan 2900 Northeast 7th Avenue Miami Florida I'm here to speak on a couple of the
agenda items support of re3 this resolution which was introduced by commissioner gabella would stop the city from automatically paying legal fees for Commissioners sued in civil lawsuits now we understand you have political enemies so if it's in the scope of your work the city should defend you but if it's
outside of the scope taxpayers should not be funding these lawsuits opposing F fr6 this ordinance which eliminates the Bayfront Park management trust transferring full control to the city parks department reducing public input on Parks operations I support
commissioner gabella joining the trust to ensure better oversight and Community representation we need a change at Bayfront Park trust it should not be eliminated and then re4 oppose this ordinance which redirects the $20 million back to Freedom Park which is
amazing this is a bait and switch because the development agreement reached stipulate ated that the developers would donate 20 million to be used for improvement to public parks or acquisition of public parks within the city of Miami not for Miami Freedom Park
but other Parks Citywide strongly oppose any redirection of these funds and thank you Ken Russell for supporting this lastly di3 this is an item of vote of no confidence in commissioner coroo you should relinquish your post as chair of
the Bayfront Park trust because of all this controversy Comm gabella should be appointed chair of the trust he listens to the people he will do a good job thank you and Happy Valentine's Day thank you good morning good morning everyone um my name
is Amayo I live on 128 morning side cor GES I am here today in support of um commissioner paros resolution to restore the TPS um iy a Venezuelan American that lives here for 25 years
and I have um family and friends directly and negatively being affected by this Injustice that is happening as we speak uh for example I have my nephew who came to this country legally under a Visa for a student he went to um
University of Florida had a master degree there he paid his International tuition he came back to Miami he found a job uh he's he was working uh under TPS he was paying his taxes and now he's
forced to go back to a country that is no future that has no future and also is a country that is under a detector ship so it's important to understand that and the majority of the people that have been affected are hardworking Venezuelan
Community uh that pay their taxes and that are contributing to this country as well uh and finally I want to say that as a Venezuelan American and as a Venezuelan uh immigrant uh we're not criminals thank
you thank you good morning hi good morning my name is Francis Albin and I live in Edgewater which has become Ground Zero for overdevelopment and I I'm actually born and raised in Miami so I've seen this um
this transformation and it's you know it's over development we have um the items I wanted to support were fr3 um sorry fr4 the noise
ordinance I'm right outside of uh mellow Group which has uh two 60 story towers that they're developing on 24th Street and they're they just get whatever permit they need to construct and uh
build at all hours of the night is being approved and this is causing incredible disruption um and creating besides the noise the level of dust and dirt that's going into the bay the bay is in like terrible shape but I'm not I mean
there's there's that's another story but the noise definitely in support of that um also want to oppose fr6 which um we don't need LED Billboards in any near
parks and fr3 oh sorry also finally my last one is re3 which is I agree with the sentiments of the folks speaking previously we don't taxpayer dollars should not be used to
defend officials accused of abusive power thank you good morning good morning uh Madam chair to the commission I'm Rick Beasley I represent reource South Florida the South Florida Workforce investment board we come here to ask for your support for
re1 uh again this initiative allows for the creation of the women in Tech program uh this program will provide again the talent pipeline that's needed for the IT industry that you all are providing or expanding here in the city of Miami but it also provides an
opportunity to provide economic Mobility for the citizens here in the city of of Miami uh the South Florida Workforce provide the matching funds for this initiative and this initiative will will um uh hit five main goals here one expanding women's representation in the
information technology uh industry it will drive Workforce Development and economic growth here in the city of Miami it will provide an investment in high wage and susp sustainable careers here in the city of Miami and strengthen public private Partnerships for job creation and lastly ensure long-term
impact and economic growth for the City of Miami and so we ask for your support for resolution 11 thank you so much thank you good morning hi good morning uh my name is Todd amalong I live at 677 Northeast uh 24th Street in Edgewater um
I'm here to uh support the resolution uh that uh keeps us from automatically paying legal fees for Commissioners I think that uh just that alone could break the city at the rate we're going um but specifically I'm here for fr6 um
the um the park management is so the the input of the community is so important for the parks the the the difference in quality of living that we've seen in Edgewater due to development is is staggering
really for me to ride my bicycle from my home to Midtown Which is less than a mile away is almost uh death defying there's no bike paths there's no uh there's now adverts and led
advertisements sometimes two per block so if you even have to ride your bike on the on the city uh sidewalk even that you're bumping people into the street it's it's really it's too much and the the the amount of pollution and dust and
ports there's not enough room in margar past park for the buildings that are continuing to go up around it it's um it it needs to full input of the city uh in order for it to be something that we can all live in and be proud of because it
really feels like developers are are in charge there of almost everything so just wanted to go on the record for that and uh hope that you'll help us with that thank you thank you good morning good morning Nicole desiderio 900 bis
gain Bay I'm speaking on di3 and F fr6 Joe Caro has had no less than six Park directors in the last 6 years at the Bayfront Park management trust and it's because he treats people horribly no one wants to work for him and no one can last in that position for more than a
year he tries to deny that illegal substances were found at the park trust offices when the police department released the body camera footage he will just say anything to try and get out of trouble I'd like to set the record straight about the lies Joe told about
me when he took my public comment time last commission meeting he claimed claim that I'm a new transplant to Miami and that I just moved here in the last few years you said welcome to me well I don't need you to welcome me because I've been living in the city of Miami for almost 20 years I've stated this on
the record here at least 10 times including the fact that I've lived in South Florida all of my life including across the street from Fay park for the last 15 years so I don't know why on Earth or who on Earth you get your information from but at least you're
consistent with telling blatant lies just like you're blatant lie claiming that there's no master plan for Fay Park you knew about this master plan all along you just refused to use it so I say to the rest of you Commissioners please do not believe the lies that Joe carollo tells last month when you took
my public comment time you want on a rant even going so far as to insinuate that I'm involved in some orchestrated plan against you I'll say it again and I've said it before I did not know any of you commissioners before I started coming down here and I'm not being sent here by any
and now re1 14 about Freedom Park it's disappointing that we have so many issues with our park and fr6 it seems like you're taking the stance of if I can't have it no one can so you just want to abolish the trust altogether I think commissioner gabella should be the
chair of the trust and re3 I'm with you on that commissioner gabella thank you thank you good morning sure it's just a cake for the he gave me a donut last night why not I'm not going to eat it here though we're not you gave
me a donut last time okay we're not going to serve it but okay you you can take it thank you good morning Billy Corbin also known as vile little man Little Billy time share baby and Mr
uh here to speak on d35 F fr6 re3 and R14 first good to see uh commissioner Reyes here and healthy sir um and I want to thank commissioner gabella for bringing some very important items uh that put taxpayers first on this agenda
first and foremost related to Bayfront Park management trust and of course outside Council for elected officials on the bay trust I am all for your suggestion that you take over as the chairman I think you are the right new sheriff to come in and fix the mess that
is there and it it affects the outside council issue as well if you see one of those meetings right now it's like a communist poit Bureau where everyone tells Joe coroo how smart and handsome and funny he is and all vote in unison for him including recently on more outside Council to defend corruption in
this city and who did they pick loser law firms like shuts and Bowen loser law firms okay who are now defending yet another First Amendment retaliation law lawsuit against Joe Coro what are their qualifications they last the Lost first
amendment retaliation lawsuit against Jo Joe caroo to the tune of $635 million it's got to stop this blank check that the city attorney's office has to buy themselves other positions look at tricky Vicki Mendes the former consiliary of the Miami Mafia uh here
she got herself by signing away $20 million she got herself a position at that law firm now you're paying a corruption tax in her pension and also you're paying her salary there at chuts and bow it's got to stop and finally I just want to mention on Mel ree they're lying to you I just want you to know
that they're lying to you just like they lied to Ken Russell they lied to this whole Community after negotiating good faith up there they are lying to you don't let them do it like they did with the pensions too they're trying to pull a fast one the mayor is an unregistered lobbyist for them they represent his Law Firm MLS don't let them do it and
finally I have a cake to celebrate the 24th anniversary of Joe coro's domestic violence arrest with a mug shot the only person who's attacked your wife here is you sir man and chair the only title he forgot to mention which is his main one
the boy corruption because that's who pays him to come here corruption the one that pays this guy here with a Tik Tock shirt to be filming so that he could put it in his little uh podcast not
easy thank you good morning good morning chairwoman good morning Commissioners I'm here to speak on many of your proclamations commissioner Paro the proclamations that you're trying to make um regarding deportations of specific immig
immigrants I am a member of the Republican party in your District district 17 as committee woman I've also served on the code enforcement board we have a massive issue with immigration here that affect directly affects our elections we have illegals voting in our
elections they are allowed to check a box whenever they are applying for their state IDs um that has gone all the way to the governor's office so in president Trump's inauguration speech he clearly said he plans on cleaning up from Chicago to Miami wondering why I said
that well maybe because our County mayor has almost raided the fund for the sheriff department um in buying things from Chicago hm that's very strange right according to NBC's own reports in November
2024 um there was a man from Venezuela at Dolphin Mall um that was harassing citizens beating them he had sold over $1,100 in merchandise well he was arrested in Chicago had an ankle monitor that was cut but there was nobody to go get him but he was beating up on our
citizens on January 28th 26 Chinese immigrants were being smuggled in our own backyard here in Coral Gables um those immigrants we have no idea what they were doing in terms of their abilities and it looked like the they were actually trying to escape Latinos
so we don't know what member of the gang there are so president Trump is actively cleaning up our country as almost 80% of Americans wanted and if you would like me to hand deliver a letter to you with my rebuttal on top I will be glad to do that because I will be at Maro tonight
thank you thank you good morning enjoy Christie good morning Brenda Bor 1436 16 uh six Street um sr3 and fr5 I just want to thank and um commissioner Caro for the
raming and let's hope that those three Parks they are going to be more active and if it's possible if the director of Park and um try to see if we can have more of the programs that we have around that they still have to be um added to
this two new parks or raro is going to be amazing and in as well as the children parks um in support of PC3 um for the survey showing the r of way dedications for owners that doesn't understand what that dedications means when they own a property uh just
question about fr6 and di5 I think we all as a residents of the city of Miami we just want to understand understand the reason of requesting the bage of this um management and I'm not
in favor of allish anything but we all have to understand in order for you to have any event in the park it's like a miracle in order for you to actually qualify to do an event in the Bayfront Park so I just
want to understand exactly what is they are trying to accomplish and to abolish it if it's going to be more actually accessible to the people or is just for a different reason I just have a questions about that and I just want to make sure um to mention to you guys
about the 4050 restratification for seniors in our homes we have a seniors in in an area of Chanda who receive a letter from the own safe Department saying that she need to reify her house and we have to
understand when you send a letter to 84 years old that you that she need to R Suppy her house and she's going to panic you guys as a city have the has to let they know what that means please thank
you good morning good morning Denise Calvis 2130 Southwest 20th Street um I'm here to speak on f fr6 um I think it's pretty clear I think Paro and gabella understand the game I think commissioner Reyes also understands the game
obviously this is an attempt for commissioner Coral to basically if I can't have it no one can please don't abolish the park please don't put it back in the parks department I deal with the parks a lot I'm actually trying to restore a historic building in one of the parks I have the money the roof from
date Heritage Trust And we haven't been able to get that through the parks is a mess a lot of our parks are mismanaged don't abolish Bayfront management trust as for the third party attorney fees I absolutely support that as a matter of fact I would add a provision and I ask
all of you to add a provision where we do not allow our city attorney's office to hire third party attorneys and firms who are actively engaged in our elections I.E snof and Ben Cooney all of them have packs they donate to Coral
they support all his elections they should not be allowed to be part of that third party attorney hiring process regardless of what the circumstances are they should be prohibited from even participating in that process so thank you so much gabella for bringing this up and please appoint commissioner gabella
as the chairman because that trust had for 30 years a wonderful leadership team that I worked with and there was no problem with me doing events there or anybody else I don't know what Miss banur is talking about just please remove it from Coral's hands that's the only problem with that Park thank you
thank you good morning morning chairwoman James Torres president of the downtown neighbors Alliance we're here to oppose oppose our E4 14 the resolution is the wrong way of doing business in the city of Miami because it's very specific that a promise was made here back in
2022 that $20 million in park funding that was only recently received and has been a clear earmark since 2022 for Citywide improvements and the acquisition of land for new parks it doesn't matter that technically the key
word here is technically we do not have to acquire new parks and find additional loopholes as required or has been currently been speaking to new land for Parks Beyond um Miami Freedom Park was a promise that was made improving for other Parks beyond the Miami Freedom
Park as promised no new taxers money should have been used for this now we're in thisum we are not here to argue techn technical we're here opposing the resolution because it lacks Integrity if we allow this to happen
what will happen next the job Creations that were promised will no longer exist the guarantee of 58 acre Park in general would no longer exist and the terms of the entire deal because a former corrupt city attorney left us nasty surprising and finding
additional loopholes that should not have been created we suggest the following compromise in 2022 the commission decided that 12.5 million was going to go to district one and within that $2.5 million of the
pot was going to be split equally among the other districts there should be other Solutions part of the solution maybe a conservative ship that the mayor should start having a conversation and addressing that and and or looking for a trust or philanthropy partners that
perhaps will address this issue as like you're doing with the underlying park that's our stance on R14 fr3 and4 the noise ordinance we're asking that you include language that is not there to support the fact that the administration does not have the right
thank you fr6 the bont park issue re9 thank you thank you very clear they com thank you thank you good morning good morning again Commissioners Migel Solan 1436 Southwest 6 Street I'm
here in support of re8 and re1 commissioner Gabel I commend you always looking out for our most vulnerable in our community re8 is for the holiday meal distribution that's admirable you're
doing and then re1 is for the women in Tech program which is an incredible uh an incredible thing that that we're doing we have to support our women um I'm here also against
re4 um Miami Freedom Park got a billion dollar possibly the best deal that's ever been given in this County and now they're getting greedy on top of what they got the voters spoke in November it was
a clear mandate we're tired of these kind of things you know don't let them don't let them continue to be so greedy enough is enough leave that 20 million there leave something for
us then um I'd also like uh to commend the police department and our chief last time I was here I spoke of the situation we have with the mopets they've implemented uh a great program there's still a lot of work to
do it's a very difficult issue to get these mopeds and these individuals but they are picking them them up they're confiscating mopeds and they've even assigned officers specifically to that task and I would like to commend our chief and our Police Department as
always thank you very much for your service and lastly real quick real quick I'd like to commend an individual that is always behind the scenes and we never hear anything from him our city clerk Todd Hammond he's
always quiet and that little help but I say give him a round of applause forgive me but that man in that department his staff they never make a mistake they keep our City Records they're always correcting us if we make a mistake and
it is very admirable and we never point that out we talk about our police we talk about our fire department but he does an incredible job with our city thank you very much Mr City Clerk and all your staff thank thank you Commissioners thank you
at this time seeing no one else for public comment the public comment period is now closed I do see we have a personal appearance Citizens Independent Transportation
trust good morning madame chairwoman Commissioners Mr Mayor Mr manager uh Javier beton Court executive director of the Citizens Independent Transportation trust or CIT um it's great to be back at the city I worked for the Miami DDA many years
ago and uh obviously uh it's great to see all my old friends and colleagues here at the city um Mariana price who is our Municipal program manager uh is here as well she also work for the Miami DDA so you know the city of Miami is really near and dear to our heart and in fact
Mariana is also a city resident so uh she's a twofer so uh thank you for granting me some time to update you on our efforts um to oversee the half penny funds and uh the implementation of yeah this is not
advancing okay well he does that um we did pass out just an overview of our organization and uh the use of the PTP funds both by the county um and our cities oh here we go we're getting there okay I just need to
go backwards all right starting from scratch I apologize so 20 years 23 years ago now actually um the voters of miid County were presented with this ballot language and it asked the taxpayers if they would increase their sales tax from 6 and a half to 7% uh a half penny
increase and that those funds would be used uh to enhance mobility and improve Transportation throughout Miami day County under something called The People's Transportation plan or PTP if you look at the last sentence of the referendum language it also uh created the Citizens Independent Transportation
trust my organization to oversee the use of those funds by both the county that gets about 80% of the money and the cities that are getting about 22% of the funds these days and those funds are distributed to the cities on a prata basis so by population city of
Miami being the largest city by population in the county gets the line share of those Municipal funds um so our charge at the CIT is to monitor audit review and oversee and investigate the use of the funds and the implementation of the PTP um I am not technically CIT
I'm support staff to them these folks up on the screen are the citizen volunteers that compose our trust uh at least five of them I believe represent at least part uh of the city of Miami and you'll recognize some of these folks mag Daly Robert wano who I understand worked here
many years ago uh near true citizen volunteers from all walks of life we do have vacancies if you're interested in serving on the trust as a volunteer uh please visit our website uh and apply even if there isn't a vacancy we'll keep that on file uh for future
vacancies this is my office you know we assist the trust in its ongoing efforts one of the key responsibilities of ours is to audit all the cities and the county on a regular basis to ensure that those funds are being spent appropriately
um and uh we I I do want to acknowledge your city staff has done a phenomenal job of working with us to address some audit findings from the past audit findings that by the way were not due to this Administration or this commission they are longstanding issues that we
finally resolved um and so kudos to your staff for working so well with us to do that so Half Penny doesn't sound like a lot of money but it collects a lot particularly over time so we're now at about $400 million uh that is being
collected annually and since its Inception we've collected nearly $5 billion and what you see here is the breakdown of how how those monies were expended the bulk of it has gone to midate Transit some has gone to midate public works for roadway projects although that's been less than 10% of
the funds about 21% overall has gone to the cities um and uh I'm proud to say that less than 1% goes to our office uh for administration we're allowed to spend up to 5% and but we ensure that we spend less than 1% because we believe
that the bulk of the funds should be spent on the street um on projects and services that actually move people here's the same amount same information over time generally speaking the sales tax has grown over time collections have grown and expenditures have grown with the exception of the recession and the
pandemic this is our annual budget tells more or less the same story uh if you're really interested in the numbers um we have every penny going every penny going out over the next 40 years in this 40-year performa an $8 billion program over those 40 years and
this is available on our website I won't go into it in detail here so enough about us enough about the money let's talk about what people really care about it's the projects programs and services that the half penny funds a lot of promises were made 23 years ago uh to
the people Everyone remember as expansion of Metro Rail and that was certainly one of the core promises but there was so much more there was the 20% to the cities of which the cities have to use at least 20% for Transit and the other 80% they can use on other Transportation there was fair free metr
