##VIDEO ID:LOqM5qoPJtQ## e e than yes yeah uh okay uh good evening South Miami it's now 7:01 p.m. and we're going to begin the August 20th City commission meeting our uh mayor is at the Democratic Convention in Chicago he just disappeared for a minute he's going to run the meeting and I'm going to assist him here on the ground so with that we give the mayor another minute and then he'll call the meeting to order okay all right mayor you're up now that you have your jacket on you can hear us mayor can you hear us can you all hear me cuz I can't hear I have no audio on my side we can hear you okay great he can't hear us okay well thank you so much Mary can you hear us no still can't hear us how do you want to chip can you hear us chip yes I can oh okay yeah I I don't I don't have any audio can can you guys hear me yes we can hear you can someone speak so I can see if I can hear you please mayor can you hear us testing one two three um chip can you say something because I can't hear you mayor test one two test one two I'm I'm not getting any audio on my end I'm going to log off this computer and use my personal computer see if it works better than the city's one okay my apologies give me one minute so can we call you just did you already called me okay so so excuse us if you just bear with us we need h four for Quorum so just give the mayor a couple minutes to uh to switch computers yeah it's crazy what you think wrong with can you hear us mayor I can hear you guys now sorry about that little computer switch solve the problem okay all right all right so mayor we just called the meeting we just called the meeting to order and if you want to take over from there I'll uh I'll assist you on the ground with with public comments and and so forth thank you commissioner lean again my apologies to all of you for doing this meeting remotely and whatever inconvenience is causing and to the public as well um I believe uh as is custom next we'll take up um a moment of silence uh commissioner Leeman do you want to lead us in the moment of silence and then if commissioner Caya can lead us in the pledge I need to do the Roll Call oh roll call First sorry madam clerk okay mayor Fernandez pres commissioner Leman commissioner Cory present commissioner Cay present you have a forum thank you madam clerk uh commissioner Le if you could do the honors Follow by commissioner Cay thank you uh certainly at this moment we'll just take a few minutes and I or sorry a few moments and I would just ask you to uh keep in mind anyone that uh may be struggling with uh an illness at this uh at this time thank you commissioner K if you can lead to the pledge please sir pledge ALG to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you sir I appreciate that and just a reminder of the public if you have not silenced your cell phones please do so at this time uh Madam clerk I believe we have a couple of presentations this evening yes okay if you can read the first one please the first presentation is employee of the quarter R Morel maintenance worker for Parks and Recreation and culture Department Mr manager I'm assuming you'd like the deputy manager to handle the presentation this evening thank you sir Madam manager you're recognized thank you rul Maro is a maintenance worker in the City's parks department he was actually nominated for employee of the quarter for Q2 by commissioner leedman so I'm going to pass it off to commissioner liman to say a few words and then hand it off to our Parks director Quinton Pew to hand uh rul his certificate and say a few words as well thank you commissioner Leeman uh thank you thank you mayor and uh thank you Madame deput city manager um when I I would walk regularly at Donnie fael park with commissioner Lis skill and every time and I point out everything whether it's a gum wrapper on the floor or a branch that needs trimming um or couldn't have been more accommodating and more professional and um later found out that he uh lived in the South Miami which I just think is incredible if one of our he was referred to our staff as our team there our team member one of our team members wanted to live in the city and then I found out he was was friendly with uh Jay Miller and Jay Miller is another passionate South Miami and who's lived in four separate homes in the city been the chair of a planning board and budget and finance committee and then I find out rul also is is friendly with um the husband of our vice our vice mayor and then going to find out that rul is is a is a purple heart but uh where R really Sav the day was one day I was walking around the park and I can be a little too righteous sometimes and a a lady and her dog went to the bathroom the the dog went not the lady but the dog went to the bathroom middle of the path and I've of course I had to say something to the lady and she said uh well I left the B it's not my fault because I left the doggy bags in the car which didn't really sit well with me and then I proceed to explain well first dogs aren't even allowed in the park so everyone was nice enough to come over and he couldn't handle that anym professionally and um he uh even went so far as to clean everything up but he is uh he couldn't be more professional and thoughtful and uh just a fantastic representative of South Miami and that's why I I nominated him because every experience I've had with with uh him has has been nothing but pleasurable and but that said we um we love all of our employees and all of our employees are are St out Stand Out employees I just happen to um you know share these experiences with rul and for that reason I I nominated uh Raul commissioner thank you for your comments and the nomination um Mr director you do you want to add something uh certainly good evening mayor Commissioners uh city manager Madam Deputy city manager and City attorney as well as the members in the audience um going to share a few words just to add on to uh commissioner uh leman's comments R is an outstanding uh Team member with excellent people skills he manages conflicts effectively I think Leman just demonstrated that um he's very dependable and shows up to work ready to work he has become an expert on tennis clay Court maintenance and he is very versatile meaning that he can fulfill various roles for us for example working a front desk answering phone calls or booking reservations covering morning evenings or even week shifts uh due to staff um call outs as well as handle the necessary maintenance duties that he does on a daily basis but one of my favorite qualities about Raul is his natural leadership skills when Ben is out Ben is our tennis manager when Ben is out he steps up staff members look up to him and enjoy working with him he's a High character individual and we are lucky to have him a part of our team I thank you for all that you do and congratulations on being employee of the quarter come on [Applause] up this Serv for you again thank you for all that you do uh we're happy to have you and commissioner Leman made this recommendation and the support of some of the directors throughout the um City has voted you in so congratulations like to say a few words I share this guys with my co-workers the department this not just me it is the team effort um I wouldn't be here about them the leadership that I have the department team from everyone even the work best we are one that's how I with that thank you guys [Applause] app yeah Ro before you go I just want to say thank you congratulations um sorry to be the voice of God here jumping in um and I'm sorry I missed the recognition uh of your prior service U we appreciate your service to our country as well thank you let let them go first all the people [Applause] again congratulations to Raul um thanks thanks for all your service again Madam clerk I believe we have one other presentation this evening yes I'm George Green Proclamation and ask me presentation great thank you um madam manager are we going to start with comments from asme Mr Randolph Brown is here on behalf of asme to present a plaque to George Green's family Randy the microphone's yours good evening good evening good evening mayor uh city manager Commissioners thank you all Deputy city manager um and to the family of uh George Green his wife Martha his niece Jennifer the sister-in-law I didn't get your name sorry Shirley the friends uh lifelong friends over here this guy Gary and his wife appreciate you guys for coming I just want to say a couple words and I hate having my back I'm turn around um George Green worked for this city for 44 years4 years was a union member for 43 years and um after retired he I inherited George to be my Treasurer after he retired he continued to work for 13 years as the Union's Treasurer and Not only was he the Union's treasur he was um we call him the cleanup man where he would clean up trash down 72nd Avenue with his South Miami uniform on after he retired for 13 years so at this time I just want to tell the family thank you for Lending us George for that many years he was a force to be recking and Martha and you've you've heard some of our battles over the years I'm 6'2 255 pounds George was probably 51 110 and he didn't back down from me for nothing he would get he was a very mild humble guy but he didn't back down and so the union you know the Union as well as the city we really appreciate you guys for Lon as George George was a good good person and uh I had this long speech but I want to deviate from the speech and I just want to share this with each and every person in this room right now I don't know what's happened in the last 78 n 10 years in this country but the minorities the minorities of this country want every single one of of us to believe America's a bad place to live America a place of racist bigots chauvinist sexist it's a pole country we need to pack up and move out of here ladies and gentlemen if you don't know this already I think it's strongly up to myself to let you know this today they are wrong they're wrong ladies and Gentlemen let's don't let the minority dictate the majority of us this is a great place to live we have great people like George that rendered services to this for 44 years that went beyond the call we are all as one and it's a simple solution and George had that solution love one another treat one another with respect if we do these simple things our country will continue to soar and be a great nation we know it to be it's simple let's love each other let's love each other so on the behalf of asmin Martha as well as your family we would like to present to you this plaque and this is just a token of our appreciation says ask me as well as the city of South Miami over 40 years of service Martha we thank you for [Applause] and thank you and and mayor you have a uh a copy of the Proclamation on your phone would you like to read the proclamation I I I I would I would appreciate if you could read it commissioner if I could just say a couple words before um I I'll have you do that sir uh Maran to the family my apologies for not being there in person um I was blessed to be at George's memorial service with you um a few weeks ago and it was an absolute pleasure not withstanding the circumstances to hear so many Fantastic stories about the person that George was and the contributions he made to our city um it was for me a very rich experience and uh to Randy not only thank you for your comments this evening on behalf of the Union but thank you for being a fantastic representative for the city at that service as well your words there were were equally on point and moving and I think to the family uh particularly fitting that Randy is the person presenting on behalf of the Union to honor George this evening given that he embodies that very same Spirit of service uh if you know Randy and how he carries out his work daily always quick to provide a kind word a smile um he's probably my my son's favorite City employee uh since he was a small kid Randy we drove by the truck drove by Drives By in his truck every day would always say hello and go out of the way to be extra kind to everyone he meets along the way and I think that speaks to the spirit that George had in his service to the city and uh you can see it carry forward see his legacy carry forward every day in the spirit of our employees here in South Miami so thank you to the family for sharing him with us again I apologize I'm not there and commissioner leben if you can do us the honor of reading the proclamation I'd be most grateful thank you not as well as you can Mr Mayor but I will try city of South Miami proclamation of remembrance for George G green your life was a blessing your memory a treasure our grief of your loss is is never ending yet we draw comfort from the knowledge that you have found safe refuge in the Lord and in our hearts we bless you with love light and our gratitude whereas George Dre green passed from passed from this life on June 24th 2024 and George G green was employed with the city of South Miami for over 40 years from June 27th 1967 to September 30th 2011 and George G green was a dedicated and valuable mechanical and electrical parts professional and George G green was heavily involved with the American freedom of state county and Municipal Employees Union and George G green was an active member of his community and freely gave his time and energy independently the family and acquaintances of George G green are deeply saddened at his departure and all who were touched by his generous spirit and kindness and now therefore for pretend to be the mayor I Javier F Fernandez e Fernandez mayor along with my colleagues on the commission vice mayor Lisa bonich Commissioners Josh leedman Brian Corey and Steve Cay petition the almighty to give the Green family his friends and all who knew him comfort and peace during this difficult time thank you commissioner Le and the family who come forward we'd be happy to present them with the uh Proclamation remembrance again thank you commissioner Leeman for reading it in the record just K you guys want to whole person Marth again our deepest condolences and and thanks to you and the family for George's many years of distinguished service to the city Madame clerk I believe we have an add-on item for tonight's agenda yes we have one if you could read that to the record please I'd appreciate it yes a resolution of the May and City Commission of the city of South Mii Florida approving the naming of city property specifically the gymnasium at the Gibson be Community Center located at 5800 Southwest 66 Street posty in honor of and after commissioner Lis Gil I move the it m sorry is there a second I second I'll second sorry so a motion by commissioner leean and a second by commissioner Corey uh Madam clerk can you uh please take a roll call to add the item on to tonight's agenda yes mayor Fernandez yes commissioner Le yes commission Cory yes commission cayen yes item to add on passes 4 Z thank you commissioner Le I'll take that after uh we finish uh the adoption of the minutes and the reports and public remarks so that's okay sir thank you madam clerk not a problem is there a motion for the adoption of the minutes of July 18 2024 I'll move the motion second motion by commissioner c a second by commissioner Corey Madam clerk if you can call the role please yes commissioner Cay yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner Leeman yes mayor Fernandez yes minutes pass 4 Z thank you Mr manager can we have your report please I'll be presenting the report mayor thank you madam Deputy manager please go ahead field lights are now fully operational at South Miami park there are photos in the printed manager report for everyone's reference the after school program at the community center as well as the After School tennis program are both underway and anybody who' like information on those programs are encouraged to par contact our parks department at parks south miami.gov on the septic to sewer project the contractor is scheduled to start construction of excavation and pipe installation on August 26th the city went door too provided informational uh notices to the affected homes and they're going to continue to provide notices to those homes via a dedicated newsletter and the vice mayor wanted to make sure that I noted that FIU is hosting a constructions trade course