2007 1213 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting December 13,2007 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Department because of the size of the units, they cannot just close it off and leave the door there and hang cabinets because the Fire Department would think the doorway is an exit. He said the reason they are asking for this is because of the private lobbies in these new condominiums, as there are times when people don't go there for a couple of years because they are private lobbies. He noted that the Fire Department hasn't been to every lobby in these buildings, and like Community Development Director Solera said, they found 45 violations in one building where people removed the fire-rated doors and put in their own wooded doors with glass windows, and that is a life safety issue. Community Development Director Solera said that they are waiting for the Fire Department to give them information as to whether, specifically Ocean I in this case, those doors are required or not. Building Official Parker said that they met with Fire Chief Mena and he mentioned that because some of the lobbies don't have separate exits going out, the exits are part ofthe unit themselves, and those doors would not be considered as fire-rated doors. He said he asked Chief Mena for clarification on that, but he has not given it to him as of yet. Community Development Director Solera said that perhaps some of those violations that were found are not violations, and Commissioner Scholl said then that you are saying because the stairwell is in the unit, it is irrelevant because you are not going to try to contain the fire that was in the unit? Building Official Parker said yes, he thinks this is the only building in Miami-Dade County that was approved this way. Vice Mayor Thaler said there are two separate items here, Ocean I has only 22 apartments that they are referring to at this point, but Ocean II, Ocean III, and Acqualina all fit into the same category, where people, because it is their own lobby, have changed their doors and they are not fire doors. He said the 22 that they are talking about, he can understand what the Chief saying because they were not supposed to have doors from the beginning, people put doors in and locked the doors, and that was really the big problem because the access in those apartments are in the back of the apartment and nobody can get to them. Vice Mayor Thaler said that this is cost efficient assuming that the violations continue and we go through all of the others, it should almost pay for itself, as there is really very little cost to the City on putting this individual in and it is a safety factor. Commissioner Scholl said that he feels that one of the greatest benefits in the new buildings is the Fire Codes that we have, and if they are getting worked around, then we are losing that benefit. Commissioner Goodman said in some of the older buildings when the doors were put in with a steel plate on the inside of the door, they were fire doors, and in a lot of those apartments they had two doors, and people built closets or shelves over those doors, and that is a blatant violation. He asked if it is your intention to go around and check all the doors in Sunny Isles Beach or just certain areas where you know that these things are being done, and Building Official Parker said he doesn't think they can cover them within that 1,000 hours that we are talking about. Mayor Edelcup said it is a life safety issue so you have to do it, and if you need more than one person to accomplish what Commissioner Goodman and Commissioner Brezin are suggesting, and if we are doing it in one aspect but not in others, then we are negligent and not fulfilling our job. He said if you need more than this one inspector, then you need to come back to the Commission and ask for more to assure that Commissioner Brezin and Commissioner Goodman are getting the inspections in the buildings that they are suggesting. 24