everyone and welcome to the Braden City Council meeting Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. at city hall council chambers. Today I would like to introduce you to uh the mayor for a day,
Barrett Maize, and he's a first grader at Steuart Elementary School. Right, Mr. Mayor? All right. So, what we're going to do is um what what I'm going to do at first is um we'll do the invocation and
the pledge, and when we have our invocation, Councilwoman Barnaby will say, then we'll have Garrett lead us in the pledge. But as we stand, before we do that, I would like to have a moment of silence. Um because this will be our last meeting before the travesty that
happened October 7th, two years ago. And we just want to to celebrate those families and those hostages that are still in captivity. As we know, there's upwards of 50 people, but they do think that the majority of them are deceased
now. But it is a travesty that that all countries should be trying to get those uh deceased and alive hostages back to their family. So at this time, if we can stand and we'll have a moment of silence and then we'll ask Miss Barnaby to do the invocation. Thank you.
Dear Lord, I pray that you guide us always. God of peace, we invite you to preside over this meeting. Even when we have differing opinions, give us a spirit of unity.
Help each of us to listen politely as others share their points of view. Help us to work together as a unified team in combining ideas for a great outcome.
Help us to work together as a whole rather than individuals trying to promote agendas. I pray this over everyone at this meeting. May we have a spirit of camaraderie in
this room and work together to serve the people of Bradenton. And together, let the people say, "Amen." Amen. All right, we'll ask Mayor Barrett to start us with the pledge. Put your right
hand. Yep. Just say, "I I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Real quick before we let Mayor Barrett gavel us in, just to say a few things. Um, he's seven years old, goes to Steuart Elementary. He loves reptiles,
so that's a very good thing. Tiger, salamanders, and leopard geek geckos. Um, hobbies. He's an avid fast runner and he loves racing and he has a reputation for winning. So, you know, one day when you run for mayor, you'll
win. So, it's a good thing. Uh, and and one of the other things when I asked him, I said, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" you know, and he had just met the police chief and the fire chief, but he said, "I want to be a teacher." So very honorable to be a teacher. And Mr. Councilwoman Coachman
is a teacher. So it's a great thing. So all right, it's your turn now. Say, hit the gavl and we'll call the meeting to order. Thank you. And madame clerk, the first item on the agenda this morning is a presentation from the police department, Florida Contraband
forfeite grant program awards. Good morning everyone. Morning. Uh this is the Please state who you are. Sorry. My name is Josh Kramer. I'm the chief of police here in the city of Bradenson. Uh this is the 8th annual Braden Police
Department Florida contraband forfeite grant program and it's a example of our commitment to the community uh community policing and engagement. Our agency per state law must donate at least 25% of the forfeite funds we
receive annually in our fiscal year to community organizations and programs engaged in projects that seek to improve neighborhood safety, promote crime prevention, drug prevention, drug education, drug treatment services, or school
resource officer programs. Today we are awarding $15,800 to 12 or organizations who provide services within the city of Bradenton that directly impact our residents. And I am pleased to announce the recipients. And as I announce them, many of them
will be organizations you all are very familiar with um from either attending their events, being on their boards, um members, partners in Kuanas. Uh but they're all they're all great uh great programs, great organizations, and again
we're proud. Um I noted that 15,800 that's way more than that 25% that we received this year. We I'm not going to say it was a down year, but uh we didn't make as many seizures and forfeitures. We're ramping that up. Um so next year hopefully we'll be able to give a little
bit more. Um, all told, in the 8 years we've done it, this amount today will total $134,900 that we've given back to the community and the organization. So, it's really something I'm proud to be continuing on. First is hand up to victory,
Justin How the executive director, and Austin Cahane. Come forward. And Ela's gonna be very upset because I've already gone off script and made a mistake. So, Do you want to speak a little bit about Sure. Yeah, absolutely.
Good morning. Good morning. Uh thank you so much for having us here. Thank you, Chief Kramer. Look forward to meeting you in in the future and getting to know you better so you know we can partner together. So, uh hand up to victory. Uh basically we've identified a need that we see people
like such as you know are homeless in in downtown Bradington uh coming out of a program coming out of a jail want to make a change with their with their life but have no resources or no one to help them out to to to do so. So we help people to get into safe recovery housing. Uh we have wraparound services
uh access to things like food, clothing, hygiene products, cell phones, IDs, social security cards. That's a that's a big uh need that that that we need to address here to help people to get full-time jobs and we help people to get full-time in employment also. So that's
everything we believe to start that recovery journey and then uh we partner alongside people. We have weekly recovery meetings. We have peer-to-peer support and we just uh journey journey with people. Um this year in 2025 alone we had 389 people that applied for
assistance through us and we were able to assist 164 of those. So, uh, we try to have an answer for for everybody. Uh, the need is is is great, obviously. So, thank you so much for for your your your support in everything that we that we do. And, uh, we look forward to the future and, uh, seeing how we can work
together to make Braden better. And you probably had one of your best podcast ever about a month ago. Of course. Of course, we had many. I I was uh met Justin many years ago and and uh really been some of the candlelight vigils and the different things at Rossy
Park and they asked me to be on a podcast and really it's about stories to me and it's every family has a story um whether it's yours, mine, anybody else's and and what you've done Justin to go through um your story and then come out
where you are now and it would have been easy to get through what you got through and just move on with your life but you want to help others and that's very honorable and we appreciate that. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.
[Applause] All right, back on script. Elbow, my apologies. Michael Wood, development director of outcomes and grants from the Boys and Girls Club of Many County. Sir,
good morning. Michael Wood, Boys and Girls Clubs of Massie County. This Thank you so much for our continued support for the clubs through this program and this money this year is going toward the Rogers Club to help kids there keep doing the right
thing and keep away from the wrong things. So, and helping their community also. and we look forward to the police coming in at the end of the process to help celebrate their wins. So, thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Yes, ma'am. Miss Barnaby, I think we need to point out that the program does work and our mayor is a shining example of that. Now, they're very fortunate to uh that
little eight-year-old kid 50 years ago walked into a Boys Club on 34th Street and the rest is history. And it's it's the Boys and Girls Club um along with my family has been very special over all the years and and the staff we have now and the the kids going through it are
very lucky to have that great staff. We have a there's a unique moment in the county history right now that the mayor of Palmetto and the mayor of Brighton are both Boys and Girls Club alumni. We're very proud of that. Thank you, Miss Barnaby. All right. Uh next, the Braden
Gladiators football, Patricia Johnson, the secretary treasurer, and Edric Sweding, the president. Maybe just welcome. Educing, president Bradton Gladiators. Um, let me have my glasses on there. So, at
the Brighton Gladiators, uh, we've always believed that we when a kid gets it gets to play, they can gain more than the uniform. They gain confidence, connection, joy, and a life skill that lasts a lifetime. Today, we're proud to support that belief through our evolved
mission, supporting life through access through youth sports. This evolution is rooted in the stories and impacts we've served and seeing for firsthand uh from the thousands of families we've served in the reflection
not only from what we do, but why we do it. Thank you for being a part of this journey. Your belief in in access and equity is what fuels our work. Uh we cannot could not achieve our mission without the support of law enforcement and other entities that believe in
supporting our community. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'll say something real quick just about youth sports in general and it could be repeated a couple other times probably today, but without mentors and um adult figures in some of
these kids' lives, they wouldn't have that positive outlook. So, we'd like to thank all the coaches, moms, dads, anybody that's involved, volunteers. You know, what the youth football and what youth sports does for our community is so so unbelievable because it gives kids
missions at times. And if they don't see that positive outlook, things aren't uh sometimes as good. And my kids have gone through all the youth sports and especially football with PAL and and Wildcats over the years. And now they're a lot older. So, I don't I still go. my
grandson was playing for a while and got a two-year-old granddaughter, so I'm sure she'll be cheerleading soon or playing some of those sports. But just to say to all the groups that are here today that will do the youth sports, thank you for being those mentors and um and working with everyone to to make the
kids better. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Uh so close one to us and what you said mayor is very important. The amount of money we're giving these organizations is not a lot. We would love to give them a lot more, but they
get by mainly be with the help of volunteers. Um, that's where I think I'm hoping to restart a mentoring program here with the the department. Something I talked about for some time. Um, but we're going to be on boarding that here probably within the next few months, right?
Uh, and sort of a choice of organization you want to go to, but all these are certainly very willing. Um, next, Sergeant Karina Rivera from the BPD Explore Post 104. And she is not here. I will accept on her behalf.
Um, Sergeant Karina Rivera is newly promoted as you may remember from the promotion ceremony. Uh, she's been a volunteer with the Explorers, I think, pretty much since the time she began a few years ago, but she also was an explorer as, uh, when she lived up in Connecticut and then ended up getting
into the department up there. So it is something very near and dear to her. Um so I gladly accept. I think you all know what our explorers do for us with all the different events. Our national national night out is coming up on October 7th that they are going to be a big part of. They're going to be in
charge of cooking the hamburgers and hot dogs that are going to be and I think given away. I think one of the things looking back and we were at a a very uh great event the other day for Pace Center for Girls and they had brought back some of their alumni um and they were all three young ladies 25
years old and really talking about their stories and I I loved one of them when I heard that she was in the Bradenton Explorers program growing up and helped her and she wanted to be a police officer at that time but now she's a mother and got a a great career ahead of
her and and just one of those things that not only through the explorers but others that helped her. So that was it was it was very heartfelt and emotional there wasn't a dry eye in the room when those three young ladies and especially the one that we had a little history with.
Yeah, I had a chance to speak with her after. It was it was good to hear her story and where she's where she's at now. It's great. Thank you. Uh next, Miss Janine Amik with the Florida Cultural Group. She's the CEO. I think you may know her.
There's not anybody that doesn't know Miss Janine in this community. The uh so we appreciate and everybody may be surprised, you know, Florida Cultural Group. Um as council people and the mayor, we want to make sure that you know when we are hosting events at the
performing arts center and on campus, we have a very extensive uh safety protocol and training that is going through all of our volunteers. As well as we want to thank BPD. They had two officers come over and walk our campus outside. And if
you've been there lately in the evening due to recommendations from the BBTB, sorry, Braden Police Department that uh we made upgrades to our lighting externally, removed plants so that there were no more hidden spaces for
individuals. And so we really appreciate the partnership and the opportunity that not only the city but extensively all the other departments are providing us so that we can provide the best services possible on our campus. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate all that you do.
[Applause] All right. Next, Dina Green, program administrator at Many County Girls Club, Just for Girls. Good morning, Jina Green. Just for girls. Um, on behalf of Justice Girls, we extend a heartfelt thanks to the
mayor, city council members, city staff, and most especially to the chief and his department for their steadfast support of our mission, vision, and goals. Um, your commitment demonstrated through this forfeite grant process empowers us to provide full access to highquality
prevention programs that focus on academic remediation and enrichment, behavior enhancement and redirection, and most of our character development. This scholarship is more than financial assistance. It is a lifeline to opportunity. For many of our youth,
barriers beyond their control often limit access to essential resources. Through your support, the forfeite grant process bridges those divides and narrows those gaps, ensuring that every young person has a fair chance to thrive. So, I want to thank you again
for all that you do to uplift our community and invest in its future. And I'm going to brag we have an alum right there, too. I was going to say my my first words are going to Miss Barnaby. Well, yes. I I joined what was then Mante
County Girls Club in 1967 and back then, you know, the it was the Earth cool and the dinosaurs died and girls couldn't go to the boys club. So, um they had a tremendous influence on me. I became a staff member and I also
received my scholarship to go to college. So I think ultimately those are the things that we try to do in terms of access and opportunity because we do believe that everybody has potential but not everybody has opportunity. So sometimes we like to create those
opportunities and with your help we're able to do that. [Applause] All right. Uh, I believe next is the Manatee, the new Manatee Broncos.
