All right. All right. Good morning, everybody. It is now 9:00. I would like to call to order the big C meeting for Wednesday, April 30th, 2025. Please stand for the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we'll start off with our roll call. We'll go to my left. So, my name
is David Will. I am the president of the big sea and also the mayor of Readington Beach. I'm David Tagarini, dis uh commissioner for district 1 of Madiraa Beach. I am Tammy Vasquez, vice mayor of Treasure Island. Adrian Petrol, mayor of
San Beach. Morning Ruben Pel Chamber. Good morning, Heather Davidson of Penellis Beaches Chamber. Good morning. Sam Jenkins with SPC's Institute for Strategic Policy
Solutions. Christopher Hollins, citizen as a group. Carla Bowling, resident of Indian Shores and mortgage lender. Good morning. Katie Mastenbrook, Florida Crant. Oh, sorry. That's okay. Didn't know the
order. My bad. Christy Herig, resident, Readington Shores. Jan Wilson, vice mayor, Indian Rocks Beach. Hillary King, commissioner, Indian Rocks Beach. John Morite, deputy chief, Madera Beach Fire Department. Clint Belt, Fire Chief, Madera Beach Fire
Department. Bob Schmid, Bellore. You got here, let's get these two. Lindseay Johannes. I'm with the Florida League of Cities and the FMIT. Renee Rose, City Clerk, City of Bair
Beach. Let's just start right here. Good morning. Charlie Justice, Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber. Uh Joey West, Bay News9. Good morning. CJ Hoy, Commissioner, Readington Shores. Margaret Kerry, town clerk, Readington
Shores. Good morning, Melissa Folultz, deputy clerk of Readington Shores. Thanks. I'm not sure how I got this job. Fred Irwin, San Key Civic Association. And Clearwater had a town hall meeting. Uh they were probably beat up last
night. Our our council. So that that's why Clearwater is not represented here today. Ashley Joanetti, Penelis County Communications. Good morning. Nicholas Mench, council member, Indian Shores.
Tina Porter, town administrator, Indian Shores. Ellen Bower, vice mayor, Indian Shores. Mike Howard, counselor for Indian Shores. Nice turnout for Indian Shores. Adriana Nees, town clerk, town of Readington Beach.
Megan Blanchard, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Randy Mora, just some guy. Jay Super, mayor of North Readington Beach. Tom Kapper, mayor of Readington Shores. Dian Shear, mayor
of of Indian Shores. Denise Houseberg, mayor of Indian Rocks Beach. Good morning, everyone. Dave Gatis, mayor of Bair Beach. All right, I think that's everybody. Uh, moving on. Does anyone have any changes uh to our
agenda today? Or if not, can we get an I'll make a motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. And has everybody look through the minutes? And can we get a motion to approve our minutes from our last meeting? I'll make a motion to approve that. I'll second. Right. All in
favor? I I Okay. All right. Moving on to our our treasurer's report. Commissioner Tangaretti. Now, he um was uh filling in for Mayor Brooks, and he had no idea he was going to give this report today. So, fortunately, it's not very complicated.
It's almost flat. Uh we had zero uh March 1st, we had a beginning balance of $1,39.19, no deposits, one expenditure, dispersement, $69.3 as a gift from Mayor Bill Queen, uh North Wington. It was a lovely glass sculpt from Amazon. and
ending balance $97016. Thank you very much. That's excellent. Uh can we get a motion to approve the treasures report? Motion to approve treasures report. Second. All in favor? I All right. Nice job. All right. Now, next up is our
legislative update. So, as you know, the uh legislative session uh was supposed to end soon. Uh it seems like it might be extended uh a little bit. We have no, we don't know, but there's a lot of things going on up in Tallahassee that are going to affect us, especially as
small communities. And I know we're all very busy putting our our towns and our our own homes back together, but we this is very important what's going on up in Tallahassee. This is going to affect your community. And Randy Moore is here to break down some of the bills that are being proposed and how they will affect
us. Please take it away. Thank you, sir, for Thank you, Mayor. Uh Randy Mora, the uh despite my tongue-in-cheek comments a moment ago, I'm the uh city attorney in Beller Beach, in Indian Rocks Beach, and in Penllis Park. I also serve as panel counsel with the Florida Municipal Insurance Trust and Florida League of
Cities. Great to see Lindsay in the uh audience today. Um with that, I've been asked to speak on the current ongoing legislative session. Um in short, uh there's no may about it. The Florida legislative session will not end on time. Um that session is supposed
to end this Friday. Um it it will not end. Uh the reason that the session will not end on time is we have what I would call a three comma chasm uh between the house and the senate versions of the budget. What I mean by that is as you as many of you may recall from civics or
just general understanding of our legislative process when the house passes something the senate has to pass something in identical form that gets sent to the governor. The governor signs or vetos it. As it relates to the budget right now, there is at least publicly stated a $3 billion difference between
the House version of the budget and the Senate version of the budget. And that three comma chasm will not be breached in the next 48 hours. Um the secondary effect of that um and that's happening because of tension between um the House, Senate, and Executive on priorities and
and allocations. Um but understand that budget negotiations almost inherently concern policy. And so um changes in the budget will almost certainly change policy. And so we're in a weird posture this session. Normally I would come to you 48 hours at toward near the end of
session 72. I'm losing track. I don't know. Um or within a week after and say here's what's passed. Here's what we know is happening. We have more questions than we have answers out of this legislative session at this point. There are not dozens of bills that have been passed in both chambers. Um, there are several bills that have been passed
by the House and several that have been passed by the Senate. Some have been passed by the House, sent to the Senate, or vice versa, amended, and then they have to go back because now they don't match. Um, and so there's not as much of a as much certainty as I'd like to give you and say here's what you should at least be preparing for even in this
fluid um you know, these fluid shifting sands um no pun intended on the beaches. So um as we talk about that, let's talk about some of the major legislative priorities and discussion that's happening and and give some indications there. Um I would say chief among the
issues is tax taxes. Um no surprise when you're talking about local government and and state government that taxes are a key issue. There is a house uh the house approach to taxes and tax relief. They want to cut sales tax from 6% to approximately 5.25% 25% in that in the
House approach to things. Um the Senate's approach would be instead instead to extend um the tax holidays and eliminate taxes on things like clothes and shoes that are under sales taxes specifically uh under $75. Um some
context for all of that. By the way, there there are five states in this uh in these United States that currently forego a statewide uniform sales tax. Those are Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. California is the highest. So, we're at 6%. California is at
