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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 2020-08-03 MinutesCity of Miami City Hall 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, FL 33133 www.miamigov.com �YOp r 1 ' 'Parr +� v * INCORP ORATEO * 1896 Meeting Minutes Monday, August 03, 2020 10:30 AM Special Meeting City Hall City Commission Francis X. Suarez, Mayor Keon Hardemon, Chair, District Five Ken Russell, Vice Chair, District Two Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Commissioner, District One Joe Carollo, Commissioner, District Three Manolo Reyes, Commissioner, District Four Arthur Noriega, V, City Manager Victoria Mendez, City Attorney Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 10:30 AM INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Present: Chair Hardemon, Vice Chair Russell, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla and Commissioner Carollo. Absent: Commissioner Reyes. On the 3rd day of August, 2020, the City Commission of the City of Miami, Florida, conducted and broadcasted a virtual meeting from its regular meeting place in City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, in special session. The Commission Meeting was called to order by Chair Hardemon at 10:50 a.m., and adjourned at 12:52 p.m. Note for the Record: Commissioner Carollo joined the virtual meeting at 10:55 a.m. ALSO PRESENT: Arthur Noriega, V, City Manager Victoria Mendez, City Attorney Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk ORDER OF THE DAY Chair Hardemon: Good morning, everyone. Pursuant to Executive Order Number 20-179 issued by the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis on July 29, 2020, municipalities may conduct meetings of their governing boards without having a quorum of its members present physically or at any specific location, and utilizing communications through videoconferencing, such as telephonic or video conferencing as provided by Section 120.45(b)(2) Florida Statutes. Today's special meeting has been called for for the purpose of discussing items related to the proposed formulation of the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act funding by the Miami -Dade County Mayor and the Miami -Dade County Commission, the amount of federal aid given to Miami -Dade County, the amount of federal aid given to the City of Miami, the scale and scope of costs incurred by the City of Miami due to the novel coronavirus currently covered under the CARES Act. Any and all federal legislation that could impact CARES Act funding and legal recourse available to the City of Miami and any and all actions that may arise from these discussions including but not limited to the adoption of resolutions. Procedures for the public comment will be explained by the City Attorney shortly. Members of the City Commission appearing remotely for this meeting are Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Joe Carollo, Manolo Reyes, Ken Russell, and me, Keon Hardemon, the Chair. Also appearing remotely our City Manager Art Noriega, City Attorney Victoria Mendez, and the City Clerk Todd Hannon. Madam City Attorney, please state the procedures to be followed during this meeting. Barnaby Min (Deputy City Attorney): Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any person who is a lobbyist pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 6 of the City Code must register with the City Clerk and comply with the related City requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the City Commission. A person may not lobby a City official, board member, or staff member until registering. A copy of the code section about lobbyists is available in the City Clerk's Office or online at municode.com. Any person making a presentation, .formal request, or petition to the City Commission concerning real property must make the disclosures required by the City Code in writing. A copy of this code section is available at the Office of the City Clerk or online at municode.com. Todav's' virtual special meeting was called pursuant to Section 2-33(1) of the City Code. The material for each item on the agenda is available during business hours at the City Clerk's Office and online 24 hours a day at miamigov. com. Any person may be heard by the City Commission through the Chair and upon registering pursuant to the published notice City of Miami Page 1 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 for not more than two minutes, under any proposition before the City Commission, unless modified by the Chair. Since this is a virtual meeting and is authorized by the Governor of the State of Florida, members of the public wishing to address the body may do so by visiting miamigov.comlvirtualmeeting to upload their video comments or to submit their written comments via the online comment form. Members of the public may also call 305-250-5353 to provide comments via the dedicated City of Miami public comment voicemail. Members of the public may also pre -register to provide live public comment by phone during the meeting. You may pre -register by phone by calling 305-250-5350 or online at miamigov.comlgovernmentllive-public-comment. All comments submitted will be included as part of the public record for this virtual meeting and will be considered by the City Commission prior to any action taken. The City will accommodate any speakers desiring to appear in person, subject to all applicable emergency measures in place to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Speakers who appear in person will be subject to screening for symptoms of COVID-19. Any person exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-19 will not be permitted to enter City Hall. All interested parties are required to abide by all state, county, and local emergency orders and are urged to remain at home and practice social distancing. If the proposition is being continued or rescheduled, the opportunity to be heard may be at such later date before the City Commission takes action on such proposition. When addressing the City Commission, the member of the public must first state his or her name, his or her address, and what item will be spoken about. Any person with a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids, and services for this meeting may notify the City Clerk. Please note, commissioners have generally been briefed by City staff and the City Attorney on items on the agenda today. Please silence all cell phones and other noise -making devices. The City of Miami is using Zoom to hold its August 3rd, 2020, Virtual Special City Commission Meeting. Zoom is a cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. The meeting can be viewed live on Miami TV at miamigov.comlty, through the City's Facebook page, on the City's Periscope channel, on the City's YouTube channel, and on Comcast Channel 77. The broadcast will also have closed captioning. Additionally, the City has not selected a virtual platform that requires the public to purchase or download any additional software equipment to watch this meeting. Aside from the Zoom platform and that participants will be appearing remotely, the public will have no discernible difference in their ability to watch the meeting. The City has developed several new methods of ensuring public comment for a virtual meeting. The first option allows the public to provide public comment via the dedicated City of Miami public comment voicemail by calling 305-250-5353 where the individuals will be able to leave a two -minute message that will be played during the virtual commission meeting. The second option allows for the public to submit a two -minute video to be played during the virtual commission meeting. The third option allows the public to submit comments via the City's online comment form. The comments submitted through the comment form have been distributed to the elected officials and City Administration throughout the day so that the elected officials can consider the comments prior to taking any action. Additionally, the online comment form will remain open during the meeting to accept comments and distribute to the elected officials up until the time the Chairman closes public comment. The fourth option allows the public to pre -register to provide live public comment by phone during the virtual commission meeting. All the comments received will be included in the public record of the meeting. The City has also created a simple set of instructions explaining how the public may submit their comments with either option. Those instructions were provided in the notice to the public via the City social media channels and published online at miamigov.comlvirtualmeeting. Like any other City Commission meeting, the public may also provide public comment at City Hall. The City has set up a terminal in the event members of the public travel to City Hall to provide public comment. Due to COVID-19, all speakers desiring to appear in person will be subject to applicable emergency measures in place to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 and will be subject to screening for symptoms of COVID-19. Any person exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-19 will not be permitted to enter City Hall but will be able to participate through the various remote options described earlier. These public comment options established and provided for this virtual special city commission meeting comply with Section 286.0114 and Section 120.54 Florida Statutes. Public has been given the opportunity to provide public City of Miami Page 2 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 comment during the meeting and within reasonable proximity, and time before the meeting via the public comment voicemail, online public comment form, public comment video upload, live public comment by phone, and City Hall terminal. Section 286.0114 (4)(c) Florida Statutes specifically authorizes the City to prescribe procedures or forms for an individual to use in order to inform the board or commission of a desire to be heard, and indicate his or her support, opposition, or neutrality on a proposition. The City has provided five different methods for the public to indicate, among other things, his or her support, opposition, or neutrality on the items and topics to be discussed at today's virtual special city commission meeting. Commissioners, please confirm you are comfortable with all the notice provisions as set forth in these uniform rules and procedures we have established for this virtual special city commission meeting. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: 1 am. Mr. Min: Thank you. Chair Hardemon: Yes, PUBLIC COMMENTS FOR SP ITEM(S) 7720 DISCUSSION ITEM Office of the City Clerk PUBLIC COMMENTS SUBMITTED ONLINE BY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC FOR THE AUGUST 3, 2020 VIRTUAL SPECIAL CITY COMMISSION MEETING. RESULT: PRESENTED Chair Hardemon: So, first, is there any public comment? Manuel Otero (Innovation and Technology Web Administrator): (INAUDIBLE) public comment. Chair Hardemon: Seeing that there's no public comment -- I'll open it for public comment first. But seeing that there's no public comment, I'll close the floor for public comment. City of Miami Page 3 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 DISCUSSION ITEM SP.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 7715 Commissioners and Mayor A DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL LEGISLATION REGARDING ANY AND ALL ACTIONS RELATING TO THE PROPOSED FORMULATION FOR CARES ACT FUNDING BY THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY MAYOR AND THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY COMMISSION, THE AMOUNT OF FEDERAL AID GIVEN TO MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, AMOUNT OF FEDERAL AID GIVEN TO THE CITY OF MIAMI, THE SCALE AND SCOPE OF COSTS INCURRED BY THE CITY OF MIAMI DUE TO THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS ("COVID-19") CURRENTLY COVERED UNDER THE CARES ACT, ANY AND ALL FEDERAL LEGISLATION THAT COULD IMPACT CARES ACT FUNDING, AND LEGAL RECOURSE AVAILABLE TO THE CITY OF MIAMI. RESULT: DISCUSSED Note for the Record: For directives referencing SP.1, please see items NA.2 and NA.3. Chair Hardemon: What I'll do, Madam City Attorney, I want you to read the title of the -- because 1 believe it's a pocket item -- into the record so that we know what we're talking about, then I'll call on our mayor. Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): I believe there's the first pocket item that was discussed -- that was approved by the mayor. Mr. Mayor, do you want me to read yours? Mayor Suarez: Yes, please. Ms. Mendez: Okay. The Resolution was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney. Mayor Suarez: Madam City Attorney, I have a quick question on that. Does that include the language authorizing you to enter into legal proceedings or is that a separate resolution? Ms. Mendez: That would be separate. That would be a separate resolution unless you want to include it in this one. Mayor Suarez: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Ms. Mendez: Okay. Whatever you direct me to do. Mayor Suarez: No, no, either way is fine. As long as we accomplish that, that's a matter of (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Chair Hardemon: So what I'll do now is I'll (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: A quick question before the Mayor addresses the Commission. A quick question of our City Attorney. Madam Attorney, does that include any language on the July 8th Miami -Dade County Commission meeting where City of Miami Page 4 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 a different proposal was presented by the Mayor to the commission -- to the Board of County Commissioners in Miami -Dade? Mayor Suarez: It's in the whereas clauses. Ms. Mendez: I believe, yes, in the whereas clause, it says, whereas the July 8, 2020, Miami -Dade County Board of Commissioners meeting, Mayor Gimenez presented a report entitled Coronavirus Relief Fund Financial Update and Strategies that stated approximately $135 million would be earmarked for municipalities and Miami -Dade County -- within Miami -Dade. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I want to let the record reflect that that proposal came from Mayor Gimenez to the Board of County Commissioners on July 8th that was dramatically altered on July 27th. Is that correct? Mayor Suarez: That's correct. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so thank you. Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman. Chair Hardemon: Mr. Vice Chairman. Vice Chair Russell: I'll be glad to make the motion on the pocket item, and if it's the way the Mayor would like to see it, include direction within that pocket item, giving the attorney the authority to take legal action. Mayor Suarez: Of course. Chair Hardemon: And the Chair will second it. Mr. Mayor, you're recognized. Mayor Suarez: Sure. I'll try to be brief but I want to thank all the commissioners. I know that this is the holiday, or the sort of summer break, and thank you for convening. I want to thank our Chairman, who is the president of the League of Cities, for the magnificent job of representing all the cities at a press conference last week where he detailed why it's so important for these funds to be allocated based on population to all the cities, including the City of Miami. Just to give a quick historical -- Congress and the President passed the CARES Act, which allocated for state, federal -- I'm sorry, for state, county, and local governments 470 -- well, multiple billions of dollars, but for Miami -Dade County, $475 million. All those funds were given to those states, counties, and cities based on population. Every single one of those funds based on population. The city of Miami, which has a population of depending on what census numbers you look at, slightly under 500,000 should have been given and should receive slightly over $80 million in CARES Act funding. Atlanta, which has a population of 506,000, receives $80 million directly from the federal — received directly from the federal government. Throughout the course of this, the League of Cities, led by our chair, past president, along with Jason Bermudez, the mayor of Doral, and along with Mayor Cordino from Pinecrest, created a team of negotiators to negotiate with Miami -Dade County in good faith to get the maximum amount that cities could get. The County began first by saying that they were going to give us a dollar. Then they increased that offer from zero to $60 million approximately. Then as Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla just articulated, they went of their own volition to the County Commission and made a presentation saying that they were going to give the cities $135 million, which is 50 percent of what the cities should get based on population. The cities are 57 percent of the population of Miami -Dade County. They should get $270 million. Once they did that, we began another round of negotiations with the League of Cities. And that round of City of Miami Page 5 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 negotiations was based on what the County had presented to its County Commission, which had a category for cities of $135 million and another category of reserves of $70 million. And what we said, and 1 communicated this to you guys in personal phone calls that I had with you all, is that if we could at least get the $70 million combined with $135 million, that would put us at about $205 million, which is about 75 percent of what we're entitled to based on population. And we would be willing to compromise and essentially walk away from 25 percent, which in the case of the City, would have cost us $20 million. In the case of all the cities, would have cost us $75 million. What the County did that week, which was last week, the week before, was they basically discontinued negotiations. We had asked them to respond, the League of Cities had asked them to respond to the counteroffer of $205 million. They discontinued our negotiation. The mayor said that he was going to meet with the chairwoman, and they were going to come back to us after that meeting. And we have that in writing. The League of Cities asked for a deadline of Thursday, 5:00 p.m. to receive a response to the counteroffer. That day came and went. Our Chair, who was the president, asked the Mayor, Wednesday of that week if he would respond to our counteroffer. He said yes, they would respond. That never happened. And instead of getting a response which was, look, we don 't agree with your counter, or we're going to counter your counter, or sorry, we're just going to give you the 135. That's the most that we think we can do. Instead of doing any of those things, they had a special commission meeting on Monday. Without any notice to the public, without any notice to any of the cities, including our city, they decided to reduce the number from 135 million to 30 million, understanding that there are 34 municipalities, and they included UMSA (Unincorporated Municipal Services Area), which is part of this resolution. They included UMSA as a 35th municipality to share in $30 million to be reimbursed based on expenses. And our administration is going to make a presentation after this, after my comments about what the city has spent and what the city may be able to spend based on the eligible criteria (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We'll see that it approximates $80 million. When you consider potential new legislation, and our Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla can probably give us a really good idea on what, you know, the likelihood of that passing federally, when you consider new legislation, both on the House and on the Senate side, it is extremely likely that with that new legislation, there will be more flexibility in CARES Act funding expenditures, which will allow states and counties, for that matter, to use the money for revenue shortfalls. And that affects our first responders who have been on the front line, our police, our fire. That affects our programs, a variety of which, you know, through our budgetary process, have seen or may see reductions in services to our residents. We had a looming $30 million deficit in 2021 and a current deficit of $25 million in 2020. And that money could also be used for those revenue shortfalls according to the federal legislation that's out there. And so, you know, unfortunately we're in this position. I wish we weren't. I think our president -- our chair, president, did a magnificent job of negotiating in good faith. And unfortunately, we're in a situation where we have no other alternative but to continue to fight with member cities to try to get what's fair for the citizens of our city. You know, there's a reason why there's 34 municipalities in Dade County. There's 34 municipalities, and there continue to be more and more municipalities because unincorporated areas want to incorporate to get better services. Because unincorporated areas understand that the best service that they can get is the government that's closest to them. And that's why we have a city. That's why we have 34 cities. And so for me, it's unreasonable to imagine that the County would better understand the differences and nuances between North Miami and Hialeah, between Miami Beach and Miami, between Aventura and Homestead. We saw all the mayors come together in an unprecedented fashion in three languages, right, in English, in Spanish, and Creole. Rich cities, poor cities, big cities, small cities all come together to condemn universally what the County has done. I don't think that's ever happened in the history of our community. I hope it never happens again, frankly, because it's not something that should happen. We should never get to that point. But again, I want to commend our chair, who handles City of Miami Page 6 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 himself with a tremendous amount of class throughout this process. Unfortunately, we're in this position where we have to take more aggressive action. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Chair Hardemon: I also want to add some details to it that you -- first of all, you summarized it very eloquently. But 1 want to add a couple of things to it. First thing is that it wasn't just the municipalities that were bamboozled in this whole scheme. It was also the unincorporated parts of Miami -Dade County. If you watch the last Miami -Dade County Commission meeting, when Commissioner Dennis Moss was complaining that UMSA, the unincorporated areas, were treated like stepchildren, much of his anxiety was that there was $21 million that was earmarked in that presentation for UMSA. Well, you should know that the July 8th presentation that gave the League of Cities -- the cities $135 million also identified another $100 million for the unincorporated parts of Miami -Dade County. And so unincorporated Miami -Dade County went from $100 million to $21 million. And so the part of Miami - Dade County that they are directly responsible for, that no other municipality has any hands in whatsoever; which is the UMSA area, was dissatisfied with the allocations that were made to them. And so if you can imagine, if the 13 commissioners are responsible for an area that no other commissioners in cities or towns or any place else is responsible for, if those commissioners or that commissioner who represents literally 97 percent of his areas unincorporated were upset, imagine what the rest of our municipality would want to be when it comes to the services that the County wants to provide to our municipalities. And the last thing that I'll add is that this is reminiscent to me of the State of Florida trying to address our unemployment. Clearly, the unemployment office was not ready for that type of demand that was coining into that one space. Here, Miami -Dade County, as I predict, is not going to be ready for the sort of demand that's going to be made of their offices. And so I think that the cities, 34 different mayors, countless other commissioners, would do a service to its residents by spreading out that demand amongst its community. And for instance, in the city of Miami, we have businesses that are unlike businesses in other places. And so we could draft, we could create different policies that would be more beneficial for the businesses in our communities to qualify for funding as opposed to a general qualification that goes across all of Miami -Dade County. And I'll close by saying this, everything that I said does not mean that our programs are less stringent than that of the county. It doesn't mean that we're not going to have safeguards for public dollars. It doesn't mean that any of us as commissioners won't have any hand ourselves in who gets that money. What it does, it provides our businesses with better opportunities to receive funds, our residents, better opportunities, better chances of being able to receive assistance. And that's what we're asking for for all of our municipalities. And so, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, Jrosummarizing all of the information. And I hope that we were able to outline to you what our issue is as compared with this whole thing. And an update has come along as well. I heard from Mayor Bermudez from Doral that the mayor is willing to talk about additional funding to the cities and municipalities. Obviously, I wouldn 't hold my breath, but I think we're going to continue negotiating in good faith with the mayor and Miami - Dade County to see what additional funds he can provide to all of our municipalities to ensure that we have an opportunity to service our community members with dignity and with pride. Commissioners, any questions? Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman, is that a second? Is there an amendment within that? Chair Hardemon: I did provide the second. I second -- Vice Chair Russell: Thank you. City of Miami Page 7 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Chair Hardemon: -- the request. 1 don't think there's any amendment that needs to he considered. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. Mayor Suarez: I was going to say, I think the Vice Chair amended the resolution by adding the language relating to legal recourse. And I think you said -- Chair Hardemon: He did and I seconded that. That was what I seconded. Ms. Mendez: Chairman, I wanted to clarify for the record that any legal recourse would have to be by a four votes of the Commission if you want to waive the 164 process, because if not we may have to do mediation first. So it would have to be a four votes of this Commission (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just go straight into a lawsuit. Mayor Suarez: Can I suggest that we have the ability to waive? Because we may want to go into 164 but we also may want to have the ability to waive. Can we do both? Ms. Mendez: So unfortunately, based on a ruling we recently had, it needs to be very specific if we are going to waive the 164 process. Because normally, we sue, we allow for the 164 process i f the court sends us to do that or if we want to do that first. If not, we don 't have the ability to pick and choose when we're in it. It'll be left to someone else and not us. Vice Chair Russell: Could we reconvene? I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. Chair Hardemon: You're recognized. Vice Chair Russell: Madam City Attorney, could we empower you to investigate legal options at this point? And if it comes to that, and we need to make a decision based on which direction we want to go, mediation or not, with 164, could we reconvene at that time to give clarification or direction on that through the four -fifths vote? Ms. Mendez: You may, the thing is you'll have to -- in order to just go straight into a lawsuit, you'll have to meet, we'll have to meet in order for you to make that decision. Vice Chair Russell: Unless we have four votes here today. Are we four commissioners today? Ms. Mendez: Yes, you're four, but you have to -- in the motion you're making, you clearly have to waive the mediation portion. Chair Hardemon: Yeah, but the thing I want to make clear -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Are we making the motion just for -- I think, obviously, we're going to have discussion on this, right? I mean, it's -- Chair Hardemon: Right. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Chair Hardemon: Right. We're certainly going to have discussion. What I wanted to add to that, Senator, is that I don't think that -- well, it wasn't my intention to immediately waive 164. Mediation may be helpful, right? And so what I believe the Vice Chairman was attempting to say to all of us was that if we needed to waive 164, we wanted to find a way that we could do it. So even if we empowered you today to City of Miami Page 8 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 waive it if necessary at our direction versus waiving it today and then you moving forward with it being waived. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Sure. Mayor Suarez: I guess my question is, why can't we give you the discretion? Because here's the thing, there is benefits and detriments to 164. The benefits are obviously mediation, right? Being able to get everybody sort of in a room and forcing them to mediate. But it can also be used as a delay tactic. And there isn't that much time between now and December 31st when the money is supposed to be spent. And so I'm afraid that the County, if they were acting in bad faith, and they've acted in bad faith in the past, you know, would potentially use 164 to delay. At the same time, if we can have an expedited 164 process, where we can be in a room with them next week, right, and we have a resolution, 1 would love to be able to do that because 1 think it could be helpful. But why can't we give you the discretion of whether or not we waive 164? Ms. Mendez: So I just wanted to clarify because remember that in any lawsuit, we can enter into informal mediation, which is the mediations that you're all used to that my attorneys and myself go with their attorneys and they mediate. So that is always a possibility. I'm talking about the 164 dispute resolution process that for us to go into court, you have to declare that it's an immediate emergency. And that is why you're foregoing that process. And unfortunately, there isn 't an expedited, Mayor, how you described it, an expedited process that we could be with them in a meeting next week. It's not that expedited based on the notice provisions and all that. So that's why I need, if you declare this an emergency based on timing, based on the fact that monies are going to be appropriate — allocated, appropriated, spent, all those things. That's why we need the ability to go into court quickly if you so determine. And then we can mediate, but not your mediation under 164, it would be the regular mediations we're used to with their attorneys and our attorneys in the court process. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And what's the -- ifI may, Mr. Chair. Ms. Mendez: You have to pick one or the other. Chair Hardemon: You're recognized, Senator. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And what's the timeline for that mediation process, normally, Vicky? Ms. Mendez.: For the 164 process -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes. Ms. Mendez: -- under Florida statute, that one can take a few weeks, depending on timing, notice, we have to notice them, they have to respond, so we could be (INAUDIBLE) when you go back and forth versus obviously, as you know, court can go a little faster. Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman. (COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD) Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: What's -- Vicky, what's the difference between -- or maybe the Manager -- is the Manager going to give us a presentation? I want to see what's the difference between allocating funds and spending fiends. What the timeline is on that for the county? Is there a difference? Will the City Manager give us a presentation on that before we have a discussion about 164, the lawsuit, or will we City of Miami Page 9 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 include it together or do we deal with them as separate issues? It's kind of 1 think, the debate -- Chair Hardemon: Let's hear from our manager first. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I think so. So, kind of give us guidance on where the allocation of the dollars, is it 90 days, is it by the end of the year, and then how long that mediation process, vis-a-vis how long that mediation process will take. Because I think we all agree that we will have a new mayor in November, right? That's kind of where I'm going. And I have a feeling, based on what the candidates that are running for mayor have said publicly, all the leading candidates have said that they want to be fair with the cities, that they want to do the right thing. So 1 think whoever's elected in November will have a much, you know, a better approach towards the cities and a better relationship with the city. So 1 want to know what that timeline is and legally and what we can do to kind of just you know, you know, wait them out if we can. Mayor Suarez: I think that's a very good question, Commissioner. I have asked by public record what -- I mean, there's a legal question there, which is, right, when do they have to spend the money by, which I think is December 31st. But I can tell you that I've asked when did they get the money, because I think they've been sitting on this money for a while. That's number one. And number two, I've asked how much of it have they actually spent. And I suspect, just a suspicion, that it's very, very little of the 475 that they've actually spent. And by the way, that's good to know, because if they come back and say, well, we don't have any more money, we don't have the money, the answer is no, you have plenty of money. You just have allocated it all to whomever you want to allocate it to. That doesn't mean you don't have the money. You definitely have the money. But I haven't gotten an answer yet on my public records request. I'm texting to see when we're going to get it. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Chair Hardemon: I'll recognize the Manager. Mr. Manager. Mr. Carollo, you have a question first? Commissioner Carollo: That's okay, let the Manager go and I'll speak after him. Arthur Noriega (City Manager): Good morning, everyone. So, yeah, there's a little bit of nuance to this because the expenses related to the CARES Act have to be expended by December 31st, not necessarily paid out. There's a grace period for that, I think, of up to 90 days. But the expenses have to have been encumbered and incurred by December 31st, based on the current legislation. The presentation we have sort of falls in line with the request made by the County with a deadline of today, of August 3rd, that we submit to them all of the expenses that we have incurred up to date and that we would project to spend that are allowable expenses per the CARES legislation. That presentation Chris will make shortly. In addition to that, there's a sort of a companion item, which is also a request that was made based on an allocation the County made as part of their presentation for hazard pay for first responders. That allocation, so you know, I have a drafted letter which needs to he submitted to Deputy Mayor Ed Marquez. In particular, with that cost breakdown, we are proposing, and I'll show that to you in a minute as well, that they expand their definition of first responders to include those employees that also have been at risk. That would include Public Works, Parks and Recreation employees as examples, NET (Neighborhood Enhancement Team), and we have a number associated with that as well in line with that one percent allocation which the County presented as part of their request to us. So we'll present both of those when you are, you know, when you are ready. I don't know if Commissioner Carollo wants to go first and then we can -- I City of Miami Page 10 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 can -- I can tee our Budget Director up and kind of go through the various line items with you. Commissioner Carollo: Yes, if I may now. Mr. Mayor, in your conversations with either Mayor Gimenez, a few minutes you've had with him, anyone in the County, have they given you in writing any process that they have gone through or are planning to go through and how they came about it in allocating these dollars? Mayor Suarez: No, they haven't. And I -- the closest we got to that was when they took the $270 million that was essentially earmarked for cities or should have been earmarked for cities based on population. And they essentially divided that in half and they took half of $135 million and then they gave another half to the cities. And that -- to me, there's no logic to that because they're basically just taking half of the money. And they, by the way, already have another $200 million because it's a $475 million pie. So they're taking $205 million and they're taking another half of the 57 percent, which is the $270 million. So there's no logic to it, they just did it. I don 't know if the chairman has any better explanation than I do, but that was just what they did. They proposed it to the County themselves. And they also reserved $70 million unallocated for future expenditures. And all we did was, because we didn't want to get into a battle of having to ,fight with commissioners who may have mentally spent the money that was proposed to them, right, in the last commission meeting. So what we said was, look, just shift over the funds that were in reserve to the city. That's 205. That gives us 75 percent. And we'll walk away, you know, and we'll walk away and we can all hold hands and talk about collaboration, which is what the Mayor had been supposedly talking about. We can talk about collaboration and we'll collaborate and, you know, we will take a bit of a haircut. Commissioner Carollo: This past week, I saw Mayor Gimenez in a television program that I was really taken aback because I've never seen the kind of arrogance that I witnessed there from any elected official in a long, long time. He made the statements that this money didn't belong to us, meaning the cities, that it belonged to the people. And Miami -Dade County had the responsibility for that money, trying to insinuate that we were going to badly spend it. This is why I asked you, was there any kind of plan from them that showed how they were spending it or how they were going to spend it? Now I was taken aback by that because while the only thing I think that I could be in agreement right now with Mayor Gimenez is that that money belongs to the people. I don't see how they're bringing that money to the people. And in fact, my biggest concern is that those dollars are being used for politics at its worst, frankly, and like I've ever seen done in Miami -Dade and certainly with those amounts, where you're having commissioners in Miami -Dade County that are up for reelection, that out of the blue, the Mayor is blessing for them, program after program. In one case, I counted $45 million out of the blue that is going to be spent with no analvsis, if this is the right way to go about it or how it's going to be done in base of all the needs that we have. I'm even offended that in the city of Miami, where three of us represent one district, that they're putting these brigades of rapid response and just that name brigade already gives me a bad feeling because it reminds me of other types of brigades in other places. They're putting these brigades of rapid response to go supposedly and pass out face masks. But they haven't called me, I don't believe they called the other commissioners to be part of that, to work with them. They called a very select group of elected officials that have elections so that County employees could be used and just handing face masks out and leaving big, printed material of who it's coming from and it's almost like your door-to-door, a political campaign and I want to know how much money has been spent so far since they've announced at least in my district $45 million this whole program. [Later...] City of Miami Page 11 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Mayor Suarez: You know, 1 can tell you, Commissioner, like you said, you know, there -- as far as far as 1 can tell, there hasn't been any process. You know, what they did was, without any notice, by the way, without any notice to the public or any of the entities affected, is they broke off communications with the League of Cities as of the week before, and then they went in a room, and I don't know who was in the room, obviously, the mayor was in the room. They went in a room secretly and came up with this new redistribution of categories, which they did not share with the public, they didn't put it out there on Sunday, they didn 't put it out there on Saturday. They didn't put it out there on Friday. They didn't put it out there on Thursday, the day before. I found out about it 15 minutes after the special commission meeting began as I was sitting in a queue waiting to speak before the County Commission. And 1 had to review it very quickly. It's just very, very broad categories of things. We don't know how much of that -- of any of those broad categories are going to be spent in the city. We don't know how much of any of those broad categories are going to be spent anywhere for that matter. And I can ahnost guarantee you that almost none of that money has actually been spent. Because as we know, because we've developed these programs far before the County did, it takes time to develop the criteria. Then you have to have a -- you know, you have to have what essentially is a lottery system, right, where people can try to get the funding and then you have to allocate it. And that takes time. And people have to present information. They have to -- you know, it's a federal process. And by the way, this notion that the County's on the hook and as if cities cannot be trusted to spend money, we get federal funds and we're required to spend federal funds all the time, every single day. So we understand what it's like to be on the hook. We actually administer a countywide program, which is the HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS) program, which is a federal funds for people with AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). And we administer that countywide for the entire county through the city. So, you know, we understand. By the way, in terms of the cases, we have over 60 percent of the COVID cases. So the fact that, you know, we're not even looking at this -- we're assessing for this on a population basis, which our population is maybe one -fifth of the size of the county. But if you're looking at this on a percentage of actual COVID cases, money that a city can use to battle COVID in their community. We have 60 percent of the COVID cases because we're the densest city in Florida. And so we're not even looking at asking for 60 percent of the money. If we were asking for 60 percent of the $475 million, you know, we'd be getting $300 million. Commissioner Carollo: Well, the only area there that I tend to disagree with you a little bit, unless we would have more clear facts is if we do have 60 percent of the COVID cases or not. So, at least early on to the middle of this crisis, the State was mixing unincorporated areas that put down Miami, Florida, with the City of Miami. So it's hard to figure out unless you go case by case with an address -- Mayor Suarez: I totally agree with you. Commissioner Carollo: -- what we really have in the city. Mayor Suarez: I totally agree. I was just saying that's what the State reports. I don't necessarily believe the State report is accurate, but I -- but if you were to go by that, you know, it's a number that you could go by, right, that's a -- but yeah, I think you're right. I agree with you. I think we get put as a broad category as Miami and that's why -- Commissioner Carollo: The other point of being is, how can the city of Miami or any city plan appropriately on how it's going to spend monies to help its people, to give to its people, if the County has been playing this game back and forth with us that we don't know what we're going to end up with. And what we certainly can't do is spend money ahead of time before we have it, and then be in a real bind with our own City of Miami Page 12 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 budget. So, this is another factor that is, you know, right out just unfair in how the County is dealing with all of the cities. And I, for the life of me, cannot understand, except for some of the reasons that I've stated already, why this is happening. I've never seen this kind of intentful and willful bad cooperation with cities like I'm seeing now. [Later...] Vice Chair Russell: I've been reading the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act and the guidance and the frequently asked questions section of the CARES Act to understand better what that guidance was meant to be. And the City Attorney, if you could please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but there are places where it's explicit on how the money should be shared. And then there's places where it's vague. And Jroexample, within the Coronavirus Relief Fund frequently asked questions section, which further explains the guidance of distribution, obviously, the fund is designed to provide ready funding to address unforeseen financial needs created by COVID-19. We have those, we've been addressing, we've been dealing with them, but maybe we would be more robust if we knew the money was coming. What we need, what our residents need is predictability. And this waiting game or this relationship game doesn't serve them. Some of the other questions asked within the frequently asked questions, may a state receiving a payment transfer funds to a local government? Yes. May a unit of local government receiving a fund payment transfer funds to another unit of government? Yes. For example, a county may transfer funds to a city. This is guidance given by the Treasury Department with regard to questions that have been asked about how the distributions could and should happen. Can they be used for payroll expenses? When appropriate, the answer is yes. This one may be used for recovery -- emergency recovery planning. These are all expenditures we're having and we don't have access to these funds. So we're holding tight on both policies to address the pandemic because we're worried about the financial repercussions because we don't have the tools to mitigate those economic repercussions of the health policies. We really need access to these funds. And let me just broaden the amendment with regard to legal action, because we need to give the City Attorney full ability to analyze the CARES Act and look at it from top to bottom at all layers of government and take legal action where necessary throughout. For example, there's a section here that says, should the states receiving a payment transfer funds to local governments that did not receive payments directly from the treasury? And it says, yes, in amounts equal to 45 percent of the local government's per capita share of the statewide allocation. For example, if your state received a minimum $1.25 billion allocation and had one county with a population over half a million that received $250 million directly, that state should distribute 45 percent of the $1 billion received to the local governments within the state that have a population under half a million. So where the County may be failing us in distribution, the State may be required to do so. But the federal government has not created a really clear guideline for how the money would flow. So I would like to empower the attorney to take legal action at all levels of government wherever that is necessary. Chair Hardemon: You're recognized, Senator. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Thank you. Commissioner Carollo alluded to a political slush fund and he mentioned the total is about $45 million, but here in the CRF (Coronavirus Relief Fund) guidelines that we were given, it actually totals, Commissioner Carollo, $110 million. The $45 million, they've already defined, which includes, you know, $10 million to the taxicab industry that's been, you know, obsolete, I guess, for five years since Uber and Lyft and everyone else has come around. About $25 million for what they call the RISE (Reaching Impact, Saturation and Epidemic Control) program, Small Business Revolving Loan Program, which City of Miami Page 13 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 really is for -- not for small businesses, but for businesses up to $2 million and 25 employees. I don't think 1 have a lot of those businesses in my district. 1 don't think you have too many of those $2 million businesses and 25 employees in your district, Commissioner Carollo. I'm sure Commissioner Russell does, but in our district, we don't have those kinds. Those are not really small businesses. So, my original question hasn't been answered. And before the Manager goes on to Mr. Rose to explain what the reimbursement process is, I want my question answered if it's possible as to what the difference between allocating dollars to specific programs like those programs that those slush funds that were created for a particular commissioner in most cases for political reasons. We all know that. It's up to $110 million, so we're spending our money and we go through all the machinations and all the processes that we have to go through and we get there and there's no money left because they've said we, you know, hey, we have $110 million so far. Who the heck knows what they have in mind and what's on the pipeline and what are the programs that they're getting between now and August 18th, the election. We can have a lot of surprises, a lot of special meetings that are unnoticed where they say, hey, another $10 million for this, another $5 million for that. And they're spending money like drunken sailors. And the question now becomes, is that money that they've allocated, are we going to eventually have access to those dollars? And what are the mechanisms that we have in mind before we sue, before we talk about reimbursements? What's that process? And maybe the City Attorney can help us. Can we try to get some sort of injunction or something to stop that spending of those dollars? Or is the allocation, once they make that allocation, you know, we no longer have access to those dollars? That was my original question. 1 don't know who can answer it. Arthur Noriega (City Manager): Commissioner, the only request that has been made of us to this point is that we provide all of the expenses as I referenced before, that we have incurred and those that we project to incur COVID-related and within the guidelines of the CARES through December 31st. No predisposition on value, on a number. This has been a very, I'll call it, loose process, you know, but there is — there has been a deadline created, which is today. So the money they have allocated at this point per the CARES guidelines isn't sufficient. They will have to have spent it for December 31st. Allocating it is not a sufficient use. The expenditure of the funds is what's required. Mayor Suarez: And by the way, I find it ironic that they have implemented this arbitrary deadline, getting answers from us. When I asked them for public records, very similar to what Commissioner Carollo just asked the City Attorney, I asked for very basic -- I didn't ask them for (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I just asked them when did they get the money and how much of it has been spent, that's all I asked, and I asked that last week, and I still have not received a response. I think I asked for that before they sent the letter requesting us. So they expect us to give them a detailed breakdown, which we're going to do, and they still have not responded to my public records request. I find that to be incredibly ironic. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So Mr. Manager, is it your intention then to, when you make a presentation, or Mr. Rose makes a presentation, you have a list of all these total amount of dollars that we're going to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) by today's 5:00 p.m., you know, arbitrary, as Mr. Mayor, the mayor eloquently stated, arbitrary deadline that they set. I don't know where they come up with that, but by 5:00 p.m. today, say, these are the $80 million that we need? About $50 million, $135 million. I mean, what's your -- what are you thinking of what you're going to present in terms of reimbursable expenses? But before we get -- Mr. Noriega: I can show it to you. It's 75 -- it's a little over $75 million if you'd like. City of Miami Page 14 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, okay. So that's good. So, you're going to present by 5:00 p.m. to see --1 want to get to a place where we get our money. You know, 1 think that all of us will be in a better place after this November election. 1 think all the cities in Miami -Dade County will be in a much better place, again, based on what all these different candidates for mayor have said. This obtuseness that exists with the current mayor, unfortunately, you know, I don 't understand it. It's become personal for him. It's a shame. It's sad for the residents of Miami -Dade County, the people he represents. But I think we'll be in a much better place in November. And I want to know if we can do both. We can say let's submit these reimbursements by 5: 00 p.m. If you say $75 million, if that's the most you can do, I don't know if you can do more than that. And then we also pursue a legal avenue for the additional dollars that we're entitled to. I think, Mr. Mayor, what you said was correct. It's not $135 million. It's 270, is that correct? Mayor Suarez: 270. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And you said (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that you'll settle -- that we'll settle for $0.75 on the dollar, okay. That's very generous of you, by the way. I'm not sure I'll settle for that. But you know, I think you're in a giving mood that day that you said we'll settle for $0.75 to the dollar. I think we should get —.fight for the hundred, but 1 understand conversations and negotiations. But we shouldn't be in this place. And my question then becomes, we submitted reimbursements, we can do that. And then we continue to have a debate whether we go into mediation, whether we sue or both, and we can do both. I have something clarified in my mind here before 1 vote to go ahead and pursue legal action. And so let's vote -- I think maybe we talk about the reimbursements first, and the total and go through that, and then we come back and talk about the legal action to get additional dollars. Maybe within that reimbursement conversation, we can talk about additional -- ask the Manager additional dollars we can maybe get from -- go beyond the $75 million, if that's okay with the body. Mayor Suarez: I think there's a couple of pieces. Number one, I just want you to know, Commissioner, that your (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the Chair can attest to this, who was the president of League of Cities. My only offer was a hundred percent from the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It got to a point where I realized that maybe I wasn't the only -- you know, I'm not the only person negotiating and obviously there's other cities involved. And so in conformity with trying to get something done, you know, I was willing to sort of bend and take a little less than what I wanted, what I thought we were entitled to. I think there's another piece that we haven't talked much about, which also would -- if they were acting in good faith and they were acting in the best interest of everyone, including themselves, by the way. There would be a certain level of pause in terms of spending the money, and I'll tell you why. There's two pending legislations, a House bill and a Senate bill. And both in the House and in the Senate, both bills allow for more flexibility of CARES Act spending and allow for, I believe, a time extension on CARES Act spending. So listen, nobody here -- I don't believe the County has said, the County Mayor said, we're not giving any of the money back to the federal government. Now that's not going to happen. What's going to happen is, we will probably, presumably, work with the federal government to get to a point where all these monies are spent down, and they're spent down in ways that are eligible. But it's, I think, malpractice and negligent not to allow, you know, for some of this legislation to come down the pipeline, because you can forego -- you know, that $75 million could easily be $81 million if we could spend some of the money on a revenue shortfall. That sits right there. We have a $30 million deficit. By the way, in the bill that I've read, that's a revenue shortfall for this year 2020 and for next year 2021. A combined revenue shortfall for two years is $55 million. That's not even included in the $71 million that the Manager is proposing. That's doesn't even -- that doesn't talk about it. So we could theoretically, if we have that legislation in place, we City of Miami Page 15 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 could reshuffle the $80 million that would come to us and reprioritize a little bit so that we can meet some of our needs. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, Mr. Manager, to that to that point, so the $75 million that you have in reimbursable expenses in mind now, you're laundry list there. And the Mayor alluded now to $55 million, right? $25 million this year, and budgetary shortfall of $30 million next year. That's an addition, right? That's separate. Mr. Noriega: Yes, sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so that'll be 75 plus 55, right? Mr. Noriega: Mm-hmm. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Is there a legal framework for that now? Or we have to wait for the new legislation to come down from the feds? Mr. Noriega: Yeah, we'd have to wait for the -- for either of those pieces of legislation to fully manifest itself through the approval process. So right now we can't rely on those. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, and Senator Rubio has been very clear that that was his intent. I spoke to him personally and he said it publicly also that that's his intent to make sure that these dollars are available for budgetary shortfalls that the cities may be having. So that's something that 1 think at least we have one senator, I'm sure the other senator will join in too, or our Florida senators will fight for those -- that language to be in the future legislation. But for now, what we have available, in your head, in your calculations, it's only $75 million. Can you get more creative between now and 5: 00 p.m.? Mr. Noriega. So the issue of being more creative is the timeliness by which you have to spend it, right? I mean, getting -- I think we've -- like I'm going to give -- I really want to commend staff at every level, I mean, from our senior management all the way down to our department directors and below, because they've really worked hard since Thursday to try to really scrub through the potential expense reimbursements. This list, which Chris is going to present now, is now probably on its fourth version from when we started. We've kind of really worked through all of the potential opportunities to reimburse ourselves certain specific expenditures and as well as spend forward, right, some of the programmatic money we've already allocated in terms of some of the programs we've already done. So, I really want to thank the staff for really working hard all throughout the weekend. In addition to all the storm prep we were going through, they were sort of pulling double duty and working on both things. So they deserve a lot of credit. We spent a lot of time on it throughout the weekend, given that we, you know, we were trying to not give the County an excuse for us not presenting something to them by today 's deadline, because they would have certainly pointed the finger at us and said, you know, we weren't cooperating and we didn 't want to give them that opportunity. So they've really worked hard. I'll let -- I'll turn it over to Chris. Chris can walk through all the various line items. And then I want to also subsequently present the letter that we 're going to -- that we have drafted to send to Ed Marquez as it relates to first responders as well. Chris? Christopher Rose (Director, Management & Budget): Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you, Commissioners. Let me get the feedback turned off back here, one second. Alright, and can everyone see what I'm sharing? Vice Chair Russell: Yes. City of Miami Page 16 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Mr. Rose: Very good, thank you. So, as the Manager said, we did not want to overreach. So, I'll jump down to the bottom line. And as the Manager said, it is 75.7, almost 75.8 million. It encompasses most departments, if not all departments, in one form or another. We have the first three line items, which are citywide in nature. The first one is, of course, covering the 12.5 percent of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) match that the County has already told us is an eligible expense under what they have said to us. And right now we're using an estimate of $28.8 million and the 12 percent -- 12.5 percent of that is $3.6 million. Next up is the $2 million that this Commission first authorized back on March 25th at the very first virtual commission meeting for feedings and food response for those that most needed it. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And Chris -- Mr. Rose: Yes, sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- I don't want to interrupt you, I'm not interrupting, don't worry, going down the whole list, but I just want to make a point early on. You see the $2 million there for the feeding program as an example of the Commission authorized? Why can't that number, let's say we want to do an additional feeding program, I'm not saying we want to do that, but let's say we want to do that, why can't that number be $6 million? Why can't it be $10 million? If we go down to the rental and mortgage assistance program that the Mayor unveiled a few months ago, that's $6 million now, why can't that be 10 million? 