Okay, good morning, everybody. Welcome to our Intergovernmental and Economic Impact Committee. At this time, we will stand for the invocation and the pledge. The invocation will be led by Commissioner Lopez, and the pledge will be led by Commissioner Rene Garcia. Good morning. If you'll bow your heads, please. Heavenly Father, we ask that you watch over everyone in this chamber, that you lead the commissioners that are in this committee to make the decisions that would be guided by you. Let us also recognize the responsibility that we have for the taxpayers of this wonderful county, and we ask that you bless us and everyone in this chamber, including our staff, as we move through the agenda. We ask this in your name. Amen. Thank you for that beautiful prayer. Please lead us on the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of 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. Thank you, thank you, everybody. Okay, good morning, good morning. Welcome to today's intergovernmental and economic impact meeting, and we're calling this meeting to order now. We already did the roll call, yes? Okay, to the county attorneys, can you please let us know if there's any changes at this time? Madam Chair, the items for this committee's consideration are those listed in the final printed agenda, as well as the official changes memo, which included the additions of items 1E1, 1G1 substitute and supplement, and item 3K. In addition, the item 3L, which has been passed around the dais, is also on today's agenda. It was deferred at the last committee to no date certain, and it has been brought back at this time. With that, reasonable opportunity on non-public hearing items would be in order. Okay, so at this time, we will open the reasonable opportunity to be heard. I do have two speaker cards, so when I call your name, please come up, and you will have two minutes to speak on items that are on the agenda. So I have Kenneth Brown. Kenneth Brown, I have two cards for you, one for 3A and one for 1G1. Okay, welcome, Mr. Brown. I appreciate everyone letting me come in and speak today, this morning, on these items and a few other things. Give me one second. Let me find it right here. 1G1 was pertaining to the Miami-Dade requirement for the county commissioners. Sorry, Mr. Brown, can we have your name and address for the record? Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Marion Brown, 12300 Northwest 17th Avenue, Miami, Florida 33167. The item 1G1 is pertaining to the board of county commissioners to inform the public, to let them know when it's a vacancy on any of the outstanding board, like CRA or any other environment board that's coming up, to inform the public so they can actually be a part of that. And the other item that I was speaking about was one, I mean, here you go. The other item was Mr. Garcia was asking for funding for several projects, and I want to agree with that, that you all can release the funds for he can do the things that he needs to do for the community. And the other issue that I was speaking about is that we have an organization that calls themselves the MAC, and it's a young man by the name of Kenneth Kirkpatrick. It's the overseer of that particular organization. This organization is trying to incorporate an area to where it's no money that's there. And one of the meetings, the young man, he stated out to the public that if you all don't agree with what I'm saying, you can just go back to Egypt. Now, to make that kind of statement, he wouldn't make that statement in front of a bunch of people that actually came in from Israel. And also, the housing problem that we have in the black community is steady increasing. I'm constantly seeing more mothers with children that's constantly coming up to me with four and five children. They're homeless. And we have this young man that's over there off of 62nd and 12th Avenue that's building this development, and he's not following the rules and regulations of the Chirac. And he's actually hiring outside people instead of the people that's actually located that's inside the residence. And that's a problem that we're having there. The mic is actually going in and out. Thank you, Mr. Brown. That's two minutes. Okay. I mean, a lot of it was going in and out, so a lot of the things I was just trying to say. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Is there anybody else who would wish to speak before we close the public hearing? Okay. Seeing none at this time, we'll close the public hearing. And I will entertain pulls or bifurcations from my colleagues. Any items that you wish to pull or bifurcate to speak about? Madam Chair, I have an amendment on one. I have an amendment on 3A, so can I pull 3A, please? 3A. Madam Chair, I'd like to be listed as a co-sponsor on 2A, if the sponsor will have me. Let me think about it. I'll get back to you. Okay. So is it only 3A? Yes, 3A is the one I'm sponsored, yeah. Okay. So with that, do I have a motion to set the agenda? So moved. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Okay, so let's go ahead and take 3A. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Madam Chair, 3A has to do with waiving the competitive bid by a two-thirds vote of the board. Members presented to allow multiple county departments to directly contract and pay for veterinary services associated with the expenses and aggregated amount not to exceed the $8 million that's allotted for them. You all know how I feel about waiving bids, but what's happening here when we deal with veterinary services is that every time we put out bids, there's a lot of non-response. It's becoming more and more difficult to provide these services, so we are going to try this approach to see if we can get work with the veterinarians of our community that already contract out with us. And then the amendment that we have, the amendment that I have here, what we're trying to do with this is to make sure that there is a rotation of the different veterinarians that are contracted out with us, because I don't want all the work to go to one veterinarian when we have multiple veterinarians in our community. So, that's what the amendment, the resolution does and what the amendment does. Okay. Thank you, Senator Garcia. Any comments? I think we're good, ma'am. You want me to read the amendment? Yes, please read the amendment. Senator Garcia is moving to amend item 3A to require that the county mayor or county mayor's designee, to the extent possible, rotate the veterinary services among providers by considering their rates, availability, urgency, proximity, and specializations offered. The county mayor or county mayor's designee is also directed to continue to work with small and local veterinary providers for the provision of the services. That's the amendment. Thank you. So, with the amendment, do we have a motion? So moved. We have a second. Moved as amended. Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Item passes. So, okay. We have to go to 1G1 public hearing, and I know Commissioner Steinberg is here for that item, 1G1, which she is a sponsor, and I believe you have to put an amendment, right, for the item. But, Mr. Attorney, do I open public hearing on that first? I can read the title first, Madam Chair, and then we can open public hearing. So, item 1G1 is an ordinance relating to county boards amending section 2-11.38 of the Code of Miami-Dade County, Florida, requiring clerk of the board to notify county commissioners when any position on a county board becomes vacant, providing severability, inclusion in the code, and an effective date. Item 1G1 substitute is a public hearing item. Public hearing is now open. Public hearing is open on 1G1. Do we have anyone to speak on 1G1? Okay. Mr. Brown. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I'm going to give you one minute because you already spoke on 1G1, okay? Okay. So, come on down. One minute. Go ahead. Okay. The price is right. Thank you. Again, 1G1, it's basically the same thing. It's just when these items come about, would the public really would like to know and like to be a part of it? Because the public actually has been left out. A lot of things have actually come across the board when it comes down to a lot of activity that's coming through the county. Now, the commissioners that's located in that area, District 3 and District 1, they are not informing the people that what's going on in the community. So, this is something that is a really, really issue that need to come ahead, that the commissioners need to participate more and have their staff members to come out to the community more and let us know all the things that's going on in the area. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else on 1G1? Okay. With that, we'll close public hearing. And Commissioner Steinberg, go ahead. Thank you. Just really quickly, in order for us to be able to fill those vacancies in a timely manner, we need the notification so that we can get that community engagement. And the only amendment that we would be proffering is the mayor's office to contact us because they are also ones who appoint. And so, it should just also be not just county commissioners who appoint, but also to the mayor. And that's it. Thank you. To the attorneys, do you need to read that amendment or? I believe that Commissioner Steinberg, she's going to be bringing forward a change at a later point in time to add the mayor to that. