HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 2022-06-23 MinutesCity of Miami
City Hall
3500 Pan American Drive
Miami, FL 33133
www.miamigov.com
Meeting Minutes
Thursday, June 23, 2022
9:00 AM
City Commission Meeting
City Hall
City Commission
Francis X. Suarez, Mayor
Christine King, Chair, District Five
Joe Carollo, Vice Chair, District Three
Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Commissioner, District One
Ken Russell, Commissioner, District Two
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner, District Four
Arthur Noriega, V, City Manager
Victoria Mendez, City Attorney
Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk
City Commission
Meeting Minutes June 23, 2022
9:00 AM INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Present: Chairwoman King, Vice Chair Carollo, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla,
Commissioner Russell and Commissioner Reyes
On the 23rd day of June 2022, the City Commission of the City of Miami, Florida, met at its
regular meeting place in City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, in regular
session. The Commission Meeting was called to order by Chairwoman King at 9:14 a.m.,
and adjourned at 12: 05 p.m.
Note for the Record: Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla entered the Commission chambers at
9:45 a.m., and Vice Chair Carollo entered the Commission chambers at 10:04 a.m.
ALSO PRESENT:
Arthur Noriega, V, City Manager
Victoria Mendez, City Attorney
Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk
Chair King: Welcome to the City of Miami Commission meeting for June 23rd, 20 -- is it 23 or
24th? It's the 24th, I'm sorry. June 24th, 2022. Today is --
(COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD)
Chair King: He did that on purpose. It's the 23rd, it's the 23rd. We're here. We're here. And
this morning, I am honored to have Father Elvis Gonzalez join us and he is going to be giving
the prayer.
Invocation delivered.
Chair King: Thank you so much. Thank you. Commissioner Manolo, would you please give us
the Pledge ofAllegiance?
Pledge of Allegiance delivered.
Commissioner Russell: Good morning, everybody. Commissioner Russell here. If all of you
could keep Commissioner Samuelian's family in your prayers this evening. He passed away
last night over in Miami Beach. And he's a great commissioner, a really nice guy, really cared
about the community a lot. And he's a co-worker of ours, so we're thinking about his family.
Thank you.
Chair King: Thank you.
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ORDER OF THE DAY
Chair King: So, we are going to officially call the meeting to order. And we will have a
statement from our Madam City Attorney.
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): Thank you, Madam 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
www.municode.com. Any person making a presentation, formal request, or petition to the City
Commission concerning real property must make the appropriate disclosures required by the
City Code in writing. A copy of this code section is available at the City Clerk's Office or
online at www.municode.com. The City of Miami requires that anyone requesting action by the
City Commission must disclose before the hearing any consideration provided or committed to
anyone for agreement to support or withhold objection to the requested action pursuant to City
Code Section 2-8. Any documents offered to the City Commission that have not been provided
seven days before the meeting as part of the agenda materials will be entered into the record at
the City Commission's discretion. In accordance with Section 2-33(f) and O of the City Code,
the agenda and 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 www.miamigov.com. Any person may be
heard by the City Commission through the Chair for no more than two minutes on any
proposition before the City Commission unless otherwise modified by the Chair. Public
comment will begin at approximately 9 a.m. and remain open until public comment is closed by
the Chair. Members of the public wishing to address a body may do so by submitting written
comments via the online comment form. Please visit www.miamigov.com/meetinginstructions
for detailed instructions on how to provide public comment using the online public comment
form. The comments submitted through the comment form have been and will be distributed to
the elected officials and City Administration throughout today so that the elected officials may
consider the comments prior to taking any such action. Public comment may also be provided
live at City Hall located at 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida, subject to any and all
City rules and regulations as may be amended. If the proposition is being continued or
rescheduled, the opportunity to be heard may be at such a later date before the City
Commission takes action on such proposition. When addressing the City Commission, the
member of the public must first state their name, their address, and what item will be spoken
about. Any person with a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids, and services for this
meeting may notes the City Clerk. The City has provided different public comment methods to
indicate, among other things, a public support, opposition, or neutrality on items and topics to
be discussed at the City Commission meeting in compliance with Section 286.0114(4)(c)
Florida Statutes. The public has been given the opportunity to provide public comment during
the meeting and within reasonable proximity and time before the meeting. Please note
commissioners have been briefed generally by City staff and the City Attorney on items on the
agenda today. Anyone wishing a verbatim record of an item considered at this meeting may
request it at the Office of Communications or view it online at www.miamigov.com. PZ
(Planning and Zoning) items shall proceed according to Section 7.1.4 of the Miami 21 Zoning
Ordinance as temporarily modified by Emergency Ordinance Numbers 13903 and 13914.
Parties for PZ items, including any applicant, appellant, appellee, City staff, or any person
recognized by the decision -making body as a qualified intervenor, as well as the applicant's
representatives and any experts testifying on behalf of the applicant, appellant, or appellee
may either be physically present at City Hall to be sworn in by oath or affirmation by the City
Clerk, or may appear virtually and make arrangements to be sworn in by oath or affirmation in
person at their location by an individual qualified to perform such duty. Pursuant to
Emergency Ordinance Number 13903, members of the general public who are not parties to an
action pending before the City Commission are not required to be sworn by oath or
affirmation. The members of the City Commission shall disclose any communications pursuant
to Florida Statute 286.0115 and Section 7.1.4.5 of the Miami 21 Zoning Ordinance. The order
of presentation shall be as set forth in Miami 21. Staff will briefly present each item to be
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heard. The applicant will present its application or request to the City Commission. If the
applicant agrees with the staff recommendation, the City Commission may proceed to its
deliberation and decision. The applicant may, also waive the right to an evidentiary hearing on
the record. For appeals, the appellant will present its appeal to the City Commission followed
by the appellee. Staff will make any recommendation they may have. Please silence all cell
phones and noise -making devices at this time. With regard to access to the meeting, this
meeting may be viewed live at Miami TV, miamigov.com, the City's Facebook page, the City's
Twitter page, the City's YouTube channel, and Comcast Channel 77. The broadcast will also
be closed captioned. Thank you.
Chair King: Mr. City Clerk, do you have a statement?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Thank you, Chair. The procedures for individuals who will be
providing testimony to be sworn in for Planning and Zoning items and any quasi-judicial items
on today's City Commission agenda will be as follows: The members of City staff or any other
individuals required to be sworn in who are currently present at City Hall will be sworn in by
me, the City Clerk, immediately after I finish explaining these procedures. Those individuals
who are appearing remotely may be sworn in now or at any time prior to the individual
providing testimony for Planning and Zoning items and/or quasi-judicial items. Pursuant to
Emergency Ordinance Number 13903, those individuals appearing remotely may be sworn in
at their location by an individual qualified to administer the oath. After you are sworn in,
please be sure to complete, sign, and notarize the affidavit provided to you by the City
Attorney's Office. Each individual who will provide testimony must be sworn in and execute an
affidavit. Please email a scanned version of the signed affidavit to the City Clerk at
thannon@miamigov.com prior to providing testimony on the Planning and Zoning item and/or
quasi-judicial item. The affidavit shall be included in the record for the relevant item for which
you will be providing testimony. Commissioners, are you comfortable with all the notice
provisions set forth in these uniform rules and procedures we have established for this
meeting?
Commissioner Russell: Yes.
Chair King: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Chair, may I administer the oath?
Chair King: Please.
Mr. Hannon: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. If
you will be speaking on any of today's Planning and Zoning items, any of today's Planning
and Zoning items, may I please have you stand and raise your right hand?
The City Clerk administered oath required under City Code Section 62-1 to those persons
giving testimony on zoning items.
Mr. Hannon: Thank you, Chair.
Chair King: Thank you, Mr. City Clerk. At this time, I would like to welcome the newest
member to our administration, Mr. Larry Spring. Welcome aboard. Looking forward to
working with you. Thank you. Mr. Manager, do you have any items on the agenda that you
would like to continue, defer, or withdraw?
Arthur Noriega (City Manager): Good morning, Madam Chairwoman, Commissioners,
Madam City Attorney, Mr. City Clerk. At this time, the Administration would like to defer
and/or withdraw just one single item, which is RE.3, which would be deferred to the July 28th
meeting.
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Chair King: July 28th?
Mr. Noriega: Yes, ma'am.
Chair King: Okay. Commissioner Russell, do you have any items?
Commissioner Russell: Yes, Madam Chair. RE.4, the Little Bahamas designation, I'd like to
defer to July 14th.
Chair King: The 14th?
Commissioner Russell: Yes, please.
Chair King: Is that it?
Commissioner Russell: Yes.
Chair King: Commissioner Russell -- I mean, Reyes. I -- I'm so sorry. I'm sorry.
(COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD)
Chair King: You don't have any items? Okay then. Are there any pocket items?
Commissioner Russell: I heard there were.
Mr. Hannon: Chair, it's my understanding that there are a few pocket items. I'll do my best to
identify them. The Mayor has a pocket item, essentially a resolution of the Miami City
Commission authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute a covenant in lieu of unity
of title to unify the city -owned properties located at 444 and 460 Southwest 2nd Avenue. I am -
Chair King: I would like to co-sponsor that item.
Mr. Hannon: Understood.
Chair King: That would be Pocket Item 1?
Mr. Hannon: Yes.
Chair King: Okay.
Mr. Hannon: I have another pocket item that has to do with a resolution of the Miami City
Commission authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute an access agreement
regarding the MML (Magic Mike Live) Touring, Magic Mike Touring, LLC.
Chair King: I'm a sponsor of that item.
Mr. Hannon: Yes, ma'am. And we'11 identify that as P12.
Chair King: Um-hmm.
Mr. Hannon: Understood. And the remaining pocket item that I have has to do with the naming
of Eddy Calderon Street. I think it's just more of an administrative cleanup item.
Chair King: That's P3 [sic'?
Mr. Hannon: Yes, ma'am.
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Chair King: P1.3. Okay. 1 would also like to be shown as a sponsor for PH.l, as well as RE.5
and RE.6.
Mr. Hannon: And Commissioner Reyes, it's my understanding you would like to be a co-
sponsor for PH.2?
(COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD)
Mr. Hannon: Understood.
[Later...)
Chair King: So, may I have a motion to set the order of the day?
Commissioner Russell: I'll move it. I'd like to also be recognized as a sponsor on FR.1, the
Jimbo 's Lagoon item, please.
Chair King: FR.1?
Commissioner Russell: Yes, that's the no -wake zone.
Chair King: Okay.
Commissioner Russell: I'll move the order of the day.
Chair King: Second? All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair King: Motion carries unanimously.
PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ALL ITEM(S)
12193 DISCUSSION ITEM
Office of the City PUBLIC COMMENTS SUBMITTED ONLINE BY MEMBERS OF THE
Clerk PUBLIC FOR THE JUNE 23, 2022 CITY COMMISSION MEETING.
RESULT: PRESENTED
Chair King: Okay. Can we open the public comment period now for any -- anyone
that would like to speak on behalf of any of the items that appear on this agenda
today, please come forward. Good morning.
Luimar Zibetti Garza: Good morning.
Chair King: How are you? Good to see you again.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: Thank you. I hate to air dirty laundry -- again, my name is Luimar
Zibetti Garza, homeless but not hapless at Peacock Park. On these particular items, I
do have a question. What is the difference between a pocket item and a consent item?
Chair King: Mr. City Clerk?
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Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Well, a consent agenda item, basically, that type of
item is already appearing on the agenda. So, the difference between any item that's
on the agenda and a pocket item is that a pocket item is not appearing on the agenda.
It's essentially something that's being introduced on the floor during the meeting.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: So, something a big opaque that you're, in my estimation as the
citizens of which you are our employers, we should have every single item on these.
The pockets and the convenient -- consent items, I had a huge issue in Doral to the
point that they banned me 365 days from Doral from City Hall because I'm pointing
out that things are being done surreptitiously through consent items and pocket items.
But 1 do not want to go further on that item. Mr. Russell, I understand that you will be
a lame commissioner this year and you will not be here for the next for the next
session for Congress.
Commissioner Russell: I'm only lame when they don 't need the anymore.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: Okay, we're still waiting for you at Peacock Park as you
volunteered to come --
Commissioner Russell: Yes.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: -- and we'll wait a little bit longer. We have been at Peacock Park
-- and I suppose 1 could be the ultimate nightmare for everybody at every city hall. I
am elderly, autist, lesbian, ecru colored, ecru hued, and I have a bit of a, how would
we say, a Tasmanian devil tongue. So, I am hoping that 1 can meet with the other
commissioners at some point, because we have had problems at Peacock Park,
especially in the last two or three weeks, regarding people coming in and making it
miserable for the homeless people who are there. And we think there are infiltrators.
And personally, I have spoken to the officers. There are pedophiles in Peacock Park,
and they're trying to hide surreptitiously and we are trying to expose them and all of
a sudden the police have come --
Chair King: Thank you.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: Give me just 10 -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Russell: I'll meet with you and I've made that promise.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: They have come --
Commissioner Russell.: My staff is talking with you and I will be there. I will be there.
Chair King: Thank you.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: (INAUDIBLE).
Chair King: I believe the chief is here if maybe the chief can speak to her. I think the
police chief is here. Is there anyone else here for public comment? Good morning.
Sherman Rattner: Good morning. My name is Sherman Rattner. I'm here on PZ.5, it's
nice to see everybody could show up and do their job. I'm the president of the tenants
association for 1809 Brickell Avenue, a 270-unit affordable housing for seniors, most
of whom are disabled. I'm here to talk about affordable housing, or rather, the lack of
affordable housing. Thanks to the City's failure in policy and leadership over the past
decades, that has only gotten worse. We are now the least affordable housing market
in the nation. This is a outrageous failure of leadership. This ordinance is a billion -
dollar giveaway to developers that will do little to improve this situation. Half the city
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struggles to pay for safe, decent, and affordable housing as a result of these years of
failed policy and leadership and has made us ground zero for the housing crisis. This
proposed ordinance -- excuse me -- is a shameless giveaway by the City of billions
and billions of dollars to developers that will have nominal benefit for most citizens in
need of housing while further turning Miami into a tale of two cities dividing the rich
from working families, seniors, disabled, and the poor. As an example, in my building,
1809 Brickell Avenue, right now you are in the process of giving, literally giving, a
billion dollars to a billionaire developer for tearing 400 seniors, most of whom are
disabled, and sending them off to a premature death in one of the most dangerous and
toxic areas of the city where there is literally a seven-year less life expectancy
according to the Census Bureau. You, each of you, bears responsibility for this
travesty. While you give away billions, half the city struggles to survive. This
ordinance will memorialize that giveaway all over the city and should be rejected. I'd
like to try to give solutions to things. I can show you a way that working with the
County, you can create 1,000 affordable units for seniors and disabled --
Chair King: Thank you.
Mr. Rattner: -- at virtually no cost.
Chair King: Thank you.
Mr. Rattner: (INAUDIBLE).
Chair King: Thank you.
Mr. Rattner: (INAUDIBLE).
Chair King: Thank you, sir.
Mr. Rattner: (INAUDIBLE).
Chair King: Is there anyone else here that would like to speak?
Jonathan Quintanilla: Good morning, everyone.
Chair King: Good morning.
Mr. Quintanilla: This is Jon Quintanilla. I'm part of the Allapattah Fellows with our
project called Fabulosa Allapattah. And we would just like to remind everyone about
the event we will be hosting at Juan Pablo Duarte Park at II a.m. and so on. Just a
reminder, we will be having a cleanup event there, and we will go on with our project
and spread the word. Please just come out and support us, okay? Thank you.
Chair King: Thank you. Is there anyone else here for public comment? Seeing none,
the public comment period is now closed.
AM - APPROVING THE MINUTES OF THE FOLLOWING MEETINGS:
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MV - MAYORAL VETO(ES)
NO MAYORAL VETOES
There were no mayoral vetoes associated with legislation that is subject to veto by the Mayor.
Chair King: Are there any mayoral vetoes today?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Ma'am, would you like to have a motion, a second and
a vote on the items to be deferred?
Chair King: I did, but I just wanted to ask you.
Mr. Hannon: Oh, yes, ma'am. There are no mayoral vetoes.
Chair King: Okay.
END OF MAYORAL VETO(ES)
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CA - CONSENT AGENDA
The following item(s) was Adopted on the Consent Agenda
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
CA.1 RESOLUTION
12079
Department of Real
Estate and Asset
Management
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND
EXECUTE A LICENSE, ACCESS, AND INDEMNIFICATION
AGREEMENT ("LICENSE") BETWEEN THE CITY OF MIAMI
("CITY") AND MIAMI-DADE COUNTY OR AN AGENT THEREOF
("COUNTY") FOR THE COUNTY TO PLANT, PLACE, INSTALL,
INSPECT AND MONITOR MANGROVES, RIP RAP, AND RELATED
MATERIALS AS PART OF A SEAPORT MITIGATION PROJECT
("PROJECT") AT THE CITY -OWNED PROPERTY LOCATED AT
1099 MACARTHUR CAUSEWAY, FOLIO NUMBER 01-3231-000-
0021, ALSO KNOWN AS THE WATSON ISLAND BOAT RAMP;
FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE
AND EXECUTE A RESTRICTIVE COVENANT ("COVENANT")
RUNNING WITH THE LAND IN FAVOR OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
TO ENSURE THAT THE PROJECT IS NOT DISTURBED OR
REMOVED FOR THE LIFE OF THE COVENANT; FURTHER
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND
EXECUTE ANY AND ALL OTHER NECESSARY DOCUMENTS,
ALL IN FORMS ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, IN
ORDER TO IMPLEMENT THE PROJECT.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0225
This matter was ADOPTED on the Consent Agenda.
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number CA.1, please see "End
of Consent Agenda."
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CA.2
11992
Office of the City
Attorney
CA.3
12057
Office of the City
Attorney
RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION
AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE TO PAY LOROD L.
MILLS, WITHOUT ADMISSION OF LIABILITY, ONE HUNDRED
AND THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ($135,000.00) PLUS AN
ADDITIONAL ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-
FOUR DOLLARS AND THIRTY-FIVE CENTS ($1,154.35) IN FULL
AND COMPLETE SETTLEMENT OF ANY AND ALL CLAIMS AND
DEMANDS, INCLUDING ALL CLAIMS FOR ATTORNEYS' FEES,
AGAINST THE CITY OF MIAMI, ITS OFFICERS, AGENTS, AND
EMPLOYEES ("COLLECTIVELY, "CITY"), AND KEVIN HARRISON,
RAPHAEL MUINA AND JONATHAN VAZQUEZ IN THE CASE OF
LOROD L. MILLS VS. CITY OF MIAMI, KEVIN HARRISON,
RAPHAEL MUINA AND JONATHAN VASQUEZ, CASE NO. 21-
21716-CV- KMW, PENDING IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT
COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA, UPON
THE EXECUTION OF A GENERAL RELEASE OF ALL CLAIMS
AND DEMANDS AND A DISMISSAL OF ALL CLAIMS AGAINST
THE CITY WITH PREJUDICE; ALLOCATING FUNDS FROM
GENERAL LIABILITY ACCOUNT NO.
