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Home My WebLink AboutMinutesLORI BILBERRY: Today is June 6, 2005 and we are conducting the Election Committee Meeting; for the property, city(?) and property at 236 SW North River Drive. Today we are having the respondents come in as follow-up to our last meeting where they are going to each give a l0-minute presentation followed by ; 0 minutes of questions and answers. I strongly recommend that you adhere to the schedule, we do have -a timer. If you do give anybody more time or less time — well, obviously if they on their own choose use less time it is their option — but if you give them more time, you will have to treat everyone equally. We also have had somebody express that they may want to sit in on another person's presentation. This is a public meeting, this is not a public hearing, so just for the record and so you know, yes they do have the right to sit in but they are not allowed to be making comments or asking their own questions of than on anything. If they are out of hand or out of mind, we do have a gentleman here, a Sergeant of Arms, that can escort them out of thee room if necessary. Q: The other applicants send notice and also consider ? LORI BILBERRY: Yes, they were informed by mail and by e-mail on Friday. Just for the record, let's go around the room on who we have here. I am Lori Bilberry with Economic Development; Judy ? Economic Development; Andy Parrish, 145 Grand Avenue is my office; Stuart Larry , City of Miami; , City I-Ialf; Emilio We previously e-mail to all the schedule of the presentations. The first one is by Emily(?) Yacht and Ship Management which was to commence at 1:10. It is already 1 : 15 and are already five minutes behind schedule. JUDITII (?) (?): They said that they initially that they would not have, that the principal was going to be out of town so that they did not think they would have anybody. LORI BILBERRY: So you can take that into consideration when you do their evaluations. We'll have to base it on the proposal itself. Our second first proposer is Casablanca Fish Market. They are scheduled for 1:30. I believe they are out there but if they are not, 1 did see Mr, Garcia and Mr. Prieguez, so I am, do you want to see if Casablanca is out there and if they are ready to corne in, 'cause we are a couple of minutes early. 1 am going to put the tape recorder on pause. We area going to recess for a minute while we are waiting for the 1:30 time to come up at which time it will be the Garcias' turn to come in here and we'll start with Casablanca. JUDITH (?) was contacting some of the references that were included in their packages and I would just like her to go through for those that she was able to get a hold of somebody, maybe also tell them what kind of questions you were asking 'cause we were trying to be consistent in the types of questions that they were all being asked. JUDITH (?): The questions that they were being asked were in what capacity did they know or meet the proposers; how long they have known them; if they are successful in their business; what are their strengths and weaknesses and foIlow-up questions depending on what their business relationship was. With Emerald Yacht and Ship Management, Inc., they gave three references, I was able to get in contact with two of them. One of the references was Scott Shaffer from & Son. They ]ease space from him and he has known them for a year. He said that time and they have a successful business. He thinks that their strengths are leasing boats and did not indicate any weakness in their business. 1 was unable to get in contact with the reference from the . Skipper Liner Industry was the second reference. I spoke to Dan Nelson. He said that James Campel(?), who is the principal in the proposal for Emerald Yachts, that he leases one of the skipper line boats in Fort Lauderdale. Skipper Line is a company based out of Wisconsin. The reference said that Mr. Campel always pays on time and that what Skipper Line does spontaneous site visits to the boat, the boat is always maintained in perfect condition. He also said that James Campel has leased as a boat tenant for about 9 to 10 years and he thinks that James Campel is successful in his own business since from from the fact he pays on time. He did not indicate any weaknesses. For Casablanca, Casablanca Fish Market they gave four references. 1 was able to contact three of the four. The first reference I contacted was Gordon & Company. Nicholas , He said he has known them since 1999. He sells, Casablanca Fish Market Jorge and Lazaro Sanchez fish and they resell the fish. He indicated that they run a successful business. Ile said their strength is that they are consistent, that they run business -like, they pay bills quick and they take care of any problems as they arise and that they are good people. He said there are no weaknesses, they are good people. He also said that when he moved into town, when Nicholas moved into town, the Sanchez's gave them a shot, that they may not he the biggest fish company, it is a lower -tier company but that he wouldn't give them up — Nicholas said he wouldn't give them up because they are loyal and they pay on time. He said that they are very responsive to complaints — if there is a problem, they take care of everything nght away. The second reference to Casablanca was Juan Roca (?). Mr. Roca says he sells fish to the Sanchez's as a commercial fisherman, He has known them since 1980, His relationship is limited to selling them fish. He thinks they run a successful business and they've had .he said they have a great business, they are great people and they buy and sell fish. He said they are good salesmen and good buyers and they treat fisherman well, They always pay on time — as soon as he gives them fish, they pay. They have no complaints and says that everybody wants to sell to them, The third reference that I did contact for Casablanca was El Riglano(?) Seafood Corp. The person unfortunately spoke limited English. 1 was unable to get as much information as I could from her, She did say that she has done business with them since 1994 and they sell and buy fish to them. They import the fish and then they buy from them, She also helps them sell fish to her customers or if she wants to move fish to suppliers, she makes deliveries. She indicated that this company, Casablanca, probably lost money because the parking at their new location is bad. She says they run a successful business but lost a lot of money because of that problem. Unfortunately, I was going to ask more questions but since she said her English is limited, so I couldn't proceed, For the Garcias, Garcia Brothers Wholesale, I spoke to three references. The first one was Florida Fresh Seafood, Carlos Oliver. He said he has been doing business with the { Garcias since they opened in 1985, and that the Garcia family has been in business for many years and they opened a restaurant, that the whole family has been doing business since that time, 1985, and they have different business that resell and wholesale seafood, that they are good customers, they are successful, their business looks okay, they always pay on time and he has never had problems with them, He does not sec any weaknesses in their business but he also said it is hard for him to decipher how successful they've been, because he doesn't see their financial books, but from his standpoint they are doing okay. Apart from doing business with them, the family arc his friends and he has a good friendly relationship with them. Catamaran (S?) Seafood was the second Garcia reference. 1 spoke to Perreia(?). She has known them for 20 years. She has a business relationship and also friendship with them. The friendship came into play after some years of doing business with thern. She says she sells them different types of fish, mussels, , salmon and other types for their restaurant, so the seafood business basically. She say they pay on time, they are excellent in paying. She has never had any problems with them all these years and she thinks they do well in their business. She does not know their financial situation but she says they do well in their business and.as far as being paid, there are no return checks or anything of that nature. She says their strengths are that they are well known in the Miami area for their excellent food -• no weaknesses that she knows of. (BACKGROUND CONVERSATION NOT ABLE TO CAPTURE MOST) MANNY PRIEGUEZ('?) Can 1 ask a question? allow for other hand- written material to he presented to the panel? (?): we are going to wait to get there. When everybody was here we kind of went over the rules .. ... . carve in here. This is a public meeting and only the proposers are going to he speaking at the tune of making presentations to the Committee. Anyone can sit in but you cannot be provided feedback or give your co.mmerits or ask your own questions and if any of that does occur then you will be asked to ........... . ..........'cause it would be disruptive. Everything is basically supposed to he ............................there can't be changes for a proposal at the time, it is based only on that proposal, MANNY PRIFGIJEZ(?): So no official written materials can be presented at this time? (?): Unless is in keeping with your original proposal., 1 would say no. MANNY PRILGUEZ(?): Who can make that judgment befnre entering anything? ('?): Are you a part ofa presentation? MANNY PR[EGUEZ(?): No, 1 am assuming that when you made the written proposal that everything should have been in there. i am watching outside that my, one of my competitors has an extensive portfolio of new things or maybe there are to elaborate further on what they originally put en their original written proposal, but it is illy presumption that all petitions rind all presentations anti all prescIltations arc not supposed to be in of Iha written nlatcrid1 .. ('?): Sometimes people . .. . in a presentation, that's why you...... ...... ..: ... ....... ....... ........ ..... their b-ringing. ]1 sonlenne is bringing a book for this Committee to read, 1 would recommend it to them, that no, That would not he part of the original proposal. MANNY PRLEGUEZ(?): Good. (?): But yowl are speculating on what that is right now, so we don't know what that document nay be so when they anakc (hair presentation we will entertain .... .... (?): We are just finishing the references right now. JUDITH (?): The third reference for Garcia was Carlos Seafood. The name originally given was Carlos but I guess it is Carlos Seafood. I spoke to Lily and she said that she has been doing business with Garcia for 30 years, They've purchased fish and lobster, mainly lobster s from them and sold lobsters to them. She buys lobsters and puts them up. For inventory and sometimes if they haven't any fish up in their inventory during the off seasons, they can buy fish from her. They pay on time. She hasn't had any problems with them. Their strength is that they are good people and she said there are only a few good old people still around and that is them. She said they are very strong, she says they, pay bills on tine and she hasn't had any problem during the years. No weaknesses. They have a successful business. Miami River Lobster, he submitted four references, unfortunately two of them were out of the country, I think it was France, there were two foreign ones, and of the two local ones in the United States, I was able to contact one. However, he did have some letters of reference inside the proposal that you can take a look at and actually he had three letters in the proposal. One was from Amanda Schultz, and I spoke from a principal from Amanda Schultz. The other person I was able to get in contact with lives in California and Casa Guancho, Jose , the letter is inside the proposal and also Jacques from France, there is a letter inside the proposal also. Do you want me to read them then? LORI BILBERRY: No, 'cause they have the package, but can you quickly tell them about the one that you were able to get a hold of? JUDITH (?): OK. At Amanda Schultz, I spoke to Terry Schultz, who is a partner for . They are supplier of frozen fish and they have been doing business with them for about five or six years. He said that they are a successful business, they have good quality product, he of the company is that they say what they are going to do and they do it and thinks it is a very outstanding company and if they make a commitment they stick with it. He doesn't remember if he has had any problems with them. FIe feels their strength is that they are honest, they have good quality, they have integrity. Ile said they have performed everything according to their verbal contracts, 'cause he said most of the time in their type of business they deal with verbal contracts and he is not familiar enough with their business to know their weaknesses but he said since their relationship is one of a supplier to customer and from that standpoint he does not feel there arc any weaknesses. (BACKGROUND CONVERSATIONS) LORI BILBERRY: We are just going to do a quick introduction of who we have here. 1 am Lori Bilberry, I am with the City of Miami's Department of Economic Development; Judy of Miami Atlan ; and we have three members of a selection Committee if you please introduce yourselves. Andy, we will start with you. I am Andy Parish properties in Coconut Grove ; Stuart ; Larry , Chief of Strategic Planning The first presenter today is Casablanca. No one showed up from Emily(?) Yacht and Ship Management so we have gone ahead and gone to the second proposer Casablanca. I'll let you all introduce yourselves in a minute. Just wanted to let you know this is a public meeting, this is not a public hearing. This is the time for the proposer to make a 10-minute presentation to the Committee and then the Committee will have 10 minutes on which to ask questions of the proposer, It is not a time, like I said it is not a public hearing, so it is not a time from input from the public. No questions can be asked, no input can be received from the public and if any questions are asked or input or remarks are made, then you will be asked to leave the room. OK, now Casablanca, we will start with you, introduce yourself and your group. We will start our 10 minutes now. DANIEL VEGA: How are you. My name is Daniel Vega, I am an attorney with Carlton Fields and I represent Casablanca. I assisted in the preparation of the proposal and I submitted on behalf of the Company. I want to make five points and I will turn it over to my client and some of his fishermen. (1) Casablanca is a grassroots fishing operation started by two brothers with 25 years of fishing experience and they know what they are doing, essentially that is what I want to convey to you — it is in our proposal. If Casablanca is awarded this bid, first and foremost they are going to be fair to the local fishermen that use the property to store the traps. I want to make that very clear that they are very serious about that about providing fair rates for the rental of the storage facility and land where they store the traps as well as the dock slips(?). 1 will let them speak on that in a second as well. Casablanca also plans on cleaning up the property, we are going to repaint the building, site inspection the building as a better condition that was believed to be in. They are also going to invest approximately $20,000 in landscaping hoping to provide a curtain outside the property to shield the traps from the drivers that pass by the drive; install sod where necessary, paint and clean. One point that I think it is really important is that they plan to really maximize the use of the property and what I mean by that they are going to organize the traps and the storage in such a manner that it will be able to provide as much space available for as many local fishermen as possible. There seems to be some confusion there as to how much space is available and there could be room for more. All and all that goes on to support their theme in the proposal which is that as can be attested by some of these folks here, that there is a choke hold on the fishing industry in Miami. There's a lot of bullying that goes on and these fishermen really sometimes don't have a place to tum to. I will now get to my final point that there is one proposer who already controls three of the four of vacant lands for traps is stored in Miami and if that party receives the fourth one, then the fishermen that traps will have no where to go. I think that by providing for somebody else, whether is Casablanca or somebody else to have that property, it will in essence allow some competition to be had between the folks that control the land for storage rates that are charged so that the fisherman are not choked(?) and simply have no where else to go. Mr. Roca (?) is a local fisherman and I wanted him to allow him to speak for a moment about his experience and relationship with Casablanca. LORI BILBERRY: Is he part of the proposal though? DANIEL VEGA: He is one of the references. You called and spoke to him. LORI BILBERRY: Yes I did but I mean 1 the proposer was to make a Committee, I mean excuse me, make a presentation to the Committee. 1 will defer to the Committee's call if you want to hear from Mr. Roca or do you want to only hear from the proposer If you want to eat into your l0 minutes, that is also your call. If he is going to be part of your 10 minutes. COMMITTEE: I personally don't have any objection to hearing from any of the references if they were part of the presentation. (LOTS OF BACKGROUND CONVERSATIONS NOT CAPTURED) DANIEL VEGA: To ask you a question, we have one person here that is under references — Mr. Roca and they I will turn it over to Mr. Sanchez — it is only one person, LORI BILBERRY: You are 6 minutes and 16 seconds so far. JUAN ROCA: My name is Juan Roca, 1 am commercial fisherman and I have been doing business with Lazaro for 14 years and I will for if they should get the place and if you let every fisherman decide where to sell the fish, they will say Casablanca, believe me. Some people are afraid to say it because they dock someplace else and and if they say something about the don't have storage for their traps. If they get that place, a lot of fishermen are going to be very happy. DANIEL VEGA: Since it was not a reference, I am not going to impose it, but another person was here to speak and if you'd like to hear from him, it will take a minute. PANEL MEMBER: (UNABLE TO CAPTURE — TOO MANY SPEAKING AT THE SAME TIME) DANIEL VEGA: Just to close, I tried to capture in the proposal what Casablanca intends to do it and the theme is treat the fishermen as fair as possible and to maximize the use of the land, to charge them reasonable rates, with the purpose of continuing the fishing industry locally and not destroying , not monopolizing, for lack of a better word. So, that is essentially it, that's the proposal. I think everything is contained in the letter. I think if you award the bid to Casablanca you'll have a company that will treat the local fisherman fair, it will do improvements to the property, we are going to try to provide a safe haven for the fisherman to store the traps and obviously going to to the City as much as it is to the local fishing industry. Thank you. LORI BILBERRY: So we are going to stop the clock on the presentation and will now begin 10 minutes of the question and answer period. We will start the 10 minutes. Anyone in the Committee have any questions. COMMITTEE: The majority of the proposals are all intending to take care of the local fishennen, so that's standard in all these proposals, but what you are doing is you are offering an annual fee to the City and understand that you will put $20,000 in upgrading the property but how do you create more revenue and this is that's not a lot revenue - $2,000 a year, that's nothing. CASABLANCA: $2,000 a month. COMMITTEE: But how do you I think you got to do better than that. CASABLANCA: If 1, I know, the thing is that you get this request in and you look at it and analyze it and you really have no basis to factor in how much to suggest as the rent. COMMITTEE: But everybody has the same problem. CASABLANCA: Except for the person that is already there 'cause he already knows what he is paying. Unfortunately we did not know that information. But the bottom line is that 1 actually, and this may be improper to mention to you, I am not sure what the rules are but I sent you an e-mail asking if we could revise or and I didn't get a response back, LORI BILBERRY: We cannot allow changes to the proposal at this time. CASABLANCA: OK. All I can say to that and just taking it on a fly here is that 1 am not sure what the standpoint of the criteria is for renegotiating this award but if that is an option, we are certainly willing to listen and to do something to that affect. At the same time I think I guess I can play with the proposal that we had in mind for the LORI BILBERRY: They cannot factor that into their weigh when they go to evaluate you. You can tell them what you want but they cannot factor that in. CASABLANCA: In onsite, what would probably be a great idea which will also benefit the fishermen, Casablanca and the City is to provide a minimum rental on a monthly basis and then a percentage of any amount over that rental for the City and in that way it benefits the fishermen who come in and store the