[music] [music] again. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. I'm crazy. Honeyal. >> [music]
>> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Oh, hey. >> [music] >> We morning settle. down, folks. >> Welcome everybody to the first meeting in May. Um May is a pretty beautiful
month in the city of Miami. Uh first of all, it's May, but second of all, um we celebrate the diversity of our community um through Haitian Heritage Month, Asian-American
Pacific Islanders Month, and then also um Jewish American Heritage Month. And I think it is very fitting to have so many different types of people who share one thing in common
that they are residents of the city of Miami living together, caring about one another, and thinking about one another. So, it is um my honor on behalf of our city commission to declare this month
Jewish American Heritage Month. And we have our wonderful friends from uh the Jewish Federation and other spots here. Um if you all would mind one and coming up and then perhaps Joshu could present a proclamation to you and share a little
bit about your work and the meaning of your work in these times where sometimes anti-semitism uh seems not only on the rise um but dangerous. Um, mayor, thank you and and to the mayor and to all of the commissioners,
thank you so much for this proclamation and for acknowledging Jewish American Heritage Month. Um, my name is Josh Sals. I'm the vice president of external affairs for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. Our mission is create a thriving, vibrant, engaged Jewish community here in Miami
and Israel and around the world. Um, but I also want to acknowledge so many of my friends and colleagues who are standing here behind me. Not only because they're my friends and colleagues, but because it's not just the Jewish Federation that is represented here. We have representatives from ADL, AJC, JCS,
um, Holocaust Memorial and 3G. Forgive me. Am I missing anybody else? The po the point is um that this is a representative not just of the Jewish Federation but of so many advocacy organizations and Jewish community
organizations throughout Miami date county. And we are, this proclamation means so much to us in particular because we spent a lot of time talking to elected officials and to community leaders about the dangers of anti-semitism,
especially the rise uh since October 7th, 2023 when when the terror organization of Hamas attacked Israel. um we don't spend enough time reflecting on uh the contributions that the Jewish community has made here in Miami. And so
we while it's important to combat anti-semitism, we're grateful to be acknowledged as equal and thriving citizens here in Miami. And and and and we thank you for doing that. And it's it's needed really at this point in time as much as it's ever been. So thank you so much. >> Josh, do you and everyone want to come
up here? And then um I'm sure my colleagues want to say a few words of welcome and the things that they feel during Jewish American Heritage Month. >> Do you want it back here? >> Better >> under the under the seal. We always do
it under the seal. Good morning. >> Our communities. How you doing, sir? Hi >> sir. How are you? Anybody else want to comment? >> Well, good morning. My name is Rolando
Escalona, City of Miami Commissioner. I wanted to thank you for expressing your voice. Thank you for doing what you do for our community, for showing the real history of what happened in the past. I want you to know that in city of Miami,
you have all our support. Thank you. >> Jewish history is Miami's history. Want to thank for you for the contributions you've made to the arts, the sciences, a variety of fields. Hate is never acceptable and we want to confirm that we absolutely stand with you. Thank you
for being here. >> As my colleagues have said and our mayor, um May is a celebration of many, many issues and organizations. Um the city of Miami stood with you, the Jewish
community, after that tragedy occurred. And it's things like this that we can never forget. Um, hate has no place in the universe. Um, bigotry has no place in our universe. And we stand for I
stand for love and light and killing anywhere is wrong. Killing children and families is wrong. wherever we stand in this world and we will continue to stand
against such atrocities. Thank you. >> Hi, Damian Partardo, Commissioner for District 2. I've had the pleasure of working with your organizations over decades of activism and I really want to thank you from the heart for standing up
for truth and justice. This isn't just in the Jewish community. This is for all of our community. uh your organizations have been right there on every fight that involves discrimination and living uh with dignity and flourishing in the city of Miami. So, thank you very much.
Very much appreciated. >> Yeah, we just wanted to thank you from the bottom of our heart for what you do. Thank you. >> All right, we have pictures. Thank you all so much for coming and for all the work you do to make every resident of this community know and reminded of the
contributions of our Jewish community, not just today, but far into the future. We appreciate you and love you very much. At this time, we are going to have Pastor Ray come and join us. He's going to lead our
meeting in prayer. Right. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Good morning. Uh God bless you. Thank you to the commission. Thank you to uh Mayor Higgins. Um thank you to all of you. Um and a special thank you
to Commissioner King, uh my commissioner, District 5. Um if we could all stand, uh that would be wonderful. Let us pray. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Uh dear God, we thank you for this day,
for this opportunity to gather together uh and to do the business of this city. We pray the blessings of God upon this commission. Uh we thank you Lord for the unity of this community. Uh we thank you father for um all that you have invested
in us and all that you have invested in the citizens residents of the city of Miami. Pray dear God that uh your peace would prevail uh your wisdom would prevail in this council and this commission. Uh pray dear God that you
would give us uh all a mind to do the business for all of the residents of the city of Miami. uh particularly those who are not able to do for themselves. Uh so we just uh com uh commit this meeting uh this morning into your hands and uh pray
the blessings of God, the wisdom of God, the compassion of God upon each and every commissioner uh dear God as they uh do their best uh to uh provide for the citizens of this city. We thank you and we praise you. It's in your holy name we pray. Amen.
>> Amen. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Would you like to lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> Uh, yes. I pledge allegiance to the flag >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming to our May city May 14th city commission meeting. um to the clerk show that all
commissioners are here. I think we can call the meeting to order. So again, welcome everybody to the city of Miami commission meeting on May 14th, 2026 in these historic chambers. Procedures for the public comment will be explained by the city attorney
shortly. Procedures for the swearing in of parties for the planning and zoning and or quasi judicial items will also be explained by the clerk. The members of the city commission appearing for this meeting are Mealan Gabella, Damen Partardo, Rolando Escalona, Ralph Raphael Rossado, and Christine King.
Also appearing are city manager James Reyes, city attorney George K. Weissang III, city clerk Todd Han, and myself, Mayor Eileen Higgins, chair. Mr. City attorney, um would you please state the procedures to be followed during the meeting? Yes, Madame Mayor.
Thank you. Good morning. Detailed information about the processes, order of business, rules of procedure, and scheduling or rescheduling of city commission meetings can be found in chapter 2, article 2 of the code of the city of Miami, which is available online at www.mmunicode.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 so registering. A copy of the code section about lobbyists is available in the city clerk's office
or online at www.mmunicode.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 www.unicicoode.com.
The city of Miami requests 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 2-33FG 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 on and online 24
hours a day at www.mygov.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 city commission unless modified by the presiding officer. Public comment will begin at approximately 9:00 a.m. and
remain open until public comment is closed by the presiding officer. Any person making offensive remarks or who becomes unruly in the 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
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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 or staff and city administration throughout the day so that the elected officials may consider the comments prior to taking any action. Additionally, the online
public comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the elected officials, their staff, and the city administration up until the presiding officer closes public comment. Public comment may also be provided live here at city hall located at 3500 Panamean Drive, Miami, Florida, subject to any and all city
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 members of the public must first seek 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 city has provided different public comment methods to indicate, among other things, the public support, opposition, or neutrality on the items and topics to be discussed at the city commission meeting in compliance with section 286.01144C
Florida statutes. The public has been given the opportunity to provide public comment during the meeting within reasonable proximity and time before the meeting. Please note, commissioners have generally been brief 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 at the office of communications or view it online at www.mmygv.com. For planning and zoning items, PZ items shall proceed according to section 7.1.4 of the Miami 21 zoning ordinance. parties for any PZ items including any
applicant appellant appeal city staff and any person recognized by the decision-making body as a qualified intervenor as well as the applicant's representatives and any experts testifying on behalf of the applicant appellant or appeal 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 exparte communications to remove the presumption of prejudice pursuant to Florida statute section 286.0115 and section 7.1.4.5 4.5 of the Miami 21 zoning ordinance. The order of presentation shall be as set forth in
Miami 21 and the city code. Staff will 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 evidentary
hearing on the record. For appeals, the appellant will present its appeal to the city commission followed by the applet. Staff will be allowed to make any recommendation they may have. Please silence all cell phones and other noise making devices. And lastly, this meeting may be viewed here live on Miami TV, the city's Facebook page, city's Twitter
page, the city's YouTube channel, and Comcast channel 77. The broadcast will also have closed captioning. Thank you, Madame Mayor. >> Thank you very much. Um, Mr. City Clerk, will you please state the swearing and procedures to be followed during this meeting? >> Thank you, chair. The procedures for individuals who be providing testimony
to be sworn in for planning and zoning items and any quasi judicial items on today's city commission 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 and zoning items and or quasi judicial items. Commissioners, are you comfortable with all the notice provisions set forth in these uniform rules procedures we have established for this meeting? Chair Madminister the oath for the
planning and zoning items. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. If we'll be speaking on any of today's planning and zoning items, those are the PZ items. May please have you stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear affirm that the testimony 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. >> All right. Thank you very much. Um, Mr. City Manager, do you have any items you would like to be deferred, withdrawn? >> Good morning, Madame Mayor, Madam Chair,
commissioners, city attorney, and city clerk. At this time, the administration would like to defer or withdraw the following items. PH6 to be withdrawn. PH6 to be withdrawn. RE2 to be deferred to
the May 28th meeting. RE2 to be deferred to the May 28th meeting. RE6 to be withdrawn. RE6 to be withdrawn. SR5 to be withdrawn.
SR5 to be withdrawn and PZ1 to be indefinitely deferred. PZ1 to be indefinitely deferred. And that concludes the items. >> Sorry, C. Can you repeat the PH? >> Sure, Commissioner. It's PH6 to be
withdrawn. PH6. >> Thank you. >> All right, colleagues, do you have any other items you would like to see deferred or withdrawn? >> No. >> All right, I'll take a motion to accept these. So move >> second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right.
>> And my apologies chair for the interruption. I just want to briefly state the sponsor and co-sponsor request during the order of the day. >> Yes, please. >> Commissioner King was inadvertently left off the agenda as a sponsor for RE15. Commissioner Escalona will be co-sponsoring RE9. Commissioner Rosado
will be co-sponsoring RE15, SR1, and SR3. And um Commissioner King has a pocket item um that the city attorney can read the title into the record before the public comment period. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. An ordinance of the Miami City Commission amending chapter 38, article 1 of the code of the
city of Miami, Florida, as amended, titled parks and recreation in general by amending section 38-18 titled naming of facilities at Hadley Park. more specifically naming the skating rink located therein as the railroad shop roller rink containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate
effective date. >> Do we need to have a motion on that or that's just added to the agenda? We'll take >> it's been added to the agenda so we can now move on with public comment. >> All right. Thank you. All right, colleagues. Um today we have a couple of items that are pretty important to get through particularly because the
supervisor elections uh needs an answer next week from us. Um certainly that includes the three remaining items about um the timing of elections for the city of Miami. Um the crisis in our public safety infrastructure and that bond
proposal and then also uh we've been hearing a lot from residents about um our three committee uh which I think uh we'd like to get set up today. So I'm going to take those three items out of order. Uh we're going to start with RE4.
uh the public safety bond and on each of these items I will be opening public hearing and closing public hearing only on that item and then we will move to the full agenda and have public hearing and raise heard on anything else that's on the agenda or on our resident's mind.
So with that, I'd like to take up um RE4. >> So move. >> Second. >> We have a motion, a second, but gentlemen, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have to hear from the public. >> And chair, my apologies again for the interruption. Um RU4 will be amended to add a resolution number in section four
of the legislation. So do the mover and second accept the amendment? >> Yes. Yes. >> Thank you, chair. >> Okay. I'd like to um now for members of the audience if anybody is here to speak on RE4
please um line up. Thank you very much. >> Mr. Cruz, you ready or no? >> Oh, why don't you look? Could you let the other gentleman go while I Thank you. >> RE4 only. All other public item history. All other items will be heard later. >> Good morning. Uh my name is Juan Kuba.
My address is 165 Ponellon Boulevard, Pearl Gables, Florida 33134. And let me just start by saying it's incredibly refreshing to see the makeup of the of this city commission. Uh and uh have a lot of hope and expectations for what you all can do. Uh I rise to speak in
concern with the bond. Um, and Madame Mayor, uh, one of the promises you made when you were elected is to do a deep dive into the audit into the city budget. That feels like a necessary first step. Um, recent reporting said that together, salaries and benefits of
the city's 5,000 plus employees account for 77% of Miami's operating budget. The police department saw its annual operating budget increase by 50% over 5 years, a $138 million jump to 450 million annual
operating, driven largely by personnel costs, which account for nearly 90% of spending. At least um over 100 City Miami employees now earn over $200,000 in the current fiscal year, more than double the number that was two years ago. I believe in government. I believe
in in paying our employees fairly and um treating uh treating people fairly but there's a line you cross when it moves from public service to serving yourself. It undermines all the hard work when uh that you all are doing and the trust the public must have in government for our
democracy to function. Since a large share of the bond will go to the police department, we have to ask why hasn't the police department been budgeting over the years to fix their workplace conditions? And um now the now the public is being asked to foot the bill and and mayor there's another promise we ask that you deliver
before making this bond the cornerstone of your first year and that is that you promise to revisit the 287g agreement that the police is conducting. This is incredibly important because we are giving such a large share of the bond to the police department. So we ask that you and the commission ask the hard questions about what's going on with
this program. I have a personal family friend who's who left this country because the not just ICE but all police agencies across Florida, state and local are now participating in this program. So we ask that you revisit that, ask our questions about the program. Um and
thank you for your time. >> Thank you Elvis Cruz on RE4. We've seen this movie before. In 2001, the city wanted 255 million for the neighborhood improvement bond. Then 911 happened, so they cleverly added the name homeland
defense. This sign at Morningside Park promised swimming pool improvements. 25 years later, they never improved the pool. They demolished it. Another of the many victims of the city's addiction to deferred maintenance. It makes no sense
to reward and feed an addict more of the same drug instead of stopping the addiction. But that's what's proposed. It's deéja vu all over again as the city now wants a $450 million bond to demolish fire and police stations because they weren't maintained so they
can build new fire and police stations that they also won't maintain. Over my 45 years of civic activism, I've learned the city of Miami loves to do things for its own comfort and convenience. even if it's at the public's discomfort and
inconvenience and expense. $450 million is about $1,000 for every man, woman, and child in the city. A deep dive into city finances was promised. I did a shallow dive and found the city already owes 288 million on general obligation
bonds and 900 million in principle and interest on special obligation bonds. That's almost $1.2 billion of pre-existing debt. This Miami Today article reports taxpayers are on the hook for $3 billion of debt from the Marlin Stadium scam. Before you consider
any more debt, please have the city post how much we already owe in a simple online spreadsheet listing all current bonds, debts, and obligations. Similarly, despite repeated requests, the press and public have not been able to get a clear accounting of the tree
trust fund. Please have the city post an online spreadsheet showing income expenditures and the running balance of the tree trust fund. Transparency is essential to a fair, honest, and financially responsible democracy. Thank you. And Commissioner King, railroad
shops. I like it. >> Mr. Kennedy. >> Hello. My name is Tomas Kennedy. I reside in 6601 Northwest uh 1st Avenue, Miami, Florida 33150. Um, I'm here to speak against the
proposed municipal bond. Uh, I have concerns about its fiscal impact in on our city, uh, but also the continued role of Miami's police department in immigration enforcement under the city's 287g agreement. Um, according to a state database, uh, figures put out by the
state of Florida, Miami is the city with the highest level of immigration enforcement encounters in the state. Uh I have brought a print out of the dashboard for your awareness which I will share with the city clerk after my comments uh so you guys have them. Uh the figures are concerning and city
officials should clarify them before asking our residents to consider footing an additional $450 million with which interest will compound to well over a billion over time over the life cycle of the bond. The 27G contracts need to be
addressed by this commission. And if commissioners won't do it, mayor, you have the power to fulfill one of your campaign promises in this matter, you could address this matter and put this on the agenda. As a matter of fact, I see your name as a co-sponsor of the
bond item. And I also see your name as a sponsor of the item in the page before them. So, I respectfully ask this body to defer the bond and address the 287G agreement, which is a matter of urgency for this community. If the commissioners
want to do it, mayor, you have the power to do it. Thank you. >> Morning, Lisa Margules, Rice Street and Center Grove. Miami residents support our police officers and firefighters, but loving our first responders does not mean taxpayers should be expected to
silently accept a $450 million bill without serious scrutiny. Have multiple independent estimates been completed? Have actual scopes of work, timelines, or competing bids been posted for public review? Trust us doesn't work anymore.
We want full transparency. Our mayor campaigned on doing a forensic audit of city finances. Has that been completed? Because a lot of time has been invested in making Instagram reels to tug at our heartstrings. But has anyone taken the time to look for waste, duplication, or
bloated contracts before deciding taxpayers should once again be the first source of cash? If not, how can our commissioners confidently say the money isn't already there? This city bends over backwards for developers and large private interests. In fact, Miami has
become famous for an environment that creates multi-millionaires and billionaires. And yet, taxpayers are being presented as the only solution. Why not explore alternative funding? For example, when businesses seek special treatment or favors from the city with
waiverss, exceptions, favorable leases, zoning changes, or public land deals, why not require meaningful investments back into the neighborhoods they impact? The hanger in Coconut Grove is just one example of granting lease waiverss with no community benefit attached. Why not
negotiate a direct investment for fire station 8? They are the first responders to hanger events and emergencies. This firehouse could directly benefit from the lease deal. 450 million is not only an astronomical amount, it's a huge burden to put on the backs of taxpayers.
We need leadership creative and smart enough to find solutions beyond simply treating us like an ATM machine. Thank you. >> Good morning. My name is Miriam Haskell and I'm an attorney in the city of Miami. I represent among other people individuals who've been caught up in the
deportation machine either unnecessarily or illegally in many cases. Um, I'm here because this bond item does present an opportunity to address the 287G agreement. And as you all know, Miami has more immigration encounters than any city in Florida. This is shameful and
must be reconciled with. So, we ask that you defer the vote on this bond until after this urgent matter can be readressed, and simply breezing past this agreement again without reconsidering it would be unacceptable. Thank you.
