Please place on the July 26, 2023 agenda a referral to the Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee to discuss the BTR initial application and annual renewal process for commercial charter vessel operators (“Commercial Charters”) operating within the City of Miami Beach.

Pursuant to the City Code, Commercial Charters operating within the City are required to obtain a Business Tax Receipt (“BTR”).  As part of the initial BTR application process, Commercial Charters must acquire conditional approval from the City’s Marine and Waterfront Protection Authority (“MWPA”). During such process, Commercial Charters answer operational questions from the MWPA and further confirm that the business is in full compliance with all provisions set forth in local, state, and federal law.  Once the Commercial Charter obtains a BTR, they can renew annually by simply paying a BTR renewal fee, without any further review or compliance assessment being performed by the City.

Lately, the City and MWPA have received numerous complaints concerning Commercial Charters and their patrons including, but not limited to, illegal conduct, unruly behavior, excessive noise and disturbances caused by public intoxication, music and excessively loud arguments, pollution of Biscayne Bay and public urination in and around the Miami Beach Marina facilities. Obviously, these issues negatively impact the City’s safety, cleanliness and image, in addition to adversely affecting neighboring residents’ quality of life. 

Accordingly, as part of this referral, I would request that the Administration be prepared to discuss the City’s current process to review Commercial Charter BTRs.  Specifically, I would request that the Administration be prepared to address the City’s inter-departmental communication procedure (including the Finance, Police and Code Compliance departments) in order to identify those Commercial Charters that may have previously had City Code (or State law) violations, complaints, and/or created other issues or nuisances, and the potential for including MWPA review and approval into the Commercial Charter BTR renewal process moving forward.  I would also request that the Administration be prepared to discuss and provide recommendations as to how the BTR application and renewal process may best be streamlined to efficiently and effectively identify those Commercial Charters that have previously had violations and/or issues in order to carefully scrutinize whether the BTRs of such operators should be renewed pursuant to the disqualifiers set forth in the City Code.