City of Miami
City Hall 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, FL 33133 www.miamigov.com
Meeting Minutes
Thursday, March 14, 2013
9:00 AM REGULAR
City Hall Commission Chambers
City Commission
Tomás Regalado, Mayor Marc David Sarnoff, Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Vice Chair Frank Carollo, Commissioner District Three Francis Suarez, Commissioner District Four Michelle Spence-Jones, Commissioner District Five Johnny Martinez, P.E., City Manager Julie O. Bru, City Attorney Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk City Commission Meeting Minutes March 14, 2013
CONTENTS
PR - PRESENTATIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS
AM - APPROVING MINUTES
MV - MAYORAL VETOES
CA - CONSENT AGENDA
PH - PUBLIC HEARINGS
SR - SECOND READING ORDINANCES
FR - FIRST READING ORDINANCES
RE - RESOLUTIONS
BC - BOARDS AND COMMITTEES
DI - DISCUSSION ITEMS
PART B
PZ - PLANNING AND ZONING ITEM(S)
MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS' ITEMS
M - MAYOR'S ITEMS
D1 - DISTRICT 1 ITEMS
D2 - DISTRICT 2 ITEMS
D3 - DISTRICT 3 ITEMS
D4 - DISTRICT 4 ITEMS
D5 - DISTRICT 5 ITEMS
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9:00 A.M. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Present: Vice Chair Gort, Chair Sarnoff, Commissioner Carollo, Commissioner Suarez and Commissioner Spence-Jones On the 14th day of March 2013, 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 Regular Commission Meeting was called to order by Chair Sarnoff at 9:26 a.m., recessed at 12:01 p.m., reconvened at 2:40 p.m., recessed at 5:45 p.m., reconvened at 5:54 p.m., recessed at 7:39 p.m., reconvened at 7:49 p.m., and adjourned at 8:16 p.m.
Note for the Record: Commissioner Spence-Jones entered the Commission chambers at 9:34 a.m.
ALSO PRESENT:
Julie O. Bru, City Attorney Johnny Martinez, P.E., City Manager Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk
Chair Sarnoff: I want to welcome everybody. Welcome to the March 14, 2013 meeting of the City of Miami Commission in these historic chambers. The members of the City Commission are Wifredo Gort, Vice Chair, Frank Carollo, Francis Suarez, Michelle Spence-Jones, and me, Marc David Sarnoff, the Chairman. Also on the dais are Johnny Martinez, the City Manager; Julie O. Bru, the City Attorney; and Todd Hannon, the City Clerk, although we have seen our other City Clerk, the former City Clerk. Where is she? Why don't you stand up for a second?
Applause.
Chair Sarnoff: We'll just refer to her as the woman in red. The meeting will be opened with a prayer by Reverend Betty Wright and followed by a second prayer by Commissioner Suarez. So Reverend Wright. The pledge of allegiance will be followed [sic] by Commissioner Gort.
Invocation and pledge of allegiance delivered.
PRESENTATIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS
PR.1 PRESENTATION 13-00299 Honoree Presenter Protocol Item
Gun Buy-Back Sponsors Mayor Regalado Certificates/Appreciation & Chief Orosa
Miami Bicycle Month Mayor Regalado Proclamation
National Women's History Month - Alice Bravo Mayor Regalado Certificate
- Renita Ross Samuels-Dixon Chair Sarnoff Certificate
- Sonia Succar-Ferre Vice Chair Gort Certificate
- Marta Gonzalez de Cardenas Commissioner Certificates Elisa M. Juara Carollo Rita Marin
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- Barbara Wade Commissioner Certificate Suarez
- Georgia Ayers Commissioner Living Legend Dr. Dorothy Fields Spence-Jones Living Legend A'Nari Taylor Certificate/Honor
- Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall Mayor Regalado Julia Tuttle Award
- Maribel Balbin Mayor Regalado Trailblazer Award
Centennial of Delta Sigma Mayor Regalado Proclamation Theta Sorority
Scherley Busch Mayor Regalado Certificate
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Miami Chair Sarnoff Commendation the Spa @ Mandarin Oriental
13-00299 Protocol Item.pdf
PRESENTED
Chair Sarnoff: We'll now make the presentations and proclamations.
Presentations made.
1) Mayor Regalado proclaimed the month of March in the year 2013, Miami Bicycle Month, calling for increased bicycle usage, an opportunity to educate bicyclists and motorists as to the proper and safe operation of bicycles, to promote health and wellness and to address the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.
2) Mayor Regalado presented a Special Certificate of Appreciation to various sponsors honoring their wonderful commitment to civic responsibility and communal welfare through their generous support of the "Gun Buy-Back" Project in the City of Miami, a collaborative effort to reduce violence in our neighborhoods.
3) In celebration of National Women's History Month and in honor of this year's theme, "Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination", the City of Miami Mayor and Commissioners paid tribute to the following women for their courageous vision in the use of resources, expertise and talent to elevate the quality of life of our community: Mayor Regalado - Alice Bravo; Chair Sarnoff - Renita Ross Samuels-Dixon; Vice Chair Gort - Sonia Succar-Ferre; Commissioner Carollo - Elisa M. Juara, Marta Gonzalez De Cardenas, and Rita Marin; Commissioner Suarez - Barbara Wade; Commissioner Spence-Jones - Georgia Ayers, Dr. Dorothy Fields,and A'Nari Taylor; Julia Tuttle Award - Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall; and Trailblazer Award - Maribel Balbin.
4) Mayor Regalado paid tribute to the Miami Alumnae and Dade County Alumnae Chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in celebration of their Centennial; further recognizing their service as proud mentors to thousands of young ladies and as public servants in education and state , local and national government, transforming lives and impacting communities.
5) Mayor Regalado saluted Scherley Busch honoring her contributions to preserving Florida
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history through her artistic vision as she used her resources, expertise and talents to document and interpret Florida landscapes and to capture unique photographic visions of its leadership .
6) Chair Sarnoff honored the Five-Star Spa at the Mandarin Oriental Miami in praise of the outstanding leadership of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, who have emphasized the importance of working together as a team to welcome the new Miami visitor who cares about service.
APPROVING THE MINUTES OF THE FOLLOWING MEETING:
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, to APPROVE PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
Chair Sarnoff: Do we need to approve any minutes?
Todd Hannon (City Clerk): Yes, sir. I have for your consideration an approval of the minutes for February 14.
Chair Sarnoff: Do I have a motion?
Commissioner Carollo: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion. Do we have a second? Hearing a second, any discussion? No discussion. All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
END OF APPROVING MINUTES
MAYORAL VETOES
NO MAYORAL VETOES
Chair Sarnoff: Mr. Clerk, are there any mayoral vetoes?
Todd Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, there are no mayoral vetoes.
ORDER OF THE DAY
Chair Sarnoff: All right, we're ready to begin the meeting. We'll now begin the regular meeting. The City Attorney will state the procedures to be followed during the course and scope of this meeting.
Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the Commission, Mr. Mayor, Manager, Mr. City Clerk, and members of the public. Any person who is a lobbyist must register with the City Clerk before appearing before the City Commission. A copy of the code section about lobbyists is available in the City Clerk's office. The material for each item on the agenda is available during business hours at the City Clerk's office and online at www.miamigov.com. Anyone wishing to appeal any decision made by the City Commission for any matter considered at this meeting may need a verbatim record of the item. Please, no cell phone or other noise-making devices. Silence those now. Any person who makes an offensive remark or who becomes unruly may be barred from attending further Commission meetings. And anyone with a disability who requires auxiliary aids, please contact the City Clerk. The lunch recess will begin at the conclusion of deliberation of the agenda item being considered at noon, unless the Chairman indicates otherwise. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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Chair Sarnoff: Thank you, Madam City Attorney.
[Later...]
Chair Sarnoff: All right, we're back in session. Mr. Manager, I didn't do this at the inception, but I do need to do this now. Is there any items that the Administration wishes to pull? And then I will get to any items that the Commissioners wish to pull.
Johnny Martinez (City Manager): Yes, Mr. Chair.
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead. I'm writing them down.
Mr. Martinez: Okay. FR.1, continue to April 11; RE.1, withdraw; and RE.2, continue to April 11.
Chair Sarnoff: Any others?
Mr. Martinez: That's it.
Chair Sarnoff: Are there any items any Commissioners wish to withdraw, change, amend? All right, do I have a motion? Wait, I'm sorry. You want to -- do you have --?
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. I just want to confirm what are the items. If you could say -- if you could repeat the items?
Mr. Martinez: Yes, sir. FR.1 --
Commissioner Carollo: Uh-huh.
Mr. Martinez: -- continue to April 11.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Mr. Martinez: RE.1, withdraw.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Mr. Martinez: And RE.2, continue to April 11.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Is there a motion?
Commissioner Carollo: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, we have a motion. Is there a second?
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
[Later...]
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Chair Sarnoff: All right. Anybody else have any discussion, D issues that they need to talk about tonight?
Commissioner Suarez: Can I just --
Vice Chair Gort: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: And by the way, that's another legislative liaison issue. And you know, I -- don't get me started.
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CONSENT AGENDA
CA.1 RESOLUTION 13-00195 Department of A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AUTHORIZING THE Purchasing PROCUREMENT OF GUARDRAIL REPLACEMENT AND INSTALLATION, FROM VARIOUS VENDORS, ON A CITYWIDE, AS-NEEDED CONTRACTUAL BASIS, UNDER THE EXISTING SOUTHEAST FLORIDA GOVERNMENTAL PURCHASING COOPERATIVE CONTRACT NO. 11-12-035, EFFECTIVE THROUGH OCTOBER 31, 2014, SUBJECT TO ANY EXTENSIONS OR REPLACEMENT CONTRACTS BY THE SOUTHEAST FLORIDA GOVERNMENTAL PURCHASING COOPERATIVE; ALLOCATING FUNDS FROM THE VARIOUS SOURCES OF FUNDS FROM THE USER DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES, SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS AND BUDGETARY APPROVAL AT THE TIME OF NEED. 13-00195 Summary Form.pdf 13-00195 System for Award Managements.pdf 13-00195 Contract Award.pdf 13-00195 Award Notice.pdf 13-00195 Addendum No. 1.pdf 13-00195 Invitation to Bid.pdf 13-00195 Legislation.pdf
This Matter was ADOPTED on the Consent Agenda.
Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0075
CA.2 RESOLUTION 13-00176 Department of Public A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Facilities ATTACHMENT(S), ESTABLISHING A NEW SPECIAL REVENUE FUND ENTITLED "HAITIAN HERITAGE ARTS" ("PROJECT"), IN THE AMOUNT OF $75,000, CONSISTING OF A GRANT FROM THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION; AUTHORIZING THE LITTLE HAITI CULTURAL CENTER, A CITY OF MIAMI FACILITY, TO RAISE A ONE-TO-ONE REQUIRED CASH MATCH FROM OUTSIDE SOURCES (NON-CITY OF MIAMI DOLLARS), IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $75,000; AUTHORIZING THE ALLOCATION FOR THE TOTAL PROJECT COST, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $150,000; FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE GRANT AGREEMENT, IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE ATTACHED FORM, AND ANY OTHER NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR THE ACCEPTANCE, IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF SAID GRANT, AND THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF SAID MATCHING FUNDS, SUBJECT ONLY TO BUDGETARY APPROVAL.
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13-00176 Summary Form.pdf 13-00176 John S. & James L. Knight Foundation.pdf 13-00176 Legislation.pdf 13-00176 Exhibit 1.pdf
This Matter was ADOPTED on the Consent Agenda.
Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0076
CA.3 RESOLUTION 13-00175 Department of Public A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Facilities ATTACHMENT(S), ESTABLISHING A NEW SPECIAL REVENUE FUND ENTITLED " NEA GRANT-OUR TOWN 2012-2013" ("PROJECT"), IN THE AMOUNT OF $50,000, CONSISTING OF A GRANT FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT OF THE ARTS; AUTHORIZING THE ALLOCATION OF THE REQUIRED MATCHING OF NON-FEDERAL FUNDS AND IN-KIND SERVICES, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $50,000, FOR A TOTAL PROJECT COST NOT TO EXCEED $100,000; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE ANY AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR THE ACCEPTANCE, IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF SAID GRANT, THE EXECUTION OF THE GRANT BASED ON THE AWARD LETTER AND GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS ATTACHED, AND THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF SAID MATCHING FUNDS, SUBJECT ONLY TO BUDGETARY APPROVAL. 13-00175 Summary Form.pdf 13-00175 Letter - Grant Award.pdf 13-00175 Legislation.pdf 13-00175 Exhibit 1.pdf
This Matter was ADOPTED on the Consent Agenda.
Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0077
CA.4 RESOLUTION 13-00177 Department of A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Fire-Rescue ATTACHMENT(S), PURSUANT TO SECTION 18-82 (A) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, CLASSIFYING SIXTY (60) BUNKER GEAR SETS, EIGHTY-ONE (81) HELMETS, FIFTY-EIGHT (58) PAIRS OF BOOTS AND MISCELLANEOUS AMKUS EXTRACTION TOOLS, WITH NO APPRECIABLE RESALE VALUE, AS "CATEGORY A" SURPLUS STOCK; APPROVING SAID ITEMS TO BE DONATED TO BARTOW MEDICAL AND FIRE ACADEMY ("BARTOW"), WHO AGREES TO ACCEPT SAID DONATION AND BECOME THE SOLE PROPERTY OWNER, WITH SAID
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DATED PROPERTY BEENING DEEMED BEYOND VIABLE USE FOR CITY OF MIAMI PURPOSES AND ITS DONATION TO BARTOW GREATLY AIDING THEIR PROGRAM FOR THE TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION OF STUDENTS WORKING TOWARDS BECOMING VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS.
13-00177 Summary Form.pdf 13-00177 Donation of Equipment for Bartow.pdf 13-00177 Legislation.pdf 13-00177 Exhibit 1.pdf
This Matter was ADOPTED on the Consent Agenda.
Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0078
Adopted the Consent Agenda
Motion by Vice Chair Gort, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, including all the preceding items marked as having been adopted on the Consent Agenda. The motion carried by the following vote: Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
END OF CONSENT AGENDA
Chair Sarnoff: Okay, so now we are up to PH.1, CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) obligation.
Commissioner Carollo: Aren't we doing the CA (Consent Agenda) items?
Chair Sarnoff: Oh, I'm sorry. My apologies. I wasn't sure we had CAs.
Commissioner Carollo: I'm sorry, Chairman. I want to move this sucker along.
Chair Sarnoff: No, you're right. All right, so we have CA.1 through 4. Does anybody wish to pull any CA items? All right, is there a motion on the CAs?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: We have --
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- a motion by Commissioner Gort, second by Commissioner Carollo. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
9:00 A.M.
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PH.1 RESOLUTION 13-00178 Department of A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Community and ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE DE-OBLIGATION OF COMMUNITY Economic DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT ("CDBG") FUNDS FROM THE LITTLE HAITI Development HOUSING ASSOCIATION, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $53,000; ALLOCATING SAID FUNDS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CDBG ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RESERVE ACCOUNT FOR FUTURE ACTIVITIES, AS SPECIFIED IN EXHIBIT "A", ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR SAID PURPOSE. 13-00178 Summary Form.pdf 13-00178 Notice to the Public.pdf 13-00178 Pre-Legislation.pdf 13-00178 Legislation.pdf 13-00178 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Vice Chair Gort, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0079
Chair Sarnoff: Okay, now we have PH.1.
George Mensah: Good afternoon, Commissioners. George Mensah, director of Community Development. PH.1 is a resolution authorizing the deobligation of Community Development Block Grants from Little Haiti Housing Association in the amount of 53,000.
Chair Sarnoff: Is there a motion?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: Public hearing. We have a motion. Let's get the second.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a second. This is a public hearing. Anybody wishing to be heard on PH.1, PH.1, please step up. This is deallocation of the Haiti Housing Association, in the amount of $53,000. Hearing none, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed, coming back to this Commission. Any discussion, gentlemen? Hearing no discussion, all in favor then, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
PH.2 RESOLUTION 13-00179
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Department of A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AUTHORIZING THE Community and ACCEPTANCE OF STATE HOUSING INITIATIVES PARTNERSHIP ("SHIP") Economic FUNDS, IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $100,743, FOR FISCAL YEAR Development 2012-2013, FOR THE STRATEGIES UNDER THE CURRENT SHIP LOCAL HOUSING ASSISTANCE PLAN; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR SAID PURPOSE(S). 13-00179 Summary Form.pdf 13-00179 Notice to the Public.pdf 13-00179 Pre-Legislations.pdf 13-00179 Legislation.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Spence-Jones, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Spence-Jones Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Carollo and Suarez
R-13-0080
Chair Sarnoff: PH.2.
George Mensah (Director, Community Development): PH.2 is authorizing the acceptance of State Housing Initiative Partnership funds, in the total amount of 100,743, for fiscal year 2012 to 2013.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. PH.2, is there a motion?
Commissioner Carollo: So move.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by Commissioner Carollo, second by Commissioner Spence-Jones. It's a public hearing. Anybody wishing to be heard, PH.2. It is SHIP (State Housing Initiative Partnership Program), in the amount of $100,743. Hearing none, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Any discussion?
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record, then Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. I just want to verify. Are these fundings [sic] already spoken for or can it be discussed to see, you know, what's the best way to use these fundings [sic]? I know it's only 100,000, but 100,000 still.
Mr. Mensah: Yeah. These -- typically, we have strategies that we've already been approve by Commission and these are typically used for homeowner rehabilitation and it will help maybe three homeowners because we provide up to $35,000.
Commissioner Carollo: Have the three homeowners been identified already?
Mr. Mensah: No, no. It's part of our -- we have a wait list that we have to go through.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Spence-Jones, you're recognized for the record.
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The only thing that I wanted to mention, George, I think it's really important for you to maybe perhaps put on the record any updates on the HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) issue 'cause we can't talk as a group but we can talk, you know, as a group here. Any updates at all on the HUD timeliness spending issue?
Mr. Mensah: Yes. I believe in the last Commission meeting, we did discuss a little bit about timeliness, and we did indicate that HUD gave us an opportunity to talk to them. We had a conference call with the Manager and the Mayor on Tuesday, I believe, at 12 p.m. We spoke to HUD and we explained to HUD the reason why we did not meet the timeliness test, and we explained to them what we are doing to ensure that the timeliness test is met by next year. We know that they will get back to us within two weeks, but we had the assurance from the district office, I believe Mr. Manager, that they will recommend that we get our full funding.
Johnny Martinez (City Manager): The district administrator said that they were not in favor of recapturing any funds from us, but they would officially let us know in two weeks.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, good. So it was a good conversation. I think it was important for all of the Commissioners and the public to know, you know, that we're not going to have that as an issue.
Mr. Mensah: Yes. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. All in favor, please say "aye" on PH.2.
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, we have a unanimous (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Vice Chair Gort: Let me add a little something, George. I want you to know when the -- when it came out in the newspaper that we had $5 million we were going to lose, I got, I think it was, about 100 calls of people telling me, look, I have this -- how we can use it and so on. So it's important -- and I'm glad, Commissioner, you brought it up, for the people to understand that funds don't go that easy, okay. They have certain restriction. Thank you.
Mr. Mensah: Yes. Thank you.
END OF PUBLIC HEARINGS
ORDINANCES - SECOND READING
SR.1 ORDINANCE Second Reading 12-01418 Department of AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER Building 10/ARTICLE 1 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, ("CITY CODE") ENTITLED "BUILDINGS/IN GENERAL", MORE PARTICULARLY BY CREATING A NEW SECTION 10-6, TO RATIFY THE BUILDING OFFICIAL'S SCHEDULE OF ELEVATOR/ESCALATOR FEES AND FINES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE FOR INCLUSION IN CHAPTER 10 OF THE CITY CODE; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
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12-01418 Summary Form SR.pdf 12-01418 State Statute FR/SR.pdf 12-01418 Dade County Fees FR/SR.pdf 12-01418 State Interagency Agrmt. FR/SR.pdf 12-01418 Legislation FR/SR.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Spence-Jones Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Carollo and Suarez
13365
Chair Sarnoff: All right, SR.1. SR.1, Mr. Manager.
Mariano Fernandez: Mr. Chairman, this is a -- Mariano Fernandez, Building director. This is a second reading for the ordinance to codify what the City of Miami is charging for elevators.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, a second --
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- by Commissioner Gort. This is a public hearing. Anybody wishing to be heard on SR.1, SR.1, elevators and escalators, I think, coming up? Hearing none, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed, coming back to this Commission. Madam City Attorney, it is an ordinance.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Your roll call on item SR.1.
A roll call was taken, the result of which is stated above.
Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on second reading, 3-0.
Mr. Fernandez: Thank you.
SR.2 ORDINANCE Second Reading 13-00058 Office of Management AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER and Budget 18/ARTICLE VIII, OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED ("CITY CODE"), ENTITLED "FINANCE/STORMWATER UTILITY FEES AND FUNDS", MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING ARTICLE VIII, ENTITLED "STORMWATER UTILITY FEES AND FUND" BY CHANGING THE TITLE TO "STORMWATER UTILITY FEES" AND CHANGING THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF STORMWATER UTILITY FEES COLLECTED FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS TO BE USED FOR THE GENERAL STORMWATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; FURTHER AMENDING THE ARTICLE TO COMPORT WITH SAID PURPOSE; AND AMENDING CHAPTER 22.5/ ARTICLE VI, OF THE CITY CODE ENTITLED "SOIL EROSION, WATERWAY SEDIMENTATION, AND AIRBORNE DUST GENERATION CONTROL", TO ALLOW FOR THE MONIES COLLECTED TO BE PLACED
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INTO A DESIGNATED ACCOUNT IN THE GENERAL FUND; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE. 13-00058 Summary Form SR.pdf 13-00058 Legislation (Version 2) SR.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Suarez and Spence-Jones Absent: 1 - Commissioner(s) Carollo
13366
Chair Sarnoff: SR.2
Daniel Alfonso (Director): Danny Alfonso, Office of Management and Budget. SR.2 is an ordinance to amend the descriptions --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion --
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- by Commissioner Spence-Jones, second by Commissioner Gort. It's a public hearing. Anybody wishing to be heard on SR.2, SR.2, please step up. Hearing none, seeing none, coming back to this Commission. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, Madam City Attorney, it is an ordinance.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Roll call on item SR.2.
A roll call was taken, the result of which is stated above.
Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on second reading, 4-0.
SR.3 ORDINANCE Second Reading 12-01452 Department of Public AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER Facilities 53/ARTICLE I/ OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, ENTITLED "STADIUMS AND CONVENTION CENTERS/IN GENERAL," MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING SECTION 53-1, ENTITLED "TICKET SURCHARGE ON PAID ADMISSIONS TO EVENTS", TO INCLUDE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") OWNED MARINAS AS CITY FACILITIES FOR PURPOSES OF REQUIRING A TICKET SURCHARGE ON PAID ADMISSIONS TO SIGHTSEEING BOAT TOURS; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. 13-01452 Summary Form SR.pdf 13-01452 Mooring & Dockage Agrmt. SR.pdf 13-01452 Legislation (Version 2) SR.pdf
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Motion by Vice Chair Gort, seconded by Commissioner Spence-Jones, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Spence-Jones Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Carollo and Suarez
13367
Chair Sarnoff: All right, so we have SR --
Commissioner Carollo: 4.
Chair Sarnoff: -- 3.
Mr. Torre: 3.
Chair Sarnoff: 3, yeah, I think it's where we left off.
Mr. Torre: Henry Torrey, director of Public Facilities. SR.3 is an ordinance commending City code Chapter 53, establishing a ticket surcharge for sightseeing tour boats at Miami Marina.
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion and we have a second.
Mr. Torre: SR.3.
Chair Sarnoff: SR.3 is a public hearing. Anyone from the public wishing to be heard on SR.3, please step up. SR.3. Hearing none, seeing none, coming back to this Commission. Madam City Attorney, it is an ordinance.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Roll call on item SR.3.
A roll call was taken, the result of which is stated above.
Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on second reading, 3-0.
SR.4 ORDINANCE Second Reading 12-01316 Miami Parking AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER Authority 35/ARTICLE IV OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, ENTITLED "MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC/PARKING RATES," MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING SECTIONS 35-191 THROUGH 35-196, TO UPDATE RATES AND FACILITIES; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
. 12-01316 Summary Form SR.pdf 12-01316 Legislation (Version 2) FR/SR.pdf
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Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Spence-Jones Noes: 1 - Commissioner(s) Carollo Absent: 1 - Commissioner(s) Suarez
13368
Chair Sarnoff: SR.4.
Art Noriega: Good afternoon. Art Noriega, Miami Parking Authority. This item is a -- an amendment to the -- to article -- Chapter 35/Article 4, Code of Miami, as relates to motor vehicles and traffic and parking rates.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones and --
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- a second by Commissioner Gort. It is a public hearing. Anybody wishing to be heard on SR.4, SR.4, please step up. Hearing none, seeing none, coming back to this Commission. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, Madam City Attorney, it is an ordinance.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Commissioner Carollo, would you like to be included on this vote?
Commissioner Carollo: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Okay, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Yes, I would like to be included in the vote.
Mr. Hannon: Roll call on item SR.4. Commissioner Carollo?
Commissioner Carollo: Nope.
Mr. Hannon: Vice Chair Gort?
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Spence-Jones?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Chair Sarnoff?
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on second reading, 3-1.
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SR.5 ORDINANCE Second Reading 13-00108 Miami Parking AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER Authority 54/ ARTICLE I/SECTION 54-9 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, ENTITLED "STREETS AND SIDEWALKS/ IN GENERAL/ PLACING SIGNS ON ANY PORTION OF THE PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY, STREET, OR SIDEWALK SURFACE", MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING SUBSECTION (A) TO ALLOW THE DEPARTMENT OF OFF-STREET PARKING OF THE CITY OF MIAMI ("DOSP") TO PROCURE CERTAIN SIGNAGE SUBJECT TO SPECIFIED TERMS, CONDITIONS AND LIMITATIONS; FURTHER ADDING A NEW SUBSECTION (G) TO PERMIT THE PLACEMENT OF SIGNAGE OR ADVERTISEMENTS ON CITY OF MIAMI OWNED, OR DOSP OWNED, PARKING METERS AND/OR PARKING PAYMENT MACHINES WITHIN THE PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE 13-00108 Summary Form SR.pdf 13-00108 Legislation (Version 2) SR.pdf DISCUSSED
Chair Sarnoff: SR.5.
Art Noriega: SR.5. As we referenced in the first reading, there was some -- it was a much-discussed item relative to specific language within the amendment, as well as some suggestions made both by the public as well as the dais. And we subsequently went back, made revisions to the section, as well as modified the mockup, which I present here. It's in front of you. More specifically, the changes we made, as we were specifically instructed, relate to limitations on the advertisements, more specifically the size, the type of advertising, as well as --
Vice Chair Gort: Show it to the public.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And there was ads in the public message interest only.
Mr. Noriega: Yeah, and the fact that the ads would get rotated on a quarterly basis. That was the third item.
Vice Chair Gort: Can you explain about the map?
Mr. Noriega: Yeah. In this particular example, the purpose initially was to identify an opportunity to sort of combine both potential revenue stream, which would certainly offset some of the costs associated with maintaining and replacing our equipment on street, but as well as a public service component. So we -- after some discussions with the organization that initially presented this idea to us, we put together a walking map, one of which already really exists in the Grove. So the idea was this would be instituted as a pilot program. The walking map would obviously serve a public service as well as, if you look at the bottom third of what'll be the future wrap around the meter, we've put a section in for community events as well as key phone numbers so that this really, really is providing a public service as well as a potential income stream. We really reduced the size of the advertising based on the feedback we got. We think this is a pretty fair compromise to a lot of the suggestions made and, in general, really kind of meets all of the criteria as per the recommendations at our last meeting.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Is there a motion?
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by --
Peter Ehrlich: Is this a public hearing?
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah. It's an ordinance. We have a motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, second by Commissioner Gort. It's a public hearing. Anyone from the public wishing to be heard, please step up.
Mr. Ehrlich: Yes. Good evening, Mr. Chair, Commissioners. My name is Peter Ehrlich, 770 Northeast 69th Street. I'm speaking in opposition to this item. My first comment is this really should be being heard as a first reading item and not a second reading since the bulk of the item has been completely changed. The main paragraph that's in your handout for second reading is almost completely new from the item that was noticed and provided to the public on first reading a month ago. In addition, if you're going to go through with this, we ask that you not put as on parking meters, which is what is written here in your legislation for second reading. If you have to do it, at least just do it on parking pay machines and not on parking meters, as the language in the legislation asks. In addition, I didn't see any reference to what the signs would actually be on these things, at least in the legislation. We ask that you not use any lighting other than the normal street lighting that exists on the streets. The legislation should state that these do not become LED (Light-Emitting Diode) billboards. We didn't see that in the legislation. There didn't seem to any limit on the size -- in the legislation of the size of these ads or the quantity. There could be hundreds on each block or thousands in each neighborhood. If you're going to approve it -- and I advise against it -- you should at least have a limit on the number of ads per machine or limit on the number in each neighborhood. Otherwise, you're just increasing the amount of visual pollution. Thank you very much.
Chair Sarnoff: Mr. Noriega, the one thing I do agree with having been said was you did put parking meters there. Is there any reason you need to use language of parking meters?
Mr. Noriega: No. I mean, it can just be pay stations.
Chair Sarnoff: What --
Mr. Noriega: That was sort of just to catch it.
Chair Sarnoff: As part of the legislative history of this, what is -- what do you call these things, parking kiosk payment machines?
Mr. Noriega: Parking payment machines.
Chair Sarnoff: Parking payment -- So if I go to put a credit card in something, that is a parking payment machine?
Mr. Noriega: Correct.
Chair Sarnoff: And that is what you want to put --
Mr. Noriega: What we -- what I think he's referencing -- and I would be happy to make that amendment -- would be any single-space meter, is what he's really referencing. Because technically, single-space meters can take credit cards now too. The technology exists. So I wouldn't tie it back to a credit card transaction. I'd just say it's not allowed in any single-space
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meter. How about that?
Chair Sarnoff: Just for my own sake, what's the model number of the machines you have? K-37 -- I don't know.
Mr. Noriega: Well, we have three different vendors --
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Mr. Noriega: -- within the City of Miami, so they're all referred to as different -- we have Digitals, we have MacKays, we have (UNINTELLIGIBLE). They're all different manufacturers, so I couldn't tie it to that either, but --
Chair Sarnoff: So -- but we're only talking about the ones that replace the parking meters.
Mr. Noriega: Correct.
Chair Sarnoff: In other words, you don't have parking meters --
Mr. Noriega: They're pay stations that address multiple --
Vice Chair Gort: Pay station.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay, and then --
Mr. Noriega: They're multi-space machines.
Chair Sarnoff: -- I've never seen hundreds of these on streets. Usually, it's two on a street.
Mr. Noriega: Most we ever have on any one block is two, correct.
Chair Sarnoff: So there couldn't be hundreds on streets.
Mr. Noriega: No.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. Do you have any intention --?
Mr. Noriega: We only have hundreds citywide, basically, yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: Right. Do you have any intentions of backlighting these things?
Mr. Noriega: We don't -- they don't have the power to be able to do that. We barely can power the machine with the solar power --
Chair Sarnoff: Would you --
Mr. Noriega: -- we use now.
Chair Sarnoff: -- concede, for purposes of an amendment, that these would not be backlit (UNINTELLIGIBLE) --?
Mr. Noriega: Absolutely.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. Would the maker of the motion accept that amendment? Would the --
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Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: -- seconder accept? All right. Anybody else in the public wishing to be heard? Go ahead.
Ginger Vela: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ginger Vela, and I live at 920 Northeast 86th Street. And I would like to reiterate what Peter said, especially the fact that I think this should be a first hearing because it's so different. I actually sent an e-mail (electronic) this morning, but it may have been a little bit late, so maybe some of you didn't get it. Because this is so substantially changed from the first thing that you had on the agenda, that I think it should be really a first hearing and a not a second. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. All right, Commissioner Suarez, you're recognized.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. I was just going to say that I got a couple of calls on that issue, that specific issue, that the legislation has changed very dramatically from first to second reading, and that it should be -- if we vote on it today, it should be voted on as a first reading. I don't see the harm in doing that. I don't know if anyone else has any issue with that. So that's -- that was one issue. The second issue is, the way that it looks there, to me looks -- I guess I shouldn't just say things off the cuff 'cause everything here has to be measured, but it looks pretty harmless. But I can understand that there is a suspicion in everything that we do in terms of wanting to proliferate advertising. So I guess I share the concern that there -- I don't know if the legislation actually limits size-wise how many ads, etcetera, etcetera.
Mr. Noriega: It doesn't limit the size of the ads. It liminates [sic] the size of the advertising section to one-third of the face --
Commissioner Suarez: One-third of the whole thing.
Mr. Noriega: -- which is demonstrated here, correct.
Commissioner Suarez: Which is -- that's the full one-third?
Mr. Noriega: Correct.
Commissioner Suarez: So you couldn't -- I mean, it doesn't matter how many ads you cram in there, but it's -- you -- that --
Mr. Noriega: No. It could be one ad or --
Commissioner Suarez: Right.
Mr. Noriega: -- divide that space into three ads or six ads.
Commissioner Suarez: Three or six or --
Mr. Noriega: But it's all going to be confined in the same --
Commissioner Suarez: Okay.
Mr. Noriega: -- geometry, so to speak.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Mr. --
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead. You're recognized.
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: Mr. Chairman, I would be more than willing, if my fellow colleague wants to make this a first reading because he would like to have more time to -- because this item has changed a bit. Is that your recommendation?
Commissioner Suarez: I think it's changed completely from --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Commissioner Suarez: -- the first reading --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So I don't have a problem --
Commissioner Suarez: -- in terms of draft.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- with that, Mr. Chairman. I just want to be clear about, you know, my role and my support of the project. To my understanding, this is supporting a lot of businesses that are in the area. These small businesses, any advertisement that they can get to, you know, draw people to their restaurants, that's what we're trying to do. So I support the small businesses or the businesses in the area 100 percent, so that's the reason why I'm supporting the item. I do understand Peter's and his group's concern about having too much of it --
Mr. Noriega: Sure.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- and wanting to have more time to delve into the ordinance. I don't have a problem with making the adjustment on that until the next meeting, so I don't have a problem with -- if you need me to withdraw or amend or whatever way you want me to do it, Mr. Chairman, I'm cool with that.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Gort's recognized.
Vice Chair Gort: My understanding also is -- for example, in my district, I have the Health District, where they have several hospital and several courts and facilities that people have to visit, and they're all around with a cluster of a couple of blocks. A lot of people will park and will not be aware -- my understanding is this map will show the locations where people can go to --
Mr. Noriega: Correct.
Vice Chair Gort: -- besides all the other benefit. Now, Madam Attorney, in checking with you, my understanding is -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- the changes that were made here, that it was made at our request.
Mr. Noriega: Correct.
Vice Chair Gort: We're the one that requested to make those changes. I don't think there's that major -- and I keep hearing -- getting e-mail that we are listening to this illegally, so I want your opinion on this two items.
Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): If, as a matter of policy, the Commission wants to consider this a first reading and bring it back again, you may do so as a matter of policy. Legally, under the case law, under the test, you're not required to do because the ordinance -- the general intent of the ordinance, the general purpose of the ordinance, continues to be the same. It's to authorize the placement of advertising in parking structures. It's just been refined, amended, nuanced, but the general purpose is the same. So, legally, you're not required to. If, as a matter of policy you
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want to, that's a policy decision.
Mr. Noriega: Yeah, if I may, Mr. Chair. I think that for purposes of -- and Commissioner Suarez -- I think that certainly the overall intent hasn't changed a bit. I mean, we haven't modified what our initial goal was. I think we modified it in terms of the scope and redefined it specifically as a result of the commentary made at our last public meeting, and we came back specifically with those recommendations. We didn't deviate from that, so we didn't modify the intent. So I would certainly appreciate at least some further consideration to this being a second reading, as opposed to a first.
Chair Sarnoff: And if you remember, I think I said -- I don't know about you all, but there are certain people you feel more comfortable here at the City as presenters than others. And I think Art Noriega has, at least in my mind, earned my respect that when he says he's going to do something, he pretty well does it, and that's, I think, what I said at the last meeting, so I was comfortable with him making the change at the meeting and coming before us. Now, if we want to bring Art Noriega back for one of our long sessions on another day -- and that's okay with me.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I will yield to Commissioner Suarez because if a fellow Commissioner has made a statement and is concerned about something, then, you know, I would respect you guys the same way so --
Commissioner Suarez: You know, I think I agree with what Art said, that the -- what Mr. Noriega said, that the objective has not changed, but the substance of the ordinance has changed in terms of its drafting. And I think if citizens -- it's really not about Commissioner Suarez. If citizens are expressing a desire to want to have a second crack at the apple -- for lack of a better word -- and we're already making modifications, we're kind of making modifications to it here even on second reading in terms of it -- you know, making it a better legislation, not -- it not being backlit, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So I support you and the citizens.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. I just don't -- I don't think it's such a big deal. Sometimes a minor request turns into --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And not that I don't support Art.
Commissioner Suarez: -- what appears to a major request. But I think Commissioner Carollo has had to deal with that sometimes too.
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. --
Chair Sarnoff: What does the sec --? Well, let me find out what the seconder wants to do.
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman, it's a minor request.
Vice Chair Gort: I want to listen to everybody. I mean, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) --
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead. You're recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: It's a minor request. Just --
Chair Sarnoff: What's that?
Commissioner Carollo: It's a minor request. I --
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Chair Sarnoff: No. I -- Commissioner, I just want to make sure the seconder's okay with it. That's all. All right, so apparently we're on a first reading. All right, so Madam City -- public hearing is now closed, Mr. Clerk. Madam City Attorney, it is an ordinance on first reading.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you.
Ms. Bru: Okay. And who was the mover on first reading?
Commissioner Suarez: Good question.
Chair Sarnoff: First reading, Commissioner Spence-Jones, and the seconder was Commissioner Gort.
Ms. Bru: Okay. And this would be amending Chapter 54/Article I, Section 54-9, of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, entitled --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: But Commissioner Gort is not here.
Commissioner Carollo: He could still --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Is he second --?
Commissioner Suarez: It's all right.
Chair Sarnoff: He could still second and leave.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: In utter disgust.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: But did he second for this change?
Commissioner Carollo: He can second and leave without voting --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: But he --
Commissioner Carollo: -- is my understanding.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Did he second and leave?
Ms. Bru: Todd.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's okay, it's okay. Let's go.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, Commissioners, yes. The --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. I just want to make sure. I'm sitting on the side of him; I didn't hear it, but go ahead.
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah. His mike wasn't on, but it was -- we heard.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Oh, okay.
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The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Ms. Bru: And I believe that that was amended to delete reference to the parking meters.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Roll call on a first reading ordinance. Commissioner Carollo?
Commissioner Carollo: No.
Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Suarez?
Commissioner Suarez: Yes, on first.
Mr. Hannon: Vice Chair Gort?
Vice Chair Gort: No.
Mr. Hannon: I'm sorry, sir, no?
Commissioner Suarez: I think he was pretty clear.
Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Spence-Jones?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Why'd you second it? Second -- I mean, yes.
Vice Chair Gort: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) first reading.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Right.
Mr. Hannon: Chair Sarnoff?
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on first reading, as amended, 3-2.
END OF ORDINANCES - SECOND READINGS
ORDINANCES - FIRST READINGS
FR.1 ORDINANCE First Reading 13-00188 Department of AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER Purchasing 18/ARTICLE III OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, ENTITLED "FINANCE/ CITY OF MIAMI PROCUREMENT ORDINANCE", MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING SECTION 18-72 ENTITLED "APPLICATION AND EXCLUSIONS," TO UPDATE OBSOLETE INFORMATION WITH CURRENT INFORMATION AND TO ADD SEVERAL EXCLUSIONS; AND BY AMENDING SECTION 18-73 ENTITLED "DEFINITIONS," TO ADD SEVERAL NEW DEFINED TERMS AND TO UPDATE SEVERAL EXISTING DEFINED TERMS; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
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13-00188 Summary Form FR.pdf 13-00188 Local Office Definitions - Municipal Comparisons FR.pdf 13-00188 Legislation (Version 2) FR.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be CONTINUED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
FR.2 ORDINANCE First Reading 13-00194 District 2- AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER Commissioner Marc 18/ARTICLE III OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS David Sarnoff AMENDED, ENTITLED "FINANCE/ CITY OF MIAMI PROCUREMENT ORDINANCE", MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING SECTION 18-94, ENTITLED "QUALIFICATIONS AND DUTIES OF CONTRACTUAL PARTIES", TO PROVIDE FOR A DETERMINATION OF RESPONSIBILITY, AND SECTION 18-95, ENTITLED "DETERMINATION OF RESPONSIBILITY", TO PROVIDE THAT A PROSPECTIVE CONTRACTUAL PARTY DECLARED IN DEFAULT OF A CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") CONTRACT OR OWING MONEY TO THE CITY WILL BE DETERMINED AS NONRESPONSIBLE; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE. 13-00194 Legislation (Version 2) SR.pdf
Motion by Chair Sarnoff, seconded by Commissioner Spence-Jones, that this matter be PASSED ON FIRST READING PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Spence-Jones Noes: 2 - Commissioner(s) Carollo and Suarez
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. Now we are on FR.2.
Kenneth Robertson: Good afternoon, Commissioner. Kenneth Robertson, Purchasing director. FR.2 is sponsored by you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure if you want to provide a brief introduction, or if you want me to read it into the record?
Chair Sarnoff: I'm going to let you do it, if you don't mind.
Mr. Robertson: Okay. FR.2 is an amendment to the procurement code, Sections 18-94 and 18-95, to provide that a prospective contractual party that has previously been declared in default of a City of Miami contract or owing money to the City will be determined as non-responsible unless the full amount of such monies due to the City have either been deposited with a court of competent jurisdiction or are placed in escrow pursuant to an escrow agreement.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Is there a motion? I'll move my own.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Second for discussion.
Commissioner Carollo: Second for discussion.
Vice Chair Gort: Second. Discussion. You're recognized.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. I just wanted to ask you one quick question. I know why
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you're doing it, and I think it's a great idea. I just wanted to be clear, though. Wouldn't it be better to put the burden on the bidder, like to put --
Chair Sarnoff: What do you mean?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- their money in escrow during the app -- or along with the application? Make sure you explain it because I think that maybe in our briefings, we were not clear. It seems as though that -- if a person is bidding, then they should just put the money in escrow.
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah, and I think that's the -- I think that's what it says, if I'm not mistaken.
Mr. Robertson: The intent of the ordinance is that if they do not put the money in escrow or on deposit with the court, that they would be found non-responsible.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: But --
Mr. Robertson: So it's their burden of proof to do that first.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Right, but prior to the what? You don't think that this is going to cause any delays or any confusion on it at all?
Mr. Robertson: It may cause some due diligence processing time when we're reviewing the proposals because during the advertisement phase, we wouldn't necessarily know who is proposing. Upon receipt of the proposals, we would need to verify if there are any monies due the City. If that happens, we would then verify that those monies then are on deposit, either in escrow or with the court.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Spence-Jones --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah. Can you just --
Chair Sarnoff: -- yeah, I'll try.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- elaborate so --? 'Cause I think I'm not the only one that --
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- wants to be clear on this.
