Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] He [Music] me. [Music] [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Good afternoon and welcome to the July 14th, 2025 regularly scheduled meeting of the Orlando City Council. We're going to get begin today's proceedings with the invocation and the pledge of allegiance led today by Commissioner Patty Sheen. Thank you, Mayor Dyer. And today I'd like to read a poem by Amanda Gorman. This sacred scene we gather at this hollowed place because we believe in the American dream. We face a race that tests if this country we cherish shall perish from the earth and if our earth shall p perish from this country. It falls to us to ensure that we do not fall for a people that cannot stand together, cannot stand at all. We are one family regardless of religion, class, or color. For what defines a patriot is not just our love of liberty, but our love for one another. This is loud in our country's call. Because while we all love freedom, it is love that frees us all. Empathy emancipates, making us greater than hate or vanity. That is the American promise. Powerful and pure. Divided we cannot endure, but united we can endeavor to humanize our democracy and endear our democracy to humanity. And make no mistake, cohering is the hardest task ever wrote. But tomorrow is not written by our odds odds of hardship, but by the audacity of our hope, by the vitality of our vote. Only now approaching this rare air are we perhaps the American dream is no dream at all, but instead a dare to dream together. Like a million roots tethered, branching up humbly, making one tree. This is our country. From many one, from battles won, our freedom sung, our kingdom come has just begun. We redeemed the sacred scene, ready for our journey. From it together, we must birth this early republic and achieve an unearly summit. Let us not just believe in the American dream. Let us be worthy of it. This sacred scene by Amanda Gorman. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, let's call the meeting to order. Madam clerk, would you call the role and make a determination of a quorum, please? Commissioner Gray here. Commissioner Ortiz here. Commissioner Stewart here. Commissioner Sheen here. Interim Commissioner Rose. Commissioner Burns here. Mayor Dyer here. Mayor, you have a quorum with all members present. Thank you, Madam Clerk. First item, business is consideration of minutes from the agenda review and city council meeting of June the 23rd, 2025. Motion by Commissioner Stewart, second by Commissioner Rose. All in favor indicate so by saying I. I. Those opposed. And so the m motion carries. Okay. Right into the mayor's update. This is the final meeting not of the year before we hit a really big milestone. the city of Orlando turned 150 years old on July 31st. Then those of you entered the building through the rotunda would be which would be just about everybody. There is a great photo exhibition down in the Motunda Gallery that bridges our past and present. There are photographs of things from 40, 50, and 60 years ago and what they look like today down there. It's pretty cool. So I would encourage you to stop through and take a look at that on the way out. On July 31st, each commissioner has organized service activities and volunteer opportunities in their d districts to celebrate the birthday by showcasing our compassion. Um the Orlando collected exhibit is at the Orlando Regional History Center. opened in April and will be um there through the end of the year, but on the 31st there is free admission and that exhibit showcases 150 unique items that were donated by local individuals and organizations which are a window into Orlando's rich history. Um there's also free admission to Lou Gardens and Manello that day. So visit orlando.gov150 to register for those events. Earlier today, we had a couple workshops. One was a legislative update and the other was a budget workshop presentation. Um, and as a result of uh great work by our dedicated city staff and strong financial planning, I'm proud to announce that we will be providing our municipal services again without raising the mill rate for the 12th consecutive year in a row. Um, and I think we're also probably the uh sit as uh one of the best cities in the entire state of Florida in terms of financial stability. Uh moving on to items of note from the agenda. The partners for places grant helps us expand a program which will provide items like solar panels with battery backup, high pump water heaters, heat pump water heaters, energy saving kits, and help residents lower their electric bills. and keeping up with public safety, which was also in our budget. Um, today we are looking to approve funding to construct fire station number 18, which will be out on the Butcher property in Lake Nona. And then finally on today's agenda, um, are two really important items that allow us to continue to advance the progress on a permanent morale at the P site. Um, which is important to the families of the 49, the survivors, and our entire community. First is the is the purchase of the property that is adjacent to the PTZ site and second is the ranking of a design build firm um in this case being Gomez Construction Company which was the highest ranked firm to do the design build and the conceptual design will be developed that was developed by the Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee will be taken by Gomez and transform that concept into detailed design. then they'll be responsible for constructing the memorial which we anticipate to complete by the end of 2027. Actually, I'm hoping for the summer of 2027. Um, but these two steps are significant as we move toward the construction of that permanent memorial. Of course, that was one of the darkest days in the history of our community, but as always, Orlando has responded with love and compassion and unity. And today we take two more steps in recognizing what happened that day. Also want to recognize and thank Craig Matier with RS RMS Investments. Um you'll recall commissioners that when one pulse was dissolving, we prioritized the purchase of the actual pulse property from the Palmas. We did that to move forward and we knew it was a small parcel and that there would probably be challenges if we didn't have the property that was adjacent to that which one pulse had in fact purchased and was trying to sell at the time. We asked Craig to step in and purchase that and hold that property for us. He did so and he's selling it to us. We'll act on that today for the exact same price that he bought it from one pulse. And then finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank again Mayor Demings and the Orange County Board of Commissioners for their $5 million commitment towards a permanent memorial. Um, with that, we will move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda is a number of items that are acted upon through a single vote of council. We give each of our commissioners an opportunity to comment on the consent agenda as well as update you on important happenings in our district. We rotate the order that we do that. And today, Commissioner Sheen is first up. Thank you, Mayor Dyer, and thank you, commissioners. Today, the Orlando City Council will vote to avoid the design build contract and to purchase property adjacent to the pulse site. I want to thank Mayor Dyer and the Orlando City Council for their support of this endeavor. Please indulge me to go over a brief factual history of what occurred in the aftermath of the massacre. Over $32 million was raised by the city of Orlando and Equality Florida in the immediate aftermath. All of this money, the one Orlando fund, was distributed to the victims and their families. A committee was formed and awarded $350,000 to families of those murdered, between $300 to $20,000 to those who were injured, depending upon the severity of their injuries, and $20,000 to anyone in the club during the shooting. Congressman Sodto, Congresswoman Demings, and Murphy worked with the federal government to make this money income tax-free. The hospitals forgave most of the bills for those impacted. We dispersed all of the money in a transparent way. The city of Orlando offered to purchase the Pulse property for a memorial in the immediate aftermath. The owners refused to sell at the last minute. It was even on the city council consent agenda. The One Pulse Foundation was formed and run by Barbara Pul. The organization raised millions of dollars but failed to build anything. Even the interim memorial was donated. One pulse foundation spent all of the money and was in debt. So they had to sell the adjacent property quickly to pay off those debts. A local businessman, Mr. Matier, offered to buy and hold the property until we could go through a lengthy municipal purchase pro process. For that, I am grateful. Now we find ourselves here today, nine years later. While what one pulse did to this community was horrible, it can't keep us from building a permanent memorial on the site. It is the only appropriate use for the site. The only appropriate use. I want to thank all of the city staff for both their help in the aftermath of the tragedy. Leaving their desk to help with funeral expenses, benefits, immigration grief counseling referrals to numerous needs too numerous to list. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to thank the families who have worked with us in a constructive way in the way they showed compassion to each other. I want to thank Heather Fagan who has weathered unfair criticism and calls for her resignation. She has done nothing but help from day one. It is easy to criticize when you are not in the arena helping and lack understanding of those who are helping. We have become we have become far too accepting of treating others with cruelty and derision. It is the opposite of what Orlando showed the world and how we inspired others to help those who were impacted. There were hundreds involved in this noble cause. From the original donors to the committee that met to provide guidance on the permanent memorial, everyone played a part in helping Orlando heal. And for those who just want to tear it all down, I say we will not let hatred win. Love wins. We are Orlando United. We are Orlando strong. Orlando unidos. Orlando Fuerte. Let's get this done. Thank you, Mayor Dyer. Commissioner Rose. Uh, good afternoon everyone. Um, I want to thank recreation and legal staff for getting uh diligently working on anou that was able to connect with the Florida Department of Health so that we can provide dental services at the district 5 neighborhood centers. This is part of my continued health is wealth efforts. Uh, we started off at Orange Center Elementary. So, after we're done with the centers this summer, we will then head back to more elementary schools in the district. Um, it has been while we're celebrating 150 years as a city, the parks and recreation department is celebrating a hundred years and I've had a great time at the center spending time with the kids, giving cake, but also learning more about some of the kids uh needs that go to our center. So, I want to thank Lisa for um answering my request and accepting the request. Northwest Center is a newly renovated pool and I've requested that all of the kids who are at the neighborhood center and attend for after school program and summer program receive swimming lessons. Safety is a top priority here. Um we I am also I also want to thank the children's safety village. U Brent is also working to uh figure out how we can get some of the elementary school kids during the school year uh safety lessons, swim lessons as well. Um NCAA 26 came out last week. It was built right here in district 5 in the Paramore community at EA Sports. I want to thank EA Ulissiz and Josel for allowing our teenagers to come over and play the game before it was released and they're also able to take the game with them back to the center to play. I want to thank United Against Poverty for partnering with me to provide free groceries and resource resources for the residents of this community at the Jackson Center and the Ivy Lane Center both in District 5. I also want to thank uh Lisa and the recreation team again um for making a swift adjustment to allow for uh United Against Poverty to be on site. I also want to thank Andlay for her leadership at United Against Poverty. Uh interestingly, a memory popped up. Two years ago, we sat at on a panel with Orlando Business Journal. We were talking about food deserts and now being able to partner to provide the residents free groceries is rewarding. Our next stop will be this Wednesday at 4 pm at the Ivy Lane Center. And again, it's free. You just have to register. I want to thank Mission Orlando Church. They we hosted we co-hosted something called Christmas in July this past Saturday at the Northwest Center. It was a free back to school and community event where we were able to provide um haircuts, bounce houses. There's all kinds of fun. Uh we are planning something special for Christmas um at the Northwest Center. So stay tuned for more details. As you all know, we are heading into the back to school season. I believe in meeting people exactly where they are. We have neighborhood centers throughout the district. And so I will be hosting back to school events at each of our districts um neighborhood centers. So check it um follow on social media. I will list them out right now, but you can um go on social media to find exactly what dates. This Saturday I will be at Mount Olive Church. Next Saturday, I will be in the Palms on Mercy Drive. August 2nd, we will be at Ivy Lane Northwest in the Jackson Center. August 3rd, Men's Closet. And then August 9th at the Callahan Center. This Saturday at Camping World, there's also going to be Feed Palooa um which is a partnership with One Heart as well as Advent Health. Um Corey, I want to thank the public works team for their hard work in all of the divisions. Um this Saturday I was driving saw some trucks out on Ivy Lane and I uh my aid was with me and I was like wait we got to stop what's going on because you know we get the phone calls if there's something going on. Come to find out we were just doing routine um servicing and so not only for staff's