progress good evening everyone if I could have take a seat and please turn off or silence your cell phones at this time thank you we'd like to call to order the meeting of the South Miami City Commission today is Tuesday April 15th
the time is approximately 700 p.m madam clerk would you please call the role yes mayor Fernandez present vice Mayor Corey yet present commissioner Bish here commissioner Cay here you have a quum thank you madam clerk if we could please all stand for a moment of silence
followed by the pledge led by Commissioner Cay to the flag of the stand indivisible liberty and justice for all
thank you please be seated colleagues uh just want to set the agenda very quickly if I can get a motion on uh the add-on item add item A please if you can read that to the record please madam clerk yes a resolution of the mayor and city commission of the city of South Florida supporting Miami Day County Mayor Dangel
Levine Cava's veto of resolution number R-370-25 and a continued practice of adding forai to the county's water supply thank you madam clerk any objection to adding that onto tonight's agenda i'll move the motion i don't do we require a motion madam clerk or let's just show it as uh added
on thank you thank you commissioner uh I'd like to defer item M2 that is a discussion on the acquisition of the neighboring property any objection to the deferral we'll defer to the uh second
meeting in June madame clerk without obje without objection please show that item as deferred until the second meeting in June please thank you okay with that uh if I can get a motion on the approval of the minutes please go ahead i'll move the motion mayor I'll
second it thank you a motion by Commissioner Gaya and a second by Commissioner Bonich on the minutes of both uh March 31st and uh April 1st correct yes thank you Madam Clerk if you can call the role please yes commissioner Cay yes commissioner Wish
yes vice Mayor Corey yes mayor Fernandez yes minutes pass great if we can hear from the manager mr manager your report please madame Deputy is gonna Mayor I don't know if you were setting the agenda in that item that I was going to pull do it now or just wait you want to
pull it and and set it for a uh another date sir we we could defer for the next meeting talking about items item five on the agenda correct i I I just need to um the length of the extension was aligned with go yeah you had raised the issue of was
that the contract uh project timeline and it's not it's it's a contractor timeline which we have to extend anyway and I want to clean that up so So we'll move it to the first meeting in May then sir yes sir okay is there a motion to defer item five to the first meeting in
May so moved by Commissioner Vonich sure seconded by the vice mayor second thank you uh madam clerk again without objection please show that item as deferred till the first meeting in May thank you thank you okay madam manager good evening your your report please
[Music] on the event side our active adults will be celebrating Easter this Friday from 12 from 10:00 to 12:30 at the senior center they're going to have food games wellness checks and even a visit from the Easter Bunny you're all invited to attend that the city's also going to be
celebrating Arbor Day on Saturday April 26 from 10 to 12 at Vice Mayor Robert C welsh Park where the community is going to come together and plant 11 trees i thought that was a typo it's not we're planting 11 trees so it's a free family event everybody's welcome to attend
where is it uh Vice Mayor Robert C welsh Park behind Elementary 11 Trees at the park 11 Trees i confirmed i thought it was a typo it's not 11 Trees we're making it happen um update on the residential discount parking program to
date we have 47 vehicles that are registered for that program and lastly I'm happy to report that we have chosen a vendor uh to move forward with for our strategic plan so we're working with the city attorneys on a contract for that and hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll have a timeline to share with you
that's the manager's report colleagues questions to the manager here's your guy yeah on the registration how are we communicating that to residents beyond just social media it's going out in our newsletter our email blast it went out
in the residential mater that everybody received social media and it's also posted on our website okay so it's gotten to everyone's door yes okay thank you further questions see none thank you for the report thank you uh Mr city attorney you're recognized for your report please just an update on on the
litigation uh the uh governor and the attorney general were served uh late last week and uh they have entered an appearance uh through counsel uh special counsel of the attorney general's office uh William Stafford was is the attorney that entered an appearance okay and what
is their deadline to respond 40 days from the date of service okay respond and so roughly what date is that roughly we're looking at So that would have been uh about April 10th so 40 days May 20th okay and in terms of next steps is there they will file a response and then is
there discovery or is it just is it just decided on on the response and the complaint that were filed how is how is the matter dispensed by the court we don't believe that there's any need for at this at this time we don't believe there's any need for additional discovery yeah correct but I don't know what the state's position will be on
that understood we'll be circling back with him to discuss that thank you colleagues any questions of the city attorney seeing none we will move on uh we'd like to open the floor at this time for public remarks if there's anyone in the audience who'd like to
address this commission on any item please come forward at this time mr ward why don't you kick us off sir you ought to find him an equal for not having it up there on time you know over the years you can imagine I've
probably traveled almost every intersection in this city and I have never been unable to understand why there are so many minor intersections that have traffic lights with turns on them and I think
that's great but there's a problem that intersection at US1 and 62nd Avenue at the hospital has no turn and you go there around 4:30 5:00 and there eight or 10 cars in that in that uh line to
turn and sometimes there's so many of them that the straight ahead traffic isn't able to go they have to go inside on that turn and when the light turns green the first person in line will shoot across there
real quick and when the light is turning red whoever's left right there they'll shoot right along and do it too and you know it never has bothered me because I come north south all the time and if I'm going north from the highway it's easy to turn right at
McDonald's and I just think I imagine it's probably a county intersection is that correct it is sir but we we have been speaking with um FPL because um one of the
intersection improvements that we'd like to explore is enhancing capacity on both sides and since you're really familiar with that section it's got a massive transmitter line above ground that sits right uh at the edge of the intersection so we have to figure out how we can uh
absorb the cost of the relocation there sir but uh you've you've actually I want to thank you for your comments because you've reminded me to ask the manager about something else so I'll get into that afterwards well excuse me for telling you that uh my hearing aids are broken and they just came back yesterday
and I didn't hear a word you said but anyway I would hope that somebody would look into that and see if they could get traffic a little moving a little smoother because when you're heading south on that high on that 62nd
Avenue it's it's almost impossible it is the other thing I wanted to mention I wasn't at the meeting but a friend of mine told me that there was discussion about building a 14story building at the
JRE Lee property is that correct uh I I don't know because it's not um it's not a project that technically is within our purview so we have not been I don't I don't believe the manager manager Mr manager have you been approached with any particular plan for that site i there are rumors that we've all heard about possibly some well the
reason I raised some housing for teachers but that's it I don't know the details the reason I raised the question I wanted you to be aware of the fact that there is a an extremely tight agreement between the school board and the Williamson property and the
Williamson family gave that property to the school board many years ago during segregated time so that the black kids wouldn't have to go to Coconut Grove for elementary school but he gave it to them under the understanding that under no
circumstances will that building be used for anything else except education and if it does it'll go back to the family and just about two years ago the school board moved
administrative offices in there and didn't have any students and Williams Williamson invoked his the family invoked their right and of course the school board quickly got two classrooms of children in there now whether there are children in there now or not or
whether there's been an agreement reached uh I don't know but it's something when if you hear of anything tell them to check into it because it gets very nasty once in a while like it did the last time and this can be avoided if the
people that are responsible for this just know it ahead of time and look into it before the deep discussion starts thank you Mr award for your comments and by the way you're looking particularly handsome today since you can't hear me
uh Mr manager actually on if I if I may to you to the police chief through you if it's okay on 62nd Avenue I know that we have talked about more enforcement at that intersection as I've thought about it obviously enforcement would probably exa I mean manned enforcement would probably
exacerbate the bottleneck but so I'm going to raise a question which is probably going to annoy my dear friend and colleague to my left Commissioner Monich which is is that an intersection worth considering actually having camera manned enforcement so that we can
actually site people and try to change behavior because we do have a lot of blocking of the box at that intersection that exacerbates the already difficult condition of going north to south or south to north uh there as well huh so I don't know if our camera I know we do
have we have cameras for running the red light but I do not know if they those cameras actually issue citations for people that are actually parked in the intersection before the light changes colors and so if we can get some clarity on if the chief could address that if he's if he's aware i I love let the
chief come up also but I I am I really don't know if the legislation that was passed for red light camera would allow other enforcement actions as a result of that camera speeding for sure or not but I I'm not sure that other traffic infractions are within the purview of
that uh so I'm not 100% sure i don't know if it's a good question sir if if the red light camera would be allowed to use for enforcement of other infractions outside of red light camera um I don't remember that if it does or not no sir outside of red light cameras
it would not um and for your to answer your question if a car is already in the intersection would it site that car no it would not there's a triggering mechanism leading up to uh the speed leading up to starts the triggering mechanism as to whether or not that vehicle is going to actually make the
light which starts the light to actually cycle uh for that enforcement yeah so I I mean it's unfortunate because you know again I think trying to solve the problem that Mr award I think raised which is an obvious one that's bothered me for a while could f probably further exacerbate it because I would imagine
pulling over a car with a man unit is going to require us to block a travel lane since there's really no other wideway there could exacerbate it the the question that Mr ward brought up and brought forward is you know there are other intersections going north on US1 we're making a left you could
potentially put a blinking yellow light but that also causes problems too for people who think they have the right of way when still a yield even though you have a blinking yellow light well I I think um I'd be a fan of ticketing people for
for blocking the box it's honestly uh it's it creates a lot of I mean I drive it all the time you can't I'll recognize you it just it makes traversing that intersection incredibly difficult and people then are going trying to go around the cars are going north south to
avoid the blockage and end up in a geometry with oncoming cars heading south to north which is does not make for a fun experience so commissioner you're recognized i think that we should look a little bit
at our history because I think that we have had many times police officers there to avoid just that instance or that circumstance that you are talking about i think we should maybe focus on
trying to get a turning lane arrow versus adding insult to injury which is let's keep adding ways that we can ticket people i think if you keep adding ways to ticket people on top of the
tickets that they already get for parking and the tickets that we're giving them for speeding through zones and now we're going to give them tickets for something else and we have police officers there there's at some point where we have to try to find the way to get it to
maybe not happen versus be punitive to people all the time and so I think hey putting a police presence there to maybe say hey pay attention you might not want to get a ticket that might something maybe deter
behavior but I'm not with adding more cameras to give people more tickets oh we we just heard we probably can't do that so that's that's fine i I understand we got to live within the ambit of whatever the law is but I do think we need to do something to deter the blocking of the box i'm happy with
to issue warnings but at some point that doesn't go far enough to get people to stop and I will tell you I've gotten multiple emails from people living in my neighborhood that experience that condition like Mr ward every day and it's it's not it's not a fun experience particularly when you're going northbound you have someone all of a
sudden pull out around a blind car and you're like headtohead with them i I'm going to say something that is going to be extremely unpopular but it is reality whether we want to talk about it or not when you close residential streets and
you force traffic on 262 and 80 you cause bottlenecks so closing all the streets that feed into 62nd or feed the other way or make it only go left or only go right no there's a bunch of
streets they are on to 67 they've been closed for onto 67 remember if you go between 62 and 67 historically those roads were open and they went systematically getting closed to help traffic and what it did if you look back
back in the day they used to be yeah the only the only ones I'm aware of are is 8 84th on 67th it's closed but I'm saying when we close streets we we push cars to other directions and if we look at it everywhere that this happens like we're
seeing it even on Bird Road where now you can't turn left anymore you can only turn right so you can't you know go west so there you go 84 and 85 so there I don't think there was a road at 85 84 was open at one point it was closed ages
ago it's been closed for 30 some odd years i think Mr work could probably provide us the history but there's also but there's no closures north of the only closure north of US1 or south of US1 on 62nd is a closure I believe just south
