Are following Breaking News from south florida. It is devastating really. Its deadly. Theres been a highrise building that has collapsed in the city of surf side. This is just north of miami beach for context there. And what youre looking at here are live aerial pictures from the scene. You see that Swimming Pool on the left . This part of the building that has fallen down stretched all the way alongside that Swimming Pool. So were talking about a very large chunk of this building that fell down overnight. There is a huge pile of debris, 12 stories in this apartment building. Balconies that had been sawed in half, and were told that at least one person has died. About 100 units in this building, think of it, 39 years old. The collapse happened before 2 00 a. M. New video shows rescue crews pulling a young boy from the rubble. More than 80 Emergency Teams are on the groundworking to find survivors. We have some sort of before and after video. This is what the building looked like before
Im keeping this brief and to the point. Local leaders have been sounding at definite alarm for months about the need for direct fiscal assistance from washington as the virus rages in our city. Our budgets are under extreme stress. Arts fences are skyrocketing. Our essential lifesaving services are strained. The need for public assistance is through the roof. This has been going on since the beginning of the pandemic since march of last year. Today, only 38 cities have received direct relief yet mayors everywhere continue to do what we do everyday. We get it done. We run our cities with a balanced budget which we are required to do by law. So what does that mean . How do we possibly do that in the face of this tremendous crisis . It means the cut jobs. It means eliminating services and staff at the same time. Our First Responders have been on the job since day one of this pandemic transporting those with covid to hospitals with Public Health initiatives keeping social and family order
I want to thank her for an sent the National League of cities in the National Association of counties for their sheer dedication to this issue on badly needed federal assistance as we continue to fight the covid19 pandemic. A quick note for members of the press joining us today, we will take questions after brief opening remarks. If you have a question, please put your name and media outlet in the chat and well call on you. Im keeping this brief and to the point. Im keeping this brief and to the point. Local leaders have been sounding at definite alarm for months about the need for direct fiscal assistance from washington as the virus rages in our city. Fences are skyrocketing. Our essential lifesaving services are strained. The need for public assistance is through the roof. This has been going on since the beginning of the pandemic since march of last year. Today, only 38 cities have received direct relief yet mayors everywhere continue to do what we do everyday. We get it done. We r
Clerk madam chair, you have a quorum. Wonderful. Clerk item 3, announcement of prohibition of sound producing devices during the meeting. Its clear were using sound producing devicing duries duri meeting, so we wont announce this. Item 4, approval of minutes of the november 3, 2020 meeting. Directors, is there anyone who wishes to make any comment . Okay. Seeing none, are there any members of the public who wish to make Public Comment this item on the agenda . You have zero questions remaining. Okay. With that, ill turn it back over to the directors. Directors, do i have a motion . Motion to approve. Second. Okay. Secretary silva, would you please call the roll. [roll call]. Clerk madam chair, you have five votes to approve the minutes. You are on item five, communications. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency, this meeting is being held virtually, and all members of the staff and the public are attending Via Teleconference. This will ensure the safety of the sfmta board of directors, t
Board will not take any formal action but looking forward to peoples comments and questions. Any people on the line, moderator . You have seven questions remaining. Chair borden okay, our first speaker, please. Caller hello. My name is joel kamisher, a School Crossing guard and a member of the sfciu 10 to 1 bargaining committee. We have been trying to talk about not outsourcing people to protect the city workers and im hearing that discussion about the flaggers and the pedestrian monitors. I wonder if we could use our own workforce, the parking control people and the crossing guards instead of having the contractors hire private people. I realize that the flaggers might have their own union, so maybe thats a problem. But im hoping that we can do other things to reduce the need of contract people to prevent layoffs . Thank you. Chair borden thank you, next speaker, please. You have six questions remaining. Caller hello, members of the board, my name is Hector Jimenez and im with the loc