2016-1020 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting October 20,2016 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida whatever you can to ensure that the laws that you enacted are complied with rather than abused. Public Speakers: Michael Clark, Esq.; Michael Thomas, Esq. Vice Mayor Gatto said requesting and then allowing it are two different things, and she is under the impression that we approved maybe six (6) extensions out of seventeen(17)that were asked,is that correct? City Manager Russo said yes it is but he would have Deputy City Manager Stan Morris who is handling this whole issue with the City Attorney's Office,this year as it relates to the Amani Casa project, and so he would direct any questions to him. Vice Mayor Gatto said okay she just doesn't want to paint a picture that we are not cognizant of what is going on,we don't care what is going on. And then we did reduce Saturdays and Sundays. Mr. Clark said he appreciates that and if his information is poor he apologizes, in some instances it has been not so easy to get information. He understands that the Commission recently enacted an Ordinance pursuant to which we are to be told by the Applicant, and Vice Mayor Gatto said that was the second point she was going to bring up. Mr. Clark said they are not getting noticed and all he is hearing from the people in the building is that construction is going on when it is not supposed to be. City Attorney Ottinot said the Applicant's Attorney is here so he can give his client's side of the report. Michael Thomas,Esq.on behalf of RDR Seashore LLC said Vice Mayor Gatto is absolutely correct on her numbers of seventeen (17) applications and only six (6) of them approved,and so the City has been saying no more than they have been saying yes. He wants to correct a couple of other things on the record. He has all the applications that they have submitted to the City,all of them were accompanied by a requisite,copies of the prior notices to the neighbors within 150 feet of our site,with return receipt requested copy attached to it, so that we have complied with all the requirements, Ocean III has been given advanced notice of all of these requests. We are in a situation where we have two(2)different property owners with two (2) different property rights, we have a development Ordinance that has been approved by the City,by the City Commission to build this building,and under the laws of the State as well as the Ordinances of this City,one of those property rights that we enjoy is the right to petition for relief from those work hours restrictions imposed under circumstances, and to have that request reviewed by the City exercising good faith and reasonable discretion and we believe the City has. In situations where it is appropriate to grant the extension and the extension was granted,and in situations where they believe it was inappropriate was denied. We are going to continue to make those requests if we believe it is in the best interest of not just ourselves but also of all of the residents of the City of Sunny Isles Beach whenever we can reduce congestion, reduce traffic, reduce risk of property damage and not to just our site but also to the neighboring properties in situations that have been the basis for our previous requests. As Mr. Clark says,construction requires overtime, in contrary of his position overtime is not cheap, and it certainly is not free, and when we work overtime hours and we ask people to stay to 11:00 at night. We ask our contractors to work on Saturdays to minimize traffic if we have to excavate 22,000 cubic yards of fill and then replace it with 22,000 cubic yards of concrete that is going to require more than a thousand trucks. If we ask them to work overtime and with the City's permission to bring that fill on and off the site, and the concrete to and from the site which was little impact to the City as possible and to the residents as possible, we have to pay them to do that and it certainly costs them money and so these requests for extensions are not to pay bonuses,they 16