that's going to be focusing on the electrical trade that is a 16-week program that's beginning this month the South Miami Plaza and anyone interested in that program is encouraged to reach out to craer fiu.edu or contact the manager's office for more information that's the end of the manager's report thank you madam manager any questions of the manager colleagues no I I just wanted to thank our Deputy City Manager for doing such a great job while our our uh city manager Mr chipa glacius is away she's always couldn't be more polite and professional and um he's doing a great job here thank you uh Madam manager I just want to thank staff for going the extra mile and LEF leaing all the homes in the affected area for the sepic toore conversion project uh I think that was well received and um timely information and um my thanks to Mr carmenes for already resolving one one conflict that has arisen here with mobilization uh again the responsiveness is greatly appreciated thank you uh Mr City attorney you're recognized for your report thank you mayor there's no report this meeting thank you love the brevity um commissioner lean if I can get your help with public remarks uh Madam Madam clerk has anyone signed up for public remarks yes he has this yes okay um mayor I I'll turn over the meeting to you then sir uh thank you um and everyone here in the mayor you know that um traditionally we start with with inperson public comments but I know we have a few people online that have uh that have to run quickly so if it's okay with you I'll recognize a couple people online now um John or mam city clerk do I refer to you who to recognize online on Zoom tell them to raise your hand yes just tell them to raise their virtual hand okay um Mr braen will you raise your hand please so that that that way you can be recognized Mr Breen is that uh mayor danielin Cav's event commissioner commissioner leben if I could if I could ask are are are all these folks here on with respect to the add-on item I I'm not I'm not sure but we could ask those that are to raise their virtual hand yeah what I what I would suggest we do is let's just take regular public remor and if there are comments related to the add- item I'd love to hear a testimony at that time when we're considering the item uh certainly keep and with both your permission I'd like to just recognize two people simply because one has a uh a condo board meeting and and as I mentioned Mr Bracken is at mayor Daniel Daniel line Cav's event if that's okay with thank you sir okay so we'll we'll start with um with Mr Bracken and then number two would be uh Boris Boris yeah hi good evening I hope you guys can hear me uh thank you Mr Mayor vice mayor commissioner Le the Commissioners uh I just wanted to take a moment to uh give my my wholehearted support for the recognition of of Lewis Gil uh I've known him for really decades now he's incredible it expert for Baptist House South Florida tremendous Public Service great father and husband and uh just a wonderful citizen for this great city of South Miami and on behalf of myself all of my neighbors my colleagues uh we we applaud the opportunity to uh recognize Lis G thank you very much for giving this moment I'm down that the mayor's uh uh hopefully Victory party here in a few minutes and uh she says hello to all of her citizens and constituents in South L thank you very much thank you Mr bronin thank you and is is Boris Foster I can't see the list is Boris Foster online you'd raise your hand okay so what we'll do is is we'll go to our um you got got four people the yes so thank you um so we're going to move on to iners public comments I believe this is this Felicia Henry McQueen Tia okay Tisa Henry McQueen an even nicer name um here in the agenda so yes which which item is it I believe it's I believe it's ca7 if I'm not mistaken is that correct I want to I want to say it was item eight the fee waiver request for the uh Wellness Fair yes okay I believe that's C7 I I actually wanted to pull an item for discussion so if we can let her come up and speak commissioner at that time probably would be most appropriate certainly no speak when the it called okay uh sorry Mrs McQueen we'll we'll bring you up when we when we take up the item if that's okay with you okay thank you and thanks for keeping your comments brief okay and next we'd like to recognize Kevin Grace so I'm here for item number six so I don't know if you want to do the same thing anyone anyone intend to pull item six for discussion the part FAL this is Art Festival I'm going to pull item six Okay so Mr Mr Grace we can have you speak at that time we'd appreciate it thank you sir okay thank you and next is Gary do DOA Gary DOA okay Pat Cropper and uh Mr Ward your neighbor just spoke before I start on what I was going to talk about tonight I have to you know how I feel about people being on Zoom well you're forgiven mayor because you're in the best place you can be right now and I hope you I hope you enjoy as much as I would love to be there and uh recognize some of the best leaders this country has another thing mayor you know how I criticized you and teased you and raised hell with you you because of all that money you raised for your election and also the vice mayor but you know you're a rookie now the people that are running for office right now I couldn't believe it when I came up here to look up what was happening one of the gentlemen I think his name is Rodriguez he's raised a little over $55,000 and that is in the area of where you all raised money in the last election but when I read what this Guera I've never met any one of these people but he's raised $2,475 as of July the August report was submitted then and the next one will be submitted in a couple of weeks sometime in September who knows he could run for a county office and still have money left over and I know that when the last election was over I made a statement with the way things have changed in this city as far as elections are concerned it's going to be big money from now on poor old guy that wants to run but just can't afford it it going to get into it the average citizen running in the past has been somewhere between 10 and 18,000 Mr C had 18,000 in that last election so he was nice and legal but really I hope that something can be done to bring the money back into reasonable amount and I hope that we don't have to look at 60 by the way one last comment I'll let sit out the gentleman raised $122,000 that was more money than the mayor the vice mayor and Mr Cali together raised in the last election so you see what we're talking about with money it's getting to be absolutely ridiculous now I know mayor you're not going to have to do anything I hope you're not going to raise 64,000 this time because you're going to be unopposed same way with old Corey up there and then the Oldtimer over there he's going to have fun for the next everyone it's a roast Mr Ward as always thank you for your commentary we appreciate it thank you Mr Ward and next I'd like to recognize commissioner Walter Harris and then we'll take Boris online oh sorry it's under perced Foster it's on his wife's computer hello good to be back back in the day I think the most I Ever Raised was $2,800 and uh I won three times vice mayor a couple times I was younger then of course but going on to the more important items first of all LS uh Gil is a good friend of mine and the fact that we're doing something to honor him is great the only question that comes to mind is poly he's alive and anyway um anything that can be done to honor honor Lewis Gil and Leandra I would encourage I will share one brief story uh we had the mango strut in December of about 10 years ago whatever that was and I was the commander of a ship called uh well actually um we were creating the 51st state uh Atlantis and we wanted to separate from Northern Florida and Lewis and Leandra had recently gotten married and were on board and Leandra was 9 months pregnant and gave birth that night to Audrey which is a pretty outrageous statement to make about the city anyway I'm supporting whatever this is except for the poly thing written on there and one more thing um I do want to make my position clear that I am not thrilled to death about the potential of selling City Hall um I've never been for it it's it's not a new item but um I don't mean to pick on you jaier and um anyway just want to go on the rec Al I don't want I don't want to sell it either sir oh you don't no no that's why we that's why we brought that ballot item last time in March so we could have the chance to lease it long term but anyway it was a pleasure standing in front of here you've got 31 items on the agenda we started out about 14 years ago 15 years ago and we would have these long agendas by the time we left we never had anything we had to be out of here by 10 o00 that was the Rule and we never had anything over eight you guys have gone nuts I I remember sir thank you for your comments I remember staying here at a midnight plenty of nights with uh commissioner Harris so is there anyone else in the chambers that would like to speak okay and we'll recognize um both at a later time when your item comes up so now we'll uh we'll go to zoom and I'd like to recognize B Boris Foster who's on his wife's computer under pered Foster he should have his hand up you can unmute yourself now okay um Mr Foster you can unmute yourself and you have three minutes thank you so thank you so much Josh it's the uh figure out Zoom uh first I'd like to thank the uh the city Commission of South Miami for bestowing this incredible Honor on former commissioner Lis Gale the naming of the indoor basketball courts at Gibson bethl Community Center has truly lifted the spirits of my best friend of 40 years I want to extend a special thanks to commissioner Josh lein who served alongside Lewis on the commission although I don't reside in South Miami for the past eight8 18 years LS and I have spent countless hours running and walking through the streets of the city preparing for our half marathons we loved this so much that became a weekly tradition for 18 years not just part of our uh training routine that is why I believe this honor is so fitting it reflects not just his love for athletics but also the perseverance and the dedication that Louis as always exemplified we joke that Lewis wasn't the fastest but his endurance his commitment and his unwavering Spirit are what truly makes him special now that this commission decision to name the basketball courts in his honor Lewis Guild's name will live on in the city of South Miami for many years to come I couldn't be happier for Lis and I know how much this means to him thank you so I a mayor and Commissioners thank you Mr Foster so now following the mayor's advice um I just would like to I would like to recognize anyone online that or maybe should we ask that that those online that would like to speak to any item with the exception of uh the add-on recognizing commissioner Gil to raise your hand and you'll be recognized by our city clerk is that how you'd like to proceed Mr Mayor yes sir okay I think that's great great way so now we'll take all comments from Zoom if you're on Zoom to speak to any item as uh commissioner Harris mentioned there's 31 items so if you'd like to speak to any item other than uh the add-on item recognizing commissioner Gil please raise your hand okay I have iPhone 6 I need you to unmute yourself and state your name uh iPhone 6 if you'd please unmute yourself and state your name me hey hi good evening Michael Miller here greetings and Lewis was a father a husband a Civic activist and somebody that cared when I would see Lewis at kasaka inevitably he would wave and come over and talk with me and was so encouraging me when I started to lose weight Michael you can do it you're looking really good and what I realized is that Lewis is an encourager and it' tap me on the back it would make me feel really good and I know that that he has helped literally thousands of people to his commitment not just to the city but throughout his family and throughout the community as you heard earlier he worked at Baptist Health for years and he the Wizardry that he knew and taking care of a lot of those computers really says his commitment to making a difference and I hope that uh God speak to him and to his wife and to his daughter and I hope that his family rest well and uh that's it again for me Michael Miller thank you very much for the opportunity uh mayor and commission thank you Mr Miller uh thank you Mr Miller and next we would like to recognize uh Jade Higgins if you would unmute yourself please Jade Higgins if you'd unmute yourself hello can you hear me yes yes I was asked by James mccans to come speak on behalf of the scholarship I received is this the right time yes perfect time awesome thank you for having me um I just wanted to speak a little bit about my experience in college and what the scholarship did for me and what I'm doing today um I went to Florida GF Coast University and graduated in 2019 with degree in Resort and Hospitality with a concentration and event management and I received the scholarship all four years from South Miami and this was beneficial in my room and board as well as like my books and uh just helped me with like groceries and different things throughout the college process um today I own a fresh pressed juice business I'm a personal trainer in Miami and I am hosting health and wellness events I'm also on the Board of a nonprofit called keep Florida clean where we lead by example and host beach and park cleanups so I'm super thankful to have received the scholarship and to be able to come back into my community and do all of these things and engage and I I'd love to definitely get something rolling with South Miami I know a couple people to engage with um but now that I'm here uh just saying that you know maybe a beach cleanup or I I also heard that there's a Wellness popup proposal coming up so I'll definitely stay tuned for the rest of the meeting and thank you again and thank you and I can give you a great testimony to your uh to your juices so I I know your parents and uh your brothers also a Collegiate athlete so um we're uh so pleased to hear about all your successes which hopefully we help start with the uh with the scholarship and you've remained in South Miami so thank you thank you have a good one thank you and uh next I'd like to recognize Christina I believe that's beton court if you would unmute yourself please yes sir hi hi can you guys hear me yes okay perfect my name is Christina Bing court and yeah I was just writing for a good time to also jump in and just speak briefly about the Marshall Williams scholarship um I have have I'm a senior right now actually um I'm at South Eastern University in Central Florida and so I graduate in just a couple of months and my degree is in pastoral Ministry and I just wanted to come on and say thank you to the board and everyone else involved and overall just a really great thank you to the city of Miami I've lived there for 23 years in the city of South Miami and this scholarship has been invaluable to my education and has taken a lot of weight off of my education because I do go to a private university so you guys know how that goes um but yeah I just wanted to say thank you because it really has made a difference and has helped alleviate stress um with my finances and I'm just really thankful to um be receiving that and I'm excited to graduate and come back home and so thank you so much thank you is is there anyone else online that would like to speak to any item other than the add-on item recognizing commissioner Lewis Gil if so please I have two raise hands right Romy is believe she has a time commitment but she is here to speak to the commissioner Gil idam okay I we can recognize okay you have others yes sir I have someone else okay sorry I don't see okay Danielle B Court we just recognized her no no that was Christina okay sorry um sorry I would like to recognize Danielle beton court if you would please unmute yourself oh uh yes hello how are you guys today um my name is Danelle Bor I'm also a recipient of the Marshall Willi scholarship and I wanted to say thank you um I'm uh currently studying in my final year at University of Florida uh with literature and