COUNCIL MEETING

>> It's never happened but that's what makes democracy in our country and we can agree to disagree but respectively so is there anything on the agenda order of business Mr. City Manager, City Attorney, Clerk. >> No, sir. >> None from the Council we will move forward and one last thing if you want to speak fill out a form and so I am now going to call up those who are registered to speak and I will start with genesis and if you could please state your name and address for the record before you start speaking. >> Hi everyone. My name is genesis and my address is southwest 31st avenue just moved there. Thank you everyone for allowing me to speak today. I am actually here because I love Miami and I want our residents to live longer healthier lives. I was raised in Havana and went to school there and now the representative for the American Cancer Society and I would like to invite you to the October 6 event at 7:00 p.m. in the Miami headquarters. I know Vice Mayor and Mayor you already sent in your responses. I really appreciate that and I want to make sure that the rest of my Councilmembers saw my invite and able to check their calendars to attend. The American Cancer Society over the past 100 years invested $5 billion into cancer research and we have a goal of reducing Mo tarty and we're making progress towards the goal and at 31% and we had the same things because of COVID and saw increase in cancer screenings throughout the nation and in Miami and Florida it's dangerous because the Hispanic and black and indigenous communities have higher rates and increased mortality because of the diagnosis and make sure everyone is screened and access to the resources they need and please join me October 6 at 7:00 p.m. in the Miami headquarters. I have some invites here if I may given to the Clerk. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. If you can give them to the Clerk she will distribute them. Thank you very much. Welcome back. Juan. >> Good morning Mayor. Good morning Council. My name is Juan. Southwest 118th place. I am very proud to be here today. Thank you for the time. I am a local businessman, and work in solar energy but I'm not here to talk about that today but here to talk about something I am passionate about which is the festival [INAUDIBLE] and organize is in Doral and I'm the founder as well and a dedication to protect the music and every year we carry out the event here and this here we invited the City Council to be part of this invert and embrace it and support it. It involves the entire community and businesses and sister cities as well. We were told there's no budget for this kind of event this year which is understandable you know timeframe. We did start this very early on and our ask or request is to see if there's a possibility to reconsider this decision to possibly help out with some of the fees in the parks of the we carry out this event every year in Doral. We want to keep it here. I think it's a great event for the community and the local businesses. Again we also want some guidance how do we convey the message and portray ourselves better for the future and also for next year's consideration. Again thank you for the opportunity and thank you for the time to speak. >> Thank you Juan. Ricky. [speaking Spanish] >> Before you start -- [speaking Spanish] >> Okay. [speaking Spanish] I live at 250 Northwest [INAUDIBLE] second court Doral, Florida [speaking Spanish] my name is Ricky [speaking Spanish] she's an instructor [speaking Spanish] she's 20 years experience [speaking Spanish] created the foundation [INAUDIBLE] [speaking Spanish] she had a disability at 15 years old [speaking Spanish] she wants to provide services special needs community [speaking Spanish] that are in wheelchairs because she was in those same shoes [speaking Spanish] she wants to let the Council know -- [speaking Spanish] she's asking for an event to combine the regular kids with the kids from her foundation [speaking Spanish] that she has been able to pay for the therapy for those kids [speaking Spanish] and she's the only foundation in the State of Florida that provides the three kinds of therapies [speaking Spanish] and does it with her soul [speaking Spanish] she's asking for help to e night the regular community with the special needs community to do an event on October 8 so everybody to meet the special kids. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. [speaking Spanish] Richard. >> Good morning Council. Richard, 4768 Northwest 114th Avenue. This is from Deuteronomy. Moses said to Israel all the words that Lord commanded him "I have sit before you life and prosperity death and disparity and I am commanding you to love the Lord your God walking in the ways and observing his commandments to create the Ordinance and then you should live and be numerous and the Lord shall bless you in the land you are to process but if your heart turns away and you do not hear but lead astray to bow down to other Gods like money and serve them I declare to you today that you shall perish. You shall not live long in the land you're crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death blessing and curses" curses -- did you hear that word? Choose life so you and descend apts may life loving the Lord your God a bay him and hold fast to him for that means life to you and length of days so that you may life in the land that Lord swear to give to your ancestors to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Now I'm going to call the roll for all the people running for office. Let's start with seat one. If you're here raise your hand please. Susie Castillo. Is she here today. Frank Thomas, Carlos [INAUDIBLE] Raphael Panetta. Any of those people here today? Okay. Council seat two. Question vet absent I am sure. Maureen. Never seen her. Juan Manuel Suki. Absent. Council seat four. >> Juan Cabral you're here. -- (paused). Pete Cabrera is here. [INAUDIBLE] never seen him at a meeting either. He's always absent of what I would like to sum it up is our laws of this country are based on this the Bible. 30 seconds please. Then I will get out of your hair. This is from the declaration of independence. I thought it was appropriate. Most people have never read the constitution. This is the Declaration of Independence. "thus the cardinal moral truths are these that are men are created equal that they're endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving just powers from the consent of the government so like I everybody needs to follow the constitution. Sometimes we forget and we don't follow the constitution we have nothing in this country, absolutely nothing. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Is there anybody else that would like to speak at this time during the general public comment portion? Okay. Would you like to speak? >> [Off Mic]. >> Okay. So at this point -- >> [Off Mic]. >> Thank you. So at this point we will close the general public comment portion [GAVEL] >> And move on with our agenda. Madam Clerk I'm going to turn this over to you. >> The next item is the Consent Agenda all items on section six. >> Okay. The Chair -- >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion to approve Councilwoman Mariaca. All in favor. >> Ayes. >> Any nays? >> Let the record reflect moved. >> Second. >> Move d and seconded. All those in favor aye? >> Aye. >> Any nays? Are there any nays? No. Then Madam Clerk let the record reflect it's unanimous. Next item Madam Clerk. >> 8A presentations. Keep Doral Beautiful business award. >> I believe Danny is doing the presentation today. >> Good morning Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the Council, Mr. Manager, Mr. Attorney, Madam Clerk. I am the assistant code compliant Director. This month we're pleased to recognize SL ramma international for the outstanding commitment to keeping Doral beautiful. The property they're Rex side 105 [INAUDIBLE] they of in Doral since 1984. The property is approximately 22,000 square feet and has nine employees. Established in 1985 they're an import export company on the list of top suppliers in the United States and also listed in the trade India's list of verified sellers. Some of the recent improvements include repainting the entire building, resurfacing and striping the parking lot and maintenance of the landscape. It's with great pleasure that we recommend them for the Keep Doral Beautiful business award for the continued efforts to keep Doral beautiful. Mr. Mayor, Council, President of the company the President is here to accept the award. >> Okay. Do you want to come on up? You don't have to say anything unless you want to and it's up to you and then we'll call you up to give the award. >> Mr. Mayor I have to complete you of running the city so beautiful and I have been here since 1985 and not one incident to say you're not doing good. You're keeping it beautiful, safe and the growth I don't think I have seen the growth in any other city so thank you all for doing your job and thank you. >> [Off Mic]. [Laughter] >> She's saying -- >> [Off Mic]. >> No, because we have lug an sale company too and besides import export and she's saying you have to mention that. >> Well, you have the opportunity. >> [Off Mic]. >> It's on us. >> [Off Mic]. >> Yeah, this is my second. When I got in 2012 Mr. Mayor you were the Mayor at that time. At that time I asked only one question if anybody is older than me in Doral since 1984 please raise your hand and nobody raised their hand. >> Thank you so much. This program means a lot to us because it's indicative of the business that make the city successful and we appreciate your business even before we were a city and beautify the city and come on up and let's give you the award official. Thank you again for the kind words and your business for winning the second time and being part of our community and the special program. Okay Madam Clerk next item. >> 8B presentation by Human Resources and payroll internal audit. >> Okay. Who is going to pay us on this? Mr. Manager or turn it over right away without you saying a word? >> Mr. Mayor and Council Crowe has done -- they have been doing evaluations for us on all the departments and this report is going to be for our human resource and payroll internal audit. Welcome. >> Good morning thank you. Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilmembers and staff. Thank you so much. Michelle blackstock and we have the pleasure of serving as the payroll internal audit for the city. Today we will give our report on Human Resources and payroll. Specifically our objective was procedures and see if the departments are performing the core responsibilities in accordance with the policies and procedures those departments related to specific Human Resources and payroll functions and determine if improvements could be made in those areas. The detail of the procedures are very lengthy and they start on page four of the report that I believe you all have. I wasn't going to cover those in detail now. This is high level overview for you today of the focus of our internal audit related to functions determinations and new hires and on boarding, pay rate changes, personnel files and safeguarding of that information, insurance and benefits, FMLA leave of absence, payroll accuracy and PTO accrual. When we look at our opportunities that we present to you we base this on a risk approach. Assign a risk related to the opportunities for improvement and evaluation based on the significance of the item as well as the likelihood of that item occurring. So the higher those are the higher the risk that gets assigned to it. Very quickly the summary our procedures found five opportunities for improvements, two which rated as high risk, one moderate and one low risk. I will go over the high risk and on the moderate risk of the first item had to do with terminations and our check list. Specifically we noted the following President termination check list is signed off by the preparer and reviewed by another HR employee however there is no evidence of that second review being performed. And then for six of the 10 terminated employees that we tested not all of the necessary signatures were obtained on the equipment return form so when an employee leaves there is a form for passes or personal protective equipment and things like that. We recommend the list is reviewed by another HR employee and ensure all the steps are completed correctly and all necessary documents are scanned and we recommend in instances where the employee is not able to get all the required signatures on the equipment return form that the HR Department take over that responsibility. The response from management and their action plan. They have actually updated the new hire check list as follows. There's a area for second sign off added and a legend created to explain how the check list must be handled by the HR members. Our next high risk opportunity for improvement had to do with time cards. And this had to do with the city's policy that all salaries and hourly employees time cards must be improved by both the employee and the approver or Supervisor for each pay period so we noted the following during the testing. All 20 time cards reviewed didn't have evidence of the employee's review and approval and nine of the 20 cards reviewed didn't have the District Supervisor's approval. We just recommend that all time cards are signed by the employee and also their District Supervisor per the city's policy. Management's response was that the version of the time keeping system that was currently in use did not allow dual improving of those time cards and 2022 the department implemented AE-Com time keeping and allowed for the dual approval process and that is in place now. The next were the two moderate opportunities and first with FMLA acknowledgment. We recommend that documentation to acknowledge the hours used and then the remaining hours be presented to that employee when they return from work and we did not find documentation or not given that documentation. So management plan and response is they have updated our check list to reflect that all employees will see a copy the calendar outline and the hours used. The internal office now which is a physical copy and that the this will be provided to the employee via sealed envelope marked as confidential. The next item was surrounding pay rate changes and we noted one out of 20 approved to take effect on October 1, 2020. It didn't go into effect until July 1, 2021 as the signatures were not completed timely and management's response is the employee evaluation wasn't completed in a timely manner by the Supervisor and this was outside of their specific control. However, it was received in July 2021 and the evaluation was immediately processed for those changes. And they also decided that it was important to send out reminders to all Supervisors two months in advance of any of those