commitment to Saturday but also being able to explain to me like I just walked up some of them knew exactly who I was but they were like this is exactly what we were doing. I was late for an event so I couldn't put gloves on and get to work. But I just want to thank public works commitment to this entire um city. Um the f the response time um from picking up trash to filling potholes. I want to encourage anyone listening, anyone in the audience. We have a way that you can go online and report any issues. I want everyone to live in a see something, say something mindset. So if you see a pothole, if you see a broken sidewalk, don't assume that we know because we cannot be in every square uh centimeter of this of this city. But report it. Call our offices, email us. um to let us know so that we can make the proper adjustments and fix whatever needs to be done. Um tomorrow, Orange County will vote on the transition from their MWBE program to a small business enterprise. I'm actually really disappointed that um we haven't received the draft transitions from our current consultants to see where we're going. Um, for years there has been a struggle with reciprocity where folks are certified at one agency but not at the other. And so I would like for us to make sure that that is part of the transition that um, if a person if a business's small business enterprise is certified at the county um, they could be used at the city and vice versa. If they're certified at the city, we could use at the county and then expand to all the other government entities. For those that don't understand, it's really um, there's a lot of we make sure there's a lot of checks and balances to become certified to be a small business contractor. current. Previously, it was u minority women business enterprise, but we've had to suspend the program and transition. And as we're transitioning, want to make sure that there's reciprocity so that businesses can work in all of our government entities. I want to thank Chief Smith for continually to host um community meetings with OPD um to allow the residents to learn about things that are changing in the department, share their concerns, and ways that we can work collaboratively to improve community policing. I want to encourage everyone to follow District 5 page on Instagram and Facebook for the latest events and activities that are happening in and around the district. On to the agenda. I would like for staff and legal, which is most likely HR to figure out how do we handle employee contracts. As you can see from the agenda, we have dozens of employee contracts. I do believe we need to figure out how to handle that internally so that they do not have to come to council for approval. Um the money is already budgeted for these positions. Um, I worked in the peritting office and one of my my duties when I was in the peritting office was handling employee contracts. And when we need to quickly fill a position, we have to wait for the next council meeting. So, I'd like for uh legal and HR to work on how do we um do employee contracts internally. Again, the positions are all budgeted for. It slows down the process for some of our muchneeded positions. I'm grateful to see the KIA improvements that are underway and the contractors that we will vote on today. I'm also happy to see us take the steps forward in bringing Art Squared into real life. For those that don't know, that's the pop pop-up park at Robinson and Orange Avenue. Again, thank you, mayor, and commissioners. Thank you, Commissioner Burns. Uh thank you, mayor. Good afternoon, uh fellow commissioners and all of our guests. Um, on June 26, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Secretary of Tourism for Rio de Janeiro to discuss mutually beneficial uh uh tourism partnerships. So, we we discussed a lot of uh exciting uh potential. So, we're hoping that some of that will come to fluition uh soon. Also on June 27th had the pleasure of uh attending the Orlando Sigma's good getting getting in good trouble awards uh and Stanley T. Mueller's uh scholarship lunchon where they gave out several scholarships and identified and recognized several of our uh community members for the great work that they do in our community. Also uh in Mayor Direstead I had the pleasure of uh honoring Dr. Eugene Jones with a resolution for his eight years on the DDBC board. Uh he was very committed and served diligently. So we thank Dr. Jones for his time and his service to the city. Also on uh July 9th um Orlando to 150 art exhibit. I was glad to see uh Grand Avenue, the old picture of the Grand Avenue Elementary, now the Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center, as well as Washington Shore Savings and Loans Bank. Uh which was the bank that I got my first uh bank account at when you used to they used to write your balance and then stamp it on there. Uh and so it was it was great to see that old photo and now the Axiom uh bank. So, all the uh photographers that uh took those pictures did a a great job. Uh just a few upcoming events. On Wednesday, July 16th, we're having a senior safety presentation uh discussing fraud uh fraud prevention and other safety issues that our our seniors um our seniors encounter. That will be at the Smithsonian at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 23rd, I will be hosting my uh satellite office hours. This is a time for residents to meet with me outside of the city of Orlando uh in a more convenient uh setting. Those hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. Uh and as I'm speaking, one of my great um neighborhood association um presidents just walked in, Miss Shirley Heath. So, I think she was uh waiting for that introduction. Good afternoon, Miss Heath. Um, also on Sunday, um, July 26, uh, Saturday, July 26, we'll have our first back to school bash at Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center. Uh, we'll start at 10 a.m. while supplies last. Also, the following day, July 27th, we'll have our second back to school bash at the Smith Center at 1:00. Again, while supplies last. Uh Wednesday, July 30th, we'll have our second senior safety presentation at the Elclaudia Allen Center. Uh and then on Thursday, July 31st, as Mayor D mentioned in, uh recognition and celebration of the 150th anniversary, uh District 6, our volunteer event will be at Lake Fran. will be doing a Lake Fran cleanup at Eagles Nest at 900 a.m. Uh, also my uh the fifth annual for the children's celebrity golf tournament at Shingle Creek Golf Club uh will be happening on August the 22nd, shotgun at 8:30. Uh and then we will have an inaugural uh golf clinic at 10:30. So please if you're interested in uh supporting being a sponsor or volunteering please reach out uh to my office. Then on the agenda mayor I just have one thing I'd just like to uh on 3A1 just like to say thank you to all the citizens who have agreed to serve on the various citizens advisory uh boards because we cannot run our great city without uh without your help on these volunteer boards. And that's all I have. Mayor, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Gray, we're on a roll. Here we go. I got a couple quick announcements and then some agenda items. On June 26, I want to say thanks to Orange County, uh, we did Orange County business journey, uh, which was an outreach to the Hispanic business community to try to get those folks more engaged in in opportunities here in Central Florida. So, so thanks for that. And also, uh, to echo what was said earlier, uh, the U exhibit we did last week for the 150th anniversary. Well done. So, congrats to Flynn Dobs and her team. Uh, it's great. I wasn't sure there was anything in district one that was 150, but we found the airport. So, the airport was great. So, we got some pictures there. But, uh, well done to to Flynn and her team. On the agenda, uh, four or five items. Um, Commissioner Burns just mentioned 381, which is our citizen advisory board. Can't add anything more than what he said, but we appreciate all those volunteers. 3B1 um with the pulse contract for the design build. Look um as Commissioner Sheen said um it's been a long journey and not everything has gone perfect, but uh we're down the road and we're going to push forward and I certainly support this one. I I would ask though that as we continue that we start to look at some operating expenses and and the maintenance cost involved in this. uh we want it to be a you know a best-in-class facility and so we need to make sure we've got the funds allocated to maintain it and and to keep it in good order. So uh I'm sure we'll do that. So that's my challenge to the to the staff. Uh 3B19 u supporting that a new fire station out in Lake Nona in the Press area, South Lake Nona. Uh as we continue to grow uh we need more public safety. So thanks for um the the allocation for the new fire station. We will start that the end of this summer. Uh 3B24, the art 2 park mentioned earlier. Glad to see that's finally uh coming together. We've had a couple of stops and starts, but thanks to Sherry and the team on that one. And finally, um 3F1, which is our uh 2025 agreement with the housing urban development HUD. Uh Orin, wherever Orin is, he's here. There he is in the back. Orin, congrats to you and your team. There there's a lot of moving parts dealing dealing with HUD, especially some of the things going on in Washington these days, but by all accounts, we are in goodstead with HUD. Their funding is important for us and for our housing initiative. So, thanks to you and your team for uh continuing to work with HUD and the way you're doing it. Thank you very much. That's all I've got, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Ortiz. Uh thank you, sir. In lie of the agenda we have in front of us and I think every other commissioner have mentioned about everything that's been happening in the city. I'm going to go ahead and hold my comments and let Commissioner Stewart. But before we do that, I want to recognize a sergeant, a Marine sergeant who's here today with us. Could you stand up and give us your name, sir, please? Dr. Jim. Dr. Thank you for being here with us today. All right, that's all I have. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Stewart, what do you want? Is is there a vote coming up I need to know about? I didn't tell me. Oh, thank you Tony. Um, let me share just a couple things. Uh, and um, and some comments at the end. U, first of all, I want to say thanks uh, to all those who are involved in the cross engagement open house with our transportation people. Thank you very much. Uh, that is a a challenge to get input from our community. We've done had four or five six meetings. Some had to be cancelled, but I had the opportunity to go and spend some time over in the American Legion. And here are some of the comments about our cross engagement the uh safety pedestrian safety issues. So, thank you very much for the work y'all doing, Chrissy. Um uh I had an opportunity to attend the uh getting in good trouble with Commissioner Rose and Commissioner Burns. It was great to sit there and see a bunch of my old friends uh and and to recognize uh some great work. I'm trying to remember, Commissioner Burns, what's the name of the fraternity? Uh, Sig and they were they were great uh and gracious and the room was packed and it was great seeing people who are making impact in our community. I appreciate that. I want to say congratulations to Baldwin Park for their for their Independence Day bash in January 3rd and uh had a great response also in January 4th. mayor. I thought well I apologize for missing that but I got a chance to see a little bit of that from across the lake and it was great. Um once where's Chief Smith I think he's still here so maybe but anyway I thank Chief Fifth of course I know that Tony did the same thing earlier this morning but conducting our community meetings um uh with our neighbors and our constituents is important and he we conducted one over in College Park. Our next one's going to be on the we kind of go west, east, west, central, and east. So, the next one will be over towards um uh the eastern side of the district. And so, I appreciate his work and what he does there. Uh this past Saturday had the opportunity to go support Dueling Dragons uh with their 2025 corn toss for kids. It was a lot of fun to be over there and get a chance to spend time with Chief Mina, I mean Sheriff Mina, sorry. and uh uh and uh got a chance good lot of good support out of OPD. Uh that program is really changing lives and I'm so grateful for it. Upcoming news, there's a clothing swap uh tomorrow at Ivanho Park Brewing. There's a sustainable sips over at at Luke Gardens. Next week we have neighborhood watch meeting at College Park Town Home Estates on the 16th. got a chef academy cookoff uh from our um after school allstars on July 22nd. And the most important of all that is on August 6, we have our District 3 safety splash. So, it's going to be over at the College Park pool and College Park neighborhood center. Please, please, please come out and and and get it. My wife won't let me take all those hamburgers home, but we're hope to serve about three or 4 hundred people there. So, please come out and enjoy that. Um, mayor, let me say a special thanks to um, Flynn Dobs and all the work that's being done around the art and in the history of Orlando. So, downstairs, if you had a chance to get down there, it's really been neat. Um, I saw a book years ago about Miami and it had exactly the same thing in Miami. I shared it with Flynn. She took the idea into the next level. I'm so grateful for what she did. Uh, but we got a chance to see that and and unfortunately u most of those places were around when um Commissioner Gray was just a small child and I appreciate you seeing them firsthand, Commissioner Gray. You're welcome. Um, on the agenda today, I've filed um an abstension on item 12B. Um, and I'll talk about something else later coming on, but that's um my son-in-law is the president of PY Homes North, which owns Everbe. I'll share that with you. On the agenda, um I want to say a special thanks to all those who got involved in solar panels for the Rosemont Neighborhood Center. Thank you. That's going to save us a ton of money. I appreciate that. Um on the business assistance, um doc Dr. Drips is here. Where are you, Will? Will you all stand up to submit? Um new business coming in on North Orange Avenue, Dr. Drips, and we're going to approve them for some little bit of assistance. So, thank you very much for being here today. We appreciate it. Looking forward to the grand opening. Um, uh, Commissioner Sheen, thank you for your comments on Pulse. You're right on point. Um, I hope that, uh, the combination of the city and the county working together will hope inspire some private donations and keep us in a way that that we really get back to where this is a community event and not not a government paid event. So, I know the mayor is working hard on that and those I think I hope will inspire people to get involved and engaged in what we're doing. So, thank you very much for that. And we added something at the last minute. Just to let you all know, I want to be public about it. 3K1, we added a $15,000 grant to Ivanho Main Street. They are doing a pocket park over there. It's a matching grant for their dollar for-doll raising, not including what they're doing on inind. And I'm taking money out of my funds to accomplish that task, but I wanted to make sure that we were transparent with everybody here. So, uh, and with that with mayor, I'll move the consent agenda. Motion by Commissioner Stewart, second by Commissioner Ortiz. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. And so the motion carries. Okay. If you're just here for the consent agenda, this would be a good time for you to sneak out. You know, while we're doing that, I think I see some Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts that are probably getting a merit badge for attending a public meeting of some sort. You guys want to stand up and let us give you a little love there. [Applause] What troop are you with? Okay. Okay. 2473 173 173. Where is that? Avalon Park. Avalon Park. Okay. Welcome. We're We're glad you picked this public meeting to earn your badge. It is a geography meeting. Okay. If there's no objection, we'll recess the city council meeting and convene the CRA meeting. Uh 4A is CRA meeting minutes from May the 19th. Motion by who made the motion? Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Shei. And all in favor indicate so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 4B is CRA meeting minutes from June the 9th, 2025. Second. Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Rose. All in favor indicate so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 4 C is advisory board meeting minutes from April 23rd. Motion by Commissioner Stewart, second by Commissioner Rose. All in favor indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 4 D. David. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, council members. So 4 D, this is an amendment uh it's amendment three specifically to our agreement with Simple Solutions Exterior Cleaning LLC, which is doing business as we hang Christmas lights. though if you get any context of that. This is a piece of the puzzle that helps us transform Lake Eyola into a full winter wonderland every December. Um so excited to potentially partner here with them again. Specifically, they handle our 64 foot tree for us that we get a chance to light up for that season. They store it, install the lights on it, uh as well as help us wrap trees and other high holiday decor uh really throughout downtown to help with our holiday stroll. Um so with that, the total cost of this contract is $167,240. and I am happy to address any questions. Mayor, Commissioner Sheen. Yeah, David, I just want to say thanks. And when I came back from Italy 5 years ago, I went to Thomas and I said, "Why do all these little towns in Italy have these beautiful decorations and we have a bunch of people throwing stuff on bushes and it looks awful and it's very amateur." And you know, you all took that, the CRA, DDB took that to the next level and it is amazing. And I have seen it grow year after year. And what's so great is to see the number of families that are coming downtown, the number of people who cannot afford to go to theme parks to see these beautiful lights. The kids are having a wonderful time. It is truly a winter wonderland and it's a lovely place. And I just want to thank you and I think and thank the city council for for supporting this every year and the funding. But uh I just want to say that this is money well spent and it really creates a sense of place and that's what brings people to downtown Orlando. So thank you. Is there a motion? I'll move approval. Second motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Rose. Discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion, indicate so by saying I. I. Those opposed. And so the motion carries. 40. Uh so next up, mayor, this is a license agreement with Sentinel Capital North Orange LLC. So both this item and the next item are in reference to Art Squared, uh which several people mentioned earlier today. Uh so this specific agreement is a license agreement with the property just to the south of that park. We're looking at installing a mural uh that would be 28 feet by 55 feet on that wall that'll provide a great cap uh on the south end of the park. Uh this obviously allows us to do that and sets up the appropriate uh legal necessities. Happy to address any questions. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. Discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. Those opposed? Motion carries. All right. 4F and 4F. is the management contract for Art Squared specifically with Alakart Management LLC. Um so uh Alakart has been working with us really to help us figure out how we can program Art Squared in a way that it can uh play a huge role in downtown but also for our community at large. So we're excited to have the opportunity to part with them as we get ready to launch the park. Uh it is right there on the southwest corner of Robinson and Orange. This specific agreement uh will have them open seven days a week. Uh they'll be open from 7:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. uh Sunday through Thursday and then till 11:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturdays. In addition, uh there's about $34,000 of additional equipment uh for the cafe that the CRA will cover on their behalf. And April with Alikart is here uh with us today as well and I'm happy to address any questions from the council. Second. And I just like to say they both both are in my district. They're they're they're amazing. It's a great place to go. If you haven't been to Alikart, it's wonderful. So, if you haven't gone, go to the one downtown. So, I'm sure they're going to do a wonderful job managing that facility as well. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by Commissioner Sheen. And I'll agree with Commissioner Sheen. I visited both sites, one of which we annexed into the city of Orlando so they could have that site and turn it into a great um Alikart Park. You want to stand up and be recognized? Further discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicate so by saying I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. David. Further business come for the CRA. That is all. Mayor. Then without objection, we will adjourn the CRA meeting. We will convene the neighborhood improvement district meeting for the purpose of meeting minutes. So I think I can handle that myself. 5A is uh Downtown South Neighborhood Improvement District Advisory Board meeting minutes from February the 12th. Motion by Commissioner Sheen. Second by Commissioner Stewart. Discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicate so by saying I. Those opposed. Motion carries. 5B is meeting minutes from June the 11th. Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Stewart. All in favor indicates so by saying I. I. Those opposed. And so the motion carries. All right. If there's no objection, I'm going to adjourn. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to adjourn the neighborhood improvement district meeting. And here's something we haven't done in a while. I'm going to convene the OPED board of trustees meeting. And commissioners, we have one item for us today to approve as the board of trustees of the OPED trust fund. As a reminder, city council sits as the board of trustees of the OPE trust fund, which was established in 2008. These are funds set aside to pay future retirey healthc care benefits. The city is one of the few local governments to fund these obligations. The city's investment consultant has recommended to remove the current small and midcapization investment manager, Clarkson, and hire Atlantic Capital as the new small mid capitalization investment manager. This recommendation has been reviewed and approved by both the investment committee and the finance committee and is now before us for final approver. Is there a motion to approve the recommended action? Motion by Commissioner Stewart, second by Commissioner Sheen. All in favor? All discussion. All in favor indicate so by saying I. I. Those opposed. So the motion carries. I will without objection adjourn the OPED meeting and reconvene the city council meeting which brings us to hearings ordinances on first read. Madame clerk you're up. Ordinance number 2025-22 an ordinance of the city council of city of Orlando, Florida amending and restructuring the city's growth management plan to update the plan's data and analysis vision statement definitions elements and figures providing for legislative findings. providing for conflict severability correction scrimmage error and an effective date. Motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Rose. I have no request for public input discussion. Hearing none in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. Those opposed and so the motion carries. Let's move to hearings. Ordinance is on second reading 12A. Ordinance number 2025-23, an ordinance of the city of Orlando, Florida, amending chapter 65 Orlando City Code to establish procedures for the review and approval of reasonable accommodations for the establishment of certified recovery residences providing a process for reasonable accommodation requests to the city's land development ordinances rules policies and procedures for per persons with disabilities as provided by the Fair Housing Amendments Act, title two of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and other applicable state and federal regulations. s providing legislative findings and for severability, codification, correction of scrier's errors, and an effective date. Move to approve. Second. Who made the motion? You did. Rose. All right. Motion by Commissioner Rose, second by um Commissioner Burns. I have no requests for public input on this either. Um discussion hearing. None. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. Those opposed? Motion carries. Uh 12B, Madame Clerk. Ordinance number 2025-24, an ordinance of the city council, city of Orlando, Florida, amending and restating the land development regulations of the Vista Park land development, relating to certain land generally located south of Lee Vista Boulevard, west of State Road 417, north of State Road 528, Beach Line Expressway, and east of Narusi Road, and comprised of approximately 1,561.4 4 acres of land providing for amendment of the city's official zoning maps providing for severability correction of scrimmers error permit disclaimer and an effective date. Move to approve. Motion by Commissioner Gray, second by Commissioner Ortiz. Commissioner Stewart, I believe you have declared a conflict on this one. Um I don't have any requests for public input on this as well. Uh discussion hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I. Those opposed and so the motion carries. All right, let's move to ordinances on first read 13A. An ordinance of the city council of the city of Orlando, Florida, amending the land development regulations for the veranda plan development generally located east of North Summerland Avenue, west of Hill Avenue, north of East Washington Street, and south of East Jefferson Street. and to change the land development use for lot 2, which is comprised of approximately 0.13 acres, providing for amendment of the city's official zoning maps, providing for serverability, correction of scrier's error, permanent disclaimer, and an effective date. And that's ordinance number 2025-25. Second motion by Commissioner Sheen, second by Commissioner Stewart. I'm going to declare a conflict on this one. My son represents the owner of this property and I have filed the appropriate paperwork as well. I have no request for public participation. Is there discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of the motion indicate so by saying I. I. Those opposed. And so the motion carries. Okay. That brings us to appeals. Um item 15A is an appeal by Redspeed Florida LLC on the recommendation for the award to American Traffic Solutions Inc. DBA Vieiraa Mobility for the school zone speed detection system RFP25-0123. So the procedure for this staff will be given 10 minutes um to explain the selection and set out its recommendation related to the appeal. Um Red Speed who is the appellant will be given 10 minutes to present its appeal. uh Vieira will be given 10 minutes to respond and then uh council can ask questions whenever it deems appropriate to either staff or either the appellant or the apple and then we will have discussion a motion and vote. So let's bring staff up. Good afternoon mayor and commissioners. Uh my name is Mitch Davis with the city attorney's office and I'll be presenting the city staff portion of uh the information and recommendation uh on this appeal. Um the council remember the solicitation is a product of the ordinance that the council adopted last December for enhanced speed enforcement at certain designated school zones. Uh on December 27th of last year, uh the procurement department um posted uh the solicitation seeking proposals for camera systems uh to monitor 26 approaches at the 21 school zones designated uh in the ordinance. Um for your reference, the solicitation included several provisions that are specifically relevant to the appeal. Uh one was that uh it stated the city did not want a turnkey