7.25. Um, the next four states that are in second place are at 7%. If you were going by ranking highest, Florida's pretty much close to the middle at 17 at 17th with its 6% sales tax. When you roll in local taxes, we end up right in the middle at 25%. Um and the these
numbers are based on um data provided by the tax foundation um one of these you know non-governmental agencies that or entities that that lobbies and and monitors these kinds of things. So the the state approach is to go down to 5.25. They don't have harmony on what
they're going to do about taxes. That happens against the backdrop of what has been stated more statewide about the possibility of um limit eliminating or substantially limiting advalorum taxes. Uh which is a potential existential threat for
your current operations. Um which is a fancy way of saying you rely on your advorum taxes to fund your municipal budgets. if they are gone tomorrow, you will have to find a new revenue source or means or find a way to um or services
that you're going to cut. Often when we talk about tax cuts, it's very easy. Everybody in the room is going to say, "Yes, I want to pay less money out of my pocket to the government or to anyone for that matter." Um tax cut discussions are often decoupled from spending discussions. Um at the local level, your
challenge is going to be keeping those things at the forefront together. uh as that discussion happens. Um this is particularly re relevant because just yesterday um Speaker Perez of the House announced a select committee um that would study over the next I think three
quarters um a series of issues to present five questions ultimately as proposed constitutional amendments uh for the consideration of the electorate and the things that they're going to study and propose and potentially structure the questions being posed the five house proposals for property tax
reform. All of which will require a constitutional amendment include one requiring every city, county, and special district to hold a referendum on the elimination of homestead property taxes. Uh two, creating a new $500,000
homestead property tax exemption for non-school property taxes. That $500,000 exemption would be increased to $1 million for homeowners who are over 65 years of age or who have had a homestead in Florida for over 30 years. Three,
authorizing the state legislature to raise the amount of the homestead exemption by state statute. Four, enhancing Florida's assessment limitation caps for homestead and non-homestead properties. we could change the homestead assessment cap from
3% per year to 3% every 3 years. For non-homestead assessments, we would just we would adjust the cap from 10% per year to 15% every 3 years. And then the fifth question to be um examined and discussed is prohibiting the government from foreclosing on a homesteaded
property for unpaid taxes. Um so those are the measures and that that press release by the way from uh Speaker Perez was released just yesterday. Um, so when I come up to you and I say, "We're trying to figure things out on the move in terms of what's going on." And when you're asking your city attorneys or
potentially your your lobbyists or legislative partners, hey, just give me the cliff notes. What do I need to know? I don't know. There's a lot of uncertainty right now. Um and so the creation of that issue is um um I think at the forefront of this discussion and
I think and and the the proposal is to have those um before the before the house or um for the 2026 session. Uh so understand that while the event horizon is not tomorrow, it is coming. Um, and you folks will have to decide for
yourselves how your policies align with those proposals and how you choose to engage in that process and discussion. You know, again, I would just reiterate uh as you have discussions with your constituents, with your legislators, with policy makers about tax cuts,
remember again the the the ease with which that is often decoupled from the con context about spending. What are we going to do about the beloved library, the fire station, the police department, city hall, the beach reourishment that you do or cleaning? All the all the
services you provide are largely based on advalorum taxes. Of course, you have penny for penelis that helps with some capital improvements and you have a few other small revenue sources, but your base your base revenue source is advalorum. So, as you're cutting that, understand that's necessarily going to
mean changes in how you operate. Um so those are those are some of the bigger one of the bigger issues. Um there is also um getting to some of the legislative bills themselves. Um moving on from the budget discussion, I think one of the most the foremost bills um
that would be of of particular concern in in these coastal communities are House Bill 1535 and Senate Bill 180. Um and those bills have to do with the um amendments to local operation regarding emergencies and emergency relief and
response. Um there is the Senate bill is sponsored by our local representative or senator rather um Senator Diggley. The House bill um is House Bill 1535. The Senate bill um prepared by Senator Diggley passed the Senate 371 on April
9th. Uh the House bill passed I believe just yesterday um or in or in the last week um and is substantially different from the Senate bill which means they are not harmonized and they're going to have to
figure it out. Um there's a lot of things in the bill. The Senate bill um talks about studying the implementation of burdensome or restrictive land development regulations following such emergency things. So, studying the ability of governments to adapt and
adopt uh land development regulations following storms. There's a number of other measures in there and and I'm not going to go through it exhaustively because I don't want to give you too much of what may not even apply. Um the other part of it is the House bill. One
of the main differences between the House bill and the Senate bill is on the point that I just I just presented, which is the Senate bill calls for a study to be done by OPAGA, which is the research arm of the legislature to study what governments can and should be able to do following storms when you're
changing land development regulations. Say, "Hey, we learned from this. Now we're going to make it so you can't do X." I'm not going to propose anything so I don't end up on the evening news tonight. Um uh so so there's so there's that tension. The the House bill says no no
no we don't need a study just ban it prohibit it preempt it. Um so the house bill prohibit it eliminates the study and just prohibits moratoria um or more burdensome land development regulations. And for those of you who have been serving since we went through hurricanes
Ian and otherwise, uh you may remember Senate Bill 250 from two years ago, um that prohibited us from adopting any land development regulation that was more burdensome or restrictive within 2 years after the hurricane made landfall. Well, the challenge with that is almost
inherently anything you do that changes your rules is more burdensome because you are a re you are a responsive body most of the time in your legislative capacity. you identify a problem and find a solution. You don't have solutions in searches in search of problems. And so when you're trying to