mover right here in the city of Miami there was fair free transit for all seniors regardless of income what's now called the Golden Passport you had bus service improvements you had major highway and Road improvements over 40 roadway and Highway improvements and then yes of course expansion of Metro
Rail or Rapid Transit I'm going to bring Mariana up here to quickly talk uh so these two slides about the municipal Transit program that she manages good morning Commissioners uh Mr manager um my name is Mariana price I'm the municipal program manager I oversee
the use of the ctax funds with the 33 municipalities that participate in our program the city of Miami is the largest city uh funds are distributed on a prata basis with just under 500,000 in population um the city is slated to get
about 20 Mill $28 million this year last year the ridership was about 4.2 million and it increased I'm sorry the year before last was 4.2 million increased about 5% to 4.4 million and
the city has the most robust Trolley system in Miami Dade County with 13 routes I've ridden all 13 of them uh Natasha Wade Huen all Charles they all do a great job and um yeah thank you so much
thank you Mariana she works on a regular basis with your amazing team here at the city um as I said a number of roadway projects three quarters of those are done now our position at the CIT is that as the roadway projects are completed we're not we're not accepting new roadway
projects from the county we want the bulk of the fund spent on Transit because that is where we're furthest behind and frankly we don't have the ability to expand roadways in Miami day County anymore the only alternative is Transit um ever one roadway related project that we are funding and are
fully supportive of is Advanced traffic management system technology it's a fancy way of saying smart signals right so we have these Antiquated traffic signals um you know they're just on timers they're not adapting to realtime traffic situations this system will allow that to happen there was a phase
one that was a pilot project that was very successful and the county is now uh moving into phases two and three so the whole idea of here is to get you through those intersections faster if you are in a car but our Focus really is on Transit and has been for a long time we've completely replaced all the vehicles
Metro Rail metr mover uh the the Metro Bus system um proud to say that the Metro Bus uh system is increasingly going to be electric and eco-friendly CNG buses um we did expand Metro Rail to the airport we do fund all the municipal
trolleys we fund bicycle and pedestrian connections to those transit systems what we call the first Last Mile and we have also invested in TR rail so um about a year ago Tri Rail uh expanded its current system to downtown Miami we helped to pay as the city also helped to
pay uh for that platform at the Miami Central Station okay uh we'll pass that so the one Rapid Transit quarter that was achieved again was the expansion of Metro to the airport but many more were promised I think we all remember there were another five or six quarters that
were promised 20 years ago those have not come to fruition the good news is the county is actively working and the and the TP to bring those projects to fruition finally through what they now call the Smart Plan strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit plan so those are six corridors
that are on in some stage of planning design development or construction so we have the South Corridor Beach Corridor East West Corridor Kendall Corridor Northeast Corridor and the north Corridor the South Corridor is under construction as we speak if you go from about Dand South South to Florida city
you'll see a beam built right alongside South Dixie Highway it's really exciting it's going to be gold standard bus Rapid Transit that's going to behave very much like a train and that should be opening in about July of this year the beach Corridor formerly known as bail link obviously uh very important to the city
of Miami uh this is still in planning uh in development City of Miami Beach took some issues with the proposal of metr mover um but you know this is still a county priority and something that we certainly support at the CIT in addition
to getting to the beach you'll notice is also a line that goes up to uh The Design District and both of those are currently proposed to be Metro mover the East West Corridor you know is connecting people who live out west to the jobs here in the city of Miami and Points East this was originally going to
be brt on the uh dolphin Expressway the county has taken a step back and is now exploring other Alternatives either the CX lines CSX lines that uh are currently in place near the airport or potentially doing something on Flagler Street instead of State 836 so they're
exploring all that uh please stay tuned the kendle corridor doesn't really affect your city this has kind of been sheld for the moment while they focus on other corridors uh the next most exciting one that I believe will come to fruition is the Northeast Corridor and this is certainly one that I know you're
anticipating and and supporting here at the city of Miami this is essentially going to run commuter rail so thank Tri Rail light trains along the existing bright line FEC tracks bright line is fantastic it's a little expensive it doesn't really work for your daily
Commuter so it needs to be complemented by a true commuter rail system that has aordable fairs multiple stations throughout the county uh and and this deal um I would say is nearing fruition uh we did secure 400 plus million from
the Biden Administration for the federal share we'll see if the Trump Administration Honors that and if Congress approves it but the local and state matches are there as well the north quarter would run up 27th Avenue toward the Broward County Line This one
is slated to be Metro Rail as such it's going to be the most difficult to achieve because Metro Rail is extremely expensive we don't currently have the funds in place for that Corridor it's going to require federal funds and we're not sure if it would uh compete
competitively for those funds under the new Administration finally we've supported several parking ride facilities throughout the county uh we need more funding we need to look under every Rock and additional areas of focus for ours first Last Mile connectivity is important it doesn't
matter if you build these corridors if you can't get to the station or from the station to your destination so you know we really encourage the municipalities to invest in uh first Last Mile bicycle pedestrian connectivity on demand Transportation which I know you're exploring and of course your own
circulators uh enhancing County Municipal connectivity we don't have one transit system in Mii day County we have 35 we have Transit we have bright line we have TR Rail and then we have 33 cities doing their own thing and that doesn't work for the rider or the consumer we really need to bridge those
things so that it's one seamless system from the perspective of the writer we could build everything we want if it's not providing a good customer experience people aren't going to use it so making sure the system is well maintained that it's clean that it performs well and finally Community engagement I am committed to telling the story of a half
penny in the PTP and I'm doing this throughout the county because the people deserve to know where their half penny is going where it's succeeding but also where it's failing you know information is power just going to leave you with two points we did launch a CIT ambassador program two years ago uh basically we're using
the people who ride the system to be our eyes and ears on the system they submit feedback on a regular basis on an app they get points for that which they can exchange for rewards like free Uber rides free Transit passes this is fantastic and we encourage any Transit rider in the city of Miami of either the
trans Miami County Transit or even your own system to apply to become a CIT ambassador to be our eyes and ears on the system so that we can keep improving it and finally I did launch a podcast a couple years ago to talk about Mobility to talk about transportation to inform the public and I've had several
officials over that time and I would invite all of you and the mayor and the manager uh to be guests on my podcast to talk about Mobility uh we film it out of miam community newspaper Studio not too far from here in South Miami so please be my guest thank you and I'm happy to
answer any questions thank you I do have one question I am trying to expand the city's trolley service to the east of my district of biscane Boulevard biscane Boulevard is a traffic
Nightmare and it would be helpful if we could move our residents and it's seems to be the only area of the city of Miami that does not have a trolley route and it I don't think it's
fair that the east side of the city of Miami up to the northern boundary of the city of Miami doesn't have the Trolley system I've spoken to staff about it it's been a priority of mine because the business is
there there's no parking on the upper east side and the businesses there are suffering because we can't get persons into that area and we have several businesses that would benefit from more persons visiting that community that
happens to be my neighborhood so I understand better than most um because that is literally my neighborhood right and I would like to see a trolley route the trolley stops on 62nd and bisc and turns back around the trolley goes
everywhere in Miami except there so I would like I know staff has brought this to your attention and I would really like to see a trolley in that area because we have to alleviate the traffic on biscane Boulevard and I like what you
said about the signaling because the signals are out of syn on bisc Boulevard you get to one green light only to go to a red light and it the traffic just does not flow and it's very frustrating it
takes me an hour to get from downtown to my house on bisc in 62nd um east of that an hour where it's really only a 10minute ride when it's not you know rush hour traffic so that and we had a
meeting with fdot Miami parking authority the city of Miami and the Miami day County I should have included you guys and we talked about the the sinking of the traffic lights because we have every little bit
helps every little bit helps but really I'm concerned about the trolley and I would like to have and I've given it to staff they know it's a priority of mine and I'd like to see the trolley go up this C Boulevard yeah the decisions on um where TR trolley should go what
routes you have is really a city decision you do have to coordinate that with Miami day transit to make sure it complements the overall transit system and doesn't compete with it that's a conversation that your city staff has with their Department not with us um you know we don't have any say in where your
trolley routes go or where they should go we just you know oversee the funding um I I will say that the city again is only required to spend 20% of what you get on Transit on the trolleys you spend well above that and so the city is already spending you know I I think the
bulk of your funds at this point on Transit even though you don't have to um but there may be additional funds that could go towards expansion of trolleys that's a conversation to have with them thank you and thank you for your presentation can can I just yes can I just uh you
know in my area uh I I asked for this you know since I got an office January February that you're running the the trolley's running uh Westbound from uh approximately 12th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 7th Street running Westward to
57th Avenue and then when it gets to 57th Avenue it cuts and goes uh turns left and goes south and uh when I was campaigning you about 2 years ago many of the res uh you know wanted that trolley you know since they're getting on it to go
Westward why doesn't it go you know return the same way and yes I got the answer but but I like to see that change because you know if if a senior citizens get on the trolley to go shopping at let's say the 57th Avenue shopping center they have no way of you
know making the uh the return trip okay again you're talking about the city of Miami trolley yeah that that's again wholly within the city's control and how you those I shouldn't say holy because you have to you do have to coordinate with mid day transit but that's what they said yes um I know
there's flexibility there and by the way one of the things I should also applaud the city for is there are areas where you actually go outside your city and connect to for instance city of cor Gables that is allowable I think up to 30% of a route can be outside of your jurisdictional boundaries and we encourage that because it increases
connectivity so there may be opportunities there you know to to look at some of those uh uh flexible options and by the way one of our great Partners hu um I think might be able to address your question good morning Madam chair Commissioners hu Santana director Public
Works um we are currently going to be looking at our trolley route master plan so as part of that taking the recommendations we've already had conversations with dtpw um and that's a planning section that has to approve any changes to our trolley routes have to be approved by
the planning department at dtpw at the county um so we we will be looking at all the routes Citywide including the northern extension along biscan Boulevard as part of that effort and so we'll we'll be reaching out to do that that Master Plan had been put on hold
because we were not receiving the county C tax dollars that just happened in March and we've already engaged the consultant that's going to be doing that work okay thank you and thank you thank you for the presentation thank you all very much at this time I would like to ask my
colleagues for a motion to pass the city Commission meeting minutes for accept the city commission meeting minutes for December 12 2024 I have a motion second all in favor motion yes um I
apologize I have to leave now I have U something that I could not change um what time should I be back 2:30 um no it's only 11:30 if if I I would still have Quorum I'd
like to take up some of this stuff the only thing that I ask since we have another 20 plus minutes uh before noon if there's any item that uh is controversial if it should be held back
for the afternoon session so let me go hold on let me go through are there any items in the consent agenda that anyone wants to pull for discussion does anybody want to pull any items from the consent
agenda ca4 okay commissioner Reyes are there any items from the consent agenda that you would like to don't have no okay no M I'm sure does anyone want to pull ph1
for discussion H1 ph1 um can I can I can I for ph1 no no I I I what I wanted to say was that you know uh we have a contentious issue and it's di3 and I think we should step it
take it now as early as possible because I I I want K to be here because he going to come back after lunch let me just get through the agenda he's going to come back after lunch I just want to see what you guys want to pull we don't want to do anything behind anybody's back no we're not we're not we're not going to do that I just want to does anyone want
to pull ph1 for discussion no but1 ph1 do have to leave Madam chair I think we all know what Comal items are are there any resolution items that you would like to pull for discussion if uh we could leave any resolution item that could be
controversial uh for that matter uh any pocket items that could be controversial if there's none then uh we move with it but I do have to go now thank you okay appreciate it so may I have a motion for CA 1 2 3
Move Motion second all in favor I okay passed with ca4 for discussion later may I have a motion for ph1 uh move
it I have a motion second second all in favor just i' like to say one thing I'm going to be voting against it because I asked how much was uh what was the dollar amount uh we talked about a formula city manager and uh I haven't
got that formula back I haven't got the doll amount so I can't vote on something that I don't really know what we're selling for can we defer the item yeah okay you want to defer it for this meeting or until afternoon the meeting for the me okay so
I have do I have a motion to defer motion second second until when until we get the dollar amount I guess 227 the next meeting to to the next meeting okay oh
after so we don't need to defer it we'll just hold it okay you can table the item we'll table the item until the afternoon all right uh there's a mitigation re1 but that's District three so he left so
we won't take that up until he comes back um going to pull re3 for discussion any of the any of the re 14 for discussion
are 14 and r e 13 let's see question you added 13 as well 13 that's right you want to pull 13 for discussion uh commissioner Reyes okay commissioner
re you want to for discussion are there any other items so we're putting 13 and 14 pulling 13 14 and re3 okay and one until the afternoon on the r on the
Rees um I believe four was deferred no yes re4 was deferred until March 13th okay and R6 we already passed yes so nobody has objections objections
okay so may I have a motion and let me read them out let me read them out motion for re2 re5 re7 8 9 10 11 12 and um be mindful that re2 is a four
fifths do I have a motion I have a motion second all in favor all I items pass okay are there any of the SR items that anyone wants to pull for
discussion I did want to pull sr1 sr1 yeah I want to pull that too sr1 anything else Mr City attorney would you please read for the record the titles of the SR
items one two and three yes Madam chair sr1 it's a long one an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 2 article 11 Division 2 Section 2- 887 of the code of the city of Miami Florida is amended city code titled Administration
boards committees commission standards for creation and review of boards generally Quorum requirements exceptions more particularly by removing references to the boards committees and citizens advisory groups collectively City boards being Sunset herein further amending
chapter 2 article 11 Division 2 Section 2- 892 of the city code titled Administration boards committees commission standards for creation and review of boards generally Sunset review of boards more particularly by removing references to the city boards being Sunset herein to maintain consistency
with the city code and align the city code with current standards and practices repealing chapter 2 article 11 Division 3 sections 2- 921 through 2- 929 of the city code titled Administration boards committees commissions Mayors Council on global
competitiveness further repealing chapter 2 article 11 Division 6 sections 2- uh 101 through 2- 1019 of the city code titled administrative boards committees commissions commissions on the status of women and quality of life committee further repealing chapter 2
article 11 Division 7 sections 21051 through 21056 of the city code titled Administration boards committees commissions Overtown Advisory Board Overtown Community oversight board further revealing further repealing
chapter 2 article 11 Division 12 sections 2-150 through 2 1153 of the city code titled Administration boards committees commissions committee community relations board further repealing chapter 2 article 11 Division 22
sections 2-13 29 through 21331 of the city code titled Administration boards committees commissions stars of cioo advisory committee further repealing chapter 2 article 11 Division 26 section 21360 through 2-1 1368 of the city code
titled Administration boards committees Commission Miami Technology Council further repealing chapter 22 article 7 sections 22-17 through 22-174 of the city code titled garbage and other Solid Waste commercial Solid
Waste and Recycling management advisory committee sunsetting the affordable home ownership Loan program task force established by the city commission pursuant to resolution number r9- 0508 adopted on December 12 200 19
declaring that all powers duties assets and funds of the City Board Sage herein shall revert to the city and the city shall resume the responsibilities of the City Board Sunset herein containing a severability clause providing for an effective date sr2 in ordinance of The Mindy City
commission amending chapter 62 article 14 section 62-6 44 through 62- 645 of the code of the city of Miami Florida is amended titled Planning and Zoning public benefits trust fund nrd1 public benefits trust fund intent and planning and
zoning public benefits trust fund established to provide for the transfer of nrd1 public benefits trust funds collected by the city of Miami city finance department to a qualified public depository held by Winwood business improvement district allowing for the
investment of nrd1 public benefits trust funds collected pursuant to the city's investment policy in section 28.1 415 Florida Statutes providing for three-year terms for nrd1 public benefits trust committee members clarifying that 35% of the total nrd1
public benefits trust funds collected shall be allocated towards affordable housing and limited funding to affordable housing projects where at least 51% of the units provided are restricted to a person or households with income at or below 80% of the median income for Miami County Florida
as determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date and sr3 and ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 38 Article 1 of the code of the city of Miami Florida is amended titled Parks and Recreations General by creating
section 38-35 titled naming of children's park to provide for the naming of the parcel of land consisting of approximately 16,22 2 ft located at 1320 North 1320 Southwest 12 Avenue 1330 Southwest 12 Avenue and 121 Southwest 14
Street Miami Florida and other contiguous Parcels that may be added in the future as Children's Park further directing the city manager to take any and all actions necessary to effectuate the name of the park containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date that is the end
of the SR items thank you may I have a motion for Sr two and three motion I have a motion I have a second all in favor I motion carries unanimously um are there any FR items
that you guys would like to pull for disc discussion oh wait okay we're going to let's go back let's go back to um re3 re3 for discussion or we leaving that for the
afternoon you want to leave it for the afternoon well because it involves uh one of the biggest lawsuits I understand okay all right let's uh all right items to be pulled for FR I would think I think
fr6 pulled for discussion and you guys have any I don't but the fr6 yes yes I agree pull for discussion um anything else no that
seems okay um Mr City attorney would you read the titles for the FR FR items into the record yes Madam chair um okay first one we have is f
fr2 fr2 an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 22 article two of the code of the city of Miami Florida is amended titled garbage and other Solid Waste regulation of persons engaging in commercial waste collection providing for an additional requirement that franchisees also be required to
remove bulky waste from contract properties containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date R three fr3 an ordinance of the Miami city commission establishing chapter 52 of the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended city code titled special events to provide a
chapter dedicated to special events updating definitions and regulations to such special events and consolidating regulations con currently in chapter 54 and 62 of the city code further amending chapter 54 Article 1 of the code of the city of Miami Florida is amended city code titled streets and sidewalks in
general to delete regulations related to special events to be codified in chapter 52 of the city code and clarifying definitions further repealing chapter 62 Article 13 Division 1 of the city code titled Planning and Zoning Planning and Zoning approval for temporary uses and
occupancies permit required temporary events to El regulations related to special events regulations and temporary event permit to be codified in chapter 52 of the city code containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date r e I'm sorry F R4 in ordinance of
the Miami city commission amending chapter 36 section 4 the code of the city of Miami Florida is amended titled noise operation of radios phonographs or other sound making devices bands orchestras and M and musicians generally to provide for City commission waiver for special occasions and occasions on
city-owned operated or leased properties and Facilities containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date fr5 an ordinance of the Miami city commission renaming the city of Miami owned Park consisting of approximately 15
155,00 ft currently known as Henderson Park and located at 971 Northwest 2 Street Miami Florida folio number 01 4138 00369 as Ruben Dario Park amending
chapter 38 article one of the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended titled Parks and Recreation General by creating section 38-38 titled naming of Ruben Dario Park further repealing chapter 38 Article 1 Section 38-29 of the city code titled naming of Ruben