Linguistics and um I received the award a few for a few years now and it's been very helpful every year um um completing my studies and helping me to be able to like take the classes that I need to understand um my material I'm really grateful for the opportunities it's presented and I will um be coming back to Miami soon hopefully um being able to continue um my studies and my aspirations that I've gone through college so it's been very helpful for me excellent thank you okay and next I would like to recognize royi if you would please unmute yourself thank you um commissioner Leitman good evening um Mr Mayor and um City commission it is my honor to join you today and in appreciation for the recognition that you have approved to name um of city property after lwis Hill I have had the honor of knowing Hill um professionally as well as personally for many years as a colleague at Baptist Health he was a topn IT professional and someone who cared deeply about the uh mechanisms that provide excellent Health Care uh for all patients in that particular institution as a as a friend I consider him more like a bonus brother as well as his family um a lot of great things have been said about him but one that I want to be sure everyone understands is way before many many decades before LS Hill became a City Commissioner for the city of South Miami he was a public servant uh from his s in high school he had he had a passion for community service and um and through his time in the city of South Miami his dedication has been very palpable so on behalf of his family and all his loved ones and friends this is a great recognition for years to come so thank you very much for uh recognizing LS and thank you royi I hope I pronounced that correctly um next I would like to recognize uh Esther is that estra if you would please unmute yourself can you hear me now we can good um good evening I'm Esther Gil I'm Lewis Gill's sister uh this will be very quick it's a pleasure to be joining you this evening while South Miami honors my brother former commissioner Gil um I just want you to know that my brother is one of the finest men I know and that he and our entire Gil family are so very thrilled that South Miami is choosing to recognize him for his service to the city so to those that have made this possible um the Commissioners Josh especially um the city manager and the mayor I offer you our heartfelt appreciation thank you and bless you all thank you and thank you Esther um if anyone else would like to speak I know uh commissioner Gil's online and we we will recognize you last if anyone else would like to speak that is online please raise your virtual hand and our wonderful city clerk Nikki will recognize you is there anyone else who would like to speak if you would that's online please raise your virtual hand okay then let's um uh and if commissioner Gils out there received a text uh Madam city clerk would you recognize uh I I don't see it on my computer but either commissioner Gil or sorry Lewis Gil or LeAndre Gil commissioner why don't we do this um I think we to close public remarks okay and then let's call that item right away we can so Madam clerk no one else um I believe is requesting to speak on public remarks so we will consider public remarks closed and commissioner Leman uh why don't you introduce the item then i' I'd ask that we if you'd like to move it move it um and have a second and then then I think recognize commissioner Gil to speak and and then vote the item out to close sound like a good way to proceed sir uh yes thank you so much Mr Mayor um commission leing please proceed okay uh thank you mayor and uh commission and everyone in attendance this uh me sorry sorry this evening I just I uh yeah pardon me I wrote a a tribute pardon me one minute okay I wrote a tribute to uh to pardon me to Lewis commissioner pardon me wrote a a tribute to commissioner Lewis Joseph Gil Lewis Joseph Gil honorably served as city of South Miami commissioner from February 2018 to November 2022 after 91 years City he was founded in 1926 so after 91 years Lewis's election marked our last special election so here's a quote for you elections that followed Lewis's Victory were no longer special Lewis received 40% more votes than the next closest finisher in a five-way race only a fraction of a percent ever serve in public office Lewis was born in Miami and it all started for Lewis when his father would rustle through the Miami Herald we all remember that and dig out the sports section and Lewis immediately would pounce on the business section you see Lewis had always looked out for the little guy and Lewis being 6' three today um was still very tall at that age and Lewis used to always pick the smallest guy in the neighborhood to be on his basketball team and in turn his new friend and his new friend's father taught Lewis how to pick as well but it was a much more valuable picking skill they taught Lewis about the stock market and Lewis was fascinated those of you many of you I don't know if anyone knows this but Lewis is South miese Warren Buffett seriously I've an MBA in finance worked four years in retail brokerage and with a hedge fund and I've never met a brighter or better investor Lewis went on to play high school basketball for Lal less than a quarter percent ever play a sport in high school nothing opens and broadens your mind more than traveling and Lewis traveled the world and when he did he always took the native approach Lewis and his family visited me and her sister city in Colombia and prior to that Lewis traveled to Singapore Australia Thailand Malaysia Argentina and Chile numerous times Mexico Guatemala Costa Rica Nepal and more I say this because though a true fiscal conservative which I always appreciate in the deis Lewis is one of the most open-minded people I know and a tremendous proponent of equality and the path to middle class and opportunity those are Lewis's loves South Miami politics well let me rephrase that South Miami comma politics Sports the stock market and travel but there's no greater love than the love Lewis has for for his family his wife his sister and special love for his daughter I think that it's only fitting that we name the gymnasium where Lewis's daughter plays volleyball on a court much like the one Lewis played basketball on in high school and just below the gym where Lewis worked out with our City attorney with our finance director with uh commissioner Harris you heard earlier with uh commissioner commissioner Cay and it's with that that I asked the commission to call the gymnasium by its proper name commissioner Lewis jgill gymnasium uh thank you mayor and um thank you everyone who uh spoke this night I mean this evening and um uh I'm going to turn it over to you Mr Mayor thank you commissioner lean unless you want to move the item i' I'd like to move uh the adoption of the add-on resolution and ask that the clerk read it for the record okay second thank you thanks then clerk a of the mar City Commission of the city of South reporter approving the naming of the city properly specifically the gymnasium at the g b Community Center located at 5800 Southwest 66 Street Plus in honor of an after commissioner Louis J Gil commiss Cory commissioner K would you like to say anything before we vote uh yes I would just like to say I um uh served with commissioner Gil and I know him to be a an incredible father um and a great commissioner thank you thank you commiss K commissioner Guild uh ran had four years here in commission and he served this community very well uh so I thank him wholeheartly for what he's done for the city um so I wish him nothing but but good luck and uh and we'll see we'll see you soon I I just like to say um it was an honor to know commissioner Gil get to know him uh while serving the state legislature and during his frequent trips to Tallahassee uh remember one trip where we actually arrived on the same flight and we got to ride into the capital and shared uh a nice conversation on the right in before he made the rounds passionately advocate for our our little city uh we are indebted to him for his service um but not only for that but for the example uh as a father and a man um you know if you know Lewis for a minute you know that he's a person of tremendous Integrity a big heart and um certainly a a loving husband and AD doing father and uh we are indebted to him for that example as well so um certainly it's our honor to recognize him for his service in this way I only wish we were doing it immediately but for procedural reasons we're not and uh commissioner and to your family we wish you all the best um during we know it a difficult time and uh we know there'll be much brighter days ahead for you and your family God willing and again thank you and thank you mayor may we uh sorry yes sir go ahead um may we recognize before we vote uh commissioner Gil who has his hand raised sure happy to do that commissioner uh mam clerk if you can unmute commissioner Gil and and let's recognize him sir the floor is yours uh hello May uh thank you very much uh uh thank you very much I want to thank uh city of South Miami for this incredible I'm overwhelmed uh but you know and Boris royy uh Josh my sister Esther but the one I really want to uh focus on is the heart and soul of my family which is my wife L Sun uh has been incredible she's my rock and uh I uh I am such a fortunate guy to have her and all this support you know all this support so um God bless you all thank you very very very much and uh hopefully uh you know uh uh we'll we'll we'll see each other soon God speed and I have a Madam clerk if you can call the roll please oh wait before I call the rooll I have a note from um Vice bonish she says I am I am a away but I didn't want to let this moment pass and not show support for naming of the gymnasium after our former commissioner Louis Gil Louis has served our city proudly and without reservation he and his family share their their time talent and treasure with the city selfishly I believe that naming the Jim and his honor will be a great way to show their appreciation that we as a city have for LS he's a good man a great friend an intensive partner and dating father thank you Louis for everything you have done for us Lisa thank you for reading those remarks to the record M clerk um with that um if you can call the role please okay yes commissioner Cay you know I I I'm going to say yes but I just wanted to state that one of the things I would love to have done is really discussing different ways and talking about how to go about doing this it's really difficult to do this uh publicly like this but you got my vote commissioner Cory yes commission Leeman yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes 4 Z thank you okay uh commissioner we have a very lengthy um consent agenda uh before us today are there any items I I'd like to uh uh request that we defer ca4 if there's uh no objection to discuss that on September uh 3rd at our our budget hearing I'd just like to have a chance to speak to the manager and staff uh about the sequencing of that item I'd also like to pull for discussion item seven and 17 and I believe commissioner lean you mentioned before You' like to pull item six colleagues are there any other items we'd like to pull from the consent agenda can you repeat the ones we're putting mayor uh I'm suggesting we defer item four uh and that we pull six s and 17 for discussion uh in terms of uh in terms of what the items are six I believe is a request by commissioner lean to discuss funding for the South Miami Arts Festival and the fee waiver request uh by the Rotary Club item seven is a fee waiver request for a wellness fair to be held later this year in the city uh item 177 is our uh the proposed uh Health uh plan um uh award and item four is requested defer uh the install the purchase and installation of new lights at uh Palmer Park are there any other items we'd like to pull for discussion no okay then can I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda with the exception of items 4 six 7 and 17 I'll move the motion second should I read okay a motion by commissioner Caya and a second by commissioner Leeman and Madam clerk do you need to read all those items into the record yes you need a glass of water I have it we will we will stand in recess un officially for about 10 minutes but Madam clerk if you can go and read again items one two three 5 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 uh and then items 18 I believe through is it 22 yes okay okay item one a resolution of the city Commission of the city of sop quor approving the appointment of Andrew Bell Aras to the pinching Board of Trustees item two a resolution selecting and awarding an agreement to Tropic landscaping and line maintenance for landscaping services for the kusum Hedge project at South Park with to invitation to bid number pr22 24-10 and amount not to see $50,000 authorizing the city manager to negotiate and to enter into an agreement for the project item three a resolution approving a proposal and project agreement with kimley horn and Associates Inc to provide an assessment and report of the hbac system and other Professional Services at the Gibson Betha Community Center in amount of 21,5 $90 item five a resolution authorizing I'm sorry a resolution ratifying the emergency purchase and installation of two new pumps for the splash pad at Murray Park Aquatic Center from Commercial Energy specialists in amount of $1,856 item eight a resolution approvement their purchase of officiating service from South flter football officials Association for the South M greo footall ball program in amount not to exceed $177,000 authorizing the city manager to enter to a purchase order for such Services item nine a resolution relating to the fiscal year 2023 2024 budget authorizing a budget transfer of $30,000 from multiple line items within the tenis division budget to account number 001 201010 572 3450 contractual services to fund additional compensation for contracted tenance Pros item 10 a resolution approving and authorizing approaches for the police department of 1 a 2024 John Deere Gator s for a vehicle from Everglades Equipment group pursuing to a source for a contract number 0 31121 ddac in amount of 8,848 15 and an emergency equipment and installation services from Dana Supply pursuant to City of Miami contract number 1311 38626 in the amount of $263 for a total spend amount of $2,915 item 11 a resolution approving and authorizes the purchase of three Sky deal drones and related equipment from Exxon Enterprise Inc for the police department and amount not to see $75,000 using the terms and condition of the competitive bids Sports contract number 101223 dxn item 12 a resolution approvement authorizing a purchase for the police department of two Holly Davidson motorcycles from tmca Inc DBA Alligator Alley Holly Davidson pursuance of Florida sheriff's Association contract number FS a23 D v31 each in amount of $ 29,34 444 for a total expenditure amount of $586 18894 item 13 a resolution of authorizing the purchase of less lethal equipment from lman and Shooter Supply in amount of $2,595 for and accelery storage equipment from applied tactical Technologies in amount of $1,886 53 from the police department for the total amount not to receive $ 22,39 7 authorizing a budget line item transfers from fiscal year 2023 2024 budget authorizing the expens of funds item 14 a resolution approvement and authorizing the purchase for the police department of 4 2024 Ford F-150 vehicles from duall Ford pursuing to Bradford County Sheriff's Office contract number BCS 02 09-01 in amount of 23,87350 $28 Emergency Equipment and installation services from Dana Safety Supply pursuing to City of Miami contract number 131 38626 in amount of $ 63,0 27 and decals and installation services from graphic designs International LLC pursuing to City aming contract number 752 383 24 in amount of $2,870 for a total expens amount of $296,700 in amount of $595 5 and vehicle Emergency Equipment and installation services from Dana Safety Supply puring to City of Mii contract number 131 1301 38626 in amount of $ 5,647 190 for a total expense amount of 65,7 6.95 item 16 a resolution authorizing the city manager to engage public race management of order for Property and Casualty and