adapt, if you can't do anything more burdensome, restrictive, it presents a real issue. On top of that, if you did, at the time that legislation was adopted, there was language to say if you adopt it and it's challenged and you stand behind it, then you're going to have to pay the other side's attorney's fees. So it's not enough to say we in
good faith believed that this was not more burdensome. It was just a change. um it was if it was more restrictive it was dimminimous. So let's say you say easy example we're going to change uh the permissible landscapes and eliminate astroturf because it or eliminate loose
mulch. The loose mulch filled our storm debris system. The astroturf pulled and didn't drain sufficiently or whatever kinds of things you identify or limit how you do that. Well, that's more restrictive. Now is not somebody going to not build in your community based on that alone? Likely not. But it is a land
development regulation. It is more it is different. It is there are less things you can do which meets the definition of restrictive. So you can't do that right in the two years following that. So these kinds of restrictions really fetter your ability to do a lot of legislating posttorm or to adapt to the
realities that you're encountering. So that's where that fight is happening between House Bills 1535 and Senate Bill 180. It's not clear based on the current uh divide between the House and Senate on other issues on if those bills can be harmonized or will be harmonized, but it is one we should we will we will be
following very closely especially for the big C. Um and otherwise um excuse me there's another one that that may have an impact another bill that may have an impact here is Senate Bill 1664 which is presently on the not
presently right this moment but on the Senate floor. It narrows local authority over tourist development taxes um and may limit funding sources for coastal infrastructure as a result. Right? because if we can't tax then we can't get the revenues and that's how we have historically used those revenues in in
this area. Um what it does among other things is provides that existing taxes um have to go to referendum again um if if they haven't well they should have already but would have to go to referendum again uh to be renewed by 20
uh January 1 2033 so 8 years um or whenever that um tax is set to expire if it has an expiration date. So basically, yes, you put it before the voters. Yes, they approved it. Make sure they're still cool with it and and go back out
on that. It also um requires that such if such taxes are being used uh to fund uh bonds or any kind of municipal financing like that that that has to be disclosed, I believe, as part of the ballot language itself. I'd have to check where that disclosure is required
and again what that language looks like when it's adopted. Um the House bill did the House version of that bill passed 62 to 45 on April 25th. Um so it remains to be seen if the Senate will adopt the House's version amended on the floor.
But again, uh local option taxes um and emergency legislation is another one to u monitor and at the risk I I could wax poetic, but uh just in the in the uh one other bill or two other bills I'll highlight. Um, Live Local, uh, you've
all heard of it. Um, what it is is a mystery to most people, including the people who have to interpret and apply it. Um, Live Local creates certain development entitlements, notwithstanding some other restrictions in your land development codes. For example, in its current iteration, not the one that's being talked about in
Tallahassee right now, um if you're within XZoning district, you are entitled to the maximum height of within I think it's like one mile or X amount of miles. I can't remember the number now, regardless. Um and and all of this is towards affordable housing.
Affordable housing has its own amorphous def definition. Um it certainly makes for good copy, but that doesn't mean it's all going towards what you might think affordable housing is. Um, it's creating certainly creating more residences in the state of Florida where residences are needed. Um, and finding
ways to to get in where you fit in, if you will, and being a little more liberal where we fit in. Uh, things like live local, preeemptions on short-term rentals, preeemptions on homebased businesses, all of these sorts of things are changing the landscapes of our communities. Um, so when you are met with residents, constituents,
shareholders in your community who express outrage over what happened to zoning, what happened, why why is this allowed next to my house or right down the street? Our approach to zoning has fundamentally changed from a regulatory standpoint in the state of Florida. Um,
historically in the law, we have what we call uklitian zoning. Um, that comes from a Supreme Court case, this for the city of Uklid, EU CLI. Um, and so uklitian zoning is what most of us came to understand that Richard Scary idea of what a Richard Scary is an illustrator if you don't know and don't have
grandkids, but the idea that like city hall's over here, the industrial parks over there, the houses are way over there, that sort of idea of of uklitian zoning has has become much more fluid um through live local and other regulations. And so we're seeing the landscapes of our communities change. uh
when you get to the live local bill um the live local bills that are going on, there was a house bill 943 but which made it to the house floor but then was laid on the table yesterday. Um it I think merged cuz I don't even I couldn't even find the bill language and amendments um of all the activity that
happened yesterday. Um I believe it may have merged with House Bill 1730 um uh which passed the House yesterday 109 to3. Um the suffice to say live local was an effort that started roughly four years ago from the legislature and each year
they keep trying little fixes and each year we try to figure out what those mean. Um, but big picture, I can't tell you chapter and verse what that means, House Bill, Senate bill right now. I it's very very fluid. And when you look at live local as a as a specific example and especially at a lot of the
legislation coming out of the House, what we've seen this session is a change in the approach to single subject bills. Um, we've told you, I know I've told you if you work with me, when you're doing legislation, it should have a single unifying subject. We're changing code enforcement. So, we're not going to do here's where we change code enforcement
and allow for the pickleball courts or something, right? And change the hours of the pickle ball courts. We're going to have those be separate things um so that you can track them and also vote based on one thing and avoid po poison pills as they say and things like that. Um the house construct of the legislation this session has been very
broad in single subject. So, you're finding, okay, we're going to do live local and we're going to merge in agricultural um preservation and restoration or or whatever the terminology they're using today is. Um so, they're they're taking things that might otherwise be considered disparit in past sessions and
finding a unifying theme to say that it is in fact single subject. Um the last bill I'll highlight for purposes of the communities um is there's uh Senate Bill 954 which passed the Senate on April 29th. Uh I believe that's yesterday. It
might have been 24th. My handwriting is not great. Um it passed 37 to zero. Um it requires local governments to adopt an ordinance for reviewing and approving certified recovery residences. While the term certified recovery residence is not