Dario Park to remove duplicative Park namings further directing the city manager to take any and all actions necessary to effectuate the naming of the park containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date fr6 an ordinance of the Miami city commission repealing chapter 38 article
3 of the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended titled Parks and Recreation Bayfront Park management trust in its entirety to abolish the Bayfront Park management trust amending chapter 38 of the city code titled Parks and Recreation to establish a new article three titled division of
Bayfront Park in Maurice Fay Park creating a division of the park creating a division of the Department of Parks and Recreation and providing for the City of Miami to maintain operate and manage the Bayfront Park in Maurice Ray Park further amending chapter 2 article
11 Division 2 titled Administration boards committees commission standards for creation and review of boards generally to remove references to the trust further amending chapter 18 article 3 section 1872 titled Finance City of Miami procurement ordinance
application and exclusions to remove references to the trust further amending chapter 54 Article 1 Section 549 titled streets and sidewalks in general rep placing signs advertisement or displays on any portion of public RightWay Street or sidewalk surface to remove references
to the trust containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date thank you may I have a motion for FR 23 4 and five and with f fr2 and three as
amended so moved one one question go ahead one question fr3 okay uh is this going to be moved that we the Commissioners chairwoman the commission
is going to decide or the administration is going to decide because I'm not clear on this the waivers yeah on3 so the um pertaining to3 fr3 is the um codification of special events in chapter 52 and all the
power to wave would be still with the city commission I think you're talking about the noise one which is4 well fr4 we already know right that it's it's us I mean the city commission right fr3 I just can can you there's no waiver of noise for the administration in fr3 it
it reverts back to chapter 36 which would rest with the city commission okay so I have a motion in a second all in favor sorry more sorry take your time okay I'm sorry uh just so uh city
manager on the year1 weren't we going to defer that it was deferred to February 27 okay that's what I thought okay sorry I got it wrong in here so we're doing two three four and five four and five just f with me so I have a motion in a second
all in favor I I I I thank you commissioner Reyes um Mr city clerk I believe two was uh there was a substitution so that would be a substit chair I said that oh I'm sorry okay and I need to
revisit re12 there's a substitution so if we can um if I can have a motion for to revisit re2 motion second I have a motion and a second re2 may I um all in favor of re2 as
amended oh no so vote on the reconsideration we need to reconsider I'm sorry there's a two-step thing here a motion and a second for reconsideration all in favor I I I all motion passes now may I have a motion to adopt re12 as amended pursuant the
substitution memo dated February 12 2025 so moved second all in favor motion carries unanimously okay now we have um do we have any board appointments Mr City
clerk yes ma'am bc5 climate resilience committee city manager Nora will be appointing assistant fire chief Grant muser to the Emergency Management category you need a motion yes sir
motion motion second second all in favor I bc16 Miami forever Bond program citizens oversight commissioner Gabel will be appointing Nelson kazaras have a motion second I have a
motion in a second all in favor I I I that concludes the board and committees thank you chair thank you and uh we can accept the budget the status of the fy2 current budget does anyone need any discussion on
that okay doesn't require a motion nothing's changed I was told no but um our director is here if you have any questions no okay we're good Mr City attorney would you please read for
the record the py items Madam Shar yes sir yeah can we do also the pocket items um are there any Pock okay we can pi1 through pi4 May I have a motion for
pi1 through pi4 so moved I have a motion sorry py or Pi the pocket items oh pocket item I have a motion second second all in favor I I pocket items pass Mr City attorney could you read for
the record thank you madam chair welcome pz the titles for the pz items yes Madam chair um pz 1's a resolution pz2 ordinance in ordinance of the Miami city commission with attachments amending ordinance number 1311 for the zoning ordinance of the city of Miami Florida
is amended more particularly by amending article one titled definitions to add a definition of portico amending article three titled General to zones to clarify the building and structure Heights in the T3 Suburban transact zones and floor area for immediate intermediate levels
amending article four titled standards and tables to update setback requirements for Ingress control devices amending Article 5 titled specific to zones to update and simplify regulations related to single family and two family home in the T3 Suburban transa zones and
amending article 7 titled procedures and non-conformities to provide a waiver for raised decks making findings containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date pz3 second reading ordinance and ordinance of the Miami city commission
with attachments amending ordinance number 1 13114 the zoning ordinance of the city of Miami Florida as amended Mii 21 code more specifically by amending article 3 titled General to zones to clarify density and intensity calcul viations inclusive of right of-way dedications and to require provisions of
a deed and a survey showing right of-way dedication since the last recorded plat containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date pz4 first reading ordinance an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending ordinance number 1 13114 the zoning ordinance of the city of Miami Florida
is amended Miami 21 code by amending Article 1 title definitions to update the definitions of ancillary dwelling units and related structures by amending article 3 titled General to zones to introduce ancillary dwelling unit regulations and design standards by amending Article 4 titled standards and
tables to clarify the transa zones and residential types that allow for ancillary dwelling units to clarify parking requirements and to update related illustrations by amending Article Five titled specific to zones to clarify building disposition and building configuration standards and to
update related illustrations pertaining to ancillary dwelling units and other related structures by amending article 6 titled supplemental regulations to update ancillary dwelling unit minimum and maximum unit sizes and applicable waiver processes by amending appendix a
titled neighborhood Conservation District section a.2 titled Village West Island district and Charles Avenue ncd2 and section 8.3 titled Coconut Grove neighborhood Conservation District NCD 3 to clarify regulations pertaining to ancillary dwelling units and related
structures making findings containing usability clause and providing for an effective date pz5 first reading ordinance in ordinance of the Miami city commission amending ordinance number 13114 the zoning ordinance of the city of Miami is amended miam me21 code by amending article 7 section 7.2 titled
non-conformity structures uses Lots site improvements and signs to provide for reestablishment of specific purpose designed structures that are locally designated historic sites or contributing structures in a historic district for the
use for the uses in which they were designed by warrant and for reestablishment of specific purpose designed structures that are 50 years or older by process or of exception making findings containing a severability clause and providing for an effective
date pz6 an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending ordinance number one 13114 the zoning ordinance of the city of Miami Florida as amended by amending Article 5 titled specific to zones to allow increased height for solid wooden
fences in the first layer for properties in the T3 Suburban transa Zone making findings containing a severability clause and providing for an effective date and that's it for the uh pz items
okay no one wanted to pull a PC item correct yes maam oh you want to pull which one would you want to pull yes I want I I want PC one PC P1 you want to pull pc1 pc4
pz4 pc6 and pz6 to be voted individually to be voted individually that's right because okay that's okay I have a I have my my questions on it and
I it will determine uh the answers that I get we will determine which way I want to go okay so um commissioner Reyes would like to well let's okay let's take up the ones that have not been pulled may I
have a motion for pz2 three and five motion I have a motion in a second all in favor I I now that was sorry that was five two and three it was two three and five okay so we have
one four and six has been pulled and pz7 um was deferred until okay future legislation it's only on there for
notification purposes so we have said future legislation is only there for notification purposes it is now Madam chair unfortunately I have a script for we're moving the um attorney client session to the next meeting so I have to read a script for okay could you read
your script please thank you so much um Madam chairwoman and members of the city commission pursuant to the provisions of section 28611 parentheses 8 Flor statutes I am requesting that at the city commission meeting of February 27 2025 an attorney client session close to the public be
held for purposes of discussing the pending litigation in the matter of William O Fuller Martin pania thei The barlington Group LLC cocho Marketplace LLC yam Kay cete LLC Little Havana Arts Building LLC Little Havana Arch building
2 LLC Tower Hotel LLC Bickle station LLC LC Pedra villis LLC Futurama LLC El shoping LLC beat stick LLC vies culturales uh cultural Fridays Inc Little Havana Bungalows LLC and lhab
trest LLC versus City of Miami Jo comma jooo in his individual capacity Arthur Nora in his individual capacity Victoria Mendes in her individual capacity Rachel duly in her individual capacity ACL morero in his individual capacity Daniel S Goldberg in his individual capacity
William Ortiz in his individual capacity Lewis Torres in his individual capacity Adrien Placencia in his individual capacity Renee Diaz in his individual capacity Ivon bayona in her individual capacity John do 1-20 case number 23- CV
24251 r a r pending in the United States District Court southern district of Florida to which the city is presently a party subject of the meeting will be confined to settlement negotiations or strategy sessions related to litigation expenditures this private meeting will begin at approximately 10: a.m. or soon
thereafter as the commissioner schedules permit and conclude approximately 1 hour later the session will be attended by the members of the city commission which include chairwoman Christine King Commissioners Miguel anhel gabella Damen Paro and monola re the Chief Financial Officer Larry m spring Jr City attorney
George K weong thei dep Chief Deputy City Attorney John Greco Deputy City Attorney Kevin R Jones assistant City attorney supervisor Eric EES assistant City attorney and margar Snider and outside Council Raquel a Rodriguez Esquire Angel cortinas Esquire and
Jonathan CasCal Esquire a certified court reporter will present to ensure that the session is fully transcribed and the transcript will be made public upon the conclusion of the litigation at the conclusion of the attorney client session the regular commission meeting will be reopened and the person chairing the commission meeting will announce the termination of the attorney client
session thank you madam chair thank you and at this time it is afternoon do you want to break for lunch take a break for lunch and come back and take up the rest of what is the pleasure of this body well man' if
uh if you want to take uh the PCS that I P and you have we can't hear can't hear can't hear I think what he's saying and and I was going to make that recommendation too
since the PC Items are not in any way controversial per se because it's not an issue of having a commissioner missing you could probably take those three items up and then maybe break for lunch I think that's fine with me I'm asking you're good you're good with that okay pz1 commissioner Reyes had issues that's
right my my my uh you know that I always been against parking exceptions and this is this 100% parking exception hello yeah yes uh through the chair uh this is an exception for
reduction of parking uh the request is for um to provide five spaces of which 28 spaces are required well you you know how I feel about it it is 100% budget
ruction that's what it is so the the permit is is is the 100% request they are uh not reducing uh 100% they the devel veler is looking to provide five spaces of which um how many
spaces they're they're providing five F wow how generous you know you know how I feel about it and and the way that I and then you can call a vote on it and that the vote is going to be
not so so just to provide some additional context um commissioner um they are eligible to request the given the proximity to uh Transit so they are within the calmer station uh calmer station is within uh half mile of this
property um this is what they're requesting yes and and and I do understand that the philosophy is if you are close to any Cola station or any other station that uh it it by Logic
you're going to the people that live close to it they are going to take the mass transit instead of a parking or or owning an automobile and which I don't believe that will be the case because I have seen it I have seen it in downtown
Miami and I seen it in another areas my Miami is a it's a automobile oriented City and and I think that that uh that uh total reduction of parking is
not out it I don't I mean I'm going to I'm going to be consistent in the way that I have been since day one okay so if you want to call
uh can I just commissioner re can I just chime in real quick since it is in my district you know I I kind of agree with you so I was just talking to Frank I kind of agree with you I've been told the reason is it's a small building but maybe we should defer this CU I I kind
of do agree with you that you know no parking at all I mean can you hear me yes um so commissioner gabella in his district would like to defer it to get more information do I have a motion motion I
have a motion in a second all in favor I until when till till the next meeting so we can learn more why is it that they're asking absolutely yeah because he he's right and I I am also concerned okay till February 27th that's fine all
righty and that was unanimous thank you that was unanimous thank you commissioner thank you commissioner okay pz4 this is the an dwelling units and I have a question here I've been been
asking is because I have a concern for the single family homes and and the neighborhoods yeah you see what I don't want I want to see uh legislation that will
limit this anciliary units to certain I would say certain instances or or certain cases and because what I'm afraid of is that many people will come
by house by house and then start either either dividing it or building uh 800 square fet if they have the space you see and the one one of the
uh uh one of the my concerns is that uh it could be used and abused and I would like to to see some leg ation that will stop that okay so this is my item and let me
um I received a a text on this item that's not agreeing with it what is the intent of the item is for single family properties correct for single family properties we already have an Adu um code on the books where you could
build up to 750 ft so yes today under t3l you could build a Adu that that's 750 square feet in size so we're adding 100 no 50 no no no we're adding so the the total that is allowed is 800 under this
legislation okay so 50 square so we're adding 50 square feet so the concern is that somebody would go and tear down their house and build two duplexes or something like that but that's not the intent of this legislation or it's not
as I understand it this is to build like um in-law quarters and we're just adding 50 ft to the existing code so there there are additional Madam chair I there are additional criteria
that we have added uh to kind of alleviate some of those concerns as it relates to the setback as it relates to the hike uh the the percentage of lot that these can be placed on parking requirements uh the entrances of these spaces if they are attached to the
single family residence so we've added that criteria that does not exist today Okay so we've added safeguards um it's increasing by 50 ft does it apply to
T30 but this is for like an in-laws right is isn't this this is not doesn't apply to the this is only for single right right single Homestead Homestead propert Homestead and it's for Homestead proper rent these out it is for homesteaded properties homesteaded
properties now does it apply homesteaded properties only Homestead Properties does it apply to T30 uh so this this change would expand it today it's only allowed in t3l it would expand it to t3r L and O as well
as T4 T5 and T6 okay but it has this this additional units they could be rented right yes they could be rented it is Gran flat that we have been talking
about all the time but only only if the property is a homestead property and what happen when the property is sold what happens when the property is sold if the property is sold and and the
person that buys the the property yeah doesn't want it's not going to Homestead it but he already hand has the unit and the and the and and the uh and the and the household whatever on the building
right so that that's an Enforcement issue so if the if the new buyer is not willing to Homestead the property um they're not eligible to rent that out as a separate unit um you know that who's going to police that sir who's going to police it the compliance office would be
responsible for that you sure because I you see one question that I had for a long time is who is policing all the uh apartments that uh that has been uh
uh I would say that being profit to the city uh in exchange for additional units or additional density and uh those apartments that that they supposed to be 80% or
60% Ami who's policing there so that's a valid concern I I think though but the neighbors would your the neighbors could report it
um I brought that is a Comm defense the right but I brought this forward because I had a constituent come to me who would like to build an Adu for her daughter daughter who is she's a not a president
of a nonprofit she's not making a lot of money she's she's making a decent salary but not enough to buy a home in Miami in this housing crisis that we have it was not intended not my intent for it to be some kind of Boon for people to go tear
down their home build duplexes or anything like that it's not that it was 50 additional feet and all of the other safeguards that um director snow talked about so that she could build this
accessory dwelling unit for her daughter and her grandson that they could um a decent space for them to live it's not it's 8 it's 800 feet it's not you know a huge huge Madam sh I agree with you I
think is an excellent idea but this is this is not limited to family members that you can rent it to family member you can rent to anybody and also also
another question that I have is uh if a person wants to divide their homes and I mean has a T3 he wants to divide it yeah according to this they can do it you um
so that wasn't my intent either to divide a home director snow does it allow that's what home and also I think IDE the idea is as long as we keep it in I mean in we
have the Reigns of it you see because if not knowing my people I know that it's going to be a free-for all in some areas so commissioner uh also part of this legislation is that we've cleaned up our
definition of what an ancillary dwelling unit is you know the also the other structures that uh would be related so a single family structure so that we understand the distinction between the two um so it's clear we don't have that
clarification today um so from an enforcement perspective it makes the enforcement officer's lives much easier and you can't have like an Airbnb and stuff like that um well so this legislation does not uh
does not promote the Airbnb um that may be a state thing that the city attorney's office may want to talk about but this does not create a mechanism for Airbnb for adus and doesn't Ian doesn't prevent it
either so you can rent it out um like there's no restriction for 30 days as far as shortterm versus is long term we don't specify that here it has to be a Homestead Property though yeah but rent out the you can rent it out but it has
to be your Homestead Property right right right you know the other side with the conversation regarding airbnbs is that you know these are very small units so they're not going to create the problem Airbnb problem like you have
with the larger houses the party houses right um you know you may have somebody that's renting it for the weekend A P one person or a couple right um but in any case you know the the short-term conversation you know it's very specific to just rental
only I I I I don't have anything against the uh the idea I think it's a wonderful idea that could help a lot of particularly a lot of retires that they uh now struggling in with their taxes
and all the the insurance home insurance and all that yes it could be very helpful for them but I think that we have to really really con constrain them and and Define what
uses and how they're going to if if the uh the the the property sold how are we going to treat it because if we are not treating only the uh homesteaded properties if that property is
sold the person that doesn't want to Homestead it is still will have be able to rent the uh the the additional unit or the aary unit and nothing
happens and that's those are those were the question Madame Sher I I I don't want you to think that I I I want to reain in your parade but those are the kind of questions that I ask and I never got any
answer about it and that's why I I feel like this I think that it is a great idea but it has to be constrained so did they answer your questions appropriately have your a questions been
answered no ma'am sorry um commissioner as far as the the question regarding the rental aspect is that the question that you have would you commissioner would you like staff to meet with you during the break to talk about this and we can take
it up after the break ma' if if if you want to take the votes now if you have the vote fantastic but I'm you expressing my concerns okay so I have a motion if you want if you if you want to take the votes fantastic
Madam chair sorry oh sorry just said as a point of clarification on the size aspect today adus are 450 Square ft we're adding a maximum allowance of 800
but it's based on a percentage of your lot most of our single family lots in City of Miami are 5,000 square ft 10% of that would get you 500 square ft so so that's majority of these would be about
500 square F feet in size so I just wanted to clarify that up to the max of 800 it go over 800 correct so if you have a larger lot you could do 800 listen in in inami for example it would be uh just
like if you have a an an additional because most of the houses they they have a a uh my dad renting the part of the house but uh but uh you be able to do it
500 or 400 and uh be able to rent it and that that that's that's uh something that is true you know most of the House of here they have efficiencies and efficiencies they theyve being used to
subsidize the uh the the the the rents and and subsidize the mortgages okay so U you know uh look I'm going to be I'm going to be voting I think we should defer is is what I think until he until the commissioner
commissioner Reyes has more information so you know that's what I think my two want to defer it yeah it's fine with me is that okay with you that's fine with me so I man I have a motion to defer motion second okay all in favor item
will be deferred until the February 27th meeting Madame Shar I am um I'm requesting uh a meeting with the uh I mean the planning department and and uh
try to answer the the questions that I have uh I I I like the idea I like the idea and and I know that is going to help a lot of people particularly uh Elders that that they have
uh strling and they are in fixed income and then they're struggling to pay the taxes and and and the insurance if they can get insurance okay you had a question on pz6 okay thank
you thank you Mr G thank you sir thank you commissioner what about pz6 you pulled pz6 for discussion you know I'm I'm actually against pz6 because I think you you guys recommended denal they recommended denial I think we we're all
against okay yeah I agree with uh okay commissioner G and I I uh I don't know how police feel about this I have heard that uh that uh the police department they
have an issue with so the issue is that they don't have a clear view of the uh well pc6 is sponsored by pc6 is sponsored by am going to join my commissioner commission commissioner I'm going to vot