Uh, Enrico Johnson, athletic director. Mike Jones, football operations. And someone you may recognize, Charles Standifer. Here he is. Charles is going to be the one speaking, I believe. No. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
Appreciate what all y'all do for us. And we also appreciate the Braden Police Department what you do for the Manatee Broncos for I think it's been six years that you have done for us and we appreciate it very much. Thank you. Um on behalf of the new manatee Broncos,
we'd like to also as an athletic director, I would like to say thank you. Um it's not just football with us. It's um dream, evolve, become. Um it's a saying
we've been doing for the last couple years. Um just with a total of roughly 230 kids in the program, football and cheer. Um just being able to service them, making sure they got snacks, they
got this, they got that. So it's just a blessing to receive this. And we would like to say thank you. And I'll echo my comments again with with people willing to put their volunteer time out there to make that next generation see hope. And
I think we've seen the theme whether it's younger people or younger children or whether it's adults that need that through all the groups so far. It's helping others and that's very honorable. Thank you for doing that. Thank you. Thank you.
[Applause] Okay. Pace Center for Girls is next with Christy Haley, development director. Good morning. I'm Christy Haley with Pace Center for Girls. I just want to thank the mayor, all of the city council people, and of course Josh for investing
in our girls and partnering with us on so many different activities we're doing with our girls. This funding specifically um is for our Red Ribbon Week, which starts in October. Every girl receives a sweatshirt with a positive message about being drug-free. So then they wear that
all year. It's on the back. So, as girls are walking through the halls, they're seeing that there's a special meal, but it also provides some incentives to positive behavior. Our girls don't come in with the love and attention that we all deserve and we want them to feel valued. And so,
sometimes their positive decisions need to be rewarded in different ways. And this funding specifically provides that in our corner cottage, special meals um as they go through our growth and change program. And it's because of all of you that we're able to do that. This is extra and all of our funding pretty much goes to salaries. So this is the gravy
that we need to really inspire them and make sure that they know they're valued. And thank you Josh for investing in us. You you've done a lot with our girls. You've kept an eye out for them and I really appreciate it. Keep up the great work and tell us what's happening for the second time on
right in front of the day dock in April 11th. We are excited. Quacki's back. Um we hope to race even more ducks. Last year really because of your investment in our program. Not that we would have gotten static where we were, but this provides us a huge foundation
to really grow this event, grow the fun in this community, bringing all families out. I mean, who doesn't want to watch a rubber duck race and all the kids can come. It's such a joyful experience. But beyond that, it is strong advocacy. It is telling people that our girls are joyful. When you're saying adopt a duck,
help a girl, the entire community can get behind Pace Center for Girls. It's only $5. Why wouldn't you want to come out, possibly win a great prize, but really enjoy time with your family and enjoy time on the beautiful Riverwalk in the city of Bradington? So, thank you so much for all of it. We appreciate you. Keep up the great work.
[Applause] [Music] Okay, next is Prodigal Daughter's Journey Home. Denise Gatuso, director. Thanks. Yeah.
Good morning. Good morning. Our mayor for a day is going to go back to school. So, thank you Barrett and mom. Appreciate it. Welcome. Good morning. My name is Denise Katuso and this is my husband, Joe Katuso. And
we're here to represent Prodical Daughters, which is a two-year program for women and children, multiple children. Uh where do where does a woman go when they need help with multiple children? Uh we are a two-year program which they come to uh learn about
themselves to uh get some education, do the things that will make them successful in in the world and they um come with their children that it's residential which they say. We are all funded by donations. It's free for the
girls and we uh try and make them successful for the world. they um many of the girls that have graduated are in professions. We that's what we try to uh push for to for them to be in professions so that they can be
independent with their children and they can uh make sure that they can afford their children and afford living on their own. So, this is uh this is a wonderful opportunity and we thank you for for everything that you guys do for
us and you support us and we're excited to see what the future will hold for more girls that can come in. Thank you. Just to let you know, I I was in law enforcement for 20 years. I was at Rikers and I did
and I learned by listening what the issues were. So, I taken all of that information and that knowledge and and use it today, you know, to really make them understand and how to change their their their thinking and that's really what it's about. Yes. So, and I appreciate Thank you.
Thank you for your service to the police departments. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Perry. I just want to make a brief comment. Um, you know, some of you know I used to run a state prison system and and part of that was the female component and the opportunity for rehabilitation and for a
better life always seemed like it was much higher probability with female offenders. And you know, coming out of Rikers and that kind of detention background, you probably saw the same thing. It's a rougher Yeah. Yeah. And and one of the reasons why there's a lot of reasons why, but but but females have children and and
the bonding with their children and for their hopes for better lives. And I think they're much more receptive to trying to take advantage of of the opportunities um to try to make a better life. And and I'm just inspired when I see that happen with some of the young ladies and you see them, you know, make
a change to become a young, strong, independent person that's not dependent on on alcohol, other men, uh you know, other things. And they develop their own lives for their benefit, for the benefit of their children, the benefit of the children's children. So my hat goes off to you for what you all do with your uh
project pro projectical daughters program and also to the young ladies that belong to it. Keep it up. There's a good life out there for you. See one of the re one of the things that we found if you see people have gone through a program and then all of a sudden three to six months they're back doing it again. Yeah. Because so what
what is the issue? Okay. So that's what we work on. It's not just you know making them clean. You could put somebody in jail and make them clean but it's the thinking. what a man thinking he is and that's really what it's about. So it takes a while to get your mind out of that that thinking and that old
foundation. So that's why it takes about two years. It actually takes about five years total. But if I told them they had to stay here five years, I don't think they would stay. But that's where it is. So thank you. Great job. Thank you. [Applause]
We want to give you a certificate for all that you do for us. Well, thank you so much. Well, that's for you and this is for me. So, for us, thank you so much. Thanks.
That's nice. Thank you. All right. Uh, next is Rogers Garden Bulock Elementary School. Erica Giller and Cassie Diadio. How are you? I'm good. Good morning.
Hello everyone. Um, I'm Cassie Daddy. I'm the school counselor at Rogers Garden Bullock. This is Erica Keller. She's our student support specialist. And unfortunately, Mr. James, our school guardian, couldn't be here today. um we couldn't get him off campus, but he's also one of our sponsors for the Save
Promise Club. We are so honored to be here today to accept this grant money. Um this money truly impacts our school community. Um for those who are not familiar with the Safe Promise Club, we are students against violence everywhere. Our promise club is
studentled by our fifth graders to create a more safer, more inclusive environment where everyone feels seen, connected um to and valued on our school campus. We focus on kindness, preventing violence, and making sure that no one ever feels left out in our school
family. This grant will help us bring that mission to life by funding three major events. Start with Hello Week, Say Something Week, and Community Day. Because of your support, we'll be able to provide the materials, activities, and the outreach needed to make these
events engaging, memorable, and meaningful. Your generosity is more than just financial. It's an investment in positivity, kindness, and connection that's going to ripple out far beyond our club. Together, we're creating a culture where students lift each other
up, where friendships are built across differences, and where safety and compassion guide the way. This grant doesn't just support events, it helps us shape a stronger, safer community for everyone. So, thank you again for your generosity and partnership. We're excited to carry the mission forward and
make a lasting difference with your help. Thank you. And I'll just go over I we talk about Rogers Gardens and City Park every day in this building and there's generational changes that we're looking forward with this council and and myself
and the city staff here and everybody with um building a community center right next to Rogers Gardens and and making Rogers Gardens the best school in Manatee County and giving children opportunity. And if I say too much more, I believe I might get a tear from my left because it's such an exciting
project that the community doesn't even know about yet. But um and by 2028, hopefully we're operating and really doing onto your mission grouping on those kids to see hope. So thank you for what you're doing now. So excited. Thank you.
Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. All right. Uh, next is the Special Olympics Florida law enforcement torch
run. Ken Rob, director. Thank you everyone. Uh, Ken RP, I'm the director for the law enforcement torch run for Special Olympics of Florida. uh on behalf of the 80,000 athletes now in in Florida. Uh just want to we couldn't do it without you. Uh the growth has
been in in two years we went from 60,000 to 80,000 athletes. Uh our athletes pay for nothing. Uh everything is provided for them at no cost. We couldn't do it without grants like this and the support of the community. We're obviously a volunteer-based uh organization. We
count on our volunteers from everything from sports, health screenings, uh all that for the 80,000 people with intellectual disabilities. Uh right here in Manatee County, we have over 500 athletes with 150 right here in Bradenton. So we continue to grow and and and prosper and and and the mission
of uh the people with intellectual disabilities. Uh like to invite everybody out to Riverwalk. Every April we do the law enforcement torch run. Uh Chief Kramer and the whole force comes out and supports it. So, uh, it's it's kind of a year- round mission. We appreciate everything you do for us.
Thank you. I appreciate you. [Applause] And last, not least, United Community C Center's 13th Avenue Dream Center. Andre Mays, president of operations, vice president of operations. by
Good morning. My name is Sheila. I am the site supervisor for the United um community center. Um I would just like to thank you all for your time and thank you. I look forward to being part of this um journey where the kids, you know, can
learn character building, they can learn relationship building and a place where they can um feel safe and have fun and be children. So, thank you all. Thank you. And and um we had not too long ago a great day with Keep Manity
Beautiful out there at the community center doing some planning and cleaning up and all of that. and again volunteers what what the community center does and brings positiveness to the whole entire community but also shows young people that hey let's get involved let's do things and so anything we can do for
that we appreciate what you do so thank you thank you all and thank you thank you [Applause] Thank you all very much for indulging. Uh again, it's such an important
program. It's been done for a lot of years. We've always uh for years and years, we just wrote checks to organizations. Now, we like to make sure they're recognized. Uh also, as part of the grant program, because it is a grant, there are measurables uh that
each organization's required to meet. Um it's basically based on what they've talked about here today, and then we have quarterly measurables for all that. So, any questions before I get pictures with them outside? I just want to say Yes, ma'am.
One reason why I had not said anything. Um, the majority of these organizations and the hard work they do impacts my immediate neighborhood. And I just want to thank you all because
it's not like when I was growing up as a child. We had a village and now we need you to be that village. And I'm so grateful also that Bradington PD does
not feel it robbery to not share some of that um treasure that we found. So thank you all. Thank you. Thank you, chief, and to the staff and Ela for keeping you in line even though you got off script a little
bit. You know, you got you got to go back to the one that they that everyone reports to and keeps she keeps track of all that. Does a great job. No, thank you for all that and we appreciate it. The reason I'm here today is because of Ela. Yeah. Keep up the good work. So, thank you and thank you to everyone that's out there.
All right, we'll give them just a second to get out so they don't before we go to citizen comments. All right, at this time we will have citizen comment. Citizen comments will be accepted during the citizen comment portion of the meeting on any non-aggenda item, agenda item, future
agenda item, or topic of relevance to the city. Comments will be accepted on the public hearings at the appropriate time. When you come up, you'll please state your name, your city of residence. You'll have three minutes. Um, and and once that three minutes goes, we'll go on to the next speaker. So, the first
card that I have is Paul Glock. Paul Glock. All right, moving on. Um, Keith Green. Good morning. Morning, Keith Green, City of Bradensson. Uh, on behalf of uh, St.
Cosmos and Damian Council. I wanted to definitely extend my thanks to the city of Bradenson and of course for you, Mayor Brown, uh Councilwoman Barnaby, of course, for attending our recent first responders mass. It was a an event attended by many and to definitely give
thanks to our many first responders who put their lives on the line for all of us every single day. And um I could definitely say that the uh parishioners at uh Arley of the Angels as well as the my many brother Knights uh 400 members strong of course that were very uh
pleased for the recent turnout and so much so that um we've worked very quickly to definitely plan for the following year. So, come next year, we'll be doing it again, uh, September 9th, uh, 6:30 p.m. I also wanted to extend my thanks to Chief Gear, of
course, for his department's participation along with Chief Kramer's department, the Braden PD, of course, who have been very committed to being part of this for the last few years. And I I can honestly say that we wouldn't be
we wouldn't be able to pull this off without the support of the city of Bradenton to uh definitely make this a very important thing for us because at the end of the day this is about bringing community together when we have so many things that are just causing so much division but at the end of the day this brings community together. Thank
you. Thank you. Next we have Janine Amik. Janine Aik, I guess, resident in the unincorporated area of Manatee County, but here as a commissioner of the Bradington Housing Authority to give the council and the mayor and staff an
update that the commissioners voted at our last meeting to hire a young lady to take over the position of executive director. Her name is Dominique Dunn. She'll be relocating here uh currently as an interim we hope is in a long-term
position uh from Washington DC. Uh definitely extensive understanding in the depth of the housing authority. Uh she'll be arriving on October 1st where the commission is inviting the council to join us uh if available at 9:00 a.m.
at the Bradon Housing Authority office for coffee and donuts. just to welcome her her warmly to the community. So that's October 1st at 9:00 a.m. We look forward to big things. In addition to the housing authority working with the
city on city park, we've also put under contract a fortis group to do redevelopment in our SUG uh area and we are looking to see what that may look like in adding page to it. not only will
it bring new uh public housing to the area but also increase the number of public housing that would be available. So, we want to thank you for the support that you guys have been doing on your end and uh thank you also to the commission for bringing and voting new
members. Um, we really believe we've got a housing authority uh group of individuals from the community who are going to push forward as fast as we can amongst federal red tape to bring housing sooner than later.
