Inside District 6: The Issues, The Budget, and the Future | Natalie Milian Orbis

Okay. And we continue with a day in Miami. Day in Miami fans. Now we switch from we switch from

death [laughter] community to community.

I don't know if I want to follow that.

We're going to we're going from trusts and titles life planning which was very good by the way and we even talk about that with commissioner. But anyway, I want to introduce our new commissioner, a very young, vibrant, exciting, bringing new blood to the day county commission, Natalie Mang Orbis.

Hello.

Did I say that correctly?

You came very prepared. No one ever does that. So, I already know that you're an organized person. See that?

You need to be You need to be organized to be in the day. We got to run on point.

Commissioner, welcome. Welcome to the day in Miami. I know we've been trying to get this pod, you know, going. I know one of our one of our biggest things that we wanted to do was get you on right after your 100 days. Yep.

But I think that today's even more of a special day, which Eddie doesn't even know this. No.

So, what what what is the anniversary today?

It is true. We just noticed we're celebrating 6 months in office today.

So, this day today, you got sworn in.

I got sworn in exactly 6 months ago.

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So, celebrating our six months anniversary.

I thought she was gonna give us a big bigger surprise. But

well, bigger than you are.

You know what? What you running for mayor?

I don't know about [laughter]

Not yet. Not yet. We'll go back to this.

That's a different podcast. [laughter]

So, listen. Listen, this is crazy. But anyway, we just we just had the ones for the city of Miami. But anyway, give us give us a little bit of the background. Give us a little background of commissioner. When did you start? Because before you were day county commissioner, we want to say you were commissioner for West Miami and then you were vice mayor for the city of West Miami which is shout out for the city of West Miami.

West Miami. My home.

Yeah. My sister lived there for many years. What are the boundaries of West Miami?

So West Miami is between 8th Street and Coral between 57th Avenue and 67th Avenue.

So very little.

It's very small but it's

lots of love. It's a beautiful little town.

Great police department. Smaller than Sweetwater.

Yes, it's smaller than Sweetwater.

I told you I didn't know much,

but they're doing a great job. The the town, you know, the people love it. The residents there love living there. It's a very special little city and my heart is there. So,

I mean, when you get it was very hard for my sister to leave West Miami this years ago, but she loved it. I mean, it's to her point. I mean, it's everybody cheers. Everybody knows your name. And now you have a great Publix around there, too, by the way. We do the public's on 16 and 57.

57 spectacular spectacular Publix is doing so after co I don't know what happened to them. Obviously we do know they broke records in in revenue but they're tearing down all the old Publix and building new ones. They did one in Kendall by the Miller Square tore down completely and doing two floors there. This one is two floors as well. So when it rains it gets really full cuz everybody goes great because you have underground parking.

I love but anyway that's a great one because it's in your district. So, but give us a little bit of a a little briefing

of of of yourself and why politics. Why why do you know because you're a mom?

I am a mom.

You know how many I have two babies, a three three-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son.

Wow.

Joy of my life.

Yes.

They're that's that's that's a job itself.

They Yes.

That's a that's a job. That's a full-time job. That's a full-time job. So So why politics, Ally? Why? So, I I started in Miami date county um um you know almost 20 years ago. Uh I I'd like to say that politics is is ingrained in my in in in in my DNA because

going back my my uncle who has, you know, passed away ever since. Uh he was always involved. He was in communications and marketing. His name is Pedro Milan. A lot of people know him in the community and

a dear dear friend of mine.

Yes, I know you know him. and had lunch with him at least three times a week in LA. Always there was very stories about him. They actually named the street acana after him.

Listen, remember I'm an I'm I'm I'm an oldie.

Yeah,

I dealt with all these guys all my life and it was great.

That's right. That's right.

That whole group was great.

So I I watched him growing up uh doing campaigns, you know, he did uh Mayor Alex Panella's he did Commissioner Sosa's campaign. And so growing up that really sparked a a passion for being in the political game for me. It sparked the what you could do through these offices. It sparked a a joy for me, an excitement of being part of that. And I studied political science at FIU and while I was at our FIU, I'm a three-time alumni. Never get tired of saying

a great podcast there.

I love FIU. We're a new president there with Janette.

They're doing great. Very excited to see what Janette's going to accomplish there.

I would love them to take over on the other side, you know, to grow more. But I think they're going to grow. They have to. They have

They have to grow. There's a huge demand for students to go there. I've heard the bar is super high now to get in.

And I think they just recently got like top 10 and they got to place top 10 and

it's not that easy to get into FIU anymore.

No, I want you to continue law is doing fantastic. Um yeah, so I while I was at FIU, I get an opportunity to come and intern for Commissioner Sosa in District 6. So I start working there as an intern in the in the office that I am now the commissioner uh in district 6.

Yeah. So I was 19 years old, little baby. I start working there. Um I rise through the ranks. I start working in all the different things. I do a little bit of communication. I do constituent services out in the community, you know, do the turkeys, uh resolving the potholes, everything that you do in a commission office,

speeding, the stop sign,

the everything. I heard a lot of a lot of constituent a lot of phone calls. That's for sure.

I I picked up a lot of phones. Yeah. Um eventually I start doing legislation. I find a passion for legislation and I end up working for three commissioners uh being a legislative aid and legislative director and I really found my passion there, you know, and and I loved how much we can impact somebody's life through these commission offices.

I was going to ask um you started at 19 years old

and what does it take to go up the ranks? Like what type of personality do you need? like what did you lean on most and say, you know, um looking back, I learned that, you know, going the extra mile or doing X is really what helped me get to the next level.