against commissioner um pz6 is sponsored by commissioner Coro so we'll just wait until after lunch to take that up when he comes back okay so at this time time I'm going to recess the city of Miami
Commission meeting for February 23 2025 until 2:30 okay can I just say absolutely so I'd like to uh thank you commissioner Rees for making the effort to attend and I I'd also like to thank uh commissioner Paro for making the
extra effort to to attend with the the problem that he has with the you know with this leg and uh thank you and I hope we can take all this up later okay thank you thank thank you Commission and I want to ask you I mean I I want to tell you that uh I haven't been there in
person because uh I was on strict order from my doctor to try to stay awake given the uh epidemic of uh of uh uh flu and all the
other respiratory uh diseases that uh that I stay away from crowd absolutely just for a little while that's good good smart um good smart advice see you back at
2:30 thank you thank you [Music] Part: 2
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meeting for February 3 13th 2025 at this time we're going to take up di1 the 2025 agenda deadlines Mr manager hello
no because I need a full board for the other items why do you need time okay may I have a motion to defer di1 so moved second all in favor I defer until what date Mr Man deferred until
February 27th what do we defer the agenda February 2 we can take up re1 commissioner that's your District Vice chair it's a mitigation R1
okay um good afternoon horge Goodman 600 Briel Avenue hold on a sec we go with the city first and then you sure good afternoon tra haes inum director Co compliance can't hear you can't hear me
I'm sorry Chara haes inum director Cod compliance R1 is a mitigation request for 1427 Northwest First Street n D3 the property was cited for illegal additions based to
maintain exterior B to main lot the case was opened December 16th 2020 the hearing was November 11 2021 they complied August 13th 2024 the lean ran for 9917 days total
occurred is 229,230 and the offer is $10,000 $229,200 yes and the offer is 10,000 which is 4.3% how much is it in percentage 4.3% Yeah I thought it was under
five sir I thought it was under five sir yes good afternoon orge Goodman 600 Brickle swed 3500 um Miami 33131 I have the privilege of representing T
Investment Group LLC which is the record owner of the property as of June 26 2023 T investment property is planning to build 11 much needed Workforce units
in the property uh I'll come back to the amount that we offered and but first please indulge me with a little bit of the history about what happened here the prior owner on the property was the estate of Alfredo chakon uh in November of
2021 there was a violation issued for work without a permit and failure to maintain the exterior of commercial residential premises he gave the owner the owner then until February of 2022 to comply and the failure of course resulted in 25 $250 per
day at the time that we bought the property in June of 2023 more than 271 days had passed now in January of 2023 prior to my client becoming the record owner the property was deem an unsafe structure
the former owner did do did not do anything to correct uh any of the violations or the unsafe structure uh order what did we do when we came in we bought the property on June 26 2023 on
June 28th 2023 two days after buying the property we served seven notices of of eviction to the squatters that were in the property they ignored those notices between September 7th which is just a couple of months later and October 2nd
we evicted every single one of those quars in July so shortly after we bought the property in July July 7th of 2023 we applied for a demolition permit even before we got the squatters
out so what I'm trying to to show here is that we my client has moved with the outmost alacrity in trying to resolve a situation that they did not create uh there were delays by the city in approving the permit the permit was approved in December of 2023 during the
demolition a sidewalk was damaged and by March 1st we were already applying March 1st 2024 we're now talking we had already applied for a permit to fix it uh the city took two months to approve that and on June 3rd of 2024 we pass
inspection so again my client came in completely after the fact moved as quickly as I could to correct a situation that they did not create they had no hand whatsoever in creating and we understand that the city has incurred
costs in terms of enforcement which is why we offered the 10,000 I understand it's 4.3% but we're willing to offer anything that is reasonable that the that the uh board board considers reasonable under the circumstances now I
understand that we're traveling on under the old ordinance and this is probably the last mitigation hearing that you will have under the old ordinance uh if there was ever a situation that warranted the board's exercise of
discretion this one is it thank you thank you Vice chair thank you Miss Haynes um how much does the city have into it in our cost what we put out
through inspectors notices work that we've done I could give you a GU a estimate y I think that the average 10 to 15% that we normally take will occur the
city's cost I'm sorry I if we go with the average of what we normally do with this board we accept in between 10 and 15% get it was satisfied what the city has put out okay um my next question to you
is is what he is telling me correct that the minute they bought the property they immediately went to try to cure the situation it is okay that's one plus for you counselor and your client now
how much did your client pay for this property at the time I do not have that information with me how big of a property is it I I can look at the uh property records but big enough to accommodate 11
units of Workforce it's not telling me um and I'm trying to see what your client pay for the property and what the property more or less would have been worth uh uh at that time and the reason I'm I'm asking for that
is because the part that a lot of uh clients don't tell their counselor I'm not saying that he's user is that when they bought their property like this they bought it at a discount because
they knew and the person selling it to them knew that they had all money that they owed the city so I don't know if your client f into that category uh and since you don't know any of the others I'm sure you're not going
to know that one either so please don't tell me that you do because then I'm going to think that you knew the others and you uh weren't forth coming to I I do not know I can try and find out how much they P they paid for the property
but it is a small property I mean what you had the structure that you had there was I I looked it up on Google Maps yesterday it was a house with an addition and you you're getting 11 units in something that small
I I would assume I would assume that it's going to be uh two stories high I I would have to assume that it's going to be a lot more than two story high if you're going to get 11 units and a lot is supposed to be small but
nevertheless it is what it is um coun commissioner commissioner would you like some information on the property if you have it yes yeah yeah I mean um in foreclosure it was acquired for 615 615,000 how much 615,000
the Property Appraiser's valuation of it is 721 and so it was acquired foreclosure yeah and so what I said before is uh accurate that they did get a deal but it wasn't just because of what the city uh
is owed but it's also because who wanted to foreclosure so it was a combination of uh both but they got a deal uh and um counselor what do you think is fair that the city should
receive them uh there's about a $100,000 spread um actually a little bit over 100,000 um about 107,000 6
,000 spread between what the uh property was appraised at uh and what he sold and that's assuming that that was the real market value because I I doubted if that was the market value at the time it probably
higher let's go with that one so what what you're not taking into account respectfully is all the time fees and costs that my client has incurred in correcting all of the violations as well yes they may have bought it at a
discount at a foreclosure sale but they never expected that it would be so costly and so so time consuming to get everything uh ready give me a figure that you think is going to be a lot more fair to the city than the
4.3% that you've offered you've heard M Hines um on the record what she thinks uh would be satisfactory to at least cover our cost I I would agree with the city that a 10% of the amount of the fine is
reasonable under the circumstances you don't think 15 is I do not believe so if you take into account the expenses that my client has incurred so then you want to split the difference at 12 and a half if that's what the board is inclined to do then that's what I'll
take to my client H uh what's the say you how do you think that we're going to be cover at 10% or we're going to be cover at 12 A2 I don't want to fall short I'm okay with 10 okay all right so
10 uh will be the uh amount that I would make the motion for uh and it's only because you're cing immediately jump to cure the situation I I understand we are I I understand your point but we are truly the White House
here I I I do have a problem with people coming here dressing white uh when they've gotten a good deal out of what others did so uh there's a motion chair 10% second all in favor I I I motion
carries as amended as amended thank you very much for your time gentlemen are we ready to take up ca4 settlement Edwin Gomez I'm sorry which one are we again ca4 it's the last of the ca
items I'm ready to make a motion uh who pulled it for discussion commissioner cor okay Mr manager can we have full disclosure because no names for putting
this and since we're talking so much about settlements and in suits anding attorney's fees that there should be names whom are we dealing with in in
this case here commissioner uh good afternoon Madam chair Commissioners Kevin Jones uh Law Department uh this is the lawsuit is styled at Evan gromes versus the city of Miami can you speak louder so yes can you hear me yeah now I can the lawsuit
is styled as the city of Miami versus uh uh Ed City Edwin Gomez versus City of Miami and jav Ortiz Edwin still Roman Ed Edwin Gomez
Gomez yes sir and versus the city of Miami and Javier Ortiz so it's against the city of Miami and jav Ortiz yes sir the city of Miami still involved in this the the court has issued rulings that
have uh um granted the city's motion and the city has been dropped from the well out of the case at this moment there's still the potential for an appeal or the court has granted or motions and the city is no longer in litigation
okay so what did I missed if the city's no longer in litigation well depends on the question sir what have I missed here well there is a potential for an appeal right um the the officer Harvey Ortiz is
still in the case on a single count and the way that obviously the way the case started there were constitutional claims as well as state law claims and as you know our normal process is if the officer is within the course of scope of his employment or that's the allegation and we but we believe there's a conflict
we get conflict Council for the officer and we take the city that normal process was followed here there are dispositive motions founded the court has granted those motions in part uh the part that's relevant to I think our discussion now is that the city has been dropped or at
least ruled that we're no longer in the case the city there is a potential for an appeal for the claims against the city but the claim against I think one count against jav Ortiz officer Ortiz Still Remains okay so that count did you want
to jump in so that Council that we retained for jav Ortiz is is still there representing Mr Harvey Ortiz help me out is I I didn't take my smart pill today
um so if we are concerned that they could win this appeal why are there some people out there that are not
concerned or they seem that I'm not going to win the appeal uh that's going to have an oral argument the end of the this April uh on that $635 million in Brower County with a Brower
jury and the kangaroo court that I went through well I I don't know how to answer that but I I can tell you that um in the present case the case we're discussing there is a potential for the appeal and I know you'd all been brief that this is there's always a potential
for an appeal um and we all also all know the percentages an appeal that are winnable or not or are in the middle a
50/50 appeal now what percentile do you put this appeal at is it an appeal that they're going to hit the ball out of the park and Win It hands down because the judge was so Prejudice in favor of the city or
is it an appeal that you had a straightforward judge that ruled and what the law says he should have ruled then and that we should have a pretty high percentile of winning the appeal or is it somewhere in the middle because
the law was cloudy yeah I don't I don't have a go either way but to your question I think we have a I think we have a strong position in this case okay we have a strong possession so let me come to the next question then uh you answered the first one we
have a strong position in the case who is going to be handled in the appeal will it be our inner staff itself or yes sir it'd be it' be our office how much do you estimate that is going to
cost us in hourly rates um to handle the appeal in house that that would that would be free to the to you because we have lawyers in house second well that's the way that I see it we're going to pay you guys regardless of whether you're working or
not but I you know you're you're you're encouraging me uh being so forthright and I appreciate
that um but let's say for the side of arguing on the other side that if you weren't doing this work you could be doing other stuff that maybe somebody else has to do
that we're paying for or I don't know how much do you think hourly rates of us doing an inh housee we would put in on the staff that we would be using plus additional cost that might be involved
is this third DCA or fed federal court 11th okay federal court Okay so if I understand your question you're asking what the general hourly rate is for a federal court practitioner well no it's our people okay in our hourly rate
how much do you think we're going to put into it and and this is an approximate cause Kevin um no how much do you think we would put in our rate okay so so there's a two-part answer to that question if we're going to do an
in-house you got to look at the number of hours it would take to do an appeal I would say General estimate of an appeal of this type is probably 40 hours maybe 40 to 60 hours um we are uh entitled to in in the eventualy that we win cases
and we're entitled to a fee Shifting the lawyers and the in the in the city attorney's office are enti to their hourly rate uh the same hourly rate a lawyer in the general public would get so that part of your question has two parts if it's internally right if we're doing it internally again it's free
we're just looking at the number of hour hours that the lawyer would put into defend right but how much are those internal hours are we having to pay those attorneys for the amount of hours that you said I forgot you say 40 40 right well if it's internal the person gets a
salary so it just be they worked on the project for 40 hours if if you're asking me what that going rate is out in the public that's a different answer no I'm I'm not going to the public I'm going in house uh I think Kevin got tired of me he was so straight before the last
question let me take you now see if you could understand me better I'm just trying to find out the approximate 40 hours or 50 hours that it might take to handle this appeal what do you estimate
that whoever you use I don't know what hourly rate we pay him based on their salary yearly salary how much would that be costing the city on that person that we're going to assign to this so what's our Blended rate we're like at
um asking I I understand what asking um 50 to 100 so let's say uh 40 hours um you know we you could estimate at 300 an hour I think I think what he
want the city um if we were to do this and um what's the what's the ballpark number so you know you you figure okay okay if you use 100 hours and you do 40 hours then you do 40 times 100 what I what I was trying to explain was because we're
inhouse um we're we're salaried so the hourly rate wouldn't be a direct comparison to what it would cost for somebody and you're right okay but since we're doing it in house that's why I didn't want the outside rate oh okay all right understand uh not not in a case
like this that uh doesn't require going outside so even if we go at 250 an hour um we're about 10,000 bucks that's our in-house
cost commissioner Reyes you're the economist what say you yes sir I am I uh I've been a a proponent of using inhouse
uh uh attorneys more than uh than uh uh hiring from the outside uh it's going to cost around $10,000 we should do it inside we we sort of got yeah you got to yeah we got we got turn around we got to
turn around okay so this this settlement is to settle the the last remaining claim in the case that last remaining claim uh is against jav Ortiz that that's that's really the focal point of of of this deal it's to resolve that
claim um so that the entire case the potential for the the plaintiff to appeal uh against the city and the final resolution of the claim Al together uh comes to an end that's what this is it's not just the appeal for the city and I
just also wanted to add Edwin Gomez the plaintiff is a former city of Miami police officer he is suing the city and a for well a almost former police captain named Javier Ortiz um at the
time that this lawsuit was filed it involved allegations against the city and against jav Ortiz some were personal towards jav Ortiz uh some were as his authority as a supervising officer um and so where the City Attorney at the
time made the decision to retain Council because there was a conflict with Mr Ortiz because he's had plenty of cases that we've had to handle and so there's no way our office could have represented jav Ortiz so outside Council has been retained outside Council estimates that
to resolve this case to take this case to trial and I think there was a trial date set this week but it was set off pending this settlement so there's a potential that if we were to go to trial it would cost between 50 and
$100,000 yeah and so really this settlement is basically cutting those costs of the continuing litigation and it's truly a business decision I don't believe I don't believe any of these people like I'm not putting my hand on
the Bible for either of these officer the plaintiff or the defendant it's it's a terrible case um I it's an unfortunate situation for the city to be in I'm just looking at dollars and sense you know if we're going to spend 5075
$100,000 and we can get out at 100 that's a business decision that we felt compelled to bring to you if you want us to try it we'll be more than happy to try it the um but that's where we're at all the allegations happened while Mr Ortiz was working as the city employee
that's correct that's correct he was his supervisor I believe at in the chain of command that makes uh uh a difference uh to me um and um uh I uh will go ahead to
make the motion um it's U not a huge amount but it's real money I call these one of those pinch your nose sort of settlements unfortunately hopefully you know it's not dripping drops I have a motion do I have a second
second all in favor commissioner Reyes I I motion carries unanimously I I have a question uh is the last going to hear from Ab
Ortiz we are going to keep on we we we expect that um um this is the last we hear from uh Mr Officer OES uh he is set to separate I believe later this year not unless uh not unless commissioner the
great um police chief uh greatest police chief in America America uh brings them uh to uh trial against you me and the city
yep yep but at least we're going to get rid of a h of CH okay um re3 was pulled for discussion3 my apologies chair ph1 is still in play excuse me r e wait ph1
no oh ph1 passed I I was the one that that but here's the problem ph1 was tabled from this morning uh it was tabled okay yeah so here's the problem the problem is that they gave me the formula but if I don't have the purchase price or a number to go away you can't do the formula I'm sorry what what where we at
we we're talking about the the the sale of the MRC B1 that was sold already right no go ahead so the um the uh the formula is uh is a is a fee that the buyer Adler in
the future after they purchase the land and they build a project they still have to pay the the city a percentage of any money that they any profit that they make in the future so on the sale or the
refinance so what this does is at the time of the sale or the refinance say they say they build an apartment building and the apartment building has 300 units in it just for round numbers and
they they sell that building for you know whatever $100 million there's a 2% fee that they owe the city on the profit from that sale so that's you know that's nice we get the city gets to participate in the Prof
profs of the developer that's a that's a nice thing we don't usually get that um right usually when you sell a piece of land right you're out of the deal and whoever the buyer is just builds whatever they want in this case we not only sell the land to Adler then we
participate in the profits if they were to refinance or uh to sell that deal to another landlord so what this the amendment today is to say okay you take that price for example say it was a 300 unit apartment
building if Adler is able to use up to 10 units of density on another phase of the development and in one of the uh surrounding Towers then that uh 2% fee that they pay the city on the profits of
the sale or the refinance is in prated for 10 additional units so it's additional proceeds to the city that we what what what what was the original sale price the so the the 2% is not
calculated 2% the original sales price number um8 million 69 million 69 Milli yeah so we get this the city gets the sale price so when we sell the land and then on top of that we get to participate in the
profits on the sale of refinance commissioner it's it's actually a little rare to get a kicker what we call a kicker on the if they resell it again yeah the reason why we can't put a value to it is we don't know what they'll sell it for right so EXA example to what
Andrew said if they sell it for $200 million it's a number at 2% if they sell it for $300 million it's 2% of that number so the numbers really dependent on what they ultimately sell it for what this provides for what this provides for is now we're adding 10 additional units
to that calculation that's really what we're doing here yeah so and that that 2% fee document is already a recorded document and so that will be enforced on the settlement on the closing statement any time that there's a sale so the city
is you know the city is protected it's a recorded document and this adds a little juice to that and that if they're able to use up to 10 units of density in a in an earlier phase we get paid for that too so it's it's a little extra money um
and uh and as the city manager pointed out it's it's unusual to get this kind of uh participation in the upside of the deal so we're happy about that thank you so and when the when the sale or or refinance happens then the 2% will be
calculated off of whatever that uh sale price is at the time we don't we don't know what that sales price is right now but if it's 100 million it's 2% of 100 million if it's you know 200 million it's 2% of that so we're going to get that depending on what this what the
sale price is we'll get 2% Madam Shar commissioner Rees yes uh I have a question the uh two only for the 10 additional units it
is no it applies to the entire transaction we're just adding part of um I would say it's only it's only for the 10 10 additional units the rest of the appointment the appointments that they sell they don't have any I mean we don't
receive anything but yeah we do so what the the what they're doing is they're transferring 10 units of development rights to one of the adjacent properties in doing that because that's above and beyond the transaction involved in the MRC they're adding density which means
we'll get more money off the resale they're adding density they wouldn't normally be allowed to have is is what they're doing so they they the the 2% will be calculated on the uh on on the MRC site yes plus the value of these 10 additional units so so it's not it's an
addition to exactly so it's not just 2% on the 10 units 2% on the whole thing on the whole thing okay yes may I have a motion move second there all in favor I I
thank you so much commiss okay I didn't hear you could we go to ma re and get that out of the way ready um Miami Freedom Park um well that would be coming up next let's just go in order and take up
re3 for3 what and then Mel re is right after that R3 commissioner Paro yeah um you know this item has been deferred and on the agenda now several times and I know City attorney we've been able to talk about