50001.301001.545013.0000.00000.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0226
This matter was ADOPTED on the Consent Agenda.
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number CA.2, please see "End
of Consent Agenda."
RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION
AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE TO PAY YASMIN
BURDEN, WITHOUT ADMISSION OF LIABILITY, THE TOTAL SUM
OF $100,000.00 IN FULL AND COMPLETE SETTLEMENT OF ANY
AND ALL CLAIMS AND DEMANDS, INCLUDING ALL CLAIMS FOR
ATTORNEYS' FEES, AGAINST THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") AND
ITS OFFICERS, AGENTS, AND EMPLOYEES IN THE CASE
STYLED YASMIN BURDEN v. CITY OF MIAMI, PENDING IN THE
CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE ELEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN
AND FOR MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA, CASE NO. 2018-
037397-CA-01, UPON THE EXECUTION OF A GENERAL
RELEASE OF ALL CLAIMS AND DEMANDS BROUGHT FOR
NEGLIGENCE PENDING IN STATE COURT AND A DISMISSAL OF
THE CITY AND ITS OFFICERS, AGENTS, AND EMPLOYEES
WITH PREJUDICE; ALLOCATING FUNDS FROM ACCOUNT NO.
50001.301001.545011.0000.00000.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0227
This matter was ADOPTED on the Consent Agenda.
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number CA.3, please see "End
of Consent Agenda."
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END OF CONSENT AGENDA
Chair King: We are on the consent agenda item now. Does anyone want to pull any of
the consent agenda items?
(COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD)
Commissioner Reyes: I would like to move the consent agenda.
Chair King: Second.
Arthur Noriega (City Manager): Madam Chair, public comment?
Commissioner Reyes: Public comment.
Chair King: I'm so sorry.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): That's okay. Before we vote, we can go to the public
comment. You can take your second.
Chair King: I'm the second.
[Later...]
Chair King: I have a motion and a second for the CA (Consent Agenda) items. Can
we take a vote? All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair King: Motion carries unanimously.
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PH - PUBLIC HEARING
PH.1 RESOLUTION
11933
Department of
Resilience and
Public Works
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENT(S), BY A FOUR -FIFTHS (4/5THS) AFFIRMATIVE
VOTE, AFTER AN ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARING, RATIFYING,
CONFIRMING, AND APPROVING THE CITY MANAGER'S
RECOMMENDATION AND WRITTEN FINDING, ATTACHED AND
INCORPORATED AS EXHIBIT "A", PURSUANT TO SECTION 18-
85(A) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS
AMENDED ("CITY CODE"), WAIVING THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
COMPETITIVE SEALED BIDDING METHODS AS NOT BEING
PRACTICABLE OR ADVANTAGEOUS TO THE CITY OF MIAMI
("CITY") FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF AN AGREEMENT FOR THE
PROVISION OF BEAUTIFICATION SERVICES FOR THE DR.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. BOULEVARD AND THE BUTTERFLY
GARDENS, WITH THE GREATER MIAMI SERVICE CORPS., A
FLORIDA NOT FOR PROFIT CORPORATION ("GMSC"), FOR THE
CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") DEPARTMENT OF RESILIENCE AND
PUBLIC WORKS ("DRPW"), FOR A TOTAL TERM OF THREE (3)
YEARS; ALLOCATING FUNDS FROM DRPW GENERAL ACCOUNT
NO. 13000.201000.534000 AND SUCH OTHER FUNDING
SOURCES, SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS AND
BUDGETARY APPROVAL AT THE TIME OF NEED; AUTHORIZING
THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND EXECUTE THE
AGREEMENT WITH GMSC, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE
CITY ATTORNEY, FOR SAID PURPOSE; FURTHER AUTHORIZING
THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND EXECUTE ANY AND
ALL DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS, RENEWALS,
AND EXTENSIONS, SUBJECT TO ALL ALLOCATIONS,
APPROPRIATIONS, PRIOR BUDGETARY APPROVALS,
COMPLIANCE WITH ALL APPLICABLE PROVISIONS OF THE CITY
CODE, INCLUDING THE CITY'S PROCUREMENT ORDINANCE,
ANTI -DEFICIENCY ACT, AND FINANCIAL INTEGRITY
PRINCIPLES, ALL AS SET FORTH IN CHAPTER 18 OF THE CITY
CODE, IN FORMS ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, AND
IN COMPLIANCE WITH ALL APPLICABLE LAWS, RULES, AND
REGULATIONS, AS MAY BE DEEMED NECESSARY FOR SAID
PURPOSE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0232
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Carollo, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Reyes
Note for the Record: For additional minutes referencing Item Number PH.1, please
see "Order of the Day."
Chair King: Okay, now we are -- we can go back to our PH (Public Hearing) items
which required a four -fifths vote.
Commissioner Reyes: PH.
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Chair King: Do 1 have a motion?
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'll move PH.1 and PH.2.
Chair King: I'll second that motion.
Vice Chair Carollo: Hold on, hold on.
Chair King: Do you need a second?
Vice Chair Carollo: On PH.1?
Commissioner Reyes: PH.1 --
Chair King: PH.1.
Commissioner Reyes: -- beautification of --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And PH.2.
Chair King: And PH.2.
Commissioner Reyes: PH.2, 1 want to co-sponsor.
Vice Chair Carollo: On PH.2, however, instead of $158,000, there was a mistake that
was made, it will be $150,000. So, I'm making a floor amendment that instead of the
$158, 000 and change --
Ms. Mendez: Thank you, Commissioner.
Vice Chair Carollo: -- it's $150,000.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So I'll move --
Commissioner Reyes: I move it. Just move it.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So I'll move PH 1 and PH.2 as amended.
Commissioner Reyes: Second.
Chair King: All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Commissioner Reyes: Motion carries, the PH items.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Also show me as a co-sponsor on PH.2, Madam
Chair.
Chair King: Please, Todd, PH.2.
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PH.2 RESOLUTION
12086
Commissioners
and Mayor
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENT(S), BY A FOUR -FIFTHS (4/5THS) AFFIRMATIVE
VOTE, AFTER AN ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARING, RATIFYING,
APPROVING, AND CONFIRMING THE CITY MANAGER'S FINDING
AND RECOMMENDATION, ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS
EXHIBIT "B," THAT COMPETITIVE NEGOTIATION METHODS AND
PROCEDURES ARE NOT PRACTICABLE OR ADVANTAGEOUS TO
THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") PURSUANT TO SECTION 18-85(A)
OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED
("CITY CODE"); WAIVING THE REQUIREMENTS FOR SAID
PROCEDURES; ALLOCATING AND APPROPRIATING AMERICAN
RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021 ("ARPA") CORONAVIRUS STATE
AND LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS, ON A
REIMBURSEMENT BASIS, IN A TOTAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS
($158,000.00) ("GRANT") TO THE BAY OF PIGS MUSEUM AND
LIBRARY OF THE "2506 BRIGADE", INC., A FLORIDA NOT FOR
PROFIT CORPORATION ("BRIGADE 2506"), FOR THE HIRING OF
A NEW MUSEUM MANAGER, MUSEUM AUDIO VISUAL
EXPANSION, AND DISPLAY ITEMS, SUBJECT TO ALL FEDERAL,
STATE, AND LOCAL LAWS THAT REGULATE THE USE OF SUCH
FUNDS FOR SAID PURPOSE; AUTHORIZING THE CITY
MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND EXECUTE A GRANT
AGREEMENT, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY
ATTORNEY, WITH BRIGADE 2506 AND ANY AND ALL OTHER
NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, MODIFICATIONS, AND
AMENDMENTS, ALL IN FORMS ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY
ATTORNEY, FOR SAID PURPOSE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0233
MOTION TO: Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT: ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Carollo, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Reyes
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number PH.2, please see
"Order of the Day" and Item Number PH.1.
END OF PUBLIC HEARING
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RE - RESOLUTIONS
RE.1 RESOLUTION
11964
Office of
Management and
Budget
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENTS, RELATING TO THE PROVISION OF SOLID
WASTE SERVICES, FACILITIES, AND PROGRAMS IN THE CITY
OF MIAMI ("CITY"); DESCRIBING THE METHOD OF ASSESSING
SOLID WASTE COSTS AGAINST PROPERTIES LOCATED
WITHIN THE CITY; DIRECTING THE PREPARATION OF AN
ASSESSMENT ROLL; AUTHORIZING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR
SEPTEMBER 10, 2022, WHICH IS SET BY THE CITY
COMMISSION AND PUBLICLY NOTICED; DIRECTING THE
PROVISION OF NOTICE THEREOF; FURTHER AUTHORIZING
AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO DETERMINE THE
APPLICABLE NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS FOR THE
ASSESSMENT ROLL ON OR BEFORE THE LATEST POSSIBLE
DATE BEFORE SUBMISSION OF SUCH REQUIRED
INFORMATION TO THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PROPERTY
APPRAISER FOR THE ESTIMATED SOLID WASTE ASSESSMENT
RATE SCHEDULE; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0228
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair?
Chair King: Yes.
Commissioner Reyes: I would like to move the RE (Resolution) items if --
Chair King: With the exception of --
Commissioner Reyes: With the exception of 3 and 4.
Chair King: Well, no, with the exception of RE2 because that requires a four -fifths
vote.
Commissioner Reyes: Oh, for the exception of -- that --
Chair King: Okay, so there's a motion on the floor to move RE.1, 6, and 7. I'll second
that. All in favor?
Commissioner Reyes: Aye.
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): With regard -- Madam Chair, I apologize. With
regard to RE.7, there was a substitution on the Dr. Medina Street, and then there's
the accompanying pocket item --
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Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Ms. Mendez: -- which is P --
Chair King: P3 [sicJ.
Ms. Mendez: -- 3 --
Chair King: Um--hmm.
Ms. Mendez: -- which we are clarifying the designations of Dr. Medina and Eddy
Calderon Streets. So if --
Chair King: So we want to remove RE.7 for now or --?
Commissioner Reyes: Can we --?
Ms. Mendez: It's fine. I just wanted to clarify the --
Commissioner Reyes: Can we do it together since they are hand in hand?
Chair King: Yes, so we can do RE.1, 5, 6, 7, and Pocket Item 3. Commissioner
Russell.
Commissioner Russell: Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a question for Administration
on RE.1. Does that do anything to actually change the solid waste fee at this point?
Mr. Noriega: No, the solid waste fee remains the same. This is required for us to be
able to submit it to the County for the trim notice. So the rate --
Commissioner Russell: Say it again. I couldn 't hear you.
Mr. Noriega: This is a requirement we have every year that we have to approve it.
This does not change --
Commissioner Russell: Okay, this is not related to the discussion.
Mr. Noriega: -- the solid waste fee at all.
Commissioner Russell: Thank you. I'm fine, Madam Chair.
Chair King: All right. All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair King: Motion carries.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Commissioner Russell: This is 1, 5, 6, and 7?
Chair King: Yes.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): With RE.7 being amended.
Chair King: Yes, as amended. 1, 5, 6, and 7, yes. And Pocket Item 3.
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RE.2
12112
Office of the City
Attorney
RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, BY A FOUR -
FIFTHS (4/5THS) AFFIRMATIVE VOTE, AUTHORIZING THE CITY
ATTORNEY TO TAKE ANY AND ALL ACTION(S) NECESSARY, IN
LAW OR EQUITY, REGARDING THE WITHHOLDING OF
CHARTER COUNTY TRANSPORTATION SURTAX FUNDS
(SURTAX) FROM THE CITY OF MIAMI PURSUANT TO MIAMI
DADE COUNTY CITIZENS' INDEPENDENT TRANSPORTATION
TRUST RESOLUTION NO. 22-006 ADOPTED ON MARCH 31,
2022.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0234
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Carollo, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Reyes
Chair King: And we have RE.2 remaining.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'll move it for discussion purposes.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Is there any discussion?
Chair King: I'll second. Is there any discussion. for RE.2?
Vice Chair Carollo: Well --
Chair King: Seeing none --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Madam Attorney, can you walk me through it?
Madam Chair, I'm sorry, through you.
Chair King: Go ahead.
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): Basically we've -- we have an issue wherein the
County is not giving us about 20 some million dollars in their CITT (Citizens'
Independent Transportation Trust) -- in the CITT monies, and that unfortunately will
start impacting several of your projects, including the trolleys and all that. It is a
sizable amount of money. I know that the Manager can tell you exactly what projects
and such that will be affected, but we really need your help as a body to try and talk
to your contacts in the County to try and address this, and/or we would need to
litigate. So, that is why we need your approval by a four fifths --
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Ms. Mendez: -- in order to allow us to litigate the matter and not just have meetings
with the County because there is a Florida Statute that says that we would have to
enter into mediation before a lawsuit unless you approve this resolution by a four -
fifths showing that it is an emergency due to the amount and to the extent that we
would be affected, and that's why.
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So your intention is to sue the County?
Ms. Mendez: I believe first there will be a meeting, and if that does not work out or
your communications with the County do not work out, then yes, we would need to sue
them.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And do you come back to us before you sue them,
or you just go ahead and sue them? This would authorize you to go ahead and sue
them?
Ms. Mendez: This authorizes to go ahead and sue.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Is there any money that we can withhold from
them? To counter?
Ms. Mendez: And I will turn that over to the Manager.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Manager? Well, I know I have $10 million in
my CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) that I'm holding back. For the
Adrienne Arsht Center, I'm holding back like $10.8 million, but they're going to sue
us. But that's a different conversation.
Arthur Noriega (City Managed We can certainly look into it. So, the overarching
intent here, this provides us with the leverage, this particular item, that the suit is a
possibility. We are going to try to continue to work on this to reach a resolution. This
has been an ongoing sort of difference of opinion in terms of how we use the money. It
goes back to an audit that's fairly old, and our intent actually is to try to resolve this
above the administrative level.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But I think the Commission should know, and
maybe you can express it, this really impacts a whole bunch of our services.
Mr. Noriega: Oh, trolley service in particular.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Trolley service across the board. This is a serious
issue.
Mr. Noriega: Yeah, correct.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We've been debating for a while, but it's just not
something that we pass in a quick vote. I think the public needs to know that the
County is holding back money from us that really impacts critical services, especially
to our neediest citizens. And this is very important so we can outline quickly, not to
waste so much time, because I know we 're almost done here.
Vice Chair Carollo: Do we know --?
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: What services these $22 million impact, and so
people know, the public knows, how the County has been doing this and why we need
to sue. Suing is always the last recourse, right, but if we need to, we'll do it.
Vice Chair Carollo: Do we know --? Chairwoman, maybe you might know best. You
have some good contacts over there. Who from the County Commission is the person
that's been put in charge of the Transportation Committee or transportation as a
whole?
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Eileen Higgins, 1 believe, is the transportation --
Vice Chair Carollo: 1 was afraid you might confirm the rumors --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Commissioner Higgins.
Vice Chair Carollo: -- I've been hearing.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah.
Chair King: Well, it is --
Vice Chair Carollo: So, here we have another problem.
Chair King: It is our intent -- it is my intent to try to reach out to the County to
discuss this issue with them. I absolutely do not want us to move forward in suing the
County. I hope that we can resolve this issue amicably. However, I think that we
should not tie the hands of our city attorneys that if we need to take that step that they
have the authorization to do so. But it is my intent, and I would ask all of you to follow
up with whoever you have a relationship in the County up to and including the mayor
Commissioner Reyes: The mayor.
Chair King: -- so that we can resolve this. But if we can't and it has to go, and I'm
hoping that would be the last resort that our city attorney's hands aren't tied and
we've given them the authorization.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But for the record, for the record, can the City
Manager read some of the services that are being impacted by this?
Chair King: Absolutely.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I just want the record to reflect that.
Chair King: Absolutely, so our -- yeah, so our constituency can be aware of --
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Chair King: -- why this is dire.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, I do agree that they have to be more specific on how those
funds are going to be used. And I agree with you 100 percent, Madam Chair, we
cannot tie our city attorney's hand, but we should all do our best to try to solve this
problem without going to court.
Chair King: Absolutely. Mr. Spring?
Larry Spring: Madam Chair, thank you. Larry Spring, Chief Financial Officer.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Welcome aboard.
Mr. Spring: Thank you.
Vice Chair Carollo: Larry who?
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Mr. Spring: Thank you, Commissioner.
Vice Chair Carollo: Larry who?
Commissioner Reyes: Have you seen this man before?
Mr. Spring: Very quickly, just to, on a high level, answer your question. What's
affected by this funding source, the main big thing is the trolley service that the City's
been providing for a number of years. In addition, this source of funds was used to --
as a pledged revenue for the street bonds, sidewalks. So, right now, 1 have literally in
front of me about, 1 don't know, 70 or 80 different capital improvement projects
citywide that are impacted.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Can you give us a copy of that list? Can we have a
copy of that list?
Mr. Spring: Yes, I will, and I'll get the dollar amounts. I don't have that specifically
in front of me, but I'll make sure that gets distributed.
Commissioner Reyes: To every one of us.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes, to every commissioner.
Chair King: The trolley service --
Mr. Spring: But the trolley service --
Chair King: -- is a very important service that we offer to our constituents. It allows,
at least in my district, for residents who can 't afford to get around, go to very
important services --
Vice Chair Carollo: Absolutely, absolutely.
Chair King: -- hospitals and appointments and such, at no charge. So, this is
something that we need to all hands on deck, take this up as our cause.
Vice Chair Carollo: Absolutely, but Chairwoman, let me be very clear, specific, in
what I'm going to say. It seems like this particular county commissioner has declared
war on the city of Miami. She has declared war on me, it seems sometimes. We got
her, for instance, on 22nd Avenue, without speaking to the Manager, the
Administration, the district commissioner here, she just decided to do away with two
lanes of traffic so that instead of four lanes, now you're left with two lanes at 22nd
Avenue as you're heading towards US-1 and Coral Way. I call them the lanes to
nowhere, so that she could put bicycle lanes on the side. Now, as China has moved
away from bicycles, our esteemed county commissioner wants us to bring us back to
the bicycle world. And the way we're going, you know, she might be right with her
type of thinking, where you can't even buy tampons for women now, milk for babies,
inflation up the yin yang, but that's okay. It's all Putin's fault. Now, that's one. And I
think I'm going to film that for one day and bring it to the next commission. I'm going
to get someone to film it the whole day, and then we'll do it fast paced so you can see
how, during rush hour, you start getting bottlenecks. But most of all, it's like winning
the lottery if you find one bicycle through the whole day that goes there. The Silver
Bluff area that because of problems that the State and the County created, we had to
close off some streets, and it resolved the problem, 100 percent. Not only that, but you
finally see little kids being able to go out in the streets and play like Miami used to be
and the way it should be, without worrying about getting run over by a car. But this
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Meeting Minutes June 23, 2022
commissioner is the one that's pushed so that the County could sue us and force us to
open it. But Coral Gables, that has 38 or so, it's okay. Even Coral Gate in Miami,
Coconut Grove, the northeast of Miami. So it's becoming a constant problem. And 1
have to say, I believe that it's her hand again behind this, because I cannot believe the
way the County is run that the person that's in charge of transportation, that the
County is going to take this step without her blessing. Now, if it's a personal problem
with some of us up here, I don't know what it is, but you know, I've kind of reached
my limitations. And as you can see, with people that think like her; they weren 't able
to beat me in my election. So they had to go back and figure out, you know, the whole
big plan with the transplants that you bring, and they learn a little Spanish, and play
that game, because it's not working with guys like me.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And something else, Commissioner Carollo, if I
may, Madam Chair. There's -- about three years ago, the County cut 17 bus routes,
17 bus routes. Most of them were cut in inner-city areas, including Little Havana,
Allapattah. Bus route number six. Because the trolley service would try to fill in those
holes. Now they don't want to fund the trolley service after they cut 17 bus routes.