itself defined. Um it's all part of the Florida statute um 397.487 which provides a list of criteria to become a certified recovery residence. This um was an outgrowth in part of the opioid ep epidemic in Florida where you got all these mom and
pop recovery centers that were really attempts to get Medicaid dollars and other things and not necessarily operating in earnest in that way. And so they passed a legislative statutory scheme to say if you're going to be a certified recovery center, this is what's residents, this is what's going to be required of you. And so what
they're saying is there has to be an ordinance in every city's books that would include a process for reasonable accommodation from any land use regulation that might prohibit uh the location of a recovery residence um in your community. Now that's on top of
fair housing requirements which is the federal framework for that. Um so there's already a re some reasonable accommodation required under the law. This makes it so that your code has to specify what that process is. It doesn't militate a result. It militates a
requirement to have a process. Um, and so it would have to be um it would you would have to have the process for the reasonable accommodation consistent with the Fair Housing Act. It would require a written application. You would have to date stamp the application upon receipt. You'd have 30 days to tell them if they
need more data, 60 days to resolve the application. It specifies application requirements. So, it goes through um establishing a bureaucratic process or a due process. Um, and it limits um certain elements of the public hearing. There can't be any additional extra public hearing required. Uh, we're going
to require you to have a, you know, a sharet or some special brainstorming session. Those kinds of things that get baked into these. Um um by the way, there's already a preeemption on the book that says a local ordinance or regulation may not further regulate duration or frequency of residents
staying in a certified recovery residence located in a multif family zoning um district after June 30, 2024. That was passed last session. It interestingly has a sunset provision of July of 26, that language. Um my
understanding of that is because there was a study being done by the legislature and they were saying, "Okay, here's going to be our stop gap. Once we have the study, we'll roll in what the preeemptions will truly look like and what the regulatory scheme should be." So, I know I've thrown a lot at you. Um
the takeaway is we don't know, man. Um it's uh the the budget the budget process is ongoing. Like I said, there's that three commicas, the billion dollar difference. Um conflicting reports on how close they are to resolving that difference. uh and what those legislative priorities that will flow from that difference are
because as we often tell you when you get into budget season, which you will soon be, a budget is really a policy statement. It is your mission statement. Show me your budget and you will show me where your priorities are. Um and so from a legislative standpoint and otherwise. And so we're looking to that from the legislature as well. So that's
um that's it. Wow. Well, thank you. That was a great presentation, great information, and I'm sure we have a lot of questions for you, Dave. even look like I have no answers if I've not made that clear. Yeah. So, um have you heard any news on the just overall the sales
tax cap that they were discussing? So, the news on that is the House and Senate are not aligned, right? That that sales tax cap that they're talking about, the House is talking about bringing that down from the six, you know, to the 5.25. The Senate's looking
at maybe we don't need to change the tax rate. Maybe we need to be more uh liberal or lenient in what it applies to and how long it applies in that. In terms of what the resolution will be, no, I do not know the answer on that at this point. All right. Just seems that uh uh with the
basically attack on funding in general, small communities like ours, um they're they're not giving us alternative solutions. Well, well, and the sales tax being a little distinct from the ad being distinct from Advilum, right? The reason, by the way, historically that
we've had advorum, it goes back to the founding of the country because you could get revenue from a fixed location. We know this property will be here. We don't know if Dave's going to live here and vacation there and travel, but we know this property is going to be here and we can track its its its improvement
and all this. So, that that's been a long cornerstone of how we collect revenue at the local level. And obviously there are differing views on that. But um you know the the ad valorum discussion to me is far is is I wouldn't say more concerning but as a local
government attorney more concerning than the the sales tax which generally funds the state revenues. Um if you're looking at which will have impact downstream on you as well certain cuts will be made. Um the question is you know how intent are we on governing rather than just you know consolidating. Well and I I think
that's uh where I'm going with this. It looks uh like there's a big push and they're they're becoming overly vocal about consolidation or dissolution completely um of of these small communities and um
everyone here loves where they live and they live there for a reason. So again, this is just a another way of squeezing us out. It it looks like while there's not an overt um effort to um in the in terms of currently proposed legislation
to writ large eliminate municipalities, I think if you're paying attention, it's becoming increasingly challenging to maintain municipalities in Florida and especially in communities like ours where you have in Penelis County, we have more than 20 cities. Um some of
them, you know, a mile large, some several miles large. Um and that that to some the view has become that all government is big government and all government is bad and so we just need to start cutting some government. Of course we won't start with mine. We'll start with your unit. Um and so the concern
becomes for you especially when you have things like the posttorm relief on how do you continue and people say oh well look community A did better than community B. and people compare and contrast and say, "Well, maybe we just don't need that one or maybe they all just become part of the county or the West Central Beach District and it's
easier to govern." And those sorts of things that that that those kinds of possibilities certainly exist. There was a study last session uh to possibly consolidate beach communities in Manatee County. Um whether they rolled them into an existing city or the county themselves. And so, um you know, that
that theme is taking, you're hearing the quiet part said out loud. It's being said in session committee hearings. Maybe we just need less cities. We have 460 some odd cities in the state of Florida and for some that's 460 some odd too many. Um uh for some that's maybe 200 too many. But whatever the number,
it's going to mean a fundamental change to the landscapes of our communities. Um but I want to be clear that's not proposed specifically in the session. I'm not saying that the legislature is eliminating that. But when you start adding all the regulatory and compliance measures, it becomes
increasingly difficult to sustain and operate. Thank you. One of our my concerns are we're losing a lot of homes. They're tearing them down. Okay. So, we're going to lose that tax dollar coming from that home. Okay.