Chair Sarnoff: Here is what it comes down to.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: If you ever feel like there's a revolving door around here where somebody says this guy didn't perform, and you'll hear somebody in the background say, Oh, and he didn't perform in this contract. No, he didn't perform in this contract. And you think to yourself, Private sector, would you ever hire somebody that broke your kitchen sink and then say to him years later, Oh, come back and fix my kitchen sink? Of course, you wouldn't. But in the City of Miami, we do it all the time. And it's simply because we don't have a provision in our code that says, if you don't perform now, we're not going to have you come back and ask you to perform again. And there are safeguards in this so that good faith disputes -- I love everybody going to court. You know why? You got to hire a lawyer; just kidding. But you have your opportunity to go to court. And if you owe the City money, you still get to be a bidder. You just have to escrow your money. And you go to court and a court says, you're dead right. Get your money back from
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escrow; City was wrong. On the other hand, the court could go, you know, I think you owe the City that money. In which case, guess what? You could still win the bid and get your money back from the Cit -- and get your money becauseyou'll have been successful. So, you know, I think this is just a little bit of what we talked about earlier when Commissioner Carollo said, I'm just a little sick and tired of people not performing. This is a good -- by the way, this ordinance comes from about 70 other municipalities in the United States that, under what they call the good governance practices, operate that way, but we don't.
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman.
Vice Chair Gort: Yes, you're recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. Listen, I don't pretend to be an expert in this, but I've looked into it a little bit. And it seems to me that under Section 18-107, we have certain safety nets that if someone owes us money, we don't need to continue a contract with them or allow them to bid. Now again -- and I think it's under Section A and number 9. It's contractual party who has defaulted under the terms of a contract with the City or any of its boards, agencies, trusts, authorities, councils, or committees, and has failed to cure such default, then it appears to me that they cannot bid if the City Manager shall also have the authority to disband the contractual party from consideration for award of City contracts if there's probably cause of disbarment. And the debarment is that they are a party that are in default with the City. Now it appears like there's something here already. Again, I don't profess to be an expert in this. And then where I have a problem with it -- and I said it earlier -- they put the money in escrow and then they bid again, and let's say it's another contract for five, ten years. I don't know. I don't know if I really want to, you know, continue doing business with someone that I'm in litigation with, I'm in court with, I'm fighting with. So, you know, I think, at that point, if they haven't -- if we haven't fixed our differences by the time that another bid goes out, I think, in all fairness, we need to part our ways. And let me tell you where it happened, and I'll give you an example where it happened. And I'm not so sure that in this case we should have parted ways, but we did; with the affordable housing in the Gusman Theater. The City sued them, and the truth of the matter is, we came to some agreement that, listen, they didn't owe us extra money. However, they kept doing, you know, the management all this time. They kept paying us the amounts that, you know, they thought that they had to pay us, but once we settled with them, we parted ways. And I'm not so sure we should have parted ways, but anyways, we parted ways. The bottom line is, if I'm in litigation with someone 'cause we believe they owe us money, I don't know if I want to allow them to put it in escrow and continue the litigation on and on and on and then give them another bite at the apple where they enter another contract for many, many years. Now -- and let me tell you something, one thing I have seen -- and I tell you, in Bayfront Park Management Trust, we actually -- Listen, you owe us money, there is no bidding. There is no more work with us. There is no -- there's nothing. And that has caused a lot of companies, a lot of agencies to actually pay up, so --
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah. I'm not (UNINTELLIGIBLE), so it's up to him.
Vice Chair Gort: Anyone else?
Commissioner Suarez: Oh, yeah. Let me --
Vice Chair Gort: Commissioner Suarez.
Commissioner Carollo: And by the way, discussion is healthy. This is part of discussing it --
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: I agree.
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Commissioner Carollo: -- you know. This is part of discussing it.
Vice Chair Gort: Commissioner Suarez.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think there's some things about this that I like. I think there's some things about it that I have issues with. It's a little different from his, actually. I like, obviously, the fact that we'll be clearly articulating a policy so that there's no issue that this is political or this is being done to favor one guy or favor the other guy, etcetera, etcetera, so we all know the rules of the game. And so, obviously, that is something that I favor tremendously. I almost see it a little bit different from the way you see it in that, I guess, being a lawyer -- and I think you're trying to strike a middle ground. When you say people owe money to the City, that's a determination. That's -- there's finality to what you're saying. You are, in effect, saying that you've gone through whatever the issue is, whatever the litigation is. You've already determined that the person owes money. I guess this is why, being a lawyer, you go through the process, right? What I think is unfair is people sue people for everything in this society. We have the most litigious society that you could ever possibly imagine. And so, for me, I think it's very cumbersome and -- not cumbersome is the right word. It's very burdensome, I guess, is the word I'm looking for, to force people to put the money for an unliquidated claim in escrow every time they're bidding just because somebody thinks they owe money. And I'll give you an example. It's one thing, let's say -- and not to bring it back to this thing that we did earlier today, but it's one thing to say that you owe money -- that they owed money because they hadn't been paying the money. Let's say they weren't paying for two or three or four months and you said, Look, these people are not performing; they're not paying. We had a situation like that with Flagstone, and you were very -- yeah, not to bring up a sore subject for you, but you were very adamant about it. It's a different thing to say, We think you owe “X,” and they think we owe “Y,” you know. So you it's -- when you say owe money, you know, we just, all of a sudden, after 20 years, decided you owe “Y” and not “X.” You owe “Y.” So, you know, it's not that you owe money in the traditional sense, you haven't been paying, you know, or you've been -- what's happened with the solid waste, where we went in and audited them and we found out that they were really underreporting what it was. You know, if these people had come and said, you know, we're doing much more in sales of our fuel than what we were reporting, that's a whole nother issue. This is just about applying a standard. So from my perspective, that's the only heartburn that I have on it. I want to be consistent with my earlier vote and say that I do -- I like the fact that we're being clear and we're making it a policy. I don't like the fact that on that one item, which I believe is D2 (District 2), if I'm not mistaken, that if it's an unliquidated claim, you have to put the money in escrow. And I understand why you would want to put the money in escrow because it's an unliquidated claim. You want to make sure that you have protection if the claim becomes liquidated. You have something to liquidate it against. But I think it just creates -- you know, it shifts a burden --
Vice Chair Gort: Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Suarez: I'm sorry?
Vice Chair Gort: No, no. Go ahead, go ahead.
Commissioner Suarez: No, no. I just think it shifts a burden, you know -- and you know, anybody can sue anybody for anything, and that's just been my experience so.
Vice Chair Gort: Thank you. Commissioner Spence-Jones, you're recognized.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Again, I second this item 'cause I support Marc's -- the motivation around why he's doing it and the intentions around why he's doing it, trying to correct obviously a problem that we have. My original question was really for the Procurement director, which
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was the issue for me around the issue, Marc, was, you know, the cause of delays, so -- you know, delays of confusion. And you kind of put on the record that, yeah, it would cause some delays and it would cause, you know -- delays. I'm not going to say confusion. I'll say delays. So if you could just walk me through. So what happens, let's say, if a person wins the bid, right, for garbage trucks, they win the bid, but they're disputing -- even though their money is in escrow -- what is owed. What is the next step if the City can't come to an agreement, you know, or the City then decides -- I'm assuming we'll decide -- they're going to sue them? I mean, like -- I'm just trying to understand the steps in between. So I win the bid, right? But the City's saying I owe them for something, right. I win it, but now at this point -- there's always been a dispute 'cause I told you in the beginning there was a dispute, and the City said that there's a dispute, so what happens in between? I mean, is -- does that mean everything is in limbo? Does it go to the second bidder, the third bidder? I mean, how does that work out?
Mr. Robertson: Commissioner, the way we would currently address that -- and we're going through that situation currently with one of our procurements. After the proposals are received and tabulated, if there is an issue of monies owed to the City, that's part of our responsibility verification that we perform currently. Right now our solicitations contain similar language in the fact that we are confirming right now that they are indeed responsible. This ordinance is attempting to codify that which we already have in our procurement solicitations. Our due diligence process would not change that much. We would still be confirming the same information. It's just we're putting into code what we already have in our general terms and conditions.
Vice Chair Gort: Let me answer your question.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but --
Vice Chair Gort: Your question -- your answer is --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: You're not answering my question really. It's kind of like you went off --
Vice Chair Gort: To answer your question is, if the person -- my understanding, and the attorney can correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding is, if the person gets the bid, we'll have to go to litigation or we'll have to go to mediation. Whoever wins, if the City wins, we keep the funds.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah, but in the meantime --
Vice Chair Gort: If the other person --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- we have a roadway project or a --
Commissioner Carollo: Yep.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- something, you know, that you're trying to get done in your district. It's delayed because there's this confusion --
Vice Chair Gort: No.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- about whether or not you owe or not.
Vice Chair Gort: That's not my understanding. My understanding, it does not get delayed. What happens is --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No. He said it gets delayed. He said it gets delayed. He said
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there's a delay.
Mr. Robertson: When we're --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: That's why we're having this conversation.
Vice Chair Gort: Madam Attorney.
Mr. Robertson: -- confirming responsibility, if there is a determination of non-responsibility, that triggers a protest process. If the proposer truly feels that they are responsible, they have opportunity to respond to a finding of non-responsibility, and the code defines that procedure.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: But you can't --
Mr. Robertson: We would handle that in the same protest procedure as we do all of our other bids.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: But Mr. Procurement Director, you could see how we're going back and forth because then the question -- I mean, there's so many issues around a dispute. There's a question as to whether or not -- how much I do owe.
Mr. Robertson: Correct. And if that --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, so what about -- you say, yeah, I owe $100 -- $1,000 or $10,000, then -- and I say, No, I only owe five. So we're haggling back and forth between -- and then in the meantime, whatever you're bidded -- whatever you won the bid on is in a delay.
Mr. Robertson: Correct.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So I'm just --
Mr. Robertson: It would be in limbo.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- a little concerned about -- you know, and I support what Marc is trying to do. I want to be very clear on that. I just don't want us to create more confusion on top of something when kind of what Commissioner Carollo stated is a true -- kind of a true fact. It's like, if you owe, you pay, you know. And I understand what Commissioner Suarez -- I can feel his vibes all the way on this side. But what about if there's a dispute about what you owe? So, it's, you know -- but if there is a dispute, maybe that's the better way to handle it. If there is a dispute, then you can't bid. I'm not really sure, but I just -- I am stuck on the delays 'cause already without this here -- Marc, you know this and everybody sitting up here -- we already have crazy delays anyway when --
Chair Sarnoff: What this is --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- we're trying to get stuff done.
Chair Sarnoff: -- is a codification of a practice he goes through right now. So what you have is an ungoverned manner of dealing with things and you're creating governance. You're putting it in a matter of law of ordinance. And just to digress for a moment, Commissioner Spence-Jones, with regard to the Gusman situation, there couldn't be a better example because we were suing the housing developer for the Gusman because they owed us money. At some point, we made a determination -- and I remember Madam City Attorney and I sitting down there. We did an asset search. There was going to be no asset to go after in the event we won a big lawsuit against them, and we would have won that lawsuit. So we made the determination, we're not going to go
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on. But take Commissioner Carollo's example. Now let's say they wanted to bid for another 15 years of management. What this ordinance would have required them to do was to escrow that money -- 'cause if you want to continue to do business with the City of Miami and you want to continue to win contracts, you have to escrow the money that we believe you owe us. So we would have had a resource, an amount of money to go after that we don't have presently if the people want to continue to do business with the City of Miami. That's what this is all about. Any slow-down? None. He's already doing the process. He's already employing those practices, but he's doing it not so much in the sunshine. This brings it in the sunshine.
Vice Chair Gort: Okay, any further discussion?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I mean, I really would like to talk about it a little -- 'cause I think Marc added another --
Vice Chair Gort: Okay.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- layer on the discussion.
Vice Chair Gort: Yes, ma'am.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I think that it -- he's making it a lot more clear. So just so that I'm on the same page as you, Marc -- I mean, Commissioner Sarnoff -- so you're saying that despite what the issue is, okay, the money's already sitting basically in escrow. So even if he wins the bid, the City -- does that mean that the --? I just want to be clear. The City is still engaging in business with him or her.
Chair Sarnoff: The person wants to continue to engage in business with the City.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: But what -- okay, right.
Chair Sarnoff: So they're saying -- and Alice Bravo says to them, Well, wait a minute. You're a nonperformer in this contract. You owe us $20,000.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So that money --
Chair Sarnoff: No, no.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- goes into escrow.
Chair Sarnoff: Correct.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, but -- Can I just ask you a question?
Chair Sarnoff: Sure.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So what happens if the person goes to -- gets another contract and, for whatever reason, he has not or she has not lived up to their full -- our full potential or what we wanted them to do, which puts up back -- which put -- which was the reason why they were in this situation with us in the first place? So how do we address that issue?
Chair Sarnoff: The intention here is to allow a person, as Commissioner Suarez would say, the opportunity to vet a good faith dispute. And the vetting of the good faith dispute -- you know, we don't take that many crazy positions here as a city. We're pretty liberal in the treatment of our vendors. So what this does is it's saying to a person, look, we have a $20,000 dispute; escrow that money. Go to court or a resolution process that Madam City Attorney approves us. You can
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still continue to bid on this process. You're not disqualifying them. You're giving them a good faith opportunity to fix what's broken. But now you have this res of money -- a lot of these companies, Commissioner Spence-Jones, are called single purpose entities, SPEs. Some of them have very small bank accounts. And if they want to continue doing business with the City -- I'm so confident, Madam City Attorney, I'm right, here's my $20,000. Commissioner Spence-Jones, I believe I'm a good vendor. Please approve my garbage truck. Well, City Attorney says, you know what, Commissioner, they put the money in escrow. I'm going to sit down with them and try and work it out. We can't work it, I'm going to go to Judge -- I don't know -- Rodriguez and Rodriguez will make a determination.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I got you.
Chair Sarnoff: I actually think it affords a lot of protections and puts it in the sunshine.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Madam City Attorney, please give us your thoughts.
Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): I would recommend that -- this is here on first reading -- between first and second, that your Purchasing director prepare some kind of matrix that shows you examples, real examples on how this would apply to a typical bid process, and that way you can see, you know, the different scenarios. This is scenario A. This is scenario B. Under this scenario, this entity would be precluded from continuing to participate. I think that -- I think if you spread it out into a matrix with the scenarios and the consequences of applying this regulatory scheme, it would make more sense. And I think you should also -- to address Commissioner Carollo's concerns is to reconcile your current debarment procedure --
Mr. Robertson: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: Right.
Ms. Bru: -- with this new proposal and see how this would all work in a typical bidding scenario. That's my recommendation. And then maybe it'll make more sense.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So you're saying we're going to move this -- we'll support it on first reading and come back by second reading. And if we're not happy with it, then we cannot vote on it.
Vice Chair Gort: That's correct. You can make -- from first reading to second reading, you're allowed to make a lot of changes as we instruct the Administration to do so. That's why we have two readings so we can make changes, okay? Any further discussion? It's a ordinance, ma'am.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Excuse me, Vice Chair. Do you want to open this up for your public hearing?
Vice Chair Gort: Anyone in the public would like to address this issue? Being none, call the roll.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
Mr. Hannon: Roll call on item FR.2. Commissioner Suarez?
Commissioner Suarez: No, on first.
Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Carollo?
Commissioner Carollo: No, on first.
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Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Spence-Jones?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Chair Sarnoff?
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Vice Chair Gort?
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on first reading, 3-2.
Chair Sarnoff: It's good to know who your friends are.
Commissioner Suarez: Oh, come on. Give me a break.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. I'm teasing, I'm teasing. Don't worry.
FR.3 ORDINANCE First Reading 13-00250 Office of the City AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, BY A FOUR-FIFTHS Attorney (4/5THS) AFFIRMATIVE VOTE, ABOLISHING THE DISTRICT 1 HOUSING ADVISORY BOARD, MORE PARTICULARLY BY REPEALING IN ITS ENTIRETY CHAPTER 12.5/ ARTICLE I/ DIVISION 5, ENTITLED "COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION/COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION DISTRICTS/DISTRICT 1 HOUSING ADVISORY BOARD", SECTIONS 12.5-131 THROUGH 12.5-139, OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED ("CITY CODE"), AND BY AMENDING CHAPTER 2/ARTICLE XI/DIVISION 2, OF THE CITY CODE, ENTITLED "ADMINISTRATION/BOARDS, COMMITTEES, COMMISSIONS/STANDARDS FOR CREATION AND REVIEW OF BOARDS GENERALLY," BY AMENDING SECTION 2-892(4)(O) ALL AS STATED HEREIN; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. 13-00250 Memo - Office of the City Attorney SR.pdf 13-00250 Legislation FR/SR.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be PASSED ON FIRST READING PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
Chair Sarnoff: I'll tell you what, why don't we do redistricting? I mean, you guys --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Well, can we just get rid of the agenda? We're almost done.
Commissioner Carollo: Let's knock out --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: 'Cause that's going to take a minute.
Commissioner Carollo: I think we should knock out the agenda.
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah. Let's get -- we're almost done. You only have --
Chair Sarnoff: Want to knock out the agenda?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- RE.4 --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. Let's knock it out.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. So, all right, we have FR.3.
Commissioner Carollo: FR.3.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Chair, FR.3 is essentially cleanup of the code. It involves a board that has never been active. It does not have any members assigned to it.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Mr. Hannon: And it --
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by Commissioner Suarez, second by Commissioner Carollo. It's a public hearing. Anyone in the public wishing to be heard on FR.3, please step up. Hearing none, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed, coming back to this Commission. Madam City Attorney, it is an ordinance.
Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): If you may, Chairman, can you read it for me? I can't find it.
Chair Sarnoff: Sure.
The Ordinance was read by title into the public record by Chair Sarnoff.
Chair Sarnoff: Roll call.
Mr. Hannon: Roll call on item FR.3.
A roll call was taken, the result of which is stated above.
Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on first reading, 5-0.
Chair Sarnoff: Hey, can I get city attorney pay for that?
Commissioner Suarez: Reimbursement. You got to put it in escrow.
Chair Sarnoff: Right.
FR.4 ORDINANCE First Reading 13-00288 District 4- AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER Commissioner 10/ARTICLE I OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS Francis Suarez AMENDED, ENTITLED "BUILDINGS/IN GENERAL", MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING SECTION 10-4 , ENTITLED, "BUILDING PERMIT FEE SCHEDULE," IN ORDER TO SET THE SCHEDULE OF BUILDING PERMIT FEES AT $45.00, FOR RESIDENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS COSTING LESS
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THAN $2,500; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. 13-00288 Legislation FR.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Spence-Jones, that this matter be DEFERRED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
Note for the Record: Item FR.4 was deferred to the April 25, 2013 Commission Meeting.
Chair Sarnoff: FR.4. It's yours.
Commissioner Carollo: FR.4 --
Commissioner Suarez: No, it's mine. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. We can't change it on second reading, by the way, guys. You got to keep it light here a little bit sometimes. Okay, I'm going to move to defer this. I think it was two Commission meetings. Is that correct, Madam City Manager?
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Second.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you. Let me just say, though, that I've been -- the reason why I'm deferring it for two Commission meetings is because I haven't gotten the information that I requested on the fiscal impact, and I've been asking for it for a while. I -- you know --
Commissioner Carollo: Welcome to the club.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. I, you know, specifically told the Building director and Budget that, you know, I will respectfully defer this one last time, but with the caveat that, you know, we need that information, and I've been asking for it for -- I mean, since the first time I brought this up, which I believe was at least two Commission meetings ago.
Alice Bravo (Chief of Infrastructure/Assistant City Manager): They're pulling that information together.
Commissioner Suarez: I sincerely hope so.
Chair Sarnoff: These guys aren't in the penalty box, are they?
Commissioner Carollo: Welcome --
Chair Sarnoff: All right.
Commissioner Carollo: Now you know -- you thought I was joking about the penalty box.
Chair Sarnoff: I don't know. I've never seen Suarez in the box with you before, so --
Commissioner Carollo: Oh.
Chair Sarnoff: It's like he said --
Commissioner Carollo: Now we're not joking, huh?
Chair Sarnoff: RE (Resolution) --
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Commissioner Carollo: Now we're not joking, huh?
Commissioner Suarez: I'm getting used to it. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) used to it.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Excuse me, Chair. I have a mover for the deferral.
Chair Sarnoff: Oh, I'm sorry. You're right, deferral.
Commissioner Suarez: I think it was Commissioner Carollo.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, I moved it.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a mover, Commissioner Carollo. Second is Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Carollo: For the second meeting in April.
Chair Sarnoff: Any discussion? All in --
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: -- favor, please say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Mr. Hannon: So, Chair, the second meeting in April, that'll be April 25.
Commissioner Suarez: That's fine.
END OF FIRST READING ORDINANCES
RESOLUTIONS
RE.1 RESOLUTION 12-01075 Department of Public A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Facilities ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A REVOCABLE LICENSE AGREEMENT ("AGREEMENT"), IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE ATTACHED FORM, BETWEEN THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") AND THE NATIONAL JOURNALISTS' ASSOCIATION OF CUBA IN EXILE, INC., A FLORIDA NON-PROFIT CORPORATION ("LICENSEE"), FOR THE USE OF APPROXIMATELY 520.5 SQUARE FEET OF CITY-OWNED PROPERTY LOCATED AT 970 SOUTHWEST 1ST STREET, OFFICES 400-401, MIAMI, FLORIDA, FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING OFFICE SPACE FOR THE UNIFICATION OF CUBAN JOURNALISTS LIVING IN EXILE, COMMENCING FROM THE EFFECTIVE DATE, WITH THE LICENSEE TO PAY A MONTHLY USE FEE TO THE CITY OF TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-EIGHT DOLLARS AND 06/100 ($268.06), PLUS STATE OF FLORIDA USE TAX (IF APPLICABLE), WITH ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS MORE PARTICULARLY SET FORTH IN SAID AGREEMENT.
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12-01075 Summary Form.pdf 12-01075 Short Form - Exempt 2011 Tax Returns.pdf 12-01075 Legislation.pdf 12-01075 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be WITHDRAWN PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
RE.2 RESOLUTION 12-01307 Department of A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Planning and Zoning ATTACHMENT(S), APPOINTING TWO (2) ADDITIONAL PRE-QUALIFIED SPECIAL MASTERS, AS LISTED IN "EXHIBIT A", ATTACHED AND INCORPORATED, PURSUANT TO REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS NO. 320284, AUTHORIZED BY RESOLUTION NO. 12-0294, ADOPTED SEPTEMBER 13, 2012, TO PROVIDE SPECIAL MASTER SERVICES ON A CITYWIDE, AS-NEEDED CONTRACTUAL BASIS; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENTS, IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE ATTACHED FORM(S), FOR AN INITIAL PERIOD OF TWO (2) YEARS, WITH THE OPTION TO RENEW FOR TWO (2) ADDITIONAL ONE (1) YEAR PERIODS; ALLOCATING FUNDS FROM THE VARIOUS SOURCES, SUBJECT TO BUDGETARY APPROVAL AT THE TIME OF NEED. 12-01307 Summary Form.pdf 12-01307 Award Recommendation Form.pdf 12-01307 Martiza Alvarez, PA - Resume.pdf 12-01307 Victor H. De Yurre, ESQ Resume.pdf 12-01307 Pre-Legislation.pdf 12-01307 Cost Analysis - 01/24/13.pdf 12-01307 Legislation.pdf 12-01307 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be CONTINUED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 3 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff and Carollo Absent: 2 - Commissioner(s) Suarez and Spence-Jones
RE.3 RESOLUTION 13-00210 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DIRECTING THE CITY Attorney ATTORNEY TO TAKE ANY AND ALL ACTIONS AUTHORIZED IN LAW OR IN EQUITY, NECESSARY OR PERMITTED TO COLLECT ALL UNPAID MONIES DUE TO THE CITY OF MIAMI FROM GROVE KEY MARINA, INC. OR ITS SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST. 13-00210 Memo - Office of the City Attorney.pdf 13-00210 Legislation.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote.
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Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo and Spence-Jones Noes: 1 - Commissioner(s) Suarez
R-13-0074
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. I did promise somebody before 12 o'clock, but I don't see him out here. Is the attorney --? It was RE.3, the Grove Fuel Fee. Is the attorney here, because he wanted this to be heard before noon?
Vice Chair Gort: RE.3?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Are we -- is this him running in?
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. So RE.3. And this is, I believe, a City Attorney sponsored item.
Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): Mr. Chair, this item was continued at the last Commission meeting. This is simply a request for authority to file a lawsuit to collect certain monies that are owed to the City under a contract that has expired.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Is there a --? This is not a public hearing. And I'm going to ask Madam City Attorney, is there anything you can express to me with regard to whether I should allow a public hearing on this?
Ms. Bru: Well, I would recommend that you don't. I briefed each of you individually on the City's claim, the factual basis for the City's claim, the legal theories under which the City can pursue the claim, and the risk and benefits pursuing the claim. And the only thing that's left to do is just to take a vote up or down.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Is there a motion?
Vice Chair Gort: What's the City recommendation?
Chair Sarnoff: She's asking us to give her authorization to collect the amount that's owed.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Can -- so that means we can't have any discussion on it? Is that --?
Chair Sarnoff: No, we can -- we can --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Oh, okay.
Chair Sarnoff: I think she's advising us not to, but she does not want a --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Oh.
Chair Sarnoff: -- public hearing. We can discuss it. But I want to do so first with -- if there's a motion.
Commissioner Carollo: I make a motion to approve the --
Chair Sarnoff: All right, we have a motion. Is there a second?
Vice Chair Gort: Move it for discussion.
Chair Sarnoff: Second by Commissioner Gort. And I'm going to recognize Commissioner Gort first.
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Vice Chair Gort: No. Go ahead.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. And I just want to be clear because I know that in the last meeting we had, I had some concerns about why we were even doing this, okay, and I still have those concerns. But I just want to be clear from my City Manager's standpoint and from my City Attorney's standpoint -- I'm assuming that you put this on this agenda because there's a reason for it. Correct?
Ms. Bru: The professionals that the City has that determine whether or not there's performance under a contract have determined that there was a breach under a contract. Based on the professional judgment of your auditor general and your Public Facilities' manager [sic], there is money that is owed to the City. My role as your City Attorney is to take it to court. We made a demand. The money hasn't been paid. It is -- you are the client. You make a decision as to whether you want to litigate or not. It is based on the recommendation of your professionals.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: All right. Mr. Manager, do you have any comments on it?
Johnny Martinez (City Manager): I just believe it's incumbent upon us to -- if we believe there's money owed to us, to go out and try to pursue it. We tried to do it one on one; it didn't happen, so therefore, the judicial system should decide whether the money's owed to us or not or anything in between. I do believe we should pursue this.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And they still have the right, no matter what, to apply or to --?
Mr. Martinez: Yes.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So they're still having that right to do it?
Mr. Martinez: Yes.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Even in the midst of the suit, Madam City Attorney?
Ms. Bru: You know, Commissioner, this lawsuit should not be in any way, shape, or form discussed in context with the bid.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Ms. Bru: Because, really, the two things are independent of each other.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No problem. I got it.
Ms. Bru: You know, to answer your question, does any individual have the right to bid? Well, if they comply with the bid requirements, they do.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Ms. Bru: That's -- that would have to be determined based on the proposal submitted.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. And last but not least, Henry, can you step to the mike for me.
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Henry Torre: Henry Torre, director of Public Facilities.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And this has your full recommendation?
Mr. Torre: Absolutely, Commissioner.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: All right. All right.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Gort's recognized for the record.
Vice Chair Gort: The question that I have, my understanding, the stipulation going around that this was done on purpose for political reasons. My understanding is, these audits have been taking place for a long time. Matter of fact, this is a contract that began back in 1977. A lot of amendments have been made throughout the years. So my understanding is, this is not something new. This is something been going on for a while. Am I correct?
Ms. Bru: This has been going on for a while.
Vice Chair Gort: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Carollo.
Commissioner Carollo: I'll yield.
Commissioner Suarez: No, no. Go ahead.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner --
Commissioner Suarez: Make our way. We'll make a way this way.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Carollo.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And by the way, thank you, because I requested a deferral in the last meeting in order to be able to speak with the auditor general, our independent auditor, with the City Attorney's office. And after speaking with them, you know, it became pretty apparent to me that it appears the City has a good case and money is owed. And I think we need to send a strong message that whenever money is owed, we are going to go after it and not just with them, with everyone else.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Everybody.
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: And let me -- and everyone else, everyone else. And --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No special considerations.
Commissioner Carollo: Everyone. If you owe the City money, we are going to go after it.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Everybody.
Commissioner Carollo: Now -- everybody. Now, with that said, if right now there are contractual terms and the City for some reason missed or hasn't calculated correctly or so forth and we start doing audits and we figure this out, we're going to go after it also, you know. So
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listen, the amount isn't for the 20 some years. The amount is for four years or whatever amount it is because the statute of limitations, and you know, I'm upset about that 'cause it should be for the whole time. But regardless, the bottom line is if you owe the City of Miami money, the City of Miami, this Commission, I think needs to stand strong and say we are going to go after it. And I'll go a step further. I particularly -- and I understand in this certain case, there's a lot of notion whether it's political or not. In my personal view, if you owe the City money, realistically, you don't pay up, I want to part ways. I don't want to allow you to bid for another contract for another "X" number of years. I want to part ways until you pay us, which, by the way, is what we do in the Bayfront Park Management Trust. And, Commissioner Suarez, when you mentioned how good we have done, you know, how much we've built up our reserves, listen, we just run it as a business. So I'm not even too comfortable with the part that, Well, we put it in an escrow account and this and that, 'cause I'll be honest with you. Listen, if they owe us money -- and this is just a four hundred and some thousand dollars. I'm actually concerned also with the property taxes. And I understand we're in litigation, but in all fairness, that's still monies that the City may be liable for. So, listen, I think we need to approve this and we need to send a strong message. If you owe the City of Miami money, we are going to go after it, and no more bidding, no more allowing you to bid for a future contract, and that's it. It's final. Why would the City of Miami be in litigation with you and then want to continue some type of contractual negotiation or contractual relationship in the future? We need to part ways. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. Commissioner Suarez, you're recognized for the record.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that's a very compelling argument, what Commissioner Carollo makes. Obviously, he makes it with a lot of passion and I respect him for that. I think it kind of presupposes that they do owe the City money. So I mean, it's -- you're kind of a little bit putting the cart before the horse in the sense of, you know, this hasn't been decided, hasn't been determined so, obviously, the other side doesn't feel that they owe the City of Miami money; otherwise, you wouldn't be here talking about it. We would have simply -- they would have written a check potentially. And we've had that situation occur on a variety of different cases, you know, since I've been here, definitely. I know in one particular that I can think of -- it was similar to this. It was a solid waste company, and there was a dispute as to whether they owed money and, if so, how much money they owed. And there was going to be a recommendation by the City Attorney to litigate. And I think kind of cooler minds prevailed and the parties -- and by and through the Manager's negotiation -- and I think it was a Mr. Carswell at the time -- sat with the parties, worked together. In many cases, whether they began with litigation or whether they -- or settled through litigation are oftentimes settled before litigation with the parties kind of getting together and trying to work it out. That's what I would urge in this case. I'm going to -- I'm setting my personal feelings aside in terms of what I think has transpired. I think everybody knows it. I've been very clear on what I see as some suspicious timing, given the facts of the case. But I don't know that any kind of real substantive settlement negotiations have transpired in this case, other than just making a simple demand and then going to litigation. That's not typically the way things are handled in the legal world. You don't just rush to litigate; you -- you know, because there is a backside risk, which is that the City -- if the City were to lose, they would be responsible for attorney's fees, and I know that that applies to both sides. So there's a risk to both sides on that issue. And certainly, sometimes filing a lawsuit does give you leverage in terms of negotiating posture, and I think that's something that needs to be taken into account. I know the City Attorney gave us -- our office some cases and we reviewed them. Some of the cases seem to indicate that the governments will not be estopped -- cannot be estopped in cases where they've acted in, you know, a certain pattern, but then it seems like some of the other cases give the indication that the City or the state could be estopped. So I don't think -- if it were a nondisputed matter, I don't think we would be here. Obviously, we would have both sides, you know, agreeing to cut a check or whatever. This is obviously a pattern of conduct that has persisted for 20 years, and I don't think that's particularly insignificant. As far as going after people that owe the City of Miami money, I'm 100 percent on board with every single Commissioner here, that we have to do that and we have to do it
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aggressively. I just feel that there should be a process for doing that. I don't think we should necessarily rush to litigate in a situation where -- you know, it's different -- even -- it's even different from that solid waste company. 'Cause in the case of that solid waste company, we're auditing their records, and we were seeing that they were under reporting what their tonage was on the basis of an interpretation of the contract. In this particular case, we knew, as a city, that we were getting these payments. We -- there's some, you know, correspondence, whether it's -- binds the City or not, I guess, is the issue legally. But we knew, you know, what payments we were getting. We accepted those payments. And now we're saying that that wasn't the right schedule; that it was a different schedule. So it -- you know, I know that -- sometimes saying owing the City money is a very dramatic way of putting it, but fact of the matter is, there's a dispute as to what was the collection mechanism and, you know, clearly, both sides are at odds. I don't know that any sort of attempts have been made and it hasn't really been articulated on the record. Maybe it has. I don't know. And I haven't had a chance to talk to the relevant parties on this to settle the case. So I don't know if that's something that this Commission would consider. Maybe giving them a period of time, you know, two weeks, a month, to get together and try to settle the case in a way that is amicable for the City. And if that doesn't happen, then maybe at that point we can authorize litigation. We've done that before and it's been successful.
Vice Chair Gort: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Gort.
Vice Chair Gort: If I recall, I think I'm the one that asked for the -- not to go to court with the sanitation department, and I think we did worked out a transaction and there was certain disagreement. So I don't know if Administration have tried to meet with the individuals and see if they can come to some kind of agreement.
Mr. Torre: Commissioner, to answer that question, a few attempts have been made. Initial demand letter was sent out I believe in June of last year. There were subsequent conversations where they were adamant that they would not pay so.
Chair Sarnoff: Let me just say something because there have been times up here I've been less proud of things that we've said and other times when I've been more proud. I'm pretty proud today of what I'm hearing. One of the times that I've been up here that I've been least proud was probably the last time this issue came up because in no shape or form are we making a determination as to whether they do or do not owe the money. We are simply setting in course a policy statement that if, in fact, this Administration believes in good faith that it is owed money, that we allow them to pursue it. This City wears two hats. This City wears the hat of a service provider to its residents and that's its primary function and role. We're going to make sure you're safe. If you fall and you have a heart attack, we're going to do the best we can to rescue you. We're going to provide you garbage services. That's called the service provider hat the City has to its residents and that is probably 85 percent of what we do. But we wear a second hat, and the second hat is as a business proprietor. We don't always act very business-like. But in this circumstance we have the opportunity to be businessmen. And let me remind you of a circumstance. I know everybody was up here for this situation, and that was at the college of policing. And if you remember, during the college of policing, somebody ordered furniture without authorization from the City of Miami. A person, a director thought that he had the right, the ability to order -- I think it was 85,000 or $100,000 worth of furniture.
Commissioner Suarez: No, it was way more than that. It was way more.
Chair Sarnoff: Was it a lot more than that?
Commissioner Suarez: I think so.
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Chair Sarnoff: Okay. And that person learned very quickly that the person that authorizes changes, the person that authorizes purchases in excess of $25,000, not the Mayor, not the Manager; it's the City Commission. It's not Commissioner Suarez. It's not Commissioner Carollo. It's Commissioner Sarnoff, Carollo, and Suarez when we're sitting here in the sunshine and we vote. Could equally be Spence-Jones, Gort; and hopefully, it'll be the five of us, but it won't always be. But the point is that is the check and balance of this government. This government doesn't believe that we should vest in one person extreme authority beyond, Mr. Chairman, $25,000. That is the check and balance. Now, somebody will say $407,000. What does that mean? I could tell you it means six police officers fully staffed with vehicles. That's a lot of money. And somebody else -- I'll be honest with you. Where's Robert Soler. Robert Soler this morning comes in and says to me, "Why don't you just compromise with them?" Well, the only way we'll be able to compromise with them is if we put ourselves in a position to compromise with them, and maybe we will and maybe we won't, but that's what the City Attorney's job is to do. You allow her to say, Commissioner, in Chicago they do things this way. They have 37 aldermen. And by the way, Commissioner, did you know that each one of those aldermen can contract for the City of Mia -- City of Chicago and enter into a contract and bind that city? But did you know, Commissioner --
Commissioner Suarez: That's not a great idea.
Chair Sarnoff: -- that of your small, little five Commission, no one of you are capable of entering into a contract with the City of Miami and binding it? And more so, no director is authorized, on behalf of the City of Miami, to make any change, term, or condition to alter a contract. And I know some of you have a feeling that this has gone on for a very long time. Let me just say something I think Commissioner Carollo would like. I'm using this hypothetically so don't anybody say I did this. For 25 years I filed fraudulent tax returns. Does that mean the government is estopped from looking into my tax returns? No.
Commissioner Carollo: No.
Chair Sarnoff: But for seven years they will go back because I filed the tax return because of the statute of limitations. My point is that all we're doing is going back to the statute of limitations. They're not going back all the way to try in perpetuity of this particular contract. And we're saying, look, you cannot estop us into a position 'cause if that were the rule and that were the way it was, then we would tell everyone that's doing business with the City of Miami, just count a couple of years and say we've just changed the terms and conditions of your contract because you're paying us at a different rate and we haven't caught you.
Commissioner Carollo: But fraud, they could go all the way back.
Chair Sarnoff: It can go back all the way with fraud? Okay. Sorry about that. See, I shouldn't venture into your neighborhood. But my point is today, all we're doing -- we're not being judge. We're not being jury. And we're not being executioner. We're simply saying go to a court, go to a man or a woman that wears a robe and let them make that determination. Yes, Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I just want to quickly just make two very small points. And I'm glad that we're going to take a vote on this item because I think it's become a lot bigger than what it needs to become. But I think that it's important to understand how we got here. And I think, you know -- I think we're all in agreement, if anybody owes the City, they should pay the City. I don't think that no one sitting up here is not going to support our City Attorney in doing that. That's her job. Her job is to make sure she protects the investments of the City. I think we're all on the same page. I think where the confusion became -- and I'm just keeping it all the way real -- is the motivation behind it and the fairness. And what I'm saying motivation, I'm saying what motivated this to happen. I think that caused this feeling, Okay. Well, why are we
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doing this now when we don't do it all the time? So the question became about the motivation. The second part of that is fairness. Well, if we are going to do it, are we applying this across the board? Are we doing this to everyone? Are we auditing everyone? Are we, you know, digging in every, you know, contract that we have to make sure that if you owe the City, you pay? So I think it's the -- I think it's important to say that 'cause our job as City Commissioners up here is to make sure that we do what's fair and right, what's, you know, just, you know, and make great sound decisions using our wisdom, you know, in these matters. And I think what you might have heard from me and I know you might have heard from Commissioner Suarez was what was motivating this now? So I think that that's -- that was the issue, and I think we cleared it up today. I don't think that there's any more confusion on the issue. It's just, let's be fair across the board. And I'm always going to push for fairness, and that was my concern, and what motivated it. So I just wanted you to be clear of that, Mr. Chairman. That's the only reason why I said wait a minute. Why are we doing it? And when you can't give me a straight answer as to why we're doing it and why we're not applying it across the board, then for me it becomes a little fishy.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair, if I may?
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you. I think hypotheticals are risky --
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah, I saw that one.
Commissioner Suarez: -- particularly when --
Chair Sarnoff: I was going pretty well and then I blew it.
Commissioner Suarez: And I think it's always risky because you're also, you know -- sometimes you may leave out a perfect correlation between the hypothetical that you're trying to create and the actual circumstance. I think one of the things that we may be under appreciating as a board and one of the reasons why I think it may be prudent for us to maybe give the parties an opportunity to try to settle this case within the next two weeks to a month is that we do have a risk of loss. And if we do lose this case, we -- and again, it applies both ways, and I understand that and -- but I think it could easily cost the City of Miami $100,000 in legal fees, maybe $200,000 in legal fees. So we go -- we swing the pendulum from one situation where we -- where we're trying to recover money for the residents of the City of Miami in good faith to a situation where we actually have to pay one of these parties money. So I think there is a reason why people don't rush to litigation in many circumstances. I always like to say, one of the reasons why I like to be a transactional lawyer rather than a litigating attorney is at the end of the transaction, you get to do something positive; that everyone gets to come together, you give them the keys to your home -- to their new home or whatever. In litigation, oftentimes all the parties leave upset with each other. Whether they win, whether they lose, they rarely ever get what they want, and then they have to try to collect at the end of the day. So collection, you know, is also another potential, you know, issue. But that's just my personal opinion. I mean, I have personal feelings on this, which I think I've already expressed in the last Commission meeting and I don't think I need to repeat.
Vice Chair Gort: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Vice Chair Gort: I'm not an attorney so I need to ask you a question. Even if we do file for suit, they can still get together and come up with an agreement.
Mr. Torre: Yeah.
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Commissioner Carollo: Exactly.
Chair Sarnoff: Right.
Vice Chair Gort: And I think this might give us some leverage. Yeah, we might lose but they might lose too so. I think everybody needs to understand that. And the best thing is, hey, no -- any time we go to litigation, like you stated before, not everybody's happy. But maybe if you get together and sit down and come out to an agreement, everybody comes out okay.
Chair Sarnoff: I agree. And by the way, just on a word on attorney's fees, Madam City Attorney, I would hope -- and I think you've said this to me in the past -- we can stipulate to, if not all the facts, 99 percent of these facts because I don't think there is a material dispute of fact. There is a material dispute as to what the law is. So I have to believe the risk the City of Miami might be facing is 10 to $15,000 in attorney's fees to collect $407,000, plus interest. That's a risk that I'm willing to take. But I know you and I know the City Attorney in good faith consistently and persistently always tries to stipulate the facts because that just makes it a more efficient operation. Having said that, let's call the question. All in favor, please say "aye."
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Aye.
Commissioner Carollo: Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: Aye.
Commissioner Suarez: No at this point.
Chair Sarnoff: Anyone registering a no?
Commissioner Suarez: No at this point.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, we have one no. All right, I think -- it's 12 o'clock. Commissioner Spence-Jones --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah. I think I have a very --
Chair Sarnoff: -- you wanted Southwest Overtown/Park --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: It's just a short, little item.
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah, that's fine. So we'll adjourn this meeting. We'll have a two-minute recess or --
Todd Hannon (City Clerk): Yeah. We'll recess the Commission meeting. And if you could just give us two minutes to change the tape, we'll be ready to go. Thank you, Commissioners.
