Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners

>> test miami-dade . >> good morning everyone, if we could please have or seats so we can begin this morning's presentation. >>... >>chair: good morning everyone, I'm all over gilbert, CHAIRMAN Of the board of county commissioners and this is the presentation portion of our agenda. We take this time to recognize people, organizations doing incredible things in our community. Today we have two presentations. The first presented by commissioner danielle cohen higgins. >>commissioner cohen higgins: thank you to everyone joining us in chambers before our bcc hearing to recognize someone who has been truly significant , inspiring and impactful to miami-dade county. Unfortunately and sadly we recently crossed our former county manager merritt steirheim, he passed at the age of 90 and we're going to do our best to share the story of MR. Steirheim and the work he did on behalf of the residents of miami-dade county so if you are joining us for the memory and honor of merit steirheim I welcome you to join us in the well so please join us. And as everyone is making their way down, know that we are working to have a larger, more formal celebration of life on behalf of MR. Steirheim so we will keep you posted. I do have a quote by our former district aid county commissioner, commissioner katie sorensen who wanted to share a few words regarding the work of MR. Steirheim. She said MR. Steirheim personified good government. He was a pro adhering to the highest ethical principles while managing with skill and purpose. He managed the official chosen by the people as well as the people who work for him. He was tough, you wouldn't be want to be on the receiving end of his park but he was their kind and compassionate. He earned the respect of all who knew him. He loved miami-dade county and came to the rescue more than once always an advocate for and practitioner of professional management. Miami-dade lost a true champion but his legacy lives on in the public servants he touched. He was my mentor and my friend. I will MISS Him greatly. That is from katie sorensen. We have a number of people who want to share a few words but before we do that if we can turn our attentions to the camera for a brief video compiled and put together doing some and this is some, certainly not all of the accomplishments of the rate late merit steirheim. >> merit steirheim, could have been anywhere during his years of public service and to find the thread that weaves the fabric of his life his dedication and commitment to improving anything he touches. Honesty, integrity, responsibility were qualities instilled I him as a young boy. In 1959 however miami was a troubled place. The magic city did not treat all its residents equally. There was discrimination and segregation. Not long after arriving at his new job merit was given the task of integrating public city pools and the orange bowl. It was an experience he never forgotten led him to fight for equality and justice for the next 40 years. my initial concern is to get myself oriented, spending time with staff, getting ready for the agenda tomorrow. I'll be spending time with members of the county commission, mayor and I want to spend time with my department directors and immediate staff and get my feet on the ground and acclimated as to what's happening in the county and current studies and efforts underway and what some of the priority projects are . >> for the next nine years merit was at the hearing some of the most tumultuous times in our community's history. As county manager in 1976 he oversaw a decade of progress bonds including the construction of metro zoo, solid waste facilities, fire stations, parks, libraries, a cultural complex, and police stations. It was a tranny of fast-growing growth and merritt was there conducting the training and speaking of trains there was metrorail. No other public works project created so much. Public passion is the building of a mass transit system. He was also here for the tough times in the early 80s when our town was literally coming apart at the seams. Cocaine cowboys, civil disturbances, uncontrolled immigration. No one it seems wanted anything to do with us. The tourism industry took a dive. Latin america went bust and our town went into a slope . When speaking about the civil disturbances he told) When I looked at from our command center and saw my town burning I broke down and cried. Yet in public he maintained his resolve and the town and its manager persevered. The manager and his staff worked to bring more economic parity to the black community. Metro miami action plan was created, a responses ordinance was approved and defended all the way to the us supreme court. >> I think I'm going to leave on top. That's a good time to leave. If anybody wants any advice. Not that you asked for it. And I'm certainly nt going to go out to pasture. >> on behalf of a grateful community thank you. >> we have joining with us this morning our mayor, our children, our colleagues and we have the family of MR. Steirheim including his wife judy and his family. Thank you for sharing them with us for over 40 years. We all stand on the shoulders of merritt steirheim and we thank you for his incredible, incredible public service. Our man mayor or judy, whoever would like to take the microphone at this time. Class thank you commissioner cohen higgins for making sure we could come tgether today to honor the greatness of this man who has touched so many and to all the members of the county commission, family and friends and colleagues who are here, there is truly no honor too great for this man. Will be many, many opportunities for us to praise , give accolades. I want to mention on a personal note that he was a mentor and friend to me and he did take me under his wings from my earliest days in public office and he as we learned is nt short on advice. And that was a gift, a true gift from his massive experience but is judicious in this, his law on this, his just watching those pictures I was sort of feeling the stress of everything that he went through, I feel it very personally and he was so kind and thoughtful always to share his GOD counsel. And I was reminded, we were talking to judy that they shared an email and they shared a cell phone so as special tribute to their wonderful partnership over the years. Yes, it was confusing. But you would write to one then you would hear from the other, it worked. I also like to announce a recognition I'm very proud we can present on the behalf of miami dade county which is a portrait of merritt in our lobby which is being commissioned through our cultural affairs department and a local artist will be asked to provide that portrait and then we will have an opportunity to join together to hang the portrait. [Applause] >> we are honored for all that you have done. Merritt, he as I was telling one of the commissioners he always believed that work was love made visible . And he just, he just was always enthusiastic about whatever he did. He made you feel enthusiastic and he loved everyone that worked for him. He wanted to help them. He wanted to see them succeed. He always used it to say I want to have people around me that want to sit in my chair. And I'll tell you a little story, george abreu is, joe ruiz I'm sure many of you know him, george and I used it to work together in the productivity unit in the budget office going way back when