will be absent from today's meeting. Commissioner Gilbert, Commissioner Regulato, Vice Chairwoman Million Orbis, Chairman Bermudez. Okay, I'm here. One member present, we don't have a quorum. There was a song, even before I was born, the song was Mr. Lonely. But I'm not lonely because I got all of you here. So that's not the song we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about the fact that the power of one is greater than the power of many. When the one is committed and caring for this county. Remember that. So, and yes, I hope you can all see it. All right. So let's start with an invocation. And I guess I'll do it. And then we'll do the pledge of allegiance. Lord, opportunity to be here again, all of us today on this earth, being able to do good. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to represent this county, to represent the people of this county. And please guide us and make sure that we are able to discern what is good for our community as we move forward. And for all the people that make it possible, not only the people that work for Miami-Dade County, but the people that live in Miami-Dade County and visit Miami-Dade County. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. I'm going to open it up in a second to the reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard. And we do have someone who's, well, Andrew Platt. If you can come on up. Good afternoon. Morning, Commissioner. Andrew Platt, place of business, 4141 Laguna Street, Coral Gable, Florida. Traditionally, when people come up to this podium, it's a gripe, it's a complaint, it's some woe or that. And today, I'm flipping that on its head. Just a thank you, right? You advocated for a change that burdened hundreds and thousands of businesses in Miami-Dade County. As I spoke to you briefly and candidly, walking into the chambers, I said every marriage begins with a hello, right? Like every relationship, and then it turns into a first date. Clearly, this is the beginning of a budding relationship and hopefully an impactful marriage. A marriage between a county and a commission that not only listens to the voices and the concerns, but acts on it. So I say to you, thank you. Thank you to Durham, to RER, to the county mayor, to Deputy Mayor Coley, to my dear friend, Manny Sid, for advocating for this. And on behalf of the over 8,000 GDO permit holders in Miami-Dade County, we say thank you. Thank you, Mr. Platt. Thank you for the kind words, and thank you for being part of that community that wants to make a difference here in Miami-Dade County. Is there anybody else that would like to speak at this time? Come on up. Give us your name and address for the record. And going, going, like home run during the years of Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire, there, and gone. So, all right. Well, and then what we'll do now, the attorneys, essentially we just have discussion items, but do we need to set the agenda? We don't have quorum, so. There's no quorum, there's no action, but you could have the presentation and the discussion item. Right, right, which is what we'd like. And I really want to thank all of you that are here, the business owners, the residents. I want to thank, obviously, Durham and the Durham leadership for being open and helping move this forward. I want to thank Roy because he, and he knows that I'll let him know if I don't think otherwise, who has really tried to really move this and be helpful so we can do this in a way that complies with all the requirements. So, and we'll hear from both of you in a second. I'd like to start with a presentation from Durham that, I don't know, Rashid, are you going to take it, Lauren? Which one are you? You? Okay. It's going to be a dynamic duo. I like that. It's even better. Through the chair. Good morning. My name is Lauren Parra. I, of course, have the honor of serving as the director of the Department of Environmental Resources Management. And this morning, we will be presenting our report and our final recommendations on how to improve our county's fat, oils, and grease control program. This review was initiated, of course, by a board directive sponsored by Commissioner Bermudez and supported by our administration. And it is really a reflection of our shared commitment to safeguard the public health, to protect the county's sewer infrastructure, and, frankly, to provide relief to our small businesses, which are generally regarded as the lowest impact users on the system. And so what we're presenting today really maintains the strength of our nationally recognized FOG program because we are oftentimes reflected as a national model. But it still manages to both protect our environment and also identify practical and common-sense solutions that we hope will bring some relief to our small businesses. Okay. So I'll be brief here. We will start with just a short history of the consent decree and what forced us to move forward on this FOG program. And then we'll walk through, of course, the board directive that was brought by Commissioner Bermudez and our multi-departmental approach to actually putting forth this report that we believed, as a county, we could actually advance on. And then we'll finish up with next steps. And to your point, Mr. Chair, we'll hear from our deputy mayor who really has been leading simultaneously with the EPA to hopefully get these changes approved. So just a brief history for anyone who doesn't know, although I know everyone here is very familiar, in 2013, we did Miami-Dade County enter into a consent decree to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows and ensure that we were in compliance with the Clean Water Act and relevant state regulations. A major part of that agreement