traps, it benefits Casablanca and it benefits the City in that you are also sharing in whatever excess revenue there is. Unfortunately, we did not put that in it. If the client is awarded what we just discussed, being negotiated, it is a month to month contract. COMMITTEE: I understand that the Miami River is being developed and I think that the development aspect of it is going to require additional revenue from everybody and in every angle, so I like what you are doing and I like all your people but I don't think this is strong enough right now. It is my personal opinion. CASABLANCA: Can I ask a question. COMMITTEE: You may. CASABLANCA: Is there other members that are missing. LORI BILBERRY: from the Committee? Yes. COMMITTEE: Can you, I mean you put a lot of emphasis on the fact that you want to help the local fishermen in what you innovate as not a successful marketplace. In other words, a lot of fishermen don't have a lot of opportunities to go elsewhere if . Can you elaborate on that a little bit. CASABLANCA: The way I understand it, Sir is that there are four pieces of property on the River where traps are . Three of those are controlled by one person. It is really difficult for our fishermen to take its traps traps and take them home and bring them back. So a storing facility is almost like a prerequisite to even conducting your business, and if only one person controls all four, then that person has a strangle hold on the fishermen. That is essentially the point. COMMITTEE: OK. I understand. COMMITTEE: that, those three . How long have they had CASABLANCA: 1f in fact, that is a good point. If in fact they are competitively bid though. The City I think also has to look out for the fishermen, and not just rent, because essentially no one is going to provide fish. They'Il go to our place, and they go to Joe's, they go to different restaurants, even the Garcias and those people, they are not going to want to buy the fish, but you have to keep it in the back of your mind as well when you are determining who to award this. It's not just about rent. I think that is important but you also have to look out for the local fishermen if you award the contract to one party that controls three of the available four lots and gets the fourth one, CASABLANCA: Has your client's company had any violations of state, federal or local regulations with regards to the fishing industry or business licenses or anything of that nature. CASABLANCA: I don't think so. — No, not at all. LORI BILBERRY: More questions? CASABLANCA: All these major bidders have all been in business for at least 25 years, so it is not likely you are not going to block them. I think that what may distinguish my clients is that they were fishermen. That is the way they started. Two brothers who began fishing and they know the industry's in and out. I am not sure the others . They may be also, but I know these gentlemen personally and I thought today that there is obviously a lot of comradery and loyalty towards Casablanca because of the way they treat the fishermen. I can give you specifics if you like but I think generally that's the theme. Thank you very much. LORI BILBERRY: Thank you very much. We are going to pause for a second so if anyone wants to leave the room. CASABLANCA: We can stay in? COMMITTEE: Certainly. LORI BILBERRY: OK. So our next proposer is the Garcia Brother's Wholesale. GARCIAS: My name is Esteban Garcia, this is my brother Luis Garcia, and this is our in-house attorney I have some packages. LORI BILBERRY: I am going to caution the Committee that if this is anything that is new information that you may not be able to take it into consideration. I don't know what in this so. COMMITTEE: That's photographs isn't it? GARCIAS: Yes, some of them are pictures. LORI BILBERRY: Just photos, yeah. GARCIAS: Photos and actually this is literature stacking up our proposal. LORI BILBERRY: Special licenses and things like that? GARCIAS: All things are up to date. Everything that is in effect. Just to kind of give the company background, history and show that everything is up to date. These all pertain to our business These pictures there is something that I don't know if you want me to go ahead and give them out...., Those two are not pictures, I just wanted to inform them, !f you want me to take them out I will take them out, LORI BILBERRY : Yes, 1 mean I don't think that is relevant to your proposal. GARCIAS: Can I make a recommendation? Perhaps you can take a look at those after the meeting day. LORI BILBERRY: We are asking the Committee to review today so that is why I want to see what is in here to see if they may need more time and that is the case but that is why I want to look at what is in here `cause a lot of is if its for the record right now, I am still reviewing, but a lot of is just considering the public record. GARCIA.S: Also one reason why we put together these packets was my brother has actually sat in a Committee very similar for other businesses where they presented packets , so we had no idea the situation was such that that wasn't allowed. LORI BILBERRY: There are certain things in here that I don't see as relevant to your proposal today. GARCIAS: You are welcome to take out anything you like apart from that is also that in reviewing the proposal, there was one particular proposal a couple of accusations and we thought it would be important and relative to include some of that. It was kind of like something that caught us off guard and we just thought they are accusing us of a couple of things here and It is all public record LORI BILBERRY: If it is part of your presentation you can address an issue that was in the article...... GARCIAS: Absolutely LORI BILBERRY: Your referencing to this I am not sure. It's hard, I mean once I start taking out certain things that are maybe not relevant to, this is an old RFP and I am not sure of the relevance of why. GARCIAS: This strengthens our argument that we've actually several times in the course of the last 30 years we've actually had had several of these. LORI BILBERRY: That's not for their consideration today, though. They have to limit it to the proposals on hand. GARCIAS: I understand but I am just saying that it strengthens our point of view that we have been working on that property for 30 years as our history of the proposal, LORI BILBERRY: That's not relevant to the past proposal, it is all I am saying. GARCIAS: You can take it out. I just wanted to be included, the main point being that I wanted to show how we had been paying rent on that property for 30 years and have gone through several of these incarnations of different situations with the City and we have weathered the storms several times in the past. PANEL MEMBER(?): What kind of lease have you got now? GARCIAS: Month to month for 30 years. PANEL MEMBER: 30 year lease? GARCIAS: That's correct. Actually I have the actual documents in there. LORI BILBERRY: These are the other proposals. GARCIAS: Yes, this is pubic record, but if you want me to take it out. LORI BILBERRY: What I am suggesting is, is it relating to the bid at all? GARCIAS: Yes, it is....No, I don't think it is relevant to our proposal today but I thought it would play into their decision. LORI BILBERRY: You can certainly bring that up. GARCIAS: OK. These are our references of all of our fishermen and companies that we do business with..,.. LORI BILBERRY: I am going to pass this around and summarize for the record what's in here. There is a copy of a fire safety permit, permits, their occupational license, sales tax certificate, license for retailing, copy of evidence of insurance, information relating to the property taxes that were paid, commercial salt water products license, a different one for a second boat. They've provided this is a public record in the City's records so I am just going to go ahead and let you know what this is, this was a copy of a letter from Donald Stewart back in '75 forwarding him for signature a lease agreement. The lease agreement is not fully executed, it was not executed by the parties. GARCIAS: That is not what the letter says. The letter says it was signed and delivered by . I don't know what happened to those copies. LORI BILBERRY: I have in our records that this is not a fully executed agreement. GARCIAS: OK, but if you read the letter it states that it was, so... LORI BILBERRY: They are asking you to sign it, but this is not on City letterhead and I cannot attest that this is the real letter. If it is not part of what they have to consider, it is not going to be part of what they weigh. There is a copy of a letter from Herb , an Assistant City Manager to those that in was in receipt of those that received the RFP from SW River Drive. This was an RFP that did not go forward with the City. OK, This is a response to it I cannot attest to that. I would recommend to this Committee not to take that into consideration because it is not part of what they need to evaluating on today, This part should not be in here. I don't think these are. The parts of the old Raps are not relevant to this property. GARCIAS: Well that was an appraisal. LORI BILBERRY: It is not an appraisal. It was declaring a property surplus authorizing appraisals, but it is not an appraisal. It is something again that did not take place(?) GARCIAS: But this is done. LORI BILBERRY: But no sale no actions actually ever went forward. GARCIAS: But there was a resolution for that matter. LORI BILBERRY: To declare surplus. But it was never sold, no profits were ever undertaken so it is not appropriate. And regardless, it still has no bearing on your experience or what you were doing on the property or anything of that nature. They also included a copy of an agenda of last July GARCIAS: There was a supplemental agenda that was not given to us as notification. LORI BILBERRY: This was directing the City attorney to seek injuncture relief and determine the month to month tenancy of Garcia Brothers Seafood.. Again that is not part of the proposal before you today. Their existing use is not part of your consideration today. Obviously their experience in what they are doing, that's what you consider. Anything related to your existing occupancy is not for their consideration. That's what they have to evaluate with the proposal use and what your experience is. I will be taking all of this out. And then a copy of their proposal, a copy of Miami River Lobster's proposal which you already, a copy of the financial statements and the various letters of reference that you included, So I will return this to you. GARCIAS: ...,That financial statement is part of another company that we have which is part of our business. We have the Wholesale and then we have