it was metropolitan dade county and after we got married , I resigned from the county. Merritt, georgia said you think merritt could come and talk to the boy scout troop for my son about government? I said I don't see why not so we did that and merritt as usual says I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do this for young boy scouts and their parents but he got in there and he said I know what I'm going to do and the next thing you know he was on the court, took the chart, drew a tax bill and he said you know, when you get up in the morning and you flush the toilet, where do you think that water goes and how is it process and then you go and you turn the tap on and you brush your teeth, how do you think that happens? Your car, drive on the route, who do you think these road and there's traffic signals and the stop signs and the street name signs. And afterwards one of the mothers came up to me and said you know, I never really understood where my tax dollars went but now I do. So that was merritt. Mme. Mayor, very much appreciate , merritt said he thought you were doing a great job, I want you to know that. Commissioner regalado , commissioner cohen higgins, I'm sorry. Thank you so much for sponsoring this. This is wonderful and thank you county family that's here, thank you so much. He would be so honored and I'm sure he's looking down taking notes. >> I'm going to be brief, can I have my two minutes? Thank you. Happy birthday today, we're going to stay around. Maybe you can bundle the busway item here as part of this. I want to be brief, I built howard's and in 1976 I first met steirheim merritt. I worked at west flagler and he took me to tennis , he took me to the convention bureau , we lived in palm beach gardens together and if there was ever an odd couple that was us but I'm here today because of merritt steirheim. I'd still be a parks planner but also I'm big on history and I think we have a quorum of a commission down here, is there a quorum so we can take a vote on whatever it is? 65 years ago yesterday, merritt steirheim arrived in this town. 65 years ago and he's never stopped. Thank you boss. . >>commissioner regalado: I wanted to mention something. When I was at the city of miami for those of you who remember operation dream paul we got an oversight committee and it was a disaster and at the time mayor joe, we were sitting with several elected and he said who could be the manager in such a chaotic time and everyone looked around and we thought merritt steirheim so we went to see him and he said why would I want to take on this mess and we were like, because you like messes and he was our manager and he got the city out of the worst financial crisis and they were going to abolish the city of miami, that's how bad it was . Yes, I was the other one, I get paid with a blackberry and worked for two years for the city of miami. So he was an amazing mentor. Bill mentioned it. There's so many people who learned from merritt, myself included. He was such a wonderful foster of leadership and took every opportunity to take a moment and take you aside and tell you how you could make things better and how you could step up to oneself forever grateful for all his amazing advice and proud that he was a very active resident of district 7 ad proud that he was a very active resident of district 70 thank you, you will be very missed but he hs a tremendous legacy in all of us. >> thank you, presentation. >>... >>chair: thank you all very much. We're going to move on to the next presentation. We're going to move on to the next presentation. The next presenter will be commissioner mcghee, you are recognized. >>commissioner mcghee: good morning everyone. First of all, let me just say to each and every last one of you it's an honor and privilege to be standing before you. Secondly let me simply say today is a great day not only because we just recognized the hero who has made the way for many of us in this room, myself included but we also get an opportunity to say to our south run a team, the florida panthers, thank you and welcome them for becoming the stanley cup champions of the world. let's give them a round of applause. [Applause] MR. CHAIRMAN, mme. Mayor, it's not lost upon us that before they became the florida panthers there was an idea to name tem the blockbusters. It wasn't until the nhl stepped in and said no. And I'm glad they did. What we found out by watching on television and some of us who follow the game, we found out that the tenacity, the second chance, the determination and love of the game kept our florida panthers pushing forward. They showcased what it was like to have grit, determination and a refusal to quit. We are here today to honor our florida panthers by declaring JULY 16, 2024 as florida panther's day. Rice, come on up. Today we have with us the florida panthers coo bryce who is also going to bring words but also going to set something up in the near future MR. CHAIRMAN where we get to see the stanley cup. >>chair: excuse me everyone, if you could keep it down. If you're speaking in the chambers right now please step out of the chambers. Are going to have a little more quiet for this presentation. >>commissioner mcghee: I think I completed the presentation but ladies and gentlemen please join us, come on, we can do it. Please join us in welcoming the coo of the florida panthers, our stanley cup champions. [Applause] >> all right, thank you so much mme. Mayor, MR. CHAIRMAN, listener, thank you, the rest of the commission I know how important your daily service and rolls are to the community so first and foremost thank you. To those who followed along the last three or four months it was a grind when I say it's the best form of exhaustion you could have in professional sports and I always tell people that we're not teachers and we don't need long summers so the shorter summer you had in professional sports the better. Commissioner mcghee set some humble beginnings with MR. Huzienga so we celebrated our 30 year anniversary and what a way to cap off that 30th year. We are so pleased with the support from miami-dade county being south florida's team, being able to bring that championship home here where it belongs, keep it out of canada where I've lived for a third of my life but that's okay, I am a floridian now. There you go. Again I'm going to steal this from my boss matt caldwell, PRESIDENT And ceo of the panthers who is unfortunately on vacation and couldn't be here but our organization is very big on veteran support. Our owner vinny viola , matt was a veteran as well. I served 10 years active duty as well and I'm going to steal this from matt where in a career where you thought you were able to give so much back, how are you ever going to find that again? And this one came pretty close so I'm feeling fulfilled and again I've played hockey my entire life as a three-year-old kid so being fulfilled in a career and oral in a community like yourselves and being surrounded by s many people and getting so much love just, it's been incredible. You can't put words to it so miami-dade county, thank you so much. This is an absolute honor and run the viola family, the cfu family and matt caldwell and cearley appreciate it, thank you. >>. [Applause] >>mayor: nothing brings us together more than a great victory especially in sports I think this is a unifying south florida, making it real. Broward and miami-dade certainly together so let's