I'll tell you something that I tell a lot of young people that I come across. Showing up is half the bottle. Just showing up. Showing up to everything. There's an event, you have an opportunity to show up. Even if you're not required to go, go because they're going to notice. The people that matter, they're going to notice and they're going to say, "She goes the extra mile. She shows up. She wants to be part of this."

I agree. Right.

You know what? I agree. And I see you still doing that cuz I see you everywhere.

I see you on everyone's other Instagrams. You going to a lot of events with the different mayors and everything.

I think showing up makes such a difference, you know, especially in the things that you're interested and passionate about. You know, our constituents, that's what they want to see. They want to see that you're available to them, that you show up to everything that matters to the community. So, just showing up, uh, giving your best, keeping focus. Politics is hard. Having a tough skin,

you know, a very tough

it will break you. It really will. There's long hours, a lot of dedication. Um, you really have to have a passion for it and you have to love it and and you have to know that you're doing it for a higher purpose. You're never going to be a millionaire doing this job. You're never going to make a lot of money.

It is for the love of the job and the love of serving the community that that I really do it because you're never, you know,

fact you take away from the family. Well, you if you talk to Nancy Pelosi, she's the number one traitor. So,

well, SHE'S NOT RUNNING FOR [laughter] any I don't know how true that's

that's a different level. I don't know.

Number one trader in which way? Trading or trader? Anyway,

that's another conversation.

There's literally Instagram that just follow her track and I see all the time.

Listen, there's a guy that just did the guy just did his own app that you just follow her trades. But she's not seeking the election, by the way. I didn't know that.

No, she Yeah. Yeah. You don't read the news. Come on. It was all over the news.

I mean, it's about time. She's been goes into which goes into the fact of Young Blood and and a lot of people talking about you know the term limit situation which I was always for because sometimes and listen there's nothing wrong with career politicians okay but sometimes when you're comfortable already in that position that oh I'll be there I'll be there I'll be there I'll be there I'll be there people just take a step back and you really can't there's not accountability somewhere so I think that you know which by the way just passed in the city of Miami

great thing that everybody went out and voted and said no more, you know, term limits. That's on the election from yesterday that there has to be term limit. There has to be a term limit.

So to that point, because of that, there's people like you and people coming to the commission.

And you know what's funny is when I worked in the in the county commission, I worked for three commissioners who had been there for a very long time. Very, you know, they they knew uh they knew all about the county, but had all been there more than 20 years.

Yes. Yeah. Long. Um, so it's a huge difference when you go from the establishment of being there 15, 20, 30 years to these newer folks who are coming in fresh who only have eight years to accomplish everything that you want to do for the community. Correct.

And figure out what are you going to do? What is your next step? Correct.

What's your path after?

There's no time for nonsense,

right? There's no time for for nonsense. So on that note, what what has what were maybe one or two key issues for you that you said, "Okay, I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm coming into District 6, you know, apart from because let's let's be clear, you you you manage your district, but at the same time, you guys are, you know, a body that have to report in the sense of balancing budgets and everything else." I know we heard so much going on with the fact of the whole uh budget that was going on this year and the fact that there's no money, there's money, there's no money, there's no money. So then, you know, take us through a little bit of like not only the concerns of district six, but the fact of concerns overall in the county.

Yeah. So, as soon as I came into office, um we set up a series of nine town halls that we did in six weeks and we covered every single um unincorporated area in the district. So, we have six cities in the district and then we have a lot of unincorporated as well. And the goal in that was to get in touch with the community to let them know that we would have continuity of services because of course I came in uh to fill a vacancy. And I wanted to hear from the community. I wanted to reconnect. What are the services that you most need? What are you looking for? What is missing in your community? What can we improve? So, really having that direct service to our constituents is number one. Being practical and fiscally responsible with our with our tax dollars. That is my priority. That's what it's been from day one.

And what were you hearing? What were the biggest concerns of the residents that you hear in these town halls?

So, the residents give us the the typical speeding um in their districts that we hear a lot. um the potholes. Something that we heard a lot was response times uh from from from police and fire in the unincorporated areas,

which by the way that you say that point, we had Sheriff Rosie here.

Yes.

And and we talked about that with her and she gave such a great point in the sense that for every amount of of of people you have to have x amount of of officers. Remember when we asked her, are we are we looking for more offers? She goes, absolutely. Oh yeah. because so that could really service the fact of the response. And I'll tell you that clip that she talked about that I think it had like over 300 shares. So I'm guaranteeing you people applied for work there. I'm I'm I'm sure.

Yeah. I mean I from what I understand their classes were theirmies were on hold for for a little while because she was going through the budget process.

So it's not a lack of people applying

right. It was right. She needed to get them trained and through the through the whole system.

It's a process to that's a good thing. I mean we we we don't want just a regular job. I WANT TO BE A COP.

In the 80 [laughter] in the 80s they would I heard a story in the 80s that they would just put on a street gun and a badge.

I know a lot of crazies out there would love a gun and a badge.

Corruption 101.

Yeah. So, but we have a great relationship with the sheriff's office from my office at least. And um we have increased patrols in all of these areas so that the neighbors know that we're out there. We're looking out for them. And we're trying to figure out how I am actually working on a on a study now with the county um to see how we can fix the the response times from fire and and uh sheriff.

So there were complaint so there was it was uh potholes speeding and response time.

Well and to that point

amongst a lot of things.

Yeah. I'm always interested in knowing but complaining about

No. Well, but you know

there was also improvement in the parks. You know we have a huge problem with ducks. We get those calls every day.