of 64th that's but that's again I don't most of the respectfully I think most of the vehicular traffic coming through that intersection is people passing through the city not live that don't live in the city so you don't think that people that are on 62 trying to get across from I I
always say McDonald's because I am I am the person at McDonald's i I think doing finding a way or pushing towards having you know the turn is the smartest thing thank you Mr ward the the Fletcher how do you call a Fletcher a right turn a
right turn arrow is the smartest thing we could do because that would alleviate i would agree it's just not something that's going to provide any relief in the short term i know but we have to think then long term okay we'll move on thank you thank you everyone for the comments the last thing is Mr attorney i' I've heard and the manager we've heard a lot of discussion about this
project at Marshall at uh sorry GRE Lee can we run title on the property and just see put put to rest whether there is any sort of a deed restriction because people say that it's sold for that purpose but I'm not sure that it was restricted or it came with any particular restriction so if we can
confirm that that we can get that information out it would be would be appreciated okay further public remarks uh I have Maddox Fernandez registered here mr fernandez good evening did you want to say anything no okay we'll move on then
uh also have uh Mr john Edward Smith good evening Mr mayor Vice Mayor members of the commission city administration John Edward Smith resident and business owner in South Miami let me just weigh in on 62 in US1 uh you should look at it
from the from the seat of a bicyclist uh today today going across southbound on the other side of 62 three cars came across after the light had
changed from their green arrow and that's because there's backup on US1 enough said i'm reminded by the adage don't say anything that won't improve on
silence with that being said you're you're forewarned i'm going to be sending you all either by email or deliver personally uh an essay on my concerns about bike
lanes palm trees and dramadaries and if you wonder why it's dramadary figure out how the camel got formed by a committee designed to make a horse um and with that being said I wish you all
uh in this Judeo-Christian time a very blessed week thank you thank you sir for your comments is there anyone else yes sir you're recognized i'm sorry just from an agenda item i sorry to do this it'll lighten the load but um we we need to defer uh
item res 3 which is a footworks item to this meeting um when the item was put together it did not contemplate that police now use um an offduty uh paceill roll call and and when when we use that uh the the party that's having an event
would have to pay directly to roll call so the item was done in a way deferring certain costs but yet um we have to clean that up and and structure it a different way the parks director spoke to the representative from footworks who was here and they were amanable to to letting this item come back u and we need to kind of do some work on it to
ensure that if we're offsetting 50% of the cost how we're going to do that because of the mechanics when is when is the event again june 1st june 1st okay so we have Okay and she was here and director uh uh spoke to her and explained the situation so I wanted if possible defer to the next meeting okay so we'll defer it to the first meeting
of May any objection colleagues no okay seeing none let's show that item three as deferred to the first meeting in May okay again uh we are in public remarks if there's anyone here who'd like to address this commission on any topic please come forward at this time seeing no one in the chamber madam
clerk is there anyone online anyone on Zoom please raise your virtual hand seeing no one online uh we will close public remarks and uh we do have the honor of having our county commissioner Raquel Rogalado here with us this evening madam Commissioner welcome uh
we'll open the floor to you if you'd like to say a few words thank you thank you very much it's always a pleasure to be here the beautiful city of South Miami um so so two things um I came to speak on fluoride i know that you have an item um as I've explained um I really
think it's important for the municipality to take a position on this as a chair of infrastructure for five years this item did not go through our committee process it was brought directly to the BCC without an opportunity to hear both sides and there were lots of misrepresentations made before the board uh we were asking our
municipalities uh to urge Danielle Lavine our mayor to veto she has done that and now this comes before our board on May 6 um irrespective of how you feel about fluoride I think it's important to recognize um that this is not the role
of our regulatory government Miami date county um follows guidelines regarding air and water we do not establish them and my concern is that this is a slippery slope where I may have a commissioner a month from now that wants
me to change how much chlorine I put in the water and that's simply not what we do the EPA did lower the amount of fluoride in water at the national level 10 years ago so the statements made that nothing has changed since 1950 is not true uh there is a court case that is asking the
EPA to look at that again um and SB700 is a state action um that is being brought by the commissioner of agriculture who wants to um prevent the counties from using fluoride um his argument is very different he's not saying that there's a public health
issue he's saying that we no longer need to put fluoride in water but that item has gone through the process in Tallahassee and will be voted on which is why my first request to the board of county commissioners was a deferral until the end of the session to see if the state of Florida decided to take a position similar to that of Utah but
that being said I am here um to tell you that Miami Day County Water is safe there is no public hazard um this is just a lot of politicking and I think that it is an opportunity to some boundaries um as a person who works directly with water and
sewer I can tell you that we have gone out of our way to meet with all our regulatory requirements including ocean outfall and that we will continue to do so um so that being said I would I would love your support and I'm here to answer any questions that you would have on this issue colleagues any questions
you're recognized it's great to see you thank you for coming this evening always a pleasure who sets the guidelines for the county so do we get them straight from the federal government yes so if the if the count if the state were to do something then we follow them versus Well if we're
preempted from adding any chemical to the water then it is between the state and the federal government to hash that out right now the federal government has a recommendation uh that we add fluoride um and they lowered that amount 10 years ago and that recommendation is based on
particular studies those studies are being reconsidered in real time uh but a lot of the studies that were mentioned at the board of county commissioners um are studies that were based on four to five times the amount of fluoride that we put in the water based on these
standards these are old studies and ones that are not looking at the amount of fluoride that we use so if there is an issue between the state and the federal government so be it uh my other issue with this outside that I think it's outside the scope of our government is that it also exposes the residents of
Miami date county to liability should there be a lawsuit and that's why one of the examples that I gave on the board was what happened in Albany New York where they decided to take the fluoride out and then they had two class actions $20 million later um a few months ago they decided to add the fluoride back so
it's a very expensive proposition to make you know political decisions this way um I would tell you that it's probably the most expensive internet reel that Miami Day County has ever made thank you very much uh for the questions
okay you have something else you want to share with us yes uh the other thing I wanted to mention is obviously it's April so it's autism acceptance month and um every year we roll out uh programming um at the county and we want to thank you for your support and your disability board you really are doing amazing things um last year we rolled
out the decal uh with all of our police officers we're happy to report that um the sheriff Sheriff Rosie is implementing that and we're actually going to be promoting that more countywide it has been very successful but we want more people to register and to use the decal but this year's roll
out is actually the third Saturday of every month um the tax collector is going to open his downtown Miami office specifically for adults with disabilities to get their Florida IDs as you all know it's almost impossible to get an appointment uh to get an ID card
or a driver's license and for a lot of folks with disabilities especially intellectual disabilities they don't have identification so these are going to be special days just for them we're working with all our different organizations and we're reaching out to our municipalities if you just email our office we'll we'll work with the slots
with the tax collector and then this Saturday is our first one um and for three Saturdays out of the year we're going to bring all of our resources this Saturday is one of them where we're going to bring police fire u the clerk of the court the property appraiser all of our constitutional officers to
provide all the information that they have on disabilities and programming for disabilities everything from homestead fraud uh to uh registering to vote or assistance with voting um and then we're going to be doing it um every month so our special days are in April July and
October um and every other third Saturday it's open for everyone who's interested we really want everyone to get their Florida IDs the state of Florida just changed the law two years ago so now you can when you get your Florida ID instead of having a D for disability you can voluntarily choose to
put your actual disability there so it can say you know autism spectrum disorder or epilepsy or dyslexia which for our community is a gamecher because now you have a photo ID that actually has your disability on there uh it's so important for employment it's important
for traveling and as you know now you can't travel without an ID uh that has uh the real ID so it's important that everyone um have that documentation and that's our roll out for this year yes sir you're recognized um I know your your team's been doing a
really good job with our team marketing and cross multiplying and getting the word out so obviously you're probably already doing this but make sure they communicate with us to make sure we spread the word here in the community um secondly I think I saw you this past Saturday at Second Saturdays can you give us a report on on what we're doing
there for Second Saturday well Steve was there he did not dance but he was there representing um I did try to dance i will say that there was a lot of line dancing uh and they were not newbies and they did not need an instructor they came prepared they were very
sophisticated very sophisticated i felt totally punked by the entire experience i mean two beats in they were line dancing so I think there should be an amateur part of this obviously you guys are are hosting a professional party over there uh but we had a lovely time
it's always a pleasure uh and I'm a big fan so just sign me up i'll bring my boots and clearly I have to do some practicing on YouTube before I come down to South Miami to line dance again i I do have a question how was that cookie from Sweet Licks the cookie was very good it seemed like you enjoyed it yes the cookie was very good i had two i
started with the you know just a chocolate chip but then I did try the Oreo not going to lie yes i came recommend it for a reason m Mr vice Mayor you recognize thank you thank you so much for coming tonight and I I did have a question we really appreciate all the support you provided obviously the the sensory room that you uh helped us
fund as well um we do have a a master parks plan on the agenda tonight and we are going to be looking to incorporate more universal playground equipment i I was just wondering if there were any examples of of cities that have done this well or consultants that have done this well that we might want to take a look at yes yes and I'm happy to provide
your staff with that um and we're actually I'm trying I'm working with the city of C Gables to see if we can get um some space to do all kids included all kids included um is programming that the county does for children and adults with disabilities so I think we've found some
space and obviously the idea is for all district seven children to come and and and do that uh but in terms of the playground specifically I will tell you there are two things that are that are very uh important um number one are the adult uh swings the the adult swings
with the harness so important uh and obviously if you can have more than one of them that would be great because you don't want a line for for one of them um and anything that spins so that's very open but if it spins it's probably going to be loved uh so and I actually uh did
a series of videos on uh on Instagram lately where I went to a playground uh specifically to prove that point so uh but anything that that I can help with of course I would love to thank you thank you Mr vice Mayor thank you for being here uh commissioners if without objection I would like to take
up the add-on item our commissioners with us that would be great thank you so madam clerk if you can read into the record um uh item FA please yes a resolution the mayor and city commission of the city of South Florida supporting Miami Day County Mayor Daniela Line
Caba's veto of resolution number R-370-25 and the continued practice of adding fluoride to the county's water supply great we had some questions of the commissioner any any questions colleagues no okay um is there a motion
on the item i move the item okay is there a second i'll second a motion by the vice mayor a second by Commissioner Cay any any debate any discussion seeing none Madam Clerk if you can call the role please yes commissioner Cay yes commissioner Bonish sorry I wasn't ready
vice Mayor Corey yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes five Z thank you Madam Clerk thank you again Commissioner i want to just also uh you're such an exceptional partner i just want to say that on the record we're very lucky to have you as our county commissioner and uh I do want to thank you again another uh nice
goodie in the state budget which hopefully will remain there is that I think through the county's offices we've uh secured another $500,000 to improve our library so hopefully that will make its way through the process and a few more dollars to help make our dream of a new South Miami
library reality so thank you again no my pleasure you guys are amazing so thank you all for your support have a wonderful evening thank you take care thank you okay colleagues we're going to go back to presentations uh why don't we start with our employee of the quarter recognition uh I believe madam deputy
manager and then we'll move to the presentation on our financial report and then we will move on to the parks master plan thank you it's my pleasure to present the certificate for employee of the quarter for Q1 to our communications