due dates to help facilitate the timely filing of that. I wanted to take the time and just thank the departments for their professionalism and their assistance as always. How they take -- all of these matters and opportunities for improvement very seriously to better serve the city. If there's any questions anyone might have? >> I do. >> For Michelle. >> This audit was 2021 processes. >> It was 21-22. >> Until when 2022? >> Sampling went back a little further. >> How far back to 2022 we know? >> I believe we were finishing up in early 2022. >> Okay. >> I believe there was staffing changes and because of COVID it -- (INAUDIBLE) >> I know the administration has implemented a lot of changes and just wanted to make sure it was before that. Thank you so much. >> Any other questions? I have a couple of questions. Number one and thanks for I think you mentioned it was early 2022 through April so I understand that and I am glad that some changes were made subsequent to that, but a couple of questions. At any point did you look into the supervisory role of elected officials over the legislative aides and the requirement of proper timing? And also for any other Charter officials or was that beyond the purview of what you looked at? >> I believe some of the forms that we reviewed incorporated all of the individuals when we were testing, so we looked at it in that respect from the policies and procedures. Specifically if we selected any of those individuals? I don't know that from memory but we do look at the populations of all terminated employees, all new hires and in general as well as pulling the personnel files. >> Okay. I guess the other question I have is the changes to the termination record which I think are great because that way you have clarity and double sign off when someone either leaves or gets terminated. How long do you suggest that those records be kept? Because one of the issues I have no offense to the world's greatest Clerk the maintenance of the records is very important for two reasons. The city can always face some legal action from someone and you know there's a statute of limitations but if the records are not around of that that puts us in a difficult position. Is there any recommendation you have how long these records should be maintained? >> I believe the minimum is seven years and I think your point is very valid. I know I have someone they work with and they always say if it's not documented it's not done, and I think the hard part is especially with this situation with terminations is electronic. We've gone to such an electronic age so it's hard to be able to catch like Emails and things that we're sending out to document those things but it's important to keep all the records and in the personnel files and my suggestion would be at least a minimum of seven years. >> A minimum of seven years? >> Yes. >> Okay thank you. Any other questions? If not Michelle thank you so much for your work and thank you for helping us move along and thank you to the administration and the new Human Resource Director to implement some of the steps along with management. Madam Clerk next item. >> 8C AE-Com a report on projects. >> So he left his office and now come up here to give us the report. >> Good morning Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, Councilmembers, City Attorney, City Manager and City Clerk. My name is George Garcia with AE-Com Project Manager for the bonds program. I am give the quarterly report for 2022. We didn't have one last so I will do quarter one and quarter two and I will try to go through it as swiftly as possible. Let me know if I am going too fast or if you have questions. Okay. Starting off with cultural arts center in quarter one January through March these are some of the milestones and air chillers were installed and elevator were the maintenance milestone. I have a couple of photos there. And moving on to white course park. In quarter one playground equipment was installed. The fitness equipment was installed and the parking pavilions parking and landscaping majority of landing work was completed in the first quarter. Again we have some photos there. Moving on to Central Park. In the first quarter of this year all phases of the project master permits were issued by all authorities have jurisdiction. The final budget was established for the park as well and there's some other couple milestones on there. Got a couple of photos here. This is January through March. Trails lighting milestones. Light pole installation began and the build out of the IT room completed in the first quarter and light poles along the path and trails were also installed. I have a couple photos there of that work. Okay. So for trails network the contract was issued and the bike paths' work was completed. This was relatively short operation but definitely a nice add to the community. I can name a couple of the streets. I don't know if you're familiar and [INAUDIBLE] fourth and 88th Street and 112th Avenue. So finally the pedestrian bridge the Construction Manager was received and contractor selected and [INAUDIBLE] and those parks are substantially completed at this point minus [INAUDIBLE] on the levy. Any questions on quarter one? >> Any questions for quarter one? No. Let's move on. >> Moving to quarter two and starting off with the cultural arts center rough [INAUDIBLE] work was completed and exterior work was completed as well as paint. Interior finish work started and other work commenced and a couple of milestones for that project there and here's some photos. Okay. Moving on to white course park. In the second quarter we achieved the substantial completion and had the ribbon cutting ceremony. Water meters were installed and the majority of the subpermits were closed with [INAUDIBLE] and the ribbon cutting. Some photos there. Better photos there. So moving on to Central Park it's starting to ramp up in the second quarter. Several underground infrastructure work commenced which included the water mains and the sewer mains and the laterals and the GNP schedule was established by the contractor and release the scopes of work to the low bidders. Some photos of that work in Central Park. Okay. So trails and tails, lighting of the trails. Completed all conduit installation, IT room was also completed and most of the permits are closed at this stage. All sod was replaced. Some photos of that park. And then for the pedestrian bridge the bids were submitted and short listed. Meadow park is complete and [INAUDIBLE] and levy is also completed. Any questions on quarter two? >> Questions on quarter two? >> So moving on so this is current and planned work this. Essentially covers quarter three which we're in right now the end of September end of quarter three. These are some expectations ongoing work and things that have already been completed and the [INAUDIBLE] meter is completed, testing is completed, carpet install and elevator installation. Majority of these have been completed and the TCO scheduled for the 23rd. Central Park. We have turn over ANB issued for the phase and the release the majority of the east side and the amphitheatre and playgrounds for the children and we can continue with the underground infrastructure civil work and laterals. And then moving to trails and tails. There's minor pending work but this work has been substantially completed, IT infrastructure and finishes. And then Doral white course park. There's minor work to be done there. Again