Today is um Tuesday, October 21st. Um Madame Madam Madam clerk for roll call. Okay. Youth mayor Kotier. >> Youth Councilman Liberte,
>> present. Youth Councilwoman Justy >> present. >> Youth Vice Mayor St. Lair >> present. >> Mayor, you have Corum, you may proceed. Let's all please rise for the ple pledge of allegiance. And we would have um
councilwoman Estary Irvin do the pledge of allegiance, please. Can you hear me? All right. So, I pledge allegiance 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. >> Please remain standing for invocation. by Paul Brazil. >> All right, if everyone uh close your eyes, bow your heads. Uh dear heavenly father, thank you for allowing us to be
here today. Lord, we uh ask you that you come in this room with our next generation um our youth council for the year of 2025 2026. Lord, we ask you that you pour into them, that you guide them, and uh you allow them to make mistakes as this is a learning curve. Lord, we want to thank you for Councilwoman Mary
estimate Iran for this initiative and continuing this initiative. Lord, Lord, we also ask you that you allow all these students, allow all of the adults as well in this room to please get home, well in this room to please get home safely. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. >> Amen.
>> Thank you. Um I would now like to open for special presentations. Um, since we don't have any, we'll skip to move on to the agenda. >> Tab A, discussions of youth council
initiatives for 2025 to 2026. >> Um, so starting with this new year, I wanted us to have just an understanding of what we'll be focusing on for this year. I wanted to see where my colleagues what they wanted to bring up
to the board and also I have some ideas myself that I would like to propose as well. So I can start off um one thing that I definitely want to focus on this year is fundraising. Um last year we had issues with um
budgeting and having enough money to um fund our trips, activities that we had in mind and like I think we exceeded our budget by a good amount. So I definitely do not want that to happen. Though we did we were able to raise our budget um
by like 50% if not more. Um, I don't want the same thing that happened last year to be an issue this year as well. So, I definitely want to like I want to open it up to discussion like any ideas that you guys might have for
fundraising. One idea that I have um is I'm a very big fan of the world's famous um chocolates. So, I think those would be really it's very simple. is just like going around cuz I know we all are in
school. We're all in high school. So, we can go around and sell them and we can use the profit um and we can put it towards or budgeting. That's one idea. We can also do um car washes.
That could be um an idea as well. we can any weekend or whenever works for you guys um we can have a car wash and we can charge for the car wash and from there we can also use that money towards our budgeting for this year.
Um any questions, comments, anyone with ideas on any fundraising ideas? Madame Mayor, privileged to speak. Yes.
I have an idea. Um, we can do a change for change meaning where um we put out let's say little jars and local businesses that are around North Miami and we write we write on them saying
support the North Miami Youth Council where we um where people put little change, little corners, whatever they have and we collect them at the end. No. >> Um, this is a good idea. However, I want you to take into account that not many
people are aware of the youth council. So, I mean, just seeing a jar with the name donate to youth council will not that will not appeal to people. People will not be willing to just give any random group their money. So, I mean, we can
definitely think over the idea and maybe make some changes. um to further develop the idea. But yeah, we'll definitely take it into consideration. Um anything else? Madame Mayor, privilege to speak. >> Yes, of course.
I was There's also another fundraising idea like we have a open mic night where we do like a little talent show with the youth. It could be in the North Miami Library. And how will we fund raise from the activity?
Um, we can sell like little snacks like do karaoke night during the talent show. Okay, that's a good idea. But for us to
sell for us to sell these items, we would have to buy these items in order to sell them. And we don't have access to the money that's in the account for the youth council right now. So, we would have to raise our money first. We'll have to do something that doesn't
involve using or purchasing any items for us to raise money. And I don't I mean I mean I think it can we can think over it and make some amendments to the idea
as well. Um thank you. Any further comments, questions? All right. Um, another idea that I had for an initiative for this year is um
the city bikes um city bikes initiative. Last year I brought up to the board um and not many people here were here last year, but last year I um brought up to the board the idea of um the city sponsoring city
bikes. I'm not sure if you guys know what city bikes are, but they're basically like um they're like the scooters, but they're like bikes and there are stations for them. Usually, there are stations like in various areas
around Miami. Mostly I've seen them in the downtown area, but I definitely want to implement them here in North Miami. Um I know. So basically what you do is you just you have to pay and you grab the bike and you can go however
far you want um with the bike, however you have to return it to a station and it can be any station. It doesn't have to be the station you got it from. So I definitely want to see more city bikes around the North Miami area. Last year I heavily relied on public transportation.