Thank you. Appreciate it. We'll go to Terry Mattress. During citizen comment, we don't engage. We wait till the end of citizen comment to talk about um answer any questions or go forward. So, um, I appreciate that. State your
name and your city of res. Was that Was that Terry Mattress? I heard I me. Shame on you. I know. Oh, Natress. I got to put my glasses on. So, Natress, you've seen me so many times. Good morning. Uh, uh, good morning,
mayor, council members. My name is Terry Natress. I've been a resident of the village of the arts for over 10 years. I currently own a home and a land parcel here where I live, work, and continue to invest into a long-term success.
Uh, I want to begin actually with thanking the city of Bradenton for your continued generosity and support of the village. In particular, I'd like to acknowledge the Bradenton Police, BPD, um, and the Department of Code
Enforcement for their diligent work on projects that have meaningfully, very meaningfully, uh, improved the quality of life for both current and future residents in our community. I'm here today to express my support for
restoring the pre20 2017 noise ordinance and for reszoning the village from T4 T4R to T40. As someone who both lives and owns property in the village, I want to have the flexibility to grow my space in ways
that strengthen the b the broader neighborhood and serve its evolving needs. uh resoning to T40 would not only support that growth, but it would also unlock opportunities for residents and business owners to reinvest in a way that respects the character of the
village. The pre207 noise ordinance was carefully designed to strike a balance protecting peace for residents while still honoring music as a cultural and economic contributor.
Music and live entertainment is a core part of the village's identity. Overly restrictive rules chip away at what this village was originally built to celebrate. My vision is to see the village continue growing into a walkable, welcoming
district, one where residents and visitors alike can enjoy food, art, music, and meaningful experiences in a safe and inclusive space. That vision requires zoning that reflects the reality and policies that support the cultural vitality rather than
restricted. The proposed changes support Bradenton's redevelopment goals, particularly small business growth, neighborhood rehabilitation, and cultural vibrancy. They also support the broader vision of connecting downtown Bradenton to the
expanding sports and entertainment corridor tied to the Pittsburgh Pirates growth. I respectfully ask the council strongly consider restoring the pre207 noise ordinance and support the T40 zoning for the village of the arts so
that residents, business owners, and the broader community can grow together with clarity and confidence. Thank you for your time and your continued support of the village. Thank you, Annie Rini. Good morning. Good morning everybody. Thank you for
having us here today and giving us a moment to speak. I am um here to speak on behalf of Cottonmouth uh Southern Soul Food Kitchen. It is a business that started in September 2020 during the
height of COVID. Uh it was a great opportunity for people who um needed work, who needed to get out of the house, who were tired of their own cooking, and it was a great success. We were able to spread out a lot uh with our masks on, and from there we've
grown. I say we because I've participated quite a bit in the growth of the um music as I was very connected to the blues music magazine who started our um blues festival as you know and went on for uh 10 years here. So I go
over there often. I understand that um cotton mouth it seems as though it's being singled out amongst places in the village of the arts who also have uh ancillary music to their businesses and um I know that
people who are condemning cottonmouth um have a a personal vendetta and they are uh the only people that are complaining about cotton mouth and So, I know that the city police and the uh
fire marshall and the code enforcement are all um I would say piling on uh to um make some changes that some may very well need to be made. I think that
there are permits that are um in process right now that uh hadn't been taken care of. I'm not sure. I can't really speak to that, but I just want uh everyone here to have an open mind about what we have done for the village of the arts and for other businesses in the village
of the arts. Not to mention employees at uh Cottonmouth, they all live in the village of the arts. So, when we're trying to make it difficult for this business to run, we're making it difficult for people to pay the rent. we're making it difficult for uh those
of us that are used to um having um a nice evening and dinner and um some joy. It's been a really popular location. people from around um the United States actually know about us because of Cotton Mouth and um what we offer in the in the
Village of the Arts um through that uh one um um business and I don't think there's any other business that can even come close to uh bringing in as many people as as Cotton Math has to the city of Braden to the village of the arts and
um I think we need to consider that when we're talking about whatever changes city is wanting to do right now um with respect to that business because they're really um success. They've been successful. They work hard 24/7
um and um we should get them. Thank you. Next we have Kyle. Please state your name and your city of residence and you have three minutes. My name is Kyle Morris. I live in Bradon in the village of the arts.
Good morning, mayor, council members. My name is Colin. Like I said, I've lived in the Village of the Arts for 15 years, and I've also worked in the Village of the Art for 15 years. I'm one of the original founders of Blues Music Magazine, and have been heavily involved in the music scene within Bradon for 15
years. I just want to sh uh share how important it is for people like me that the village businesses are allowed to keep growing and not be shut down by restrictive ordinances and zoning. For me, this is about my livelihood. My job,
my home, and my community are all tied within the village of the arts. It's the only place I've lived and worked since I came here. The pre7 ordinance provided a balance that worked. It allowed music to be part of the arts community, which is why people come here.
The current um the current ordinance makes it harder for businesses in art community to survive. It directly impacts jobs, including mine. And also, having two zoning codes, TR4 and T40,
create unnecessary restrictions. Moving to one consistent T4 world zoning would give businesses more flexibility to grow, bring more customers, and create more jobs for residents like me. I respectfully ask the council to support the restoring the pre7 noise
ordinance and to make T40 the single zoning for the village of the arts. It isn't just about business, it's about people's lives, livelihoods. I live here, I work here, and I want to see the vi the village continue to grow.
I also just want to speak on a ticket that we got last Saturday because I was in charge of the decel level and I had been in charge for the past few weeks and I had gotten it to a point that we were compliant every time the police
came out. I even synced my decimal reader with theirs to make sure we were on tap. The police showed up that night and they sat in front of the business for 20 minutes reading the instructions on how to use the decel meter. I sat
with them. They read it, told us we were compliant three times, which I had already established with the previous visits from the police on where we needed to be to be compliant. I was at that same level. They came and told us we were
fine more than once. After sitting in front of our business for over an hour, they came back and said we had spiked over 80. It was the crowd applause. The music was always below 70. But I just wanted to speak on that because I
feel personally responsible as I was like I say responsible for the decibel readings and we were in compliance at night. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um, now we have I believe is it Kata Kemp. Good morning.
Good morning. Um, please state your name and city of residence. My name is Kate Kempe. I'm here as a resident and also as an authorized agent representing the property at 10616th
Street West uh where Lupon, a new business will be created in the village of the arts. It's my first time speaking here at the council. So, good morning mayor and council members and thank you so much for the opening prayer. Really appreciate that.
with that the village of the arts um is not only personal to me but it's also a business opportunity. I speak here as a nominee for the board of the village of the arts as well as a potential investor in the businesses. So I speak with both professional and
personal interest and having come to Bradington newly over the last two years, I've noticed that the Village of the Arts is Bradenon's one of Bradenon's most distinct neighborhoods, blending homes, galleries, restaurants,
and creative spaces in a vibrant community. I'm also speaking to the zoning. Um, under the current T4R zoning, many businesses and cultural activities central to the village identity are
either not permitted or at all face unnecessary restrictions. Bradenton's redevelopment vision emphasizes connecting neighborhoods, supporting small businesses, and fostering creative relationships for entrepreneurs, the artists, and
community. The city has already invested in linking downtown to the village with improved sidewalks, infrastructure, streetscapes, and it showed its commitment to the
cultural district. Reszoning to T40 would align the zoning code with the city's vision, ensuring the village is empowered to grow as a mixeduse arts district, not held back by outdated restrictions. It would provide consistency, economic vibrancy,
flexibility, cultural tourism. The Village of the Arts is not only a neighborhood. It's a destination that reflects Brandon's creative spirit. By reszoning to T40,
you give small businesses, property owners, and investors a fair framework to contribute to Bradenton's cultural and economic value and vitality. On behalf of Leon and the Village of the Arts, I respectfully ask that the zoning
is reconsidered from T4R to T4. Thank you for your time and for your leadership. Thank you. We have Cecilia Hernandez and then Brian Swedich up next. Cecilia Hernandez. Um, I live at 3618
First Avenue West. Um, and I forgot my glasses, so I'm just not gonna read this and I'll just speak. I'll just speak from here. I do want to thank you, Mrs. Barnaby, for that opening prayer. Um, that it's beautiful. It really spoke to me and I think that's
that's where I'll speak from. and and I'm here um in that spirit of unity, in the spirit of community, in the spirit of working together with the city and the city officials and and the
community. And uh I'm here to speak u about with regarding Cotton Mouth and I'll just share with you how I even gotten involved with Cotton Mouth. Um, I was on a board with
Dave, became friends, and I saw a friend in need, and he needed some help. So, that's how our relationship started. Um, and, uh, and I see that again. And so,
um, we currently were cited yesterday or Cotton Mouth was cited for, um, for some items in the back. fire marshall came out that back out outdoor use is no longer in use um which impacts um the
business impacts Dave Dave um is uh the sole provider of his mother and um and has many employees that depend upon him being open and uh business running. So, I'm just here to ask however we can
think and get this back up, get him back up and running. And you know, whatever this is going to take, I'm I'm willing to help. I know the community is willing to help. We have we'll put resources in. We've we've engaged a architect. That was the first step was to get
architectural drawings and that is in process. So, um, we are moving forward, but if there's anything else we can do, if you have any suggestions to get him up and running again, um, in short order, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it.
All right, thank you. Thanks. Now, we have Brian Swedich and then next will be after Brian will be Preston Wh. Good morning. Morning. My name is Brian Swedich. I live in Bradon. Um, I'm also co-c collaborator and brewer for Bradenon Brewing located
at 10309th Street West in the Village of Arts. Um, we're an upcoming brewery and we want to contribute to Bradon's cultural and economic growth. I want to speak about the city's noise or no noise ordinance and how it affects small businesses and cultural life in the village. In 2017, changes to the
ordinance created created restrictions that made it difficult for businesses to responsibly host live music and community gatherings. The Village of the Arts thrives on dining, art, and music coming together to create a unique experience. The current restrictions reduce opportunities for events, limit
visitor traffic, and diminish the cultural energy that makes the village and Bradon so special. As a brewery, we want to bring people together and responsibly be part of that community life. Bradenton's redevelopment vision emphasizes revitalization, supporting small businesses, and cultural vitality.
Returning to the pre20 2017 ordinance would support that vision, giving businesses like ours the ability to responsibly host music and events that grow the local economy. I respectfully ask the council to consider restoring the pre207 noise ordinance so that Bradon's cultural districts can thrive
while still respecting residents quality of life. Thank you for your time and for supporting the growth of small businesses and creative entrepreneurs in Bradon. Thank you. All right, Preston Wh. And then we'll have Paul Glock after Preston. Good morning.