Why? Because they want to go down south and they don't want to go out west for
political reasons. Instead of in the inner-city areas, including Overtown, including
Allapattah, including Little Havana, Wvnwood, they cut all those bus routes. And
people -- one of the most serious complaints I received during my campaign was
about Route Number 6, Route Number 13 that were cut. I'm sure you got it in your
campaigns too. So now they get rid of the bus service they're supposed to provide to
the public so people can -- even though people pay, but at least it's not -- this is free.
Now they want (UNINTELLIGIBLE), the one that's free for the people they impacted
to begin with. And that's a problem. So if you have to sue, sue. 1 agree with you,
Madam Chair. We do everything we can not to, but I think we need to be aggressive.
We cannot have these policies imposed on us. By the way, the County is also imposing
zoning policies on us, zoning issues. They're trying to overlap our zoning authority
and jurisdiction. So we have these issues that we have to stand up and say enough is
enough, especially when it impacts neighborhoods, inner-city neighborhoods that
need the most help from us. We're the government that's closest to them. And we are
the ones that represent the urban core of Miami and the parts of Miami that are poor
-- of Miami -Dade that are very poor that we need to fight for. So I agree with you,
Commissioner Carollo, wholeheartedly, we do what we need to do.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair, I do agree with what's going on with the buses.
And I had a part of my district, it was your district, on 32nd Avenue, it was just
eliminated just without any reason, no random reason. But I want to make clear and
all -- I mean, I want to clarify that the commissioner, before she closed, before the
project on 22nd Avenue, she informed me and she came to my offices and I let them
know that I was totally opposed to that project. I just wanted to clarify that, you see.
Vice Chair Carollo: But since the commissioner is the one that is constantly saying
with a couple of the people that she has in your district that are constantly trying to
fight with people in my district, that what affects --
Commissioner Reyes: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Vice Chair Carollo: -- one area that's a few blocks away affects the other one --
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Vice Chair Carollo: -- and she never came to me, Commissioner.
Commissioner Reyes: It should have, it should have.
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Vice Chair Carollo: She never came to the Administration also, and you proved my
point why that happened. Now, think about this. Here we have a county commissioner
that is in an area that not a single inch of that area that 1 know of is unincorporated
Miami -Dade County. They're all cities. The city of Miami, Miami Beach. I don 't even
know why we need a county commission in that area. But here's the great problem
with that kind of situation. You have them meddling now in other jurisdictions where
they're doing things that don't add up, that don't connect. Now, if you would tell me
that that was then so you could have connected with other trails and so on, but two
blocks before you get to US-1, the bike lane stops. About the same a block and a half
before you get to Coral Way that bike lane stops, and nobody uses it. So, I don't know
what the issue is. It's to play with us in the City, to go out and claim that 1 put in so
many miles of bike lanes, even though you're taking traffic lanes away and you're
creating traffic jams at different hours of the day, and it's money that's wasted
because they're not being used by bicycles. We are not China, Ms. Higgins. We're the
United States of America.
Chair King: Okay. So, I believe we have our charge. I have a motion and a second.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Chair King: All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Ave.
Chair King: Motion carries unanimously.
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RE.3 RESOLUTION
12042
Commissioners
and Mayor
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENT(S), REAFFIRMING THE ENDORSEMENT OF THE
RICKENBACKER CAUSEWAY PROJECT A/K/A "PLAN Z" FOR
THE CITY OF MIAMI AS DESCRIBED IN RESOLUTION NO. R-15-
0331, ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS EXHIBIT "A",
SUPPORTING ITS VISION AS PRESENTED; URGING MIAMI-
DADE COUNTY TO IMMEDIATELY REOPEN REQUEST FOR
PROPOSALS ("RFP") NO. RFP-01982 OR REISSUE A SIMILAR
RFP TO DEVELOP, MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE THE
RICKENBACKER CAUSEWAY AND ASSOCIATED
RECREATIONAL ELEMENTS WITH AMENDMENTS DESCRIBED
IN THE BODY OF THIS RESOLUTION, AND TO COORDINATE
WITH THE APPROPRIATE AGENCIES TO MOVE THE PROJECT
FORWARD; FURTHER REQUESTING THAT THE PROJECT BE
BROUGHT BACK TO THE CITY COMMISSION DURING THE
EARLY DESIGN TO ALLOW FOR INPUT AND COMMENT;
FURTHER DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO TRANSMIT A COPY
OF THIS RESOLUTION TO THE INDIVIDUALS IDENTIFIED
HEREIN.
MOTION TO: Continue
RESULT: CONTINUED
MOVER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
SECONDER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: Item RE.3 was continued to the July 28, 2022, City
Commission Meeting.
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number RE.3, please see
"Order of the Day."
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RE.4 RESOLUTION
12037
Commissioners
and Mayor
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENT(S), DESIGNATING THE AREA DESCRIBED IN
EXHIBIT "A," ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED, AS "LITTLE
BAHAMAS OF COCONUT GROVE" IN RECOGNITION OF THE
HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF THE AREA TO
THE CITY OF MIAMI AND MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AS A WHOLE.
MOTION TO: Defer
RESULT: DEFERRED
MOVER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
SECONDER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: Item RE.4 was deferred to the July 14, 2022, City
Commission Meeting.
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number RE.4, please see
"Order of the Day."
RE.5 RESOLUTION
12084
Commissioners
and Mayor
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION ALLOCATING
GRANT FUNDS FROM THE MAYOR'S SHARE OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI'S ANTI- POVERTY INITIATIVE PROGRAM IN A TOTAL
AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND
DOLLARS ($150,000.00) TO THE LIBERTY CITY COMMUNITY
REVITALIZATION TRUST ("TRUST") FOR THE TRUST'S 2022
SUMMER YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM; FURTHER
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND
EXECUTE ANY AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, SUBJECT
TO APPLICABLE REQUIREMENTS OF ALL FEDERAL, STATE,
AND LOCAL LAWS, INCLUDING THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, AND CODE OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, IN FORMS ACCEPTABLE TO
THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR SAID PURPOSE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0229
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number RE.5, please see
"Order of the Day" and Item Number RE.1.
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RE.6 RESOLUTION
12119
Commissioners
and Mayor
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING
THE BUDGETARY RESTRICTION IN RESOLUTION NO. R-21-
0408, IN ORDER TO LIMIT SAID RESTRICTION ON THE
DEPARTMENT OF POLICE AND ON THE DEPARTMENT OF FIRE -
RESCUE TO ANY AND ALL MOVEMENTS OF MONIES IN
EXCESS OF ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS
($100,000.00); PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0230
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number RE.6, please see
"Order of the Day" and Item Number RE.1.
RE.7 RESOLUTION
12126
Commissioners
and Mayor
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION CO -
DESIGNATING SOUTHWEST 29TH AVENUE FROM WEST
FLAGLER STREET TO SOUTHWEST 3RD STREET, MIAMI,
FLORIDA AS "DR. DIEGO MEDINA STREET" PURSUANT TO
SECTION 54-137 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI,
FLORIDA, AS AMENDED; FURTHER DIRECTING THE CITY
CLERK TO TRANSMIT A COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION TO THE
HEREIN DESIGNATED OFFICIALS.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0231
MOTION TO: Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT: ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number RE.7, please see Item
Number RE.1.
END OF RESOLUTIONS
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SR - SECOND READING ORDINANCES
SR.1 ORDINANCE Second Reading
11429
Department of
Human Services
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING
CHAPTER 2/ARTICLE XI/DIVISION 2/SECTION 2-887 OF THE
CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED ("CITY
CODE"), TITLED "ADMINISTRATION/BOARDS, COMMITTEES,
COMMISSIONS/STANDARDS FOR CREATION AND REVIEW OF
BOARDS GENERALLY/QUORUM REQUIREMENTS;
EXCEPTIONS," MORE PARTICULARLY BY INCLUDING THE
MIAMI ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT COUNCIL ("MAEC") ON THE
LIST IN SECTION 2-887(B) OF CITY BOARDS SUBJECT TO
QUORUM REQUIREMENTS PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE IN
THE CITY CODE; FURTHER AMENDING CHAPTER 2/ARTICLE
XI/DIVISION 10/SECTION 2-1141 OF THE CITY CODE TITLED
"ADMINISTRATION/BOARDS, COMMITTEES,
COMMISSIONS/CITY OF MIAMI ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
COUNCIL/PURPOSE, POWERS AND DUTIES," MORE
PARTICULARLY BY ADDING TO SECTION 2-1141(4) THE
AUTHORITY TO EXPEND FUNDS IN FURTHERANCE THEREOF
AND DELETING FROM SECTION 2-1141(7) THE 501(C)(3)
CORPORATION PROVISION AND PROVIDING AUTHORITY FOR
THE SOLICITATION AND ACCEPTANCE OF FINANCIAL AND
NON -FINANCIAL SUPPORT; FURTHER AMENDING SECTION 2-
1143 OF THE CITY CODE TITLED "MEETINGS; QUORUM AND
VOTING; ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS; PARLIAMENTARY
AUTHORITY; RULES OF PROCEDURE; MINUTES; ASSIGNMENT
OF STAFF; LEGAL COUNSEL; AND NOTICES AND FILING OF
RECORDS," MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING THE MAEC'S
QUORUM AND VOTING REQUIREMENTS DETAILED IN SECTION
2-1143(B); FURTHER CREATING A NEW SECTION 2-1144 OF
THE CITY CODE FOR THE MAEC TITLED "BUDGET AND
FINANCE"; ESTABLISHING A SPECIAL REVENUE FUND
ACCOUNT LINE TITLED "CITY OF MIAMI ARTS AND
ENTERTAINMENT COUNCIL"; AUTHORIZING THE CITY
MANAGER AND THE NECESSARY CITY DEPARTMENTS TO
CREATE THE NECESSARY BUDGETING AND ACCOUNTING
STRUCTURES TO ACCOUNT FOR THE MAEC'S FUNDS IN
ACCORDANCE WITH THE GENERALLY ACCEPTED
ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES; FURTHER DELETING OBSOLETE
REFERENCES; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; AND
PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: 14074
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Meeting Minutes June 23, 2022
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Chair King: Which takes us to second readings. Madam City Attorney, could you read
the second reading ordinances into the record, please?
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): Yes, Madam Chair. SR.1.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Chair King: Thank you, Madam City Attorney. Do I have a motion for our second
readings?
Ms. Mendez: Oh, did you want me to read SR.2 as well?
Chair King: That wasn't SR.2 as well?
Ms. Mendez: No, it was a long title.
Chair King: Oh gosh, yes.
Ms. Mendez: SR.2.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Ms. Mendez: That's it.
Chair King: Thank you. Colleagues, does anyone have -- want to have any discussion
on the SR (Second Reading) items? We have a motion and a second. All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have a motion yet.
Chair King: Yes, Commissioner Reyes, I second it, and it passed unanimously.
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Meeting Minutes June 23, 2022
SR.2 ORDINANCE Second Reading
11966
Commissioners
and Mayor
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION NAMING THE
PARCEL OF LAND CONSISTING OF APPROXIMATELY 261,360
SQUARE FEET LOCATED AT 2304 NORTHWEST 14TH STREET,
MIAMI, FLORIDA AS "RONALD W. REAGAN PARK"; AMENDING
CHAPTER 38/ARTICLE I OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI,
FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, TITLED "PARKS AND RECREATION/IN
GENERAL", BY CREATING SECTION 38-31, TITLED "NAMING OF
RONALD W. REAGAN PARK"; FURTHER DIRECTING THE CITY
MANAGER TO TAKE ANY AND ALL ACTIONS NECESSARY TO
EFFECTUATE THE NAMING OF THE PARK; CONTAINING A
SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING FOR AN IMMEDIATE
EFFECTIVE DATE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: 14075
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number SR.2, please see Item
Number SR.1.
END OF SECOND READING ORDINANCES
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FR - FIRST READING ORDINANCE
FR.1 ORDINANCE First Reading
11722
Department of
Parks and
Recreation and
Office of Capital
Improvements
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENTS, AMENDING CHAPTER 50/ARTICLE II/DIVISION I
OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED,
TITLED "OPERATION OF VESSELS/GENERALLY", BY AMENDING
SECTION 50-1 TO ADD A DEFINITION FOR LAMAR LAKE AND
CREATING SECTION 50-44, TITLED "LAMAR LAKE/JIMBO'S
LAGOON IDLE SPEED/NO WAKE ZONE", TO ESTABLISH A
VESSEL IDLE SPEED/NO WAKE ZONE ("ZONE") IN THE WATERS
OF LAMAR LAKE, ALSO KNOWN AS JIMBO'S LAGOON;
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO UNDERTAKE AND
EXECUTE THE NECESSARY APPLICATIONS WITH AGENCIES
OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, THE STATE OF FLORIDA, AND THE
UNITED STATES TO ESTABLISH THE PROPOSED ZONE;
CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING AN
EFFECTIVE DATE.
MOTION TO: Pass on First Reading
RESULT: PASSED ON FIRST READING
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number FR.1, please see
"Order of the Day.
Chair King: Okay, we are now on first reading items. Madam City Attorney, would
you please read the first reading item into the record?
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Ms. Mendez: That's it for the FRs (First Reading), Madam Chair.
(COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD)
Chair King: Second. All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair King: Motion carries.
END OF FIRST READING ORDINANCE
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Meeting Minutes June 23, 2022
BU.1
11481
Office of
Management and
Budget
BU - BUDGET
BUDGET DISCUSSION ITEM
MONTHLY REPORT
I. SECTION 2-497 OF THE CITY CODE OF ORDINANCES
(RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE DIRECTOR OF MANAGEMENT AND
BUDGET)
II. SECTION 18-502 (CITY'S ANTI -DEFICIENCY ACT)
III. SECTION 18-542 (FINANCIAL INTEGRITY PRINCIPLES)
RESULT: DISCUSSED
Chair King: We have the budget report. Are we just going to accept that? I accept it
Commissioner Russell, do you want a presentation on that?
Commissioner Russell: I'm fine, thank you.
Chair King: Okay. We've accepted the budget report.
END OF BUDGET
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City Commission
Meeting Minutes June 23, 2022
DI.1
11945
Department of
Finance
DI - DISCUSSION ITEMS
DISCUSSION ITEM
A PRESENTATION BY THE CITY'S EXTERNAL AUDITORS, RSM
US LLP, TO THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY'S
2021 COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT, SINGLE
AUDIT, AND MANAGEMENT LETTER.
RESULT: DISCUSSED
Chair King: At this time, we have the discussion items before us. DI.1.
Anil Harris: Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Anil Harris with RSM, the
external auditors for the City of Miami. I will be presenting the financial statement
audit results for the year ending 9/30/21. There are four items in your package. I will
go over those at a summary level. The first item is the financial statements. We have
issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements for the year ended. An
unmodified opinion is generally a clean opinion, so nothing to highlight there. Focus
in on the general fund, the general fund for the year ending 9/30/21, ended the year
with a $158 million positive fund balance, meaning that your assets exceeded the --
$157 million, meaning that your assets exceed your liabilities for the year ended,
which obviously is positive. The second report we issued is a report on the grant
programs of the City. The City expended approximately $112 million of federal and
state grant program funds. Again, an unmodified opinion, no findings to report, which
is consistent with the prior year. The third item is the state management letter, which
is required by the State of Florida. Again, unmodified or clean opinion and no
findings or no prior year findings to address either. And the final item is a report to
the Commission and I will just go over that in a summary level and it summarizes the
entire results of all the audits we've done. First item is there were no unusual
transactions or significant issues discussed during the audit, no material audit
adjustments as a result of the work performed. We had no disagreements with
management in the course of the audit. We had access to all records and individuals
within the City to complete the audit unimpeded. And finally, we were able to issue
timely by the deadline of March 31st, which complies with the City's Financial
Integrity Ordinance. And with that, I'll take any questions you may have.
Chair King: Seeing no questions, thank you for that report.
Mr. Harris: Thank you.
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DI.2 DISCUSSION ITEM
12127
Commissioners
and Mayor
A DISCUSSION REGARDING THE STATUS OF DRAIN CLEANINGS
WITHIN THE CITY OF MIAMI.
RESULT: DISCUSSED
Note for the Record: For directive referencing Item DL2, please see Item NA.4.
Chair King: We have a second discussion item, status of drain cleanings in the City of
Miami. Anybody coming forward? Staff?
Arthur Noriega (City Manager): We have a presentation we'd like to make.
Chair King: Okay. Don't all hurry to the lectern.
Juvenal Santana (Director, Public Works): Good morning.
Chair King: Good morning. While he's getting his presentation ready, I'd like to
acknowledge my summer interns who are with us. Guys, stand up. Stand up.
Applause.
Chair King: They're doing a phenomenal job and they're learning so much, right? I
wanted them to have an opportunity to see what happens in government, see how our
commission works. And so thank you for the program of having us have the
opportunity to share and mentor our young people. Thanks, guys.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And Madam Chair, you're lucky they came on a
good day.
Chair King: Yes.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: On a peaceful day.
Chair King: Yes.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Also, today is, I'd like to acknowledge while he's
getting ready, that today is Sergeant -at -Arms Stanley 's birthday. He turns 33 years
old today.
Chair King: Congratulations.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So happy birthday.
Chair King: Happy birthday.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Happy birthday, Stanley.
Applause.
Chair King: Thank you for keeping us safe. Mr. Director, are you ready?
Mr. Santana: Good morning, Madam Chair. We are not. I'm waiting for a
connection.
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Chair King: The pressure, the pressure.
Mr. Santana: I know. I hope Wade brought me an extra towel today so.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Can we bring up Miami Freedom Park and maybe
you can see a real action, government action for real or -- for the kids?
