Meeting Minutes 2.12.19
G.O. Bond Oversight Committee
Meeting Minutes No. 3
February 12, 2019
Page 2 of 22
I. Introductions
Vice-Chair Marie Peter brought the meeting to order. She had everyone introduced themselves.
Everyone in the room introduced themselves.
II. Committee Business & Adoption of Minutes from 1-31-19 Meeting
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said the first thing we were going to go over are the minutes. She noted
that several people sent in revisions and asked if anyone had additions.
Ron Starkman said he had a revision that he sent in and it was not put into the revised minutes.
He said on page 11, in the third paragraph, the second sentence should read “ He said that the
Committee should be worried whether or not there is enough money for the projects because
we are hearing that there really won’t be unless there is a plan to deal with inflation.”
Maria Hernandez said she will post the minutes with the corrections.
MOTION:
Jason Greene made a motion to approve the minutes as amended.
Vice- Chair Marie Peter asked the Committee all in favor. The Members said aye.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter explained that there are five meetings before the workshop on March
4th. She explained that the workshop is five hours long, where the commission will see everything
they have done. She explained the importance of what they are discussing in the meetings and
how they are trying to provide a package to Commission.
Jason Greene asked if we should be going to the workshop.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said that Chair Karen Rivo will be there presenting the package and giving
the advice. She said that she believes that any meeting where you are being represented you
should go to support, because we should stand behind what we are saying tonight, in case there
is a question. She informed the members that we are taking a different approach tonight and she
hopes they all agree. She asked that the members skip a couple of the projects in tranche 2 and
then they will come back to the skipped projects once they are done with tranche 2. Projects 39,
41, 47, and 48 will be skipped. The reason is because there are things in yellow from the first
tranche That we should discuss as a package. She said that Roy Coley was there to help them
with that.
Jason Greene said he had a couple of items that he wanted to distribute for everyone at the table
for light reading so that everyone can see the points he was making. He passed the papers around
the table.
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Vice-Chair Marie Peter reminded the members that there are reasons why some projects are in
tranche 2. She said that the City has about 100 projects that they are working on, not including
the G.O. Bond projects. She began the discussion with project 40, which is the Ocean Drive
improvement project.
III. Implementation Plan ReCap
Maria Hernandez wanted to make sure that everyone received everything they handed out. She
explained that they changed the colors in the spreadsheet; red means they are on “rocket fuel”.
She said that she had given the members the Pavement Management System Report, as well as
the Infrastructure Management Sidewalk Survey Summary, which they can find online. She
received two reports from Public Works, which Roy Coley is going to cover, and wants to make
sure everyone has them.
Yichel Ciment , Max Litt and Karen Rivo were on the phone.
IV. Continue Review Projects Implementation Plan
1. Ocean Drive Improvement #31 and Lummus Park #8
Eric Carpenter explained that there was a Shulman’s plan that was created in 2013-2014 that
they believe they can execute that plan with the dollar figures that are associated. However there
are a couple of concerns we have that lead to pushing this to tranche 2,3, and 4. The first is they
really haven’t gotten a consensus on what the Ocean Drive Committee really wants to see done.
The second piece of this is we have a Lincoln Road project that is 90% designed at this point, that
is really ready to break ground as early as summer of this year. If we can figure out how we are
going to break up the funding and agree on a construction timeline with the Lincoln Road
Business Improvement District. They didn’t want to tear up Lincoln Road and simultaneously tear
up Ocean Drive because they realized those are two of the larger draws from the tourist
perspective and it is probably isn’t in their best interest to have them both torn up at the same
time.
Jason Greene said in tranche 1 we were pretty good about the $4.7 million for the Lummus Park;
now that’s improving the park itself. He wanted to make sure that the park would not get
damaged in a couple of years due to this construction.
Eric Carpenter said that the park construction is primarily irrigation and sodding and re-doing the
serpentine walkway. We don’t anticipate having any damage to the serpentine walkway and if
we do need to do any staging in the park it would be minimal and ultimately it will need to be
restored to its pre-existing condition, at completion of construction.
Jason Greene asked if Lummus Park could be split into two projects, where the serpentine
walkway could be done separately.
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Eric Carpenter said they certainly can be done separately. He explained that they would want the
grass to follow the walkway and that they would not want to agree to a 3 to 5 year gap.
Jason Greene wanted to make sure that we don’t spend money on the park and then half of it
gets ripped up by construction materials and everything.
Eric Carpenter explained that the current configuration of Lummus Park in correlation with Ocean
Drive is that you have a substantial elevation change just east of the eastern sidewalk going into
Lummus Park. So it would be a situation where The impact would be pretty limited because the
contractor does not have a large flat area directly adjacent to the sidewalk that would be
convenient to stage on. They would want to cross that elevation change in strategic areas.
Members gave the project a Green light.
2. Art Deco Museum expansion #28
Eric Carpenter explained that this project is not very defined but it had to do with the Art Deco
Museum currently being located at the building on 5th and Ocean. There is a potential plan for a
second floor that can potentially serve as a hall for hire, which can be a revenue stream for the
Art Deco Museum. At this point this is very preliminary. One of the reasons it ended up in tranche
2, as opposed to tranche 4, was because of having to push Ocean Drive back. He explained that
although they are two separate projects, they wanted to do something for that area other than
Lummus Park since they are pushing ocean drive back.
Robert Gonzalez asked what does it take to forward the design quicker for the museum itself.
Eric Carpenter asked David Martinez if he had a good concept of what we would need to move
this forward.