solution. The intention was to retain certain functions for the city. uh and partner with the outside vendor uh to perform uh the overall service. Um the solicitation uh required submissions on proposers financial strength uh and specifically reference the use of done and Bradstreet reports uh as part of that assessment during scoring. The uh solicitation stated specific requirements that proposers were supposed to be subject to uh for flat fee price submissions, items that were to be included and excluded. Um, and it specifically directed proposers not to submit proposals with alternative pricing structures because these would not be considered. And then finally, the solicitation stated the formula that would be used for allocating points relating to uh price as included in the submissions. Uh that involved prorating proposals based on the lowest price that was received um and the price for a particular vendor and allocating points accordingly. Um on March 4th uh the uh committee met for the second time to receive short list presentations from the vendors uh as well as uh the the original intention uh was to score those presentations at the same time. Uh however in the course of uh that meeting a question arose about Redspeed's corporate structure um it's uh the experience available uh sharing employees between the affiliate in Florida that was presenting the proposal and other affiliates in other parts of the country um that were part of the proposal. Um and so that led the procurement department uh to recommend delaying scoring uh until those questions could be resolved. The committee considered that unanimously approved it. Um over the next several days, procurement staff requested additional documents from Redspeed to explain how its affiliated LLC shared staff, technology, and financial resources. Uh Redspeed provided uh documents to answer all of the questions that were raised. uh and the issue was uh satisfactorily resolved so that Redspeed could receive credit for the experience and and staff financial status and technology that it was claiming. Um on March 20th uh the committee met for a third time uh at this point to proceed with uh scoring on the presentations. Uh the meeting facilitator determined that a quorum was present and the meeting could proceed. Um, budget division manager Jason Wvich provided the committee with a summary of the reports that they had received from uh, Dun and Brad Street now that it was available for all proposers after the work with Redspeed. Um, you'll see on the screen here a copy of the summary spreadsheet that was presented. Uh, he noted that the reports uh, don't explain in detail why Dun and Bradstreet scored what they did. Uh, so they're most useful as a comparative metric from one company to the other or to spot trends in relation to a specific vendor. Um, and then the summary flagged any scores indicating a moderate or higher risk under Dun and Brad Street's framework uh, which are those cells that are shaded in in a light red color uh, for the several vendors. Um following that presentation, the committee proceeded with scoring with the result that uh Redspeed generally outscored Ver in the experience, equipment and program support categories uh in those categories. Uh they generally received an equal or higher number of points from a majority of uh committee members uh that were scoring. Uh however on the price category uh redsp speeded score based on the formula that was published in the RFP was lower than Veras by almost five points. Uh and this was because Ver's proposal included a price of $2,800 per month per approach. Uh whereas Redspeed had proposed a price of $3,999 per month per approach. uh which was nearly 43% higher and would have resulted in an additional operating cost of over $31,000 per month for the 26 approaches uh or over $143,000 for each approach over the term of the contract. And so mainly as a result of this price disparity, Vera Mobility ended up being ranked first. Redspeed was ranked second by all four voting committee members. Uh on March 24th, procurement issued its notice of intended action, confirmed the proposer rankings, and stated its intent to enter into a contract with Vera Mobility. Uh Redspeed made timely appeals uh to the chief procurement officer and chief financial officer. Uh both of those upheld the selection committee's ranking in Vera's selection. Uh the issues that Redspeed has raised in its appeals at the various stages generally focus on three subjects. The first of those being unfair disadvantage uh that favored the incumbent. Um, in response to those issues, I' I'd point out the city generally considered all available options for uh ways of procuring the services uh including possibly soul source and cooperative procurement. Um, ultimately it decided to go with um uh competitive solicitation um which um gave u redsp speeded the opportunity to to compete and possibly win the business. Uh so the earlier consideration ultimately didn't favor vermobility in in any meaningful way. Um staff did postpone scoring as discussed. Um but this was to um develop information about references and financial information that was submitted. Um uh it uh this information was not included in Redspeed's original proposal. Um and had staff moved ahead with scoring based on the information that was just available at the second meeting um there would have been a considerable amount of Red Speed's experience that could not have been considered and scored on. So ultimately this analysis gave Red Speed the maximum opportunity uh to receive available points. Um it's also staff's position that Mr. Wvich provided the committee with a balanced assessment of the company's relative financial status. He let the committee members know that um you know these are are credit reports essentially the the company's ability to spend. It's not necessarily a good measure of how well they perform on a particular contract for the city. Um and so to consider that as one of several possible factors in assessing their financial condition. Um on the second issue, disregard of the city's goals and preferences. Um, Red Speeds asserted that the uh, city did not account for technological advantages that it gave in its uh, proposal. Uh, the city did do that. Uh, as reflected by the result of scoring in the equipment category where red speed scored higher. Um, so they they received credit and consideration for these features. Uh, however, none of the proposals completely satisfied all technical preferences and and the scoring reflects that as well. Um, Redspeed also asserts that the price category fails to capture certain aspects of their proposal, but these were considered in in other parts of the scoring, including program services. Uh, again, Redspeed received points in these because of the advantages in its proposal. Um, but Redspeed was aware of the relative weighting of those categories. Um, and and chose to present the way that it did. Uh, there was no challenge to that methodology until after the rankings were already made. Um and under a procurement code that's a challenge that's not really permitted to um um uh a challenge isn't permitted to um procurement criteria in general. But if there is an objection to something in the solicitation, it has to be made within 7 days of publication so that there's a reasonable opportunity to fix it before the process goes too far along. So even if that protest were available here, the issue is being brought up much too late. Um the third general uh sort of issue is procedural irregularities that uh allegedly undermine the fairness of the process um having to do with the absence of one committee member Corey Keith. Uh the RFP allowed for the committee to proceed with only four members rather than the full five. Um it was delayed to the third meeting uh because of clarifying Red Speed's proposal and by that point Mr. Keith was um unavailable on on pre-approved leave. So the committee proceeded to scoring in an effort to keep the procurement on schedule and try to keep him implementation um by the upcoming uh fall semester. Um um based on staff review, Mr. Keith's presence would not have altered the the committee scoring. Uh he had shared his expertise with the committee on previous occasions. Uh he would have voted substantially in line with the rest of the committee. Um, and so this was not an irregularity, nor would it have affected the outcome if if it had been different. Um, Red Speeds also suggested that uh, Mr. Keith might have implemented its best value standard rather than the price standard appearing in the RFP. This would have been arbitrary and capriccious. It's not something the committee could have reasonably done. Um and so based on uh all of that um it is uh staff's recommendation um between the two options available to the council uh that the appeal may be denied or that the council may reject all bids and cancel solicitation. Uh staff recommends that the council deny the appeal uh and award the contract to American Traffic Solutions Ver Mobility Corporation um in the following new business item. Uh, and I'm happy to answer any questions the council may have. Okay. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Davis at this point? Okay. Representative from Red. Commissioner Burns has a question. Mitch, can can you come back? Yes sir. Yeah. So you mentioned that uh Red Speed scored higher in technology and experience. You start to mention the uh financial difference. Can you go uh repeat that please? Sure. So um there was and I can go back to that slide. Um so the uh financial status of the companies was one of the factors that um the committee was considering under the general heading of experience where they're looking at I'm sorry I'm I'm speaking of cost because you said that um red speed was about 41% higher. That's that's correct. So they the proposers were submitting um a a fixed cost uh per installation. Um and under Redspeed's proposal, they were proposing a higher monthly rate for for each installation. Um term being used is as approach uh to to the traffic signal. um their monthly rate was higher than Veras was um with the result that there was about a fivepoint deficit um from their price proposal compared to Veras. Um and so for each of the scoring committee members uh they're receiving five fewer points in that category. So now are we are we sure that the proposal that Ver uh state uh presented has no additional financial uh concerns or some financial issues that may come up later on. So there there are some um elements that could have a cost element um that um vary between the proposers. Um and this was one of the issues that came up in Red Speed's appeal and and was considered by staff. um things like um if if there were costs from legal actions that took place um and and some other um uh things like serving as an expert witness in um proceedings involving specific violations. Um so there are aspects like that that could factor into cost at a later date. Um but these were features of the proposals that were considered under other headings uh where one proposer, you know, would would offer a service um at a a lower cost or no cost that the other wouldn't. Um so it it may it may impact cost and it it would be something that might affect price. Um but the way that the RFP was structured, it was just considered under a different category rather than than price scoring. if if that answers your question. Right. And and with the technology, um you say they were superior in the technology. Can you kind of uh describe what you know when you say superior in technology, do they have a better product that's more forwardlooking or are we getting something that may be obsolete? So the what the committee was mainly looking at and and kind of where that issue has centered is um there as I understand it there are two major ways that uh a speed camera can uh be triggered to um assess whether there's a violation ongoing. It can use LAR uh laser ranging or it can use radar uh with radar being something of an older technology. LAR being a newer technology. Um and in our RFP uh there was a statement that the city preferred but was not going to require that proposers um offer LAR technology rather than radar. Um in the course of the presentations um this was something that was discussed by uh the different vendors because Redspeed uh offered a LAR option. Uh Vera's option was radarbased. Um uh but the committee ultimately determined that because the radar was being supplemented by a secondary feature that improved its its accuracy and performance um that there was not a substantial difference in terms of what the ultimate performance would be between the two systems being considered. So, um, Redspeed did ultimately, uh, receive more points in, um, equipment because of that, in in part because of that response. Um, but ultimately it wasn't a significant enough variation in how the systems would perform uh, to to put them over the top. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Gray. Thank you, Mayor. I I prefer to save my questions. Can I get another bite of the apple after the Okay, I'll I'll hold off. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Then we will hear from Red Speed for 10 minutes. Uh thank you, Mayor uh council. I'm Greg Parks, representing Redspeed. It's a pleasure to be here. I've elected to go without our presentation as I was counseledled. might be viewed that our attorney put together as a little incendiary and uh that is not our intention. Uh we have great respect for the city staff and our competitors and simply want to state where we feel we're the best value. Uh Orlando has been on the forefront of photo enforcement protected your citizens and tourists and motorists longer than anyone at the state I believe. And I don't believe that lowest price is the goal based on my almost 20 years experience in meeting with elected officials uh in Orlando. So we want to stress that our approach is not a legalistic approach but you all as policy makers but you have the right to do if you choose to is to give the best value in protecting your school children and the visitors that traverse uh through your school zones. It is clearly stated again with all respect for everybody that responded that our technology is superior. Uh we're blessed to serve more school zones than every other vendor combined in Florida. Some of our uh customers are Hillsboro County, Miami date county and uh about 35 others. So uh it's been a good state for us. We've invested heavily in it and the superior technology we believe is generating superior results and safety. We've had the good fortune on our red light business to replace the the first ranked vendor a couple times in jurisdictions like Sarasota and Coral Gables and Hillsboro County. And we have noted significant increase in violations captured uh safety improvement more importantly based on the superior technology in a number of areas. Some of that is laser, some of it's all video. I also wanted to take a moment to stress one of the uh city's preferred qualifications was a infrared no flash strobe. Uh you've seen the strobes here now for over a decade. Uh I don't know we needed a scientific study for this but Florida State did put out a study and we've supplied copies to the clerk that the the flashes are dangerous as well as distracting and annoying. And we believe that's why the city made a preference for that along with laser which is generally regarded as superior. So we have some mild frustration that we provided something superior that we believe was specified and u you know are bad I guess but the the no flash is a serious benefit that we urge you all as policy makers to think of the benefit that it provides to your citizens. And again the all video which again we've seen that it is going to increase violations captured. I know you don't care about the money, but we are seeing less than a 10% repeat violator rate. So, if you get this a ticket with superior technology, you're not going to get a second one 90% of the time. So, there's great behavior modification in the school zones and your monitored approaches we think is valuable. And as far as the kind of the the gist of the day pricing, uh it is frustrating to me and I'm I'm coming to this as a very positive tone. Uh nothing's negative toward anybody that did any of their job working for the city who did the best they could. I know as I've worked with the city on many projects for a long time that some things that I don't believe price should carry that much weight in it. It's a safety program, but as far as determining the value that is building in that price category on the sheets, which to this point in the day, and I hope you'll reconsider, has swung the day for our worthy competitor. One of the big benefits to our price proposal was a concept called revenue neutrality. Uh Orlando is the only jurisdiction in the state that I'm aware of that is charging a flat fee, uh paying a flat fee to their vendor. And again, we're seeing over 90% reduction in violations in our programs at Georgia and Florida. And it is conceivable that the program could do so well, and that's a wonderful thing that you could pay more out to the vendor. Uh so the the the burden has been shifted to the taxpayers of Orlando from the vendor where our proposal and every other vendors. Uh the vendor bears all of that cost and risk. Uh, one of the things that was unaccounted for that your staff noted too was uh, relocation cost. There was a category on that. Uh, we noted where there was no cost to ours. Our great competitor noted to be to be determined. So, there's a lot of TBD that I don't think the pricing can be quantified enough to swing the day from a decidedly second ranking in technology and services. Another thing is that uh termination for convenience. Again, I think it probably the last thing I could ever think of happening that the Orlando City Council would terminate a program that's successful. But if you were to do that in our contract proposed in your RFP, there's no cost where again it was a TBD to be negotiated uh from our competitor. So the cost is unquantifiable. And from our perspective, we think that matrix of just filling in a a percentage to get to the scores uh difficult. And then lastly, kind of the elephant in the room. Um I worked with the city of Orlando quite a bit in the in the early 2000s, mid 2000s on the challenges to red light cameras, to photo enforcement. Orlando was on the forefront of leading that effort. those cases went all the way to the Florida Supreme Court and encouraged sign incur significant legal expenses. Um we have that law firm Weiss retainer on retainer and it was on our proposal that if there are challenges and I hope there aren't but if there are that the city has no out-of- pocket expense and I spoke with Serotaa prior to having the opportunity to come here today and that could easily be several hundred,000 uh in legal offenses if it would happen again there's no guarantee. So what our ask of you all today and very appreciative of the opportunity and the consideration. Uh your staff has noted that they believe we have a superior technology and service offering. We believe our price was misunderstood. Was some of that our fault? Possibly. but asking you not to consider it from a legalistic perspective and what's best for your constituents, for the school children and for the millions of tourists that traverse through these uh each year in your community. So, as policy makers, you have the opportunity to either ask for a redo, which axiomatically would get a better price from every vendor. Nobody's going to raise the price on a rebid or we're confident enough that we believe our with all due respect, our solution is superior and consider having both vendors perform services at some of the 20ome schools for a designated period. Competition benefits everybody. So again, not from a legalistic perspective, but what's best for your constituents. Uh we appreciate the opportunity to address you today. Quest questions. Okay, thank you. Commission Ortiz, we do have a question. Do I have a question? Mr. Park, um I keep hearing you saying superior technology and I and I think we're going to need a little bit of a understanding how these technologies work in order to have a better I guess a better way to deciding this uh this Salomon's uh deal here. Yes, thank you for the question uh councilman that um and I I in some way is is parody in your excellent staff who noted that it was the city's opinion our techn was a preference for laser uh I think axiomatically tease my word of the day I guess that um if the city is stating a preference for it they're not going to state a preference for uh inferior technology uh laser is more expensive to procure it is newer technology and uh it does have a narrower beam. Radar works absolutely, but laser as specified is a superior solution. And then secondarily, as I mentioned, we use all video cameras uh to capture the alleged violation uh where our great competitor uses a combination of steel cameras and video. And that's in these places where we've been blessed to replace them, Hillsboro County, Coral Gable, Sarasota, at the same monitored locations, violations have gone up. And again, not about the money, about improving behavior. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Other questions? Commissioner Gray. Thank you. I'll ask the same question to the to the applicant, but um I'm still trying to to grab what what's the approximate cost in your opinion of doing a site? We have 26 of them, I believe, we've identified. So, I'll ask you the same question I will ask them. Uh what what in your estimate is is the kind of average cost for doing one of these? Approximately a h 100,000. Councilman, there are variables. The largest expense in in Florida these days is the permitting and construction. Construction costs are very high in Florida for all vendors. And then there's the equipment on top of that. I would say slightly under that, but it'd be bumping up against that with the laser, the video cameras, the poles, etc. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We will hear from Vera Mobility. Hello. Thank you, mayor, commissioners. Um, I thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. Um, I think, um, Commissioner Ortiz, you kind of hit it on the head. We're we're hearing superior a lot. Superior. You want to introduce yourself? I'm sorry. Wayne Jenkins with Vera Mobility. I think we've heard superior several times, and I I like to dig in on that. When we're talking about laser versus radar, laser is more it's more of a pinpoint mechanism where yes, maybe it's better for a police officer to be holding the laser to be pinpointing a vehicle and capturing that individual speed. With radar, as referenced previously, it's a wider beam. We're capturing up to six lanes of traffic. And I consider it a net being cast across the roadway. So we could capture all those vehicles, monitor the speed, monitor their actions on the roadway as they're passing through. Secondly, laser and radar, a big difference is the way that they perform in inclement weather. And when you I've I've been I've worked for other companies where they use laser and when they hit those particles because we live in Orlando or we're here in the city of Orlando there's rain there's um there's um there's all kinds of different weather conditions and rain primarily that we come across and those laser beams when they hit that inclement weather when they hit a raindrop it can falsely identify a violation and you can have an instance we were talking about having a strobe it could cause the strobe to constantly go off and almost look like a a disco ball. Whereas, if you have a radar, the radar is not impacted by the weather. If it's raining, it's still capturing those violations. It's still monitoring those roadways and ensuring that those violations are being captured to ensure that your roadways are safer. If we think about it, when when are children most in or at the biggest risk or when are drivers at the biggest risk of losing control of their vehicle or something occurring? When there's rain on the road or when there's inclement weather or there's um or there's mist or whatever it may be that's making it hard to drive or decipher what's occurring on the roadway. In those instances, that's when you most need a radar camera system to be out there and capture those violations. I I I've I've heard yes we've come in and we've taken this project or I know some projects that haven't been taken from us and these are the projects that I consider city of Orlando to be comparable to because you're influential and you're a large city the New Yorks the Chicago speed programs the Washington DC program our nation's capital Baltimore city if you look at all the large jurisdictions that have speed enforcement they're leveraging our camera system and are using a radar solution radar based capturing those violations. To also add another level of complexity to further debunk the superiority um conversations that are being had, we have what's called secondary speed validation. And secondary speed validation for every violation that occurs, it is doing a secondary analysis. It's taking one image and then showing the displacement between the first image and the second image and using time over distance. that it's looking at that violation and saying, could the vehicle have gone from point A to point B at the speed that our radar is saying it traveled and then it does an analysis. If it falls within the parameters, yes, it could have occurred, then we approve that violation. If it did not, we're throwing it out. So again, that's a secondary step that ensures that our radar camera system is functioning the way it's intended to work. And then if we're And then I also heard about um the strobe. We have we have three different options and we've gone to the LED strobe because it it lowers the intensity of the um of the strobe but also captures the violation that you're looking to capture. If if if there was a um desire to go infrared, we have that capability as well. The reason we shy away from infrared and a lot of our clients do because I've had clients ask about it, but when you look at infrared, it distorts the colors that are caught in the images. So a a purple vehicle may look a little red or whatever the variance may be. So there are factors that are impacted by infrared. And why is that important? Because when we have a violation that we send to a police officer or is reviewed and then it goes out to a citizen, we want to ensure that there's no confusion or no guesswork on their end. I want them to open up the violation and say, "Hey, I was I I did something I shouldn't have done. I'm going to learn from this because I've me speeding puts others at risk and yes, I made that mistake and I'm going to pay my violation and I'm going to move on. I do not want them to say, "Hey, that doesn't look like me. Maybe I should protest or appeal this violation." And and to that point, appeals, we haven't touched on this a lot, but when we mail something out, the citizens have the ability to log in and see a 10 to 12 second video clip of what transpired. We're not going to provide a short segment. We want them to see exactly what transpired. And then in in addition to the photo enforcement and being able to capture those violations, they're going to see the blinking strobes in the video. So it's there's no guesswork as to where were the strobes on where was it school time or should the sorry the speed have been different. No, you see the strobes. You know a violation occurred. You know that we were enforcing the proper speed at the proper time and there's no guesswork. We do not want a police officer or anyone representing a pro a project showing up and having to hope that maybe they don't show up to for the appeal or hoping that they're they don't they don't encounter something that could throw off whether a violation truly occurred there. You will whoever represents the city will walk in knowing that a violation occurred. They have our violation package that shows yes these are all the parameters, video, images, everything. and a citizen had the opportunity to look at them too and then they can move forward and uphold the violation. So when I'm looking at this, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity. There there were other vendors that were um that bid on this opportunity, but none of them were industry leaders. Industry leader is thrown