and marketing manager Brandon Diaz what come on brandon was nominated by our city's police department he's worked with them very closely and as his immediate supervisor I can say that the recognition is welld deserved he's been with the city for a year and a half and has led minor initiatives such as making
sure that our signature blocks were the same and that had a huge impact to major projects such as it seems like something so simple but it makes a big difference and huge initiatives like redeveloping our city's website and um he also took on the lead of our CIP project uh portal
manager so he led the charge on that he's always willing to offer help and most importantly he does make an effort to ask questions so that he understands our city operations he's grown our social media following i was very proud to had it at 3,000 brandon has it at 12,000 um he takes pride in promoting
city events he's always looking for innovative ways to grow our community outreach so welld deserved congratulations madam manager before you present him with the item I'd like his wife to come up because uh we should thank her as well because he this man works not only five days a week but
often many weekend days and evenings and uh it's with her indulgence so thank you to her come on up please maybe you should thank her in your [Applause] Mr diaz you are recognized i think you should thank your wife just advice i want to start there i'm going to start
off by thanking my wife there you go and um I want to say thank you to uh to Chief Hatfield and the South Miami Police Department uh for making the nomination um it's truly an honor to work with a great group of law enforcement professionals uh but more importantly you know the city manager
our elected officials our deputy city manager it's truly an honor to work with such a great team the most important part is that we all work as a team and as a unit um towards our common goal and I use this line over and over south Miami is a diamond that hasn't been
polished ever since I started coming to work for the city I saw how special the city truly is not just from our elected officials but the community as a whole and it's truly my honor to be able to be the person that communicates that and markets that not just to our businesses not just to our residents but to the greater Miami area as a whole so I want
to say thank you to to the manager's office and to everybody for the nomination thank you thank you Brad and thank you for making Alfredo cry let's take a picture you're recognized i just want to say not everybody may know this but Brandon was actually in Tallahassee doing the whole
lechon thing and talking us up like we were the best thing since sliced bread so there even when he's not here and he's not official he's still talking us up so thank you thank you thank you [Applause] sorry
hey man deputy manager i just want to nominate Brandon for the What's that what's that what's that little skit you do with questions so next next one he's got to be the one profiled so okay okay moving on if we could uh have
the presentation uh by on our certified I guess our CFR good evening no no we're doing we're doing the accounting first good evening Mr riverall good to see you it is nice to see everyone um I'm here
to introduce it's the last year of our audit with uh CFLG Cavayto Fearman Yerena and Garcia um they've been with us for six years uh it's a pleasure and an honor to uh to bring up Andrew which will be presenting for the last time at
least for the next three to six years um our annual comprehensive financial report thank you good evening good evening everyone so for the record once again my name is Andrew Fearman and I'm a partner with Galedo Ferman and Garcia and I am the
partner in charge of the city's audit i'm going to provide a uh a brief presentation on the city's annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year of September 30th 2024 now it's broken up into your annual comp financial report is broken up into
various sections there's four sections it's the introductory section the financial section the statistical section and the compliance section just going to point out a couple things within each section um first within the introductory section the one thing I'd like to point out and that's on page Roman numeral 12 is the certificate of
achievement for excellence in financial reporting the city uh did receive this for the prior year uh annual comprehensive financial report it is as everyone knows it's a prestigious award um that's provided by the government finance office association um this this
ACFR is going to be submitted as well for uh for the award and we do expect that it will receive it because it does meet it does meet all of the requirements next is the the second section is going to be the financial section and the first item I'd like to point out within there is the auditor's report that's on page one that's on
pages one through three there's a few sections within there i'm just going to paraphrase paraphrase a few things within there the first section is the opinion section it's the most important section it talks about what we've audited as well as the opinion on the financial statements and that states that we have audited the accompanying
financial statements of the city of South Miami Florida as of and for the fiscal end of September 30th 2024 in our opinion the financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects the financial position of the city as of September 30th 2024
now that's an unmodified or a clean opinion and it's of course the only opinion that you want on your financial statements so clean opinion on your financial statements once again this year the next section talks about under what standards we formed your audit and that states that we conducted our audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States
of America and government auditing standards next section talks about what management's responsibilities are for the financial statements and that states that management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements and the last section I'm going to point out within
the auditor's report is what our responsibilities are as auditors it's there at the bottom of page one that states that our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement and to issue an auditor's report that includes our
opinions we're going to stay within the financial section that's of course the largest section within your document starting on page four and running through page 15 is the managed discussion analysis and if no one reads anything else in this document you should read this i know this is probably like over a 100page document and this is about 11 pages
within the document it talks about the year it compares current year to prior year it has summarized financial information and it provides explanations for those changes year-over-year and it's written from management's perspective it's similar to what's provided within um public company
financial statements so a lot of good information in here it's a it's a really good um executive summary basically of what's with what's within the document so uh that's the management discussion analysis and right after the management discussion analysis is the are the basic
financial statements um that runs from pages 16 through 23 and that includes the governmentwide statement of net position and statement of activities which is basically the consolidated statements of all the funds of the city and each of the individual fund financial statements for all of the governmental funds the only item that
I'd like to point out here within this section is on page 18 and that's the balance sheet for your governmental funds and specifically in the first column with the general fund which is the main operating fund of the city and the on the third line from the bottom it says total unassigned fund balance at at
September 30th 2024 was approximately 12.6 million now moving past the uh the financial statements on pages 24 through 44 these are the notes of the financial statements and this includes the required disclosures that provide additional information on the city as well as the numbers that are presented
within the financial statements it's really suggested that you read the financial statements in conjunction with these because it gives a lot of good narrative information on on on the financial statements as well as additional detailed numerical information so it kind of dives a little deeper into the numbers um again
providing numerical detail as well as as well as uh detail in in words as well so um that's that's on pages 24 through 44 right after that on pages 45 through 53 uh is the required supplementary information this is required of the
governmental accounting standards board to include this with your financial statements um it includes budgetary comparison information for some of your funds as well as information on your pensions the only thing that I'd like to point out within here is on page 45 and on this one page is a lot of good information because it is the budgetary
comparison schedule for the general fund so it basically shows the uh the original adopted budget in the first column the final amended budget in the second column and the actual results in the third column and it shows the uh shows the variance between the final and
actual results um so basically uh the total revenues the final budget was approximately 24.6 million and the actual was 28.5 million so approximately uh uh $4 million more of revenues than than budgeted and going down into the
expenditures um total expenditures were approximately 24.9 million where the actual amounts were approximately 20 22.2 2 million with a positive variance there of uh 2.7 million for the for the general fund so again a lot of good information just on that one page shows
the results of the budget to action on the general fund now we're going to move all the way to the the fourth and final section of the document and that's the compliance section and that includes the that's on pages 91 through 101 and that includes
the reports that are required under generally accepted government auditing standards the rules of the auditor general in the state of Florida and the federal single audit act um within these reports I am pleased to report that we did not have find any significant deficiencies or material
against internal control nor did our test find any in this non-compliance that's on the financial statement side as well as on the grant side we don't have any any any findings to report in the uh in the compliance section in the back so clean reports in the back as
well you will also be receiving you you would have also received with your um financial with your financial statements a communications letter uh communications those charged with governance letter that we are uh required to um go over certain matters with you uh these are all standard
matters standard communications um two things that I'd like to point out within this letter is that we did not encounter any difficulties in completing and performing our audit nor did we have any disagreements with management um overall I just like like to thank Jackie Alfredo
the rest of the finance team the rest of the city staff as well as the city management um for the cooperation assistance throughout the process it was once again a a clean audit a smooth audit we come in we ask for a lot of information then we then we process that information we ask for more information
and we ask a lot of questions and we do that try to do that in a way not to disrupt the uh you know the city's daily uh the daily schedule um but um the city was up to the task and it really is a testament that we are here on time to be able to present this to you and present to you a clean report it is a testament to the hard work of the of the team here
at the city um and I'd also like to thank the uh thank you as well for your um the trust that you have put in my firm and in me to to perform your audit all these years we're definitely going to miss uh coming every year to do your audit hopefully uh on the next round we'll be able to come back in and um it
really has been an honor a privilege and a pleasure uh to be of service to the city all these years uh with that I'll leave it there i'll open it up to any questions that you may have at this time thanks again for the opportunity thank you for the presentation colleagues any questions seeing none say thank you for great work we've uh enjoyed the
partnership and look forward at some point to restarting it appreciate it thank you very much okay colleagues moving on and if we can madam clerk if you can read um presentation item number two please yes comprehensive parks and recreation master plan study kimley Horn and
Associates mr director you're recognized thank you mayor good evening uh mayor vice mayor uh commissioners uh city administration uh this evening you guys have an item before you for a 10-year comprehensive parks and recreation uh
master plan study um before you read that into the record um wanted to have a brief overview of the process that's going to be presented by Kimley Horn um the project manager for Kimley Horn is Hatley Peterson and her team will um
provide an overview of the master plan process and what we plan to get into during that 10-month process and if you have any questions um or comments we're here to answer thank you like Quinton mentioned my name is Hadley Peterson i'll be the project manager for
this effort and with me tonight is Dave Theer he's our joint use and facilities specialist who will be a key component of this plan so we're just going to walk through the overall kind of approach and scope so you all really know what we're diving into uh so our approach is really
rooted on the idea that parks are foundational for a high quality of life something that you have here in the city of South Miami and so we um use a CAPRA uh approach which is the Commission of Accreditation for Parks and Recreation
so we've worked with over 30 um agencies around the country on this CAPRA accredited approach and you'll see some of your neighbors up there Pinerest Miami Dade County we've been able to work with them using this approach as well and the approach is really rooted
in community engagement so we'll kind of talk through what that looks like but this is a 10-month process like Quentyn mentioned so we're really hoping to get started within the next month looking at kind of a miday start hopefully um by May 15th and you'll see here uh that we
iteratively will come back and talk to you so this is our first kind of opening the dialogue with you as part of this process but then we'll be with you if not every month every other month through the rest of the 10 months to make sure that we're really listening to our community listening to your priorities and integrating that into
this bold vision for the city of South Miami and so this 10-month process is something that can be done we've done with other agencies across the state as well as the country and is really rooted in allowing time for us to do kind of the technical quantitative research but
then also engaging really deeply with community so I'm gonna give it to Dave to talk a little bit about our community engagement approach thank you very much uh our community engagement approach is uh such that we really want to make sure
that we get deep and meaningful input from the the citizens not only the uh the users the direct users but also the non-users but then also we want to talk to uh you know folks in uh that own businesses and folks that uh work at the city and folks that work in the county