David Martinez, Director of CIP, said he does not know too much about the building but he knows
that this is one of the last projects that came in. We first would have to select what type of
procurement methodology we would want. In order to move forward we would have to hire an
architect, in which we probably could hire someone from the City’s pre-approved list of
architects. Technically we could hire someone within 3-6 months.
Robert Gonzalez said that sounds like execution and it sounds like we don’t know what we want
there and that is what I mean by moving further along. He asked whose wishlist this is.
Eric Carpenter said that this was pushed by_____ and was part of their wish list to see what they
felt needed to be incorporated in the general obligation bond. He explained that if this was going
to move forward sooner rather than later, we need to engage with them.
Members gave the project a Green light.
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3. Washington Avenue Corridor #36:
Eric Carpenter explained the Washington Avenue project. He said that they wanted to have seed
money to be able to execute something out there but they still need to cook what that something
is.
Troy Wright, Executive Director of the Washington Avenue Business Improvement District,
introduced himself. He explained that what they want to do on Washington Avenue is create an
environment that they change the view of Washington Avenue. Right now, as you know, it is a
little dark. We want to add more entertainment, art, and a different vibe to Washington Avenue.
We are assembling the master plan, but I cannot give you too many details, but it is a progressive
plan.
Members gave the project a Green light.
4. Waterway Restoration Project #25:
Eric Carpenter said that this is a project where they believe could take us almost 2 years in
permitting to be able to dredge some of these waterways. That’s typically a very challenging
permit to get because you have to go The Army Core of Engineers to get it. A lot of these canals
are a habitat to Johnson seagrass, which is on the endangered species list. There is a significant
amount of challenges before these dredging operations, which is why we believe we are going to
spend the better part of tranche 1 trying to define the scope and ultimately looking at permitting.
There may be some money at some point that we may need for early design documents but as
of now we are kind of contemplating that we are going to be pretty close to stuck and not being
able to move anything forward because of the permitting process.
Jason Greene asked if all of those efforts are out of the general fund.
Eric Carpenter said they have meeting talking with the Environmental & Sustainability
Department and he thinks that at the end of the day they might need a little seed money but he
is going to see if we can do that with operating dollars before they tap into the bonds.
Members gave the project a Green light.
5. Pinetree Park #16:
Eric Carpenter explained that there is still useful life in some of the smaller parks. Pinetree Park
was more of the kayak launch needing to be redone and the pathway inside the park. They did
not want to do the pathway ahead of the kayak launch because they would probably have to tear
up the park to get to the kayak launch to do the work. Ultimately, they might need to do some
reforestation. A portion of the reforestation will probably come out of the Street Tree piece of
this. The permitting is really going to be the driver and as a result we decided that it is better to
have this in tranche 2.
Members gave the project a Green light.
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6. Palm Island Park #14
Eric Carpenter said that we did some work recently at Palm Island Park. We resodded the entire
open space area and I think we resurfaced the tennis courts. Basically what we got in this is
redoing the playground and shade structure but we feel like we still have some useful life in them
and we might be able to squeeze four or five more years out of the playground before we replace
it. We don’t Want to replace something before its end of useful life but we will if we have to.
Members gave the project a Green light
7. Fire Station 3 #51:
Eric Carpenter said that the Fire Chief is very clear that he does not want to all of his fire stations
out of commission at the same time and his clear priority is Fire Station 1.
Members gave the project a Green light..
Vice-Chair Marie Peter announced the next project, which is Skate Park Improvements.
Eric Carpenter explained that the reason why the skate park is in tranche 3 is because they went
back and forth about skate park location. At one point it was going to be on the 72nd complex
and then it was going to be on one of the west lots. Ultimately what we ended up doing is building
a temporary skate park in one of the west lots and we also contributed to $250,000 to the
County’s larger skate park that was built in Haulover Beach. What we are trying to do now is
evaluate whether we still have significant needs or whether these two facilities are enough to
get us through until we build something more permanent and larger scale.
Members gave the project a Green light.
8. South Pointe Park #20
Eric Carpenter said that this is to replace the playground and restroom renovations and a little
bit of tree planting. According to our Parks Department, the playground is still in good condition
as well as the restrooms. This is one of those things that we anticipate it will be nearing end of
useful life within the later stages of the bond program.
Jason Greene said as a frequent user of this park, he wishes the park could be expanded because
it is overcrowded on the weekends but he doesn’t think that’s in the scope of the Committee.
Yichiel Ciment said it’s not in the scope of the G.O. Bond project but is there a way to build that
into a scope. He explained that on the weekends it is a huge tourist destination.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said she doesn’t believe we can add anything on to the G.O. Bond at this
time.
Eric Carpenter said that we made a commitment to the constituents of this city that we are going
to tax them and we are going to deliver projects that were agreed upon. If we get near to the end
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of this program and we deliver substantially what was promised to them then we can have some
discussions if there are any dollars left over.
Members gave the project a Green light
9. Muss Park #11
Eric Carpenter explained that Muss Park is the replacing of the play area, re-sodding it, and
converting the playfield to artificial turf. Our concern is that ultimately when we are setting up
temporary pumps for the stormwater program it’s having to be in the vicinity of this playfield and
likely what would happen is if we were to do the neighborhood improvement we would be
looking at three locations for potential outfalls related to the storm water program. One would
be at Muss Park, one would be at Pinetree Park, or one would be at the very north end of Orchard
Park. One of our concerns is that we really want to get A better concept of what the Orchard Park
neighborhood improvement is going to need from an outfall perspective before we go in and add
artificial turf.