Good morning. I'm Preston Wheaton in the Village of the Arts. And uh thank you for the opportunity to just make a few comments. Um, I've been in the Village of the Arts
since 2008 and uh I have a uh both a home and a business um approximately 40T from the stage uh in the back of the Cottonmouth
uh building. Um this year, just this year alone, um there have been 158 scheduled concerts
at Cotton Mouth since June 1st. since June 1st when I began to first take action and you know it's the only recourse I've had is to call call it for
enforcement of the noise ordinance which uh since then there have been 53 events 53 concerts and uh on that stage that's 40 feet from our house
um the uh here's the I don't mean to be melodramatic here but these are all the listings from their social media Facebook
uh events page this is from January 1st to present and as I said if you start if you start at uh June 1st
It's 53 shows. So, the only recourse we've had is the noise ordinance. We did try to uh come to um some sort of agreement, some sort of
way of working together for many months, for actually for years with Dave. But um when uh Miss Hernandez bought the property, we were uh you know, we kind of we tried to work with
her as well. We met with them. Um I had an arrangement to send texts back and forth when the music was too loud and it just it we got nowhere with that. So, I really had no recourse but to ask for
ask for the police to come and enforce the ordinance. I gave them a three weeks notice um that that's what I was going to do and I got no comments from them and so that's what we've been doing and it's been the burden has been on us to enfor
to you know try to get them into compliance. Thank you Mr. Will. If you can give that what you showed to the clerk, she'll have to keep that because you used it as a a prop here. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. We need it for the public record. Okay. So, Paul Glock,
we called you the first one and you weren't in here, so we're allowing it. Yeah. Stack of Right. So, so you're up now. So, for a nicotine. All right. All right. Good morning, everybody. Please state your name and Paul Glock. Live on 17th Avenue here in
Braden. Thank you. You've parked on my lawn for spring training a few times. Welcome to the new chief. Not me. Huh? Wasn't me. Yeah. Okay. Uh I know that for a fact. Well, I had no idea that we were going
to be talking about noise here, but I've got uh u a noise problem. About six weeks ago, I dropped a letter off to your honor's office. You sent it down with 15 signatures on it. about a local business. You send it down to Coden for
it. You got a used car lot on Ninth Street. This got one of those party speakers out front. The volume goes up, volume goes down. But from 9:15 in the morning till about 8:00, 7:30, 8:00 at night, I have a constant booming and
it's a cadence like this. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. I can't take a nap. I can't enjoy my yard. I've called the police several times since December. this has been going on and um I got tired of calling the police because the police officers just says, "Hey, turn it
down a little bit." An hour later, it's back up. So, don't get anywhere there. So, I had the neighbors were all complaining. We got together, sent a letter to the mayor. Um got in code enforcement, took code enforcement about a week and a
half, two weeks to get silence. The running joke in the neighborhood was, "Hey, do you hear that?" Silence. Not you, not you know, just it was a relief. My blood pressure's up. It gets
to a point that's all you think about. So anyway, we had three weeks of silence and then the Monday Monday before last, he thought this is this guy is the biggest narcissist that runs his he nothing applies to him. He couldn't
resist and it started up again. And I called code enforcement again. They said, "Well, we're going to have to open a whole new thing on it." And I called u code enforcement on Monday because it was so loud. It was I heard
it. I'd taken a walk to Family Dollar on 14th Street and you could hear it halfway to 11th Street. You could hear it pounding away. And uh so I requested Rodney, which it code enforcement. Kudos
to him because he's the one who got us the three weeks of silence. But uh I called and I said, "I'd like appreciate if you could come to the city council meeting with me." So I know he works Saturday, so makes sense that he wasn't
at work on Monday. And uh but yesterday 11 11:30 I tried to lay down for a nap cuz I get up 4:30 5:00 and uh it was hard because I'm laying down on my couch watching TV trying to
doze off and I hear ma'am ma'am. Thank you sir. Okay but anyway I need I need it resolved before the weather before the weather breaks and I got to open my window. Good morning. I'm Lafayette Reid. I live in Palmetto, Florida.
I'm here as a supporter of the arts and of the village of the arts. Like Kyle, I also worked with for Blues Music Magazine and a past president of the Sun Coast Blues Society. Over the past 10 months, I've seen firsthand how Cottonmouth Southern Soul Kitchen has
been unfairly targeted regarding noise complaints. And now Cottonmouth is even partially shut down by the fire marshal despite having passed an inspection in April which shows how far this targeting has gone. I want to share what I've witnessed because it speaks to why
restoring the 2017 noise ordinance is so important. Nearly all of the complaints since April have come from a single household, often multiple times in one weekend. Despite the volume of calls, only two citations
have been issued. Both were for very small overages just two or three points above the limit. That tells me it is less about true disturbances and more about one neighbor aggressively pursuing enforcement. Recently, new levels have been reached.
The fire marshall was called and Cottonmouth's backyard space has now been limited until a future review. But Cottonmouth had a full inspection by the fire department in April, passed without citations, and I can tell you the property looks even better today than it did then.
I've also seen that standards haven't been applied evenly. In earlier discussions, Cottonmouth was told that decibel readings would be taken from 12th Street, that the most recent citation was taken from inside the
neighbor's backyard. On the same night, other b businesses in the villages had louder music lasting until midnight or later, but they were not cited. Cottonmouth ends its music by 9:30 p.m. Yet, it is only one being singled out. In one instance, the
officer's sound meter wasn't working at first, and a citation was only issued later after repeated insistence from the complaintant. That causes real concern about fairness. The village is built on art, culture, and music. Selective
enforcement and hyper strict standards don't just hurt one business, they threaten the spirit and livelihood of the entire community. A fair and balanced ordinance like we had in 2017 would protect residences while allowing
music as art to thrive in the village. respectively. I ask the council to restore the 2017 noise ordinance to ensure consistent fair enforcement and keep the village of the arts vibrant for everyone who lives, works, and visits
there. Thank you for your time and for supporting a fair approach that keeps Bradon's arts community strong. Thank you, Terry Matz. Good morning. Good morning, mayor, council members. My
name is Terry Matz. I'm an artist and practitioner at the studio Safa, which is in the village of the arts. Um, I came to Bradington. I moved here in 2019. And when I visited
the village of the arts back then, um, it was vibrant. And the reason I became involved with the village of the arts to move my artistry and my practitioner my my practice into Studio Sappa was to be
a part of the answer and solution to connecting community with not only just wellness and music, but everybody has a different eclectic of what they want. And when you can bring all of the businesses together, um,
because the business has a community too, and they are here to help the residential community, um, just bring us all together and be a solution as part of it. I'm here for the reszoning of the
T4R to the T40 throughout the village of the arts because as myself, I'd love to be an investor to and to grow my practice to actually maybe possibly have my own um studio at one point in time. And with
the restrictions that it currently has, I have no certainty as far as me as a business owner and an artist like myself to not know if I want to do that and because I don't know the future of the of the village of the arts and I want to
be a solution as part of that. Um, and I think it would give small businesses and artists the flexibility that we need to grow. It would encourage new investment um support diverse uses um from wellness centers to galleries to
strengthen the village as a destination. Um it is part of why people come to to Bradenton. I mean we who who wouldn't want to walk around this eclectic little cute village that just feels really good. And um so this this change
directly supports the Bradington's redevelopment vision um of cultural vitality, small business growth and creative entrepreneurship. Uh I respectfully ask the council to consider um changing the zone to P
uniform to the T40 uh as a destination for the village of the arts. And thank you for your time and support and um thank you. You're welcome. We'll call up Joanie Powers. All right. Nicole Skaggs.
Good morning. My name is Nicole Scaggs. I am a citizen of Manatee County and I own in the Village of the Arts. I own a business. Um, the name of that business is Studio Safa. It's a wellness center.
And here's the reality. I am living with down in Voda. I don't live there full-time, but I hear it all the time because my business is there. We can literally have the same street,
same scale, same neighbors, but different rules. And that inconsistency really isn't abstract. It decides whether a creative business like mine can actually breathe.
Right now, T40 sits mostly, as you guys know much better than me, on the perimeter of the village. Kind of draws a line and then there's some patchwork in it. it pops up.
Originally, 25 years ago, this was considered and pitched as equitable, flexible, inclusive. In other words, we've got to put some heavier density in there. At that time, it was
groundbreaking, and it actually still is in Florida. But after 25 years, the village is growing up. That patchwork has flipped to be something else. Now
we have a building confusion in the village itself. You guys are probably feeling this with the speakers. Unequal opportunity and the quiet message that some of us can build a future while others
have to ask permission to exist. That's not equity. It's a squeeze. It's time to consider natural growth that is aching to happen in the Village of the Arts. It's time for you guys to look at the map again.
I'm asking you to unify the village of the arts under T4. Why? Because artists, healers, and small businesses living and working in the same place, they need clear permission.
It'll mean that people will reinvest. They can fix roofs. I believe this. Activate storefronts and restore cottages because their uses are secure. Unified T40 creates walkability and vibrancy. You've heard that. You can
stroll business to business and it's not different lot to lot anymore. We're not asking for a freefor-all. I'm certainly not. We're asking for coherence. Thank you. We have Joanie Powers. Thank you.