the Garcias Seafood Grill. LORI BILBERRY: I will circulate that to the Committee so that they can review it prior to them scoring you and see if they have any questions we are going to start your clock now. GARCIAS ATTORNEY: OK, just really quick because I really want you hear from these fellows, I have a couple of very important points. Obviously you now know that they a lease for 30 years month to month , that they were there, they paid, there has never been an issue about that and importantly they also paid the real estate taxes for all those years. Their proposal while I gather is not the highest, does include a in real estate taxes which I don't believe the other proposals do, This is a substantial amount. A very important factor, it is my understanding that the people I have seen on this process, is that somebody, I don't know if it's you all or somebody else is going to be coming out with a plan within the next year for this whole area, so the question rises why would you think about or why is the City thinking about doing this now and disrupting the situation in the River and this citizen and resident and business if within a year something totally different is going to be done. What is the reason for changing a 30- year successful relationship if within a year something really different is going to be done with this area. That's my understanding of the paperwork and I don't know what the plans are now with the City, and if those are the plans for certainly a very hot area and is alI very exciting why are we rocking the boat on the forefront at this late date. These folks can tell you about their experience and the successful business that they have. I don't think the fishermen issue is an issue and all the fishermen for this business is not the one that controls the other three so this is not going to create a monopoly and that could be a concern. And that is all I want to say, so I will turn it to Luis. You have the Garcia brothers themselves. GARCIAS: First of all thank you for hearing us today. One of the things we wanted to talk about, my brother will talk about is our family. So my brother is the one that will talk about our family history and our business and our perspective that will generate out of that property. I want to discuss a little bit about having reviewed our proposal and having looked up the other proposal I saw that there is a criteria that you have handed to us in that letter saying that it would have it handle in a 35% and 30% I believe it was 35% of the fee, then 35% for the company history and I believe it was 30% for the allotted budget for the improvements of the property. In our proposal we put $5,000 as our monthly fee, we put $75,000 to $100,000 in the improvement budget and we also added to the $5,000 fee 3% of our revenues if it was greater than $5,000 whichever one was greater. Then of course our company history which my brother will talk about. What I did though was that no one other than ourselves was in compliance with that with the criteria, and what I am suggesting is if the criteria has changed since then, then I would like to stress that we knowing that it is a month to month, that perhaps it is in the best interest of the City to have a split $75,0000 to $100,000 of that property considering that there may be other leases in the future with respect to that property, so we thought we have no problem kind of shuffling those numbers because we have a great intend for that property for the fishermen in that property. So if you would just factor half of our budget in our proposal, just half, $50,000 of a $100,000 budget for the improvements, our actual bid would go up to $9,000 to $10,000, We have no problem • with that because we are on that property and we've always paid and we want to continue operating that property, we make wonderful things happen for several families on that property and we have a successful restaurant on the River that benefits greatly from us having that property. We have been there now for 13 I /2 years, my father had been in the business for over 40 years, I think, next year would be 40 years. My father has since passed nine months. My brother and myself and my cousin have taken over the company and we have worked there but now we've assumed responsibility for that and we would like to honor his name. So our concern is that our hid was in direct compliance with the criteria and what I did notice was that that's is not what anyone else did and we are very concerned that perhaps the bids were either misrepresented or misunderstood and we may not have been given the right information. We would like to have any kind of negotiations on that property for a viable business. GARCIAS: I am going to read to you this letter because I'm going to be speeding up on the time. (LETTER READ) If you gtiys want to read I gave you a final scenario of our conclusion for a bid. LORI BILBERRY: Is it the same of what was in your proposal? GARCIAS: It just reiterates what we've just said out loud. You can read ifyou want. It is the exact same information, LORI BILBERRY: Again I caution the Committee you cannot doctor what was in the proposal. This does suggest some changes to the proposal. During any negotiation of any agreement, it can, things can be negotiated but they still must be based on your, your evaluation must be based on the proposal, GARCIAS: Is that directly with the criteria on the proposal, 'cause that is what we based our proposal on the criteria that was shipped to us. LORI BILBERRY: Right, everybody was asked to give in the RFO line, they were asked to give certain items. People were also given an opportunity to ask questions if they had any confusion. Nobody asked questions related to this issue, GARCIAS: We weren't confused. LORI BILBERRY: OK, so you've elected to make certain decisions in making your proposal and that is what the Committee needs to evaluate. GARCIAS: I just want to make sure that you understand the only reason why we did it the way we did it was because of set criteria, not because we didn't feel that we had strong . We just bid on the criteria. LORI BILBERRY: The criteria? COMMITTEE: What is it that you are concerned about, GARCIAS: I am concerned that it is going to go to a higher bidder because the number was higher and in essence it was done because of the format that was given to us, I am very concerned that this is just going to go because of the revenues that we mentioned earlier in the first proposal and how we generate business on that property which is the best revenue for the City. We understand the bottom line. LORI BILBERRY: And the Committee will evaluate, like you said, part of the criteria was for boat use and improvement, so when they start assigning their points, they will assign it based on what they knew is in the proposal. You may be stronger on one point and somebody else may be stronger on another point but that is what they will be evaluating the proposals on. GARCIAS: I appreciate it. LORI BILBERRY: We need to start the clock for the Question and Answer. COMMITTEE: Question for you LORI BILBERRY. The gentlemen said the other bids were not in compliance. Did you review the other bids for compliance and did you find them in compliance. LORI BILBERRY: Yes. I mean some people may have elected not to do certain things, such as the example he gave where certain people did not propose to do certain improvements, but they responded saying we are not going to do this, that will be part of your consideration. COMMITTEE: So on the, I didn't notice you had this Riverside park proposal in your proposal. So are you saying that even though this is going to be month to month lease of an undetermined time, then you will still embark on the Riverside park, or how would you, what improvements would you make for sure and where would you go with that? GARCIAS: I am not sure I understand if, are you saying if we invested the $ l 00,000 into the property anyway? I think my brother has plans to do that, yes, GARCIAS: Well, as aforementioned, the property itself is in an array of disorganization because of the condition that we have that we are basically sold in 30 days. The aspect of our scenario might be in 30 days from now, you know, the purpose of this presentation was for us to solidify that we want to stay in the property as managing partner with the City of Miami and we would do anything and in any intentions to compromise with the City for us to be able to stay in that property. We have been honest working diligent businessmen for 30 years, our family came from Cuba and this was our sole source of income. They showed us how to be good straight forward gentlemen and good businessmen, we have a successful restaurant in the Miami River, we have been there for 12 1/2 years, and it speaks for itself that our products are necessary for our company to keep being a viable entity here in South Florida, Now, with that said, we took into consideration what our numbers could be, but we certainly don't want to drop $10,000 every month without even getting $5,000 back, So something in the scenario where it would be affordable, we would say, well, we'll risk taking $5,000 from our other business to put into this business so that we can go ahead and solidify our into our property. We put our improvements in there to factor in what does the City wants us to do, Tell us what you want to do. We'll do it, Pay for a parking lot? You want to organize traps in a better way? We'll organize traps in a better way, but you have to give us some solidification of how long we are going to he here. COMMITTEE: The way the RFP went out, it was always very clear that this was going to be a month to month lease because of Miami 21 and , so I'm having trouble understanding why you think you were misled when it was clear that it was a month to month, GARCIAS: No, no, no, that is not what we said. I don't think we were misled, I completely understand, it just seems ironic that they were asking us, they didn't negotiate with us, they didn't ask us if we wanted to continue our business, they just said, we are going to bid it out through an RFP and oh, by the way, it is going to be month to month again. It seemed a little ironic considering that anyone that comes in there is on the same irrevocable license agreement that we are in now, They didn't take any consideration into the fact that we have been on time and paying there for 30 years under the situation that is going to be.. GARCIAS: We've also paid property taxes an the property for the last 13 years 'cause the City said that we had to pay our taxes. In the beginning it was $3,000/$5,000/$7,000 but as of 2001 our property values have gone from $9,000 to $18,000 to $20,000 