And I understand it could be tore down today and it could be rebuilt another year, maybe two years, three years before we get those funds. Where do we get these funds for to take care of the what we're losing? Anybody? It's a tough one. I I don't have a I
don't have a simple answer to that question. And that's one of the challenges and that's you know and and it's interesting that you say that because the question becomes okay, we know we're going to lose some revenue, right? So let's take it to the individual level. What do we tell you? Well, save some money for a rainy day. You've had a few particularly rainy
days, right? And so the idea is, well, what do you have in savings? What have you prepared for knowing full well this day could come. But then there's also been legislative efforts in past sessions to say you should have savings, but not too much savings. You're holding on to taxpayer money. So don't have too much savings either. We need to cap
that. Has also been a discussion in the legislature. And so you find yourselves with these sort of hops choices of how you're going to navigate that. I I don't have an answer and I I I say it, you know, um tongue and cheek, but part of it is what what are your what are your what are your savings? What are your
other funding mechanisms do you have to to fund your other infrastructure if you're having sewer? Do you have what impact fees do you have? What special assessments do you have? And I'm not s suggesting some bonanza of fees and assessments. Just saying you need to be looking at all your revenue sources. Yeah, it bothers me because we're we're losing a lot of homes. We're being
knocked down already. Okay, so that's that's why I brought up the question. It's a valid question, sir, and a real concern. and a tangible concern to your community. Thank you. I might be able to offer some So, we've we've done this well, I've done this assessment in our community. Um, I've been a broker for 25
years, so I have a little bit of background in this. Um, we've out of the hurricane damaged homes that we've sold that we would consider tear downs or it's roughly 100 homes so far that we've had. The 100 homes that we've had, five of them sold below their assessed value.
The other 95 sold above assessed value by double and triple because you have to keep in mind so many of them were homesteaded 20, 30, even 40 years ago. And so for the vast majority of the ones that we've seen that have substantial
damage, complete damage or being either tore down, rebuild, raise or whatever, uh almost every single one of them, I said 95% of them are going to have an increase in the assessed value because they've sold for double and triple of what they were. So they were homesteaded, for example, at 250 and
then they sold for 750 for lot value. Well, even if it's lot value now it's 750 and in 2026 that's what it's going to get reassessed at. Thank you, mayor. Uh, more questions?
Nobody. I do have a couple of questions as well. Of course. Yes, please. So, on the going back to the sales, sorry, property tax. Um, every time you've mentioned it, you said homesteaded or nonhomesteaded. So, are we talking in
three different categories? Are we talking are they looking to eliminate property tax on commercial property? Are they looking to eliminate property tax only on homesteaded property, residential, or when they're talking about eliminating property tax and
they're doing their study? What which one of those three categories are they looking to eliminate? Or is it all of them? I think the answer is yes. Uh no. Um the the I don't know because it depends on who they is, right? Who the who the speaker not speaker of the house who the speaker is. you when you're
talking about the public discourse in Florida, there's been this broader do we need it at all? Right. Um when you look at the speaker's priorities that you that I that I read into the record from his press release and I encourage all of you to read it on its face so without any characterization or perception of what I'm saying about it. Most of what
you saw there was targeted towards residences, right? Homesteaded, non-homesteaded exemptions, that's residences, right? So the speaker and and most of the discourse is on giving the Florida taxpayer relief. I mean, you saw that in one of the questions on if you've lived in it 30 years, right? We
want to help our our longtime residents, especially those on fixed incomes, find some relief. Um, so, you know, the the discourse on what are they talking about, I think needs to start with defining, you know, the the pronoun without the anticedent. What is the ant? Who is they? Who is they will change
that answer. Right now, they as the legislature don't have an initiative before them on adorum changes. they have stated publicly policy goals to move in that direction, but that's I can't answer that definitively without seeing a proposed measure.