Chair King: Is that a real request?
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, it's a joke.
Chair King: Okay.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It's just killing time, that's all.
Chair King: Okay. Here is the trusty IT (Information Technology) guy. He is so
fantastic. Thank you, Chris. Do we want to go to DI.3 while we --?
(COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD)
Chair King: Let's do it. Let's go to Discussion Item 3 while he gets all the stuff that he
needs because 1 know Chris has to go upstairs or something.
Vice Chair Carollo: 3 could be short or it could be long.
Chair King: 3 could -- (INAUDIBLE).
Vice Chair Carollo: Let me make sure that the Manager is going to be listening to 3
and the appropriate parties on the homeless issue, that he's gong to be listening to 3.
We --
Chair King: It looks like they got the 2 going.
Vice Chair Carollo: You got the 2, okay, well --
Mr. Santana: Alright. Good morning Madam Chair, Commissioners. Juvenal
Santana, Director of Public Works. So I'm here to go over DI.2 with you, and that's
the item that Commissioner Carollo put on for status of maintenance of our
stormwater system. So I'm going to go over basically what kind of initiated this,
which was we had that huge storm a couple weeks ago, and then go over what we --
how we prepared and then give you an update on our operations and our
maintenance program. So, we had a -- what I call a sheet or a blanket of rain cover
the city between July -- June 3rd and June 4th. This is some of the data, but locally in
Miami, we received approximately 11 inches through June 4th since Friday. That's a
huge amount of water and basically how this storm may have been different from
others is that basically most of the city was getting rained on all at one time. So,
usually we have storms that pass through and affect different areas of the city and this
one basically blanketed us. So what did we do in kind of preparing for that storm?
We've got areas in the city that we've identified previously as far as as what we call
hot spots and we mobilize and preset some of our backup pumps, and in addition to
that, after the storm, so as they broke into Saturday morning, our department, in
conjunction with Emergency Management, were surveying the areas within the city
and we were also getting information reported back to us as far as flooding locations
and we deployed additional pumps. And that's what you see as far as post storm. So
what do we have currently in our inventory to help us get this done? We have a
variety of pumps and those huge vacuum trucks that we call Vactor trucks in our
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arsenal and we did not have to deploy every pump. We also have additional backup
pumps that the Department of Emergency Management through the Fire -Rescue
Department provide to us and we did count on them during this most recent storm
event. Post that storm, we've -- sorry, we've ordered additional pumps that we are
expected to receive in the next few months. Two of them hopefully within the month
and a couple more later on. And obviously, we know that some of these materials and
equipment take longer because of the global shortage on all materials. So, I just
briefly listed -- and just as an example, some of the locations that we had to deploy.
This one that's photographed here, this is just east of 22nd Avenue, south of 36th
Street. Obviously, that was a location that we knew that we were going to have some
flooding issues dating back. But the rain was such that even our backup pumps were
overwhelmed. In Melrose in particular, we started getting water into our fuel tank
there. And it wasn't necessarily that we didn't have enough pumps out there, it's just
that we 've got to move that water somewhere. So, when we discharge this water,
we're discharging it to other systems. And those other systems are dealing with the
rainfalls that they're handling, and we just can't set up five pumps and just start
pumping water because we will flood other roads and the systems, whether they 're
ours, the County's, or the State's, which we do sometimes discharge to other agency
systems. They themselves are not designed to capture and handle all our water in
addition to what they're dealing with. This is just one location just in all your districts
that -- so you could see that just some of the areas. This is obviously not the entire list,
but this is just some of those hot spots. So we saw a lot of media attention on Biscayne
Boulevard. That is a road that is currently maintained by the Department of
Transportation and is overseeing part of a huge 395 reconstruction. There are --
there have been some historical issues there dating in the past couple of years with
some illicit discharges and the DOT (Department of Transportation) has implemented
restrictions on their system, but that inevitably has backed up their ability to
discharge some of that water into the bay. Another area that got a lot of attention, and
this one is in your district, Commissioner Carollo, the Southwest 8th Avenue area in
Little Havana. So that area is actually a Department of Transportation system,
drainage system, but there are interconnections with the City's system. So part of that
area is served by our Lawrence Pump Station. What we found that occurred at the
Lawrence Pump Station is that we encountered, because of that amount of water, that
initial storm event at the beginning of the season basically just flushes clean our
streets. If we've got anything out there, whether it be floatables in the form of plastic
bottles, or leaves and debris from trees, whether it's from residents that their
landscapers and we've all seen them out there blowing their leaves and their debris
onto our streets. They have nowhere to go but into our drainage systems when we get
those large storms. So that system was overwhelmed with debris and the Lawrence
pump station temporarily shut down that because of the amount of debris that was
blocking its ability to pump water. As soon as we found that, all our pump stations to
be clear were fully operational. We have 13 regional pump stations throughout the
city. They were all filly operational except one, which is on bypass and it is never on
and that is in Overtown. That station is on bypass because the Department of
Transportation reduced its space and we really don't have a need for that pump
station. So we had 12 active pump stations that were all fully operational, but when
we have some of these events, that's some of the things that we encounter. So what are
we doing about that in particular is that we 're asking the Department of
Transportation, because of that interconnection, to better protect their system. So if
you may drive around our city and see some protections, like the one that I'm showing
a photograph that basically keeps floatables from coming into the system. We 've got
those -- we've got thousands of those throughout our city. We actually, got additional
money in our last budget to install more. So we're going to be reaching out to --
we've reached out already to the Department of Transportation to have them
implement a similar system that will protect all our stormwater infrastructure just that
much better. Another item that we have going on right now is that our pump stations
are not monitored remotely. We can't go into like a dashboard and see how our pump
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stations are working. We identified that as a need a couple of years ago. We've
assessed all of our pump stations, and we are going to be moving forward so that
during an emergency, someone remotely can be monitoring all of our pump stations
and ensure that they're operational and if the need is to kick in additional pumps and
override the default settings that we have out there for the every day. So, this is just
our map of where we have those large pump stations that are throughout the city. You
can see that we have some that are out west that were built after the 1999 no -name
storm. We have newer pump stations in the Brickell area, Mary Brickell Village, that
was constructed and there's ongoing improvements in that area to jolly take
advantage of that pump with new drainage pipes conning into it and that project is
hoped to be connected in the next few weeks.
Vice Chair Carollo: What -- can you go back to the map, please?
Mr. Santana: Absolutely, sir.
Vice Chair Carollo: What are the colors that you have?
Mr. Santana: So the --
Vice Chair Carollo: What do they mean?
Mr. Santana: -- the colors represent the basins. So the red square is the pump --
Vice Chair Carollo: Right.
Mr. Santana: -- and the colored area that it sits within is basically the collection area.
It is responsible for collecting all the runoff in that area --
Vice Chair Carollo: In that area --
Mr. Santana: -- through that pump.
Vice Chair Carollo: -- that's colored, I see.
Mr. Santana: Yes, Commissioner.
Vice Chair Carollo: But why do you have different colors, though?
Mr. Santana.. I'm sorry?
Vice Chair Carollo: Why do you have different colors? What does each color
represent?
Mr. Santana: Oh, because there's a legend on the top and that tells us what that pump
station is.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay, so you've got three pump stations there.
Mr. Santana: Correct.
Vice Chair Carollo: And you've got three colors that each color will go to one
station.
Mr. Santana: Correct.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay.
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Mr. Santana: So if you see the two in Flagami, they're basically -- it's one basin,
there's just two pumps running that basin.
Vice Chair Carollo: Right, right.
Mr. Santana: And we call those the West End 1 and West End 2 pump stations. I'll
move on. So additional, we've talked about several times here with you all, we've had
presentations and we've had discussions with your staff with respect to the Miami
Forever Bond and the priority projects that are coming online. 1 just noted that of the
24 neighborhood projects that were prioritized, there's another 13 pump stations. So
that basically means that we're going to double the amount of pumps that we
currently have in service. So we're going to go from 13 pump stations to hopefully 26.
And that is just a tip of the iceberg.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: By when?
Mr. Santana: So all those projects -- so right now those that are just listed right there,
all of those have pumps and all those projects we've received notice of awards of
grants. So those are -- those at least are five that we're going to be moving forward.
The plan is that as monies become available that we're able to leverage the Miami
Forever Bond dollars with grants that we can move forward with more. So, all 13 of
them will depend on monies because that priority list is $600 million worth of
improvements. We don't have it. But right here, that's five. So, if we just built those
five, that would be a net increase of 50 percent. As far as your question as far when,
we are looking to have all these projects in the ground in construction within the next
two years.
Commissioner Russell: Madam Chair? Director Santana, is the bottleneck the funding
or simply project management? You say two years. Is there funding in the pipeline to
get this done?
Mr. Santana: So some of these projects had already had matching dollars assigned to
them. Some of them had not and that's part of why we've recently set up additional
meetings with your staff to finalize that prioritization so we can appropriate -- post
that February allocation to all the districts so that we can then appropriate those
monies. We currently have staff working on the grant applications. So it's -- we have
consultants already on board that are assisting us with that.
Commissioner Russell: Madam Chair? So if --
Mr. Santana: Mr. Deputy City Manager, did you want --?
Commissioner Russell: Go ahead.
Nzeribe Ihekwaba: Good morning. Zerry Ihekwaba, Deputy City Manager. To answer
your question, Mr. Russell, two Fridays ago, the City's Procurement Department
released a couple of solicitations for program management for stormwater
management systems in the city. The goal of the solicitation is to have us engage new
consultants to increase capacity for program management, and also utilize the
existing contracts for A&E, Architectural and Engineering Services, in order to fast -
track some of these projects. So in a sense, they're not going to be done in-house,
because we realize that it's too much work in-house for us to be able to deliver. One
of the expectations is that it's going to be on a fast track. We realize that the funding
that we're receiving from these external agencies have deadlines. So we better spend
the money as quickly as we can. That's why we're engaging with consultants.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair?
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Commissioner Russell: Yeah, just a moment. I'm almost done. I'm almost done.
Commissioner Reyes: I thought you had already.
Commissioner Russell: Thank you, Mr. Ihekwaba. So the -- five years ago, we passed
the Miami Forever Bond, $200 million. Then we get the stormwater master plan.
We've got a roadmap now. What else do you need from this body to make sure there
is no -- nothing slowing you down from saving this city from stormwater?
Mr. Ihekwaba: I believe we've already reached out to the respective offices to
reconfirm that the 24 priority projects has not changed. We 've received responses at
least from District 4 that is a go. And I believe a couple of other commission offices
have already signaled that they don't have intent to make any changes to that list.
Commissioner Russell: Is there a coming resolution or do you need a resolution to
empower those projects?
Mr. Ihekwaba: I don 't think at this time we need any additional reso (resolution). The
last reso that came to this commission, I believe it was in March, divvied up the
money equally among the respective commission offices.
Commissioner Russell: But you need them line item, though.
Mr. Ihekwaba: The line items that we anticipate will come from the 24 projects.
Commissioner Russell: So they're not line-itemed yet?
Mr. Ihekwaba: We want you to confirm --
Commissioner Russell: Yeah.
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- that that's what you want.
Commissioner Russell: Okay, so when is that coming to Commission and how soon?
Because this is the part I want to make sure we're not holding you back.
Mr. Ihekwaba: If we have that confirmation from you, in the next one week well come
back to Commission for appropriation.
Commissioner Russell: So we could see something in July?
Mr. Ihekwaba: Hopefully, yes, as quickly as we can.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair?
Mr. Ihekwaba: By the way --
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair?
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- the solicitation for consultants was on -- is on a fast track.
Chair King: Commissioner Reyes?
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, I know that we had a lot ojf looding, but I want to be, in the
sake of justice, I want to thank Public Works for the work that you did overnight,
because I spent the whole night going through my district, like just like all the
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commissioners. And we have little resources that we had, they were out there trying to
clear the water, but we need a lot of pumps. And we need to find the funds to have
pumps, because just as you stated, some of the water we are just transferring from one
place to the other. And I think that we have to find the resources so we have deep
injection pumps, you see, that the water should be injected instead of being
transferred from one place to the other or to the lake or whatever. And I know that,
fir example, in my district, we have a situation that the only way that it can be
resolved is like that. And now in the new area that I inherited from Commissioner
Russell, we have a huge problem there that I would like for you guys to start
developing a program or a project to try to alleviate the problem or eliminate the
problem that they have on 27 Terrace, et cetera, et cetera, because in that area, the
water gets into the house, you see. The houses are flooded, and we cannot allow that
in our city. Also, in Silver Bluff we have another problem. I know that you are loaded
with different areas that they need, I mean, drainage projects, but I would like for you
guys to try to determine how much you need and see how can we get it. You see, how
much, I know it is a multi -million dollar project because this is not new. This has
come, I mean, Miami has been like that all the time. I remember when I first got here,
1959, thanks God that the automobiles were higher and the intake was on top of the
motor because if not, people couldn't go around. 36th Street was a river. But we have
-- and Flagami was always under water. Now that we have pumps, and those pumps
are working, although we still have problems. But we need a citywide estimate of how
much do we need. So we have to find it, because our residents, every time there are
some areas every time that it rains, they start praying. You see, praying, just wishing
that it doesn't happen. But thank you very much, Juvenal, for your assistance before
and after. Another question that I have, you see, you talked about the vacuum trucks,
which is very important, that our drainage -- they get caught because we have a
bunch of people that when they, or companies also, when they cut the grass, they blow
all that debris, all the grass and all the leaves and all that into the drainage. Like if
that was the dumpster, I mean, they could dump there. I don't know, Madam City
Attorney, do we have an ordinance prohibiting that?
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): Into the storm drain? Yes.
Commissioner Reyes: We do? But we never enforce that because they do it right in
front of your house. I mean, what they do, they move my dirt, my -- I mean, all the
debris, all the dirt, they move it to the next -- I mean, the house just across the street,
and if there is a drainage, right into the drainage. We 've got to stop that because we
don't have enough vacuum trucks to have a constant cleaning of our drainage. We
have to schedule them certain times. And I wish we'd get more. And we have a
rotation that every single district will have, I mean, will be in that rotation.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) and I, one day we were talking about, why don't we buy, the
City buy, five vacuum trucks in every single district, they will have a constant rotation
in each district, and that way we alleviate the problem that we have. You see, all
drainage will be clean. Mr. City Manager by to enforce that ordinance. You see, get
some inspector. I don't know who could enforce it. Maybe a police officer that is
driving by and see somebody doing that. But we 've got to start enforcing our
ordinance and we have to start getting our people not to throw everything in a
drainage. That's it, okay.
Chair King: Did you get the photos from my neighborhood?
Mr. Santana: I think have one of your photos, but it --
Mr. Ihekwaba: Are those the ones you sent yesterday?
Chair King: Yes.
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Mr. Ihekwaba: Yeah, they were sent to Miami -Dade County --
Chair King: Okay.
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- because it had to do with sanitary sewer --
Chair King: Right.
Mr. Ihekwaba: -- that was overflowing into the storm, which is something unhealthy
for us.
Chair King: Right.
Mr. Ihekwaba: So they acknowledged last night that they are in receipt of it. It was
sent to Water and Sewer.
Chair King: Okay. All right. Just wanted to make sure that you were aware.
Mr. Santana: And we had previously notified them of that issue.
Chair King: Okay, perfect.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay, Madam Chair.
Mr. Santana: Okay, so, you know, segueing into maintenance, to your point, so this
right now is our -- the data you have in front of you is from our reporting period. The
City, of Miami is the only municipality in Miami -Dade County that has its own NPDS,
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System with the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection. So we have to report to them on an annual basis what
we're doing to maintain our system. So they require inspections, but what is actually
being taken place when we're doing an inspection is we're actually cleaning the
system at that point. So last year, reporting period between November 2020 to
November 2021, we cleaned approximately 37 percent of our exfiltration system in the
city. So if you kind of overlay that, that puts us somewhere where someone might look
at like in a three-year rotation basis. That does also take into account that we're
servicing certain areas a little bit more often than others that we know that are
trouble, that the systems may be more susceptible to debris. So, while the average may
be about 33, 37 percent per year, there may be some areas that take a little longer to
service, but they must be cleaned on a regular basis. And then just some data as far as
how we 're doing right now on our annual budget for contracted services. We have
$1.1 million in our current fiscal year budget. And as far as open service requests, so
that's what's coming to us and how we're dealing with the needs of the public, we
currently have 175 open 311 service requests; 150 of them were received between
May 30th to today and the concentration of them happening over that weekend. So,
we are, again, evaluating all those complaint locations and then we will be closing
out those service requests. As far as what we're doing with technology, historically
everything was very either 311 or very paper based. We're working into where we
have an asset management system and the program that we 're using is called
Cartegraph. We have collected all our stormwater information either through the
Stormwater Master Plan or through the asset data collection and we are going
through it right now to make sure that everything is accurate. Just so you have an
idea of what that would look like on a map, you would see every node and every pipe
that we have underground. So if anyone has a question about it, we could go to it,
know what size of the structure, when it was put in, when it was last maintained, and
what have you. This is just a little bit about what our inspectors will be able to do,
they'll be able to record everything with photographs and actual detail. This is
basically their work order form and they'll have a list of details that they'll have to
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check off and ensure that they're capturing. And this is what our maintenance
operations crews are currently working. So you can see that we do have an idea as far
as where we've been, how much we've done within any period of time. And this also
deals with mosquitoes controls because it's on our operations side. That's why you
see that there. So I'm going to kick this over to our solid waste director just so that he
can talk about some of the maintenance that he assists our department with,
specifically with street sweeping, with their daytime and nighttime operations.
Wade Sanders: Thank you, Juvenal. Madam Chair, Vice Chair, Commissioners, Wade
Sanders, Director of Solid Waste. With Solid Waste, we have a night street sweeping
program that we have in place that we identify locations five days a week, Monday
through Friday. Most of those streets that we are servicing are state roads and stiff.
So we've been talking with staff, staff we've been talking with one another, talking
about recouping some of those fiords from the State or from the County to have it
where we can go out and do -- contract those services out so that we can be on a more
of an accurate time basis of doing the street sweeping. We also spoke about doing
maintenance on flipping the time of days or the time of nights where -- that you can
park on the streets so that we'11 be able to get the whole entire streets because what
happened at the night when we do the night sweeping is that the individual cars are
parked on the side. So we're going in and out, not really doing a fine sweeping
through the neighborhood or doing the main thoroughfares that we are going
through. So those are some of the things that we have put in place. We also have a
daytime street sweeping program that's in place, which I have two street sweepers
that are out there at the moment, but one of those street sweepers now is assigned to
the HEAT (Homeless Empowerment Assistance Team) team, and then the other street
sweeper comes in and then fills in to by to do a five-day operation with one street
sweeper. And we are looking to look at contracting or having assistance to contract
with that to help us with street sweeping as well. So those are the two programs that
we have in place and what we are looking at doing as far as making sure that we get
the streets swept. But the main thoroughfares that we are paying attention to are
basically a lot of the state and county roads that we do street sweeping on. And then
during the daytime we go into the residential areas and do street sweep there. So with
that being said, I'll turn it back over to Juvenal. Any questions before --?