and I was able last year to hire somebody, a property tax appraiser, to lower our taxes because of the condition the property is in, with the kind of formula that they put in our business plan in and they were able to drop it to $13,000. GARCIAS: But to answer your question, we would do anything that the City would want us to do to improve that property and of course we would do the necessary improvements to bring it up to par if we were to get this. COMMITTEE: Two questions quickly. Have you had any violations or state, federal or local laws or in fishing GARCIAS: Before we answer that question, I would have to discuss that with my attorney first because there were several things that were brought up in other people's proposals that were in direct conflict and if someone like, it kind of attacked my father's honor and it kind of bothered me a little bit and I am not sure how to handle it, but to answer your question, 1 would really like to consult with her before I answer your question. COMMITTEE: All right, but you can answer this question. What have been your gross revenues for the last three years on this business? GARCIAS: Our business has been about $500,000. COMMITTEE: A year? GARCIAS: Yes, but that is not to say that we have the other business which is our seafood restaurant and basically our revenues there are about $2.5 million. Now we only wholesale out of that business. We do not do anything particular to retail. We have a retail license. We want to furnish(?) our retail experience there but we've had certain conditions and certain problems with our family history in the last couple years but we've about to attain(?) our targeted into the restaurant and basically the wholesaler. There is a lot of competition in being a wholesaler. And money out in the street is not money in your pocket. GARCIAS: By the way, I'd also like to second the notion that it would be very difficult to have the monopoly on the River for our businesses. It would be difficult for everyone that stands to benefit from having a competition. So we definitely agree with. COIIIMITTEE: One of the things(?) in your proposal that I like a lot is that you are tied into the Miami River's Jewish Program and I think that as Andy just mentioned this Miami 21 is critical to what is going to happen to the geographical area in the City of Miami, so that's a little for you a11. Second of all, the investment of $75,000 to $100,000 is a major risk on your part 'cause you don't know what the City is going to do from day to day and I think that's unfair to tell you the truth, that you put in al] that money in and not the proposal, but it is unfair to make you, and I am sure you will do it and I think it can all work out in the long run. And then when I look at the 3% which you are actually, that you can, you'll pay $5,000 or 3%, I think your revenue is probably going to exceed whatever number it takes to exceed $5,000 plus you are paying all the taxes. So, you've been there 30 years already. See I am not going to want the property inside to look at all the cats and dogs and everything walking around on the property and it is well organized and you've taken good care of that property, and I am impressed that you want help to save the Miami's Jewish Program and I like the Miami River , I am a retired navy seal captain and I appreciate small operating businesses and boats and things like that, I've lived my life for 26 years in small boats and I like what I saw today and I just like the whole thing. So, I am not you or anything but I was impressed with what you want to do for this City, 'Cause now this man works hard for the City and I do too. I am working on the Miami , so you are right on target. GARCIAS: I was also a City of Miami employee. I worked for the Mayor's office for a couple of times and I worked for Community Development, and I have always envisioned myself as being part of the River and being part of this community. My father loved the ocean and traveled across it to be free in the ocean(?) and I myself I want to continue this legacy and continue to work for the City in making negotiations and amends, and make sure that our tourists know what we have and our products speak for itself, you can come to our Garcias Seafood Grill at anytime at any given day and I can tell you that you will not have a bad meal at Garcias. PANEL MEMBER: I haven't been there but I will go and take a look at it. But anyways, I've read all of them and is greater than yours as far as the revenue additionally(?) but it doesn't meet the criteria that I think the Mayor of the City of Miami wants right now, the enhancement of the River, and that is where we are going. LORI BILBERRY: We're down to one minute basically on questions and answers if anyone has any? PANEL MEMBER: So, you said your gross in revenues for this part of the business are about $500,000? GARCIAS: Yes sir. PANEL MEMBER: So 3% of that would be... GARCIAS: Well, we wouldn't take it at 3% of that. Remember, we are talking about gross wholesale volume, we are not talking about... PANEL MEMBER: So 3% of your net. GARCIAS: So 3% of your net. GARCIAS: No, 3% of our gross volume and the continuing four (?) more years. PANEL MEMBER: So you said 3%, that would come out to.... right now you are bidding $5,000 per month. GARCIAS: Right. But we would hope to get the sales of more than 2.5 million to 3 million dollars a year in order for us to satisfy $7,000 or $10,000 of revenue rent. our retail business that we would sell whatever kind of wholesale product and whatever retail product we can get into our hands into the City of Miami. PANEL MEMBER: And you would pay the taxes on that. GARCIAS: That's correct. GARCIAS: Not to mention, we also have goals, you know, on our what our business is going to be next year's projections and with this kind of strong feeling that we might get this property, we would probably do really business. PANEL MEMBER: I'd just like to vouch that with retail, wholesale and Jewish development, I mean, that is a package. GARCIAS: Thank you. LORI BILBERRY: For the record, one of the comments that was made was that they were going to be responsible for the taxes. That was incumbent upon all of the people that proposed. It was very clear that the City would be expecting that the successful proposer would pay all taxes as well as pay any and al] fees that may end up being due to the State fees for submerged lands which there is a formula by the Florida DEP. The annual fee is going to be about $1,000 but it can also equal in percent, 6% of their Doss revenues, so it could exceed that $1,000, so I just want to make that clear that that is something that it is an obligation to all. PANEL MEMBER: 6% to 8% of their revenues. LORI BILBERRY: 6% of their revenues. And it will be the revenues of the submerged land. 'Cause the State only owns the submerged land portion so if they charge tie-ups, like dockage fees, they could get 6% of that or the annual fee, whichever is greater. PANEL MEMBER: So, I guess I am within my rights to ask this question. The businesses, or the multiple of what is being proposed here, we are talking about people using it for storage and maybe some wholesaling or whatever. Some guy pulls up to the side here and not charging a dockage fee so in essence is zero. LORI BILBERRY: Correct. PANEL MEMBER (?): taxes on its own property? LORI BILBERRY: There is a Supreme Court ruling back in '93 which is when all be City's fees became taxable when is for a non -governmental purpose, so it has been since '93 that all, a lot of our tenants, I should say, there are very very few are thinking that don't, that the U.S. sailing center is a non-profit, and it is not club, but even non -profits often times have to pay a tax, like the Miami Yacht Club, Miami Office Club, because they are clubs, the property appraiser deems them a taxable entity. PANEL MEMBER: UNABLE TO UNDERSTAND? LORI BILBERRY: Because the Club is another one. Because they are a club and they are not exclusive, they don't feel they are exclusively government purpose. OK -- we are ready for our last proposer. GARCIAS ATTORNEY (?): I would like to give Steve a chance to answer this gentlemen's question of the violation fee if you would I know we are out of time but it was a specific question that he wanted to consult with me. LORI BILBERRY: OK. GARCIAS ATTORNEY: If you would just tell him the time when that happened, what it was, and then, . , GARCIAS (?): We believe that somewhere in the year of 1999 or the year 2000, there was a, my fishermen were trying to save money and I guess the only person that was allowed to have diesel fuel on property was Mr. Prieguez's operation, Miami River Lobster and Stone Crab. Endorsing their criteria of trying to save money, they would go ahead and try to purchase fuel from a docking tank that would come and fuel them on the property site. When those allegations happened, somebody spilled the beans and said that they were not in compliance with City ordinance. They came by, they issued I don't know if it was a citation, I am not sure, I wasn't there, my father was the one that was running the business back then, and I don't know if there was a citation and some kind of filed motion against the property in reference to that, Those allegations sincerely(?) came out on this proposal against us there has been no violations in that sense in that time manner since those things happened. And like I said that is probably the only case scenario where that violation would have been. LORI BILBERRY: So we are ready to begin our last proposer, Mr. Prieguez. PRIEGUEZ: I am the Microsoft of the Miami River, as people have been referring to for the last two proposers. My name is Manny Prieguez, I own and operate with my father Miami River Lobster and Stone Crab. I don't want to talk too much of about history because it is very clearly written and articulated in the proposal that we prepared and suffice to say that we have been here as long or longer than any of these other proposers. Our family down the River and put my sister through law school and put me through college. My uncle, who is also a fisherman and fished from our docks, has put my cousins through law school and through medical school, so really it is very difficult to discern in that aspect what the from one family to the other. I think they are all successful and for that reason I applaud all of us for having done what we've done. The City has not decided what to do with 236 SW North River Drive. I think that is a very important point. It has based on offers for a month to month renewable lease. The very nature of this agreement is for a short term solution, more money to the City in the near term that creates a