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. So, with that, do we have a motion? So moved. Co-sponsor, please. Co-sponsor from Senator Garcia. Okay. Do we have a, we have a Commissioner Lopez? Second. Second from Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Do we need a roll call on that one? Okay. Go ahead. Mr. Clerk, please do the roll call. Commissioner Cohen-Higgins? Four. Senator Garcia. Yes. Commissioner Gonzalez. Vice Chairwoman Lopez. Yes. Chairwoman Milian Orbis. Yes. Motion passes. Four. Thank you. Okay. And now we have two discussion items or one special presentation and a discussion item. What we'll do is that we will take the presentation by the Commission Auditor. And I believe it's five minutes. So if we're ready, Yinka, come on down. Good morning. Yinka Majic, Commission Auditor's Office. I think we have the presentation up and you already should have some documents on your desk for the slides. I'll start by saying this is a response to the directive that was issued, Resolution 108725, which specifically asked us to create a dashboard to present a specific county data and information related to budget and personnel. We've completed the dashboard, at least the first iteration of the dashboard. And the purpose of some of this conversation would be to get some feedback from the committee and the commission. I'll move quickly through what we did and the functionalities. The first thing I'd like to say is we work with all county departments, specifically the budget office and PIOD, because they were key management players when it comes to budget data and personnel records. And in doing that, we created what we call a knowledge base that would help us and the commission understand the activities of the departments themselves. All departments are not created equal, as you know, from the standpoint of how they operate. They operate differently, both from a revenue and expenditure and also personnel activity. The dashboard is a named user access dashboard, which means you need to be a named user to access it to your current Microsoft application. And the first thing you will see when you log into the dashboard is what we call an overview. It's pretty much a traditional overview desktop display to give you a high-level view of the county's financial information. If you could see so far what we have, we have the 30 departments that we've identified to be either under the mayor's purview or under the BCC. There are entities within the county's budget that will not be in the dashboard. For example, Jackson. Jackson's in the county's budget, but it will not be in the dashboard. So, as we continue to evolve the information, we may add more agencies at your discretion or at your direction. Next thing I'd like to touch on is we have what we see as the overall county's budget, what you have as spend to date. So, as departments expend money or fund or make payments, including payroll or operational costs, the data will be collected by our department and presented in the dashboard for the county as a whole. There's a difficulty in looking at a high-level data. So, what you have is a breakdown by department. So, you just don't have to look at the county at a high level. You can also look at the department view of that information broken down. There's a section that we have in the overview called the budget health. All it's doing, not to overcomplicate the usefulness of it, but what it's doing is keeping us in track as to what a trajectory of a spending should look like for the budgeted items of that department. So, we have spend that we believe are on track, some that needs to be monitored, and some that may need to be monitored closely. That's what we've implemented as of right now. You can always drill down on that number. You can see what the agencies look like. You can see what the utilization rate is for that specific budget of that department. The next tab, we broke down revenue tabs and expenditure tabs. Let me touch on the revenue. The revenue tab is very straightforward. It's a compilation of all 30 departments, their budgeted revenue, their receipt to date, and the gap between the budget and the receipt to date, which could tell us if they are receiving revenues as expected. The last column on here is also inclusive of what percentage of that department's budget is general fund. I think that question has come up before, so we included that column just for educational purposes. The next tab is the expense tab. I'm sorry, in the revenue tab. I'm sorry, let me stick to the revenue. So, in that view, and we can show the application, in that view, you could drill down to a department. In this case, there's a department that's used as an example, where you could see the breakdown of the revenue sources that's included in the budget as of the current fiscal year, and it would tell you what's been received for that specific revenue source for that specific department through the fiscal year. And at any given point in time, you're looking at year-to-date information. So, the information should be updated daily, and any time you go in the dashboard, you'll see what's happened as of today. We'll keep moving. Now, we're in the expenditure. Expenditure functions the same way. It has the budget, which was adopted by the board, has the activities as of today, and it also will include a drill down for expenditure categories, just like you just saw a drill down for revenue categories. And in this case, for expenditure categories, you'll see the personnel costs, you'll see operating costs, you'll see capital costs, and you'll see non-operating costs as included in the budget. And in the actual column, you'll also see what has been spent to date at the point of time that you're looking at the dashboard, right, at any given point. And you can also drill down to departments in that scenario. Now, we have a department portal view, which gives you more information. And what it's supposed to do is give you a quick view into a specific agency. If you could go to the next one. So you could have a quick snapshot view of the agency, both revenue and expenses together, both year-to-date activity together. And in that same view, you have the personnel of that department, which is the total personnel budget positions for the fiscal year. So that's just a quick overview at a department level, so you could get a quick snapshot of everything in one place. The last piece of portal that we have is personnel, because that was one of the requirements of the resolution, was to include personnel information. We start with the traditional view of countywide, which is the top panel that you see, telling you the total positions that was adopted in budget. It tells you how many positions have been filled, and it tells you how many will be vacant. What I want to clarify is, in the portal right now, and in the dashboard right now, you would see that it says pending. We're still working with the administration to review what we believe will be the best representation of vacant positions in the county. And we're working together with them to get that information. Once we're done with that, we'll automate it and put that on the dashboard also, so you'll be able to see the budget position, filled position, and vacant position. There's also visualization that we believe may be helpful, based on the questions that we've received from the commission, telling you the top ten departments by headcount, also telling you the distribution by strategic area. That's also an additional UI that we included. And to close out, because there's so many features, we're putting together a tutorial that the user could easily access, learn how to use the dashboard, learn what it contains, and learn how to navigate it. And then we also have feedback. I think this is the most important part of the conversation, is that we have a feedback section, because we want to get some feedback on how the user is interacting with the data, what they expect to see, and if they have any questions. So the structure today is more about getting some feedback from you, letting you see what we've done so far. The application is available for you to review at this point in time. I think we can show you if we have time. But I'll open the floor for questions, as far as what you've seen right now. And if there's anything we need to do after the meeting, we'll be happy to be available to meet with you and discuss. Thank you. Thank you, Yinka, for this in-depth presentation and thoughtful presentation. I appreciate that. I will turn it over to our colleagues now for questions. Yes. Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Yinka, and your team members for the arduous work that I know you have put in to create this dashboard. Have we ever had a dashboard of this sort in the past in Miami-Dade County? No. How frequently does the data in the dashboard update and populate? We're programmed to do it daily. Okay. So we, as commissioners, can log in essentially every day and see the financial health of our county via this dashboard. Is that accurate? That is correct. Okay. I think that's extremely important, and I'm so grateful for your team in complying with the directive that was passed in November of 2025. It had an initial deadline of February 25th of 2026. I want to make clear that you all completed the initial draft by that date, but it's just been going through different toggles and different amendments and so on and so forth to get it finalized. And this presentation is not a final draft of this as well, correct? It's a breathing, living system that will continue to evolve over time. But the entire purpose of this is to provide transparency and not to exclusively rely on memos, which are simple snapshots in time that by the time it hits an agenda and we're discussing it, the numbers are, in fact, completely different just because of the way that the money moves in and through Miami-Dade County. So I'm grateful to you on the work that you've done. I know that I will be utilizing this tool. I hope my colleagues will be utilizing this tool. And I think it's particularly helpful where you have a section titled Budget Health where we are monitoring regularly who seems to be overspending and in what departments and where and when we need to step in in order to curtail that. Before we get to a place of being, you know, we need additional money because of this, we can see that on a daily basis. We say all the time on this dais that budget doesn't only happen in September. It happens every day that we sit on this dais. And, in fact, it happens even more frequently than that, which this now allows us to monitor where we hadn't been able to monitor it in the past. So, again, I appreciate this. I look forward to continuing to work with you on this. Final question. Any observations or findings as a result of creating this dashboard on behalf of the residents of Miami-Dade County? We have a significant amount of observations, Commissioner, that will travel with the actual item when it gets to the board. And we are still working with the administration on some of these observations, trying to resolve them, trying to better understand what the issues are and explain the nuances to you as a commission. Obviously, we've talked briefly about the process of the county's total budget, why our dashboard may have a different number based on how we're calculating and pulling the data from the system of record, which is in forms, and the budget book. So, we'll be working on that. I know you may see numbers that may not be easily recognizable to you at this point. But the conversations we're having with the administration is to re-educate the board and explain why there may be differences. Okay. And what do you mean when you say re-educate the board, and what differences are you referring to? For example, you see a $10.6 billion number. That number may not be familiar to you because you've not seen it in a budget book. And I think earlier I said that we've excluded certain agencies out of this conversation as far as the dashboard. But we've also included certain expenses for departments that may not typically be in the budget number that you're familiar with. So, we're looking at a total expenditure transaction activity as opposed to a nuanced calculation of the budget for approval during the budget hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Vice Chair Lopez, you had some questions. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Inka, for what I consider to be a real good start. So, as a budget chair at the state level, I've had to drill down. And so, I have a couple questions. One, will this be available to the public? I have been a vast champion of transparency. And I'm curious. It would be great that I get to see it. But there's been a lot of talk amongst the public that by the time we have budget hearings here, most everything is done and they're just ringing in, I always call it, after the sausage has been made, right? I think, you know, in the spirit of being transparent, is there any way that this would be available to the public? So, that's the first question. Yes, there's ways it could be available to the public. This initial iteration is designed for the board to use. And I could say I take direction from the board. So, whatever the board instructs me to do is what I'll do. But we'll also be very transparent that to do certain presentations to the public, we may have to make sure we have the proper infrastructure in place, have the proper communication and education in place, right? Because we just talked about even the board may have to be reeducated in what the numbers are. And so, I just want to share that with you. And if the board directs us to do so, we'll be meeting and discussing that as far as how to implement that type of widespread information sharing. Okay. My second question, Madam Chair. So, I want to go back to the budget health. So, when we say 14 on track, 9 monitor, 7 monitor closely, is there any way that we can add notes? I mean, I'd like to clearly, like, you know, I'm looking at the monitor closely, 7 departments, right? I think it's incumbent upon us, and we will be looking at it. I agree with Commissioner Cohen-Higgins that this is a great tool for us because we shouldn't wait until we get to the budget cycle to understand that we now have a problem with some of the departments. So, my question is, does it drill down? Can you drill down on it enough so that we know real-time what's happening, right? So, if you're monitoring closely, then what was the result? Is there an action plan? What's happening with it? So, if you could answer that. Yeah, that's a very good question, Commissioner. And even, I think, we're showing you just a sample of how far you could drill down into this specific root cause of what we identify as monitor closely. And I just want to also share that monitor closely may not necessarily be a negative incident. It just means that the spending trajectory may be moving at a faster pace or may be faster than we expect for that point in the fiscal year. It's 12 months in the fiscal year. If you make a large payment in the beginning, it may raise a flag. But all this is in place just for us to monitor closely. Your question about whether or not you would have notes, that is part of our role in this conversation, is that we will look into some of these items ahead of time for you and work with the departments to give you an explanation. As we do today, we do that already. But this would be more in an automated delivery mechanism as opposed to a manual report. Okay. And my third question deals with vacancies. So at the state level, I would require each 12 agency, executive agency under my purview, to give me a detailed listing of their vacancies. And part of the budget process was, tell me why I should keep any vacancy in the budget, right? So will this allow us to drill down and see all the vacancies so that if we wanted to meet with the administration and say, you know, look, because I'll give you an example. Oftentimes there were vacancies for law enforcement positions within agencies, right? Those are important positions to remain open. But I required the agency to tell me why it had not yet been filled. So, and an aging of those vacancies. So I would agree in most parts to keep any vacancy that was zero to 90 days open, right? Because I know that the process, the hiring process, might take some time. But when I would see vacancies that were there for a year or two years, I said, you don't need them. And I'm taking them. So is that possible in the dashboard as well? Yes. There are several aspects of vacancies. Right now you see in the dashboard it says pending. There are several aspects of vacancies that we're working with the administration to address. Quantity of vacancies, types of vacancies, and the funding sources of those vacancies. You mentioned something that I also want to touch on, which is the aging, which means how long has it been open. That would require a little bit of additional working with the administration to get more information on. But I want you to just see how vacancies work in the county. We're trying to map a consistent reporting mechanism for the entire county to report vacancies. That's the only way we could get to the point that it would be displayed on the dashboard accurately every day. So that's the current state of the vacancy data right now. We're looking forward to all departments reporting consistently across all their systems, how they feel vacancies, the status of vacancies when somebody is terminated or separated from the county and someone is hired from the county. In addition to that, there's overages, right? So things happen. Overages and transfers happen after the fiscal year. So it's not a simple mathematical equation where you say budgeted position minus field positions equals vacant position. There's a lot of nuances that we have to account for, and that's what we're currently working on. So that may take maybe a few more weeks to give you a report on where we are as