Yeah. Not only ducks but

peacocks. Peacock. Peacocks.

You got peacocks in your area, too?

Oh, yes.

I think they breed in [laughter] my area.

You use them?

No. I said this in a pod and I think people are doing this.

I I do it as a speed deterrent.

Oh, yeah. Because in my

What do you do? Do you put them in the middle of the street?

No. No. No. There. No. I feed them at a certain time.

Oh, man.

Oh, yeah. At 5:00 when everybody wants to cut through my area, I start doing I throw a little little peanuts right there and they'll they'll come and needs to slow down. You can't run.

And I'm outside there looking to see where the camera and see who's going to, you know, who's going to who's going to go run over a peacock.

Can't run over the

Well, but I'm just saying there's crazy

because of that same reason. And I'm thinking that, you know, to that point you're saying now the speeding, we talked about this with um No, we spoke about this with Kevin years ago when he was commissioner and we said

and this time I'm married too and and with and with Javier because eventually, you know, one of the only things I think I like about LA is the fact that they have and I know all these haters out there now because we're getting a lot of you everyone's gonna start saying, "I can't believe you're gonna say that there's cameras. in the neighborhoods looking at people going over the speed limits.

Yeah.

And in in California in the residential areas. Yes. If you go over 30 m per hours, listen, right now snapshot and $100. $100. You know, I'm laughing because there's an ongoing joke. We're talking about ongoing joke. There's an ongoing joke in my household of every week see who gets a new thing of like, oh, you were going uh speeding some area. I don't know where or not even speeding 30 miles 29. And then my wife's like, I didn't get it. It's under your name. Look at your track. There's the picture. You know what I'm saying? You can't fight those. You can't fight those. You know, people thinking you can send this to like, you know, one of these attorneys. They'll call and they'll call you back. No, you got to pay that.

No. Yeah.

So, again, I understand the sense of the speeding because remember with ways and everything that we have now in Google Maps, everybody to avoid traffic will go to the residential area.

Absolutely.

I was going to ask you and I see that you guys post and not only you, I think other commissioners do it too. They post a little before and after of the trash pickups.

When I first started seeing that pop up, I'm like, man, that's like a little bit silly. Like, you would assume people pick up the trash and they don't, you know?

No, they don't.

But I guess they don't, you know, and now you're telling me it's a major concern.

That is a concern. We get a lot of illegal dumping phone calls and where people just feel like, hey, I'm moving out, so I'm going to dump my couch on the side of the street.

I think we should arrest those people cuz they do it by my neighborhood, too.

I mean, it is aable.

It's the worst thing you can say. If you are caught, you can get fined for that. It's illegal dumping. The county will find you for that.

We got to stop doing that cuz

But we do in my office, we do what we call proactive drives. And we do that several times a week, at least three times a week. My team goes out with the truck and we identify those those uh illegal dumping sites or things that are dirty and we clean them. We pick them up. If we can put it in the truck, we take it. If not, we call the county's um the the pickup.

But if if I have illegal dumping around my area, who do I call?

You can call your commissioner. Who's your commissioner?

Anthony Rodriguez.

Call him.

Yeah.

Anthony, illegal dumping in district.

But is there like a number like a 401?

911.

You can you can call 311, but if you call you call if you call direct the commissioner's office, you'll probably get a a quicker response.

So now you guys know legal dumping, call direct.

And you can look up your commissioner on miamiday.gov. Who is my commissioner? You can actually type into Google who is my county commissioner and put in your address. You find out everything there. uh the district office, the downtown office, and all of their information

and your voter registration card. You

They can't send you a DM. If they send you a DM, does that work too or no?

What do you mean a DM? [laughter]

The Instagram direct message. [gasps]

You can actually actually I'm so glad that you touched upon this. You can send us a DM on Instagram or Facebook and we look at it. Our team is constantly monitoring. But what's more is we rolled out texting to the office.

So we have

I I hate to be the person behind that text. It's a real person. We've been asked if if it's an AI. It's not AI. It's a real person and I actually I get them. I get a report of theming. Um so you text our our district office is 305-267-6377 to that same number. You can send a text or a photo of a concern, anything that you have and you'll get a response right away just like if you were calling the office.

Yeah, that's amazing. I mean going back to that thing of the dumping, let's be clear, there's some city, for example, I'm I'm in borderline between Day County and city South Miami. So then basically in South Miami, you know, they have a pickup. They have trash pickup that comes every Wednesday

like West Miami.

Like West Miami also, but I do have and I told this to Jav last time. My only pet peeve with that situation is that

they come on they come on Wednesdays, right? Why can't you take everything out that you want already on Tuesday to come and pick up on Wednesday? As soon as they pick up on Wednesday, people are throwing stuff already now on Thursday and then they leave it there. Then you have a couch, you have a you have a mattress thrown there that whole week until the next Wednesday.

And what happens in the unincorporated side that we see a lot is that what happens when you see a little pile.

Everybody who drives by goes, "Hold on. I have a bunch of stuff to throw. Boom, boom, boom. Let me throw."

That's so lazy because the dumps are a couple blocks a mile away or so. You know,

I get it my brother, but that's, you know, those are the people that care. You know, the other people to her point, you know, they they start seeing a a pile and people just want to pile on the existing pile situation again without without a problem. I mean, so, okay. So, apart from those things, we got that. Take us to the fact of that a lot of people um I always try and explain to people how big, you know, the county commission is. You know, everybody talks about, oh, but there's a mayor here, there's a mayor there, there's a mayor there. But I explain to people that Miami date county really is like, you know, if you look at a pyramid, it's it's up here. And then amongst here, you have all the different municipalities

and the fact of the budget that you guys have to, you know, run because you guys have two of the biggest really entities that come into the into that budget, which is the airport and the seapport.