around. Industry leader is the company that has the most speed camera systems on the roadway in the country. That is Vera Mobility. industry leader is the company that is managing every large city and hopefully based on the selection committee's decision. We're doing the same for here city of Orlando after today and we are we are a company that takes pride in what we do and we look forward to the opportunity to team with you. So thank you for this time and I appreciate it. Questions commissioner. Yes sir. Thank you for coming. I'd ask you the same question. Do you agree with the cost per zone plus or minus 100,000? I I think 100,000 is high based on the work that would be done to be honest with you, but I'm I'm honest. Right. You you're going it's going to fluctuate. The pro the reason being, right? You don't know where where the is it going to be concrete where we're going to be putting the poles? Will it be grass? Will we have to run conduits across roadways or are we going to have a power support on source that's already there? There's always so many variables that impact the um the cost associated with the installation of a camera. That's why I it's I you know some during a procurement process you have some companies that come in and they say I'm going to put a camera in the ground get all the cameras in in three three weeks three months whatever the timeline might be that that it's it's naive to make a a a far sweeping comment like that because there's so many variables that are included in the installation and those variables are what drive the cost as well. I heard permits reference that is a timeconsuming process but when it comes to the cost it's variable. Got it. And and it look well I guess the question followup to that is for your investment per site how long does it usually take you all to recover that investment that I do I do not know the number the number of days or time. Um we normally it's typical that you do a 5-year contract. The reason for that is to recoup the investment over time associated with the project. So that's why normally I I'll tell you that five-year um programs with the fixed fee is customary and and that's that's why they go in that direction. Okay. The reason I ask you you do a little research. I think most of the sources I saw say you should be recovering your money within two years. And so that is another question I have for staff later. But thank you very much. That's the only one I I would love it if we could. That'd be great. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, other questions. Yes. Uh, back to the to to the technology. So, uh, you mentioned laser and radar and radar has the ability to, I think in your words, uh, work across six lanes. Yeah. So, are you saying that laser can only do one? What's the difference between if if radar can do the six lanes? You're saying laser is pinpointed and you would miss something? Yeah. Laser has a laser has a smaller thinner beam whereas radar has a wider beam that's cast across the whole roadway. Um there are different laser solutions. There's scanning laser there's or single pinpoint pinpointing. That's why for some solutions you see like five six camera systems right on within uh one location. So that will drive up cost. If you have to put six cameras out to capture six lanes of traffic versus us having one camera system that allows you to capture all of the lanes of traffic that you're trying to monitor, that's a price variable. I don't I do not I can't speak for what my competitors why they priced the way they did. All we did is we followed the rules of the procurement. We made sure that we captured all of our costs knowing that our radar solution which has secondary speed validation is comparable or and meets all the criteria that's required for this project and projects across the country. That solution was what we priced and we made sure that we provided that pricing and and provide a favorable price to the city of Orlando. And so now the laser is a newer technology. Laser has been around for a long time as well. I can tell you. So I mean compared to the radar in this in this in this situation in this segment. No, I've I I um I deployed laser on a project eight years ago. So I question how much newer laser technology is. But what I can't question is how far radar has come with secondary speed validation. And so the future of all of this, do you see the future being radar or laser or still a combination? No, I I've been in the industry for 20 plus 20 20 years. I I think it's going to be a mixture of both. I think it'll be greater. I So I know of a project where they were not capturing it was an interstate project. They were not capturing speeds using laser at over 65 70 miles per hour. Whereas a project that we have an interstate project, we're capturing um vehicles going over 130 miles per hour. What I can also tell you is is that laser or is that radar? because there's a lot of variables that go into both. Are you are you c and that's where the expertise comes in, right? Are you setting the the camera system low on the roadway so it's only capturing the near lane when another vehicle is passing by at a higher speed on the outside lane. In those instances, you should have a pole where you're getting a better um line of sight. Are you setting it up on a curve or can your camera system not handle capturing violations on a curve? There's just so many variables and that's why not to right I've been doing this for a long time. Our company's been doing it longer than me. We're leaders in the industry. And those are the types of things that we come out and we assess. We do site evaluations. We make sure that your camera is in the right location to again capture those strobes showing that the lights are blinking, that enforcement is in um session, that there's children that could be present, that anyone's life matters, and we're ensuring that safety occurs on those roadways. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Ortiz. My next question is for staff. Any other questions for Mr. Jenkins? I guess staff questions. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. And sorry for forgetting to say my name. I just got a little excited. So, thank you. Not a problem. Mitch, you want to come back up? Maybe Mr. Jim Young want to step up to the plate. Okay Commissioner. Thank you, sir. Mr. Young has ample experience in this particular field. He was with the police department for many many years and as a matter of fact his expertise was in that particular field in traffic. So um the question is have we have we tested both well we I know that we have tested um vera mobility because u mobility am I correct um because it's the one we have for the for the stuff but have we tested um the red speed system I'm sorry commissioner just tested like tested as has we tested we have actually um because when they do the presentations it's all visuals and and and maybe videos I don't know I wasn't there but u it's all theory right and and then uh so I was wondering if we have tested compare given like I don't know a week or two weeks for them to to see how these systems work physically so we can see the operations have we done any of Yeah, as as the I was the chairperson of the committee and um you know they we were guided by the RFP uh what was in the RFP as well as uh when they uh conducted their presentations to us. Um but I know all factors were considered and the scoring by the committee. Um so that's where we kind of ended up. Um it'd be challenging for to ask a company to go set up something that could cost them, you know, up, you know, a lot of money to set it up for a test program. Uh that's why we didn't do any infield testing. We rely on what the RFP uh specifies. This is this is pretty interesting because it's it's two um advanced systems and um and even a gentleman from Vera Mobility says that both when when Commissioner um Burns Burns I'm sorry my brother Burns asked which was the future he said both laser and and radar are systems that we will see in the future. So I was wondering um if testing them I know that it's pretty expensive but then what would be the chances maybe uh splitting the uh the baby here and see how how we can see this working. uh not to answer that specific question, but with the with the different technologies like you said, Commissioner, you know, my experience uh you know, almost almost 40 years in law enforcement as a whole, a lot of that time spent in uh traffic enforcement um utilizing both uh both technologies. Um radar and laser are both still widely used in the law enforcement field uh to this day. I know the Orlando Police Department as well as most police agencies still use both technologies. It does depend on the circumstances on which way you're trying to use it where laser is normally used from a stationary fixed position and radar is used uh can be used from either a fixed position or a mobile position. Uh so it's usually attached into police vehicles. So while you're in motion you can still capture uh other speeding vehicles. Um so both technologies are still acceptable technologies. The courts have accepted both technologies. Um, and it depends on, you know, when it when it goes to a court, uh, how the your your certifications, um, as well as your testimony into saying that you have the right vehicle at that speed and what technology was used at that speed. Gotcha. Gotcha. Thank you, boss. Appreciate it. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Rose, it's been mentioned, I guess, two or three times so far about splitting. What would splitting the contract look like? I can leave that up to I can address that. Um, unfortunately, at this point, it's not um really a viable option to split the contract. Um the way that the RFP um prop proposed the service was for the uh collection of um of approaches um and you know it's it's set out the scoring system uh to be used to uh to assess that um on on some of the case law that we've reviewed um making a change to material terms of of the RFP or the basis for um determining uh the recipient of the award um would would be something that wouldn't really follow the the available procurement law. And so that's the reason why the um the options that we presented are either to um terminate this one and and go back to the drawing board or u to approve the staff recommendation. So when did the procurement laws change in the CRA? when the CRA homes were built, uh, RL Burns was awarded the contract, but when it came to council, it was split between RM Burns and another contractor. And, and there are certain solicitations where we can do that. Um, usually the RFP has terms in it saying that uh the city may award it to one or more um and then come up with some kind of a a principled distinction between um you know one uh one vendor that uh is receiving a certain type because they you know meet the criteria for that category over the other and then another vendor is given another category. Um, for this one, we we really don't have any distinction between the locations where the cameras are going to be installed, uh, where where that could be done. Um, and so there's not a a criterion uh, in the RFP where we can kind of draw a dividing line. Um, and that decision wouldn't be departing from the the criteria that we've established. Are you done? Commissioner Commissioner Gray, thank you. I think I think I may have another question for uh Jim or the staff. Apologize. I was asked to kind of clarify your question, Commissioner. The um in this type of environment for this type of program, it would be very challenging to split um because now you're dealing with two enforcement systems. It'd almost be like having two police departments do the same type of job within your jurisdiction as far as that would be concerned. So it' be a little bit challenging to go with two because one the citizens well I got a ticket under this technology. I got a ticket from this company. I got a ticket from this. It it could create a lot of uh confusion and disparity and may also create uh citizens appealing more violation notices uh than with other type of programs. I know and I've sat on committees before that have awarded two contracts. Um but in this situation I think it would create some challenges uh by going with two different systems. And if I could just step into Tanya Wilder, director of transportation. Um another plausible solution could be um when we did the analysis we had to establish what uh schools had school zones and so there are currently 26 areas that we've identified. But we are going to be in the future putting in the um necessary um traffic calming devices and things that will establish school zones within the districts which then could open up more opportunity for uh school speed cameras. But but Tanya, but would that open opportunity for another or new people not to have two vendors? Because I think what Jim is saying having two vendors causes causes an issue. Yeah, that could cause a conflict. But for this established 26 areas, I mean that could be an opportunity because we are um looking at our school um our um excuse me, our red light cameras as well. And so, so Jim, in your in your assessment having the same vendor for the red light in the school, is that a positive or can we be in a a a situation where you have different vendors for red light and different vendors for the school? That would be perfectly fine, Commissioner. Yes. for because red light is a different program. Red lights aren't speed controlled, aren't under the and they were those are awarded under the red light RFP and I know there will be a new red light RFP as well where the school zones are a separate RFP different uh different criteria for what they need to meet. So correct and in the future if there are separate then we would have a separate RFP for those school zones which may offer those opportunities. But I think for one RFP that went out based upon the ordinance that was passed, it'd be important to keep them under one company. But however, the red light program and this program do not need to be the same companies. And hold on, Commissioner. It was Commissioner Gray this question. Oh, fine. Um Jim, question for you. Uh more on the financial support of whoever we choose. Um, I noticed in the