far as observations, and then we'll implement the first pass of vacant positions with the funding sources. We don't have aging information just yet because the county doesn't collect aging data in a consistent way across all departments. That's where we are right now. But will they? That's the objective, yeah. That's what we're working with the admission on, to implement that process to consistently collect aging data. And so I guess the nuances, I can think of nuances, right? I would say those that have already been advertised and yet not filled. Those were in offers out and it hasn't been yet accepted or rejected. So will the dashboard be able to tell me that on the vacancies? We will be able to tell you that. I mean, I have to say that I think there's a lot of money usually reserved in vacancies. I can tell you to the tune of millions of dollars often. So drilling down on vacancies is one way to find savings. And so I think that if we can, the more information available to us and the public, I think is, and doing it not at the budget cycle. You know, as a budget chair, I was spending six weeks doing budgets, but also then months before that looking, drilling down on things such as travel expenses, things where you look at it and you say, you know what? Maybe we don't need to do that, right? Like I would drill down into how many conferences are people going to? Are they required? Can they be done, you know, without travel? Those are the kind of questions where you're not sacrificing, you know, let's say professional development, but you're saving money. So I'm used to drilling down in great detail. And so I'm hopeful that as we continue, as Commissioner Cohen-Higgins said, this kind of a live document that is being, you know, refined, I hope, every day till we get to the point where we have something that's incredibly useful, particularly this committee, who's in charge of, you know, economic development here. So I want to commend you for your work. Obviously, it's never been done before. It's kind of surprising that we've never had this kind of tool, given the size of the county and the magnitude of the budget dollars that move through departments. But I'm excited to see, you know, what I think is certainly a start, but I think we may have a long way to go. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair. Oh, yes, Senator Garcia. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yinka, great job. Thank you. And to the committee, thank you for, it's a great round of question, because it's important for us to always have transparency in our budgetary process. Yinka, have we been able to reconcile, I'm assuming the answer is yes, but I just want to ask the question. Have we been able to reconcile the final budget that was passed and approved from the county commission with that of the departments? We're still currently actively reconciling that, and that's part of the observations that I mentioned earlier, because we have observable differences. So, okay, so then there is, in that reconciliation process, we are seeing some discrepancies? Yes, sir. Between what was passed and what is in the budget, and what's in the departments? And what's loaded in the system of record. Okay, so then what's loaded in the system of record, okay, again, this is data, right? Data in, data out, you can only do your job based on the information that you get. So, if you don't get accurate information, you will, your report will reflect on the inadequate information that was reported. So, then this is where we need to make sure that the access to timely and valid information and numbers is key in order to get this report done correctly. You've been having difficulties getting this information? We've been working well with the administration. This is not a shot at the administration. Everyone knows how I feel about openness and having these numbers, and I think all of us agree, and with our chair of the Appropriations Committee, we understand that we need to have these numbers, especially with this budget cycle that we're going into. And I'll say this, I've been talking about the open positions as well. Obviously, when you do budgets, you want to keep some open positions, some numbers on that side. You have to keep the effort to have some flexibility in the budgets. I recognize that. The number of open positions is another story. However, so, please, I say that to everyone to know that I understand how the process somewhat works, and I just don't necessarily want to take a shot at the administration, but I do want to make sure that you have the correct numbers, because when you do your analysis and it comes back, when the administration says, oh, that's not actually accurate, it's because the input that we're getting is not necessarily a timely fashion. Yeah, we're working with the administration, Senator. What I'll say is I don't want to oversimplify the process, right? I don't want to mislead you to believe this is a simple process. When you're designing something that's never been designed before, you tend to have conversations and discussions that's never been had before also. And in those conversations that we've had, we've had it as a collective team just trying to get a better understanding of how activities are managed and presented. So, for right now, we're still working with departments. We have a lot of questions that we're asking. They're giving some responses to the best of their ability. And so, in areas where we believe that there may be opportunities to improve, we're discussing it with them also. So, by the time you see the observations report, you could be rest assured that we've discussed those observations with the department and the administration, and we have some type of joint vision of how to move forward. And I appreciate it, and I thank you, and I understand that this could be – it's an uncomfortable process to go through because we're changing the way that we've done work in Miami-Dade County. I'm not saying that anything was being done nefariously, but it's just different the way we're doing it as opposed to the last 60, 70 years that we've been doing it the same way. So, I thank you for that work and keep on it, and I thank the administration for working with INCA to make sure that we have the accurate numbers because as we enter this budget cycle, we know that we are going to be tasked with a monumental challenge of looking at every single dollar and how we spent it and the investments that we have to make in our community, balancing all that out with the community's needs. So, thank you very much, Madam Chair, and to the committee members, thank you for your input. Thank you, Senator. Commissioner Gonzalez. Thank you, Madam Chair. And, you know, I want to definitely start off very positive. First and foremost, I want to thank Commissioner Cohen-Higgins for her leadership on this and for allowing me to co-sponsor this because I think it's absolutely important. I want to thank INCA and the administration for working together because I think that although this is a small step forward, it is a good step forward in order to achieve the transparency that I think not only this board but that taxpayers deserve. I think that when I see the potential of what you guys are putting together, I think this is probably monumental. It's not only has it never happened in Miami-Dade County before, but it's going to be a great tool for us to work together with the administration to put together a great budget. And I think that goes to Carla Denise's leadership, which I appreciate. We've had many conversations on trying to be transparent, and I appreciate the fact that we're both trying. I want to go and make a quick comment on what Commissioner Lopez alluded to, and that's that there's a lot of folks that sit on the commission. I am not one of them, but there's many folks that sit on the commission that are used to the way that budgets are put together at the state. And I think that it's beautiful the way the state puts it together because what ends up happening is that the governor will propose a budget, but the legislator will then put together a budget that the governor can veto or approve. And I don't think that in the past, by the way, I don't think this is privy to this administration. I think that this is just privy to the process in general in Miami-Dade County. But I think that in the past, it's been very difficult for the commission to work together to put the budget together with the administration, right, and to give the administration real suggestions because of the time crunch. I appreciate the fact that you guys are working on this so far ahead. If this works the way that you say it will work, and if we get this information timely and we add some transparency, I love what you suggested as to allowing taxpayers to see this. I think that that's imminent. This is a public forum, so I'm actually working on the legislation not only for transparency purposes for us, but transparency purposes for the taxpayer and residents. I think it's going to be a difficult budget year, and I know last year was difficult. I know I was very critical. I think that the more transparent that we are, the more we allow folks to see all the cards that are on the table, and the more of this that we do, not only are we going to be able to deliver a lean and efficient budget for taxpayers, but we will be able to deliver perhaps, and this is what I'm praying for, and I know my fellow horsemen are praying for this, too, that we will be able to deliver the most transparent budget in the history of Miami-Dade County. I think that that's the goal. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Quentin Higgins, you had another follow-up. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And again, thank you, Yinka, for providing this data, and I really appreciate the comments of my colleagues. I have a little bit more of a specific question, particularly on the screen that's before us now, and I'm not sure if it's still on the screens of those that are watching, but it's on our screen, and it says operating and non-operating budget, $10.6 billion. But in the budget that we passed in September, the operating budget is at $8.5 billion. Why are the numbers so vastly different? As part of the review of the data at the department level for the adopted budget, we've come to the conclusion that the calculation of the total county's budget, when you include certain non-operating activities, will be higher than the number that you just mentioned, which is about $8.6 billion. So our number is reflective of a calculation of each department's total budget without excluding any revenue-based activity or non-operating transaction. We're showing you what the actual total budget looks like, which is different from what the number that you mentioned, the $8.6 billion, that's pretty much the number that most of you would see, is calculated using a different type of methodology. Okay, so I had the privilege of serving on a committee along with my colleagues to help participate in the selection process of our next director of office of policy and budgetary affairs, and one of the questions that I asked the candidates was, what is our budget in Miami-Dade County? And they answered, I'm going to ask the same question to you. What is our budget in Miami-Dade County? Okay, the budget book excludes certain numbers, but the calculation that we have, Commissioner, and we're working with the administration on, is a true reflection of the total expenses of all the departments, which is probably closer to about $17 billion, not the number that you mentioned earlier. I'm sorry, $17 billion? Yes, that's correct. Okay, so this is what I'm not sure that I entirely understand or appreciate as we sit here today. We passed a budget at $13.23 billion just a few months ago, but you're saying that our budget is closer to $17 billion? I'm not sure how that can be. The number that you mentioned is the number that you're familiar with excludes certain transactions. But in doing the dashboard, our goal was to pull every single type of transaction in the expenditure of every single department that's represented in the 30 that you see, and that number is higher than the number that you're familiar with. And that number is closer to $17 than $13. Okay, but it would be one thing. If it was a variation of a few thousand or maybe even a few hundred thousand, I could see that making some reasonable amount of sense in a $13 billion budget. I cannot, however, understand a variation of $4 billion. So I'm going to need help understanding that, and I look forward to working with you in drilling down on what exactly is being represented. Because, again, these are not our dollars. These are the dollars of the residents and the hardworking, amazing people and families of Miami-Dade County. It is also particularly of great import and interest to me when we grapple with tough budget years that are coming, dealing with past very difficult budget years. I really look forward to working with you because I'm not sure that I'm even understanding, frankly, what you're communicating. But I do look forward to working with you towards getting a very, very clear understanding of the message that you just delivered. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Commissioner and Vice Chair Lopez. So this seems absolutely absurd. At the state, we have a much bigger budget, and what is eventually passed, and obviously after the governor does his vetoes, whatever is left is exactly to the penny what executive agencies have as their budget and what they can spend. And so I need a workshop. I need to understand this much more clearly, how anybody could think that there would be a budget passed by the commission, and yet it is not exact to the penny of what the administration has. So, and I know that Chief Carla and Denise wants to answer, but just let me, and I do want to hear from you. I have no idea. Is it a systems problem? Is it, because quite frankly, it has to match. As to Senator Garcia's point, which she has been trying to make for months now, is it has to match. So if it doesn't match, there's something wrong. Because you cannot, if you appropriate a certain amount of money, that is all you are authorized to spend. And if you want to spend anything else, if you want to move money around at some juncture, it would work, I think, like the Legislative Budget, you know, Request Commission does, which you come back to us. And you better have a pretty good reason why you're deviating, right? I don't understand this at all. It's somewhat shocking to a former budget chair from the state, but I agree with Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. You're going to have to present to us how that's possible, right? And all the differing items that, and it shouldn't take much to reconcile this, because it shouldn't even have to be reconciled. But given the fact that we now know that there's such a vast difference between what was appropriated and now what is somehow in the system for the administration, someone's going to have to walk through, here's the beginning, and here's what's happened, and this is why we're not where we are with what was appropriated. So I guess the chief... Oh, give me one second. I have Commissioner Gonzalez, and then I will turn it over to Yinka, if you had a response, and then we'll get to you. So, what Commissioner Cohen-Higgins just alluded to, and what Commissioner Lopez is outraged about, because I'm outraged right now, I'm outraged. Words are important, my friend, okay? So I need you to be clear. There's only two things that are happening here, right? When my daughter goes to the book fair, if I give her $20, and she spends $25, that is a problem, okay? We either have that scenario, or there's a revenue generation that your system is not accounting for. So if there's a revenue generation, and extra money's coming in, and we are spending that extra money, I think we would all like to know where the revenue generation is coming from, how that money's being spent, but that is different than, I give you $20, and you spend $25. Only one of two things can be happening here. So what is happening? Our observation indicates it's a presentation issue. The budget book is about three volumes. It's a lot of pages in there. There's a visualization in the budget book that talks about the county's budget, and that number is the number that you all probably recognize as $13 billion. That number has a different calculation than if you took the entire budget by department and added up all the expenses. You will have a higher number than that number that's presented in that visualization. What we're saying is because of the dashboard's purpose, we had to pick the true expenses for every department, regardless of how it's funded. Okay, but that is a big, sir, that is important, okay? And that is important, regardless of how it's funded, I understand. And by the way, you're doing a great job, okay? But it's important, those discrepancies are important, because we're either putting money on a credit card to go pop bottles at live or there's revenue being generated and there's money that's moving in and then we're spending or the administration is spending that money. I would like to know what we're spending that money on, and that's why this would be great. But both scenarios are different. You see what I'm saying? Correct. So I could give you a very specific use case. That number, the 8.6 of the operating and the 13 billion that you're familiar with, does not include a lot of interdepartmental transactions, which means when a department provides service to another department, that transaction is not included in the 13 billion number. There are a few departments that do that, right? ITD, PIOD. Those transactions, as far as expenses related to the interdepartmental transactions, is currently not reflected in your $13 billion number. However, when we look at a detailed departmental budget, we could pull all the expenses and see that IT's budget, for example, is closer to $300 million than the $26 million that's in that number that you're familiar with. So that's, for us, a big difference. It doesn't necessarily mean there's anything being intentionally done to repurpose funds. It just means that the presentation