Morning. I'm Joanie Powers. I um live in Bradenon. I'm a co-creator and baker of Leon, which is an upcoming business in the village of the arts. I also own Sweet
Song, which is a business which brings sweets and music together for private parties and events. I have a vested interest in seeing the Village of the Arts thrive as a place where food and music and creativity can
come together. I'm here to speak about the importance of keeping music recognized and supported as a part of the arts in Bradenton. Music is not just entertainment. It is
art. It belongs alongside painting, sculpture, baking, and all the other creative expressions that make the village special. Restrictive noise policies undermine
that by treating music as a nuisance instead of a cultural asset. Since 2017, changes to the noise ordinance have made it harder for businesses to responsibly host music. That means fewer
opportunities for local musicians, fewer reasons for visitors to spend time in the village, and less energy for our creative economy. Bradenton's redevelopment vision emphasizes cultural vitality,
entrepreneurship, and supporting creative businesses. Music is central to that vision. A return to the pre20 2017 ordinance would ensure that the village continues to be
a place where music and the arts can flourish side by side. I respectfully ask that the council consider returning the priest 2017 sound abatement ordinance or no noise
ordinance so that music can remain a celebrated and supported art form in the village of the arts. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And um Dave Shiplet
My name is David Chiplet and I own Cottonmouth. Been in the village for 11 years. I've been doing live music for 11 years. Um, at one point we were doing two different venues. And I can tell you that as I live in the village a couple
blocks away that I have I'm the guy you want in charge of the sound. I am I'm You may have been led to believe that I have not done anything, but in actuality um since we went in, we have two people on on site when we do music so that we can constantly stay on top of it. We got
a decimeter. I gave my neighbor a decimeter so that we could get do soundcheck. We can do the decimeter that way because what's happening now and when he showed you that list there, he's called over 50 times in a row. And what I in the beginning I thought we were dealing with the noise. He doesn't want
me to exist. He doesn't want any music. Many of these nights there's like a single guitar player and he still calls the police. Not only does he call him, he'll call him three times in any given evening. And when he doesn't get the answer that he wants, he calls them back. So on the night that Kyle was talking about, they came in to me into
the restaurant to congratulate me on I was under. Came back hour later, I was under. Third time I was under. Fourth time I peaked. Okay, I peaked at 78. The limit is 75. I get sick, physically ill every day I go to work right now because
I know I'm talking to the police tonight and they've been so good. I mean, oh my god, a lot of different police have come through there and they've all been coming up with ways that we can get around my neighbors harassment. Okay, I want to get my stuff in here and I got a
lot to say. What what CC was saying about the uh fire marshall coming out, it it's two neighbors that are do but they're not just doing it on the sound. They're reporting me on every single thing that they could find to report me on. So once again, I have to go to the restaurant every day and check the front door because there's another thing from
this department, from that state agency, that agency. It's been ridiculous. And it's not about sound. It's about them wanting me to not exist. Period. So I'm spending all this money and time around $4,000 to put noise suppression on the back. Meanwhile, they're finding
wherever it's not on the property. I had been led to believe that they could not go into the middle of the property and do the read. They had to go to the corners. That's not what happened. Okay. Um I do want and the reason why I want the uh noise ordinance change back
is because that gives me the bass bump. I mean it my music is here 77 and then boom you go boom. And that's what I get caught on. The reason why the fire marshal came out is because these allegations against me have gotten to the point where someone reported the fire marshall and I believe
the police that I went in front of my restaurant and I threw fireworks at cars that were passing by. That's what brought the fire marshal in. And this has gone too far. And I know that if you look if somebody checks it, I should have brought how many times that I've dealt with the police many evenings
three or four times and I pass every time. All right. Thank you, Mr. All right. I have no other cards at this time. Um, we will close citizen comment and we'll go to I've got a couple questions. First, Mr. Ruticel,
um, with what they're talking about and this hasn't come in front of this board yet. Is there anything that we should or should not talk about today until it goes through the planning process? If there is, it's going to be asked for a change or what? Yeah. So my understanding is there is a
a pending appeal related to the current use under the current zoning, right? And so that is an issue that could potentially come before the council and is something that shouldn't be discussed. Um the in terms of the request to reszone the
area that's more of a legislative decision in nature and so that is something that is within the discretion of this council if it wanted to pursue a largecale reszone like that. Um that is something that could be discussed. The
the code enforcement that is not something that that comes to the to the council. Um those are issues that are addressed either with your law enforcement or through the special magistrate. Um but the noise ordinance is and again that's another legislative
item. So um in terms of the matters that are are fair game for the council to discuss um that would be the the overall reszone as well as the noise ordinance. So, if we were, you know, we had a lot of stuff thrown at us today that we
don't know if it's true or not true or is true on some of the different things. Um, I was the only one up here in 2017 and I remember going through that ordinance change and um, so that may be something that the reason that it started out one way then the reason that
went to 2017 and then where we are today might be a good opportunity for a workshop for Mrs. singer to do her due diligence and information and to come back. And um we've held off on a few workshops now just getting through
budget, but we're going to start having several workshops over the the next couple of months when we can get the dates all in order. So, I think would that be the probably the best direction to go and maybe, you know, she's heard what they've said. She knows where they
are and that department can come up with some sort of opportunity why, when, where, and how to get more information up here other than just shooting out anything today. Yeah, that's up to the council, but I certainly don't have an objection. I
think that's a reasonable path forward. Yes. So, any questions by the council and Mr. Shustler and I have been getting a lot of emails about this. So, absolutely. And him being new, I'm sure it's like, whoa. But, um, you know, I have I've
been copied sent, so I have not answered them. Um, because again, I'm just the copied scent, and I thought it was going to Miss Singer as well. So, um, you know, it's I think the opportunity is there to kind of address some of the things. I know there's some short-term things that will have to be dealt with
through code enforcement in the fire department, but that has to go through the process. So, Miss Barnaby, well, Mr. Perry flipped his card up first, but you can't see him. I would prefer him to speak. Well, I think he wants to talk about something else on this on this item. You want to talk about something else? Just briefly, I want to talk in a
limited fashion as well. Um, just as it relates to the the fire violations and the targeting. Um, I've been aware of this situation and I can assure you that there's no targeting going on or selective review or investigation. Uh, if I bought up the
fire safety issues that are over there right now, it would make cotton mouth not look particularly concerned about life safety issues. Um, we have to enforce the National Fire Protection Association code. That's the
building code that deals with fire safety. We've adopted it here in the city. And when you have assemblies of people in confined quarters where there's restaurants and other types of act uh costics, flammables, and the like, we can't have a situation where I
just Googled it and the AP reported on the last 16 music venue fires at nightclubs and things like that because people do die. When you talk about electrical systems, when you talk about foam, I took a quick
look at that. Foam was probably mentioned in 30% of it because it's flammable and it ejects certain deadly gases. The guy to talk to is over there about it, but I wanted to be taken seriously because the emails I've received from the fire marshal seem very
concerning to me and serious. And chief, I'll turn it over to you. Just on top of that, I mean, I I was briefed uh this morning. and I brought a copy of our report and also those are my same concerns. I think it's, you know, on a on a positive note, I think it's
great that your business is thriving. I looked you up. I mean, great reviews. I mean, awesome, you know, venue style in the back, but I think where you're at is you're you're at it such a point where you're crossing to where it should be a an assembly versus just the merkantile
and restaurant. And um that's really talking with the fire marshal where y'all are. But our concerns are exactly that. If you Google and go back and look at some of the fires, you can bring up large loss of life and all has to do with innocent actions um relating to the
the the sound deadening foams and you you throw in the word fireworks with anything that may not may not have happened. But but you know, you you you put fire and certain, you know, pieces like that together and electrical cord issues that you're already addressing. I
I already know that you're already on it. And um you know, you can have a a poor outcome quickly uh with not enough exits either and I know you're addressing that. So, you know, as far as you know, the positive steps I think the cotton mouth has taken. I think it's great already. I've already heard that
and I think we'll be close to uh you know coming up with some kind of solution for you on as far as our end you know goes for the fire safety aspect and I appreciate that. So [Music] Barnaby and then Mrs. more.
I I just wanted to thank all of the citizens that came forward to speak today and you did it in a very succinct uh you shared your opinions. You shared um information that you wanted the
council to have and you did it in a courteous and respectful fashion. And you may think, well, why is this woman saying this now? because that doesn't happen all the time. And it is really refreshing
to see that happen. And I also wanted to put just to share with you, our mayor runs a real tight ship up here. and he he goes by the policy that the council voted on
and he is very very precise on exactly how long people get to speak. And the reason for that is we were involved in a lawsuit one time and we were accused of letting some people speak forever and ever and ever and others weren't allowed to speak at all.
As long as I've been here, that's never happened. Um, but we do have new rules and new policies when it comes to public comment so that we can show if something comes up again that we can show the court, look, this is the policy and this
is what happens every time. And I I don't want you leaving here thinking that mayor is so mean and you know, I just had one more sentence and he's like saying thank you and moving on. um he's doing it to protect every taxpayer in
the city and and that's why we we have these meetings operate this way and I just wanted you to know that I think he's a nice guy. I think he runs a real tight meeting. Well, I even shut down our administrator during the beginning of it when he was going to talk during it. But
unfortunately, we've we right when I became mayor, there was a lawsuit going on and we're video evidence here. So you can go back and watch every meeting and the judge agreed with what we did to be succinct and on time trying not to be harsh but same policy that way everybody
every citizen gets fair and we're not picking winners and losers. We're trying to come up with the best for life and safety and protection of our citizens. So Miss Moore um I have to follow that up with um in my family on Wednesday mornings at our
city council uh meeting days. They know the mayor waits for no one. Everyone, it's a collective group action to get me here by 8:30. So, I do not miss the pledge and the invocation. Um, I just wanted to express support for a workshop um to address what everyone's raised. I
I don't know that I've been copied on all the emails. I don't I I don't think I have. Um, so this was I I was just learning about these requests um this morning. What I'm always hesitant to do is uh make decisions based on one particular circumstance. Uh but with all that we're
doing in that area with City Park and um and all the I think promise that the that VOD has um I think that a workshop would be wonderful so that we can really take a look at a big picture and and see what what we really what what our goals and hopes are for that area because I do think that it could really you know it
is a jewel and I think we could maybe move it forward and and make it even better. Um, along that vein, um, I lost my train of thought, but I was going to tie it with the current improvements in that area. And so I just wanted to express excitement and and looking forward to
that workshop. Great, Miss Coker. Yeah. I I also wanted to reiterate I'd like to put put this on the front burner because I the village of the arts is such a special place and really sets us apart from a lot of areas. And so I I
really hate seeing all this discourse between everybody, but I do appreciate everyone's input today. It means a lot. And uh I really doubt and really hope that we would never target anyone specifically
um because um we all want the same thing. We want to see our businesses be successful and we want people to be happy in their homes. So um I do hope we get to this. I know that um I I when I was on the DDA many years ago, the Village of the Arts was kind of just
getting started. So, uh maybe it is time to look at all of the zoning and all that. So, I I I hope we put it on the front in the forefront and uh hope we can get this resolved quickly. Miss Coachman, thank you. A lot of times I don't say anything because it's already been said,
but I do want to say ditto. The the Village of the Arts is a gem. It it has put Bradenton on the map and what was planned as far as Village of the Arts has not been completed. So, I'd
hate to see us start taking steps backwards. Um there are so many challenges right now that the village of the arts is facing and not only noise. uh there are other things that are being a little combative
to the success of some of our you know some of those small businesses and I don't know if many of you have ever heard me speak on small businesses extremely important to me extremely so I
definitely concur that we should do a workshop so that we get more facts and get a better clear understanding so that we can make a decision that would be a win-win um because we can't lose voter.
Thank you. And um one of the things make sure Mr. usually if you're new and you learning things and thrown to the fire real quick. But um we one of the things to me and and this has been important since 2013 when I got on the council and
really tried to embrace opportunity, you know, because most of us may not have that eclectic view or things of where we are. I'm more sports guy, but I love art, love doing it. I mean, obviously you see me a lot of times walking through the village, driving through the
village, being summer Santa in the village, and there's a rumor that I might be Christmas time Santa in the village this year. But um and and we love that, you know, and and it's one of the things that I think that you know what what the Annie and her group
started back 25 years ago now has an opportunity to what's next because 25 years is great, but there's some things that we haven't done right. There's some things that we need to do better. Now, we've got to look at the and I always talk about lately the four corners of
our city. What's the four corners of Village of the Art? and what can we make it better? And I say we because the city through the CRA owns probably the largest portion of property that's together and when is there opportunity?
But you know, we had some controversy not too long ago through the village that we didn't cause, but we had to to manage through it. But sometimes controversy and and and uh opportunity brings a lot of opportunity to come
together. And you know most of you know when when we talk and the ones that aren't here talk I talk to you whether you're for or against something. Um it's been very important over the years through the flooding through the different things. And the last rain we
had you know we're talking about our wastewater and storm water system. When you have two inches or four inches of rain in a very short time, our streets work there. So, the city is working for you. What's next? Can we do a little better? Absolutely. Can you do better? Absolutely. But I think the workshop
will not only bring some of that out, it'll bring out some new opportunities for the village. And and um I hope that we're all around 25 years from now to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of WOW. And that's going to be important. And I
think that's going to be important for both sides because today you guys are all on one side, but tomorrow I draw a line down the middle and you might be on the other sides of opposite things. So, but it's working together for the good of the whole. And that's where we have
an opportunity now in our eclectic village of the arts to say why come here instead of go north or south. And that's an opportunity that we have that thank you for coming. And uh I've I've learned right away, you got to be upfront and
work it. And some people are going to be happy, some aren't, but how can we make it a good mix so we can then everybody s succeeds in a good way. So that workshop will be coming quick. Um and they don't have to leave. They can stay and watch the whole meeting if they want.
If you all leave, it's only staff here and Kurt and Keith. So um that are here a lot. But anyway, um we're gonna Mr. Perry, I know you wanted to say something probably to Mr. Green's comments that that you would was that you had raised a card right when he got
done talking. I don't think Okay, that wasn't it. Well, I'll just say some to that from our and and thank both chiefs and all of the what they've done for the first responders. And I'm glad that we waited till now because Chief Kramer could even go into this more a little bit, but but the mass that we had for
first responders and and um government officials were there and more government official be there next year because sometimes we get going a lot going on and we don't realize that we might not have invited everybody accidentally. Um, but that was the largest crowd at a time
that probably was coming in, you know, right after September 11th and all what's going on with our, you know, our country. You don't have to say September 11th, what year. Everybody knows what that is. And um, you know, and this has been very well documented that we had an
officer that took his own life and his wife and kids were there. I think that was an opportunity to celebrate and and dealing with the Butterfields and and you know those young kids that I think are nine and six, eight and six that still don't even understand what's going
on. But, you know, if one of if that mass or and any other things that we do through our police department can help another officer at the moment because a lot of times, you know, we don't know what somebody's going through, but if they get that moment, it may get them to
that next step where that you don't have to go through the tragedy. So, thank you to the whole group, the church, the pastors, everyone involved in that and Mr. Green that kind of started it. Um, it really has grown to an event that we're proud to be at and you know it's a
community event and I think uh Chief Kramer and Chief Gear will agree to that agree on that and we'll just keep moving forward. So, thank you. Anything else on citizen comment? All right, we will take a five minute
recess. call the meeting back to order. We don't have the madam clerk. We don't have uh the next item is item seven, the consent agenda, and staff is requesting approval of items A through U. Councilwoman Barnaby.