RE.4 RESOLUTION 13-00180 Office of Grants A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Administration ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR GRANT FUNDING TO THE FLORIDA INLAND NAVIGATION DISTRICT WATERWAYS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $37,500, FOR THE DESIGN AND PERMITTING OF THE VIRGINIA KEY NATURE CENTER SEAWALL AND KAYAK LAUNCH
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RAMP ("PROJECT"); AUTHORIZING THE ALLOCATION OF THE REQUIRED MATCHING FUNDS FOR FIFTY PERCENT (50%) OF THE PROJECT COSTS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $37,500, AVAILABLE UNDER THE CITY OF MIAMI PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNT; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE ANY AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR THE SUBMISSION OF SAID GRANT APPLICATION, THE EXECUTION OF GRANT OR DEED AGREEMENTS AND AMENDMENTS, AND THE ACCEPTANCE OF GRANT FUNDS, IN THE EVENT OF THE AWARD OF THE GRANT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013-2014. 13-00180 Summary Form.pdf 13-00180 Legislation.pdf 13-00180 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0081
Chair Sarnoff: All right, F -- RE.4.
Lillian Blondet: Good afternoon. Lillian Blondet, Office of Grants Administration. I have five items today. They're all have to do with the Florida Inland Navigation grant application. They require a 50 percent match. And what I'll do is mention the source of the match, since that's a question from all the Commissioners, also as I go through the resolutions. I'm also going to ask you if I can do RE.15 after RE.8 so we can cover them all at once.
Chair Sarnoff: Not a problem.
Ms. Blondet: RE.4 -- also, let me start by saying there's a scrivener's error.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. We have a motion and we have a second. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion --
Commissioner Suarez: As amended.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Do you want to put the scrivener's --?
Ms. Blondet: As amended.
Chair Sarnoff: As amended, right?
Ms. Blondet: As amended.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Do you want to put the scrivener --? Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: The amendment is 37,500 --
Ms. Blondet: Yes.
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Chair Sarnoff: -- for those of you that didn't hear Lillian say it. All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.5 RESOLUTION 13-00181 Office of Grants A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Administration ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR GRANT FUNDING TO THE FLORIDA INLAND NAVIGATION DISTRICT WATERWAYS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $190,050, FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION AND REPAIRS OF THE BOAT RAMP AT CURTIS PARK ("PROJECT"); AUTHORIZING THE ALLOCATION OF THE REQUIRED MATCHING FUNDS FOR FIFTY PERCENT (50%) OF THE PROJECT COSTS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $190,050, AVAILABLE UNDER CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT B-35806; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE ANY AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR THE SUBMISSION OF SAID GRANT APPLICATION, THE EXECUTION OF GRANT OR DEED AGREEMENTS AND AMENDMENTS, AND THE ACCEPTANCE OF GRANT FUNDS, IN THE EVENT OF THE AWARD OF THE GRANT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013-2014. 13-00181 Summary Form.pdf 13-00181 Legislation.pdf 13-00181 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0082
Chair Sarnoff: RE.5.
Lillian Blondet (Director, Grants Administration): RE.5, it's -- same thing. There's a scrivener's error. It should be $190,000 -- $190,050.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Second by Commissioner Gort. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.6 RESOLUTION 13-00182 Office of Grants A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Administration ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR GRANT FUNDING TO THE FLORIDA INLAND
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NAVIGATION DISTRICT WATERWAYS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $75,000, FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DINNER KEY MARINA DINGHY DOCK ("PROJECT"); AUTHORIZING THE ALLOCATION OF THE REQUIRED MATCHING FUNDS FOR FIFTY PERCENT (50%) OF THE PROJECT COSTS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $75,000, AVAILABLE UNDER CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT 40-B30735 AWARD 1437; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE ANY AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR THE SUBMISSION OF SAID GRANT APPLICATION, THE EXECUTION OF GRANT OR DEED AGREEMENTS AND AMENDMENTS, AND THE ACCEPTANCE OF GRANT FUNDS, IN THE EVENT OF THE AWARD OF THE GRANT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013-2014. 13-00182 Summary Form.pdf 13-00182 Legislation.pdf 13-00182 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0083
Lillian Blondet (Director, Grants Administration): RE.6 is for the construction of the Dinner Key Marina dinghy dock. It's a project cost --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by --
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- Commissioner Spence-Jones, second by Commissioner Gort. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.7 RESOLUTION 13-00183 Office of Grants A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Administration ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR GRANT FUNDING TO THE FLORIDA INLAND NAVIGATION DISTRICT WATERWAYS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $325,000, FOR THE MANATEE BEND PARK SEAWALL RESTORATION AND BOAT LAUNCH RAMP INSTALLATION - PHASE 2 ("PROJECT"); AUTHORIZING THE ALLOCATION OF THE REQUIRED MATCHING FUNDS FOR FIFTY PERCENT (50%) OF THE PROJECT COSTS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $325,000, AVAILABLE UNDER THE BISCAYNE BAY-MIAMI RIVER LAND ACQUISITION LAND ACQUISITION TRUST FUND; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE ANY AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM
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ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR THE SUBMISSION OF SAID GRANT APPLICATION, THE EXECUTION OF GRANT OR DEED AGREEMENTS AND AMENDMENTS, AND THE ACCEPTANCE OF MATCHING FUNDS, IN THE EVENT OF THE AWARD OF THE GRANT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013-2014. 13-00183 Summary Form.pdf 13-00183 Legislation.pdf 13-00183 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
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Chair Sarnoff: RE.7.
Lillian Blondet (Director, Grants Administration): RE.7 is for a project in Manatee Bend Park's seawall restoration and boat launch.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by --
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- Commissioner Spence-Jones, second by Commissioner Carollo. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.8 RESOLUTION 13-00185 Department of A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AUTHORIZING THE Purchasing PROCUREMENT OF STRUCTURAL FIRE FIGHTER PROTECTIVE CLOTHING, FROM MUNICIPAL EMERGENCY SERVICES, INC., UTILIZING AN EXISTING NATIONAL PURCHASING PARTNERS ("NPP") D/B/A FIRERESCUE-GPO CONTRACT, FOR STRUCTURAL FIRE FIGHTER PROTECTIVE CLOTHING, CONTRACT # 804, EFFECTIVE THROUGH JULY 31, 2014, SUBJECT TO ANY FURTHER RENEWALS, EXTENSIONS OR REPLACEMENT CONTRACTS BY FIRERESCUE-GPO, FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF FIRE-RESCUE, TO BE UTILIZED BY VARIOUS CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES, ON AS-NEEDED CONTRACTUAL BASIS, SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS AND BUDGETARY APPROVAL AT THE TIME OF NEED; FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGING THE COOPERATIVE PROCUREMENT BENEFITS OF THE NPP PROGRAM THAT ENABLES THE CITY TO AGGREGATE ITS PURCHASING VOLUME WITH THAT OF OTHER PARTICIPATING AGENCIES IN ORDER TO REALIZE A LARGER PERCENTAGE DISCOUNT PRICING STRUCTURE TO THE FINANCIAL BENEFIT OF THE CITIZENS OF THE CITY; FURTHER AUTHORIZING PIGGYBACKS OF OTHER AND FUTURE
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COOPERATIVE NPP D/B/A FIRERESCUE-GPO CONTRACTS, WITHOUT ADDITIONAL CITY COMMISSION AUTHORIZATION UPON DETERMINATION BY THE CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER THAT SAID PIGGYBACKS ARE IN COMPLIANCE WITH SECTION 18-111 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS AND BUDGETARY APPROVAL AT THE TIME OF NEED. 13-00185 Summary Form.pdf 13-00185 FireRescue - GPO.pdf 13-00185 Initial Purchase Approved.pdf 13-00185 Award Recommendation Form.pdf 13-00185 Quotation - MES.pdf 13-00185 Cooperative Purchasing Agrmt.pdf 13-00185 Structural Fire Fighter - Contract 804.pdf 13-00185 Request For Proposals.pdf 13-00185 Legislation.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo and Spence-Jones Absent: 1 - Commissioner(s) Suarez
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Chair Sarnoff: Okay, now we're going back then to --
Commissioner Carollo: RE.9?
Chair Sarnoff: -- RE.9. RE.8.
Commissioner Carollo: I'm sorry.
Chair Sarnoff: That's all right. RE.8. Chief.
Reginald Duren: Yes, sir. Reggie Duren, deputy fire chief. RE.8 is a resolution of the Miami Commission authorizing the procurement of structural firefighting protective clothing, otherwise known as --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Deputy Chief Duren: -- bunking gear.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Second by Commissioner Carollo. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.9 RESOLUTION 13-00190
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Department of Capital A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Improvements ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING A PAYMENT TO THE CITY OF MIAMI, IN THE Program AMOUNT OF $657,579.88, FROM ARCHITECTS & ENGINEERS INSURANCE COMPANY, INC., THE INSURANCE CARRIER FOR TIMOTHY HAAHS & ASSOCIATES, INC. ("HAAHS"), IN FULL SETTLEMENT OF ALL CLAIMS AND DEMANDS AGAINST LEO A. DALY AND HAAHS, ARISING OUT OF, OR RELATED TO, DEFECTS IN THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE ELEVATED SLABS AND THE COLUMNS OF THE PARKING GARAGES LOCATED AT MARLINS STADIUM; ALLOCATING SAID FUNDS TO CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT NO. B-30648; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A SETTLEMENT AND RELEASE AGREEMENT, IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE ATTACHED FORM, AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, TO EFFECTUATE THE SETTLEMENT. 13-00190 Summary Form.pdf 13-00190 Pre-Legislation.pdf 13-00190 Legislation.pdf 13-00190 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Vice Chair Gort, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo and Spence-Jones Absent: 1 - Commissioner(s) Suarez
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Chair Sarnoff: RE.9.
Mark Spanioli: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Mark Spanioli, director of Capital Improvements. RE.9 is a settlement and release agreement with Architects & Engineers Insurance Company for the Marlins Stadium garage structural deficiencies. This is the final release, in the amount of $657,579.
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion by Commissioner Gort --
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- second by Commissioner Carollo. Any discussion?
Commissioner Carollo: I just want to put for the record, was all the repairs done?
Mr. Spanioli: Yes, they've been completed.
Commissioner Carollo: And did it cost the City of Miami any extra money?
Mr. Spanioli: No, it did not.
Commissioner Carollo: No. This is just the monies that was being given to the City for those repairs, correct?
Mr. Spanioli: That's correct.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
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Chair Sarnoff: Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.10 RESOLUTION 13-00191 Department of Capital A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AUTHORIZING THE Improvements CITY MANAGER TO EXERCISE THE CITY OF MIAMI'S ("CITY'S") FIRST Program OPTION TO RENEW THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH TRANSPORTATION AMERICA, INC., TO PROVIDE ON-DEMAND TRANSPORTATION SERVICES THROUGHOUT THE CITY FOR THE LOW INCOME ELDERLY AND/OR DISABLED, FOR AN ADDITIONAL ONE (1) YEAR PERIOD, IN THE NOT TO EXCEED AMOUNT OF $256,103; ALLOCATING FUNDS FROM THE CITY`S SHARE OF THE TRANSIT SURTAX. 13-00191 Summary Form.pdf 13-00191 Pre-Legislation.pdf 13-00191 Legislation.pdf
Motion by Vice Chair Gort, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be DEFERRED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo and Spence-Jones Absent: 1 - Commissioner(s) Suarez Note for the Record: Item RE.10 was deferred to the April 25, 2013 Commission Meeting.
Chair Sarnoff: RE.10
Mark Spanioli (Director, Capital Improvements Program): Commissioners, RE.10 is the first renewal option for the on-demand transportation services to Transportation America, in the amount of -- not to exceed $256,103. It's a one-year renewal option.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by Commissioner Carollo.
Vice Chair Gort: Wait a minute, wait a minute. For discussion.
Chair Sarnoff: Second by Commissioner Gort for discussion. And the Chair recognizes Commissioner Gort.
Vice Chair Gort: I was understanding that I was going to receive some information of the procedures, how they're doing, and how much we spent and all that. I have not received that so I'm not ready to vote on this.
Mr. Spanioli: I was not able to compile the information. I just received it just recently, so I was not able to get it to you yesterday.
Vice Chair Gort: 'Cause this is one we discussed quite a bit. I even have -- I just received a message for a lady -- a senior citizen that wanted to go to the doctor's appointment. She made the phone call. She made the appointments, and she has not been picked up. So I want the records, how many -- how much we spent, the total we spent.
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Mr. Spanioli: I have the numbers.
Vice Chair Gort: And I was supposed to have gotten a report, but I don't need it now.
Mr. Spanioli: Okay.
Vice Chair Gort: But I'm not ready to vote for this.
Chair Sarnoff: So the seconder withdraws his motion -- his second. And I take it that you would like to do a motion to defer this to --
Vice Chair Gort: Defer this, yes.
Chair Sarnoff: -- the second meeting in April?
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And I just want to be clear -- and I support, you know, his motion. But I just want to make sure -- the contract continues, though, right?
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: All right. I want to make sure the seniors are still going to be picked up.
Vice Chair Gort: No, no. The seniors will be still --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Vice Chair Gort: -- picked up.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: All right.
Vice Chair Gort: And any complaints will be given to you all.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Is there a second on Commissioner Gort's motion to defer?
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a second. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say “aye.”
RE.11 RESOLUTION 13-00249 District 2- A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Commissioner Marc ATTACHMENT(S), URGING THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF David Sarnoff PUBLIC WORKS AND WASTE MANAGEMENT TO ACCEPT AND IMPLEMENT THE "TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD DESIGN" CRITERIA OF THE FLORIDA GREENBOOK AS ATTACHED; DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO TRANSMIT A COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION TO THE OFFICIALS STATED HEREIN.
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13-00249 Legislation.pdf 13-00249 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be DEFERRED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
Note for the Record: Item RE.11 was deferred to the March 28, 2013 Commission Meeting.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, gentlemen, I'm going to try and move some things around because we had some time certains. Elizabeth Plater-Zyber [sic] is going to go at the -- well, I was going to say at the 9:30 moment, but it's -- we're way past that. So we're going to go to RE.11. It's urging the County to adopt traditional neighborhood design criteria. Followed by that, DI.3, the state of the real estate in the City of Miami, and I have a few comments I want to make about that. But I just wanted to give us a little bit of an agenda of where we'll be for the next two items. Ms. Plater-Zyberk, you're recognized for the record.
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk: Thank you, Commissioner. Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, 1023 Southwest 25th Avenue. This item is to allow the City to use a new standard for the design and dimensioning of city streets. You may not -- most people don't understand that the standards for the dimensions and performance of our streets, our public spaces, are generally set at the state level with something that's known as the Greenbook, the Department of Transportation standards for road design. These apply best to suburban and rural places, but they trickle down into the County standards, which then becomes the City standard, unless the City agrees to set its own standards, which is rare here in Dade -- Miami-Dade County. Recently, Chapter 19 was introduced into the state standard, which provides for an urban standard for public space design. The Greenbook standards generally are written for moving vehicular traffic through suburban and rural areas based on minimum speeds, which are higher than you normally want in city streets. These state standards frequently do not correspond with our urban conditions, and they are primarily related to dimensions such as lane widths, on-street parking, radius of curbs at intersections. And what this new standard will allow is for street designs to recognize pedestrian and bicycle use and safety more than the old standard does. So this is essentially just opening the door for the City to be able to use this new standard. It has to be passed city by city -- approved city by city in order to be used. And I would just add the comment that probably traffic congestion in quantity is here to stay, and our best bet to deal with it over time is to try to influence its behavior through the design of our streets. So I would hope that you all would approve this and engage Public Works to work with us on it. It's a Coconut Grove BID initiative, the Business Improvement District, but it would benefit the whole City.
Chair Sarnoff: Is there a motion?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I would -- I definitely -- I mean, I have all the -- all of the ten items on it, but I would like to hear from my Public Works Department, if we can, on this. So I'm not going to be prepared, Liz, to really, you know, say yes on this because I want to make sure it doesn't affect anything else that we're trying to do. I know it's just a criteria but --
Nzeribe Ihekwaba (Director, Public Works): Good morning. Could I get the question again?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. Have you had a chance to review the recommendations?
Mr. Ihekwaba: I have not had a chance yet.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. I -- Commissioner Sarnoff -- Chairman Sarnoff, I think that he should as a part of Public Works. This should be a step that goes to them first before we vote on the item. I know it's --
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Chair Sarnoff: That's fine.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- design criteria, but since I've been dealing with streets for the last two weeks, I'm really cautious about what I do from a street perspective now. Is there any way, Commissioner Sarnoff, we can --?
Chair Sarnoff: We could bring this back, but I -- Francisco, are you there? Because I thought we had agreed that everyone from the Administration looked at this, so could you explain --?
Francisco Garcia: Happy to. For the record, Francisco Garcia, Planning & Zoning director. And certainly, I will defer to Zerry Ihekwaba on this matter. I will say, however, that in terms of applying the guidelines and standards that are being proposed to you today, the City of Miami presently, as part of its Public Works guidelines and standards, abides by these principles. My understanding was that the intent of this ordinance -- or resolution, rather, was to have Miami-Dade County --
Chair Sarnoff: Right.
Mr. Garcia: -- as the global agency to adopt them as well. And I'll point out very briefly one of the issues that frequently comes up that we have to deal with that we find very disheartening, especially as pertains to developers, so they come into the City, they present their plans. We -- and in this particular case, the Public Works Department -- reviews their proposal for improvements in the public right-of-way pursuant to our standards, and they comply with them, and we're satisfied with that. But because it is in the case that, as you know, in the City of Miami, many rights-of-way are actually under County jurisdiction, if that particular property happens to front a City of Miami right-of-way and a County right-of-way, the treatment of both of those rights-of-way can at times be inconsistent and incompatible and that has created some level of discord, at least in our processing of these permits, but I'll defer to Mr. Ihekwaba on that as well.
Mr. Ihekwaba: What -- morning again. Zerry Ihekwaba. What Mr. Francisco just described pertains to the exclusivity of the jurisdiction that Miami-Dade County maintains on all right-of-ways [sic], regardless whether they are City or County. Currently, the process we adopt is that all right-of-way improvements need to conform to minimum standard and criteria, and the County has a major role to play. Now, in regards to any specific instances where the -- an individual has come to us, we usually consider the criteria that is established in the Greenbook before we route the set of plans to the County for concurrence. However, the ultimate jurisdiction for approving permits rests with the City's Public Works, regardless whether they're City right-of-way or County. County does not issue permits for any type of improvements, but they give the approvals.
Chair Sarnoff: Well, here's what I suggest 'cause I want Commissioner Spence-Jones to be a positive vote on this. I would like you, Mr. Ihekwaba, to give Francisco Garcia and Elizabeth Plater-Zyber [sic] an hour of your time in the next two weeks. I think to bring this back to the next Commission meeting, I'd like you to understand it and, if you can, to support it; if you cannot, tell us why you cannot support it. I'm a little surprised, a little disappointed at the Administration because I was told this was ready to go. I know a lot of Commissioners have had issues with the County and the way that they address the movement. We used to call them non--
Commissioner Suarez: Arterial.
Chair Sarnoff: No. What is it? Nonmotor -- we are considered --
Commissioner Suarez: Nonresidential traffic?
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Chair Sarnoff: -- nonautomotive vehicles is what we're considered to the County. Just like at the state level, we're a nonautomotive unit, better known as a pedestrian. And --
Commissioner Suarez: That's right.
Chair Sarnoff: -- the Greenbook -- right -- which is now a part of the County's Greenbook, is not looked at by the County as part of their process. And my understanding is that each city individually is now passing these resolutions to require the County to start treating us not as nonautomotive units but as pedestrians. So come back to us -- give Mr. Garcia and Ms. Zyber [sic] an hour of your time.
Mr. Ihekwaba: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Go over it and then come back. And if you can't agree to it, let us know why you can't agree to it.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah. And --
Mr. Ihekwaba: Will do.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- I just want to be clear on my side, Commissioner Sarnoff -- Chairman Sarnoff. I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with it. I just think that one of the important steps, if you're talking about things that are going to affect Public Works, that they should be in the loop. That's it. In my briefings yesterday, we talked about everything else, but we didn't talk about this as an issue. And the only -- because we're dealing with another issue, I just don't want to say yes to something that, quite frankly, we may need to change because it's affecting something else we're trying to do. So I just really, you know, would like to at least have him go through it and be clear on it, and I'm sure I'll be in support of it. I just want to make sure that that's the case.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Gort's recognized.
Vice Chair Gort: We, ourself, had a lot of questions and haven't been answered yet, so I hope you do in the future. But the one thing -- my understanding, what we're saying is the -- you have certain criterias [sic] that we use for our development, and then when it comes to the County and the facility (UNINTELLIGIBLE) both the City and the County, you have -- you don't have any flexibility to maintain these same standards.
Mr. Ihekwaba: We don't have that flexibility because of the requirements of the County code.
Vice Chair Gort: County completely different. That's -- so that part I understand. Also, what we're trying to do is bring down the speed of automobiles within the city streets.
Mr. Ihekwaba: Yes.
Vice Chair Gort: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Suarez is recognized for the record.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to commend you for bringing this to the Commission. It's something that I think we've all been talking about and discussing for -- since I got here. And it's something that I routinely hear the residents complain about. There is a huge disconnect between what the County is trying to do and get cars from one side of
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the County to the other and what our residents desire when they come home from work in terms of the livability of the community and the ability to walk your dog, to walk with your children, to walk -- if you're elderly. We -- I don't know why it's taking so long for us to bridge that divide. It's just -- we continue -- we pass resolutions. We've passed resolutions urging FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) to do it. We've passed resolutions urging the County to do it. We're implementing these principles. I don't know what else we can do. And maybe we need to picket or something. I don't know. But I commend you for doing this. And I know Public Works and our CIP (Capital Improvements Program) Department has continually heard our cries, our continual cries, and is trying to do everything they can, I think, you know, to really create an environment in our entire City, not just in one district, in one area, that reflects these principles. I mean, it's really the biggest no-brainer that I've had to deal with since I've been here. And I just want to, again, commend you for doing this. I support you wholeheartedly. And anything that I -- we can do together as a body or in the sunshine to make this happen, you know, you have my full support. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: And just so you know, to take a page out of Commissioner Carollo's playbook -- he's probably wondering what I'm talking about now -- when it comes to Florida Department of Transportation, I'll be going up to Tallahassee on Wednesday and Thurs -- I'm -- Tuesday and Wednesday of next week and dealing with it on a different type of way so that who cares if we fix the County if we don't fix the state roads.
Commissioner Suarez: That's true.
Chair Sarnoff: But I think across the boards, what happened is for about 35 to 40 years, Miami was “Oh, and Miami,” as opposed to being the biggest and most important city in the state of Florida. And I just don't think we were ever treated that way.
Commissioner Suarez: And I think there's another phenomenon, which is that 30 years ago there was urban sprawl, you know, the County was growing from the core outward, and so getting from one side of the County to the other side of the County really was an important objective. I think now what we're starting to see is infill and we're starting to see people who now work at home, in many cases, because of technology, and they want -- their whole entire society revolves around where they live. They want to be able to walk to the grocery store, walk -- you know, walk to the department stores or whatever. They want to be able to walk everywhere and just -- they're confined to the area where they can walk to and from.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Commissioner? No. All right, so Mr. Ihekwaba, I hope you can come back. I think we're going to need a motion to defer this to the next meeting.
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion. We have a second. Mr. Ihekwaba, do I have your commitment to spend an hour on this?
Mr. Ihekwaba: Yes, sir.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you.
Mr. Ihekwaba: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
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Chair Sarnoff: All right.
RE.12 RESOLUTION 13-00192 Department of Capital A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Improvements ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING THE BID RECEIVED FEBRUARY 20, 2013, Program PURSUANT TO INVITATION TO BID ("ITB") NO. 12-13-021, FROM KAILAS CORPORATION D/B/A KAILAS CONTRACTORS, THE LOWEST RESPONSIVE AND RESPONSIBLE BIDDER, FOR THE NORTHWEST 12TH AVENUE LINEAR PARK AND ROADWAY IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT, B-30883, IN THE AMOUNT OF $829,927, FOR THE SCOPE OF WORK, PLUS A TEN PERCENT (10%) OWNER CONTINGENCY AMOUNT OF $82,992.70, FOR A TOTAL NOT TO EXCEED AWARD VALUE OF $912,919.70; ALLOCATING FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $912,919.70, FROM CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT NO. B-30883; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT, IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE ATTACHED FORM, CONSISTING OF THE ITB DOCUMENTS AND ATTACHMENTS, FOR SAID PURPOSE. 13-00192 Summary Form.pdf 13-00192 Legislation.pdf 13-00192 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0087
Chair Sarnoff: Okay, RE --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: 12?
Chair Sarnoff: -- 11, we did, right?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Right.
Chair Sarnoff: RE.12.
Mark Spanioli: Good afternoon again, Commissioners. Mark Spanioli, director of Capital Improvements. RE.12 is a contract award to the Kailas Corporation for the Northwest 12th Avenue linear park, in the amount of $912,919. It's a District 5 project. It's a linear park that goes along Northwest 12th Avenue, from Northwest 62nd Street to Northwest 71st Street.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved. Discussion.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion --
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- by Commissioner Spence-Jones, second by Commissioner Carollo. Any discussion? City of Miami Page 59 Printed on 4/4/2013 City Commission Meeting Minutes March 14, 2013
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes. I just have one comment.
Chair Sarnoff: Can I make a compliment to you first?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Oh, good. Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it.
Chair Sarnoff: 'Cause I don't do it much. This was a pretty good plan and pretty good thought process on how to finance this, so my hat's off to you.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Well, I am so grateful to staff 'cause I know I've driven them crazy. But we're very excited about the linear park. This will be a historical marker, right by the segregation wall next to Liberty Square. And it will be a memorial park honoring or recognizing many of the African Americans that have made contributions to Miami, which will include people like Athalie Range, Garth Reeves, and many others, so that their history --
Mr. Spanioli: That's correct.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- is not lost in the city, so we're very excited about it. Thank you very much, Marc, for that compliment.
Chair Sarnoff: I saw it, and I said, this is something -- I just think it was great planning, great ideas, and great strategy. That's all. And I just think it should be acknowledged, and you and I don't always do that that much on the record so.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Thank you, sir.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. All right, RE.12. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion further? All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.13 RESOLUTION 13-00193 Department of Capital A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Improvements ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING THE BID RECEIVED FEBRUARY 21, 2013, Program PURSUANT TO INVITATION TO BID ("ITB") NO. 12-13-018, FROM RIC-MAN INTERNATIONAL, INC., THE LOWEST RESPONSIVE AND RESPONSIBLE BIDDER, FOR THE ENGLEWOOD ROAD AND STORM SEWER IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT, B-30011, IN THE AMOUNT OF $586,716.95, FOR THE SCOPE OF WORK, PLUS A TEN PERCENT (10%) OWNER CONTINGENCY AMOUNT OF $58,671.69, FOR A TOTAL NOT TO EXCEED AWARD VALUE OF $645,388.64; ALLOCATING FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $645,388.64, FROM CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT NO. B-30011; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT, IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE ATTACHED FORM, CONSISTING OF THE ITB DOCUMENTS AND ATTACHMENTS, FOR SAID PURPOSE. 13-00193 Summary Form.pdf 13-00193 Legislation.pdf 13-00193 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
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R-13-0088
Chair Sarnoff: RE.13.
Mark Spanioli (Director, Capital Improvements Program): Commissioners, RE.13 is another contract award to Ric-man International. They're the lowest responsive and responsible bidder for the Englewood Road and storm sewer project. This is five traffic circles and two raised intersections in District 4. The contract amount is $645,388.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Mr. Spanioli: That includes a 10 percent contingency.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion -- we have a motion --
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- by the traffic circle man.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: You're getting circles, boy, aren't you?
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Carollo.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair, if I may.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Talk about them circles.
Commissioner Suarez: I'll take a couple seconds to pat myself on the back. No, I'm just kidding. No, I really -- I want to commend our fourth CIP (Capital Improvements Program) director in the last three years for his diligent work since being brought on. No, he really -- he's been a -- really a pleasure to work with. And the fact of the matter is that even though we've had a lot of CIP directors, and I say that jokingly, the four that we've had have been good directors. I've had great working relationships with all of them. And I have never really doubted their commitment to want to improve the City of Miami. I've been frustrated at times by, you know, the turnover itself and by having to start all over again, but they're hardworking people. Mark's a hardworking guy, back from his CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) days and before that, when he was just a lonely Coral Gate -- lowly Coral Gate resident and neighbor. But, no, it's nice, particularly for me because this is an area that's just east of Coral Gate, and it's an area that deserves attention and wants -- it goes back to what you presented earlier today, Chairman, with your neighborhood identification plan, you know. What I -- what I'm striving to do in the district is make our districts walkable, walk-friendly, and not highways for people that are trying to cut through and save three seconds to get from, you know, either downtown to the west or from the west to downtown. So thank you for all your work in helping me bring this --
Mr. Spanioli: Thank you.
Commissioner Suarez: -- to fruition.
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Mr. Spanioli: Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: All right.
Vice Chair Gort: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record, Commissioner.
Vice Chair Gort: Let me take advantage, since you're there. I've always been asking for traffic calming -- is that what you call it? -- for the last three years. I finally got a four-stop in one. Every time, I've been told Dade County has to do the study, a traffic study and so on. I've asked for the traffic studies, and a lot of this, they have been made already. I have not received them. And I can assure you the traffic study is not there and people are not going through there. So I want to work with you on that because I've been asking for this for two and a half years now.
Mr. Spanioli: We're happy to work together.
Vice Chair Gort: So I know you're a doer so I need to give you the places where they want to be placed. And they don't have to be the expensive one. It could be the real --
Mr. Spanioli: Absolutely. We'll be happy to do it
Vice Chair Gort: -- I don't know what you call them.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So, Mark, you need to write this day down.
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Mr. Spanioli: I think I will. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: You had a good day today.
Mr. Spanioli: Well, there's a couple more items to go.
Commissioner Carollo: By the -- and I may defer my item, Mark. I may defer my item, okay.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, any further discussion? All in favor, then please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.14 RESOLUTION 12-01444 Department of Capital A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Improvements ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE Program FIFTEEN (15) JOB ORDER CONTRACTS ("JOC"), IN SUBSTANTIALLY THE ATTACHED FORM, TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE AND CONSTRUCTION SERVICES CITYWIDE, ON AN AS-NEEDED BASIS, FOR CAPITAL PROJECTS; ALLOCATING FUNDS FROM VARIOUS CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS AND DEPARTMENTAL BUDGETS, SUBJECT TO BUDGETARY APPROVAL AT THE TIME OF NEED; FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ADD OR REPLACE JOC CONTRACTORS ON AN AS-NEEDED BASIS.
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12-01444 Summary Form.pdf 12-01444 Legislation.pdf 12-01444 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Vice Chair Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0089
Chair Sarnoff: All right, RE.14.
Mark Spanioli (Director, Capital Improvements Program): Commissioners, RE.14 is multiple contract awards for our 15 -- for 15 JOC (Job Order Contract) contractors; 7 horizontal contractors, 8 vertical contractors. This was bid out some time ago. This is to, I guess, replace our current set of contractors. The last time we bid this out was in 2009. This was a new bid. We've increased our number of contractors --
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion by Commissioner Suarez --
Mr. Spanioli: -- and we also have the availability --
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Second by Commissioner Gort. Great presentation. Any further --
Commissioner Carollo: Two quick questions.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, and I'm --
Chair Sarnoff: All right, you're recognized.
Commissioner Suarez: -- going to just make a comment when --
Commissioner Carollo: Director Spanoli [sic], is it cheaper or more expensive to go through JOC, because I have heard both? So --
Mr. Spanioli: Commissioner, it happens to be both. Sometimes it's cheaper, sometimes it's not. One of the projects that is in your district actually, I think it's the Bay of Pigs bathrooms, that one originally was bid out through JOC, and then we did two hard bids subsequent to that --
Commissioner Carollo: It's actually Dom --
Mr. Spanioli: -- and they came in more expensive than JOC.
Commissioner Carollo: And I'm sorry, it's actually Domino Park bathrooms.
Mr. Spanioli: Domino Park, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Domino Park.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, Bay of Pigs is in my district.
Mr. Spanioli: So, in some cases, yes; in some cases, no. We tend to use JOC on the lesser estimated projects, usually -- definitely under a million, typically under $500,000. Those tend to work out best for us.
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Commissioner Carollo: Okay, so a simple mill and resurface --
Commissioner Suarez: Right.
Commissioner Carollo: -- it should go through JOC --
Mr. Spanioli: Yes.
Commissioner Carollo: -- and it should be done within what time period because -- I don't want to ruin your day. I've got figures of the time periods and, you know, I could drilldown pretty much on, hey, we approved it in this Commission meeting. We're here; the plans still haven't started. What's going on? And I'm not going to do that to you today. You've had a good day. But you know I'm having issues with that, so --
Mr. Spanioli: Absolutely.
Commissioner Carollo: -- getting back to this topic of JOC, if we have a simple mill and resurface, I mean, how long should it take, especially going through JOC?
Mr. Spanioli: I'm going to stick to my original timeframe that I gave you -- I guess it was two or three Commission meetings ago -- which was four months.
Commissioner Carollo: Four --
Mr. Spanioli: From time of appropriation to time of start.
Commissioner Suarez: Starting construction.
Vice Chair Gort: May I?
Commissioner Carollo: But a simple JOC --
Mr. Spanioli: For a simple milling and resurfacing project.
Vice Chair Gort: May I?
Mr. Spanioli: And actually, I'll even -- I'll take it a step further. That would be from -- yeah, from appropriation to time of construction, yes.
Vice Chair Gort: Listen, I think it -- it'll be very important for us and for the public to understand 'cause a lot of times we do get the complaints. We get the phone calls. My street, you promised it was going to fixed. It's been six month and nothing has taken place. And it's important for people to understand the difference between the public sector and the private sector. Could you go through the process that you have to go through in order to -- and you have improved it quite a bit, I have to say that.
Mr. Spanioli: And I appreciate that. I mean, we're actually working on a couple of things. And Commissioner Carollo and Commissioner Gort, the idea for our simple -- what you'll classify as simple milling and resurfacing projects, what we're looking at doing is having a separate turnkey contract for milling and resurfacing.
Commissioner Carollo: Right, exactly.
Mr. Spanioli: That certainly would help us move that along a little quicker. But yeah, the
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government has a -- definitely more hurdles to go through. I mean, we got to go through an appropriation. From the time that you actually dream up the project, then we got to find the funds, and we got to come to appropriation. Then it gets -- got to get loaded into the system. Then we got to prepare the drawings. We got to get a permit. Then we've got to -- you know, got to get our JOC book prepared. I mean, as you go through the process, yeah, it's a little bit more difficult than private sector, definitely. But it's something that we're working on, and it's -- and we're working on making it as quickly as possible.
Commissioner Carollo: How many of your staff is classified?
Mr. Spanioli: Five.
Commissioner Carollo: Five. And how much staff do you have?
Mr. Spanioli: Forty-seven.
Commissioner Carollo: Forty-seven. Okay, I'm not going to open up any cans of worms, but I mean, usually in the private sector, if someone can do it faster, you go that way. You outsource it. But I'm not going to open up that can of worms. But the bottom line is, my intent is we need to work on this process because it's just unacceptable. And you spoke about what -- as I know you know, I've been looking at -- for mill and resurfacing, if we could have some type of turnkey where it's done right away instead of, you know, waiting four months from Commission approval, you know. Because the truth of the matter is that it's unacceptable that the neighbors see that, you know, in 45 days they knock down a McDonald's and they construct a brand-new one, and we're still in the planning stage of, you know, fixing roads that are, you know -- was full of --
Commissioner Suarez: Potholes.
Commissioner Carollo: -- potholes. And yeah, they got refilled, but still, I mean, it's not the same.
Mr. Spanioli: Understood.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Any further discussion?
Commissioner Suarez: No.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.15 RESOLUTION 13-00248 Office of Grants A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH Administration ATTACHMENT(S), AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR GRANT FUNDING TO THE FLORIDA INLAND NAVIGATION DISTRICT WATERWAYS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $570,000, FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE LUMMUS LANDING RIVERWALK/DOCK ("PROJECT"); AUTHORIZING THE ALLOCATION OF THE REQUIRED MATCHING FUNDS FOR FIFTY PERCENT (50%) OF THE PROJECT COSTS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $570,000, AVAILABLE UNDER CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT B-30643; AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE ANY AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY
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ATTORNEY, FOR THE SUBMISSION OF SAID GRANT APPLICATION, THE EXECUTION OF GRANT OR DEED AGREEMENTS AND AMENDMENTS, AND THE ACCEPTANCE OF GRANT FUNDS, IN THE EVENT OF THE AWARD OF THE GRANT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013-2014. 13-00248 Summary Form.pdf 13-00248 Project - Lummus Landing Dock.pdf 13-00248 Legislation.pdf 13-00248 Exhibit 1.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0093
Lillian Blondet (Director, Grants Administration): And RE.15 is for the construction of the Lummus Landing river walk dock. It's a project cost for a million, a hundred and forty thousand -- one million, a hundred and forty thousand dollars. The application is $570,000.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So moved.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion by Commissioner --
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- Spence-Jones, second by Commissioner Suarez. Hearing -- Any discussion? No discussion. All in --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I just would like to put something on the record. First of all, I mean, we don't tell him thank you enough. He goes out, he makes sure we get these FIND (Florida Inland Navigational District) grants to help us leverage our dollar. So when you have a team member -- a staff member -- this is a lot of money that was being brought in to the City, so I want to officially acknowledge you and tell you job well done. We really appreciate what you guys are doing to make sure we find other ways to pay for these things 'cause we just don't have the money to do, you know, like we'd like to do. So I want to let you know we appreciate you, both of you.
Chair Sarnoff: Robert, I tell you every day (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- but I don't do it publicly. All right, all in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
RE.16 RESOLUTION 13-00289 District 2- A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION WAIVING, PURSUANT Commissioner Marc TO SECTION 54-341(E), THE RESTRICTIONS CONTAINED IN SECTIONS David Sarnoff 54-341(C)(1),(2), AND (3) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, MORE PARTICULARLY: (1) THE RESTRICTION THAT NO MORE THAN TWO (2) EVENTS PER MONTH SHALL OCCUR, (2) THE RESTRICTION THAT ONLY ONE (1) EVENT OF THE TWO (2) EVENTS MAY INVOLVE STREET CLOSURES, AND (3) THE RESTRICTION ON TWO (2) EVENTS TAKING PLACE ON SUCCESSIVE WEEKENDS, FOR EVENTS OCCURRING IN THE "COCONUT GROVE SPECIAL EVENTS DISTRICT", TO
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ALLOW FOR THE "RUN FOR RELIEF FOR HAITI 5K RACE" TO TAKE PLACE ON MAY 19, 2013. 13-00289 Legislation.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0090
Chair Sarnoff: RE.16. RE.16 is a waiver for the two events rule in the Grove.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Little Haiti.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay, there you go. There's a motion. There's a second.
Commissioner Suarez: See, we are your friends.
Chair Sarnoff: What's that?
Commissioner Suarez: We are your friends.
Chair Sarnoff: I'm sorry?
Commissioner Suarez: We are your friends.
Chair Sarnoff: You -- I'll tell you, if it doesn't cost money, you guys are great. No, just kidding. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Commissioner Suarez: Bye -- I mean, aye, not bye.
Chair Sarnoff: My buds. All right, I'm going to remember that.
RE.17 RESOLUTION 13-00312 District 3- A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION URGING GOVERNOR Commissioner Frank RICK SCOTT AND THE MEMBERS OF THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE TO Carollo SUPPORT DURING THE 2013 LEGISLATIVE SESSION, AMENDING FLORIDA STATUTE 101.657(1)(B) AND TO RESTORE THE NUMBER OF DAYS AVAILABLE FOR EARLY VOTING FROM 8 DAYS TO 14 DAY; DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO TRANSMIT A COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION TO THE OFFICIALS DESIGNATED HEREIN. 13-00312 Legislation.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote.
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Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0091
Chair Sarnoff: RE.17.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I'm going to be real brief. This is one of the reasons that earlier this year I mentioned to this board how I wish that our legislative liaison would have reached out to my office and would have actually met with me because I think this is something that is, you know, in the frontfore [sic], and to be honest with you, something that needs to be done. The Legislature has been working pretty expeditiously to have this done, but they still have not done it. And I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but the bottom line is, we saw, you know, how it was just unacceptable for have those -- to have those long lines during our last voting session, and we need to fix it. So I -- you know, I hope that you all could support me in passing this.
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion, and we have a second. Any further --
Commissioner Suarez: Discussion.
Chair Sarnoff: -- discussion?
Commissioner Suarez: I just think it's great that we have our director of elections -- both our City one, I think is around here, and also our County one. And, you know, we, as a Commission, want to do the right thing in urging the government to help you do your job, which is very difficult, getting -- I think it's 1.2 million voters potentially -- to vote countywide. And obviously, at the City, it's less than that, but it's still a gargantuan task. So, you know, I commend the Commissioner. I think this is a bipartisan, nonpartisan --
Commissioner Carollo: Absolutely.
Commissioner Suarez: -- you know, piece of legislation that, you know, everybody can get behind.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. And Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. And definitely, I think we need to restore the number of dates available for early voting from 8 to 14. But -- and again, I'm not going to -- I know we're moving quickly, so I'm not going to stay on this too long. But at the same time, you know, I just want to make sure that our legislative liaison is hearing us, is following up because in the update that he gave us, there's no mention on the last resolution that this Commission passed with regards to something that is happening in Little Havana right now, with regards to the apartment buildings, the Palm Apartments. I have not heard anything from him. Do we have a sponsor? Do we have a sponsor in the state house? Do we have a sponsor in the Senate? Is it going to be as an amendment? Has he spoken to any of the legislators to see if we're going to gain support or not? So I'm not going to get into too much detail, but again, I'm saying to our Administration, please have our legislative liaison work with us, you know. And pretty soon, I'm going to start asking how many days is he up in Tallahassee? How much is it costing us, hotel bills and all that? And I don't want to get into all those details. But all I know is that I don't think this city is really having its maximum capacity up in Tallahassee. I don't think, realistically, you know, we're getting all the traction that we should be getting.
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Alice Bravo (Chief of Infrastructure/Assistant City Manager): Kirk is actually in Tallahassee today. I will --
Commissioner Carollo: Of course.
Ms. Bravo: -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Suarez: That's where he should be.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: That didn't help.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, so RE.17. All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Commissioner Carollo: And Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: Since the director of Elections is here, I don't know if they have an issue or something in the agenda.
Chair Sarnoff: They're here, guys, for the redistricting. That's why I wanted to go --
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: -- to redistricting.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: So, without further ado --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Redistricting.
Chair Sarnoff: -- why don't we do redistricting? I know you want to get to the other stuff. We're going to get to it.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: What other stuff?
Chair Sarnoff: But I don't want to keep --
Commissioner Carollo: We have --
Chair Sarnoff: -- the director of elections here.
Commissioner Carollo: -- board --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Board appointments.
Commissioner Carollo: -- appointments and I think the City Attorney.
Chair Sarnoff: And I think -- and a PZ (Planning & Zoning) item.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Oh, yeah.
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Chair Sarnoff: One PZ item.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I'm going to use the restroom.
Chair Sarnoff: Does anybody want to take two minutes for a bathroom break?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes, I need it.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. Two minutes, guys. A real two minutes.