Members gave the project a Green light
10. La Gorce Park #7:
Eric Carpenter explained that La Gorce Park is it still in good condition. The concept is that we
will reach end of life in probably tranche 3.
Members gave the project a Green light
11. Ocean Rescue North Beach Facility # 46 (tranche 4):
Eric Carpenter explained that this facility is currently on one of the west lots across from 79th St.
and they recently moved into a new trailer on that lot. The long-term plan is to see if there is a
way where we can work with Miami-Dade County, who has some of their beach maintenance
operation in portable trailers at the south end of the North Beach Ocean Side Park- to co-locate
their beach maintenance operations with our ocean rescue operations so that it can be in a nicer
looking facility and also better serve the community.
Members gave the project a Green light
12. Marine Patrol Fire and Police Facility #54
Vice-Chair Marie Peter asked if anyone had any questions. No one had any questions.
Members gave the project a Green light
13. Tatum Park #22
Eric Carpenter said this project is to replace the playground, add a water playground structure,
and replace the perimeter fence. Because of the water playground structure it is more of a
complex project.
Members gave the project a Green light
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14. Fisher Park #6:
Eric Carpenter said that Fisher Park is a relatively newer playground that is in good condition. This
was one of the parks thrown in to make sure that every neighborhood got something but was
not in dire need right now.
Jason Greene asked what is considered the useful life of the equipment around the City.
Eric Carpenter it is probably 10 to 12 years.
Members gave the project a Green light
15. Street Pavements Program #38:.
Roy Coley began by explaining how we currently pay for our Neighborhood Improvement
Projects. Our improvement projects include stormwater infrastructure, water and sewer
infrastructure and what we call above ground infrastructure. Our stormwater infrastructure is
paid for through Stormwater bonds. Within the storm water bond a portion of what you might
call an above ground improvement is paid for out of the stormwater bonds. Our water and sewer
utility is owned by the City and is an enterprise fund where all of its revenue is generated through
the fees of water and waste water services. Our above ground projects take care of landscaping,
lighting, and other portions that the stormwater bonds and sewer and water bonds don’t pay for.
He began with explaining our street program. He points to a map on the screen, which is a
simplified pavement condition index, with everything color coded. He pointed out the index at
the bottom of the map that explains all of the colors, where red is the worst condition road and
yellow is a fair condition road. He explained that the Members have the name of each street and
how long it will take to get repaved in their packet. There is a total of $130 million worth of
pavement that needs to be done in this city over 15 years to achieve the pavement condition
index goals. $42 million dollars is coming out of the storm water bonds to pay for the repavement
and water and sewer will be paying for $26 million dollars of the repavement. We have requested
$30 million for the G.O. Bond for pavement only. The G.O. Bond item that is called Above Ground,
$17 million out of the $50 million is going to repavement. We will be $15 million dollars short so
we will be doing a pay as you go, which is the revenue that the City uses. We will be asking John
Woodruff for $1 million dollars per year for 15 years.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said that the City discussed that they are going to take a more active role
in maintenance.
Eric Carpenter reminded the group that although they are giving specific numbers, these are
estimates over estimates and are subject to change at any point moving forward.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter quickly welcomed Commissioner Malakoff, who had a very big impact on
the Advisory Panel.
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Ron Starkman asked for how many years is the $130 million street pavement project. Roy Coley
said for 15 years.
Ron Starkman said that averages to about $8 to $9 million a year. He asked if we will always have
a stormwater and water and sewer funds, which is paying for a huge chunk of the roads we are
repaving. Can we be confident that in 15 years those sources will be reoccurring again.
Roy Coley explained that we couldn’t count on the kinds of dollars Ron Starkman is talking about
in 15 years. I couldn’t stand here and tell you that is the plan because there is not a plan beyond
the 15 years.
Members gave the project a Green light.
16. Street Lighting improvement project #55:
Roy Coley explained that a couple of years ago the City hired a firm to do an analysis of the entire
city, where they drove down every street and ally of the city to measure the amount of light of
these locations and we concluded the intensity light distribution. We solicited with a RFQ for
organizations to propose to us how to develop a citywide smart city street lighting system. We
have that organization hired now which is Johnsons Control Inc., and they were just recently
tasked to develop a citywide street lighting master plan. Johnsons Control Inc. estimated a $50
million street lighting program and we requested $10 million from the G.O. Bond. The entire $10
million is reserved for what is determined to be the need for when the plans are finished.
Eric Carpenter mentioned a question that came up before regarding the parks. He explained that
there will be two lighting plans- one is the athletic lighting and the other is the typical pathway
lighting in the parks.
Jason Greene asked if it would be correct if he is assuming that any lights that are being replaced
now are being upgraded to LED. Roy Coley said absolutely. For several years we have been
working towards that and all of the lights we are buying our LED.
Jason Greene asked since we are talking about the $10 million dollars, does that mean if we are
replacing a light tomorrow and it is LED, do we have to wait until the end of its useful life to switch
it to a smart lighting system. Roy Coley said if we found ourselves with a need, primarily driven
by Public Safety, we would probably replace that fixture even if it wasn’t at the end of useful life.
We are trying to make the decision on alleys and commercial areas based on crime statistics.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said definitely the master plan is the way to go and we need the LED
lighting so does anyone see any reason why we shouldn’t move forward and get started with this.
Ron Starkman said that we have a lot of fixtures in the city. He asked if it’s a matter of just
changing the bulb or does the whole fixture have to be somewhat changed. Roy Coley said the
fixtures worth changing are not LED. Going forward if we have a smart street lighting system
connect to it, all of the fixtures will have the capability.