this project has been substantially completed and achieved final certificate of occupancy I think last week. Morgan levy final inspection is completed and personalities are closed. This allows the concessions to open and trails network is it's in the closing document stage. And moving into pedestrian bridge we issued the contract [INAUDIBLE] as well as the NTP and pending execution of that contract. So this is the general overview of the projects on the program. It also shows substantial completion and projected close out dates as well as when they were completed if they are. And this is the budget summary for the entire program. We are roughly 18% complete with the parks bond program. And that is all. Any questions? >> Questions? Comments? Concerns? I have one comment. >> I have just one comment. First of all I appreciate it. I also wanted to thank the manager for adding a little more information to our report which is is great so residents are aware where we stand but I appreciate doing the re-caps because a lot of people seem to think this park bond is about one project only and it isn't and seeing all the projects and having that completed sign next to them is great because we're moving along. The smaller projects have been completed and only a few left. I still like call it [INAUDIBLE] sorry Mayor and Central Park is the one we're looking forward to and great to see the cultural arts center coming up soon and everything done and thank you so much for the work and thank you Mr. Manager for overseeing this and this is about team work so thank you. >> Thank you. >> I have a question and a comment. The question is so we're going to substantially complete but we expect to open the cultural facility early in October, correct? >> Yes that's correct >> And the comment is I do want to thank and reiterate what Councilwoman Mariaca said and thank the administration and thank you and our public information office. I think the videos are good about Doral Central Park because there's a tremendous misunderstanding not understanding the amount of work that needs to be done to elevate the park to get all the underground work done so we can build the first public aquatic facility by a municipality in Dade County in almost half a century and the other things and the amphitheater. We could go down the list and I think the videos are good and important to get the videos out and thank you for your part in making some of these contractors and subcontractors available to speak to present in layman's term all the work being done and a tremendous misunderstanding that a project of this size will get done in I very short period of time and it's election season so somebody is going to try to give their own version of the events and it's important that you know what is going on get the information out and thank you for the work on that. Thanks for coming down from your office too. >> Thank you everybody. >> Thanks. Okay. Madam Clerk next item. >> Item next 8D Planning and Zoning Department re-cap presentation. >> Okay. I thought you guys gave one of these recently or was that during the budget? It was the budget. Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. >> [Off Mic]. >> You're fine. You're fine. >> Good morning Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmembers, Mr. City Attorney, Mr. Manager, Madam Clerk and the public. We did provide a re-cap presentation at the budget workshop so some of these things are probably fresh on your mind and we'll try to be brief. My name is Javier Gonzales alongside the economic developer to provide you with the presentation for the department. Our Mission Statement is to a solution oriented organization that provides quality municipal planning services in an efficient and cost effective manner consistent with the requirements of the City's Comprehensive Plan Land Development Code and with the utmost respect of the residents that we represent and serve. Our function -- key functions are to update and implement the City's Comprehensive Plan to promote the health, safety general welfare and quality of life in the city. We administer the city's Land Development Code to ensure compliance with all properties within city limits. We manage economic development strategies including business education, grants, promotions, sister city programs and other efforts for investment and improvement. We manage the local tax receipts for businesses and the yearly renewal process and we oversee the public arts program to integrate art into public spaces, create a sense of place and promote the local economy. This is an image reflecting the organizational chart. This year we added a position titled business Outreach Coordinator that has been a tremendous addition to the Economic Development Division and they have been able to do a lot more. The one planner position was currently open during the budget re-cap. That person is currently in the background process with HR. Hopefully by October we will be fully staffed. This is a general overview of the city. Currently there's a population of 81,182. 165 acres of parks 23 schools and the city roads and we have a bike network and by 2030 we're projecting the increased population, park level service of 297 acres, schools. That number is to be determined. Miami Dade County Is responsible for the facility school plans for a five year period. 265-miles of city roads and an additional 21 miles of bike way network. So the key performance indicators starting at the top left with local business tax receipts. We have currently registered 7230 businesses. We have added a quick BTR payment feature online which is convenient for the businesses with their invoice number they pay and it's extremely fast and effective. On the bottom we have processed 107 zoning letters, 48 other vent, seven window applications and 10 outdoor dining applications and site plans. We're currently averaging on the site plan about 15 days to complete the review and comments to the applicant. To the right we have presented to you 85 presenting and zoning jurisprudence throughout the year, reviewed these permits and including building and zoning permits and averaging less than six days for the review of those permits. We have completed [INAUDIBLE] zoning inspections and assisted total walk in customers of 3760. Now moving on to accomplishments this year we have processed five amendments to the City's Comprehensive Plan. One was creating the property rights element a requirement of Florida statutes. Two amend the tax for the Doral Comprehensive Plan land use category to establish clear guidelines and eliminate conflicting policies that were in the plan. Three, we amended the Future Land Use Map to rename the district consistent with the current name and updated the capital improvement elements for the city for 2022 and processed one small scale Land Use Amendment. Continuing with the accomplishments we have completed seven amendments to the city's code including home base business regulations, city alcohol beverage regulations with the help of the City Attorney's Office, the billboard reduction incentive program throughout the district, land Code Amendment, regulations were all over the code. We have it in one chapter now. We created an over lay on the zoning map so residents and developers and other stakeholders can see the boundaries of the district. We have updated the artificial turf regulation and currently in the process of updating special events. Seconded reading is coming up and [INAUDIBLE] and one item not on the list we're presenting on the 28th the city's family driving regulations and recommending modifications to that section of the code. As for next year we have a Doral Street Beautification Master Plan that. is going to take place from Palm Meadow to 93rd Court. We completing the landscaping -- update to the landing regulations of the code and any recommendations based on the Doral Boulevard Street Beautification Master Plan. We're planning to amend the code based on that. as far as land development regulations we're updating Chapter 80 sign regulations and lastly administer the city's art programs for any events, initiatives, anything that we can help in that area and lastly the department will focus on next areas in regard to planning, zoning or licensing of the businesses in that area. Before I turn it I would like to thank the entire Planning and Zoning Department staff. They put a lot of work and they deserve it. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good morning. I am manual economic developer for the city as said. Thank you for the opportunity. For those at home who may not know what economic development is about the Economic Development Division of the Planning and Zoning Department assists with the analysis, the planning and implementation, development of projects relating to economic growth, community development and redevelopment areas in Doral and the division builds relationship with business and government, administers grants and capitalize on opportunities and seeks out new businesses wherever they may be. The Economic Development Division promotes the City of Doral is a business friendly destination and assists businesses interested opening or expanding or relocating to the city. There are many ways we do. We offer orientation of economic data site selection aid and individualized assistance to new businesses as well as helping existing businesses with information, education, grants and promotions, orientation, really whatever they need to grow and thrive. The division generates targeted leads through advertising, media messaging and promotions in close collaboration with public affairs. The actionable leads come from an intelligence network including business organizations,s advisers, partner institution, lenders, realtors and residents and the Mayor and Councilmembers. Accomplishments this year as indicated but bears repeating we integrated and hired a new coordinator into the Economic Development Division and growing by 100% and thank you for the opportunity and thank Nick for hitting ground running. >> (INAUDIBLE) >> Absolutely. It's difficult to move a table if you're one person like we figured out last night. Also the coordinator with the sister city with Dominican Republic and public affairs and see the photograph of that event. Hosted the bipartisan law briefing by the Department of Transportation Office of small business, the Director came down from Washington for that event. We have been participating in the Aspen institute Latino and entrepreneur initiatives and city and learning lab. It's a national six city campaign to have business recovery and Hispanic communities and a group creating a one stop shop for all the economic development organizations in Miami-Dade County where businesses can go and find the information in one place and help orient them. As I said we of working with public affairs to tell the Doral story and tell the good news. We partnered on various media outreach opportunities. Some of the highlights include special sections in invest Miami 2022, the merge America's magazine, [speaking Spanish] had a special section in USA Today and all promote the city's business environment. We have partnered with public affairs on the monthly of the best people's choice promotional campaign features Doral popular features in a variety of categories. We tend to help by reaching out to the businesses in those categories to let them know they should get the people riled up and get to vote to get them to participate. We coordinate with public affairs on the filming of local business profiles which have been a big hit and help expand the participation in the program to include over 175 community discounts offered by businesses full time and a few others that are seasonal. And business education some of the highlights throughout this last year we worked with excellent partners. We did two bilingual events step up your start up workshops. We did four bilingual grow with Google seminars with a Google coach. Another was hiring solutions in the workshop a few months back with Miami career ventures and the Doral college. The business forum in February with the business Council [INAUDIBLE] and enterprise Florida and Goldman Sachs and [INAUDIBLE] was very well attended and I think a very successful event. We did two business workshops with bay side [INAUDIBLE] and platinum solutions and the Florida business development Council and small business summit with [INAUDIBLE], Doral career source and [INAUDIBLE]. Expos and conferences. We were out there at merge Americas conference. Participated in the [INAUDIBLE] institute global leap Symposium as a panelist as long as with the President of world city data. We -- [INAUDIBLE] potential workshop for Aruba and Curacao women entrepreneurs and [INAUDIBLE] conference just yesterday. In business assistance grants we were able to award 157,000 in grants and donations to businesses, non-profit and education institutions in this fiscal year. We were award $50,000 in facade grants and other grants and 72,000 in FTSA grants and donated over 12,000 in school supplies and all of this information is available on a site that gives the public all the information about the grants so it's open and transparent right there on the website. We're also able to publish some great data by working with organizations like FYU, the Beacon Council and worked on data and the Greater American Visitor's Bureau and gather data and have reports and market information to businesses and investors and visitors to show what the events are about, what we have been doing and what is coming up. We produced two quarterly reports in collaboration with public affairs and one last week and give you present copies today and we supported IT to gather data and promote the city's new ISO certifications. In terms of international relations we have hosted business diplomatic and cultural events this year. [INAUDIBLE] Doral and produced with the [INAUDIBLE] foundation and musicians from different countries and -- participated with the Florida trade association with [INAUDIBLE] and all sorts of countries that came here to visit us, Honduras, Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia. Many countries represented here throughout the year. And finally we were able to go out there and spread the good news and support new businesses that were opening their doors. We had a lot of ribbon cuttings, over 30 ribbon cuttings in the last few months and you see some of those events that happened. They're smiling happy people investing in the City of Doral and we thank you all for supporting these businesses, these events. Some upcoming objectives and initiatives. We are looking this next year to complete and publish the five year up economic of the economic study and honoring long time businesses in commemoration of Doral's 20 anniversary. We hope to do that in April and approve the program before you