Um, I go to school in downtown Miami and I had to come here to North Miami because I live in North Miami. And not only was the travel really long, but it was extra long when I had to rely on the bus because sometimes the bus did not
show up or I would wait for hours in the sun and I just I couldn't think of any alternatives. My only alternative was taking an Uber and Ubers are pretty expensive, especially considering that I'm coming from downtown Miami and making such a far like commute.
So, I definitely want to see more city bikes around um North Miami. direct manirect. This is where the manager comes. And if for some reason we do not allow
bikes, those short-term rental bikes in the city, this is where the city attorney would come in. She say, "Madame Mayor, just to remind you, we pass the ordinance banning the use of city bikes." So now, do you guys understand where their connection comes from? So her dayto-day
role, this is where you would instruct her to say, "Hey, how would you like to look into this?" Somebody else can jump in, make an amendment, say, "In addition, can you please?" So that's how that >> Thank you. Um,
yes. Um, madame manager, I'll get back to you next meeting. >> All right. Perfect. Thank you. >> Also can say can also have questions for the I know you mentioned shortm that way you know exactly how to get
back and report not just the mayor but the mayor of the information that's your question like go ahead Um, Councilwoman Liberty.
>> Yes. Um, you also as the chair of the meeting, you can address the public. >> All right. [Music] >> Um, thank you so much. Good evening. Um, Madame Mayor, um, Mr. Vice Mayor and and
council persons. Um, my name is Mary Esme Irvin. I live at 155 Northeast 131st Street. Um, one of the, um, I love that you're talking about transportation and what I would suggest is while you are looking into bikes, um, we in the
city have freebie, even though freebie goes in throughout North Miami and that's free transportation, um, maybe, um, madame uh, city manager, you can look to see are there ways that there are freebies that can connect to other
cities, at what point they can connect to other cities so that the the transport can help in transportation. So that's that's an idea that I thought about maybe visiting or asking freebie to come and give a presentation to see um what they offer and how they work
with inter cities. >> Thank you. Remember You can interject for example. because the audience >> Yeah. As a matter of fact,
>> can I can I like answer? >> Yeah. So when someone comes up and provides a comment, you can answer back to question. Um to follow up on the residents um um
the resident's concerns um feedback, I am aware of freebies. However, I have only seen freebies in the North Miami area. I feel like if we were to implement city bikes, it would facilitate the public transportation,
the like how public transportation works because having city bikes, you can get a city bike from downtown Miami, but you can return it to a station in North Miami versus freebies, you only see freebies around the like around the North Miami
area. I cannot board a freebie in downtown Miami and ask it to drop me off in North Miami, but I can grab a bike and just drop the bike off at a North Miami station. So, while I am a aware of freebies, I do think city bikes should
be implemented because it will facilitate the public transportation issue that I was referring to. feedback and that was great but the point I'm making is that a res come up with six
concerned address address. That's not the purpose of >> um continuing on tab. I know Councilwoman Liberty had some comments to make on um the issue I just brought up. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um but there are
already companies like City Bike and Lime that or that handle that equipment instead of us spending money since you said we don't have enough in our budget. We could partner with them. >> Um like what things like City Bikes? What are
>> there's already other companies like City Bikes? >> Like what companies? City Bike, third party bike part companies like that are similar to City Bikes. >> Um, I was not aware of that, but I'll definitely look into it. Um, and you
were saying about funding. You said something about funding and um, we could partner with them. >> We can partner with them instead of funding. You said something about funding. >> Instead of paying Oh, okay. Got it.