And then there was also um Senate Bill, the one that passed yesterday on resending the beach access, sorry, the um where is it? The customary use. Um so there is a statute on customary
use. Um I don't know if that's passed both chambers. I have been tracking it loosely. I didn't make it part of my presentation today. Um in part because of how um different those pro procedures were going. Um my question was um let me clarify. So
it did pass uh the Senate um Senate bill 1622 familiar. Y identical format pass committee and it's going to the floor. Um really the the question is what impact would that have on our on our beach communities? I I don't
know. Um what did it look like before 2018? I was getting there. I I I start with I don't know because I want to be honest and I know that there's members there there there's shareholders from a cross-section of your community and I don't want to be painted as the guy who said this is what it is and understand I litigate this issue or my firm litigates
this issue on behalf of cities. Um, so I I when you're giving public comments like these, um, there's an awareness that everybody's listening. Um, so the short answer is I don't know and I would have to look at what's adopted. What what I can tell you in terms of what what happened before in the before times, in the before times, there was a
general understanding that the beachlands were public property. Um, and they they were enjoyed under the public trust doctrine as a resource of Flidians at large. And so you you could traverse the beach without concern for being excluded from the beach which you might
see for example contrast that with parts of um the Outer Banks and other areas um in other states um though this does have national history the public trust doctrine and so what started to happen as we've seen this resurgence from the legislature and otherwise on asserting
property rights property rights are sacrosanct people be going to their deeds and say oh well it says I own the property to the sunset some of you may have that in your in your deeds or your your historical deeds. I own to the horizon, which you don't, even if it's in your deed. You do not own into the Gulf of Mexico. Um, and so the question
was, okay, if it's not the Gulf of Mexico, where is that line? And that's become the challenge. And so there started being some legal challenges and and um disputes in different communities, some most notably in the panhandle, um, but also here in in in
the Southwest Florida. And um what that statute ostensibly did uh was establish the process by which those legal challenges would be resolved and what a community needed to have done to have protected, preserved or asserted that ex
the existence of that historical use. And so a lot of communities were left scrambling during that session. And I believe it was the 2019 session. Um it might have been 2020. Obviously anything co on is a fog. Um but in the last 5 years or so um communities were left
scrambling to get something on the books that said we have we've had customary use here and so now that we have this ordinance you have to go through this process. If it eliminates that it just it to me it eliminates what that judicial process looks like or what what the requirements are. I don't know that
it solves the dispute. Um because nothing really gets resolved until somebody wearing a black robe says so. Um, so that's, you know, what I would say that way. Um, will it tomorrow allow you to go out and put up barriers or start removing things and, you know,
have the authority of the law behind you? I doubt it. I I think you're still going to have disputes about it. Um, and and then I'll reserve any other commentary beyond that. Anybody else? Okay. Um, you mentioned in the beginning and we just touched on a
little bit adorum taxes. Yes, sir. So, of course, nobody likes paying taxes. I don't like paying taxes. Um, so has there been any discussion in the legislature uh regarding how to fund the essential services? We have uh first responders here with us today and that
that's one of, you know, as you said, that's where our funding goes to those essential services. I can't I can't uniformly say that nobody's having that discussion or nobody's made those statements. I'm not aware of them. That doesn't mean they haven't been spread far and wide. You've had many a resident come to your meeting and say, "I didn't
know you guys passed this." And I was like, "Well, we were here with 500 people in the room last time, right? Where were you?" So, I just want to start by saying, "I don't know fully." What I can say is I've not seen an articulated plan on how that will be handled. And we can be students of history and look at I think it was Prop
13 in California, Prop 2 and a half and that was in Massachusetts in ' 81 82 where they what they did in it's a fascinating case study in Massachusetts back in 81 or 82. They had Prop 2 and a half and what Prop 2 and a half was a statewide proposition on taxes that said
we should cap advorum tax revenues for municipalities and they did. What they said was your tax revenues cannot be more than 2.5% of your assessed values. So if you had a million dollars in value, your tax revenues were
$25,000 and that was the maximum you could collect. And then the maximum it could appreciate was an additional two 2.5% year-over-year. And so that left communities eliminating firefighters, libraries, or or trying to make those tough decisions. Ultimately, I think the way the state of Massachusetts resolved
that was with um repurposing the the lottery revenues to municipal budgets. Um, fascinatingly in New England, Massachusetts especially, the taxes go to in in Massachusetts go to or rather the lottery revenues go to municipal
budgets as opposed to going to education and highways and these sorts of things you see in other states. So, are there solutions? Possibly. What they are right now and what they'll be proposed, I'm not aware of them. How especially in a state as large as the state of Florida, um, there's we are scales larger than
Massachusetts. Um, and that that's a nearly 40 year old case study. So um I I don't I don't know what the plan is beyond adapt and absent adapt maybe you don't need to be here is the other thing right it becomes if you don't have sufficient revenue to sustain your
operation the another con potential possible is say well then maybe we don't need all these cities and when we get scales and we say you know these five cities together have enough and one of them doesn't then maybe we just don't need that one city. Well, uh, my my
point is that we would be, um, less concerned as a community if, um, you knew there was a a plan, you know, we're going to remove those advalum taxes that you're using for your essential services. But here's the plan to continue those essential. I think right now I I think right now as you've seen
at the federal level and even to a lesser extent in the executive branch in with these Doge measures um efficiency measures um we're looking to cut and and that's it's austerity measures is really what's largely being discussed. There's
not a lot about how you where how you um implement that austerity and and to your point and your questions it's not necessarily fully eliminating. Sometimes it's a cap or it's you know modifying the exemptions. it will hit your bottom line even if they don't eradicate the advalorum tax altogether. Um there will
be a substantial change to your bottom line and the question is going to become how do you adapt? Um but I don't I'm not aware of a we're going to eliminate adalorum because we found this fancy new whisbang thing or we're going to give everybody 50 Bitcoin a day like I don't know. Well, and then even with the
discussion of consolidation, so we're still the same size county. We're still the barrier islands and they still need essential services, right? So somehow that has to be paid for. Agreed. So you know what I'm saying when they say that somehow it has to be paid
for. I I I think that the the challenge that we're going to face is there are depending on where you sit on this policy discussion. The question is does this require a fundamental paradigm shift, right? You're approaching it from the paradigm of how we've existed over
the past at least since 1968 when home rule became a thing in the Florida Constitution. Um so you got a good 60 plus years of data points or so or nearly 60 years of data points. Um but is this that sea change moment where we say maybe we operate differently and we
maybe it's maybe it's less cities maybe it's cities funding through different mechanisms or you know I don't see um in the discourse I've not seen the proposed solution or the proposed alternative revenue source that hey cities if you just do this then you'll get by or
because understand the discussion is limiting your impact fees limiting your special assessments limiting your building permits all these all these fees you collect have to have direct relationship to the cost. So they can't be revenue mechanisms. So the net result of that is likely the revenue goes down.