that you're familiar with, the visualization, is not fully reflective of the total county's expenditures. Madam Chair, if I may. Oh, you haven't finished? Are you saying that this is because one department is providing services to another department, and so money's being moved from one department to another department, and you're counting that transaction? We're counting that transaction, yes. But that's one use case. There's several different use cases. Give me another example. That's not that. Madam Chair. Madam Chair. Denise. Are you, you're finished? Yes, Madam Chair. Okay, yes, go ahead. Through the chairs, I really appreciate the work that OCA has done to make our budget transparent. Our budget has been transparent. We have several systems that are available to commissioners and that are used by the department to analyze the budget. There are computer systems that create the three volumes that you all approve on an annual basis. What we have right here is a discrepancy between the budget you approved and the dashboard that's been created. That will and can be resolved. The $4 billion, Madam Chairwoman and Commissioner Higgins, is very easily described, and it is absolutely represented in the budget that you all approved. There are various funding sources and there are various expenses that we do not attribute in the total operating budget that you approve on an annual basis. So the number that a lot of folks are familiar with is $13.2 billion. That is the annual individual operating expenditures for each county department. As Yinka described, it excludes interagency revenues so that we can avoid double counting and falsely inflating the budget. So the delta between what he's representing in the budget and what you're familiar with is $4.5 billion. Okay? It is absolutely in the book. It is absolutely in the ordinances. You all approved the use of that money. The use of that money has several things. It's non-operating. It's used to cover existing debt service obligations. It's used to distribute to regulated trust funds. It is used for intra-departmental transfers. It is used for reserves that are planned for current fiscal year expenses so that we can meet our bond covenants and regulated financial obligations. And it is used to transfer for capital funds to cover debt service on projects that we have and you all actually authorized and supported, for example, in aviation and seaport. Those are pay-as-you-go projects where money has already been obligated, so the money has to be put aside so that we don't inadvertently spend it or risk failure of our inability to meet the bond covenants. So the number you're familiar with is the number that represents our operating budget. It does not include the non-operating expenses that I just described. However, when you approve the annual plan for how revenues, which is about $17 billion, and expenses, which is about $13 billion, are used, it is in this book, it is in a computer system called BAT, that you all, if you don't have access, I will make sure someone on your team gets access to before the end of the day. What we have done here is created a transparent dashboard using new modern technology that makes it a little bit prettier and a little bit easier to use than the traditional accounting system that the clerk and comptroller must use, that our auditors must use and that OMB must use to calculate line after line after line of data. We will get as much of that information on the operating expenses into this system as we possibly can without compromising the financial integrity of this incredible county that has won awards for its budget that has an exceptional bond rating that allows us to operate at a top tier. So I'm a little anxious, a little upset, I need to bring it down a notch because I do not want on the record anything that will compromise the financial integrity of this county. Our budget has been approved by this board, it is transparent, and what you approved is consistent with what the directors of each department are doing on a day-to-day basis. Madam Chair, if I may. I believe Commissioner Gonzalez, you still have the floor, do you want to finish out? Yeah, just would like to respond. Chief, and this is why, Yinka, it's important, like, the explanation is important because, Chief, what I'm getting from you is this is revenues that are generated, these extra expenditures, this extra $4 billion, it's not like the county overspent $4 billion. It's that there's revenue that's being generated, and so this $4 billion is being spent on the things that you just described. Is that correct? Thank you for the clarification. The county gets money in numerous ways. So we have revenue line and we have an expense line. Revenue comes from taxes, right, our collection of fees, grants, as well as sales or transactions, right? It also comes from interest earnings. It also comes from our ability to manage debt and to get debt service at zero or even lower rates. So we accumulate monies that then we obligate in an annual plan. And this is aside from the annual budget that we put together. Right. So the annual budget, the ordinances that you approve, include and authorize us to collect money and it authorizes us to spend money. Because we are fiscally responsible, because we like to plan for a rainy day, and because we have borrowed money in the past, we do not spend every dollar in the bank on an annual basis. We put money aside to cover debt obligations. Is that those $4 billion? Correct. We put money aside for reserves. There are trust funds that have been established that require us to put money in those trust funds. So all of those things add up to the $4 billion, including what Yinka described as the inter and intra agency transfers. So that may be an example where one department takes money from a division and gives that money to another division. But it's not new money. I'm looking forward to sitting down with you, just so that we can cross all the T's and dot all the I's. But I will say this. I know that this is a frustrating conversation, but it is a great conversation to have. Because I think that when we bring transparency, we are able to have the conversations that explain everything in detail. And folks can not be outraged, right? Folks can rest assured that things are going well. And if they're not, we can fix them. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Ruck. Senator Garcia. I do have to go off. But I appreciate it. Call Denise. I recognize and understand what you're saying. I don't think there's anything. I don't think any of us are assuming there's anything nefarious that's happening. Because we do have a good bond rating here in Miami-Dade County. We don't want to jeopardize that. What you're hearing here is the problem you're hearing here is the problem you can fix here is if we had a line-by-line budget. And that is consistently what I've been trying to say here. The state of Florida can have a line-by-line budget, line-item budget. Why can't we? Because you're absolutely right what Carl Denise is talking about, and I think what Yinka is talking about with these interdepartmental transfers. Also, these are monies that are in reserves. They are not accounted in the actual budget itself. I'm assuming that's part of it. They are. Okay, so they need to be reflected, I think, in the overall budget, I think, right? That they are? Yes, sir. Okay, perfect. So as we move forward, and the information that Yinka is getting, obviously, like I said earlier, whatever is inputted, whatever information you get inputted, that's what we get output. That's the output. So there has to be even more of a collaboration with the mayor's office. And I do appreciate what you're saying, that everyone's working together to try to get this. It's a hard process. Because it's hard doesn't mean that we can't do it. We will get there. And just rest assured that I believe that moving forward, if we have, if we look in the sake of transparency, this is something that I've been talking about since I got elected. Since I came to the county commission in Yinka, you and I have been working on this. But the way we resolve all these problems, most of these problems, is by having a completely transparent budget. Not saying it's not transparent coming from them, but what reflects to the public, it reflects to us, it's not line by line. There's some parts that are line by line, but there's a lot of groupings in there. But if you open that up and break them down, then it makes it a lot more clear and transparent for all of us, and then there will be less questions. So that's my two cents, or my $13.2 billion worth of cents, but I appreciate the work that's being done. This is a great conversation to have. Thank you, Senator. Commissioner Cohen-Higgins. Thank you, Madam Chair. And obviously, I'm listening very closely, and to our chief, I appreciate the response that you provided. I am a little bit curious as to the emotional reaction, and you even going as far as describing yourself as upset. I want to make very clear that no one up here is trying to upset anyone at all, and we are only trying to gain the clarity that I think everybody