Yep. And the airport's in my district.

And the airport's in your district. You know what I'm saying? So, and and I was telling you earlier, we had a great podcast

with uh with with director um Q

and because a lot of people really did not understand, you know, everybody say, "Oh, my tax dollars going to the airport." Everybody didn't understand the airport doesn't work on tax dollars.

They don't get tax dollars,

you know, and and we got a lot of comments on that that a lot of people did not really know about that.

They're re they're a revenue generating uh department.

Correct. So they generate their own revenues through flights and and other expenses and they it's it serves itself. They don't take anything from the county taxes,

right? Yeah.

I was going to give you I want your personal um advice on this or not advice but like thoughts on it. You saw the FAFO audit from the CFO.

I went to that press conference. Okay. Right. The guy came out saying that there was $32 million according to some statistics that they have that the county has over spent beyond the $400 million that they had in the deficit of the budget.

The comments on that content, I know Mayor Cabba came out and kind of, you know, gave her point of view, but the comments on on the the the post and everything that went kind of viral was we need to get Doge in here. People are like very like we want to go see what's going on like open the coffers and let's see what's going on. So, can you shine some light on that cuz I don't think people know the details behind that.

They brought the Doge to Miami date county and they asked the mayor to turn over um a lot of documentation. Um which and I think she asked for an extension. They said no. The state of Florida said no.

So, she turned over everything. Now, we haven't seen a report back yet,

but they're going to analyze, you know, to see where the

which is fine. It's great. I think it's great. Transparency is always good% especially after the year we've had and the and the deficit that we had in this budget. I think it makes sense. So where were where were you on that in in in that? Were you budget? Yes. Were you a yes? Were you a no? Was where were you on that?

I was So let me start by saying that I got appointed this year May of 2025.

Oh sh the fire. And she was ready it sounds like. and it was like, "Hey, by the way, you're about to um encounter, yes, the most difficult budget year since the county recession back in 2008." So, you know, we haven't had a deficit like this in a very long time. So, basically, I come in and we start the budget process in June, July. We start analyzing the budget and we quickly realize,

oh my god, we're going to have the biggest budget deficit that we have seen in a really long time. And we have to make very difficult decisions.

Yes. you know, layoffs, community based organization funding, arts funding, um, all of it. Where do we cut and and what do we leave on?

Yeah. It's like who do you who do you decide who's worthy, not worthy?

You know, everybody starts screaming when they try to take away the funding. So, there was one that they they told me not to cut you off, but there's like a heat index like community or something or like that they started spending money that just tells us how hot it is and they're like, "Well, that shouldn't be there, you know."

Yeah. Um, I think I brought that to the table. Um there was a like a marketing for heat advisory.

Yeah. Heat advisory. Yeah.

And I asked what is it? What does that mean?

This is like sending the 9 million billion to I don't know where in in Somalia for I don't know what educational situation but again.

So you brought it up.

Oh it was it was like a drinking water and heat advisory.

And I was like but what is what do you do with this? You tell people to what? To stay inside to walk in the shade like

and they said yeah basically that's what they do. heat advice.

Yeah,

that's crazy to me. I mean, so what was the conclusion?

And it was a couple hundred thousands of dollars. They were

How would we just go outside? It's out of [ __ ] We got to go back inside. Let's go. [laughter]

Exactly. I I was I was like, "Excuse me, that's that's borderline insulting to our population." Because

So that's part of everything that was in that budget.

Was that cut or No,

it it was cut eventually after a long time of pushing and asking why does this need to be there? Um it was cut, you know, but

don't get a degree in heat advising. Yeah, that's not a difficult one. That's an easy one.

We can just ask AI right now.

What was one of the most difficult ones that you guys had to like, you know, encounter?

Well, we had to figure out.

Well, that's how more difficult do you wonder the fact of facing this budget deficits and people like what cuts did you say like that you were actually making?

There was a lot of things at the beginning. Um the administration was proposing a fee increase for transit and STS which

Oh, we got we got we got so much comments on that.

Yeah. for our seniors and disabled individuals to use STS as you know which for me was a no-go. There was an increase in the gas tax which for me was a no-go.

There was a proposed uh fee on on uh the parks and and one of the parks that was uh proposed was AD Barnes which is in my district.

It's one of our regional parks along with Tropical Park and AD Barnes if you have been there you know that it needs some help.

Correct. So, for me, it was it was very insulting that they were going to try to charge for families to park there.

Yeah.

$5 for families to park there. And I said, "Well, what are they getting in return? Are you going to give them a water bottle? Like, right,

we putting in a water slide? Like, what are what are No, nothing. Status quo. It's just to keep it as it is."

Absolutely not. I said, "This is one of the only things that families have to do on the weekend."

100%.

You know, for free. Like I I know that some of us the luxury that we can go to Disney or we can do other things. But there's families that that's all they can do is throw around a ball and have a picnic with their

put a blanket and have a great time. Family time. We go to Tropical Park a lot and people know that we play pickle ball. We have pickle ball tournament everything. You were when the mayor came out and saying that they were thinking of turn $5. People were coming up to us and saying you GOT TO DO A PODCAST. THEY'RE GOING TO CHARGE everyone $5. And it's the kids that come out here, you know, more than the adults, you know.

Yeah. There's there's a lot of things where you can maybe implement a fee or look into it, but parks is should not park should not be one of them. Library should not be one of them.

