County reorganizes resilience office; mayor launches Boater Safety and Bay Education Task Force; specialty Biscayne Bay license plate in production

County resilience staff updated the advisory board on an internal reorganization, a mayoral task force on boating safety and education, and a new Biscayne Bay specialty license plate that has cleared the voucher threshold for production.

Lauren Parra, the county’s chief resilience officer (also serving as chief bay officer and chief heat officer), said the Office of Environmental Risk and Resilience was restructured in February and that technical staff were embedded into departments such as Public Works and Regulatory and Economic Resources to accelerate project implementation. She said the county’s smaller central team will continue to prioritize Biscayne Bay and that program director Nancy will manage daily coordination with Durham and other partners.

Parra also noted a mayoral Boater Safety and Bay Education Task Force created in partnership with the Fernandez family; the task force’s first meeting is expected in July with a condensed meeting schedule to produce recommendations to the mayor.

Parra announced that the Biscayne Bay specialty license plate reached the threshold of 3,000 voucher sign-ups and is now in production; plates should appear at DMVs in the coming months and revenues from the plate will go to the Miami Foundation for Biscayne Bay grants.

Board members congratulated staff on the reorganization and asked for continued updates on task force timing, collaboration with DOT on living shoreline and causeway opportunities, and opportunities to allocate budget for enforcement and monitoring in the current municipal and county budget cycles.