Albert Gomez, District 2. Uh, I still have opportunity to speak in the public comment period, right? >> Uh, yes. Your name and address for the record, please. >> Sure. Sure. Uh, uh, 3566 Vista Court, Albert Gomez. Um, I'm on I'm speaking on
RE4. Uh, I'm in manufacturing and I deal with maintenance pretty regularly on equipment, etc. Um, continuing maintenance is something I've been harping on for years here. And, um, I've also spoken about how the budget has
been whittleled into the general fund. Every item that was registered as a maintenance item for parks, what have you, was moved over into the general fund and became a bargaining chip afterwards at the commission. You guys all saw it. It's it's happened. And realistically, what I've been asking for
is that when we put money forward bonds or anything, especially for something as important as police and fire, two departments, which I collaborate with regularly, I I wish that we would incorporate a
very clear distinction of maintenance included in that bond so that we don't run into this issue and we have a little bit of runway to fix the budgeting as you go into the budget season. Now you can start to ask for that continuing maintenance moving forward on all items so that we don't get into this problem
again because I saw the videos and I agree with the videos. It's horrible idea, but then us just putting a blanket bond doesn't make sense. Furthermore, I've also asked many times that we start posting the liabilities for each of the departments. It used to be very
prominent. They'd post it so that we understand bad actors. we can clarify bad actors within those departments and we can have write the ship. So let's try to do be fiscally responsible here and start putting deferred maintenance on these bonds if we put them forward and
also start talking from the day when the budgeting season comes that we put maintenance in play because it has been put into the general fund and we no longer have it. Everything is a bargaining chip and it shouldn't be. >> Thank you. >> Good morning commissioners. Good morning, mayor. My name is Maria Bilbao.
I work with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that's for immigrants, and I also was an undocumented immigrant for more than 17 years. I'm asking the city of Miami to end the 2 A7G agreement with ICE. This
program allow local police to work with ICE. It's made many immigrants families afraid to call the police, report crimes, or ask for help. According to the state Florida own data, the Miami Police Department is one of
the top agencies in the state for immigrant related encounters. This means Miami police are playing a major role in helping ICE target immigrants in our community. Today, you
are discussing a $450 million investment in public safety. Real public safety means that everyone in our city feels safe no matter where they were born. Miami should not continue a police that
create fear in our community. Please end the 287g agreement with ICE and you mayor please put in agenda to be vote. This is a message for you. Thank you. Madame Chair, Madame Mayor,
commissioners, I speak on RE6 and 13. There is no urgency to make bad policy. >> I'm sorry. Um, we're only taking public comment on RE4 at this time, so we'll do that next.
>> Okay. So, thank you. So, you got a few extra steps in, so get you up here in a minute. All right, continue. Thank you. >> Hi, Katrina Morris, 4130 Lieer Avenue. Um, I I get that our city needs
maintenance. [clears throat] It's a little obvious. Um, I I'm wondering if we could revisit impact fees as the reason that we're going to need uh more police and more
maintenance, more buildings, etc. is that we are increasing in size. Um, so the way that we increase in size is we're increasing a market for developers. So, I feel like the
developers have reaped the rewards of building luxury condos and we have 500,000 residents, but we have 28 million people who visitors who come through every year. So the tour
operators and the hotels and the um the Airbnb people um they are reaping the rewards of all of that tourism and our police are amenities for them.
So while we get the benefit of having a great police force, um uh the operators of the businesses and the
uh builders are the ones reaping the amount of rewards for us paying for services for them. So, I I would I think our impact fees haven't been addressed in 20 years. Um,
I think that before we go into another bond, it would be nice to, you know, have a deep dive, have I just feel like we keep making really bad decisions with money and that there's a fire hose of money going out
to Thank you. >> Yeah. You you all want to line up on both sides, please? And we're only again on RE4. The elections items are not being spoken about yet or any other item, just RE4. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Good morning, uh, Madame Mayor, city manager, commissioners. Thank you for having me. My name is Rob Piper. I'm at 1401 Southwest 17 Terrace. I am commenting on RE4. Uh, and this is for just as much as everybody in the room as well.
We are borrowing almost a half a billion dollars again. And I don't know if anybody else knew this, but did you know that uh in 2024, the city of Miami had about 240 billion in GDP? That's a lot of money. But yet, we find
need to borrow more money. There are almost I'd say my math might be a little my numbers might be a little bit off because it's early but about 200 billionaires and sent millionaires that live or [snorts] reside here in Miami in some way.
Our finance industry is one of the biggest in the country if not the world. But there are no franchise fees getting charged for financial transactions. We pay franchise fees on utilities, internet, what have you.
But one of the biggest industries, including logistics, finance, doesn't pay. So I wonder who is underwriting this bond, likely somebody in the finance industry. They're going to make a lot of money paying back all that interest over the
years. So, that's why I'm just asking uh instead of approving this this bond, can we at least take a really hardcore look first about where we could find other sources of revenue in order to pay for these badly needed repairs to to these
facilities for police and fire. I don't know, maybe create a revenue generation task force or something to seriously look at where we could find other sources of money as opposed to borrowing it again and again because aren't we almost a billion dollars in debt
already? Thank you. My name is Ramon Ventura and I I belong I live 3220 Northwest 7 Avenue Corpo Christristi Catholic Church. >> I have been a member of Corpus Christi
Catholic Church for 32 years. I would like to request to the city of Miami to eliminate the 287g law which is an agreement with ICE. This law gives the city of Miami police authority to work in alliance with ICE. We have a lot of immigrant families who are scared of
calling the police to report crimes and/or ask for help. We need a safe city for all of us regardless of where we are born. Miami should discontinue this regulation which creates fear in our community. We need this alliance with
ICE to come to an end immediately. Thank you and God bless you. Good morning. My name is Mercedes Rodriguez and I reside in the area of Alapatala District 1 and I'm in support of this item, the safety and ready bond
initiative and it's very simple. This is the 911 emergency call to our residents regarding the situation, regarding their infrastructure, their stations, and there's been a lot of valid points
mentioned so far this morning. And many probably agree with them, but there's a process and there's a time and that conversation will probably happen during the budget process to look at the overall budget of the city of Miami. Unfortunately, that is not what is
before you today. What is before you today is the bond initiative. That has to be a decision made by the voters, by the residents of the city of Miami. And isn't easy for me because the fire department has always been there for my family when my father was sick. I am a
member of the SER program and I've gotten to have the experience to be involved with what they do on a daily basis. They are property owners, they are voters, they are residents. It's never time to give them what they need. They have been out there and it's been a
joy to work next to them. They were out in Surfside, the task force day and night helping us going through all the crumbles of what that situation occurred. They were out there in Overtown in the fire a couple of years ago and it did an amazing job. That was
the biggest fire we have had in 25 years. So, I think there's a time and a place and the time is now to put this item before the voters to give our fire department and our police force what they actually are requesting is what they need. Thank you.
>> Good morning, commissioners. Madame Mayor, congratulations again for an animi resident from the South Grove on item R4. I've been a longtime advocate for public safety. Always have called for additional officers, our firefighters, our police department. extraordinarily important in a city like ours. But today, I respectfully ask you
to slow down, hit the pause button, and exercise the fiduciary responsibility that this moment requires because this isn't just a $450 million bond as advertised. With interest and 30 years of debt service, this actually
approaches over a billion dollar in long-term obligation for taxpayers at a moment that we all are aware of the financial precarious situation. Not to mention the economic uncertainty where the Florida legislature might possibly eliminate property taxes and cities
don't know what their revenue model will look like if that happens. To be clear, this is not advocacy for a vote against police or firefighters. Quite the contrary, it is a request to defer placing a billion dollar bond on the ballot until residents and and the
public can first fully understand what they're being asked to finance. If buildings are moldy and leaking, if firefighters are in trailers, that's evidence of years of deferred maintenance, and admittedly poor management decisions. This proposal also involves major land decisions, potential
property sales, and long-term development implications. Those deserve sunshine meeting workshops and a hearing by the finance committ committee which is the typical protocol by the way that is done historically not in this case we still don't know what's going to come out of that June special session as I
said please defer this hold public meetings show the accounting the true accounting please publish the true debt cost present a district by district plans should we fix these buildings absolutely should we prioritize public safety of course but first show
residents the full plan they are being asked to pay for in what would be the largest bond referendum in the history of the city over $1 billion. Thank you. Please defer. Good morning, Madam Chair, Madame Mayor. James Torres, president of Downtown
Neighbors Alliance. Here's a novel idea. on the $450 million bond issued. Instead of siphoning millions of dollars from Bickl and downtown families, take the hostage tax of $21 billion, transfer that over to the 450, and release the
residents of the hostage tax that we're currently paying. Let that sink in. Commissioner, police, fire, and paramedics do deserve this. However, we should look for ways to make this work. There's a better way to invest this double taxation that residents are
constantly paying. And a way to do that is to shift the money from the DDA to the bond that you're asking for. Madame Mayor, thank you. Good morning, Mayor. Billy Corbin on RE4, the billion dollar bond boondoggle. Don't be fooled. It's not 450 million
million. With 20 million a year in debt over 30 years, it will be over a billion dollars. And most of that money isn't going to firefighters and police officers. It's going to interest to bankers, to lawyers, to insurance companies. We all support our first
responders. We do not support you bankrupting the city. Mayor, you've been on the job for less than 5 months, and you've already surprised us with the largest bond in the history of the city before fulfilling any of your campaign promises about transparency and
financial responsibility. This is the wrong plan at the wrong time. First, Tallahassee may cut our property tax revenue. Second, the city is currently negotiating expensive new contracts with all four of your city worker unions while already spending 77% of the budget
on salaries and benefits. Third, do you know we have to start paying the massive balloon payments on the Marlins Park bonds this year? That's true. $130 million in interest on $103 million in bonds. And we still don't have any of the accountability for
the Miami forever bond that the mayor promised. So what's the rush, guys? For example, mayor, why are you pushing this for an August election instead of November when there's higher voter turnout? And please don't believe the science fiction poll. You saw it, right? That the mayor's political puppeteer and
unregistered lobbyist Christian Oliver released. It's a lie. It's propaganda. You know how I can tell? Because during the entire campaign last year, the mayor did not mention this bond scheme one time. If it was so popular, she would have run on it instead of keeping it a secret from all of you and the voters
until after she got elected. Commissioners, please, despite the mayor hijacking the gabble today, she is not a strong mayor. You have the power. Please be responsible stewards of taxpayer money. This deserves more public scrutiny, more financial review, and more incremental approach. Remember, the
strong mayor initiative lost by a larger margin than the mayor won. Don't let the tail wag the dog. Thank you. >> Good morning, mayor, commissioners, city manager, city attorney, and members of the administration. My name is Enrique Santos. I'm a nally syndicated radio
host with iHeart Radio. I'm also proud to serve as a reserve police officer with the city of Miami. I am uh for the past 16 years I was a reserve officer here with Miami. I'm a homeowner in the city. Both of my parents reside in the city. This city is deeply personal to
me. I come before you as a concerned citizen who loves this community and believes deeply in the men and women who protect and serve it every day. I'm also grateful to the city for the honors it is bestowed upon me, including proclamations, one initiated by Commissioner Gaba just months ago and
the key to the city. When people receive the key to the city, everyone always asks, "What does this key open?" Well, today I know it opens the door to responsibility. Responsibility to speak up for the people who protect this city.
So today, it's not about me. Today is about the brave men and women of the Miami Police and Fire departments. Before you today lies a decision that will prove that we not only respect and appreciate our first responders with words and ceremonies, but that we are willing to give them what they need to
do their jobs. The conditions that many of our officers and firefighters are working are unacceptable. Leaking roofs, mold, sewage, sewage issues, broken air conditioning, a parking garage at the police headquarters, so unsafe it had to
be demolished before someone was killed. Outdated and insufficient fire stations. It's embarrassing that Miami is a world-class city and our first responders should not be working in third world conditions. Yet, these men and women show up. They don't complain and they serve this city with
pride. The problem has been kicked down the road for far too long. The time is now to do what we all know is right, to futureproof our police and fire facilities and to give the residents the opportunity to vote on this issue. I ask
respectfully that we let the people of Miami vote on it. Give it a chance. The people who protect the greatest and safest city in America should not have to work in conditions that belong to another era. Let's do what's right for them. Let's do what's right for our city and its residents. Let the people
choose. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right, seeing no other speakers. Oh, one more speaker. Here we go. >> Sorry I'm late to the party. Um I haven't quite rearranged my schedule to this to starting on time, but thank you commissioner for being here and Madame
Mayor for being here. [snorts] Um I'm glad I showed up though because I I I thought a lot about this referendum >> and certainly >> we will need your name and address. Yeah, >> I've been here so much they know me. 39 almost as much as Elvis. 3940 Main
Highway. Um, we all support our police. We've known them. We trust them and our firefighters too. But trust is the main issue uh in this referendum, Madame Mayor. I think nationwide, but also locally and countywide. A lot of trust
has been lost in our elected officials, rightly or wrongly. But I think this one is going to come down to trust as to whether people are going to say is the money. 450 million is a lot of money. It's not as much as the county's going to be asking for in their bound bond referendum, which I've been told is in
the billions. So to get it passed, it's going to require trust. I'll just leave you with this. You can't keep doing the same thing in the same way that we've always done it. There's always been five commissioners. I know Commissioner Gabell is going to start shaking his head at me. I think this trust issue is
very deeply entwined with uh finally what's going to be on the ballot referendum at some time for nine commission districts, which I support wholeheartedly. Not cuz I don't trust you. I just think we need better representation, more local representation, and when that goes on the ballot, it will pass. Take my word
for it. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. All right, seeing no other speakers, um public comment and reasonable opportunity on this item is closed. Um colleagues, this this is my item. So, uh
certainly I've spoken to a lot of our residents and have now visited every fire station and and our police facilities. And so I want to share a little bit about one what I found and also what I've learned from our
residents. Uh before we open it up to to all of you for your comments and ideas. Um, I began thinking about the state of disrepair of our public safety facilities last April
when I decided to declare to run a campaign for mayor. And in every public forum, I spoke clearly about the fact that particularly in our police headquarters,
we had horrific conditions, right? Um we had months and months where there were no bathrooms on the first floor when the showers were dysfunctional. You would go catch a murderer. You can't even come back and shower. There were days and weeks where raw sewage is running
through the police headquarters building. Today, if we walked into the homicide department and we're all sitting around trying to do a homicide investigation, there is a trash can, not an itty bitty trash can like we've got under here, the kind you sweep your lawn
trimmings into that is 4 feet high and it is under the roof in the middle of the homicide department. And it rains in there every single day it rains in our city and has been doing so for years.
The windows are so old in this 50-year-old building, they don't make the parts anymore. We for the water intrusion have to use duct tape to keep the windows closed. There is water intrusion literally everywhere. You go
into the evidence room, you can't even use most of the bottom pieces of it because it floods on sunny day flooding because it was built below sea level because sea level is a little higher now than it was when this building was built 50 years ago. Water pours into the
generator room. The electrical system is at its breaking point. If we want to buy a new computer and plug it in, we have to unplug something else because there is literally no electrical capacity in
this facility. This facility houses our 911 call center for both police and fire. Can never go down. 247 operation. If 911 has any sight of an incident with electrical or flooding, a life isn't
saved. A crime isn't stopped. that facility's backup facility and we have had to close that center due to flooding is in a 100-year-old building. Worst case scenario, we'd have to rely on the county rather than our own
people. These are not cosmetic problems. This is operational failures that are waiting to be a disaster. our fire stations. Actually, that's almost like working in paradise relative to what we have going on at our fire stations.
You've got mold. You have exhaust in the in the areas where our firefighters who spend 24-hour shifts near where they are working, planning calls, where they have meals.
Literally the exhaust for the trucks are in there because our fire stations are so old. Eight of our 17 fire stations are over 50 years old. Two of them are over 60 years old. Let me give you an example of the breaker boxes. At least
two stations, the breaker boxes, you cannot buy the parts. We have to shop on eBay and depend on collectors of old electrical parts in order to maintain our electrical systems. Fire station 5,
the air conditioning broke a couple of weeks ago and so we obviously had to put in a portable HVAC system. Guess what? We couldn't plug it in because we didn't have the power to do it. We had to bring a diesel generator in. This is not the
sort of facilities that our residents need in order to keep them safe. And I can tell you these buildings they this has been going on for decades. The investment has not been made. One or more of them are going to fail while all
of us are still on the deis and we cannot allow that to happen. Just because others have ignored the issue, we don't have to do that. So there are two issues here, right? Obviously the facilities are failing,
right? Um and they've been failing for a long time and previous administrations have just ignored them. And it's easy to ignore that, right? Because we never have to say to our residents, guys, we have to invest in these. And you know
what city? We invest together. Our residents help us with these things, right? That's what a bond does. We ask our residents, do they care about these issues enough to say, "Yes, I'm going to contribute from my own pocketbook to
keep our community safe." Right? So we have all of these infrastructure issues, fire stations, but I also have issues of response times and our fire stations are so old and so inadequate.