liability insurance services for fiscal year 2024 2025 and amount not to exceed $724 731 item 18 a resolution authorizing city manager to engage Signa health care for the purchase of dental insurance coverage for eligible employees and participating retirees for a fiscal year 2024 2025 and approximate premium amount of $8,499 a resolution authorizing city manager to renew life accidental death and dis dis dismember and long-term disability insurance with Mutual of Omaha for eligible employees for fiscal year 2425 and approximate premium amount of $442 42 item 20 a resolution approvement a proposal and project agreement with Stant consulting services to revise and update the Sunset Drive modification landscape design drawings dated December 11 2019 related to landscape improvements to the Sunset Drive medium from Southwest 62nd Avenue to Southwest 69th Avenue in amount n to see 8,75 item 21 a resolution approving and authorizing the purchase for public works department a pickup truck from Duval Ford pursuing to Bradford County Sheriff's Office contract number 22- 27- 1.0 in amount of $ 43,800 31121 ddac in amount of 8,848 15 thank you madam clerk that was a mouthful um if I can um again believe we have a motion and a second on all those items M clerk is that correct I don't have one I'll move the motion okay okay is there a second yes second a motion by commissioner k a second uh by commissioner Corey again for all the consent agenda items to be adopted with the exception of items six 77 and four Madam clerk if you can call the role please yes commissioner Cay yes commission Cory yes commissioner lemman yes mayor Fernandez yes cons agenda pass 4 Z okay colleagues just so we can try to move things as efficiently as possible and be respectful of folks that are here in the audience I wanted to ask are there any questions regarding items 23 24 26 and 29 on tonight's agenda no any questions or comments that we'd like to make regarding those four items item 23 is uh the adoption of the recommendations of the Marshall Williamson committee for the award of scholarships toing $10,500 item 24 is the waiver for the public space a public art and public spaces requirement and accepting a cash contribution from the developers of somi Park item 26 is the acquisition of a police vehicle from Palmetto Ford and item 29 uh is the resolution basically um approving the interlocal agreement between South Miami and the county for the placement of legal advertisement on the county sponsored website are there any questions or comments regarding those items no if not I'd like to entertain a motion item 23 please I'll move the motion is there a second uh we have a motion by commissioner Kai a second by commissioner Corey Madam clerk if you can call the role uh on resolution 23 after you read it into the record yes a resolution approving the award of martiall Williamson scholarship to nine recipients in an agre amount of $10,500 thank you madam clerk uh if you can call the role please yes commissioner cayen uh yeah I just wanted to say a quick comment as well I think that this is a great thing that the city does and we we could we've been saying it for a while that we want to increase it and improve it as much as we can so let's just put our heads together to see how we can do so but uh yes on this item commissioner Cory yes commissioner Leman yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes 4 Z thank you madam clerk if you can read uh resolution 24 for the record please yes a resolution granting a partial wer of the art and public places contribution ping to section 7-17 are in public places of the code of ordinances for the residents is at somi Park project located at 5961 Southwest 68 Street South Florida ratifying the city managers acceptance of a trust fund contribution in amount of $2,955 okay is there a motion on this item I move the item I'll second is there a second second because we have a motion by commissioner leben and a second by commissioner Cay Madam clerk if you can call the role please yes commissioner cayen yes commissioner Coran yes commission lemman yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes 4 Z If You Could Read item 26 into the record B clerk please item 26 a resolution approving and authorizing purchase for the public works department of a garbage truck from backr Ft LLC DBA per metal ford of Miami pursuing to flor Sheriff's Association contract FS FSA 23-b 21-0 and of 4 43,5 3620 declaring the existing garbage truck as Surplus property thank you madam clerk is there a motion on this item colleagues I move the item second is there a second okay so a motion by commissioner Corey and a second by commissioner leben Madam clerk please call the role yes commissioner leben yes excuse me for what I'm sorry is this a public hearing item Madam clerk no not 29 no no I'm sorry we're on 20 my apologies we're on 26 yes sorry I'm getting ahead of myself okay please please call the rooll okay commissioner Cory yes commissioner Caye yes mayor Fernandez yes IEM passes 4 Z thank you mam clerk if you can read item 29 into the record please 29 a res a resolution approving a multi-year interlocal agreement with am Mi day County relating to the publication of legal advertisement and public notes this on Mii day County's Public accessible website thank you madam clerk if for the benefit of the public if you could kind of explain what this item is yes um the cities we use Mii Harold for our legal advertisement and they're kind of expensive so we have the miam day county has established a website for all municipalities to use the website to advertise our public hearing items at a cheaper cost and it's legal so thank you yeah um Mr C attorney anything youd like to add on that item simply that it's authorized by by Florida statute and this is just implementing the Florida statute thank you for that sir this is a public hearing item if there's any member of the public in the chambers online who' like to address this Commission on item 29 again which is the adoption of an interlocal agreement with Bia County which will allow us to publish legal notices at a substantial savings on a county sponsored website Madam clerk is there anyone in the audience no and anyone on on Zoom please raise your virtual hand seeing no one in the audience and knowing no one online we will close the public hearing colleagues is there a motion on this item I move the item I'll second thank you there is a motion by commissioner Le and a second by commissioner Cay Madam clerk if you can call the role on item 29 yes commissioner Cay yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner Leman yes mayor Fernandez yes idem passes 4 Z okay uh with respect to item four I'd like to move to defer item four from the consent agenda uh for consideration to our meeting on September 3rd is there a second second may may I ask a question sorry before by all means go ahead sir sorry I just wanted to ask the um sorry the deputy city manager or City attorney because this is our profunding so there's emergency are we still going to fall in that window if we deferred for a couple weeks we're able to defer to the first meeting in September because we don't have to encumber the funds till the end of this year okay great thank you thank you commissioner Le same question I'd asked of Staff when I suggested the deferral so the same page no it's okay it's a it's a good question um any further questions colleagues okay seeing uh no further questions uh we have a motion in a second Madam clerk if you can call the role on the forral to September 3rd yes um commissioner K yes commission Cory yes commission lean yes mayor Fernandez yes item 4 Z Madam clerk if you can verify for me I have items 25 six 7 27 30 28 and 17 still left without adoption six sorry 67 okay so I let me let me go in numerical order 67 17 2 5 27 28 and 30 is that correct yes do we need to take action on any of the M items on and 31 oh and 31 and 31 what is 31 I'm sorry I missed that item yes we need to take action on the on the boards and committees we need to vote on these two okay can we get a motion uh Madam clerk if you can read M1 and M2 in the record and then I entertain a motion on both items please yes M1 extending the term limits and acknowledging commissioner Brian Cory's reappointment of Thomas kosi to serve on a Board of Trustees police officers retirement trust fund for an additional two-ear term ending August 20 2026 commissioner Corey this is your motion these are your appointments yes I moved the item okay second have a motion and a second by uh motion by commissioner Cory in a second by commissioner leedman Madam clerk if you can call the rooll on M1 please yes commissioner Corey yes commission K yes commissioner Leeman yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes 4 zero M thank you um commissioner Cay I believe item 31 is your item colleagues are there any questions on that item wait I have M2 let me do M2 oh M2 my apologies yes extending the term limits and acknowledging commissioner Brian Cory's reappointment of Helen Valentine to serve on the green task force for in addition to your term ending August 20 2026 I move this item second so have a motion by commissioner Cory and a second by commissioner Cay Madam clerk if you can call the roll on them to please yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner K yes commissioner Leman yes mayor Fernandez yes I passes SC zero M Mr Mayor I I know the vice president is waiting to meet with you but um I did announce when you were offline before where were you you were so um yes sorry but maybe you could share something else with the audience because we have you to thank um our Charter item pass so maybe you want to explain that and maybe you want to congratulate your good friend the uh the reelected mayor yes um commissioner Leeman with your permission uh I'll take that up at the end let's get through our business if you don't mind and we'll uh we'll we'll we'll um acknowledge again some of our colleagues and our own successes here to close on a happy note that's okay sound good sounds great thank you sir um colleagues so I think Madam clerk I have items 6 7 17 25 27 28 and 30 remaining on the agenda is that correct and 31 and 31 commissioner guy I believe item 31 is yours sir is that correct I believe so I think it's the second reading yes um so given are there any questions regarding that item from other members of the commission if not I'd like to have the clerk read that item into the record for a second time we'll open up the public hearing briefly and hopefully adopt it on second reading any questions or comments colleagues no seeing none Madam clerk can you read item 31 in the record yes an ordinance amending section 2-2 26.7 unique abilities Board of the city code of ordinances to revise the qualification requirements for board members thank you madam clerk uh is there a motion on sorry this is a public hearing item my apologies if any member of the public would like to come forward uh in the chamber and speak to item 31 on tonight's agenda regarding the unique abilities board please do so at this time Madam clerk is there anyone in the chamber no anyone on Zoom please raise your virtual hand seeing none seeing No One in the Chamber and no one online we will close the public hearing um is there a motion on item 31 Mr gu would you like to move item 31 yeah I'll move it thank you second is there a second have a motion by commissioner Caya second by uh commissioner lean Madam clerk if you could call the role please yes commissioner Cay yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner Leeman mayor Fernandez yes item passes 4 Z thank you colleagues with your Indulgence I'm going to suggest the following order for the remaining items I'd like to take up 25 item 25 in deference to my former boss and mayor mayor Diaz I believe is in the audience so I'm briefly there on screen uh and then I'd like to take up items 67 then proceed to items 27 30 28 and 17 to close out our discussion before we get to our personal remarks any objection or any items you'd like to advance well on in that order mayor I'll just say because we're Tagg teaming I'm convinced that you're mixing up the P the puzzle pieces just to throw me off but uh certainly okay um Madam clerk if you could read for the record item 25 please yes item 25 a resolution approving a master utility service agreement general terms and conditions with sustainability Partners LLC for the design construction maintenance and door funding of potential utility and infrastructure projects in the city uh thank you um colleagues you'll recall that we had a presentation more than a few months ago about this alternative vehicle for financing um possible infrastructure improvements um in the form of uh an operating utility payment uh I believe um I I'll turn it over to the City attorney and Ma Deputy manager but we we collectively members of the commission I believe Beyond Myself and the City attorney and manager have had a number of conversations with a team at sustainability Partners about this First Agreement uh which would begin to allow us to consider or at least analyze uh the financial model Associated uh with this kind of a fining financing structure I believe at this point in time both our administrative team and our City attorney have uh confirm that it it exposes us to no uh liabilities would just allow us to start that conversation uh with this potential vendor and explore how they might be able to finance some immediate Capital to Capital needs for us um and understand the economics that would underly such an arrangement before we would consider authorizing anything further um Mr City attorney Madam manager is there anything you'd like to add um by way of uh elaboration on the uh our our work that's been done in reviewing this agreement to date thank you mayor I'll just reiterate U with your Indulgence that the master agreement before you this evening uh does not create any obligations on the city's part by itself it would require What's called the service addendum uh and in that service addendum that's where the the actual contract terms would be discussed in terms of uh the specifics about cost uh term like in terms of time um and and other particulars with any specific asset so uh such as a bridge or a culvert or any type of other infrastructure so you would see that before the city entered into it this is a master agreement to to allow kind of the framework for that to occur and before any any additional agreement is is uh entered into it would come before this commission so uh this is just a framework you would you would see everything else uh coming back to you for each specific asset and Mr Mr C if I can elaborate a little bit further colleagues you'll recall that this master agreement would serve as a baseline document for any number of projects we would not execute individual Master agreements for if we had multiple improvements we wanted to pursue we would have um as a City attorney reference uh Supple an addendum that would govern each one of those individual projects and Mr City attorney if you can confirm again for the benefit of the board that our liabilities would only commence upon the issuance approval of a notice to proceed so even with the adoption of a service addendum uh are we we we are not liable for any cost incurred by sustainability Partners in scoping or outlining uh the proposed Improvement correct once a service addendum is entered into only only to the extent that costs are incurred by sustainability Partners we would be liable in terms design fees or other correct or other preliminary work right colleagues you have any questions of staff that you'd like to ask or I can invite up uh a representative from C Partners to uh address any questions or provide a brief presentation what is your what's your preference I think mayor that last time they were here and we went into long discussions about it so I think we're okay at least least I am yes thank you Mr commissioner Kai I I I concur yeah I'm just EXC I'm just eager to get to the the numbers analysis so we can understand whether there's something we can actually utilize here so agreed this is the first step in that process colleagues um with that uh is there a motion on the item actually may mayor before we close if you could