Vice Chair Carollo: Yes.
Mr. Sanders: Yes, sir.
Vice Chair Carollo: This is partly for you, but even more so for your predecessor that
was speaking just before you did.
Luimar Zibetti Garza: Can't hear you.
Vice Chair Carollo: What percentage of the --
Ms. Zibetti Garza: I can't hear vou.
Vice Chair Carollo: You can't?
Ms. Zibetti Garza: No.
Vice Chair Carollo: Good.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: Pull the microphone forward, please. Thank you.
Vice Chair Carollo: Now, you could hear me, right?
Mr. Sanders: I'm listening.
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Vice Chair Carollo: That's the important part.
Mr. Sanders: That's important.
Vice Chair Carollo: Right, so you guys could answer. My question is, we had some
streets that there was a lot of garbage thrown in there. People that have their lunch
paper plates, styrofoam plates, plastic utensils, soda bottles, water bottles, cans, they
were thrown in there. But I saw, in particular, that area of 8th Avenue that was
plugged, you could see all this debris just floating all on top. My question to you is,
even if the drains are fairly clean, but the streets have so much of that, does that
contribute to that area having been -- having the drains plugged also with so much
rain that came in? The rain that came in is very unusual. We get rain like that, at least
we used to once every, 10, 15, 20 years. So, my question specifically is, is the reason
that in that area, maybe others, the drains were plugged was maybe a combination
that they were so clean and all that debris on top, there was so much water, that all
started going into the drain, it got plugged and then whatever else can go started
floating all over the place?
Mr. Sanders: Yes, sir. So, that's why it was -- it's so important, what Juvenal spoke
earlier, about getting the grates or the gates over the covers because when those large
items start to flow in those areas, once they get down there, we have to pump that out
in order for the water to flow.
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah.
Mr. Sanders: Having those grates on those covers --1'm going to call them covers --
having those covers on there, what it does for us is that the debris don 't get in there,
we're able to come in and get those -- get that debris out and the water can flow free.
Vice Chair Carollo: Where do those covers actually go? How deep do they go into it?
Mr. Sanders: You want it or -- you want it?
Mr. Santana: Yeah.
Mr. Sanders: He wants it.
Mr. Santana: So the inlet protection, those covers, those are -- your question is where
do they go?
Vice Chair Carollo: Where are they at? Are they right on top? Do they go inside the
bottom?
Mr. Santana: So, let me bring it back to the picture that shows basically. Alright, so
I'm going to mouse over. There is -- this is a recently installed inlet protection.
Vice Chair Carollo: Cover.
Mr. Santana: This is one that was just put in. This is a newer model. Just a word of
caution on some of these and where we try, to implement them and where sometimes
Tye may, not. While this is wonderful in taking those plastic bottles from getting into
our system, those openings are now reduced. So, if you have a lot of landscape debris
and the smaller stuff, it is still imperative that -- our issues are not just our
maintenance of our system. It's -- this is a community issue.
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah.
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Mr. Santana: That a lot of whether it's plastic bottles, whether it be landscaping
debris, this will also keep that landscaping debris to come up. But f we're not careful,
it could take over, basically that, and basically render it unusable, right? So, that's
where operations like street sweeping are very important so that when we have these
protections, anything that builds up in front of them gets swept up.
Vice Chair Carollo: Alright.
Mr. Santana: So, in that area of Southwest 8th Avenue, along our drainage system,
most of the locations have something like this or similar already installed. But we 're
going through everything, and I'm saying almost everything because, you know, I
don't want -- we're not 100 percent. We're going to go through and make sure that
anything that's connected to that particular pump station, which is basically what the
methodology we've used. If we're connected to a pump station, we want to definitely
keep floatables away --
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah.
Mr. Santana: -- because the end result is that we'll have a pump station shut down on
us.
Vice Chair Carollo: Yes. So this area here does have these barriers.
Mr. Santana: It does, but it hasn't on our roadways. Southwest 8th Avenue, which is
441, is a state road --
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah.
Mr. Santana: -- which is also connected to our station, does not.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay, that's what I thought in this group.
Mr. Santana: Right.
Vice Chair Carollo: And the debris that I was seeing was that, in 8th Avenue.
Mr. Santana: Right.
Vice Chair Carollo: Right along there.
Mr. Santana: So we've already had discussions with the Department of
Transportation to see what is the easiest way to fast track getting those installed.
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah. So, lots of luck with the state.
Mr. Santana: I know.
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DI.3 DISCUSSION ITEM
12128
Commissioners
and Mayor
A DISCUSSION REGARDING THE ADMINISTRATION'S
RESPONSIBILITY TO CLEAN RIGHT OF WAY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE PROCESS THEREOF.
RESULT: DISCUSSED
Note for the Record: For directive referencing Item DL3, please see Item NA.5.
Note for the Record: For additional minutes referencing Item Number DL3, please
see "Public Comments for all Item(s). "
Vice Chair Carollo: D3 [sic].
Chair King: D3 [sic], Discussion Item 3.
Vice Chair Carollo: Here, well --
Chair King: Did that kind of fold into --?
Vice Chair Carollo: I think we did it.
Vice Chair Carollo: No. Well --
Commissioner Russell: Right?
Vice Chair Carollo: -- yes and no. This involves a lot more people.
Chair King: Okay.
Vice Chair Carollo: And unlike what we heard before, on this one, we passed
ordinances that are not being abided. Months back, we passed a series of resolutions
and ordinances. One was that we, the hot spots, those meaning where you have a
sizable amount of people in sidewalks, et cetera, that they were to be cleaned for the
safety and health and welfare of those people and our general residents, they were to
be cleaned three times a week. That hasn't happened. I can tell you that in my district,
several hot spots, while smaller than many that you have in your district,
Commissioner King, and other areas, they're in significant important areas where the
traffic .flow is huge. And I know for a fact that those haven 't been cleaned in months
and months. Just recently we cleaned one area. So, I want to hold people accountable.
END OF DISCUSSION ITEMS
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PART B: PZ - PLANNING AND ZONING ITEM(S)
PZ.1 ORDINANCE Second Reading
10957 AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Department of ATTACHMENT(S), AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 10544, AS
Planning AMENDED, THE FUTURE LAND USE MAP OF THE MIAMI
COMPREHENSIVE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN, PURSUANT TO SMALL
SCALE AMENDMENT PROCEDURES SUBJECT TO SECTION
163.3187, FLORIDA STATUTES, BY CHANGING THE FUTURE LAND
USE DESIGNATION FROM "LOW DENSITY RESTRICTED
COMMERCIAL" TO "MEDIUM DENSITY RESTRICTED COMMERCIAL"
OF THE APPROXIMATELY 1.75 ACRES DESCRIBED HEREIN OF
REAL PROPERTIES LOCATED AT 600 NORTHWEST 42 AVENUE,
4251, 4253, AND 4255 NORTHWEST 6 STREET, AND 601
NORTHWEST 43 AVENUE, MIAMI, FLORIDA, ALL AS MORE
PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED IN EXHIBIT "A"; MAKING FINDINGS;
AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
MOTION TO: Continue
RESULT: CONTINUED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo
Note for the Record: Item PZ.1 was continued to the July 28, 2022, City
Commission Meeting.
Chair King: Do we want to take up the Planning and Zoning items now?
Commissioner Russell?
Commissioner Russell: Yes.
Chair King: Okay. Madam City Attorney, would you please read the Planning and
Zoning items into the record?
Victoria Mendez, (City Attorney): PZ.1 and 2. PZ.1.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Ms. Mendez: PZ.2.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Ms. Mendez: PZ.3 is a resolution, so I'm not reading that one into the record. PZ.4.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Ms. Mendez: PZ.5.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
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Ms. Mendez: Those are all of the PZ (Planning and Zoning) ordinances.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair?
Chair King: Yes?
Commissioner Reyes: May -- I have a couple of questions on the PZ.
Chair King: Okay.
Commissioner Reyes: On PZ. 1 and 2, 1-- from what 1--1 mean, although it's not in
my district, it's right on the boundaries, but it will affect my district, and as we spoke,
because all the cut -through traffic and all the Flagler and all of that is going to be
through part of my district to the west and to the south. And one thing that it really
concerns me is that you are asking from going -- increasing the density from 300 to
600? (INAUDIBLE), I mean, you're more than doubling the density.
Ines Marrero: Good morning. My, name is Ines Marrero. I am an attorney with offices
at 701 Brickell Avenue on behalf of the applicant this morning. And yes, the portions
of the -- the portion -- the rezoning of the property will increase the density on the
properties that are zoned T4.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, but as I -- I have a map here, all the new constructions that
have been done along 7th Street, none of them has that density. And I personally,
personally I am afraid that if we grant this, that we open up the door to all the people
to ask for such an increase in density, which means more apartments, means more
people moving in, more traffic, et cetera, et cetera, you see? And I -- it really -- I
mean, I know that you want to maximize the use of the land, you see, I mean, it is -- it
is -- it's business. And that is -- it is what it is. But I am very concerned about this,
and I would like to analyze this a little bit more. If you might --
Ms. Marrero: Commissioner, of course, we would be more than happy to again sit
down and meet with your office and discuss it, and we'd be happy to defer it --
Commissioner Reyes: Because --
Ms. Marrero: -- for that purpose.
Commissioner Reyes: I will --
Ms. Marrero: We did proffer a covenant limiting the uses on the southern portions of
the property that abut the existing residential family.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Ms. Marrero: But again, I'm more than happy --
Commissioner Reyes: I would like to analyze it.
Ms. Marrero: -- to sit down --
Commissioner Reyes: And also --
Ms. Marrero: -- with you and your staff
Commissioner Reyes: -- if you can bring some traffic analysis.
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Ms. Marrero: We'll do that as well.
Commissioner Reyes: Something like that --
Ms. Marrero: We have that.
Commissioner Reyes: -- I would love, because I have my constituents, and Alex's
constituents also, they are very concerned about that. They are very concerned, the
ones that are immediately neighboring this place. And I know that you are concerned
about this too, sir. I know you and I know you are very concerned about this, so let 's
analyze it a little bit more.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But the deferral will be nice.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay. Okay, thank you, sir. Thank you, Commissioner.
Ms. Marrero: So, the deferral would be at the pleasure of the Commission in terms of
the timing. We are ready, willing, and able to be back here in July if that is -- I think
we have enough time to do that, but obviously, it's your pleasure.
Commissioner Reyes: The second meeting in July will be fine?
Ms. Marrero: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, okay.
[Later...]
Chair King: So, Commissioners, are we going to have a deferral for PZ.1 and 2?
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Chair King: Do I have a motion?
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Chair King: Second?
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'll second it.
Chair King: All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair King: Motion carries. PZ.1 and 2 has been deferred until July --
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): 28th.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: 28th.
Chair King: -- 28th.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
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PZ.2 ORDINANCE Second Reading
10958 AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
Department of ATTACHMENT(S), AMENDING THE ZONING ATLAS OF ORDINANCE
Planning NO. 13114, THE ZONING ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI,
FLORIDA, AS AMENDED ("MIAMI 21 CODE"), BY CHANGING THE
ZONING CLASSIFICATION FROM "T4-L," GENERAL URBAN
TRANSECT ZONE — LIMITED, TO "T5-L," URBAN CENTER
TRANSECT ZONE —LIMITED, OF THE PROPERTIES GENERALLY
LOCATED AT 600 NORTHWEST 42 AVENUE, 4251, 4253 AND 4255
NORTHWEST 6 STREET, AND 601 NORTHWEST 43 AVENUE,
MIAMI, FLORIDA, ALL AS MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED IN
EXHIBIT "A"; FURTHER ACCEPTING THE VOLUNTARILY
PROFFERED COVENANT, ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED AS
EXHIBIT "B"; MAKING FINDINGS; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY
CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
MOTION TO: Continue
RESULT: CONTINUED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo
Note for the Record: Item PZ.2 was continued to the July 28, 2022, City
Commission Meeting.
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number PZ.2, please see Item
Number PZ.I.
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PZ.3
11790
Department of
Planning
RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENT(S), APPROVING THE RELEASE OF A DECLARATION
OF RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS, ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED
AS EXHIBIT "B," FOR THE PROPERTY GENERALLY LOCATED AT
3622 SOUTHWEST 22 STREET, MIAMI, FLORIDA, MORE
PARTICULARITY DESCRIBED IN EXHIBIT "A," ATTACHED AND
INCORPORATED; MAKING FINDINGS; CONTAINING A
SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE
DATE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0235
MOTION TO: Adopt with Modification(s)
RESULT: ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner
SECONDER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo
Commissioner Reyes: And on PZ.5?
Chair King: PZ.4.
Commissioner Reyes: Oh, PZ.4. PZ.5, I would -- no. No, no, no, no.
Chair King: Because PZ.3 is a resolution, we'll take that up.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Chair King: Or do you want to do PZ.3 right now?
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Let's just do it right now.
Chair King: Let's do it right now. Do I have a motion?
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'll move it.
Commissioner Reyes: Second.
Chair King: Second.
Lakisha Hull (Director): Madam Chair, if I can. There -- Lakisha with the Planning
Department.
Chair King: Okay.
Ms. Hull: So we do have, for the record, the Review Release Committee reviewed this
request to release the covenant on Friday, and we wanted to provide that as part of
your consideration to approve this resolution.
Chair King: Okay, so I have a motion and a second. All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
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Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): As amended.
Chair King: As amended.
Commissioner Reyes: As amended.
Chair King: Motion carries.
PZ.4 ORDINANCE First Reading
12007
Commissioners
and Mayor - PZ
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. 13114, THE ZONING ORDINANCE OF THE CITY
OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED (" MIAMI 21 ZONING CODE" ),
MORE SPECIFICALLY BY AMENDING ARTICLE 3, TITLED
"GENERAL TO ZONES," SECTION 3.5.2 AS IT RELATES TO
GROUND FLOOR HEIGHT ALLOWANCES, IN ORDER TO CORRECT
INCONSISTENCIES AND PERMIT ADDITIONAL FLEXIBILITY IN THE
DESIGN OF BUILDINGS; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE
AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
MOTION TO: Pass on First Reading with Modification(s)
RESULT: PASSED ON FIRST READING WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
SECONDER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Diaz de la Portilla, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo
Note for the Record: For additional minutes referencing Item Number PZ.4, please
see Item Number PZ.I.
Chair King: PZ.4, do I have a motion?
Commissioner Russell: So moved.
Commissioner Reyes: Second.
Chair King: Second. All in favor?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, is there --? I will defer to the Planning Director.
Lakisha Hull (Director, Planning): Yes, ma'am. Madam Chair, there is a modification
that was provided by PZAB (Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board) at their hearing.
Chair King: Okay.
Ms. Hull: And in the whereas clause, the sixth whereas clause, there is a modification
that we want you to take into consideration. Planning is in support of that
modification. It states for the record that the maximum height shall be 70 feet for T5-
R and the maximum height for T6-R is 112 feet.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Ms. Hull: Thank you.
Chair King: So, PZ.4 as amended. All in favor?
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The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair King: Motion carries.
PZ.5 ORDINANCE First Reading
12009 AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING
Department of ORDINANCE NO. 13114, THE ZONING ORDINANCE OF THE CITY
OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, BY AMENDING ARTICLE 3,
Planning TITLED "GENERAL TO ZONES", TO ESTABLISH AN AFFORDABLE
HOUSING TRANSFER OF DEVELOPMENT DENSITY PROGRAM;
CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN
EFFECTIVE DATE.
MOTION TO: Pass on First Reading with Modification(s)
RESULT: PASSED ON FIRST READING WITH MODIFICATION(S)
MOVER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Carollo, Russell, Reyes
NAYS: Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For additional minutes referencing Item Number PZ.5, please
see "Public Comments for allltem(s)" and Item Number PZ.1.
Chair King: PZ.5, do I have a motion?
Commissioner Russell: So moved.
Commissioner Reyes: I have a question before I make a motion.
Chair King: Okay.
Commissioner Reyes: And my question is, this is only going to apply to the CRAs
(Community Redevelopment Agencies).
Commissioner Russell: No.
Commissioner Reyes: It cannot go out of the CRA -- the boundaries of the CRA?
Chair King: Administration?
Commissioner Reyes: That is what I -- because if it goes out of the boundaries of the
CRA, that's a different question.
Chair King: Administration?
Lakisha Hull (Director, Planning): Thank you so much, Commissioner Reyes, for that
question. So the projects have to be located in the CRA in order --
Commissioner Reyes: In the CRA (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Ms. Hull: Exactly, in order to transfer the density to another receiving site.
Commissioner Reyes: And it has to be only for affordable housing purposes.
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Ms. Hull: The tran -- well, the transfer does not have to be affordable housing
purposes. It is the density that is remaining after they have met their affordable
housing requirements on site.
Commissioner Reyes: Question, if it is accepted, can we have an amendment that it
will be only used for affordable housing? Because that -- it is not fair that somebody
that has a project that is affordable housing and does not use all the density that
could sell that density to a developer that is going to use market share or market rate.
You see, I don't see that as beneficial to what we want to do to increase our
affordable housing stock.
Arthur Noriega (City Manager): So, if I may, Commissioner, so in order to allow for
the opportunity for the developer selling that density out, because really what we're
providing is another source of revenue, right, to help subsidize an affordable housing
project so they're selling off that additional density that they're not going to use. It
would really limit the market of that if you're only selling it to another affordable
housing project. It's sort of counterintuitive. You want to sell it to somebody who 's
going to increase density, right, on their project because you 're maximizing the return
to that particular affordable housing project. That's the intent.
Commissioner Reyes: But 1 think, in my opinion, my opinion, a person that is -- that
we have a bunch of developers here that they want to do affordable housing. And they
are faced with the limit, the density limit within the area of the CRA, they can increase
their limits by buying additional density that was unused density. And I think that
what we are doing, it is, we are opening up, 1 mean, a business. We open up a
business that if I am going to do -- let's say, I have a lot in Overtown/Park West,
which is my favorite CRA. In Overtown/Park West, we have a --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I thought it was mine.
Commissioner Reyes: No, no, no. Remember, I am one of the founders of --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I know, I remember.
Commissioner Reyes: -- Overtown/Park West. And we are doing it. This developer, he
is doing a building, he's building affordable housing, and doesn't have to use all its
density because there is a market out there that will buy it from him, and then they
can use the other -- I mean, the person that he sells it to can build and use market
rates. You see, you're benefiting somebody that is not so much interested in providing
affordable housing. That is my opinion, sir, because I'm all for it as long as it is
within the CRA and affordable housing.