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Ron Starkman asked what percentage of the city’s current light fixtures are compatible with
smart lighting. Roy Coley said the City owns about 9,000 lights. Of the 9000 lights about 1,500
are LED.
Jack Glottmann asked if there is a smart system that is operational. Roy Coley said there is not a
smart lighting system in the city. Jack Glottmann said he meant in the country.Roy Coley said
there are systems that are controlled and we believe that our current LED lights can connect to
the smart street lighting system.
Jack Glottman asked if we have a dollar amount for the lighting portion of the Neighborhood
Improvement projects. Roy Coley said that certainly all of the Neighborhood Improvement
projects have lighting in it and the funding is in all of those funding sources. Jack Glottman said
that his question is if you took out the lighting improvement dollars for each of the neighborhood
projects and you add it to your $10 million dollars, where would it get us to. Roy Coley said we
would have more but he doesn’t know the exact number.
Ron Starkman asked how we ended up in a situation where we don’t have the money for this
lighting. John Woodruff answered that they believed replacing all of the city’s lights in one shot
might be asking for too much. He explained that with the Neighborhood Improvement projects
and as funds become available we would be able to significantly start making progress and
swapping out those lights.
Roy Coley said they want their master plan before entertaining other ideas. We entered an
agreement with FPL where the lights in our alleys on wood poles will be replaced to LED by FPL
by a small tariff.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said that in her opinion we don’t have a choice; we need to get LED lighting
throughout our city.
Members gave the project a Green light
17. Sidewalk Improvement Program #37:
Roy Coley explained that what we start with is a sidewalk condition index. He referenced his
slideshow. He told the members that they should have a sidewalk report that is similar to the
pavement report. Over a period of 10 years all of the sidewalks in the city are scheduled to be
replaced at a cost of just over $11 million. You have a G.O. Bond approval of $13 million and at
this planning level we are estimating $11 million over 10 years. The timing is correlated in many
cases with the pavement plan where we intend to replace sidewalks and crosswalks immediately
before pavement. What we recommend for your consideration is you allow this to be funded in
the tranche that is currently recommended. This does not replace all of the sidewalks but
sidewalks that currently have a score of less than 70%. Many of our sidewalks are in good
condition and there is no anticipation that they are going to the grade like pavement does. The
biggest challenge that we have with our sidewalks are trees.
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Commissioner Malakoff asked if the plan to plant 5,000 trees can be planted for shade which
would include the sidewalks.
Roy Coley said that what we currently do before any sidewalk is performed, is we work with our
Green Space team to make sure it is complementary with their work.
Commissioner Malakoff asked Vice-Chair Marie Peter if there is a plan yet to where the trees are
going to be planted. Roy Coley said it does not exist and that when this funding becomes available
we will work directly with Green Space.
Jack Glottmann said just to be clear, you mentioned that you would replace sidewalks with a 70%
or less score. Is that what the $13 million is set aside for? Roy Coley said that originally we did
not anticipate the sidewalks that are in the shaded areas. That allowed us to have more money
in the bond to pave more which allowed us to go up to a 70%. We are at a planning level and we
are not prepared to say we have extra money because at this level of estimation we are probably
plus or minus significant percentages.
Members gave the project a Green light.
18. Neighborhood Above Ground Improvements #34:
Roy Coley said neighborhood above ground project is specifically shared between all of the
projects that aren’t otherwise noted. This is to complement the money needed that we would
use for Stormwater bonds and water and sewer bonds for the neighborhood improvement
projects.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter asked Roy Coley to explain why they split the money between tranche
2,3, and 4. Roy Coley said it was because the timing of the projects. This is for the projects
currently scheduled based on their current plans in those years.
Jack Glottmann asked if Jacobs comes back with the sequencing, the dollars might change from
one tranche to another. Roy Coley said I’m not sure the dollars would change from the tranches.
If Jacobs came in and said let’s change neighborhoods with the money that we were going to pay
with another neighborhood we would pay it with that one, in my opinion. I don’t see any value
in holding the money back.
Eric Carpenter added Jacobs is going to look at a number of things. One of them is sequencing of
the neighborhoods. Another is the size of the project. Most of these neighborhood projects are
24 month construction duration, so your above ground piece of that is usually not hitting until 18
to 24 months. We believe that we are going to need 6 to 9 months for Jacobs to get the lay of
the land and start putting out some of the detailed recommendations. Ultimately, they are going
to have to put together design criteria packages for the first couple of neighborhoods that they
decide and the Commission approves that are going to be first in line. Then we have a
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procurement process where we go and select a design and build team. Then we have a 24 month
construction duration.
Ron Starkman asked if Jacobs has our financial constraints. As Jacobs is putting together their
ideal plan, are they basically blind to what the fund cost might be.
Eric Carpenter said he would hope that they weren’t blind. We are very close to being under
contract and then we are going to inundate them with information, like our financial feasibility,
projects and what we can reasonably expect from revenue streams outside of the City.
Eric Carpenter added that there was a lot of debate that went into how we were going to package
this information. I believe it was the City’s initial request that it be a kind of lump sum dollar
figure that we thought was sufficient to handle the next 10 years of Neighborhood Improvement
projects.
John Woodruff said they felt pretty good about not having to worry too much about allocating
funds to tranche 1. He said that once they get to tranche 2 they will have more clarity as to how
this is going to work. So we have gotten comfortable with the uncertainty, if you will, by knowing
that 1. we don’t have to make a real make or break a decision right now and 2. between the $85
million in the four different projects, we feel like we can make it work, depending on whatever
Jacobs comes back with.