Modern firefighting apparatus don't even fit in the stations. So in some cases they're stored outside in the elements, but in other cases we don't even have the space to do them. We have our fire and our am rescue, our fire vehicles and
our ambulances stationed a mile and a half away from the place they are supposed to serve and that impacts our response times. We are going to have a full presentation. Um many of you have asked about what are the exact projects. This is very different from the Miami
Forevermont. Miami Forever Bond was pockets of money and the projects got figured out over time in whatever way the commissioners at the time decided to do. This is a projectbased bond. We know what every dollar is going to go to. We know what facility it's going to go to
and Chief Heavy is going to present the combined police and fire system to that so that you can understand what this is. But our response times in many parts of the city are so bad you should be
afraid. The national standard for response time is six minutes, right? That's considered excellent. You need to have a fire station be able to and an ambulance be able to get to you to keep your home from burning down and rescue you if you're in there and to make sure you're
in response whether it's a stroke or heart attack. There are parts of our city where the response time exceeds 10 minutes. There are parts of our cities where it is always over six minutes and it's not minimum. Right? We have the North Grove and the South Grove have
some of the worst response times in the city. West Alipata among the highest. East Shannondoa, the roads, our new fac new um the rebuilt Liberty Square, the four far northwest corners of our city
in D5. These residents are waiting far longer than six minutes for an ambulance to come. And that is because in the past 45 years, we've only built four fire. Four
fire stations have been built in the last 45 years. So, we have huge holes in coverage where we have people and you're not talking these high density. I know everybody's talking about density. We're talking about people in single family homes are living too far away from fire
and rescue facilities. Every second matters. Every second matters. The other thing I've heard a lot about is let's let developers pay for this. So, we're going to share some examples
later, but the city has spent the previous administration city did a lot of let's make a deal rather than let's build a fire station. And so, as a result, we have in Bickl no
fire station. None. We have in North Bickl and South Bickl facilities that are in trailers trailers because the previous people wanted to do a P3 make a deal. And so in
those make a deal, one of which is over 20 years old. They we gave them the land we the city owned to a private company who then demolished our fire station so they could theoretically build a new one. put us in a temporary facility
which is a trailer and a tent and haven't bothered to do that yet. 20 years in South Bickl, right? Remember that's part of the Bickl City Center project. The other I'm sorry, that's the northern part. South Bickl, that's another one. They put us in trailers. By
the way, those trailers are falling apart. Our fire rescue personnel can fall through the floor where that Mercedes-Benz building was supposed to be. We cannot depend on the private sector to ever care. What they care about is our land. And when those deals
are executed, they're not building the fire rescue facilities. We did have one, I use the term extremely loosely, successful one. Um it's in Commissioner Escalona's where we have a fire station um in a building with housing. That
deal, this is how successful it was. When they tore down our fire station, we were in trailers for 18 years before it opened. So the idea that P3s are the solution, it's antiquated. The
city has tried, the city has failed repeatedly and repeatedly to do that. This bond, and you will see Chief Heavy will take you through every project, the cost of every project, the timing of every project. It will also, in addition
to repairing some of our aging facilities, it will add four new fire stations, which completely transforms our response times. It gets every neighborhood down to that six minute or under response time, so that everybody
here gets the same level of care when an ambulance leaves a station, no matter where you live in our city. It will also um build us a new public safety building. So we will have a unified command. We need a unified
command. That is the way every other public safety department in modern cities are run. Right now we got 911 in that aging building with police. I got the fire headquarters somewhere else and our emergency operations center is somewhere else. We need a facility that
is ready for it's cat 5 ready with redundancy and backups where everyone is communicating together. Now um there's been a lot of talk about this is rushed. I really don't think something that's been lingering for 20
years is rushed. Um I myself started thinking about how to do this and talked about it. I think you were at some debates Mel. Um you know I always talked about our aging public safety infrastructure. So I absolutely spoke about it on the campaign trail and I
knew we needed to look at it and so I have been here I think in two days I'll have been here five months and five months is a long time to look at these facilities to meet the men and women that work with them and and talk to our residents. I wanted to share publicly and I have through the media and through
meetings these needs with our residents and I did that very very openly and very very actively for about two months right um before our meeting last time when we deferred this.
So in that communication, I also wanted to say how we doing on that communication. And so I did implement a pretty extensive poll and and one the first question we asked was pretty simple, right? There might be a public
safety bond on the ballot in August. Have you heard about it? Well, guess what? already 34% of the people that were surveyed had heard about it. So that is a very high level
of awareness. The very next question was are you likely to support the $450 million and I put the dollar in there public safety bond and without having any other information than what we had already provided
nearly 57% said they were supportive. Right? So, our residents know they want to be safe and they know that these facilities are inadequate and our response times are not up to par. When
you began to explain and ask them with a little more detail, you know, let me tell you a little bit about what's going on with police and the 911 call center and let me tell you what's happening in our fire stations, the fact that our fire trucks can't fit, blah blah blah, right? That support for this bond
initiative goes to over 67%. And that was consistent across all five districts in every part of the country now of the count of the city. Now we're going to talk a lot about costs. One
thing that is there's two two things. One is we do not need to change our bond millage because the voters have already approved that. That's our bonding cap. But we also have to tell the residents the truth, right? We build these things and we are going to have to ask them, do
they care enough about this in August to help contribute with their own hard hardearned money, right? Uh we know that depending on the year as we phase in all these projects, there are going to be costs and our residents are going to pay
for that. That's why we have to ask their permission on the ballot. So, I was very specific. Um, uh, the city manager, our chiefs, OCI, we have worked very hard on coming up with the phasing. And so, I've come up and you'll see the
new numbers which I sent you in a presentation yesterday, but I started with very conservative numbers. And I asked our residents another simple question. Are you more or less likely to support the bond if you knew that the
cost of the first year would be about $4 a month and over time would be over $10 a month? And you know how they answer that question? Would you be more likely to vote for the bond
while paying this? Like with the actual numbers, 62% of the people said they would be more likely to vote for the bond. Why? $450 million people can't figure out, but they sure as heck can figure
out that yeah, it's worth having an ambulance in my neighborhood for $10 a month or $4 a month. What we have done over the course of the weeks, and you'll see this in the presentation, is the phasing of this has taken those costs down. The first year
is closer to $2.40 and then it will be about $920 over time. And that's because it's a phased projectbased ban. So, at the end of the day, um I did not put this bond on our agenda lightly.
I view it as a moral responsibility. When I see the response times, I know that lives are at stake and lives are at risk. And I could not live with myself if I, as mayor of this beautiful city, did not take the opportunity to say we
can do better for our residents. We can save more people's lives. We can make sure we continue be a safe place. and we will not have any of our critical public safety infrastructure facilities fail.
That's why I did it. Let me tell you, you see everybody hooting and hollering about this. I didn't do it because I wanted to be popular. I didn't do it because I think it's easy to run a citywide election after I just finished running a citywide election and trying
to do that. I did it because it's the right thing to do. And this city for too long has neglected this and brushed this away and it is not going to work. One of these facilities will fail while we are
all here and we can't be the people that allow that to happen. And then in closing a um let's remember what we're doing here. We're giving the people the chance to
say yes. I'd like to support our police, our firefighters, our paramedics, and I'd like to keep my neighborhood safe. They are the ultimate decision makers.
All we are doing today is allowing them to make that choice. Um, with that, that's sort of my entrance. Um, Commissioner Scalona, >> you're the co-sponsor. Do you want to speak or do you want the Chief He and then will you and then Chief Heavia can come up after you? Okay. Call him up
when you're ready. Thank you. >> I I have multiple questions that I I understand our residents, but I also understand why they feel that way because a lot of things have happened in the past in city of Miami. So, I understand why they feel the way they
feel. I met with multiple residents, city manager I submitted to your administration six pages of questions last week. I would like all these questions to be public by tomorrow please.
On the questions that I submitted there are two that were missing and one is will you commit today to a public dashboard showing spending timelines and project status? Yes.
Last question. Would the city commit to quarterly public financial financial reports specific to bond spending? Yes. Awesome. So, those two questions with all the other questions, six pages that I've submitted, I would love those
to be public by tomorrow, please. I think this is going to answer a lot of the questions and concerns our residents have. Understood. Commissioner. >> And with that, we can go to Chief. >> Yeah. Chief Robert >> Heavy, are you able to take um our team and the public
and the commissioners through um the projects and some of the response time data? Thank you, sir. Thank you, Madame Mayor, commissioners, Mr. Manager. Robert Ebia, the director of Department of Fire Rescue. So,
today's really about three topics I want to cover. One, and the most important one to me as the fire chief is response time and being able to get to residents who call 911 for an emergency. The working conditions of police and firefighters, and also public safety coordination. I'm going to walk through.
I think by the time we're done with this, I'll have answered most of the questions that have been asked, but I'll stick around obviously and answer whatever you need. When it comes to response time, this isn't my opinion or the opinion of firefighters. This is fact, right? So,
on the screen, you have two studies. One was published as recently as last year from the academic emergency med uh medicine archives. The other one to the right in red is from the Journal of the American Heart Association. That basically says if you live far away from
first responders, your chances of survivability decreases. Okay? Specifically, if we respond and we take longer than 8 minutes to get to you, your chances of survival cut in half. If you have an out
of hospital cardiac arrest and we arrive within 8 minutes, you have two times the chance of survival. Not chance of survival with us. Chance of survival of actually walking out of the hospital. That's an incredible number. The American Heart Association, years and
years of replicated studies, replicated studies with thousands of patients has shown that for every minute that it takes us to respond and start CPR or apply a defibrillator, your chances of survival decreases by 7 to 10%. Every
single minute. So, our business minutes count. Also, we the studies show this is these are large studies. These are studies with over 5,000 patients. These are not small studies. Assess the distance to fire stations. And what they show is that if you live
less than a mile from a fire station, your chances of survival are two times as high. If you live one to one and a half miles away from a fire station, you have one 1.6 chance of survival. If you live farther than one and a half miles from a fire station, the impact of EMS
essentially dissipates. It's essentially no difference. So, these are all great uh studies and academia, but what does it mean in the city of Miami? This is what it means in the city of Miami. And I really want you to draw close attention to this map.
What you see in green diamonds are our fire stations. And the green diamonds represented in GIS mapping is one mile of travel distance. If you look closely under the green, you'll see a lot of yellow because yellow is where we're
responding and arriving within 6 minutes. That's our goal, within 6 minutes. And you'll see that near the fire stations. Where you see peach is where we're taking 6 to 8 minutes. We're already taking too long and there's a lot of peach there. But horrifically, you see burgundy. And when you see
burgundy in the South Grove, in the roads, in Shannondoa, in Flagami, in Liberty Square, we're taking over 8 minutes to arrive. This is not theoretical data. This is our data for
the last 12 months placed on a GIS map. Specifically, these are the areas that have problems. We're taking too long to get there because you can see the gaping holes in the city in coverage where fire stations needed to be built and they were not
built. These are the the problem areas. So, how are we responding now? How are we respond now? You'll see the arrows. You'll see a station in Coconut Grove on Oak Avenue in Virginia traveling to the roads or traveling to Shannondoa. you
will see a station that's in district 5 at station 12 traveling to west alapata to to get there. It's going to take too long and then that station is without coverage. So when you have one station leaving to cover another station, their
territory now is without coverage. So it's not like well that's not an area that I live in. That's not a concern. This is a citywide impact because the calls have we have to respond to the calls. So the the units are going to come from somewhere. So what is it that we're proposing here
and what what do we say uh regarding our capital funding needs? Let's look right here. One station in Alipata where we already have the city owned land. It's a 12,000 square foot two-bay station that'll provide EMS coverage as well as
fire coverage for $13.2 million that covers the West Alipata area. currently the busiest fire station in the city. The busiest fire station in the city is on Northwest 12th Avenue and 20th Street and it is also covering an area with the worst response times.
Okay. Next, you see this big hole here. This has been open for a long time. Spoken about this over years. Shannondoa, the roads, the North Grove. Where are the stations coming from? They're coming from Bickl from a station in a trailer. They're coming from Oak
and Virginia to cover that area, leaving that area without coverage. This is also a two- bay station, 12,000 square ft, 16.7 million. This includes land acquisition costs as well. These are all in costs with land acquisition, design, and construction for these costs.
We have the northwest section of the city, a very busy area of the city for EMS, very busy station. We have a rescue that's for that. This station doesn't even need the EMS truck because we have it, but it's residing in another station because they don't have a physical place
to stay. This is 14.56 million for a two-base station. Also includes land acquisition and design costs. And we have our fireboat and development on Watson Island. There's partial funding through this for a public benefit agreement. It's a two-base station,
13.36 million. This is essentially two fire stations in one because you have a fire station for a fire boat for all the water responses and you have coverage for Watson Island. Currently, when we have alarms on Watson Island, you're taking a station from
downtown Miami, the hazmat team, the urban core of the city, and they're traveling over a bridge to get to Watson Island. That happens today. Or from Winwood, one of the busiest stations as well in the city, have to travel from Windwood, Miami Avenue and Northwest 20th Street over to Watson Island to
respond. That's how it's covered today. These aren't the only issues. Those are four new stations where we don't have coverage today. They do not exist today. But we also have stations that are beyond their useful life. We have two stations in particular that are over 60 years old. The station to the left of
your screen is station 10. You see when that station was built in 1964, a firetruck was a convertible. You see to the right is fire station one. So, let's talk about these individually. Station 10, that's station 10 when it was built. To the right is station station now. You
see, what's interesting about it is that there's a white uh extension, a white addition for the fire truck to the left. That's because in the 80s, in the early 80s, the station was too small already. 40 years ago, the station was too small,
and they built that addition to fit the fire truck. Since then, we added another truck and now we've needed to add another truck. Four trucks in the station. Four trucks don't fit. So, the fourth truck is residing on Beacon Boulevard. So, the the area that needs
the truck because we've taken strip malls to the left and converted them to fivetory mixeduse, they can't respond in that area in the area they are in. This is uh in Commissioner Gabella's district, but it also affects Commissioner Rosado because
50% of the calls are in D4 and 50% of the calls are are in D1. Commissioner Rosado, you know, the first day I met you, I spoke about this, how there's a fire truck that doesn't fit in the station is responding from Beacon Boulevard. This is the inside of fire station 10.
You see soot on the walls from the exhaust trucks that goes into the living areas of the station. you see mold because we've had partial funding for this station since the inception of the forever bond. Never been able to make up the difference. So we, you know, I would
think it's reasonable. So he says, "How are we going to invest in the station? We're going to rebuild it." Okay, that funding came in 2017. It's 2026. This is also the inside of station 10 where we have no room for storage and
the apparatus room is is carrying the storage cuz it's not a modern station. This is also station 10 with a sanitary line that's collapsing. It has eroded the asphalt and we've placed a metal plate so the fire trucks can go over it
because there was a sinkhole where the fire trucks drive over. We could talk about station one in downtown Miami. This is one of our iconic fire stations. This is the birthplace of EMS for all of you in the in the stands. Take your chat GPT out and you can chat GPT.
What fire department was the first fire department in the world to train firefighters at as paramedics? It was the city of Miami and it was at this fire station. The fire station is is aged. To the left is the skyline of Miami when that fire station was built. To the
right is the current skyline. Same fire station, even some of the original bathrooms in that station. Same sanitary line, same electrical panel as when the station was built when the skyline looked like to the left.
This is the inside of station one. The port hole to the right. Modern fire stations don't have this anymore. That's an open opening an open port hole that the exhaust from the trucks goes into the living areas of the firefighters. We could say, well, you know, we haven't
maintained it. That port hole closet was cleaned, pressure cleaned with chlorine and washed 4 months before that picture. That's not years, that's 4 months. These trucks are constantly moving. To the left, you see a sign over a bathroom, a
shower that can't be used because the water leaks into the dining area. This is also station one with age mechanical systems at their end of life. A boiler room that's non-existent anymore. So this is station 10 and this is station one. Station 10 we have partial
funding through uh the forever bond. Some impact fees. Our current funding is 8.95 million. There's a shortfall of 15.47 million. This will be the first station to be built. Commissioner Gabella um because the plans are done. It's already in permitting. It's waiting for the remaining funding to be built.
It's the one that's that would be the first to be built to be able to house all the stations in your all the units in your territory. Fire station one is $44 million. This is a large station because it's home to the hazardous materials team. The tanks, the air tanks that the firefighters wear in the entire
city are maintained at this station. Station one. It's a very important station. So, those are four brand new stations and two rebuilt stations. But we also know it's been widely publicized through the media. You've seen it that all of our stations are in some state of disrepair. We have bathrooms that are
old. We have sanitary lines that have issues. We have kitchen kitchens that have issues as well. We have plumbing that needs to replace. We've been able to do some. We have a training center that's 100 years old. Currently, we have 47 recruits there. We have limited shower use. We've had to use portable
showers in the past because we don't have enough for the recruits. And we also have HVAC systems. So, we're talking air quality for firefighters and and the police officers and the police headquarters. We're talking sanitation lines. These are the types of issues
we're talking about in repair. We also have fire trucks in undersized stations that do not fit within the station. This is uh um Commissioner Escalona, this is in your district. You you you walked the station, so you're very familiar with it. You were there. You saw the fire truck. This is a $670,000 fire rescue
unit that's parked under an awning. because it doesn't fit in the station. A fire rescue unit costs $670,000. A fire truck cost 1.5 million. An aerial cost 2.5 million. We need to protect these units because they last a long
time and we care for them. These are the repairs and modernizations projects throughout all the stations in the city. You'll see some of them are HVAC projects, some of our sanitary lines. um about just over 10 million in those facilities.