um get their input about what can make the system even better so our our approach is not only meeting with formal meetings but also informal meetings too a lot of pop-up events um for instance we will meet at farmers markets or Fourth of July festival or something like that um to help enhance this and to
make it noticeable and recognizable we will apply a branding uh tactic to this that we'll work with Quinton on to uh to develop as you can see here we want to make sure that when people see the the parks and rec master plan branding that they know what they're coming to talk about and and understand and these are
just some pop-up events or focus groups that we will uh incorporate as part of this uh as part of this event um and then also we'll we'll gain a lot of qualitative uh data from that too but we want to balance that with some quantitative things so we want to talk about the use we want to talk about uh
level of service and those types of things with the with the project uh so we really want to kind of balance these type of things and make make meaningful data um important for the South Miami so the engagement methods are just one way that we'll be getting kind of the
inputs that make up this needs assessment so like Dave mentioned we'll have all the qualitative feedback from the dialogues and conversations with the community we'll have that input from the statistically valid survey that will go out to every household in South Miami giving everyone a chance to participate
but we also have on our end the more technical stuff and so those those tools in the toolbox are everything from looking at your existing plan what's been completed what hasn't been what have been some of those major hurdles and actually implementing things to make sure we're accounting for that this time
in the process we'll also do park and facility evaluations so this is over 40 different measurements that we take we visit every park and facility that you have in the city and we're rating them on their condition their access their um inclusiveness for people of different
abilities the sustainability all of those things will go into this um kind of quality of parks assessment that we develop we also then are looking at your programs and trends so the programs from the recreation side um how are those comparing to trends we're seeing in your
state in in the state in the country um and then we compare you know the city of South Miami against other similarsized and funded agencies where are we falling what can we do better where do where do are we you know beating the pack essentially and then also looking at the
demographics analysis so this plan is not only for the city of South Miami today but also looking you know ahead 10 years and there is um you know development pressures around the city of South Miami a lot of development happening in the city so what is this demographics looks like today what does
it look like in 10 years from now and how can we make sure that the system is meeting the needs of all those residents workers and you know people from other places within the county that might be passing through what might we need to adjust for we'll also look at level of
service um and one way to do that is access so how um you know this has typically been like a walk shed how many parks are within walking distance to you obviously in a city you know geographically that's as small as the city of South Miami we start to think of
other things as well uh how are we looking at transit as it connects to your parks and your facilities and your open spaces what about water access blueways was a huge component of your last plan with a third of the acreage recommended was in blueways um and that
necessarily hasn't come to fruition so what can we be thinking about now to make sure that that does how does traffic play a part in this how does safety play a part in this how does connecting to bicycle and pedestrian facilities so we start to layer all those together to really look at where are your gaps in access and how can we
be thinking about this system as something that better supports the quality of life across the city like I mentioned the blue ways um in your past plan there was a lot of recommendations that kind of hinged on this access to the waterway access to the canals and so
uh Kimley Horn our firm has experience working with both Miami Dade County as well as the water management district and really implementing these everything from private development to larger recreation master plans really having those conversations about what you know
mechanisms need to be in place for this access to be granted so we've worked with jurisdictions around this local area to make that happen um two of your neighbors that we've worked with um Pinerest and Coral Gables pinerest as part of their parks and rec master plan
we heard loud and clear from the community um about the access to the canals and to waterways being very important and they're now going through kind of planning additional launches planning additional access to those waterways coral Gables similarly was a
really critical part of their system vision um and they have now nine launches planned and are into kind of their over seven miles of accessible blueways so we're here to support that and make sure we provide the strategies for implementation in this plan for
those blueways as well so essentially we take all these different needs and priorities into account you know needs are are different than priorities we not everything can happen all at once on day one so we really start to sift through this information to identify what are your top five priorities as a city for
your parks and recreation and so we look at all our different needs assessment techniques kind of sort them by facilities and programming and start to see what rises to the top and that's part of what creates our long range vision and so this is really a bold and unified vision and so this is meant to
stretch you me places to grow but also is going to be achievable so we really ground that in some guiding tenants or principles you see here those guiding principles from Pinerest we work together with the commissioners with the community with other stakeholders to really make sure we have these solid and
in place before we move into creating our strategic goals so every strategic goal that we have comes along with measurable objectives alongside it um so each one of these will have a time frame you know is this a high priority in the
first three years to get done or is this something that we'd really like to see but you know there's some big moves that might need to happen and start to time that out for you as well as indicating you know what might need additional resources than the city can provide and is that monetary resources is that
staffing is that partnerships is that private partnerships and really helping you look at the how-to to make sure that this is happening ultimately to give you a path that lets you maintain public investment in infrastructure and so as part of this strategic plan uh we have the capital
improvements plan so we create an individual park CIP um for every park that you have and the way that we sort out the projects are what's sustainable versus what's visionary and sustainable projects when we talk about those those are things that may you know have
already been thought of anyway that need to happen or that are not likely to increase your annual operations and maintenance costs it's you know kind of business as usual as usual we need to do this to maintain our system and visionary projects are those that are looking at enhancing or expanding or you
know a little bit bolder but that those also come with increased O andM dollars and so you need to have a balanced CIP when it comes to this so we sort them out um we take into account the quality we take into account the priority from the community we do the cost estimation
to essentially say like here's the order that you should be doing these things for each of your parks um and with that we also look at a range of other strategies to make it happen everything from that phasing that I mentioned you know getting your highest needs done first to looking at additional revenue
sources thinking you know general fund can't be everything for everyone so what else might we do um looking at either additional revenues or how to leverage your grant matching um cost recovery has a very sustainable you know way to think about this private partnerships working
with other developers or business community or faith-based organizations um kind of what are the key pieces that will make this work and ultimately creating a sense of criteria so that we can balance the opportunity of what happens when something arises that
wasn't in this plan but we have the criteria to help us make those datadriven decisions down in this 10-year path and then all of that gets consolidated into a nice report that we'll bring back to the community bring back to commission at the end of it so that's kind of the culmination of 10
months of work but another piece of this that's really important is the joint use study and the work with Miami Dade schools and the parks which Dave will touch on thank you Hadley uh this first phase the first four months uh we'll focus uh
directly on Palmer Park and its integration into the community and um we want to focus on three key items that will uh be important on implementing uh school facilities um first we want to talk about uh the built environment here
so we want to make sure that we understand the existing conditions we want to understand the roads the connectivity the access um and making sure that it's it's usable um and so for instance uh our project lead on on this portion here Michelle Latte who couldn't
be here um due to a family uh obligation she lives uh three blocks away from this this park and it's very important to her so she she comes with a certain level of passion and and understanding about this project and and really some really bold ideas about how to activate it and and really kind of
improve the programming for Palmer Park um and some of these ideas are really creating that sense of place uh that could be through uh various levels of art installations whether it's informal murals or formal installation but really something that really celebrates the the
culture of South Miami and really create creates a a you know where you are when you come to this park um uh advantage and then uh we really want to optimize the resources so that's improved programming uh this is a a very nice park here it's got uh really nice
lights and and and great ball fields but uh when games aren't going on or school's not in session it it remains a little bit dormant so find ways to improve the programming of the space and and really find a way to to activate it um and so you know to do this a lot it's going to be coordination with the school
district as well um I have personally worked on a couple um joint use facility um projects with the with the school district of Miami Dade and um you know there's a lot of reasons to do this it creates a lot better uh connectivity and ingress and egress makes it a real part
of the community um you can share operations and maintenance costs uh you can really activate the park make it a really true community asset uh because you know parks and the the schools are are really the cornerstones of of a great community and uh you know hopefully through this this this master
plan will help uh put that first bit of polish on this diamond thank you yeah so we just wanted to leave you with kind of this overall schedule understanding that this will be completed in 10 months we're ready to hit the ground running and this Palmer po Palmer Park and joint use study
portion we're really prioritizing to the front of the project to get that you know underway those conversations with Miami Dade public schools happening and really figuring out what those joint use studies might have so we can integrate that into the implementation portion of your overall system plan
thank you Hadley colleagues questions K you want to start go ahead thank you thank you so much for the uh presentation I think All of us here on the commission really wanted to see this this is something that we're looking forward to um I think it's really important for our city as we continue to grow that we incorporate the lifestyle
and what we're used to and to make it best in class i think that's something that we always want to try to go ahead and do now the only questions I had for for the previous understanding and historical references the previous 10-year plan I don't know if you obviously you've had a chance to review it what didn't we do what could we have
done better um and how do we use a lot of those metrics like waterways for example I I'm I'm still a big fan of I don't understand why we didn't do this in the previous 10 years so I just wanted to see what we can learn from so we can kind of continue to do it not
only better but the best way we can do good question commissioner so the two main things that didn't happen in the last plan um the first is land acquisition as you know we have two um developed parks Park and uh Vice Mayor Robert C welsh
Park were developed as part of that plan but the master plan mentioned an east side park um some sort of land acquisition on the east side of our city that did not occur um it also mentioned Mr director what does the east side mean
so yeah east east side would be u commissioner so yeah because east so you're talking north of south north of blue roadtheast north of Blue Road correct so that's kind of Commissioner Cay's sort of area you're south of Blue
Road i'm sorry south of Blue Road okay that's what you're talking about somewhere east of our our our city limits northeast okay somewhere there okay didn't really call for a certain area or anything like that but um land
acquisition so somewhere on the northeast end and also along uh Miller Drive was area that it had mentioned for land land acquisition although there's Brewer Park on Miller so um land acquisition the other one was Blueway
Access uh we've hit some roadblocks uh with Southwater uh water management as it pertained to that uh Welsh Park uh when it was initially vision we were going to have a boat launch at that particular site there's already a
informal man-made boat launch in that area and part of the initial project was to have a boat uh launch and a docking station etc during permitting it did not pass
so it it it just didn't pass so can I can I ask Bill my question because that example are the coverts really na navigable i mean can you get under the covers on that blue way because I mean it's I would imagine it's going to be hard to get under sunset and probably equally hard to get south of there as
you go towards US1 so when when we did when we did the last master plan study did we examine the feasibility of those blueway connection points and and coverts as an impediment to connectivity coverts weren't examined in the last one
okay yeah there were about um three or four different locations one near Brewer um one near Welsh and there was another area that I don't recall off the top of my um head but those were the two main items we did not um successfully
accomplished blueway access and a couple of land acquisitions and um multiple areas of the city other questions no okay and the commissioner recognized thank you but Commissioner Kai asked my
questions okay so I'm good thanks Vice Mayor any question hi thank you i just uh had a quick question is it potentially within the scope of this study to identify pocket parks or very very small uh pieces that we can activate