Yes. Um, I would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda, but pull the items M as in money, N as in Nutella,
and O is well, I'm trying to, you know, MN, it just sounds the same. So M as in money, N is in Nutella, and O as in like, oh my gosh, this woman's nuts. Go ahead. That's my motion to move those three items, but to approve the rest. Second.
Okay, we have a motion and a second to um motion by Miss Barnaby to pull M N and O for discussion. Seconded by Miss Coker. Is there anything else? Start the vote in ward two.
Two. Yes. Three. Yes. Four. Yes. Five. Yes. One. Yes. So, it's approved five to zero. And um I know Miss Barnaby, you want to um start
talking and hopefully our administrator will walk back in. Oh, good. Sure. Coming. Um, I I ask for these items to be pulled because there keeps we keep having news stories
about the problems and challenges that we have at our storm water plant, at our wastewater plant, and and those things in general. And if you look at any of the news stories, the comments following that get posted online on Facebook, on
Next Door, on any of the media sites, uh if you if you read the comments, you're led to believe that we don't know what we're doing. We don't care and it doesn't matter because we're not doing anything.
And that's not true. Let's let's just call it what it is. That is absolutely not true. We are working on on trying to fix 40 years of neglect. We are working to make sure that we get everything out of the river well before the state
required date. We are spending money and the projects are are happening right now. the ones that we have permits for and what we are scheduling to do is happening right now and has been
happening for a while. But you know the consensus of some of our citizens is that we're not doing anything. And I started thinking about it and I'm thinking a lot of these contracts and things are done with the consent agenda
because there there's a lot of legal ease. It's a lot of verbiage. It's it's a lot of things that we all sit and read and go through, but we don't necessarily discuss it in these meetings. We may have had workshops. We may have had
conversations with the city administrator, with the public works director, with the COO, uh, but we have not done those things super public all the time. So that's why I wanted these items pulled and I asked
the city administrator to give just a few remember you're not getting paid by the word um just a few uh comments so that we have information out there that says we are doing something
and it is getting fixed. And one of the things that we can't control in this situation is how much rain falls and how fast it falls. And believe you me, if if I could control that, I definitely would.
But I can't. Neither can anybody up here. And that's one of the problems. It causes a lot of infiltration into our system. And we are working on that. But we can't stop the rain from falling, nor can we stop the amount that falls in a
short period of time, which leads to a few minutes of localized flooding and can overwhelm our system. Thank you. So, Mr. Perry, um I want a couple things first and then we'll let Mr. Perry kind of go through it. But you could have pulled several others off the agenda as well that are
wastewater, storm water. There's like five or six other contracts and things on consent, but these were the three that I thought No, that was perfect. And I think that if anybody wants to go look at it, we if we had every consent agenda item on the agenda
to discuss, we'd be here till well into the afternoon and evening. So, but consent agenda is goes through it. Um, and if you want to get anything just before we start going, I'm going to go to Miss Coker, then Miss Moore, but go to our Face It and Fix It page and you
can see everything that's happening. over a hundred million dollars in the ground kind of now. And that's everything. That's not just our our water plant that you've been seeing, our wastewater reclamation lately that we're put putting out a lot on channel ABC7,
channel 13. The newspapers are doing articles, but also um that includes the whole city that you know over the years this council has worked to approve over $200 million worth of stuff going on. And as Miss Moore always says, it's slower than we like, but it's gonna
happen. So, I got some Miss Coker and then Miss Moore and then Mr. Perry. I don't know if any of you had a chance to review it yet, but I asked Miss Melton to basically forward all of you the letter that we got from the Sarasota Bay Estuary Board yesterday, which
basically was, yay, yes. I mean really complimenting uh the city of Braon on the over 200 million being spent on and the effects that it will have on better water quality around here. So I want to make sure if you haven't had a chance I mean it's I almost wish we could read it
into the record and make it public. But honestly we I I think it was nice to get that acknowledgement from outside of the city from people that are water experts saying we're doing the right thing. So we can get Mrs. Shadic to share that. letter because it's shared on the
Sarasota Bay Estuary site for Mr. Tom Dr. Tomasco. Um, one other thing that while you since you brought that up with Dr. Tomasco and some information just so people if they're listening, we want you to listen. There was some um
quote or something said that there were possibly was um fishermen that are cast netting in the North Pomola Bay that you know were getting mullet that they were having horse poop. It's what it is in
their nets. Well, I had a a fisherman send me pictures of it and got it to the proper authorities and then Googled a couple things and it was actually manatee poop, not horse poop. So again, as Miss Barnaby just said, the
propaganda that gets out there, maybe she didn't use those words, but we just want the truth out there and we want the facts and that's what we're working on our face it and fix it and hitting it hard. So, we're going to keep doing that and and again, you know, understand sometimes people see something that they
think is one thing, but but you know, be open-minded. We are doing stuff and we have never bypassed raw sewage at our plant that I know of in my tenure. It's bypassed at a 90% processed situation
and so it just hasn't go haven't gone through the final phase, but we are facing and fixing that. Miss Moore and then Mr. Perry. Um I I wasn't going to pull any of these items, but since Councilwoman Barnaby did, I was just going to note to you all that um as Miss
Clayback has teased me about, when you start to know the numbers of the lift stations, you're technically you're officially like a complete infrastructure nerd. And seven and 14 were very much on my radar. They are not in Ward 4. Um, seven is actually in uh Councilman uh Sushler's uh ward, but I'm
very familiar with it because I lived there briefly uh after the hurricanes. And um and so I just want to express support. You know, it's not about just three and 13 all the time with me. I think that um this work is important for exactly the reason that Councilwoman
Barnaby said, which is that all the whole parts of the system, including the collection system, have to be addressed in order for all of the wonderful things that Mr. Perry is going to explain to us that's happening at the plant um for those things to all come together to
prevent any of the discharge. So, I had to look up where the other four lift stations were, but I'm happy that we're moving forward, not just three and 13. I'm happy that we're doing all of them. Look them up.
Mr. Perry, I'm going to use Elmo. I think it'd be easier for me to speak from the podium. Pictures speak 100 million 100 million 200 million words. look at poop, do we? Yeah. But if if you want to, I can get you a
tour. Well, I appreciate everybody's comments and uh they're all hit home spoton really. Um, one one of the problems is to try to do this in succinct manner and take five or six minutes because I know we have a busy agenda as we always do
and that's one of the reasons why we do put them on consent as mayor pointed out. um when you get down to the details and the minutiae of this, I speak with many of you throughout the week and and certainly before council meetings and try to brief you on what is on the agenda as well as uh things that are on are not on the agenda that deal
basically with our uh our infrastructure system as it relates to our utilities. um the three items on the agenda. I'll start with that and and particularly item 7M which is important because what this is is is it's an adaption plan for the vulnerability study that was done uh
by the city and it's required by DP for eligibility for grants. And when you talk about hundreds of millions of dollars, you have to, you know, meet certain eligibility requirements. You have to have a vulnerability plan. U that's a D requirement. Well, why would D want that? Because what the
vulnerability plan looks at is it looks at a host of things related to utility um and and the vulnerabilities and and system as it is. It looks really at sea level rise potential for that. It looks at flood plane mapping overall and then
it looks at flood plane mapping and rainfall uh modeling because that's where the INI comes from that penetrates into our utility system in wastewater. And we go from basically a six million gallon per day system that should service our 60,000 residents, our 14.4
square miles of of area, geographical area. Um, but it goes from 6 million to 30 million. So when that happens, that's where you have problems with environmental impacts. You have discharges, you have chem chemistry issues at the plant, you have collection
issues at the lift stations, and a host of other things. Flooding on the area. Station 13's a perfect example of it. It becomes submerged. Um, station 8 sometimes because they're lowlying. The city was built with basically it's an older city, so it was built with putting
its main collection points down on the river. Why would they ever do that? Because that's how waste was discharged back in the 1930s, the 1950s, and until the Clean Water Act really came around in late 1970s, early 80s, I believe. Um, that's how how cities did it. Whether
you were here in Bradon or you were doing it on the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts, and you had industrial and residential waste, it went in the waterway. And when did they start the cleanup on the Charles River in Boston? They started it. You know, I grew up there and I remember you never went
around the Charles River. My parents were born at the Charles River. They got married at the Charles River Yacht Club and it was like, "Stay away." Um they do, you know, Kemp went to school out there at Boston College and and you'd see crew, you know, they do The Crew because it's one of the biggest areas and everything and you would not go in
the water there. They started it probably around late 1970s when I was getting out of high school, frankly. And uh it was bad and and it's one of the cleanest waterways there is now uh because of them addressing
it took almost 40 years before and if you go up there now you can ride in a little ducky. Yep. The water is the water quality is there is in good shape. They said it was about 40 years and they're working to clean it. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's an interesting uh
situation similar to ours much bigger city but th this particular uh adaptability plan under item 7M and what it addresses now is the second phase. So since we did the vulnerability phase, now we're with Jacob's engineering doing
the uh adaption plan. Really what that does, it looks at the top 10 critical assets that we have and it analyzes our vulnerability. And of course, a lot of those critical assets are in both storm water, wastewater, and and and other
types of uh flood plane management types of things. And so it really what we do is we what they want to know and it makes sense. They say take a look at that vulnerable infrastructure. Tell us what you plan on doing with it and which
ones you think think gives the biggest bang for the buck because they're making a business decision on what to fund on through their grants. And so that's the the business case for going to the state and asking for financial assistance. And they require you to have a plan to do
that. Makes all the sense in the world. I'm sure they do think similar things with PD uh technology and the like you know what's the return on investment. So that's what that item is about. Um it looks at various risk risk scenarios and the most effective uh cost return
benefits that are related to the projects that has to be in place. Now specifically looking at item 7N which is the work assignment for manholes. Um this is a lining program. We have about 4,000 I think 4,200 manholes throughout
the city. Um and and and out of those 4,200 they've been assessed at which ones need to be lined. And in the water keepers agreement we have agreed to do 1,200 manholes basically. Um it was a little bit less than that and I think it
was modified in our last amendment but that's kind of in the weeds. out of the 1,200 that are required by two years from now I think 2028 um we done we've done 900 manholes so we're well on our way to the 1,200 because 900 of the
critical manholes have been relined. Uh this particular um fund funding legislation will provide additional 63 manholes. So now we'll be at 963 towards the,200 because what we have to
do is do a multitude of different things at the same time. Manholes are one one things that have to be relined. You've seen photographs of some of our manholes. They were built literally by brick and and you can see how they mortar has deteriorated. There's whole host of different types of construction
techniques that have gone over over the years, but now they're being lined. The lining on that lasts about 10 years. um in a manhole in in a pipe system, it lasts considerably longer, but the life cycle in a manhole is about 10 years. Uh when you look at the way they make
manholes now, they're basically when you do new construction, if you go out east side of the county down to 75th Street, um uh the uh the uh projects that are going down there really what they do is they're concrete engineered encasements
and they have different products and there there's a whole host of different coatings and things like that, but what we do is line them. And so that's what this is. The other thing is is the complexity of this. you you don't want just one contractor because we need to get enough contractors to keep up with
our schedule. And so we've been able to get um about four or five to do the manholes lining itself opposed to relying on a single contractor that had been done in the past because we have so much work that if we relied on one we wouldn't be
able to get it done. And so this basically is for this specific contract to line these 60 manholes. And again, we have four to five additional contractors. Um, we use them typically on a piggyback procurement, meaning they do that work in other jurisdictions. And
so, we use that contract and and our procurement section signs off that that is an acceptable procurement for these contracts that are fairly sizable. And then lastly um on that front is going to be the lining assign assignments in
pipelining for seven 70 uh and and that basically again is similar to the extent of you know we always hear about miles of how many pipes we have to line sewer pipes that's what they are basically and the lining assignments basically went up
from about 65 miles required to 75 we agreed to increase it because we looked at it and said, "We should probably line these ones, too." After the initial assessment, what we do is we go in there, we camera them, we we we clean them first, then we stick a camera down
there after they're clean, and we assess uh how vulnerable they are, whether there's cracks in it, whe you can see the penetration coming in from the the surrounding uh saturated soils and and other type situations. So now we basically in that situation we've got
about 30 plus miles line so far. So we're making headway, but that's a tricky process. Again, it requires a multitude of different contractors. Um Lance and I were we're well to hear from uh Miss Claybach that we using technical
assistance now as it relates to project managers that are going to manage uh all of the multiple contractors that are doing lining. So that when you out there on the scene and you're videoing them and you're looking at pay apps that have to be reprocessed and what are called
point repairs where where their vulnerability may lie that that that's being authorized potentially on change order or other approvals process by a project manager that's independent. We don't have that bandwidth within the city um to do it. And so that's good
news. We're building bandwidth and and that's what these projects are about. But, you know, I'm talking about out in in in in our collection system and and our storm pipes and list stations and the like. All of that causes problems to what's on this screen before you and and
that all collection stuff is is probably it's hard to say probably so far we've invested I want to say 60 70 million into it in that part alone. Not not the treatment. And now we get to treatment and because that's
everything comes into the treatment plan that's before you. This is something the mayor's been out there and and and a lot of counselors have been trying to uh advise me and and advocate for let the public know because the public doesn't, you know, know really what goes on
behind the fence. And it's interesting with the public um to the extent of it's kind of like the police. A judge told me, a federal judge told me one time, he goes, "Rob, you know what I've come to realize is that when you have someone that you're sitting next to, little old lady on the plane, and she goes, "Yeah,
well, I, you know, live in this city, too, and and I've watched the news and everything, and I'm concerned about this current event dealing with the police there." People are always willing to tell the police how to do their job, that the judge said, "But I've never heard anybody look at him and tell him how to put out a fire."