some ideas as far as bringing back something more concrete and a policy bottom line here is the residents feel that they are paying fees that they should not be paying the city feels that these are Justified fees based on the
business at hand I thought maybe given the example that was just brought up you could take that case of the 63.5 million and walk us through what the city's position is and what is within the scope of a commissioner's work what is outside
the scope of a commissioner's work and why uh sometimes you have to be part of that appeal and why sometimes at the end you can get your attorney's fees back and so some of these constraints are really unknown I was hoping you could walk us through that and and of course
first of all you know the concept of of suspending or preventing the payment of upfront legal fees for an elected official who in their official capacity is doing the city's work and and some plaintiff sues because they don't like what you're doing my feeling is and I
think it's it's many people's feelings that there would be a tremendous chilling effect on the quality of people that would run for office because you'd have to be you know an un a billionaire to be able to run to confidently feel that you can beat all these cases so we've got that issue now why do I say
that um Florida statute chapter 111 provides that um concept of Florida law is you only use minable dollars to pay for things that affect the municipality the people public purpose um chapter 111 says one
of those things is the defense of police officers and the defense of other city employees who are sued in their official capacity under color of law so that entire it us that statute says it's discretionary we may pay but then there are there are cases a Florida Supreme
Court case that says it's actually not discretionary it's mandatory that we pay so if you're sued and um you Prevail the city has to pay um now two concepts on that if we were to say all right you got
sued good luck with that come to us after the case is over you're going to hire whatever lawyer you want probably an expensive lawyer because you're fighting for not only your position on the city commission but your reputation as well um and so we have no control
over who you hire or how much those legal fees are ultimately they'll come to the city commission but um nine times out of 10 that could end up in some sort of um a hearing to determine how much the legal fees are and those would usually be on the high end so when we
pay upfront we have the ability to work with you to put to find counsel that is both reasonable and relatively affordable and um you know a lot of folks take it as a privilege to represent elected officials and the City of Miami in these cases and they offer
us a a better rate than say they would offer a general person in the public so we can control costs and fees and stuff like that um the other you know and then the other concept of why would we want to pay upfront is
um you know you a person a plaintiff could bankrupt one of you um it's the cost of litigation today where attorneys are $700 to $1,000 an hour um to pay for these cases and in mind you so like you
a lawsuit comes in you read the the claim and earlier today it was mentioned that you could put anything on a complaint $41 you can file a complaint you can write all kinds of crazy things in that complaint saying that this person violated every law and and stuff
like that um but we have to defend that claim and a lot of times those claims are ultimately overturned um and so when those cases come in we have to make a judgment as to whether or not um that
case relates to official acts of the elected official or outside acts there's cases that say for example an elected official who sexually harassed a one of his staff persons the city refused to cover that type of case because they
said that was outside the cor and scope obviously and the city prevailed and didn't have to pay those upfront legal costs but but it gets more difficult when somebody say challenges a decision you made or challenges the intent of the decision you made and um and so we try
and sort of figure that out and and uh come up with the determination as to whether or not it should be covered um secondly the question is you know let's say there's a case somebody makes these allegations against somebody it goes to
trial um I've always said that the best work that the city attorney's office does um and this is no slight to my pit um litigators but the best work we do is often in the appell at courts because when you go in front of a a judge and a
jury it's very easy to get a result it's much more difficult to get that result to withstand app pellet review and um what I call deliberative review of the facts and circumstances of the case we
tend to Prevail more um in um the appellant cases than we do in the trial cases why is that you know I don't know if any of you have been called to jury duty recently but you sit through the process of V deer and I was called um for a criminal case a couple months ago
and you hear people talk any experience with law enforcement yes what what kind of experience they arrested me they shouldn't have arrested me I hate the city I hate the county you know um the public out there is not predisposed to
voting in our behalf and it becomes increasingly more difficult to defend our cases and um it's a shame really because when you think about um ultimately who pays these verdicts in these decisions it's the taxpayer right
and those taxpayers are the ones who are the members of the jury who are um you know persuaded by a plaintiff's counsel or a a defense Council um and so I think
so my train of thought was as far as the case you may have a case with a verdict and then should we cut the elected official off at that point um our view is and the Court's view is you're you're the case is not resolved until the case
is resolved until the final court has say so I think that a case is still in play if it's been to trial verdict comes out there's appealable issues um it's still at play I think that at each at each level you have to examine though is
it still related to the official course in scope government business stuff like that um and so I had recently been reviewing the law and I noticed for example in Miami Lakes they have a they have a policy that says you know the
city will retain Council under certain circumstances the problem with those policies is when you try and make make a rigid policy um this the the stuff we deal with here is never black and white vanilla type of
stuff it's always difficult to figure out you know the edges the parameters and things like that so um but what I did take away from that policy was and what I told um commissioner Reyes had brought this item on payment of fees up
before and um and I've heard from many of you that you're concerned that it's like the city attorney's office is a blank check to a lawyer you know you want us to review these cases you want us to look into them and ultimately ultimately the law says you all have the authority to to determine whether or not
you should pay upfront or not um so my commitment to you is that in the future as cases come in we will review the case determine whether we think it's a case that is um one that should be um paid
upfront defend well number one defended but number two paid upfront um and then we'll will circulate that among you I'll individually speak with you if any of you object to the coverage of that payment then I'll bring it to the city commission and then the city commission
can have a say I think um you know that that might work um and of course at any time if you find that we are covering somebody and you disagree with that coverage you can set it on the agenda and ask me why are you covering this person but um so that's that's the best
I can offer I I do think this is a it's a Feelgood road but I think ultimately you will Ru the consequences of um not providing yourself with the ability to be represented for cases UPF front
because like I said it's very expensive it's a difficult jury pool out there and so um these are long haul cases and I just throw that out there as my councel and advice by George
U because of the continued continuity uh of the last year's year is precisely and this is precisely why we got in trouble in the sense that the insurance company dropped us dropped one commissioner and because that commissioner was dropped okay everybody
else is dropped so right now we're we're operating that we don't have insurance and anything you know the city's paying for it the taxpayers paying for it I feel bad about that one thing is having insurance and another thing is the taxpayer footing the bill that's what I'm concerned about as I'm sure the
other commissions are concerned about that's my 5 cents worth I I I neglected to mention that I do think that um you know insurance carriers make decisions and um our insurance carrier made a decision a couple years ago excuse me
that they um first they raised the premiums and then they um increased the deductible and then they said they would only cover certain individuals um and then it's my understanding that we didn't have policy coverage I still
recommend that we should be out on the market looking to see if we can get coverage for you all at the at an affordable rate with affordable terms I I share your concern um I would prefer to have an insurance carrier that covers
um even if it's the um secondary insur where they cover up to a certain amount I I think you should ask the administration to continue trying to obtain uh reasonable insurance cover the the decision was made by by the
administration as I was told that because that one in other words they would cover four other Commissioners uh but except that one commissioner but the decision was made I was told where this is what I'm I'm aware of that because because of that the administration said
no if you don't cover that everybody you're not going to you're not going to cover anybody is that is that correct I think so but you should probably ask the administration I don't want to mislead you the question was um did the
administration make the determination to not retain coverage when they were willing to cover four but not all five it's my understanding that we decided as a city that that's unfair and we weren't going to um pick and choose who they're going to cover but I but I don't want to
speak for the administration so in other words I don't for example I don't have insurance because of another commissioner action I I I don't think insuring or you know not like you don't have coverage but Self Insurance that's commissioner Reyes do you have
comments no I uh I uh I agree with uh commissioner Gela that that this is has been um used and abused and U something got to be done
about it and it is it is embarrassing that uh we can get insurance for four of the Commissioners only and and and leave one out and that means that there a lot of
money has being spent in that commissioner and we have to understand that something got to be done something got to be done so I agree with the commissioner have we gone out in the market
to look to see what insurance companies are out there that have policies available outside of this one that we've been dealing with um have we who can answer me good afternoon commissioner and Marie
sharp director of risk management for the record is that better yes and Marie sharp director of risk management for the record I'm sorry what was a question the question is have we gone out into the
marketplace to see what insurance companies are out there that can give us quotes outside of the loan single insurance company that we have been dealing with we did in um October because the
policy expired October 31st 30 October 30 the effective date of the new policy was November 1 so yes we went out to the market last year and the policy expired and the year before that we will be going out again in September
August September for 111 renewal okay how many insurance companies that there that cover cities like us um yes a lot of cities are self-insured that's not what I asked how many
insurance companies are out in the market that could cover a city like Miami there are quite a few in the excess Market um just a handful because each time that we have gone out uh we
have we get from our broker a list of carriers that they approached and um and how the carriers respond right so we'll ask them to go out to as many carriers as possible and some carriers will deny
to quote un certain lines of coverage right like some some carriers will quote your law enforcement but won't want to quot won't want to quote on your public officials liability for
example so um it's just a handful who will quote on your coverages certain lines at different levels of retention did we also go out to the excess Market this is the excess Market we're talking
about yes sir okay and what was the first of all how many companies that we approached do you know off the top of my head no I would have to look at the last proposal we received last um October have we tried
maybe using a different broker see what they bring to us so an RFB went out last year for um a broker and that is still in the process it was evaluated and we're waiting for that to be
awarded we can go out in the market and ask half a dozen Brokers for the same thing so that we could get some quotes we could explore that however usually
when you are on a on contract with one broker that broker becomes your broker of record and so the market is only going to respond to your broker of record on your behalf usually there's one broker of record but we could
explore um otherwise I've not seen us do otherwise but I'm open to looking at it I hope someone is open and uh not just to look at it but to actually go out there because I I cannot
believe that with all the insurance companies that we have not only in the US but outside of the us we can't find any that will give us quotes well we will lean on um our
broker or the market in general for um as as aggressively as we can to get whatever quote we can but what quotes did we ever get the last time yeah last year you
said well the premium the the quotes were the conditions were we will write your policy um excluding um with with certain exclusions so all policies have exclusions yeah every policy no matter
what insurance you got right and some some carriers will impose more exclusions than others and we usually try to negotiate the best terms we can get at the level that we deem so our
retention is the carrier will say I will write you a policy but you have to retain $2 million worth of you know your loss of your losses right on each claim so the first 2 million um and for an
entity or size or for large entities with larger exposures you know um analogous to ensuring an expensive car versus a lower pric car right um you know the exclusions are
different based on the exposure so it's the exposure that the carrier is evaluating well you figure out what she said commissioner Reus could we take a vote on this maybe
defer it I don't yeah I wanted to bring up I Comm commissioner parto had a comment and I I do have a comment on this go ahead Madam chair well I don't think it's any secret I have been against this all along based on everything that our City attorney has
said I don't think that we should make decisions based on popularity right now I am facing a lawsuit Kevin can attest to this yes you don't want me to say anything you guys might be facing one
tomorrow the next day you never know but the point is I know it will have no merits but I shouldn't have to defend it myself I won't say I won't let me do it let me do it that way go ahead K go ahead all right thank you um so to read
what uh the City attorney said and what the Madam chair said is that there is potential of a claim against her um in his early stages we I've looked at what's there I don't think there's any Merit to it but that sort of just proves the point right anybody with $400 in a
grievance can file multiple successive lawsuits against you and you individually each one of you and they unfortunately the plaintiffs get to dictate the form in which they're going to bring this lawsuit so it could be everything from a County Court mishap to what we have seen seen recently is
successive Federal lawsuits now Federal lawsuits by their very nature are long involved and complicated and there's no secret why the recent Spa cases they've named multiple city employees to make this more complicated and more expensive
this conversation in my estimation proves the rule why the City attorney needs to be able to step in and get counsel for you guys that that this this is this example proves exactly why we need to keep being able to provide counsel for you guys on an individual
basis perhaps you know what what George has suggested that we we screen it we bring it to you and let you let you ultimately make the decision on what you want to do but but this is what we've seen in the last couple years proves the
effect that Su that $400 in a dot matrix printer can have on this organization right to the extent that it's affecting insurance now I won't get into what I think about the merits of all of these cases being filed I if asked I would say we we have a very strong position on all
of them uh but that doesn't that doesn't do anything with the damage and effect it will have right and by by eliminating our ability to get you counsel or as as the circumstances de fit you are really putting yourselves in a disadvantage so
in addition to the Florida Supreme Court has said we do have a right now I think what no one wants to um acknowledge the elephant in the room is that two of our commissioners are being sued right now
from a former employee they fully believe that they're going to be um the the case is going to resolve in their favor but they're being sued right now and the manager oh and the manager there's several the city there are several employees being sued
as well by the best police chief in America may I speak yes ma'am thank you now because I did employment law I know that if any case comes against me that's floating out there in the air right now
I'm we're going to win I shouldn't have to pay upfront attorney's fees because somebody is disgruntled and there was a colleague of ours that was sued removed
from office only to be the the the case didn't even move forward the case was dismissed with a scathing order from the judge no one talks about that everyone says at the time because just because
somebody files a lawsuit against you a complaint against you everyone goes oh as if it's fact it's the truth and you're going to be um found a judgment is going to be found against you that's not the case anyone
can file a complaint against anyone which will make you incur attorney's fees this proposed legislation not only puts us at risk it puts our city employees at risk and that's not fair
particularly when the Florida Supreme Court has upheld legal fees for elected and Municipal Employees I will not support this because it can't be based on
popularity and again I'm the only one up here that perhaps could defend myself because I'm a practitioner but that's not the point someone can come up here this also
includes by the way recall actions I know one of us up here was threatened with that because of a position that they would take or not take that wouldn't be fair for any of us to have to defend a recall action
because some residents are disgruntled with an action that we take so how do you pick and choose how do you set well we're going to do this one we're going do that one we already will not pay any legal fees for any criminal activity
brought against us correct we're on our own for any any criminal that will cause us to go whatever so again for all of the reasons that the City attorney stay the City attorney
stated I state I'm not in favor of this it's Reckless and it's a it's outside of the law it is outside of the law can I weigh in this is the I think we beaten this worce uh death I just have one
quick comment after you you're done unless you just want to no I just want to wrap up by saying this uh the gentleman that she's referring to uh which I well remember last year um that case was paid by by us and all the go
you said meanwhile when my house was taken out of the district so I could not run in the district before that gentleman was even arrested that came out of my pocket so I fully understand what you're saying you know and uh understand but there's got to be a way there there's got you know there's
there's got to be there's got to be a way where we can minimize the damages because the taxpayer at the end of the day is footing the bill and we have a iary you know uh uh Duty uh when we take the oath to to you know to to save the taxpayer to to you know to to say you
know we're in charge of the purse Springs if you will you know and I I think that at some point you know reality sets in and you know by the same token we can't just keep doing this and doing this and doing this with where someday you know we get into the we're already in the millions of dollars you
know uh spent and uh I'll leave it at that commission Madam chair all I wanted to say is you called it kind of a feel-good thing but I think there is opportunity here for improvement not just in a feel-good sense but in a way
with that we offer more transparency and we put some kind of condition or guardrails around the issue that taxpayers need to be protected in terms of the way these monies are spent or a or at a minimum informed I know that
that because of the big claim in this case commissioner Coro was not covered by that specific claim but that commissioner CYO is covered at the bayr park trust separate entity yeah they have their own insurance policy separate
totally different got his own insurance policy okay got it re sureair uhuh if I may uh I have a suggestion that uh if uh repor of of the
the ordinance uh agrees we can't hear you commissioner we lost you can hear me we can now we can that we stop all hiring as of today of tomorrow and we
start then new hiring no hiring you stuff no hiring and we start looking for an insurance company that would be able or it is willing to
ensure the uh four Commissioners that they don't have any Bal with it I think that you should do that yeah the dir I think we should be whoever can be insured and keep looking for a carrier that would insure all of us but
also remember that you know we're not always going to be here they're term limits so that's not going to a that's not going to affect us forever there are term limits but to suspend upfront no and plus you don't you you you haven't
laid out any guidelines any any guard rails any parameters that I can see so I cannot support this particularly when I know that we live in a litigious society and you can be sued for any reason can we defer this item and let's defer
this item and give time maybe there's a way to weave this into what you were suggesting motion to defer I have a motion to defer do I have a second second second until when until they have uh an answer or
maybe a possible alternative to another company indefinite and then you can bring we can bring it back when whatever you guys want whatever this SP Let's do an indefinite deferral and it'll come back then but hopefully staff will have
some some answers for us so we had a motion in a second to indefinitely defer it all in favor RI 13 C can I respectfully request that we handle di3 the elephant the room so we can get put this to bed
one way or the other no we're going to go in order the mayor's here to make a presentation thank you madam chair and uh thank you for for having me here on this item
re13 and R14 but um you asked me to sort of come down and walk you through the history of how we got here and so in 2018 the voters of Miami approved a
referendum excuse me Mr Mayor yes city clerk wants to make sure what item we're discussing only 13 right now only 13 yeah I 13 I may bring up aspects of 14 because I think it informs 13 at some level but we're this is we're on item re
13 which is um the AL oh 13 is a CDD I'm sorry okay do you want me to do 13 my apologies 13 um do you want me to make a presentation on 13 I don't do my colleagues need a presentation for re3 I I I know exactly what I'm going to do I've been briefed I don't have to be
briefed by the mayor for me does anyone have any comments because it was pulled for discussion anyone want any um information on re13 are we all ready to vote on re13 I have a statement to make okay
there has been uh a lot of uh media coverage particularly from a couple of media Outlets one being our local tabloid that started
it they've been quite uh aggressive the problem that I see is that this is a prime example of this information the monies
that years back were pledged here and Mr Mayor Mr manager Mr City attorney all3 you please hear me if I am wrong in what I'm saying correct me
please and guide me the right way what we wrote in a contract that that money Vice chair that M that money are you speaking on re13 this is just a CDD issue we're not on 14 yet oh
I thought we were no no no we're on 13 do you have any issue with 13 the CDD the creation of the CDD uh for this is the the the instrument uh if you will that they're going to use to collect exactly the Mone no no no no