END OF RESOLUTIONS
BOARDS AND COMMITTEES
BC.1 RESOLUTION 13-00039 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT COUNCIL FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Mercedes Lopez-Cisneros Mayor Tomás Regalado (Chairperson)
Lauren Reskin Mayor Tomás Regalado
Mike Margulies Mayor Tomás Regalado
Ricardo Tano Chair Marc David Sarnoff
Dr. Juana Amada Vargas Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Barbara Marquez Commissioner Francis Suarez
13-00039 Arts CCMemo.pdf 13-00039 Arts Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0102
Chair Sarnoff: Now we go on to boards.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: To which one, boards? Mr. Chairman, I don't -- I'm not making any appointments tonight, so --
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Just one? For me?
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Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Yes, ma'am. We're good to go with the ones that you want to make.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. We're going to give you two minutes and see if you can do it.
Mr. Hannon: We got a lot of appointments. How about --?
Chair Sarnoff: Three minutes.
Mr. Hannon: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Starting now.
Mr. Hannon: BC.1, Arts & Entertainment Council. Mayor Regalado is appointing Mercedes Lopez-Cisneros, Lauren Reskin, and Mike Margulile. Chair Sarnoff is appointing Ricardo Tano. Vice Chair Gort is appointing Dr. Juana Amada. And Chair -- Commissioner Suarez is appointing Barbara Marquez.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion, second. All in -- Any discussion? All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.2 RESOLUTION 12-01172 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE AUDIT ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Ignacio J. Abella Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Carlos Trueba Commissioner Francis Suarez
12-01172 Audit CCMemo.pdf 12-01172 Audit Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0103
A motion was made by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, and was passed unanimously, to appoint Ignacio J. Abella as a member of the Audit Advisory Board; further waiving the term limits of Section 2-885(b) by a unanimous (5/5) vote of the members of the City Commission, as it relates to Ignacio J. Abella as a member of the Audit Advisory Board.
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Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.2, Audit Advisory Committee. Vice Chair Gort is appointing, with a five-five term waiver, Ignacio Abella. Commissioner Suarez is appointing Carlos Trueba.
Chair Sarnoff: Is there a motion?
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Second.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: There's a motion. There's a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.3 RESOLUTION 13-00252 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE BAYFRONT PARK MANAGEMENT TRUST FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Ralph Duharte Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Marlene Avalo Commission-At-Large
13-00252 Bayfront Park CCMemo.pdf 13-00252 Bayfront Park Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0104
A motion was made by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, and was passed unanimously, to appoint Ralph Duharte as a member of the Bayfront Park Management Trust; further waiving the term limits of Section 2-885(b) by a unanimous (5/5) vote of the members of the City Commission, as it relates to Ralph Duharte as a member of the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.3, Bayfront Park Management Trust. Vice Chair Gort is appointing, with a five-five term waiver, Ralph Duharte. And the -- there's one Commission-At-Large seat up for reappointment, and the seat is currently held by Marlene Avalo.
Commissioner Suarez: Move to reappoint and move to appoint.
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Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: There's a motion. Is there a second?
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Vice Chair Gort: Second.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, please say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.4 RESOLUTION 12-01473 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION CONFIRMING THE Clerk APPOINTMENT OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE CIVILIAN INVESTIGATIVE PANEL FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Grace Casas Civilian Investigative Panel (D3 Seat - Commissioner Frank Carollo)
Mairlyn Lightbourn Civilian Investigative Panel (D5 Seat - (Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones)
12-01473 CIP CCMemo.pdf 12-01473 CIP Current_Board_Members.pdf 12-01473 CIP Memo and Resumes.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0105
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.4, Civilian Investigative Panel. Commissioner Carollo's appointing Grace Casas, and Commissioner Spence-Jones is appointing Marilyn Lightbourn.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion, second. All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.5 RESOLUTION
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13-00253 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE CODE ENFORCEMENT BOARD FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Frank Pichel Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Eduardo Moralejo Commissioner Francis Suarez
13-00253 CEB CCMemo.pdf 13-00253 CEB Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0106
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.5, Code Enforcement Board. Vice Chair Gort is appointing Frank Pichel, and Commissioner Suarez is appointing Eduardo Moralejo.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion --
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: And motion and a second. All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: You're going to have to pick up the pace to get it done.
BC.6 RESOLUTION 13-00162 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY RELATIONS BOARD FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Pierre Rutledge Mayor Tomás Regalado (Term ending 3/8/2015)
David Young Chair Marc David Sarnoff (Term ending 3/14/2016)
Deidria Davis Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones (Term ending 10/13/2014)
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13-00162 CRB CCMemo.pdf 13-00162 CRB_Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0107
A motion was made by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, and was passed unanimously, to appoint Pierre Rutledge, David Young, and Deidria Davis as members of the Community Relations Board; further waiving the attendance requirements in Section 2-886 of the Code of the City of Miami, as amended, by a four/fifths (4/5ths) vote of the members of the full City Commission, as it relates to past absences on record for Pierre Rutledge, David Young, and Deidria Davis as members of the Community Relations Board.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.6, Community Relations Board. Mayor Regalado is appointing, with a four-fifths absence waiver, Pierre Rutledge. Chair Sarnoff is appointing, with a four-fifths absence waiver, David Young. And Commissioner Spence-Jones is appointing, with a four-fifths absence waiver, Deidria Davis.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion, and we have a second. All in favor, please say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: Very good.
BC.7 RESOLUTION 13-00040 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Allyson M. Warren Mayor Tomás Regalado
Isel Fuentes Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Leonor De La Heria Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Lyse Cuellar-Vidal Commissioner Francis Suarez
Connie Johnson Commissioner Francis Suarez
13-00040 CSW CCMemo.pdf 13-00040 CSW Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote.
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Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0108
A motion was made by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, and was passed unanimously, to appoint Allyson Warren as a member of the Commission on the Status of Women; further waiving the term limits of Section 2-885(b) by a unanimous (5/5) vote of the members of the City Commission, as it relates to Allyson Warren as a member of the Commission on the Status of Women.
Chair Sarnoff: BC.7.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.7, Commission on the Status of Women. Mayor Regalado is appointing, with a five-five term waiver, Allyson Warren. Vice Chair Gort is appointing Isel Fuentes. Vice Chair Gort is also appointing Jenny Guzman. Commissioner Suarez is appointing Connie Johnson and Lyse Cuellar-Vidal.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion and --
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- second. All in favor, please say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.8 RESOLUTION 12-01181 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Nola Garcia Mayor Tomás Regalado
Myrna Pinto Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
12-01181 CTAB CCMemo.pdf 12-01181 CTAB Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0109
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.8, Community Technology Advisory Board. Mayor Regalado is appointing Nola Garcia. Vice Chair Gort is appointing Myrna Pinto.
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Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion --
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- second. All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.9 RESOLUTION 13-00254 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION CONFIRMING THE Clerk APPOINTMENT OF A CERTAIN INDIVIDUAL AS A MEMBER OF THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (DDA) FOR A TERM AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEE: NOMINATED BY:
Alicia E. Cervera DDA Board of Directors (Term: 3/15/2013 through 8/31/2015) (At-Large Appointment)
13-00254 DDA CCMemo.pdf 13-00254 DDA Current_Board_Members.pdf 13-00254 DDA Memo and Resolution.pdf 13-00254 DDA Resume for Appointment.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0110
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.9, Downtown Development Authority. The Downtown Development Authority has nominated Alicia E. Cervera for Commission confirmation.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: There's a motion, second. All in favor, please say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: There you go. BC.10.
Mr. Hannon: Nothing for BC.10.
BC.10 RESOLUTION 12-01470
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Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING A Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUAL AS A MEMBER OF THE EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD FOR A TERM AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEE: NOMINATED BY:
Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
12-01470 EAB CCMemo.pdf 12-01470 EAB Current_Board_Members.pdf NO ACTION TAKEN
BC.11 RESOLUTION 12-01182 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING CERTAIN Clerk INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ADVISORY BOARD FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Michael Barket Chair Marc David Sarnoff
Miriam Urra Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Jordana Zarut Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Edilfa Perez Commissioner Francis Suarez
Aurelus Dorvil Commissioner Francis Suarez
Amarilys Perez AFSCME Local 1907
12-01182 EOAB CCMemo.pdf 12-01182 EOAB Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0094
A motion was made by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, and was passed unanimously, to appoint Miriam Urra and Jordana Zarut as members of the Equal Opportunity Advisory Board; further waiving the attendance requirements in Section 2-886 of the Code of the City of Miami, as amended, by a four/fifths (4/5ths) vote of the members of the full City Commission, as it relates to past absences on record for Miriam Urra and Jordana Zarut as members of the Equal Opportunity Advisory Board.
A motion was made by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, and was
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passed unanimously, to appoint Miriam Urra as a member of the Equal Opportunity Advisory Board; further waiving the term limits of Section 2-885(b) by a unanimous (5/5) vote of the members of the City Commission, as it relates to Miriam Urra as a member of the Equal Opportunity Advisory Board.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.11, Equal Opportunity Advisory Board. Chair Sarnoff is appointing Michael Barket. Vice Chair Gort is appointing, with a five-five term waiver and four-fifths absence waiver, Miriam Urra. And he is also appointing, with a four-fifths absence waiver, Jordana Zarut. Commissioner Suarez is appointing Edilfa Perez and Aurelus Dorvil. And AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) Local 1907 is for -- has nominated for Commission confirmation, Amarilys Perez.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion --
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- second. All in favor, please say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.12 RESOLUTION 12-01469 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Eli Feinberg Mayor Tomás Regalado
Manuel Vadillo Commissioner Francis Suarez
12-01469 Finance CCMemo.pdf 12-01469 Finance Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0095
A motion was made by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, and was passed unanimously, to appoint Eli Feinberg as a member of the Finance Committee; further waiving the term limits of Section 2-885(b) by a unanimous (5/5) vote of the members of the City Commission, as it relates to Eli Feinberg as a member of the Finance Committee.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.12, Finance Committee. Mayor Regalado is appointing, with a five-five term waiver, Eli Feinberg. And Commissioner Suarez is appointing Manuel Vadillo.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
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Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion, second. All in favor, “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: Twenty-four seconds.
BC.13 RESOLUTION 13-00041 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE HOMELAND DEFENSE/NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT BOND PROGRAM OVERSIGHT BOARD FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
John Cunill Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Olayunbosun Aluko Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones
13-00041 Homeland CCMemo.pdf 13-00041 Homeland Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0096
Chair Sarnoff: Twenty-four seconds.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.13, Homeland Defense/Neighborhood Improve -- whatever. Vice Chair Gort is appointing John --
Commissioner Suarez: Did he say whatever?
Mr. Hannon: -- Cunill.
Commissioner Suarez: Nice. Good for you, Todd.
Mr. Hannon: And Commissioner Spence-Jones is appointing Ola Aluko.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Commissioner Suarez: Good for you.
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BC.14 RESOLUTION 12-00834 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE MIAMI SPORTS AND EXHIBITION AUTHORITY FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Jay Solowsky Chair Marc David Sarnoff
Eli Feinberg Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Anthony Recio Commissioner Francis Suarez
Michelle Spence-Jones Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones
Luther Campbell Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones
12-00834 MSEA CCMemo.pdf 12-00834 MSEA Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0097
A motion was made by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, and was passed unanimously, to appoint Eli Feinberg as a member of the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority; further waiving the term limits of Section 2-885(b) by a unanimous (5/5) vote of the members of the City Commission, as it relates to Eli Feinberg as a member of the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.14, Miami Sports & Exhibition Authority. Chair Sarnoff is appointing Jay Solowsky. Vice Chair Gort is appointing, with a five-five term waiver, Eli Feinberg. Commissioner Suarez is appointing Anthony Recio. And Commissioner Spence-Jones is appointing Luther Campbell.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Can I ask you a question?
Commissioner Suarez: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Luke.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Am I sitting on this board?
Mr. Hannon: Yes, ma'am. Would you like to reappoint yourself?
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah.
Commissioner Suarez: Or take yourself off?
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Mr. Hannon: We'll throw that in with the motion.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.15 RESOLUTION 13-00164 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION CONFIRMING Clerk THE APPOINTMENTS OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE OFF-STREET PARKING BOARD FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Arthur Hertz Off-Street Parking Board (At-Large Appointment) Marlon Hill Off-Start Parking Board (At-Large Appointment)
13-00164 Off-Street Parking CCMemo.pdf 13-00164 Off-Street Parking_Current_Board_Members.pdf 13-00164 Off-Street Parking Resolutions.PDF 13-00164 Off-Street Parking Resumes for Appointments.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0098
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.15, Off-Street Parking Board. The Off-Street Parking Board has nominated Arthur Hertz and Marlon Hill for Commission confirmation.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Chair Sarnoff: Motion --
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: -- and second. All in favor, say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: All right.
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BC.16 RESOLUTION 12-01043 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Elijah Stiers Chair Marc David Sarnoff
Frank Fernandez Commissioner Frank Carollo
Margarita Fernandez City Manager Johnny Martinez
12-01043 PRAB CCMemo.pdf 12-01043 PRAB Current_Board_Members.pdf 12-01043 PRAB Resume for City Manager's Appointment.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0099
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.16, Parks & Recreation Advisory Board. Chair Sarnoff is appointing Elijah Stiers. Commissioner Carollo is appointing Frank Fernandez. And the City Manager has nominated Margarita Fernandez for appointment by the Commission.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: We have a motion and second. All in favor, say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Mr. Hannon: Almost there.
BC.17 RESOLUTION 12-01363 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE URBAN DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD (UDRB) FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
Jesus Permuy Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
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Fidel Perez Commissioner Francis Suarez
12-01363 UDRB CCMemo.pdf 12-01363 UDRB Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Carollo, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0100
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): BC.17, Urban Development Review Board. Vice Chair Gort is appointing Jesus Permu [sic]. Sorry if I pronounced that incorrectly.
Commissioner Suarez: Permuy.
Commissioner Gort: Permuy.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, that's fine.
Mr. Hannon: And Commissioner Suarez is appointing Fidel Perez.
Commissioner Carollo: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
BC.18 RESOLUTION 13-00148 Office of the City A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION APPOINTING Clerk CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS AS MEMBERS OF THE WATERFRONT ADVISORY BOARD FOR TERMS AS DESIGNATED HEREIN.
APPOINTEES: NOMINATED BY:
John Hopwood Chair Marc David Sarnoff
David Moore Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Stuart Sorg Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort
Enid Lorenzo Commissioner Francis Suarez
13-00148 WAB CCMemo.pdf 13-00148 WAB Current_Board_Members.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote.
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Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0101
A motion was made by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, and was passed unanimously, to appoint Stuart Sorg as a member of the Waterfront Advisory Board; further waiving the term limits of Section 2-885(b) by a unanimous (5/5) vote of the members of the City Commission, as it relates to Stuart Sorg as a member of the Waterfront Advisory Board.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): And BC.18, Waterfront Advisory Board. Chair Sarnoff is appointing John Hopwood. Vice Chair Gort is appointing David Moore. Vice Chair Gort is also appointing, with a five-five term waiver, Stuart Sorg. And Commissioner Suarez is appointing Enid Lorenzo.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Commissioner Carollo: Second.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Mr. Hannon: Thank you, Commissioners.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. Guys, what do you want to do?
Commissioner Suarez: I have one -- I had one -- Did you get David Lewis from the Education Advisory Board, or did we not send him in?
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Sir, you don't have an appointment to the Education Advisory Board at this time.
Commissioner Suarez: Okay. We'll wait 'til the next -- we'll talk about it in the --
Mr. Hannon: Okay, sir.
Commissioner Suarez: -- 'cause I think -- okay.
END OF BOARDS AND COMMITTEES
DISCUSSION ITEMS
DI.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00187 City Manager's Office PRESENTATION BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE FOLLOWING BOARDS/COMMITTEES CONCERNING THEIR ANNUAL REPORTS:
-DISTRICT 1 HOUSING ADVISORY BOARD -HOUSING AND COMMERCIAL LOAN COMMITTEE -AUDIT ADVISORY COMMITTEE -URBAN DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD -NUISANCE ABATEMENT BOARD
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13-00187 Memo - 2012 Annual Board Reports Presentations.pdf 13-00187 Email - 2012 Annual Board Reports & Presentation.pdf 13-00187-Submittal-Report-Audit Advisory Committee.pdf DISCUSSED
Chair Sarnoff: All right, what I'm going to do is divert because I'm told that we have board chairmen -- that we're going to hear from the boards so they don't have to spend the whole day here.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Some of them are architects, some of them -- is there anybody more important than an architect, Mr. Behar? I don't think there is.
Robert Behar: Not at all.
Johnny Martinez (City Manager): Engineer.
Chair Sarnoff: So we at least have an architect here.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Mr. Chairman, I just also want to make sure -- I know that we're going to be losing our City Manager at what time?
Chair Sarnoff: Four. That's a good point.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: At 4. So --
Chair Sarnoff: So --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- I want to make sure that I -- at least, before he leaves -- it's on the three -- on the item for police. If we can deal with that at 3:30, I would greatly --
Chair Sarnoff: Let's deal with the item for police right after board reports --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: -- 'cause I don't want to lose him.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Mr. Behar: Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, Commissioner. Robert Behar, representing the UDRB (Urban Development Review Board) board. We submitted our -- a report to the Manager. Last year we reviewed four projects. This year we're looking to review quite a few more. The total expenditure on that last year was only $2,026. We're happy to say that we're very pleased to continue doing -- serving the -- assisting the Planning director. That's my report.
Vice Chair Gort: Thank you. Good report.
Mr. Behar: Anything else?
Chair Sarnoff: That was brief.
Mr. Behar: May -- I wanted to keep it --
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Chair Sarnoff: Do you ever think of going to law school and ruining that great mind?
Mr. Behar: Yes. Have a good one. Thank you very much.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. Any other board reports, Mr. Manager?
Vice Chair Gort: I think Code Enforcement is here.
Chair Sarnoff: Code. Code want to come up? We see you out there. Come on, Code.
Chuck McEwan: How are you? Chuck McEwan. I'm the chairman of Code Enforcement, now also Nuisance --
Vice Chair Gort: Nuisance Abatement.
Mr. McEwan: -- Abatement Board. I'm here today for the Nuisance Abatement Board. I'll be probably a lot briefer than this gentleman that was just here because they did not have any meetings whatsoever. Last year they had one workshop and that was it. We are supposed to be getting our first taste for cases towards the end of April, and that's all I can tell you. I hope to do a little better if I'm here, whoever is here. But I want to thank you, on behalf of the board, for the confidence that you've placed in us by giving us the duties and responsibilities of the Nuisance Board.
Chair Sarnoff: Wait, state up there. I know that Commissioner Gort wants to say something. I know that I want to say something so stay there.
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah, I'm glad they merged the two boards because Code Enforcement, your board is being very effective, and Nuisance Abatement Board was not being that effective because they had a lot of times they didn't have the quorum. So you, as a former police officer, are aware of how important that Nuisance Abatement Board is to help --
Mr. McEwan: Sure.
Vice Chair Gort: -- so many people close some of the places with lot of illegal transactions are taking place.
Mr. McEwan: Absolutely.
Vice Chair Gort: So I'm glad that both of you together and you guys are there.
Mr. McEwan: There's two ex-police officers --
Vice Chair Gort: No, I know. That's why.
Mr. McEwan: -- on the board.
Vice Chair Gort: Yes. I'm glad you guys are there.
Mr. McEwan: And we hope to do good.
Vice Chair Gort: You're welcome.
Mr. McEwan: We'll see what comes along.
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Chair Sarnoff: Now, McEwan, I just want to echo the comments of Commissioner Gort. I hope the police department is aware of something that had been dormant for four years is now available to them and that is the Nuisance Abatement Board. Because when you take someone's property away from them, that -- they're no longer a nuisance and that property's no longer a problem and that person will proverbially move on to another part of the City or out of the City. So I implore the police department -- you've been out of practice for four years. Get on that jogging path, figure out how you used to do it, and bring it in front of this Code Enforcement/Nuisance Abatement Board.
Mr. McEwan: We'll take care of business, I promise you.
Chair Sarnoff: I'm sure you will, sir.
Vice Chair Gort: Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you.
Mr. McEwan: Okay, thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: What other boards do we have? Audit Advisory --
Janice Larned (Assistant City Manager/Chief Financial Officer): Correct, Mr. Chair. We have Stanley Foodman, the chair of the Audit Advisory committee with you to make a report.
Chair Sarnoff: Come on up, Stanley.
Stanley Foodman: Thank you very much. I want to thank you for the opportunity of allowing me to serve the City of Miami for the last several years. And as all of you know, each one of us on the committee is appointed by one of the Commissioners and we serve at your pleasure and our job is -- I take it and I think the rest of my members, we take it very seriously. Our purpose is to review the annual audit of City accounts performed by the independent auditor. At this time, that's Ernst and Young. Review the annual management letter developed by the independent auditor. And the reason that we do that is that all of us are CPAs (Certified Public Accountants). We're all independent. We all either have our own practices or we are -- I think one of the people is not exactly in private practice but is a CPA in, I think, the nonprofit industry. We review the systems of internal control utilized by the City. We do that along with the auditors. We look at their comments. We listen to what the independent auditor general is saying to us. And we provide suggestions, which, of course, are totally subject to the approval of the Commission and through the Manager's office. We review City compliance with GASB, the Government Accounting Standards Board, which is somewhat of a moving goal post, as I'm sure you're all aware. They make changes from -- periodically. We review -- well, we review internal audits reports, where it is felt by the internal auditor that there might be some sort of misconduct involved with findings and to the extent that it does not involve criminal investigations of course, which have to remain completely confidential. We review the City Manager's recommendation for selection of an independent auditor if requested by or directed by the City Commission. For the last couple of years or last couple of contracts, that is what we have done. Prior to that, we had not done that for some time. It was brought to our attention that it was part of our mandate or part of what we were expected to do, and so the independent -- the audit committee decided to shoulder that burden again and try to help out the City where it can. And I think that where this particular audit company that's being used, may be doing the most workman-like, journeyman job we've seen in a long time for the City. We're made up of a chair and four members. I'm the current chair. We have to multitask. Most of us are involved in tax season and we have our businesses to run. Between 2008 and 2000 -- the end of 2012, we convened 21 times. I would like to have convened 48 times, but unfortunately, we weren't able to because we didn't always have a quorum. Our committee was constituted in 1981. The reporting period we're going to
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cover now is 2008 through 2012. There has been a bunch of significant events which have -- which has really changed how we feel about what we're seeing in the committee. First of all, the independent auditor selection process was changed in 2011. In 2012 there was a new internal auditor who was appointed and he has -- I think he's doing a great job. I really do. I think that he's -- he'll be very good at also navigating the waters of the City, so to speak, perhaps more so than his predecessors. There's been three directors of Management and Budget in the last four years, so obviously, there has been some changes going on in the City which leads to a little bit of a lack of depth sometimes in organizational issues. There have been two directors of Finance, with one interim director, two chief financial officers; there have been two SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) investigations and one IRS (Internal Revenue Service) inquiry. And so it's been a -- at least for my term on the committee, it's been a rather event-filled period of time. In 2012 there was a series of audits that were done or completed or are still in process. There was an audit of compliance with commercial solid waste franchise agreements, with Waste Services USA, Inc. There was an audit of compliance with commercial solid waste franchise agreements with Waste Management. There was an audit of the City's pension plan, City employees' pension plan and benefit calculations, an audit of compliance with financial integrity principles for the cities and governments. There was an audit of the educational trust fund established for scholarship awards to the dependents of certain types of folks involved with the City. There was an audit of compliance again with commercial solid waste franchise with Waste Management again. And so this has been ongoing. The issue of solid waste pickup is an ongoing issue. We have been commenting on it for some time. And I think that your new auditor general is wrapping his arms around it better than anybody that we've seen up until now. I'm not going to go through all of these because there's quite a long list, and I think that this will be distributed to all of you for your review. But let me just tell you what the committee has been doing for the fiscal year 2012. There have been 48 separate audit reviews in the period, so we've sort of had our hands full where we're able to participate. There has been a review of waste haulers that's been rather intensive. Up until now, $1.2 million has been identified as not having been previously collected, which should have been collected, and it is now collected. So the City -- this particular auditor general has been able to help the City collect $1.2 million of revenue it might not otherwise have collected. And this is a continuing process.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair, may I ask him a question?
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record, Commissioner Suarez.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you. In the collection of that $1.2 million --
Mr. Foodman: Yes.
Commissioner Suarez: -- do you know how many lawsuits we had to file to collect that $1.2 million?
Mr. Foodman: No. We don't get involved in lawsuit issues because we're a sunshine committee and some of it is protected under confidentially -- the confidentiality and privilege issues and the work paper privilege of attorneys as it applies to the City. So we don't directly get involved with that.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you. Madam Attorney -- thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead, Mr. Foodman.
Mr. Foodman: In -- so there have been a lot of independent auditor reports. For 2009 there were 14 of them; 2010, there were 17; 2011, due to certain things that came up in the City, there were 7; 2012, the volume went up to 10; and I suspect it's going to continue to rise because of the way in which it's being handled now by that -- by the independent auditor general's
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department. For 2016 [sic] the management letter findings that we reviewed -- this comes off of the audits -- there were 16 findings in 2009, 2 of them were partially remediated, 3 were recurring. In 2010 there were 5 findings, and these are findings of significant deficiencies in internal control. And finally, in 2011 there were 4 findings, but 5 of them were recurring from the previous year. For 2012 it's all still in progress. The audit hasn't been completed. I think it may come in on time, but I don't want to speak for Ernst and Young. But I get a nice feeling about what's going on with Ernst and Young at this point. Hopefully, it'll come in on time. And if there are some recurring audit comments, they will be handled in the next fiscal year and won't recur again going down the road, and that's partially due, by the way, to your new IT (Information Technology) systems that you put in place. As those have been implemented, it's slowly closing gaps, it's making it easier to get information, and it's making the City more interactive within itself, which is really important. We've seen improvements in the bank reconciliations that are done internally in the City. There have been years where there were a lot of -- well, there were not a lot, but there was significant unreconciled items; that's disappearing. We've seen improvements in how waste haulers are paying their fees and how they're behaving, and we've seen a lot of improvement in audit planning. There are improvements that need to still be made. IT security is one of them, and it's not just for the City of Miami. We know that the entire US (United States) government is having issues with IT with respect to intellectual property and other things. And so, certainly, we don't want the City's defenses breached. We don't want peoples' identities removed. We don't want people on the payroll or shown -- should be on the payroll who are no longer on the payroll and so on and so forth. And all of these, to some degree, are IT issues. They're internal control issues. There's some capital coordination issues with recording assets. That's being addressed, I understand, at this time. Grants management coordination and monitoring, it's slowly being centralized. That's important also because unless you have centralized monitoring, it's too easy for things to fall between the cracks with the really large workload that the City has and that the employees have. So it allows you to concentrate certain tasks and certain people and makes it much more efficient. There's a path forward. The path forward is management representation, balancing the perspective with the independent auditor -- attorney -- auditor general or independent auditing firm. Probably a little more communication is helpful going down the road. And I think that you're going to see more communication coming from your independent auditor general in the City directly with you all and with the City management. Follow-up audits where issues have been identified are going to continue to expand. There's an increase in internal control focus, and we want to tie audits with management letter findings so that going forward again, we don't have findings -- negative findings or findings of deficiencies that go on from year to year. And, of course, stability and sustainability, and part of that's going to be through recovering revenues that have not yet been recovered, part of it's going to be through the efficiencies that you gain through a better -- through a more full out implementation of your IT systems. You spend a lot of money for it. City spent a bunch of money and I think it was well spent. It's just a question now of everybody being fully trained and implementing it. And I'm open to questions.
Chair Sarnoff: Anybody have any questions?
Commissioner Suarez: I just -- may I?
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah, please.
Commissioner Suarez: I just want to thank you. You guys have obviously done a very thorough job and you obviously take your responsibility very seriously and it shows in the presentation that you gave to us. So we want to thank you for your service. And, you know, you're a model for the way that a -- the boards in the City should operate. Thank you so much.
Mr. Foodman: Thank you very much. Anybody else? Anything else? Yes, sir.
Vice Chair Gort: Once again, I'd like to reiterate thank you for the work you guys do. People
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need to understand it's volunteer. You guys are doing it pro bonos [sic]. And at the same time, any one of our board appointments are not functioning, please let us know.
Mr. Foodman: The way I believe that we are acquired -- and I don't know; somebody can answer that for me -- is I generally report directly to either the full Commission or to the Commissioner who appointed me. Although I've had some Commissioners in the past reach out to me independently for advice -- I'm happy to provide it to all of you -- I'm reluctant to reach out past the Commissioner who appointed me, unless I'm first contacted. I think that there's a line of communication -- it's almost military, but I think it should be followed as much as I can.
Vice Chair Gort: I understand that. But as the chairperson, I think that you are able to respond to all of us. And if I'm not correct, please let us know and --
Mr. Foodman: I'm happy to. Like I said --
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah.
Mr. Foodman: -- I have been contacted in the past and I'm happy to continue. If anybody has any questions at any time or has any -- I'm going to say it. I don't know the right way to put it in English 'cause I speak Spanish all the time -- (comments in Spanish) about whatever's going on, I'm happy to respond to those things, and I can be reached on my cell phone, as some of you know, anywhere in the world. It's -- I make sure that I'm reachable and available directly by phone or directly through e-mail (electronic) all the time. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you.
Vice Chair Gort: Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: And I also like to thank Mr. Foodman, as well as all the members. And, yeah, just for the records [sic], I've contacted Mr. Foodman in the past and we've discussed various issues with the City's financial matters, part of the audit, when the auditor general -- we were looking for someone, I also reached out to -- not just him, all the members of the Audit Committee and get their feedback and so forth. So I definitely have reached out to the Audit Committee quite a bit, so thank you. I appreciate your service.
Mr. Foodman: No, it's our pleasure. That's why we're here. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. All right, and I think the --
Ms. Larned: Mr. Chair, Janice --
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Ms. Larned: -- Larned, Assistant City Manager/Chief Financial Officer. The chair had us prepare hard copies of his presentation. If I may approach the dais and distribute?
Chair Sarnoff: Sure. All right, Housing and Commercial Loan Committee. Okay.
DI.2 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00265 City Manager's Office UPDATE ON REDISTRICTING BY THE CITY OF MIAMI'S CONSULTANT,
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MIGUEL DE GRANDY, ESQ.
13-00265 Summary Form.pdf 13-00265 Supplementary Report.pdf 13-00265-Submittal-Presentation- Ken Jett.pdf DISCUSSED
Chair Sarnoff: All right, let's get started. All right, Mr. De Grandy, you're recognized for the record.
Miguel De Grandy: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission. For the record, my name is Miguel De Grandy. My address is 800 Douglas Road. With me today is my associate, Pablo Tomayo, and Mr. Steve Cody, who is also a consultant to the City and our firm on this redistricting project. Now, Commissioners, on February 14 of this year, we presented a proposed redistricting plan for the Commission's consideration. And at that time, several citizens testified regarding their desire to maintain the entire Upper Eastside within one district and requested additional public hearings in that regard . The Commission deferred consideration of the proposed redistricting plan and instructed us to hold two additional public hearings. Now during the February 14 meeting, I specifically asked, on more than one occasion, whether the Commission wished for me to create additional plans with different methodologies, and the consensus of the Commission at that time was that presenting additional plans would be premature and that redistricting counsel should conduct public hearings and report back to the Commission as to opinions expressed at those hearings. Now in regard thereto, we have already provided the Commission with a supplemental written report. There were two public hearings held; one at Legion Memorial Park and one at Miami City Hall. Over 8,000 notices were mailed, and in response, approximately 150 to 170 residents appeared at the two public hearings. The majority of the folks that appeared at the Miami City Hall hearing were also present at the Legion Memorial Park hearing. Now there is no question, Commissioners, that there was a unanimous expression of support among the citizens that attended the public hearing to maintain the entire Upper Eastside as one whole community, regardless of whether it was placed in District 2 or in District 5. There were a handful of residents that offered a preference as to going into District 2 or District 5. And there were also a few residents that basically stated that if the proposed plan were to be implemented, some boundary changes should be made to bring the Shorecrest area south to the Little River and to move off from Biscayne Boulevard in order to maintain the MiMo (Miami Modern) commercial area within one district. But again, at both hearings, one of the speakers asked for a show of hands of individuals who agreed that the Upper Eastside should be looked at as one single community. And on both occasions, everyone in the room raised their hand in support of that proposition. Now, as I have explained in my report, the proposed plan and the options of maintaining the entire Upper Eastside within one district present markedly different methodologies. Neither one is right or wrong, they just present different approaches to rebalancing population. The solution in the proposed plan meets constitutional requirements and is compliant with the Voting Rights Act. Likewise, the alternative models, which put all the Upper Eastside into one district, can also be accomplished in a manner that is constitutional and compliant with the Voting Rights Act. Now although the Commission requested that no additional plans be drawn until it obtained results from the public hearings, many of the residents did ask that the Commission be presented with alternatives to guide them in the discussion. Now, realistically, trying to present plans for all the potential variations that could be done would be impossible within the time presented. And therefore, we instead conducted additional modeling of the concepts to give you an idea of what potential changes would entail. Now, when conducting this initial modeling, we used the proposed plan as a starting point or a template. And the reason for that is two-fold. Number one, the Commission asked for guidance regarding the impact of changes to the proposed plan. Second, the proposed plan already contains or reflects the policy directives of this Commission. Let me illustrate that point by giving you an example. Shortly after the written report was published, you all received an e-mail
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(electronic) from Mr. Ken Jett, who complained regarding some parts of the analysis. And specifically, he stated he had done his own modeling of the alternative, which puts all of the Upper Eastside in District 5, and that his numbers differed significantly from ours. And therefore, he concluded in his e-mails that our numbers were "way off." He also implied that we were using some secret directives to arrive at a predetermined result. Now what Mr. Jett did was to take the core of the existing District 5, approximately 66,667 residents, and then added the entire Upper Eastside. And he states that in doing so, he arrived at similar deviation numbers and slightly slower [sic] African-American percentage as those in our proposed plan. However, unlike Mr. Jett, we are constrained to use the policy directives given on the public record by this Commission. And in that regard, in an open, public hearing on June of 2012, this Commission instructed us to put the remainder of the traditional neighborhood of Wynwood into District 5, and the Park West Overtown CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) into District 5. And the minutes of that public hearing are available at the City's website. So as you could see by what's on the screen now, the proposed plan reflects those policy directives. And those additional individuals, which Mr. Jett did not account for in his model, add up to 5,514 residents. And so when you add those residents to Mr. Jett's model, as we said in our report, the deviation would go slightly beyond 10 percent. With all due respect, our numbers are not way off, nor are we following any secret directives. It's just that our numbers reflect all of the policy directives given by this Commission in a public forum. Now, Commissioners, redistricting is a zero sum exercise. In other words, in order to balance population, what you take from one area, you have to compensate for in another. And as I have explained to you on several occasions, redistricting is also a constant exercise of balancing competing principles. And it is often difficult, if not impossible, to fully implement all of those competing principles because, by their own terms, they are competing. Therefore, the goal is to achieve the best balance possible, and that is precisely what we attempted to do in the proposed plan. Now, one of the public policy directives given by this Commission is to try to maintain traditional neighborhoods and communities of interest within one district, where possible. And this can be interpreted in different ways, neither one of which is right or wrong. For example, it is a fact that the Upper Eastside is composed of several traditional neighborhoods. These include Shorecrest, Palm Grove, Belle Meade, Bayside and others. It is also a fact that the Upper Eastside can be looked at as one single community of interest. And so having said that, let me now go back to the public hearings. Based on the fact that there was a united expression of support to maintain the Upper Eastside as one community of interest in one district, we did initial modeling of two alternatives. One would keep the entire Upper Eastside in District 2; the second would move the Upper Eastside into District 5. Now in order to maintain the entire Upper Eastside in District 2, we need to undo the movements of subarea 7 -- excuse me, 6, 7, and 8 that are going into District 5. These subareas, as you could see on the map, contain approximately 6,400 residents, which we would have to reverse. That loss in population, again, because it is a zero sum exercise, must be taken from areas now south of State Road 112. And there are many ways of doing this. And as I stated in my report, one model moves the east-west boundary between 2 and 5 all the way to Biscayne Boulevard, from State Road 112 all the way south to the Park West area. And even with that population shift, you would have to take additional population south of where you see that Park West movement, all the way down to the Miami River in order to reduce overall deviation. And this still results in an overall deviation of slightly over 6 percent and an additional 2 percentage point reduction in African-American total population in District 5 compared to the proposed plan. Now another consequence of this approach is that it results in reducing the Hispanic population in District 2. District 2's Hispanic population had naturally grown in the last decade from the mid-40s to over 52 percent. However, in this model, the Hispanic population would decrease to around 49 percent. This is not fatal, but it certainly enhances the probability of a legal challenge. Now other models may not require an eastern shift all the way to Biscayne Boulevard. However, if you don't go all the way to Biscayne Boulevard, then you have to compensate by taking even more population south of the Park West area to reduce deviation. And all these models also produce similar numbers in terms of African-American and Hispanic percentage reductions. Now as we discussed a few minutes ago, part of the approach in the proposed plan, based on your instruction, was to move the vast majority of the over park -- Overtown/Park West CRA into
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District 5 and try to keep the vast majority of the Omni CRA area in District 2. But this approach also diminishes the ability to maintain the majority of the Omni CRA in District 2 as a community of interest. Now it should be noted this approach does make District 5 more compact; however, it thins out the contours of District 2. And so, now let's talk a little more in detail about the alternative of moving the Upper Eastside into District 5. In this model, District 5 goes from being the most underpopulated district to becoming the most overpopulated district. It will be close to 6 percent over the ideal population number. And again, this is because we move the entire Upper Eastside into District 5, but we also maintain the changes that we made to bring Wynwood and to bring Park West into District 5. The total deviation would approximate or slightly exceed the 10 percent threshold. In order to bring deviation down, we have to begin to disassemble some of the changes we had already made. Again, this means we either undo Wynwood, undo the Park West change, or eliminate the changes we made in the southern part of District 2, which moved some population into District 4. In effect, this model results in the greatest change and potential disruption in electoral patterns in District 5 and reduces African-American total and voting age population by about 10 percentage points from the current numbers. Now, finally, Commissioners, there were a few citizens who basically testified that if the proposed plan were to be implemented, some additional changes should be made. And these changes include moving the southern boundary of Shorecrest from 79th Street to the Little River, and moving the boundary of the districts as it progresses north to south, off Biscayne Boulevard so that the entire MiMo commercial area remains within one district. Let me address both those issues separately. First, one can certainly find different maps in the public record which alternative cite -- alternatively will cite the southern boundary of Shorecrest at either 79th Street or at the Little River, and therefore, moving slightly south to the Little River would still be consistent with the directive of keeping traditional neighborhoods whole within one district. This change alone, in and of itself, would actually reduce overall deviation by about one- or two-tenths of a percent and would have a minimal impact on African-American voting age and total population of less than one-half of one percent compared to the proposed plan. The second requested change of moving off Biscayne Boulevard to maintain all of the MiMo commercial area within one district is another example of addressing competing principles. In the proposed plan, we move the entire Palm Grove area into District 5, consistent with the directive of trying to keep traditional neighborhoods whole within one district. Now some speakers suggested a change of one block in the west -- to the west of that boundary. In other words, move off Biscayne one block west. That would keep the MiMo area in one district, but now it splits the traditional neighborhood of Palm Grove into two districts, and that would also mean a loss in District 5 of over 1,000 residents in population, as compared to the proposed plan. That change still puts us within acceptable deviation parameters. But again, it now splits Palm Grove. Another suggestion was to return to the Northeast 4th Court boundary or shift the boundary to the railroad track. Now in that regard, I would note that in the last redistricting ten years ago, there was specific instruction not to utilize any boundaries that have a negative connotation in terms of race, and the railroad was specifically referenced at that time as one of the boundaries that should not be used. And so assuming you would still not want to use the railway, moving the boundary back to its original location on Northeast 4th Court, resulting in a loss of about 2,800 residents that are now going into District 5. And this would mean the deviation increases substantially and may require adjustments in other areas to compensate for this reduction. And so, in summary, Commissioners, we continue to believe that the proposed redistricting plan presents a balanced approach to equalizing population in a manner that is constitutional , is compliant with the Voting Rights Act, is consistent with traditional redistricting principles and with your policy directives. Nevertheless, there are small changes that can be done to the proposed plan, if you so desire, that would still maintain the integrity of those features. The alternative of keeping the Upper Eastside as one community, either in District 2 or District 5, can also be achieved in a manner that is constitutionally compliant and consistent with the Voting Rights Act. However, those methodologies do have impacts which may require that you change policy directives that you've already given, such as maintaining Wynwood and Park West within District 5, or maintaining the majority of the Omni CRA area in District 2. And these alternatives will also result in different deviation numbers and all result in lower percentages of
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African-American population in District 5. Now, Mr. Chairman, before I conclude, I want to add one additional point. As you have heard, the supervisor of elections is here today. I've been in communication with her, and certainly, I believe, she wants to address you directly. The supervisor does note that there is an urgency in concluding this process in order to be able to properly format your precincts for an orderly November election. And therefore, at the end of your discussion, what I would respectfully request is that you take a straw vote as to whether you want to approve the proposed plan or proceed with any alternatives or any changes. And if you desire to proceed with any alternatives or specific changes, I respectfully request you take a straw vote on each so that I can have very specific policy directions as we develop your final plan. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Chair Sarnoff: Anybody have any present questions right now? All right. Let me open up the public hearing. And I will call you up to speak. I will allot you two minutes to speak, so organize your thoughts and say what you need to say. Brett Bibeau. Okay, Luis Bordeau.
Luis Bordeau: Good evening. Luis Bordeau, 685 Northeast 64th Street. I'm here as president of the Bayside Residents Association. And I'd like to read a letter into the record from the Bayside board. Commissioners, the Bayside Residents Association board reviewed the proposed redistricting plan splitting the Upper Eastside community between Districts 2 and 5. Our unanimous consensus is to maintain a cohesive Upper Eastside community under one City Commission district. The Upper Eastside community associations have worked diligently and collectively over many years to continually improve our neighborhoods by collaborating with our district Commissioner. The splitting of the Upper Eastside communities between two districts will adversely affect the progress we are working to achieve. Respectfully, Luis Bordeau, Bayside Residents board. And I'll yield the rest of my time to Mr. Jett. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Barbara Gimenez. And after that is Luis Herrera.
Barbara Gimenez: Good afternoon. Barbara Gimenez, 7001 Biscayne Boulevard. I originally started to come up here to make one statement, and now I would like to address some of the remarks made by Mr. De Grandy regarding the MiMo/Biscayne -- or rather, the MiMo historic district. It was always assumed that the redistricting was going to happen, regardless of how many people stood up to say we wanted to stay together. And so we came back as the MiMo/Biscayne Association and asked, Well, if you're going to move us as neighborhoods, at least keep the MiMo historic district together. Now today I believe I heard that the proposal was to have the MiMo/Biscayne district remain in District 2. Now if that happens, then you're breaking up Palm Grove. What you're not realizing is we were expecting to be moved to District 5 because the historic district on the east side is broken up anyway because it starts in Morningside, and then it goes to Bayside, and then it goes to Belle Meade. And so we are not part of any residential area. So if we're moved and both sides of the boulevard go to District 5, at least the business district, which is not composed of voters -- the voters that have businesses and are employed there that own property, they live elsewhere; they vote elsewhere. So we're being moved as head somewhere else or stay somewhere else. But as far as the historic district, it's commercial folios, and there are very little voters there. So, again, I reiterate that it looks like we're going to be moved one way or the other. Move us to the west and let us go to District 5. At least we can stay together. And that's basically it. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Luis, you're giving your time to Jett. All right, Mark Ingraham.