Listen, I I'm a big believer that I mean, I know this sounds crazy. I don't think we should be paying for parking anywhere in the county now. The fact that we have to pay go out to pay for parking to then go and spend money in a restaurant to come back in a car to be worried about getting a ticket. It's I get it. It's revenue generating. I would try to find another way of revenue generating and just let people park for free.

Yeah. And the and the parks department, a lot of people don't know, but the parks are actually responsible for mowing the the right of ways, the green spaces in between the the roadways. And that was one of the proposed cuts. And that's actually one of the phone calls that we get the most. Hey, the right of way next to my house is overgrown. It's nasty. There's weeds growing on it. Right. So,

especially taxpayers want to see where their taxpayers, you know, money going to work.

I've had to send my staff out there with a weed whacker. Just go cut it. Yeah. Cut it. Go cut it. get get it done, you know, cuz that's what it's about.

Um, but you know, that was amongst the difficult decisions. Another one was making the sheriff's budget whole because she was asking for she wasn't asking for additional, she was asking for her budget to be made whole so that she could have her classes, so that she could do all the things that she needed to do,

which makes sense, which made sense when she told us she

and for me, public safety is number one. If you don't have public safety, you can't do anything else, nothing else.

So, you told us what they were trying to cut. What did they actually cut? Do you know what they actually cut? Well, they ended up um they ended up not implementing the the gas tax and not not putting the uh transit fees. Good.

They left they found uh funds

somewhere to put back into

I would love to find funds somewhere

to put back into the arts and the the community based organizations. It wasn't at a full 100% but they were able to fund most of it back and you know we were able to do it without having let go as of many people that they were planning on letting go. So, so you guys

It worked out. However, I think that what we did was basically we plugged the hole. Then now it's going to resurface.

Correct. Right. Right.

We didn't make the hard decisions. Now we're going to have to make the hard decisions next.

Well, but regardless, we'll be waiting for that report also to see what that'll help you guys, you know, cuz I think that can steer and guide people saying, "Listen, I don't think that this is necessary and then you guys can make that decision."

Absolutely.

You know what I'm saying? Absolutely.

That that's important, let me tell you. But that was a tough one for you to just to arrive. Yeah.

And say, "Okay, guess what? You got to get into the lion's den here now." You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. You're trying to establish yourself in the community. Let the residents know, hey, everything's going to be okay. We're here for you. These are the services we have. And we get all of a sudden bombarded with all these organizations that are going to get their funding cut. They want to make sure they're heard. All the departments that are getting hurt and merging need our attention. Wow. We had water bills to deal with, solid waste bills to deal with, you know, all these fluctuations that that were happening all at the same time. So, I'm just happy we we made it out and how much longer do you have for that now for to revisit this again?

So, we'll start revisiting the budget uh now next summer.

Well, we have the midyear in um April. I believe we do the midyear. Okay.

And then we'll revisit the full budget in the summer.

And how are these meetings? Is it just all the commissioners or how is it you guys together? Committee meeting.

The budget hearings. The budget hearings are the full commission. We start at 5:00 at night. That's why we run so late. I'm sure you've heard of the budget meetings going on. We open for public hearings. So the residents and anyone is welcome to speak as long as you know it takes to finish. We listen to everybody and then after that we start discussing you know here and there the budget and the line items that we want to discuss and we passed you know the millillage and then all the different aspects of the budget.

Gotcha. So

impressive. Yeah. And what my other question would be in in your district apart from so you have you have the airport, you have the parks.

Mhm.

What do you think? And and you know because I know a lot of our viewers,

have you seen the progress in the airport? Have you seen the

I actually have. I have to say that I have. Um they are working very diligently on getting these improvements. I have I just visited the airport a couple weeks ago. We did a really nice tour. The moving walkways are all being upgraded. They're they're scheduled to finish. Um I think we have a ribbon cutting coming up now in December for the the new parking garage, which is going to alleviate a lot of the troubles of the old garages. The elevators, they're working on them. We just opened concourse K.

Um which was a it's a whole new concourse. It's scheduled for completion in 2029.

And it's going to be beautiful. Um you know, we're going to have a lot more airlines that are going to be flying in. I have to say that they have been working. There's a lot of progress to be done. We're going to be working with the concessionaires and making sure that we're providing good choices to our consumers that are coming through the airport, but I think the message was clear when things were going bad. We need to work on this. This is the first impression that folks get of our city. That's what we said of our county. So, we need to do better. And and I we're we're underway. You know, we we we went and we did I told you we did a podcast there and we did and we did the whole we showed everything and and we we held them and said, "Okay, call us to see when all the things are being done and and we're due in the fact of going to see all the stuff that had been, you know, broken in the fact of being, you know, [snorts] rebuilt."

I mean, not for nothing, you know. Um I I I believe in what they're doing and obviously it's uber important, but I still get like pictures from people saying this is not working, this is not working. That's never going to stop, right? So, what I tell people is listen, this is a long-term plan. If by I think he told us like 2028, 209, like 2030, I'll give him 2030. If by 2030, well, we were told it's not done, I'll be the first one to come out and say something's going on here, you know. But, but remember, one of the things is also commissioner that when we spoke about that, what people don't understand is that this is an airport that's working 247 bigger than the Pentagon. They never stop.

And they never stop. So I'm looking at, let's say, something of a mo I'm I'm going through a problem right now in my house with a motor of a pool.

Yeah.

And it hasn't been that long and it's being fixed. So imagine places that are nonstop.