now in an Ordinance to facilitate some temporary retail installations in the city. We want to coordinate a number of collaborative sister city activities throughout the year and we met with all of the sister cities recently and hope to incorporate the new sister city as well and the published web page throughout the district and hope to do it soon for the downtown arts district. We want to put in some of the upcoming improvements on that before we put it out there, and to complete the economic Comprehensive Plan this next year bring it to the public and also bring it to the Council. And thank you for the opportunity. That's a re-cap of this fiscal year with economic development. >> Thank you. Are there any questions? Comments? I have a question. >> [Off Mic]. >> Okay. I have two questions. Any other Council comments? >> [Off Mic]. >> Okay. All right. She's going to hold off the comments until Council comments to give you. I have questions. Number one can I get a copy of your re-cap presentation? >> Absolutely sir. >> Number one. Number two is when you did that total number of parks acreage for the future did you at all look at the potential of that 50 some odd parcel that working on the corner of 107th and the potential other parcel that Lennar has further to the north? >> Not for this year's CIE. Once we have a final determination by the district, the South Florida Water Management District, the 50-acre parcel we can add that and the next four years 2026 parks has estimated of [INAUDIBLE] acres that will be added and the city's level services deficient [INAUDIBLE] and that's not counting private parks. >> I got that. but if you add the least the 50 some odd acre one and the other reserve that Lennar has eventually that's additional 130 some odd acres and passive green space which is still park land. >> The parcel there and the other preserve area [INAUDIBLE] they have submitted it's estimated around 50 acres so those two parks if we can be successful at that conversion that would city the city over exceeding the level of service. >> I proffer that you continue to work on that. I won't be here but as a resident reminding you to do it. The other thing as far as the annexation area obviously you're going to have your hands full because some of the new areas that really have not -- areas that really gone through the process of what we have done over the last 20 years so are you getting ready for that or are you guys ready for that? >> We're ready. As soon as we get the green light we can start the plan and licensing reached out to the county to figure out how many businesses in total are in the areas so we can help strategize in order to reach out to businesses and ensure they're informed and also need one from the City of Doral. >> All right. I suggest you already have yellow light. Anyways and I'm going to ask you -- these are two comments I wanted to make and number one probably your department and building have the toughest jobs just because people don't understand the process. People always complain and sometimes for valid reasons but most of the times they just don't understand the rules, but on the BTRs we had an experience this past year where a whole building didn't have any BTRs. What are we doing? Are you working with code compliance to make sure that doesn't happen again? >> We created a excel spread sheet for all the ones with expired status. We provided the list to code compliance and they visited all the addresses. There were about 2300 businesses and locations they visited and we're currently in the renewal for this year. It's going a lot better. The business owners understand that there's an online system. It's easier for them to pay and I know that next year with the assistance of code we will be able to ensure that the entire city is aware of the business tax receipt from the city perspective because most do obtain a county one but not a city one. >> I can tell you having my law practice in coral gables and does a great job reminding me you need the license and I think over here we sometimes forget it and it's important that you do that and finally the only other comment I would make, and I think you guys do a very good job in your reports when you give it to Council but at some point maybe there should be some information letting people understand what vested property rights are because there's a tremendous assumption especially in that special word called the internet from residents that property rights somehow permanently distinguished and good for people to understand people who own property have rights just like they have property rights on their home so do other people and sometimes when you go through this process there's a lack of understanding of what vested rights are already, and as you move forward my only suggestion to you would be to make sure that when you have a geographic defined area where there's that difficulty understanding what designations are, what vested rights are that you maybe put something on the internet to remind people, put it on the web page I mean to remind people your hands are limited also in what you can do when you make these recommendations, so that would be just a suggestion for the future because that's always been one of the hardest things for people to understand, and I think it continues to be as we grow something that you do a great job by the way. You guys do a great job when you provide reports to Council but I think some sort of explanation that explains what people -- to people what this is in layman's terms by the way, so would be a good thing but thank you anyways to both of you and I think the economic development has gone well and thank you Manny for being at these ribbon cuttings even on Saturday nights and it's important that we continue sending the business the message the reason we have one of the lowest millage rates is because the fact that businesses the balance between industrial, commercial and residential must be maintained because that's the reason the residents benefit so thank you both. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any other comments? Questions? There being none thank you very much. Madam Clerk next item. >> Mayor's report. >> Okay. My report. You all know about the annexation. We're waiting to hear from the county on the documentation. I will turn that over to Louis later if he chooses to speak on that. I'm headed to the final Mayor's Leadership Conference which is here and I'm not going too far exempt driving my car in the next couple of days. I look forward to be there at the final event. The other thing I would tell you we have Mr. Manager I sent you an Email and remind and you staff the best practice for the conference for the Miami-Dade League of Cities which I'm the President again this year is coming up in October. I hope that some of you go. It's the best opportunity -- forget about the elected officials -- to spend time with colleagues from 33 other municipalities in the county to learn about the process. And learn from them and share your ideas and you know exchange ideas and we're back doing it in person which is great, so finally I think one of the legislative aides' birthday is on the 24th. Armondo, where are you? We want you sensitive about these things and happy birthday in anticipation to you so that is my report. >> Council comments. >> Vice Mayor and over to the Council. >> [Off Mic]. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. just two items actually. One of them is for staff so if anybody can get this to me. One of the things we discussed before was expanding the freebie fleets to cover a larger area within our city. I brought it up to staff that Tesla has partnered so we can expand and provide our residents with large network so if anybody can -- I don't know if anybody here can give me a quick update where we're at with that, Mr. Manager and if we're moving forward with that quickly? Everybody is looking at each other. Rita. Thank you. >> Good morning everyone. So yes we're preparing an agenda item for next Council meeting for the extension of that contract for one year term with Teslas to cover a greater area in the city. >> Love it. Thank you so much. Excited for that next meeting. And then the last but certainly not least I want to formally because I know we met but it wasn't a formal Council meeting and I want to congratulate the Commissioner elect. It wasn't easy and we certainly are very happy and I think every resident of the City of Doral should know this because Doral is one of the largest areas and contributors to that district in Miami-Dade County and important for all of us to have great representation. We see what can happen when we don't. We dealt with several issues this past year including [INAUDIBLE] and annexation of medley and I am excited to have a true representative of the residents and businesses in our district. I also wanted to thank the voters and those volunteers in the last election and I think a lot of them realize how important it is to participate and I am very proud that everybody proved it's not about money and it's not about what campaign finances are. It's about really electing true leaders in our community, leaders with experience, integrity and ethics and Mr. Mayor you represent all of that and very called to call your Commissioner soon and thank everybody out there for proving other people wrong. It's about what is right and not what is easy and thank you everybody and I look forward to working with you. >> Thank you and I am not leaving Doral. I am still here. I'm not moving so friend and no, I will see you again. Vice Mayor thank you for the comments. >> Even though we hug each other and we were able to celebrate with him that night. I want to thank the departments for everything they do but I know this month that the Department of public affairs, the economic one, has been working very close with my office being able to host the [INAUDIBLE] and many people came out and also the technology department as well in their report and for us to be able to the only one actually in the nation to have [INAUDIBLE] certification for that and thank you so much and I know you have been working diligently for us to be able to host all the visitors from not just around the nation but international so so thank you so much. Last night was great also when we have actually the chamber -- the President of the chamber from marid and Bolivia that was here and many other business owners that came before the Congress and you represent us and thank you so much for that and to the Office of the City Manager thank you again, and our attorney as well, and our deputy. Thank you so much because I know that as soon as we have issues any resident contact us right away you're on top of trying to find solutions with the hand of the different Directors and the staff. Also for Human Resources thank you so much for assisting you go yesterday for us to be able to have completed our HR all of that that we needed to have and the enrollment again so so thank you so much and I know came to help each of us in the office and thank you Rita and the staff as well and thank you to all of you and the City Clerk as well. >> We don't want to leave Connie out. >> Because when we call right away you answer. Thanks. For any issue we have in the city. >> Any other comments from Council? If there aren't Madam Clerk let's move on. >> City Manager's report. >> Good morning Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers, Madam Clerk, Mr. Attorney. As you know the budget -- the first budget hearing for the Fiscal Year '20 23 took place on September 6, 2022 and the second budget hearing will be held on September 21, 2022 for final approval. At this time I would like to congratulate our IT Department and Gladys in particular that we're recognized by the state tech magazine and listed the City of Doral as one of the 30 local governments and IT presenters to follow in 2022. Gladys is the CEO in Doral and served since 2015 and solutions and managing risk. She over saw the green data center and consolidating and leading the city's initiatives and thank the IT Department and thank her for putting us on the map and May 24, 2021 Mr. Mayor you asked me to take a challenge and come and deal with a little bit of an issue with inter-GOV. I appreciate all your support and the Council's support to try to resolve issues that we've had, the nightmares that the citizens have experienced with the integration of inter-GOV and I wouldn't been able complete and I think we've come a long way but we never did it alone and we teamed up and I think part of leading and managing is being able to identify where and who can help us get where we need to be, so I would wish to yield any further of my time to our partner plant Moran, Christopher, our interGOV consultants to cover our accomplishments since May 2021, where we're at, where we were at back then and where we're at today so I think it's only I yield my time to him so he can go ahead and take the floor and give you some positive news which is always good. >> Still going to get questions despite yielding time. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor, I appreciate your time. Good morning everyone my name is Chris blow and -- [Off Mic]. Plant Moran if you don't know is an audit tax advisory firm and consulting practice within that team. We're the 12th largest in the United States in terms of revenue. My practice which I'm a member has a national technology advisory group. It's through the lens that I am sharing this insight with you because I work with a lot of communities that worked with -- not just interGOV but different land permitting systems that handle code, licensure, renewals of all sorts and receive millions dollars of revenue. I am working with West Palm Beach and Cape Coral and a number of jurisdictions across the country and we're sharing the assessment findings. I want to share the lens which the team is giving you feedback because there's a lot of organizations today that are under taking this effort in different ways and we're going to share with you what the city has done here that I think is very positive to take credit for as well as be aware how we're working with our citizens today. Okay. I have three points to share this morning. The first is I want to demonstrate the commitment that has been under taken for the past year for the city's plan of action that outlined what we were going to do to repair and stabilize the interGOV land management system. The second I wanted to also highlight the team accomplishments representing seven departments, 50 different stakeholders that are using this system in addition to the constituents and they're represented here this morning and have been involved working with us to make sure we have a pulse on the situation and able to make incremental improvements and lastly I wanted share what are some of the things to accelerate the ability