say go gatos. And because you're crossing the boundary of our cunties we get to give you a special key to welcome you to your other home here in miami-dade county on behalf of the citizens of miami date county we're pleased to offer you this official key to miami-dade county. >> we are good. I said we need our own parade. >> cell phones first, right to left. Video cameras. Big smiles everyone. Let's go one more. Big smiles. >>... >> good morning to all, clerk's office has received notification commissioner cabrera will be absent from today's meeting. Commissioner bastien. [Roll call] We have 10 members present, we have a quorum . >> please rise for invocation and pledge of allegiance. And before , you're already pledging, I like that. Before we going to the pledge a couple of comments. This past saturday someone tried to assassinate the former PRESIDENT Of te united states and it occurred to me that there's a darkness that cannot be allowed to fester. The idea of america was that we're in a marketplace of ideas we can have government for the people and by the people and how we decide what we would do based on elections. Political violence is antithetical to that. It's literally un-american. And it has to start and stop with us. With what we accept. With what we expect, what we allow, what we demand from government. It doesn't matter whether we agree or not. This is the greatest country in the history of the world , one of the vanguards, the safe keepers, the stewards of this greatness is sitting right next to you and standing right in front of you. They are your neighbors, your fiends, you shop with them. It's us. We have to commit ourselves to the idea that we're going to have a more perfect union and inspire efforts that we will prevent it. Violence has no place in this country, no place in this community. Now your heads. GOD our father today we petition your grace, guidance love on this day we've never seen before and will never see again we come first thank you, thank you for allowing us to borrow a little bit of your sunshine, a little bit of air, filling your lungs with oxygen allowing us to make manifest your will on this your planet. Titus in all things. Order our steps, our words. Let us be keepers of goodness, amen. >> I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under GOD indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> okay. Everyone. Sergeant at arms , everyone who can find a seat, if there's an open seat take a seat. Take a seat. If you do not work for the county, take a seat. In any case, you have to be quiet. Secure the chambers, close the doors. We are about to begin the meeting. Reasonable opportunity to be heard, we have a list of names, when I call your name give me your address, your name, if your address is withheld say withheld, you will have one minute to speak. I'm going into public comments. Joe militello, jason cohen, michael, jamie call on. [Reading names. ]] Chief. >> good morning. MR. CHAIRMAN. Commissioners. Matt and mayor . >>chair: hold on chief, if you all could keep it down on the wings here, please. Thank you, go ahead . >> thank you. My name is chief pete delgado with the nest west miami police department and I'm also PRESIDENT Of the miami-dade county association of chief of police. We are here today to get some resolve on an item, your item MR. Chair. And I am represented behind me with all the members that are here and also part of the executive board. Coming up today to speak for us will be attorney joe and italo. >> thank you chief, mme. Mayor, commissioner gilbert, ladies and gentlemen of the commission thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. I wanted to address item 1184 on behalf of the miami dade association of chiefs of police and in essence we are asking for deferment of this mutual aid agreement. A deferment of the cancellation of the present operative neutral eight agreement and there are basically five general reasons why we are seeking this deferment. The police chiefs of miami-dade are looking for the opportunity to negotiate this agreement, an agreement to which... >>chair: hold on one second, cause the time because she started your time but I need to understand are you speaking for all the chiefs that are signed up to speak or are they going to take their minute also, if they're going to take their minute also then your time is going to be a. >> I'm speaking on behalf of all the chiefs. Number one would like to be party to this agreement in full and by that we mean negotiate, opportunity to negotiate. We appreciate the efforts made on behalf of CHAIRMAN Gilbert in listening and addressing our concerns, there's other issues we feel not to the detriment of your purpose of the changes proposed today. Number two where asking MAY be looking for removing the decision-making process from the director to be elected officials, we're looking to have that addressed. We feel that will slow down the process of agencies helping each other. Number three we would like to see a set fee schedule for what the fees will be with municipalities will be charged will better enable us to budget and plan for the assistance that might require are having to pay. Number four, we'd like more clarity on what events would constitute a transition from providing services to the municipal agencies without cost to providing assistance to the municipal agencies that would incur costs. That needs clarification. Number five, we'd like to discuss... >>chair: number four again. >> would like to tighten up the language as far as what would constitute a change from providing assistance without cost to providing assistance with costs. There is no clarity in the present agreement as it's currently proposed. Number five, we'd like to discuss the issue about this 10 year agreement. Given the correct change pending from JANUARY transition to a sheriff's department we feel entering into a 10 year agreement doesn't accomplish much. It ties us into something. New sheriff MAY accept it, he MAY not. The disagreement we rach we'd like to work until the new sheriff comes in, whoever that is and hve the opportunity to negotiate on another mutual aid agreement area I represent several new police department throughout dade county and we negotiate these agreements all the time. It's never an issue because everybody is always out for what's best for the county and we just ask for the same opportunity, thank you everybody. >> thank you. So who all is here with you standing up so I can mark their names off? >> I have chief delgado, PRESIDENT Of the association of chiefs of police. Chief jones from city of miami beach. I'm sorry, from having torah. Chief colin from pinecrest, deputy chief baer from north bay village, chief flowers from bal harbour village. Tatum from having torah. Lindsay noel from bay harbor . Daisy santiago from sunny isles . And a host of them in the back but those are those present today. Thank you MR. Chair . >>chair: all right, now to the second list of names. Derek holman and alexander process, lino diaz, christine herbert. [Reading names] They are all part of the group, if you're part of the group you're all good. Thank you chiefs. All right. Reasonable opportunity to be heard is now concluded. Come on. Just take your time. Okay, carl bay and gerald junior, take your time. [Inaudible] Okay, MR. Bay, you are recognized . >> good morning. Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak. I will be brief. This board assembled in support of the recreation of the model city cac to join alongside the other 15 countywide community advisory boards. Those community advisory boards put together a budget as requested by this bonnie submitted to the md organizations, that's the miami-dade economic advisory advocacy trust that recommendation was in black and white, formally submitted in hand, I know I delivered it myself. A copy was sent to all the commissioners in 2022 . unfortunately there was never a sponsor of the resolution so it didn't go anywhere, there was no action taken. And that resolution was to be known and is now known as something called elevator share so we need a resolution written in a sponsor hopefully one of the commissioners will sponsor the our fair share resolution this time around. And that my timer? Okay, thank you. Unless you have any questions. >> my name is gerald junior, 239 north w. 50th ter. 137. I'm here for agenda item 384 in regards to discretionary funding. They will also vote on an item called a k-1 in a k-1, there is a fund called commission district commission funding. And the commissioners have allocated money directly to organizations through the cdbg, that's all fine and dandy but if you look in the cdbg there's five organizations, but the system mia, sweet home missionary baptist church and association for the development of exceptional and the start program, the filled out applications really did receive funding so I'd like for you out of the kindness of your discretionary funding to the city's organizations or let's start making more fairness towards the cdbg process. >>chair: did you give the clerk a copy of the note with the organizations again? I'd appreciate that. Reasonable opportunity to be heard is now concluded >>commissioner gonzalez: I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize jackie deanna, miami-dade public schools here and a good friend by the way who's helped me a lot with project citizen here along with 22 miami-dade elementary and middle school teachers and three members who will be participating in the civic and powerful students, on one week institute program and participants will learn valuable information about the united states and its constitution. They ultimately participate in not congressional hearings using the we are the people and the constitution curriculum from the civic, center of civic education. I want to congratulate her and their desire to continue to learn and sharpen their skills though they can teach our next generation, congratulations and please and we can give you a round of applause. [Applause] Thank you all very much. >> that is reasonable opportunity is now closed, close it? Mme. Attorney can we set the agenda? >> we have preliminary matters, item 2b3, commissioner regalado having this item to the pll list. 2b5, commissioner higgins as this item to the pull list. 8k1 and 8k1 supplement, commissioner bastien pulls this to include the supplement, she is the only polling commissioner so with the setting of the agenda item 8k1 and 8k1 supplement will be approved as amended. 8k4, senator garcia as this item to the pull list. 8n1, senator garcia adds this item to the pull list. 11a4 and 11a4 substitute, commissioner garcia, steinberg and regalado and this item to the pull list. 11a7, vice CHAIRMAN Rodriguez and this item to the pull list for an amendment, MAY I read it now? Vice CHAIRMAN Rodriguez moves to amend item 11a7 to make the following changes to the proposed implementing order 8-3 to remove the outdated language as this guy is structured through a management agreement between the county and viscaya museum and to provide permits previously scheduled used by a non-for-profit entity will provide this amendment to the court for the notations so with the setting of the agenda this item would be approved as amended as he is the only polling commissioner. 14a2, senator garcia pulls this item, 14a4, senator garcia pulls this item. 14a6, commissioner steinberg and garcia are pulling this item. 14a7 and his supplement, commissioner gonzalez is adding this item to the pull list. 14a8 and 1a8 supplement, commissioner garcia and regalado at this item to the pull list. 14a9, prime sponsor has requested dferral to be SEPTEMBER 9 commission meeting and with the setting of the agenda 14a9 will be deferred and 14a10, commissioner bermudez is pulling this item. In addition MR. Chair, one second. We just received additional items to add to the pull list. Items 8g1, commissioner regalado. 8g3, commissioner regalado. 8p2, commissioner cohen higgins and commissioner cohen higgins is adding her name to 11a4 and 11a4 substitute and request for cosponsorship. 7a, commissioner regalado. 8l1, commissioner steinberg. Items considered will be those listed in the final printed agenda with the ferrules withdrawals and errors noted in the CHAIRMAN's memorandum and items I just mentioned. The commission will approve all these items by a single vote setting the agenda except ordinances for first reading, public hearings, I 6b1 regarding status of la quinta acquisition in the following pull list items, item 2b3, item 2b5, 8g1, 8g3. I apologize, 8v2. 8k1, that one will be amended per the supplement so with the setting of the agenda that will be as amended. 8k4, 8n1, 8p2. 1aa4 and 1aa4 substitute, 14a1, 14a2, 14a5, 14a7 and it supplement, 14a8 and it supplement. 14a10 , 14a11 and 14a12. And commissioner regalado is requesting deferral of 2b3, is that to to the next meeting? With the setting of the agenda 2b3 will be deferred to the september meeting. I think that's it MR. Chair, motion to set the agenda is in order . >>chair: vice CHAIRMAN Was to set the agenda, all in favor signify by saying aye. Show the agenda set. >> would you like me to move all the 14 that were not polled, I think those are one, three, five, 11 and 12. If those are correct I will move all of those. >> seconded by commissioner bastien. All those in favor. Signify by saying aye, those opposed, show them adopted. Those are the ones that weren't polled. Mme. Attorney, where do we start? Since we had a bunch of officers here and I'm assuming they have things to do while we start with that, I'm assuming they have other things to do, let's start with that. All right, commissioners. Let's go to the mutual aid agreements, mme. Attorney. I don't know the exact number, 11a4 . >> that would be 11a4 substitute. >>chair: 11a4 substitute. You are recognized commissioner . >>speaker: >>commissioner regalado: I want to thank our officers being there, for those that represent our municipalities we get a lot of calls and I know you've been diligent in meeting with them mr. Chair but I respectfully request a deferment until SEPTEMBER. I think this will give us the opportunity for everyone to meet with their chiefs, to go over the agreement. I know the league of cities has also asked folks to reach out to us. I can tell you key biscayne, pinecrest we have a lot of concerns. I think this is well-intentioned but also important to note this will be the purview of the sheriff. So I think at a minimum until SEPTEMBER so we can discuss it with our municipalities but I also think long term we might want to leave this for the sheriff. >>chair: I am against deferring and this is why and perhaps I will start with describing what the item does. That might be appropriate before we talk about it, commissioner, it might be appropriate. What we learned when we discussed