900 escalators. You know that something

millions of passengers.

We have we're the third largest cargo in the nation. Okay. It doesn't ever

which a lot of people didn't know that before.

And it's an old building. Let's be real. like the roof leaks in in your house, right, from from a roof that's 30 years old. So, things are going to happen. Um, but that's not an excuse. We need to continue.

I get it. Especially that we are

we are improving it,

you know, hub to Latin America and and the whole thing and the gateway, but at the same time, I mean, I like Eddie said, you can hold people accountable, but you're see I'm seeing the progress, you know, I'm seeing the progress.

Uh, this is something that people are going to love. Okay. Uh, I see you guys have mom and pop grant programs.

Yes.

Okay. Is that districtwide?

Yeah. So, so we offer almost $100,000 in funding to to the small businesses in the community. And we awarded 90 uh different grants to to the small businesses. And this is money that goes for them to use for anything. They can use it to repair their shop. They can use it for bills, uh to purchase new equipment, to promote, for advertisement. And and that's one of my favorite programs that we do because

And how's the program in that? They just there's a

Yeah. So, every year we have the mom and pop program. They apply through our office. They come to a workshop where they learn how, you know, how to do the application and how this

is so amazing.

Every time we get these applications, like, okay, now you got to go to class for this application.

So, that's good.

And not only that, I like to bring small business into the the SBD uh department from the county so they can teach them how to do business with the county if there's an opportunity because we have hundreds of thousands of contracts out there that maybe there's an opportunity for these businesses to come and learn how to do work with the county.

Extremely extremely important. Yeah. So, and then they we give them, you know, this grant, they receive it. It's they don't have to give it back. They can use it for whatever they need for their businesses.

But you guys have districtwide like RFPs or is it countywide RFPs? You don't do by district.

It's it's district. You have to Right. You have to live in the district.

Those RPs go through your office.

The business has to be in in the district. It's not an RP.

It's not RFP. It's a RFP, right? It's like it's a grant.

No, no, the grant. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm saying you said that there's business opportunities, too.

Oh, that is right. the business opportunities would be through the county. It would be our fees, contracts. Yeah, exactly. Correct. Correct.

Tell us a little bit also about the family support program vouchers that you guys are doing.

So, we launched a series of we did the parking vouchers for pregnant women. Uh, so the state of Florida allowed for for pregnant women to use disabled parking while they're pregnant for up to a year, which I've been pregnant twice and I know that things can get difficult, especially in the last couple trimesters, in the last trimester when you're really big and you know those last couple weeks when you're getting to to the uh the appointments and such. So, we um we acquired these vouchers and we gave them to women in the district for free so that they could use that and and benefit from that. We had swimming swimming lessons for kids and for elderly as well. By the way, they're held at 80 barns. So, they're free swimming classes for for kids and elderly.

And that's what in the summertime.

In the summer. Yeah. In the summer.

All year long.

All year long in Miami. Summer.

I mean, you could do it all year long. But we primarily uh promote it in the summer. And then we also partnered with Miami Beach to give a free beach day to families so that they could get free uh chairs and uh umbrellas and discounted park.

Who do you work with?

Who do you work with that was? Voucher Brothers or something or

No, no, no. We worked with the city of Miami Beach with Commissioner Alex Fernandez. He partnered with our with our office. Well, he has like umbrellas and stuff and chairs out there or

he partnered with the company that that puts the umbrellas and chairs out in the in the beach and provided that to us for free. Uh and we I think we gave them almost all out. That's what I'm just telling you.

$250, something like that. I mean, an umbrella, just an umbrella. I think it's like 50 bucks, like $25 or something.

Yeah. We are, as soon as we advertised it, the phone started ringing, right? No, I can I can only imagine. I can only imagine. Tell me a little bit. So you what you've been another big initiative that I think that you've been doing in the in the in the in your district is what did you create this which I see here that knocking with Natalie

knocking with Natalie knocking.

So that was a program I was very happy to launch. Um it's geared towards our elderly population which we have a lot of elderly in district 6 and it's also geared to those who have disabilities or mobility issues. So knocking with Natalie the idea is you have a problem county related call our office. I will go to you. So you don't have to come to us. You don't even have to explain your problem over the phone. We come to you because you know elderly they get they can get flustered. They can get nervous. They can forget things. So we go to you. We make it as easy and nervous as possible.

Do are you going to these people like in six months or you guys actually proactive?

Right away you call me you're first in the line. You

This is why you see her everywhere.

That's why that's why I could tell you know but you know some people will tell that to you like hey you got an appointment for six months from now.

Oh no no no you guys. Listen, I I tell my staff I tell my staff all the time, who's number one? Our constituents.

Yeah, 100%.

That That's why we're here. We're literally here to serve them. So, when a district constituent calls, they're top of the line and getting a meeting or seeing me. And if I'm in the if I'm in the office, I'll take them in right then and there.

Got you.

There. No way around that. That's what we're there for. So, they call me and I go to their house as soon as possible. We take down their information. We try to help them. If we can't help them on the spot, we take it back and my team and I will help them right away. Wow, that's incredible. Not a lot of people.

Well, but listen, it's what she says. At the end of the day, you're representing your constituents. They're the ones that those are your bosses.

Everybody of those people are your bosses. So, if you don't if you're not going to do good by them, you're you're screwed.

That's right.

All right. So, I have an official petition for you.

Oh, boy. Okay. And I had passed this along

and it's not mine.

And I had passed this along to Kevin, but it got lost in translation.

What?

Okay. Transition. Got lost in.