yeah I'll chime in there so the answer to that is yes uh so what we'll do when we're doing your parks inventory and looking at your level of service is focusing on what are some either pocket parks or you know what might be you know
we've done we've looked at in cases before like what might be underneath utility lines that isn't a park or what are the needs and what are the land that we do have so that not everything has to fall on acquisition so we do look at activating smaller un underutilized places and we'll work with your
community to define what underutilized means but yes all right thank you further questions yes i I imagine that Quinton will be sharing with you comments that we've
gotten from the general public residents of our city like what we heard about the park by the senior center and stuff like that as it relates to playground equipment and all of that stuff that you are very well aware of yes I'll be providing them with um all
information data um comments from residents uh including a playground at All America Park so yes I'll be providing with everything so you're gonna be an unpopular man
so speaking of that one park uh so I I I wanted to put on the radar screen in terms of acquisition opportunities that one residence near All America Park and so um make sure not to cut our nose to spite our face there it's my only request on whatever apparatus we're
we're considering um I think we can have a a play apparatus that's natural as opposed to something off the shelf which leads me to my my my main comment which is I don't know if this master plan in any way contemplates an aesthetic theme for our parks so if you go to Coral
Gables you know uh anywhere in Carl Gables they have common elements that you see throughout their parks and so is that contemplated as part of this initiative as well because we I'd love to see this raise a level yes so that will be included in this as part of the final document will have kind of
standardized either furniture or branding wayfinding elements um kind of menu of options essentially that the parks can include in them so it's really looking at standardizing some of that to create that unified feel as you're in every single different city of Miami
park yes ma'am go ahead this is more a question to you guys than than it really is to you um do we want to leave some parks as passive parks i mean I don't think we want
playgrounds in every single park in the city so I think I mean are we in agreement when it comes to that or because not everybody has kids not everybody wants to be with them you know like and then that's not a bad thing
i I don't disagree i think we should have a we should definitely have a mix of a mix in the inventory no doubt okay so Okay so we're in agreement there so I think that's important information for y'all to have too no that's great information and we can work to kind of show best practices of an inventory mix
to residents and help communicate that with residents to show kind of a strong sustainable diversified park system has those passive parks as well as playgrounds as well as opportunities for other active recreation i I just want to ask a question about the needs assessment process because you
know often we throw up a whole bunch of options to people um you know any sort of recreational opportunities and I those come with trade-offs and I'm wondering when you go through the needs assessment opportunity before you ask the public what they want whether you'll be doing an analysis of if we if we
incorporate pickle here what is the trade-off in terms of uh additional activation and consumption of green space yeah or you So possibly the reduction in the level of service in a competing sport and so will that process happen before we kind of go to the
public for their feedback so it's a little bit more informed yes so that quantitative research and that level of analysis happens before we kind of take the options to the public and then also within the statistically valid survey and our different interactions with the public we integrate kind of exactly what
you're saying like the tradeoffs so we have different like hands-on activities where if you put it all here then you don't get this one and we start to try to communicate that to build the awareness you know that this can't be everything so what does it what do we want it to be so but the quantitative
research will be done prior to that so that all of that data goes into the community conversations yes you recognize there this is more a note to us again than it is to y'all um we need to be super aware and when I say we I
mean Quinton I mean whoever is is overseeing when we do these parks so we don't end up with 2,000 sprinklers like we did at Welsh Park where there's like a sprinkler every two feet um we need to be super super
critical because sometimes I think we we miss the mark and also we're two square miles right now we're at 16 parks not counting the Girl Scouts right are we counting the Girl Scouts here i don't think that
we are maybe 15 what's number nine no because here 15 is number three girl Scouts it is okay yeah so so we're we're a two square mile city
with 16 parks so at some point we we need to say when are we good when we're talking about land land acquisition and we're considering that there's so many things that we need to focus on as a city we also need to understand from you
how much is enough are we at enough so that was yeah my I know that was my next question which is you know your slide on level of service by jurisdiction pretty wide range in terms of uh acres per thousand people so what what is the what
is the benchmark according to whatever national credit accredititation standard exists out there that we should be striving for potentially and so some of that will also be up for conversation you know level of service historically has been based on acreage but as land is
more more scarce in urban communities we have to start thinking of really high performance public spaces so it's not only you know how many acres you do have it's like what is included in those acres are we meeting those needs and priorities of your residents and so we'll work to understand if level of
service should still be measured in acres here in the city that is on the table to talk about should we be measuring it by facility or amenity type should we be measuring it based on the quality of the park rather than you know quantity all of that is kind of on the
table for discussion and it uh the national kind of accreditation has started looking as land is more scarce in these denser urban communities that level of service may mean something different now so we'll take all of that into account as we develop what that looks like for South Miami okay but just
what what is the is there a benchmark nationally around a acreage LOS it usually is uh park within a fivem minute walking distance okay so that's the and so and that's why we were deficient with respect to the commissioner Kay section of the city in
the prior prior plan that is correct okay the prior the prior pan the prior plan bubbled certain areas in the city that weren't didn't have a park within a fiveminute walking distance okay there is there's Thank you mayor there
is a caveat you know caveat to that is that area particularly has a lot of holes and islands on it so I can see why it would be difficult to acquire something of that magnitude but maybe we can work on it my my my last question is about you know
my pet uh peeves which is figuring out this joint use situation with the county across all their facilities uh so I just wanted to ask uh with respect to Palmer Park at the end of four months what is the work product that we're going to be getting is it a master plan for the park
integrated with the joint use facility or what are we uh what could we expect realistically yeah so it's there's pretty much a multi-art deliverable uh we will have a concept plan for the park that takes into account the joint use
study and so that study if um you want to talk a little bit more about what will be incorporated into that but that'll be the basis of the updated conceptual plan for the park sure and the joint use study will look at um you know both the various needs
not only the the park and rec needs but also the school's needs uh there's a heightened level of security around schools and so we need to be kind of mindful of that um but ultimately sharing the the operations and maintenance costs and sharing the uh the activation of the park uh that's that's
kind of a kind of a a thing that we can both uh kind of embrace and the result of the joint use study is going to be what is that cost sharing going to look like not only what cost let me back up because I I don't I don't want to again this is my personal approach to things
we're doing here at city hall i don't want to focus on dollars first yeah I want to focus on what we can do by way of maximizing and reorganizing the park in terms of program and so is that going to be is that going to be a concrete deliverable in terms of this facility
yes okay and then I guess the dollars will be informed by the revised program that yeah that way that way this body isn't uh engaging in a unsustainable type of uh practice and by say sharing the the operations and maintenance costs
and and responsibilities um that is just to understand that division of labor uh between the school and the and the uh parks and recck department um so might not focus necessarily on the on the dollars and sets but it's going to focus on that responsibility as well so uh that will
be the the end result of the uh of the Detroit youth study and if I may it would also uh feature accessibility issues um how we you know egress ingress um from the park to the school um also looking at delineation how do we protect
the school so that we can use it during off hours right and last but not least a full concept of what Palmer Park will look like in years to come what that may be whether that's a track and field whether that's a turf football uh field whether we move one of the diamonds to
the school uh an entire concept um you know that's agreed upon by the community and through your um ideas uh concept plan for Palmer Park along with capital outlay and how much things cost etc so um everything
they just said including the accessibility the safety components and a concept plan for the future of what Palmer and the school looks like together from an outdoor standpoint okay so that's by by month four
that's the goal that's the goal no that's not the goal that's what we're going to do so okay you said it we're doing it so four months let's go okay colleagues for the question okay um thank you for the presentation we look forward to getting started what's we'll just get Do you
want to you want to take item four up okay let's take up item four please madam clerk if you can read that for the record please yes item four a resolution of the mayor and city commission of the city of South Florida selecting Kimley Horn and Associates for the development of a comprehensive parks and recreation master plan study pursuant to request
for qualifications number PR 2025-01 and amount not to exceed $257,650 thank you Madam Clerk uh Mr manager Mr director any further color you'd like to add on this uh to this item on the record no mayor certainly be happy to answer any
questions obviously this is a culmination of a procurement process um with Kimley Horn being the recommended uh firm through the committee and um I've concurred with that and I brought this recommendation to award this contract to Kimley Horn for the master plan
colleagues questions okay uh before we move the item my only share this the managers I'll say it publicly i I I know that with this again it's not not a reflection on Kimly Horn looking forward to working with you but in the future I think we need to be
better about our procurement here um in protecting the integrity of other submitters and we had we had an issue here with a respondant who uh put put their best foot forward in an initial solicitation we terminated that because we wanted a broader participation and their submission was not protected as we
to the best extent we could have uh from being accessible to the respondents placing them I think at a disadvantage and so um you know again I've talked about it with the manager i think in the future let's just be mindful of that and strive to do better and be respectful of the fact that people put a lot of time and energy into these submitts they're
not without a cost to the respondents and you know I want to make sure that we're encouraging the broadest participation by being mindful of the fact of the investment that any number of respondents make and I know that was the intention and has been the intention of staff for procurement to the department on down but um again here we
did not hit the mark and I think we just need to acknowledge it so with that said however I'd like to move the item is there a second i'll second okay so a motion by myself to adopt a second by Commissioner Cay any further comments or discussion seeing none madam clerk if you can call the role please yes
commissioner Cay yes commissioner yes vice Cory yes mayor Fenn yes item pass thank you and we look forward to working with you okay uh colleagues anything else you'd like to take up in any particular order if not I'm going to go back to the discussion items and then go through the
regular order okay go ahead ma'am so madam clerk uh we've got a discussion item item number one yes um reestablishing the CRA mayor Fernandez thank you so colleagues very briefly what I'm I'm hoping we will maybe consider the mander to direct to do
tonight is um as we look at kind of revitalizing our town center obviously I think the more options we have to um finance improvements uh the better off we'll be we had historically had a CRA i understand there were some
concerns about how dollars may have been expended uh I'd like to consider the prospect of bringing one back i think there is some support of the county for it um I think there's some stakeholder support i've had conversations with M sens place in particular uh M would like
to see um the current the continued integration of the physical plan of our city with the extension of their campus that brings a huge opportunity but also brings the prospect of increased gentrification and so in terms of what I'd like to use the CRA for major bucket
items would be really four things number one would be to make an affordable housing commitment with some dollars right to deal with uh what is a very pressing issue in our community and then the balance really focus on infrastructure investment in in three other categories one would be to help in
part to the extent that it's needed to finance our um streetscape enhancements that we've been talking about accelerate the timeline for that potentially uh secondly I think you know as we have looked at our zoning code it's premised on the fact that we want to want to
maximize the use utilization of our transit station and I would tell you that's that transit station was not designed to serve an urban center it's designed to serve a parking garage and so really reimagining how that transit station reconnects with our our town
center our Somi district is absolutely critical uh so that actually it's accessible from the east side at points not through the parking garage or the parking garage egress um I also think that we want to weatherize it if we can to modernize it because it's not if you've been a user particularly during