required the county to reassess and, frankly, improve our management of grease control. And so five years later, by 2018, the board adopted a revised fog control program which established minimum standards for the devices, the maintenance, and the ongoing operation of those systems. And all of those were aimed at, again, protecting the county's collection and treatment systems from the grease-related blockages that we were seeing, which we know are both dangerous to the public health but also incredibly costly. And so we definitely wanted to address that. Again, earlier this year, the board directed staff to evaluate the opportunities for relief while, again, maintaining compliance with the state and federal laws. To do this, we, Durham, the big bad enforcers of the consent decree, worked closely with WASD, the system owner, and RER, the fog permit issuer, to come up with solutions that we all agreed we could actually advance and would provide relief to small businesses. We conducted a program-wide analysis. We received feedback from a lot of the operators and industry stakeholders, and we all identified areas where we believed we could provide relief without ever compromising on the water quality goals that we needed to abide by through the consent decree. And so the recommendations that you'll see today represent this intersection of regulatory responsibility but also just the practical, common-sense solutions that I think we all agree we want to bring to Miami-Dade County. And before I pass it to Rashid, the actual expert on FOG, the FOG program, again, is widely recognized as a national model. It's really comprehensive, and we do get a lot of accolades for it. And so our goal with creating this report was maintaining that leadership while making compliance easier. We don't want it to be complicated for any of our small business owners. We want it to reduce unnecessary costs if we can make it cheaper to comply. We wanted to make that possible. And again, just to support the small businesses that generally have the lowest impact on the system. And so these recommendations, they were developed with a lot of technical review, and they reflect solutions that are balanced and grounded in science and implementable, and frankly, we are all very proud of these recommendations. So with that, I will pass it to the Deputy Director of Durham and everyone's favorite engineer, Mr. Rashida Stempouli. Favorite engineer. Thank you. Thank you, Lauren. This is, Chairman, this is where I get in trouble because I go off script, and she's probably going to roll her eyes at me, but as the director mentioned, Miami-Dade County's FOG program is one of the top programs in the entire nation, of which none of it would have been possible without the diligent and hard work of our late colleague, Carlos Hernandez. With that being said, County's FOG program has come a long way in the last 10 years. While the program has been successful in revamping the first line of FOG defense for our sewer infrastructure, we have also been able to monitor the pressure points that have turned up during the permitting and operation of these types of facilities. In March of this year, we were able to hear directly from these businesses at this very committee, Andrew, if you're still back there, and we were able to clearly identify those pressure points. We took that feedback to our collective technical team and while I'm not going to turn around, I know that they're all back there. Not only DERM, RER, and WASDE played a major role in getting these recommendations together and we were able to identify those key issues that would provide immediate relief to the regulated FOG community and not degrade the existing protection of the county's investment in our sewer infrastructure. So for that, Commissioner, I want to thank you personally and while she's back there and likes not to get a lot of attention, both Vivian and I know Marcia's somewhere, they obviously practice a lot of patience with us and I thank you for that. So to summarize the good work that Director Parra was mentioning, our team published the report and it could be broken down essentially into eight key recommendations. And of course I went too far. So breach tanks. This was a big, big item that we heard from industry. Under the current code, whenever a grease tank is, grease fog device is breached, that is the kiss of death for any business. It must, that business must replace the device even if it's damaged and is minor and repairable. That's based on the prescriptive manner in which the code is written. What we're proposing in these recommendations first, it established a formal definition of what a breach tank is to remove that ambiguity from the code. Second, we're allowing or recommending for the allowance of repairs when a licensed professional certifies that tank can be restored to a watertight and structurally sound condition subject to a building permit. That concept was born directly from actually both WASDE's team and RER's team, specifically Sergio Oscunza, that I see him back there, and looking at what wet wells and what we do with wet wells and pump stations. So, you know, the credit definitely goes to them. And thirdly, when a tank cannot be repaired, providing up to one year for replacement instead of requiring immediate action, the time alone would provide businesses the relief that they need. So, those changes and maintaining that system protection would reduce unnecessary capital expenditures, as you know, is significant and gives businesses additional time to comply. This image here is so that you all know what we're talking about with respect to a breach tank. The one on the right labeled old tank wall is actually what a breach tank looks like. What