Mr. Noriega: So, for purposes of better understanding, because I don 't want you to
take my word on it. I'm happy that there's another affordable housing developer in
the room. They can sort of chime in on this. But typically what happens and the
reason why there's available density is because the numbers don't pencil out, right,
that you can build it any bigger or maximize the use of the density because you can't
get additional subsidy. There's a lot of reasons, all of which are economic for why
you can't build more units, right? So this provides, again, we're providing an
incentive for them to acquire additional resources to make the numbers work for the
affordable housing project. As for another developer and another option, you know, in
terms of selling it to somebody who's going to use it for affordability, they have the
option to pay into the trust fund, right, as their option to increase their density, which
actually has more value to the City, right? So I don't want to compete with that either,
right? So, there's -- this particular structure is sort of finding a good balance, right,
to generating a source of revenue, for an affordable housing developer and in addition
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not handicapping our other resource, which is somebody contributing to acquire
additional density into our public -- our trust fund.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair, if I may. But it is also providing, you see, the
incentive to a person not to cap their density, not to use all the density, and then get a
benefit, somebody that is not building affordable housing, by selling it and that person
using that additional density for market rate. I think that the intention is good. You
see, the intention is good. I like the way that it was developed, but only, my only
concern is that the additional density go for affordable housing, which is our goal,
which is our goal. Our goal is to provide, particularly in that area, and I'm going to
be very blunt, particularly in that area, provide affordable housing for people that live
in Overtown, people that were born and that they work and they -- their life is in
Overtown. Because what we've been seeing now it is that Overtown is changing, you
see. There's a lot of people -- I mean, there are a lot of apartments that cannot -- they
are not affordable for people that live in Overtown before. And the intent of the CRA
at the time was to try to keep as much as we could, the -- I mean, all the
characteristics and integrity of that neighborhood and at the same time promote --
foster economic development and businesses and all of that for people in Overtown,
you see. That is my concern.
Melissa Tapanes Llahues: Madam Chair, may I be recognized?
Chair King: 1 believe my colleagues would like to speak. Commissioner Russell and
then I'll recognize you after they --
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: Thank you.
Commissioner Russell: Thank you.
Chair King: -- have had an opportunity to speak.
Commissioner Russell: Madam Chair, I'd like to move the item on first reading. I'm
supportive of the concept. I have some questions, just as Commissioner Reyes does, to
see how this affects the market for transfer development density, the TDDs, that exist.
It's a pretty new program that we as a board -- a body just created a couple years
ago, and I think it's been successful for historic preservation. Can it do the same now
for affordability? I think so. I like -- I love the idea. So, I'd like to -- between first and
second, I'd like to get analysis from the Administration on how this will -- well, what
revenues will this generate, potentially? Is there a projection for unused density
within, you know, take an example of recent affordable housing projects that have
been completed, what could they have sold? What could have been generated from
that? What could have helped them on their bottom. line? And then also the study from
Commissioner Reyes' perspective of the receiving properties and what they're using it
for, if we limited it to whether it was workforce or affordable, would that truly choke
that market or would it produce more workforce housing and affordable units for us?
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Commissioner Russell: So, I'd like to study it and understand better, but I am
supportive of the concept and I'd like to move it.
Commissioner Reyes: I --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I would prefer --
Chair King: Commissioner.
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. 1 would
prefer to defer the item to the next Commission meeting. 1 think that the concerns that
the Commissioner raised are serious concerns. It not only goes to the CRA, it also
goes to the trust fund. It could go to the trust fund, correct, Mr. Manager? So it could
be for developments outside the CRA areas, correct? They are affordable, but it could
be also market rate. That's a major concern, for me because the whole purpose of this
project is a good idea, but I don't think it is fully developed yet. And I think there
needs to be more understanding on this dais before we vote on it. Not to delay it too
much, but maybe until the next Commission meeting so we have an opportunity to
meet and kind of address some of these concerns. 1 don 't feel comfortable voting for
something on first reading when I have serious concerns about it. So, if you vote on it
today, 1'rn going to vote against it. But 1'in open to voting for it if it makes sense, if we
can make some adjustments, including what Commissioner Reyes has mentioned,
which is it can only go to affordable and attainable. But not only affordable, also
workforce housing, right? We want to make sure that those dollars are there. There 's
also concern that the developers can, in fact, purposely not use that available density
to make money somewhere else and transfer it over to someone else who can make
money on a market rate unit. And to me, that's a concern. There's too many loopholes
in the way it's written. I was up until late last night reading and going through, you
and I had a conversation about it yesterday, Ms. Tapanes, and I'm still concerned that
the language is not tight enough to not allow what's going to happen, which
Commissioner Reyes mentioned could happen. And so I think the best thing to do is
defer to the next Commission meeting. 1 would recommend we do that. I think that's
being deliberate and thoughtful and just bring it back to the first July meeting and we
can talk about it between now and then.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair.
Chair King: Commissioner Russell.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair, and I want to know your opinion on it, if we
should move.
Chair King: Well, as the sponsor of this item, I'd like to move it on first reading. And
between first and second reading, we can hash out all of the concerns --
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Chair King: -- that have been raised because, as Administration said, this is a step in
the right direction. So I'm going to allow Melissa to speak as well. Okay, but it would
be my preference to pass it on first reading and then flesh out the issues that have
been identified by my colleagues. Please go ahead.
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm here on behalf of Block 55
Owner, LLC. They're the developers' of Block 55 and Sawyer's Walk. We've been
working with the Administration and your office, Commissioner -- Chair King and the
CRA on this particular language. We're very proud of this language. We presented
before the Planning and Zoning Appeals Board on Wednesday. We answered all the
questions that were mentioned today, and we received a unanimous recommendation
for approval. I think that the major stopgaps in this legislation to prevent the kind of
abuse that we're all concerned about is specifically that the affordable housing
projects have to be taking advantage of the City's attainable affordable housing
program, and most importantly, provide more than 200 units of affordable housing.
Most tax and -- tax deals, you know, the 4 percent and 9 percent tax credit deals
through the state of Florida max out at about a hundred units maximum, and the
affordable housing developers here could attest to that fact. So these are Jrovery
large projects, such as Block 55, where we're providing 578 affordable units, full
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affordable units at 60 percent AMI (Area Median Income). So the goal here is to
provide a private source of funding for affordable housing projects within CRAs. And
the only way to obtain that private funding is to add to the TDD market, which today,
as Commissioner Russell mentioned, is limited to historic preservation. So the goal
here is to expand that program, which just became successful, as Commissioner
Russell said, when this commission really tightened up that TDD language to create
and calibrate the correct balance between public benefits and TDD, and that project
is, in fact, working. We are now carrying that over to the actual affordability, which is
this commission's and our community's number one priority. So what I would
respectfitlly ask is for us to work together between first and second reading.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: This, again, we took some time to get to the PZAB (Planning,
Zoning and Appeals Board) and work on this language. We're happy to continue
working on it and we would respectfully ask either to table this item to after your CRA
meeting today, where you're going to learn more about the memorandum of
understanding between the Southeast Overtown/Park West CRA and our -- my client,
Block 55, and you'l1 see how that deal works and we're happy to explain it. Mr.
Swerdlow will be here as well --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Madam Chair?
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: -- or continue to work on it. Thank you.
Chair King: One second. Good morning, Vice Chair. How are you?
Commissioner Reyes: Good morning.
Chair King: Would you like to weigh in on this?
Vice Chair Carollo: (INAUDIBLE).
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Good morning.
Vice Chair Carollo: Can I ask a couple of questions?
Chair King: Please.
Vice Chair Carollo: Thank you. Melissa, how are you?
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: Yes, sir. Thank you. Good morning.
Vice Chair Carollo: Which are the fine, outstanding developers that came up with this
idea?
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: Well, I'm happy to say that it was the chairwoman of your
Miami 21 Task Force, but I'm a lobbyist on behalf of Michael Swerdlow and Block
55.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay, I figure that. And the experience that I've had with all the
outstanding, fine, wonderful developers that we have is that I never have met a
developer in all my years that have come with an idea to the city commission that is
not self-serving. I have a tremendous respect, as I've told you in personal meetings
with the chairwoman, and particularly respecting her individual district, just like I
tried with each of my colleagues. I don't get involved in some of the stuff that should
fall on district commissioners. And I respect when the same thing is done to me. But I
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want to make sure that I'm going to fully understand this and that this is not going to
he something that is going to hurt the City financially with what we have now. I don't
know. Some of the information that -- of what I've been told is that with this actually
we're going to get less money than the program we have now that they've put money,
in the affordable housing fund. But I am going to say this to you. I'm up to my --
above my ears, my head, with all these county developers that, all of a sudden,
because of the federal money, they found that the City of Miami was there again, and
they're all coming back to see how many millions or more they could get. And it's five
million for this, and oh, another two and a half million for that. I even had one that, if
it wasn't so pitiful, I would have started laughing, that told me in my office, I think
last week or early this week, 1 lose track of time in my age, that he doesn't make any
money in any of this. He does it, you know, out of the goodness of his heart. And that's
when, maybe a few hours before he was leaving on a 30-day vacation, that you know,
he made from the money that he makes from the development, from the goodness of
his heart. And I'm not even going to tell you how much he wanted from me to give my
blessing to. So while I want to be accommodating, I want to make sure that we
understand what we're voting on and what we're doing. And if it's clear, look, and
it's something that is not going to hurt what we have now in place, that, you know,
will be an even deal for what we have in place now, it's fine. But you know, this whole
affordable housing that for the most part is called workforce housing now, it's like the
homeless situation. It's become a business. And the ones that are in the losing end of
the business are the residents and city government. So, 1 just want to just slow this
down just a tiny bit and 1 apologize. 1 know you tried to call me this week to meet, but
it's been a very difficult week, a lot of stuff that 1 've had on the plate. So, you know,
that's what 1 can say now. 1 got a lot of questions that 1 need to ask from the
Administration and so on, that frankly, it doesn 't behoove anybody to start doing it in
an open meeting like this.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair?
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Madam Chair?
Chair King: Hold on one second. I believe you were next in your comments.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yes, you believe correctly. You believe correctly.
Chair King: Vice Chair, I had asked that we pass the item on first reading and then
allow our colleagues --
Commissioner Reyes: I will second it.
Chair King: -- to work through it because a couple have expressed and now you have
expressed some concerns. So it would be my preference to have it passed on first
reading and then go through the exercise of massaging and addressing all of the
concerns. But I want to hear from -- and its whatever the will of the body is. Now --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: There's --
Chair King: -- Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla would like to have a say. Co ahead.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Thank you, Madam Chair. And Commissioner
Carollo, before you arrived here, I had expressed the same concerns, and
Commissioner Reyes had expressed some concerns. I also have a lot of respect for the
district commissioner, obviously, or Chairwoman, and it's her district. Block 55 is a
big deal for housing development and affordable housing in your district. It's been
going on for years. But the problem is that there's a lot of unintended consequences.
Because we try to do something that may be good in a particular area, there could be
unintended consequences by passing a brand-new program, which I don't feel
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comfortable voting on today because I think it has serious ramifications, not only
because of the concerns that Commissioner Reyes expressed, but 1 also have my own
concerns that I think could be used, could be abused by developers. And 1 agree with
Commissioner Carollo. Developers are in this business to make money. And for them
to say that they're not here -- that they're here to -- because out of the goodness of
their heart or to do good for the community, that's not the case. They could be doing
good for the community, but they also want to make money. Otherwise, they would not
do it. So, I respect your wishes to pass it on first reading. You did say, Ms. Tapanes,
I'm very proud of this language. So, if you're so proud of this language, why are you
going to change it between first reading and second reading? Why would you change
it?
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: To make it better.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, you're --
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: To make it better, you may have --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But you're very proud of hat's here.
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: Absolutely.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And you wrote it. Of course, you should be proud
of it. But the issue is, 1 am concerned, and so is Commissioner Carollo, and so is
Commissioner Reyes. We have concerns about some of the details and the unintended
consequences. So, Madam Chair, with all due respect, one meeting is not going to
change the world. Can we just defer it and give all of us a sense of comfort that we 're
going to get there by the first meeting in July, at least have the conversations? On top
of that, it passed last week in PZAB. You called me yesterday. We had this
conversation yesterday for the first time on this issue. This is major ramifications for
the City of Miami and the most critical issue that the City of Miami is ,facing right
now, affordable housing. The most critical issue, correct, Commissioner Russell? It 's
the most serious issue that we have right now. And getting a call the day before with
such complex legislation is not the way you should be doing it, I think. So, an
admonition to you that in the fixture, the moment something is going, talk to all the
commissioners and make sure that they understand what the impacts are going to be
and present both sides of the issue. We know what the holes are here. We see what the
possibilities are for abuse. And no matter what happens, Madam Chair, no disrespect
to you --
Chair King: I would never do that.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- I'm going to vote against it today. I don't feel
comfortable voting for this today. I may feel comfortable voting for it in the next
meeting.
Chair King: I believe that we have a consensus with my colleagues that we can pass it
on first reading with -- before second reading coming back, I believe that is the
feeling. If I am not reading the room correctly, please correct me. Commissioner
Reyes?
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, I want to make a couple of comments. It is true, it is true,
and I have stated it many, many times, none of those developers, it is the system that
we live in. We live in a -- thanks God that we live in a capitalist system, and it's based
on business and demand, supply, et cetera, et cetera. And everybody wants to make a
living. I know that most of the -- not -- I don't want to say all, because there are
always exceptions, that most of the developers that come before us, they come as if
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they want to help the City or they want to help the poor, and then they want to charge
more than what the people can pay. And that's why we brought down, 1 mean, the
amount that they can charge. But this concept I like. I mean, 1 see some merit on it.
I'm willing to pass it on first reading. And then I want all the answers to be, I mean,
all the questions to be answered, particularly mine and everybody else's. And that
way, when it comes, a second reading, if I'm not satisfied, I will vote against it. And
that's the way it is. But I think that we should give it a try. So, there was a motion
made by Commissioner Russell. I'm going to second it.
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: Thank you, sir.
Chair King: Okay. All in favor?
Vice Chair Carollo: Can I make a statement, Chair?
Chair King: Please.
Vice Chair Carollo: Thank you. Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla 's statements on his
reasoning for not wanting to vote on this in the first reading are sound. I'm only going
to vote on it on first reading out of respect and the respect that I have for the
chairwoman. And that's the only reason. There's no other reason here that I have to
vote for this. But having said that, when this comes back before us, and 1 don 't want
this, Melissa, to be a slam dunk. I don't care how much the developer in particular is
paying your firm. 1 want to have enough time to be able to get all the answers that we
need, so this has to come back at the last meeting in July, not the first meeting in July,
so that we have sufficient time.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Vice Chair Carollo: If I'm not satisfied, or I see that, in my opinion, that it's not
better than what we have now, then I will vote against it.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Vice Chair Carollo: So, I want to be clear.
Chair King: I believe the Administration needs to read something into the record.
Lakisha Hull (Director, Planning): Madam Chair, for the record, PZAB provided a
modification to the underlying text under Section 3.15.6, and the text is stating, in
such cases, the City shall permit the owner or successor in interest to transfer a
difference between the number of constructed affordable attainable housing. We want
to change it to say to be constructed affordable attainable housing, for the record.
Chair King: Thank you. So, I will make the motion. The second?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): You can second the motion.
Commissioner Reyes: I will second.
Mr. Hannon: It was moved by Commissioner Russell.
Chair King: Yeah, second. It was already -- right.
Commissioner Reyes: It's already second.
Chair King: We already had a first. You have me as the second. All in favor?
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The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No.
Chair King: Motion carries, 4-1.
Ms. Mendez: As amended, but I want to clarify this is for the second meeting in July.
Chair King: Second meeting in July.
Ms. Mendez: Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: Thank you.
Chair King: Thank you.
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: And I'll make appointments to meet with you all. Thank you
very much --
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, thank you.
Ms. Tapanes Llahues: -- for the courtesy.
END OF PLANNING AND ZONING ITEM(S)
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NA - NON -AGENDA ITEM(S)
NA.1 RESOLUTION
12175 A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AUTHORIZING
City Commission THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND EXECUTE A
COVENANT IN LIEU OF UNITY OF TITLE ("COVENANT") TO UNIFY
THE CITY -OWNED PROPERTIES LOCATED AT 444 AND 460 SW
2ND AVENUE WITH THE PRIVATELY -OWNED PROPERTIES
LOCATED AT 300 SW 2ND AVENUE AND 230 SW 3RD STREET,
MIAMI, FLORIDA 33130 (COLLECTIVELY, "PROPERTIES") IN
CONNECTION WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROPERTIES
BY LANCELOT MIAMI RIVER, LLC ("LANCELOT") PURSUANT AND
SUBJECT TO THE AGREEMENT AND LEASE BETWEEN THE CITY
OF MIAMI AND LANCELOT DATED NOVEMBER 21, 2019;
FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE
SUCH AGREEMENTS, APPLICATIONS, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
NECESSARY TO AUTHORIZE, AS OWNER, THE PROPOSED
DEVELOPMENT UPON THE PROPERTIES.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0236
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For additional minutes referencing Item Number NA.1, please
see "Order of the Day."
Chair King: Would you like to take up the pocket items now, the remaining pocket
items --
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Chair King: -- 1 and 2?
Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely, yes.
Chair King: Can I have a motion?
Commissioner Reyes: Move it.
Commissioner Russell: Second.
Chair King: All in --?
Arthur Noriega (City Manager): Go ahead.
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): The PHs (Public Hearing)?
Mr. Noriega: PHs, we didn't do them.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): They're. burTfifths.
Ms. Mendez: So we're -- until later.
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Chair King: Right, 1 can't do those just yet.
Mr. Noriega: Okay, okay.
Chair King: Right. So, Commissioner Russell?
Commissioner Russell: Thank you, Madam Chair. On PI.2, I would just like to direct
the Administration to make sure we're working for the possibility of potential shared
use of the space --
Mr. Noriega: Yeah, we are.
Commissioner Russell: -- so that it's not an exclusive --
Mr. Noriega: That's absolutely the intent.
Commissioner Russell: Okay, so -- but does the agreement mention exclusivity at this
point?
Mr. Noriega: No.
Ms. Mendez: It cannot be exclusive.
Mr. Noriega: Yeah.
Ms. Mendez: I hope everybody understands it cannot be exclusive. That would have to
be a four -fifths.
Mr. Noriega: It's not exclusive, no.
Commissioner Russell: Right, but beyond legally, I want logistically for us to work
together because I know there are some other folks who are interested in using the
space.
Mr. Noriega: Yeah.
Commissioner Russell: I think there's enough space to share --
Mr. Noriega: Yeah.
Commissioner Russell: -- if it works out with everybody.
Mr. Noriega: Absolutely.
Commissioner Russell: It shouldn't interfere with what they're doing, both the shows,
parking, space, et cetera, but if we can accommodate more than one, that 'd be great.
Thank you.