previously at the dais is the previous mutual aggregate agreement could allow cities to turn over their policing to the county for a period of time at our expense. And this is, and I know chief jones from miami beach is in the audience. I . [Audio lost] It changes very little from the mutual aid agreement. What is does is when you have those type of secial events for long period the time we expect reimbursement. This isn't anything new, we entered a mutual aid agreement with the department of emergency management and they reimbursed us for our offices. This isn't a new concept. The current mutual aid agreement as it previously has been used was fine and operated because no one abuse it. What this showed us was there was the ability to abuse it and it would drive a hole in our budget. Let me just suggest to you the reason I want to move forward on this item is because I want them to have a good concept of what it would cost them when they set their millage and when they set their budget. Because ultimately it's going to be a budgetary decision for them. The only things that are changed in this agreement, literally the only thing that's changed , the substitute finds providing agencies from the current agreement, it adds a new section preplanned voluntary major eents. Preplanned vluntary major events. For preplanned voluntary major events they are expected to reimburse the county for cost. Now, the option and the alternative is this. Leave this in place and don't change it but I would submit to you that I'm going to have to municipalities in my city do the same thing. I'm going to have miami gardens opa-locka adopt for every game and rolling loud and we're going to offset the cost of one of our businesses to the county because that is what's happening right now. we're paying for their policing policies over prolonged period of time. It's just bad policy. This is bad fiscal policy. And listen, I saw the email sent out but the mayor, I respect his opinion. I think he probably misses the point. No one out here thinks I'm soft on crime, you can police miami beach however you want to police miami beach, they elected you to do that. My colleague, he will definitely attest I am not soft on crime, police miami beach however you want. Do that. But darling is about choosing. It's easy to be a law and order city when you don't have to pay for the law or establish the order. Right now those decisions are being made by the people but what I'm saying is you can still make the decisions, we will still, but in that limited instance, you should actually reimburse us for it. We included language in the substitute to make allowances for if there is an incident or there's an activity or you just need 10 officers, we don't care, we're not asking you to pay for that. But I think while none of the people standing up in the back will admit this because it's not coming out of their budget, the million dollars out of our budget makes a difference. Makes a difference. The other thing this does is in that limited circumstance in our police are responsive to enforcing the policies of another body, we're doing their policing for a prolonged time I asked for simple indemnification. So for instance if one of our officers is sued for false arrest, because they are enforcing a policy that another city put in place in that policy, they indemnify us for losses. But only in that instance. This doesn't change your support, it doesn't change bomb text, it changes literally nothing else . And if something happens during that time and there's an emergency within that event we still respond for free. Because we're going to respond for free but you can't plan to use us weeks out, have a spring in overtime officers, have us pay for it while you make all the decisions. That's , and that's a good point because you know, when people come to the beach I want it to be safe everywhere in this community. This isn't against public safety. This is against weather people in unincorporated they are going to be subsidizing the police choices for people in other cities and what I'm saying is it's done on such a large scale that it's inappropriate. We gave the mayor and whoever the chair is the ability if there's something that has to be done for an event I don't care. This isn't meant to address those issues. When it was a $200,000 a year problem, it was just a $300,000 a year problem. But this year is going to be a million-dollar problem. This year it will be a million-dollar problem. So it addresses those issues. Now, there was some comment about the sheriff coming in. The sheriff comes in, let me know for everyone on this dais that we vote on contracts that are going to obligate the sheriff all the time that are worth a lot of money. If were going to get religion about whether we're going to obligate something for the new sheriff, we need to have a consistent religion, it can't be situational. It can't be situational. But in any case you can get out of this agreement in 30 days. It's assignable to the sheriff, whoever the sheriff is elected the sheriff can get out of in 30 days and more to the point that cities can get out of them in 30 days. So no one is locked into the agreement but if the sheriff chooses to keep the agreement and the sheriff chooses to keep the agreement and let me say something, I don't know who the elected sheriff is going to be. What I do know is the sheriff is a creature of the general fund so if the sheriff is I wanted to go back to the old way, I want to go and let them be able to plan events and us and our police officers, we would probably have something to say about that at that point because the sheriff, it would blow a hole in his budget for her budget. And tat's what this does. I appreciated all the comments, the emails, the radio interviews. I especially like being attacked by a couple of the chiefs on insta graham, that's my jam, this is impersonal, this is policy. This is insane we will help, this is saying in situations where people are willing to abuse would shoot mutual aid they have to pay for it. You can't make a decision to lockdown areas for weeks at a time bringing county officers and expect us to pay for it. That's the issue. Commissioner steinberg first , commissioner steinberg . >>commissioner steinberg: and I hear what you're saying and I respectfully disagree. And I'm going to say that this ou has three substantive changes and I know a new version came out at midnight so I haven't had a chance to go through it and I actually appreciate that you made changes because I know you met with the police officers yesterday and if you look in the back of the room how many law enforcement agencies do we have here? This is what miami-dade county is. We work together and at the end of the day I look at this and I think I am not law-enforcement, I'm not an attorney. I have to listen to law enforcement and they have concerns so I cannot support this and if you want to do for it I will be a nay. I pulled the numbers, I represent 13 cities, 13 cities, combination of the taxes that might cities contribute 25% of our operating budget just for my cities. That's $.25 on the dollar. How much does that come out to? And they are there in a drop of a hat if you need them for anything. Though I look at this and I think I need clarification on what constitutes an actual voluntary event, what does that mean? You're going to have world cup . We're spending so much money on in-kind for public safety, we