Mark Ingraham: Good evening, ladies [sic] and gentlemen of the Commission. Mark Ingraham. I'm here on behalf of the Northeast 79th Street Business District, 853 Northeast 79th Street. We're not happy with the plan as it stands. I'm here to speak specifically about an area that's between Biscayne Boulevard and approximately Kennedy Causeway, on 79th Street. It's a small area. And as Mr. De Grandy's plan proposes, if I'm not mistaken, the street is split down the yellow line.
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Mr. De Grandy: Seventy-ninth?
Mr. Ingraham: Correct.
Mr. De Grandy: Yes, sir.
Mr. Ingraham: This business district has a history of being a singular district. We have unique goals, and we come together and we have a good relationship with our Commissioner's office. Through the years, we have worked with our Commissioner's office, District 2, fighting crime, improving the street, and we have planted the seed. And already we see new development coming to the area. It's the gateway to Biscayne Boulevard and the MiMo district coming from Miami Beach. As it is right now, if this plan were to go forward, the street would be split literally down the yellow line. So if you're looking out from a building on the north side of the street on 79th Street, they would be in one Commission district. And if you're on the south side of the street, you would be in the -- a different district, and it makes no sense. This would create a situation where you'd have competing districts when you also have the same goals. We request that if this proposal goes forward, that the north side of 79th Street be included in District 2. It's a -- as Ms. Gimenez mentioned, it's a commercial district. By eliminating -- by moving the approximate 15 or 20 commercial buildings that are on the north side of the street to District 5, it does nothing to -- in your efforts and the redistricting goals. Thank you very much.
Mr. De Grandy: Mr. Chairman, would you like me to address that?
Chair Sarnoff: Please.
Mr. De Grandy: First of all, Mr. Chairman, I want to be clear that in all redistricting, in all the 50 states, when you are cutting boundaries on a street, it results in dividing one side of the street from the other. You cut at the centerline of the street. That's how the programs work. That's how redistricting is done. Now having said that, to address the gentleman's point, if you ultimately choose to move the boundary of the Shorecrest movement down to the Little River, that addresses the gentleman's concern 'cause that puts all of 79th Street within one district. But as far as the issue of a street being cut into two sides, that is -- that occurs in every street change that you do. Now, there was talk about -- from the previous speaker about going behind the commercial property. We can't do that for several reasons. Number one -- and the supervisor's here. She can speak to that. The redistricting programs work on the same database that she has, which are units of geography that are either voter tabulation districts, VTDs, or the smallest unit of geography, which is a census block. And so, I can't divide by folio a census block and -- with regard to those commercial areas, for example, I don't know if in some of those hotels you have a resident manager that lives there, and that vote would somehow now be in limbo if I cut that commercial area. And I don't think that the supervisor could also format properly an election if we do redistricting by folio numbers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: Madam Elections Officer, I've been advised that you have another engagement to go to. So if you want to address the Commission, please come up.
Penelope Townsley: Good afternoon, Commissioners. And I appreciate the opportunity to address you. I'm here today to apprise you of the County's -- Miami-Dade County's redistricting and re-precincting initiative, in hopes of being able to work together to accomplish both our goals. The County is currently engaged in a comprehensive countywide re-precincting initiative that will equitably distribute the voters among our precincts. We're scheduled to present this plan to our Board of County Commissioners in November. I understand that the City would also like to include their new redistricting plan into your general election, which is also scheduled to take place in November. The County is on track to complete its district alignments on March 18 before moving on to re-precincting. I had previously advised the City that we would need the --
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an approved redistricting plan by March 28. However, after taking another look at our timeline, we're actually able to begin the City's redistricting around the second week in April. It's important to note that it will take us approximately six weeks to complete the City's redistricting. And we have this scheduled between April and the end of May. During the months of June and July, we will be briefing our Commissioners on the new re-precincting plan. And in the month of August, we will be going to public meetings with our plan. So basically, it's very important for us to keep to this schedule in order to be able to, number one, implement the City's redistricting in time for your general elections in November and also include that redistricting plan in our re-precincting plan, which, again, is scheduled to be presented to our commission in November. I hope that we'll be able to -- you'll take this into consideration as you move forward, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I have a question for her --
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- before she leaves. Mr. De Grandy made a -- Welcome to City Hall.
Ms. Townsley: Thank you.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Mr. De Grandy made a comment in reference to the MiMo district or commercial district and that -- I guess he had a conversation along with your office on this issue.
Mr. De Grandy: No. I haven't discussed it with her. I just basically said they work on the same units -- same -- their software --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Just -- right.
Mr. De Grandy: -- works on the same units of geography as we do and the census does. So --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Mr. De Grandy: -- we don't believe it is feasible to do it that way. She can certainly respond --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, just -- I just want to make sure 'cause you mentioned her and she's in the room, so I just want to be clear on the issue of a commercial district 'cause one of the residents made a comment on the splitting of a commercial district. And on one -- I'm assuming your comments was based upon that it's all commercial on one side and really no residential, correct?
Mr. De Grandy: Yeah. And the issue is, again, the -- there's a unit of geography that's a census block. That's the smallest unit of geography. What the thought is is break that in half, keep the commercial side on one side and the residential side on the other. I can tell you, our software cannot do that because our software can only divide down to the census block. There is also a possibility that in that census block, you have commercial that is a hotel that may have actual citizens in the census, and the other side, residential. And so, there is no way to be able to split that block and know exactly what voter belongs to which place based on the software that exists. My comment in that regard was I believe the Elections Department works on the same software system, the same units of geography, and therefore, it would not be feasible to actually take a magic marker and cut through the middle of a folio number and cut -- divide a census block.
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Ms. Townsley: And that is correct, Commissioner.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. I just wanted to have you put it on the record. I don't know if he's -- Are you standing up? Is he --?
Ms. Townsley: I just asked him to move closer in case I couldn't answer the question.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, no problem.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, thank you.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record, Commissioner Carollo.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. I have one quick question, and I just want clarity. The pre -- the re-precincting will not take effect for the November City of Miami election of 2013, correct?
Ms. Townsley: Re-precincting will not. Redistricting, should you submit your proposal, will.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. Mina Kahn [sic]. And after Mina --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Make sure -- I want to make sure I understand that. What?
Commissioner Carollo: Okay. Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: And just for clarity for Commissioner Spence-Jones, redistricting will take effect for the next City of Miami election in November.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Which is this November?
Commissioner Carollo: Right. But re-precincting within our district -- you have, you know, the precinct numbers, that -- the County right now, as Madam Election Director stated, they're in the process of re-precincting.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: However, that will not take effect for the City of Miami's November election, November 2013 election. It will after that. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Mina Kahn [sic], and then after Mina Kahn [sic], Skip Van Cel. -
Mina Kuhn: Yes. My name's Mina Kuhn --
Chair Sarnoff: Oh, I'm sorry, Kuhn.
Ms. Kuhn: -- 951 Northeast 83rd Street. This is my third time speaking at the public hearing.
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Therefore, all my opinion have been officially recorded. However, one new thing I'd like to address to the Commissioners and Mr. De Grandy, that one of his options is to split the Shorecrest using the Little River as a boundary. But just splitting one homeowners association into two district is really cruel and it's a terrible idea. Just -- I just wanted to mention that to Commissioners. And once again, I really need to stress how wrong and harmful to split Upper Eastside. Resident of the entire Upper Eastside cannot see any benefit from splitting already established Upper Eastside community, but only the harm to the community. As Mr. De Grandy just stated today, there are many other options available without splitting Upper Eastside. Please do not make us think that Commissioners of District 2 and District 5 are playing political game. We've already seen enough political [expletive] in Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia). So please keep Upper Eastside altogether. And I'm going to donate my remaining time to Ken Jett.
Chair Sarnoff: Skip Van Cel:
Skip Van Cel: Hi. Skip Van Cel, 8512 East Dixie Highway. Thank you for this meeting today. First off, I want to say, I -- quite frankly, I don't care whether we go in District 2 or District 5. Commissioner Sarnoff's done a lot of good things in District 2. He's been very, you know, instrumental in getting stuff done. I've got good friends that live in District 5. I happen to be on the Little Haiti Community Garden board. My friend Tamara has very good things to say about Commissioner Spence-Jones, so whether we go to District 2 or District 5 doesn't matter to me. However, I do think it's really important that we keep the Upper Eastside together. One thing I want to ask Mr. De Grandy is this. He mentioned that it was two different redistricting propose -- two different ideas there. One was it reduced the African-American voting population 2 percent; and one, it dropped it 10 percent. Is that correct?
Mr. De Grandy: One drops it 2 percent from the current plan. The other one drops it 5 percent from the current plan, or 10 percent -- excuse me, 5 percent from the proposed plan or 10 percent from the current plan.
Mr. Van Cel: Okay, and what is the current percentage of African-American voters in District 5?
Mr. De Grandy: Seventy-five percent.
Mr. Van Cel: Okay, so there's still going to be a -- you know, regardless of whether, you know, we go to District 2 or District 5, there's still going to be a majority of African-American voters in District 5, correct?
Mr. De Grandy: Yes, sir.
Mr. Van Cel: Okay, I just want to make that clear 'cause I thought it was -- Any rate, my vote is to see us stay together, you know. If it does get split up, I'm definitely against the idea of 79th Street as the southern border for Shorecrest. We have a lot of homeowners that live south of 79th Street in that little strip, and they're going to literally be cut off from their district if you leave that in District 2 and put the rest of us north of 79th into District 5. So if we do get that district, that is the plan, I do vote that we keep district -- the south end of 79th Street, all the way to the river, in District 2 or District 5, whichever one. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. All right, William Vallenilla, and then after that would be Ginger Vela. William? Okay, Ginger. After Ginger Vela will be Peter Ehrlich.
Ginger Vela: Good evening. My name is Ginger Vela, 920 Northeast 86 Street. And I have spoken -- this was my third time speaking as well. And I just wanted to say that I wanted to clear up any kind of idea that we did not want to go to District 5 because when we had our meeting at the Legion, we had a show of hands that showed that unanimously people agreed that they would
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be willing to go to District 5, and I think there was a misunderstanding about that. And the other thing I would like to say is that we had several people -- seemed to me they were like pretty prominent people from District 5 who got up and spoke toward the end of our meeting and said they would very much welcome us there, to be sent to that district. And just one third point, quickly. Mr. De Grandy said that depending on different maps, you could see that Shorecrest had a boundary of the river or the 79th Street. But I have a plat map at my own house from 1924, when Shorecrest was first established, and it shows that the Little River -- even though we didn't have the same street numbers necessarily, the Little River was definitely our boundary. And thank you very much for your time. And I hope that we all stay together, and I am in favor of us moving to District 5.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, Peter Ehrlich. After Peter Ehrlich is Judith Sandoval.
Peter Ehrlich: Good evening, Mr. Chair, Commissioners. My name is Peter Ehrlich, 770 Northeast 69 Street. And I live in Bayside, and I work in Lemon City, so I'm oriented towards the Upper Eastside. As Mr. De Grandy stated, at least three votes for all the residents of the various communities in the Upper Eastside, Palm Grove, Magnolia Park, Bay Pointe, Shorecrest, Palm -- Belle Meade and the MiMo district association. And the votes were essentially, as Mr. De Grandy said, 100 percent where the people were in favor of staying together. They wanted to be in either District 2 or District 5. But as diverse as our communities are, everybody thought they would be able to accomplish more working with one Commissioner, whoever -- whichever Commissioner the five of you decide on this -- with your decisions. The communities are very diverse. I mean, within -- almost on the same streets, we have condos that are probably worth 40 or $50,000 and waterfront homes that are worth 2 or 3 million. And everybody seems to get along and attends meetings together, and the meetings are very well populated, very well attended. So I know the decision's very tough for all of you. I guess it's particularly tough for District 2 and District 3 [sic], which are facing the greatest amount of changes. But we hope you'll vote to keep us all -- the Upper Eastside people together. Thank you very much.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. All right, Judith Sandoval, and then after Judith is Jack Spirk.
Judith Sandoval: Thank you. I simply wish to support the opinion of the residents who have spoken about the need to keep the Upper Eastside unified. I have many friends that I have worked with up there in various issues around the city. And I think this Commission recognizes the success that these residents and homeowner groups have had in developing that area in the last ten years and the preservation of valuable parts of it and the commercial success of the businesses there because they work together. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. Jack Spirk, and then Eileen Bottari.
Jack Spirk: How do you do? It's Jack Spirk, 722 Northeast 81st Street. I'm a prior Shorecrest Homeowners Association president. I'm also a director of the Upper Eastside Preservation Coalition. I would just like to add that there may be 8,000 homes in our area, but to see 120 to 150 people show up for a meeting, a diverse group of people, many who never spoke publicly before, was an amazing happening, including -- I'd like to reiterate what Ginger Vela said. We had homeowner association residents from District 5 come and say they would welcome us into District 5. Shorecrest has always been the orphan child of the City. We're the last stop on the train. I urge you to keep the whole Upper Eastside together, and especially, don't kick Shorecrest under the bus. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Eileen Bottari, then Joseph Mooradian.
Eileen Bottari: Good evening. My name's Eileen Bottari. I live in historic Palm Grove. I'm also a director on the North Palm Grove Community Organization. After we had our public meeting at Legion Park, I had a lot of homeowners ask me how did we all come together, how
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did we all meet each other. And you have to go all the way back to 1992. And it was the City that actually brought us all together. After Hurricane Andrew, our community was such a mess that the City started a taskforce, an Upper Eastside taskforce, and invited all of the neighborhoods to come together. Ana Gelabert was the NET (Neighborhood Enhancement Team) administrator at the time, and she was the spokesperson, and we worked together for a couple of years on this taskforce. And this is how we all started to work together and address the problems in the Upper Eastside, which has been crime and urban decay and everything that -- bad can happen to a community. And fast-forward 20 years later, here we are in 2013, and we have a beautiful community because all of us have worked together. So that is why we're fighting so hard to stay together in one district, whether it's District 5 or District 2, either one is fine, just as long as we can remain a community together. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Joseph? All right.
Joseph Mooradian: Hi. I'm Joseph Mooradian. I live at 510 Northeast 77th Street, Palm -- the historic neighborhood of Palm Grove, and I previously lived in the historic neighborhood of Shorecrest. I've been a resident in Miami for nine years. And one of the reasons I moved to the Upper Eastside was I remember seeing an article in the Biscayne Times and -- elsewhere that referred to the Upper Eastside of Miami as Miami's most culturally diverse neighborhood. I previously lived in Chicago for nine years and New York for five years, and that was precisely what drew me to the Upper Eastside in Miami. I think this proposal to split the area down the middle, down Biscayne Boulevard would be extremely detrimental to a neighborhood that has survived this horrible recession, that managed to survive during all the construction that went on along Biscayne. The restaurants, the shops have actually continued to flourish, and I would like to see that continue to move that -- in that direction. I would like to thank Mr. De Grandy for his time and being so patient with us at the last two meetings. But I would, however, like to correct something that he said. He said a handful of people didn't want to move to District 5. It was actually one from each meeting, one person, not a handful. One person said if they had a choice, they would prefer to stay in District 2, and that was a resident from Belle Meade. And in the second meeting, another one resident said they would also like to stay in District 2 if they had a choice. But again, I reiterate, unanimously, everyone said they would like to stay together, and if that meant going to District 5, they would do so gladly. And we did have residents from District 5 come and welcome us. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. All right, Ken Jett.
Ken Jett: Mr. Chair, Commissioners, neighbors, friends, Mr. De Grandy, good evening. Before I begin, Grace Solares was unable to attend tonight, but I would like to put Grace Solares e-mail from March 6 to all the Commissioners regarding the violations of the sunshine law in these redistricting proceedings in the record so that we can refer to them in the future if the need arises. It is with disdain that I must speak with you tonight. Despite two extremely successful public hearings, Mr. De Grandy was unable to accurately report the experiences in his supplemental report. I commend the one Commissioner, per the Communications Department, who requested copies of the DVDs (Digital Video Discs) of those public hearings. And I hope that you reviewed it on your own. The supplemental report accurately reflects the number of attendees as 150 to 170 people. And it also correctly reflects that those attendees unanimously requested that the Upper Eastside be maintained as an entire traditional community within one district, with no expressed preference for the resulting district. For reasons providing -- for the reasons provided for maintaining the area together were varied and included that the Upper Eastside is marketed as an area of interest by both the City of Miami and by those of us who live in it; that the market gains in developing the area have resulted in a wealth of diversity that drew many to call our area home, and that any attempts to split the Upper Eastside would result in political, cultural, and financial harm to the area and to the residents. The supplement inaccurately reflects the number of residents suggesting that the Little River should be used as a natural boundary, that Biscayne should not be used as a dividing line for an east-west boundary,
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and that the east coast railway should -- is a better boundary. Mr. De Grandy failed to reflect those numbers and point out the way in which those concerns were couched. Of the over 100 attendees at the first meeting, I reviewed the DVDs to find that four individuals stated the first two things and only one suggested that the FEC (Florida East Coast) be used as the dividing line. Less than 4 percent and less than 1 percent, respectively, presented these suggestions, and those suggestions were parenthetical to their main point of keeping the Upper Eastside together, almost as an escape clause. If you can't do this, then at least do the other. I fear that Mr. De Grandy's choice of words and lack of clarity was intended to sway board opinion back to his original proposal. The same loose style was used in reporting the same suggestions from the second hearing. On page 4 of his supplement, the consultant proffers that the proposed plan or the potential plan is neither right nor wrong. The original plan is most definitely wrong in that it fails to maintain a traditional neighborhood, recognized and marketed by the City of Miami itself as an area of interest within one district. It fails to make the districts more compact, but instead, creates the continual malformation of District 5 along racial lines by drawing a strange leg all the way to the bay. And as I've made City officials aware, it creates concern about potential gerrymandering by packing District 5. Now one minor comment about his Little River and off-Biscayne model, again, that model is based on the feedback of four individuals. I would like to focus our attention now on the ill-conceived model for moving the entire Upper Eastside to District 5. I thought that my previous e-mails to the Commission and to Mr. De Grandy would be enough, but alas, it seems they are not. I want to explain for the Commission what we see as the easiest solution. Notice, no one is saying the preferred solution. Our only expressed requirement -- and I underscore requirement -- to the City officials is that the Upper Eastside, in its entirety, remain within one district. De Grandy slants his model to suggest that such a model would exceed a 10 percent deviation threshold. Forgive me, but I'd like to have you focus on my craft project from this afternoon. Utilizing the proposed report, the original, Mr. De Grandy broke the map into several subareas. Subarea 5 was the core of District 5, and it contained 66,666 people -- these numbers can be found in his original proposal -- with 75 percent black, totaling 50,000; 20 percent Hispanic, totaling 13,333; 4 percent white, totaling 2,666; and a 1 percent Asian/other, totaling 667 people. In addition to that subarea, if you look at where the number 2 cue ball is, De Grandy's subarea 12 contains the following: 383 total population. It was slated for movement from District 5 to District, I believe, 1. Forgive me, I think, Commissioner Gort's district. With 32 percent black, totaling 123; 58 percent Hispanic, totaling 222; 7 percent white, totaling 27; 2 percent Asian/other, totaling a whopping 8 individuals. In addition to that, utilizing the City's 2010 census data by NET area, it was easy to go to the Upper Eastside numbers, which were divided by the City, and yet, again, another reason that the City -- it's suggested that the City sees us as an area of interest. The Upper Eastside population is 12,859 individuals; 38 percent Hispanic; 30 percent black; 28 percent white; and 0.3 percent other. Before I go to the last slide and have you look at that proposal, I want you to look at the 2010 census data. We are a diverse neighborhood. The beauty of that is we're about 30, 30, 30, and we want to maintain that community feel. The resulting new District 5 with the Upper Eastside intact using subarea 5, 12, and the entire Upper Eastside gives us a total population of 79,908 individuals. The average that we're attempting to attain is 79,891. Quick math, that is 17 people, I think, which is a deviation of two one-hundredths of a percent. And then I give you the -- I think you've looked at the breakdown there. You're still at 68 percent black, 23 percent Hispanic, 8 percent white, 1 percent other, with any rounding areas -- errors spread across that group. Now, yes, as Mr. De Grandy pointed out, this means that all of those other subareas, which none of them originally existed in my reading within District 5, do need to be dealt with. So it does not answer the problems of CRA districts, but I employ you -- implore you that we are individuals. We are residents. We are not a business organization like a CRA, that we should become -- that we should come first in those matters. So, in closing, I'd like to thank you for allowing me the time to present this. And no plan will be acceptable that does not keep the Upper Eastside together as a whole within one district. Your citizens have made it loud and clear that it's imperative that you keep us together, and we request that you, as City officials, heed that request. Any questions about anything I've said?
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Chair Sarnoff: Thank you.
Mr. Jett: Thank you.
Mr. De Grandy: Would you like me to address that?
Chair Sarnoff: Public hearing. Anybody else in the public that has not had the opportunity to speak? Public hearing is now closed; coming back to this Commission. Discussion. Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I'll yield to you first. I have a couple of things I want to go over.
Commissioner Suarez: Okay. Well, first of all, I just want to say that I think, you know, one of the things we discussed at the last meeting was the notice. And obviously, when we sent out notices to 8,000 people, the attendance was much higher. So I think that's a very positive thing. I think Mr. De Grandy has a very difficult job to do, and it's obviously, thankfully, one that you only have to do once a decade because it obviously is very difficult citywide to reconcile all of the different parochial interests that you have to reconcile so that you have a happy and harmonious city. I think -- I don't -- I know there were some discussion about his summarizing of the actual meetings, but I thought he was pretty clear in stating that everyone who attended was unanimous, essentially, in their desire to want to keep these neighborhoods intact. And I think one of the major principles of our redistricting is to keep traditional neighborhoods intact . So, you know, I -- you know, my preference is to keep the neighborhood intact, to find a way to keep the neighborhood intact. That's my personal policy preference. I'm perfectly flexible in terms of my district and its boundaries to -- I know it doesn't touch these areas, per se. In fact, it's on the diametrically opposite side of these areas. But to the extent that any sort of mixing, matching, you know, taking from my area would be in any way, shape or form helpful to maintaining -- 'cause in my case, we have traditional neighborhoods as well, but, for example, in the Flagami side -- and we have a -- Flagami's a very long and broad traditional neighborhood that could -- that is actually in two districts. We also have -- we -- District 2 and District 4 share a neighborhood, which is Golden Pines. And I think, in some ways, they benefit, by the way, from that split because then they kind of get the best of both worlds. They get -- and we publicly notice our meetings, our sunshine meetings. We both go, so they get two Commissioners, actually, going to the meetings. So you might actually want to think about, you know -- you might want to give it some thought and you might want to think about the possibility of having actually two Commissioners because you get two for the price of one, but that's a whole 'nother issue. This has just been my experience. I've dealt with it in Golden Pines, and it's resulted in a lot of capital improvements. You know, when you have, for example, crime issues, if you have the police chief there and you have two Commissioners, you almost have a majority of the Commission. It's one of the neat things about having a small five-member board. So, believe me, they're paying attention. It's pretty neat when you have a Commissioner attending a community meeting, but when you have two Commissioners, it's even more helpful. So as I actually reason through it, you know, you may want to think about whether or not it makes actually more sense and it may be more helpful to have two Commissioners, but that's -- but to the extent that I can -- that my district -- in using the boundaries in my district, I'm completely open and flexible. Obviously, we have traditional neighborhoods too. We have Shenandoah. We have Silver Bluff. We have Coral Gate, and we have Flagami; the St. Micheal's area, Golden Pines, that I have a little bit of, and I think, under this plan, I get a little bit more of. But, you know, I think when you have this kind of an outpouring of -- and unanimity of discussion on an issue, it's obviously something that's very, you know, near and dear to the residents' hearts. We don't -- trust me, there's no one up here that wants to do anything that's going to, you know, make you feel like you're not being represented the way that you should be. So to the extent that anything that my district boundaries can do to help alleviate this problem, I have -- I provide you with full flexibility from my end.
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Chair Sarnoff: Want to go? Spence [sic], you want to go next or --?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: (INAUDIBLE).
Commissioner Carollo: My comments are similar. As a matter of fact, District 3 is under deviation, below deviation. And I believe District 2 is way above deviation. So if somehow District 3 expands into District 2, would that help reduce the deviation in my district and help District 2 out?
Mr. De Grandy: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead. You're recognized.
Mr. De Grandy: Depending on what other changes are done, yes. Right now, for example, if that was the only change, that would certainly result in a reduction because right now District 2 is the high end of the devia -- overall deviation and your district is the low end, at minus 2.76. As -- if other changes were to occur that would lower District 2's population, then District 4 now becomes the high end, at 3 percent, so still, you would be the low end, and that would result in -- but it depends on what other changes you all agree to.
Commissioner Carollo: Right. And I think -- and I don't want to speak for the other Commissioners and I heard Commissioner Suarez -- but I think the sentiment here is to somehow be compatible with federal law, but at the same time, keep the neighborhoods whole. I mean, and obviously, that's -- my sentiment is -- you know, one of the reasons that I pushed very hard for the public meetings in the last Commission meeting. And I didn't want you to come back with a plan. I wanted to, you know, see what these public audience would turn out and see if there was some type of consensus. So, you know, I am open to some changes. I know we briefly spoke about it. I mentioned it in the last Commission meeting and I briefly spoke about possibly encompassing a few blocks into District 2 so it would help out. And I don't know if you want me to discuss actual -- you know, the streets, if you want me to hold off.
Mr. De Grandy: Well, it's at your pleasure, Commissioner. What I would say is before the night is over, whatever changes -- I need to understand exactly what the boundaries -- and I need to understand the majority of the Commission approves that boundary so I could make the change.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized, Commissioner Suarez.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah. I just want to take one step back and just say something. I also represent Shenandoah with Commissioner Carollo, and we worked on a project together, which was 17th Avenue, and it should be completed soon. And what we did there was because the district boundary is the middle of the street, as you mentioned -- the 17th Avenue on the west side is my district; 17th Avenue on the east side is Commissioner Carollo's district. We actually had two pots of money to do 17th Avenue. We -- he gave $300,000; I gave $300,000, and the County gave $600,000. And they're in the process now of doing 17th Avenue. So that's another example where you have two Commissioners that, you know, share a neighborhood and it actually, in my opinion, benefited the neighborhood. So, I mean, it's just something for you to think about, food for thought. I'm just giving you examples -- I actually just thought of them right now, so -- but I hear, you know, your concerns.
Commissioner Carollo: And by the way -- Mr. Chairman, I --
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. And with that said, you know, it worked because we made it work.
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Commissioner Suarez: Right.
Commissioner Carollo: Because at the same time, I think Commissioner Suarez will also admit that it wasn't easy, you know. Even in the meetings, we had to make sure that it was --
Commissioner Suarez: Sunshine, yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: -- sunshine (UNINTELLIGIBLE), yeah.
Commissioner Suarez: Sunshine meetings, right.
Commissioner Carollo: Had the City Clerk make sure that it was properly advertised, or I don't know what you call it. But the bottom line is, no, at times, it wasn't easy, but we made it work, you know, and I think that's what cooperation and trying to, you know, move the City forward, you do. I mean, you find ways to make things work and you move forward.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Gort.
Commissioner Gort: I'll tell you, I was the chairperson in 1996, when the districts were created. I think it took us about a year. It was not easy. We had to change it quite a few times, and we listened to the public. And right now, my district's under. I think it's about 5 percent or something like that, so there's not much I can give up, but the -- I think the neighborhoods want to stay together. We have to try to figure it out what's best. At the same time, I want you to know that we do work very closely together, all of us. And although we have district and we respect each other's -- we look for what's better for City as a whole. So a lot of time, making a decision for the districts -- I'll be having an item in my district (UNINTELLIGIBLE) my district some -- one -- some of the Commissioner might come up with different idea, and I will accept it because I think it's the best thing to do. It's that easy.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it's really important -- before I really make my comments on some questions or some comments that were made on the record tonight so that I have clarity on it. I think that we need to start this from the starting point, from the beginning point, like how did we get here, and what was the motivation for us even bringing this issue up. And it was clearly because D5 (District 5) was underrepresented. That's why we're here. If we didn't have to change it, we wouldn't, you know. We would keep it the way it is. And I asked my City Attorney to -- just so that I'm clear -- and I want to make sure the -- not only the residents that are here at City Hall, but the ones that are listening and watching it by television, for them to have a clear understanding why it was kind of communicated to us that we had to take this step. And I think that we need to go back to that beginning point. So I ask City -- Madam City Attorney to at least read this into the record so that we're clear on it.
Maria J. Chiaro (Deputy City Attorney): What I'm going to read to you is the reason for the redistricting. It was included -- and certainly, the City Attorney's office agrees -- in the report that was provided to you by Mr. De Grandy. The Supreme Court has determined that a minority group can invoke the protection of Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act when it can establish three preconditions. The first is that the minority group is large enough and compact enough to form a majority in a single-member district. The second is that the minority voters must demonstrate that they are politically cohesive; that is, that they tend to support the same candidates. Finally, a minority group must establish that the majority group is also politically cohesive, but that it usually opposes the minority's chosen candidate.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Right. So I just think that it's important to start from that beginning point, and that was based upon a -- I just want a -- supreme --
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Ms. Chiaro: Yes. It's a Supreme Court decision. It was summarized again in the report that was presented on redistricting to you.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, so we're only here because of that reason. I just want to be clear. In my last -- in our last hearing, I mentioned the importance of everyone sitting up here having a voice and representing the community in which we serve, the City of Miami. I made reference to the fact that -- and I still make reference to the fact that it's extremely important to have a woman's voice sit up here so that at least there is a different frame of mind addressing issues 'cause there's certain things that women feel a certain way about compared to the way mens [sic] feels a way about certain things. I think that it's extremely important to make sure that there's always the opportunity to have or make sure that there is a voice of the African-American community represented on the board. And I'm assuming that when this voters rights situation came about, that was what it was birthed out of, correct?
Mr. De Grandy: Yes. When that came about was because, as a result of the situation that occurred that existed in the 1960s --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Put it on the record. I just want to be clear, not just for the people sitting in here, but the people listening by way of television so they understand and everybody understands why we're doing this.
Mr. De Grandy: Well, two things. One, there's an absolute constitutional directive to equalize population. That comes from the 14th Amendment equal protection clause. The Voting Rights Act issue involves a situation where -- the Voting Rights Act passed in the 1960s at a time when there were many tools utilized, such as -- at election -- at ballot boxes, literacy tests, all sorts of stuff that had the intent of defeating the efforts of minorities to participate in the political process.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Kind of like now, but go ahead.
Mr. De Grandy: Two different sections exist, Section 2 and Section 5. Section 5 is what's being litigated now in the Supreme Court, which is the preclearance provisions, which basically says that for several states that had met certain requirements in terms of the history of discrimination and low voter turnout, they need any changes in their electoral process precleared by the Department of Justice. What the City Attorney referenced is Section 2, which is not being litigated currently in the Supreme Court, that basically says if you can establish three preconditions, then the Voting Rights Act applies and you must draw redistricting in a manner that gives that minority community an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of its choice. So Section 2 is a vote dilution claim or vote dilution issue; Section 5 is a preclearance issue that requires approval of the Justice Department before any voting change goes into effect.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, so -- and that is your -- and that was your recommendation. And as a matter of fact, that was the reason why the City of Miami brought you on board to make sure we vetted out this process properly. And I want to thank Alice and the entire team that, you know, after the last hearing, made sure the notices got out and everybody understood what the issues were and everyone had an opportunity to participate in two public hearings to put their thoughts on the record. So I want to thank -- Oh, and Todd, of course, the City Clerk, for making that happen. So, basically, in a nutshell, we're here because it's -- we're mandated to kind of do it, and to also make sure that everyone has a voice in a city that is diversified, correct?
Mr. De Grandy: That is correct, ma'am. There is a constitutional mandate to do this, and there is also a mandate from the Voting Rights Act to do it in a manner that provides minority communities an equal opportunity to elect candidates of choice.
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: So that explains how we got here. The three or four points that I want to make really quickly -- and I think it's important to make. Two of my fellow colleagues have mentioned it, and I believe, Carollo and Suarez, regarding the fact that you really get two Commissioners instead of one. That was the comment that was made; that you have the ability to have a larger pot of resources of funding to support your areas because, basically, those areas will be split. Both Commissioners mentioned Shenandoah as a perfect example of them doing that now. Marc and I actually share a few areas together, one being Wynwood, which we share together, and also Midtown, which we also share together. Or actually, Marc is on one side of the street and I'm on the other. As far as I'm concerned, you know, I look forward to working with Marc in these areas that I have to inherit, if I have to inherit them, to make sure that the community gets everything that it needs, you know. I -- I'm just a little shocked and surprised that, you know, this would even be an issue, especially throughout our city. We share communities already, you know, and so this whole idea of this prevents us from working together, I don't know where this is coming from because we would be able to work together. I would be able to work with Marc's office, and I'd be able to work with the residents on both sides. So I can't really buy into that argument only because we're already doing it. So I just -- I can't really buy into that argument. Now, the other issue that came up on some comments that were made was this issue of MiMo. And I support MiMo. I support it even though it's not even in my district. I've always supported Nancy and the whole crew in what they're doing. I think it's an amazing thing. I didn't have a problem with -- and I even mentioned to Miguel -- I don't -- I didn't have a problem with taking the business district portion of it, but I was told that I couldn't, you know. So if that changes, I don't have a problem with it, but that's what was communicated. But I do not want to -- put it on the record that Spence-Jones did not have an issue -- does not have an issue with doing that. The other issue that came up, which is the 79th Street area by the river, that the proposed plan that Me [sic] Grandy has given us stating -- splitting 79th Street down the middle, I don't have a problem with the comment that was made today about taking it to the river. I support that 100 percent. If I have to, you know, swallow that and do that, I look forward to working to the -- with the businesses on 79th Street and the homeowners that live on 79th Street, so that's not an issue for me. So I wanted to make sure that I was clear on that. There was another comment that was made -- and I just want to clear up the record when we make these kind of statements in public arenas. I did not get the e-mail from Grace Solares. Maybe it did come to me, but I didn't get it at all in reference to a sunshine violation. But I don't recall attending -- maybe you were talking -- maybe the reference was about future issues of sunshine violations or that a sunshine violation had already happened, which I'm not -- hum?
Unidentified Speaker: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Do you know about this, Me [sic] Grandy?
Mr. De Grandy: Yes. The issue surfaced at the last meeting when several of the residents asked me to specifically discuss the conversations I had had with each of you all. My response at that time was I was not at liberty to do that. Number one, I have to follow -- whether I'm a consultant or not, I have to follow the Florida Bar code --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Mr. De Grandy: -- in terms of confidentiality.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And you -- and I just want to be very clear. In every meeting that I've had with him -- because, you know, you're curious. You don't know what people think or feel from other districts. And Me [sic] Grandy has been the ultimate professional and has been very clear that this is the viewpoint that he's sharing, that -- you know, from his perspective in getting the information from the residents, and never has it been a discussion around who's doing what.
Mr. De Grandy: Now, I believe the City Attorney can also speak to the issue. Again, my
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perspective was, from my point of view as a lawyer, but from the sunshine law perspective, I think it's the City Attorney's position that whatever I discuss with you as a retained consultant --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah.
Mr. De Grandy: -- does not violate the sunshine law, nor does it need to be disclosed.
Ms. Chiaro: The issue of the sunshine law doesn't apply to any conversations that Mr. De Grandy had one on one with any of you. The Florida Statute 286.011, as you know, deals with a decision-making body. No decision-making authority was delegated to Mr. De Grandy, and his conversations with you would not be in any way implicate -- would not in any way implicate the sunshine law. So the issue of attorney-client privilege doesn't even need to be dealt with. There's no sunshine law meetings that occurred with Mr. De Grandy and individual Commissioners.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. So I just wanted to make sure 'cause we make these statements -- you know, it almost appeared -- and again, I hadn't read the e-mail, so I didn't really know. Iit felt as though it was on the hinds of the community meeting that took place, like I attended and Marc attended and we were there. So I just wanted to be clear, and now I have a clear understanding of what your comment was made. The other issue, really fast, was the issue of -- 'cause we talked about MiMo and the splitting of that, and I -- you've been clear on that, that we cannot keep MiMo in one area in D5.
Mr. De Grandy: We can't do redistricting by folio numbers.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, so I just want to be clear with the MiMo folks that have asked. The other issue was the splitting of Palm Grove, Shorecrest, and I guess, Belle Meade in the Upper Eastside. Based upon your recommendations and what we've talked about and looking at the overall objective of what we're trying to accomplish, I don't have a problem with not definitely splitting Palm Grove. I think that that community should stay intact, and I support that 100 percent. I'm in Palm Grove all the time, so I love the neighborhood. I love what they're doing there. So I don't have an issue with not splitting that. The issue of Shorecrest, same thing. I mean, I don't have a problem with, you know, taking in Shorecrest and supporting Shorecrest and having it be a part of my district. I just -- I'm glad today's meeting -- I feel a lot better about it. I'm going to be honest with you, because the last hearing, it just -- it bordered some conversations that, quite frankly, I don't think we should be having at all in the City. I mean, we should all be working together and we should all be trying to figure out a way to, you know, live together and not, you know, this whole issue of division, you know. I just -- I can't stomach that kind of behavior. I just really can't, you know. It's about everybody winning in the end. And you know, I will continue to work with Marc and any of my Commissioners and definitely, my residents. And most people that know me -- and you said you know Tamara -- I am a very hands-on Commissioner, and I am the Commissioner that will be out to 12 o'clock at night, you know. And my sergeant at arms is back there; right, Arnie? You tell me some lights are out, 12 o'clock at night, I'm out there with Florida Power & Light counting every light to make sure it gets done. So, you know, for me, my level of commitment would be the same. I think that -- personally, I think it would be great to have a wonderful resource in both communities, Palm Grove and Shorecrest, and I'd have a piece of MiMo, which I love, that can share the wealth of knowledge, the wealth of experience to make the whole entire district better. So I just -- I don't like to have these discussions that really border, you know, the issues of, you know, people's social, economical, you know, racial, you know. It should never be about that, you know. And I think that us keeping Palm Grove intact, keeping Shorecrest intact, keeping the 79th Street business district intact is a great form of compromise from our side, and I don't have a problem with taking it. Yes, I will be losing a percentage of African Americans because of this, but it is what it is. And you know, I'll now go down to 69 -- I believe 60 -- almost 69 -- a little over 69 percent, which, before, I was at 75 percent. So the one thing I want to just add really quickly,
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too, because there was another comment that was made, and I want to make sure I don't miss it. Oh, the issue of the CRAs. Someone brought that up as an issue tonight as well. And I wanted to be clear, you know. We -- the recommendation was to make sure that we keep the CRAs somewhat intact and make sure that those areas are being represented. I am picking up all of historic Overtown, which had become a challenge because we kind of know the vision that we want to have in historic Overtown. I mentioned this to Me [sic] Grandy, and I just want to be clear so you and I are on the same page. The issue of the area, area 12 -- I think it's area 12, if I'm not mistaken -- on 7th Avenue, part of that belongs to the Overtown CRA, and I want to make sure that we're on the same page about that. But not only from that perspective -- and I don't have a problem with picking up everything above 20th Street to do that; that's not an issue. But what I think is really important to put on the record is that Overtown -- and I'm talking to my residents that are listening here and the ones that are sitting here -- has been a community that has been really destroyed. And for the first time in a very long time, we're rebuilding it back. We're restoring hope, and things are actually changing in Overtown. And I think that it's really important -- I don't have a problem, like I said, from 20th Street and above because that's where really the residents are. Even though I am going to be losing -- and you mentioned it earlier. In that section I'm losing like, I think, 338 people, which to me, I would have liked to have kept those people to keep my numbers, but it is what it is. But you have to lose some as you go. But what's more important to me than that than anything else is that section between 20th Street and really 14th Street or Booker T. Washington, where it is. That was the historic Overtown. That was known or deemed as Overtown. And in the 1920s, that area, you know, was the place where the Ritz Theater and modern -- the Modern Theater all were there. And it was a vibrant area in Overtown. And unfortunately, that natural barrier that we just talked about, I-95 basically destroyed that whole entire community. So now when there is an opportunity to make sure that those commitments that the Camillus House and that the University of Miami has made to the people of Overtown -- have made to Overtown, I would definitely want to make sure that if we're keeping these communities intact, you know, and we're taking the philosophy of CRAs and historic-based communities kind of remain together, I think that it's important. And there are a lot of promises made from both of those major developments to the people of Overtown. And quite frankly, the Camillus House, which sits behind the expressway, the majority of the people going to Camillus House and living in Camillus House, they hang out in Overtown. So I just really want to make sure -- this is -- and I want to be clear in closing on this. This is bigger than me, you know. I'm not going to be here forever. I'm not going to be here in ten years. So it's for the person that's behind me and behind all of us, you know, that have to make changes; that things are put in place so that at least there's some shared equity or some equity in these neighborhoods so that people feel as though their neighborhoods are protected. So I just -- that's the only area that I would want to make sure as a part of all of this -- and you and I talked about this. And I want to be clear to Commissioner Gort. I just happened to -- you know, I was doing my final briefing with Me [sic] Grandy, and I was like, wait a minute. I'm losing 338 people. What happened? And then I said, okay, I'll strike a compromise. I definitely cannot disappoint these folks again in Overtown with broken promises by now having the opportunity to, you know, keep a commitment and that was a part of Overtown, I really want to make sure that that remains. And that was the only issue that I had a concern with on the maps.
Mr. De Grandy: Commissioner, just for the record, you had also expressed an issue regarding --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Did I forget something?
Mr. De Grandy: -- subarea 13 and going west for two blocks --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah. We already talked about --
Mr. De Grandy: -- to bring --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- yeah. I was fine. I sat with the CRA districts. I added that
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already.
Mr. De Grandy: Oh, okay.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Oh, yeah. I said the historic Overtown areas, keeping them together based upon them being historic Overtown.
Mr. De Grandy: Right. My concern is, though --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: You want me to put it on the record?
Mr. De Grandy: -- if you want to make any change, I need specific direction as to --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay, so I'll read it to you. It will start in the north at Northwest 22nd Street and go south on all -- south all the way to Northwest 14th Street.
Mr. De Grandy: Okay. And that's --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And that's on 1st -- I believe 1st Avenue.
Mr. De Grandy: Okay.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Right? Yeah.
Mr. De Grandy: That's part of -- right now, part of District 2. And again, both -- if I may comment, Mr. Chairman. Both issues present, again, the issue of competing principles. You have -- for example, talking about this area of historic Overtown, which is two blocks east -- goes two blocks more east of subarea 13, what I tried to do by cutting subarea 13 where I did is maintain that boundary of the Omni CRA. What the Commissioner has expressed is, yes, you did that, but you left two blocks of historic Overtown out of that district. And so, it presents two competing principles: one, trying to keep the integrity of the CRA; the other, trying to bring in the rest of historic Overtown into subarea --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Right. And I guess what I was trying to clear up for you on the record --
Mr. De Grandy: Right.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- is 20th Street historically, so you know, in OT, in Overtown, from the 1920s, I'm telling you the facilities, the theaters, the housing; Ward himself, from the Ward Rooming House, lived in that section on 17th and -- And I just wanted to verify it today, so I had to call the Black Archives 'cause I wanted to make sure I was correct on it, and it was absolutely right, you know. So, you know, the issue of historic Overtown, the additional sections that we're putting -- that we're adding, you were the one that mentioned to me that it could be done based upon a historic community or other initiatives that are centered around, you know --
Mr. De Grandy: That is correct.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So that's the reason why I added historic Overtown.