And it's true. It's absolutely true. I don't know why that is. And so I I I I anal I analogize that to this situation. People see the news, they talk about it on social media and they say, "And why can't you fix this problem?"
You know, if I would do this, I would do that. This problem is 40 years in the making. It's incredibly complex. It involves engineering. It involves environment. It involves chemistry. It involves hundreds of millions of dollars. And so it's hard to fix in four
four months or four years something that took 40 years to develop. When we look at this plant, let's take a look at what's happening. What the city has approved through our council very generously, very pretty studiously, very thoughtfully. This shows a series of
different improvements. I want to start on the lower right side of this where the equalization tank is. It's temporary equalization tank. We would ultimately put a permanent equalization tank. What that will do is it will allow the oxidation which is the first phase of
treatment when the water comes into our plant from the collection system and come comes in and it's where what's called an activated sludge mix liquor plant begins because that's where you activate the sludge. That is raw sor
that comes in through the plant. It hits that oxidation chamber that where the four semiircles are right next uh it's kind of on the right lower side. And really what that area on the far right lower section will do is it'll provide
us about 3 million gallons additionally in being able to take waters that come in in high flow times and manage them because there has to be a certain amount of contact time in that first phase. That's where we introduce what's called microbiology
bugs. That's the activated sludge. We hit it with oxidation so it energizes the molecules and it operates faster, but it still has to have contact time before it goes to the next phase which is solid separation and clarification.
So by having that temporary equalization chamber, $1.7 million, it will allow us to manage that. Now, if we get 30 million gallons a day, it's still probably going to be overwhelming. But I want to move on to the next phase with a significant investment, too, which is
the clarification stage. You see those round cylinders basically, and right now we have three of them with the the upper middle section being the new clarifier 4. Clarifier 4 is about a $17 million project. It's taken us about four years
because we had to get a D permit. Yep. And and more. Yeah. and and and then after the D permit, we had to go through engineering, procurement, and ultimately about two and a half years of construction with a hurricane season thrown in there. It's a 3 milliong tank. It's larger than all three other tanks.
The way all three of those tanks can fit inside, get into it. Yes, sir. And so what that does is it separates the solids because the activation is starting to happen. The solids are much more susceptible to separation. They've been softened. They've been chemically broken down and
the like. And basically then they go to this section right here which are these two tanks. They're called digesttors. And they take the solids and they move them over to a separation area where we have a solid. We use a belt press over here because the uh screw presses that
are in this area were not functioning. They weren't serviced properly quite frankly. What that does is it takes the solids and it compacts them. It's what's called dewwateraters them. And it has to be dewatered to a certain percentage. if you want about a 15% no higher than 15%
moisture content in it and then Senagrove hazardous waste uh disposal company takes those to their plant where they have a D permit to handle them and they sell it as fertilizer. That's the solids that come out of the wastewater.
Ultimately uh the plant then moves through the what's called tertiary treatment which is disinfection. That's where we basically chemically take out any bacterial components of of the water and balance the chemistry of it to be
finished. Um, we take it there. We use a chlorination system. There's anti- activins that because when you chlorinate certain levels go too high and you have to bring them back into balance. And at that point there's two options to what to do with the water that's disposed of. Some of it can go
back into the river a certain volume on the D permit. But what we try to do is on this section over here, that's where we basically run uh reclaim water and we sell it to uh Lakewood Ranch BDR about 2 million gallons a day. They're they're
interested in buying more. It's good. We also water um Lecom Tropicana and there's a couple golf course. And the golf course. Yep. And that type of thing. sometimes during high rain seasons at the end of the summer um they didn't want that much water but now
we're working with them and wooden and current is doing a really good job of a relationship building with BDR to try to basically say we think we can provide you more water because we'd rather put it towards what's called beneficial use and so we have a multitude of additional
projects going on but these projects in and of themselves are probably close to when you add everything up 67 70 million dollars. And we're really probably looking at now when you add the collection dollars, you add this, that's a hund00 million that that we're in the
poker game for. Quite frankly, that's the Annie that we put in so far. Um, we'll continue to go up, I would think, another$1red 150, frankly, and be probably north of 200 before we slay this dragon. and in order to slay this dragon and rebuild the city, I think you
all should be proud that that four, five, six years and ultimately maybe longer. When you look back on the task before you as leaders, the task before us as team staff and if we're able to get that done, you've done Yayman's work because you protected the environment.
And I want to talk about the last issue with in protecting the environment, this injection well. So, by Florida law, state law, we're required, everyone is, to be out of the navigable waterways. You can't get a D permit after 2032 anymore. It doesn't matter about the
water quality or that situation. And so, what are you going to do with it? They want you to inject it into the ground. We have a plan to basically, we drilled, I think, I think it was 1,800 feet below level, and it took us quite some time to drill it, but I got photographs of the the the what's called a wellhead. It's
just like an oil well when they drill for oil. They cap it at the top with a big fixture. And what we're doing now is we've completed that. That that that'll be a total project cost of I think about 12 million million. This is showing about 5.2. But that's just in building
I'm sorry, drilling the wall the well. Now what we have to do is basically put aperture on the top and then put test wells out there to see the impact of the what what that water is doing down below in the aquifer. And you hear people say, "Well, why would you put waste water in
the aquifer?" We're not putting it into the drinking water aquifer. We're putting into the subsurface below that. There's the vellum aquifer and then there's other aquifers. The reason why is because that protects the drinking water uh aquifer. And it's that all the
penetration and sea rise and things like that, it creates pre equal equalization of pressure underground at at hundreds and thousands of feet. And so that's why they want that water down there. Um, we're not putting waste water in there. We're putting reclaimed pipe
licensed water that has to meet regulatory requirements that you can actually drink. Yep. But nobody wants to Nobody would. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's I was out in California a couple times when I was my last jurisdiction and we actually did drink it. And California's
water supply system is so bad that they basically have a deal where if we put it back in the drinking water, people don't look at it the same way into the aquifer below ground. And that's actually what they do with some plants. And it is they use a reverse osmosis and other types of
advanced technologies for that. But you wouldn't know the difference. Yeah. And it meets all the chemical standards. So that's kind of a short version on that. And I just want to wrap up. Leave leave that on there for one second, Mr. Per, if you don't mind. So, yeah. No, there I just want to say a
couple things about it. Um that the last few days I've been giving tours to media. Um the equalization tank will probably be one of the biggest things and that should be open hopefully sometime October, November. October. Yep. Then you look at our clarifier, fourth clarifier by the end of the year, we
hope with everything going on with the parts right now. You see how clean the water is in it. They're doing a seal test where they put the water in it to make sure it doesn't leak. and they had to do that for so long. The injection well probably about 12 to 18 months
because of the testing to make sure that it's working correctly. The well took close to two years to get down to the 1600 plus feet and but now we're so when people say you know it's disingenuous on people's part and some other maybe
misinformed because you know when we use terminology the media will say spill. Well, we're not spilling anything. we're bypassing. And once we talk to them and give them all this tour, every one of the four people I've talked to so far, three or four um is they're like, "Wow,
they can't believe what we've already done." And now again, we're getting we're a month or two away from one, couple months from another that have taken years to get done. And then, you know, really being able to manage a plant. And just looking at this picture
just below the the fourth clarifier, those two solid sludge. I mean, we've been up on top looking down at that. And uh sometimes you just want to know what's happening. You don't want to see it. But that looks like our sunglasses there.
So, let's full uh freeze in. But um the disc filter is something that is going to help us from you know cleaning filters of the other time. But underneath that disc filter is the headway that comes in and that's
something that if you really want to get what's coming in from the residence that comes in from our collection system into that headway. That's the first area that the water comes in and the biggest solids are removed. What was amazing yesterday when I was looking at it with
the media is there is thousands of wet wipes that look like that was the most in there and some towels and mop heads and other things. So, we've got to blast out to the public, too. And Kim Quison from CH uh Fox 13 wants to do another
story about that. That's a great story because we got to tell people stop. This is what's going to overwhelm or block the system and all of that. So, you know, and and we purposely started there so the media could see here's where it comes in and obviously you can
understand the odor that's there and then how it goes through the plant, right? And the ox ditch, you know, is really cool to see. And and when I say cool, just how it works and how we are doing things. And this clarifier, none of the other three clarifiers are going to go
offline, but if we do need to take one down for maintenance, now we have opportunity. That's correct. with the belt, uh, the disc filter, we're going to be able to fix some of our other filters. People don't realize some of those filters are $10 million. And you've gota, you know, I never
thought getting into this job that I would be an expert in wastewater 101. And that's our new terminology, wastewater 101. And there's going to be a few people that I'm going to reach out to that have criticized us on Facebook that I know. And well, yes, we are doing
stuff. So, we're not trying to to prove anybody wrong. We're just trying to say here's what we're doing. And when I met with the Channel 7 the other day and out there, she called at 3:00. We met her the next morning at 11 and I said to her, I said, "You see behind you this
clarifier, this equalizer tank, all this other stuff going on. There's no way we started it yesterday after you called." And she was like, "Wow." And you know, so for the customer out there, the citizen, the community, we are doing things. Um, I know one other thing I'll
say just to get is to the parish community, our waste water is never spilled to affect your drinking water, but we're not spilling raw sewage as we saw on the parish connector the other day. And it's a boil water notice because the city of
Bradenton spilled 1.7 million gallons of raw sewage. That's just not true. Completely uninformed. There's Right. And I mean, so you you we've decided that we are going to go on and do some educational things, not to to debate with people, but here's what we
are doing. But that's how far it went the other day all the way out to the parish connector. And it talked about the Hillsboro River and all that stuff. It's like, well, that has nothing to do with us. But again, the comments are, "Oh, it's terrible. Bradenton's bad." And we just we we're trying to get the correct information out. And it's not
defensive information. It's fact. So, Miss Coker, you had something before Mr. Mr. Barry moved on. Yeah, I I uh I mean obviously I've heard a lot of this already a couple of times and realize how much we've uh put towards this and we're facing and fixing
and I would love for us and I just feel like I have to beat my drum that I've been beating for a couple years to get a little bit more forward looking and really try to increase the reclaimed water and you know figure out a way to
get people off of using portable water to sprinkle their yards. I mean, I I know I just I have to beat my drone. That's all. It's actually a great plan. You know, unfortunately, we got to deal with dirty water right now. Yeah. And and and but at the same time, we have to be mindful
of that because the beneficial use of it is has tremendous return both financially as well as uh environmentally, right? Makes all the sense in the world. I I just want to Miss Barnaby had something. Oh, I'm sorry. Don't leave. She started all this. I I'm
laughing because you're talking about the uh up in Boston and I'm old enough that I remember the song by the Standells in 1965 called Dirty Water. Yeah. Um if you haven't heard it after every Boston Red Sox Park.