the summer when there's rain there's heat there's humidity it's not a comfortable experience to be standing on that platform subject to wind rain and uh the elements generally and so I think there's um potentially an opportunity to enhance that amenity to drive more
throughput and more utilization to increase connectivity that could also potentially become a mechanism for funding a point of connection in a bridge which I think has been a point of interest for some of us here on on the board or improving connectivity at grade so those are options that possibly um
the CR could allow us to explore and then and then lastly I think given what we've set as a goal for redevelopment in the same town center uh we want to make sure that things happen they happen without necessarily putting the burden entirely on projects which has been the history here in Miami County we are
likely going to be challenged with uh you know sewer and um sewer infrastructure going forward for this basin um I think we should plan for give us ourselves a mechanism a plan for how we would finance those improvements i think this would allow the option of
using a CRA versus what has been the typical process in other basins in Miami County which is to impose a search charge on projects it's not that that project will not eventually pay for the improvement but it's the timing of when the payment is delivered you know uh if
you through a basin search charge on a project obviously it adds to uh slows down the velocity of the projects and their ability to kind of get off the ground and I think we want to see as much new development within the ambit of our plans come forward uh without that additional burden so I think a CRA
having that in place would allow us to uh facilitate expedite some projects as well those are those are my ideas what I would what I would want by way of direction to the manager is you know when we talked about our placemaking study initially there was a substantial economic development piece
that we decided not to defer to investment because we thought we weren't sure whether that was the best use of those dollars um the consultant however that we selected is very familiar with developing findings of necessity which you'd have to go back through that process now since we did sunset the prior CRA what my suggestion to the
manager would be would be to solicit a proposal from business flare that we've been under contract with for other work uh to possibly provide us with the funding of necessity and examine the feasibility of kind of uh reintegrating reinstalling
reauthorizing whatever the right word is the CRA um I think the historic boundaries are perfectly appropriate and relevant today i think the only ification I would like to see is to bring it a couple blocks down to capture you know the uh 74th Street which I think was not in the boundary
before and Mr mc can correct me if I'm wrong um so that we can capture the full part of our our our you know our city center and and that's the idea uh I thought we'd have a discussion about it if there was an openness to it uh like to give the manager that direction and have him bring back a proposal that we
can then you know it may be under the procurement threshold hopefully uh but nonetheless I think we might want to then discuss it and I'd like to obviously discuss it further so we can give Commissioner Rodriguez the opportunity to also weigh in since it was a priority of his as well madam Commissioner you're recognized
i I'm open to this if we are able to put in very strict guard rails on how this is going to happen i think not necessarily here but if you look at CRAAS in general they when they don't
have very specific guard rails and I think you probably know this better than anybody because it's your expertise um it lends itself to unsavory behavior and we're not going to be here forever but this will outlive us and I don't
want to live I don't want to leave something behind that's not going to be good for the city so I I I like the the ideas that you have of the items to be covered i think the especially the metro rail one I I make my kids get off at M
because the parking garage terrifies me um I refu I refuse I live in South Miami i refuse to use that train station um so I'm I'm with you in the whole thing i just think the guard rails need to be very very clearly spelled out and we
would have to then have further discussion like I read it's usually the commission that acts as the board and then there's like an advisory thing so we would have to I think flesh that out a little bit but I think well for lack of the right thing and and mark it down
you're right don't get used to it commissioner you're recognized i think Commissioner Bonich was was accurate i I think that there's a lot of goods and bad that could come out of an RC CRA i think that we're not
as well verssed we haven't had it in a while i think you're a little bit more wellversed on this and I think I would like to take the opportunity to figure out if we can have a brainstorming session understand pros and cons how we can put guard rails in place what we really want to use it on i'm in agreement with you with what the four
the four pillars you stated i just don't know if there's anything else we can do i don't know what the boundaries could be and there's a little bit of opposition specifically from one of our commissioners just here um and I want to understand why and and what are the pros and cons and speaking into our neighbors
whether it's Miami day for example on 57th Avenue and Sunset and with our neighbors at Coral Gables the Miami date side and the Coral Gable side figure out what we can also get from them as well to figure out collectively how we resolve some of these problems not just us so I just I just want to sit down and
really talk about it have some people that are experts and just give us some feedback some understanding some guard rails and just put us in the spot because I don't disagree with I just want to make sure it's vice mayor yes and I' I'd love to speak
more onto it i do think that something like this is imperative there are very few cities like ours that have the entities that we have that we have to maintain the urban center the percentage of commercial to residential uh communities that you know uh uh require
this kind of funding and being on mass transit i think we just need these tools or tools like it so I'm very eager to explore it thank you so just to and we'll have a we can have certainly have I think it's appropriate to have a longer discussion and we can not only invite the potential consultant but if
you'd like to I can reach out to some other folks uh through the FRA which is the Florida Redevelopment Association potentially they can join us virtually or in person if they're free to kind of help us have some further discussion and that could be in the ambit of you know executive directors at other agencies
that I would say are are successful ones good models and possibly council that are familiar with these financing mechanisms in terms of guardrails I think it would be I'm most comfortable when the governing body acts as a CRA board certainly that we can have a advisory board uh the community to kind
of help inform the development of the master plan and give us feedback but that would certainly be my priority uh I think it also one of the one of the push back we'll certainly get from the county although I've had some conversations with leadership of the county and I think there is support for the idea particularly if we limit the focus on
what we are directing resources towards and I think for the most part all the four things we mentioned are things that would be acceptable to them because in large part we're going to be addressing issues that are county issues so they're going to see money return to uh critical county infrastructure as well um you
know what we have to balance here is the impact to our general fund and our need to actually provide revenues for future operations and so while we may adopt the 95% tiff by contract interlocal we can require that money be given back by the by the trust fund to both the city and
county so that does not have quite as large a general fun impact as it would if we just just left it on it in its own devices so there are ways to kind of create uh return revenue back to the jurisdictions to meet general operating requirements given that this is the area that we want to grow i think it's
absolutely essential that we have those financial guard rails around this as well um and then you know I think you know being very thoughtful about in the master plan or the redevelopment plan excuse me to be more precise limiting the kinds of investments that we want to
see dollars directed to um and I would say this and this is a maybe a bad word for Commissioner Bonich but also thinking about locking in future revenues through the issuance of debt because I would tell you a a bond indenture is the biggest guardrail against you know the misuse of dollars
because those dollars that are committed to that to service that debt right uh and for directing that spending kind of gives us probably the greatest amount of uh security about where those dollars do end up so is that a to like a revenue
bond yes it's akin It's akin to a revenue bond you just said Yes ma'am oh wow so anyhow again like everything else I'd like to do we're just trying to create some more optionality for ourselves it's not bad for you so I think there's there is um it's just another tool in the toolbox we should
activate now this is all predicated on the state not doing something irrational over the next few weeks and eliminating these entities altogether which has certainly been part of the conversation particularly in the House uh from what I've been watching very closely less likely to come out of the Senate in the same form but we got to keep monitoring
that and talking to our friends in Tallahassee about leaving the door open for the responsible use of this economic development tool which is probably the most powerful one I think that we have available in statutes today so there's not that many so that's my pitch if you
are all supportive I'd like to give the manager direction to at least solicit u you know a proposal for a finding of necessity from um business flare we can bring that back for discussion and I'm certainly happy to work with staff to identify a couple of resources
commission Kai if you give me a sense of who you'd like to have come and talk about I can certainly invite my friend Larry Spring at the city of Miami who's their CFO and has worked very intimately with both the Omni uh and Park West CRA uh CRAAS through multiple debt issuances
for any number of priorities from port tunnels to affordable housing um talk about that experience but again if you give me a flavor of what you want to garner from that conversation and we can do that through the through I don't know if we can do that through the clerk or not but we you can mention it right now
i can certainly think about a list of um experts we can bring forward and help us kind of help guide that conversation at our next meeting i'm more interested in how in in speaking to whoever it is that controls the financial aspects because I
think we're very clear at least the four of us right now I we're happy with the four essential roads that you've mentioned i think am I right in saying that we're all comfortable with that i so I think where we might need a lot of
education is the financial so Mr i think maybe uh I don't affirm if you've got someone who special I think David Tulsa specializes in this area a little bit if we could get David I think it'd be helpful if we could discuss in terms of guard rails around both the redevelopment plan and via the
interlocal i think the county is going to want some guard rails as well as to where these dollars can be spent those would be the two places I would tell you that we would kind of memorialize what the approved expenditures could be um contractionally and through the through the master plan
but we can certainly invite Mr tuls to elaborate on those two on those points and also maybe speak to governance and options for governance uh and community involvement okay commissioner Kai is there anything else you wanted to highlight potentially or Well I mean look so obviously this is coming pretty
fresh so is there a timing uh element to this is there something that we need to push this forward to for one reason or another i mean it seems like we're we're stepping on the gau a little faster so just want to understand is there an implications anything in the
future that there's timing is is timing important yeah I mean I think you know look I looking at the clock I become a pumpkin in in 19 months so I want to make sure that you know and these things I know don't happen overnight you know uh I've worked on interlocal ex you know
extensions with the c city and county and you know some are still uh the subject of discussion for multiple years so I I think the sooner we get started in terms of analyzing the options and and engaging with our sister agency about what might be acceptable to them formally
um the greater likelihood we get we have of getting this thing done so that's my that's my big driver is just you know my clock is certainly going to expire sooner than all of yours yes ma'am i I say if we are in agreement of doing it then we go like no no I agree but I but
I also want to make sure that all of you and you know Commissioner Rodriguez who's not here either get a chance to vet this further and speak to professionals so absolutely if there's if there's a particular area that you're interested in kind of sussing out some more detail about uh the financial
aspect of it the implicate like what are the pillars that we can actually invest how does the investment opportunities work you know it just the ins and outs of the dollars you know are we taken away from our operating revenue at all those are just we we depending yeah
absolutely I'm sorry so just oh I just want to make sure I I've never done this before right this is all very new for me and so I just really want to understand it's a big deal for us in our city you're well versed and we trust what you're going to say i just I want to make sure I understand what we're doing here and I just want to get fully
educated on this whole process that's so just just thinking out loud suggestions maybe Larry Springs has been a CFO i don't even know who that is he's he's the CFO of the city of Miami and has to interact with these agencies and supervisor dead issues i can ask him to attend maybe we reach out to um Mr
fernandez at the county as well the office of management and budget who is the department that supervises all the CRA of the county uh both in unincorporated incorporated areas invite him as well to a future discussion and maybe we put this off until maybe our
workshop in the beginning of uh May so we can actually do it in that five o'clock window as opposed to uh within the typical commission agenda time frame is that reasonable okay so would we want to start a little
earlier than five o'clock just in case so we don't back up into it yes please sure because I I think when we say we're going to start at 5 we always have that should we start at four i say yeah I would feel more comfortable starting at 4 because then we don't feel like we have to cut everybody off all of a
sudden fair enough madam clerk if you could advertise then the next commission workshop uh for a four o'clock start in lie of a typical five o'clock start and only CR discussion do we want to have do we want to go through any other item we do have well we do have the financial
presentation from 13th floor I believe in terms of a first term sheet we certainly can I mean that's the preference of the board i I would we have three hours 4 to 7 so we have three hours that we can work on i think that's it