We'll definitely take that into consideration. Thank you so much. No problem. Got it. Any um further questions, comments? No. All right. Um now I'll be moving on to my third initiatives that I
would like to focus on this year. Um as of right now, we currently have like no limits on when it comes to proposing an initiative or item. Like a person any of the um council members can go for as long as they want when it comes to
proposing an item. So this year I would definitely like to put a limit on the amount of time we get to pitch an item to the board. And I was thinking maybe a minute to a minute and 30 seconds. Um I don't know. Do you guys have any
questions, comments? I mean if it's possible we can maybe vote on that today. >> Yeah. Am I right? >> What about Okay. I think
So I would say like going forward I have to >> so Just to clarify, you're talking about the discussion that you would have with with with every meeting if you're talking. >> Yes.
>> That's what I'm speaking about. Um, basically, I want to implement limits on the amount of time we get to propose an item to the board. >> No, not when we're discussing, when we're pitching something new. >> Okay. Um,
>> well, that's up to your perview, but let's just say that somebody felt that there were some things that were really important and they may need they may need two or three minutes or five minutes, then they could ask for your permission and you can grant that. I wouldn't recommend myself.
Obviously, I All right. I know um madame manager wanted to um comment on the initiative about fundraising. >> I know that you mentioned that you wanted to do the world famous chocolate.
How much are you trying to charge and how much does it cost to purchase this? >> So, I haven't gone into like how much it would cost to get a box. I haven't done those calculations yet. Um I do have an idea of how much it might cost. I think
it's around $30 and um it's 40 chocolate bars or 60 60 then I think it's around $40. I'm not sure. And um we would charge $1 per
chocolate bar as cuz it says it on the box. It's a dollar per chocolate bar. So we would charge the amount that's on the box. And yeah, any further questions? >> No, that's all. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Um I would like to
move on to um a third initiative um that I wanted to bring up this year. So, um, one thing I wanted the youth council to have going forward is a book
on basically for new council members and it tells them what the youth council is, the um description of um each position and um just basic like just a basic
overview. Um, I don't know what are your takes on this. If anyone has any comments, this is just a broad overview. We can definitely go further into it over the year, but I wanted to get everyone's
opinion on that initiative. Any comments? Privileged to speak. Yes. May you please elaborate more about making a book? Um yes. So basically as I was saying is um basically I wanted to have a book that covers it's like an
overview on the youth council. gives a description of the youth council, a description on the positions and what qualifies you for a certain position, just a quick overview. Um, that's what I wanted to have and we can like give it
to new council members every single year and we can have them review it and yeah. American starting project. Um, youth man, madame manager, I would like for you to
look into um to speak to the youth council liaison on implementing a book, a North Miami youth council book for um new members um starting the following year. >> Okay, I will get back to you next meeting.
>> Thank you. Um lastly, the last um initiative that I want to focus on this year is a monthly recognition for North Miami students. Um for this item, I am still
working on it, but basically I wanted to recognize students or North Miami schools who are um exceeding academically. And um I I'm not sure how I want to go about it yet. So, I'm definitely still thinking on that specific initiative,
but maybe we can post them on our social medias or maybe we can start even like um I know you guys are not aware of this, but um two years ago we had a youth summit um and basically it's we
have we invite the youth, we invite speakers and there we kind of recruit for the youth council but um also Oh, the youth get to hear speakers and they give them advice. I think maybe instead
of just having speakers this year, we can have those speakers, but we can also do something where we give away um we give awards to North Miami students who are exceeding academically. So, that's something I definitely want to
implement. I'm still working on the idea. I'm still um thinking of how to go about it, but I definitely wanted to propose it to you guys to see where you guys stand and what you think about it. So, any
questions that you might have. All right. Um that is all that I have as of right now. Those are all the initiatives that I think I'll be bringing um forward for the 2025 to 2026 year. Um I'm not sure if any of my
colleagues have any um specific initiatives that they would like to um comment on or bring up today. All right. Um I would like to move on to tab A. Um Madame Clerk. Tab B. Madam clerk,