indulge me for one minute it's related but uh not related as a as to a few minutes earlier to uh for a couple recognitions um I'd like to recognize uh former city Miami mayor Mr Mayor Manny Diaz um thank you for joining us this evening especially in our in our Chambers and then I just want have a lot of personal things to say tonight but I I really sincerely want to thank you um for everything you did for the Greater Miami date area and also in our our mayor's political refining school he uh he credits you I want you to know all the time publicly and privately he gives you credit for all his successes what may not be a success I get credit for that I obviously didn't go to the same political refining school but in all seriousness you've um we're so appreciative for all for everything you taught to our mayor who's brought that to South Miami so so thank you thank you commissioner Leeman for that I'd give my friend the floor but he'll you know he'll say too many things to embarrass me so I'll uh I'll just simply ask for a motion on this item if there is one I'll move the motion second a motion by commissioner Cay a second by commissioner Corey Madam clerk if you can call the role on item 25 please yes excuse me commissioner Cay yes commissioner Cory yes commission Leeman yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes 4 Z thank you all for your support of that item uh I'd like to take up item six please if we can Madam clerk if you can read that one into the record yes item six a resolution authorizing a waiver of event related fees in amount of $199,450 and calls pursuance to section 15 b-6 of the city Koda and for a special event known as somi art festival presented by rary Foundation of South Miami to be held on Saturday February 22nd and Sunday February 23rd 2025 thank you madam clerk um colleagues would like a quick overview of the item from staff or do you want to jump into questions I I'm sorry mayor we we can hear from from uh the rotary club or or or staff or and or I I can um I I can share my only my only concern and if we cover that OB whether or not we cover that objection we could vote the item forward why don't why don't we invite Mr Kevin Grace to come up and and um present the request on behalf of the Rotary Club I know he's in the audience Kevin if you can come forward and um quick quickly share your perspectives on last year's event some successes and this year's request and uh we'll then entertain commissioner lean's questions or any other questions that my colleagues have on the commission thank you sir great um Mr Mayor members of the commission uh thank you for your support last year with this uh same request um for the year uh I think that you know one of the things that we looked at doing last year was rebranding so that we were tying in to the city of South Miami even more more by renaming the Art Festival to the somi art fest we also used the the savings that we had based on this donation to increase the the musical entertainment that we had over the weekend to 20 uh acts that all came from the local area and we added a second stage and continued the evening um festivities that resulted in I think what we would call a a great success of the Art Festival this year um almost took us a little bit by surprise how successful it was uh we've always had success every year estimating the crowd to be about 20,000 people every year this year um I I would say that that was probably closer to the 30,000 range uh there were times people could not walk down the streets there were so many people and I think that was reflective also in the restaurants and the the retail space along along um South Miami we take surveys of of our guests random surveys of of our patrons and just to share with you all one of the questions is how often do you visit South Miami and 67% of the respondents said somewhat often or often uh and then we ask them due to your visit at the Art Festival how often are you or How likely are you to return that that number turned from 67% to 92% so hopefully attracting this type of a crowd is bringing great business into the restaurants and the businesses of South Miami additionally we were able this year to give uh a second uh $2,500 scholarship to a student from South Miami High School our goal is to re um to add one every year until we're at four at totaling $10,000 a year we also Al gave out an additional $5,000 to local arts and youth organizations who work with individuals from South Miami I also want to make sure that we thank the members of the police department and the members of the Department of Public Works who work tirelessly side by side with our volunteers uh to make sure that the weekend goes off without a hitch and I think this is a a clear example of government and Private Industry working together to improve uh the conditions and the the the systems that are in place uh in the city of South Miami one of the things that we're looking at doing this year we've actually approved it and we'll be implementing it is we'll be reaching out to the restaurants in South Miami offering them a discount if they want to be one of our vendors and they will also have uh preferential treatment in um and being chosen uh if they enter and do a commitment before we open it up to the vendors that we have every year thus increasing the the visibility of the restaurants uh during the during the festival any questions thank you Kevin for that um quick summary colleagues um staff if you could just restate what the request is so that we're clear for the record and then uh Comm lean I'll entertain your questions or any other questions that any of you have yes mayor the the total fees are 3,675 there's a waiver request for 19,4 which includes 50% of the direct fees of PDM public works thank you colleagues questions for staff or uh the event sponsor uh yes recogniz sir sorry I'm refer to our Deputy C Manders I'm sorry the total fees are are $3,675 as asking for waivers of 19,000 is that correct and what is the police total police total is 15730 okay so here's my compromise I'm just going to say this uh as quickly as I can it's never right th soccer and pro pickle ball it's Pro budget here you and I had a little disagreement potentially over the parking when I agreed to the parking when it was 11 or 177,000 but not 50 I was an anti- parking study just pro pro budget and sticking to what was proposed I when when I know we have a new commission and the commission wants to attract uh events all of which I applaud about the new commission and and doing a better job of attracting events and and quality events but what I said when this commission considered waving police for the first time I said we've never done it before police represent a third of our our budget it's not a good practice and I said that it could create a precedent commissioner argued otherwise but now this and we see in front of it for the first front of us again for the the second time so I'm in favor of waving 100% of all expenses but I'm never in favor of of waving police it's a significant expense to the city and we we value and appreciate the police and we've had this conversation before about people valuing what they what they pay for so um I'm in favor of of waving half of the monies um everything except for the $155,000 for uh for police I'm not anti Aro I just don't believe in that in that practice so if um and I don't think the city's NE I know we're talking about a $4,000 here I just don't think it's a healthy practice because we going to start doing this again it's a third of the city's budget you can see it's 50% of these expenses here the commission would like to vote vote it forward as it stands I'm I'm fine with that but I I can only support it if we do not wave the police which is the way I've consistently been with with events so thank you appreciate your comments commissioner question sorry and thank I love South Miami Rotary Club love the art show and thank you for everything you you do thank you mayor sorry problem commission K commissioner uh Corey any any questions or comments well I mean to follow commissioner Leeman's settlement is that something that the rotary might be able to kind of Wiggle back into that into that Avenue is that something that the Rotary Club would be feasible in doing we can do anything it just means then we make we have to make other adjustments which will mean lowering the number of probably musical acts probably going back to one stage um because that money has to come from somewhere and we're out there raising all of the money to do it there's no Revenue besides the vendors that's the the amount of Revenue that comes into this event correct that is correct what is the current Revenue per table or t how how is it you guys are charging that real quick um the for the artist or for food vendors because they're a little bit different so $750 for the art vendors for the vendors yes roughly the same art and restaurants yes I'll come back to you our entire budget is about $120,000 okay and again if I can just ask this question of the sponsor you know that entire budget does not include any cost for staff to produce the event correct correct because we're all volunteers volunteers so Comm Commissioners the reason I'm supportive or the reason I'm sponsoring this item is or that reason right if we were looking at curating an event of the scale or typically had a third party you would see those costs layered in and so for for my mind you know and again I respect commissioner lean's opinion I think you know with any decision we make we set precedent we have uh an application to follow that we'll discuss shortly that's making a similar request uh and my concerns about that are born of this particular item but this is one of the city's Signature Events annually and um I think given the level of investment on the part of rotary annually in producing it I mean countless volunteer hours coordinating with our staff soliciting the participation of vendors trying to promote our local business is I I I think it's an investment that's well worth it and I think it's an important uh show of solidarity with rotary um who was bringing a substantial number of people to our town center um and something I think obviously we all want to encourage more of so that's the that's the reason for my supporting the request I understand the concern of commissioner Le and respect it but I think in this case um given their their track record their commitment to the city a long-standing relationship um my goal here was to invest a ongs side rotary uh to see the event grow and what you've seen is for every dollar that we have relieved in terms of Burden they've reinvested it in producing uh further elements or adding further elements to the event which I think makes it more attractive agree sir I'm yes commission lean you recognize your followup yes you you had me at solidarity so I voted yes 12 times I can't end on on a no vote so okay we'll call the item is there a motion then I I move the item second thank you a motion for from commissioner Leeman a second by commissioner Corey Adam clerk if you can call the role please yes commissioner Leman yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner Cay yeah mayor Fernandez yes IEM passes word zero thank you uh if we can take up item seven please if you could read that into the record mam clerk yes item seven a resolution authorizing the waiver of all event related fees in amount of 2,691 $1.95 and calls Pur to SEC section 15 b-6 of the city code for a special event known as the 2024 back to school Wellness Fair presented by the Splashy Hendrick book club Corporation LLC and the right fit education and Consulting Services LLC to be held on Sunday August 25th 2024 at Murray Park and at Gibson be the community center thank you madam Clerk and I know we have the event sponsor at the podium Madam if you can uh give us your name and address for the record we appreciate it thank you my name is TSA McQueen my address is11 05 Southwest 161 Terrace Miami Florida 33157 thank you and while you're there would if you'd like to explain a little bit about the event uh the nonprofit sponsor I know you sent a clarification email they can respond to some questions I had of Staff uh I think it'd be good information for my colleagues to hear as well ma'am thank you okay so um in the response I clarified that number one the Splashy Hendrick book club is a nonprofit entity and it was started by my son who is currently a junior at the University of Pittsburgh um in the name of his brother who was unfortunately um gunned down you know gun violence and died as a result so as an athlete and as a superior student he thought that he would want to honor his brother by starting the book club all of my children including myself we're all Avid readers I'm a retired teacher um and I spent a lot of time in South Miami growing up in South Miami as well as when it was time for my younger two children to participate in activities I brought them back to South Miami my husband is a police officer however he volunteers at the park coaching with the other coaches out there and he's been there even though our son is long gone and our daughter is no is a 12th grader no longer a cheerleader my husband is still engaged with the party my role came in with Dr Scott Dr Tina Carol Scott we got together and we were looking at ways to improve outcomes okay in improving outcomes we mean uh less violence and more success for the undeserved population of South Miami the book fair Wellness event is just that because I will have the children's CH book club there to give out books I provided the book bag and um like little pouches to go inside my Sor and Friends donated all of the materials to put inside of the book bags the book bags do not represent my company at all there's no name of my company on the book bag it's not that kind of thing um for me it's a matter of of knowing from being in the classroom where the pitfalls are and trying to do something that will really work cuz we keep doing the same thing and we're not getting any different results so this event is focused on the kids but it's just as focused on the parents and helping them understand just how V vital their role is in ensuring that their children are successful according to the latest research my son did because he's a pread major um children that come from homes with happy mothers with mothers that don't have lots of stress and other things tend to do far better in the education system with that being said I found that parents really didn't know anything they just dropped their kids to school and they figure you know you go to school every day you should learn something you know and we feel no we know because I studied long time I got my graduate degrees at University of Miami and I studied a long time and what I realized is that parent is the first teacher and learning starts at home and it doesn't have to cost one single penny it's about time and effort so I joined with the children's trust to do community engagement activities I I've helped one in Homestead Miami Dave um I also that was a Teen Summit teens on one side parents on the other side so parents were getting information about things that teens do in school and how to set boundaries teens were getting information about how to set reasonable boundaries so that you don't do something that you're going to regret 20 years from now um besides that I held a summer camp this summer in Florida City I recognize they don't even have a public library down there and the mobile Library does not come consistently so essentially I have taken it upon myself with various organizations to try to bring some of these things into the community to empower the parents and to work towards a better outcome for all of our children thank you so much Mr McQueen I'm just going to refer to our our mayor for a minute thank you colleagues do you have any questions of um the event sponsor I do just quickly mayor yes go ahead sir you're recognized um we we've been starting last couple of years a lot of kids events as well I sponsor uh kids markeet market place where we average 50 tables roughly 300 kids and they start up businesses and and consider to do that we've been moving through a lot of the schools in the area so we would love to work with you and see how we can