1 mean, is it because of -- if they're able to allocate dollars, $25 million for this, $10 million for that, $15 million for that, and they haven't even spent it or they don't have the criteria in place for spending it or allocating it, why can't we do the same thing? Let's say we put the programs to mirror their programs, say they're identical in nature, but except that we distribute it and we allocate it. And why can't we do that? And why is that not reimbursable? So, as you go through it, maybe you can answer that question first, and then I won 't interrupt anymore until you finish. And whatever additional question, I'll ask you at the end. Chair Hardemon: I agree with you, Senator, because in that space, that's money that we've already spent. But certainly, I know I've had this issue, and I'm sure you guys have had it as well, that you need more dollars to feed more people. That we spent that money, essentially. I know in our Heart and Meals program that we have, we delivered meals to seniors, that money is gone. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right, that's why they're reimbursements. What I'm saying is that if they're projecting what they're going to be spending down the line, and these are things that they're already projecting and allocating, why can't we do the same that we're projecting by December 31st that we're going to allocate and spend, you know, $10 million for a rental assistance program? And why is that not reimbursable? Mr. Noriega: So can I add to that? So the feeding program is a reimbursement. The housing community development programs that you see below are all -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's an increase. Mr. Noriega: Those are projected. No, no, those are projected. These are not reimbursements because we used that -- that was all -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: That's my question. So where did the $6 million -- City of Miami Page 17 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Mr. Noriega: That's all new money. That's all new money. And that's all more than actually the County has allocated. Ain I right, Chris? Mr. Rose: Yes, sir. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Correct. Mr. Rose: Commissioner -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But we would argue -- hold on. Where does the $6 million come from? Because I would argue, because we see when we opened up this program, 1 believe it was $1 million the first time. 1 think the application process lasted like an hour before the money had run out. 1 can tell you that the city of Miami has a heck of a lot more need than $6 million in rental assistance. 1 can tell you that. So where does the $6 million come from -- figure come from? And that's kind of my concern. Why can't we just take the total that we expect to spend, because we will spend it, not misspend it like they're doing. We will spend it for people who really need it, not for taxi cab drivers or taxi cab owners, actually medallion owners, that's who they're giving it to. And not for big business, but for people who are in need. People who can't pay their rent, people who can 't pay their mortgage, people that are unemployed and can't get their unemployment assistance from the State and have to still meet their mortgages. These mortgage and rental abatements that they're doing, extensions until September 1st, that's going to run out. And then when that runs out on September 1st, if there's no other additional extension, those landlords are going to come around and say, oh, by the way, that was an abatement. That's not forgiveness. So now you owe me not one $1,200 that you pay me a month, but you owe me five months times $1,200. And who the heck is going to be able to come up with, you know, that kind of money? So there's going to be a tremendous need. There is today, and there will continue to be for a lot of these programs. And these are not completely -- not even close to being fully funded. So what was the reasoning? I know you -- and you worked all weekend, and I know you had all these issues, but why the $6 million figure for the rental and mortgage assistance program? Why the $5 million figure for the small business? Are these figures --? Where do they come from? And because I'm very -- I can tell you with complete certainty without even having any documents in front of me, that there's more than a $6 million need in the city of Miami for rental and mortgage assistance. I can tell you that. I think every commissioner and the mayor would agree with that. Mr. Noriega: So, the reasons for the number -- the reasons for the number and the reason they're at the values they are at now is an issue of capacity to be able to spend it prior to December 31st. That's really where the limitation came. We certainly could spend more, but we need more time. We were trying to fit it into what we could, what we've expended and what we could spend before the end of the calendar year. Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman -- Mr. Noriega: (INAUDIBLE). Vice Chair Russell: -- I disagree, Art. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I disagree. Vice Chair Russell: I agree with Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla. The need is there and when we open up the lottery, today we're opening up the lottery for over $1 million and you watch how fast it's gone. So there is not a capacity issue to distribute the funds. We -- you know, if we had more to distribute and the need is there, we could City of Miami Page 18 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 use it easily before December 30th. And according to CARES, it's the 30th, not the 31st. Apparently, they don't want us to spend on New Year's Eve. Chair Hardemon: Well, and I also want to add in there that the numbers that we have jrothe feeding, right, that's a reimbursement. But we don 't -- I don't see in this list, maybe I'm looking at the top part, but I don 't see in this list future funding for future feeding. Mr. Noriega: The reason for that was basically in terms of a reimbursement in a future program, our assumption would be that the County was going to manage that process, not have us in the feeding business. Chair Hardemon: Right. And the issue that I have with the County's program is that obviously it's need based, which is fine, but what you should all understand is that -- the best way that 1 can put it is, you have to serve people with dignity, right, and with pride. And I think that, you know, for instance, in my district, and I know in other districts as well, we've created programs that people feel comfortable using, that incentiviles businesses to keep their doors open, so it provides money not to just one vendor, that's one (UNINTELLIGIBLE) profit, but many different businesses. And so, you know, having additional funding to be able to kind of keep those types of programs going, where they can have meals that people are used to eating, not, you know, just some thrown together hodgepodge of frozen meals, which is necessary, you know, at some point, but if we have the ability to provide people better food, you know, I think that we have a responsibility to do that. And 1 would like to see monies added for future funding for that type of program to continue on. Vice Chair Russell: I have a question for Chris, if I could, Mr. Rose. And for the City Manager. So the list you've got there, adding up to $75 million, would that -- is that dedicated to be spent whether or not we get reimbursed CARES money or get a share of allocation, is that line item to be gone? I know some of it we've already spent in terms of food and things, but as you go through the next line items, I want to know if that's conditional on receiving this potential allotment. And if not, we wouldn't spend it and we tighten our belts or we do what we'd have to do? Mr. Noriega: No, it's conditional. Vice Chair Russell: See, this is why we (INAUDIBLE) -- Mr. Noriega: We don't have that money. We don't have that money. Vice Chair Russell: I understand the reason we would want to see what happens in November with the county mayoral election, or we'd want to see what happens in the Senate with regard to the coming bills, butt think time is of the essence for us because the actions we take and the ability we have to help our community is based on how much money we have access to. And if we're leaving it as a question mark until November and even into December, the time limit to actually allocate and spend is going to be even less. So I really think that we should be making as robust a budget to do what's necessary and fight for the money that our residents deserve. And yes, the County could argue that, oh, we could do a feeding program better than you or we could say vice versa. But what this comes down to is the meat and potatoes of our bottom line. I know that CARES money cannot be used to replace revenue loss, but it can be used for payroll. It can be used to preserve employees, especially those who you've repurposed into COVID-related mitigation and especially those who already were in that in that field. So our own employees are at risk. Our 4,000 employees are at risk. And if we do not secure some sort of predictability on these funds flowing to us, you're going to have to start making decisions that none of us are going to like. So I would like to see us take action on this now. I'd like us to waive the mediation City of Miami Page 19 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 requirement under 164 and give the City Attorney the ability to go into informal mediation if she wants and she feels it's strategically available, but to allow 164 to hold us longer. 1 think we should try to waive that now that we have a sufficient quorum of the Commission here and I think we should go forward. So, I'd like to hear more about the line items from Chris as well now that I understand them better and -- but that's my hope that we take action today. Mr. Rose: So, through the Chair, I'll put it back up on the screen. So -- and Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, perhaps it's just the order of things, but the $2 million, and maybe it's just too much detail even, but the $2 million was already approved by this Commission, and so we broke it out as a separate line item, different than these items down lower that are future things, that we would start once, as the Vice Chair said, once we had certainty moving forward. So, the third line item here is a retrofit of our city facilities and particular credit goes to our -- to our Capital folks for putting this number together. We believe that our employees do need to be very safe as they're going through the workday once we do come back and we have the per square footage number and a large number of facilities that we put out there. It's not just City Hall and the Miami Riverside Center. After that, we have temporary staffing to help capital improvements with some of the economic recovery initiatives that we've already put out there, especially some of the capital projects that we put out in the mid -year budget amendment, communications. On our next line is a paid media campaign to, much like the County has done, to put forth the information that we need to get out to our residents about what's going on. We've gone back and looked through all of the elected officials' office budgets to see what could be reimbursable that has been done and is expected to be done, so far we got to a $62, 000 number. Fire -Rescue, transport of COVID-19 patients. We have a number there. And then, yes, these four lines right here are new programs. They are totaling $15 million. And yes, we have had a very robust discussion over the weekend and Thursday and Friday about what these numbers should be. And the Manager said it correctly that the way the CARES Act is written today, it is limited to December 30th, 2020. Should any future legislation change that, we could potentially change these numbers. But these are the numbers that we have come up with, with our best professional recommendations. Human Resources put some part-time personnel on specifically to work on COVID-19 activities. IT (Information Technology) has clone a large number of contractors and things that hardware, software, licenses, overtime, that we put together totaling almost $2.7 million. Park staff, we repurposed a great deal of part- time and temp staff not the least of which are the fblks that take the temperatures going into all of our City facilities and put the wristbands on us. Planning had some costs associated with way back in March when we canceled a couple of meetings there were legal advertising and certified mail costs that are not eligible under the FEMA guidelines right now. So we've got that in. Overtime and equipment related to COVID-19, again not reimbursable by FEMA in the Police Department. Real Estate and Asset Management -- I'm sorry, Commissioner. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, I'm sorry. Mr. Rose: Okay. The -- I just want to be very responsive. Real Estate and Asset Management, some of the discounted and deferred rent at city -owned facilities that we have worked with our folks on, the tenants and patrons at those facilities. Resilience and Public Works has two lines here. One of them is the reduction that the County had originally told us was going to be corning from the half cent for our trolley program versus what we are expecting today. And then the second one is acquisition of new trolleys and retrofitted existing trolleys to comply, with social distancing requirements. And then the final line is all of the workers' compensation claims and healthcare costs, again, only between March and December that the City is undertaking right now. All of that totaling $75.763 million. And I suppose I should take questions at this time. City of Miami Page 20 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Mayor Suarez: 1 think, 1 think, you know, certainly we could do more on the feeding side. I understand that, you know, we've already proven that we can spend that money and we can get it to our residents in an efficient manner. That's already been done. So it's just a matter of us doing it again. So I think we can do more on the feeding side. I think the issue with the other categories is, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, is that we have the programs in place, which we're probably farther ahead than the County is, frankly. We have the programs in place and all we have to do is do the lottery. But once -- what we've learned from some of these programs is it takes a little longer to spend the money down just because of federal requirements that require, you know, certain paperwork that the residents need to give. And it just, it takes time, longer than we would like, frankly, for it to actually get spent down. And by the way, the County's going to have to deal with that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) because they haven't done this. And we have, so we have more experience than they do, which is another reason why they should give us the money, because we already have been doing this. They have not been doing it, so has the City of Hialeah. And there are other cities that have been doing this. So, you know, I think that's an issue. Certainly, the need is far greater than $6 million. And if we did the lottery, the lottery system would get us many, many more people. The question is how quickly can we get all the documents in place and actually spend it down in terms of the pipeline that we have right now. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But Mayor, can we ask for it? Mayor Suarez: Of course. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And then try to work on our own efficiency internal administration (INAUDIBLE)? Mayor Suarez: Yes, we may be able to -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah. I think we all agree that $6 million is not even half of what we're going to need at the end of the day. And then I agree with the feeding program and the eviction prevention program. That's probably a more serious allocation there than the actual, than the other ones, because that's -- that's people who are going to lose their homes. It's not that people can negotiate with their landlord and say, give me another month or with the bank and say, hey, I mean, we're in the process. These are people that are about -- they're already going through a legal process of being evicted. They could be kicked out of their homes. So that's something that's going to need more dollars too. I don't want to go through, you know, come up with arbitrary numbers like the County did because then we'd be as guilty as they are, to be honest with you. You know, $15 million for this and $10 million for that and $25 million, for that. That's just very irresponsible. And I think we need to do -- we need to, you know, be the adults in the room here, not what the County's doing and do what we need to do. But I think that we really need to ask for the reimbursements at the maximum amount of dollars and then figure out a way internally, your administration and us and all working together as we have been for the past three or four months to figure out a way how to allocate those dollars through a lottery system. I know Commissioner Russell agrees, I know I would venture to say that Commissioner Carollo agrees because of the need that he has in his district. And I think that Commissioner Hardemon has even greater need with the feeding program and some of the eviction issues that he has in his district as I have in mine. I just don't think those dollars are enough, to be honest with you, Mayor. I think we need more. Mayor Suarez: And I agree with you 100 percent. I also think that there's two potential game changers in the next week, because I do think that there will be federal legislation in the next week, is my guess. Game changers are probably an extension of City of Miami Page 21 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 time to spend is my guess and there's probably going to be a more flexibility in how we can spend the dollars. So there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that we could efficiently and effectively spend the $81 million that we should have gotten based on our population. There is zero doubt in my mind. And frankly, I'm hopejul and I've advocated for this with the US Conference of Mayors that you know that there is some additional dollars that comes to us, right? Because frankly, we could spend the $80 million, and then we should be able to get at least $50 million more jbr our deficit, right? For our projected revenue shortfall. That would be the best case scenario, obviously. Chair Hardemon: I have a question Jrothe Manager. Mr. Manager, 1 saw that you had a line in there for repurposing our part-time workers. Can you explain the repurposing part? Because what comes to my mind is that I know that since we are repurposing part-time workers, I mean, maybe that's giving them some part-time -- you know, that they're within those same hours, but doing different jobs. But is there a need to have those part-time workers transition to full-time in order jrous to maintain, especially these programs, the level of service, the distancing, all these things that we look to our, for instance, our police to do in many instances. I mean, is there any opportunities there to use those part-time workers to help with managing the COVID-I9 spread? Mr. Noriega: Yeah, 1 would say that for now, because we're really uncertain in terms of the timeliness of this issue in terms of COVID and the real need, I think the repurposing of the part-timers was a really good reallocation of their time, in particular, guaranteed them a salary, you know, an income, which I think was very important. I think --1 don't know that I would commit to converting them to full-time as of right now, just because of the duration in terms of how long this particular issue is going to persist for us in terms of you know, the emergency orders that we're under now. I would be a little more patient with that. I think they're going to certainly garner a lot of use and continued use, probably at least in the calendar year and probably into the first quarter of next year. Chair Hardemon: Okay. Because I just want to ensure that, of course, that we keep them working, if we can increase their level of activity because we have new responsibilities, that's wonderful as well. If you can have them full-time or keep them at part-time but continue to be paid. You know, that's what you do for a living, so I'll trust you with that. Mr. Noriega: Can I ask a question in light of the most recent discussion? Would it be the will of the Commission to try to reallocate up to that $81 million we've sort of had as an allocation, maybe double up the feeding number and then reappropriate the balance to those other programs which you've already identified? Would that be the will of the Commission in terms of -- ? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It would be my will. Mr. Noriega: Yeah, well -- I know but I'm asking sort of in general, what's everybody's --? Mayor Suarez: I don't have a problem with that. And I would just say, Mr. Manager, that you put an asterisk on it. And the asterisk being that there is likely to be changes to federal, you know, the ability to spend these dollars and the amount of time. And that is likely to happen within the next week. And that could change our allocation. Because if we're given more flexibility and we're given more time, that could change things, obviously. City of Miami Page 22 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Mr. Noriega: So what I'll do is in the cover memo which I submit with this breakdown I'll put -- I'll put some language in there that basically says this is as of today's requirements, and you know, should -- should the legislative process play itself out, we would like to an opportunity to readdress this in the future. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And I would -- and Mr. Manager -- if I may, Mr. Chair, through you. Chair Hardemon: Go ahead, Senator. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I really would like -- and I don't know if the commissioners agree -- to really increase that rental and mortgage assistance program, the small business assistance program, the eviction prevention program, the feeding program, double that feeding program, and probably take this emergency from the rental and mortgage assistance to $10 million and the small business to $10 million, the eviction prevention program, $5 million -- prevention program to $5 million, and just add more dollars to those critical -- because I think that's where we're going to have the problem with our residents. I think that's where they're hurting in terms of the feedings, in terms of evictions, in terms of the ability to pay rent. And so the small business program, a real small business program, right? One that's for real small business in our districts, the ones that have four or five employees if that many, the ones that are selling, you know, $600,000 if that much. Those are the -- 1 don't know what the parameters are of our program, but really make it for small businesses, not for big businesses disguised as small businesses. And if those programs are -- and I have no doubt that we'll be able to manage it more efficiently and more effectively than the County's doing, but those amounts are way too low, way too low. Mr. Noriega: So the reason I -- the reason I -- because your suggestion basically takes us up to about $88 million. My suggestion was based on the resolution which you have before you now, right, which is to use it based on -- allocate the money based on population. So I was trying to mirror that so that we wouldn't be in any way, shape or -- so we'd have something to tie it to. That's why I made that recommendation. I'll follow whatever lead you want, but 1 -- that was the reason for that. Chair Hardemon: And Mr. Mayor, I want to say something about that. Because what we've shown is that we're using some methodology that makes sense, right? We're basing it off of population, which is how the County got the money in the first place. But essentially what the County has said to us is, send us your invoices and your plans and we'll approve. That's what they've said to us. So the reason I say that is because I don 't mind going over the $81 million reasonably in order for us to take care of our community because essentially our need in the city of Miami will be greater than that of the $81 million that even we believe that we want to have. So I think that it's perfectly reasonable to go above it because I believe that there are many, many municipalities that may not be able to serve the need that they have like at all, or they may not have the need that's appropriated or allocated towards them. And so there's going to be additional dollars that I believe that municipalities can use. And I think we should take advantage of the opportunity to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, and Mr. Chairman, ifI may, there's -- it's by population, but the poor parts of Miami -Dade County are in our city. Chair Hardemon: Yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So that's where the need is; in the urban core of Miami -Dade County. And the areas that you represent and I represent, right, that City of Miami Page 23 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Commissioner Carollo represents. So just because a population is a certain percentage doesn't mean that the need is the same percentage. And 1 think that's to your point. So if I can make a motion, if you allow me, that we take that rental and mortgage assistance program to $10 million, the small business assistance program to $10 million from $5 million, and the eviction prevention program from $3 million to $5 million. Chair Hardemon: And you (INAUDIBLE) -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I want to move that and we can add that to our -- Chair Hardemon: And the feeding, how would you adjust that? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'm sorry, and the feeding from $2 million to $4 million. Because $2 million is -- $2 million is reimbursed already, so it's only $2 million that we're adding. Chair Hardemon: Right. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's another $2 million. So another -- we put $4 million there, $2 million that already has to be reimbursed, and then $2 million for an additional program. Chair Hardemon: Does the mover agree to that amendment? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes, sir. Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, I'm sorry. Chair Hardemon: And the seconder agrees to it as well. Mr. Hannon, do you have a question? Mr. Hannon: Yes, sir. I'm just trying to figure out what we're amending with this resolution because it doesn't have dollar amounts, it doesn't have an exhibit, you know, where the budget director -- Chair Hardemon: Then we should clarify that the resolution should have an attachment to it, which is what Mr. Rose has presented to this body. So in our resolution, we are amending that attachment to be included in the resolution as our proposed -- what will be proposed to be given to the County Administration through our City Manager. Mr. Hannon: Understood. And so there's already a main motion on the floor. If the commissioners agreed to what Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla is proposing, then there isn 't a subsidiary motion that's required. Chair Hardemon: Okay. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We don't need one. Mr. Hannon: No, sir. So it sounds like everyone's in agreement as to what Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla proposed. And we're basically amending the legislation to include now this exhibit from the Budget Director. Chair Hardemon: Okay. That works fine. City of Miami Page 24 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Ms. Mendez: And Chairman, we need to clarify what action you want me to take because it has to be four votes so -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: That's a different issue, Vicky. We're dealing with the budget. We're going to deal, I think, with the legal action thing in a moment, right? Ms. Mendez: Okay, so we could do separate then? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I think so. Ms. Mendez: Okay, thank you. Chair Hardemon: Well (INAUDIBLE) -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, let the Chairman decide that. I'm sorry. Sorry, I got ahead of myself: Chair Hardemon: Well, we'll get there. But I'll recognize Commissioner Carollo and then the Vice Chairman. And I'll come back to the question. Commissioner Carollo: Look, on feeding, whether bringing hot meals directly to the people. Like we had a program for approximately two months that we showed how successful it was and what a need there was in the city of Miami. 1 will tell you that I could go through between now and December the $2 million that you've allocated alone in my district if I had that money available. So I would probably suggest that you up that a little more, at least by another million because that will be spent. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So then I'll amend my motion to make that $3 million -- I mean, sorry, $5 million, $2 million in reimbursable already and then the $3 million additional. Commissioner Carollo: Last but not least, when we talk about rental and mortgage assistance, we need to be very specific, it's for residential, but beyond that, what no one talks about is utility assistance, and particularly, electricity that's very expensive and we're still in one of the hottest months of the year and those expenses are going to be high. August, September, October, November is when it starts going down a little bit because our weather gets cooler. And water. Miami -Dade County, because it's failed throughout the years to use the funding that they have from the Water and Sewer Department to take care of all the old piping that they have, they jack up the rates tremendously on everybody. And now water becomes a luxury too for people, but sometimes they just can't afford it. So, we should include utilities also with the rental and mortgage assistance, because it's a very legitimate expenditure and assistance that people need. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Carollo, I think that's a wonderful idea, especially when it comes to utilities. We have homes in the city of Miami that are built in 1900, 1910, 1929, `30s. I mean, the average home in Miami is probably built somewhere between the `30s and the '40s and 50s. And so with that being said, they don't have high impact windows. They lose a lot of energy. They're not energy efficient. And if anybody knows about an air conditioning that is in a window, and especially when it's in multiple rooms, you are burning a tremendous amount of energy. And you're spending a lot more than what these newer, modern homes or even rental homes are spending. So I think that's a great idea. Mr. Manager, if you want to, you can create a figure for that so that we can make sense of'that. And so I want to -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Put a million dollars for that? City of Miami Page 25 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Chair Hardemon: That's -- 1 want to clarify something, too. So now we're hack to this. Madam City Attorney, what you're saying is that -- and Mr. Clerk -- right now the resolution that -- the resohation that we have, maybe we need to separate it. Because the resolution that we have is expressing our disappointment in the allocation that the County made. And it also then says that we wish ,for them to make a different allocation. Whereas the -- what's being submitted by the Manager is the request that the County is making for reimbursement. And so with that being said, in that request that we have initially, what we can do is we can give you the permission to waive 164. And then separately, the issue that we're talking about as far as the finding and the sources and the amounts, we can direct our manager to make those changes to that and submit that. And those are two separate issues and they're very clean if you separate them that way. What do you think Madam City Attorney? Ms. Mendez: Thank you, Chairman. Yes, we -- the -- remember that -- am I still muted? Can you hear me? Chair Hardemon: No, thank you. Ms. Mendez: Thank you. The original resolution that I had read into the record stated all those things, and then I believe that Chairman Russell wanted to amend to give me all action at all levels to be able to sue. And you're clarifying that it would -- we would be waiving the 164, and then you're making a separate directive on the funding as you've discussed. Chair Hardemon: I think that's appropriate. Ms. Mendez: Great. Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Carollo. Commissioner Carollo: One last item that I'd like to include that I don't believe that Chris has any dollars allocated. If he does, then I'd like to hear from him. There's' a lot of new equipment that's been put in the market since this whole COVID-19 begun that helps sanitize equipment, what have you, buildings at a much less cost than having to do it just manual. So I'd like to include an amount for that that is probably going to be way lower than anything that we'll spend, but I want to be responsible in what we're putting. And put somewhere between another half million to three quarter of a million for COVID-related new technology that would help us sanitize our City facilities and property. Chair Hardemon: Now, that's -- you know, I thought about that earlier, Commissioner Carollo, and I wasn't sure if that was some sort of rumor. (COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD) Chair Hardemon: Chris, you're recognized. Mr. Rose: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. -- Commissioner Carollo. It is in the $11 million number that we have put together for retrofitting of City facilities, whether it's UV (Ultraviolet) lights and special filters in our air conditioning, and other similar things. And then the operating costs that we've incurred to date, all of it -- nearly all of it or all of it has been put in for reimbursement through FEMA, which is to say that that's already taken care of independent of these numbers that we've got. Commissioner Carollo: So that includes all City property? City of Miami Page 26 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Mr. Rose: Yes sir, yes sir. And 1 should say, remember, these are estimates. We have worked very hard to get to this level, but to the Mayor's point and to other Commissioners' point, some of these numbers may change. If we end up asking for more in FEMA, then our 12.5 percent will go up from that number as well. So, this is our best estimate on August 3rd, 2020. Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Thank you, Chris. Chair Hardemon: Okay. So, just to clarify for the record, that record that the motion that we have is on the resolution that's on the floor. And it's been -- the resolution has been modified so that we can waive the Chapter 164 provision Pr our city attorney that requires four votes. Was there any other clarity in the resolution or in the amendment? Mayor Suarez: Can I just make a comment? It's not even a clarity. It's not changing it at all. I just want to say that providing the County with a funding formula in excess of the population is completely understandable because our needs are greater. You know, the fact that the federal government has created this scheme, which in and of itself is -- these numbers in and of themselves are somewhat arbitrary, right, because they don 't necessarily take into account the need of every single community in the country. They have to, 1 mean, it's impossible for them to do so. So it's not surprising for us that our needs are significantly greater than what is allocated. What's sad is that what we're offered is nothing, essentially. And that is unacceptable because we will not be able to provide this to our residents. We will not be able to use the funds for, you know, revenue shortfalls. We're not going to be able to do any of these things without the resources that we need to do them. Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Mayor I totally agree with you. For instance, one area that we're spending a huge amount of money because the decisions that the County has made for years past to the present is in sending paramedics to the housing facilities for the elderly. City of Miami, the County has decided throughout the decades that this is where they're going to build the vast majority of the public housing or assisted housing for senior citizens. And that in itself brings in a much higher requirement of service that's not balanced throughout the county to the City of Miami and paramedics alone for all the testing that we have been doing and sending our paramedics to the senior citizens and going there and taking them to hospitals, et cetera. And that's just one aspect of it. There's a lot more. On feeding alone, we have taken a lot more responsibility in helping feed those senior citizens in the city of Miami also. Even though as of late, there have been roadblocks, which is the first time I've ever seen on even City elected officials to be able to assist the elderly in the city by the County, while they allowed their brigades of rapid response to have ample opportunities to politicize. Chair Hardemon: Mr. Vice Chairman. Vice Chair Russell: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to make sure that it was sufficiently captured in the amendment that the City Attorney will have -- will be empowered to investigate the CARES Act throughout all layers of government to take on whatever is necessary to ensure that the City of Miami receives its due share of the CARES Act, so that could include state or federal government as well, the Treasury. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And for clari -- Mayor Suarez: Go ahead, go ahead. City of Miami Page 27 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Commissioner Diaz de la Fonda- And for clarification, are we -- we're including the additional dollars for reimbursement in this whole motion or we're doing this separately? Chair Hardemon: So my thought was that we don 't put the amount that we 're requesting in this, we'll include that -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: In the next one, okay. Okay. Chair Hardemon: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. I'll do -- we'll do a separate motion right after. Chair Hardemon: Correct. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right? Okay. Chair Hardemon: All right. Any further discussion on the motion on the floor? Hearing none, all in favor say "aye." The Commission (Collectively): Aye. Chair Hardemon: All against? Motion carries. Mayor Suarez: I would just add real quick as sort of a directive if anything. Chair Hardemon: I want the vote to reflect that there are four votes in the affirmative. Mayor Suarez: Yeah. [Later...] Chair Hardemon: Is there any other discussion, gentlemen? Mr. Noriega: Commissioners, would you like me to briefly address the other item I referenced which was the first responder pay supplement? Chair Hardemon: Yes. Mr. Noriega: Would you like to see that dollar amount? Chair Hardemon: You may. Mr. Noriega: I'm going to share my screen here in a minute. Can you see that? Chair Hardemon: Yes. Mr. Noriega: All right. So the letter basically, takes into account that it is our opinion as it relates to first responders that they shouldn 't really just be limited to police and fire, that we have other employees who certainly serve on the front lines of trying to serve the public. As I mentioned earlier, you know, NET, Public Works, Parks and Recreation as examples. And so we've asked, and this letter's been drafted to request that they be included as well, which brings the number in terms of the allocation, as per their presentation, at the last county commission meeting, I would bring the City's allocation of that money as $1.653 million. City of Miami Page 28 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Mayor Suarez: Mr. Manager, can you tell me how much they've allocated for the entire category? Mr. Noriega: Eight million. Eight million to he allocated to the cities, eight million to be allocated to the County. So the County is keeping eight million of it. The balance, they split it 50-50. Eight million would be distributed to the cities for this particular first responder pay supplement. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Manager -- ifI may, Mr. Chair. Chair Hardemon: Please. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So who are you adding --1 think 1 missed it. Who are you adding to the list offirst responders besides fire and police? Mr. Noriega: There are a number of city departments. Chris, if you could just give the detail to it. It was a number of other departments. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I just want to make sure we're not excluding anyone. Mr. Rose: Yes, sir, just a moment. These are employees in, of course, police and fire. They are also our homeless folks in the Human Services Department, Innovation and Technology employees, Neighborhood Enhancement Team employees, Parks and Recreation employees, Real Estate and Asset Management employees, Resilience and Public Works employees, and Solid Waste Management employees. Unidentified Speaker: Code Compliance. Mr. Rose: And Code Compliance. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Are we including our trolley drivers? Mr. Rose: Yes, sir, we are. And I did leave them -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Because I know the County didn't do it with their transit workers, and I just want to make sure that we're protecting them too. Mr. Rose: And forgive me, I left off Code Compliance also included. Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman, if I could. Mr. Rose, what would be an example of an employee that would not be covered? Mr. Rose: Generally speaking, administrative employees and executive employees in those frontline departments would not be included, as an example. Vice Chair Russell: But I believe it says it can be used for administrative costs as well, as long as those administrative costs are within emergency recovery planning. Mr. Noriega: No, but this is not a CARES. I mean, this is not -- Vice Chair Russell: Oh, okay. Mr. Noriega: This is a first responder supplement that the County created. It's technically a CARES because they're embedding it in the CARES reimbursement, but it's specifically earmarked towards a pay supplement for first responders. City of Miami Page 29 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 Mayor Suarez: I just want to jump in on something because 1 want our employees to understand that this, again, is not significant to what our employees deserve, right? So what's in here is they have decided to carve out a little, small little pot, right, to give cities $8 million, which is not enough. And if you look at your footnote on your letter, which I think is really important for our employees to see, the difference between what we would be getting under this formula, assuming we've got 100 cents on the dollar, which is 1.653, and what our employees would have to forego next year is $12.74 million. So that is, if we had the ability to spend money, as the potential future federal legislation may allow us to do, and have we had the funds, we could have given our employees what we had bargained for them to get, and what they had in the past, right? And we could have given them -- so they're going to take a significant hit even -- and I don't think that 1.65 is to all employees, correct? (COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD) Mayor Suarez: Right, so there's a $11 million or $10 million delta, it's actually an $11 million delta between what they should get and what they will get under the County's formula. And I want them to understand that because I really think our employees need to and their labor unions need to really get involved in this fight. Because if f we file litigation, they should be involved as well. Because this is going to cost them $11 million. Even in the best case scenario where they give us 100 cents on the dollar which is not likely to happen and that's not going to cover all our employees. Is that a fair statement, Mr. Manager? Mr. Noriega: Yes, sir, it is, absolutely. Chair Hardemon: Anything else, gentlemen? Mayor Suarez: Thank you. Ms. Mendez: Chairman? Chair Hardemon: Yes, you're recognized. Ms. Mendez: As a point of personal privilege, I wanted to wish nay younger son, Marcelo, a happy birthday. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Happy birthday, Marcelo. Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Ms. Mendez: Thank you. Mayor Suarez: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Take care, guys. Chair Hardemon: All right. Seeing that all hearts and all minds are clear, there no further business. This meeting is adjourned. Vice Chair Russell: Thank you, everyone. Take care. Ms. Mendez: Thank you. City of Miami Page 30 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 NA.1 7721 City Commission NA - NON -AGENDA ITEM(S) RESOLUTION A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, BY A THREE FOURTHS (3/4THS) VOTE, FINDING THAT AN IMMEDIATE DANGER TO THE HEALTH, SAFETY, OR WELFARE OF THE PUBLIC REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ACTION AND THAT SIGNIFICANT LEGAL RIGHTS WILL BE COMPROMISED IF A COURT PROCEEDING DOES NOT TAKE PLACE BEFORE COMPLIANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF CHAPTER 164, FLORIDA STATUTES, THE "FLORIDA GOVERNMENTAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION ACT;" AUTHORIZING THE CITY ATTORNEY TO TAKE ANY AND ALL ACTIONS NECESSARY, IN LAW OR EQUITY, BEFORE A STATE COURT, FEDERAL COURT, ADMINISTRATIVE BODY, OR ANY OTHER APPLICABLE ENTITY TO SEEK RELIEF FROM OR RELATING TO MIAMI-DADE COUNTY'S ("COUNTY") REFUSAL TO APPROPRIATELY SHARE CORONAVIRUS AID, RELIEF, AND ECONOMIC SECURITY ("CARES") ACT FUNDING WITH THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY"); STRONGLY OPPOSING THE COUNTY REPORT TITLED, "CORONAVIRUS RELIEF FUND (CRF) FINANCIAL UPDATES AND STRATEGY" PRESENTED TO THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ("COUNTY COMMISSION") AT ITS VIRTUAL SPECIAL MEETING ON JULY 27, 2020 ("JULY 27TH CRF REPORT"); STRONGLY URGING COUNTY MAYOR CARLOS GIMENEZ AND THE COUNTY COMMISSION TO RECONSIDER THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE JULY 27TH CRF REPORT AND TO DISTRIBUTE CARES ACT CORONAVIRUS RELIEF FUNDS TO THE CITY AND TO OTHER MUNICIPALITIES WITHIN THE COUNTY BASED ON POPULATION; STRONGLY OPPOSING COUNTY RESOLUTION, FILE NUMBER 201544, SPECIAL ITEM NO. 5, TITLED "RESOLUTION SETTING COUNTY POLICY THAT THE COUNTY SHALL CONSIDER THE UNINCORPORATED MUNICIPAL SERVICE AREA (UMSA) A MUNICIPALITY FOR PURPOSES OF ALLOCATING AND DISTRIBUTING FUNDS MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE 2020 CORONAVIRUS AID, RELIEF, AND ECONOMIC SECURITY ACT (CARES ACT'), THE PROPOSED HEALTH AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY OMNIBUS EMERGENCY SOLUTIONS ACT (HEROES ACT'), H.R. 6800, OR SIMILAR LEGISLATION; DIRECTING THE COUNTY MAYOR OR COUNTY MAYOR'S DESIGNEE TO EQUITABLY INCLUDE UMSA IN ANY ALLOCATIONS AND DISTRIBUTIONS OF CARES ACT OR SIMILAR FEDERAL FUNDS TO MUNICIPALITIES" ON THE AUGUST 4, 2020 COUNTY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA; DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO TRANSMIT A CERTIFIED COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION TO THE OFFICIALS NAMED HEREIN. ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-20-0243 City of Miami Page 31 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 NA.2 7723 City Commission MOTION TO: Adopt RESULT: ADOPTED MOVER: Ken Russell, Commissioner SECONDER: Keon Hardemon, Commissioner AYES: Hardemon, Russell, Diaz de la Portilla, Carollo ABSENT: Reyes Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number NA.1, please see Item Number SP.1. DIRECTIVE DIRECTION BY COMMISSIONER CAROLLO AND VICE CHAIR RUSSELL TO THE CITY ATTORNEY TO PLACE A PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST WITH MIAMI-DADE COUNTY FOR INFORMATION ON THE AMOUNT OF CORONAVIRUS RELIEF FUNDS ("CRF") THAT WERE ALLOCATED TO DIFFERENT PROGRAMS; THE AMOUNT OF CRF SPENT AND WHO ARE THE RECIPIENTS; WHO ARE THE RECIPIENTS OF RENT OR MORTGAGE ASSISTANCE; HOW MUCH MONEY WAS SPENT OR ALLOCATED FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 26 AND HAS THE CRF BEEN DEPOSITED INTO AN INTEREST BEARING ACCOUNT. RESULT: DISCUSSED Commissioner Carollo: And I would like for the City Attorney, on the City's behalf to place a public records request to the County for how much money have they allocated for different programs, how much has been spent so far, whom are all these merchants as opposed to they've given all this money. Who are the people that they've given money for rents or to pay their mortgage? Who are the taxicab drivers that have gotten money? Because I don't know of any. Mayor Suarez: I can tell you -- Commissioner Carollo: I want to know if this is a grab political bag so that Mayor Gimenez can direct funds to help people that he wants to help. And not the least, congressional district, I think it's 26, or whatever the number is that he 's running in. I want to know how much money is going into that district for people that are friendly with him. So, I'd like a public records request for the full amount that has been spent by the County up to now and the full amount that is allocated with any paperwork whatsoever that gives you any kind of idea as to the process that they went through to get to that and how they're moving it forward. [Later...] Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: My -- Vice Chair Russell: I'm sorry, who's recognized? Chair Hardemon: Sorry, Vice Chair, you're recognized. Vice Chair Russell: All right. I know that Commissioner Carollo just asked for a public records request on some information from -- with regard to the County. I'd like to follow up on that because I know within the guidance given by the federal City of Miami Page 32 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 government on the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act, recipients of those local funds can deposit them into interest bearing accounts. And I'd be curious if the County has done that because that would explain holding the money and delaying distribution of the money if they were earning interest on that money. Granted, that interest can only be used for the same things that are mentioned in 601(d) of the CARES Act with regard to how it can be distributed and used, hut still, if it were being interest -bearing, that might explain why they're holding on to it. But I, for the life of me, can't understand why it's not being distributed and why proper guidance wasn't given from the federal to the state to local governments on how that distribution would happen very specifically because it's allowing personal politics to put people's lives at risk and we should not be beholden to whatever our relationship is with the next level of government up in order to be able to serve our residents in this time of need. And if there's ever been a time where everything else needs to be put on the side and we just need to do our job, this is it, but that guidance wasn 't given from above. [Later...] Commissioner Carollo: And Madam City Attorney, if you could make sure that besides what we had asked you to request from the County in a public records request that we include in the exact wording that the County has requested of us to provide all this materials and facts the same from the County in return. Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): We have several public records requests in in addition to the Mayor's and we'll look at all of them and make sure that yours are also encompassed and we'll send additional ones as needed. Commissioner Carollo: Well, I just want to make sure that if the County is making certain requests of us that we make it of them too because if they feel that's so important to have this information from us by this date, then they certainly should have the same by this date and should be able to provide it to us. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And if 1 may, Mr. Chair, also in that same vein, Madam Attorney, is the public records request that you're making, does that include specific programs? For example, the taxi cab slush fund we talked about. Does it --? Ms. Mendez: So -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'm sorry, does it ask for the criteria they're using for that program? Is it for the owners? Is it for the medallion holders of the taxi cab industry? Are you making specific requests of each program or just a broad request to see what you can capture? Ms. Mendez: So, a couple of things. The Mayor did a public records request. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right. Ms. Mendez: We, our office did a public records request. And now based on everything that you have mentioned today, we will be more specific on these requests with regard to the taxi cabs, everything -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I think Ms. Mendez: -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I want to be specific because I think the public has a right to know what a political slush fund is in detail. So we need to ask the mayor City of Miami Page 33 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 and the County to tell us where are you going to spend these dollars? What's your criteria? What do you have in mind? And how did they cone about? How did this this process come about? What internal emails occurred between which commissioner and the mayor, all these different things that led to the political slush fund being -- funds being created. I'm counting at least five them so far. I expect more of them down the line. Can we also ask for what other memos or emails internal emails they've exchanged to create additional, you know, political windfall for certain people, certain elected officials that have re -elections, as Commissioner Carollo mentioned? And I want to see what that -- I want to get to the bottom of this, exactly what's happening here. We have a good sense of what's happening, but I think that we need to be as specific in our public records request as possible so we can identify the culprits here. Mayor Suarez: And is there a recourse? I mean, you know, because I've had a very basic public records request for several days now, which just asked for, when did you get the money. That's something they should be able to answer in 15 minutes, five minutes. You know, when did you get the money? They know when they got the money. That's something that should be answered in five minutes. And how much of it have you spent? Another thing, that if they're so good at tracking the money and they're so good at accounting for the money, right, and they're so much better than we are, shouldn't they be able to tell us within ten minutes how much of the money they actually spent? I don't understand why it's been multiple days without getting that information. What kind of recourse do we have when the information is not being provided in a reasonable timeframe? Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right. And you know, and the specifics also I think are important. Madam Attorney, are county facilities being used for politics? Are these dollars being used specifically for certain -- targeting certain businesses to benefit from them? Some of these cultural arts programs, where are they going? So I think the broad request of the Mayor is correct. What he asked was a very simple broad request that he could have answered in a five-minute conversation, assuming he returns calls, right? But the specific ones, we'll get to the nitty gritty of what's really happening here. And we can identf all these $110 million, $110 million. That's not chump change, that's a lot of money, all for political slush funds. So we want to know where they're going to, why, who came up with it, what was the exchange that took -- internal exchange that took place between the mayor and any particular commissioners, and how it came about, those dollars, and how they're planning to allocate them. And do they have, in fact, a mechanism in place for expending them by the end of the year? Do they have those? I'm pretty convinced they don't. I think they just simply want to allocate it to make headlines at a particular time in a political cycle, and let's see what happens after the election. But I think it's important to see what they were thinking, why they unveiled them so quickly without having sort of mechanisms in place for how they're going to be allocated, what the criteria is. Do they have any criteria other than the broad criteria they set out there and said, this is what we -- you know, we have X number of dollars for the taxicab industry, $10 million for the cultural arts programs, whatever that is, you know, $25 million for the RISE (Reaching Impact, Saturation and Epidemic Control) program, how much money to the -- you know, to the Soviet style brigades that they're sending out there in Little Havana. Those kinds of expenditures, the use of Miami -Dade County Hall, auditorium, things like that. So I want the public records request to be specific to what they're doing with our taxpayer dollars because all of us pay taxes here, and they're using it for political purposes. Commissioner Carollo: Well, I'll give you another example of what I've seen. As much as we would like to have as many testing sites in the city of Miami limits as possible, I think we would all be in agreement that we would like them to be separated away from each other in a way that it makes sense within the areas that have a high City of Miami Page 34 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 NA.3 7731 City Commission concentration of COV1D-19. Marlins Park has been the main site. Does it really make sense to open up one at the Flagler just off of 27th Avenue at the County facility that's there? You know, that place has almost become a campaign headquarters now for someone that's running for office. All of a sudden, I go by and I see that they're putting their pictures up in the big screen outside, making all kinds of announcements for that person. And this is what I'm talking about that is so wrong and I've never seen this kind of situation at the county before, or for that matter, at any government to be using dollars in such a blatant way to benefit individuals. I will say this that if this would be the mayor of the City of Miami doing this with myself Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, Commissioner Hardemon, or any other one of us, the screams that you'd be getting and the demand for investigations and all kinds of stuff would be nonstop. We're not doing this. The different programs that we put together, we've gone directly, directly to the people because we know it's the people's money, like Mayor Gimenez said. It's not government's money. And you know, I keep seeing more and more of the same by the County. And you know, and I'm truing to be as polite as I can in this meeting without going into some other areas because some of the things that I have found out and seen lately are really, really shocking, even more so. And how they're doing other things try to undermine Mayor Francis Suarez and the majority, of us even to the point of attacking families. So I'll leave it at that before Igo further. But a particular favorite son, that's the one that's paying for a lot of this, it's personal now. Just like they've made it personal. DIRECTIVE DIRECTION BY MAYOR SUAREZ TO THE CITY MANAGER TO INSTRUCT THE CITY'S FEDERAL LOBBYING TEAM TO ADVOCATE THROUGH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT REQUESTING THAT ANY FUTURE FEDERAL LEGISLATION CONTAINS A WATERFALL PROVISION. RESULT: DISCUSSED Mayor Suarez: I would just add as sort of a directive that the City (UNINTELLIGIBLE) lobbyists advocate to the federal government that, again, future legislation, federal legislation, that there's a waterfall provision that the money should be at some level -- obviously, 100 percent would be the best case scenario. But if not 100 percent, that -- you know, and I know there are some waterfall provisions in the current language, I don't think that they're enough, frankly. But I think that we should get our legislative lobbying team on that issue as well. City of Miami Page 35 Printed on 09/11/2024 City Commission Meeting Minutes August 3, 2020 NA.4 7732 City Commission ADJOURNMENT RESOLUTION A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO INCREASE THE PROPOSED EXPENSES FOR ECONOMIC INCENTIVE AND SOCIAL PROGRAMS AND TO ADD NEW PROGRAMS TO INCLUDE IN THE CITY OF MIAMI'S CORONAVIRUS AID, RELIEF, AND ECONOMIC SECURITY ("CARES") ACT REIMBURSEMENT REQUEST TO MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AS DEFINED HEREIN. ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-20-0244 MOTION TO: Adopt RESULT: ADOPTED MOVER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner SECONDER: Keon Hardemon, Commissioner AYES: Hardemon, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Carollo ABSENT: Reyes Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Chair, is it time for my motion or (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ? Chair Hardemon: It is appropriate, yes. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so I'll just repeat what we're going to augment here. The feeding programs authorized by the City of Miami Commission at the March 25th, 2020 Commission meeting goes from $2 million to $5 million. This is an additional $3 million for a new feeding program or additional dollars for that feeding program. The Rental and Mortgage Assistance Program goes from $6 million to $10 million. The Small Business Assistance Program goes from $5 million to $10 million. And the Eviction Prevention Program goes from $3 million to $5 million. And Commissioner Carollo 's Utility Assistance Program goes to $1 million. Mayor Suarez: I want to be clear real quick that if we were to receive those dollars as we've asked for them, that we would sufficiently staff programs so that the money can be spent timely, because I don't want the County to come back and say, well, it took you X number of time to spend these dollars. And we will make whatever adjustments we have to make internally as a government to make sure that that money is spent timely. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I agree. Absolutely. [Later...] Chair Hardemon: Okay, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, you made a motion. I will second that motion. Is there any further discussion about that motion that's on the floor? Seeing none, all in favor of that motion, indicate so by saying "aye." The Commission (Collectively): Aye. Chair Hardemon: All against? That motion carries. The meeting adjourned at 12.52 p.m. END OF SPECIAL MEETING City of Miami Page 36 Printed on 09/11/2024