just had an incident this past weekend. We need to work together and I don't know what those costs are going to be in retrospect or prospectively from the county, what are we going to absorb, I don't know. Those are questions I have. I also don't understand what this means in terms of the indemnification, what was there originally, what does it mean for today and the removal of off-duty area that to me as we're taking money out of the officers pocket so there's a lot of things here that by the way are probably good , are probably good and I know you mentioned miami beach and miami beach on its own 3% of the population 12% of our county operating budget so at the end of the day I think we need to take a breath and look at and by the way I have a question, does this mean school board police and fiu police or only municipalities? >>chair: you want to finish or you want me to answer the question? >> that's pretty much in this current form I cannot so I will second the motion to defer it because I do think that they need the opportunity to sit down. They weren't given notice. This came up and they really should look at the fine language and make sure this works for everyone. We are miami-dade county, we don't want to rgress to the times when we all worked in silos and to help each other . There are incidences that come up, planned events that we should be supporting just as they would be supporting us. So just because there could be unintended consequences to this, I today second your motion to defer because I cannot support it . >>chair: to answer your question commissioner, it applies to everyone but it's a very limited amount of circumstances . So I appreciate listening to the chiefs speak, I did a lot of listening to their concerns because everyone's trying to find a hypothetical where it would apply so if there's a political protest at fiu, we come forth it for free the same as we do now, if there's a PRESIDENT To miami shores we come for free the same as we do now. If we need air support because were chasing somebody you don't charge you for it, we just give you the air support. If we use your canines we come with canines. Everyone's trying to find these mythical hypotheticals to actually justify something that's a very limited circumstance and addresses a limited circumstance. And while I appreciate the money at all the cities including mine contribute to the county's general fund let me say all of your cities especially miami beach and if it from being part of a larger union. I'm pretty sure they do. So that argument is well taken but it can be very easily made for hialeah, miami, miami gardens. Because we put our money together when we do things area this doesn't address 90% of the stuff that probably 95% of the stock mutual aid addresses. It doesn't any of that. It speaks to a very limited circumstance . When you are calling us in and listen, miami beach can choose not to invoke mutual aid. They can choose to lockdown all the streets and bridges going into the bridge for a week at a time. With their officers. But if they're using county officers it is obscene to think that we would pay for that position. I doesn't take money out of officers pockets. That's the first time I had heard that but it doesn't take money out of officers pockets. Commissioner garcia . >>senator garcia: thank you MR. CHAIRMAN and I'm glad you mentioned municipalities because we forget that municipalities contribute to the general budget we have. And receive less services so I think the way I look at this is we are still contributing and still paying for services when we invoke these mutual aid as it relates to the monies that go into the coffers of miami dade county so I'm not taking the rest of the county and umpsa are subsidizing these services. That's one thing we need to take into consideration. One of the things I look at is especially now that we had that complete breakdown in leadership operation in reference to cova america, I'm sure we have agreements or we're working with local law enforcement at that time area we put forward are we going to be enforcing law enforcement as well, that's one of the questions . >>chair: I love to answer that center, no and it doesn't affect any of that. That's exactly the point. Your question highlights the point so I met with the chiefs and I saw the way it was written. We narrowed the document so it doesn't affect that. It wouldn't affect them calling us and by the way the chiefs also said they wanted the indemnification to be reciprocal so in the new item we make the indemnification reciprocal so in this limited set of events if we invoke mutual aid we indemnify your officers because they're not asking for anything that I'm not offering and willing to give then I would add this to your other concern that her ad listen, everybody can vote against this or vote for it. But when we talked about this initially I said I would bring back an item that address the problem, this item addresses the problem and if the item fails be prepared for the budget deficit to be bigger next year because now by way of example we said we pay for these type of events. We are saying we pay for these type of events, that's what we're going to say so what happened in cobol america wouldn't have been addressed at all, nothing would have changed. They come for free if you're planning for us to be there and it's your operational plan for us to provide policing then you should be paying for it. >> I appreciate that MR. CHAIRMAN but to commissioner steinberg's point on preplanned events we have to pick and choose who is going to be making a decision that falls within this definition, that's one of the concerns I have and the liability issue was another important one but MR. CHAIRMAN I think we're getting into an area where were talking about budgets and we're talking about numbers. I know for a fact board members here have asked for the use of free police services so I think that should be incorporated as well. How much services are we asking for and we're blaming municipalities now, maybe that should be coming out of our budget where we ask for the use of laminated police officers for the events that we have. So if we're going to be asking municipalities for something we should be willing to put our money where our mouth is and let us pay for the same services because it is putting a hole in our budget, use of sergeants is putting a hole in our budget so we have to take that into consideration because it's not fair to single out municipalities when police officers, we have a great working relationship. What the fear that I have is we're going to start pitting agencies against agencies and are we not going to request for mutual aid because maybe this is going to be our cost and put a hole in smaller municipalities and we have a bigger issue these are the issues I think that need to be resolved. I do thank you MR. CHAIRMAN for the amendments you brought forward and now after you had your conversation with them but this needs a little more vetting and need more compromise, more negotiations with our law enforcement agencies that we have here and I also think and I appreciate you saying this as a 30 day out but we do have a sheriff that's getting on board. This is going to be a function of that new sheriff to work on a mutual aid agreement with all the municipalities because from now till DECEMBER whatever this new sheriff comes in, you're going to put a bullet on our agencies