on this committee has communicated that they may or may not feel like they have. And so I, too, am interested in gaining clarity from you, Chief. And so my question is a very simple one as a follow-up. It's the same question I asked Yinka, the same question that I asked the director and the applicants of being the director of policy and budgetary affairs. What is our budget in Miami-Dade County? To Chief Carla Denise, what is our budget in Miami-Dade County? So the budget that was approved for expenses non-operating in fiscal year 26 is $13.2 billion. That is the total annual budget of expenditures that was approved last year. Okay. I appreciate you saying that because it's what's reflected in our budget book. It's what's posted online. I hope that you can understand our position when we have a commission auditor whose exclusive job is to receive, plug, and report data, who, when asked the same question not 10 minutes ago, had a very different response, and not with a delta of $2 or $3, but with a delta of $4 billion. So I just want to set the playing field here because at the very minimum, we should be able to agree on what our budget is in Miami-Dade County. I feel strongly about that. So for me, while there are emotions being expressed of being upset, if there's anyone, it should possibly and potentially be us that are upset because at this juncture, where we have once navigated a very difficult budget environment and are constantly warning that more are to come, for me, the idea that there is a discrepancy at all on what the overarching number of our budget is, is for me a huge problem. So when I said previously, I will repeat it again, that I look forward to working with our commission auditor, our administration, and frankly, our comptroller, who is responsible for verifying some of these numbers and has involvement in this as well, so that we can at the very minimum get an agreement on what our aggregate budget is in Miami-Dade County. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. And Commissioner Gonzalez, to close out the discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair. And yeah, to piggyback off of Commissioner Cohen-Higgins' point, I do agree with her. And I think the frustration here is that on the side of the commission, I certainly don't want to speak for my colleagues, but I think what you're hearing up here is we are under the impression that when we say $13 billion, that is the cap. That's what we're under the impression of. I'm understanding what Chief is stating as to the revenue generators along with the other potential funding sources. Transparency solves all of these confusions because if we're able, what we don't want as commissioners is for money to be spent without our authority. That's all the frustration that you're getting from this side. So when we're hearing $13 billion and then we're hearing it's really $17 billion, that's why everybody's jumping up here because we're under the impression that $13 billion is the cap. Now understanding that there are revenues and other funding sources, okay, we need to meet one-on-one with the administration and let's get specific about what those funding sources are, where those monies are going, and how they were approved. And I'm sure that if we're able to do that, we're going to be able to, we're hopefully going to be able to come to the crux of understanding where the money's going and how we got there. Thank you, Commissioner. I had some questions, but a lot of them have been answered. I wanted to ask you, Yinka, how do you get this information on a day-to-day, and how do you ensure that it is accurate and up-to-date? Are there safeguards around that? Yes, so our team, and I know a lot of it has said, my name has been mentioned as a thank you, but we have a core team in our office that's working on this project. We have several chiefs and several members of our staff that's working on this, so it's not a Yinka activity by myself. We work with every single department because what's complicated is that the county doesn't have a universal approach to the operating expenses of every single department. Every department operates differently. The way they account for revenues are different. So what we've done is we work directly with the department and the budget office to create what we call a central identity of what expenditures are supposed to be reported as. And in that scenario, we're able to account for what we believe are the true expenses of the county. In addition to that, we work with the budget office to identify the actual budget number. And obviously, we've talked about the previous conversation, but that's not a conversation inside my office alone. We're working with the administration to make sure we could explain what those differences are. So there are several things we've put in place. One of the things I said earlier in the presentation is that our office had to create a knowledge base because in doing something that has never been done before, we're asking a lot of questions that have never been asked. So we're creating a knowledge base that would help us understand the activities of each department, and each one is different. And can you add scenarios or what-ifs as you're projecting these numbers so that in real time, we can see what would happen if certain expenditures or revenues came through? Absolutely. Absolutely. That's one of the capabilities that we have. Thank you. Yeah, and I think I want to be clear that my colleagues, we're not calling our budget process the financial integrity of our process into question. I think every year, the 13 of us as the legislative body, we're tasked with approving the budget and balancing the budget, and the finger is pointed at us. So this is a tool that will help us to decipher that not under the gun, to allow us time to process and figure out how we can make the best decisions for our residents. So I encourage all of our colleagues, all 13 of us, to get together with the commission auditor to have a tutorial on how to do this, on how to look at the dashboard, and I commend Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, and I commend your department for bringing this to us. Yes, you may. Go ahead. I'll close out by saying this. This is supposed to change the delivery mechanism for the county's financial information and personnel information to make sure you could get information close to real time as possible without waiting on reports that are static. And in doing that, I want to make sure I thank my team, who worked tirelessly on this. And also, I want to thank the departments and administration for working with us. It was a collaborative approach we took this because we believe it's important for the entire board and the county. So thank you for the opportunity. Thank you to the sponsor, Commissioner Higgins, for trusting us with this incredible responsibility. And we'll continue to work with you regarding any enhancements that you may have that we could fulfill for you. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Yinka. And I would suggest that as we get closer to the budget, I think we can make this an ongoing presentation as you solidify the dashboard, and perhaps we can have this as an ongoing monthly or every other month you can come and do a presentation. So thank you so much. Through the chair, please. We're done with this one. We have to close out. I would just, I do have a recommendation, and I'm so grateful that you're recognizing me. You know, in addition to the office, commission office auditor working with the administration, it is critically important that we work with our comptroller. Ultimately, everything we do has to be audited, it has to be approved, and it has to be clean, as Commissioner Lopez says. And so I would urge us to not make anything public that has not been vetted appropriately by the departments and by the clerk and our comptroller. That will enable and ensure, Chairwoman, that the county continues to protect its financial health and financial integrity. Thank you. And, Barbara Galvez, I see that you're down there. I'm going to recognize you for a second because your office's name has been called out a few times. So please go ahead, but please make it quick. Absolutely. Barbara Galvez with the clerk and comptroller's office. I just wanted to request that Yinka please, although he's been working with the administration, he has not worked with my office. And so we have not validated that the information, as far as the actuals are concerned, are accurate and reflective of what's in our financial systems because we are not sure where he's pulling or how he's pulling the data that is coming together for the various departments. Go ahead. Thank you. Really quickly, if I may, and thank you for being here. How are you unaware of how he's pulling data? Like, why would that be a mystery to you all? I mean, wasn't it just communicated that the data is housed in some system that is called whatever the name of it is? I can't recall the name. Chief, if you can help me. What is the name? I'm sorry? Informs. Informs, but there was another system, Chief, that you mentioned. That's bad. That's