no you have an issue with re13 I I want to I want to know uh if this is going to be the the funds are going to be used for the maintenance and repair Only If For the whole partk for re
13 yes I'm talking about 13 and also who's going to control those funds it's going to be controlled by the city or is going to be controlled by the uh own of the land which are are the mass Brothers
at this moment uh I rather see the the city be it is tax money because what they're doing is it is it's a it's additional tax and uh yeah I I believe the city must be in control of those
funds and how they're going to be used but I don't I don't agree on using those funds you see the that additional tax for instruction and I want to make it clear okay um staff Mr Mayor yeah I mean
I can I can take a stab at at the question um cdds could theoretically borrow on a tax exempt basis when they have a
resident-based board in this case the property does not allow there to be residents there there there is no there's no allowance for housing on the property because it's next to the airport and therefore they're not going to be allowed to borrow on a tax-free
basis um number one number two there was another concern expressed to me about what would happen in the event of a default if they did borrow funds and cdds um do not impact the city in terms
of it's not a lean against the city property it would be a lean against the leasehold interests that are on the property and the uh the the tenant essentially um who is
here has requested this in part because they want to contribute to the operation and maintenance of the par Now understand that that is not a requirement that they have under the lease they're giving us $20 million they're giving us $5 million for a
Baywalk they're giving us fair market value rent they're paying us taxes and they're privately financing their Stadium there is no Stadium deal that I'm aware of in the world that does that so in addition to that and for reasons that are obvious they want to
make sure that the park which is adjacent to their property is kept up and maintained in the best condition and so instead of you know this you know sort of letting it fall on the city which could have good years it could have bad years it could have years where
it maintains it well or years where it maintains it poorly they're taking on that additional obligation which makes the deal frankly even better and so if the number that they've thrown about um they can talk about it because they have to tax their own uh development is is
somewhere in the vicinity of $500,000 a year obviously over a 100 years that's you know $50 million at a growth rate of 6% that's much much much more than that in terms of what their contribution would be to operation and maintenance of the park assuming that that's how they
taxed their development I I'd like to add to that that uh uh this is going straight this is not going to to the stadium this is not going anywhere else this is going for the maintenance of the park pure and simple and I think it's to everybody's
Advantage if not I wouldn't be voting for it you know but after what after all I am the D1 commissioner and uh I'm going to take some heat if things go wrong so uh believe me I would not be voting for this if it wasn't that that that way I think the story that that's been uh you know circulated in the
herald uh is incorrect on on both re13 and re4 because this is just going to be a tax to be used the way it was explained to me purely on the maintenance of the park that they will hand over the 59 Acres that they are going to hand over to us on that one
simple commissioner Reyes did he answer your question yeah no I don't I don't see where it says uh or where stipulate that it's going to be only for uh maintenance and repair uh you see the way this it's
been written uh they can this is a this is a the financial mechanism they can issue bonds they can issue bonds and and the uh the proceeds from the CDD will pay for those bonds those bonds could be
you cannot have housing there that's true but you can have Office Buildings that that they're going to have and then they got they are building also a hotel couple of hotels and they are building also a shopping center and and what I
want to see is that any proceeds that from that special tax assessment that it will go to the area for only for maintenance and uh and and
and maintenance and repairs that's it Madam chair if I may Mr Mayor I would just say that um they already have the right under the agreement to borrow against the property obviously they're borrowing money to finance the stadium um they have that unequivocal right to
borrow money against the property what what a CDD would allow you to do in some circumstances which it does not allow you to do in this circumstance because you can't have a resident representative board for example you could do that in areas like Midtown is it would potenti
allow you to borrow on a tax-free basis they cannot do that under under they cannot do that under this CDD because the by definition there are no residents to Encompass the board that would allow them to do it under that circumstance so they're not getting any benefit from
having the CDD from that perspective the only benefit from the CDD is to the city that they can tax their residents and pass it through to their their tenants and then they can maintain uh our um our facility so that's a benefit to us they don't they're not required to do that
they're not obligated to do that they're doing it for obvious reasons because they want the part to look good on day year 5 years 10 years 15 years 20 years um and they want to make sure that they can control that outcome as opposed to leaving it up to the city which as we said could have a financial crisis it
could have you know a situation where it can't maintain the park uh up to the standard of a billion dollar development that's going next to him I'm ready for a move you guys hold on let me commissioner Reyes yes I uh I just want to know that uh if
there is a a representative from the developers that I can assure that the the proceeds are going to be only for maintenance and and repairs I believe that's what the mayor just um confirmed that the proceeds are
solely for maintenance of the park let me be clear right now they have the right to borrow money against the property to build infrastructure to build a stadium to do whatever they can they have that in under the lease this does not change that right they still have the right under a CDD to do that
what they can't do is Avail themselves of one of the mechanisms of the CDD which is to borrow on a tax-free basis they can't do that because under State Statute the board that manages the CDC would have to be composed of residents and of course you cannot have any
residents on that property because it's next to the airport and that's not allowed and allowed use so I if you want our City attorney to confirm that that's fine but that's what the Florida statute says can I okay still that and it is not
because I I was a a I was a noble it is because I I believe that uh I'm afraid what those funds are going to be used who's going to control it and and if it's going to be used for development
construct or this going to be set aside only for maintenance and and and and prepared and and and and also who is going to control those funds let's see is there a possibility
what are the limits of those funds got a good question is there is there a possibility what because you know I'm 14 I'm doing it uh but I also want to create a trust and we've had conversations about this that uh can that be done can a trust also be done for the CDC or or can so I I just wanted
to say re13 is simply this city commission supporting the um Petition of the property owner to go to the county to request the creation of a Community Development District under chapter 190 so chapter 190 will control everything
and and essentially it'll be like you're familiarity is probably with bid boards and things like that it'll create they'll have an election of property owners that will create a board and the board will determine where those funds are used and and that board determines
where those um either assessments or tax dollars are to be used and ultimately um the develop well that board will be in control of those funds yeah but but to your point uh commission through through the through uh through the share Mr
wison you're talking about there's going to be a a a board is going to be formed with property owners there's only one property owner unless it's going to happen What I what I I I predicted that it's going
to it's going to be subed to all the entities I mean a hotel that could be built the land will be subed for 99 years etc etc you see that that's different but now there is only one property
owner yeah and I would just uh I think there's two different issues here one of them is the control of the city park and what kind of management structure would be the city park the city park my dear mayor I I believe that we have
to follow the uh I mean the the uh we lost you again yeah okay you're back hello you're back you're back see $20 million is a different question this is a a question that that
that concerns me yeah and if you want to call the the votes you do have the vote fantastic okay thank you commissioner yeah and just just to finish I think just to finish my statement I think the the the two things are separate right the the the control and operation of the
park is separate from a CDD they already have the right to they already have the right to borrow money what the CDD does is allow them to tax right and use that tax to do things with it right now they're under no obligation to do that so this is just a benefit to the city
it's not complicated of course they have control of those funds because they are taxing themselves and so their board will be thems right because they are taxing them themselves so that makes sense um but it's for our benefit and they don't have a they don't they don't
obligation they have no obligation to do that so this is like found money this is money that we they were not obligated to pay in any respect in any part of the deal so it's just going to go to our it's going to make the deal better than what it was do I have a motion motion do I
have a second second all in favor I I no recorded as one no thank you re1 14 thank you madam chair you asked me to um appear here on R14 is sort of walk you through the process cuz I was here
from the beginning negotiating this and bringing to the commission and ushering it through a public vote which was over 60% and the referendum language was very
clear that one of the provisions was that $2 million was going to a 58 acre park or other Green Space the reason why there was so again let me just be very clear the referendum was clear that the
20 million was going to go go to the 58 acre park it created an or which is an opening other Green Space the reason why that was done is because this is a constitutional question when you put something on the ballot it's constitutional so you want to have some
wiggle room in case the body itself wants to deviate from what the voters have expressly requested there was a question at the time that we took it to the ballot about how we would comply with a concept
called no net loss meaning that if we uh Zone the property for something commercial we would have to replace it with equivalent public space at three years later so nothing happened for three years three years later when the lease was
negotiated there was never as part of the negotiations of the lease a discussion to defund the $20 million or a portion of the $20 million because what ultimately happened was right here from the day is right from that spot a commissioner and every
commissioner has a right to do this and I can understand why it was done at the time because again no net loss had not been um disposed of the zoning had not been done decided to say hey why don't we take 7 and a half of the 20 million
there's been people out there saying that this item takes $20 million of funds from Parks across the city and reallocates them to this park that's false there's been people that have said this is going to the developer this is for the developer benefit that is also
false this is a city park that the residents voted in favor of allocating $20 million to by the way in $ 2018 we in 2024 6 years later $20 million which was was allocated to do
that project is not the same as 20 million today you know it's like giving you know the underline a haircut of of $20 million or or the under deck which we're getting $60 million for right they had a budget and that's what the budget was for the commission three years later and
understandably because the non net loss issue had not been resolved by then said hey why don't we take why don't we carve out because you do have this little ability to do that why don't we carve out 7 and a half of the $12 million and allocate them to three districts commissioner Reay if you remember yours
was not one of them right so so let's allocate them to three districts at the tune of $2.5 million per district and in case we need it for no net loss which is very reasonable four months later the property was resed the
no net loss issue was disposed of in the resoning it could not have been rezoned without dealing with no net loss and so therefore my position is that money should be restored based on what the voters voted on and the will of the voters having said all of that I
understand that maybe a voter or a resident in District 2 or a resident in District 5 or a resident in District three might say hey well what about the $2.5 million that were supposed to come to me so what I'm requesting is that an amendment be made to the resolution that the manager come in the mid year and
also allocate $7 million to those funds and so that no one no resident you know in the city can say that they feel in any way shape or form disenfranchised by the fact that we're fully funding our park one of our largest parks in our
portfolio right we have bayr Park we have Maurice fry Park we have uh Virginia key and this is one of the large 60 Acres one of the largest Parks second largest second largest right in our portfolio in$ 2018 by the way and so and
we're still going to at the same time do right by the residents and find the funds to make sure that no district is negatively impacted that was impacted by the decision uh at the lease statement before know net loss to defund a portion
of the $20 million and spread it around the city thank you madam chair if I may um Mr Mayor if I could um in light of that modification could I request that we um take that direction that you've
Incorporated and do it in the year end as opposed to the mid year no mid years in April and by the way I would add that if we do it in April if we do it in April the second payment which is due in the summer those districts would get those
funds prior to that second payment being made and them receiving those funds so they're actually going to get the funds faster sure but I think we can do it in the mid year let let me make sure I understood what you said Mr Mayor you're saying that the manager uh is going to find those
funds to give to each of the three districts before the end of the year in the M mid year mid mid year excuse me yeah okay well if I may suggest this to
you let me work with the manager because I believe I could find the fund for the three uh districts because one was getting
more and find sufficient funds to give commissioner Reyes his $2.5 million also uh for his district I have no problem with that if you would allow me that I I will work the manager and I
will show him fairly quick uh where the money could be found and if I can add Mr commissioner I I have no problem with that obviously I'm working with a commissioner raes on another project in his district that I'm very passionate about where I was intending to help him in the mid year anyways is not necessarily related to
this but I'm happy to do that and um I would just say that we amend this resolution to require that to happen and the only reason why is understandably look I've been to some of my colleagues and I've said trust me you know I give you my word and apparently
understandably we live in a different world in a different age or trust me I give you my word is not unfortunately um um the same as putting it in a res solution where it's binding uh and I understand that and I'm fine with that so I would just request that that R are
you're fine with me doing that well I uh anything that you can send to my district I I will take it but the most important thing about this resolution is that it is respecting the will of the people it it the the the referendum read
that $20 million was going to be used to build it 58 acre Park and I think that's that's what the mayor wants to do and I would support that because that's the will of the people Madam chair Madame
chair Madam chair hold on a second Vice chair let let me go and try to I think we reached consensus uh thank you Mr Mayor that that was uh very good uh Speech one of the best
I've seen you give explanation yes you're you're impressing me uh you know you might make a top attorney the way you're going uh but Mr Mayor I think um there a couple of questions commissioner gabella had a question but
uh I think there's been so much disinformation thrown out there that there really has we we also need to clear that up S at no time and again you're here the manager the city
attorney correct me if I'm wrong in no time have we been speaking about that this project the M brothers beon are not going to pay us the $20 million they're going to somehow do a switch and
bait and use it to redo the do the project or use have money to build the park that's not the case at all the half million dollars that we were
talking about that might be derived approximately from the CDD that we were just talking about and voted upon it's not going to be enough to keep the maintenance of 58 Acres there's no way uh it'll probably be at the very
least double that if not more and I could tell you because I know the cost of what it costs us at Bayfront Park and Maurice Fay Park uh and this is going to be a very used uh
part so what was being talked about here was that that money was going to be put into a fund As I understood it so that it could be
used for the yearly maintenance for the upkeep of that part to be joined by this other half million whatever amount of dollars they would derive by taxing themselves the bottom line is that
whether we send those $20 million there or we keep it for our Parks over here we're going to be spending that money here and there because if we don't let's say we take it
spend it in our districts then we're going to have to yearly in our general fund budget make up for the deficit that the new CDD will not bring in uh for another
half million or more dollars to maintain that part it would be Our obligation so I I I hope I'm I'm being clear what I'm saying that either we pay by maintaining Freedom
Park or we pay over here use that money in our districts and then pay for Freedom Park and if we bring that money for the future
maintenance of Freedom Park hopefully with the idea that I'm going to provide and the suggestion the mayor had uh we will have the additional dollars for the districts involved I
don't think there was any Talk of the other 10 million that would be going to district one that's um right now 12.5 million are going and then 5 million are going at District Two through the Baywalk very good
commissioner yeah okay so I wanted to say a couple of things so uh just to reiterate what the everybody said so far and I think K is right that I mean either way you slice it I mean it's going to go go into Parks what I was going to say number one my
district is the second district with less part part space in the uh in the city my I understand is number one commissioner is is is number one that has less Parks m is is number two so you know it kind of does make sense uh the
other thing is I want to make clear the money the $20 million is not going to the stadium I want to reiterate that again to build the stadium or for infrastructure the money is going toward the maintenance of the 59 acre parcel
that uh that the the stadium is going to turn over to us okay with with Greenery and with a walkway and then the 20 million is supposed to be used to either improve that and as a maintenance if you break it up the 59 acres into $20
million you're talking about 339k rough per acre that's not a lot of money when you consider you know in lighting and this and that it goes but but that that's the thing you know the the the the story that the heral wrote is incorrect because they were making it
you know look like the money is going to help build the stadium or or or that nature and it is not if not I wouldn't be voting for this and and the other thing is I'm doing it and the only condition of of I'm setting and uh I think we've agreed to this is that we
after we take this vote and this becomes effective that we're going to uh form the mechanism or or the uh the instrument of a trust uh like fathr trust for example and and why why am I worried about that and why am I doing it
is because I don't want it to land up in the Park's budget and then somehow years later on you know the the money is not used for what what the referendum and the and the voter uh you know voted for
uh in other words we need to have the $20 million there because it's in everybody's interest that that Park is wellmaintained you know uh one way or the other you know good or bad I'm going to get the brunt of the situation for the next you know three years when that Park is is built so I want to assure
myself and my residents you know and and the taxpayer that this money is indeed what they voted on and it's going to go straightly to that parcel I cannot stress enough if not I wouldn't be doing this I wouldn't be you know voting for it but I am I am convinced that they they have the the best intentions uh in the world that they they they are
truthful in this and that the the 20 million is going to be uh set aside for this and not for anything else and therefore I'd like to see Mr city manager Mr weong City attorney the creation of the uh of the trust along
the lines of a Bayfront trust or something of that nature where the money's locked in uh to to to those operations thank you just to be clear that's not part of this resolution though that's not part of this resolution that'll be something that no no yes in the future I believe commissioner
Paro yes I just wanted to say I'm very much in favor of the public park and I want to thank you mayor I want to thank you commissioner Coro for working to find the monies the 2 and a half million from the districts that you're looking to find with that said I've reviewed minutes I've reviewed video there's a
lot of conflicting information I haven't been able to verify I was hoping for a deferral in this case but I see that there's pretty much uh consent ensus so I'll be voting against but Ral commissioner paru through the chair you will accept the 2 and a half million
that I'm going to find right of course yeah okay one condition you don't give any to Billy over there I'm ready for a motion I have some comments to make I'd like for the record be based on what commissioner Paro has said the minutes
to be read because there's a lot of information going out that said $20 million $20 million I have the most parks in the city in District 5
and my parks while I have done a pretty good job of restoration of parks I don't know why it is but the city of Miami has these assets and they don't take care of them until the playground equipment is just completely falling apart instead of
just regular maintenance so while you're concerned about a park that's coming online I'm concerned about parks that I have and I am not willing to relinquish not one penny of any money but I want to make it clear on the record because this
is what I was told and the reason why our residents don't trust us is because we make take one measure and then later when they've forgotten we do something else staff has advised me that on the minutes it was never never $20
million that was coming to Parks it was 122 that was going and then the rest was split up amongst the three and I just want assurances that that is correct and I understand it's in the minutes but I'd like you know someone to go through that
and that yes I will get for my Parks the money that was intended for us to get because there's a lot of work that needs to be done in the district five parks and I cannot support this if I'm going to lose one penny I might need 10 cents
on my one penny back so Madam chair this was debated on April 28th of 2022 about two years ago and on page 72 of the minutes which conclude on page 74 there's the recitation of how that is
broken down and it was 12.5 million that was allocated to that Park and the balance which was 7.2 million was allocated to three districts zero to District 4 2 1.2 million to District 2 22 million to District 3 and two and a
half million to District Five and I'm going to be looking for another two and a half million for district four right and I think that's the right thing to do because I should have never happened to begin with but it happened so I was punished uh Mr Mayor I was punished you were punished you were by your good