Thank you, sir. Um, also accessory dwelling units. Yes, sir. I've heard a lot about that. I I've heard a lot about it as I prepared for today. I I I've I've reviewed that bill throughout session about, you know, the what some call the mother-in-law suite bill or or the, you know,
accessory dwelling unit. Um I I'm not prepared enough to to speak on it from a place of knowledge in this moment. Okay. Um and you mentioned zoning earlier. Yes, sir. So, and I know there's a lot going on and a lot of these bills don't match up. Uh it's been a trend and is
that trend continuing where uh the local residents seems to have less voice and less input uh regarding the zoning in their own community? It's a bit of a loaded question. I I I don't know that they have less input. It might be where that input is placed.
Okay. Locally, um you know, in terms of there's less local control over um what your community looks like than there was 20 years ago. And I don't think I'm seeing anything radical when I say that when you talk about the scope of the preeemptions and then again, not just
the preeemptions. For example, when we talk about live local, let's move it off the barrier islands just to the let's put it in the middle of the state. When you talk about live local, if a developer comes to a community with a live local proposal and certain parameters are met and this and the city says we're still not doing
it, there's a potential exposure to attorneys fees if there's litigation about that. Conversely, if a developer comes to the community and the community says and community says totally fine, let's do it. I think this works and somebody challenges it from a comprehensive plan standpoint, a
consistency challenge. The local government faces exposure to attorneys fees over that. So, okay, we worked with the we not we worked with the developer. We we did what we understood the law to require here. Oh, but did your comp plan harmony? And so, for local governments, you're left in this I wouldn't quite call it paralysis, but a challenge on
where you're going to put your priorities and take your risks. Um, but as it relates to to zoning, I'm not going to say you can't pass land development rags, but when we regulations, but when we talk about more restrict prohibiting more burdensome or restrictive and you have preeemptions on homebased businesses and preeemptions on
short-term rentals and preeemptions, those mounting preeemptions limit your ability to govern. Uh, as Mayor G has pointed out earlier, uh, people have moved to these communities uh, for a reason because they wanted to be part of that community whether and and we're all different. We're similar, but we're
different. Clear Water, Madiraa Beach, uh, Valera Beach. So, uh, when you say where do we put our priorities, I believe we put our priorities in the actual resident. What do they want? You're saying like the developer wants to come in and do this, but then we have to, uh, see if the city wants to work.
It's the the residents have the ability to change their land use and zoning. So, it makes for a compelling discussion and narrative around it. I think the challenge is I agree with you the resident has the say the resident has the say in who they put there what they ask when I say there I mean in your
local deises or whatever the Latin plural is um and all your local councils commissions and and and alderman bodies um the challenge then becomes the the locals also have the power to elect who's going to Tallahassee and speaking on their behalf there. They have power to select who's going into the executive
branch. So we have we have power and and really comes down to where we place our priorities when we go to the ballot box. And that's not an endorsement of anything. It's just saying understand there's always power. It's just where where you're where you're wielding it. Obviously the govern you know we we know all the maxims and about the govern the
government that governs closest governs best and it's also the one that has the most impact. It's frankly why in my career I started my career going to law school in DC. I wanted to stay there for various economic reasons. I did not. I came back, but I was always drawn to working in government. And what I enjoy
about my practice or have historically enjoyed about my practice is that there's a real impact in what I do. When I'm asked to interpret an ordinance and I get something from my from my city commissioner, my city manager, there are certain times where I say, "Listen, I need to sit with this one for three weeks because I know full well my answer
is going to change what your main corridor looks like 10 years from now." That's a real impact that you can have. Um, you know, and so that's that's that's tangible and that's real. And it's very easy when you get further up and further up to make a decision and not see that or not see it as fast and
so it doesn't feel real. Oh, we didn't regulate enough because I went back to my district and I didn't see the change this session. It's like, well, yeah, you're going to see it. You're going to see it three and five years from now, but that's going to be beyond your term or beyond this seat. Um and so it's it's challenging but I the point you're making about the residence yes I I think
in you know in this democratic experiment we are called to rely on one another to make our voices known and I'm sorry I'm I know I'm going on I keep getting good well that's excellent point and and I always encourage that in all of these meetings for everybody here please make your voice known to your
your local commissions and your senator and your representatives. Please get involved and have your voice heard. Thank you, Randy. Thank you, folks. And thank you for the indulgence of your time. Unless I do have a question. Uh,
one of the bills that was put forward, not sure whether it's passed or not because last time I checked it wasn't yet, was on the change in the uh amount of on the a cap on how much we Thank you. I meant to speak to that. the
sovereign immunity cap, I think, is where you're going. Sovereign immunity cap. I meant to speak to that and I appreciate I had the note here. Um, by all accounts, that effort is is dead this session. Um, think, hey, anything could happen, right? U, but by
all accounts, that is dead. And that is again a function of the division between the House and Senate. For those of you less familiar, when somebody sues a local government in tort, uh meaning I've been injured, um or something along those lines, not for a violation of constitutional rights, um there the the
maximum exposure for your city is $200,000. Um it's been that since approximately 201 uh I want to say that took effect in 2011. Um was when that changed. Before that, it was $100,000. And to get more than $200,000, there's a whole claims
bill process you go through in the legislature. This session, um, they started out by saying, "We need to jump that from $200,000 to a million dollars." Um, never mind that your policies didn't contemplate that and your carriers didn't collect premiums based on that. Um, but the, you know, the idea was going to be it was going to
go to a million and then after x amount of years it'll go up even more and up even more so that we don't get this sort of stagnation we're seeing at the recovery when people sue local governments. Um the House was was and and and the initial version of the bill was also retroactive in its application
which was interesting. Um the um the Senate was wanting a more measured approach if at all was saying let's we we should raise it but let's go to $500,000 now a million in like 2030. The two sides have not been able to harmonize and that seems to be on the
list of things that's not going to make it out um at this point. I've not seen a concerted effort to revive it. If there is the session will extend. I think it'll be a couple weeks. And the question right now between the House and Senate is if we're extending session to do what? Obviously to pass the budget, but how much leniency are we giving
ourselves to pass bills and adopt legislation during this time? Are we putting a, you know, like we've seen special sessions, oh, it's going to be just about housing taxes and this so they can get live local through, get the, you know, those things through. I don't know. So that's the lingering question that's left based on that three
commicasm in the budget. It would make a significant impact on our insurance liability. Absolutely it would. Um it were were it to pass and and I can tell you we've we've seen that measure come back if not every year every other year. Um it may be dead this session. You'll see it again next year. I'm almost
certain some version of it. Wow. Well, thank you for that information. That was a great presentation. I always appreciate being thanked for confusing news. Um appreciate it. Right. We have more questions to answer. All right, let's move down to uh
discussion items. Does anybody have anything they'd like to to bring up to the big seat? Nothing. All right, we'll move to uh city events. All is quiet. North Reading the Beach. We have a chili cook off tonight at uh
our town hall be at our pavilion and that should be interesting with I believe our uh fire department is going to be judging. Uh and we have of course our Memorial Day uh celebration or uh event
uh on Memorial Day. And that's where uh all of the elected officials serve the uh picnic lunch and we have the memorial day uh uh event including the honor guard
coming and uh it's just a great event in our town and it's been a tradition for many years. Thank you very much. We have a community garage sale going on Saturday and Sunday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. So, if you like discount
shopping, come to Indian Rocks Beach this weekend. On May 18th, we're having Greentown Kids Beach Cleanup. It'll be from 10 to noon and it will be staged at the city park on 17th Avenue. Thank you.
