Please take your seats.

The meeting is about to begin.

Remember to speak into the microphone as this meeting is being recorded for public record.

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We are going on air in five, four, three, two, one.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, everyone for being here.

We got a packed uh packed house here at City Hall.

So thank you, everyone.

Very uh very excited about all the honorees and proclamations, but uh and of course the support from everyone being here.

Um thank you to my colleagues uh as well.

We'd like to start off with the Pledge of Allegiance, as we always do, and I am going to ask Regla Maria Diaz from Rebecca Towers to uh love it, love the turnout and the energy.

So thank you.

Uh why don't you come on up?

Regula.

And we'll wait for your cue, and then we'll all say it along with you.

Come to uh yeah, the to the mic, I think it's the best.

Either way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Now it's my honor to ask uh Father Sid from the Miami Beach of St.

Patrick's to uh offer us uh some words of prayer, an invocation.

Please, Father Sid.

Let us pray.

God of mercy and love.

You teach us that what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to you.

We give you thanks for those who have worked hard to make our community better, who will be honored today and presented with awards.

We ask you to uh increase our desire to serve you in the least in the lost, in those who are struggling.

And never forget that if we can love others, it is because you have loved us first.

We ask this in your most holy name, which is above every other name.

Amen.

Uh we'll we'll be up to you soon as well as we have something uh special for you.

Um before we start off, and and by the way, when I when I go through, uh I try to uh you know, there's a lot of people here, there's no first and there's no last, but uh, I do have some uh requests from from my colleagues.

Also, there are some people who have some commitments, so I'm gonna try to do it as fairly as possible, but please don't take uh any slight if you're not on on the uh the first ones called.

Before we get started with the proclamations, I I I'd like to, and uh and uh and my colleagues share with me uh really a tremendous success for our city on another incredible month of March.

Uh we cannot, we cannot overstate how devastating the month of March was to our city before the last three years.

We had seen so many years of chaos, lawlessness, violence, shootings, fatalities on our streets.

And I could tell you, and I've said this before, I was a commissioner at the time, I wasn't mayor, but it hurts when somebody gets hurt in your city, and you think that you didn't do enough.

I know I used to think is there something more I could have done to have saved a life.

And we collectively, as a commission, it took legislation, it took our police department, it's taken other police agencies, state uh sheriff's office, um, but really every department in our city, because we focus on the police, but there's so many different departments that were involved.

Sanitation, fire, code.

Um, the numbers are really incredible all around.

Our crime stats all uh were down citywide 15% in March, uh 25% in the designated area of South Beach, uh, which we call the spring break zone.

Um code compliance saw 18% lower calls for service.

Our fire department had 60% lower calls uh for service in that area and 50% citywide.

Our communications department, 22 billion impressions from the campaign.

And it really took all the work from from up here on uh every one of my colleagues and along with our city.

So really could not thank everyone enough.

But I also want to thank our businesses and our residents because we couldn't have done this alone without the buy-in and the support, and everyone was supportive.

And this year, our our commission took the lead in in sort of reducing some of the measures, and and it worked really uh really a tremendous success.

So thank you to all of you.

And uh thank you.

You know, how many people are here, how many city employees are actually here right now?

I wouldn't mind.

Can we do like a quick picture with everyone together just sort of celebrate the moment because spring break uh is is not just a success for the month of March, it's a success it that carries on through uh the year.

Our our hotel rates, for example, in the month uh the first quarter of this year is over where we're well beyond even the second place city.

The second place city is like 50, 60 percent behind us, and I believe that it's it's it's a multiple of factors, but including that we have cleaned up the reputation of our city in a big way.

Uh so uh let's celebrate the moment.