to respond to needs in the future? We know that technology is not static. It's dynamic and if we're not integrated today as you found we will be very integrated tomorrow so the tools we turn to expedite business with our constituents is going to be further integrated and we want to get more from them and those read points I want share and when we began this effort we took on the assessment and included the business areas I shared and broken into five steps and first secure the resource commitments not just of the city's team but the partners with Tyler Technologies and I wanted to mention the sponsorship from the City Manager's office as well as the Program Directors made this possible. If you're not aware the folks at Tyler Technologies represented 1.6 billion dollars organization that is a publically traded company and the City Manager has been on the call with two executives of that group weekly for the past 10 months and so the attention from the leadership of Tyler Technologies as well as the commitment of your city team as well as the insights that our plant Moran Consulting Group put forward represented a strong commitment to make this process more effective for everyone involved. Second we committed upgrading to the current release of the solution and as many of you are aware sometimes upgrading an application maybe on the iPhone or on a tablet looks simple but when you do it with a land management system that connects over to 200 business processes you don't do that overnight so we created a process which those integrations can be tested and the impacts to the customer and staff are evaluated before the releases are made and we completed that upgrade to the 2021 release with the intent of going to 22 here in April so you have to be on the modern platform to be supported properly so that's a significant achievement. Third, we planned for the change and those involved today did not represent the vast majority of people involved in the orientation. There was turn over so make sure that the folks participating understood what we were going to accomplish. We set out a plan. We did a number of interviews and to that end we started to execute by securing resources, highly tenured resources to engage and with plant Moran and the project team I am working with and with staff meeting weekly and working with personnel to reconfigure in places and stabilize some of the items and today I will show the changes and I making significant improvements and I will give evidence in a minute and how can we elevate the business level to the community and be responsive? To that end those areas are optimization and it's not just about the technology but the people and process that engage and to that end while we upgraded we know the enhancements involve process, people and technology so a lot of changes we presented go through the different business units represented here reflect their business goals of their customers and the people they serve so we could get those into the system. Of the 39 there are 16 in effect and the balance are put into effect in the next two months so you will see incremental improvements so stay tuned. Third point elevating staff capacity to serve means that the staff's roles within the system involve specific training regimen. I am working with three other communities right now that are implementing this software. Some of the communities experienced turn over like three CIOs and three Project Managers in those years. The turn overs are significant with clients and local government coming out of the recession or the pandemic. And to that effect we want to make sure that the people who are operating the system today have the right training for the role they're in. That way they can use the system in an optimal way and guide the customer to get the answer they need. The fourth element is integrating service delivery. There are seven departments in the room today and no one can make a change without impacting another and -- (please stand by). The public understands through uniform communication that we're getting them the information that they need and if we need to make adjustments we can respond and that's the last part the measurements that demonstrate we're processing information through the system. We're not bypassing it so this is something as a consultant I look for. How many records exist that are not part of the main system that are used? Would you believe I find 20, 30 typically when I walk into a jurisdiction that manages this process and that's probably low. You're working with one system of record tying it together so it's powerful but it takes a commitment to manage and to that end what are weeing managing for? That's a topic I will bring up. These are things that happened within the past six months. Since we've started to institute the changes we thought it would be a good illustration to show where we are today and where we've come from so today as reported earlier we've had 5,000 renewals completed and over 87% are online self service by the citizen and that's significant achievement and so we know that deadline is coming at the end of this month and noted earlier about 7,000 total in the city from last year so we're expecting the numbers to increase further. In terms of Code Enforcement over 4,000 case were opened. Over 14 lien serves were fum filled and same day in most cases and most jurisdictions can barely do three day turn around let alone seven so that's significant achievement N terms of planning and zoning can you see the numbers here in terms of the building permit reviews and zoning only and site plans are pushed through the system and coming through and then in terms of building we've had 4.1 million in fees received to date from March to today. Can you see the inspections but there's an interesting story to share here because a year ago we were looking at turnaround times between 4-6 weeks for initial plan review. Today it's on average of 10, 10 days. That puts you about the same mark as Clearwater Florida that has high standard and Port St. Lucie, some of the larger jurisdictions and you're doing well compared to your peers and they're using the system to do the work that is necessary. We went from 4-6 weeks to 35 day turn arounds to 10 and that's a big testament to the folks leveraging the system doing the work. I want mention the backlogs fallen from 300 to 70 which is significant and that's what is in the queue and keep the 10 day turn around possible and then in terms of Code Enforcement just some of the changes they made to automate the processes and gave them back 60 hours a year. That's one change and we identified other returns put us in the order of several FTEs when you look at efficiency gains by automating certain functions and a commitment to incorporate some of the measures into the Mayor's dashboard and the portal that the city uses so really great resources. (no audio) >> Okay. Very good. Okay. So three points we want to make sure that staff achieves efficiency within 90 days of coming into employment. This is something we will be presenting and the tools will be in place for staff to best serve the customer. Second make sure we enhance technology that driven for success and it's a big deal and the customer is going to so many channels to get information. We need to know which channel to serve them and sometimes it's not the ones you're supporting so that's number two and Number three as continue as you are today the perfo