tab B. Discussion of Thanksgiving parade. Uh good evening uh youth mayor, youth vice mayor, uh members of the youth council. Uh Paul Brazil, youth council leaison. Um uh thank you for allowing me to speak
here today. The address is 776 Northeast 125th Street. Um in your packet you'll see at the very end of the agenda. Uh you'll see uh a vehicle and I know you're probably wondering what in the world is this vehicle. Um, as you guys
know through our previous conversations, uh, the counciloman would like for us to showcase, uh, the youth council, uh, in this year's Thanksgiving Day parade. Um, I know through conversation that some of the members will not be here, unfortunately. You'll be traveling. Uh so tonight I would please ask uh the
youth mayor along with the the council members uh to not only discuss the plans or what you would like to see as part of the Thanksgiving Day parade, but if we can try to have a uh confirm attendance or who can be here that day, uh that would allow me to plan accordingly based
on the ideas that you have. Uh whether it be um we're getting a convertible car, whether we're getting a pickup truck. Um the idea of the Thanksgiving Day parade, if you guys are not aware, we are the only city in South Florida uh with a Thanksgiving Day parade. Uh we
are on year number 50. This is our 50th anniversary. Uh not only is our 50th anniversary, we're leading into our centennial next year, which is the city's turning 100 years. Um so this will be the first time uh that we'll be able to showcase the youth council on a
big scale. Um so we're really excited. So, I'm asking for your guidance, youth mayor and the youth council. I'm asking for your guidance on what you would like to see. Um, to explain the truck that you see back there. Uh, that is a friend uh that I have uh by one of my personal
friends. Uh, he would allow us to use the truck. Uh, as you can tell, the truck is not a regular truck. It's one of those lifted trucks. So, my idea that I had was that we would use the truck, we would decorate it, uh, put youth council and things of that nature. of
course with your guidance. Um, and we would showcase the youth council. So, I'm asking for your opinion. Um, maybe you think the truck is not attractive. Maybe you have other ideas. Uh, so I'm asking for your guidance because as you guys know, time is moving quickly. Before you know it, Thanksgiving will be
here on the 27th. So, I would really like your guidance um to tell me exactly what ideas that you have uh for the Thanksgiving Day parade. Thank you. Thank you so much, Paul Bazil. Um, I think this is a nice truck for the
Thanksgiving parade. Um, I do like your idea of decorating it because I do think it's a bit plain. So, um, I think decorating it and having I think this is a great truck for the parade. And yeah, any other comments?
I feel like it'll be a great experience for us to bond and gain exposure. >> Privileged to speak. Yes. What type of treats will be given out to the people? >> Um I'm not sure. I'm sure um Paul Brazil
would be >> Oh. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um um just like your advisor mentioned, what has been done, what we do is mayor and counsel, we give out candies. They've um
there's been a our vice mayor has given out ice cream. Um but this is an opportunity for you to share information about the youth council. um you know to like I said you can give out any giveaways any anything that you deem
that would be good for um the audience there are a lot of kids that really really um enjoy that so there are a lot of opportunities to do various things you can give candies fans etc so that just wanted to say that
Um, >> so um, we can definitely think of some ideas of what you guys think we should give to promote the youth council. I do agree with the idea of giving out fans. I'm a big fan of fans, so that would probably get me to join the
youth council. Um, I don't think we should get flyers. I think people just look over flyers and just, you know, throw them out or don't really like paint. Yes. Any other ideas of Okay, I will.
Okay. Should I do it first? So, um before we start talking of ideas that we should give um to promote the youth council, um maybe we can just get a headcount of how many members can make it on the day of it will be the 26th of
November, 27th of November from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. Vice Mayor Wave, you able to make it? >> Yes. >> Um, Councilwoman Cho, >> yes. >> Um, Councilwoman Liberty, >> yes.
>> Um, Madame Clerk, >> yes. >> Madame Attorney, >> yes. Madame Manager, >> unfortunately not. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, we can start discussing. um I will be able to make it
as of now. Um if any changes occur, I'll be sure to let our advisor know so we can start discussing um ideas or anything you guys might have in mind to promote the youth council during the
parade. Privileged to speak. Yes. I have some ideas. I think we should have like a custom banner of our face to put around the truck so they can see who we are and what is our positions.