criteria in the RFP there's seven scoring categories and unless I misread it, not one talked about the financial wherewithal and ability of the vendor. And I'm curious why. That would probably be a procurement question. So, I'll let him answer that. And and it it's a a little bit of a misnomer the way it's laid out in that in that spreadsheet. Uh, because there's a um category for proposers experience. Um but uh kind of further back in the in the longer solicitation um one of the components of that experience category is financial status and that's where the procurement calls out reviewing the Dun and Brad Street reports and other uh financial information about the the companies that are share with me the other financial information because hopefully we didn't make a decision based on a D&B report. Right. That's right. Um I I believe that the presentations had other information about you know the companies. Well, counselor, with all due respect, I'm asking that question. If you don't know, perhaps Jim or Tanya knows what what was the financial criteria for selecting any one of the vendors, not just, you know, not just Vera, any of them. What did we do? And the frustrating part for me is when you guys came to me to say, Gray, we're going to issue this RFP. What's important to you? One of the very first things I said to you is let's make sure the vendor or vendors we select have the financial wherewithal to do this. This initial um again using plus or minus 100,000 the initial contracts 2.6 million and we're just getting started. So we need to have a vendor that's strong. So a as the committee scoring this what kind of criteria did we look at? So as the committee I know that we looked at we listened to the reports we took it into their experience um overall as well as their pricing. Um I know pricing is a separate category in the procurement system. We as the committee don't choose the categories um and the scoring categories. It's a procurement process category system as to how they choose the categories in which they're scored. So we scored once we heard the DMB reports and things like that. And in all actuality, Commissioner, it actually gave Red Speed more opportunity to show that because of the um ability that they operate as a company as a whole, not just as Red Speeded Florida. Because had they just been awarded as Red Speed Florida, had we moved with that first vote, they they may have come in last out of all five at that point. Just again, I'm not trying to compare one vendor to the other. I'm just saying as general when we score this, it appears that with short of a D&B report, we really didn't do a lot of diligence on the financial wherewithal. If I'm wrong, tell me, educate me. Yeah. Um, I know I've sat on several committees uh for RFPs. I know this is standard procedure for, you know, to be presented with a DMB report. Um, and that's normally what we're presented with. Um, and all I can say is we based on the information we had. The difference I see in this one though is that there's a little bit more liability, which we've experienced in the red light side of this equation. In this side, there's more liability. You're in school zones, you're you issuing citations. If we don't have a good strong vendor that's there to support us, we have some issues. So that was my first question and source of frustration because we talked about this before we ever issued the RFP. And um then the second part is the the term of this. Um now I don't know how long it takes exactly. I'm not in the business to recover the investment, but the term of this is a five-year term with a five up to five one-year extensions. Do we Why did we decide we needed to pick somebody for a 10-year term on this? I'm I'm not sure. Do you want to add a procurement or time? It's the investment of um what they're putting into uh for the school zone cameras, the investment into the ground for the poles. I mean, I think it's similar to the red light camera system. It it's it takes a long time for for to implement the infrastructure and then to be able to have that program working in that manner. So, I mean, we we pretty much modeled it, I would say, after the red light cameras. Okay. Well, it just seems to me again in this area, technology is going to change so rapidly over a at least a five, if not a 10-year period. I'm I wish we would not have gone quite as far. My frustration in all of this, and I'll shut up, is you guys come and ask us for our opinions, we give them to you, and then you guys issue an RFP that doesn't address what we talked about, and now you're asking us to vote on things without good good background and information. So, um I'm I'm frustrated by that part. Um because it appears, nothing against Veric, could have been any of them. We don't really know the financial wherewithal. They're a public company. If you look them up, they're uh less than investment grade credit. Doesn't mean they're a bad company, but it's less than investment grade. So, it's not like we have the strongest financial partner. Um maybe they're the best in the lot. I don't know. But um you know their their credit rating by a standard POS is double B minus. That's not investment grade. So um that's the frustrating part for me is we're issuing RFPs and we're asking for stuff that I'm not sure it's the most important, at least not to me. So, um, I I'm I'm struggling with this one just because I think we're committing long term to a group that we really don't know and technology is going to change and we're hoping that vendor will be in a position to change. Thank you, Mayor. Now you're up, Commissioner Barnes. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Um, and if Jim could come, I know you were on the uh you're the chairman, so I I just want to get this straight. So the my understanding the RFP states that a preference would be given for laser and for flashless strobes that no uh it basically in the RFP it just mentions that this city prefers that technology doesn't mean it's guaranteed or anything like that. Um and for the flashing strobes I think there might have been some confusion. So where um Vera Mobility when they talked about uh what the strobes they're actually capturing are the school zone flashing beacons is what their cameras are capturing versus I believe Redspeed did not show that they actually captured uh those beacons um and uh it's important that those beacons were captured. Right. So, so again, so the RFP said we prefer laser it and and and so then my question is if there was a if you preferred laser, was there any additional consideration given because uh they responded with what was a preference or what was preferred in the RFP. Yes. And I believe as Mitch explained was that uh most of the committee members did score them higher in their technology and equipment. Um but once again it came down to I believe the costs for those um per location. Can I clarify that somewhat for you? So Ray, introduce yourself. Uh my name is uh Ray Rodriguez. I'm the operations manager for the city of Orlando land stops. So I'm on an operational side of it and management and division side of it. But the RFP for the most part as far as what we were looking for was written by me. So your question is is what's the pre why why do we have we prefer laser? Is that is that what you're asking? Yeah. Yeah. That's one. Well, one the question was, did the RP say that we preferred laser? Yes. And then when someone responds with laser, were there additional uh considerations or points or how did we acknowledge them providing something that we prefer? I can't speak on that because I was not a committee member, but I can speak on as far as being an expert in this subject matter. So, laser, let's say you have six lanes of traffic like the gentleman said, right? There's a there's a couple of ways you could you can come about. You can go ahead and put one laser in each individual lane, okay? At a steady point, at a fixed point. So when a vehicle travels through that laser, it identifies your speed, right? So let's say there's a vehicle is ahead of another one, there's another one that's way behind. Once you pass that fixed point, wherever that fixed point is, it identifies your speed. Or you can have a laser that basically scans, right? The difference I can't say what the committee did or didn't do but the difference is is that with what one of the vendor has okay it's not laser so it's radar but not only do they have radar and I don't want to speak on their behalf but what they what they testified today was that they also have something that's called time over distance and that's the same technology that we have in red light camera when it first started out back in 2008. So you have a a fixed point, right? Then you take another fixed point ahead of it. Let's say it's 10 ft apart. When the vehicle hits that first fixed point, the camera says, "Whoa, there's somebody there." When it hits a second one, it goes, "Hey, it took them two ten of a second to get to the second one." Then it identifies the speed. There's no better way to than than to identify the speed of a vehicle than two fixed points. The fact that a vendor has a fixed point on top of a a radar that more than likely is going to sway somebody to go, "Wait a minute, there's a backup to that." And there's no better backup than to have two fixed points. And so with the lasers, there's no backup like that that the other vendor has in place. No, not that not that they not that they went and and and and showed us anything of that matter. Um, like I said, and there was something else that was brought up by one of the vendors that's that's basically standard operating in the industry is raindrops. It'll distort it. Light will distort it. You know, when you have the sun that's that's coming up, it will distort the laser, but not the radar. It will distort the the the laser, not the radar. Okay. Okay. And now there was a there was a mention of um I think it was Red Speed saying that they have full video if if I'm correct full video and Vera Mobility saying they have a combination of steel and video is there a you know from your expertise is there a a a more superior arrangement all video or video and steel and if so what what what would that yield? Well, I don't want to talk specifically about about what each of them have. I'm just gonna I'm going to hint to to to what to what they have. Um, so if you have a video camera, in today's world, everybody watches football and so forth, right? So, a video camera that's that that that's a video, you can go ahead and grab, so let's say it's shooting 30 frames per second. You can grab one of those frame and stop it to see if the person was actually out or safe, right? We've all seen that. We've seen it in football. They they'll move back the frame. and so forth. On video, you can actually move back the frame and and see if the vehicle actually uh was behind the line when the light was in was in fact amber or red. So, you can move the video along and go, "Okay, this is the best image I can get." Maybe because there's a vehicle that's blocking the tag, so you need that video to advance so you can see the tag so you can identify the vehicle. So, laser, I'm sorry, um uh the video camera has that advantage. Now, I'm not gonna say who what has what I think they all do. It's pretty standard throughout the industry that they have they grabbing everything from video. Of course, there's a financial reason for that and that reason is because it's cheaper to put a video up there and let it run all day, you know, and then you can grab whatever frames you want from as opposed to having a still a steel camera up there in the heat and so forth. They don't want to do that. The other thing is when you have a still image, you need a strobe. You need some type of device that's going to illuminate the situ that's going to illuminate the the scene. Now, ambient light in the daytime, of course, is going to produce that, right? But at night, not so much. But now with with with video, you can increase the ISO, which is the international um way of uh remember back in the day when I was a kid, there was 800 ISOs and there was 400s and there was 200s and there was 100s. So this that that is the ISO is the sensitivity that it has to the ambient light. the higher that number. Right now there it's well over 6 640,000. So by you increasing the ISO, it introduces more more light into the videos not needing a strobe. Yeah. And and I'm and I'm sorry I and I'm not going to profess to really understand exactly what you what you just said, but with the with the video cuz you mentioned that um them having the backup, you know, being able to go from one point to another. Does the video take away that need to have those two points? I'm not sure the question, but I will say this. Um well, wait, wait, no. Let me let me say it again so you can understand. So you mentioned that there was a uh uh Vera Mobility has the backup system. They have the the radar and then they have time over distance. Time over distance. Does the video get rid of the need for the time of a distance because you have the entire video. That's my question. Well, the time of distance really is really about speed, not not about video you wouldn't be able to video you wouldn't be able to determine the speed. Right. Video is really for for for the quality of of of of the imaging. Okay. Time over speed is over to identify the vehicle speed when we're talking speed cameras. Right. Right. Okay. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Sheen. You mind if I ask a question because it's direct followup to Commissioner Burns before I go to you? Oh, yeah. I have I have a question. No, I said, "Do you mind if I ask because it's direct?" Oh, no. I don't mind at all that. Go ahead, Ray. So, you wrote the RFP, right? Yes. Okay. Does Vieierie's technology meet the criteria of the RFP? Yes, it does. And does red zones. Okay. So, you put me in a position. Well, all right. So, red speed. So, red speed, sorry. So, one of the things that was a requirement of the RFP was that and it was mentioned before at this meeting was that the the beacon light that pretty much has to is standard in in school zones, right? Beacon light, everybody's everybody knows them. The beacon light has to be visible in the video. Okay? So, when you look at a video, you're going to see the beacon flashing, right? As long as it's within those time frames here in the morning and then when they're discharging the kids, you're going to see that beacon flashing. You go, "Wow, the beacon is flashing. Look at that." The So, Red Speed does not have that feature. What they have is a sensor that is placed on the roadway, whether it's through laser, whatever, but it it that sensor signals to the camera to go ahead and activate, right? You're not going to see the the actual beacon flashing, but you will know that it's activated because of that sensor. But what happens with that is is that since we're in the camera business, right, why can't you show me the beacon since we're in the camera business? So, that's a that's that's also a big deal. I'm just trying to simplify this. Does Viera's methodology fit the criteria that was specified in the RFP. Yes absolutely. So, as I understand, Red Zone's argument is their technology is better, so we had to throw them out, but their technology fits what you asked for in the RFP, right? So, does so so let's go to the to the latter part, the second part. Does their technology meet what what I wrote in the RFP? Yes. It's deficient in the fact that it does not show the the the strobe in the Oh, wait. does Vieieras. Oh, Vieierie. Yes, it does satisfy that. Sufficient. It is sufficient. Now, as far as Red Speed, it does not have that strobe in the video. Okay. Well, I don't think I have to get to red zones if I believe that Vieira has met the criteria within the RFP. Yes, they have. And is the better price for us? Absolutely. Because the argument, as I understand that was made by Red Zone, is they're technology is so more superior that we ought to throw Vieiraa out just because the radar doesn't work or I'm sorry doesn't work doesn't isn't as good as what their product is right I heard that too I don't know where that came from but um on some applications it's good to have a when when you're talking about a human being you're holding a a laser you can you can you can look at the video at you look at the at the at the vehicle and pointing at it and it'll give you a speed, but we don't have a human. Okay, let's just simplify it again. Vieier's product meets what you asked for in the RFP. Yes, it does, sir. Okay, Mr. Sheen, thank you, mayor. Thank you for clarifying that because that was my that was what I was going to say is that the video shows the beacons and you have to have the beacons in there to be able to show that this the school zone was active. Exactly. So that was my So even though it might not have been written that way, the committee took that into into consideration when they made their decision because they're experts on it. And that's my concern is that if we make a different determination than the experts that we have trusted with this process and they can they considered all of these factors, we are undermining that committee process. So it sounds to me like we are changing the criteria after the fact. So, and I don't want to get to that point where we're inviting these challenges because David Billingsley's letter, if everyone who had read that in the packet addressed every one of those questions very succinctly. So, I want to say that after having read his letter and having listened to this testimony today, I think that we should go with the committee's recommendation. Is that a motion? That is a motion, mayor. Thank you. So, your motion is to deny the appeal and move forward with the um recommendation of the committee. Yes, mayor. It is. Is there a second? Then I'll second it. Okay. Discussion. Yes sir. Mr. Gray. Yeah. Um Ray, since you did the RFP, I have a question for you. Um because while you say this, I'm looking at the RFP page 10 number four. The city prefers a system which uses laser laser imaging detection and ranging LAR technology right out of your RFP. Yes. you got one vendor that that is awarded this that did not do that and you said you've made allocation for that. Then in number six right behind this is finally the city prefers systems which do not utilize strobe devices or flash and which do not require the installation of flood lights. So if I'm a respondent to this RFP and you've told me in two spots you want LAR and you don't want flash. Well that's a preference. It's not a shall it's not it's not has to have. It's a preference if they in not require the installation of flood lights. Maybe I'm missing that one. No. So So what that means is as far as the flood lights is, it means that you can't go up and and and erect flood lights to better the the the ambient uh light so you can get a better quality video is what is what that's referring to. Okay. Like you got to go with existing lights. Well, I'm I since we're in discussion phase, I I think the RFP was poorly written. With all due respect, I know we do a good job on some. This one to me is very ambiguous and I don't think it was a fair field for both sides. I wish there was a way we could figure out how to, you know, split it because there's a lot more down the road. You know, the notion of doing uh another vendor on the next 26 puts us right back in the soup that Jim said that you've got two different vendors doing different things. So, what difference does it make if you split it now or you split it later? Um, I don't understand why we can't have a standard system that vendors either can do or they can't do. And if they can't do it, it's okay. We'll catch you on the next one. But I just feel like this RFP was was not very succinct. Put it that way. Yeah. May I I I make a motion. Motion's on the floor. All right. I'll wait. Commissioner Ortiz. I was just going to second grade motion. Okay. Further discussion. Commissioner Stewart. Mayor, let me express a couple things. And and I say this kindly because I'm probably the only guy on this street on this DS that actually has traffic experience. But I do want to make a couple of comments real quickly. Um uh Florida statute 28612 addresses voting conflicts which require abstension and the appearance of a possible conflict of interest which allows for an extension. Two matters currently before the council. This 15A and 15B involve an appeal for from a uh recommended award speed for speed school speed stone cameras and therefore an award later on. I want to make sure everybody understands my son works as a lobbyist for the Gray Robinson law firm. Orlando law firm that is the lobbyist for one of the propo of the proposers. My son has not been involved in this matter, nor would he ever be involved in lobbying the city of Orlando. So, I have been advised by our city's attorneys that I have actually no conflict of interest and could proceed on a vote on this matter. Because of the controversial nature of this appeal and the award, however, and because there could be an appearance of a possible conflict of interest, not an actual conflict of interest, I'm going to abstain from voting. And therefore, that's why I have abstained from offering in my opinion. I do have one and I will share with you later on if this if I have the opportunity to do that. I'm doing this because the importance of this program to me and to school safety, the importance of resolving the appeal promptly and moving forward with this project as quickly as we can and to remove any potential for further controversy related to this council on this council action. Mr. Mayor, I filed the paperwork with the clerk uh and that's the reason why I have not been involved in this conversation um and would encourage uh would would would live with the um uh the wisdom of this council uh and would want us to move as quickly as we possibly can to make sure kids are safe on our streets. Thank you, mayor. Okay. So, you're abstaining. I'm abstaining. Further discussion then on the motion um all in favor of the motion indicates so by saying I I that's three uh all oppose the motion say nay nay. So 33 looks like you'd have been the deciding vote there, commissioner. You've uh already taken yourself out, which I think was uh the right thing to do, quite honestly. Okay. Then does somebody have an alternative motion to uphold the appeal and uh throw out the award of the um to the air mobility and start over as you're looking down this way? Yeah. Well, I voted no. I would make a motion that we revisit the RFP with all due haste and make sure it's a little more specific uh and and has specific criteria of what we want and judge it accordingly. I second. All right. Then your motion is to uphold the appeal and to decline to make an award of the contract and direct the chief procurement officer to cancel the RFP. Is that your motion? Yes, sir. Could be 33. Okay. Yeah. I don't know what happens then. All in favor indicate so by saying I. I suppose. No. How did you vote? Commissioner Rose. No. I think so. Jody, what do we do here? I'll be crazy enough to put in motions on the board. No, I'd like to make a statement. So, um, our kids safety are at risk here. This process has been long, um, has been long awaited. Um, we've talked about this. This is something that I think this is one of the first things I voted on last year when I got elected. Um, it's just been a a really long process. I think we go back to the drawing board and then we find ourselves back here again. Then what? Right. I think the RFP was as was written as is. A preference is a preference. Whether you say yay to something, nay to something, you should add this, you should add that. You look at uh we cannot sit down and challenge what our staff does, the experts, the ones who are working daytoday, especially Rey who work daytoday with our operations in different in variety of fields. That's like saying to uh Corey, you poured that concrete the wrong way. That was part of your RFP. Well, we should have had concrete put it. I think when we have experts in a field that we hire to do a job, they sit on a committee, they look at what our what our specific needs are and and red light cameras have been a controversial in this state for a really long time. So, you have an expert um who put the packet together. He did not even sit on the committee. And so for the committee members to make a vote and to rank a project the way they see fit based on what our needs are as well as the way the criteria are. No matter what you do, you're going to get more points in one area versus another points. If we look at a holistic package, if a person scored better, um that's what we should go with who scores the best there there is appeal process. I don't know that. I think from what I heard and I could be totally wrong, laser is the only thing I specifically heard that stood out with the appeal because it was a preference. It was not like that's a preference. It's like I I you know when we do mural when we go put out um call to artist, I may say I want like I prefer to have this but that doesn't mean that if it's not part of that mural, I'm not going to choose that. I'm not going to choose that rendering. So I think that's what we really need to look at. I think it we're going to look at a months months of drawing our process. we could find ourselves back here in the same exact place. And I think what that does do for me, it really, and I'm gonna be honest, being a former employee, it really sends more a horrible morale signal as a council member to our employees that we don't trust the decisions that they're making with ranking and with overall and with the processes of function and how our city should function. So, that's what I would say. Sorry. Amen sister. Sorry. If if I could, and I understand that, that's that's fair. That's why we're elected, right? not to seconduess staff, to work with staff, and then we ultimately make the decisions, right? That's why we're here. If if that wasn't the case, why would we ever do an appeal? Whatever staff said, we just rubber stamp it and move on. So, I respect staff. They're very good at what they do. But in this one, I just felt like there's a lot of areas that weren't addressed, and I don't think it was a fair playing field. That's all I'm saying. You're right. We need to get this going. It's we're behind the curve. No doubt about that. Um, but I I I just think we need to do it right. You're talking about what could be a 10-year contract. That's a long time. So, let's make sure we get it right. That's all I'm saying. If it was a if it was a six-month or one-year contract, maybe it's different. But this is a long-term contract. I think we should spend the time to do it right. And if they come out on top again, great. But let's make sure we have the playing field. That That's where I feel on this one. As a council, we can make amendments to it. we can make amendments to a contract. So if we said that there's a part in the um the RFP that we or the contract that we'd like to strike, we can strike that as a council, we can vote and say, "Hey, instead of it being a 10 year, we would like to look at five year and then reevaluate." So I think rather than scrapping something, going back to the table, getting finding ourselves in the same place. If there are specific parts of the contract that you don't agree with, we can address that. Okay, here's what we're going to do. So Jody, I'm a lawyer, too. And so the motion to uphold the appeal failed. So the appeal has failed. Right? You agree with that? Yes sir. So the um action is that the appeal wasn't successful. So we can move on to the award of the contract. I'm going to say that we table the the ruling that the award of the appeal or the appeal was not successful and we would move on to the contract. But I sense that the vote on that would be 33 as well. So I'm going to suggest we table that item um and bring it up at the next meeting and we'll just see whether what we want to do from there. Everybody agreeable to that? Got six votes for that consensus. Shake of heads. Yes. Okay. Without objection, we'll table the other item. All right. Everybody know where we are even if they don't necessarily agree with it. Okay. Okay. That concludes the uh agenda business of the Orlando City Council today. Fortunately, we have general appearance left to do. So Ed, would you get us in position to do general appearance? [Music] [Music]