friend and and I want to stress out that this was a discussion they was never we never voted on this see it was a discussion trying to how to divide the the pie you see you I take this part and
you take the other part blah blah blah blah Manolo didn't vote for this he doesn't deserve it that's fine with me I I knew that there were going to be consequences but uh but as I stated before uh if by doing what you want
you're doing now we are going back to the original question that was in the ballot and which I think that we we all them respect we all respect to the voters that that read the the question
in the B and voted 60% in favor of it why are who are we to change it just because I want 2 million and half and and the other commissioner one two two and half million the the uh the the the
the language stated clearly that we're going to be $20 million for the creation of Freedom partk a 58 Acres part and I respect that
by the way let me just add uh like you chairwoman that I have assurances that we will create a trust because I am also worried like you that the money ends up so so that's why I'm doing I'm going along and I heard what you said may but I'm going going along under the circumstances that a trust will be
created after we put this through to safeguard that money and make sure it goes to the maintenance and Capital Improvements to that Park only and one more thing we're missing another five that's 2.5 has already been deposited and that's for the Baywalk I understand nobody spoke about that but in reality I
think it's 25 uh not counting your seven and you guys and the other you know just a half B yeah yeah for you whenever you l so um do I have a
motion motion I have a motion do I have a second second chair so mayor Suarez did suggest an amendment however I need the Mover to accept the the amendment that was proferred by mayor Suarez and
that's 7.5 million um divided equally amongst districts 2 three and five to be uh to be done through a bid-e budget amendment no so my amendment was amended which is 2 3 5 and four 2 and5 million
which is 10 million total to be identified in the mid year by the city manager to be brought to this commission and now I see I see a happy smile from commissioner reays I'm glad well what can I do I I was left out I
expected it that I was going to be punished commission gabella you're the maker of the motion yes with the the clear understand standing that's apart from the 20 mil that's going that is not part of the 20 MRE that's correct correct okay so I have a motion and a
second for re 14 as amended all in favor I I I I no M passes 41 41 can I just be recognized for point of privilege please thank you I just want to say that I'm still
waiting for someone to bring me a sports deal where the City pays zero that's over $2 billion in Revenue $20 million for the second largest park in its inventory $5 million for a Baywalk and now they're going to pay for the
operation in maintenance that they weren't even required to do in the first place so anyone who says that this is not a better deal or that this is some sort of a bait and switch um at the very best they're misinformed at the very worst I won't even say what they are uh
cuz they're being disingenuous and fooling the public and that frankly is is sad um but unfortunately it's it's often times expected here uh in this place and it's uh you know I just wanted to clarify that because there has been for whatever reason every time we do an
nmfp item there's all these conspiracies and we're trying to benefit this person and that person and you know everyone comes out of the woodwork what developers yeah developers and it's our property we're getting the money into our property this is a you know I still haven't found a deal and no one has
shown me one where a city city is not just not giving any money right most of the deals Buffalo I think is getting a billion dollars Tennessee is getting over a billion dollars the Titans the Buffalo Bills the lo you know Los Angeles Raiders are getting over a billion dollars so I still haven't found one where the city's not giving anything
and they're getting money and yet when we allocate our own funds to our own Parks we get criticized by people who say that it's a bad deal which makes absolutely no sense because it doesn't even change the deal at all we're actually getting an even better deal today and we're finding the money that was deviated in my opinion properly but
now has been restored properly and we're also giving it all back to our residents plus we're writing a wrong which was at commissioner Rey's District was unfairly targeted and defunded thank you um Madam chair real quick 30
seconds mayor I I think what will say it very clearly and quick is that when the Miami Heat deal was done they pay no property taxes when the Marlin deal was done they pay no
property taxes and 4 the inter America deal was done inter Miami deal was done they pay taxes one more can I say thank you thank you right now sr1 commissioner gabella I
think you had um sr1 Sr sr1 chair was commissioner parto yeah oh commissioner and I think I think uh Todd had my questions answered which were they mentioned a few of the Committees I wanted to make sure we talked about it in public uh Overtown the status of
commission of status of women the community relations and these have all been inactive boards correct yes sir so they've been inactive for a very very very long time yes sir okay so in the case for these folks that came during public comment and said they were
interested in these issues they can still come back and we can start one of these once there are people you know actually interested in showing up and working on them yes sir there may uh be a 2.0 version needed some of these boards were created to address 20th century issues now that
we're in the 21st century some of it they need to be updated I'm just saying excellent thank you I'm I'm done Mr city clerk is one of the boards the commission on the status of women and quality of life committee yes ma'am that's one that's going to be taken away because I just
appointed someone to that board there's still a number of vacancies and they have not met since 2019 oh okay because a public commenter did come up in so maybe we can revamp that board um five years they haven't
met five years okay and Commissioners you know full disclosure it's not easy in this day and age to find board members I mean privacy is is a major concern I think of of most just citizens in general you have Financial disclosure gift disclosure Sunshine Law training now you can be held accountable to
Sunshine Law violations you have ethics training you have employment restriction forms residency requirement forms so there there's a lot involved or there's a lot being asked I think from someone who just wants to serve on an Advisory board when it comes to the number of disclosures that are required so just
just making sure that the record's clear and the cost maintain yes I'll let the city manager and the City attorney um you know explain you know the resources one thing is for certain I won't use that quote in a future PSA to recruit people for boards because Todd
just Todd just gotted any any future recruitment now I I understand that you know the boards that are proposed to um be eliminated but one resident did say that the Overtown Advisory
Board is required by the crra and I'm not sure if that is the case or not but if that we could amend sr1 and just exclude that from the others well if that is the case I would like to I'm sorry Mr I'll I'll double check to make I don't believe that's true but we'll
look into it and make sure that we're in compliance with the CRA uh requirement you going to do that now because I know they haven't met for a number of years 2018 was the last time they met 2018 and but again you know they can be excluded from the others and
it could always be Revisited so um if that's something okay so let's take let's exclude um over time advisory report yes please so what are we doing so um that'll be a motion as amended a motion as amended you have a motion are
we abolishing or some boards okay yes the ones that have not met for many many years so a motion I have a motion do I have a second second I have a motion and a second all in favor motion carries unanimously which takes us to
fr6 chapter 38 abolish the Bayfront Park management trust so I'm against this same that's all I'm going to say okay um and and by the way one of the reasons is I've been told by the administration this is not a good
idea uh to do it's kind of like the same line that we've been talking about here with the freedom part that that board you know with all its problems and you know it shouldn't be now after many years all of a sudden you know you want to Bish the bayr park management so I am
against this I see that there's going to be a presentation no not not for not for this do you this is uh but I uh if you want
I could do a presentation uh frankly I don't know why in the DI items that were carried over from the last meeting are put behind new items on the
agenda uh when we should always include the items that are carry over as the first items in the next agenda and then new items should be the ones that come after uh but look
this uh was an idea that I got uh from commissioner paru no that wasn't my idea no yes it was partial you no no it was separating marce you had this right you had don't say what my ideas are you had I said I got it from you you didn't you
had Maurice Beret Park that you wanted to bring back to the city but it didn't make sense whatsoever because Maurice for a park would be a financial burden to the city doesn't gener at the money to maintain
itself we would be in the situation that we were looking at and we just discussed at Freedom Park the only way that it would make sense would be by bringing uh both parts the
trust into the city into the parks department but as a separate entity where you would separate uh its funding its uh functions but um this is uh something that is
entirely up uh to this board if there's no uh appetite uh for it I I have no problems uh in uh tabling it that's the will of this
body motion to to deny second I have a motion and a second to deny F fr6 all in favor I I I will then go along with it if there's no appetite for it okay and so I did see commissioner Reyes
I believe he voted I so it's unanimous 5 okay yes yes we lost him somehow but he's there he's there but not here oh because that that why don't you turn around and you take a good look they shut you off from
our videos here so I don't know what happened that's right okay next item di three chair di2 D I'm sorry di2 is in play hold on
to the chair Chief thank you for coming back for the action action plan that I asked you uh through this body the Miami River is extremely important to our
economy and to the enjoyment and peace of our residents and uh I I think you have uh something solid to lay a foundation to begin with it and see if it's going to
be sufficient or we're going to have to keep adding so good afternoon uh uh Commissioners chair Vice chair my Morales my police department for Northwest Second Avenue um the plan that we put for rep that I kind of brief everybody on the agenda briefing uh I
think is it's sufficient for now uh there will be we're at 16 officers two sergeants and one Lieutenant as of today at the end of the month on uh February 25th We'll add two more uh so that will give me 7day coverage from 5:00 p.m. to
3:00 a.m. on the river and then it will give me two additional officers from 6:00 in the morning to 4: in the afternoon afternoon on Friday Saturday Sunday and Monday so we will cover the bulk of the time uh in addition to that we've uh installed the
camera we're able to put a camera right uh by um the icon on the Brickle side that's aiming right at the mouth of the river so we'll be able to monitor any traffic that's coming in or out uh whether they're violating the idol zone or whether they're they're playing loud
music so we are able to have the officers whether they're inside the river patrolling closer to 12 and 17 Avenue they'll be able to respond as well Chief through the chair is there a possibility that in that camera we could have some kind of
lighting so that they could see it at night that there is a camera and you know hopefully they'll be a little more respect if they know they're being watched absolutely Vice chair we can add uh red and blue strobes to it so it can be visible and they can recognize it as
a police camera um in addition to that I believe two weeks ago we received our 11th boat so we have 11 vessels at this time we have four of the safe boats uh two of the inner bay boats that are hardened uh two contenders and I want to
say two flat water boats so we're we're we're we got a good combination of of uh different types of vessel that will allow us to go just about anywhere so we're we should be good to go our performance has improved as well from last year uh so we make making a lot
more loud music stops which has been the synonymous complaint throughout the river so we believe that uh with the changes and the addition we should be hitting the mark and getting some folks a little bit of relief uh the ones that are being impacted on the river while still um respecting voter's rights I
know I don't know if you saw it but uh we'll be talking with legal about some of the proposals that the state has with the right to boat which limits some of our ability to do the safety inspections I don't know if you guys saw Governor Des Santos did a improve uh some measures that he's putting forward so we'll see how that impacts our ability
to enforce but um regardless of what it is we we'll ensure that the river is can you publicly tell us what that is that the governor uh put forth I know that it does impose some limits on our ability to make a a maritime vessel stop for the
sake of a safety uh inspection which is quite a few of our interactions our safety inspections whether you have fire extinguisher whether you have uh enough life uh vest on board uh in lie of that there will be from what I understand a
decal that's a fixed to the vessel that annotates whether the occupants and the vessel have gone through the inspection cycle and are in compliance with the maritime laws so we'll see how that kind of impacts us I haven't looked at the whole breath of the uh of the
legislature but we we'll brief with our with our uh Bas eagal Eagles I think it um from what I see a proposed change would stop boat inspections without suspicion so you would need an elevated reason to stop the vessel versus just stopping the vessel to perform a safety
check to make sure they have all their equipment it's a proposed um revision so it's it's just words now but it's probably working through the legislature and that wouldn't stop us from from approaching a vessel as violating the noise ordinance or or the speed
ordinance so so we should be able to to still do some enhance enforcement on the river this is kind of like the uh the seat belt uh you know the you could stop somebody for lack of work in the seat belt and now this one you're taking Ro when it moved to a to a primary uh
violation that we could stop it it had to be a secondary before now it's a primary yes but but I didn't get that part how is it that you're going to guarantee we not guarantee but how is it that you're going to be the safety issue to make sure that you got flares um Life Savers you know how are we going to address that I I believe that the
legislature uh proposes that the vessel have a sticker that says that they're in compliance yeah there'll be a decal on the vessel next to the hall number that annotates whether you've been through the safety inspection that it's going to be like an inspection uh like the old inspection
stickers I used to get here when you got through your muffler and your sof system checked and your headlights and more or less thank you Chief any anything else from anyone else no I I appreciate uh uh
how quickly you attended to this request to you you're welcome sir thank you thank you one thing I'd like to ask you is if uh once it's fully implemented if you could give us uh weekly reports and
what actions what tickets uh are being issued uh what action is taken um you know Tuesdays would be good so this way you could bring it up Sunday and it gives you Monday to do it we we can include that on our on our
weekly Tuesday reports along with uh the heat numbers and and the traffic enforcement numbers that we already provide some of the districts uh if there's any other information that you would like on a weekly report please uh just let me know and we'll make sure that we address that and get that
information out to each of the district offices includ one quick question uh did you figure out the docking for for that site or you're still looking for we we have a couple of locations that we're working on we're going to be working with dream to make sure that we we get them thank you very much you know you
can count on us to continue looking and really you've been a great partner especially with everything dealing with the river thank you thank you commissioner I appreciate yours thank you Chief thank you thank you Chief good job di3 okay I'll start with
di3 um as a courtesy to commissioner Paro when he had his accident we deferred all chair issues to the March agenda I don't like peac mealing we're taking out one
and but this is a discussion item so we're going to hear but I just wanted to say that that's my position we are going to take up all the chairmanships in March we had all agreed to it commissioner Reyes wasn't here that day commissioner parto wasn't here and we
agreed to take up the chairman ships in March all of them I'm not clear what spurred this on that it has to be taken up today versus when we take them all up in March but um it's a discussion item
so let's move forward with disc I'm I'm calling for a vote I'm calling for a vote M okay well after we disc after you discuss in your discussion okay because all sides need to
everybody you want to go no you guys I'm going to go left well you're I'll go you're the one that put the side yes I did yes I did okay I'll go first I will go first okay and I'll tell you why why I did it uh
number one as I remember last year okay there have been as you know there have been a lot of ISS issues with the Bayfront trust uh since I got here and before that uh mainly having to do with you and the Bayfront trust issues that have been created sir no no no I'm sorry
wait don't interrupt let him speak no what did you say I'm sorry I said issues that have been created okay let me let me get to that and and listen I understand that uh in these kind of situations there's two sides of the story I wasn't there and I don't know
what happened or didn't happen Okay and and I can tell you that I know you've done some good things in the park I'm not one of those that's going to tell you everything you did is bad in the park okay but here's the thing you know this is getting out of hands you know and and listen you can't U tell me that
I don't try to be fair cuz for example the gym equipment the gym equipment I started out voting out with him and then you took it to a referendum and when the people spoke I said you know what now I'm with you and I helped you open the gym equipment because I thought enough is enough and we had beaten that horse
to death so I so I think I'm fair with all sides no matter what are differences uh here um there are here sometimes I try to you know be professional and do the business at hand last year you know with all these issues you profer you
know you said I'm going to step down in January that's what you said I didn't say that he didn't say that you said that okay and I took you at your word and what I said to myself was you know these things are happening I'm not there you know I don't know if it's true or not true whatever you know but you know
what let him finish his thing he profited that he was going to be stepping down in January you know and and let him do his Christmas party whatever he does and then in January somebody else will take over that's the the impression that that you gave you know and then when you gave that
impression I said and then you you didn't do it I said to myself you know the problem is going to be you you you're turned out in November like like the law says so you're not going to be there any anymore in November at least as a commissioner okay if somebody were to take that board over November or
October it's not fair to the person that's taking that board over because you know you know you you've been there for8 years I haven't been there for for one iota you know and so whoever takes it over with it be me him her whoever okay I think it wouldn't be fair for
that person I'm trying to do this as diplomatically as I can I am not doing this out of spite with you or the differences that we have had that I can assure you I am not here to tear your projects down what you have had that isn't me okay I try to keep away from that some sometimes we fall into that and we shouldn't be falling into that
I've said many times before to The Herald and to everybody else sometimes I vote with with you and they've accused me now you're aligned with with G sometimes I vote with you you're and you go and I'm align now with part or no I vote for the project I vote for the marriage and if you happen to be there
I'm going to vote with you sir and if you happen to be either because it's good I'm going to vote for you and when my my priorities for my district for my residence don't line that I won't be voting with you you guys you know but nobody can accuse me that I'm taking sides or I'm I'm in this gang over here or that over there no that isn't me and I'm not doing this because of that but I
think we need to to end this also in November when when you are termed out as commissioner okay as commissioner you know uh again it wouldn't be fair for the person taking over number two okay you
have a budget uh I understand a budget uh that you have to turn in by April it should be turned in by April okay and wouldn't be fair also you know to pick a chairman after that I think it should be done before you know and then after all
in January is when we picked the the boards I think last June you were supposed to be ratified we kept going you know and I I didn't make it personal man I mean I heard what everybody had to say I'm a commissioner elected by by the people that I represent district one and and I listen to everybody you know but I
think you know enough is enough you know with with all du respect and you did proper the you were going to you know step down so let somebody else take over you know and and and listen I realize if if him me or whoever it is if the minute I don't do something okay that some of
these people uh are not in in agreement with I'm going to have a problem I realize that I'm under No Illusion here if if I were to be picked as a chairman I'm under No Illusion here okay because you can't you know please everybody all the time like the saying goes okay but
you know you know this needs to be addressed and and yes I think there's an urgency to get it done now because I remember a very short story when the gym equipment and the last vote that you got mad at your fellow commissioner because you thought he was delaying that vote so
you can have your back equipment on and I voted for you so you can have your your your equipment back well this is the same thing that you do you're doing to us now you said in January you're stepping down and now you want to prolong it and that's what we're saying no we're not going to do that you're you're a man of your word keep your word
okay and and I can tell you the only thing I can tell you that if I am elected to to be that chairperson I am not out here to destroy your work and I believe that some of your work has been good let let me just tell you that okay I'm I'm I try to be in handed and and I
I'll end it with that and you now it's it's commissioner Reyes we can't hear him we can't hear that we uh we commissioner G and everybody knows that uh it was uh
commissioner K you made a commitment to step down on on in January and but I think it's it's about time to do we have a change of guard because this is going out of hand we have a scandal of after
another a scandal and a scandal and I think it is it is about time that we stop it and uh if we don't get any more black guys and uh whoever will be uh
selected but will be selected uh commission K has done an excellent job that that that uh Fountain it is fantastic the park has keep it pristine and and all the
art that he have brought to to to the park it is fantastic but there is a time that uh for change and I think this is the time for change and uh I will agree
that we make some changes in the uh in in the uh Bon Park trust should we call the question Vice chair um let Mr Paro speak commissioner Paro I also want to add that I'm not opposed to the projects that you've been
working on or where you've been successful but District 2 represents the residents that are complaining and that don't seem to come to any resolution if I were to say there was one problem at Bon Park trust it's that the division
between the trust and the residents commissioner gabala has shown an ability to listen and to act based on the information he's getting that would be very important to me and I would certainly support you in that role probably the biggest thing I had