I'm not going to tell you is how we got these pictures, but that person was happily deconned afterwards. But essentially, on the right, you've got a breached tank, and on the left is what a new tank wall would look like. Seeing that contrast highlights why adding this flexibility for repair makes the most both economic and environmental sense to give that relief for businesses. Moving along, the next key concept is that of expired operating permits. Today, if a fog permit has lapsed for more than 12 months, the next business to occupy the space is often required to fully upgrade the system to current standards regardless of whether the existing infrastructure is adequate. In practice, many commercial spaces, as you know, remain vacant for more than that time frame due to, you know, turnover, seasonal operations, or economic conditions. We're recommending extending that allowable time lapse period from 12 months to 36 months. A reopening business may use the existing device as long as there have been no operational changes that impact fog generation, and a conditional assessment confirms that a system is safe and functional. That provides meaningful flexibility while ensuring that the device is appropriate for the intended level of food service. this is what that process would essentially look like. It's really a simplified process. You've got, you're seeing the eligibility check on the right or on the left side, depending on how you look at it, but if the prior permit was active within that time frame, which is the 36 months that we are recommending, and no operational or plumbing changes have occurred, the business can reopen without investing in a new device. The important component here is that the conditional assessment becomes necessary only when that lapse is greater than 36 months, and it's only to show that the system is still intact and the integrity isn't compromised. Hydromechanical. This was a big topic of discussion, and we heard, you know, Andrew, I'm sorry, you're the only one here that was in the medium, so I'm going to just keep on pointing at you, Andrew. This recommendation is a big one. The current code, and what is a hydromechanical grease interceptor, and Commissioner, I think you're aware of this. I think a lot of your constituents have come to you and always talked about this system, this box that I can have that's not in ground. That is exactly what this hydromechanical concept is. The current code requires that older devices need to demonstrate a 99% removal efficiency. That is codified today. That standard is technically unattainable for many of these legacy units. Not because they aren't functioning properly, it's because they were never engineered to meet that metric. So we're proposing to eliminate that 99% efficiency requirement for only those existing hydromechanical devices that exist today. Under this change, a business can continue using the device if it's properly sized and in good working condition, which goes back to our recommendation on conditional assessments. But this approach retains safeguards while avoiding unnecessary replacements that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. This update would align maintenance expectations and how these systems perform in practice out in the wild, out in the field. This is pretty much an illustration of how that would work. And, you know, you see the benefits obviously at the end as the end product here. Another concept that was discussed is the sampling point requirement. You know, Commissioner, I know I'm just going to keep on pointing at you. You're very well familiar with sampling requirements. Only because I think we have discussed and, you know, fortunately or unfortunately to you, you know too much of what a sampling requirement looks like. But the sampling is a core component of the program because grease levels can't be verified through a visual inspection, right? So sampling confirms that wastewater meets the, you know, the current fog standards. It's measured analytically. It's measured in a lab. It's measured in parts per million. And essentially that's relevant when you're looking at levels entering that sewer system. Today, businesses may be required to install a dedicated sampling port which can be significant at cost as you can imagine having to put an extra piece of infrastructure in a parking lot in a back alley that is not cheap. So our recommendation is to mitigate for that significant expense is using a sampling port from an accessible outlet tee when it provides a representative sample. That reduces the cost and delays for businesses and if that sample cannot be properly collected for the outlet tee, only then would a sampling port be required. And that is a concept that we've worked with the building of Miami-Dade County building official Sergio Eskunse and we are in concurrence that you can utilize certain outlet tees to meet that requirement and that is definitely going to be one of our key takeaways from that. For businesses operating on septic tanks, this was a major change in our fog ordinance that was introduced in 2018 that previously did not exist. For businesses operating on septic systems within a wellfield protection area, state rules currently restrict the type of grease interceptors that may be used. Specifically, hydromechanical interceptors are not allowed indoors or below ground or below 750 gallons and a gravity interceptor must be large enough to be in ground and in concrete units. So this requirement can be extremely difficult to meet on small or constrained properties or where the location of existing septic components already exists and creates a conflict. The reason that's important is because these properties are legacy properties that were