Office of Resilience and Sustainability reports tree giveaways, major FIND grants and initial electric‑vehicle purchases

Sonia Brubaker, Chief Resilience Officer and Director of the Office of Resilience and Sustainability, gave a series of operational updates to the committee.

Brubaker said the office completed a citywide tree giveaway in October, distributing 100 trees in each of the five districts (500 total) and reported strong public interest. She described several Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) grant awards the city recently received: $235,000 for design and permitting of Bay Walk connection phase 1 in Edgewater; approximately $3,000,000 for construction elements of José Martí Park adaptive redesign (phase 2); $2,800,000 for construction of phase 1 of Sehul Park enhancements; and $50,000 for replacement of floating docks at Dinner Key Marina (the city provides a 50% match on FIND awards and often combines these funds with other grants).

Brubaker also reported steps toward fleet electrification: the city fleet totals roughly 3,000 vehicles with about 400 hybrids; ORS used an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (Department of Energy) to purchase six electric vehicles and plans to evaluate charging‑station needs before further procurement. She summarized the Resilience Overview included in the operating budget, noting integration of the recently adopted extreme heat plan, living seawall features in several projects, a heat‑sensor program (78 sensors installed), and a total of more than $7,000,000 in shoreline‑stabilization grant funding this year.

Brubaker encouraged committee members to review the Resilience Overview in the operating budget (Miami.gov/budget, Operating Budget, see Resilience Overview ~page 108) and invited questions; staff agreed to circulate presentation maps and underlying data layers for broader review.