Mr. De Grandy: And that is correct, Commissioner. As the subarea -- the movement east of subarea 13, that presents two issues, one being the boundary of the Omni CRA versus historic Overtown. The movement that you're talking about in subarea 12, part of that area that you're talking about is part of the Overtown/Park West CRA, but that movement was made in order to comply with the principle of using well-recognized boundaries and going to --
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: Right. And then I'm saying to you --
Mr. De Grandy: -- 95.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- and I've said it ten times (UNINTELLIGIBLE) --
Mr. De Grandy: Right.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I said it to you personally ten times, and I'll say it to you ten times again, if you need it, okay. So -- and as I stated from our conversation earlier, I-90 -- just as we're using Biscayne Boulevard and we could use 79th Street -- seven -- not seven -- yeah, 79th Street and we can use 7th Avenue as the same, you know, analogy that you're giving me. And I'm telling you, for -- I-95 is definitely not considered a boundary for that particular district in which I represent. Actually, it's the one thing that represents the community being destroyed. So I would -- just like I would not want to use a railroad to, you know -- and the connotation with a railroad, I would not want to do it with I-95.
Mr. De Grandy: And I hear you, Commissioner. All I'm trying to say is that there's two different policy directives, so it becomes an issue for you all to resolve. I have no problem going either way. It's just however you all decide to resolve it.
Commissioner Gort: I understand -- my understanding is, in 1996, when we created the district and we went all the way to I-95, we went all the way to 1-112 [sic]. My understanding is -- and I was not here when they did the redistricting. And then District 5 needed some additional voters, and that's why they expanded all the way to 36th Street and they expand it to 7th Avenue. Now if we're getting vote for another place, I would like to keep that. I think I work very hard with Overtown and the CRA since I got elected in the first time in 1993. And I think --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Willy, that --
Commissioner Gort: -- you know my commitment. You know my commitment to Overtown --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah, Willy, it's really not about --
Commissioner Gort: -- what are we doing for the CRA.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- me. Don't make it about me, and don't make it about you. I'm talking about the history and what has happened in that community. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about it happening way before you got here and way before I got here. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about making sure that that particular community stays intact. I was willing to give up the 383 people. I don't have a problem with that. Personally, I feel like it's in my district and I need the numbers, but I'm losing the numbers. I'm losing the numbers.
Chair Sarnoff: I'm just trying to understand the last two things you did. Subarea 12 is staying in D5 now?
Mr. De Grandy: Subarea 12 presents a policy choice. One Commissioner would like to keep it as the proposed plan. Another Commissioner would like to take part of it back into her district, which was originally in her district.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Right. And --
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- I want to be very clear -- and I said to you -- this to you today, Me [sic] Grandy. That's why I called you today. I was like, you know what, I didn't realize that that section was not even in there. Didn't I call you like a couple of days ago? And then today I had you come 'cause I wanted to make sure there was no confusion on it. And I said, okay, fine. I'll split it down the middle. I'll let him keep the residents, you know. I don't have a problem with that, but I'm losing 383 people. I can't afford to lose anybody. And the only reason why I'm keeping that section is because of all the broken promises that have been made to the people in historic Overtown. And quite frankly, now that there's something happening over here, here's an opportunity for the people to benefit from it, and I don't want them wiggling out of their responsibility.
Chair Sarnoff: And then the other -- subarea 13 is moving two blocks east?
Mr. De Grandy: That's correct, Commissioner. That would be from --
Chair Sarnoff: I'm on page 23 --
Mr. De Grandy: Twenty-three. It would move --
Chair Sarnoff: -- of your original --
Mr. De Grandy: -- two blocks east to Northwest 1st Avenue.
Chair Sarnoff: So, in other words, it wouldn't be on my page 'cause I wouldn't see it, right? It's --
Mr. De Grandy: Well, you see one and a half blocks --
Chair Sarnoff: Right.
Mr. De Grandy: --of that movement, but it moves two blocks east under Commissioner Spence-Jones proposal to capture the rest of historic Overtown. And again, that was another issue of two competing principles. It doesn't mean that --
Chair Sarnoff: I'm not --
Mr. De Grandy: -- I did it the right way. I'm just --
Chair Sarnoff: -- criticizing just yet.
Mr. De Grandy: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: I'm asking how many residents would that be a reduction for me, or could you estimate that or do you even know?
Mr. De Grandy: That -- you're talking about a little over a thousand residents, so that actually -- Again, depends on what other changes you do. That, in and of itself, actually brings the deviation down because -- but very slightly because it now makes District 4 the top line of the deviation. District 3 is still the bottom line of the deviation, so it does result in a minor drop in deviation, not much.
Chair Sarnoff: But if you factor that change with the change of going to the Little River, I mean, at a certain point in time, am I going to be at zero deviation?
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Mr. De Grandy: You would be getting closer to zero deviation, but ironically, the overall deviation still doesn't change because District 4 is still the highline; District 3 is the lowline. It's not unless you take population into District 3 that the deviation goes down further.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. Go ahead, Commissioner Carollo.
Commissioner Carollo: So, Mr. Chairman, do you want to then speak about bringing in a part into District 2 so the deviation will go down, and then it'll help out? I think that's what you all are discussing.
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead.
Commissioner Carollo: Something that, you know, I mentioned to you when we were discussing is from the Metrorail line from 13 to 15 Street, bringing it, I think it's east, to Brickell. And you have a map.
Chair Sarnoff: Right here.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, right now --
Chair Sarnoff: No, you're up here.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. I'm in the Metrorail line.
Chair Sarnoff: Right.
Commissioner Carollo: Just bring it up to Brickell between 15th and 13th. It's a minor change, but it will help with the deviation.
[Comments held off the record]
Ms. Chiaro: I would ask the Commission to keep the discussions such that the Clerk can record them.
Commissioner Gort: Speak in the mike.
Ms. Chiaro: Mr. Chair, Commissioner Carollo, I would ask that the discussions be on the record so that the Clerk can --
Commissioner Carollo: We're trying, we're trying. Here, I would pick up another building with residents, so that's where (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But we'll still share -- leaving, you know, this alone, so --
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: -- I think it's a normal boundary.
Chair Sarnoff: All right.
Commissioner Carollo: If it helps, bring between 13th and 15th Street, from, I think, the Metrorail line, is the boundary right now, bring it -- and I would say east to Brickell Avenue, and that would -- should help the deviation.
Mr. De Grandy: That --
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Commissioner Carollo: It'll get me closer to zero.
Mr. De Grandy: -- would narrow the gap of deviation 'cause right now you are the standard setter on the low side. So, again, Mr. Chairman, as I said before, at the end of the day, if you want to consider the proposed plan, there should be a straw vote. If you want to consider the proposed plan with any changes, all I -- that I ask for is I want very specific direction. I don't have a horse in the race. I don't care what the direction is. I just need it very specific.
Chair Sarnoff: I understand. I feel like Sophie in Sophie's Choice. You know, what do you do? I can't think of anything more dear to anyone's heart which is their own home and picking Commissioners, some of which they might have voted for, some of which they might not have voted for. But what I've learned with Mr. De Grandy and through his education to me because I wasn't all that well aware of the Voting Rights Act, the Jingles decision, and how we're mandated to proceed, no matter what I do, I have to give somebody up, something up. So if I push on the balloon at one end, it permeates at the other end. If I push on the balloon at the middle, it goes out at the bottom. I mean, I'm not going to satisfy anyone here today. All right.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Mr. Chairman, what -- is this today?
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Are we voting?
Chair Sarnoff: You need to give direction what you -- You've given him direction on 13. You've given him direction on --
Vice Chair Gort: 12.
Chair Sarnoff: -- 12. You guys have to somehow resolve that.
Vice Chair Gort: No, it's all right.
Chair Sarnoff: That's -- her direction's all right?
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah, it's okay.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Thank you, Willy.
Mr. De Grandy: All right, so the direction -- can I be clear on the record what it is, 'cause I want to make sure I accurately reflect it.
Vice Chair Gort: Seventh Avenue, split in the middle.
Mr. De Grandy: Seventh Avenue, split at the -- in other words --
Vice Chair Gort: The way it is right now.
Mr. De Grandy: -- from north to south, go right --
Vice Chair Gort: The way it is right now.
Mr. De Grandy: -- through the centerline and split.
Vice Chair Gort: Right.
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Mr. De Grandy: Give the southern part to Spence-Jones district; the northern part to your district. Commissioner Spence-Jones, is that your rec -- your understanding?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Mr. De Grandy: Okay. So I'm going to be cutting basically at the center of --
Vice Chair Gort: The same as it was before.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: The same way that it was before, nothing's different.
Mr. De Grandy: Oh, the same --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: My original line.
Mr. De Grandy: The same way that it was before?
Vice Chair Gort: The original line, yeah.
Mr. De Grandy: Okay. So we are reversing the movement of subarea 12 in its entirety. Is that correct?
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Mr. De Grandy: Okay. Is that correct --? I need at least three Commissioners to say yes.
Chair Sarnoff: Well, let's --
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Mr. De Grandy: I have two.
Chair Sarnoff: -- put on the table whether --
Vice Chair Gort: Right.
Mr. De Grandy: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: -- that's part of the process. So subarea 12 goes back to the original space. Subarea 13 moves two blocks east from 20th to -- help me with that.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Fourteenth.
Chair Sarnoff: -- 14th.
Mr. De Grandy: From 22nd to --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: It's 22nd.
Mr. De Grandy: -- 14.
Chair Sarnoff: 22nd to 14th.
Mr. De Grandy: And to Northwest 1st Avenue.
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Chair Sarnoff: Yeah. I think there was also directive to keep Shorecrest intact --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: -- from -- to the Little River.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: And I think in doing all this, you're about to make District 2 the smallest district.
Mr. De Grandy: You will probably approach zero, if not go into negative, but you will, at this point, be approaching zero.
Chair Sarnoff: Have you done an analysis, 'cause you're making movements that even I don't know what the outcome would be, and I presently have a minority/majority district -- this is what you taught me --
Mr. De Grandy: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: -- that is Hispanic. And if I go below the deviation to 48 or 49 percent, will that invite a challenge?
Mr. De Grandy: That enhances the possibility of a challenge. However, the movements that you're making, I want to again restate them on the record and be clear. Number one, reversing the movement in subarea 12 does not impact your district.
Vice Chair Gort: No, no, no.
Mr. De Grandy: It brings back the original numbers to Commissioner Spence-Jones district. The movement of subarea 13 two blocks east, you're talking about a population that is in the high 70s or 80 African American. So the probability of lowering your Hispanic numbers is almost zero. Your numbers would remain the same. Again, that's just off the top of my head. The third movement of Shorecrest and bringing the Shorecrest down, you're not looking at going below 52 percent Hispanic. It will result in about a one-half percentage point decline in African-American population in D5, but you're pretty much picking all that back when you do the movement in historic Overtown. So to give you a summary, your numbers are going to stay in the 52 range. The Commissioner's numbers are going to stay very close to the 70 percent range African American, and the result in deviation at that point is that Commissioner Suarez becomes the high end of the deviation; Commissioner Carollo's district becomes the low end of the deviation. So you've lowered deviation by about two percentage points. Now, if you also want to entertain Commissioner Carollo's movement, that will narrow the gap in deviation.
Chair Sarnoff: And that was --
Commissioner Carollo: But -- now hold on. But I will still continue to be the lowest deviation.
Mr. De Grandy: I believe so. At that point, it's close, but I believe so.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair --
Commissioner Carollo: So, in essence --
Chair Sarnoff: I just -- I don't know what the population is right there. I mean, I know the buildings because you're looking at 1450 Brickell, which is a nonresidential unit, right next to a
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residential unit.
Commissioner Carollo: One Broadway.
Chair Sarnoff: Sorry? One Broadway, right.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Mr. De Grandy: You're talking a few hundred folks.
Chair Sarnoff: Right. And then there's a very low-rise community right there, which couldn't be that many. Okay.
Mr. De Grandy: It's a few hundred folks, Commissioner, which, again, I don't have an exact number, but you're probably talking about lowering the deviation by another six-tenths to three-quarters of a percent.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. And what do you need from us now?
Mr. De Grandy: What I need is -- so far I've heard, again -- you know, please excuse me, but I need to be very succinct to do your final plan. What I've heard is that there is no objection to undoing the subarea 12 change. So unless I hear otherwise, for my final plan, we'll undo that change. I've heard no objection to doing the change that moves two blocks east from subarea 13 to bring in the rest of historic Overtown. So unless I hear an objection, I'm going to do that in our final plan. I have heard no objection to the Shorecrest movement coming down to the Little River. Again, unless I hear an objection, I will include that in the final plan. And I am still awaiting more input on Commissioner Carollo's suggestion. If I hear no objection on that, I will also include that.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And then Palm Grove? And you didn't mention MiMo.
Mr. De Grandy: Palm Grove remains the same.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay. It's not --?
Mr. De Grandy: Biscayne is still the dividing line --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Oh, okay.
Mr. De Grandy: -- unless you tell me otherwise. You're okay with Commissioner Carollo's proposed --
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Mr. De Grandy: -- change?
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Mr. De Grandy: Is there any objection from the other two members of the Commission here?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No.
Mr. De Grandy: Commissioner Suarez, no objection? All right, so I understand four changes that I have to effect to bring you back a final plan at your first meeting in April. If there's any further changes you want me to do, please direct me to do so; otherwise, those are the four
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changes that I will bring back. And I will bring them back in the form of a final plan. What we will do, Mr. Chairman, is we will meet -- once we have done the changes, we will meet with your City Attorney's office and your Planning Department to create a metes and bounds resolution that would have metes and bounds of all the five districts. That resolution would then be presented to you as a plan for final adoption at your first meeting in April. Should you adopt that plan, it then becomes your redistricting plan.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair, if I may.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record.
Commissioner Suarez: I just -- I really want to commend everybody here today, the Commissioners who are here, Mr. De Grandy, and the residents. And I think this is a process where you see the thoughtfulness and people who are listening to try to, you know, accommodate all of the different goals. It's not easy. It's, you know -- obviously, you know, it's -- it can be a little painstaking, but I think everyone here has been listening and trying to act in the best interest of all the residents of the City of Miami so (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Congrats.
Chair Sarnoff: All right.
Mr. De Grandy: If there's nothing else --
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you, Mr. De Grandy.
Mr. De Grandy: -- Mr. Chairman --
Chair Sarnoff: Appreciate it.
Mr. De Grandy: -- we'll do those changes.
Chair Sarnoff: Why don't we take five minutes?
Mr. De Grandy: Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: It's in recess for five minutes.
9:30 A.M.
DI.3 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00264 District 2- STATE OF REAL ESTATE IN THE CITY OF MIAMI. Commissioner Marc David Sarnoff 13-00264 State of Real Estate in City of Miami.pdf 13-00264-Submittal-Presentation-Cervera Real Estate.pdf 13-00264-Submittal-Presentation-Jack Lowell.pdf DISCUSSED
Chair Sarnoff: I do have -- we have another --
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk: Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: -- one -- issue, time certain, which is the presentation for the real estate -- and I don't usually do stuff like this, bring something along these lines, but you know, in 2009/2010,
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especially you new guys up here, which you're no longer new, when you were coming up here making all these hard decisions, you always wonder what does it result in, what happens out there in the private sector? And I think it's worth seeing the tough decisions that were made on this dais, how it has affected the private sector. So I've asked Jack Lowell and I've asked Alicia Cervera to come up here from -- I think Jack is going to do the commercial aspect. I think Alicia is going to be doing the residential aspect. And just describe to us in ten minutes each how the City of Miami has come back as -- especially comparatively to a lot of cities in America because I think you're sitting in ground zero of the most important city not just in North America but the Americas in general. Mr. Lowell, you're recognized for the record.
Jack Lowell: Mr. Chairman, my name is Jack Lowell. I live at 185 West Sunrise Avenue, in Coral Gables. Mr. Mayor and members of the Commission. What Alicia and I have to bring before you today is very good news. Because so much of the City of Miami tax base is residential, I'm going to give a little information on what's happened in the residential markets on a macro basis and Alicia will give you some great news on particular projects. The first piece of information that's displayed on your screen is the recent history of sales and inventory for both condos and single-family homes in our community. This is off the multiple listing service, so it includes all of the inventory from all of the people in the profession, but does not necessarily include developers' inventory. You can see from these charts that the red and the blue lines are our inventory. The red is condos. Since most of the condo inventory in the County was in the City of Miami, you can see that in 2007, we peaked out at on unsold inventory of over 20,000 units and, similarly, we had a spike in unsold inventory of single-family homes. Since 2007, the graph is clearly trending towards the sale of almost all of our inventory. In fact, now we're down to the point where we have less than five months of inventory for single-family homes in the County and about five months of condo inventory as of the end of last year. And what that means is that once you get below six months of inventory in these product lines, prices start going up and in some cases dramatically. You can also see on the lower graphs, those were the actual units sold during the particular period of time; and as you can see, the sales charts for both condos and single family have gone up regularly. The other reason why people are coming here -- and this applies both to residential as well as commercial properties -- our prices are remarkably low. We -- you know, our values dropped 50 percent, so our per-square-foot prices became the bargain of the world. And what this chart shows that we are second cheapest in the world on a per-square-foot basis for our urban apartment inventory, which is why the Brazilians and Venezuelans have come here and bought so much of our inventory and then turned around and leased it out. But this -- these numbers show you all why the world is beating a path to our door, and it applies to commercial as well. Here's the good news. It's going to continue this way for about three years. This is the taxable assessed value within the City of Miami for a period of about ten years. And you can see that we had a rapid run up when we had the boom of development that peaked in 2007. We doubled our taxable base for the City, which is great news for the City; generated a lot of taxable dollars for the municipality. And then, of course, we had the drop from over 37 billion down to at the low in 2011 of 30, so about a 20 percent reduction in assessed values. And fortunately last year, the assessed value went up to $31 billion. We're going to see another pickup in the total assessed value base for the City for, I would say, the next three years, Mr. Chairman, because of two things. Remember that everybody -- all of us that have "Save Our Homes" assessments, if you look at your tax bill, our assessments are still way below market value, so all of us are going to get our 3 percent increase in assessment every year as the market is recovering. Anyway, and then we have a tremendous amount of new development within the City, whether it be Brickell CityCentre or the design district. And we have three or four big projects that have yet to be announced, World City, the Resorts World people with the Omni property; and the Herald property have not announced their plans yet. We had in the paper today a brand-new project from Related, which is a condo/hotel project in the Brickell corridor. There are ten buildings today, not counting Brickell CityCentre, ten residential buildings under construction in the Brickell corridor. In the Grove here, we have the Grove at Grand Bay that's just starting and some more exciting projects to be announced. So we're going to see this assessment base pick up fairly dramatically over the next three years.
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Brickell CityCentre will not be on the rolls 'til 2015, maybe 2016. So you have several years of improving assessments, so that's very good news overall. Okay, I wanted to give you three examples in the office building sector. The office building sector is our weakest sector of our various real estate categories. You've heard or read about the hospitality industry, the hotels have had a -- just a record season doing very well. We're seeing new hotels being announced. The retail market is booming. Prices on Lincoln Road have gone to $2,500 a foot and rents are $250. Brickell CityCentre is going to be a dramatic impact on new retail, as is the Design District. So we're going to see some, I think, very good retail numbers, very little vacancy. Wal-Mart, TD Bank, Publix are all dramatically expanding within the City. Chase -- TD and Chase are the two very active banks. So what I wanted to demonstrate to you is the demand for our real estate is not just in the residential sector, so I've given to you three sales of office properties within the City limits that occurred last year. And the interesting thing here, if you look at the numbers, is that the sale price has been substantially above the assessed values. So here again, you have a situation where the sale is demonstrating real market demand. Even though our office sector has a 20 percent vacancy factor, there's still tremendous demand for commercial property in Miami. This first one is a building on 27th Avenue that sold recently. Then we have, of course, the little office building at the corner of 27th and Bayshore Drive in the Grove, which, again, sold at $16 million. I think the assessed value was 12, so there again, as the assessor brings these on the tax rolls, you're going to get a pickup in values. And the third example is a 3550 Biscayne, which the Terra Group bought with partners, and that, again, sold for a number of very substantially above assessed value, so again, it'll produce some very dramatic results. I could go on and on, but I think Alicia has some more fun stuff to talk about.
Chair Sarnoff: Alicia, you're recognized for the record.
Alicia Cervera: Good morning. This is my first time presenting so I'm not sure what the rules are, but I'm going to follow along and say Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, managing partner of Cervera Real Estate, 5510 Riviera Drive, Coral Gables, Florida. Hope I got that right. Anyway --
Commissioner Suarez: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) so good.
Ms. Cervera: -- it's always good to come on the heels of Jack, who brings such great data and information. I guess I go a little bit or a lot more into the detail and focus on the City of Miami, so I bring you some concrete examples of what's going on in the downtown Brickell area and the luxury condo sector, which is what I primarily focus on. So I, too, have nothing but good news, so that's always a good way to start our presentation. And you can look at the first slide and see that everything that has come on market in our part of the world has been very well received by our community. And not only is it selling quickly, but it's selling with what I think is probably this most sound financial model in all of the country because when people put cash up, there's very little room for foreclosures and for defaults and for anything but upside. And in fact, in 2010, when things were looking less than cheery and people started asking me how do we know that the bottom is here and we have nowhere to go up, I said, well, when people are paying cash, that's usually the bottom. So up is in our horizon and, in fact, it was. So if we move on to the next slide, we can see specific buildings that started -- And I wish I had organized this better. So if you look at the graphs, if I had organized them in sequence, it would have been really 23 Biscayne, and what it shows is a growth from 260 to 290. The second one would have been MyBrickell and Brickell House, which went to market almost exactly the same time, Brickell House being a superior product, far superior to MyBrickell, and therefore the difference in pricing. But again, the good news is that from when we went to market to when we finished selling, there's significant growth. Those buildings were followed quickly by Millecento and ICON Bay, and again, that history repeats itself; and where we started the sales and where we finished the sales, significant growth. I do think of particular note on this is that ICON Bay, which, I think, has firmly planted a flag in the Edgewater neighborhood, which we're going to be taking to market very soon two new projects and you're going to see a very big push to brand
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that as the -- what I'm defining as the new South of Fifth neighborhood. And by that I mean that Edgewater should be to the Design District in Wynwood exactly what South of Fifth's was to Deco Drive and all of that part of the community. So it will be the very high end, exclusive, luxury residential, beautiful part that will support all of that wonderful retail and excitement that's going into the design district and Wynwood. So next we have signs of good things to come. And these are -- I will refer to a typo, sorry. We weren't counting very well. It's 20, not 19. So on your sheet, it will be wrong; on the screen, it's corrected. So I just put kind of a list of what we see coming. Some of the things that have been released is the 1100 Millecento, which is to market already, Grove at Grand Bay, Habitat, et cetera, and those were released in 2012. In 2013 these are things that are very recently released. And of course of note there is 1000 Biscayne, which is doing a wonderful test of Can we really go to $1,000 a square foot? And is the City of Miami ready for that? And I, for one, say yes. I think we are ready for it. I think we've built, you know, an amazing city. And in this case, we have built it and they will come. So I'm very excited about that job. In the addition to that, we were talking about hotels and how successful they've been. And a Parc at Brickell, which is probably not what's going to be called, but we should have a name by the end of the week, is coming right next to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Hotel, which is going right by Simpson Park, that we're very excited to see coming. I understand that's a premiere hotel chain out of Chile. In fact, I visited it in Lima and it's a magnificent hotel, and I think it's going to be a great addition to our city and just continue our global push. So it's all good stuff. So pending releases, we have 1010 Brickell Avenue, Brickell CityCentre that we're all watching with baited breath; and of course, very exciting, what they've done with the Whitman's now. It's going to really bring a huge important retail component to Brickell Avenue so that if we do need to buy a Christmas, you know, or a birthday present, we don't have to run across town to Merrick Park or Bal Harbour or whatever. So we particularly, ladies, since it is woman's week, or month, are very excited about that. And I do believe that it is a huge impact to everything that's going to follow. And just by virtue of Steve Owens, I remember was quoted by saying that it was the equivalent of when the Heat signed LeBron, and I have to thank and agree with him that he was right. So I think it's going to be enormous impact to all of the valleys in the immediate area. And our dialogue really is where is the center of our city? Is it, in fact, the art center or is it, in fact, CityCentre as they continue to accumulate more land and do more great things? But as I'm sure you all know, we're looking forward to another maybe 900 units being added by CityCentre and residential alone, and we'll see what they announce with the additional parcels. Planning stages in Coconut Grove. Of course, there's a Coconut Grove bank and a series of other things. And downtown Resort World is a big question mark, but we can't imagine that anything other than greatness will come to that beautiful waterfront site. The tiered deposit structure that I talked a little bit about, it started with 70, 80 percent deposits. It's fallen back to about 50 percent, which I think is probably a very reasonable number. We went from paranoid -- that no one would close unless they had paid for everything -- to something that I think is incredibly responsible. And I am now for the first time seeing banks that are coming to me and actually suggesting what I was suggesting to them prematurely, probably a year ago, and that's why I wanted you to step in and start offering emblems to people who are putting up 50 percent. In that way, we can lock it in, we can give a comfort level. And my hope really is that with those kinds of programs, we'll get more locals coming in because there'll be more comfort-level that lenders are stepping up. And yesterday, for the first time, I had a meeting with a bank and says, "You know, that sounds like a good idea." So let's take it back and see if we can do it. And if they agree to it, then we'll be implementing that quickly, and I think that's going to open even more doors. And I'm sure you're following on the construction loan side, that we finally have gotten two major projects that banks have come in and are financing, so that's all good stuff. I'm glad that banks are lending again. The next slide just shows the growth, and we've got Brickell and downtown charted here. You can see that from the depths of the doldrums, we are up $171 per square foot in Brickell and $115 per square foot in downtown Miami, so extremely significant, all good. And then we were monitoring just a segment of the market, and again, you see the upward growth, so the numbers keep rising. The last slide is just an activity monitoring slide, which I think actually Jack presented much better and much more thoroughly, but there it is in terms of all of the movement. We do have a lot of
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product coming onboard to the City, but I think we also have tremendous amount of interests. And right now, in the predevelopment side of things, we are actually out of inventory, so we're all in a full press to get some product to market because if you were trying to buy something preconstruction now, you're picking up the scraps that are left in the existing products. Thank you very much.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. Anybody have any questions of Alicia?
Commissioner Suarez: I think both -- I just want to say that thank you for coming and giving that very comprehensive presentation. I think it bodes very well for the City. Thank you so much.
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Mr. Chairman, first of all, I want to acknowledge you for bringing it to the City, for bringing this presentation in front of the board and in front of the City because at the end of the day, we hear all these horror stories about what development has done to our City and now you're seeing it turning around. And I'm going to say this, and I'm a firm believer in this, this is why vision is important. And you have to do out-of-the-box kind of things to get these kind of results. That's leadership. Without vision, people shall perish. Now, all of these projects that are happening that you brought in front of us, you know, they were widely criticized, the City was criticized for supporting it, the district Commissioner was criticized for doing it, the Mayor was criticized, the former Mayor was criticized for doing it, but guess what? Five years from now that scrutiny and that criticism is what's going to keep officers on the street, it's what's going to keep parks and senior programs working, it's going to be the thing that helps us with the shortfalls when we can't find the money from the federal government to make it happen. So you know, I salute you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing truth to the dais and letting the public know that, yes, you know, it was a risky thing to do maybe perhaps then, you know, that the City embarked on, but it was an important thing to do because now we're going to reap what we sow and that's important. And I commend you for bringing it. I commend your leadership on that. Mr. Lowell, thank you and the other young lady for presenting it. This is the benefit of great leadership and leadership of vision.
Vice Chair Gort: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead, you're recognized, Commissioner Gort.
Vice Chair Gort: Once again, I'd like to thank all of you also. I think the -- way back when I was in DDA (Downtown Development Authority), that's something that we were doing, going out and getting people to come and invest and sell Miami, which is the most beautiful city there is. People are now realizing that, geographically, we're in the middle of the world, so that's very helpful. What I'd like to see also expanding to the other neighborhoods where we need a lot of development. Some of it is beginning to take place within my district. And the one reminder is, although you're not receiving funding from the City of Miami, whatever you can do to employ individuals from the City of Miami, really appreciate it. Because one of the things to get really the economy going, the local economy, we need to put people to work. So I want to thank you because you're going to create jobs and that's very important. Thank you. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Carollo is recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I, too, appreciate you bringing this forward and I appreciate Mr. Lowell, Ms. Cervera coming forward and giving such a simple presentation that, you know, it stipulates exactly what's going on and in a short amount of time. As most of you know, I'm a numbers guy. I can substantiate what you're saying because we're seeing it in our Building Department. The volume of permits being requested and there are
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additional revenues that are coming in through those permits substantiate exactly what you're saying so, you know -- And I've been speaking to numerous people now and I've been letting them know it's -- the economy's coming back, Miami's back, and we're going full steam ahead. So thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: You know, you'll never know what you have until you lose it. And never know what's valuable to you until somebody takes it from you. And I shared this dais with Commissioner Spence-Jones during the building craze. And everybody was like oh, this is terrible, this is bad, this is horrible. And then we lost it. And with that, we lost, if I'm not mistaken -- somebody correct me -- 35, 40 percent of all construction jobs left. And with that came unemployment rates we'd never seen before. And whatever you like to say about Miami -- I'm going to use Bernardo Fort-Brescia's best expression -- this is the most important city not in North America but in America. It's not San Francisco. It's not New York. It is the city that has the most potential to grow the furthest of any city in America. And Bernardo happens to have business in Hong Kong, London, Dubai, every major city you can imagine in the world. And he said everyone's focus is now on the City of Miami. So Jack, Alicia, I can't thank you enough. And Commissioner Spence-Jones, I've always loved the expression, you reap what you sow, and that is such a true statement. And I just thought it would be -- you know, we sit here, we take bullets.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yep.
Chair Sarnoff: And we -- you know, I always wonder why do you take these bullets. And now you're seeing why it is you take these bullets. And I won't be here forever, and I can't wait to go cross that podium and address you guys up here one day and say the good things that you 're doing.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: So I just thought it was a good time for us just to sit back and say, we took some bullets, we made some hard decisions. And in those decisions, people are taking cognizance of the City of Miami. So thank you very much for doing that.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Thanks.
DI.4 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00251 City Commission DISCUSSION REGARDING THE SELECTION PROCESS FOR THE CITY ATTORNEY. 13-00251 Cover Page.pdf 13-00251 City Attorney - Job Announcement.pdf DISCUSSED
A motion was made by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, and was passed unanimously, to approve the job announcement for the City Attorney position with the clarification that the language reading, "consideration will be given to those candidates who possess City, County & Local Government Certification issued by the Florida Bar", is removed from under the heading of "Minimum Qualifications" and placed in another area of the announcement.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. I think we are now up to boards, right?
Commissioner Carollo: Should we take the City Attorney's item?
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Chair Sarnoff: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. Let's do the City Attorney item.
Commissioner Carollo: I just think we need -- you know, prioritize and make sure that --
Chair Sarnoff: Agreed, agreed. So D1.4 -- or DI.4. Who's handling that one, City Commission?
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair, may I chime in on that real quick?
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead.
Commissioner Suarez: I just think that -- I know we have -- this is the selection of the City Attorney, correct?
Chair Sarnoff: Correct.
Commissioner Carollo: Well --
Chair Sarnoff: The process.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, the process.
Commissioner Suarez: The pro -- I mean, the discussion item on the selection, I guess --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Commissioner Suarez: -- is a better way of saying it. I think maybe -- I don't know if tonight or whenever, but we need to talk about -- 'cause we have coming up the actual -- we have to select the committee members.
Commissioner Carollo: See, I thought today is when we --
Chair Sarnoff: I thought so too.
Commissioner Carollo: -- I thought it was today when we --
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: -- selected our committee members.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I thought so, but I can't -- think I kind of dropped the ball because I needed to talk to -- I don't want to appoint somebody unless they've said yes.
Commissioner Suarez: Well, that's one issue. And I think the other thing is, I thought on the timeline it said it was April 14, if I'm not mistaken. Did I have it wrong?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: She was supposed to be bringing back the draft recruitment announcement stuff today for us to look at, but we did talk about, in our last meeting, to --
Commissioner Carollo: Right.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- come back with a name to -- I mean, you guys can go ahead and give a selection. I mean, I just don't want to say a person's name and then they say I can't do it.
Commissioner Suarez: And what I was going to -- what I was kind of getting at -- and I'm sorry I
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didn't really get -- what I was getting at was if -- to get someone to say yes, we need to understand, I think, what the commitment is going to be, the time commitment, you know.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: That's true.
Vice Chair Gort: I already made my selection and sent it in.
Commissioner Suarez: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Yeah, I thought -- I did too, so.
Vice Chair Gort: Okay.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Do you guys want to proffer your names and then we can just -- at the next one, then --?
Chair Sarnoff: Go ahead. Commissioner Gort.
Vice Chair Gort: Ms. Tapanes. I think you have the resume.
Beverly Pruitt (Director, Human Resources): Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Carollo.
Vice Chair Gort: You have the information.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: What's the name, so I -- I just know?
Commissioner Gort: Tapanes. First name is Melissa Tapanes.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: Mitchell Berger.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Very good.
Commissioner Suarez: Good one, good one.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Big dog.
Commissioner Suarez: I like that.
Chair Sarnoff: Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Commissioner Suarez: I like that, I like that. That's a good one. Oh, 'cause look, I'm looking here at what -- at -- I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, may I? May I, Mr. Chairman?
Chair Sarnoff: Yes, you're recognized.
Commissioner Suarez: They're -- I don't know --
Chair Sarnoff: I'm just getting over his selection, though. I --
Commissioner Suarez: I thought it was a great selection, by the way. I concur --
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: Are you --
Commissioner Suarez: -- in that selection.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- getting ready to appoint now?
Commissioner Suarez: What's that?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Are you appointing now?
Commissioner Suarez: No. I'm just trying to make a point that I -- on this thing here that we have in our discussion item, it's got a timeline. It says recruitment timeline, and it says April 11, City Commission appoints selection committee. That's why I didn't think we had to do --
Commissioner Carollo: Right, but in the last Commission meeting, we --
Commissioner Suarez: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: I mean --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: That's fine. I'll be ready for the April 11.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah. I think the timeline was off 'cause --
Commissioner Suarez: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: -- we -- I remember specifically saying that in this Commission meeting --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: We said it, but I think that this is a great timeline right here. But who are you appointing, Commissioner Sarnoff?
Chair Sarnoff: I'm actually going to appoint Ray Abadin, former head of (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Okay.
Commissioner Suarez: Who?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Ray --
Chair Sarnoff: Ray Abadin, A-B-A-D-I-N.
Commissioner Suarez: I don't have anyone.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No, I don't have anyone.
Commissioner Suarez: I thought it was going to be --
Chair Sarnoff: You want me to make an appointment for you?
Commissioner Suarez: No.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I'll have one by then.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, so --
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: But today, though, we're approving the job announcement and advertisement today, though, right?
Vice Chair Gort: And the requirements.
Chair Sarnoff: So is there a motion to approve that, motion to approve the job description and to advertise as stated? Is there a motion?
Vice Chair Gort: Can we go over the job description again?
Chair Sarnoff: The job description and the advertisement as stated.
Vice Chair Gort: I don't have it with me now.
Commissioner Suarez: Can I ask a question?
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Commissioner Suarez: Okay, where it says here minimum qualifications, it says consideration will be given to those candidates who possess these certifications issued by the Florida Bar. That means -- is that a minimum qualification, or is that just --? That just means that -- I'm not -- it's a little confusing to me.
Chair Sarnoff: Beverly.
Ms. Pruitt: Beverly Pruitt, Human Resources director. The statement was written there to give consideration. It's not part of the minimum standard --
Commissioner Suarez: Okay.
Ms. Pruitt: -- so individuals without that would be considered, but consideration will be given to those who have it.
Commissioner Suarez: You can see why it's a little confusing?
Ms. Pruitt: Yes, but it's not a requirement for the position.
Commissioner Suarez: Okay, 'cause it says minimum -- it's under the heading of minimum qualifications, so it's a little confusing. I don't know --
Ms. Pruitt: We can certainly separate that in formatting to make sure it's not part of the minimum qualifications.
Commissioner Suarez: I just want to -- it's good that we clarified it on the record.
Ms. Pruitt: Yes.
Commissioner Suarez: I think that's important. Thank you. And I promise you guys --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And I'll --
Commissioner Suarez: -- I will have a selection at the next Commission meeting. My apologies. I thought we were going on this timeline, on the April 11 timeline, so I apologize.
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Chair Sarnoff: Okay, but we still don't have a motion to approve. Is this -- is -- Do we need to get moving on this, Beverly?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: I think we should, too, 'cause we're more than capable of delaying stuff. I mean, my experience with this Commission is, you know, we could screw up a one-car funeral, so --
Commissioner Suarez: That was unnecessary.
Chair Sarnoff: Well, we're slow.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No, we're not. We're just --
Chair Sarnoff: We are slow.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- we're patient.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. That's another way of looking at it.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Listen, but -- Madam City Attorney is fine with the job announcement. So on my end, I move that we adopt this job announcement.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. So there's a motion. Is there a second?
Commissioner Carollo: What's the motion?
Chair Sarnoff: The motion is to --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: The job announcement. It's --
Chair Sarnoff: Right.
Commissioner Suarez: I will second the motion, with the qualification that that clarification that I asked on the record be made.
Chair Sarnoff: So maker -- as modified, right?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: Seconder -- Do we have a seconder?
Commissioner Suarez: I was the one that seconded, yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: Second, okay.
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: All in favor, please say “aye.”
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay, so DI.4, we're done.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
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DI.5 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00306 Department of DISCUSSION TO ALLOW THE MIAMI MARINE STADIUM STEERING Planning and Zoning COMMITTEE TO PRESENT A REPORT OF ITS FINDINGS TO THE CITY COMMISSION PERTAINING TO THE OPERATIONAL PLAN FOR THE RESTORATION OF MIAMI MARINE STADIUM. 13-00306 Summary Form.pdf 13-00306 Steering Committee Meetings & Discussions.pdf 13-00306 Resolution - MMSSC-R-12-001.pdf 13-00306 Miami Marine Stadium Report.pdf 13-00306 Letter - Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, Inc..pdf 13-00306 Where The Land & The Sea Kiss.pdf 13-00306-PowerPoint Presentation-Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, Inc..pdf 13-00306-Submittal-Judy Sandoval.pdf DISCUSSED
Direction by Chair Sarnoff to the Administration to work with the City Attorney to place a voting item regarding the restoration plan for the Miami Marine Stadium for consideration by the City Commission within 30 days.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, I think I gave a time certain to Marine Stadium. I think that was D -- yeah, DI.5, 3 o'clock. It's 4 o'clock. That's about a time certain in City of Miami jargon.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Is there another time certain after this?
Chair Sarnoff: I think there's still one more after this, yes. It's redistricting. We'll do that -- take that before --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: About what time is that?
Chair Sarnoff: I think it's set at 4:30.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Sarnoff: Right.
Francisco Garcia (Director, Planning): Thank you, Commissioner.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record, Mr. Garcia.
Mr. Garcia: Thank you, sir. For the record, Francisco Garcia, Planning & Zoning director. Briefly, as the presentation is being set up and by way of very brief introduction, but perhaps also to frame the conversation that will be had here today. I will present to you a couple of -- what we believe are salient facts. First and foremost, what is before you today is only a discussion item; no action is expected to be taken by the Commission today. Then I'd like to -- I'm not sure that we have quorum any longer.
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah, he's here. Go ahead. Keep going. He's here.
Mr. Garcia: My apologies. My oversight. In any event, again, a very brief synopsis, and I know that they will go into it in more detail, as I've had a chance to see their presentation, but very salient facts. In 2008 the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium were formed as a 501(c) 3, a non-for-profit corporation. And to our knowledge, they are the sole organization with the expressed purpose of preserving the Miami Marine Stadium. Shortly thereafter, later in 2008,
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the City of Miami actually designated the Miami Marine Stadium and the basin as well as short resources, indicating therefore the desire of the City of Miami to refurbish and reuse the historic structure of the Miami Marine Stadium. Two years later the City of Miami, this Commission, adopted the Virginia Key Master Plan, which, once again, reinforced the fact that the City's vision for the area was to preserve the Miami Marine Stadium and to foster the redevelopment of the area immediately around it and Virginia Key in general. With that in mind and with the objectives at hand to devise a realizable project that will result in the end in the refurbishment of Miami Marine Stadium and perhaps more particularly with the object at hand, to present to you, the Commission, what is needed under the definition of stadium premises to basically act as a breathing space that the Marine Stadium needs to be able to grow and prosper and be preserved indefinitely, it was the objective of a Steering Committee, formed by the MSEA (Miami Sports & Exhibition Authority) board, to work with the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, and we did meet; I as the chairperson. We did meet for -- in six or seven occasions. I'm speaking from memory, but certainly no less than six occasions to listen to their presentations, to provide feedback, and the end result was the unanimous approval of their presentation and their proposal and a series of reports and findings that we'll present to the City Manager. With that said, and I think they're prepared to go into their presentation, I yield to Don Worth of the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium and will certainly stand by to answer any questions you may have.
Don Worth: Yield to Hilario Candela, who'd like to make some introductory remarks. Hilario.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record.
Hilario Candela: For the record -- shall I start?
Chair Sarnoff: We have three Commissioners. We have three Commissioners, Mr. Candela.