for the budget. Budget is one thing. Actuals is something different. That dashboard is reflecting actual expenditures. That comes from a different database altogether. Okay. And so I'm not sure what, if he's pulling the data directly from the production system, it's one thing. If he's pulling it from a reporting instance of the system, it's another. It's not real-time data. If it's coming from the reporting system, there are certain idiosyncrasies of how all this information comes together. And so I just want to be able to have the ability to speak to have him come to us. He has not done that that I'm aware of. I spoke to my staff. He's been working on this for a while for you, but we don't know how he's coming and putting this information together. Okay. Can we, Yinka, I'm not sure the directive instructed him to work with you in fairness, right? And I'm not trying to speak for our commission auditor. I know he's approaching. I do think, however, because our goal is unified and it is clear, I would like you included because we just want accurate data. I mean, like, our objective is the most simple, clear one. And so if you can provide assistance to that, then certainly we welcome the comptroller as part of the process. And so, Yinka, if you'd like to speak to why you all haven't worked together, I'm not trying to create any kind of a back and forth here at all. And I do think it's important that you clarify where you're getting your information from because I think when the comptroller approaches and states on the record that she has no idea where you're getting your information from, I do think that you deserve an opportunity to state that on the record because it makes it seem as though it's ominous and it's being pulled from some very mysterious – let's get clear on where you're getting your information from, please. We're happy to work with the comptroller's office to share and give them some insights into the actual dashboard. The county only has one system of record when it comes to financial information that we use in the county, in INFORMS. So the INFORMS system is the core system. Some departments have different systems that's not INFORMS like the Housing Department, the Water and Sewer Department, and Aviation, and we work with them with their system also. There's a database that's available that has real-time information, and we've worked with the administration and the database custodians to make sure we pull in data. And I want to reemphasize something that's very, very important in this conversation. The dashboard is a delivery mechanism, which means if you wanted a report every quarter and someone printed it out for you, they'll be printing it out from that system. So the dashboard is taking data and delivering it to you in an automated way as opposed to printing out a report from the same system, which is every report that you've seen in the past decade comes from a system of record. I think that's a key word. A system of record exists, and we're working with that system of record. We're happy to work with the clerk's office. We'll walk them through the process. We'll walk them through the assumptions being made so that way everybody's on the same page. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And clearly this presentation left us with more questions than answers, but since they are a constitutional office, do you need a directive from us to work with them? They're the auditing body for the county, so we don't need a directive. Okay. We work with them frequently on different initiatives. It's not an issue. Perfect. Thank you, and thank you, Ms. Galvis. Moving on to the final discussion item. We have a discussion item from Commissioner Vice Chair Lopez regarding the state bills. So, thank you, Madam Chair. So, as you may know already, the legislature has not reconvened to contemplate a budget. What appeared to be a special session that was called by the governor for next week to work on a congressional redistricting also appears not to be happening. There's chatter that he may be calling, the governor may be calling the legislature back for congressional redistricting at another time. Maybe not this week, next week, or the week thereafter, but it would include other items. So, until they have convened on the budget, we won't know the exact impact on any of our funding. I also, we don't have any read yet on a special session on property taxes. So, we don't know how that will be impacting the county's revenues. So, in essence, I think, in summary is that they are still very far away from, you know, handling any of those items. And so, we will have to wait, and I'll give another report once we know, once we have more information from the legislature. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Vice Chair Lopez. With that, I know we're at the conclusion of our agenda, but to the attorneys, do we have any other housekeeping matters? The only thing, or, Madam Chair, the only thing was I had been advised by the administration that they were requesting to waive items 3F and 3G, which were approved with the balance of the agenda when we set it, to the next BCC meeting. Okay. Do we have a motion to waive those? Sorry? I guess the question is why, because now the commission, now any of us who want to waive need to give a reason why we would want to waive it. So, was a reason provided by the administration? Is there something that's urgent or that, you know, program has begun? What was the reasoning for asking for the waiver? Through the Chair, thank you for the question. Both of these items, we would appreciate being moved to the next meeting. There was only one meeting in April, and so, as a result, you know, time has bypassed. It's always in our better interest, particularly for the ACOM item, which is helping us cover a vendor who is helping with the oversight of one of our projects, to have that done sooner rather than later. It's our request, and we appreciate your consideration for moving both of these to the April meeting, April 21st meeting. So moved. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Okay, show those items forwarded to the next BCC. Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, you had a motion? I do, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. And to my colleagues, I'm making a floor motion regarding the Leifman Building, and the motion is a simple one, and frankly, it's rooted in what I'm seeing in our community, which is a very heavily attended campaign and very coordinated campaign with the media and with our community promoting the support of the Leifman Building. And we've had multiple, multiple hearings at this committee on this important, important project. And I feel like no one is really paying attention to us and the very, very clear message that we've sent here as a body, which is that we support this idea. We need to know how it is going to be funded. And so my motion is a simple one. The financial plan that was associated with the Leifman Building, I think, went to three years, if I am not mistaken. And again, I don't want to speak for my colleagues. Maybe it was two years, two and a half years. Our concern was what do we do with the patients after that, and no one has given us a clear answer. Different representations were made about where we're going to get the funding, we're going to get pledges from here, and there nothing has come to fruition. So while there is a campaign and a lot being spoken to in the media about how much we need this, nobody is addressing how we are going to pay for it. So what I would like for us to do, and if we recall the very first time this came to hearing, I and I believe my colleagues asked the question, what are we going to do to pay for this building? I think ideologically everybody agrees that it needs to move forward, but we are asking that the tough work be done on the front end instead of the back end, instead of sticking us with a bill in two or three years where we are left scrambling trying to figure out how to pay for this building. Let's do the work on the front end. So my motion is that I move for the administration to work diligently to identify funding for the Lifeman building for a minimum of 10 years with specificity of where from our budget, whatever the number may be, that you are pulling from in order to fund this project that has been articulated time and time again, something that needs to move forward as a priority for our community, yet nobody wants to find the money. So if my colleagues agree with me, I would like a motion to direct the administration to prepare a 10-year financial projection, find the money in our budget, specifically identify what you are not going to fund in order to fund this building, and bring it to us in the form of a report at our next committee hearing so that we can review it and actually deal with the numbers of the Lifeman building. So that is my motion if my colleagues would like. So we have a motion on Commissioner Cohen-Higgins' floor motion, and we have a second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. And with that, do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. We are adjourned.