It was an ambassadorship in the middle. I want to put an official position to change it from the Lulum Trail to the Manny Alonso Trail. [laughter] Okay. He deserves it and we know it.

No problem.

I'll take a donation. It's just going to cost me like

a lot of millions.

Like 80 million to finish the Lam Trail. If you help us get there,

talk to us about the Lum Trail. It's like a Is it a pipe dream? Is it something that's going to really happen?

No, it's not a pipe dream. The Lulham Trail is a very passionate project of mine. So, it actually started many many years ago. The the idea for that was conceived many many years ago and um it actually started with Commissioner Sosa back in the day.

I I I know it very well.

So, I worked on it while I was in the office to some capacity. And it's a trail that runs all along 72nd Avenue. It's a green space, a pedestrian walkway, a bike space that connects the neighborhood all the way down to almost the Delland area.

Yeah. To all the way to Blue Lagoon.

Exactly. And it's a great opportunity for us to connect the communities from there. You can connect to the underline. There's a possibility to connect to the underline and the Miami loop which takes you all around Miami.

Wow.

So, I'm working really hard. We need funding. Uh we're in the design phase now. So, the parks department is working to design it. Then we get, you know, then then we contract it out. Then we uh break ground and we can we can finally construct it. There's some little portions that have been started, but you know, I'm putting my heart and soul on that. It's something that I really want completed before I'm finished in office. It's something that the community wants. Yeah.

They asked for it at the town halls. They asked me what's the status

and I think it's something that is going to connect the community in many ways and allow people to to to connect and get to where they have to go without having to take the car.

And again, but you know, and here's the thing because I am a resident there and that is my backyard. That's right. So, you know, it's very important to always know that, you know, you got to listen to those constituents. Yeah.

Because there's a lot of people that want to give their opinion that live like 90 miles away.

Yeah.

About what's going on there. And listen, you know, you got to you got to listen to the people that it impacts. Yeah.

I'm all totally for it. You know what I'm saying? In in in in the special way it has to be has to be done that it's not going to impact also, you know, the the the families, their houses, and and the neighbors with with with everything. But it is something that I think that has been for a while. You know, listen, I participated in those sharetses when it when it started. Yeah. So again, it's it's a great idea. Also, it got stopped because we got CO in the middle. So then CO slowed down everything. A lot of the funding that was obtained had to be moved around, which is totally understandable. But but again, it's it's it's a beautiful it's a beautiful project and I and I and I really really, you know, can't wait to see

I think our community deserves it. I'm excited to see it completed. It is my mission to get it done and and I'm I'm I'm proud to be working on that and I think we're going to do it.

I I

we're going to get it done. We're going to get it done sooner than expected. Um and I'm excited. I'm excited to see it done. It's going to be super nice and I think it promotes a healthy lifestyle for the family.

That the city has nothing like the county. something very special.

Oh, you're connecting everything. You're trying to connect everything with with with with everybody. You don't have tropical park. That's Anthony Rodriguez. No,

right. That's District 10.

District 10.

The county needs something like a Central Park like New York has. You know, there's nothing where all people, which I see now. I know you have this area of Miami Freedom Park.

Yes, that's my district.

That looks like it might go into that route where it's like very community oriented where you can go hang out, have a picnic, ground ice, walk around. There's nothing like that. And by the way, this

there is, but you know, Miami but Miami is not going to be New York, brother.

I know, but you have to, you know, it'll probably be with everybody leaving there now, but anyway, at the end of the day, but you know,

we drive we drive more than we than we walk.

Miami has like that. It has that park over here, has this park over here, that park, the Freedom Park could be, you know, and by the way, the community wanted it. They voted for it. That's an exciting thing coming. And, you know, it's in my district. Um, I'm

You got a lot of things in that district growing in fact. It's grow. It's gone up super fast. Uh, you know, and and we're, you know, we're building a pedestrian bridge there in the Freedom Park connecting it over and I'm I'm looking forward to working with them to bring other amenities there like a library perhaps or some sort of a cultural thing where we but

families can go there even when there's no game day, correct? They can go and enjoy it, walk around and

that's important. Not everybody, you know, into the game situation.

And when I went to the tour when we were thinking of getting the tickets Yeah. you know, whatever. Um the plan that they had was that they want to have activity there even when there's no game days because if you think about it I think the game days were only like on Saturdays. They only have like one game a week.

Well, but they are that's the whole thing. They're going to have stores and everything else for people to be

restaurants from uh Breakwater I think is going to have something there too. I know there's

the city of Miami moving there. So it's going to be big.

It's going to be a nice It's going to be a nice space. It has to be done uh good by our community but definitely will be nice. So, Kamish, what can we tell our viewers? What's on your radar from now that you apart from the lullum other things that you want to accomplish there in in in in Day County within your district?

Well, we have a lot, you know, um we we are I I want to make sure that our residents are they feel like they're being served. Right. Right. We have a lot of projects. We have some septic sewer going on in the district.

That's that's an important one, by the way. That's a that's a huge one.

Yeah, that's that's going to be big and I know it's going to be very helpful to a lot of

How is that coming along? By the way,

we're working on that. Um in the next couple years we should see the lines going in the ground and then we will I'm going to have town halls with our resident.

That was my next question. Would that be a choice of the resident? No.

So it would be like you have to connect already. You know,

you're getting off septic as you're

get off septic. Correct. There's your pros and cons.