Chair King: Okay, so I have a motion and a second. All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair King: Pocket items pass, 1 and 2.
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NA.2
12176
City Commission
RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AUTHORIZING
THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND EXECUTE AN ACCESS
AGREEMENT ("AGREEMENT"), IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO
THE CITY ATTORNEY, BETWEEN THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY")
AND MML TOURING, LLC, A FOREIGN LIMITED LIABILITY
COMPANY, AUTHORIZED TO CONDUCT BUSINESS IN THE
STATE OF FLORIDA ("USER"), WHEREBY THE CITY GRANTS
USER TEMPORARY ACCESS RIGHTS TO USE A PORTION OF
THE CITY -OWNED MARINE STADIUM PARKING LOT LOCATED
AT 3501 RICKENBACKER CAUSEWAY, MIAMI, FLORIDA, 33149,
FOLIO NUMBER 01-4217-000-0110 ("PROPERTY"), FOR THE
PURPOSE OF THE MAGIC MIKE LIVE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
EVENT ("EVENT") IN ACCORDANCE WITH REQUIREMENTS SET
FORTH IN SECTION 53-53 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI,
FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, WITH ADDITIONAL TERMS AND
CONDITIONS AS SET FORTH IN THE AGREEMENT; FURTHER
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND
EXECUTE ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING
AMENDMENTS AND MODIFICATIONS TO SAID AGREEMENT, IN A
FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0237
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number NA.2, please see
"Order of the Day" and Item Number NA.1.
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NA.3
12177
City Commission
RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION RESCINDING
RESOLUTION NO. R-22-0110 ADOPTED BY THE MIAMI CITY
COMMISSION ON MARCH 10, 2022 CO -DESIGNATING
SOUTHWEST 2ND STREET FROM SOUTHWEST 27TH AVENUE
TO SOUTHWEST 30TH AVENUE, MIAMI, FLORIDA AS "EDDY
CALDERON STREET" PURSUANT TO SECTION 54-137 OF THE
CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, ("CITY
CODE") AND REPLACING IN LIEU THEREOF WITH A
RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DESIGNATING
SOUTHWEST 29TH AVENUE FROM WEST FLAGLER STREET TO
SOUTHWEST 4TH STREET, MIAMI, FLORIDA AS "EDDY
CALDERON STREET" PURSUANT TO SECTION 54-137 OF THE
CITY CODE; FURTHER DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO
TRANSMIT A COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION TO THE HEREIN
DESIGNATED OFFICIALS.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0238
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Christine King, Commissioner
AYES: King, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Carollo, Diaz de la Portilla
Note for the Record: For minutes referencing Item Number NA.3, please see
"Order of the Day" and Item Number RE.1.
NA.4 RESOLUTION
12190 A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DIRECTING
THE CITY MANAGER, OR HIS/HER DESIGNEE, TO SUBMIT
City Commission WEEKLY REPORTS, UNDER OATH AND PENALTY OF PERJURY,
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CITY COMMISSION EVERY MONDAY
BY 5:00 P.M. REPORTING 1) THE STREETS AND AVENUES THAT
STREET SWEEPERS HAVE SWEPT, AND 2) THE STORMWATER
DRAINS THAT HAVE BEEN PUMPED AND/OR CLEANED IN THE
PREVIOUS WEEK IN EACH CITY COMMISSION DISTRICT.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0239
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Joe Carollo, Commissioner
SECONDER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES: King, Carollo, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Diaz de la Portilla
Vice Chair Carollo: The -- you've all made a jairly good presentation, and I
appreciate that. But at the same time, there's one area that I want to make sure that
it's being done, and we're being given up-to-date information. What I'm trying to do
is start to create accountability in our city that somehow it's been lost. And
accountability where we just don't pass ordinances, resolutions, and then the
Administration doesn't make sure that they're being implemented. And then we run
into problems. So on this here, there are two areas that I want to make a resolution
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on. One, that on a weekly basis, by 5 p.m. on Mondays, every Monday, you go into
what you finish on Saturday, which Sunday is actually, the first day of the week, that's
why I'm doing it this way, but it also works out for the Monday. And we 're getting a
weekly report on two areas. One, the streets and avenues on that week that street
sweepers have gone through in each of our districts, and it should be broken down by
district. Two, I want the same report on how many of the areas that we have in each
of our districts and the drainage, how many of the drainage areas have been pumped.
I want to get an accounting, because at the end, when the public starts complaining
and the media is calling, they're not calling you guys, they're calling each of us in our
districts. So, I want a weekly report by 5 p.m. each Monday, what streets have been
swept by the sweepers, and then what drains have been pumped in that week. And Mr.
Manager, if you could hear, I want the person responsible for these two areas, which
1 guess in this case might be them two, but after they hear what 1 want, they may want
to assign it to someone else. I want it under oath with a penalty, of perjury,. And I will
make a resolution towards that. If we have to come back with an ordinance, we will,
but I would hope that a resolution would be sufficient. This way, if we find out that
there hasn't been accountability, then we could maybe have a hearing of this
commission and take action from our side, because the city cannot be run with the
lack of accountability that I see that it's being run with. And this is not anything
against you two gentlemen personally. I think you 've given a fine presentation. This is
to hold everyone accountable, and for each of us, that at the end are the ones that the
responsibility falls on each of us in our district, have the information that we need to
keep on top of what is being done in each of our districts. And I understand well that
you get so much rain, 10, 11 inches, even if it's not that, but you have one of those
rainy seasons that, unfortunately, we started to have that you get rain, rain, rain for
months. And even if you get a 5 or 6 inch, 7 inch, the ground is so soggy that it can't
take any more rain, so it becomes like if you had a 12-incher when you haven't
because the ground ain't being able to take any more water because it's had so much.
So, I understand all that, but each of us needs to have information so that we can
show to the public if something like this happens again, and we can show to the
media. And --
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair? I would ask the -- both of you guys and the
Administration, how much additional manpower you need for those reports. And if
weekly, and if you consider that, it is too stressing, because I agree with
Commissioner Carollo on the report. We need to know what's being done. It could be
biweekly. But I have also another request, and that request, it is for garbage cans.
Garbage cans. We have a lot of areas that our residents, they are the ones that they --
I mean, everything that they have in their hands, whatever they don't want, they just
throw it on the street. Well, we need to have an education process. We need to have
signs that say, don't litter. Five hundred dollars, like it used to be before. You see, if
you litter, you pay. And have cans accessible where they can deposit whatever they
have, a bottle of water or whatever, they can deposit it in the garbage garbage cans. I
don't see why next to every single bus stop we don't have a garbage can. And then we
have a system of picking them up and having them -- I mean, and keeping them empty
-- I mean, emptying them out, you see? It is very important because if we don't
provide our residents with the ability of dispose of the trash in a garbage can, they're
going to throw it on the floor, on the street, you see? And I know you have that
problem in your district, Commissioner. I have it in my district. You have it in the
district. We have it in all the districts. So let's start an educational program, but at the
same time provide there with the ability to dispose of the garbage in the proper place.
Mr. Sanders: Yes, Commissioner. And we -- it's funny that we've been working on this
upcoming budget year that we're going to be adding additional trash receptacles out
in each one of the districts. As a matter of fact, I think I've been working with your
chief of staff on counting certain areas that need additional trash receptacles and
we're going through each one of the districts, finding out what they need so that when
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the new budget comes through, we have the right amount of trash receptacles to put
out within each one of those districts. And also, I heard you loud and clear, we'll
work on doing the educational part as far as making sure that we educate people, put
different information on there, working with the County to put stuff on the bus benches
about the, you know, if you litter, you know, there will be a citation. I'll check -- have
staff check with -- to see about the ordinance and stuff if we -- you know, so we can
enforce these rules and stuff So I hear you. Yes, we are addressing additional trash
receptacles and we will get with each one of your chief of staffs and move forward to
find out the areas that you need trash receptacles to be put in.
Chair King: Does that conclude your report?
Vice Chair Carollo: Yes, 1'd like to make a motion that we request of both of these
departments to give us a weekly report due by 5 p.m. each Monday as to what areas
divided by district they send the street sweepers to clean and what drainages have
been cleaned in each district on a weekly basis. And that report, whoever is assigned
and it should be a senior person, if not the department director himself should be
under oath. That we know that under the penalty of perjury, what we're given are the
facts.
Commissioner Russell: I second the motion.
Vice Chair Carollo: Thank you.
Chair King: All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Commissioner Russell: Need a public comment.
Chair King: Is there anyone here for public comment on this particular item? Seeing
none, the item passes.
Vice Chair Carollo: Again, both directors, thank you. You've done a fine report. Very
educating. I would like to ask you one more thing through the Manager. The two
pumps you're replacing, the smaller ones, if the replacing pumps are still usable, keep
them around instead of donating them somewhere until we catch up on what we need
because --
Commissioner Reyes: (INAUDIBLE).
Mr. Santana: We're now replacing --
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah, we might need it more than who we're going to give it to.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Mr. Santana: So I think that the presentation, we're only adding pumps. There are
two Vactors --
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah.
Mr. Santana: -- that are coming in later this year. There are two that are slated to be
replaced. They've -- they will be --
Vice Chair Carollo: I understand, but what are we going to do with those? I mean,
they're still workable, right? They're just not that new.
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Mr. Santana: They are -- they spend more time in getting repaired and serviced than
they do out in the field.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay, well, again, until we catch up, just keep them around in
case.
Mr. Santana: Understood.
Vice Chair Carollo: Another one of these would come not 15 years from now or 10
but you know in this season.
Mr. Santana: Yeah we're just getting started. 1 understand.
Vice Chair Carollo: Thankyou.
Mr. Santana: Thank you, Commissioner.
Vice Chair Carollo: Thank you all very much.
Mr. Santana: Thankyou, everyone.
Commissioner Reyes: Thank you, guys.
Chair King: I see --
Joe Simmons, Jr.: Good after -- good morning.
Chair King: Good morning, still. How are you?
Mr. Simmons: Good morning, Madam Chair. Great. Still above the ground, walking
and talking.
Chair King: That's always a good thing.
Mr. Simmons: Yes, it is. Joe Simmons, Jr., for the record, President of AFSCME
(American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) Local 871, City of
Miami Solid Waste workers. For the benefit of the committee here, we need assistance
in expediting the hiring process and also the GSA (General Services Administration)
repair process. We're running into problems daily internally with staffing and also
with hiring because currently we are -- every single day we have staffing shortages.
And what happens, we have to pull from one area in order to supplement another,
which means the area that we pull from gets lacking. So we're asking, through the
Manager's Office, some support in expediting the hiring process. I understand Police
and Fire have priority because of grant deadlines and things like that, but we need
your support behind the scenes through the Manager's Office to try to expedite that so
we can have the resources we need so we can provide the service timely. You talked
about litter container servicing, very important in the City of Miami.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Mr. Simmons: This is the gateway and we have to have the best presentation, but we
need your support behind the scenes through communication of the Manager's Office
to make sure we have what we need.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair?
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Commissioner Russell: And we don't need behind the scenes. If we're here in front of
the scenes, perhaps a resolution directing the Manager to prioritize this hiring
process.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, and also I want to ask a simple question. Do we have a
problem with absenteeism? Are they still using COVID as an excuse to be late and --?
Because sometimes I have asked, I have called -- this area was not touched by the -- I
mean, the garbage was not picked. And I heard we are missing a couple of drivers.
We are missing -- there's always some employees missing on it. Every time that an
area is not covered as it should be.
Mr. Simmons: Right. There is -- under the union contract, Article 17, there is absentee
title -- absenteeism and tardiness, I believe. And there are tools there to address that.
There is a call -in line J r us to report daily if someone is going to be out due to
reasons beyond their control. And there are exceptions made. There are normal
processes, there are exceptions to be made. If an employee is not going to come to
work, he or she has a choice, call a direct supervisor or call the call -in line. We
always suggest call the call -in line because that is a fail-safe just in case information
gets lost in the airwaves. But we do have a staffing issue, and for quite some time
we 've --
Vice Chair Carollo: Why do we have it there, Joe?
Mr. Simmons: Well, mainly because of the City process. There was one time the City,
Mr. Wade came aboard, they had advertised for temporary workers. And what
happens, we had to send a letter of demand for impact bargaining because now that's
going to affect our future viability as an organization of having certain rights
associated with city employment. And so the City decided at that time that they're not
going to proceed with hiring temporary workers because temporary workers don 't
give us stability and reliability now and in the future. And we need to have that. The
City of Miami is a very demanding place and we're happy to answer the call of the
demands of the residents, but we need you guys' support in expediting certain things.
For example, it takes roughly about 90 days to hire one person. Police and Fire is
longer, but we need to kind of expedite this. If there is a hiring patch for a police
officer to be hired, our interviews are going to get pushed back.
Commissioner Reyes: Madam Chair?
Vice Chair Carollo: But you're not answering my question fully. Why are we having a
shortage now?
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, is that a problem with Human Resources, the procedure?
Vice Chair Carollo: Are people calling in sick?
Mr. Simmons: No, it's --
Vice Chair Carollo: They're not showing up to work?
Mr. Simmons: -- schedule --
Vice Chair Carollo: What is it?
Mr. Simmons: It is -- what happens is Miami is a demanding place. Our workforce is
aging, and what happens is the people that come to our -- to get these jobs, are not
necessarily young people. It's usually older people, 40 plus. Those are our statistics.
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And what happens is people have medical conditions, people get injured, people get
sick. So, someone calls out, which means that now we are short-staffed most days.
Chair King: Are your wages competitive?
Mr. Simmons: The wages? We're not complaining about wages.
Commissioner Reyes: No, no, wages --
Chair King: I mean, are they competitive to hire new people?
Mr. Simmons: 1 think they are decent, but you know, that is a negotiation process that
we discussed that through negotiations, which we finished a few months ago. It 's win -
win, you know, it's give and take in the process, as you know, but no matter what you
pay, it's never going to be enough. So -- but we're happy with what we did get.
There's going to be somebody you're not going to be able to satisfy. That's just the
nature of the beast. But that process has to be done through negotiation, and we just
respect that.
Vice Chair Carollo: Well, taking that into account, we won't go and make a
resolution to lower your wages.
Wade Sanders: Commissioners, again, Wade Sanders, Director of Solid Waste. To
answer your question about the issue of attendance within the department and is
COV1D a part of the problem. The COVID issue is behind us. Yes, we do have
individuals that have got COVID, and we have them out for the period of time that
they need, the 10 to 14 days they be out and they come back. But the issue of
attendance from an administrative perspective, we're handling that. Something that
we haven't, something that I would say that probably wasn't done in the past, but
we're handling the issue with individuals and their attendance, what I call abuse of
abusing their attendance. We're handling those issues and going through HR (Human
Resources) in order to make sure that when we get ready to discipline someone or to
address that issue of abuse, we're doing it the legal way in order to do it. But yes, we
are addressing that from an administrative perspective within the department.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay.
Commissioner Russell: All right. I think direction of the Manager would be sufficient
to prioritize hiring. I don't think we need a motion or a resolution but --
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah. I think the Manager's heard us.
Commissioner Russell: Thank you.
Vice Chair Carollo: Thank you.
Mr. Sanders: All right. You're welcome.
Chair King: Thank you, guys.
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NA.5 RESOLUTION
12191 A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DIRECTING
THE CITY MANAGER TO CONDUCT WEEKLY REPORTING OF
Office of the City THE ENHANCED RECURRING CLEANINGS OF THE HOT SPOT
Clerk HOMELESS ENCAMPMENT LOCATIONS PUSURANT TO
RESOLUTION R-21-0372 ADOPTED ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2021;
FURTHER REQUIRING SAID WEEKLY REPORTING TO BE
EXECUTED AS A SWORN STATEMENT BY THE DECLARANT
UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-22-0240
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Joe Carollo, Commissioner
SECONDER: Ken Russell, Commissioner
AYES: King, Carollo, Russell, Reyes
ABSENT: Diaz de la Portilla
Vice Chair Carollo: And if this commission passes an ordinance and it hasn 't been
enforced, then what are we doing here? I mean, we're passing an ordinance so that
people can have it go in one ear and out the other. So I want to do the same thing I
previously did. I want to pass a resolution that we're instructing the Administration
that we want a once a week report, Monday by 5 p.m., that would be up to Saturday.
It's the closing day for that week, where we are told what area -- and broken down by
district -- there have been cleaning three times a week, like our ordinance states, and
for someone to sign that under oath, under under the penalty of perjury so that we
know for a fact that it's being done. If it's not being done, we can bring it up here in
each of our districts and find out why it's not being done, why an ordinance that we
passed are not being adhered to.
Commissioner Russell: I'll second it.
Chair King: I have a motion and a second. All in favor?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Public comment.
Chair King: Is anyone here would like to have -- speak on this item? Seeing none,
public comment period is closed. I just want to say one thing. To request that staff
under the penalty of perjury is fairly extreme. However, staff should not be untruthful.
So I'm supporting the additional step of under the penalty of perjury because staff
should not be untruthful. As the newest member of this body, I believe my Vice Chair
has a reason to add that additional requirement. But in my years of being an
employee with a municipality, Miami -Dade County, everything that I said was the
truth. So I'm going to follow his lead and agree with that because that's absolutely
what should be happening and we should not have to ask for that additional certainty.
So just be careful. Be careful.
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah, I've heard you loud and clear, Chairwoman, and it's
something that we thought long before presenting this, because it is very strong. But
when this body has passed ordinance months and months ago. And it 's like we never
passed them. And then when I'm asking, I'm not being told the truth. Oh yeah, we
cleaned it, we cleaned it. They didn't clean it. There has to be some accountability.
And I'm going to keep saying this, repeating this. Our city lacks tremendous
accountability in our employee workforce. We have some excellent employees, but we
have some that have gotten used to a culture of wanting to do whatever they please,
BS the elected officials and others, and they figure, hey, these guys will be out in four
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years or eight years, and we're still going to be here playing the game. And something
like this, it's serious, because I'll give you an example. And the chief knows this,
Maurice Ferre Park. 1 went there last week. My sergeant of arms is here. He's a
witness to it. There's others that were with me that were witness to it ,from the
downtown area. We counted 81 homeless. And we only got out of the vehicle twice. I
know that there are some others that we missed, so there could have been 100 or
more. Nothing has been done there either.
Commissioner Reyes: And there is an ordinance, we passed it.
Vice Chair Carollo: Well, yeah, but the --
Commissioner Reyes: You have to be --
Vice Chair Carollo: And nothing is being done there either. Under 7th Street, between
3rd and 4th Avenue in my area, it 's just last week after I was told, oh, but it 's clean,
it's clean. This is the second time in a row, in a short time, that we were told that. So I
had to send the pictures immediately, say, oh yeah, it's clean, here are the pictures.