incorporate more stuff I think what we always want to do is encourage more people how can we get more people at this event like what is it that you're doing to encourage kids and families to attend it and what can we do to help you with that well I've basically been using my connections or infuence because again I was teacher for 30 years in the county and an adun professor at Miami day so I use my resources of people calling around asking the trust has helped me um Genesis uh Citrus because I work with foster kids as well so it just connected to all of my personal resources and then my son graduated from Columbus so he reached out to Mr Pew to get Columbus involved to donate as well excellent so that's kind of like how this has been going this part has really nothing to do with my personal business this is for my son who is currently working with teens from 13 to 19 and so M McQueen if I could just add this I I appreciate the clarification because when the application was received it had um obviously both entities as an applicant and the directors on both agencies are the same so hence that that was the reason for my questions um I think you've adequately addressed them there we you probably heard the discussion regarding the prior item with regard to the waiver of police fees I'm going to ask staff how much how much in terms of direct costs staff costs do we have here that we're being asked to wave if you can clarify that again for me Madam W manager yes mayor there's Park staff cost estimated at 560 and off-duty police officers at 506 okay so just to to to simplify this and and hopefully because I want to support your work um not only am I the son of a a public school teacher who served the county for 42 years so respect uh your 30 years of service tremendously and I know that you guys do quite a bit to underwrite this work we also have the connection I'm also a Columbus grad so want to support your son and his charitable Endeavors here as well so rather than ask this I'd like to modify the request if we can remove the direct service cost from uh the request Madame manager and Madam clerk I I will miss uh McQueen because this is a nettlesome issue for us I will commit to providing you a check for the cost of those services so that you don't come out of pocket further um and with that modification I'm happy to move the item okay and I thank thank you Mr Mayor for your generosity and I just have a quick uh unrelated question yes so first of all um our condolences for your for your loss and you mentioned that your son played for uh Pittsburgh he is playing and running track okay and he tries the Olympics this year my question is does your son know South Miami and Canard Cox who was the ACC I believe Defensive Player of the Year course he knows Canard and Canard has been to Pittsburgh to visit him all right he played for Seattle Jacksonville Kansas City a charity coach okay my husband coach can all right as a matter of fact my husband coached quite a few kids that went to the NFL during Co I had all of those athletes give me public gift cards and I put on the website at my school any teacher any student any family that you think would benefit from this let me know give me an address and after school hours I'll go and deliver myself the gift card thank you so much for your service yes um Mr Mayor ready no with that again I um I'd move the item with the modification that will we remove the uh reimbursements for staff time and cost for parks and police and with a commitment to miss McQueen that I will either raise or write that amount so she can hold the event uh as as proposed okay second with that Amendment just just for the record the the new waiver would be a waiver of $1,625 195 correct which I believe is our facility fee correct that's everything except for the use of the Murray Park field and that's correct okay great so colleagues that would be my motion is there a second second okay we have a motion by myself a second by commissioner lean Madam clerk if you can call the role for the item is modified yes commissioner Kay yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner Leman yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes as am minute 4 Z thank you thank you Miss McQueen and let's make sure we get together uh if you can text or call me on my cell phone which is on the city's I'd love to chat with you further okay thank you same here M you thank you all have a good night thank you Mr City attorney I'd like to move on to the Quasi judicial items can you please uh read the required warnings certainly mayor application uh number 27 on this evening City commission meeting agenda is quasi judicial in nature uh as always the clerk will read the title of the resolution uh in advance of the public hearing the public hearing will include presentation by staff and the applicant uh if they so choose and any public comment commission may ask any questions either before or after the public comment period is closed following public comment the commission may deliberate on the resolution the Quasi judicial procedures uh require the commission to consider the evidence presented to it and base the decision on applicable law and primarily in the evidence presented whether by the applicant staff or members of the public staff report and the resolution provide the applicable law and criteria for approval in this case it is the plat criteria in section 20 4.2 of the Land Development code the evidence considered must be substantial competent evidence that means testimony or other evidence based on personal observation or relevant expert testimony that reasonable Minds would accept as adequate to support a conclusion it is not a popularity contest it cannot be based solely on non-expert opinions no matter how fervent those opinions might be everyone who seeks to speak on the item should be given an opportunity to speak during the public comment portion if you intend to provide testimony as to any of the applications considered tonight you'll be you should be sworn in before your testimony is taken please know if you speak you may be subject a cross-examination if you refuse either to be cross-examined or to be sworn your testimony will be considered in that context and given its due weight the general public will not be permitted to cross-examine Witnesses but the public May request the commission to direct questions on their behalf to either staff or the applicant uh at this time if you wish to speak on this item uh you should be sworn in I'd ask uh that if you are in the audience and wish to speak you stand and if you are uh on uh Zoom if you can turn your camera on and raise your right hand there's Mr Thomasson thank you uh do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth all right Madame clerk can you confirm compliance with the advertising and notice requirements for this hearing yes thank you so much um mayor Vice uh mayor and Commissioners uh have any of you had any expart Communications on this item with you no public great seeing none I have not mayor I turn the proceeding thank you Mr City attorney uh Madam clerk If You Could Read item 27 into the record please yes item 27 a resolution of the mayor and City Commission of the city of South Miami approving or denying an application for attending to a PL foring to section 20-4 point2 of the Land Development code seeking to subdivide a property within the low density single family residential RS3 zoning District located at 5865 North ker drive and the residential estate modified estate eum zoning District of the Village of Hine Crest located at 5865 Southwest Southwest 88th Street thank you madam clerk uh I see Mr Thomasson is here on behalf of the applicant and I know our staff is prepared to make a presentation colleagues I have reviewed the items in the record and I'm satisfied with my review of the documentation and am able to make my determination based on that competent substantial evidence would you like a presentation by staff Andor the applicant I I was always can to ask you for the same request Mr Mayor fantastic we we are on we are on a mind belt today commissioner I found that puzzle piece there you go commissioner Corey commissioner Caye any questions or would you like would you like a presentation no questions here yeah I listened to the planning board and and did all the due diligence here so we're ready to move forward fastic so is there uh well this is a public hearing item is there any member of the public who' like to speak on item 27 which which is a proposed tentative plat uh at 5865 Southwest 88 Street please come forward at this time if you are in Chambers is there anyone in Chambers who would like to address this item Madam clerk no seeing none is there anyone online anyone on Zoom please raise your virtual hand I don't see other than Mr Thomasson no okay thank you so seeing no one online and no one in Chambers we will close the public hearing Mr Thomason congratulations on the Fantastic uh presentation and I'll entertain a motion at this time I move the item ni second is there a second if a motion by commissioner leedman and a a second by commissioner Cay Madam clerk if you could call the role on item 27 please yes commissioner Cay yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner Le yes mayor Fernandez yes IAM passes 4 zero thank you to staff and the applicant uh if we can move on to item 30 and read that into the record Madam clerk yes an ordinance amending article two definitions article three zoning regulations and article four other regulations to permit urgent care facilities and provide appal regulations uh thank you colleagues um you'll recall this is an item brought forward at the request of uh an applicant I believe council is in Chambers uh do we have any questions regarding this item or would we like a presentation from staff this is the Urgent Care Facility second reading oh okay um Mr Mayor I'm prepared sorry you prepared to vote sir okay so this again for the benefit of the public this would allow an urgent care center facility use uh Mr City if you can clarify uh the District of the modification just for the record so the public is aware sure it's uh it would allow it in the general retail District uh which is the retail District along US1 primarily um the there's a definition of urgent care facility um and there are some requirements regarding minimum size I'm sorry maximum size and um conditions for the certificate of occupancy and for the benefit of the public this is just a text amendment that would allow for the use anyone wishing to Avail themselves of this use would have to come in with an application Mr City attorney is that correct uh not exactly there's a to the extent that they were modifying the site they would have to come in for a site plan application but this is a permitted use it's the way this is written okay so if there if there are no modifications to an existing structure they wish to occupy existing space they can do that without further review or approval of this board that is correct thank you for that clarification uh with those comments by way of introduction this is a public hearing item uh is there any member of the public and Chambers who'd like to address this Commission on item 30 no no one seeing no one in chamber is there anyone online Madam clerk who would like to address this Commission on item 30 anyone on Zoom please raise your virtual hand to speak on this item I don't see okay so with that we will close the public hearing an item 30 colleagues any questions if not I'm happy to entertain a motion on this item I'll move the motion mayor second thank you we have a motion by commissioner k a second by commissioner Corey Madam clerk if you could call the role please yes commissioner Leeman yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner cayen yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes for Z great thank you uh I'd like to mam clerk if you can read item 28 into the record please yes item 28 a resolution selecting an awarding a contract to River North Transit LLC for on demand Ser transit services pursuant to request for proposals number CSM 20245 in amount not to exceed $354,000 annually authorizing the city manager to negotiate and enter into a contract for on demand transit services for a multi-year a term thank you madam clerk um Mr manager or Madame manager can you give us a brief introduction on this item uh in terms of uh what this would authorize sorry I'm off camera here let me put that back on and then next steps uh assuming this item is adopted yes sir thank you mayor Commissioners good evening uh this item is a culmination of discussions that we've had regarding our ond demand Transit service and a competitive process um that had a committee evaluate proposals um we we had uh three entities propos our current provider freebie uh uh second another proposer was circuit and then via it was the third proposer certainly uh we've had discussions before uh in regards to our ability to Service uh our community and uh look for ways to to broaden our uh uh ability to bring in um uh particip individuals from within the city and outside the city into our town center so this process U culminated in submittals and evaluation of proposals uh what What's before you uh committee ranked uh the proposers uh the committee was unanimous in recommending via I reviewed uh each proposal and reviewed the committee's work and um what I'm bringing forward I did not take the step of negotiating a contract which could have been a step that that that could have been taken uh but brought it back to get some direction and feedback from this commission um given that it's a pivot from our current current provider freebie who who has provided excellent service to to the city um and in this case what I'm bringing forward is that an authorization to continue uh our discussion with via and negotiate uh a contract a multi-year contract um for their services the the key component of this was uh we look for our ability to scale possibly scale our program um in a model that would not have a fixed cost regardless of a number of rides number two uh to try and have an Apples to Apples comparison we use the metric of a no longer than 15 minute wait time for any user as a way to evaluate how each uh participant uh each proposer would would respond to that and lastly we were looking for an ability to have an integration uh from a multimodal standpoint uh via a platform uh with other options uh that was fully integrated including public transit and and and transportation Network companies potentially as an overflow to our uh provider so in this case I believe that via brings forward a proven technology that actually has its integration and has demonstrated the integration and uh via a platform that not only responds to our level of service requests but also provides the integration through their app to to bring in metroconnect uh which currently provides service in our area uh and bring in a transportation Network company like in Uber uh to to also uh overlap and enhance uh our uh service now part of these proposals were service hours and each proposer uh submitted different hours through the negotiation process uh uh it would be my intent to talk about service hours and make uh uh the changes that we feel may be necessary to fully enhance not only uh the the daily uh service but uh the economic driver of bringing people into our town center so I think that that's something that we would do during a negotiation process and and move potentially the hour service to maximize that and and also leverage existing options that users may have through other platforms uh so we can maximize our funds so uh we we believe uh that at this time via a gives us a really great uh platform uh that has been proven uh that is integrated uh to to really take our on demand services to a new level uh with the ability of a variable pricing meaning uh not having each vehicle that we had have a fixed cost regardless of its use and and that's where I think uh we wanted to uh kind of grow from and enhance and have the ability to scale so uh I know the representative from via in the audience Sebastian laua who who would be the Principal manager of this account and can can can speak uh uh to that further uh Mr Mayor and certainly willing to answer any