holding pattern of sorts for the City while the administration and its leaders decide what the real future for this site is on the Miami River. It would be much much easier to transition 236 from its current condition under new management, of course, to whatever long term plan the City has that allows someone to potentially invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to something that the City may not eventually want. So to a certain extend, that the was created in this way is sort of unfair to the proposers because you'll know, and this is alluded to another presentation, you'll know if the City is going to essentially make a park in six month. So I think that what the City had in mind when putting this out is that well from a public policy perspective, we need to try to get as much money as we can for the property now, and let's maybe consider some things otherwise of what, some ideas they may have. What Garcia Wholesale is proposing is non -enforceable and in some cases is not even feasible. This is a kind of. PANEL MEMBER: What are you...... PR]IEGUEZ: That what Garcia Wholesale is proposing is not enforceable by the City and is not feasible for these reasons. If the panel thought that what Garcia Wholesale is proposing is an absolute great idea, which I happen to think by the way, it is a great idea, based on the RFLI, the City could not force Mr. Garcia to move forward with his plans, based on RFLI. In other words, if one year Mr. Garcia could easily put a halt to the plan and he could continue operating and managing the site in the very same way that he is now. That is totally plausible and possible. The City would have no recourse other than to issue under the and in the meantime the City would be out an additional $2,000 a month and that is the difference on RFLI (?) in the month to month proposa! that I've made from Garcia. He proposed $5,000 and I proposed $7,000. Mr. Garcia in the past has tried to a certain extent to create a fish market -type atmosphere at his site. He invested a little bit of money into it and made it a little bit nicer and went ahead and fish retail from his site and it didn't work out. It didn't work out because he has an incredible successful and restaurant and fish market just down the street from this site, so you know the people kept on going to the restaurant and the fish market because they do an incredible job there. Because it is packed every lunchtime, but they wouldn't go to the other spot because it is not the nature of a dock place, given the competition and they kind of work that they have already on the River. The biggest obstacle to creating this fisherman's wharf plan is the parking. Quite frankly, there is no room to parking if you want to create a tourist destination point. If you want to create this nice sounding idea, there really is no room for parking. You would have to get rid of a bunch of fishermen so that there would be room for parking. As a matter of fact, in his proposal it says "we would design a parking facility without any inconvenience to the fishermen's vehicle." The lobster and stone crab season create a year and during the time wave of the off-season, it is about 6 to 7 months out of the year, That property is stocked high with traps for 6 to 7 months of the year. You cannot operate that kind of destination for a tourist spot with the site completely full of traps. These clients at the very very least cannot work without parking and I just don't feel how you could accommodate any cars. The real plan and the real proposal really, points to the one that Casablanca has done and the one that I am making to you right now, and that is a proposal -basic level is the same as us. Maintain a wholesale operation, which he does mention by word in his proposal with a monthly rate of $5,000 or 3% whichever is greater and my point was made before with the numbers. They are never going to reach, they would have to go right now from $500,000 OK to over $2 million a year in order for the City to be able to make more than $5,000 whereas right now I am guaranteeing the City $7,000 a month guaranteed come hell or high water, that is what the City is going to get. I could go into the numbers because I know the business so well and what he does and what I do to a certain extent, I process and he doesn't. I have fishermen than he does and I sell to markets where I make more money than he does on his lobster and that is why is at $500,000-$600,00 and my business is in the business of $2 to $2.5 million in gross sales a year. I want to quickly point out that this whole question of monopoly is really quite silly, to be perfectly honestly with everybody. There are lobster and stone crab fishermen from as far north as Jupiter to as far south as Key West. Anybody and everybody has the right to go to wherever they want to fish lobster, ok. If I have a monopoly on the lobster market, then everybody from Jupiter and everybody from Key West would be selling to me and that is not the case, That is number one. Number two, it is not true that only three or four parcels of the land River where there could be lobster and stone crab traps for fishermen to place there. There are a million of vacant lots up and down the Miami River that you can conceivably and possibly have an opportunity to rent to be able to put their traps. They don't or are not able to because I often as well as Mr. Garcia at very reduced rates based on the business. But there is no monopoly. We have 19-20 fishermen that are extremely happy with us that make good money because we are able to provide them with dock space and are able to provide them with a place to put their traps so it is not right to say that we have a monopoly, it is not true. By the its very definition, there is no monopoly. The two past proposers want to tell you that oh, if we had known it was going to be this way, or if this is what you really wanted, well of course we would have made that offer. But they are saying that after they've seen that I've offered $7,000 a month. I mean, now they want to say that no, this is not how, we really don't want to make this kind of offer because they've notice and have seen what I've put down. I was playing under the same rules as everyone else in the rooms was playing, 1 have decided to be aggressive and I have decided to put down for $7,000. I have also put in the proposal that I am going to do about $20,000 - I will put up to $20,000 in improvements. Quite frankly, there is a possibility where that structure I may want to tear it down, which is completely within the right to allow for more fishermen to come to that property and to fish there, to give them more room and more possibilities. So, in summation, there is a lot of different options but quite frankly I think that what the City is looking for is that they are looking to make more money, they are looking to have a situation where they can go from where they are now to whatever it is that they eventually want to do and I think you accomplish that much easier by having the situation the way it is right now but making a little bit more money than what they are currently month to month and at the same time them being able to make that transition which obviously we would work with the City, obviously and already made this clear, part of our proposal it to pay the real estate taxes, LORI BILBERRY: One minute. PRIEGUEZ: Thank you. And so, that is basically it. We work pretty hard. My Dad has busted his butt to be able to buy those three or four properties so that we can have our business, to try somehow to make that into a crutch is so un-American and so unfair because that is what this is all about. Working hard and trying to be as profitable as you can. That is the system that we live under. I will repeat that the City by the very nature of this RFLI is really looking for a short term solution, they are looking to make more money, that is why I went out for a competitive bid, and I think that my combination, my proposal executes it to the best way for the City of Miami, and so I'll be more than happy to entertain any questions. PANEL MEMBER: I'll have my same question, in order to be consistent. Has your company have or has had any violations of state, federal or local laws with regards to operating your business or the fishing industry? PRIEGUEZ: No. PANEL MEMBER: 1 don't know if I saw this in the proposal you refer to having added or propose $20,000 in improvements. PRIEGUEZ: I don't recall seeing that specifically stated. PANEL MEMBER: I don't know if it is actually in there or not. I will take that back if it is not in there, but I think that I did put that in there. PRIEGUEZ: You state that you would clean up the property and make improvements. PANEL MEMBER: I didn't put a dollar figure on there. PRIEGUEZ: Then I take back what I said, LORI BILBERRY: Any other questions? PANEL MEMBER: You currently manage four parcels of land on the Miami River and I know the value of this. I am interested in competitive businesses, and I think you got a lot, you got four. If you had five, you are then literally top the River, you have a monopoly on it, of space available. When I looked there must have been 15,000 traps there right now on the Garcia property? They are everywhere. So, I would think that if their idea, you are only interested in exporting and wholesale. You are not going to use the property to enhance the City's dream of Miami 21, and I think that is a critical aspect of it 'cause you are sitting right next to , one of the most attractive building on the waterfront. They are going to put in . They are willing to put $75,000 to $100,000 into the property on a non -annual lease, on a month to month basis. That is quite an investment to make and even though you are paying $2,000 more than they are a year, it is a huge investment. And all you are going to be using it for, and everybody seems to want to protect the fishermen so the 10 families that you are talking about I'd want to protect them to, I think that is critical that they have a place to operate. Your success is enormous in selling to Tokyo and places like that, but somewhere along the line, there has got to be room for both of you on the Miami River because you are incredible successful and so are they and I think that having two successful businesses operating like that is only good for the City of Miami. PRIEGUEZ: First of all the Garcias have their restaurant business there, Garcia Wholesale, I mean Garcia the restaurant is not going to disappear tomorrow if I am awarded that site, that is number one. Number two, under any definition, and I would urge you to look it up in the dictionary if you wish, there is no way that you can define a monopoly