We're pretty much uh quiet in Bair Beach. We're having a blood drive on May the 2nd and there's a hurricane relief cabbie clothing event on May the 1st and uh I think we're doing a beach cleanup
on May the 3rd. Well, all right. All is quiet in Readington Beach. Uh on Madira Beach, if you'll notice on your way out that we have our our uh monthly market, Madiraa Beach Market. go by there and get some wonderful uh local
locally grown locally local local crafts, locally grown things. Uh it says in the agenda that uh fresh fry and John's pass event March 28th. We did have that and it was a huge success. Uh coming up though, our big event is our 78th uh Founders Day celebration on May
3rd. This has become very popular to our locals. includes uh live music, food, drink, and one of the it's one of the events we kick in for fireworks. So, uh and it's right there on the water. So, it's really a nice event. So, that's that's what we've got going on for
Madira Beach. Yeah. I don't want two uh great events and and I'm I'm very happy to hear, you know, things are going on around our beach communities and um and we've got some things coming up in Clear Water, too. But I really feel like I need to
take a minute just to uh to ask you all to continue to pray for the Jose um um trying to remember his name. Leslie Castro family, the gentleman who deceased was deceased on Sunday night. And and there are still a handful six or
seven folks still in the hospital recovering from injuries. So pray for their families. And then over and above that, there were many people who experienced that event on Sunday night who are uh still hurting badly. I talked
with one of our fire department personnel um on Monday and I asked him, I said, "Well, how'd you sleep last night?" And he said, "I didn't sleep at all." and uh he shared with me the reality is we've got first responders here is uh our folks who rescue folks
during hurricanes and see the things that they saw Sunday night uh those are pictures and images that they can't unsee and those will hang with all those folks whether you're first responder or you're just a bystander there we have many folks helping out their bystanders so uh in addition to praying for the
families of those who were injured I'd ask for you to pray for those who um who in our community who are came out for Clearwater. So proud of our Clearwater Fire and Police Department, the way they responded quickly. But it reminded me that we all need to pray for our first
responders in all of our communities because they never know when they're going to be called into harm's way and and have to go in and and do difficult work on short notice. Uh but I am so thankful and we're all thankful that we have them there and they acted uh
performed um exceptionally in Clear Water on Sunday night and I know that we have first responders throughout the county throughout the other beach communities that would do the same in if needed. So uh continued prayers uh as we continue to help folks recover from the
incident on Sunday night. I'm glad you addressed that and I'm sure like everybody you you and your city are definitely in all of our prayers. That's a lot. Um we actually in Treasure Island are it's seeing a little normaly. Um we had a huge successful sports fest um
this last weekend um behind uh the Bill the Bill um that was great to kind of see everybody back out on the beach and all of our hotels that are open um were full. So that was great to see. I'm sure a lot of you had some spillover um from the people that were there. Um May is a
little quiet in Treasure Island, but this Monday um VIP, they didn't know if they were going to be able to do it, but they are going to do their annual Cinco deio party. It's going to be a little different, but they still are going to have live music out back. Um I'm sure it's going to be crazy there, but that
starts at three o'clock on Monday. And then our fire department is doing something a little different this year. It's the first time they've done it. Uh May 23rd from 1 to 3:00 along Golf Boulevard, they are doing a walk to the beach day. And what this is going to be,
there's going to be along Golf Boulevard, there's going to be little segments where there's different first responders just kind of teaching. They're encouraging families to come out. They're um plan on, you know, just educating about the crosswalks and using the flashers, things like that. and just
kind of a community event to get everybody out and to really try to educate on that because even though we all have our crosswalks, about half the people if that use them is either use them or use the blinkers. So I think that's a great thing and that's May 23rd
uh from 1 to 3 and that's about it in Treasure Island. All right. In St. Beach. If you happen to be watching the Kentucky Derby this weekend, um on Saturday, we're having an event down in Passa Grill on 8th Avenue, uh where you can come down and participate. Uh starts early afternoon.
It's going to go all evening. I think the race is right before 700 p.m. So, hope you all can stop by and check that out. All right. Well, thank you everybody. That concludes our meeting. So, with that, we are adjourned. Thank you.