you know what we'll start with we'll start we'll let's let's notice both and then if we can't take one we'll set up another time okay okay okay so colleagues any objection to directing the manager to solicit a proposal for a fighting necessity just so we have the
information about costs and timing to complete it okay so Mr manager if you could reach out to business flare I think we have under contract potentially and see what they would quote us for this exercise we'd appreciate it thank you colleagues thank you for the conversation uh we'll move on to item
one please item one a relative to the mayor city commission of the city of south Florida relating to a fiscal year 2024 2025 budget authorizing a budget transfer of $200,000 from the police capital improvements line item to engineering
capital improvements line item is there a motion Item one please i'll move the motion is there a second i'll second okay so we have a motion by Commissioner Kai a second by Commissioner Monich madam clerk please call the role yes commissioner Cayenne yes commissioner Bonish yes vice Mayor Cory yes mayor
Fernandez yes item passes 4 Z if you could read item two please item two a res of the mayor and city commission of the city of South Florida directing the city manager to modify the scope of landscaping master plan services by Miller Le and Associates Inc to include an expansion of tree canopy coverage in
residential areas authorizing the city manager to commence planting trees in or near the public right away of budding single family two family and townhouse residential properties in locations identified by the study thank you Madam Clerk uh Mr manager I believe you're the
sponsor do you want him to start the presentation or would you like to lead us off oh I I can please go ahead thank you very much so um this resolution was brought forward and and the idea essentially to address an issue I've been working on for a couple years and this seems to be the probably the most
successful way for us to execute it uh urban deforestation um obviously Miami Day County report came out in 2015 to 2020 that South Miami had lost about five acres of tree canopy over that time so that's about an acre a year obviously
we know the development that occurred post 2020 that's probably even more so now um I was looking for a way to more strategically plant trees to recover our canopy um it has been a problem we've grown our tree fund without the ability to strategically place it um right now
Miller Lake is doing a landscaping study i spoke with them without having to increase the cost of their scope uh they're willing to add um essentially right of way in front of single family um multif family homes uh which is just going to be a simple extension of their
looking at primary secondary tertiary streets now they're going to pretty much do everything where they're going to give us uh locations where we can plant these trees in addition to that um we have an $85,000 um uh uh fee I suppose payment
that was given to us by Baptist for the recent project that they have there that has about six months left on it um prior to uh the expiration of that um so Miller Leg has agreed that uh they before they finish this study they would actually identify an area where we could
we could plant those trees um to get this project started largely trees being planted in the right of way um the urgency on this item I always think you know obviously we're losing this tree canopy every year and I always like to think of that um old adage the the best
time to plant a tree is shade trees 20 years ago and today so I would love for us to be able to kick off this project this resolution simply direction to the city manager to expand Miller Lake scope which they've agreed to do for free and then once they do identify something for
us to use those funds to uh plant trees in in the right way colleagues questions yes ma'am i it's it's funny because I had put no because I was like I it was unclear i couldn't understand what what was
written there so if I understand what you're saying now they are expanding their scope to include possible locations for us to plant this and you're saying use the $85,000 to procure the trees for the areas that they're going to earmark at no additional charge
yes okay is is that have they written that anywhere that they are not Well this is direction this is direction to the city manager to go and and get that done to expand that scope and then as they identify that area for us to use
that now this doesn't lock up that money and it doesn't uh uh increase the amount of money that we give to them uh the city manager has to go to them expand their scope they have to agree to do it for free and then they essentially come back to us once they've identified these areas and as part of their master plan
they will actually have every available place for us and right away in the city now to plant trees so that we're ready when funds become available either through a grant or through fees that are paid or through any kind of donation so we'll be ready every year we won't have
to build up our tree funds we'll we'll know exactly where we need to plant and then are where would this money go i I am Am I right in understanding that it's going to disappear if we don't use it in six months where does it what happens to the $85,000 so So let's Yeah let's let's
get So Mr manager if you could address the if we can address the So it was a funding commitment that was made by I think Ankor Health and Baptist in connection with the rehab center on the intersection of Sunset and 62nd um could you explain that what what the
commitment was and the timing as memorialized in their was in their development agreement when the um item came u was discussed there was a uh final agreed upon dollar amount of $85,000 um before the motion um for it there was
a timeline condition placed on it where the commission um at the time commissioner Lee had said think we ought to place some time commitment that the city would actually act on this money um so the 12 months was added as a timeline to accepting the the funds um so that
was part of the item um I we're about maybe six months from when payment was received roughly uh so obviously it was uh something that the commission imposed on on ourselves if you will um if somehow this timeline and and and
spending of that money um may not necessarily meet that requirement the commission can always maybe extend that but that was a requirement sorry i'm sorry so it's your position that we can extend the timeline well it was it was self-imposed i mean it it wasn't a uh at the time uh Okay so there there's I just
want to be I want to be clear because it was a profer on the part of the applicant correct Mr city Attorney for the funds but the timeline the profer there's no profer was not the profer was a profer that was not restricted by time no the initial profer was not restrict
was not restricted their their initial profer initial Okay is is is so just is this memorialized the terms of the profer were they memorialized anywhere in writing i don't know i don't have the answer to that question okay i'm looking for it i
don't see it okay they made a profer by they made I know they made a monetary profer and there was some back and forth as to the amount and then again my recollection is like yours Mr manager i'm not trying to I just want to understand whether in articulating the
time period whether it was incorporated into their profer and it's a condition that we're bound by or condition contractually or condition that we can unilaterally modify like my colleague is suggesting here yes but that's if so if we can get some clarity from the city attorney about that at some point and maybe not now our deputy manager
reviewed the meeting today to go back because we both had a recollection that there was a timeline imposed um we we did not remember if it was requested uh by um the contractor who who made the profer or the attorney on his behalf um
so it was the commission who brought up the issue and commissioner Leeman brought up the issue well we ought to impose a timeline on the city to spend this money and there was an agreement and 12 months was um was but it was not a condition that they requested the commission imposed uh on on ourselves if
you will so we it may be a non-issue depending on the timeline of I was going to ask that question was I wrote down three things timing consent and maintenance so as the timing when will Miller lang if we if
you were if we were to direct you to expand their scope in what time have they indicated they could identify these locations so um almost like a phasing aspect what I had told the vice mayor that potentially if their work would continue that we would capture the
portion as soon as they identify areas and they have knowledge of we can begin to spend those funds in those areas while the final report is is finalized and submitted um so not waiting for the full report to so that would be a way to sort of accelerate but it would be informed by their their assessment um
and so that's what I'm saying may affected by the timeline but I want to make sure everybody was aware that there was that condition when the money was accepted and and if I and if I'm correct if you could if you or if you can affirm my understanding typically with respect to
the installation we seek the consent of the property owner even though it's the wedding property even though it's installed in the rightway is that correct we the practice has been that um that um well I don't I can't guarantee that every tree that the city has planted has
received approval by that adjacent property owner i don't have that knowledge typically yes there is a conversation and we they we asked them to we asked them to assume the maintenance as well correct that has been the practice that the that the resident assumes the maintenance and since I've been here I I'm aware of a couple situations where the residents
were aware that we were looking for locations and um they did not want those trees planted there because they knew that they would have to maintain them okay so I guess my my question to my my colleagues is and particularly the sponsor is do we want to I mean again Mr
attorney legally we're not required to obtain consent from the property owner if it's placed within the right of way or are we no is placed within the rideway we are not required okay because I'm assuming what we're talking about are street installing street trees in in front of single family and duplex residential homes correct in the swale
areas in the swale areas correct so we're not we're not required to get their consent but we have done I think we have done it historically to the best of our knowledge and we but we typically require for their consent also the year agreement to maintain so to my colleagues do I mean again to if we
really want to do this the way to do it the fastest would be to say we're just going to make the decision to locate those trees in the soil and assume the maintenance costs if any I mean you know trimming trees and you know and watering
them while they get stabilized is that something that we want quantified for us or is it something that um we just are willing to kind of you know shoulder the incremental cost whatever it may be just thoughts my my my personal opinion on it
is that I think that the the best way to do this is that is to plan it to to essentially you know obviously notice the neighborhood that it's happening but not necessarily get the consent on it and the only reason I would say that is that for us to be able to program this
to scale I I don't think that's that's you know feasible and I do think ultimately it lies on us responsibility-wise when there aren't tree canopies on streets when the heat index goes up when there's flooding issues that ultimately is our responsibility that's it's our land so
if we you know go around asking everybody and just constantly getting nos that we we won't be able to program this yes sir recognized mayor just I was just reminded um that the letter that came with the check uh the attorney
memorialized what the commission did and in that letter uh Mr williams made reference to that one-year condition that the commission added uh so that was in the letter but that was subsequent to the commission meeting but it was memorialized in his letter to the city so I just want to correct that okay so I
think just beluspenders we should probably contact Mr williams i know he has moved law firms i'm not sure if he's still representing the same client or not so or his client to find out whether it's a condition that they're willing to allow to extend since we're looking at um
actually doing this in a more thoughtful way and then secondly I think colleagues we have to decide whether we want to I will tell you and the manager can reaffirm this septic to sew process has been an instructive one in terms of
people having particular uh issues with you know us making modifications even to the right ofway which we technically own but um they believe is an extension of their property you know I think um I would
look at this I would look at these trees as almost part of like critical infrastructure like you know water and sewer infrastructure you know and and making the decision is of where it goes is one that we should not be shy to make but I also think it's we I would say if
we if we decide to locate it then we should care we shoulder the maintenance obviously if we're going to continue to ask people for their consent then they can they can bear the burden of the occasional watering and maintenance that may be required but if we're going to go ahead and make the decision to do it unilaterally then
it's it's an it's an obligation that we should you know we should shoulder yes ma'am i see we have tsunami i wonder if what does Coral Gables do they put trees everywhere do they ask anybody i
mean because that's the only place that I could think of in the public right of way where there's a cazillion trees yeah yeah but that was done if I'm not mistaken at the at the onset of the community by the master developer so it was part so it was part of the part of
the aesthetic was development m cabrera you're recognized if you want to add some color to our conversation sure good evening services director so uh maintenance of the swailes in Coral Gables is the responsibility of the adjacent property owner uh and the only time that the city
would get involved is if the uh sidewalks were damaged because of a city planted tree but otherwise all the other maintenance of the swailes was there's possibility the adjacent property owner but but the streets the street trees in particular in single family
neighborhoods I'm I'm assuming most of that was longstanding existing canopy and the city the city does not maintain it correct or do they they do uh actually the city has a plan for uh maintaining the urban tree canopy
and replacing it because as trees age they had like there's some standard and I I can't recall right now but there's some like the urban forestry standard or something that you replace your trees so you never lose your canopy so you go through and there's like a percentage of trees that you replace when they reach a
certain age or they're sick or whatever and there would be ongoing replacements all the time in the city and and in that process the city procure the consent of the abing property owner i don't believe they did i could verify