Members gave the project a Green light.
19. La Gorce Park #7; Flamingo Park #35; and North Shore #44:
Jason Greene mentioned that two of the projects are from the 1999 G.O. Bond. He asked if there
is supplemental money on top of the G.O. Bond.
Eric Carpenter said that the La Gorce project was one of three neighborhoods that had some
dollars unspent from the 1999 bonds. La Gorce Island was recently repaved because the streets
were in such bad condition and we also did landscaping and lighting. We are going to reach out
to the neighborhood association and ask if we can just close this out. The La Gorce project had
$1 million dollars in the Above Ground project from the 1999 bonds. If I remember correctly, we
re-allocated those dollars so that we would not have a bunch of money sitting around putting us
in a potential arbitrage.
John Woodruff confirmed that we did do that. He said once there was the commitment made to
go ahead and go for the 2018 G.O. Bond program, they started finding where the unspent money
was and moving it to other projects. So when they spoke about Flamingo Park and North Shore,
the advisors said they had to prioritize those projects and they were the last ones not addressed
in the 99 bond and they needed to get addressed then. He explained in that scenario they were
not necessarily first in but just with the timing of when the projects would actually occur but
that’s why they were put down as separate/standalone projects instead of being lumped in with
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the above ground. He mentioned he thought Flamingo got broken down as well because $20
million dollars was a big amount of money.
Eric Carpenter said along the lines of their previous discussion part of the reason those were
individual projects was because number 39 was supposed to be a catch all for everything and
there wasn’t necessarily at least from his perspective there wasn’t a firm commitment that it was
one neighborhood gets a certain amount and another neighborhood gets another amount. He
explained that what he wanted to do was for the projects that didn’t get built from the 99 bond
they would be the neighborhoods that get a certain amount of dollars.
Jason Greene asked if the reason of Flamingo Park not being done right away was because it was
also supposed to be done with the 1999 bond. He asked if it was because of the sequencing of
storm water and other water and sewer projects if that was the reason why it was being held
back for some time.
Eric Carpenter said he wanted to be careful about that and he wanted everyone to understand,
the 3 neighborhoods were North Shore, La Gorce and La Gorce Island. He explained that Flamingo
had all of their 1999 G.O. Bond dollars for above ground, spent in their neighborhoods. He
mentioned that they had done pieces of it and little flamingo was done and they had done some
other portions of the neighborhood. He said he thought in 2014 they went to the neighborhood
and they told them they were contemplating another GO Bond and told them they had million
dollars in their 1999 G.O. Bond and asked how would they like the dollars allocated and they said
put them into 11th St. another project they were doing and if there was anything left over they
would like to see them do some resurfacing on the worst streets in the neighborhood and so the
million dollars that was left was allocated and spent in the neighborhood on what they had asked
for.
Members gave the projects a Green light.
Jason Greene wanted to ask something real quick about number 2 on the Flamingo Park Youth
Center. He asked if it was tied into the fire station. There was a question about the cost estimating
in the tranche 3 that was a master plan elements and resiliency strategies in tranche 3 and he
wanted to get some more detail on that .He said he had one item in tranche 1 that they were ok
with what they had and voted formally yet that cost $4.76 million dollars he would not be
supporting it in tranche 1 . He said that he wanted to see if something could be moved up and
switched out there he mentioned he wants to see the detail of the Flamingo Park.
20. West Lots #29:
Eric Carpenter said he didn’t know if that was necessarily parks. He explained that was the seed
money for the economic development of some of the improvements in the west lots up in North
Beach. He mentioned this was one where they had actually commissioned a firm to come up with
some concept plans that would be helpful to at least frame the discussion and it was really a
matter of did they need the seed money immediately or was it something that could be pushed
back. He said he thought there was a significant opportunity there. He said he didn’t know if they
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wanted to just say they were going to put it off until future tranches which is why they put $1
million in tranche 1. He said it wasn’t a huge amount of money but it was the appropriate
amounts of money to try to spark something in that neighborhood.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said there was a lot of discussion if she remembered correctly and they
had to do something. She asked if anyone had any reason why they would feel that in the event
that tranche 1, the million dollars they could start the incentive to get moving because there was
a lot of support from the community on that subject and that and it came up over and over and
eventually the commissioner agreed with the public on this as well as the Panel. The Panel agreed
and then the commission agreed. She asked if anyone there had a reason why they wouldn’t just
go with the million dollars and move forward.
Jason Greene asked if the money that was there was meant for actual hard cost construction.
The million dollars wouldn’t be used to burn through studies and consultants and such because
he saw there was already a study presented in 2018 so that money would be to actually do
something; not to hire a consultant.
Eric Carpenter said he thought they were legally obligated; that it has to be a design that leads
to a capital construction.
John Woodruff said that they could not really capitalize the study if they do not end up following
through with the constructing company otherwise they are positioned not to pay themselves.
Jason Greene said so the $1 million would be utilized to go through Procurement and to procure.
He said the study that was done was like a pre-feasibility plan, which was like a pre-capitalization
and then the next step was to then take that master plan and develop an actual design. That’s
what they wanted that million dollars or part of it for was to get the design and to actually go
through Procurement and hire a consultant to produce an overall design. Whatever was leftover
from the $5.5 million would be used to actually implement.