Let's talk about the public safety building. I'm not going to go in too much detail over the living conditions and the working conditions of the police headquarters cuz I've been here I've only been the chief for two years, but I've heard it numerous times here at the commission talk about I know that uh Chief Morales has spoken about it. Um so
that I'm not going to give you any new news there, but I what I want to talk to you about is what a public safety building is. Any modern metropolitan city responds to emergencies from police and fire. Unified. You see that already. You see when we
prepare for Ultra and we prepare for FIFA, we have a unified command post. We respond together because any major incident is going to require police and fire assisting them or vice versa. When
the fire department responds, police assist us. It is a unified response. It's a unified response when we respond to to calls in the in the stadium during major events during Kyocha during the art festival during any event at Bayfront Park. We have a unified
command. Yet daytoday we have a police headquarters in a police building that's failing. We have a fire headquarters in another building and we have an EOC in another building with no parking for anyone. And then we have a major disaster we all kind of have to meet. So a public safety building unifies that
response not for special events but for every day for every resident 365 days of the year. That's what a major metropolitan city should do. We have our 911 center. 911 center is in the police building. Our 911 center has had to
leave because there's been one working bathroom. The the building has smelled like methane. And they leave to the backup 911 center that's out our training center. Commissioner party in our district that's 100 years old. That is the 911 center. Every 911 call and we
cannot have one failure. We cannot have one failure in our 911 system. So the police the public safety building addresses all of this. It addresses the needs of the police department. It addresses the needs of fire headquarters. It addresses the needs of having an EOC that is hardened with able withstand storms. And it addresses the
need of us in a unified response in a major metropolitan city in the world. The 305 million cost design is covers design and construction cost. So this is what our capital needs are. 68% for the public safety building,
police headquarters, fire headquarters, an EOC, unified response, and combined 911. And also 145 million for those four new fire stations where our response time is taking too long to rebuild stations 1 and 10 and to repair and modernize all
the other facilities. HVAC, sanitary lines, and all the other needs that it has. This is much different than bonds we've seen in the past. This is a projectbased bond. You see, we know where the money's going. The the the the
funding we've asked for will complete the project from design all the way to construction. And we have a timeline starting from 2027 extends a 7-year phase timeline. You'll see that the public safety building takes a little longer. It's a big building. the design takes a little longer. You'll see the
next one, station 10 in Commissioner Gabella's district, which which uh is for Flagami, Little Havana, and Great Plan. That starts immediately because we already have the plans done. It's going through permits. Just need a demo and build a new station. That'll be done within two years. We have station one in
downtown, station three, which is which is a remodel of the of the rescue SAR parked outside, and four constructing four new fire stations. This is a specific timeline with specific costs with specific years that we will keep on a dashboard that we will keep
transparent to the public and show them the progress moving along. There's no one that is more invested in making sure that we can respond to the community and get and these projects get done than a fire chief and a police chief. You have two chairs that are that are that are
going to make sure that this happens because lives are on the line. We spoke, you heard the mayor speak a little about temporary fire stations. Station 4 and station 16 are temporary fire stations in the Bickl area. Okay. Station 15 that you see here is for the
fireboat, right? That is a fireboat temporary station. Where do these temporary stations move to in the time of a storm, in the time of hurricane? They have to go to station one. They go to station 10. the the pictures that I showed you of the stations collapsing
are where these firefighters retreat to because they're in a flood zone most of the time. So, I want to give you a very just one slide on what your fire department looks like. This is your fire department, right? And there's one take-home slide. This is your fire
department. We have 17 stations. And we say 17 stations in quotations because one rescue is living in another station. So, you really don't have 17 physical stations. And you have an 18th station that's coming online soon. I'll tell you about that one. But let's really take a deep dive cuz we say we have these stations, but let's see what it really
means. You have two stations, station 1 and 10 that are over 60 years old, and you saw the pictures of what they look like. They need to be rebuilt. You have another six stations that are 50 years old.
You have two stations that were built between 30 and 50 years ago. You have three stations that were built less than 20 years ago. And I want to highlight that station 11 was a rebuild of a station. So the only two new service areas with a physical fire
station that was built within the last 20 years is station 13 and 14, the Upper East Side and the and the the uh 14 that's in Commissioner Rosado's history. Those are the only two in 20 years. The rest of the stations that we have added in quotation marks. They're in trailers
or station 4 is in trailer waiting to be rebuilt. You have station 17 that's residing at another station. And you have station 18 that's going to come online now. That's a golf pro shop. It's a golf pro shop that's being remodeled to a fire station. So when you look at
our 18 fire stations, this is like a street light. Black is your dead on arrival. Red is you're in real trouble. Red and black is you got one foot in the grave. Yellow is we need to start paying attention to you. And green you're okay of the 18 fire stations.
So if I could leave you with anything is that we need an infusion of capital funding to restore operational readiness. We h we have to have it. We're a major metropolitan city. Major metropolitan city requires a unified response in a public safety building. We
have your police headquarters, your fire headquarters, your 911 center, and your EOC. New stations are going to improve your response times citywide. Citywide. We we showed you that couldn't be clear on on on demonstrating what it looks like. And
lastly, we do need to improve the working conditions of our existing stations. They're deplorable. It affects the morale of our stations. When you call 911, we act and we act now. That's what we do. the men and women that work for the for the fire department and the police department that do that every day
deserve the best in working conditions. And with that, I'll answer any of your questions. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And and my apologies, these comments are all off record. >> Yeah. Agreed. >> Thank you. >> Thank Thank you, ma'am. All right. Um,
colleagues, do you have questions for the chief or >> Okay, >> do you >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor. >> Go ahead, please. >> Good morning, everyone. >> Um, so I'll start with the the toughest requests first. Um, Madame Mayor, Mr.
Manager, there are a couple things that we need and some of them have been addressed uh to some extent by my colleagues already. We absolutely need better budgeting for maintenance. This is not a new issue. This is this was foreseeable and so we have to make sure that for the upcoming year and every
single year we budget more and better uh more accurate uh dollars for maintenance. Um there also needs to be I think for the public's sake there needs to be a much more clarity around the 2017 bond. uh by my calculations less
than 2% of the bond was allocated for police and fire related expenses. That's really important. So even though it was a large amount of money to address a number of things like flooding and roadway improvements, workforce housing, a number of things that we get requests for on a daily basis, less than 2% was
earmarked for police and fire. And so that bond was never really designed to address the things that we're discussing here today. But I think there needs to be a lot more public-f facing information about what the dollars were for, how they've been spent, how they
will be spent. I know I did a very deep dive on the district 4 dollars and I'm completely up to speed, but I don't [snorts] expect that my residents are up to speed in the same way. I think we need to do a much better job, and this is not just about this particular issue, but about so many things. My my number
one consistent request is always going to be let's let the public know in a way that is much more easily digestible. I I agree with the notion of the dashboard. I I think we need to make information as transparent, as simple and straightforward as as possible on a
regular basis, not just periodically, but on a regular basis. All of that being said, we're the oldest city in the county. It's not surprising we're going to have the oldest infrastructure in the county. Um, I police and fire and 911 workers absolutely deserve much better
working conditions than they've been subjected to for a very long time. Uh, as the mayor has said, the neglect is real and unfortunately it's gotten exponentially worse in the last few years. We're seeing it. We're seeing the police headquarters garage being demolished. That is millions of dollars
just going down the drain. That is something that could have been prevented but was not. Um, more importantly, this this can be and it should be to all of us. This is this is personal. So, my parents lived uh just a few blocks
outside the city few years ago, my my father had a heart attack. And were it not for the fact that the station nearest to him got there so quickly, we know he would not have made it. So, more than anything, I'm concerned about our response times and our ability to serve
our residents. I for one would like to give them the opportunity to make a decision as to how they want to move forward on this. >> U madam chair. >> Yes. Commissioner Cella, please. >> May I proceed through the chair? So I I
have uh several concerns here and and listen, we all I think we all agree here that this is needed. uh we are a big city you know um and nobody disputes the the conditions on the ground in the fire stations and uh pertaining to the police
department however as for me when I look at the yearly 2856 on the first year and then the 110 I for one want to see the formula how you guys arrived at that number specifically I'm a numbers guy okay and I want to see the
formula how you guys exactly arrived at that number I don't have that formula friendly >> [clears throat] >> So that's a problem for me. Number two, I think that August is premature. Okay. Why do I say that? Because you have a lower voter participation. Okay. I want
a true feeling of the taxpayer. I don't want to rush this through. Oh, we got an advantage on August. Let's do it in August. No, no, no. I want a true feeling of what the voter out there wants because at the end of the day, he's the one that's going to foot the bill. Okay? And you know, I think uh
with all due respect and and and again, you made a wonderful presentation, madam madam mayor, really have, you know, and city manager and I can win the the fire chief uh you know, and I I have yet to give the police chief a chance to to to talk, but at the end of the day, you
know, at the end of the day, for me, it's very important, you know, because you got to balance things out. And and like we said, we already know this the need exists. Nobody is disputing that. The only thing we're disputing is the vehicle, the financial vehicle, how to get us there. In fact, that that's really what we're discussing here,
right? So, so I have that concern of the the August. I don't want to rush it through. I want a crew I want a crew reading of what the taxpayer is thinking out there, whether he does want to do this or not. And and he probably does, but but I want that, you know, to be so. Number two, I want a covenant because
nobody's talked about when we sell the old police station. Okay, which I'm I'm thinking it's probably worth that land's probably worth between 100 million to 150 mil. What exactly or or if it's worth less, I don't know how much it's worth. What exactly is it that we're
doing with that money? Because that money can also go to reduce maybe the 450. Then we have another set of problem. The other set of problem is that nobody talks about that when they issued the $400 million bond in 2017. Okay. Uh granted it was not for you know
was was not for this but here's the problem with that. The out of the 400 200 200 out of the 400 that the uh that was approved by the voter 272 was actually sold in other words issued and there were remained a balance of 127 I
think there was that was never 100 now that was never issued never sold and apparently we you know we had it but but we never we never issued. So then somebody would say, "Well, hell, if you got the money and you didn't use it, what you ask why you asking for the money?" You know, that's that's number
one. So the the the the problem with that is that, you know, I don't want to see that happen here. And I think it's to your concern, Commissioner Rosado, you don't want to see that either. And I don't think any of us do. I want a true, you know, I want a covenant of whatever that land sold for. What exactly is
going to be done with that money? because maybe, you know, we can put that money towards the 450 to reduce the 450 on the on on the on the new, you know, on what we're doing and and and f and also there's another pro set of problems which which might be realistic, might
not. Tallahassee, Tallahassee, they're talking about, you know, property taxes, okay? And and granted, uh, what I heard the governor said say was that we collected about $60 billion, I believe, last fiscal year, okay? And 20% of that
is actually seniors, okay? Or homestead. Okay? Now, if they just go after the homestead, that's a $20 billion reduction, folks. $20 billion reduction. Okay? And one more thing I want to bring your attention to. When you say that you're going to get a $450 million bond,
really, it's much more money than that. Because what hasn't been said here that it's my duty to say it and some will get upset but I got to I got to do my fiduciary duty and I got to got to protect the taxpayer is that when these funds are given to us and they're not going to be given to us at the same time
because we don't want to spend the money for money that hasn't been used yet and I understand the mayor we're going in phases here but here's the thing there are grants that are applied for so that 450 really is more money that 450 might become 600 or 650 and that's the other
one That that's the other one nobody talks about and and I need I need to say it because if we're going to ask for the taxpayer for$ 450 and then we go out and and then we get grants of like by the way I asked the question on the 400 million of the Miami for everyone bond what actually did we get in in in grants
and we got a substantial amount of money we got a substantial amount of money and and but I know that somebody will say well we can't do it that way cuz that's not for sure. No, no, I I know that. But but the fact of the matter is I I mean I don't feel good, you know, asking, you know, you know, 65year-old over 65 that
he's on a fixed income. You know, my dad used to say to me, you know, uh when 10 cents on the gallon of gas, you know, the the old man when when when they put 10 10 cents up, I go, "What are you worried about?" You know, he goes, "Cuz I'm on a fixed income and you don't understand that. I I retired from the
day county school board and I don't get more money when they you know to you it's okay because you have your business and you get you got years ahead of you you know but but I'm on a fixed income that this for me you know is is a lot you know and and then years later I understood what what because now I'm I'm much older I'm approach approaching that
age now right and now you understand what what my my old man my dad which is up in heaven was was talking about so so that's the thing that for me I I think me me personally and and you've made a a wonderful presentation, Madame Mayor, and I know you have the best intentions
in the world and and and I'm not saying let's not do this. I'm not saying that. Okay. What I'm saying is that we we need to I need that formula. I I we we need some of this stuff revisited and the November thing for me, that's an important issue because I want a true reading when we put this question to the
taxpayer of of what it's going to and then I know the answer. Well, Gabala, the problem is that in November there's a midterm. There's a lot of stuff going on. the that that ballot, that slate is going to be about four, five, five pages long and then that question might be in
the back and nobody will get to that. I understand that, you know, I I know I I know that. But but at the end of the day, I I can't on on the other on the on the other side of the of the coin, if you have people voting for August, okay, and not everybody came out and then in November they come out and and then we
find out that people really weren't for this or or were but had their reservations, you know, I'm not going to be, you know, I'm not going to feel good. I don't I don't feel good doing that, you know, to the to the taxpayers. So, for me, November is very important for me. Thank you very much,
>> Madame Mayor. I'm okay with moving the bond to November as well. >> So you would accept a friendly amendment on moving this to November. Does the second or Commissioner Rolando? Do you accept that amendment? >> Okay. >> My apologies for the interruption.
Commissioner Escalon moved the item originally. It was seconded by Commissioner >> Rosado. >> Right. >> We we'll we'll get you the formula today. We'll have we'll be able to do that at the meeting. November. >> Fantastic. Okay. All right. So,
Commissioner Rado, you okay accepting in November as a friendly amendment from Commissioner Val? Okay. Commissioner Partardo, please go ahead. >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. First of all, all of you have done a phenomenal job and I want to thank you especially for communicating, going to the media,
really pointing out to residents and everyone the kind of conditions that a lot of uh our safety buildings are in and our fire and our police. The um one thing right off the bat, I know that 10 million shows up as repairs and modernization and it includes like 12 to
15 fire stations. If there was a way to peel that off and make that happen without having to wait for a bond, I think that would be important and and something to prioritize. And while that is the case, there's also the reality that we have a strong fiduciary duty to
protect the taxpayer. And so what I've been working with you on and and what I've tried to do and want to continue trying to do is peel away from the general obligation bonds all the things that we can peel away. Thank you for doing the phasing because I think the
phasing lowered uh from $168 to $120 and Commissioner Gabella alluded to it as well, but I had asked for defecence of if that police building is sold, what will that look like? What is the impact to the taxpayer if we condition it to immediately come back to the bond to
repay it? Something else that I had focused on is the other revenues which we're not looking at with nonadvalorum tax. So, special revenue bonds, any other kind of bonds, special obligation bonds that don't impact the taxpayer
based on revenues that we expect as an and as an example, Freedom Park, $10 million a year. What will that give us in bonding capacity? I'd like to see a rigorous application of the phasing. So maybe there's a way with that application of the phasing we can also
time some special obligation bonds and again peel away from anything that might impact the taxpayer. So I think you know all of those things would be very very important to see before voting on the item and again I I echo the transparency the dashboard guard rails finance
committee all the things we've kind of been hearing as a way of making sure that we're doing as much as possible to limit the impact on the taxpayer. Thank you. >> Good afternoon everyone. Um I feel much
the same as my colleagues do. Just in public comments, I was doing a straw poll of my own and only two public commenters spoke in favor of the bond. I've also been speaking to my residents
and others. I know that Commissioner Partardo and I have had the experiencing of putting forth a bond for our CRAAS which took a year of planning, a year of diving into what impact having
a bond would do to our community, what projects I've spoken to several people about this because I'm no subject matter expert on bonds and the like um one person I spoke to said, "Okay, we have
the starting phase. Now it's time to take out our pencils, sharpen up our pencils, and start to do the work." Much like you just said, Commissioner Partardo, no one up here is against having our fire stations and our police
headquarters addressed, but I don't think it's fiscally responsible for us to act on it today. I believe we should defer this item because we have to do the work for our residents and I see many of the residents here shaking their
head in favor of what we are saying. Mayor, you mentioned public private partnerships. I teach Miami politics at FIU. I think all of you know that in teaching Miami politics we study a book called the new
localism and there are three case studies in that book. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Copenhagen. Three cities that were in crisis and they didn't have bonds to rely on. What they
did was lean heavily into public private partnerships. Right now we have an SAP in Winwood that requires the building of a new fire station. There was a successful public private partnership
for a fire station in Coral Way. I didn't think that that would work because housing is on top and the fire station is on the bottom and I thought I don't want to live under a fire station because they're going out all times of day and night because
they're there 24 hours. But apparently that's working. There was the brick wall issue, but that development has now sold to Ray Melindy who I spoke to and he is moving full speed ahead with the support
of our mayor. He said that he spoke to you and we're going to expedite that. I think we have to learn from our previous mistakes and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Public private partnerships can work. We just have to
learn from the mistakes that were made previous. And then there's also the issue of there are other issues that plague the city that we don't have resources for. A few weeks ago, you saw us squabbbling over public benefits
money. That pot of money. Who should where should it go? We have parks that need repair. I have a park that's been closed two months before summer. When kids are out of school, where are they going to go? They need to go play.
And the park is closed because the playground equipment is so bad that it's hazardous. However, we don't have the money to go and replace the playground equipment. I have
to wait until the next budget cycle to see if maybe and I agree that if we move forward with this bond, it should be in November because then we would have had a little
bit more time to do the work. But I can tell you that my residents are concerned. And much like your dad, my father had the same issue. he couldn't support another $4 dollar because I was helping him pay his mortgage. So, if
we're going to do this and we're going to ask our residents to pay for this, then it is our responsibility to be fiscally responsible. Take our time with this. The difference between August and
November is a month or so. But when you consider bonding $450 million, it is not something you do between two commission meetings.