Mr. Candela: Thank you. For the record, my name is Hilario Candela, and I live at 2600 Granada Boulevard. I'm very pleased to appear before you today, and I thank you for the -- to give us -- for giving us the opportunity to -- on behalf of Friends of Miami Marine Stadium to sit down with you and go over any questions that you may have. I am the -- a co-founder and co-chairman of Friends, together with Don Worth. Specifically, Friends was created to rescue and give back to the community the abandoned Marine Stadium. That's the only sole reason why Friends of Marine Stadium was created. I feel extremely privileged that I was able to be the designer for this stadium back in 1962, just a few -- short time after I had arrived from Cuba as an immigrant to Miami and I had the opportunity to design such a facility. It's been a wonderful privilege, and it also has been beautiful for me and for anyone that have been a part of the process to see the recognition that we have had both nationally and internationally, both at the professional world, at the academic world, and here, in Europe, in Asia, and many, many diverse conferences, and specifically, the recognition by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who actually declared the station -- the Stadium a national treasure, and the World Monuments Fund, who included the Stadium in 2010 in its list of outstanding, unique places in the world, next to Machu Picchu in Peru and the sacred family church in Barcelona. It's been a very long five years, but it been a very positive five years. We have worked. We met very many good -- with great many people who have really participated in making this possible. We have worked with your staff and we have worked with many community groups. I'd like to point out that as we started to do it, we were part of a swelling community movement that, all of a sudden, created a group of in excess of 20 community organizations, extremely diverse, that came together with only one mission: that create what has been called the Consensus Master Plan. So the master plan that you will see today -- hear today, which is not our master plan, it is a master plan of all of the community groups, the 25 -- in excess of 25 community groups that work together out in the open, had public meetings at locations such as Rustic Pelican, here in the City in some of your facilities, the Rowing Club, at the University of Miami/School of Architecture, et cetera. We worked with the University also, on a public studio program where anybody could come into the
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studio to add ideas, to offer ideas, to look at alternatives and ways to implement this master plan . This is what we have done over the five years and this is where we are today. What you have been presented -- or have been delivered in the package to you is really that master plan. It's not anything any different than what was approved in 208 [sic], 209 [sic], and 2010 by your basis -- various diverse boards that had jurisdiction over this plan, and finally, in 2010 by the City Commission on a vote of 5-0, where it's still in the same page. That's what we're doing. We're just offering you more detail of the same. The Commission last May had the vision of creating a Blue Ribbon Steering Committee of a group of citizens with experience in the subject to really work with us intensively for a period of six years at phase one of this process. This is exactly where we are. We completed phase one of the process last December. The Steering Committee did an outstanding job. We feel we have a better project because of the work that they did and the work that they made us do, as well as the staff. The second part of the process, which will be after your approval -- hopefully just listening to the issues today and you hopefully will approve it in the next Commission meeting. The second part of the process will be the next 18 months, let's say 18 months after April, for us to continue to raise the monies that are necessary for this to happen. We're raising all of the money. This is not costing the City one single cent. There have been monies that have already been raised. The balance will still be from private sources. Yes, we do know that cities do not have the money for this kind of projects. Besides that, we have found the community at large, locally and nationally, is very interested in coming to our help, to our aid to make this thing happen. So this is where we are today. Don will take you through -- in detail through the process. And again, we are ready to go with the same enthusiasm tomorrow morning.
Mr. Worth: Thanks, Hilario. My name is Don Worth. I'm co-founder of Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, and I live at 1390 Ocean Drive. And it's really been a thrill, Hilario, to work for you over the -- with you over the last five years, and George Hernandez, who can't make it. So we formed this group five years ago, and I should say we formed under the administrative umbrella of Dade Heritage Trust, which birthed us and provided a lot of services. We collaborated together. And I'd like to get right to it. So according to the memorandum of understanding, which you approved a year ago, it says that the Steering Committee, which was a real blue ribbon committee, needs to provide a report, and ultimately, the City shall confirm and approve the area around the stadium that is needed to generate sufficient revenue for the viable operation of the stadium for the purposes of this MOU (Memorandum of Understanding). We actually have three member members of the Steering Committee here today: James Quinlan, Parker Thompson, and Chico Goldsmith. It was a very high-level group representative of the community and they really put us through our paces; five meetings, four PowerPoint presentations. Commissioners, you know they pushed us; they made us better. Thank you for doing this. We have a much better product because of this. What I'm going to show you is not a lot of pretty pictures but a bunch of numbers. And I have to mention our collaborators, Simpson Gumpertz and Heger, our engineering firm, which did engineering studies of the stadium in 1992 and 2010; Skanska, one of the five largest construction companies in the world. They build stadiums. They have a division. They provided us with a lot of information on costing. And The Heat Group, the operators of American Airlines Arena, which has collaborated with us and provided a lot of information on the operations of it. This is kind of our mantra: Because Miami Deserves It. Miami deserves a great waterfront public space, and that is our goal. That's really what we want to do. I think it's especially special because really, Hilario, it's built around you. Hilario, like many people, was an immigrant; 50 years ago, who designed a building as part of his work, which has now really achieved worldwide significance even in its current state. And in that same way, many, many people came to Miami 50 years ago and less, and very quickly, they built it into a pretty remarkable city. And we really think the stadium follows that arc. What we want to do is do this great space in the manner of the other not-for-profit organizations, museums, the Performing Arts Trust, New World Symphony, which collaborated with the City, provided additional resources and a partnership basis at a time where cities and counties and governments don't have much money. So here is a map of the stadium -- of the -- of Virginia Key, and here is -- this comes from the Virginia Key Master Plan. This was approved by you in 2010.
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We know it quite well. We collaborated with all of those groups. But Hilario, you and George and the students at University of Miami were really the principal drafters of the plan. There are three spaces there, and I hesitate to call them three spaces because they're really the foundation of what we call Marine Stadium Park, and they need to be perceived as a whole. And I'm going to take you through each one of them. By the way, most master plans, as you know, they're very exciting when they come out and then they ultimately get thrown in the wastebasket. Our goal is to implement it, at least our part of it, as you see it. So we're going to take a look to the space to the east. It's what we call the flex park. It's bordered by parking on Rickenbacker Causeway. And also, you see that green space, which we call the flex space, because it's needed for the many different types of events that the stadium will host, and I'll get into that in a second. It's bordered on the east by the Miami Rowing Club. And I should say we're collaborating with the Miami Rowing Club. We're a little unsure of that boundary because it's their vision to really have recreational boating there. There are wonderful opportunities that they're expanding upon, and we want to collaborate and work with them in developing that campus because that's part of our vision for Marine Stadium Park. The Steering Committee really put us through our paces and tested us out in a number of ways. One of the things that they suggested to us was elevating that park and putting parking underneath, so we did some analysis of that and this is a schematic of it: two positives and one negative. Positive, we pick up an additional 280 parking spaces. Positive, by elevating the park five feet, we significantly improve the view corridors towards the water, makes it a more valuable park. Negative, it cost a lot. We costed [sic] it out. It's another $7 million. If we should have additional sources of funding, I think it's a great potential use for it. We've often been asked, Well, what do you need that space to the east of the stadium for? And here is where a picture is worth a thousand words. On the left you see a flyer from the Miami triathlon. Triathlons are held now at the stadium. We know all three promoters. This is really a world-class triathlon location. They need that space to the east of the stadium for registration, for sponsor temps, for 2,500 bicycles, for 2,500 people going into the water. At the bottom of the screen is where they enter and exit. You can't do it with less space than that. And in the same way, as we've talked to festival operators, they need that space. For marine-type boating races of all kinds, they need access to the water and possibly temporary stands. When there are concerts there, that space turns as parking, and when it's not being used, it's a Frisbee field. Notice the date on that flyer: March of 2009. We had our second meeting in January of 2009 at the Miami Rowing Club. Commissioner, I think you were there, as was the Mayor. It was an event entitled The Future of Miami Marine Stadium. We had 15 promoters and event organizations there. We've been working with those people for four years. There is now a list of 40 potential users. This whole park has really been developed with users in mind. The second element is something we call the Maritime Center, and it occupies the space just to the west of the Marine Stadium, and it's in the master plan. Two qualifiers: Before we pursue the Maritime Center, we really need to make some progress on funding the Marine Stadium itself because unless that happens, the Maritime Center really can't be taken seriously. Second, we'd like to pursue an open process with the City of Miami, some kind of joint RFP (Request for Proposals), to get the best proposals. We've developed a very, very good working relationship with staff. And by working together, we think we can really add value. There are three things that this Maritime Center needs to accomplish. First, it needs to generate income to help support the stadium operations because we don't have a government safety net, unlike some other cultural facilities, and I'll get into specifics later. It's very important that whatever is there is acceptable and appropriate for the area. We work with a lot of environmental groups who were very concerned about it. We are too. And when we talk about the stadium, we really have to mention the Village of Key Biscayne. I think the common perception has been that Key Biscayne is not positive towards the opening of the stadium. That's actually wrong. We've given five presentations to the Village of Key Biscayne, including one to the Village Council. We have good relationships with the Mayor and the City Manager. We've gotten great press from the Key Biscayne islanders. Key Biscayners are very, very happy to see the restoration of the stadium with two qualifiers. It cannot be commercially overdeveloped and we have to show that we can mitigate any traffic concerns, and I think we can do that as well. I think the best future, commercially, for the stadium are maritime uses, and even though we're not doing a whole lot on
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that right now, we're putting the word out. There is a big article coming out on the Marine Stadium in Southern Boating magazine in April. I'm addressing the Marine industry trade council for the second time in two weeks. The second function that the Maritime Center has to provide -- and we know this from working with the Heat Group -- is that it has to provide some services for the Marine Stadium itself, specifically, one level of covered parking, which needs to be located adjacent to the stadium, and also some event space. And the third thing it has to do -- and this really goes back to the master plan. We want this space to be an activity generator for Marine Stadium Park. You know when you go to a stadium and there's not an event there and it looks bombed out and nothing is happening? It's not what we want. To fill this debt -- the destiny of this place, we need to have activities all the time, and it would be great if we could then keep the stadium open as a park so, for example, we're working very closely with the bicycling community 'cause there are a lot of cyclers there. We're working with Collin Worth of the City of Miami. We're talking with the Pedestrian Bicycle Committee of the Metropolitan Planning Organization. At the very least, we ought to have a coffee shop there to replace La Carreta. We can cut -- do a cut-through trail from the mountain biking area so that bikers can access this area without going on Rickenbacker Causeway; certainly a Deco Bike stand. If there's more we can do, the better. One of the things that the master plan noticed was a maritime museum. Well, we're serious about that. For the last year, we've been working with a group called the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York. They're one of the largest maritime museums in the United States, and they have a very unusual problem. They have a nine-building campus on the St. Lawrence River up in Clayton. They have a national fundraising operation, but they're maxed out in what they can really accomplish there so they're looking for other opportunities. And believe me, if you're up in Clayton, New York, Miami in March sounds pretty good. So in fact, the executive director is coming down in a week and a half. We've talked about the concept of a satellite museum, 8 to 10,000 square feet. They know that we're not going to pay for it. But they're not just interested in static boating displays; they do recreational programs. So we want to introduce them to Miami Rowing Club. Maybe we can develop a partnership and help the MRC (Miami Riverside Center) grow that campus. They also do high school educational programs, and we'll introduce them to MAST (Maritime and Science Technology) Academy. We've spoken there in the last month. There's great enthusiasm for those types of programs. We had 25 teachers at the stadium two weeks ago developing some new programs. Another group is Ama Kids, which is a program for troubled youth on Virginia Key. We could work things there. To me, the fun of this thing is we get this thing in place and we can see how this can really work to go through and satisfy the vision of Marine Stadium, which is to provide a real vibrant place. Well, let's get to some numbers now, and this is some costs on the stadium itself. This one page of costing, by the way, represents about four months and half an inch thick of work. Hilario and George basically first sat down with the Heat Group asking them what do you need -- what does somebody need in a modern stadium to make it work? What's the ticketing like? What's the concession areas like? What's the back of the house like? Over a serious of months, Hilario, the Heat Group -- and you met with a number of people -- came up with a serious of specs, which were then sent to Skanska and costed out. People have said to us well, you get another bid. The important thing to note here is this is an estimate, not a bid. Because the way Skanska will operate is they will bid all of this work out to subcontractors in a public process and the bids can be opened up publicly. But this gives us a ballpark for what the cost is of the stadium and the park to the east, which is approximately $30 million. Estimated construction period is about 19 months. This is a map of how much money we need and where does it come from. And I have to apologize; the fellow who did the graphics is a little bit younger so he can read this, but maybe I can't. But let me just tell you the highlights. Our goal is to raise about $37 million; $30 million for the stadium itself, $7 million for an endowment that I will explore later. We actually have about $10 million so far; 4 to 5 million in historic tax credits; $3 million from the County historic preservation bond fund. By the way, the City owes the County a report on the financial and operating characteristics of the stadium that was due of October 2011. It is now March of 2013. As soon as the Commission and MSEA approves the land, we can provide that report. So there's $3 million there, and also $2 million from a donor that we cannot name yet from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. That pulls us up to
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$10 million. Twenty-seven million dollars is a lot of money to raise quickly, and I'll just tell you what our strategy is going to be. We're aiming right now for a big naming rights sponsor because, frankly, we're not going to pull this off with a bunch of $100,000 donations over the next 18 months. So here's what we're doing. First of all, we've had some tantalizing expressions of interests from some folks. We haven't pursued them yet because we want to get our ducks in a row. We've gotten some advice from specialists in naming rights and they've advised us to do really a series of very sexy, high sect, 3D renderings, and we're doing those now. They'll be done in six -- in about six weeks. We've got some good momentum building. We have our first cover story in a national magazine coming out in two to three weeks. We had a capital campaign study that some of you have participated in, which shows some very positive results. We are the feature exhibit, the Marine Stadium is, at the Coral Gables museum in the fall, which ought to be a fundraising time for us, and that came about in a typical way that this project happens. We met with the executive director of that museum last September -- I'm sorry, last spring and we suggested a satellite exhibit. By the third meeting, the director said no, you're not the satellite exhibit; you're the main exhibit. You're the main exhibition space. You also have a satellite exhibit as well. You're up for three months and not months [sic]. You need to provide us with a schedule of events. And we walked out of that meeting, said, oh great, just what we need, another project. But it's going to be very, very useful for us as it gives us a fundraising home at a key time. I just want to say it again. Why are we doing this? The three of us -- a number of us have really worked very hard for the last five years. Frankly, there have been personal and financial sacrifices we've made, and we're doing it because Miami deserves a really, really great place. And that's what we're trying to do here. Let's get to what is probably the most important chart in this whole presentation, which are the five-year pro formas. And I'd really like to thank Henry Torre for suggesting this format because there's a lot of information that's arrayed here. We developed these with the Heat Group, the operators of American Airlines Arena, and there is a significant amount of backup to this. But let me just go through some of the highlights. You may want to study it. We can come back and answer questions at a subsequent meeting or this meeting. Stadium events is basically revenues from renting out the stadium. It's based on a very specific set of assumptions, a different number of events, and different categories with different cash flows to each one. In year one, basically, we're projecting 49 paying events. That increases. Commercial sublease is our assumption of about two and a half to three dollars per square foot for the commercial space. Commissioner Sarnoff, as you know, the Steering Committee really put us through our paces on that. All of the expenses below there's backup to. We put in a number to fund Friends of Miami Marine Stadium at a moderate amount. The concept here, if the budget for our group, which has worked on a volunteer basis for five years, were a car, it would not be a Lexus, it would not be a Pinto; it would be a four-door sedan, enough horsepower to do the job but nothing fancy. Because not only does this organization have to do a lot of work with historic tax credits, which have legal and accounting issues and monitoring the operations of the stadium, but we really want to help it fulfill its public purposes. Looking below, you see a capital reserve item. This is like a reserve item in a condo fee set aside for when the light fixtures go in year 9 or concrete needs some work in year 12, some technology reserves and expenses. Kind of stepping back and looking over the whole thing, we're suggesting that the stadium we know will probably lose money for a couple of years, which is why we know we need to raise money for an endowment. We need a rainy-day fund. We do not have anything -- a floor below us because, in a project like this, stuff happens. But a number of the other performing arts centers in this town have turned around and they've had a learning curve and they've gone positive and we think we will as well. The Performing Arts Center is now making a profit. South Dade Cultural Center is doing better. The Fillmore, I don't know how they're doing, but they've certainly found their groove with a great number of increases in events. The Heat Group are comfortable with these projections. Doesn't mean they're guarantees, but they're comfortable with them. And I know one question that's come up with Administration is they look at that number in year five where the stadium is generating a half million dollars a year maybe, and say, Well, what happens to that profit? Can we have some of that? I'd suggest to you our group is a not-for-profit organization. We're not in the business of making money. Our two goals are sustainability and community. To answer that question, I think there are three
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qualifiers that you have to know and you can answer it. First, you have to look at the Marine Stadium deed. As you know, the land for the stadium was deeded from the County to the City in 1963 for the expressed purposes of maintaining a marine stadium. So before revenue goes someplace, your Legal Department should really look at it and understand it. Second, whatever you do, we need to make sure that there are adequate reserves here, because what happens if we establish this thing? Money starts going to the City and then, in three or four years, there is some disaster and we don't have adequate reserves; puts us in a bad spot. Is the City liable? Something that has to be thought through. And kind of the third issue is the difference between a financial return and a community return. So let's say this thing does make a half million dollars. Yes, maybe it could go into the general fund, but what you could also do is take that money, invest a quarter of a million dollars in free community concerts or to keep it open on a sunset basis or to do some educational programming. That's a huge benefit too if you really want to polish the jewel. I think the benefit of the kind of format that we've established here is that it's all out in the open. This is a disclosed way to how to operate. And those public policy decisions get paid by you or MSEA. I'm not sure who. But they get to be made very, very openly. Economic benefits. We've done an economic impact study. It was done by the Washington Economics Group. They're kind of the go-to group for these types of things. And it shows 384 jobs created during construction, with $50 million economic impact benefit; and the recurring operations, 19 million a year and 216 jobs. We haven't figured in the Maritime Center because we really don't know enough about it to make any kind of meaningful assumptions on it. I know there's a lot of skepticism now about these economic impact studies, and there's a very easy way to figure out whether they're valid or not. Find out what the assumptions are 'cause, frankly, it's garbage in, garbage out. We're very, very comfortable with the assumptions and I'd be happy to go over these with you. Other benefits to the Maritime Center that would be fully taxable that goes to the City, that's $290,000 we estimate, and also the annual parking surcharge. We've always maintained to you that the Marine Stadium will have vast tourism benefits, and we're actually about to get the first tourism dividend and the stadium isn't even opened yet. There's an organization called Tourism Cares. They're a not-for-profit group funded by the travel industry. And what they seek to do is to encourage historic preservation so people will have a place to travel. The main event they do every year is a volunteer weekend where they'll have tourism professionals from around the United States come to a certain site and clean it up or paint it. Over the last ten years, they've done Gettysburg, Valley Forge. They're doing Plymouth Plantation this fall. They've selected the Marine Stadium as their site for May of 2014. The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau was really excited. We're working on a specific date and hotel room blocks. And what this means is we get to show off not just the Marine Stadium but the new Miami to 500 tourism professionals. And as somebody who lives in a little Art Deco condo on Ocean Drive, I believe that with the recreation of the Marine Stadium Park, the access of tourism power will complete its shift to Miami. We romanced Tourism Cares for three years, but ultimately, it was an easy sell. All we had to do was bring them into the stadium because all it takes is one look. And if you haven't been back there in 20 years, you're going to be amazed. And it's what gives me hope that we can actually do this fundraising thing. Because a reaction of this place is just so visceral, it's really remarkable. I'd really like to finish up now. And I just have to tell you, Commissioner Sarnoff, we're really humbled to be here. You know what it was like when we started this thing five years ago. We didn't think we were going to be at this place. All we were trying to do was to save a building. How it has generated into this, I still don't quite understand. We've worked really, really, really hard. I can just say that we didn't want to be the redevelopers of this. I don't -- it's -- I would -- we would have been thrilled if we could have found somebody else to do this. People talked at the last meeting about an RFP. We did an RFP for three years. We knocked on doors. We got press. But unfortunately, we couldn't find anybody else to put $30 million into a sport stadium that doesn't have a sports team as a tenant and wasn't financially successful to begin with and had been abandoned for 20 years. So unless we wanted to turn this thing into a monument, which we were not interested in doing, we had to do it ourselves. I know this is kind of a very complicated issue, and I just hope that you look at it with the right frame of mind rather than well, how -- what is wrong with this? How we can figure out what is problems are? I really hope that you'll say, okay, here are my concerns.
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Let's see if we can work with this group and address them. Let's see if we can make something and create something that's really wonderful and really make it happen. I think you know and the City Administration knows you have a good working partner. We work hard, we're honest, and we will always do our best. The support for this place is remarkable. It's really what makes us motivated. Seven editorials in the Miami Herald. We've given about 100 community presentations. When you speak to people and you see their eyes light up, it what makes us want to continue during the very difficult and challenging time. And I think, again, we're doing this because Miami deserves a great, great place. Thank you very much. Happy to take questions.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you, Don. What I'd like to do is just say -- I'll be brief -- I was put on this committee by Commissioner Gort and after -- I think, Francisco, it was seven meetings. I don't think it was six meetings. It was tough because I was tough on Hilario and I was tough on Don Worth and I never was a rubber stamp. And I essentially took the devil's advocate position, which is like why in the world should we do this? And the only answer I ever came up with is that if you have any desire to save Marine Stadium, and you may not -- but if you have any desire to do so, this is the group that could do this. Not going to tell you they will do it because I still think they have a mountain to do. But when you look at what they have done, they have certainly climbed Machu Picchu. They have climbed an enormous mountain. And you know, I think the conversations they went through at that committee level, Commissioner Gort -- I'm going to direct it at you because you put me on that committee. And the next time a Commissioner puts me on a committee, I'm going to put them on a committee. But we were really tough on them. Some of the committee is here. Some of the folks in the back were very, very hard on these guys. And some people, candidly, don't want to see the Heat get involved. And if the Heat does get involved, think the Heat should be putting some money up, but that's at the conversation of the nuance. Is this the right group to do this? If you're ever going to get this done, if you ever have a dream in your heart of saving Marine Stadium, this is the group. Because when you vote no for this, you're saying I don't want Marine Stadium; perfectly valid thing to do, but you will not have a marine stadium. And no, it shouldn't stay in the condition it's in right now. It should either be fixed or torn down. It shouldn't stay another 10 or 15 years in the condition that it's in. So you know, once we studied how they do this -- I said this about the Coconut Grove Playhouse. I still say this about the Coconut Grove Playhouse -- they all have shortfalls every year in operating amounts if you want to pay what most people will pay for a ticket. So it's always easy to conceive with the Coconut Grove Playhouse, and I always like to direct my attention towards that. If you want to pay a 60 ticket to go see a play, remember, $90 of that ticket is going to be paid from someplace else. Same thing with these guys: If they're going to put a ticket that's 60 or 65 bucks, about 50 to $60 of that ticket is going to come from some other revenue source because that's just the nature of these type of facilities. So the revenue sources that they're creating are what they categorize as the property of the west and the property of the east and those properties will throw off revenue. What type of revenues? What will that revenue be? It's almost conclusory-oriented 'cause they know they need about 2 to 3 to $400,000 a year, by the way, the exact same numbers that Coconut Grove Playhouse needs, not what Michael Springs said in the newspaper today of $100,000. It's only failed six times in a row. Let's not let these guys fail. If this is the amount of revenue they need, then they need district line of land, so they need to have boundaries to the east and they need to have boundaries to the west. That's about as far as the committee went, was establishing what the boundaries would be. Then I think it has to go back to MSEA and they have to enter into some sort of a contract for a lease because they need some sort of -- what I think lawyers call an estate, that they can then go back to their fundraisers and say this is what we have and these are the terms and conditions that we have it. I think all we're doing today is discussing the drip line and maybe I'm not being fair by the word drip line. What are the boundaries that they need to the east? What are the boundaries that they need to the west? And you vote this down or you vote this up. And we're not voting today. But if you -- if you're decidedly against it, then let's put forth your vision for what that property should be because, eventually, it's going to be bulldozed. There's no other passionate people in the City of Miami that can do what this group has done. There is no one -- I once got to depose Hilario, the designer of the C-130, and he was an older man. And there had been a plane crash. And it was
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kind of fun to depose him because he was an engineer, like yourself, and he could find nothing wrong with this plane, so I called that the Grandfather Syndrome. And I know -- I know you have a deep passion and love for Marine Stadium and it's not hard to figure out why you have it, and it is infectious. You have infected me with the love for Marine Stadium. And you suffer from grandfather syndrome, but you also know how to pass it on as well. You love the stadium. And we just simply have to make a decision. We need to either decide if we're going to -- this is what I usually say to people. What do you intend on doing with the stadium for the next three years? If you're -- if you have no intentions of doing anything, let these guys make their try. Let them see what they can do for next three years. So I've said enough. Anyone else?
Vice Chair Gort: Well, I remember when we used to have activities in the stadium and lot of historical site stuff, activities took place in there. We had the boat races and we had a lot of the community services that took place that area and it was very well-known. I think -- as an architecture [sic], I congratulate you as a young architect to come up with those ideas and beautiful design. I agree with you. I think it's been there for twenty-some years and nothing has been done and nobody has come up with a plan. At least you have someone that's willing to work it and they're doing it for the pride of maintaining the place. You always said it, and I agree with you, to have a museum, you need some additional funds to maintain it. And I think they'll agree to it. I think they will agree that in the future, if it's "X" amount of funds that comes out of it, then it can be split with the City and so on, whatever we -- the Commission decide to do. But I think we should allow them to go ahead and go. I mean, we've been at this for a long time now. We make the decision. I'm all in favor of it.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Suarez.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you. When we approved the MOU -- I guess at the MSEA level and then ratified it here at the Commission level -- it was somewhat of a contentious, you know, discussion and I think it was a 3-2 vote, if I'm not mistaken actually. And so, you know, I think -- as I was listening to Hilario and Don make their presentation, there was a couple of words that stuck out in my mind, you know, their passion, their hard work, the great ideas that they have, that this is a worthy cause, and that it's a great group. The Steering Committee is composed of great people, some of which are here and some of which are not here. And I've monitored a little bit the composition of the group and it seems to have enriched itself and gotten more and more, you know, members of this community that are very, very reputable people with impeccable reputations and with a lot of credibility, to be frank. I think the -- my understanding of what this report was supposed to be was precisely what the Chairman said, which was to define the drip line as to what are the areas that were going to be needed to support the operation of the stadium. I don't think that there's any doubt that they've put an extensive amount of research and thought into what exactly would encompass that. I think shortly after they -- we had that vote, they came to see me, and I said, Hilario, Don, there's a -- kind of an elephant in the room that we're not talking about, which is transferring of title, and that was, you know, something that I think people were very resistant to at the moment or at the time. And so I don't know, you know, that there's been -- I don't know how much thought has been given to the charter provisions that impact how you can transfer the title or not transfer the title of the property. One of the things that I want to offer as a suggestion, as the Chairman stated -- because I think you're absolutely right, there's no point in just being obstructionist if there's nothing better to propose or -- you know, and it does kind of -- I am influenced a lot by Commissioner Carollo's management or chairmanship of the Bayfront Park Management Trust. And one of the things that I've considered in our office is kind of looked at peripherally -- you know, it's something that I'd be willing to look at in more detail with a group if it's -- if they're interested -- is the possibility of putting it into a trust instead of transferring the title of the property, and the trust would operate and function similar to the Bayfront Park Management Trust so that the City would still retain a lot of the control that would naturally come with -- as it does with Bayfront Park Management
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Trust; we control the budget and a variety of things. I think one of the fears is that if we seek control in terms of title aside from the charter implications of that, is that let's say they borrow money and they are not able to pay the money back. Then that property will go into default and could potentially be sold at foreclosure to a third-party bidder and the City would lose complete control of the property forever and then there could be a demolition or whatever because -- to the extent that there are declarations in covenants on the title, they may be abolished by a foreclosure of sale. So, you know, it's something that I -- you know, and I didn't have a chance to really share this vision with Hilario when he came to talk to me. We were more focused on the dynamics of his presentation, and I know that this was going to be a discussion item. And I'm not on the Steering Committee so I don't get a chance to give input. These are really the only opportunities that we have. But it's something that we were exploring post our meeting. And if it's something that you want to continue to explore and you want to look at, I'd be more than willing to take the time to go through, you know, why I think it's a meritorious suggestion and why it might allay some of the concerns that people were expressing when we first -- you know, when we first discussed this item. Cause I think there's no doubt that what the Chairman said is absolutely correct, that there is no other group of people that are more committed to the idea of preserving the Marine Stadium and that are more able to come up and fashion a working plan because your heart and your soul is in it. And having said that, I think there's still Commissioners that, at the time, had expressed some serious reservations about transferring the property and losing control of that property. So I think maybe establishing a trust may be a middle ground and something that you may want to explore. I know that's -- we haven't really talked too much about it today here. It was kind of mentioned very much in passing that you guys were going to come back to the Commission at some point seeking something but, you know, that may be something that you might want to explore. And if you do, I make myself available to you. You know, and if you want a sunshine meeting or anything like that to discuss it in greater detail, I'd be more than happy to do that. And then, of course, you know, I think this is a little bit of a distinguishable situation. I thought about it a lot since we had the Gusman discussion. And I think in the Gusman's case, you actually have it harder than the Gusman because in the Gusman's case, it operates. So the money that has been raised so far has been used to operate it and keep it open without subsidy from the City. The Gusman also needs a huge infrastructure investment. I think it's $20 million or something the last time that we discussed it. So you guys have an even harder case because you can't keep it operating. If you raise money, there's really nothing you can do with it. So I thought the idea between -- of the MOU was to give you a couple of years to really get commitments, financial commitments before -- so you wouldn't be bottled in to having to deal with that transfer of title issue right away . And that's -- I think you guys did your work and did your job and I commend you both for the specificity with which and the work that you put into putting this plan together because it's a very comprehensive plan. So please count on me to be a constructive member. I voted to support, you know, giving you an opportunity to run with this. And I think you have -- in my opinion, you've done my vote justice by putting in the kind of effort and energy that you've put into this and the kind of presentation that you've put forth here today. So thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Carollo. It's not a public -- how many people from the public want to say something? One, two -- I could afford five people if you wanted to say something. But let Commissioner Carollo go and then I'll let you speak and I'm going to give you two minutes.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is the first time I've seen the presentation, so you know, I reserve the right to, you know, review it a little bit more, analyze it, and maybe meet with them in the near future. I really do believe that Don Worth is doing this, you know, because he really wants to see this preserved. So with that said, I really want to be able to look at the presentation and analyze it, see some of the numbers. You mentioned that you will go in the future or later on with regards to the type of events. I'm seeing the -- you know, the first year you said 1.5 million out of revenues from events. What, you know -- and I'm going to ask what type of events, how do you know -- you know, and -- you know, a series of questions like
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that. Okay. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: All right. So if anybody wants to come up to the public hearing to speak, I'm going to give you two minutes, but come up right now. Don't fight. Get up there, Judy.
Judith Sandoval: Judith Sandoval, 2536 Southwest 25th Terrace. I recognize the work of the committee and of Mr. Candela. It's a great piece of architecture worthy of all the status and praise it has received. But I think it would be fiscally irresponsible of you Commissioners and this City to go for another big project like this. First of all, to make it viable, they've got to turn the place into Disneyland, this, and have events all the time. Look what you've done with Bicentennial Park. You've got two museums. You used MSEA to get out of having a public referendum, which should be -- we should have on this land as well because it is subject to the Carollo ordinance, the Carollo law which requires this for the use, and there are a lot of activities, safe plan to raise money which are not waterfront related. Now, the other thing is I went along with preserving the stadium and I still do and it would be very nice if we could just have these lovely counters we had when I first came to Miami and you're to go by boat and see them. I think they should raise the money to stabilize the stadium and then see what's happening and do something about the rising sea level, the plant -- the sewage plant on Key Biscayne. There's been a lot about this in the paper recently. Because by the time the public -- because it will eventually fall on the taxes that are required from the public -- our grandchildren will be paying for this, and by that time, the place will be under water anyway. This City should be building seawalls and water treatment plants and taking care of the problems we're going to have, which are inevitable.
Chair Sarnoff: And in conclusion.
Ms. Sandoval: In conclusion, do not just say go ahead, raise the money, go with MSEA; make them come up with this money.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you.
Ms. Sandoval: The Heat or whomever first.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you.
Ms. Sandoval: That's it.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you.
Ms. Sandoval: Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record.
Dolly MacIntyre: I'm Dolly MacIntyre, 409 Vizcaya Avenue, in Coral Gables. Fortunately, the Marine Stadium will probably have a floating stage. I recognize Judy's concern and I -- we all share it, I think. But to hang up the Marine Stadium for this is not viable. We have a record here in Miami of making it ever so hard to do the right thing. Let's not make this any harder. The people who had been working on this have put untold effort into it. You could not ask for a more reputable or credible or people of integrity than you have in this group that has put so much into it pro bono, so let's get behind it. Let's get the thing done. I want to -- before I die, I want to go back and see a concert from a boat at the stadium like I did when I was young and thin. So let's get this thing going, do what we can. And in perspective, say we need $40 million. You know, that's 10 percent of that Marlin thing, 10 percent of the PAC (Performing Arts Center). Let's keep things in perspective. Thank you.
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Chair Sarnoff: Thank you. Anyone else? You're recognized for the record.
Lawrence Terry: Monk Terry, 296 Tigertail Avenue. I appreciate what Judy said, but I had to get up. I've been at the Marine Stadium for 33 years, since I first arrived in Miami. And we let Fort Lauderdale take the marine business away from us. This is a chance not only to bring people from the other side of the river, but it's a chance to bring people back to Miami and onto the waterfront, which is what this place is all about. And I think this is a great opportunity to do that. So that's all I had to say.
Chair Sarnoff: Thanks, Monk. All right, so we have to give some sort of direction. I'm going to give -- maybe somebody will support what I'm growing to say. I -- and we don't have to take a vote. But my direction would be to come back with some sort of an estate, some sort of a lease hold, whatever it is -- I don't think you have to give a fee simple absolute title, but come back with some preacher that affords them the opportunity to fund raise some period of time to do it within and the boundaries that they described here to come back to this Commission -- to this Commission who -- I imagine, then it goes back to MSEA, is how it would go?
Alice Bravo (Assistant City Manager/Chief of Infrastructure): Correct.
Chair Sarnoff: I don't know if anybody joins me in that thought.
Vice Chair Gort: Well, how long is that going to take?
Ms. Bravo: I think we could have that by the end of April or late April.
Commissioner Carollo: And when you say it goes back -- then it goes back to MSEA, what do you mean? What -- there's an assumption there.
Chair Sarnoff: Because we would, correct me if I'm wrong, provide the interest to MSEA and MSEA -- go ahead.
Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): I think what I have heard in the past is is that the intent would be for your Authority, Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority, which has been enabled by state law and then subsequently City law, to hold property, lease property, develop property for specific purposes, including the development of conventions and tourism and facilities, sports facilities, for that agency to be the leading agency in this endeavor. So if the City makes a policy decision that this asset should be developed for the purposes that MSEA has been constituted for, then MSEA would be the agency really that would take the lead role and we, as counsel to MSEA, and the Administration as staff to MSEA, can work with MSEA in developing an agreement that we can make sure it doesn't have any of the problems that Commissioner Suarez has identified about giving up the whole fee simple interest where the City has reversionary rights, where the City would not be at risk for foreclosure, and that would work for them in order to assist them in their fundraising and their development activities.
Chair Sarnoff: So what comes back to us then as Commission?
Ms. Bru: Well, this is -- this would be a tri-party kind of endeavor. There has to be a significant presence from MSEA, who would be really the developer. It would be some sort of ground lease to MSEA and then MSEA could enter into some kind of development and sublease agreement with this entity.
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized.
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Commissioner Carollo: Madam City Attorney, why MSEA? Why can't it just be this Commission and the City?
Ms. Bru: Well, I think the City of Miami is authorized under all our different charter and code provisions to allow MSEA to develop City assets. The City is constrained from dealing directly with a developer because of different charter provisions which do not apply to MSEA.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chairman.
Commissioner Carollo: Okay, could you elaborate on that? Because it seems that we have a middle person, which is MSEA, or middle entity. Why MSEA? Can you elaborate then? What charter provisions?
Ms. Bru: Okay. If the City were not to use this agency that is authorized to develop properties for that purpose, the City would then have to go through certain competitive bidding requirements that would not allow the City to do business directly with a firm that just makes a proposal. We would have to go through certain competitive bidding, you know, requirements. In this case, you have a unique situation with a unique asset with a unique group of individuals who have been working towards the development of the asset, and you do have an entity within the City, a separate governmental entity that is authorized to go forward directly with a development agreement with the entity, and the City can decide that it wants to lease that -- ground lease it to this agency that -- it's a valid way to do it. It's just a policy decision as to whether or not you want to develop the asset in that fashion.
Commissioner Carollo: If we do not go through MSEA, does this have to go through a referendum?
Ms. Bru: It would depend on what would be going on. It is waterfront property. I suspect that they would want to develop it for more than five years, you know, they would want to have a leasehold interest for more than five years, so more likely than not, it probably would. I mean, there's other things that are in place. If you were to use bond monies -- if the City were to use some of our bond money that we have available to help in the development of the property, then it wouldn't have to go through the referendum if the lease is more than five years. So there's many ways to look at this. So really, I mean, once we are told exactly what the policy decision is, we can work within the framework of our legal requirements.
Commissioner Carollo: Right.
Mr. Worth: Excuse me. Julie, there is also Chapter 29d. But I just want to say we thank you very much and we're problem solvers. We look forward to working with each of you to address the issues you've raised.
Commissioner Carollo: And I guess that's what this time period is for. From here to the next Commission meeting or whenever it will come back, you know, that's what this time period is for, so we could discuss it, I could have all my questions answered, and we could see all possibilities. But, you know, right away there's an assumption that well, it would then have to go back to MSEA. And I said, well, are we assuming that there's going to be already a position by the Commission that it will go back to MSEA? Because unless I'm hearing, you know, incorrect --
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah.
Commissioner Carollo: -- there's lots of other ways that, you know, it can be done, according to the City Attorney. And listen, I'm not here to get into details right now. All I'm asking is, you know, questions because to be honest with you, I think the next two weeks, you know, we have to, you know, just iron it out and get all our questions answered.
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Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair.
Commissioner Carollo: That's it.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized, Commissioner Suarez.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you Mr. Chair. I think -- look, I think -- let's take a deep breath and take a step back. I think they did what they were tasked to do, which was to develop the parameters, the drip line as the Chairman stated, and the operational plan, which consists of a fundraising plan, plus how you're growing to keep it open, and I think those were the things that we were concerned about. We have given them -- and we had already given then two years to come up with the actual fundraising itself, and we had giving them some sort of empowerment by virtue of the MOU. So that I think the question is -- I think the next step is to deal with the elephant in the room, which is what we talked about the day after. We got to deal with how we're going to -- if you're saying that what we've already given you is not enough, in other words, the MOU is not enough for you to go out to the -- because that's what it seems like is being said but not really being said. What we've given you is not enough for you to go out to the community and raise the funds that you need to raise because in the six months, let's face it, you haven't raised $40 million, which I don't think anybody really expected you to do. If what you're saying is you need something more than what you already have -- because you already have still another, what, a year left on the MOU or -- I mean, you have some apparent relationship with the City and MSEA because MSEA was, you know, talked about in terms of the possibility of them being involved in this process. I think you can take some time now to deal with the elephant in the room. I don't think you need to rush it. I don't think you need to bring it back in two weeks. I don't think you need to sit on your hands either. I don't think you're the kind of group that sits on your hands, so let's be honest. So I think we've flushed out some possible ideas. And I think you should take our input, what we've given you -- I think, you know, there are other members of the Commission that want to take a look at this a little more specifically -- and come up with maybe some options for the Commission to explore in terms of disposition.
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: And let me quickly say that, by no means, me asking questions does it mean that I don't appreciate the work that you all have done 'cause I truly do. But the bottom line is, I also need to justify my votes and that's why, prior to me taking a vote, I want to make sure that, you know, all of my answers are -- all my questions are answered and we don't, you know, rush this as we've done with other, you know, projects. So I'm giving a heads up that, yeah, I still, you know, have a lot of questions that need answer. But that, by no means --
Vice Chair Gort: Mr. Chair.
Commissioner Carollo: -- doesn't mean that I do not appreciate the work that you've done. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Gort.
Vice Chair Gort: I think the main goal is how you're going to structure to make the Commissioners at ease. At the same time, the people that going to donate millions of dollars, they want to make sure that it's used -- that the million dollars that they donate is going to be used for that use and not taken by the City Commissioners or the City Administration or anything like that. I think there's many examples that we have. We have DDA (Downtown Development Authority). We have Off-Street Parking. We have the Trust. There's many -- I think their job is
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come up with an idea, how are we going to be organize it so they can maintain itself and we can both be satisfied. Legal Department's got to come up with that.
Chair Sarnoff: But to be honest with you, in words of most judges, to leave no date, no time fixed to come back to this Commission is tantamount --
Vice Chair Gort: Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: -- to letting this die and I'm not prepared to let this die on its own. I just want -- in the words of Barack Obama, bring it through a vote. If you want to vote for it, fine. If you want to vote against it, fine. But they deserve a vote. And I want to bring this back in 30 days. Thirty days is enough for any Commissioner to readjust, reconfigure his schedule, her schedule, to sit down for an hour, meet with these guys, meet with this City Attorney; if not this way, then that way; if not that way, then this way; and you can say in 30 days I'm still not satisfied or I am satisfied. But the one thing in politics I do know: don't give it a time, don't give it a date, and essentially, what I've done, Hilario, is call you a vampire and I've just stuck a wooden stake through your heart. So I'm going to asking this to come back in 30 days. However way -- whatever shape or form you wish to bring it back, whatever kind of agreement you have, if you find some charter provision we never heard of before, call the Julie Bru exception, the double secret section, fine, so be it, but let's bring it up here and we will bring it for a vote. And maybe we'll make it that vote. Maybe we'll refine it one more time. But to leave it without a date is to kill it.
Vice Chair Gort: Right. Is that a motion or instruction?
Chair Sarnoff: I think it's -- I think that's an instruction.
Vice Chair Gort: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Is that clear enough for you? Okay.
Vice Chair Gort: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you all very much for coming.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you. Good job.
END OF DISCUSSION ITEMS
PART B: PLANNING AND ZONING ITEMS
PZ.1 RESOLUTION 11-00714sc A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH ATTACHMENT(S), CLOSING, VACATING, ABANDONING AND DISCONTINUING FOR PUBLIC USE (THAT PORTION OF) CURTIS LANE EAST OF ROGERS ROAD AND EASEMENTS LOCATED ALONG THE NORTH AND SOUTH SIDES OF CURTIS LANE, EAST OF ROGERS ROAD, MIAMI, FLORIDA.
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11-00714sc CC 03-14-13 Fact Sheet.pdf 11-00714sc Department Analyses & Maps.pdf 11-00714sc School Brd Concurrency & PZAB Resos.pdf 11-00714sc Application & Supporting Documentation.pdf 11-00714sc-Submittal-Ben Fernandez.pdf 11-00714sc-Fully-Executed Legislation (Version 2).pdf 11-00714sc-Exhibit-SUB.pdf
LOCATION: Approximately Curtis Lane East of Rogers Road and along the North and South sides of Curtis Lane, East of Rogers Road [Commissioner Marc David Sarnoff - District 2]
APPLICANT(S): Ben Fernandez, Esquire, on behalf of Stephen Bittel, as Trustee of the Acme Real Estate Trust
FINDING(S): PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT: Recommends approval. PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT: Recommends approval. PLAT AND STREET COMMITTEE: Recommends approval on July 7, 2011 by a vote of 7-0. PLANNING, ZONING AND APPEALS BOARD: Recommends denial, which failed, to City Commission on April 18, 2012 by a vote of 3-5. Recommends approval as a second motion to City Commission on April 18, 2012 by a vote of 5-3.
PURPOSE: This will close and vacate Curtis Lane, East of Rodgers Road and two North/South easements.
Motion by Chair Sarnoff, seconded by Commissioner Spence-Jones, that this matter be ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0092
Chair Sarnoff: I'd like to call up PZ.1. Do I have to open up a PZ (Planning & Zoning) meeting, Mr. Clerk? No, okay. PZ.1 folks here? Going once, going twice, PZ.1 is now done.