Eric Carpenter said of the total $5 million dollars, it was really a million to kind of round it out and
crystalize what was going to move forward because truth be told they could probably spend $20
or $25 million in redeveloping all of those parcels. He mentioned that he thought there were
some interesting concepts that they had put forward like focusing on the eco parts, focusing on
the community garden and playground. He said to his understanding what the Commission had
voted on was that they wanted to have some money to pick one or two of those things to be a
catalyst for other things happening in the neighborhood.
Jason Greene said the Commission would pick the locations because it was kind of all over the
place with the Eco Park and gardens and playgrounds. He said the Commission would say there
were a number of lots and they would use a number of square footage to put a playground
somewhere and a community garden somewhere else etc. He mentioned the rest they would
leave open and see if a public private partnership would come in or something like that.
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21. LED Lighting in the Parks #52:
Maria Hernandez said she was trying to remember why they were in yellow as far as the LED.
Eric Carpenter said it was more along the lines on what he had mentioned before about the LED
lighting in the parks whether they were going to be joined with the smart lighting system. He
mentioned that some were athletic lighting some were regular park lighting and so that’s why he
had gone back to the parks department and double checked based on the questions from the
prior week. He explained that the athletic lighting was going to be separate because it was a
specialty lighting and the purpose was only to light up the athletic field and it already had some
interactive features. He said that the standard lighting or pathway lighting was lighting for just
some of the play areas. He explained that it would be something they would dovetail with the
smart lighting and that it already was being programmed LED.
Ron Starkman said he didn’t think they would have any ability to move any money around. He
mentioned that essentially that was public safety and the parks were dark, so he thought that
more money spent there than someplace else would be better.
Eric Carpenter said he thought the reason why the two that were ending up later on in the project
was because they were looking at some pretty significant construction in both of the parks. The
North Beach Oceanside park as well as Flamingo Park and then they would do the LED lighting,
the athletic field lighting along with the after construction.
Ron Starkman said so this money was really for those 2 parks; it’s not for parks throughout the
city. Eric Carpenter said the $3,459,000 was Flamingo and North Shore.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said so obviously there were some projects that came before the lighting.
She explained that is the way the City had put it together.
Jack Glottman asked if they knew what the breakdown was for the athletic lighting and what was
the percentage for the total funds. Eric Carpenter gave Stillwater Park as an example; he said the
sports LED lighting was $87,000.
Jack Glottman said he actually didn’t need it to be broken down. He asked if it was a fair
statement to say that it was a small percentage. Eric Carpenter said yes, except in Flamingo where
they had a big chunk of the money that was going to the sports LED lighting at $2.8 million.
Vice-Chair said that Flamingo Park was in tranche 2 . Eric Carpenter said it might have been for
the baseball and football field but he would have to double check.
Jason Greene said it had to be a big operating cost utilizing those lights and there were some
savings opportunities there. He asked if there were something that they would be able to find
$2.8 million dollars that they felt could be moved from 2 to 1 and vice versa would that be
something they could do.
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Eric Carpenter said he would tell him that it made him a little more comfortable if it was just
football, because the football and baseball fields would be torn up and so they would have to go
back and double check that.
Jason Greene asked if the ball fields were being torn up as part of the current Flamingo Parks
project in tranche 3. Eric Carpenter said correct.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said the ones they were really talking about at the moment were for
tranche 1- the three parks. Since it was public safety and they needed the LED lighting for it and
those parks were ready they should go with green for that.
Everyone agreed.
Eric Carpenter said the other $511,000 was the LED lighting upgrades for the baseball fields in
North Shore Park. He said he misspoke before when he said North Shore Island Park. He said he
had to get answers on Flamingo Park.
Jason Greene asked if the only money for Flamingo Park was specific to the football stadium what
about the rest of the park.
David Martinez said he would have to do some research and bring it back.
Maria Hernandez said if they had agreed to the first tranche that was also a quick win so they
were ready to go. She said just so they were not confused they could keep the quick win green
and the overall yellow and come back in the next 2 weeks.
22. Police Headquarters Renovation #48:
Eric Carpenter said that was the question of the $4 million in tranche 1- what in addition to the
HVAC renovation and the firing range renovation was included in that because they needed to
make sure they didn’t just miss a number somewhere.
Adrian Morales, Director of Property Management, said that looking at the renovations they
wanted to look at the items that they currently had in that building there were some chill water
lines that needed to be replaced there were some fire sprinkler upgrades etc. He explained they
would start working with the chief and staff on some of their programming implementations that
they needed for their crime scene unit. He mentioned that they had basically run out of space in
that building o they were in the process of coming up with what their needs were and the
requirements.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter asked if $4 million was enough. Adrian Morales said they did not know
specifically what their needs were as of yet so for tranche 1 the 4 million was good. He said the
challenge was more of how long it would take and where they would put everybody. So, $4
million would get them their crucial needs.
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Jason Greene asked if there were any elements in their overall plan that could be moved up. Any
improvements that the chief would want done now. Chief Daniel Oates said the short answer
would be that they need the range redone.
Adrian Morales explained the complexity of the project they had to divide it because they had
some deferred maintenance items and mechanical needs they could address. He said they would
look at the space plan what it was that they wanted to do in that space and then build or rebuild
the mechanical aspect. He explained that it was almost like they would address their needs with
the first 5 million and the balance would be used for the rest. He mentioned that the building
had a lot of dead space and departments and units that were displaced all over because of it.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter asked if after they were done fixing the first things would they be
comfortable waiting till 2025 to do the rest of the building.
Adrian Morales said it would take them some time to work with the Chief and the space planner
to figure out what they would need. He explained it would also take them some time for the
specifications for the fire system and mechanical system etc. He said he felt this project could
take a shorter amount of time but his fear would be pushing back and then having conflicting
areas.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter asked if he wanted them to move the $6 million to tranche 2.