for a couple of months so the reality is I think there's still some issues with this and I too will be voting no, voting yes on the deferral, I just can't support this the way it is right now. >>commissioner regalado: we have emotion is second on the deferral. >> thank you, commissioner cohen higgins and commissioner hardemon. >>commissioner cohen higgins: I'm listening closely to the conversation on this item as well and I have to say I agree with our CHAIRMAN 100% in principle and what I mean by that is we should be cognizant of who is utilizing our police force in miami dade county for large items and the strain that will be placing on our budget and I think that's something we need to take into consideration but when I look at that and balance it against what this had the impact of doing in practice , it gives me great concern and I received a letter from the miami-dade association of chiefs of police that says miami-dade county's municipal police departments share camaraderie and sense of teamwork that is the envy of other jurisdictions and goes on to say why is this happening now, what are these terms, why hasn't there been more discussion with us so that we can come to a mutual agreeable agreement. It gives me pause and consternation. Those are our law officers of miami-dade and what I don't want in practice, what concerns me greatly is that they don't call on miami-dade dd to assist either because they think they can't afford it or because they think they will be penalized in some way, even if it's for a large ellen terry event. What I don't want is for them not to call us. It is a testament to how amazing our miami-dade county police department is. It is a testament to the camaraderie we've built in miami date county not just among our law enforcement officers but with our community as well. We have sat on this day us, there are times when crime has spiked up and we jumped into action immediately to put measures in place to bring a quell to what could have become a situation that came out of control and so what I don't want is our community to attend large voluntary events and there's a lower or less of a presence of law enforcement because one of our small municipalities like they can't afford it. So when I look at our budget and we're going to look at that closely coming up in short order , we had an overtime budget allocation for miami-dade pd alone in excess of maybe $40 million. I don't know what the number is, somebody can correct me on it but it was a large number that were going to have to tackle this year and moving forward if it's a one million-dollar expense or are municipalities to use our law enforcement officers for large voluntary events, I'm sure we can figure out a way to make that work is agreeable to our municipalities, this board and our miami-dade pd. I think the number is not large enough to the point where it justifies a item that is bringing this much angst and this much consternation among law enforcement community so while I understand it's tone, it's tender and it intent and I agree with it I think the practice should be a more comprehensive and inclusive conversation with our law enforcement community to see if we can't come to terms that are agreeable to everyone. Again, keeping in mind primarily the public safety of our residents in miami-dade county, making sure that we always have a sufficient police presence at these large events because as we know they are only continuing to increase. They're not slowing down, they're only ramping up and I don't want to send a message publicly that we are scaling back law enforcement at any of these events, thank you MR. CHAIRMAN. >>chair: I have a question about that because $1 million is just $1 million but that's just in miami beach. Can we give all our municipalities $1 million for all of our municipalities are million dollars for major voluntary preplanned events? Okay, then we have an actual resolution we can agree on. You want to, I would move this item if someone would make a motion to allocate for every voluntary event that in this agreement are million dollars for every municipality. Of in-kind services. Because if were going to do for miami beach why would we be doing it for everybody else? The argument that it's just $1 million is just in one city. It's just in one city. We do major events, listen. You have to be able to aggregate out and so I appreciate the working relationship, I appreciated it when I was the mayor of miami-dade gardens, I appreciate the working relationship with all the departments. I work with them, I represented police officers, that was my former life. I don't, at this as a novice. I'm saying the mutual aid agreement wasn't meant to do what they're doing with it. It just wasn't meant to do that, commissioner hardemon. >>commissioner hardemon: I agree with you but I would recognize the motion on the floor is for deferral and considering the motion is for deferral I will let you know I support it on the floor though that we can talk about the details of this resolution and I think that's the most important thing about it. Mayor of miami beach stephen greiner sent a letter to all of us and in the letter he says that he continues to extend and and offer an olive branch to our partners in the county. He extends an olive branch but he sends the police. >>chair: and he talked a bunch of mess and the rest of the email that you didn't read. That would be the other problem that wasn't an olive branch but I saw it as a rent to someone who was emotional and I ignored . >> I mentioned this to you because in effect what this language is about is about fiscal responsibility. It's about deciding as a, we are the caretakers of the budget of miami-dade county and we have a responsibility, a prudent responsibility to ensure diligently so what's happening here today is that we are extending the blank check effectively to all our municipalities. And I don't think that is fiscally responsible. That's why I can see where MR. CHAIRMAN says if you want to say $1 million to everyone let's do that because at least then we will be setting the tone. We create a budget, establish this is how much money it will be instead of issuing blank checks to everyone so the one thing that saddens me about this discussion is we're talking about the safety of our residents. The safety of our residents should never be in question. Somebody pays for policing so when the CHAIRMAN Says we're sending police officers no matter what that because it is true, that's what we do and you have major events like I'll give you an example of a major event, old truck is a major event that happens in miami, do you know who pays for that? Ultra does. The people who stand to benefit from the people coming. The city of miami has expenses someone so all these things remain true but the issue that miami beach for instance has is that miami beach doesn't allow people to program during these specific high programming times for high impact times so when you don't allow people to program you can't pass the cost on to them . Miami beach is creating an issue for itself with this so this is about politics, not about policing. Policing is something every single one of us deserves, we deserve policing. I am the child of a plice officer. My mother retired from the miami police department. Six people from my family served in law enforcement, only one female and that was my mother so I believe in policing . We have family members