What's the con? What's the pro? You have to be on top of your septic. anything can I have septic it breaks you got to clean them out you know it's it's it has its its problems

but what's the the con against you know

against cost

you have to pay you have to pay to connect you have to pay to

we we were able to we we were able to get some funding uh from the state so that we we can offset some of the lower in the lower end income you know households so we can help them connect you have up to five years to connect but you do have to to

but at the end of the day it's worth it because not everybody Everybody can maintain their septics.

Oh, so the the the homeowner needs to pay for the connection to the prop to the line. Okay. I thought the city the county was coming in and making the connection and they had to pay like a fee.

No, but like like the commissioner said, they were able to obtain some funds to help to off, you know, set that that those I'll be more worried about destroying those my garden, my ground, my

Oh, they fix it. They fix it. They fix it back. But yeah, you know, right now as it is where you have septic, you know, you have to be on top of that. literally on top of that because you know you could literally it sometimes shitty situation.

Yes. You know and a smelly one too by the way on that sense. Okay. So before but before we leave commissioner thank you so much. We appreciate the fact of you putting us on on on you know bringing us to speed on so much stuff in the county and also on district 6. But we can never leave the podcast without asking you know some good very tough tough tough questions.

Tough questions.

So my you're going to go with the new you're going to go with the new question. No, I'll go with the new I'll go with the older one. So you can flip it on this car.

Okay. So you're going to flip it. All right. So this you know we have we have this segment brought to you by Brandmark.

So we like to ask our guests if they have a top three things that they can ask for Christmas from Brandmart.

This is a question for your husband pretty much.

Do I need to call Manny?

You or the family or [laughter] whatever. But what what would

message to Manny selfish here? What do you want? three things that you think that you would put on your, you know, wish list.

Are you a Brandmart fan?

Yes, of course.

Brandmart before.

Brandmart USA. [laughter]

Of course.

All right. Give us number three. Okay. So, I want to upgrade my kitchen, right? So, my dream.

My dream would be to have the double oven. The kitchen double oven. I love to bake. That way I could make food and bake something.

Works for Thanksgiving, by the way. Works for Thanksgiving. It's a Hey, I would cook more. Maybe.

Yeah, I like that. There you go. There you go. What What time do you have to do all this?

Okay. She's a high performing individual.

Damn. All right. Number two. Number two.

Number two. A new refrigerator.

Okay.

New refrigerator. But I want like the techy one with like the screen so I can leave messages and

and reminders to my pick up

or I could watch a recipe while I'm cooking.

The best ones are the refrigerators now that they have them there that they have cameras inside. How many times don't you go to Publix and say, "Do I have ketchup?" You go to your phone now and you can see, "Oh, I do have ketchup."

Yes, Deuro. They have cameras inside. You can check if you're missing onions. I swear to

my camera's right here, brother. I know exactly what I have in my fridge.

Maybe a bad idea with the kids.

They have AI ones. Listen, they have AI ones that they're looking at it and it tells you what I have in my camera and you already know what I have in my fridge and you know you have in your fridge.

Well, but I I I'm afraid to ask the cost of that fridge right now. Expensive.

But that's that's the one I want. That's the one.

All right. Okay. Commissioner, what's your number one thing here? Number one.

Number one. Number one was the double stove.

Double oven. Number three. Number three would be brand new patio furniture. We need that.

Yeah. There you go.

They have it. They have it. Yeah, they have everything there. They have everything. I would suggest

or a barbecue.

Uh like a nice hair iron, but your hair already looks good. So, [laughter] I'm not going to suggest that.

Thank you.

You know,

so we got a lot of good compliments on your hair. [laughter]

She's not poor. She's not sponsoring a shampoo brand.

Not yet.

I could tell you where I get my hair done, but you know, I'd be plugging.

All right. What's our next What's our next stuff?

And this one is brought to you by Toast, your number one POS system in South Florida.

Very good to us. Shout out to Gabby. Um, what are your top three restaurants? Starting with number three. Not in your district.

It doesn't have to be.

Not in your district.

Well, but it could be district. Okay, fine. That has But it could be Miami. I know you're going to I know you're going to want to distribute for support, but go for it. Whatever you want.

Starting starting with the third, so I'm always at Bashure in Coral Gables.

Okay. All right.

Love Bashure.

Great breakfast. Is a big fan of that, too.

Yes, it's the place to be sometimes. Uh lunchtime.

Awardw winning, too.

They are award-winning. Their their pastries, their croissants, and all that. Sweets are delicious. Um number two, Cozy Corner in Miami Springs. It's a It's a Wow.

Yeah, it's a

I like when we got we get ones that we don't know. I write them down.

A little It's a little diner breakfast kind of place. They're mostly They mostly do breakfast. Delicious. Awesome. Awesome place to have breakfast.

You're taking your staff meetings.

No. [laughter]

And number one.

Wow. Number one is going to surprise you. It's going to surprise you.

Let me see what you got. Nothing surprises us. Trust me.

Surprise you.

Don't say McDonald's or something like Latin American in West Miami.

I love it. I love it.

I love Latin American Latin American Latin American bakery. I love it. I love it. There's nothing like a nice Cuban breakfast.

They're my go-to. I've had my cafesitos with Natalie there. I I love that place.

That's on 16th.

Yeah.

Right.

It's on 57 and 8th Street. 57 and 8.

57 Street. Right. Right there. Right there on the corner by the Publix.

By the Publix.

A little further down. Actually, close to my district office. Yeah. 57. This spectacular specific, you know, the little That's a little ham with the little tater tots. Leche.

That's it.

You're done. You're done. You're good to go,

Commissioner. Thank you so much.

It's been a pleasure.

Love it. And we want to report when you come back. Lo,

you got it. Thank you, guys.

And we're out.