already operating at the time when the wellfield was established and this fog requirement was not in the code. currently we have 37 businesses countywide that fall into this category and right now 13 of those are compliant. We're recommending continued coordination with DEP to evaluate whether hydromechanical units may be allowable under certain conditions and this would provide flexibility while still protecting the groundwater. There are certain corridors in the county that I think we all heard from back in March not to name the businesses even though I feel like I have them ingrained in my head. Let's call it the Bird Road Corridor the Kendall Corridor the 117th Avenue Corridor it's a very small group and we feel that working together with the state and the EPA we should be able to come up with a solution that would provide a approach. A discussion item that will be brought up with the state and the EPA is something that we had discussed about grandfathering and very similar to building code rules that if essentially a property was compliant at the time of the enactment of the ordinance that as long as they legally installed that system they would be grandfathered in. So that is something that we are currently recommending to change. This goes through the proposed processes of what we want to do to make those recommendations and moving on to annual certifications. You know graciously Director Parra considered me the what is it the county favorite engineer favorite engineer. the one that had all the technical that's right. Oh got it. This particular one believe it or not surprised me and I heard it throughout March is the annual certification. So we clearly made a recommendation here and essentially alleviate businesses with respect to this requirement. So in short I'm putting myself in the shoes of a business owner. I have permitted a system I have constructed it I have got my CU I have got my operating permit I am paying for let's call it a frequent pump out of my fog device I am paying the county a renewal on that operating permit what were you the big bad enforcers? Got it. We have inspectors coming to the site after all of that I am we are requiring that same business to go out and get an annual certification to pay a outside party to certify a system in which everything I just mentioned has happened. We recognize that that was a burden so in our recommendations here we're addressing that today every permitted facility must submit a professional certification each year that means you know I think Andrew spoke about 8,000 that's close to 10,000 certifications we're recommending essentially a risk-based model where only the high-risk facilities remain on an annual certification while facilities in good standing transition more to a five-year cycle this would significantly reduce the cost for a business and allow staff to focus on those areas where oversight is more impactful we're also proposing and while it's not technically part of the report itself or a code change operationally we are proposing enhancements to our e-manifesting system to streamline discrepancy reviews and strengthen our data quality the next thing use exemptions we talked a lot about smoothie shops right smoothie shops honey honey producers candy candy producers office kitchens office kitchens that's right dishwashers in office kitchens correct this concept of use exemptions is more of a allowance of a de minimis nature certain facilities generate very small amounts of fog and may be appropriate for an exemption under this defined condition these include office break rooms candy honey producers small schools care facilities with limited food services and some home-based operations we will work and you are committed to work with the DEP and EPA to ensure any exceptions are consistent with state and federal expectations and we'll update the fog guidance manual accordingly lastly there was a discussion of financial assistance and pathways to help consumers food service establishments to get some kind of a relief with respect to some sort of financial assistance so in recognition of these costs associated with fog system improvements we are recommending exploring a financial assistance program to help qualifying businesses upgrade that said fog device and their equipment this could include grants zero interest loans or low interest loans modeled after our septic to sewer assistance program director Fink was a big help in coming up with some of these concepts but in our direct control we're also evaluating fee reductions for compliant facilities as an incentive for strong program performance and responsible maintenance essentially if you're a facility in good standing and doesn't require as much labor or intensive inspections from our staff it should come with some kind of financial break these are things that we want to look at from a financial approach and with that with next steps I'd like to hand it back to director power thank you so thank you Rashid for going through all of those recommendations there's of course a lot more detail in the full report but I think everyone appreciates that high level explanation and so as far as next steps of course we're going to hear from our deputy mayor who's already begun some of those important conversations with the EPA but hopefully once we're able to get those formal approvals we'll be able to come back to the board with those recommended and hopefully bring some relief to these small businesses so thank you all so much for the time this morning but with that I'd ask our deputy mayor to give us the latest on his conversations with the EPA so chairman Bermudez we're happy to report that Jeff McCarley had facilitated a meeting with EPA that we took and we proposed to them