Commissioner Gilbert, Commissioner Melian Orbis, Vice Chairman Gonzales, Chairman Rodriguez. Present. Quorum members present, you have a quorum. All right, please stand for the prayer this morning, led by Commissioner Orbis. Good morning everybody, please bow your heads. Dear Lord, please gather us here today as we meet to make decisions for the future of our community and guide us, guide everybody who's in this room, guide the administration, our commission, and look out for our community. In your name we pray, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. All right, real busy committee meeting. All right, Madam and Mr. Attorney, can we move into reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard? Yes, you may. All right, well, reasonable opportunity is now open, I have no speakers registered to speak, so reasonable opportunity is also now closed. Can I have a pen? Thank you. Is it in order to set the agenda at this time? Yes, it is. All right, I'll entertain a motion. Motion to set the agenda. Short move by Commissioner Orbis, seconded by Commissioner Cohen Higgins. On favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed nay. Show the agenda set. All right, any bifurcations to my colleagues? All right, show 3A bifurcated. I move the balance of the agenda, Mr. Chair. Second. All right, the balance moved by Commissioner Cohen Higgins, seconded by Commissioner Orbis. On favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed nay. All right, on 3A, I was actually going to bifurcate it as well, Commissioner, but I'll let you be recognized first. Well, I just had questions because I think there's like a substantial monetary difference. But the point didn't kind of track with that, and I was wondering what was the deciding factor in actually moving on. Do we have people here from those companies? Is Nomada here? I'm looking, sorry, Chair. Let's see, where's everybody? I kind of want to know what's funny. The director is on her way. Okay, all right, so here's what I was, and I'll let Commissioner Gilbert kind of hear his thoughts. And I think he, but I actually was going to pull this or bifurcate this item as well, colleagues, because I did see that the, so this is a debris removal contract, just to, I guess, monitor it, like the management company of our debris, only in the event of a disaster, right, of a hurricane. So this isn't like something that I understand we pay for, you know, every year. It's only when activated. But the difference between the recommended bidder and the second-place bidder is about 10 points. It's not a big difference. And, but the second-place bidder is nearly a million dollars less expensive in a time when, obviously, we're discussing budgetary cuts left and right. Are you replacing Nomada this morning? Yeah, I hear Nomada's on her way, but I can speak a little bit to the contract. So this was a competitively bid solicitation. Our department, I'm sorry, Olga Espinosa Anderson, through the chair, the deputy director of administration for Department of Solid Waste Management. So we are, our department is the heaviest user of this contract. As you said, this contract is only used on the aftermath of a disaster. So basically, in order for departments to get reimbursed from FEMA, you must have a monitoring contract to kind of keep the other contractors honest. They basically have folks that follow the different other vendors who actually go out and pick up the debris and make sure that they bring it to our staging areas and make sure they don't stop and pick up other debris along the way and that they only pick up debris from the areas in which they are assigned. Chairman, if we could just interrupt. Okay, I appreciate the answer. I know what they do and I know the importance of it. I think what I was questioning, I think the chair was questioning, is there's such a small difference and it's a big monetary difference. And so we want to focus on the correlation and that delta. So I think that's probably what we're looking at right now. So we understand it's very important. We understand who uses it. So all that stuff being established, you have one person who is like 10 points more and the other person who is a million dollars less. And so we want to probably get into that. I think that's what it is. So you could drill down on that. That would be great. Thank you. Okay, I think Namara would probably be able to answer that a little bit better than I. I do know that it was compared to a bit through a solicitation with a committee who scored the different vendors. I wasn't on that committee. So that particular question, I thought you all had questions about what the contract was for. Thank you, Olga, and thank you for trying to fill in. I know that you were just trying to do how Namara comes in. So I appreciate that. But look, again, unless Namara shows up and reveals something unexpected, but I had my team do some research on this because that stood out for me, right? And I remember not long ago, colleagues, we were discussing on this day, and I forgot what it was. I want to say it was like the seaweed, like the sargassum at the beach, right? And we were doing kind of like the same conversation. The difference there was, and this would have had my team do research, the difference in that scenario was that the second place bidder, you know, the lower bidder didn't really have the qualifications for it yet. Of course, they said they would figure it out, and they had the right partnerships and all, but they hadn't really done it before. And I wanted to make sure that that wasn't the same case, so I had my team look into it. And, you know, the second place bidder has many, many contracts of this magnitude throughout different states and throughout Florida as well. And, in fact, found out in their research that three of their top executives actually come from the top, from the number one recommended, you know, company. So, I don't know. I think they're both very qualified. They get the job done. And to save nearly a million dollars, I would look to move forward with the second place bidder at this time. Second. You hit the points right in the head, Mr. Chairman. Especially if no one's here to answer the question. Ten points, relatively insignificant. A million dollars, relatively significant. And people with the same expertise as was doing it before. And sometimes I think, you know, I know the provider that's recommended was people who actually we were using before, I believe. And so, I know we fall in love. You know, that's what happens. We fall in love here at the county where if we're using you, we'll likely go back to using you. I've been a proponent of not doing that, so I'm very comfortable moving the item. All right. I'm sure it moved by Commissioner Gilbert, seconded by Commissioner Orbis, recommending, I guess it's called Thompson Consulting Services. And Commissioner Cohen-Higgins, your recognition. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a large contract. It's a five-year contract with a cumulative value of $95 million. And I'm going to support your motion. But I have a lot of questions about this. And what is perplexing to me is that it's 915, it's policy council, and we don't have someone here to answer questions that are pretty basic questions on the item. So, that is very concerning to me. And so, I will support the number two moving forward to final hearing. But between now and then, I would and I will have questions for the administration regarding this procurement and why this particular company was recommended as the number one bidder when there is a second-ranked company that was a million dollars less expensive. That's not making much sense to me, but I'm sure there's a valid reason, but it's not being provided to us this morning. So, just kind of message to everyone that pays attention to our hearings. When we have committee hearings and there's items on our agenda, we would greatly appreciate someone that can be here to answer our questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. Yes, I just wanted to add to what Commissioner Cohen-Higgins said. I also had some questions because I wanted to know how much weight was put on the cost. I think that should be one of the most important points that a vendor receives. So, I had some questions, but absolutely, I support saving money. I think in this moment that we're facing, we need to find every cost saving that we can. So, thank you for bringing this up. Of course. Thank you. Well, with that, Commissioner Gonzalez. And, you know, maybe this question is for the Chief. Is there really nobody here that can answer any questions as to the formula that was used to come to the, because I'm sure there has to be somebody. Yeah, it's been. I'm sorry. Through the Chair, I apologize profusely. Nomada and her number two are on their way here, and so I'm not quite sure what the delay is. We actually spoke about it this morning, but I don't want to misspeak. I'm not that familiar with the detail. So I'm going to call the vote. Would that all in favor signify by saying aye? Aye. I'll oppose nay. Through the Chair, we had just arrived. It's too late. It's too late. I just called the vote at this point. But I think that Nomada and their team should definitely get with our offices and explain it. To the attorneys, any further business on the agenda itself? No, the bifurcated item was the only one to be considered. The meeting minutes were approved for the setting of the agenda. All right, show us adjourned. Thank you all.