And then finally, there was a cleaning done. But as you all know, that if you don't
keep the cleaning up -- that's why we said three times a week -- the urine, the other
areas that become a health hazard, starts growing. And I don't understand why, for
instance, in that street that's the most visible one, it gets done, but then we've got
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) streets next to it, and nobody wants to go there. 1 even have one
city employee, and I won't describe what department they came from, just because
one of my employees, unbeknownst to me, but they're doing their work, one of my
employees from my district was inside his city vehicle, just waiting to see when it was
going to be done. This employee went up to him, you're supervising me? You don't
need to supervise me. And this is a young person that's not supervising anybody or
not a supervisory type of individual. But when you get employees that get to that level,
we have a problem. And I will tell you both, gentlemen, and the Manager, I have done
travel in my life more than anybody here. And I've been traveling like few people ever
have. And I've seen governments, how they operate in the most modern countries and
the most backward countries. And the way we're going, it's not a pretty sight. We
have to bring pride back into the city, not just in some of our employees, but in all of
our employees. And if employees don't have pride in their city and their job, they
don't have compassion for the job they're doing, you know what? They don't need to
be working for us. And maybe the problems are, like I'm being told by many, is that
past commissions, including this one, maybe have been too generous in protections.
So maybe we need to start changing this, and I hope the union leaders are hearing.
But the bottom line is that people think that they don 't have to work anymore. They
can do what they please. They have no accountability because I can't be fired. And
that has to be changed. And this is why I'm asking to implement things like this. I
mean, my God. This body put an ordinance, it was a serious ordinance for a major
reason. And then months and months have passed and it hasn't been enforced.
Where s the accountability?
Commissioner Reyes: Commissioner, if may, Madam Chair? I'm going to go beyond
what you're saving. There's no accountability. And you know why there's no
accountability? Because there's no consequences.
Vice Chair Carollo: Absolutely.
Commissioner Reyes: There's no consequences.
Vice Chair Carollo: Absolutely.
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Commissioner Reyes: 1 can laugh at your face and I can tell my supervisor, I'm not
going to do this. And when the supervisor gets too hard, there is a complaint. It's
brought before the board, and the supervisor is the one that is fired because that
happened a few months back. You see, an employee that was working once in my
once when I first got elected was laying tiles in the kitchen area. And that employee
laid only eight tiles in an eight -hour shift, you see? And when I walked in and I saw it
and I counted and I called the union president that was happened to be there, and I
said, don 't ask me for any more benefits or salary increases jor people like this. But
you know what happened? That employee is still here and the supervisor is gone.
There's no consequences. And who was to blame? Us. Us. You are absolutely right.
We've been too generous.
Vice Chair Carollo: Well, on that issue, I think that was your fault. And I'm sorry,
don't get upset at me. But you didn't put him up to get a proclamation, bring him up
here, pat him on the shoulder, pat him on the head. You know, everybody clapped for
him and praised him. And if you would have done that, he would have laid double the
tiles each day, 16 instead of 8. That's your fault. And look what Commissioner Reves
said is absolutely correct. He used the second word that 1 don 't even want to use it
now, but I've used it outside of the dais. There's no accountability, there's no
consequence for anything. And this has got to stop in the city. People have to have
compassion for their job. They need to have pride in what they 're doing. And we've
lost that. I see some of our employees, and they're just here to collect a paycheck. And
that can't be anymore. Our residents expect more, they deserve more. Yes, we have
some fine employees, and this is not for everyone --
Commissioner Reyes: We do.
Vice Chair Carollo: -- but we have some that are not so fine. And I'm sorry if I'm
hurting anybody's feelings. If someone wants to call me -- it won't be the first time --
one of those nasty names, that's fine. Just keep my mother out of it, please. That's all 1
ask. But you know, Chief you've been here now for enough months. We need help.
Because my problem has been, I speak to all you guys that are involved in the
homeless stuff and everybody throws the blame to one group to the other. Nobody
wants to grab, you know, the situation and do something about it. And our residents
are screaming all over the place. And who 's getting it? We're getting it. And we can't
do anything except what we do up here, legislate. I guarantee you that if I had the
powers you have, the Manager has, in a very, short time I'd resolve the situation, no
matter what you guys want to tell me. But, you know, I don't have that power. So I
have to take the baby steps that we take up here.
Commissioner Reves: Yeah.
Vice Chair Carollo: But after we passed some very, strong legislation, and it's been
just laughed at, and no one's doing anything about it. You do a cleaning, throw a little
bit of water, whenever you please. You know? I paean, do you guys take a shower
every day or at least every other day? I'm assuming you would.
Chair King: Don't answer that.
Mr. Sanders: I will not.
Vice Chair Carollo: There might be some --
Chair King: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Vice Chair Carollo: -- there might be some that are doing it once a week, okay?
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Mr. Sanders: 1 know he's not addressing -- you're not addressing me, but I'm okay
with it. But this is homeless that you're talking about, right, Commissioner?
Vice Chair Carollo: You're not going to sweep areas for months and months and
months?
Mr. Sanders: So this is the homeless --
Vice Chair Carollo: You 're going to clean them --
Mr. Sanders: -- cleanup you're talking about.
Chair King: It's a combination of --
Vice Chair Carollo: Madam City Attorney, we passed an ordinance. Can you make
copies and send them to all of them? That we were supposed to have cleaning three
times a week.
Victoria Mendel (City Attorney): I will follow up.
Mr. Sanders: Okay.
Chair King: So we have a motion and a second.
Commissioner Russell: I'm sorry, this is a motion and a second on the reporting on
the cleaning?
Chair King: Yes.
Commissioner Reyes: That's on the reporting.
Chair King: The reporting under --
Vice Chair Carollo: The Manager can choose who he wants to sign it under oath.
Commissioner Russell: Okay. Commissioner, I'm very supportive of this because I
want the accountability that you're looking for. But this also goes back to the other
ordinance regarding homeless. And as homeless get pushed throughout our city, the
path of least resistance takes them to our parks, right? And that's another -- a
separate ordinance that you all took up that I was against. So I'm supportive of the
ordinance with regard to the cleaning and the schedule of the cleaning, but I really,
really want us to work together on the end solutions that get people off the street and
into shelter --
Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely.
Commissioner Russell: -- because we are lacking capacity in shelter because the
shelter has lacking of capacity for permanent supportive housing on the other end.
And so I'm very supportive of you in this, but we've got to work on that permanent
supportive housing.
Vice Chair Carollo: And the other one -- the only other way, and I don't know why
we're so short on shelters, because we're spending millions being compassionate. But
the only other solution, and we've been working at it, is that we've got to build the
tiny homes. I think the Manager has agreed on a final location where we have places
that we can bring people to that are compassionate locations. We can bring in
treatments there and more. But the problem is, Ken, that, and you could, you know, do
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it yourself what 1 did. You have a very large population of homeless that don't want to
leave the streets no matter what, because that's where they could buy and use drugs.
And that's basically the biggest problem that we have. And you know, what I'm telling
you, you can speak to many of our people, and they'll tell you the same thing. And I'm
going to tell you this, it's going to get worse. In our last year, unbeknownst to most of
us, we had over 100,000 deaths in our country, either directly or indirectly, with
drugs coming through our border, particularly one drug that's dropping us people
like flies, fentanyl. Now, rightly so, we're outraged when 13, 20, 5, 1 child is killed in
schools. But we had thousands of young people killed last year because our country is
being invaded by a war that is coming from China, communist China. Yes, they're
communist. And they're sending that fentanyl to destroy our country through Mexico,
the cartels, and that's coming right through the border. That's coming right through
the border. And part of the reason that they want hundreds of thousands of people
coming through that border, so that makes it easier for them, so they can bring it in
other areas that we're not concentrating on because it's not where the human aspect
of it is coming through. And this fentanyl, I mean, just one does should be enough to
kill you. In fact, a bottle like this of water, fentanyl, is enough to kill 15,000
Americans. That's how bad it is. And this is why you go out on the street and you see
some of the so-called homeless that we have, they're burnt. I mean, they're gone.
Yesterday at Bayfront Park, thank God I was there, we arrested one that was in the
film that, remember that clip that I did? He was there in that clip, even in worse
condition, the clip that we saw him yesterday. And what was he doing? Well, you had
a father with two teenage kids, very pretty daughter, and his son. He saw the girl, he
flipped out, he went at her. Her brother, a young kid, maybe 14, you know, went to see
his sister to see if he needed to help her. And this guy, you know, went at him like a pit
bull until the father came in, and then he stepped back. He had stolen from the vendor
that sells hot dogs there, two soft drinks. Demanded that somebody that was buying
the hot dogs there, would buy him one. And when the police went to see him, he
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) the bag that he had where there was a nice pretty knife inside.
He got off that scene yesterday, but I'm sure by today he's probably out on the street
already.
Commissioner Reyes: In the same place.
Vice Chair Carollo: Well, I don 't know if he'll come to the same place or not, but if he
comes to the same place, he's going to get tired before we do, as long as you have
officers there.
Commissioner Reyes: Yeah.
Vice Chair Carollo: And this is all over our city. so, the only thing that we're going to
be able to do is put these tiny homes, so that's the last line of being compassionate.
All these groups that we've given millions to, the 5 million the Mayor recently asked
to be given for healthcare, for drug care, et cetera, let them come there, put trailers in
so we could try to help those that, you know, want to be helped. But I don't think it's
going to be a large group --
Commissioner Russell: Right.
Vice Chair Carollo: -- because of the drug factor. This is not your same homeless that
Tye remember during the last Great Depression. It's a different type of homeless.
Commissioner Russell: Vice Chair, could you call the question?
Commissioner Reyes: Can I --?
Commissioner Russell: He's the chair.
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Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Chair, can I ask a couple of questions?
Vice Chair Carollo: Yeah.
Commissioner Reyes: I see David. David, and I'm going to keep on going on this
homeless issue. I was shown, and I think that all of us were shown a couple of
renderings of different type of shelters that are going to be built. What's the status of
it? What is it taking so long? You know, I'm going to be like, just, what's the status of
it?
Vice Chair Carollo: Can I answer that before they speak to you?
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Vice Chair Carollo: Here's the problem. I think they've gotten one with a price that
I'd like. But the way prices have gone up, I don't think their price is reasonable. Plus,
they can't build them quickly. So we're going to have someone who's going to build
some, a few, but they're probably going to change the price on us or we're going to
see if they can build them.
Commissioner Reyes: Well, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) --
Vice Chair Carollo: 1 think in order for us to move quickly, we're going to have to
pay maybe a price that 1 never thought we would have to do, but it 's cheaper than
other cities are paying. Maybe 8, 7, $10,000 --
Commissioner Reyes: Each?
Vice Chair Carollo: -- per shelter, yes. But they could be built like this. If you need
50, you'll get 50 in two, three, four weeks. Whatever you need. But it's not going to do
us any good if supposedly, we're going to get a cheaper price, which the problem is
the materials.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Vice Chair Carollo: And then the labor. But it's going to take you a year to get 30, 40,
or 50 built.
Commissioner Reyes: I do understand, but we have to start, and I agree with you, this
is not going to solve the problem, because many people don't realize they look at the
homeless problem as an economic problem. And that is not so, that we have different
types of homeless. We have homeless that they want to be homeless. We have people
that they are -- they have psychological problems and they're on the street just after
the Supreme Court, I mean, decision that you cannot have anybody instituted against
their will unless they want to be instituted and they be on the street. And we have the
addicted ones, the ones that are addicted. And I -- what I foresee, and to your point,
Commissioner, is that when we build those shelters, we are going to be sheltering
those, because those are the only ones that want to be sheltered are the ones that have
an economic problem and then they are trying to go back into society and get trained.
But the guy that -- the people that they are addicted or most of the -- that have
psychological problems or the ones that want to be homeless, we're going to keep on
having that problem.
Vice Chair Carollo: Well, I think they're going to get tired before we do.
Commissioner Reyes: I hope so.
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Vice Chair Carollo: But here's the other factor in what you're saying. Fentanyl
brings a lot of these people into being schizophrenic, being bipolar, and scores of
other mental diseases and issues. That's what it does too. That's why you have -- you
know, I call it, you know, how I see it. People out there that are burned out because of
what thatfentanyl did to them.
Mr. Sanders: Absolutely.
Vice Chair Carollo: And you know, they're schizophrenic, they're bipolar, they're --
have a dozen other problems that, and mental issues that they get. So that's the --
what it does to these individuals. But at least it puts us in a place that then we could
do something --
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, we can.
Vice Chair Carollo: -- by doing this. Now, the other issue that we have is that we've
been so welcoming in Miami that I'm finding, at least the ones that I speak to, I don 't
know, maybe it's me, that the vast majority of the homeless people out there that I run
into, they're not from Miami, they're from somewhere else. I got a -- in the sculpture
gardens next to the museums, a couple from New Jersey. I mean, I got -- tell me the
area that you liked the most, and we probably have them there from there. So, we're
getting problems that are coming from other areas of the country.
Commissioner Reyes: And other cities.
Chair King: Right.
Vice Chair Carollo: And look, what we're talking about is being as compassionate as
we can. What's more compassionate than bringing people to a tiny home that they're
the only ones that are going to be there, unlike a shelter that some claim that it's
because they don't like it because of this or that, where they're going to be sheltered
from the elements at night in a safe environment than being thrown out in the
elements in an unsafe environment. But at the same time, a lot of the people out there,
they're carrying knives to protect themselves against others that are homeless. And
it's a problem for the rest of our community. It's a real problem. So --
Commissioner Reyes: I think -- I hope that when we get those shelters done, we
provide also the support for those that want to be there, be it they be addicted or have
psychological problems, or try to provide the support that they need.
Vice Chair Carollo: That's the idea. And hopefully the $5 million the Mayor gave
from his budget a few months ago, they haven't spent it all. We can still use some for
that. But before we vote, Mr. Manager, you again have to decide who 's going to be
signing this weekly reports for us under oath. We need to open it up to see if anybody
from the public would like to speak.
Chair King: Is there anyone here from the public that would like to speak on this
item?
(COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD)
Chair King: Please.
Luimar Zibetti Garza: Luimar Zibetti Garza, homeless at Peacock Park, not hapless. I
would ask, as one has already committed, that all of you come to Peacock Park and
speak to some of us. I am well aware of those who are addicted, but I have gone
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through this for four years and this has been what I have classified as Tier 1, Tier 2,
Tier 3, and Tier 4 type of homelessness. And I am in the Tier 1, and I want to bring
people from Tier 2 up to Tier 1. 1 have many suggestions as a homeless, articulate
individual, elderly, et cetera, yada, yada, that we should be able to speak, not have the
officers who come in at 5:30 in the morning shining flashlights, et cetera. We can
make a huge difference. And I'm letting all of you know for the next two months that
we are here for a purpose because it's going to go downhill. Everything that's
happening right now, all of you are feeling it across the nation, something is off. And
it's about to change big time. And the homeless, who we qual fv under Matthew 5:5,
which is, the meek shall inherit the earth. And we cannot be more in the gutter than
we are right now. So notwithstanding that, I invite all of you, any of you, to come. And
to top it off if you really want to know what's going on in the world without the 100
percent propaganda, x22report.com. Do yourselves a favor, wake up. But the
homeless are here and we are the new CIA (Compassion In Action). We are the new
Compassion in Action. Thank you.
Chair King: Thank you.
Vice Chair Carollo: Ma 'am, can we offer you any assistance to a shelter, any
educational help that you need?
Ms. Zibetti Garza: You were a City Manager in Doral --
Vice Chair Carollo: That's correct.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: -- and 1 was in Doral, and everything that I did in Doral was along
these lines. I got the Jamie Locone as a police officer liaison for homelessness, et
cetera. But because I would not wear a mask for an interview with a psychologist, I
was kicked off the list. I am not a person to wear a mask, as has been made evident
that it was an absolutely asinine venture we went through. But that being the case,
they have offered, I have a mission to not just offer people housing and enclose them
in four walls. There's an entirely new mindset that you get when you are homeless. If
you're on the Tier 1. Tier 4, you have all the millions of dollars to deal with that. But
Tier 1 are people that can come here and make a difference and listen to you and get
living history classes to understand exactly what's going on. And the only person so
far, Mr. Russell, has offered to come out. He sent out his assistant, not a problem. But
we have major problems with certain police officers who are battling against that
because I have film and I'm going to air dirty laundry about how the parks are being
used for nefarious purposes.
Chair King: Thank you.
Vice Chair Carollo: But again, you haven't answered my direct question.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: No, and if you offer housing --
Vice Chair Carollo: In any way, would you like to leave the streets and be able to get
back into not being homeless?
Ms. Zibetti Garza: Oh, yes, I can do that, but right now my mission, my calling is to
help others.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay, so --
Ms. Zibetti Garza: It is in the service of others that you help the community.
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ADJOURNMENT
Vice Chair Carollo: What you're telling me is that the only way that you think you
can help others is by being homeless.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: I don't consider it really homeless. I consider it part of my journey
to be in the thick of things.
Vice Chair Carollo: Oh, okay.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: You consider it completely homeless, and 1 will eventually move on
to a four walls. But right now, I am on a journey to try to figure out what you're not
understanding as to what's happening there.
Vice Chair Carollo: Okay, well, we're in a journey to try to help everyone. So I'm
sure we '11 cross the roads in that journey.
Ms. Zibetti Garza: We'll work on it, yeah. Month by month. You have a lot of other
issues that have taken months, and we 're just one of them.
Chair King: Thank you. Is there anyone else here for public comment? Come on.
James Torres: Good afternoon, Commissioners, Chairwoman, thank you. James
Torres with the DNA (Downtown Neighbors Alliance). And 1 was the gentleman that
went with Commissioner Carollo the other evening and we counted 81 homeless just
at MAF (Maurice A. Ferre) Park. It's a huge problem. We actually stopped and asked
questions if they wanted to leave and wanted help, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They
didn't. The couple of New Jersey that we're speaking of it's kind of interesting
because I sent the information to David's office, the lawsuit that's pending in New
Jersey because of the homeless situation that they're in. Where I feel there is a
problem is there's a disconnect between departments and certain areas in our city
that needs to be addressed. Many times over, the DNA has asked for a meeting to try
to connect the dots, and David, you 're aware of that and I know we're going to have
one corning up on Friday as it relates to Maurice Ferre Park and the Park West area
of downtown. They have actually offered to pay the city and/or the trust for
implementation of some changes. And that's the thing that we're kind of looking at it.
So 1 kindly ask that we start connecting the dot. It doesn't matter who wants to take
credit for this issue, it's not going away. But with your help, we can start making a
difference in a positive way. If it's the DDA (Downtown Development Authority), I
know your area is there, and I know what's going to happen. It gets pushed from one
area, it goes to the other, and we need to start connecting these dots for all the
districts. Thank you.
Chair King: Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, the public comment is
closed. All in favor?
The Commission (Collectively).: Aye.
Chair King: Motion carries unanimously. And at this point, the commission meeting is
now adjourned. Thank you.
The meeting adjourned at 12:05 p.m.
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