Chief Oates said there was space that would be freed up in his building which would be part of
the redesign plan. He explained once the 911 communications moved out in to the new fire
stations. They would have space they would want to utilize.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter asked if they would like them to find a way to move the money to tranche
2 so that the police headquarters could function properly.
Adrian Morales explained the reason for the request was because they were looking to upgrade
especially when their looking at upgrading domestic water systems, fixtures and restrooms etc.
it affects them because they would have to eliminate the use of those areas. So while they are
there they might as well do the implementation that the Chief required. He said that those
renovations would go hand in hand and that he didn’t believe they could so one without the
other. He mentioned that they were rewiring electrical, boxes, lighting fixtures and even
mechanically controlled devices which the station currently didn’t have. He said if they are going
to lift off the ceiling and they were going to start working there why not start looking at the
partition and some of the distribution of space so that the people could have open floor plans
and areas where the chiefs detectives require etc.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said that being a developer herself one of the things are they are going to
fix all of the AC’s and start doing all of that but if they are going to plan then their plan is to build
rooms for other people. She explained that while all of the mechanical work is going on they have
to know how the building is going to look when it is all done. She said that they would have to
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proceed that way, the electrical and everything. She mentioned that they could not go back later
and say now they are going to put three offices here and six offices there.
Adrian Morales said which is why the spacing would be the first thing they engage and meet with
the chief’s office and start working on that right away.
Maria Hernandez asked if the reason why they put that project in tranche 3 was because they
had the factor of Fire Station 1 which would freeze up a significant amount of space. She
explained if they built Fire Station 1 first and they moved the 911 center then that would freeze
up all of the space they needed for them to do a master plan holistically. She said she thought
that was the reason why they had no other option but to put it in to tranche 3. She mentioned
that they had been talking about other projects at the same time, but it was really Fire Station 1
that was the catalyst for giving the chief all of the space he needed. She said she didn’t know the
building well, so she didn’t know if they could do a sub project and leave that for last and then
go back and retrofit something behind it or would it be better for them to wait till they solve and
do Fire Station 1. She explained that was why fire station 1 was one of the early ones, not only
because it was an emergency and a terrible building but also because by doing it, it freed up
space for the police department. She said that it’s like they were tied together. She mentioned
that this was one of those that when they were doing their criteria they were looking at the
synergies where if they did something for one building it would free up something in another
building and then it would all work better for the whole. She said in order to do that they would
have to get the other buildings started going down the road. She mentioned that she thought
those were the reasons why it was in tranche 3
Jack Glottman said on that note it seemed to him that it may be possible to break the $6 million
dollars into two amounts because they may have a large percentage of the building that may be
left in gray shell condition. He mentioned that they would still have the planning for the A.C
distribution and things like that, but they didn’t have to spend the interior dollars until a little
later. He explained that maybe breaking up the $6 million in to what they would need in tranche
2 and then the balance could be for future growth and interior improvements of that remaining
portion that hadn’t been completed.
Adrian Morales said that was a viable option but at the end of the day they still had to work with
the Chief’s command staff and each individual section of the Police Department to determine
what their spacing needs and requirements were also what their programming needs were. He
explained that they were still in an exploratory capacity and they had been looking at other police
departments and comparing what their departments and rooms looked like.
Jack Glottmann but they would have a space plan early on. He mentioned that when they start
talking about tranche 2 at that point they should know where people will be in that building and
if there was any chance for them to delay a portion. He explained that it may be tough to move
$6 million from tranche 3 to tranche 2 but it may be easier if they moved half of it to tranche to
and leave the remaining half.
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Vice-Chair Marie Peter said she wanted to discuss it the next week to give Adrian a chance to
speak with the Chief and to let everyone think about it. She said if he could come back with the
best recommendation, they would work on where there’s money for the $3 million which was
Jack’s idea unless anyone else had a $6 million idea. She explained that she would like for them
to come back the next week after speaking with the chief and really thinking about it and if they
say they wanted the $3 million in the 2nd tranche. She said that they could then start preparing
themselves.
Adrian Morales said that they could certainly do that.
Jason Greene said that decision didn’t have to be made until next month. He explained that
Adrian mentioned about $5 million dollars’ worth of repairs and so maybe its 5 and 5 and not 4
and 6 million. He said so he would like them to come back with a little bit more about that. He
goes on to say that he wanted to go back to the log cabin, he said he had really thought about
and if they were going to do a formal vote on it he would not be voting for that to be in tranche
1. He explained that he had been looking for an area where they could move a million dollars
whether it was the police station, Fire Station 1 , Flamingo Park resiliency improvements but for
his personal perspective the log cabin did not meet the safety and security . It didn’t have a
preservation issue and he had seen a lot of other needs that were much more important so the
log cabin is something that can wait.
Wendy Squire said it sounded to her like the $6 million in tranche 3 for the Police headquarters
was contingent upon the firehouse starting right away. She mentioned that it was one of their
yellows which she was very interested in going back to. She said she would like to see it starting
earlier and figuring out a way to get those members educated as to how important that was. She
asked if that was settled and started earlier would it make it easier to move everything for the
Police station too.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said it does if Adrian and the Chief say that they can do it.
Adrian Morales said it’s a conversation he has to have with the Chief.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said yes, they have to because if 3 years come and they are not ready,
they would have taken money from somebody else. She mentioned that if they felt they were
ready then the committee would go with what they thought. So next week that would be a good
conversation.