that we wanted to make some changes to our FOG program and the good news was they were very receptive and they said how they would like to see this go forward is for to prepare a presentation that we would give to the EPA staff as well as DEP because they're part of this and then allow them to give us feedback from our presentation and then for at that point in time for us to put a specific request in black and white and submit it to EPA and DEP they further went on to say the gentleman with EPA that he cannot remember the last time he saw a report for Miami-Dade County that had an overflow due to grease and he wanted to acknowledge that he knew we were doing a much better job than had ever been done in history and because of that he was very willing to look at approving some changes if they made sense and so I think we're in a very good place our steps going forward is as Jess is working to coordinate that meeting with DEP and EPA we're going to give a presentation to them showing them the success that we've had and the changes we want to make we'll take their feedback and then do a formal request great Roy thank you both and thank you Roy obviously and I'll comment on that in a second thank you also obviously to water and sewer and also to RER Lourdes and Sergio good to see you I've known him a long time he's heard he's heard he's heard my comments from since we founded the city of Burrell a long time ago so but Roy one one quick question because the commercial realtors we're going to have a presentation for them coming up in November as far as the timing of maybe trying to and you know how I am I'm impatient so I got to channel my inner I'm not going to keep my comments brief but I'm impatient and on this I want to get to the end of the road at some the only thing I would tell you I don't know if there's a timeline yet or and certainly I'll be more than happy to talk to Jess about it but I think the timeline is important because what I would not like to see and this is no reflection of the great job you guys have done and I really want to thank the administration for being open to this too because really it's something that impacts small businesses and your proactiveness on it is a good sign that we're trying to move in the right direction but is there a timeline at all on this we don't have an exact date for the meeting the goal is to meet with EPA and DEP in the month of November and then take their feedback and go from there I think the recommendations are great I think they would go a long way to helping the businesses in particular smaller businesses but all businesses actually because like I said in a prior meeting we're losing opportunities sometimes to other counties believe it or not that are just a little bit to the north because it gets and I understand the reason of why this occurred I think all of us do but I think much like our consent decree on water and sewer that that's what consent decrees are for you got to work toward getting to the point where as we did with our prison system and I think we need to get to the point where we progress and this goes a long way I really want to thank both Lauren and Rashid also for putting up with my impatience for want of a better term I guess so but I thank you very much and Roy thank you so much for really being open I want to thank the mayor and the administration for being open to this because sometimes when you deal with 13 Taipei personalities the easiest thing could be you know let's not tackle an issue but this issue really involves so many people and I want to thank the public because if it wasn't for so many of you not everybody was in my district I actually got calls from people all over we even got calls from people that were trying to open up businesses in Miami-Dade County and I want to thank them for pointing it out and saying this is an issue and it's hurting us and we want to be here but if you make it so complicated because this is about also jobs truthfully in the long run we always talk about jobs right and if we don't make it something where always protecting the integrity of the system and what's required at the state and federal levels but if we don't do it in a way that is and some of these changes are great because I think it's going to make it much more feasible for some of the businesses that unfortunately have had to deal with these issues and that's a reality so thank you guys very much and thank you for being here today I'm going to close this out with thanking my colleagues that have been on this committee and in most cases they have shown up Commissioner Orbis in particular and Commissioner Regalado certainly thank them for the work that they have done being here the whole purpose of this committee was at least from my perspective and I want to thank Chairman Rodriguez for giving me the opportunity to lead this committee maybe he picked me because he figured out I'm the most cranky guy but the whole purpose of this committee is really to me is to try to bring about change in Miami-Dade County for the positive it doesn't mean that a great job isn't being done up to now I think all of you have been doing a great job but we can always try to improve we gotta have that you know and I'm not even a big Nick Saban or Micah Jordan fan but both of them always sought to improve from the athletic perspective Roy likes that because he's an Alabama guy but the we can always try to improve and we've tackled some you know difficult topics this was a very difficult topic that really to be honest with you were presented to us by the businesses and up to now unfortunately I think that's something that we need to do we need to listen to our community and they're in the trenches they're in their day to day trying to