There is a win-win for everyone. I am completely on board with addressing the issues that we have with our fire station and the police. I don't know that anyone here is against that. Me
personally, my best friends were firefighters. I've been team Miami City Fire Department for over 30 years now because my best friends were fire firefighters. I visited the fire station because they live there. I want them to
have perfect living conditions. I want the response times to be the best in the nation. But I am also beholden to my community who elected me to be their public
servant to serve them as well. No one wants no one wants to put anyone's life in jeopardy. No one. But these fire stations won't be built tomorrow. And I think from what my
commissioner was saying, Commissioner Partardo, we sharpen up our pencils. If we have a fire station that's ready to move right now, we need to work on it. I personally, every single time a developer comes to me for something, I get community benefits. Every single
time I ask for community benefits, I am going to have a development that's going to redo the police substation on 62nd Street, MLK Boulevard. Because when I
got elected, I tooured all of our police stations and I was told at the time I was the only commissioner to do so. And that facility is in deplorable shape. But through a public private partnership, I have not one but four developers that want to develop that
space. We just have to decide when the projects come before us. But there are ways. Our city attorney's office, there's a ton of attorneys in there. They can write these contracts that will hold the developers accountable, that will get sanctions from the developers,
that could even make them pay if they're behind schedule, put more money in. It's about taking the time to do the work and not trying to just go with the easiest approach. We can do the work. We all can
do the work and everybody can win in this situation. And I'm just asking that we do the work for our residents because there's a lot of unreadiness in my community.
Thank you. >> All right. Any other comments or questions? We have a motion and a second on the table. >> Hang on. Hang on. >> For the November election. >> Sorry. Hang on. >> Yes, sir. >> Let's bring this out a minute. Okay. So, what are we actually voting for? We're
voting for November, but this vote will have to be taken again. Correct. >> No, sir. >> No, no, no. >> I think we Well, for me, I would like to defer this. >> Yes, I agree. >> Yep. >> So, on on the deferral,
we have been evaluating this now for over two months. This is critical life safety. We are talking about response times that are so excessive in some of our neighborhoods.
And we are now saying we're going to wait another month or another two months before deciding to ask the voters. deciding to ask the voters, our residents, who by the way are smart and
intelligent and caring people about what they want the future of public safety to look like in their community. That's all we're voting on. We are voting to ask our residents their
permission and their opinions. I understand that you are more comfortable with waiting till November and November is fine. Bear in mind I ask for this in August because I think this
is a matter of life and death not a matter of voter participation. I love voter participation. Right? In my normal life I would say November, November, November. But we are talking about we have neighborhoods where
ambulances are not going to arrive in six minutes while we defer because the city has been deferring this for decades and years and months. We
should take a vote on this item to put this on the item in November today. And then in the meantime, while we're getting all of this ready to explain to the residents and going out and having conversations with them, put together
the dashboard, go through the detailed campaigns, and also look deeply at what are the options with our existing property in downtown. because that property is worth money.
And the question is, what is it worth? Is it worth, this is just a a number, right? Is it worth $50 million if we sell it today? We also can do something very different. We don't always have to sell our land. That's been our mistake. We are giving
our land with our police stations and fire stations to the private sector who when they get it don't bother for decades to build what they say they're going to build. So we could sell that land and folks could do whatever they want with it. We also have the
opportunity to do something that a county is more used to doing which is actually doing an RFP and saying what do we want on that land? And then we write an RFP and say whatever it is we want, we want mixed income, we want affordable housing, we want mixed income housing.
And then you generate a long-term revenue stream, right? I can tell you uh the project I worked on in Bickl um generates over a 99-year lease, there's like the starting rent payment is $3 million a year. So you could have a long-term revenue stream that generates
off this. We need to make sure that we're looking at all the possible options and and showing you all the possible options for how that can be monetized and how we can make sure that that benefits the long-term success of
our city, which by the way could be we sell it, we take the money, and we immediately pay off the debt from this bond. That may be the most fiscally prudent thing to do, but we might be able to generate more revenue off of that land by looking at other options
and holding on to it for the future. I really believe we should take a yes vote today on this item and move it forward to November and continue to answer your questions and the resident's questions between now and then. Thank you.
>> You know, on the record, u this doesn't work for me. this will not work for me because then the rules of the game can be changed and I'm I'm not going to me just saying I'm I'm not going for that with all due respect because because here's the thing we still have time to
talk about this and still put it on the November ballot and and that's the fact of the matter >> madame mayor I think the issue for us is the 450 if we vote on it now we're locking into that amount and I think that's been the primary issue on the days
>> um we have looked looked at this in depth at what the cost of these projects are going to cost. And the costs are real. The costs are $450 million. And let me give you an example from the Miami Forever Bond, which puts $7
million into public safety. That's $7 million because at the time the commission 10 years ago said, "Oh, we're going to get grants and we're going to get this and we're going to get that." put $7 million into station 10, which
was falling apart then. That is only the money that is available for design because this city just said we're going to get other money. We have to make sure we have the money to construct these
things and then we offset them because you know what? We are going to get some grants, but we don't know what those are going to be. some point in time the federal government may issue a grant and we could get $20 million and we'll offset some costs. You know, every now and then we get a little bit of money out of the state to help with some fire
um things and we'll offset those costs. And yes, we may find that we as a commission are going to make the decision that we have the sale of several properties and we want to offset this. But at the end of the day,
we still have to build these buildings and the bond allows us to build them. And this is a projectbased bond, right? It's not like this all it's not like Miami Forever Bond where you just say we got $100 million for X and then over time the commission adds things in.
These are the projects. The projects you saw in the presentation are the projects. So when they're done and paid for, if we don't issue $450 million worth of bonds, we don't need to issue $450 million worth of bonds. But it is irresponsible for us to not ask for what
we need because we have constantly asked for what we don't need. We did that for station 10 and station 10 continues to not be built. We are only asking for money for design and not the construction. I really believe this needs to go forward today. I think we
need to show the residents of this city that we care about their safety. We're going to get these facilities fixed and we're going to get them fixed quickly. And you can bet that we are going to look for other ways to offset this cost so we never have to issue $450 million
worth of bonds. We can't be polyianish like we did with the station 10 in the Miami Forever Bond where we never ever had enough money to ever build that station. That's what's misleading to the residents when we tell them the number
is too low and then they're sitting around going, "I thought I voted for station 10 in the Miami forever bond." And you say, "Oh, no, you just voted for the design. We never voted for the money." And so now we're sitting particularly in Commissioner Gabella's district with with a facility that can't
even house the ambulances and fire facilities we need to respond to that neighborhood. So I really do believe we should move this forward today. I think it's important and I think it sends a big signal to this resident that is not
business as usual at this city that we are going to take the bull by the horns. We're going to address the things that need to be addressed. We're going to present truthful truthful information to our residents and we're going to ask their permission in November to build these facilities
and help keep our community safe. >> While I appreciate the gesture, Commissioner Gabella also has a lot of seniors that are in a fixed income and this is why I'm also concerned and that's why I want to revisit this with more time. There's no time today, for
example, to the covenant. Are we going to draw up a covenant in 10 minutes on what we're going to do with the money when the building is sold? So, I think it's better to move on to November. We're still going to do it. I I vow, you know, that we know we got to do this. We're not, you know, saying that we're not going to do this, you know, but we
got to be very clear and very responsible. And this cannot be like the 400 million that was issued back in 2017, which by the way, out of the 400 million that was that the voter approved, only 272 was actually issued sold. And out of that, half of that was
used and then the other half is earmarked the way it was explained to me about a week ago. And then we still have another 120 something of that 400 million that was never issued that now we're going to issue it. Okay. So, you know, we we got to be clear about this, you know, and I don't want to torpedo
because I I think you we're all doing this for the best intentions. I I I really do think u um Madame Mayor that you did an excellent job and you are doing an excellent job in in presenting this and it needs to be done. We know that. All we're saying is that we need a little bit more time to put this on the
November ballot and and I for one, you know, typically like things have happened here in the past that you say one we say one thing and then something else happened. You know, I want to see it on paper. I'm I'm like Ronald Reagan. Trust but verified, okay, is my is my motto. You know what I mean? I I believe believe everybody and and guys believe
me but you know when I tell you something verify and and just make sure that it's done that way. So for me uh you know it's not going to work voting now because I want to see it in black and white. I want to see the formula. I want to study the formula and and that's what works for me. That's that's just
me. Thank you. >> Somebody has to make a motion if you'd like to defer. Is there a motion to defer? >> Motion. >> Second. >> And my apologies chair. Yes. >> Sorry. To what date? >> The next commission meeting, please. >> Next commission meeting. When?
>> May 28th. Understood. Thank you. >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed to the deferral? >> I. >> So, so we have four for the deferral and show Commissioner Escalano is against
the deferral. Thank you. >> All right. >> I'm sorry. So, that was unanimous or 4-1. Commissioner Escalano. >> 4-1. >> Okay. Commissioner no understood. So I just want to make that clear. >> Okay. Now folks, so thank you very much
for being patient. We're going to open reasonable opportunity to be heard on all of the other items and then once that is finished, we will take up uh the election items. There's a couple. Um Commissioner uh Partardo, I will let you
uh run that discussion when we get there. So, please line up if you have any comments on any other items on the agenda. Thank you. >> Hi, John Doulson, 4205 Linux Drive, Coven Grove Crow. Uh,
interesting discussion this morning. I thought that was a great presentation. By the way, I'm in a purple zone. So, whatever you do, make a decision here in the next couple of weeks. And I'd like to thank the fire department made me meet those guys personally. Look, what I want to talk about uh quickly is first
the tree ordinance, getting a committee together. It's long overdue. Just make sure it has teeth and it has the right people in it. Uh people like uh Sparatto who know what they're doing with trees. Just let's just make that happen.
Secondly, on voting RE3, this is a very confusing agenda on uh the evenear voting. I'm in absolutely in favor of it. Don't put it off. get it done as quick as you can. I'm also extremely strong supporter of strong Stronger
Miami, which I hope gets on the ballot this fall, which would give us nine commissioners, nine districts instead of the five of you. That means that uh I like what you're doing. I'd like to see a few more of you up there so the representation's a lot better. So, thank
you very much. >> Good morning. My name is Isabelle Benditi Pike. I live at 15720 Southwest 76th Avenue, Pomemetto Bay. Um it's a pleasure to be here this morning. Mayor Higgins. Uh commissioners, thank you for giving me a couple minutes. My name is
again is Isabelle and I serve as the senior VP of development at Branches. Branches is a local nonprofit and I'm here to speak in support and in favor of RE5. Branches again is a local nonprofit and we serve families and we partner with families to really help them build educational and financial assets,
community and hope. We provide two generational programming for low-income families through our grow climb and achieve programs. Our grow and climb program serve children and youth. We serve students aged 5 through 25 through our afterchool and enrichment programming. But it's so much more than after school. Our kids grow up with us.
We have a 94% retention rate year-over-year. Also, our achieve programs serve our students families. We believe in two generational programming. The achieve programs focus on financial wellness that includes 101 financial coaching. We lead the VA free tax prep
program in Day County. We have an incredible micro business program and again it's all about getting families on that path towards long-term economic stability. Um, we are very excited about the branches alapata project and we look for your support on RE5 and again are
excited to bring this incredible project and all of our programs to the community of Alipata. Thank you all so much. >> Ready? >> Good morning. >> Good morning. My name is Sandy Moyes, 5910 Northeast 6
Court. It's hot in Miami and yet Miami is in a full-blown tree crisis. And this tree committee is being proposed at a time when the very laws it is meant to protect are already being ignored, violated, and undermined.
Across our city, we are watching protected specimen trees, including those in the public ride ofway, being cut down under the excuse that they conflict with construction activities. This is not policy. This is a failure of planning and a failure of enforcement.
We are seeing arborous reports that are exaggerated, inconsistent, and sometimes so careless they misidentify the tree species. These flawed reports are being used to justify permanent, irreversible loss. At the same time, the city itself is removing trees without permits and
without public notice. That is a direct violation of chapter 17. Furthermore, the Miami 21 code requires requires trees on every single lot and yet those are routinely ignored. So, we
have to ask, why aren't we enforcing the laws already on the book? Because while this is being debated, Miami is getting dangerously hotter. We are living through extreme heat and expanding urban heat islands. There is less shade, hotter streets, and more exposure for
workers, families, seniors, and children. And every time we remove a mature tree, we make that worse. Trees are beautiful, but they're not decorations. They are life-saving infrastructure. They cool our city, reduce flooding, clean our air, and protect public health. And once they're
gone, they're gone for generations. The city charter mandates protection of our natural environment. Yet what we are witnessing is the erosion of our tree canopy and our public trust. So yes, create this committee, but it must not
be used to weaken chapter 17 or to hide behind it. We demand immediate enforcement of chapter 17 and Miami 21, a moratorium on non-emergency tree removals, independent arborist reviews, full transparency and public notice for
every tree removal. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh so please protect our trees now. And once they're gone, Miami gets hotter and harder to live. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Folks, thank you means your two minutes are up.
>> Nelson Kenny, 2850 Tigerale Avenue, Related Urban. Good morning, commissioners and madame mayor. I'm here representing Related Urban in support of RE19. For decades, Wagner Creek has faced severe bacterial contamination that in turn pollutes the Miami River and our
beloved Viscane Bay related urban in partnership with Miami Date County and the Jackson Health System will be spearheading the redevelopment of the existing Jackson Medical Towers property located directly adjacent to Wagner Creek. [clears throat] With funding from the me from the city of Miami and state
of Florida already secured, this multi-phase redevelopment will provide approximately 800 muchneeded affordable/workforce housing units to the health district. A major employment hub in the city of Miami and essential medical resource area serving residents from all over.
Phase 1 Gallery at Wagner Creek is slated to break ground in the first quarter of next year. As part of the adaptive reuse strategy for the existing Jackson Medical Towers, the adjacent green space next to Wagner Creek will be turned into a welcoming amenity where
the community can gather and relax with the local nature. This may only be possible, however, if the environmental conditions are addressed and the community can feel good knowing it is safe to leisure in this area. Last year, Libra Lopez and Fast Cleaning Solutions
LLC placed one water quality improvement device in the Wagner Creek area beside the Jackson Medical Towers. And since then, there has been a massive and noticeable reduction in the bacterial contamination. The results of this were reported in a TV news segment released 3
weeks ago by WLG Local 10. Thank you, Commissioner Gabella, for sponsoring this item and identifying available funding within your district's budget to address a long-standing environmental concern in our community and for your dedication to expanding more affordable/workforce housing
opportunities in this great city. By committing now to join the efforts in cleaning up Wagner Creek, the city of Miami would strengthen their pledge in building a Miami forever, a Miami for everyone. Thank you. Good morning. If it is, is it still
morning? Um, my name is Joselyn Mahon. I'm here on behalf of the Cleo Institute, 2937 Southwest 27th Avenue. I am here today to speak both urgently to the request for the creation of the tree committee and also to request a
moratorum on tree removal until the committee has been fully invested. Miami cannot afford to lose tree canopy. Certainly not now. Our city's heating up. We already know that extreme heat in South Florida has increased by 50 days per year over the last few decades. And
heat is expensive for the city. It costs residents money. It costs them their energy for running more air conditioning. It costs our health care system in terms of pre-term births, medical emergencies, and even an increase in mental health crises. And if the city is not paying these costs, the
residents that you claim to serve are trees can be part of a solution for cooling Miami. In our opening prayer, we prayed for those who may not be able to be here or speak up for themselves. So on their behalf, I ask you to take care of them. Thank you.
>> Good morning. My name is Eileen Broton, 951 Northwest 10th Court, Miami. Uh then the historic uh Spring Garden neighborhood. Want to make a comment about um RE19.
Uh I serve on the board for the Spring Garden Civic Association and this polluted piece of waterway runs through my neighborhood and once again it runs through your health district. We can try
now with new technology to mitigate what's happening. I strongly urge you to protect this waterway and make this a safer environment for the health district and also for Spring Garden. Thank you.
>> Hello, my name is Lindsay Kaine. I live at 333 Northeast 24th Street, Miami, Florida 33137. I'm not only a resident of Miami, but also a member of the Crow Creek Sue tribe. And in my culture and modern science backs this up, each tree is a
living, breathing being that communicates. And even in this room, we started with a prayer. The sign beside you, behind you, reads, "In God we trust, and are these trees not God's creation?" I have a feeling that your office and the mayor's office, environmental
resources, has experienced an uptick in emails, public comments, social media engagement, because it doesn't take an expert to see what's going on is wrong and it doesn't make sense. All it takes is one shred of compassion or an understanding that every single tree is a living being or a basic understanding
of the ecological value that trees provide in a hot tropical climate to understand that what's going on and has been going on is a massacre. and it's traumatized residents and the world which is now watching in horror on social media. People are donating to
funds, signing petitions, and asking me for any way to stop this. You called this a beautiful city, mayor, and in all honesty, it does not look beautiful right now. So, I came today to ask for an instant moratorium on all approved and planned tree removals. I don't know
anyone who supports tree removals except for a few privileged developers and politicians. Amongst these 27 intended decisions, tree removals granted for the month of May alone when we include the 57 trees approved for the pickle ball courts and coconut grove. We have over a
100 proposed removals in the grove alone, 22 removals in Alapata and 29 trees were cut in a lot in Edgewater without proper permits. And what happened? More removals were approved. Chapter 17, which is being abused, still isn't even enough to cover because it
leaves too many species unprotected. Fruit trees that provide sustenance and give life, are not being replaced or relocated, for which there is a fund for. There was a murder of a 100-year-old banyan tree recently, which devastated the Edgewater community and has left a scar deep on the community
and won't be mitigated by planting shrubs. >> Back again. Good morning, Good morning. Albert Gomez, 3566 Vista Court. Wish all the commissioners were here. Uh PH3 PH5 traffic calming
requests Miami date county approved to fasttrack uh traffic calming projects in district 2, four, and five and waving neighborhood balloting requirements. Just want to clarify [snorts] the commission sidewalks alone are not traffic calming. Hopefully this is not direct action related to Morning Side.
to be clear, removing neighborhood balloting as a result, fast-tracking tree removals under the opice of traffic calming. I hope that's not the case. PH1, PH2 plat approvals, technical subdivision replats. Um, I noticed a
little change uh that could affect potentially trees and it would be hard to follow where these plats are. They are now charged. They they basically denote the plat name. it doesn't have the address as traditionally was applied in the agenda. Please correct that. It
is difficult for people to see where these properties are and if it affects their neighborhood. Um RE12 affordable housing access agreement. This might have tree impacts because they can prioritize staging over tree protection. We know a little about this since we
fought this issue before and we are currently fighting it as there are staging equipment and materials on property and damaging critical root zones right now in various properties in Miami and we put the request for those
sites to be stopped and and fined. Um on the tree ordinance my takeaway on this would be the mission statement make sure that the verbiage is to strengthen tree protection. We take no less than five guaranteed community workshops. Uh
community recommendations are included and not washed out through the committee. And uh to highlight the fact that the historic tree removal permit data has been requested by the CRC and that city staff has said that that's not available. It can easily be released by
o opening up the API and giving that information to the public so that they can >> bring that forward to the city. >> Thank you. Good morning, mayor. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Mariel Lopez Delbear, 661 Northeast 68 Street. I'm VP
for Bayside HOA and president for Elmyra Historic Street. I would also like for the commissioners and the mayor to execute a moratorum on this item of RE15. I would just like to share some facts with you. Urban trees provide significant health benefits including
reducing heat related deaths by up to 40% lowering obesity obesity risk by 40% and decreasing stroke and prevalence. Figures of mortality and heat increasing trees canopy 30 30% and European cities could prevent four out of 10 premature
heat related deaths. A 10% increase in tree cover is associated with reducing mortality by 11 deaths. I can go on and on and on. Basically, what we need to understand is we're not against progress. We're not against development, but developers need to be mindful and to
be kind and soulful to the environment around them that they're coming in to develop. For me, I believe that they're having a vision of just concrete and and an attack, a hostile attack on the environment and the green spaces. I think it's time for the city to really understand that green spaces are
important to the community. They're needed for the health. They're needed for the beautifification. And more importantly, they exist. They have a soul. They have a life. And they should have me been cut down because a developer says it's in their way of their construction. I hope that you will do the right thing, that you live up to
your oath, which is for the people, by the people, and we the people, which is plural, and not developers. Thank you so much. >> Good morning, commissioners, madame mayor. My name is Brenda Bancor, 1436 Street. I'm a referring of uh the secure
bond that you guys are asking for. The presentation was very informative and to me it's very important to understand due to the fact that my radio show touch around 900 people a day
and I was asked many questions about this because when you do dial 911 for the city of Miami most of the time don't get a person you get a beep somebody who's going to call you back
so when you asking for $450 million to fix a facility. What about the service miss? >> And that happened to me on Saturday over 10 minutes in order for me to get an answer for a human being.