but I don't think that they did um one thing that I know that was ever property owners were involved would be if there were the sidewalks and the traffic circles but for trees I don't believe there was any consent um and with respect to the newly installed with with respect to the newly installed trees by
the city I'm assuming the city maintained them after installation so no so I'm not aware that they maintained them i'm I know that I'm pretty sure that they were um until they were stabilized but I think once the
trees were stabilized that that was it that was the extent of the uh of the city's involvement in the trees but I will double check for you thank you any any I'm just curious any pruning after they're installed et 10 or 12 years down the line is it done
by the city or is it done by the property owner that would be some color to um I'd like to understand okay colleagues further questions i agree mayor i think we we can ask okay okay what's our what's our preference is there a motion to adopt item two we want
further discussion how do we want to proceed do we want to I don't know i think I feel like we're yes on one part and I think we should I think I I would suggest the following let's let's adopt this item i would recommend that we move to adopt the item and I'd allow the vice mayor to
make the motion if you'd like and then I would I think we should um direct the city attorney to seek a modification to the condition to allow us more time to actually expend the dollars built and suspenders there and then if we can get a follow-up report maybe to the manager
report at the next meeting on the practice in Coral Gables and maybe a sense of what the incriminal cost is to either us or property owner for the ongoing maintenance over a 10-year period post installation just to give us a sense of what that cost is that might be helpful information mr manager Mr
city Attorney is that is that reasonable okay okay we'll take your head nodding as uh your agreement so I I move that we approve the resolution okay is there a second i'll second okay so a motion by the vice mayor a second by Commissioner Cay
madame Clerk if you can call the role on item two please yes commissioner Bonish oh I'm first you know what i have my microphone on just in case yes vice Mayor Cy yes commissioner Cay yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes 14 great if we could read item six please item
six a resolution of the mayor city commission of the city of South Florida directing the city attorney to negotiate settlement agreement and Rodney Manism and W carol Manam LLC versus Christy M barto Lushi each all authorizing the city
manager to execute the settlement agreement on behalf of the city thank you Madam Clerk uh colleagues um this is an item I asked to have added to the agenda as I mentioned in my last kind of commission remarks um Mr mandlesim is willing to give us an easement across his parking lot to allow us to have
emergency eress for fire and rescue apparatus to the park um so that'll save us the need to scar the park with an additional roadway to service what will hopefully be our new um recreation building at Dante Facel uh in exchange
what we're offering u beyond getting released from the litigation um Mr mr manston is interested in modifying his PUD to allow for some future planned urban development which is the approval that the master approval for the property to allow for some modest
expansions of the facilities on campus uh we can't contract for that approval so there's no guarantee that we would approve it we reserve all rights to review it in the future and vote it up or down as a body but we will take you know make best efforts I'm assuming in the language to facilitate the
processing of that modification application um and similarly Mr city Attorney there's uh we probably bring forward a companion development agreement so that his rights uh should the PUD be adopted would be guaranteed to him for a term of 30 years which is the maximum guaranteed under the state
statute so that would be uh the concessions that we would be offering uh which is again our best efforts to process those two applications in exchange for him conferring uh the easement any questions attorney did I did I summarize that correctly yes and again if you can
just clarify for the benefit of the board the delegation here is to you to negotiate the agreement consistent with these terms consistent with the terms and does this need to be brought back to the board for adoption or is the manager exe are we authorizing the manager to execute it upon your approval authorizing the manager to do this
colleagues any any reluctance about that okay okay so with that I'd like to move item six i'll second okay so madam clerk a motion by myself a second by Commissioner Cay if you could call the role please yes commissioner Bonish yes vice Mayor Cory yes commissioner Cay yes
mayor Fernandez yes item passes 42 if you could read item seven please item seven an ordinance of the city commission of the city of South Florida providing for a moratorum on enforcement of section 3.6W of the city's land development code relating to residential requirements for solar
port systems thank you madam clerk so this is colleagues as you know this is the second reading of the moratorum on the solo private ordinance any questions of staff yes okay yes you've got questions okay uh I'm going to recognize Mr k i'll
come back to you uh Commissioner Bonich sir um I just wanted to reconfirm the timelines that we said we would come back with some solutions just wanted to make sure we're all on the same page for that before we adopt this okay so what was the uh timeline we indicated 100 was it 180 days six months
yes okay madam commissioner same thing same question okay that question is addressed would you like to Well this is a public hearing item uh any member of the public who'd like to address the commission this commission item seven which is a a moratorum for 180 days on
our existing solar panel ordinance please come forward at this time anybody on Zoom please raise your virtual hand okay seeing no one in the chamber and no one online we will close the public hearing um Commissioner Bich would you like to move the item i'd like to move the item
please okay a motion by Commissioner Bonich uh I will second the item madame Clerk if you can call the RO please yes commissioner Bonich yes vice Mayor Cory yes commissioner Cayenne yep mayor Fernandez yes item passes if you could read item eight madam clerk item
eight an ordinance of the mayor and city commission of the city of South Florida amending the composition and procedures of the design review board thank you for the summary madam clerk uh colleagues uh any questions of staff regarding the proposed ordinance
so I I I maybe Sorry mayor no please you're recognized don't worry about it i I was under the impression that we maybe I'm incorrect the way that we stated this i thought we were saying that we wanted maximum of seven minimum with a quorum that we would be suffice i think
five having the not the ability to have for example a landscape architect and then five five different colleagues or people that we recommend from the commission it just seems like five is too small for the amount of design review board that we're looking for i
mean that that was my impression that we wanted seven not five so just a technical can we expand the board's composition on second reading or are we limited no by the notice you can you can the original the original proposal was for seven members but it was it was a
five member board with two alternates um based on the comments and the discussion we reduced it to just five members uh so to keep the the idea was to keep the quorum at three so either way would so let me let's let's explore that
because I guess we could we could have seven members we could have we could set the core requirement at a much lower threshold could we not uh we we could we could say no no no no it has to be a majority of the board so we either have what is the limiting factor on us setting the core
requirement at something lower than the majority of the board uh the Florida statute florida statute yes any board we create yes okay under 166 has to have Yes that's that is the uh that's a deter that's an interpretation by the attorney general a long-standing interpretation
by general that has never been challenged that has never been challenged don't start i'm not I'm not start we got We got enough on our plate already so it's fine yeah you don't want to sue someone else come on no no i don't want to sue anybody
okay good okay so colleagues what's your pleasure we have it at at at five with a quorum of three we can go back to five with two alternate that would not affect the quorum requirement if you want to additional expertise no my my recommendation is to stay at seven okay
seven with that would require quorum of four members that's correct that's correct okay can can I offer a suggestion or at least something for us to consider is is like the landscape you know
certain parts of this is that something we could take inhouse so that it becomes part of procedure instead of part of this board the stuff that we see that we need we're not leaving a board that may or may not have
quorum you know I know that I had said before do we want to maybe make it part of planning and there wasn't an appetite for that because we were worried that it was going to make things longer for planning board and I understand but I'm trying to find ways to like not slow
down the process so so I think just again um I haven't looked at this current version so I apologize to my colleagues but there was a fail safe in the event that there was not quum for was it two consecutive meetings Mr city attorney yeah believe it's two goes
correct so it goes back to the the the director of development services and she can make the determination as to the adequacy of the design in all respects including landscaping so do we want to change it to one instead of two so if we keep it at seven which then makes How
often does the board meet now excuse my inter once a month uh it was it's once a month currently uh the proposal here is to go back to two okay so I I I would say I would say rather than if they're meeting if they're meeting by monthly I
would say if if it's if there's an application's been delayed by 30 days then it should go back to the discretion of the development services director so that they there's been two opportunities for a meeting before here what that's already Yeah i'm
not sure if it's drafted that way or not i apologize sorry mr orango has has corrected me um the it's it's actually one meeting if if they do not have quum for one meeting it can go back to the development services okay okay okay you're fine with that okay we'll see how
that works then okay but at seven we have a request for seven can we can we just for Let's do six oh gosh that's it the price is right can we can we maybe have them keep track for
you know three months and see how many times we failed to make quorum with this to see if we have to reassess well I mean we we have we have a person that runs a meeting on our behalf that that goes back into you know development
services we we can get that feedback yeah that's why I'm saying can they give us a report in three months you're requesting that i mean requesting okay so we'll give that direction to the clerk to get if you can give us um a running summary of the board's core and performance and before move mayor
sorry yes sir can you give us an update clerk on what we have allocated correctly any open spots any opportunities to fill up that board if we at seven we have two vacancies and right now we have three expired terms
that's on the board so that's something that commission needs to work on on making sure three expire so three expired terms those board members want to continue to serve i think they do okay so can we just put them back on the agenda okay you said no i said yeah why not okay so yeah I mean
I I think what I was just as a practice if we have expired terms and the board members want to continue to serve I would just calendar them for approval and if we really don't want to appoint someone we can we can have that discussion typically I don't think there's been a practice here but Okay that way we're not we're not uh
unnecessarily holding up the reappointment on a procedural item which is us requesting them to be reappointed yes sir so currently we have two open souls correct and God says allocations are it's me huh it's always me but no
your your appointee um has an expired term oh thank the Lord at least it's not vacant and um well the mayor has recommended the one already for the board will that be six and so we have another one i I have a
recommendation as well so you'll be the last okay so we have two penny recommendations that would fill the two additional board spots that Commissioner Cay would like to see okay do we want to go do we want to go to seven i have I'm fine either way so Okay
so so is there a motion to amend the ordinance as presented to increase i'll move the motion okay so motion to move to seven from five okay second okay seeing no objection to the amendment
we'll consider an adoption so uh is there a motion on the amended ordinance with the uh a public hearing my my apologies so okay okay with that as with that as discussion is there any member of the public who'd like to address this commission on item 8 sir good evening
i'm sorry if id known you were here for this item I would have called it up sooner no I wasn't here for this okay love your shirt by the way your name and ad for the record please wilson Fernandez wilson your shirt come on man i love the shirt thank you um I've dealt
with this issue before on the state statute and one of the ways that we were able was concerning about getting quar is that typically these beating these uh boards have vacancies and if you put a
hard four um for quarrel you may not be able to get if you have two then it's 80% if there's two vacancies four out of five so we've written it in a way that it says the majority of the standing members meaning
whatever the membership of that board is of that time then you constitute quorum based upon a majority not a hard number figure and that way you get around if you have two vacancies or three vacancies you can still operate and
function there so it's just a suggestion that uh I've dealt with before under the statute thank you if I may ask Mr fernandez what what what brought you to the meeting this evening my son had to do a Eagle Scout come to
Well he's been a board meeting we got to bring him up after the public hearing we came to an exciting He missed the Pine Crest but he came to the South Miami great we're glad to have you and congratulations on being an Eagles god no small feat okay so colleagues where so we have a
any further public comment anyone on Zoom please raise your virtual hand okay seeing no one else in the chamber and no one else online we'll close the public hearing okay so I think we have the item in a posture as amended with seven members okay commissioner K do you want
to move the item as modified move the item as modified okay is there a second second okay we have a motion by Commissioner Cay a second by Vice Mayor Corey madame Clerk if you can call the RO please yes um Commissioner Cay yes commissioner Bonish oh yes vice Mayor Corey yes mayor Fernandez yes item
passes as amended thank you colleagues before we wrap up uh anything for the good of the order by way of commission discussion and remarks okay see I'm just going to say I'm very proud of all of us for getting out of here at 9:10 thank you for all your good work with that we stand adjourned
got myself in the back [Music] i am i am i am good night everybody there's other Another