in corrections, we are a family of public servants and we believe in the order and law that it brings to communities. However when you try to use police officers as a red herring and bad politics, that's the problem. So I think that it's there for us to have this discussion fully and give people an opportunity, the time and opportunity to digest the information this resolution brings about because right now it's being presented as if we are trying to make our communities less safe instead of it being the truthful conversation about we are trying to budget for our communities responsibly. And at the end of the day miami beach if it wants to make budgetary decisions they can do that with their money. Anytime MR. Senator anytime we use policing for our communities or when we as elected officials use policing we pay for it, someone pays for it. It comes out of our budget and we are the policymakers making the budgetary decisions for our budget. So when someone else makes the budgetary decision for you, and they continue to do it again and again they can find themselves out of whack and miami-dade county does not have the financial resources to write blank checks to every one of our municipalities. We have to be fiscally rsponsible, it's the right thing to do and it makes sense. >>chair: commissioner gonzales and then commissioner bermudez. >>commissioner gonzalez: when I first read the item as it was written prior to the amendment , I was hesitant. I was very hesitant because obviously I think it goes without saying public safety is the most important aspect of any society and any empire will fall if public safety is not readily available for all its residents area however after the amendment which I do want to commend the CHAIRMAN Because the amendment is pointing to preplanned voluntary major events. Preplanned voluntary major events where we know that this is going to be done ahead of time. And then that brings me, I'm sorry but it does make me think that perhaps folks should have to at least plan how their fair share is going to be paid . At the end of the day, the fiscally responsible thing here is to make sure that everybody is paying and contributing towards what they are receiving. It makes me think a lot about nato. Everybody needs to be able to pay. At the same time the difficulty here is as commissioner chen higgins rightfully mentioned, I don't want to have a situation where where folks don't call miami-dade cause miami-dade is always going to respond. The german has clarified miami-dade will respond should there be an emergency, should there be something like what happened in the stadium. Now, being stuck between a rock and a hard place right now is I need to know, I need to know candidates simply from miami beach up here, is there anybody present from the city of miami beach that can respond? >>chair: you have an assistant city manager, commissioner and the police chief that I recognized, I'm sure there are other people from miami beach class wayne jones, police chief city of miami-dade. Thank you chief. And I know how much you care about public safety. Everybody on this dais cares about public safety not only about the public safety but about our officers safety so can you explain how this would affect the city of miami beach should this move forward, specifically I want to pinpoint one specific I guess preplanned event that will always have an end of that spring break, how would this affect spring break? >> I'll say this, the reason we had such success for spring break this year unlike any year in the past is because of the contributions made by miami dade police. It simply said we could not do it without them. Just couldn't do it without them. So to not have them there because of an expense would be detrimental to policing of miami beach and the surrounding areas. >>chair: commissioner, can I ask a question? Because we're not saying you do without us, and this is why I pointed out an assistant city manager and commissioner were there because we are saying you can still do it with us you should have to reimburse us or the officers. So this is really, the real question and we can defer the item. Deferring the item is not an issue. The reason I didn't want to do for the item is because if we pass this item after they set their millage it's patently unfair because they can't budget for it. And that's what they're going to say. As they stand there and ask for a deferral what they're going to say is we've already passed our budget so it can go into effect. As long as they understand that they are on notice that this is coming and they need to contemplate it because you made a good point commissioner and you made a good point, you all did a great job controlling crime during spring break but it went from $300,000-$800,000 and that's just to date. What I'm saying is we can't afford that type of escalation. That's all I'm saying. If they're going to be on notice that they're going to have to pay, that's fine but I know how this works. It's delay, delay. We can't do it and let me correct something also. i've heard a lot that your cities send money to the county, your cities don't send money. Your residents do. Residents pay property taxes. And we serve the residents who live in our greater community so just to be clear miami beach doesn't pay property taxes to us, the residents of miami do. The residents do. It's not the money, the province of the chiefs or there often bosses. It's the people. You are recognized, commissioner . >> I think those are terrific points. As a matter of fact I did want to see if we had a city manager here from city of miami beach because I do think it would be pertinent to do for this item. It would be I think in everybody's best interest to do for this item and I think perhaps my colleagues would agree if we can have somebody from miami beach recognize that this will be deferred so that more conversations can be had and everybody can come to the table but they would recognize that there's a possibility that in the future in the very near future hopefully at the next agenda this could pass an effective millage, I would be highly in favor of a deferral. >> good morning honorable CHAIRMAN, vice chair , mayor, county attorney, raquel williams, interim city manager . Thank you for the opportunity to speak. We have had an opportunity through the dade chiefs association to review some of the concerns of the collective group as relates to all of our municipalities including the city of miami beach area and we are extremely appreciative of the support this body and the mayors administration has provided the city of miami beach during high impact period including spring break and memorial day weekend. We do not take lightly the concerns shared by the sponsor . We are humbly and respectfully asking for a deferral to have an opportunity to review the language to express the concerns that we have and to be able to negotiate appropriately because this is something that should not be rushed. We want to take the due diligence and take the opportunity to communicate with all of our elected officials as well as with this body to ensure the agreement is negotiated as appropriate and is fair to the city of miami beach as well as all the other municipalities. >> thank you city manager , thank you MADAM City manager, I appreciate your comments. I see the passion that you have. I am in favor of a deferral. I think they are also in favor of a deferral what