And you can go back to the recording since the city of Miami is supposedly record every single one call. And it's important for the citizens on the city of Miami who right now are expecting the state to cancel the
property taxes for homestead to understand what is going to happen if you guys put this in the ballot and eventually the voters will decide even though it is so important for fire and police. It is important.
So sad that we let it neglect the buildings, but it is a responsibility of the citizens of Miami to vote to see if we actually want to have an extra tax in our bills every month.
So I'm glad for the presentation. And yes, every day I give you phone numbers of your office to the citizen who asked for it to the seat of you because you are elected officials and you're supposedly answers the people of
the city of Miami calls. Thank you. [snorts] >> Hi uh Katrina Morris, 4130 Live Avenue. Uh firstly, I commend and support CA1 and PH7. These are just the sort of municipal expenditures that enrich and strengthen our city and address the
needs of residents. And I am happy to finally see the Miami Tree Ordinance Advisory Committee formation on the agenda. I fear that it's to rewrite our code. Um, but we have a unique opportunity to take stock of our tree
canopy and not only halt the losses, but hopefully start adding canopy across our city, bringing shade, rainwater mitigation, and filtering, and a host of additional benefits to Miami residents. The studies are in. Trees are good for
people. We've known since Roger Olrich's 1984 study in Pennsylvania that a tree view outside a hospital window reduces the length of hospital stays, pain medication usage, and minor complications during recovery
significantly, statistically significantly. If just having a tree outside a hospital window can show a stat statistically significant difference in recovery time, what can having adequate tree coverage throughout our city do for the
well-being of residents, workers, and visitors? Developers may offer buildings with luxurious interiors, but nature is becoming a far more valuable luxury and one that is rapidly disappearing. Anyone can scrape a lot and pour concrete. It
takes upward upwards of 50 years to grow a specimen tree. Now, that's a luxury. Let's invest in our future happiness and well-being by not only halting the removal of all specimen trees, but by enhancing our city with a rob a robust
urban forestry plan. We have a chance here. Let's look back on this period with pride that we all worked together to build a climate resilient city to which other cities can look for inspiration. Please.
>> Good morning. Brett Bibbo, managing director of the Miami River Commission with offices located at 1407 Northwest 7th Street. Miami River Commission Chairman Orasio Stewart Agira has a cold today and is therefore unable to join us, but he sends his regards and support
for agenda item RE19. On behalf of the Miami River Commission, many thanks to honorable commissioner Gabella and the entire honorable city commission for securing the funding for water quality improvement devices to reduce the frequent bacteria violations
in Wagner Creek and Seabold Canal. In partnership with the public and private sectors, this portion of the Miami River District is being transformed into a healthy and safe environment to live, work, and play. Thank you. Steven Lightner, 11:30 102nd Street, Bay
Harbor Islands. Hello, commissioners. And hello, Mayor Higgins. Congratulations. I hate public speaking, but I hate knowing that our tree canopy is being assaulted and mutilated. Please do not end today's commission meeting without
taking concrete steps to deal with this assault. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, commissioners and mayor. My name is Jennifer Diana and I'm the general manager of Paramount Miami World Center located at A51 Northeast 1st
Avenue in Miami. I'm speaking today regarding agenda item RE2, the proposed uh 2025 bicycle master plan. I appreciate the city's efforts to improve mobility, connectivity, and alternative
transportation options through the proposed plan. Paramount is not opposed to bike lanes, and we support thoughtful infrastructure and improvements that make Miami safer and more accessible. However, as the city moves forward with
implementing this plan, I respectfully ask that the commission carefully consider the realworld safety implications of bike bike lane design and placement in dense urban residential corridors like downtown Miami. Specifically, I want to bring attention
to the conditions on Northeast 1st Avenue between Northeast 8th Street and Northeast 10th Street. This corridor presents a serious and ongoing safety concern. Since the opening of Paramount, the addition of street parking alongside
the bike lane on this one-way roadway has created significant visibility issues for vehicles entering and exiting residential driveways and garage entrances. Drivers often cannot see approaching cyclists and until the last moment because parked vehicles obstruct
sight lines. At the same time, cyclists and high-speed scooters frequently travel through the corridor without slowing or yielding near active garage entrances. Unfortunately, we are witnessing accidents and collisions a couple times a month. Thankfully, no one
has lost their life yet, but individuals have been injured and many residents and staff genuinely fear that a fatality is only a matter of time if changes are not considered. We have repeatedly raised these concerns through public meetings and with various agencies.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good morning. James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance. You know, there's an old saying in politics, when politicians don't want to solve a problem, they create a committee. And that's exactly what this tree committee
feels like. This is nothing short of uh lack of leadership, no accountability, but a political smoke screen designed to deflect the very policies destroying Miami's tree canopy in the first place. Because let's be honest about what's happening here. Trees are not
disappearing because residents only suddenly woke up one day and hated shade. They're disappoint disappearing because city hall keeps approving policies and projects that make destruction invaluable. 20 foot sto uh concrete sidewalks being pushed into
waterfront parks because the policies championed by Commissioner Damen Partle. Sidewalks forced through historic neighborhoods like Morningside. Healthy legacy trees suddenly labeled replaceable. Easy tree removal permits handed out while developers keep uh
getting the benefits of the doubt and residents keep getting ignored. Now, after years of public outrage, after residents have begged this commission to stop the destruction, the answer is a committee. Really, Miami does not have a
committee uh shortage. Miami has a courage shortage. If this comm uh com commission truly wants to protect trees, you wouldn't need another layer of bureaucracy to study the problem while the chainsaws keep running. you would
stop approving these policy uh causing the destruction. Residents are tired of studies, tired of task force, tired of advisory boards. What they want is action because every month city hall delays more of these canopies disappear
forever. Please do the right thing on this item. Thank you. >> Um still good morning commissioners. Uh so it's trees, traffic, and afford affordability. Those are always the three main topics, but today it seems
like the trees have taken front and center, which probably they should because that's an emergency. I would just like to bring to the mayor's attention and to the city manager's attention. Uh there was a piece a hboard meeting that went to 11:30 just a couple of days ago. One of the big items was on
Swanson Avenue. Uh where there were two trees that were debated for like two hours as to whether what should be done with them. and uh the the HEP board voted to keep them both because they were both in good shape. But you last night uh FPNL decided that they would go in and take the matter into their own
hands and decimated one of the trees that Pisad spent two hours debating. So I don't know what you can do with FPNL. They seem to operate on their own, but this is the city of Miami. And I think between Mr. Weissong and our mayor and
you commissioners, we can send a message to FPNL that they are being looked at. They are not autonomous. They can't do whatever they feel like anytime they feel like it. And when you do that, then the credibility of everybody goes up because we know our city is protecting
our trees. Thank you very much. >> Hello. Sorry. Hello. Thank you so much. I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. Hello. Um my name is Michelle Yei. Um address is 23 sorry 2937 southwest 27th Avenue um
sweet 301. Um I'm [snorts] an FIU student and research assistant um working on wetland and seaggrass restoration as well as FIU's lead organizer for Jen Cleo under the Cleo Institute. It was FIU alongside UF that helped develop the urban tree canopy assessment in 2021. And as soon and as
I'm soon to graduate, I wonder about the urban forest that was promised with the hottest summers uh rec sorry the hottest summers on record compounding. Um adequate tree cover is crucial for the well-being of the community across all sectors. They reduce storm runoff, lower electric bills, as well as improve
air quality by absorbing pollutants with diminishing expanse of third spaces. Trees also provide social benefits and and bring communities together by working toward codifying the climate action strategy plan. A request can be made to Miami Dade's evaluation appraisals to evaluate whether current development and tree permitting policies
are sufficient to meet the country's 30% tree canopy cover and resiliency goals. As stated in the urban forestry plan and million trees Miami initiative, removing removing uh mature live oaks in the city of Miami shows a possible gap between countrywide climate targets and local implementation.
The comprehensive devel development master plan should prioritize preservation of matured native canopy. I'm so sorry. Um, maturity canopy require uh transparent canopy loss tracking by municipality and ensured redevelopment does not create a long-term canopy deficit and heed
vulnerable communities as well. Cleo signed onto a letter with many other leaders in the community to address this issue and we are waiting um to hear back on a response. Thank you so much for your time. >> Hello. Good morning. Thank you, Madame Mayor and
Commissioners for your time and attention. My name is Denise Tubino. I live in uh Coconut Grove, 2566 Trap Avenue, 33133. I have lived in Miami for the past 14 years. Prior to establishing roots here,
I lived in six countries, and I love this city. I have lived in Edgewater and Coconut Grove these past 14 years, witnessing drastic changes over a short amount of time. I'm a mother of two boys born
right here in Miami. We love it here. When they're my age, I want them to still see the Miami of today. But Miami is experiencing an unprecedented boom as an environmental consultant with a focus on environmental
and social impact assessment. I see this boom coming at a very high cost to Miami's environment and its local residents. The rate at which we are losing our trees is out of control. In my line of work, we bring forth
solutions to complex problems. One way to solve the problems is through nature-based solutions, which is a growing sector valued at over $220 billion annually. Here in Miami, we already have the trees providing
critical functions for free in the form of ecological services which are priceless. Miami needs to start viewing trees as part of the solution to Miami's complex problems such as flooding and urban heat island effect.
As a community, trees are a nuisance. Trees are not a nuisance and they are an asset that should be viewed as critical infrastructure. As a community, we want tree conservation. There's a path forward. Let's come together and make it
happen. Thank you. Hi, [clears throat] I am Amy Herdsig. I live at 3564 Lynen Lane in Coconut Grove. Um, I took the circuit here today and I'd like to um thank whoever I get I
believe it's our commissioner. Um, it was wonderful, wonderful experience and I'm hoping it takes me home as well. Um, I'm here to speak about my personal experience, uh, as a resident of Coconut
Grove, um, and a homeowner for four decades and multi-generational. And I am have deep grief. I know feelings don't seem to matter in this
society, but what I've seen happen to my neighborhood and my home in real time is devastating. I used to look out over majestic trees. There was always an avocado or a mango or things for the all
the children. And now I am sandwiched between concrete walls. I would invite all the commissioners and the mayor to come to my house and see what's happening. And it's and the thing is the developers and the whole
situation now they don't there's there's no investment in the neighborhood really. They don't care. It's not like it used to be before on Lynen Lane. We know all of our neighbors except for a foreign developer that was able to buy a
property that would have been lovely and old homestead and and cut down all the trees and I'm like who is allowing this to happen? Seriously, it is a crime. And when I spoke recently to someone
representing Coconut Grove and and they said, "Well, property owners have rights." Now, why do their rights to make uh a profit off our neighborhood and destroy it? >> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Why is that more important than the rights of children, the rights of nature, the rights of community? >> Thank you for coming. [clears throat] >> Good morning. My name is Noel Cleveland. I live at 5990 Southwest 50th Street. And I just like to thank all the tree
huggers for being here today. Um, trees are living beings and they can't be here to represent themselves. So, thank you all for speaking up. Full disclosure, I do own a chainsaw, but I will say I've never cut a tree down. They come out a chainsaw comes out
in times for storm uh preparation and and afterwards. uh because trees have a value and you know we spend a lot of time trying to put the price tag on a value of a tree but it's more than just the the monetary
value and and obviously the developers have enough money that they can get around whatever kind of penalty you try to put financially on them. So, I would suggest, think of it another way, when we have a violation of these of the tree removal, maybe we should suspend the the
developers permits process. >> Yes. >> So, they now have an incentive to to do something other than just cut down trees. Thank you. >> Uh, hello, Commissioner, mayors, mayor, and commissioners. Uh Jessica Johnson,
5262 Northeast 5th Avenue, Morningside. Who do you represent? You are stewards of the city, not owners, and you are failing that stewardship on your watch. Your own charter says the city shall conserve and protect its natural resources. Any public official who
willfully violates this shall forfeit their office. You are violating it on city- owned land, every neighborhood. 411 Northeast 69th Street owned property and 80 uh city-owned property. An 88-year-old woman next door got a form letter saying, "Sorry, 10 days."
Commissioner King, trees on city-owned affordable housing land in your district. I know you want to do better. These are not developers. Commissioner Partardo, 14 mature mahogies at Grove Station. Albert Gomez pleaded at this podium. The community pleaded. The trees
were killed anyway. on your command. You cannot blame developers or the state. Mayor Higgins, you have said nothing, not one word. Specimen trees are being destroyed across every neighborhood and you have been silent. And we know you hear us because you pay social media
people hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. This is environmental justice. Every community, regardless of race or income, deserves equal protection from environmental harm. In Miami, that means trees. The difference between East Grove and West Grove, between Morningside and
Little Haiti, is the tree canopy. But make no mistake, they are cutting down trees in Bickl, Coconut Grove, Morningside, Edgewater, Bayside Park on your watch. RE415, vote yes. Appoint uh Dr. Chris Baraloto. It must have teeth. Follow what he says and everything
Albert Gomez and Sandy Moise say and the CRC. Who do you represent? Not us. We also don't want to pay for your events, PR gimmicks, gallas, perks. Tighten your belts. It looks ridiculous. More trees. >> Good morning, commissioners. Madame
Mayor, Ian Wogan, 2360 Overbrook Street. I am a registered consulting arborist and a Florida ISA arborist. Um, I'm also a father of three and was born here at
Mercy Hospital, local. Um, my professional practice focuses on integrating trees in the built [snorts] environment through preservation strategies and urban canopy enhancement plans. Um, the development pressures
here in Miami are are notable and significant. And I think we are at a point that's been heard multiple times over the course of of this meeting of of demand from from the residents and also
just opportunity as a a global city that's that can lead the way in integrating trees as infrastructure. I've spoken on on many panels on trees as infrastructure, managing trees during construction, relocating specimen trees,
and I look forward to the the tree committee, and I I just urge that there are there's teeth behind it. Um, Quiticia Ogenti and Bo Rashad was a a dear colleague of mine and I respected her tremendously because she she stood
for the preservation of trees when it when seemingly nobody else really did. And I would suggest that that um we embody some of her spirit to to carry forward to a a new means of integrating tree preservation and enhancement in a
way that aligns development interests and leverages PPPs so that we're we're coming together to enhance Miami as a whole and not squabble over over silliness. >> Good morning, commissioners, mayor. My name is Madison Kinder. I live in
Coconut Grove at 3471 Main Highway and I am here in support of strengthening Miami's tree protections with an advisory committee to consider revisions to the tree ordinance. In a city that is already facing extreme heat, flooding and rapid overdevelopment, mature trees are not cosmetic amenities. They are
critical infrastructure. They provide shade, reduce urban heat, improve air quality and absorb storm water and protect quality of Right for residents. I strongly support prioritizing keeping healthy trees in the ground whenever possible. Free removal should only be treated as a last resort, not a routine
development expense. When removal is unavoidable, the penalties and mitigation requirements must be significantly stronger. Right now, for many developers, fines are simply absorbed as the cost of doing business. That does not create meaningful protection or accountability. Fines should be high enough to actually
discourage unnecessary removal, especially for mature canopy trees that take decades to replace. I also encouraged that the committee to prioritize stronger protections for mature and native trees, transparent public oversight and enforcement, meaningful replacement requirements, and
prioritizes that recognize canopy loss disproportionately impacts vulnerable neighborhoods, as well as requiring an urban tree canopy survey so that we can actually know how many trees are still stand. Miami cannot continue losing its tree canopy while temperatures rise year
after year. development and environmental protection cannot be treated as musuli exclusive especially as the city has already stated that they have a goal of reaching 30% canopy by 2030. Thank you so much for your time. >> Good morning madame mayor, madame chair,
commissioners, there is no urgency to make bad policy. RE6 and 13 are very well-intentioned, but they are partial, incomplete measures, and incomplete reform can look like progress while leaving deep
structural problems unresolved. Good governance argues for comprehensive reform. Miami's history matters. It needs reform and it needs it now. More than 20,000 petitioners signed Stronger Miami petitions because they believe the
city has deeper protections, needs deeper protections for voters, especially protections against election manipulation. They do not want mere calendar adjustments. They want trust, safeguards, and accountability.