make this a better place so this committee has been able to do that you know it was here that Namada presented us with humongous binders by the way wherever you are Namada I still got those humongous binders I think I try to sit on them so I can be three inches taller and we looked at procurement and I'm glad the strip committee was created after this committee was created and we're trying to look at procurement now I'm still going to insist that it has to be open and transparent and I think it has to be I'm not going to budge on that but I but I did vote and supported some of the most of the proposals that the strip committee came up with that really was initiated here because my colleagues and I were able to ask tough questions of the procurement department which is something that we are seeking to improve you know this committee also talked and I know this is going to be I'm not going to cause any ruckus but obviously we had issues with you know an award that we gave for the airport hotel and they were also tackled in this committee and I'm glad now that the airport director is understanding that that's an impactful topic and the one thing I want to point out about that topic is it's important that now we are going to know hopefully in all our county facilities what's underground because the fact that a county did not know what was underground at its own airport is really disturbing and that is something that should never happen again but it's something that came out of here and also my favorite group DERM the gold key system and I think that sometimes when Lauren well Lauren has to hear it now but some of you that are out there can certainly poor Lord is this back there because if I catch her in Miami Springs at Tom's NFL she knows she's going to hear from me but the fact is that you really have all work to try to make this better which is very important and I am really proud of the work we've done with this topic in particular Manny's back there Manny are you still here an old friend well I'm not going to call him an old friend a friend because he's a young guy I'm too annoyed against him in basketball though but that's okay Manny Sid who has done a fantastic fantastic collaboration with us and with the business community in Miami Dade County on this issue and I'm so glad that he was able to point out and I'm so glad that the business community took their time to come to me and tell me their stories because if it wasn't for the work of you guys and Manny you've been fantastic telling us maybe both of us having been mayors we have our ears to the ground a little bit more with our business understanding how sometimes these issues can impact small businesses and I'm really happy we're heading in the right direction today is music to my ears and it's been worth it for me because I think it's the reason I would want to be up here as an elected official which is to help the people of Miami Dade County I'm certainly not up here to you know some of the pictures this and that or extremely long meetings or budget meetings till 2.30 in the morning where people bring up that's different but what we're here for is to actually make a difference and this isn't really important so again thank you all and I want to thank my colleagues again and Chairman Rodriguez and the administration again and all of our departments for their willingness to collaborate and make a meaningful difference and I know that's said very easily but I do mean it because efficiency and transparency are words that every politician uses but very few politicians apply and I think it can't be done by even though we politicians think that we can do it all by ourselves that's not true it can't be done without the people and it can't be done without the administration and it can't be done with a great job all of you do so I want to thank you and lastly I'm glad that I'm glad you reminded me but I want to thank my staff in particular yes and you said Marcia and Vivian both of them Vivian's back here and Marcia is probably looking on and the whole office but in particular those because they bore the brunt of my I don't know how to describe it let's just call it response my humor my good humor usually in some sort of sarcastic response but I'm trying to get better every day but I want to thank them because they did a great job reaching out to the constituents working with the administration with Manny with you guys and I think that it couldn't be done without them I don't say it enough publicly but I'm saying it today I thank my staff for the great job they do because again nobody can do this by themselves that's just their reality so thank you to the clerk's office also for being here and I hope the probability is I don't know what will happen a month from now but I think we've done what we intended to do which is to try to change the system as much as we could in a positive way not in a political way in a positive way Sergio sits back there who's known that I've always been that way since we founded the city of Doral and he knows that the intent is always the most important thing and it's nothing is perfect in this world but I think we've come a long way to making it better for the businesses Miami-Dade County and in particular with this program and hopefully as Deputy Mayor Coley moves along with the federal and state government we will be implementing this sooner rather than later and have that make an impact on the people of Miami-Dade County and lastly let me thank the county attorney's office the largest I'm a lawyer so don't take it personally but I want to thank the county attorney's office for being here also and helping us guide us as we've gone through the process so God bless you all have a great weekend and go Canes