23. Fire Station 1 #45
Laura Veitia said she would like to understand what the neighborhood was objecting to because
there was a firehouse there now.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said what she understood from the team and some of the discussion with
the Chief was the firehouse was on 11th Street and the park was on the other side. She explained
that he needed to move it to the asphalt part of the park. She said so in the minds of the people
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in Flamingo Park they are going to be sticking a fire station in the middle of their park. She said
they should try to work with Flamingo Park neighborhood educate them and let them know that
it was the prime spot for the station because it should be in the center that way they could get
to everyone’s house. She explained that they would rather the neighborhood agreed with it
rather than being pushed in to it by the commission. She explained that they needed a public
group to talk to residents as residents.
Jason Greene asked if anyone spoke to the residents about the option of having the fire station
and police station as one contract. He asked if that was something that was proposed if they just
started thinking they maybe those 2 projects could work well together and they can get most of
it done in Tranche 1 and maybe a little in tranche 2.
Eric Carpenter said that David Martinez was a little bit closer to that project than he was dealing
with the day to day, but his view of the discussion was that they realized that they needed a new
Fire Station 1 and they looked around at locations where it would work they narrowed it to a
small group of options that the city had some control over. He mentioned that ultimately they
felt the best option was putting it across the street in the parking lot near the entrance of
Flamingo Park. He said he thought one of the offers was to try to put the PAL in with the fire
station so that they would be having one building there and another one there trying to
consolidate additional green space in the park. He said for whatever that met with some
significant resistance from the community to move forward with that.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said no one wants anything done in their neighborhood because it makes
noise and inconvenience etc. but this one was logical if the Chief said he needed to be in the
middle because it was a safety thing. She said she thought there was a group of them that would
be happy to meet with Flamingo Association and talk to them as resident to resident.
David Martinez said one point he wanted to make was one thing that became challenging when
things were discussed with commission. He mentioned there was an issue with county code that
had to do with regional parks of certain sizes and Flamingo Park qualified for one of the parks
that would fall under that county code which said that if a non-park improvement was going to
be taking place it could possibly require a county wide referendum. He explained that was when
the conversation stopped. He mentioned that if they were really going to contemplate this
location then they would need to think about when a referendum could take place.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said could they ask Jason to come back with that information.
Jack Glottman asked if it would be possible to carve that part of land out of the park.
David Martinez said that was beyond their scope on that end.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter asked how that was the first time they were ever hearing about that. She
said they went through the whole panel and all those times no one ever mentioned it.
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Jason Greene asked if that was something the City Attorney could provide a legal brief on
between then and the next week.
Jason Jacobson, Assistant City Attorney, said maybe not a full legal brief but definitely an
explanation that wouldn’t be any problem.
Jason Greene said if it is the referendum than that puts the fire station, the PAL, the Police
Station, those were big ticket projects that were all in critical paths, because of that one decision.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said she was shocked that it never came up in the Panel.
Eric Carpenter said they could always do a special county wide election since the next one
wouldn’t be until maybe August.
Everyone said no.
Maria Hernandez said the deadline was going to be way ahead before the election. She explained
that for the November election they had to have everything in by July.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said they will double back then. She mentioned that she thought they did
a fabulous job they had accomplished more then they intended to accomplish which was great.
She said next week they would start with Fire Station 1 which relates back to the police station
and then they would look over the yellows that they had left. She said they could put together
some questions for Maria Hernandez or Eric Carpenter.
V. Public Q & A
Matis Cohen said he wanted to go back to the issue of the critical areas he said the areas that
were established in the pipeline for renovations below and above ground. He mentioned the area
of North Beach town center and the specific area around it was not in the plans if they looked at
the map. He said they had to be cognoscente of 3 things the park on 72nd street was the one
cohesive thing that everyone in the 14-neighborhood community share. He explained that in
order for any developer to start the process they need some answers from the city as to when
they were going to start. He said he understood there were some conflicts, but all of those things
could go in tandem because if they didn’t go in tandem the conflict in the private market would
start. He explained that they couldn’t afford that, after so many years finally getting on the map.
He said the first tranche issues would be critical because that would be putting together a plan
that the community would have to agree about. He explained that it would be putting an RFQ
out for someone to say hey they are going to go and build it and 3rd all of the development
community can know and be confident that the city will meet their obligations. He said if anyone
would be interested and learning more he would be happy to come back and help them on the
North Beach plan.
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Jason Greene asked about the Sunshine Law when it came to speaking to the residents. Everyone
discussed the logistics of the Sunshine Law and what they could do when meeting residents.
Everyone agreed that they would invite the Flamingo Association as the public.
Maria Hernandez said they had 2 meetings left. She asked should they go through the rest of the
projects and then just leave that for the last meeting. She explained that it could take a while.
Vice-Chair Marie Peter said it would be better to give them two weeks instead of such short
notice.
Everyone agreed that Ron Starkman would reach out to them and let them know the 2 meetings
were coming up.
Maria Hernandez said if they really wanted to they could vote in the next meeting and they didn’t
have to have the last meeting. She mentioned that what they do have to have is the Commission
workshop. Vice-Chair Marie Peter asked if everyone knew that it was March 4th and they have
from 1pm-5pm in Chambers. Maria Hernandez said that was probably a meeting where a lot of
the public was going to show up because they were used to going to Chambers. Jason Greene
asked if they sit next to each other in that workshop would they be able to discuss what was
going on. Jason Jacobson said to the extent its noticed that it is a public hearing of the G.O. Bond
Committee so they would be able to speak.
VI. Adjournment
Meeting ended.