These are hard commissioner polarizing times in the US. It is not the moment for ambiguity about democratic principles and that is why this distinction matters between these proposals. Miami doesn't need to choose
between reform and public trust. However, RE6 and 13 ask voters to accept trades they should not have to make if they want better governance that they first must give up something to those already in office. That's the wrong
starting point. RE3 shows leadership. The pattern is not by accident. It happens over the world and it undermines citizens confidence in the future.
Good reforms strengthen trust. Their motives should be clear. Defer RE6. Defer RE13. bring together a better package that meets all the needs of the city. Thank
you, sir. >> Mel, we need your name and address for the record. >> Mel Minehart, 3075 Virginia Street. Thank you. >> I know we know you, but for the record. Okay, go ahead. Thank you, Rob. >> Yes. Uh, thank you for having me again.
Again, Rob Piper, 1401 Southwest 17 Terrace. I'm just up here to express my support for RE3. Uh yes, I think that is a good legislation. Thank you, Madame Mayor, for advancing that. Uh but express my lack of support for RE6 and
RE13. I figure u begrudgingly uh I guess I would have to support uh either 6 or 13. If I have to support him begrudgingly, then uh let's support the one that is going to bring
us even your elections sooner as opposed to later. Thank you very much. >> All right. Um seeing no other speakers lined up, reasonable opportunity to be heard is closed. Uh Commissioner
Partardo, would you like to address RE3 and 14? I think they sort of have to go at the same time. I think what we did, madame mayor, is we rolled your item and continued with this one going to even your elections starting in November but
deducting the year from the group that is not yet forward which means 2034 would be the first year of even year elections going forward and that's what that item is on the agenda. we withdrew RE6.
Um, personally I had, you know, I think 2030 taking away a year from the next set of of election would be doable for me, but I also know that not everybody's comfortable imposing that on other people who already came in with the
expectation of having regular terms. So, as it stands, I don't know, city attorney. I do also want to add that the plus one minus one year which is something that's gone back and forth over months and months and months and months really has depended on the legal opinions at the time as to what is most
legally defensible. I know in the city of Miami, we had the experience of the challenges that were never expected and things that didn't work the way originally intended and we definitely want to try to avoid that as much as possible. And the best way to avoid that is by following the advice of council
and taking away that year on on that impacted uh group. So, so what that means is on RE6 which has already been with withdrawn that item would have added a year to everybody's term and um you know it was our best advice that notwithstanding the
fact that there are cities and towns across the state of Florida that are doing this exact same thing um there's one in Broward that's doing it now that the city of Miami is uniquely situated in that folks will sue and um we didn't want to um we advised you that um it's
better to move forward without adding the additional year pursuant to a section of the Florida Constitution. So that's why RE6 was withdrawn. And um I believe >> George, Mr. City attorney, could you speak a little more clearly into the mic? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Yeah, sorry. Um I was just saying that
um RE6 would have added an extra year to everybody's term and um based on a provision of the Florida Constitution, we felt that notwithstanding the fact that cities and towns and villages across the state of Florida have moved their election um and added an extra
year or so, we just felt that um the city of Miami gets sued in these matters for whatever reason. And um we wouldn't want that to be a pitfall for your reform effort to um change the dates of the election to the evenyear cycle. Um the only other thing that I wanted to
mention was um we were observing. So in the event that you move forward with RE13, we just have a a quick change that um I'm sorry, did I say 13? Yes, RE13. Um we consulted with the supervisor of
elections office and um we initially wrote the item on the agenda to reflect their qualification period. And in fact they had a charter review process where they were going to ask the county to change the the provisions of uh article
six of the Miami date county charter to mandate a certain time frame for which we would have our qualification period. However, with the assistance of the clerk's office, we pointed out to the supervisor of elections that their numbers are slightly off and that would
have created a problem for us. Our our qualification period would actually go 4 days beyond what they require even though it's their period. So, what we did was we are proposing adding a different qualification deadline which
would be however commencing in the year 2030. An affidavit of candidacy shall be filed not earlier than 10 calendar days preceding the deadline for candidate qualifying as provided by the supervisor of elections for Miami Date County and no later than 12:00 noon on the day
prior to the deadline for candidate qualifying as provided by the supervisor of elections for Miami date county or during the qualifying period for a special election to fill a vacancy. What that means in simple terms is every year the supervisor of election puts out a little notice saying that the the the
ballot deadlines are these. So our qualification period would count 10 days from their deadline backwards. And um the reason that's necessary, we couldn't provide an actual date is the state of Florida from time to time will move its primary cycles in order to be more
competitive with other states and things like that. So um the county could not assure us or the supervisor of elections office could not assure us you know what numerical formula would work. So we think this is the best way to do it based on their determination of when the deadline is and we we start our our
qualification periods 10 days prior to that. That would be the only change to 13. 13 essentially what it does is um every sitting commissioner would fill out their term. Um, so if you don't mind, I'll use you for example. Um, you
were elected in um, 2023. You're up for election in 2027. The District 2 commissioner elected in 2027 will serve a 4-year term. then this um charter amendment would on 2031
the next person that runs for district 2 would have a three-year term and then their subsequent term would be a four-year term. So in order to align because like we've we've maintained all along there's no way to move it to the even years without gaining a year or
losing a year. We thought it was sort of inappropriate and and some of you could have actually challenged if you had a year taken away from you. So, we thought the best thing to do would be to move it down so nobody's affected on the day is
um you would all get to fulfill your second four-year term and then the first subsequent uh person running would uh lose that year and then that would align everything. And then um the last thing of note is that this would be on the uh
November uh December cycle as well. That's what the proposed change in 13 is. And George, the only thing I would add to that is that from the very beginning, we've had two overwhelming goals. One is to increase voter participation hopefully to that 70%
number and then immediately try to get this done as soon as we possibly can and pass. And it has been very very challenging and I think we've been working on it two years. So hopefully people can see the logic of what we're putting forward and open it up to the
rest. >> Colleagues, are there any discussions or questions? Commissioner Partardo, do you want to take us through the motions on those three items that >> I'll make a motion. >> Yeah. To the clerk. >> And I apologize for the interruption. Um
so uh RE14 must be voted upon first before RE13. Um RE13 will not only have uh the city attorney's amendment but there will also be another amendment for RE13 which is to amend to add a date and resolution number in the 13th whereas clause in addition to adding a resolution number in section five of the
legislation. So RE13 would be as amended and then RE3 is in play. So 14 has to go first. >> George for clar. >> So we withdraw area three.
>> Um I'm not pleased about it but yes. >> Commissioner Commissioner Porter could you take us through the years? Just take us through the years to serve clarification because it is >> from the beginning. >> What what is proposed ultimately? >> Okay. [snorts] what is being proposed
right now and we'll use my term uh just for the sake of making it easier. So elected in uh 2023 it's a 4-year term comedue 2027 if we ever tried to touch an existing term that we're all sitting
in it's open very open to legal challenges. So we start looking at the next term. The next term would be 2027 to 2031. And on that one it becomes an issue of how many pe voting for reducing someone
else's uh term that you know would have a normal objection when they were looking at the you know those original four years if reelected. Right? So then that would be 20 2031 to 2035.
So that one cuts back to 2034. That's the three years. So the pe the folks in 2031 who get elected in 2031 will have a three-year term >> and then they'll be aligned and everything will go on for four years.
And that was, you know, originally we had wanted to set this to voters and the late commissioner Reyes had been sick. We had missed like three meetings. we weren't able to get it to the voters and then we tried to do it in 2026 as soon as possible get it to 70 that didn't work that path was closed and so now
we've been here going back and forth with the legal aspects of what is the best thing to do at a year take away a year that is most defensible for the city of Miami because we are very likely to get challenged you know like like city attorney said many other cities have done this it really hasn't even
been much of a you know much of an issue but in this city it will be so at least we think we do if I >> Okay. >> Correct. >> Did that answer your question? >> It it did. >> Okay. Make a motion. >> So
>> So motion first. We have to go R14. >> Well, um did you want to address RE3 first before um >> Okay. >> Motion to withdraw RE3. >> So move >> motion to withdraw, right? Is that correct? >> R3. >> All right. There's a motion and a second
on RE3. All in favor? I >> Okay, let's move on to RE14, please. >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor to resend this signify by saying I. >> I. >> I.
>> No. >> Okay. Show that. 421 with Commissioner Gabella being a no vote. Um R13. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> Yes. With the amendments. >> With the amendments. Motion by Commissioner Partardo, seconded by
Commissioner Escalona. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> No. >> Show one no vote. Commissioner Gabella passes four to one. Thank you very >> King is no. >> And King is all. I'm sorry. Three to two. Commissioner King as well. All
righty. >> And my apologies, Chair, um again for the interruption. So we now have two ballot questions um that have been um passed for the August uh primary election. Um the the one we just spoke about was the Marin City Commission even election cycle and we have another one
management agreement with Global Spectrum LP to activate and manage events at the historic Miami Marine Stadium in Flex Park. Um I just want to receive direction from the commission as to the order of the ballot questions. Would you like the election question to go first followed by the management agreement with Global Spectrum? >> Yeah, I I think the election one makes
the most sense if you all agree. >> Agreed. >> Mean so. Okay. >> Good to go. Good to go. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. All right, colleagues. Um, we're just afternoon. Would you like to push through the agenda? It seems like I don't think there's too many controversial things that >> I would like to move forward.
>> Okay. All right. Let's start with the consent agenda. Is there anything anyone would like to bifocate? >> All right. Seeing none, I would entertain a motion on the consent agenda, please. >> So, move. Second. >> All right. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed?
>> Those items pass. Public hearing items. Is there anyone who would like to bifrocate anything on the public hearing items? No. >> All right. Seeing none, I would enter. Yes, Mr. >> And just for the record, P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P PH6 was withdrawn. PH6 was withdrawn. >> Yep. PH6 is withdrawn. All right, so
we'll have I'll entertain a motion on PH 1 2 3 4 5 and 7. >> Motion second. >> Motion by Gabella, second by Commissioner Escalona. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Show those unanimously passed. Okay, moving into resolutions.
Are there any resolutions that need to be bifurcated? >> Nope. >> None. Okay. So, >> I do have one. >> Okay. Commissioner Rada, which one? >> I think the chairwoman spoke before I did. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Commissioner King pulled RE15 for
discussion. >> All right. >> RE15. Okay. >> RE15. Any others? Commissioner Versado? >> Yes. RE17. >> RE17. Okay. Okay. Are you 17?
Okay. Hang on. I'm going to please. >> Okay. We can start with RE15. >> Yeah. Yeah. Why do Why don't I do a motion on everything else if >> Okay. U RE8. >> RE8. You would like to >> Yeah.
>> Chill. >> Sorry. So for RE1, just for the record, RE1 needs to be amended pursuant to a substitution member dated May 11, 2026. So RE1 will be as amended. >> All right. So do I have a motion on RE1?
>> Madame Mayor, I'd like to pull RE16 as well. >> RE16. Okay. >> R16. Okay. Hang on people. Hang on. R16. Okay. >> So I'm I'm going to recap I think what have been bifurcated. So we all know
RE8, RE15, RE16, RE17. Does that sound correct? >> You're missing RE5 >> and RE5. >> So 15 17. >> So what are we doing again? RE5.
>> Are you bifurcating RE5? Do you want Are you >> No, no, I don't want to pull it. I just Nobody wants to pull it. >> Yeah. >> It's just you you just >> No one has pulled it. Yeah. The the items that are pulled are 8, 15, 16, and 17. >> 8, 15, 16, 17. Okay.
>> All right. So, I would entertain a motion on RE1, RE5, RE7, RE 9, RE10, RE1, RE12, RE1 18, and 19. >> Motion. >> Second.
>> Okay. Motion by Commissioner Gabella, seconded by Commissioner Rado. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? carries unanimously. Okay. Um, shall we go to RE8?
Who is the polling commissioner on RE8? >> Okay, I think was it me? I think it was me. So, just in re real brief, I know what's been trying to be uh So, can you walk me through again what is it exactly? Is this the one with the
bench? And if there that's yours? No, that's that is R16. Ra. >> Yeah, >> he's the municipal prosecutor. >> Who's R8? Who did R8? >> R8. RE8.
>> R8 is the municipal prosecution. That's uh Commissioner um Escalona's item. >> Yeah, that's yours. >> Yes. >> And could you just walk me real brief? I mean I don't have a main problem but but but I I didn't understand it quite well that so you're what are you what are we trying to do here? >> So the goal here is the state attorney
is very busy and there are so many cases that are being dropped. There are things that are happening in our city that I believe they deserve attention and the main goal here is to bring couple of attorneys here that can take care of those cases and we can move forward the city to a into a better
situation safe etc. That's the main goal with this. >> Now I remember [clears throat] and to my knowledge there are other cities that have done this before. >> Okay. Yeah. My only concern was the money that this was going to cost us. That that was my only concern. But other than that, I have no concerns. >> So this is used for a 90 days action
plan. So then they are going to come back to us with a plan and then if we don't want to move forward because it'll cost a lot of money, we don't move forward. >> Okay. All right. That's that's fine. I'm good. Thank you. Can we >> All right. Anyone else? Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion. Commissioner Escalona.
>> So move. >> Second. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Moving on to RE15. >> That's the item I pulled. Just need some information from staff in reviewing the
backup documentation. When this came up, we talked about adding FIU and I don't see that in the backup documents. it has um FSU. But the whole reason why I requested that we have a
committee of the community was because for me example, I'm not a tree subject matter expert and I didn't get into the fray of the tree removal because District 5 is planting
trees. So are we. >> We're we're not pulling trees up. We we need tree canopy and we don't have in Liberty City hundred year old oaks to do away with. We just >> My community doesn't have that issue. We need trees.
But in here FSU is from what I understand the mediator for community meetings. And I thought I was told in my agenda briefing that community meetings have been happening, but my appointees
to the tree committee have said they haven't had any meetings. And I don't see FIU in here anywhere. And FIU is to step in as an expert with regards to trees and this ordinance, not to do
mediation. But I don't see FIU in here. and that came up when we were voting on this. So, are have you had meetings in the community? And my um cuz cuz my tree advocates one was here today. She's not
going to miss a meeting about this. And and I tell you, it's from me speaking to our residents that I learned, again, not a tree expert, that you shouldn't trim your trees um during nesting season because you the
nest is going to fall on the ground and the birds are going to die. um little things like that that I or many folks I would consider don't know that kind of thing. So that's why
it's important for me to make sure that the committee the advisory committee is working in tandem with FIU and staff to make sure that we have a tree ordinance
that makes sense for everyone. Good afternoon, Madame Mayor, Madame Chair, members of the city commission. Melissa Fernandez Steers, assistant director with the building department. Um, I can directly answer the question regarding FIU now, but we're also prepared to go through a very brief um [snorts]
presentation that will address the composition of the committee as well as the work that has been done to date by the consensus center. So, at your pleasure, would you like us to go through the committee? >> Well, okay. So there's work being done by the consensus center without the input from the committee.
>> No. So if you'll allow me to back up a little bit. Okay. >> So in July of 24, 2025, this commission directed the city manager to engage the consensus center through FIU to provide public outreach services, including
stakeholder interviews, community workshops in each district, and a web-based public comment. all that would facilitate the public's voice in the process of crafting what would eventually become our revised tree ordinance. During that meeting, as you
directed, Madame Chair, the commission, the city manager was also asked to convene a 10 member advisory committee that would be made up of residents that reside in each of your districts. Um the public service agreement was eventually
executed with FSU in November and FSU did immediately start work on its processes at that time. And the work that started at that time included um to date a dozen or so stakeholder interviews representing a wide range of
perspectives many of which are individuals that have spoken um before you here today during public comment as well as others who have been active advocates on this role. I can represent to you that one of the folks that has been interviewed is in fact an FIU
community member, Professor Chris Bower Loto, who um we have the distinct pleasure of hosting on the committee once he's appointed as um Commissioner Partardo's appointment. So FIU will have a voice in this process. They will have a voice on the committee and they will
also be tagged as subject matter experts in terms of their expertise with respect to tree canopy and preservation. M has also been tagged as part of that process. We've been in communication with them and by we I mean the administration as well as the folks from
the consensus center and they are ready to deploy their expertise on the matter once we get this committee in place. Um I can also um represent to you that we have a tentative integrated process plan
once we establish the uh committee today by resolution. You'll be receiving names during the next commission meeting to fill out the appointments. We have nine out of the 10 appointments. And just so that you could rest assured with respect to the timeline going forward, our intent is to bring this committee and
convene it at the end of June, early uh July, we will give them an orientation at that point. Then we'll move forward with the public workshops in July. Um where we're going to get feedback from the community during that time. Once we
have that feedback in place, we'll bring it back to the advisory committee. We'll have a series of meetings with the advisory committee, presenting to them what the feedback is that we've um comprised from the community and look at
options given on what the community has told us. So they'll put together options, then compile those options and bring back those approaches to the community for a second round of workshops so that the community can digest all this work that is being done.