the problem with were the audited statements the last two sets of audited statements I mentioned that here on the day previously they both had two deficiencies that I consider as a financial person very important one was the inability to reconcile your bank
statement and the other one was the inability to be able to prove who was approving dispersements that's huge when you're talking about cash that is 1016 million $18 million in cash so we actually had the conversation with the Auditors in
our office and the Auditors said listen all good points we haven't been able to clear those deficiencies but there's been a constant turnover in executive directors and I think you know just given the constant turnover given the issues that are already happening given the way the residents feel in this
District our office does not stop dealing with this issue and I've met it said it on the days before nothing goes away you know you said oh with the gym equipment this is all going to go away no no it didn't go away a new one came in or a list of them came in so I mean I'm in agreement with my colleagues and
I would move to have commissioner gabella to chair the bont park trust is that a motion that's a motion second um I do have a a right to speak correct absolutely okay I have a motion in a second and commissioner corio is
going to speak now you could hold on for a minute Larry Springs here yes Larry spring Chief Financial Officer let let me Begin by having you
answer one area that I do want to focus on uh the financial statements from bayun Park how many times they get audited and by
whom uh the bayr par management trust gets audited annually um it does they they get a financial audit annually every year Park itself gets a financial audit every year okay and then once we give it to the
city to get another Financial audit it is incorporated into the city's uh financial statement audit as well so so that once he gets to the city I am correct in saying that incorporated it's
Incorporated yes it gets a second Financial audit and well this is what let me can I make a very Nuance point it is incorporated into the city's financial statement audit and our audit the city's
financial statement auditor relies on the opinion provided by the Bayfront management trust audit but they still sign both collectively yes but nevertheless aam Park is
audited before it gets to the city and then you have an overall sign off based on that yes and there would be any questions on the Bayfront Park audit the city's auditor would certainly ask
him they they would ask again yes this uh was an email sent from Jose Suarez and November 25th to my chief of to be given to me that according to him uh
have been sent to commissioner paru uh in answering commissioner paro's questions back in the October meeting and it says deficiencies in 2022 and 2023 financial
statements founding journal entries in bank reconciliation these are merely issues that should be improved upon and not a finding of run doing Etc based upon what you have seen from
the Bayfront Park trust is this an accurate statement or not well having read the opinion of the Auditors they have identified I'll call them mistakes or or
uh or serious deficiencies well on M or not what he's trying to make it that there was all this stuff there I'll I'll answer I'll answer both they've they've identified process and and issues that
they've denoted in the management letter comments as things that need to be addressed but they did they did not rise to the level that it required the Auditors to issue a modified opinion which means the
financial statements that are attached to that opinion are fairly present the POS the financial position of the Bayfront management trust so it's a what is denoted as a clean a clean audit okay but with a clean audit you can still
have management letter comment say clean this process up reconsider doing this etc etc so then Mr sarus was correct in what he wrote in November 25th unlike what you writing the
lawsuit uh that there was no finding of Rond doing by the Auditors that is technically correct okay now let me go back gentlemen uh I have no illusion of
reality uh I've always uh been uh a realist and if something that I do know is how to count and I've always counted even
before uh I came into this meeting today one of the worst things in life is to succeed so much that you have to be killed at the end for succeeding so
much uh MB is one of the worst things that a human being could have because it eats you up from the inside but at the same time uh I asked this other
boards don't they have the same criteria that before someone ends AB board they should be gracious enough to leave beforehand to try to help someone
else ahead like I stated that I would be willing to do coming this year now I hear all of a sudden scandals black
eyes everything else the worst LS accusation that could be launched against individuals been launched against myself and my wife and her case because she's married
to me and she volunteers for the city in my case because they haven't been able to beat me in two elections in a recall and they're frustrated every time they go at
me and I made it clear that I wasn't going to buy bow down and roll over and give any bar owners tens of millions of dollars or the latest uh of the same type of lawsuits that they have
against this City Commissioner gll yes sir what no one has asked me is before you went uh to the radio before you went to the Herold and made some pretty strong
statements against the guy that was really your biggest supporter here in alpa's biggest supporter and you went blasting without coming to this board to
see what my intentions were but you made it clear you w't stpp with them I'm a man of my words but you should also be a man of your word on the last Commission meeting that we
had when you already knew this lawsuit it had been filed two days before uh they had a press conference before we came to this meeting uh they had the same characters
so you have here uh come and talk about it and screamed at me about it here um Mr parter if you want to say something commissioner go call the question you know what I'm going to say call the question too let's call the question okay so you want to have a
kangaroo stop it stop it stop it I allow every here commission to hear the truth commissioner don't you don't have to raise your I interrupt you I didn't interrupt you but you're interrupting him now allow him to speak I allowed you to speak I have the right to call the
question I have the right to when he I'm not scared of what what he's about to say he can finish all day long keep going stop when he finishes you can call a question no I'm no when when he finishes I'm going to answer to what he's saying and then I'll call the
question you can you can respond to what he says when he finishes but let's let's all we don't have to raise our voices and we don't have to talk over each other he was speaking let him allow I allowed you to speak let him finish and then I believe commissioner Paro wanted
to say something no you're finished okay thank you chairwoman uh if I'm going to be uh thrown to the dirt for so-called colleagues who try to humiliate me for
only giving my best and everything that I have to this city and to this trust then I better be given the right to answer commissioner Goa yes sir I had every intention this is why I made
sure that the fountain will be done by the end of the year this is why I made sure that we would have the best New Year's Eve celebration that we could possibly have I had every intention to do what I
said that I was going to do how however it was you that were here and Mr parter byom that voted with the other two that were here one of them being
myself to bring all the boards to the March 13th meeting you voted for that I took you on your word commission and you know and I reconsidered like I had the right to do like you accused him one day
when he wasn't here for the referendum and I'm answering because when he finishes stop screaming at I'm not screaming I'm not screaming I am not screaming for the record no but but he's going to he's going to say 10 things can I just say he's going to say 10 things
at me and then I got to write them down voice you know what I have to go to the bathroom the meeting is in recess e [Music]
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five is now resumed commissioner corio I think you were speaking rules here I said that I I hope we still have some rules here that people have a right uh to defend
themselves let's get to the bottom line how all this Scandal this black I started that didn't bother Mr Paro nor Mr gabella when they
voted at the last meeting to bring this whole back to March 13th where I would have gladly um said of that meeting that I didn't won Bayfront Park
again that I want to be taken out of being the acting chairman of Midtown like I had said before there was a email that was sent
by the assistant to commissioner paru directly to the police chief not to the manager like the charter would say but to the police chief where the subject was a case
number that he had already and he could have only have had it in two ways either someone in the police department would have given it to them but that didn't happen because I asked for a public records request
so everyone that had gone through a police computer to have search for that case number and nobody did so it was clear that that could have only come either directly or indirectly
from Mr Jose Suarez the email was asking for a copy of the report and additional information as to what happened soon after there was uh a
second after several other emails there was uh an additional email from Mr mcnight to the police chief again saying per the Comm comm's request we
would like to call for a formal investigation would like to call that in the English language [Music] means I want you as close that you could get to
ordering without saying I'm ordering an investigation through Internal Affairs of the reference case and inventory of all material held in property we have received complaints and
questions regarding potential maling in the farious activities surrounding the City Board entry relating to the acquisition of these supplies they're talking about medical supplies
well the police Internal Affairs unit in their final report dated 12224 stated that in October 22nd 24 Sergeant Shirley gust of the attorney
Affair section email Mr mcnight to obtain a sworn audio recording statement to clarify the state the complaint Mr MCN replied in the email in October 26 saying two days later
our office received calls and we have been told in person at Community meetings by residents that have questions surrounding the bayr PRK trust acquisition of veterinarian supplies Mr mcnight also replied with a
list of questions that the commissioner wanted to have the internal affairs asked of employees of the park so not only only were they calling and demanding the
investigation but they already had the questions written out for our police department and this is all behind the city manager's back going directly to the police team again in October 31st
2024 Sergeant August again emailed Mr mcnight to see his availability to obtain a Sor audio recorded statement of his complaint to no avail he advised that he had no information in
addition to the anonymous complaints received by the district 2 office this started when someone that Mr Paro was going to originally hire his chief of staff and had been in constant
Communications with him since uh he was hired by us Mr Suarez uh called uh the police chief so
that police officers could come to the BAM Tru Trust and they came at 8:30 at night or so after hours to take medical supplies that had been left in a veterinarian truck that we the
trust had approved as a board board following all the criteria that the city had the manager was aware of it in fact they sent someone from the motorpool to check it out they sent a
veterinarian to take the equipment out because it was just more than a veterinarian truck it was a full truck to be able to operate so that the citizens and residents of Miami that cannot afford pay for
vaccines that cannot afford to pay for spading or neutering their dogs or cats could have a free service from the city through the trust the date that Mr Suarez asked the police
to come in um because he didn't feel comfortable with his medical supplies and he claimed he had not gone through any of the boxes so he didn't know what was in was April 30th the report from that day
States noncriminal information meaning noncriminal report and it says closed on that same day this is only open because Mr paru abused his power abused his
office by doing what the charter says he canot do going directly to the police chief calling for an investigation of the trust and falsely claiming that he had Anonymous people
calling people that went up to them in community meetings uh on this the invoice here when the petmobile was bought clearly states not included in
the sale or Pharmaceuticals not included the lady the vet that sold this to the trust had moved to Europe uh she wasn't able to
sell vet supplies that were within the truck and she left them there when the truck was driven to the trust we found them and an inventory was made of those supplies that prove even
more that no one in the trust no employee had any intent of any wrongdoing with any medication that was there
the final closeup report on December 12 24 finishes by saying Miss Shelton who works for the police department in the property room stated she was Pres at the property room in this in when
this incident happened when the property was destroyed and recall destroying a lot of items by hand she stated a lot of items for veterinary equipment and that every item was destroyed one by one she stated most of the items destroyed were
new and included dog tags needles glass plastic vials Miss Shelton stated all the vials were discarded and not SM because they were Empty Glass she St at any of the vials contain
narcotics or liquid the procedure would have been to contact her immediate supervisor uh Mr doad and informed him of such Miss Shelton stated that she does not recall how many vows were discu
discarded however reassure that all the vials were empty and did not include any liquid did not include any liquid and or narcotics she stated every item in this
instance was destroyed and it was documented in the system once the destruction was completed on November 20th 2024 Sergeant at Lexus vales email Miss tephanie the lacruz and requested her to
contact him Mr La Cruz was the veterinarian that sold the vetmobile to the trust Mr Cruz excuse me m commissioner I've been advised by the City attorney that some of what you're saying is part of um
litigation and they don't necessarily want us discussing that ongoing litigation well this is public record that I'm reading from right here m m Del Cruz stated that no no Pharmaceuticals and no
and or medicine was included in the sale she stated that she provided within the vetmobile several vials however reiterated that all the
vials were empty the last sentence of of the report States no evidence of a crime or intent to commit a crime was discovered during this
investigation as such this case is now closed and will be classified as an internal affairs informationon case now I've gone through that area
but let me get to the bottom and uh gentlemen let me be very clear you could get a pound of Flesh today but the life and is not going to go for months and months like you
think and as I stated last year as I stated now it was my full intent everything that I did was to finish with the trust at the end of last year but it was these
two gentlemen that voted here to bring everything up again on March 133 and then immediately after that gabella goes on a radio program goes to the
heral uh trying to put my face uh into the dirt and to try to humiliate me I took him at his word from March the 13th change my now let me call the
question get to the bottom line why why Mr gabella is doing this it's not for all the reasons that he said he voted at the last meeting to bring it to March the 13 but his handlers got to hold him right away and were the ones that told
him what to do number one if the video cameras we have here in the audience behind the lady in the orange outfit the gentleman that's looking down with the glasses if you could put the
cameras to him this Manu pz now why would Mr Manuel pagas be one of a handful of people that's here tonight so late well he's here to make sure that
they go after me and why does he won me out of the trust well here he represents that he signed up in May 13th of the last year to be a lobbyist
for a corporation C loud and live for what for the RFP for the Miami Marine Stadium that will become in the near future and what does this have to do with bayr Park well
the oh yeah nothing well I'm going to tell you and you know well what he going to do this is why you got Mr Gava to move forward in this listen my my only hand my only hand finish hand you're not a tough guy let me listen we've been ask
this for 12 minutes the question all of you had more time than I did hold on it's so I get equal time and more point of order you're raising your voice I'm talking normally the only person that handles me is my wife for the record
okay and I'd like to call the question you've been ask we're never going to stop interrup me interrupting interrupting me not interrupting you I heard you for 12 minutes F you're going to hear the last commissioner commissioner yes ma'am no I was speaking to him I'm looking in this direction
commissioner um two of the colleagues have called for question the clerk has um just let me finish chairman I I need to finish this let me finish what why are they so afraid of what I'm going to say I don't let me finish what I was going to say the clerk has advised me
that when um members of the body have called called for question that I should be wrapping up um you've spoken so we're going to let you wrap up what you have to say I'm not stopping you from saying what you have to say but there have been
called for questions and it is appropriate let me wrap up in a few minutes go right ahead go ahead loud and life through the representative Tony aru uh that the
VIP the food alcohol for the New Year's evees for three years and how much have they paid the trust in three years zero not a penny
when I W to Mr Suarez so he could finish what the previous executive director had started in trying to collect from him he was appalled he went at them with the Assistant Attorney that we had
there they claim that they forgot but they wanted to pay and then finally after 3 years there were seeing only 50,000 which Mr Suarez felt like I did
at the time anyway but it wasn't enough that we should take them out of being able to bid be involved in anything with the city of Miami because what happened there three years they didn't PID all of
a sudden it appears someone got a hold of Mr Suarez and he didn't want to talk about that anymore well I'm going to tell you why because uh Mr pus w Mr glla there as chairman so he could
bring lad and Life to run new years's to bring that Christmas Wonderland in Tropical Park something like that to bayr park also so they could push the firm that we have there handling
concerts uh in the big uh concert uh area that we have there out and they they can control all concerts who goes in and out of Bayfront Park but beyond that what did Mr Suarez sued well Mr s
Su because they went and got a hold of him and offered Mr uh Fuller and Mr panella's attorney and what is uh Mr gabella going to do when he gets there he's going to tell
the insurance company that hey he wants this to be settled right away as far as get some money and so on and we don't get to go to court and throw it out in this we wrapping up listen listen last but not least I mean I call how many
have speak when he finishes he said not he said last tomorrow we going to he said last but not least he's accusing me I should be allow allow you I'm going to allow you to answer him last but not least don't even both of these d
uh this uh 60th birthday party in Paro bow and chain campaign events at bowl and chain both of them through packs that they claim that we don't take money getting monies from the firms from these people that's the other reason they're
coming at me because I told through my attorneys to their attorney that I would not vote to give them them a penny here in the case that they have that's the same case that was against me and is
going to be thrown out against everybody in the city that they' sued and the City of Miami too and they want these two guys in the shade meeting that we were supposed to have today uh to start the wheels so we could
pay him millions of dollars and they would leave me alone if I would go along with it how nice these are the reasons why they did this because it was clear I was going to leave the bayr park trust frankly I
don't have the time for that any longer uh and that he wanted me to leave with my head up they wanted to see how they could drag me through the mud insult me and create doubt on me the question
my dear friend uh Manolo four times you were part of the Fridays Havana you and your wife went there scores of times scores of times do you really think that I or my
wife were taking kickbacks from artists that appear there did any artist ever say anything to you anybody and this is part of our lies commissioner commissioner we have to wrap it up now thank you
let me the question call the question caller Reyes is speaking I didn't hear I apologize any money or your wife uh my my position is that it is time for a change and uh
that's it call the question okay we have a motion and a second all in favor I no for the reasons that I stated last I don't want to be part of it but this gentleman is going in there not for the right
reasons uh everything that's wrong he's going in there for motion passes the last thing sorry chair is that 41 32 32 if I could uh make you see he keeps talking and I haven't talked yet all I let me know when you're done
so then I can y just this is real let me know let me know I'd like a motion we took a motion already we took a motion already period and the St here motion I don't want I don't want to be chairman of of the Midtown board we're not taking
up midt that too if you want Midtown is not on the agenda right now mid I want out of that um commissioner the we have pz6 is um you were sponsoring that pz6 we didn't take it up before lunch
because you were here um chairman if we could defer that for the next meeting okay can I have a motion to defer motion second all in favor we um it's deferred until February
27th and the last item is the Bayfront Park management trust New Year's Eve 2024 and end of year discussions five minutes five minutes okay discussion item got the notice that he continues and I have an
answered him back and and then when I do say something then I'm accused that I'm that I'm screaming he accused me of serious allegations do you want to be recognized if you'd like to be recog I thought you didn't want to say yes you called the question we taking our vote I'd like to answer all the allegations
part of the allegations that you are recognized you are recognized sir so with all due respect okay I have no idea what the hell he's talking about okay oh sure period and the story that man over there Manny Pras okay what you're talking about never once let me finish
woman there he goes again can that clown there there there he go be shut down or get him out of here get him out of here what what have they done he's laughing out loud nobody's supposed to do that here let me look uh
commissioner okay let me say this to you as uh politely as I can with all the stuff that you said about me okay never once have him and that man discuss what you're talking about I don't know about the rest but him and I not once tell you
that not once okay and sure and on top of that okay on top of that okay you okay I think okay there's only one word to say this and and I'm going to end it here your
your problem is that that you're like mudu you don't want to leave you know that's all I got to say to you I'm done that's it I'll end it there I don't want more trouble then I'm done okay the last thing my problem is I'm not a thug or a criminal my problem the last thing is
the um di5 do you have a presentation do you want to defer that or do you want to go that's the last thing on the agenda hold on Todd is di 67 and 8 are also still in place well I had I have ation excuse me di5 is the one we're
waiting for it's five minutes under five minutes hold on do I have a motion to defer di6 7 and 8 yes motion I have a motion and a second all in favor I we refer that to the next um Commission meeting February 27th understood okay go
ahead [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause]
[Music] woo [Music] [Music]
[Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] I feel [Music] good what so
[Applause] tomorrow morning [Music] [Music] [Music]
all the real really oh I going for you crazy [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
[Music] thank you chair thank you at this time the city of Miami Commission meeting for February 13th 2025 is now concluded thank you all for coming
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