in my business impacting the Miami River. There is absolutely no way. If you wish to, that is your prerogative, but there is no way that I have any kind of monopoly on the lobster market in the State of Florida. OK, that is number two. Number three, I am a business man and as a business man, I cannot in good conscience and with the faculties that the good Lord has given me, promise to invest $100,000, 50000, $25,000 or $1,000 on something that is month to month . And that is why I tried to make my point as clear as it is. Often times in for any kind of RFP, no matter what it is, you may not notice, but what happens is that a lot of times over promise in hopes of getting awarded that bid and then three or four months later they say, oh, you know what, I'm sorry, but now we are crunching our numbers and we can't be there, ok? So what I am proposing is something that is real and that is a that we don't have. There is no way of being able to hold anybody on these improvements aspects, I mean on the improvements aspects of this property, there is no way you can hold anybody, so on paper, they may sound great that they are going to put $150,000. There is no way that you or the City or anyone else can guarantee that to happen, It is simple mathematics, it is simple business, Mr. mention it himself. How can anyone as a business person even think about taking a risk like that not knowing what the future holds? That is why I am not going to be here, I would not sit here and tell you Sir, I am going to put $200,000 into that, because I know I can't make you that offer. I don't know if I am going to be able to do that or not. And so you got to consider those things and you got to consider what is real for the City on a month to month RFLI business. PANEL MEMBER: However, if in a few months, if Mr. Garcia were to get the bid, if in a few months they hadn't move forward and taken a step with $7,5000 and I am not saying you are not going to get the bid, 1 am just saying they've made a commitment and they and I think they are obligated to make that commitment and if they don't do it I think the City and I would be the one of the first . I would be one of the first people to make sure that they got , if they got the bid. And I think they've stuck their neck out. And you are not going to do it. 1 understand you, but Miami is an investment town and it is going on constantly. PRIEGUEZ: I hear you loud and clear and God bless you if you are able to get them to sign a piece of paper saying that they are going to put in $150,000, Remember that the City is not obliged to do that under the terms of this RFLI. They cannot under the terms of the RFLI make anyone sign that they are going to do anything per se as improvement for this property. LORI BILBERRY: Whatever.is in the proposal would be part of the contract and they will be contractually obligated so if the Committee is evaluating their proposal based on improvements, it will become a contractual obligation and there will be a time frame for performance so that we don't go a year and something not being done and it would have to be a reasonable time frame depending on the level of improvements that are being done, so yes, it is a contractual obligation. PRIEGUEZ: OK, that was not outlined in the RFLI. LORI BILBERRY: Well, it is based on whatever the proposal is, that's what becomes the contact. That becomes part of the license agreement. PANEL MEMBER: She can tell you that I am tough on things like that, Up in Coconut Grove we stopped something for a year because they didn't think they could do it, All I am saying is if Garcias got it, and I don't know who's to get it, but if they got it, and sign the contract, they will live with it. PRIEGUEZ: 1 will reiterate that I doubt that they can get the sufficient parking to do whatever it is that they are going to do. There is just not enough space there to get the kind of parking that you need off street. There is going to be, I mean it is not that easy and you may put it into the contract and let's see what happens if they do in fact get awarded that, but for the record and I am glad this is being recorded, If in fact they get it and if in fact based on the contract saying that they are going to put however much it is that they put into it, I can almost guarantee you that somehow something is going to, is not going to allow it to happen, whether it be parking or whether it be any other kind of obstacle that usually presents itself when a business wants to do that. Furthermore, again, the City has not decided what it wants with that property. It is very possible that tomorrow, Joe , or your Commissioner Jeffrey can say listen, I don't have enough park space in my district, and I'd like that to be a park, I mean, that could happen. That could happen. A number of things can happen, so what I guess I am telling you is that if based on that there are too many variables, there are too many outstanding possibilities that can eventually not allow for that kind of project to move forward. PANEL MEMBER: That is the success of this town that people risk for the opportunity to develop and I am not saying that you are not going to get the bid because you have one heck of a proposal. I'm really impressed with it. I go to Casa Guancho and I think the stone crabs are great. LORI BILBERRY: We are down to one minute if anybody has other questions. No, OK — well, thank you. Now, in our presentation portion, the Committee, you have a couple of choices. You can have some discussions among yourselves prior to actually scoring. Each of you should have an evaluation. The points are there for you: It basically it is — there is 35 points for the overall experience and qualifications; 30 points for the proposed used and improvement; and 35 points for the monthly fee. Once you establish a point for each one of those categories, you will total them up and them rank them. For example, you may have one that totals 70 and another would total 80, another 90, another 100, then they would be ranked 1, 2, 3, 4 and then we would go through to see if there is a common ranking or if there has to be further discussion among the group. Do you want to score or do you want to have some discussion first, it is up to you. These are some photos if you want them to look through. The photos and also the license information that was submitted by Garcia. PANEL MEMBER: This is a public meeting, so if we are going to have discussions LORI BILBERRY: It is all recorded and it is a public meeting, yes, there is not further input from them. PANEL MEMBER: I have a question. Whatever the amount is in the proposal, the written proposal, there is no adjustment to that? LORI BILBERRY: That has to remain a minimum proposal, That has to be their proposal. During negotiations, you know, we can always try to negotiate for the betterment of the City but your criteria is to evaluate based on their proposal, in the minimum amount of their proposal. PANEL MEMBER: So in other words, the City could take any of the proposals we rent Does this Committee recommend that you get the money LORI BILBERRY: We can ask that, yes, but you should not rely on that. You should rely on what is in the proposal. PANEL MEMBER: The difference is that there is no number coming from Miami River Lobster as far as enhancing the property, and there is a $75,000 guaranteed by the Garcia Company. The $2,000 difference in there is really way outweighed by them. 9999• COULD WE ASK A QUESTION OF YOU OR NO: LORI BILBERRY: Yes, you can ask a question. 999?99' My question is solely -- because there was an attached lease that was submitted with the RFLI and with the license. I mean, I didn't see anywhere there where it required that you actually perform the improvements. LORI BILBERRY: That was a sample by license agreement. It was not the final license agreement. Obviously the final has to be a basis taken into consideration what someone puts in their proposal. We have no idea of what anticipating what people were going to put in their proposal to know what conditions or paragraphs must be added to that license agreement. It was a sample to give you an idea of the type terms and conditions that are generally included. 99999?. That means the proposal is at will by either side, right. LORI BILBERRY: Yes. "9"• Can you ask the Committee to review the pictures please? LORI BILBERRY: That's up to them if they want to. So back to Stewart, on your question about the improvements, if out of the 30 points, and don't use my numbers, but if you thought the proposed use was worth half of that and the improvements were worth 4 • another half, you may say we]! they get 15 points just for the improvement portion while on someone else you may think it is only four or five, depending on what they are proposing. But you would have to factor that in the evaluation when assigning the points. PANEL MEMBER: Let me ask you this, if during the negotiations, it becomes clear that it looks unlikely that anything that has been planned by one of the proposers, the percentage of it actually being accomplished goes down, what would the City do in that state? LORI BILBERRY: I am not sure what you mean. PANEL MEMBER: In other words, let's say that the Garcia brothers, what they have proposed is really pretty remarkable, but during the course of negotiating the lease agreement with you, they, it looks like a lot to be accomplished because of the things going on in the City and the phase of development and what's going on on the River and God knows what else might come along, so then you would not execute the license agreement with them and you go back out .for another ..... what are the options? LORI BILBERRY: That is up to the Committee. The Committee has an opportunity to recommend one vendor for us to negotiate with or they can recommend that we negotiate in a rank order, depending on who comes in first, second, third, and fourth. You can also negotiate, say that we should only negotiate with the first one and if the negotiations fail, go to the second one, but beyond that we want you to re -bid it. You know, that is up to the Committee because that's direction on if you only want us to negotiate with the top rank film or to negotiate with one, two or three or four in the rank order, depending on whether or not we are able to reach a successful license negotiation. PANEL MEMBER: So, you would negotiate in rank order if negotiations stall or fail with number one? LORI BILBERRY: We can go to the second if the Committee approves, if your recommendations is consistent with that. A Conunittee can recommend hey, we want you to negotiate only with the first one. If negotiations fail, we want you to issue a whole new RFLI. Or you may be