All right. Um I mean I think it'll be better to have I think it'll be better to have maybe something with turkeys and youth council rather than our face. I mean, I I don't think anyone wants to see our large our faces enlarging on the
truck as we're going by because we're already there. They can see us and if they ask a quick question, we'll tell them our positions. So, I don't think that's necessary. Um, and nor would I like to have my face on,
but um, does anyone else have any ideas? Thank you, Councilwoman Liberty. Mary, may I speak? >> Yes. >> Are we able to do pumpkin decoration like get pumpkins, cut it? Cuz I know it's around Thanksgiving time. So, cut
the pumpkin, make it look pretty, take it home or are we able to do activities with the kids? Are they able to sit down, do word puzzle, Thanksgiving word puzzle? >> Um, thank you. Um, that is a great question. Um, I don't think we'll be
able to bond with the kids rather than just like giving out treats or whatever we have to promote the youth council because it is a parade. So, we we will be moving. It's not like we'll be sitting down or like in an area where we can um bond with these students or the
kids. But um yeah, I don't think well I mean the pumpkin craving we can definitely do it as an a bonding activity within us but I don't think it's something we can do with the attendees at the parade. So I mean we can definitely talk about
that and maybe we can have it can be an activity within us but it's definitely not something we can do at the parade. But thank you that was a great idea. >> Point of privilege. Yes. >> Um, what if we like make custom themed
cookies for the kids? Like maybe a pumpkin spice cookie with a custom on it that says happy Thanksgiving from the youth council. >> That is an amazing idea. Um, however, considering the size of a cookie, will
we be able to fit happy Thanksgiving from the youth council on the cookie? because a cookie is not that wide. >> Different fonts. >> I mean, I think if anything, we could fit it on a cake, but we can't have cakes. So, I mean, guess. Um,
>> thank you, mayor, uh, for recognizing me. Uh, I just want to mention I I like that idea that, uh, youth councilman just mentioned. Uh, I don't think you necessarily need to put, uh, happy Thanksgiving on the actual cookie. Uh maybe we can get pre-made bags that have
happy Thanksgiving him from the North Miami Youth Council on the bag. Uh just a food for thought for you and the board to discuss. >> Thank you. I think we can definitely have goodie bags, maybe candy bags that says um happy Thanksgiving from the
youth council. Um I do like the idea. >> Privileged to speak. >> Yes. >> What budget do we have to customize the goodie bags? I mean, in that case, I think we would have to definitely start fundraising now
to get money to um buy the items that we will put in the goodie bags. Privileged to speak. Um we'll go to um our speaker first and then we'll come to you. >> Thank you again, mayor, for recognizing
me. I think um with the time that we have, we're very limited on time. Uh, mayor, if I'd like to make a proposal, uh, that, you know, I'm getting a gist of what you guys are looking for. Obviously, you guys want to have exposure, get the community to know who the North Miami Youth Council is. Uh my
proposal tonight for you your consideration and the board's consideration. I think that um maybe sometime this week or next week based on everyone's availability if we can meet and have a Thanksgiving Day parade meeting so we can all discuss uh exactly
what items or products that would like to do. Uh you guys are discussing great ideas. Uh but I know sometime it looks it's better when we see things visually. Um, so I'm requesting a meeting with you and your board and uh uh madam attorney, madam manager, madame clerk uh that we
meet together uh and brainstorm together so we could see these items uh um on a visual aspect so it can make more sense. I know we talked about the cookies, the bees, which are all great ideas, but I think if we all meet together and brainstorm uh because right now this is a great start. We're all discussing you
guys are able to agree on what you want to do. Um, but I think if you guys just give a general conception of what we're trying to do, which I think has been met, then we can take it further and actually look at certain products together. Uh, whether we do a virtual meeting or inerson meeting to, uh,
finalize the products. Again, it's because time is moving quick. Before you know it, uh, Thanksgiving will be here. So, I really like to meet with everyone so we can go ahead and start ordering the products. Uh, especially if we're going to do a customization with it, say North Miami Youth Council. Uh that's just my proposal to you, mayor.
>> Thank you so much. That is a great idea. Um we can definitely have a meeting where we can um talk about this further. Um >> um I'm sorry. >> All right. um motion to meet next week
to discuss um ideas for um the Thanksgiving parade. >> Second. >> I have a motion on the floor. >> I have a motion on the floor >> made by youth mayor >> made by youth mayor Cotier
>> to meet next week to discuss Thanksgiving Day parade >> to meet next week to discuss Thanksgiving Day parade. The motion was seconded by youth counciloman. >> The motion was seconded by youth counciloman liberte. >> All in favor? >> All in favor?