Again, all of it being facilitated through the consensus center, which is a neutral party that's intended to bring in um the community and and their voice on the matter. uh we hope after that second round of workshops bring them back to the committee to develop a final
set of recommendations and all this being said we're probably looking at sometime in mid 2027 for draft um recommendations to this body. So is Commissioner Partardo's appointee
the participation of FIU or is it his appointee and FIU because that's what I intended to FI for FIU to be a part of this process. So the participation with FIU is going to be on a volunteer basis because we entered the public service uh
agreement with FSU and we're relying on FIU and M to volunteer in the process um as community participants. Um we have reached out to them. FIU has a long list of folks that they want to weigh in in the process and through our work with
the consensus center we'll be sure that those folks will be tapped as an extra step. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So that wasn't my intent. I wanted FIU to be brought on as a consultant for the process. So you
know suppose they decide I don't want to volunteer today or I don't have time today. I wanted to make sure that they they participated fully in this that if you go back to that commission meeting
that's and then some of our public commenters said why did we go to Tallahassee where we have universities here that could weigh in and their role for me FIU is not the same as FIU
FIU as was explained to to me. FSU, I'm sorry, are acting as mediators. FIU is going to for what I intended to serve as subject matter experts to help
guide the discussions with the advisory committee. So I wanted FIU to to be a part of this process, not in a voluntary role, but as a consultant for this
process. And it is clear that the community is very engaged in this. They stop me everywhere I go to talk about this. they grocery store, gas station, running because I run in Morningside. I
have the t-shirt, the tree t-shirt. So, this is very important to me that um we utilize our universities here in Miami to help us with this process because it's very, very
important. And the other day I went out, walked into a store, walked outside and it felt like I walked into an oven and it's only May. So we have to make sure that we get this tree ordinance
correct and we have to continue to plant trees. >> I just I just wanted to add to that as somebody who walks around morning side with my dog in the morning and at night all the time. Absolutely. These are all issues we we are very very protective
and want to grow our tree canopies. We believe that this process that we're starting on now, which we've already started a while back, is a good step forward. I understand FIU's participation would be fantastic. I would love University of Miami to be a a participant and to be able to weigh in
on these issues. They have very good expertise and so uh I think there's a way to add all of this and I think you guys are the ones in the best position to do it. >> Wait, one one thing one thing one thing because I am a professor at FIU, adjunct
professor, not a tenur professor. I need to make a conflict of interest thing. It's I won't vote on that if you guys want to um engage FIU. I'm not advocating for them because I have a connection with them as an employee of
FIU. Be clear about that. My chief of staff just ran up to tell me that, you know, as an attorney, we got to George, you should have said that first. >> Well, we discreetly spoke to your chief of staff. [laughter] >> I There you go. There you go. Full So, we're full transparency. I am a
professor at FIU. I teach Miami politics and I'm in no way trying to violate any kind of regulation with me advocating and I did that already in the commission meeting for that. So if I George do I need to refrain
>> from from the vote? Um since what what it seems to be is it's advocating for um uh consulting contract which is a a contract I would recommend that you um just the appearance of impropriety. I hate using
that term but I would just withdraw yourself from the vote. >> So if I if I may um Mr. manager, do you have a way of ensuring that FIU can be added to this so we can actually get this committee established this >> and University of Miami? >> Madam Chair and Commissioner Partardo, I
will ensure that we contract both with FIU and University of Miami. We we will uh get that done. >> Okay. So, we we're able to move this item forward today. >> Madame Mayor, Madame Chair, I need to make the same disclosure with regard to FIU. So, I will be abstaining from this. So, I hope none of the other three are
working at FIU cuz otherwise we can't take a vote >> and I don't work at M. >> All right. >> Okay. So, I need a motion from someone that isn't involved with this. >> So, move on. >> You've got a question. >> And again, my apologies for the interruption. Um, R15 will be amended
pursuant to a substitution memo dated May 11, 2026. So, this item will be as amended. >> All right. Do I have a motion? >> So, move. I'm not working for FIU, but I'm going to reach out to a college to see whether you have somebody on. >> But not one, not FIU. You got to be recused on a different item. >> Granted. [laughter]
>> All right. Um, we have a motion. We have a second of the three commissioners that are able to vote. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Please show Commissioner King and Commissioner Ric Rado as recused. All right. RE16. I
think Commissioner Rado, you may wanted to speak on this. >> I I do. I certainly support the idea of adding additional transparency, but in in speaking with my staff, we realize we've been holding these bi-weekly block walks in downtown and in in Bickl, and
it includes uh sometimes additional >> Sorry, on what item you speaking? >> RE16. >> That's 17. The one that you're referring to. >> Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Uh yes, correct. R 17. My apologies.
RE16. Who pulled RE16? >> I pulled RE16. My concern with RE16 is who's it if who's who's going to do this. And how are we going to fund doing it? This is a lot of work.
>> They already have a system that they can see. They can just have to make it public. >> Make it public. Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> Give me the chair. >> Okay. >> Mr. Man, Mr. manager if you just explain the process. >> Madam Madam Chair, we we currently have a searchable database that we maintain the administration to keep track of all
the um administrative orders that comes from from these bodies. So it would be a matter of making that forward facing and giving access uh to the public. >> Okay. So this would not cost any u you know u
monies. Is that correct? >> Not this one commissioner. No. >> Okay. Also, if we always speaking about transparency, I believe 16 and 17 brings transparency to the table and that's the reason we have these two items. >> Yeah, but 17 is going to cost us money.
I've been briefed >> from the city. >> From the city. >> Could Could we wrap up? >> Can we wrap up? >> Motion. >> We have a motion on 16 with Commissioner King. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Commissioner Esclona. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously.
RE17. >> I pulled RE17 uh because as I was starting to mention, we're we're hosting these walks and they're outside. We do have in some cases additional commission members or multiple DDA members. I I don't know how that kind of process,
which I think has been very positive, how it interacts with this, which I'm generally supportive of, but are there any carveouts for things like that? Because those are exterior walks. That's the nature of it. That's how they're going to continue. It's what makes sense, but I don't know how we capture it in the same way you might capture a
meeting in the chambers. >> So, Commissioner, and I'll look to Todd as we've been working collaboratively on on this item. I think um if a more palatable ask is for obviously [snorts] all of the bodies capture minutes, they
capture minutes just like there's minutes of this of this meeting for example and they get published on our site. I think a more palatable ask um without additional cost, without an overbearing on those organizations, the very ones that you just mentioned, would
be to publicize those minutes the same way in the same format that we do these. >> Okay. I do have a concern uh with audio and video to a whole host of legalities to include closed captioning and contracts that we would have to sign in
order to bring folks on board to uh convert all the audio and video plus storage costs plus manpower hours um as it relates to audio and video. But with that said and um I think this is what Commissioner Kalona is trying to
accomplish for the sake of transparency. those bodies do keep minutes as does this body and I think the public should have access to those minutes um in the same format that they have access to the minutes here. So um clerk I don't know
if you have any further input than that but I feel comfortable with with that. >> Mr. Manager you summed it up perfectly. >> Okay. >> So if we >> that seems like a great compromise. Absolutely. So colleagues, I don't know if we can amend that on the fly or do you want
Commissioner Escalona to change this more into a directive of having it come back with a manager explaining how he would implement it? So we would be >> Can it be amended? >> I I think it can be amended. The question is, can you amend it specifically enough to to Todd's thing or would you rather have it come back in
writing? It's up to you, Mr. Clerk. >> Um Mr. Mr. City Attorney, are you um okay with the substantive amendment of moving it from audio and video to simply just minutes the the minutes that the lower boards whatever summary remain whatever type of minutes they produce that those would be published to the
legislative hub along with the city commission minutes and the other boards. So as long as it's clear, we're pro we in lie of providing access to audio or video recordings of all public meetings, it would be to provide access to all all minutes of meetings of the city.
>> Yes. >> Yeah, we can make that change if that if the mover if the sponsor is okay with that. >> So the main reason you want to amend this item is because it'll add additional cost, right? additional costs and additional bearings on those
organizations, commissioners. So, as you know, it's and and I think our clerk talked about it. It's not only the committees and the boards, but it's subcommittees uh so on and so forth all the way. >> Are they required to record all the meetings? >> No. And and that's another thing that
what I think you're doing even by publishing the me the minutes of those boards go beyond what we're required to do legally. Um, so we're in compliance with the law. Video and audio is not part part of that.
>> And just so you know, chapter 286 requires notice opportunity to be heard and it also provides for uh copying of minutes or taking of minutes, but it does not require verbatim minutes or audio video recording. It just simply requires minutes. So we comply with 286.
Um I think the fear here is that this is this in its extreme form would be asking every single board to be video recorded and um that that's where the cost comes in I believe >> and the problem is keeping all that storage up the administration of it and
then future liabilities blossoms in the future right is that what you're saying George >> well there's not so much well the liability is we'd have to provide all those public records once we create them >> okay so again another Okay. >> All right. Do I have a motion on the
item as amended? Commissioner Escalona, since it's your item, >> are you okay with it? >> You want to think about it some more and come back? >> You want to defer it? >> Yes, it's that seems to make sense. Let's get this right. Okay, there is a motion to defer. Is there a second?
>> All in favor say I. >> I. >> And to what meeting? Chair, >> do you like >> Commissioner Eston? Next meeting is next. Understood. May 28th. >> Perfect. Thank you. All right. Um, Mr. City attorney, you had a comment on RE13 you needed to put on the record. >> I just want to make a quick note. Um,
when we modified the city commission adopted it as modified. When I read that this relates to the moving of the qualification deadline, I said 2030. I meant to say 2034. Um, but the item was adopted with modification. So, I just
wanted to let you know that we'll be making that change as well. >> And to be clear, we are moving elections, not cancelling them. That cannot happen in the city of Miami. Okay. >> Correct. >> And to be clear, what you did was none of the two terms of the people that are here now, if they get elected to a
second term, is affected. It's the at the when we finish our terms here, it's >> if reelected and correct except for district one, sir. >> I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. >> All right. Second reading items. Uh colleagues, is there anything that you
would like to um You've got to read them. You want to read them all? Yes. First. Okay, let's do that. >> All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, SR1, second reading ordinance. An ordinance of the Miami City Commission pursuant to resolution number R240225
adopted June 18, 2024 amending chapter 40 article 4 division 2 of the code of the city of Miami, Florida is amended titled personnel pension and retirement plan city of Miami firefighters and police officers retirement trust more particularly amending section 40-203 to grant international association of
firefighters members vested on September 26, 2015 the benefits in effect on September 30th, 2010. 10 and permitting firefighter members eligible for retirement to elect up to seven years in the forward deferred retirement option program based on the International
Association of Firefighters Local 587 collective bargaining agreement for October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2026 containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. SR2 second reading ordinance. An ordinance to the Miami City Commission amending chapter 2, article 11 of the
code of the city of Miami, Florida's amended city code titled administration, boards, committees, commissions to combine the audit advisory committee and the finance committee into the finance and audit advisory committee more specifically by repealing in its entirety division 4 sections 2-946 to
2-951 titled audit advisory committee further amending division 6 sections 2-101 to 2-1018 creating the finance an audit advisory committee containing a cability clause and providing for an effective date.
Second reading ordinance SR3 an ordinance of the Miami city commission amending chapter 10 article six of the code of the city of Miami Florida's amended city code titled buildings unsafe structures to provide a waiver for qualifying senior citizens and lowincome residents to the cost of recovery in unsafe structure violation
cases containing a severity clause and providing for an immediate effective date. Uh SR4 second reading ordinance an ordinance of Miami city commission amending chapter 54 the code of the city of Miami Florida as amended city code titled streets and sidewalks by creating section 54-9 of the city code titled
transit shelters use and conduct providing definitions and prohibited conduct at transit shelters providing for enforcement pursuant to chapter 2 article 10 of the city code containing a severity clause and providing for an effective date. And uh lastly, SR, no
SR6, second reading ordinance. An ordinance of the Miami City Commission renaming the city of Miami Park located at 971 Northwest 2nd Street, Miami, Florida, and identified by folio number 0141380030690 from Ruven Dario Park to Henderson Park
amending chapter 38 article 1 of the code of the city of Miami, Florida as amended titled Parks and Recreation General by amending section 38-38 of the city code currently titled naming of Ruen Dario Park to rename the property designated therein as Henderson Park.
Further directing the city manager to take all actions necessary to affectuate the renaming of the park, including the replacement of applicable signage within 30 calendar days containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. And finally, SR7, second reading ordinance, an ordinance of the Miami city commission,
amending chapter 2, article 11, division 11 and 12 of the code of the city of Miami, Florida, is amended titled administrations, boards, committees, commissions reserved, more specifically by amending division 11, section 2-1145 through division 122-1174
of the city code to establish the accessibility advisory board, stating the board's purposes, powers, duties, compositions, appointment qualifications, and requirements for membership, providing for officers officers, rules of procedure, meetings, quorums, legal and staff support, assignment of personnel, waiverss, other
necessary provisions, and public notice containing a cability clause and providing for an effective date, immediate effective date. Thank you, Madam Mayor. >> All right, take a breath there, Mr. Attorney. All right, colleagues, any one want to bifurcate any of the second reading items?
>> All right, seeing none, I'll take a motion on SR one, two, three, four, six, and seven. Second. >> Okay. Who moved it? Okay. Moved by Commissioner King, seconded by Commissioner Glla. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any oppose? Carry unanimously. Okay.
First reading and I think the pocket item, right, is a first reading. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Can you read those? Thank you. >> All right. So, um FR1 first reading ordinance. An ordinance to the Miami City Commission amending chapter 38 article 1 of the code of the city of Miami, Florida as amended titled parks and recreation in general by creating
section 38-42 titled naming of Silver Bluff Dog Park to provide for the naming of the property consisting of approximately 5,250 ft located at 2201 Southwest 26th Street Miami, Florida as Silver Bluff Dog Park. further directing
the city manager to take any and all actions necessary to affffectuate the naming of the park containing a severability clause and providing for an immediate effective date. That was FR1 and I believe we already read the pocket item title into the record. >> All right. On FR1, do I have a motion?
>> So move second. >> Okay. Moved by Commissioner Vado, seconded by Commissioner Escalone. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. All right. We have BC1 for boards and committees. Madame Chair, Madame Mayor, you forgot the pocket item.
>> Um Todd said, >> we can >> we can do that out of order, right? Sure. >> He told me I had to do it at the end, but I'll move it back up. >> All right. >> Yeah, we have forgotten. >> We haven't forgotten. >> Um but we can do it now. >> Motion. >> Make a motion. >> Second.
>> I. >> All in favor say I. There we go. >> Passes unanimously. Now we'll do BC1. BC1 is a resolution of the Miami City Commission waving the term limit by a 55 unanimous vote affirmative vote as it relates to Maria Napoles as a member of
the Art and Public Places Board. >> Motion second. >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. Passes unanimously. All right. Now we'll move into the planning and zoning items. Uh would you read the titles, please? >> Yes, Madam Mayor. PZ2, first reading
ordinance. An ordinance of the Miami City Commission with attachments amending ordinance number 10544 is amended the future land use map of the Miami comprehensive neighborhood plan pursuant to smallcale amendment procedure subject to section 1633 point 3187 Florida statutes by changing the
future land use designation from duplex residential and major institutional public facilities transportation and utilities to lowdensity restricted commercial of the acreage described herein of real property located at 145 5 and 151 Northwest 60th Street, Miami,
Florida, as more particularly described in the attached and incorporated exhibit A making findings containing a servability clause and providing for an effective date. Uh, PZ3, first reading ordinance, excuse me, [clears throat] an ordinance of the Miami City Commission with attachments amending the zoning
atlas of ordinance number 13114, the zoning code [snorts] of the city of Miami, Florida, as amended by changing the zoning classification from CI, Civic Institution Zone and T30, Suburban Trans Zone Open to T4L, General Urban Transit
Zone Limited, for the property generally located at 151 Northwest 60th Street and 145 Northwest 60th Street, Miami, Florida, as more particularly described in the attached and incorporated exhibit A. Further recommending to the city commission acceptance of the voluntary
voluntarily profered covenant attached and incorporated as exhibit B, making findings containing a servability clause and providing for an effective date. >> Commissioner King, this is in these are both in your district. >> I'll let you take the lead. >> I'd like to just make a couple of
comments. this project. If it was April Fools, I would move to defer just to give Melissa a heart attack. But but this is an example of what I'm talking about with development and getting
community benefits because I absolutely carved out community benefits, got additional affordable housing. There isn't a development that passes through district 5 that I do not advocate for community benefits for my
residents. I think Melissa could tell you with much heartburn because we've done a lot of projects in district 5. She and um the last one, the Adella project where I was able to carve out a million dollars to address
traffic issues, >> parking garage, >> parking garage, I mean, now I have a parking garage that will allow residents to park for free every single day for 3 hours minimum.
So, I I just want to reiterate that if we do the work, we can work with developers to carve out benefits for our residents and take some of the financial burden off of the city. So,
>> thank you, Chairwoman, and thank you to your staff because um thankfully it's not April Fool's Day. This is a very challenging project. It was a small project and it's turned into 100% affordable housing. Um so, it's um a live local act project, but protecting
the neighborhood. So, it's one of these examples where development is can be sustainable and can do everything that it's intended to do. So, thank you. >> So, thank you. >> And thank you for not April Fool's Day. So for Commissioner King, would you like to move both of those motion together? Yes. PZ one and two and three. I'm
sorry. >> It's two and three. >> Two and three. Two and three. >> All right. Have a motion. Second by Commissioner Escalona. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> No. >> They both carry unanimously. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Is that 41? Commissioner. >> You're no. >> Okay.
>> So, I believe it's 41. Commissioner. Sorry, Chair. >> Okay. Um, Mr. Clerk or Mr. Attorney, anything else? We just other than the pocket item. That's it. >> We did the pocket item, didn't we? >> We did. We did. We did it. >> You want us to do it again? We can. >> No, no, no. I'm sorry. My apologies.
[laughter] >> So, all right. Move your pocket item again just to be on the safe side. >> No, no, no. We're good. I totally missed it. >> All right. Well, then meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.