comfortable with well, these guys excelled, they are all acceptable to negotiate just in rank order. PANEL MEMBER: What information would be..... I guess, what would be a road block for negotiations or what would stop negotiations if we did it in rank order? LORI BILBERRY: I am going to give if you don't mind an example with the Garcias because that is an easy one as far as if they couldn't show me how they would fund the improvements, that could be something that could stall it. And obviously we put letters in writing as far as get back to us in one week before we would then proceed to the second portion. PRIEGUEZ: Can I make a statement. Am I allowed to make a statement? el LORI BILBERRY: That's OK. PRIEGUEZ: The statement is that the amount that I offered a month is really based on assuming that this whole thing was going to be done and executed by August b'h which is when lobster season starts. But if in fact the City goes ahead and continues let's say with negotiations with some other team and come November they have finally realized that they can't have those negotiations or they can't achieve what the City thought that they could achieve or was being promised, and then they go to me, I don't know that I would be able to you know, keep the offer of $7,000 on the table only because you would lose the lobster season. You would lose August, September, October, and that is the season. It is an eight -month season, but it is really four/five months. That is when the production is. Come December, when it gets cold, the lobster takes off. LORI BILBERRY: I think it was an appropriate statement 'cause what you are saying is your bid is only good for a couple months. PRIEGUEZ: My bid, I am able to offer $7,000 a month to the City, because I am taking into consideration that I am going to have the entire lobster season at my disposition to be able to recoup that money that I am putting out there to the City. So if you are not able to achieve a contract signed with someone else and you call me and say, well, okay, now we want to begin negotiations with you come December or even come September, October, that would put me in a very very, not only me it would put Casablanca as well, even maybe the Garcias as well, it doesn't matter who. The money that is being offered is money being offered taking into consideration the full season and then you are able, because you are able to do well, the first four to five month, then you are okay for the sure until the season starts again. I just want to put that on that record, GARCIAS(?): Make sure for the record that I hold on my presentation and that I have sufficient and enough funds to make my presentation good and valuable to this Committee. LORI BILBERRY: Did everybody sign in? CASABLANCA: Can I say something. My name is Lazaro Sanchez and always I am trying to do the best for the fishermen and I would like to have something, something that the fishermen are going to feel good and happy. Everybody that's there, anybody here, any fishermen that are here , I would like to have the best for the fishermen, that way they can work it out together, they can do anything that they want. LORI BILBERRY: I'd just Iike to remind everybody who is here to sign the sign -in sheets if you haven't already and also put the evaluators, there was one person, one group that didn't present them, I guess you still have to grade them. LORI BILBERRY: Larry has a handy calculator if anyone needs help. A LORI BILBERRY: While the Committee takes a few minutes to go through the proposal they have their scores, LORI BILBERRY: Everybody through scoring? I am going to call each one of you and I will ask you to give me in rank order your number 1, your number 2, your number 3, your number 4. OK?Andy, I am going to start with you, ANDY: No. 1 — Garcia Brothers; No. 2 — Miami River Lobster; No. 3 — Casablanca Fish Market; No. 4 Emerald Yacht . LORI BILBERRY: Stewart? STEWART: No, 1 is Garcia Brothers; No, 2 is Miami River Lobster; No. 3 is Casablanca distant 4 is Emerald Yacht. LORI BILBERRY: Larry, you are it? LARRY: No. 1 Garcia Brothers; No. 2 — Miami River Lobster; No. 3 — Casablanca; and No. 4 Emerald Yacht, LORI BILBERRY: Well, we have good news. Now you are all consistent. OK, so Garcia Brothers, it was unanimous al] the way across. Garcia Brothers No. 1, Miami River Lobster and Stone Crab No. 2, Casablanca 3, and Emerald Yacht 4, so now we need some further recommendation of how you would like to proceed in negotiating? Would you like to recommend them all in a rank order, only the top 2, only the top 1. ???: I recommend that you negotiate in rank order. ???: I would recommend that too, but I think there has to be some stipulation that after certain number of months, Garcia Brothers have to perform under their agreement, whether six months, twelve months, or whatever the City thinks is fair and reasonable. 99999. I think you should negotiate in order but certainly give the No. 1 selection you know, the --in our rankings. As far as what Stewart is saying about the proceeding in due course, I think you should get with your Development Department and set a reasonable time table for them doing their planning, pre - development planning; their development planning, they should, within reason because the Miami 21 is going to take precedent over anything and I see no reason to build something that is just going to have to be demolished, but I do think that would be, I mean I am not stupid, I do think it is kind of strange that as you said in the beginning, that because an REP is on a month to month basis, there is so much influx, but that's it, it is not my decision, but I am just trying so that there isn't a lot of waste, waste in motion is that I would hope they beat to the fire on the planning process, so that this thing is moving along and in conjunction with what planning and zoning want to see in the River front and not rush ahead in construction on this so much but definitely do the pre- 1 • development of the planning and all the other stuff that is involved with doing the improvement of that site, 9997. I'd like to add to the record from thts based on your response on the financial information, I say needs to be very, I would advise him to be weary, not weary but use professional skepticism when it comes to evaluating their ability to put that level of improvements that they arc talking about, 20% of their revenue into improvements for could be ] 8 months, could be 30 years, I don't know, but right now we are talking about $100,000 up to $100,000 in cash right now on a business that makes half a million gross, so you know.... GARCIAS: The gross is only on the of the month to month basis. `'''`'9` . 1 think your proposal is good and is tops but you spent a long time going after the Garcia brothers and that kind of cut it away for me. They did, they just talked about how good they were and... PRIEGUEZ: I fully respect that, I respect that very much, It is a fair comment. And the reason why I did that is because I really believe in my heart of hearts that they are not going to be able to . . ., and I didn't want you to think that what they were offering was a real possibility, I doubt that in a 6 to 12 month period, they will be able to design the sufficient parking without the.necessary other core requirements anywhere between $75,000 and $100,000 in the proposal for a business that does $500,000 in gross revenues. I thought it was important to point and stress that, It is not a personal thing. I personally do not have a problem with the Garcia brothers, with their families. This is business and looking at it from a business perspective and you have to call them on the numbers. I am sorry that you feel that way and I respect that you feel that way and perhaps I can understand how some people may interpret it that way, but there is no personal animosity here, none whatsoever and it was only about trying to create the most lucid picture for this panel so that they can base their decision on real numbers and not on possibilities. ANDY: One other thing that I am going to have to make it more,,. now that you mentioned that, one other thing that came up is that there are a lot of people depending on the livelihood on this River and definitely there is the number three presenter, and I am not saying whether there is monopoly or no monopoly, whatever, but a lot of people depend on the livelihood of this River and there are a lot of condos going up and a lot of changes coming to the River, so I think it is also important for in negotiating this, that you are aware of these various request by the fishermen in that they are, I don't know how you are going take that, how you are going to get input from them about what they'd like to see, but personally, it is not good to have this one provider on the River, it is not good to have two, I'd like to have three or four for the fishermen to be able to take their produce to. That is just my thought. GARCIAS: Let me advise the Committee as well. The parking lots across that property itself, 236 SW North River Drive, Friday afternoon it's emptied for the City of Miami employees, across the street, there is a municipal parking garage, and across the street are eight empty vacant lots. There are more than 25 parking meters within 50 feet of walking distance. PRIEGUEZ: The City provides that you have to have a certain amount of GARCIAS: Just like Coconut Grove. Just like in Coconut Grove. You go to Coconut Grove, and you go to a cafe " ' ' We will be getting to that. When we get into that.....when you start putting pressure on yourself with planning and zoning you are going to find out what LORI BILBERRY: Please everybody. Excuse me. I need each of the Committee members to sign their score sheet and also just for my own clarification just to make sure I understood, It is only with the top three, not four. I just wanted to make sure, that is the way you stated it, I just wanted to make sure that is what you were trying to say as far as being consistent. OK, just so that everybody knows the code of silence is still in effect so you cannot be discussing this with anyone. That code of silence does not end until the manager makes a recommendation to the Commission, so you will not be able to continue until the manager, you are to remain in -until the manager makes the recommendation. The code of silence does not apply to negotiations so we will like to be... contact you in the near future after the manager signs off on the recommendation. GARCIAS: Can we get a copy of the score sheets? LORI BILBERRY: Yes, if you can get them to me. ???: Of course. ???: Yes, me too. LORI BILBERRY: Anybody else, anybody has any questions. OK, that ends today's meeting.