>> I >> I >> All opposed. >> All opposed. >> The motion was >> the motion was passed >> by a four zero vote. >> Thank you. council report.
>> Um I would now like to move on to youth council reports. I just like to say I'm very happy with the swearing in ceremony we did last week very I'm looking forward to seeing everybody next week. We don't have
to. >> Yes, we do. >> It's up to you. Usually there. >> So, moving on to youth council reports. Um, Vice Mayor St. Lair, any reports? >> No reports.
>> Um, Councilwoman Juice, no reports. >> Um, Councilwoman Liberty, no reports. Um, madame clerk, >> I'd just like to say um I'm very happy
with our swing and ceremony and the event that we did yesterday um by Councilwoman um Eston. So, I'd like to thank her for that and for inviting us to that. Um and this is
Yeah, this was a good meeting. Thank you. Um, madame attorney, >> no reports. >> Madame manager, >> no reports. >> All right. Um, I would just like to say that I'm looking forward to an amazing year this year. We have such an amazing
board. Um, I can already see that. Um, last year one of my goals was to make sure that we had a full member board for this year and I'm so glad that I was able to achieve that goal. I did. so many things to make sure that we recruited enough people. Um, I went to
the back to school giveaway. I was promoting it to friends. I was going above and beyond to make sure that we had an eight member board. And I'm glad that we're able to I was able to achieve my goal along with the help of our
advisor Paul and our vice mayor um St. Lair. Um, so yeah, I'm definitely looking um to a wonderful year this year. And um also I wanted to I know we're I spoke to
Paul about this about um emailing um the council board to thank them for um sponsoring our trip to New York, but I was unable to email them. But I just wanted to say thank you so much. Um we had so much fun. We learned so much. We
did so many activities and I was able to learn a lot about government. I was able to visit the UN. Such an amazing experience. Um and yeah, so I'm really grateful for everyone who um contributed
to our um attendance at the trip in New York. And also I want to say a big thank you to everyone who's um donated or made any who has made any donations toward or budget for this year. Um special thank
you to Mark um 43 >> 43 um for his sincere donation to the youth council. Um I know several other people have made donations. Our budget has increased by a lot this year and I'm
super grateful for every contribution that has been made. So yeah, looking forward to an amazing year. Thank you. >> Um, you know, thank you again for the opportunity to speak. I am just so proud of you guys. Um, and I and I and I wish
you a great year. And like you said, Madame Mayor, I can see that you guys are going to do great work. But I'd like to challenge you. I'd like to challenge that you invite your youth, your peers to come and observe and to participate. This is a great experience um to be a to
be community helpers um and to help out in the way that that you are and encourage your peers to come and get the community service hours. And this will improve like I've mentioned earlier today when we had over 200 students I came to visit and see how local government work. This will improve their
speaking skills um their their logic their reasoning. Um this is and this is this will be great bring great commodery between all of you. Furthermore there are opportunities to travel within the state and outside of the state like you've mentioned. I had the privilege of
traveling with the youth council and we went to the United Nations and we were able to see local government in the city of New York, local government in New Jersey. Um there are a lot of issues going on. We are going to have we should have an opportunity this year to advocate in Tallahassee. Advocate right
here in our community, advocate in DC. So please encourage your peers every meeting. I challenge you to have at least 20 people here at minimum so that they can come and express their opinion like I'm expressing my opinion. Again, I want to publicly thank our adviser Paul
Basil for the great job that you're doing. Congratulations and I look forward to hearing your advice on how we should better the youth of North Miami. I want to also publicly thank my colleagues, mayor and council that have given that have been very supportive of
me being supportive of you. All right, have a good evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. Motion to adjurnn. Second. >> I have a motion on >> I have a motion on the floor made by youth councilwoman Liberty.
>> The motion was second. >> The motion was seconded by youth mayor Kotier. >> All in favor? >> All in favor? >> I >> I >> I >> I all oppose. 6:34 p.m. >> The motion passes 40. The meeting has
now been adjourned at 6:34 p.m. >> Thank you.