questions that you may have specifically as it relates to the proposals and and what next steps would be thank you Mr manager colleagues before we recognize the vendor respective vendor uh do any of you have any questions or comments of Staff about the recommendation um M Mr Mayor I I just like to look at the the numbers regarding the contract I think there's some grant money for next year but maybe not the following year and um this comes out of PTP money the transportation tax and just how this contract May compare to the previous contract um it's a bit big expense for the city also for me that decision threshold I don't think I'm in the minority I don't think it's a city's obligation to necessary provide service within 15 minutes believe you can look at your phone if it's more than than 15 then that writer has an option they can walk or drive or bike or uh or pay for a uh an demand service on their own I mean I when it comes to free it's um right I in life we always have three things we have price quality and service if you want the best price you can do something online you're going to sacrifice service if you want the best quality and best service you have to sacrifice price this is free so I don't know how with free we can achieve we're small municipality we're comparing ourselves right with the much cities like Coral Gables with a much richer budget but maybe I just took the liberty of doing that but all that to say I think it's hard to provide free and then also commit to 15 minutes or less I I would want to take on that obligation as a steward of the budget that's just that's just me no I I commissioner lean it's a fair point and I think you know we certainly my conversation with the manager on this item you know this is well in excess of what we are currently spending uh on our service um you know and I think that there you know the reason I'm going to vote to support the item is because I know this is just a first step to allow for negotiations uh certainly what we had was uh a proposed cost in response to our solicitation but we certainly don't have to contract for that amount nor do I think we can or should we um certainly you know the comments i' like to briefly share for the benefit of the manager which I've shared privately at the public and the prospective vendor uh who have also spoken to on multiple occasions prior to the solicitation as I had with all the others and you know uh following the issuance of the manager's recommendation is that you know I I'm look I want to make sure that we're leveraging the county service they're obviously have invested and and frankly it's their obligation to provide these transit services um as I've shared with this board my goal was to figure out how we can keep people particularly Choice riters people with discretionary income uh coming into the city and as frictionless way as possible uh whether that's through subsidizing this service for more robust evening and weekend hours right that are not serviced by the county with the same level of service standard I think their their standard is 15 minutes as well um and certainly incentivizing people from Beyond South Miami to come into our town center and frequent our shops restaurants or come to a a a cultural or entertainment activity uh being organized privately or by the city certainly that would be my goal U and commissioner Le I think you're right we've talked about this before this this proposal while certainly all the cost was proposed to be borne by the city I don't think and Mr Man you can correct me if I'm wrong does not foreclose the prospect that in our negotiations we do put some of this cost uh on members of the public and and I think particularly so for um you know hours that um that go beyond what is the platform offerings the county has with possibly the same vendor uh as part of its Metro connect service you know what I'm hoping we can get is a service that for those evenings and weekends where we want people filling our restaurants um coming to our our our Town Center bars uh and shops is to basically encourage people through some sort of shared shared cost savings to take a ride on this service into South Miami as opposed to electing to use ride share elsewhere as you know for those hours where metr connect is not operating the only competition is uh from you know a fully private R your services where the Bears the full cost so that's certainly my motivation and what I will be um hopefully bringing by way of a perspective to these negotiations should we choose to authorize the selection of this vender vendor that the manager is recommending Mr Mayor commissioner Kane commissioner lman commissioner Cory excuse me do you have any thoughts or comments you want to share I think the city manager wanted to speak mayor I'm sorry Mr Mr manager you're recognized no I thank you and I my apologies for jumping in commissioner Cay just uh commissioner lean I me you're on point I mean I fully knew that walking into setting a level of standard without really having an understanding of you know what that does on the on the price side uh may may be potentially beond our beyond our means but we wanted to have a metric that that that had some level of service component and an ability to compare things from an Apples to Apples and then during the negotiation you know we we can you know make some tweaks uh but it it was an ability to kind of level Set uh our RFP uh to to to be able to compare so um your points fully uh well accepted and certainly duly noted uh thank you Mr manager and I'm prepared to vote uh yes so thank you for all the work you and staff put into this thank you commission Cory and uh lean sorry commissioner Cory and Kaaya any questions or comments the record no I mean I I I was curious to hear a little bit more um from the vendor and maybe even uh to some extent how we plan to get adoption from residents being that they already have adopted this existing platform and I know we might be able to leverage uh Metro connect and Uber to spread the word as well as our app but just curious about that too since I think that'll be a transitionary period for us to be able to get people using a new system yeah so we have we have Mr Loria here on online happy to recognize him to address that question and I I would Mr Lori and one of my concerns in evaluating the responses is obviously for has had a pretty successful engagement moving Transit Riders within South Miami to points of interest Last Mile connectivity into our town center and has over time given its presence in the market for a while kind of built up some brand recognition so what I mean to to build on commissioner uh Corey's question what kind of things from a marketing perspective should we be thinking of proactively to make sure that we encourage adoption and utilization yes yeah absolutely and first of all thank you for having me here tonight uh City commission mayor city manager um very excited to be here to to talk more about uh the service so in terms of communicating uh the the new platform to Riders and ensuring um you know the community and folks inside and outside of South Miami are adopting uh the new platform uh there's like really quite a few things um our proposal includes full ryer marketing and Community engagement support um so we have have experienced from hundreds of of various microtransit deployments where we will be both within the community um presenting at uh senior Towers libraries events to get word out about the service but also having a really robust digital Rider acquisition uh approach um we've done this very successfully for over 10 years now making sure that we're using both iners and digital um means to spread awareness and make sure folks understand the service available and in addition to that these teams are going to work really closely with the city to see where we can collaborate to get the word out further on City uh assets and City websites and then social media channels so we'll work very closely with you both in digital and physical Realms to to make sure that folks are learning about the service Mr Cory any any followup questions for Mr laua no thank you very much for your answer absolutely commissioner Kay do you have anything you would like to add or questions for the vendor staff no mayor this has been a long process we've gone through this in great detail uh I think we're just eager to see how the contract goes so we can finalize that and get down to the nitty greeting so I'm good that I'll understand moess I'll move the motion what it's a public hearing oh it's a public hearing oh sorry it's a public hearing item so is there any member from the public in Chambers who' like to address this Commission on item 28 there's none anyone seeing no one uh is there anyone online on Zoom no there's no one okay we will then close the public hearing uh we have a motion by commissioner Caye I believe was a second by commissioner leedman is that correct Madam clerk sure a second I think was yes okay uh Madam clerk if you can call the role please thank you you commissioner Cay yes commissioner Cory yes commissioner Leman yes mayor Fernandez yes item passes 4 Z and again thank you to staff uh and all the vendors for their very thoughtful responses and uh so the team ofia we look forward to uh getting down to the nitty gr and and hopefully getting this operational in the words of commissioner K so thank you uh moving on to I believe the last item of the evening which is item 17 Madam clerk if you can read that into the record please yes a resolution authorizing a city manager to engage C creative insurance company for the purchase of health insurance coverage for elg employees and participating retirees for a fiscal year 2024 2025 and approxim premium amount of 1,131 710 thank you madam clerk um colleagues I I I asked to pull this item I'm happy to kind of give you my my initial thoughts and then or if you'd like to start with a staff presentation on the item happy to begin that way as well what what's the commission's preference I was why don't we start with staff um and Deputy manager if you can walk us through the recommendation is commissioner lean leaving us no I'm here okay getting ready okay I like Josh's Madame dep manager you're recognized thank you mayor Mr Mayor uh I'm gonna just give no no I'm just going toad sir my apologies Mr manager Sor not at all sir I'm just going to give a brief overview and certainly hand it over to the deputy manager who's LED this effort along with uh our uh uh broker uh who's there and certainly representative from Curative as well so uh you know this culminates uh a process administrative process to to to seek um our healthc care provider and um you know through this process there are six six quotes I believe that were obtained from different entities I I I will share uh you know globally as a small siiz group um that that may have certain experience uh that that uh may not uh be be financially challenging to some of the to some of the potential uh proposers and companies it is it is challenging you know as a as an employer uh to to create plans uh that that provide the best level of service potentially for for our employees but but ALS Al you know at a most cost effective way and and that is always challenging and and I will say that the ultimate goal here is to try and develop a relationship with one company that uh that is multi-year and and and that provides that company the ability to to understand that there may be years that may be more challenging and other years that are better and to smooth out that experience uh which I think will will send a good signal to the marketplace and that's certainly certainly my intent uh in this case uh we we had a a proposal it's a little different um and and certainly I think it it it kind of change changes a stake as it relates to healthcare companies and and and putting a little bit of a I'll call it with money with her mouth is uh one of the big features here on this plan uh was certainly the the enticing of having employees participate in a consultation uh that would ultimately uh hope that they would follow up on recommendations uh to try and uh get ahead of issues in case where many employees sometimes withhold seeking care because of cost which end up you know in in more catastrophic type uh events and or costs so as a small employer and having certain experiences that that uh create a challenging environment it is it is even more incumbent upon us to try and look for Partnerships uh that may provide such an element uh whereby our employees are are being proactive in in their uh seeking of healthare and making better Cho choices not only as as employees obviously of their own Healthcare but as consumers and and which affect us ultimately all of us that are part of this plan uh so in this case uh the opportunity before you certainly has a very unique feature uh there is uh there is also uh uh in the marketplace uh Curative is is more new to to Municipal governments if you will and they have some experiences uh but maybe not compared to to Ed peers but I think it's it's really uh hit the market Marketplace from the standpoint of uh this feature uh that may wave deductibles and and copays as a result of this one consultation so I I I want to thank staff and our broker and certainly uh I'll allow allow the deputy manager to give you more context in the process uh for uh how we got here and and and and certain we have our broker USI and and Curative there to to answer any questions that that you may have uh so Madame Deputy if you may please thank you mayor um thank you Mr manager mam de you recognized thank you mayor um so the manager covered most of it the USI is our broker of record they went and solicited quotes from several companies we got three which were competitive um the most competitive came from Curative in several respects um the co-pays being zero if you do complete this Baseline visit um they do have a widely recognized Network um they have 247 virtual care so based on the plan the network the cost savings that are going to come to the city as well as to the employees that have their families and their children or their spouses on the plan that's where the recommendation is um we have in Chambers Kurt Cushing he's a senior VP with USI and Stacy Granger she's a VP with Curative if you have any specific questions for them as well thank you madam manager if you could just by way of background um my understanding is we have to make a decision tonight uh can you explain why we need to elect a plan this evening what what are we dealing with in terms of if if this commission chose to defer this item to September 3rd what would be the consequences of that action so we have our open enrollment coming up next week um it is a semi lengthy process because we need to meet with staff the first phase is meeting with staff letting them know what the new elections are letting them i' like to be on our insurance or not be on insurance letting them know all the changes then on our end in HR it's submitting all of the new carriers in ADP um giving all the information to the new carrier of who's covered which coverages they're receiving so and our uh open enrollment period begins October 1st is when the new coverages would kick in okay so our plan year begins October 1 October 1 that's correct yes okay okay um commissioner if you'll indulge me I have a couple questions and then I'm happy to take if someone would like to be recognized I'm happy to recognize you at any time I I I I know it's been mentioned that six quotes were solicited so I'd like to delve into that process a little bit further understanding it um you know there was one quote that to me that was not solicited Madam manager we talked about that and that is and the only reason I'm aware of it is because we procure uh lines of service coverage from from that from that buying Cooperative or you know uh commercial um and liability and other insurance needs and that's uh PRM is my understanding um you know again what what what would it take for us to solicit a quote from that buying cooperative and would our broker be involved in that process or would they be or would we be going directly to that buying Cooperative to inquire about what healthcare plans they could offer for us that would allow us to purchase maybe at greater