Maria J. Chiaro (Deputy City Attorney): The Clerk will swear anyone who wishes to testify. This is or may be considered a quasi-judicial hearing. We don't need to read the rest of the procedure.
Chair Sarnoff: The Clerk (UNINTELLIGIBLE) swear at the witnesses, you said?
Maria J. Chiaro (Deputy City Attorney): Yes.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. If anyone is wishing to speak on item PZ.1, 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 issues.
Mr. Hannon: Thank you.
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Chair Sarnoff: PZ.1, Mr. Director.
Francisco Garcia: Yes, sir. Francisco Garcia, Planning & Zoning director. Item PZ.1 is a resolution before you seeking to close and vacate a portion of Curtis Lane in Coconut Grove. This item was heard by the Plat & Street Committee, and it was approved unanimously by a vote of 7-0; and subsequently, heard by the Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board, and approved by a vote of 5-3. Our recommendation is for approval. And when I say our recommendation, that's the Planning & Zoning Department, as well as the Public Works Department, are recommending approval. We find that it complies with all the technical merits. I would like to note that the item has undergone some revisions as a result of the discussions that have been had in the area. And the documents that you have as backup materials in your respective folders have been since revised. We -- both the Public Works director and myself -- have looked at the revised version, and we find that it complies with the applicable requirements and is actually an improvement over the previous version. For that reason, we would recommend favorably for the proposal that you are about to see in a moment.
Chair Sarnoff: So is this as modified?
Mr. Garcia: As modified, please. Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: You want to put anything on the record?
Ben Fernandez: Thank you. Yes, Mr. Chair, members of the Commission. Thank you very much for allowing us the number of deferrals that we're required in order to reach a settlement with the neighbors. We want to thank you for that. I'm here this evening with my partner, Jeffrey Bercow, representing Nathan and Elizabeth Leight, as well as the technical owner of the property, which is a trust. With us also is Mr. Jack Luft, the Planning director for the City of Miami. I'll be very brief in my statements. I've submitted for the record a revised legal description, which represents a truncated version of the alley -- of the street, rather, that was originally proposed to be closed, which is a segment of Curtis Lane, as the director indicated. The revision creates an 11,439 square foot area to be closed, rather than the 13,025 square foot area to be closed, which was the original application. This plat is in the Entrada Bay subdivision. It is surrounded -- the street to be closed is entirely surrounded by property that is owned by the Leights, and therefore, the reversion, we believe, is appropriate. We would ask that you find that this closure complies with Section 55-15(c) of your City Code, which is the provision that requires that you find that the closure would be, number one, in the public interest and would generate a public benefit; that, number two, the closures in the -- that the general public is no longer using the right-of-way or easement, including public service vehicles, such as trash, garbage trucks, police, fire, and other emergency vehicles. Number three, that there would be no adverse affect on the ability to provide police, fire, or emergency services. And number four, that the vacation and the closure of the right-of-way or easement would have a beneficial effect on pedestrian and vehicular circulation in the area. We think that this closure complies with those requirements, number one. The Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board concurred and recommended approval. Your Plat & Street Committee has recommended approval, and your Planning Department also recommends approval. The closure would eliminate 195 feet of road to nowhere. That will improve neighborhood security. That addresses the first element of the test. Number two, it resolves a dead-end situation that's difficult to monitor and potentially confusing for motorists . It'll generate additional tax revenues by putting the property back on the tax rolls. It will eliminate the City's potential liability for accidents in the street, and it will increase overall green space. With respect to the second test, which is whether the public is using the cul-de-sac in question, the public is not using the cul-de-sac for the vehicular or pedestrian right-of-way purposes for which it was dedicated because this segment of the street does not provide a connection to any other location other than the Leights' residence. Number three, is there an adverse affect on police, fire, or emergency vehicles? We have the Plat & Street recommendation, which confirms that the fire department and the police department have reviewed this proposed closure and they
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find that there's no negative impact on their ability to provide service to this neighborhood. Number four, would there be a beneficial effect on pedestrian and vehicular circulation in the area? We believe that there would be, first and foremost, because the total number of lots is being reduced by virtue of this plat. There were three lots that are now being converted to two lots. That means fewer homes will be developed. Particularly, if you look at this with respect to the potential number of lots that could be developed on this property, it's up to five, pursuant to your Miami 21 regulations. So the potential neighborhood impacts are reduced, as well as the actual neighborhood impacts. And it will also, finally, remove a blind spot from this neighborhood. When you look down Curtis Lane right now, the cul-de-sac creates a blind spot that is difficult to monitor and difficult to provide security for. So with those elements of your test being addressed, I would ask that you support our application and vote consistently with the Planning and Zoning Appeals Board recommendation of approval.
Chair Sarnoff: I'm going to make a motion, Mr. Chairman, if you don't mind.
Vice Chair Gort: Yes. Wait a minute. This is --
Chair Sarnoff: I'm going to make a --
Vice Chair Gort: -- a public hearing. Do you want to make the motion before the public hearing?
Chair Sarnoff: Please, sir. I want to make a motion that this is compatible with the neighborhood, encompassing the findings as stated by the applicant as part of my motion and findings. So moved.
Vice Chair Gort: Okay, it's moved. Is there a second?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Second.
Vice Chair Gort: It's moved and second. Further discussion? Is anyone in the public would like to address this issue? Seeing none, being none, all in favor, state it by saying "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): As amended.
Vice Chair Gort: As amended.
Mr. Fernandez: Thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
END OF PLANNING AND ZONING ITEMS
MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS' ITEMS CITYWIDE
HONORABLE MAYOR TOMAS REGALADO
END OF CITYWIDE ITEMS DISTRICT 1
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VICE CHAIR WIFREDO (WILLY) GORT
D1.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00313 DISCUSSION ON TRIATHLONS. 13-00313 Email - Save Our Triathlons.pdf
DEFERRED
Note for the Record: Item D1.1 was deferred to the March 28, 2013 Commission Meeting.
D1.2 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00317 DISCUSSION: FIND GRANT FOR WAGNER CREEK. 13-00317 Email - FIND Grant for Wagner Creek.pdf
DEFERRED
Note for the Record: Item D1.2 was deferred to the March 28, 2013 Commission Meeting.
END OF DISTRICT 1 DISTRICT 2
CHAIR MARC DAVID SARNOFF
D2.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00225 STATUS OF HIRING POLICE OFFICERS. 13-00225 Status - Hiring Police Officers.pdf 13-00225-Submittal-Memo-MPD Staffing Levels 03-12-13.pdf 13-00225-Submittal-Commissioner Sarnoff.pdf NO ACTION TAKEN
D2.2 DISCUSSION ITEM 12-01391 DISCUSSION ON DEMOLITIONS PERFORMED WITHOUT PERMITS AND/OR CERTIFICATES OF APPROPRIATENESS. 12-01391 Email - Demolitions Performed without Permits.pdf
WITHDRAWN
D2.3 DISCUSSION ITEM 12-01397 DISCUSSION ON TRASH HOLES. 12-01397 Email - Trash Holes.pdf
WITHDRAWN
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D2.4 DISCUSSION ITEM 12-01398 DISCUSSION ON RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES RENTED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES. 12-01398 Residential Properties Rented for Commercial Purposes.pdf
NO ACTION TAKEN
D2.5 DISCUSSION ITEM 12-01466 DISCUSSION REGARDING CONTRACTORS' NEGLIGENCE IN FAILING TO PROTECT TREES.
12-01466 Contractor's Negligence - Failing to Protect Trees.pdf
NO ACTION TAKEN
D2.6 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00236 UPDATE ON ENFORCEMENT OF VEHICLES FAILING TO YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS IN THE RIGHT-OF-WAY. 13-00236 Enforcement - Failing to Yield to Pedestrians
NO ACTION TAKEN
END OF DISTRICT 2 DISTRICT 3
COMMISSIONER FRANK CAROLLO
D3.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 12-01486 UPDATE REGARDING WORK PERFORMED BY OTHER GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES ON CITY STREETS AND THE LACK OF ADEQUATE MILLING AND RESURFACING TO RESTORE STREETS TO THEIR ORIGINAL CONDITION. 12-01486 Update - Lack of Adequate Milling & Resurfacing Streets 03/28/13.pdf
DEFERRED
Note for the Record: Item D3.1 was deferred to the March 28, 2013 Commission Meeting.
D3.2 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00165 UPDATE PROCEDURES REGARDING THE CIP PROCESS IN ORDER TO BETTER THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES TO THE COMMUNITY.
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13-00165 Update Procedures - CIP Process 03/28/13.pdf
DEFERRED
Note for the Record: Item D3.2 was deferred to the March 28, 2013 Commission Meeting.
D3.3 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00167 UPDATE REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH THE FINANCIAL INTEGRITY PRINCIPLES ORDINANCE. 13-00167 Update - Financial Integrity Principles Ordinance 03/28/13.pdf
DEFERRED
Note for the Record: Item D3.3 was deferred to the March 28, 2013 Commission Meeting.
D3.4 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00315 UPDATE REGARDING THE TIMELY ISSUANCE OF THE AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENT ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2012. 13-00315 Update - Audited Financial Statement FY' 12.pdf
DISCUSSED
Commissioner Carollo: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Carollo: I don't mind deferring all my discussion items for the exception of one, which is the CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report), the audited financial statements, and it'll be quick.
Chair Sarnoff: Let's recognize you on that.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. Madam CFO (Chief Financial Officer), I'll make it real quick. Are we going to issue our audited financial statements by the deadline of March 31?
Janice Larned: Janice Larned, assistant City Manager/chief financial officer. Yes, sir, we will meet that date.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you. And once again, I need to thank the County for lending their auditors over here and being able to diligently do as much work with our Administration and be able to issue our financial statements on time, which, originally, we were not going to meet that deadline, so thank you.
Commissioner Suarez: And kudos to you, too, for getting the County to chip in.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you.
END OF DISTRICT 3 DISTRICT 4
COMMISSIONER FRANCIS SUAREZ
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D4.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 12-01455 DISCUSSION REGARDING MIAMI 21'S BLANKET PROHIBITION ON COMMERCIAL VEHICLES IN RESIDENTIAL ZONES.
12-01455 Email - Miami 21's Blanket Prohibition.pdf
DISCUSSED
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized for the record.
Commissioner Suarez: I just -- I feel compelled to at least just bring this up. It'll take 30 seconds. It's just -- I've had it on my blue page item time in and time out and I've constantly deferred it. It's -- Miami 21, I know commercial vehicles in residential zones are a very controversial issue. You know, there are some people that hate it and think it's horrible, and there are some people that feel that they should have some, you know, ability to have some sort of commercial vehicle at home, as long as it's not some massive thing or whatever 'cause a lot of people work with their cars and have some sort of signage. The only thing I would ask is if the Administration could look at 11000 -- 'cause I think there was a change between 11000 and Miami 21 -- and maybe look at what other jurisdictions are doing in South Florida and see if there's anything -- and by the way, if the Commission -- it would not bother me if the Commission decided to just leave it status quo or didn't like whatever they came up with. I don't feel -- I just feel like it's an issue that has occurred -- I've gotten both sides of it actually, calls on both sides on this issue. People that don't like it and people that like it and that don't understand why it's not allowed. So if we could just have a little bit -- the Administration just give it a little bit of attention and come back with something -- if they can come back with something. If they can't come back with something, then, you know, it is what it is. But I felt compelled to at least bring it up 'cause we did get some calls on it.
Vice Chair Gort: Could it be the size of the vehicle itself?
Commissioner Suarez: It could be the size --
Vice Chair Gort: 'Cause I think that's what bothers people, like when you have people that bring the trucks and the --
Commissioner Suarez: Right.
Vice Chair Gort: -- 18-wheelers and those big, major trucks. I think vans and maybe vans and pickup trucks is a different thing.
Commissioner Suarez: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay. All right.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you.
END OF DISTRICT 4 DISTRICT 5
COMMISSIONER MICHELLE SPENCE-JONES
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D5.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00170 DISCUSSION ON THE SUCCESSION PLAN AS A RESULT OF SIGNIFICANT 2013 EMPLOYEE RETIREMENTS. 13-00170 Succession Plan - Employee Retirements 2013.pdf 13-00170 Drop Succession Plan.pdf NO ACTION TAKEN
END OF DISTRICT 5
NON AGENDA ITEMS
NA.1 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00378 DISCUSSION BY COMMISSIONER SPENCE-JONES REGARDING AN UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF IMPLEMENTING CRIME PREVENTION INITIATIVES. 13-00378-Submittal-Commissioner Spence-Jones.pdf 13-00378-Submittal-Marked Agenda for File Id 13-00307.pdf 13-00378-Submittal-Memo-Police Technology Currently Being Explored.pdf DISCUSSED
Chair Sarnoff: All right. Commissioner Spence-Jones, you had some issues you wanted to bring up, and the Manager is going to be here for another, I guess, hour or so, so let's do it now.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: All right. Okay. I think he's going to get (UNINTELLIGIBLE). So while he's doing that, let me just start with the first thing. I'm going to ask for -- I know Alice, I know Public Works, and CIP (Capital Improvements Program) have been very involved, Mr. Manager, in this issue of Liberty Square. I want to thank the Police Department and the Fire Department for working hand in hand with us on it. My staff is just passing out to you -- From the last meeting we had, there was some directives that were given to the Chief. We can just deal with the crime prevention initiatives for now so that at least I can make sure you guys are all on the same page about where we are. As far as the personnel issue and the cost analysis, I'll wait until this afternoon for us to have that discussion on my blue pages. Okay. So the first thing that I wanted to chat with you guys about was the crime prevention initiatives. This is in reference to the shootings, the many shootings that we've had at Liberty Square, the housing development and the planters. I wanted for the Chief to give us a quick update on the installation of the planters. I have -- so that you know, since -- for the last week -- week and a half, have gone out to Liberty Square with Florida Power & Light. I want to thank Public Works for making that happen. And over 100 lights were out in one housing development, 100 lights. It's no wonder that the police officers, when they rode in the middle of night or in the evenings there, all of those dark alleys that -- I mean, who would want to go in there not knowing what they would be faced with? It is -- it's wonderful to see how well lit that place is now. So I wanted to at least let you guys know that there's a lot of light happening in the heart of Liberty Square. And the kids, actually the last night when we took the final tour to make sure all the lights were working, they were actually outside playing at like 8 o'clock at night, which was something that's unseen -- unheard of at Liberty Square. So just really quickly, Chief, you want to give us a quick update -- and I know that we have Public Works here as well -- just on the street beautification project is what we call it.
Manuel Orosa: Correct. We've been working with the -- Chief Manny Orosa, Miami Police
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Department. We've been working with our Public Works Department and the County's Public Works Department, as well as HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development), and everybody has agreed to beautify Liberty Square by installing planters that, at the same time, limit most of the vehicular traffic so that we avoid people from other areas coming into Liberty Square and causing problems. You can walk in. Those planters will be beautiful enough that -- they will have some beautiful trees that -- like similar to the ones we have here in the back by the marina. In that way, we will have a limited access of cars into Liberty Square. That will provide -- between the lighting and the limited access, it'll be a safer neighborhood. There's been plenty of studies across the country in which when you enclose a community by gates or walls or whatever, the crime rate has dropped in that particular community as long as you provide visibility and maintenance to that community. If you just enclose it and abandon it, crime gets worse. But if you provide activities inside, it becomes better. The -- our other phase of trying to help out in Liberty Square is going to be technology-based, which is we will try to implement not one but probably three different technologies, such as ShotSpotter, CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) cameras, as well as license plate readers so that everybody's aware that the place is under camera observation. If you drive around the area to commit a crime, the license plate readers will capture your tag, tell us who you are, and ShotSpotters [sic] has -- and what I mean ShotSpotter, I don't mean exactly that company. I mean something similar to that. -- has a technology that can be attached to CCTVs that when a shot rings out, ShotSpotter goes to that area and the camera span into that area as well to try to capture someone leaving the area. I think that with these three technologies in place, it will -- and people aware that you will not be able to go into Liberty Square and shoot and not be seen, then I think it will reduce, if not eliminate, a lot of the problems that our residents are having there with outsiders coming in and shooting up the place.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And, Chief, you mentioned the red-light cameras, which I thought was a brilliant idea, which would also save us money.
Chief Orosa: Yes. The license plate readers, there's a whole bunch of different companies out there that will come in and will install it. Each reader is about 25,000, plus installation costs, which can be anywhere from 10 to 15,000 per camera. However, in talks with the company that has our red-light cameras, that software is already installed in the red-light cameras. All they have to do is flip the switch. And for a minimal charge, they will be able to do that, so we don't have all these upfront costs of installation and purchasing of the cameras. It's their equipment. They maintain it. And all we do is pay a fee, which could be taken off the top of what they pay us in revenues for the red-light cameras. So it would eventually have no significant cost to the City.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So I've asked the Chief to come back and at least get with the Manager -- and I want to thank the Manager for his support with the issue -- to come back and at least know -- let us know the cost of the pilot project, you know, combination between the red-light cameras and the ShotSpotters [sic] only in the area where we're having a lot of gunfire take place to begin to address what happening, and also to make sure that the residents and the people in the areas know that the areas are under surveillance now because we are trying to reduce the issue of crime.
Johnny Martinez (City Manager): The blue light. We talked about the blue light.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And adding a blue light in those areas so that people will actually see that the cameras do exist.
Chief Orosa: Let me add one more thing. The company that has our red-light cameras, they are -- I'm having a meeting -- I had a meeting a couple weeks ago with a representative, but I think the vice president of operations is coming down next Thursday and I'll be meeting with him. And they're -- they are -- for the most part, they're willing to do a pilot program using us to do this. Eventually, they're hoping to sell this product elsewhere, but if they do a free pilot program with
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us, that will help us and, in turn, help them as well.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Gort. I'm sorry.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No.
Vice Chair Gort: I'll wait until she finish.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: No, no. Go ahead if you have a question.
Vice Chair Gort: Chief, what's important about this, the pilot program, if I works, you have the statistics, you know where the problems exist, and you can move it around.
Chief Orosa: Correct.
Vice Chair Gort: I mean, once it's implemented in one area, you can -- in other areas it'll be -- maybe even the business in the area are willing to pay for whatever needs to be done. But I think it's a great idea, the pilot program.
Chief Orosa: And Commissioner, since we have red-light cameras throughout the City --
Vice Chair Gort: Right.
Chief Orosa: -- it's just a matter of telling them what services in which areas we want and then just flipping the switch and charging us that minimal fee once the pilot program's over.
Vice Chair Gort: There's an additional benefit that we give to the residents.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Chief Orosa: Correct.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And then real fast, I don't know if Public Works wants to just give us a quick little update on where we are. I know you've been working back and forth. And I appreciate the support of my Commissioners regarding these street beautification -- I don't want to use the word closures, but street beautification pro -- the street beautification project.
Vice Chair Gort: That's a good name.
Nzeribe Ihekwaba: Good afternoon. Zerry Ihekwaba, Public Works director. We've carried out extensive review and evaluation of this area in combination with Miami police as well as the County. There are about 19 locations that are being identified for restriction of vehicular access in order to enhance the installation of the planters for beautification purposes as well as for public safety. Out of those 19 locations, 9 of those are private driveways under the exclusive direction of HUD, managed by Miami-Dade County. It's my understanding that HUD is actually in affirmation of proceeding forward. The additional locations are streets under the maintenance purview of the City, which, in our opinion and also based on the recommendation of Miami Police, is a very good location to proceed with the installation of the planters, and those are essentially at Northwest 13 Avenue, Northwest 14th Avenue, adding to sections of 62nd Street and 67th Streets, as well as Northwest 63rd Street and Northwest 65th Street, adding to sections of 12th Avenue and 15th Avenue. Now, there will be two principal entrances into this area with (UNINTELLIGIBLE) houses at Northwest 63rd at both 15th Avenue and 12th Avenue. Public Works Department and the City has no preliminary objection to this to move forward since, principally, this is a life-safety issue. Any questions?
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Commissioner Spence-Jones: So I just wanted to make sure that you -- my fellow colleagues know that we're moving in this direction. And one of the things that the Chief and I talked about yesterday, it -- was it -- it's really, really important that we don't wait a long time to get this started. As you know, these retaliation shootings come back, you know. The young man that got shot the last time, another young man prior to that was three months ago. So we just want to keep, you know, the enthusiasm, the residents feeling good about what's happening in the area, and to also let people know that the heat is on in the area and we're not going to allow or tolerate for anyone to have guns in that community. So I know that I'm using actually the dollars from my street dollars in CIP, and the Manager, we all went through those yesterday. So I'll be using it to do this beautification project in the area. I just wanted to make sure that I had your support on the issue. And I think one or two of the Commissioners said -- made the comment, you know, we want to make sure the County's supporting what we're doing and that we don't have any opposition, and it appears that we have that. But I know that in our last meeting, it was made -- the statement was made if it's about safety, let's just get it done, you know, so it is something that we're putting in place. Anything else you want to add, Marc? You need to add anything to it? Okay. Any questions you guys have on it?
Vice Chair Gort: The -- I think it's a great program, but the question that I have through the health district, I drive through there all the time. We have a lot of problems with the lights out and you get all my e-mails (electronic) every day, you get "X" amount of e-mail the lights are out. We got to find a way to notify because you can only do it at night. And I travel around at -- I'm not going to get down and get at each pole and write down the pole, but I get more or less the addresses. We need to come -- try to come up with some kind of a system where we, in a joint venture with FP&L, do that. There's certain corridors where we have -- and the Chief can tell you where the crimes are taking place and so on and we need to look at those corridors to make sure the lights are on.
Mr. Ihekwaba: The City, in conjunction with the IT Department, is looking into the development of ARPS, intelligent reporting system for smartphones, so that residents and local area businesses can actually report it as they see it. However, what we've been doing in the interim, just like we've just done for Liberty Square, we've conducted a couple of nights tracking and monitoring patrols. It was a joint effort between the City's Public Works, Florida Power & Light, and Miami Police, with the participation of District 5.
Vice Chair Gort: Right now -- my understanding right now, the police is going back to the citizen on patrol, something like that. That citizen patrol probably could be part of the assignment that they can take it. Look at the lights are out and report it. I mean, they want to do work so --
Chief Orosa: Commissioner, we can do that and we can create a directive to have our patrol officers, whenever they come across a light that's off, to go ahead and report it to my office and we can in turn report it to Public Works.
Vice Chair Gort: Thank you.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And then last but not -- oh, you had a --?
Chair Sarnoff: You mind if I say something? Yeah. Chief -- and I'm speaking to the Miami Herald, even though Kathleen's not here; instead, we got Chuck. But --
Vice Chair Gort: Welcome back, Chuck.
Chair Sarnoff: Welcome back, Chuck. We just got a March 12, 2013 Miami department staffing levels report from you, Chief.
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Chief Orosa: Okay.
Chair Sarnoff: I had said earlier that your earlier report was the best report I had ever received from any City employee. This is now the new high-water mark best report I've ever seen and here's what it describes. I'll give you one of his conclusions and, Commissioner Spence-Jones, you should listen to this. We are significantly understaffed in our terms of our ability to properly address violent crime. That is on page 2. We are the smallest number of police officers of any major police department in the nation. Page 3, under such conditions, the City of Miami Police Department's sworn force, per 1,000 inhabitants, visitors and workers is reduced -- remember, we were at 2.6? -- to 1.7 and 1.5 respectively. No other major metropolitan area in the United States goes that low. We were tied with Tampa at 1.9 sworn officers, but when you add the fact that we are America's most visited city, we are completely and utterly understaffed. Whatever goals we set, this Chief has said we need to get to 1,244 sworn officers. We are presently at 1,067, although we budget for 1,144; and intermediate goals should be to get to 1,360 . How do others police departments deal with this? Well, he chose to look at the City of New York because the City of New York could have 12,000 police officers to deal with this, but instead -- here it is, Chief -- the City of New York Department, for example, would have to deploy 12,802 officers in order to meet the 4-1 ratio. You know what they deploy instead, Commissioner Suarez? Thirty-four thousand five hundred and forty-two officers. The City of Miami is completely understaffed in policing, and this isn't the first time that this has ever reared its ugly head and been talked about in public. I give the Chief an amazing amount of courage for writing this report. I give him credit for bringing this report to this Commission's attention, because we don't even fit the southern strategy of policing because we're way below the southern strategy. We don't even come within the same hemisphere of northern strategy policing because we're not even close to being a northern strategy. I think this is something that we all need to wake up to and wake up to now because I don't care whether we put cameras, and I don't care if you put whatever it is you're going to put, you're going to need the manpower simply to deal with violent crime. I'm not even talking about quality of life. Violent crime. And remember, as you deploy men to the north, you take from central and you take from south because you just don't have the manpower to do it. So I keep bringing this up, and I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but here you have a Chief of Police picking a number that -- he actually came under the 1.9 number I was able to come up with. He's at 1.7 and 1.5 respectively. How you do your job, Chief, is -- must be like putting a Band-Aid on a great big cut and watching it continue to spurt the artery out blood. I think we all had better take cognizance of this and we all better strategize how to fix this problem.
Chief Orosa: Commissioner, and traditionally, our staffing levels are based on our population and our population -- our staffing levels are based on our population of probably a decade ago when we were at 340, 350,000. Now we're around 410. And it has never taken into account a daytime population of people coming into the City to work and play, nor has it taken into account the population that constantly is visiting the City for events, such as Calle Ocho, Ultra, the World League of Baseball now occurring. You know, they hire off-duty officers for those events. But all those visitors come through the City and leap through the City and the staffing levels do not accommodate those numbers of people that visit the City.
Chair Sarnoff: And your report points that out extremely well because you take us from the 2.6 number down to a 1.9 number down to a 1.7 number, then finally down to the 1.5 number, which would qualify us as probably the most understaffed police department of any city with a population over 100,000 people in the United States.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Sarnoff: You're recognized.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: We all agree that we need police officers, so I just want to finish
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my crime --
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- my little crime prevention initiatives to make sure we're on the same page. I know you were flowing with it, but can I just finish this one item?
Chair Sarnoff: Go right ahead.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: I know you're passionate about it. Love passion. I just want to be clear on the last item. We did talk about community-based crime intervention and prevention-related initiatives. We really think that it's important to make sure that we focus our attention on preventing young people from getting involved in guns, period, so that we don't have this issue of crime. So I know that that was one of the things that we talked about, and the Chief is going to bring back some recommendations on how we should handle that.
Chief Orosa: Correct, Commissioner. And you know, I'm more than willing and happy to use some of our LETF (Law Enforcement Trust Fund) funding to try to create programs that will keep kids from getting in trouble and trying to straighten out kids that have been in trouble before and they want to straighten their lives out, so I'll be more than happy.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: And I just want to be clear. For me, it's really more focused on the gun issue --
Chief Orosa: Correct.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: -- because I think we have PAL (Police Athletic League) and other programs. I'm talking about that hard-to-reach kid, that kid that has been involved in negative activities already, trying to figure out a way to get them on the right track and not just kind of like throwing them away. Trying to figure out a way to address them.
Chief Orosa: That's exactly right.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: So those are my issues and I wanted to make sure that at least my fellow colleagues know that we are trying to come up with positive solutions to address the issue.
NA.2 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00379 DISCUSSION BY COMMISSIONER SPENCE-JONES ON DIRECTIVES ISSUED TO THE ADMINISTRATION AT THE FEBRUARY 28, 2013 COMMISSION MEETING REGARDING THE MIAMI POLICE DEPARTMENT; FURTHER DIRECTING THAT THESE ITEMS BE PLACED ON THE MARCH 28, 2013 COMMISSION MEETING AGENDA. 13-00379-Submittal-Commissioner Spence-Jones.pdf
DISCUSSED
Commissioner Spence-Jones: On my other items, the directives that I had on here, which was the sworn police officer, the key personnel in DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plan), and then the plan for the cost analysis. I did ask for the Manager to give me that information. I haven't gotten it from Danny as of yet. But what I do want to do is roll it over until the next -- till my next blue pages. Okay. So I'll be rolling over one, two -- the other two -- three directives that I talked about. I'm going to roll that over until the next meeting.
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NA.3 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00380 DISCUSSION BY VICE CHAIR GORT REGARDING POTENTIAL SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR POLICE OFFICERS. DISCUSSED
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Gort, then Commissioner Suarez.
Vice Chair Gort: Your budget for how many officers, your actual budget today?
Chief Orosa: Excuse me?
Vice Chair Gort: Your budget for how many officers?
Chief Orosa: 1,044.
Vice Chair Gort: Ten --
Chief Orosa: 1,144.
Vice Chair Gort: 1,144.
Chief Orosa: 1,144
Vice Chair Gort: And you have?
Chief Orosa: We -- right now, starting Monday, we have 20 more on board, so we are down 37.
Vice Chair Gort: Thirty-seven.
Chief Orosa: Correct.
Vice Chair Gort: And you're budget for it so you can bring on board any time -- you can expedite the hiring of the officers.
Chief Orosa: Correct. We're trying to do that to try to fill those 37 positions as soon as possible.
Vice Chair Gort: And people need to understand, the additional 100 that we're requesting is going to need increase in the budget.
Chief Orosa: Correct.
Vice Chair Gort: Thank you.
Chief Orosa: And if I may add, it'll be probably, salaries and benefits, about seven and -- seven million and change; and with equipment and all that, it can come up to about nine, close to ten million.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Suarez.
Commissioner Suarez: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to commend you both, I think, you know, the Chairman and Commissioner Spence-Jones, because I think -- and I think the whole entire Commission is really not accepting the status quo, and I think that's the message here. We're not going to accept the status quo. I do commend the Chief and his staff for painting a true picture
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of what's going on because I have to tell you, since I got elected, there's -- and I know that Commissioner Carollo can identify with this -- actually, we can all identify with this. When we go to community meetings, that our residents oftentimes are asking why isn't there more police presence. And you -- you know, from an anecdotal perspective, it's a constant -- you hear it constantly, but this is the first time that you see it kind of objectively putting to an objective measurement -- objective numbers, and I have to say that if it wasn't for your persistence, I don't know that we would have ever gotten here. This is the first time that we really see how stark the problem is and how dramatic the problem is and how much work we have to do to have a city that is policed at a level that we should be, so I commend you for that, for continuing to work on that and not accepting -- not slowing down, not stopping, not ever taking it off. Believe me, there's been some times where I look at it and I go, again? And then, you know -- but you persist, you keep going, you keep going, and I -- and, you know, you see -- it's only taken a year and a half, but now we're really starting to see a lot of the fruits of your persistence. So thank you.
Chair Sarnoff: And you know, Chief, I've been through one, two, three chiefs now and you just -- you're not afraid of any issue and you're not afraid of the truth and you're not afraid of saying this is the way it is. And this Commission has a lot of work to do 'cause once we budget for it, then we can find you at fault, but we need to budget for it. And, you know, I won't quote Joe Biden again, but we need to budget for it, we need to strategize for it, and we need to demonstrate why it is crime will only stay at the level it is now unless we throw some resources at this. Thank you.
Johnny Martinez (City Manager): Commissioner, just one --
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Mr. Martinez: -- minor point. The previous presentation, the state of real estate, identified a lot of vertical construction which is going to add added pressure to the policing of those areas.
Chair Sarnoff: Right. And with those pressures comes -- their solution of their ad valorem so -- All right, we'll go back to -- we had a time certain, I believe. We are now up to -- go ahead.
Vice Chair Gort: Let me ask a question. A lot of the need for additional policemen is because of the amount of the visitors that we have in the City and people that work in the City that don't live in the City. I think we should also try to see if we can find some additional funding from other sources and not put all the -- on the residents.
Chair Sarnoff: Well -- and you bring up a good point, Commissioner, because there are three municipalities in the state of Florida that live off CDT, Convention Development Tax, and tourist development tax. Those three cities are Miami Beach, which takes in annually about $105 million, Bal Harbour, and Surfside. Why is it that we are not petitioning the Legislature to be treated like Miami Beach, Surfside, Bal Harbour, in saying, look, we can find a direct correlation to crime in tourism. Obviously, the fewer crime, the more safe you feel, the more tourists you would have.
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Chair Sarnoff: Why couldn't we special revenue CDT and TDT dollars with a legislative change to help pay for police?
Vice Chair Gort: Food for thought.
Mr. Martinez: The County collects that and they use it to pay for the Marlin's stadium.
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Chair Sarnoff: No. It's a bricks and mortar issue, I agree. But why is it three municipalities in the state of Florida don't have that same constraint that 36 municipalities or 35 municipalities do have? We're not talking about a little bit of money. We're talking about $100 million.
Vice Chair Gort: I think we should look at the options.
Chair Sarnoff: I know nobody likes to talk about it, but we should talk about that on this side of the water. All right.
Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair.
Chair Sarnoff: Yes.
Commissioner Suarez: I think it's something we should definitely talk about because we -- one of the big issues and arguments over the conventions and stadiums is that that money can only be used for those things. And I think the fact of the matter is, as you just said, you know, tourism does have -- it does stress and burden our resources. So maybe we should think about opening up that source for other uses. I mean --
Chair Sarnoff: New York City has, what, a -- what do they call it? A commuter tax? And the reason they have a commuter tax is 'cause New York City swells by something in the neighborhood of a million people a day, and as soon as you cross that line, you're a commuter and you pay for it. We do nothing of that nature other than parking surcharge. People smarten up and they don't park in the City of Miami. We don't tax them at all. There's no way of ever recovering their revenue for the police, fire, and sanitation services that are provided to them. Enough said.
NA.4 DISCUSSION ITEM 13-00381 CHAIR SARNOFF ACKNOWLEDGED THE PRESENCE, IN THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS, OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY ELECTIONS SUPERVISOR, PENELOPE TOWNSLEY. DISCUSSED
Chair Sarnoff: Guys want to run through some of the regular agenda? I agree, I agree. Haven't boards --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, we haven't done boards in over a month.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: Or longer. I think we're on SR.4.
Chair Sarnoff: So -- I'm not good at this, but let me try it. So I just want to announce, that if she would just take a bow, the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections, Penelope Townsley is here. If you would just say hello to everybody, Penelope. All right, that was my first time. How did I do, Penelope, okay?
Penelope Townsley: Very good.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, cool. Usually it's Suarez or Carollo and, you know, they usually -- they bring flowers and balloons and I'm not good at that.
NA.5 ORDINANCE First Reading
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13-00375 Miami Parking AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER Authority 54/ ARTICLE I/SECTION 54-9 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, ENTITLED "STREETS AND SIDEWALKS/ IN GENERAL/ PLACING SIGNS ON ANY PORTION OF THE PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY, STREET, OR SIDEWALK SURFACE", MORE PARTICULARLY BY AMENDING SUBSECTION (A) TO ALLOW THE DEPARTMENT OF OFF-STREET PARKING OF THE CITY OF MIAMI ("DOSP") TO PROCURE CERTAIN SIGNAGE SUBJECT TO SPECIFIED TERMS, CONDITIONS AND LIMITATIONS; FURTHER ADDING A NEW SUBSECTION (G) TO PERMIT THE PLACEMENT OF SIGNAGE OR ADVERTISEMENTS ON CITY OF MIAMI OWNED, OR DOSP OWNED, PARKING PAYMENT MACHINES WITHIN THE PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE 13-00375 Summary Form SR.pdf 13-00375 Legislation SR.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Spence-Jones, seconded by Commissioner Suarez, that this matter be PASSED ON FIRST READING WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Suarez and Spence-Jones Noes: 1 - Commissioner(s) Carollo
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Clerk, I want you to be very clear on the record right now. That's what I'm saying.
Commissioner Gort: Very clear, that I was asked to remove my second; I did. You guys made a motion for a first --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: He never seconded.
Commissioner Gort: -- I never second that.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: That's what I was telling you. I'm sitting on the side of him, so I know.
Chair Sarnoff: Okay.
Todd B. Hannon (City Clerk): My apologies, Commissioners. I didn't hear the withdrawal. So then if we can have movener [sic] and a seconder for the first reading ordinance.
Commissioner Suarez: I'll second it.
Chair Sarnoff: All right, so you have --
Commissioner Suarez: I'll second it.
Chair Sarnoff: You have Commissioner Spence-Jones as the mover. Commissioner Suarez is the seconder. Do we need to revote?
Mr. Hannon: Yes, sir.
Chair Sarnoff: So Madam City Attorney, I assume that your previous read is good.
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Julie O. Bru (City Attorney): Right.
Chair Sarnoff: Mr. Clerk, it is now --
Commissioner Gort: So you read it on the first -- for first --
Chair Sarnoff: -- you to call the roll.
Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Carollo?
Commissioner Carollo: No.
Mr. Hannon: Vice Chair Gort?
Vice Chair Gort: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Suarez?
Commissioner Suarez: Yes, on first.
Mr. Hannon: Commissioner Spence-Jones?
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yes.
Mr. Hannon: Chair Sarnoff?
Chair Sarnoff: Well, things changed now. Yes.
Mr. Hannon: The ordinance passes on first reading, 4-1.
NA.6 RESOLUTION 13-00382 A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION URGING GOVERNOR RICK SCOTT AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ("FDOT") TO HONOR THE COMMITMENT TO PROVIDE A "SIGNATURE" BRIDGE DESIGN FOR I-395, EXPRESSING THE CITY OF MIAMI'S SUPPORT FOR A SIGNATURE BRIDGE; AND FURTHER OPPOSING ANY EFFORTS BY FDOT TO DIMINISH THE DESIGN OF I-395 AGAINST THE EXPRESSED NEEDS AND WISHES OF THE COMMUNITY; DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO TRANSMIT A COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION TO THE ELECTED OFFICIALS STATED HEREIN. 13-00382-Submittal-Draft Language.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Spence-Jones, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 5 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Sarnoff, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones
R-13-0112
Chair Sarnoff: I have a pocket item, guys. It's in front of you. If you haven't heard about the signature bridge with regard to 395, as you know --
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
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Chair Sarnoff: -- FD --
Commissioner Suarez: Second.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Let's talk about it.
Chair Sarnoff: Let's talk -- real quick.
Commissioner Suarez: No. We have to talk about it, but I still second it.
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: This -- well, number one, as our MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) guy, you're going --
Commissioner Suarez: Yeah, I was going to say.
Chair Sarnoff: -- to be discussing this. I'm going to be taking some action on this. But I'm not going to read from this. Essentially, FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) made a promise to former Mayor Manny Diaz, to many other people in this city, to the district Commissioner, to the District 5 Commissioner, that they would build a signature bridge. And that signature bridge, one of the variations is in front of you, and so much so that in their NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) study, they actually gave us two pictures of what they described to be signature bridges. Then they came back -- and there's another one. And by the way, one of these is designed by Calatrava, so you got to say that's a pretty damned good signature bridge.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: However, now they come back with this. See that thing there? That's right. There's no bridge. It is called a segmental bridge, and they are now saying this is a segmental bridge. This community has been bait and switched. It is an absolute baiting and switching. And I'm telling you, as a Commission, we should take action. We should at least put this in front of the Governor and say, Governor, you made a promise --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Yeah.
Chair Sarnoff: -- maybe not you, but your department made a promise to this community. I'm not even going to get into the history of it, Commissioner Spence-Jones, because, historically, this is what really killed the neighborhood. And you need to simply honor your obligation that started in 1992. Bill Clinton passed an executive order stopping this from going forward because he said they didn't do a NEPA study. The NEPA study has even a justice component to it to the injustice that was done underneath this bridge. In having this (UNINTELLIGIBLE), not only do you get a higher bridge and not only do you get a pretty bridge, but the underneath part becomes so expansive that it becomes --
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Green space.
Chair Sarnoff: Right, part of what you want. I've said enough. I'm going to recognize Commissioner Suarez. I'm going to recognize Commissioner Spence-Jones, and then we're going to vote on it, and then we're going home.
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Commissioner Suarez: Mr. Chair -- and thank you, 'cause this is a very important issue. And as the Commission's MPO board member, you can rest assured that once we have this resolution passed, that I will fight vehemently at the MPO on our body's behalf to make sure that this doesn't happen. And you have my commitment beyond the MPO, whatever else I can do. I think that area is the epicenter of how Miami's being redeveloped and developed. You have the Performing Arts Center, American Airlines Arena. You have all the buildings from 900 Biscayne all the way to 600 Biscayne that are -- the ones that are built and the ones that are going to be built. You have whatever the Genting Group ends up doing with their property. I mean, not only is that area -- not only is that a signature area or going to be a signature area, it deserves a signature bridge. We don't get a second chance to do this. That's the other thing with a massive project; you never get a second chance. And I think, for me, it would be a travesty to be short-sighted, myopic in view on this issue. And you know, it's an area that's just going to blossom and we have the parks coming on line. I mean, everything is happening in that area. So for me, this is a no-brainer, and I'm glad you brought it up as a resolution.
Chair Sarnoff: Commissioner Spence-Jones.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Ditto, and I support it.
Chair Sarnoff: Oh, wow. That was (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Just so you know --
Vice Chair Gort: Hey --
Chair Sarnoff: -- I am so impassioned on this --
Vice Chair Gort: -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Sarnoff: -- I may take this a further step 'cause I cannot believe -- and I was privy to a lot of these meetings. It was one of these meeting after meeting after meeting, and they would come with this signature bridge and say, We're going to build this, we're going to build this.
Vice Chair Gort: It's been --
Chair Sarnoff: A month ago, they come back --
Vice Chair Gort: -- moved and second.
Chair Sarnoff: There you go. All in favor, say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
NA.7 RESOLUTION 13-00345 District 5- A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION EXTENDING THE Commissioner HOURS OF SALE FOR ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES FOR CONSUMPTION ON Michelle THE PREMISES OF CHURCHILL'S LEMON CITY OASIS, LOCATED AT 5501 Spence-Jones NORTHEAST 2ND AVENUE, MIAMI, FLORIDA, TO ACCOMMODATE THE WINTER MUSIC CONFERENCE 2013 DJ SPIN-OFF, ON MONDAY MARCH 18, 2013, FROM 3:00 A.M. TO 6:00 A.M., THROUGH SUNDAY MARCH 24, 2013, FROM 3:00 A.M. TO 6:00 A.M., PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 4/ARTICLE 1/SECTION 4-3, ENTITLED "ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES/IN GENERAL/HOURS DURING WHICH SALES ALLOWED; SUNDAY SALES."
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13-00345-Legislation.pdf 13-00345-Submittal-Commissioner Spence-Jones.pdf 13-00345-Submittal-Marked Agenda for File Id 13-00226.pdf
Motion by Commissioner Suarez, seconded by Commissioner Carollo, that this matter be ADOPTED PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: 4 - Commissioner(s) Gort, Carollo, Suarez and Spence-Jones Noes: 1 - Commissioner(s) Sarnoff
R-13-0111
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Wait. I have one pocket item. I just want to finish --
Vice Chair Gort: Oh, yeah.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Remember? And this is just for the -- this is a resolution for the Miami City Commission extending the hours for Churchill's Lemon City Oasis.
Commissioner Suarez: Move it.
Vice Chair Gort: Move it.
Commissioner Suarez: Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: I'm sorry. All in favor, please say "aye."
Vice Chair Gort: Aye.
Commissioner Spence-Jones: Aye.
Chair Sarnoff: I'm just going to register a no. Do not take offense to it. It's just the 6 o'clock issue. Okay, I'm leaving now.
Commissioner Suarez: You saw that stare, huh?
Chair Sarnoff: I did. I saw that.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 8:16 p.m.
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