scale since we're doing it in conjunction with other cities um we would go directly to PRM for that um we would have to provide them all of our current employees their coverages um they may have to seek uh our our claims experience in order to give us a quote so I'm not sure how long that would take if we did reach out to PRM okay and and and and yeah I just want to understand that's not something our broker would recommend because I'm assuming it's not a buying Cooperative that they typically do business with is my understanding correct I'll refer to the broker correct yeah and then in terms of timelines you know 10 one if sir if you just give me your name and address for the record my apologies KT Cushing and I'm with USI insurance and as far as timelines you know with a 101 renewal there's just not going to be enough time to get that in place no but but beyond the timeline terms in terms of process so so I understand you know where we need to how we need to manage this process on a going forward basis um you know from part of my concern is that last time we were in this posture a year ago this decision kind of came in the same way which is we had to make a deadline by a particular date and we find ourselves with a go or noo decision here with limited information last time however decision about was about the broker that we were procuring since it was a very different model there was a different compensation model that we were using to select a broker here it's a strictly commission uh based compensation model so this commission by virtue of the fact that we're not approving a contract with an expenditure of greater than $5,000 uh and staff has selected the broker we didn't have insight into that decision I understand it's purely administrative but again um as a result the issue kind of comes to us in terms of the election of the plan here at the 11th hour but just so I understand from a process perspective is it customary C as a customary part of your business to solicit quotes from an entity like PRM which is a buying Cooperative available to cities no it's not okay okay so again it's fair to say that it would not be part of your standard process nor would they pay you a commission uh if you were to solicit a quote from them or they just do not operate on that model uh they would they would pay a commission okay okay and and and do have you ever solicited a quote from PRM uh in terms of their group health plans that are available uh I personally have not been involved involved in one of those no okay but USI insurance has okay with the with the manager Indulgence I just like to ask a couple questions about the process for soliciting the six quotes that we did receive so uh and again sorry apologize I don't recall your name so I don't mean to put Mr Cushing if you could just uh explain to this body how you go about selecting the quotes with the process entails because again I'm this is all new to me I'm I'm learning on the Fly here I'm actually going to defer that to my colleague who's on online right now Lisa C she's actually the one who went out and marketed all of your lines of coverage so I'll defer to her thank you Miss Kaz you're recognized thank you for joining us this evening thank you mayor so we went to market with the all the carriers that were available in the market the process consists of sending them a current census um election status and they come back to us give us you know the quote in the market the incumbent carrier had you know their original uh renewal quote which siga gave you a renewal quote and then we went back to see if there was any negotiating room while we at the same time approached Etna United Blue Cross Blue Shield AED and then Curative as well and then from that group at9 United declined to quote AED did give us a quote but it was on the higher side and at the end Curative was the one that gave us the most competitive quote for your group can I ask just in terms of the process when you get a quote from a company like AED do you re-engage them to try to negotiate better rates that did that happen here there documents of us going back and forth with them about plant elements costs ways to refine the plant to get us a better complement of services better co-pays I mean how Dynamic is that process and how often do you engage in those uh exchanges and did we do that in this case yes so this process took in excess of three almost four weeks um you know we hit the ground running when we finally received the broker of record um which allows us to engage with the carriers um there was back and forth and that's what ultimately ended up in US securing a second year seconde recap plus within that there is there are components I'm sorry that's a second year recap for the Curative uh proposal correct correct that's not common with any you know of the carriers but Curative provided a rate cap where uh at second year and Stacy uh from Curative can explain further where you know your increase would not exceed a certain amount so that negotiation process did take three to four weeks those that declined to quote they're pretty quick to turn around that communication but the the remaining carriers such as you know Blue Cross Blue Shield siga and Curative um came back with additional uh additional discounts and you know remained at a certain price point um after several weeks of communication so we feel like we ended up with a final result that would you know s stay on point it would not move from from the pricing where we are right now thank you for that clarification colleagues I have a series of other questions but I don't want to dominate the conversation does anyone have anything they'd like to inquire about or ADD no mayor you can proceed I mean we' I've asked all these questions during our our management uh updated review and and passed around uh different colleagues and different Physicians on different questions that we had so I'll let you finish your questions and then we can sise on our side Mr Mayor yes sir yeah I just I just want to kind of just chime in a little bit on the on the process uh uh given you know my uh uh participation in in multiple local governments uh this is really very typical process uh and and and you know the Journey of getting to where we are is very typical from the standpoint of how local government chip I I don't interrupt but I I understand all that we've talked about it I I'm what I'm what I'm I just want to be clear about something no I know you're trying to explain I know you're trying to explain but I I'll let you close with that if you if you don't mind I just want to finish my questions and and get through them and again I don't you know kind of tend to be disrespectful I just want to I want to get to this convention for the first time in two days if at all possible later this evening but I I also want to kind of get these I I want to get these questions put on the record and hopefully answered later I we'll have to take an action tonight so in terms of um in terms of the in terms of the what I what I'm what I what I what I'm concerned about making this decision and what troubles me is one two things obviously new entance to markets we're recommending borrowing a network from another another um another plan that declined to declin to bid we did not get a quote from PRM which would put us in a category of being in a group of more than 100 employees which I'm understanding from all the discussions I've had would probably help us with our pricing and plan elements uh and and since we switched models in terms of the broker broker compensation model what I don't understand as a part of this analysis is how the compensation model works for the broker with the plan my my assumption is the plan pays the commission I don't know if those plans pay commissions at the same rate uh whether they pay any sort of bonuses to incentivize Brokers to bring you know uh you know as my doctor told me who kind of gave me a primer on this stuff you know more more uh belly buttons you know to the plan you know um so I I I would like to understand you know so I can make a fully informed decision what is the commission structure offered uh by each of these plans what bonuses were offered whether any of these carriers uh that either bid or declined to bid did not offer bonuses to the to our broker again so full transparency for our benefit in the decision- making and the public um I have I have an understanding of that so I don't know if Mr Mrs kalaria or um or Mr um I'm sorry Mr kers cursing Cushing could actually elaborate and answer those questions I'm sorry Mr manager I just wanted to get to this point yeah I was just trying to clarify something that was stated that that made it seem like this process was not typical so I just want to no it's I I think it's a very typical process I'm just you know I have my reservations about it not withstanding yeah so no bonuses were paid out or are being uh promised to USI and the commission range is standard it's between five and six% from each carrier okay so no no bonuses by any none of the plans that responded pay uh the broker any bonuses for uh placement of the plan so it's strictly you get a Comm based on the value of the premium which my understand is that the applicable rate is 6% between 5 and 6% correct because my my understanding speaking to people in the marketplace is that there are bonuses being offered by the new plan entrance and others that are established players in the market for uh bringing business to um bringing business from any client private or public to those plans so that understanding is incorrect or at least not not true in this case is that what you're saying correct it's not true in this case okay and so and we can get written confirmation from USI as to what they are paid with uh validation of that fact again I just want to make sure that we're being transparent about the commission structure so I can walk away this with a with a sound mind uh and you know and with full information so if we can get your confirmation on that I would appreciate it yes we can get you disclosure all the fees and again there is no bonuses paid we have ctive here in the room if anything uh uh with your previous broker you guys had a gap insurance policy in place and um if I recall Le U keep me honest on that one I believe it was a 20% commission that completely goes away and you're looking at probably about a savings of $40,000 that goes I understood and I it's again not a not one that was well understood in the marketplace no well received by by the providers I had a lot of um experience with it uh last year due to some issues in our family but so um I'm glad to see that element go away um that is all I had by way of questions or comments um colleagues uh if you have none I'm happy to entertain a motion and Mr manager I'm going to give you the opportunity to close since you wanted to make some comments before and I I I somewhat rudely interrupted you my apologies no thanks uh no need okay again and I'm not I I want to be clear for the benefit of the public and staff again I I I take no issue with the process here it's just um different than last year we have uh a very limited window into it and and my concern Mr manager you you my concern has been historically I think this is the third plan that I've interacted with in my brief tenure just under two years here with the city and so my concern for our employees is about um disruption right and consistency in terms of being able access providers uh and whatnot so my desire longterm is to have a a relationship ship uh with a carrier where we are not you know jumping to the you know the jumping from one one one plan to the other um one other question I forgot to answer is can you I I didn't look at this in detail if uh miss gelia or or Mr cushion can explain in terms of Pharmacy benefits are we able to because that's another source of potential disruption Beyond providers which I know that and speaking with staff they vetted pretty closely that uh basic you know key providers for um our current plan and the plan that we're proposed or recommended to contract with are are roughly equivalent um in terms of far Pharmacy benefits will we have access to the Full Slate of providers um you know CVS Walgreens Publix uh mail you know access to mail prescription deliveries because I do know that some plans have relationships that are exclusive to some uh pbms or own a PBM so if you if you could clarify that point for me I'd appreciate it I'll defer to Stacy from Curative to answer that question but Publix is the uh you know the pharmacy to fill in prescriptions and they do have mailin orders but she can clarify further good evening everyone thank you for having me here I'm Stacy Granger and um I work for Curative um regarding Pharmacy benefits I'm Curative here in the State of Florida selected as exclusive Pharmacy B vendor for retail if members are outside of the state or traveling we do have access to a national Pharmacy Network and then we also do next day delivery from Curative pharmacies we have a Curative Pharmacy open today in Tampa and we also are opening one in Fort Lauderdale so they will also be able to do some Same Day deliveries within a radius from the Fort Lauderdale location but Publix is really our main Retail Pharmacy here in state of Florida okay so we would only be able to access Pharmacy benefits brick and mortar at publ locations I guess anywhere in the Southeast other than that our plan and rolies would have to uh resort to utilizing your um next day delivery or or or mail service is that correct that is correct okay um last question I you know one of the novel um parts of your plan is obviously the medical concierge and Clinic I guess I guess initial intake um and then obviously the rather punitive uh default should you fail to um make the 120 day Mark U but that also provides a pretty deep window into people's uh medical history which is pretty atypical for a plan um so you're collecting a lot of data up front um to um the representative for Curative uh does your business model contemplate the resale of that data uh collected from those interviews the the data that we're using is really to help folks um engage in our disease management programs it's not to be sold and it is also completely confidential the employer does not know what's discussed during that um Baseline visit welcome onboarding visit that each member will have it will be held completely confidential and it's really a designed again to help make sure members are adhering to the medication that they're doing preventative screenings as appropriate with their AG sex demographics really to help them if they should have one so we are really looking to connect and help our members engage in their help okay but but is there is there no resale of any of that information that's collected I'm not any resale whatsoever okay I I'd love to get that confirmation and writing from cative please so uh with that colleagues I'm happy to entertain any further questions uh of Staff or our broker or the prospective vendor if not I'm happy to hear a motion on the item uh just quickly um Mr Mayor I Just Want to Thank You Mr Mayor city manager Deputy city manager all of her staff and it may have seemed a little contentious but really everyone's just doing what they're what they're charged with doing which is looking out for the benefit the health right of of all of our of our team our city employees so just want to thank everyone for the conversation and all the uh due diligence that you know behind the scenes and I'm I'm prepared to vote May I'll is there a motion mayor I'll move the motion second is there a okay so have a motion by commissioner c as second by commissioner Corey uh Madame clerk if you can call the vote Yes excuse me commissioner Cay yes commissioner Corey yes commissioner Leman yes mayor Fernandez I'm I'm going to vote Yes and I just want to say this is a leap of faith um and a vote of confidence of my manager and our deputy manager's recommendation I so yes okay IEM passes 4 zero thank you for everyone um Adam clerk is there any further business in front of the council nope commission then we stand a journ thank you everyone have a good evening e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 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