Absolutely. Um, just a couple of things because of of some of the comments in the in the social media and after the media reports online where they're talking about all the development that the city is doing. They don't realize
you can have a Braden address and you are not in the city limits of Bradenton. You know, all of the the apartments that are going up south of the red barn near Robins Apartments, that's the county. We're not doing that. Anything on State Road 70, that's the county. We are not
doing it. We have our almost 15 square miles of of city limits and that's what we're responsible for with the 58,000 residents. That's it. If you're thinking that the city is doing building out past the interstate, you're absolutely wrong.
And you need to realize again, you can have a brain address, but you're not in the city limits. you're not a taxpayer and you're not a customer of this service. Um I'm really happy how many times we brought out it's not raw sewage. It's not raw sewage going out
there. Um the other thing is we are facing it and we are fixing it. And if people are thinking that we're only doing this because of the waterkeeper lawsuit, we couldn't have gotten the permits in time since the lawsuit to do exactly what you see on the screen
there. We started working on those permits before I I mean, this was one of the first things I was told about when I came back in 2020, that we had started working on those permits well before waterkeepers ever showed up. I don't think people understand how long it
takes to go through the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Natural Resources and what other hoop you have to jump through to get permits for a wastewater treatment plant. So, I just again there's a lot of
misinformation out there. I think the vast majority of it is people that just don't know. And to those people that are not telling the truth to suit their agenda, I wish their mothers had raised
them better. Thank you, Mr. Perry. Just real quickly, um I want to point out something was talking about the headworks which This this disc filter is what he's referring to. And there's bar screens up there. If you climb up in the catwalk, that's is the first point where
the debris is separated and this augers basically like a rake raking it clean out of the water. But but another important part to point out is down in this area right here. That is where the the valve is basically for um the dis a discharge. And so when
you think about it, what to to to to fashion the point and illustrate it that this is 90% treated water. This water has to come in from here, go through this, go through this, go through this, go through this, come back this way, and the only thing it misses is a section
down here. Basically, that's where the valve is. And when there's that high flow that will foul the rest of the plant, somebody has to walk out to here and turn that valve about I think 30 times and big yellow valve. Yep. And it says Yeah. You know,
discharge basically. So you can just see that that's at the end of the trail. And remember that water might have started down in Village Green. It might have started down at Walmart. it might have started from the far east side and it made its way to the treatment plant. So,
so I wanted to cover that real quick. And uh I also want to talk a little bit about real quick um what councelor Barnaby was talking about and you know this this clarifier was in works before I got here four four almost four and a half months ago. Um
years. I'm sorry. Years. I know it's so much fun. It just feels like four months, right? Months. But but but but it was because we had to do the engineering for it back then. That's what Chim Mlen, Kim Clay back in that group was done doing. So what we've been doing is trying to manage I mean we're
talking about a a very very robust CIP plan and we're trying to manage that and and really you have to look at the phases about where the projects are and if you look at a project like that clarifier there was basically someone
that said we've got to do something about the plant increase volume capacity do a better job with our solid separation the like let's call Jones and Edmonds and have them do a full plant assessment to determine just like this piece of legislation is where is the biggest bang for the buck. They said the clarifier was that at that time
ultimately at that point then you've got to look at well how would I finance that and what type of permits would I need and that permitting process is as mayor pointed out multiple years. So is the SRF funding process I was involved in that and obtaining the funding from SRF. I can personally say that that took the
better part of two two and a half years to do because that the three things we're doing that well the collection system out there on the lining and the clarifier all contained in one $48 million SRF package that went through after you get the SRF package but well after you get the the permit then you've
got to look at okay do I have the funding and you know in that case we did the SRF and you're doing two things at once but then you have to basically fully design it because usually you at that point you'd be through PTE which is preliminary ary design and engineering. I don't think the little lady on the plane understands that or the person up
in parish after you do the PTE basically then you got to basically go back get a permit for the design work that's been done fully put it out in the street and get a contractor in this case what we did for that clarifier is we did put it out in the street estimated cost at the time in 2021 for that clarifier when I
started I believe was about 8 to9 million we thought it would cost us the bids came in the lowest bid at that time three of them heavy civil construction type utility contractors bids came in lowest one was $14 million. We said, "Well, that's way out of line, right?" Cuz we expected to be 89 million. What
ended up happening was we took another six months, put it out in the street, got the bids back in. Next bid we got, lowest one was 16 million. So you you and then you have to build it and that's a two-year process. And then you have to test it and and and then you have to, you know, look at all the aspects about
the the project closeout and the warranty work and the connectivity and the like. So when you look at projects like that, a life cycle of four to six years is is probably pretty reasonable, even though it would strike most people out on that airplane that's telling you,
well, why can't you fix it as tremendously uh prolonged and everything and what we're trying to do is do a multitude of different projects that are on these spreadsheets. We know everybody can't read the spreadsheet, but it's just it's just the information that it's
that's there and we're working many many many projects. Yeah. Yeah. And and the various redundancy processes, you know, we have grant tracker on this spreadsheet and uh Giddens has been helping us with that. Um our people over at Solid Waste have been doing a great deal. Uh David
Lindseay and some of the folks over there have been doing great work. We have a multitude um wood and car and fiscal solutions of applications in for upwards of $200 million in various areas um and grants. Yeah. For for different grants and things of that nature. And so you've got
a lot of things that are moving parts simultaneously to put together um a a functional and and executable CIP plan. And you have to have the bandwidth to do it. And we're building that over at with
our team at public works. And you guys know what a CIP plan is for. That's going to be capital improvement plan. None of this talks about us building police stations or city park or or or the public works facility or anything else. I mean, we got that going on in vertical construction. This is
entirely horizontal underground utility. And we just, you know, from what I've learned when I come here, the city didn't have to do that much in that regard previously. So we're going through a transformation and we're growing up a lot in that regard and it's
great to have your all support in doing that. You ask tough questions. We try to provide the most uh full and complete answers and sometimes we we we have a lot of information and sometimes it's good to go back and take that question and get more. Um but we're we're in this thing for the long run and and we're
making progress. It's just it's a slog and sometimes it feels like it's, you know, one step forward and two steps back. But but I guarantee you when you go out to that plant or I can take you out to those projects or that little lady that wanted to know that I sat next to on the plane and said, "Well, I'll take you out tomorrow, you know, when you get we get back on Monday." She's
going to go. I didn't know it was like this. One step forward, three hurricanes back in some cases. Yeah. last year. Miss Moore, um I I know we've talked about this before, but I think that it would be beneficial for us to have that information like the the spreadsheet
that is way too tiny for my eyes to read on the Elmo. Um but and I and I don't know the appropriate intervals, but I think it would help us to know, right? I'm trying to put together something. I think this is probably way too granular, okay? But I have other things that I am trying to put together
and Irv in the back of the room has been putting some good great effort towards that too because I do want you to have data points that are digestible. I would like that. I I think that we I mean we've talked about that a little bit but what happens now is that if I have if I get questions I have to turn
around and you know take time and I think it would be helpful if we could just fire off. Well, the department used to put out the the the quarterly newsletter to you all and uh and we kind of moved away from that and it didn't have in my opinion it was fairly light on on information. Um we show you a
picture or two or something like that. I'm going to try to show you a more thoughtful way that we're approaching it. Right. Yep. This picture here that you had up, Mr. Perry. Yes, sir. With the the topical view um was done last week. It's already outdated. It's moving that quick because by the
end of next week, you're going to see the equalization tank have walls because walls are only going to be about five, six feet tall, but it's he's they've already started putting the the corner braces in and everything yesterday or I thought day before yesterday. Um, so
anyway, Miss Barneby, do you have a motion? Yes, I do. I would like to move for approval of item N, which is the uh Department of Environmental Protection Plan. I would like to have uh approval of item N which is talking about manhole
lining at six lift stations and item O which is the pipelining at a lift station. Second. All right. I have a motion to approve M N and O by Miss Barnaby and a second by Miss Coker. A lot of discussion. We'll start the vote. W three.
Yes. Four. Yes. Five. Yes. One. Yes. Two. Yes. carries five to zero. Thank you and great explanation. All right, moving on. Madame clerk, item 9A is the emergency procurement report.
Mr. Perry, I don't believe we have any items. We do. It's always on there. You did. Four new ones. I don't have him in my package. We could come back to that. Mayor. All right, let's let's move on to B 9B.
I Mr. Rudicel, Miss Perry, Miss Briefly, if I could take a this this front end on this and then turn it over to Mr. Ruticell. Um, so this piece of legislation was on this this this new business and we were going to ask for a resolution. Um, but we're kind of trying to work through that a little bit. I
think the best thing I can do at this point is just give you a little bit of an overview on what that uh this this item is. And so the short version is that Iron Ironwood um had come to us um back in quite some time ago. I'd say probably about four years ago and asked
us to consider taking over their water distribution system. I was actually the councilman that started that. Oh, was it seven? It was that long ago. Yeah. Yep. Um I kind of remember when I got involved. Yep. And and so at that point we looked at the possibility of doing
that. We said as we have in the past taken over any private system uh you would have to meet our specifications and standards from an engineering perspective and we would have to do an assessment uh condition assessment and take a look at PTE some preliminary design things of that nature get an
estimate engineers probable cost and we basically engaged Jones Edmonds to do that. We put together a reimbursement agreement with Ironwood who told us that they would pay for those costs, those preliminary costs and ultimately um we
also had to speak with a um special assessment specialty attorney expert that Mr. Rutell kind of engaged with us um and brought her on board and we looked at the possibility. The short version is is that when you do these
types of projects, the the the assessment area, the city can levy an assessment. Um, commonly like in in areas where you would have a septic system and then the city would say, "Well, we have to go to sanitary sore, so we're putting collection on out the front of the yard and you know, we're
going to go to a sanitary sore and you've got to hook up." You can levy a special assessment um with a a board vote basically. Um and the special assessment is has to be for infrastructure. That's typically how they're used. We used we did the LPPA
with the local provider assistance act. I think is a special assessment. It's a little bit different but but traditionally they're used for infrastructure and that's what is contemplated. However, you wouldn't want to really put a special assessment to do a remodel type
project, a rebuild project, unless that specific assessment area was willing to do that because we don't want to force it on on a community because it is cost. We have done the engineering. We've gotten the the hard costs on what the
construction of the project would be. We've done some fiscal analysis as far as how much we would have to assess how we would finance it for the repayment of that money and we're prepared to move forward. Um, and going back to the associations of the I think there's 15
communities out there, HOAs and a master association. And we're going to try to find a mechanism to go back to those folks and say you need to speak with your membership and that membership is going to have to approve doing this because you will be taking on an
assessment that we estimate to be $500 to $600 a year for a period of either 15 or 20 years. And if you want to redo your system, that's how much it would cost as an assessment. From what I understand, the condition of the existing system is is in pretty rough
shape. Well, Mr. Perry, as a new resident in Ironwood, and I'm saying that facitiously, but why would I have to pay for water system that the city should be giving me? Because it was initially done as a private system.
Well, see, and that's that's probably the biggest thing we need to get out. It was built in the 70s as a private system. That system worked for a lot of years. Now it's aging out. When I met with the president and the vice president of the master association,
they understood it. Two two very Fortune 500 company presidents over the years. and and um the reason this has taken so long I think is because every time they get somebody new in on a board of the 10
or I think it's I thought it was 10 different boards that then have each president is on the master board but and people are still seeing me that well why do we have to pay for water you're supposed to be giving us well it's your private system so your system has to be updated and they can't find anybody
that's willing to work with them so we're the last resort because no no company wants to go in and build their private system. So we will build the system and then we will own the system but the taxpayers of the city of Bradenton corner to corner shouldn't
have to pay to upgrade to a private system. If we take over a road it has to be up to the specs of the city. Just because now it's in a deteriorating situation doesn't mean then you can give it to the city to now maintain it at the
cost to every taxpayer. And I think this is going to be one of the things that if we've all been on HOA boards or around them or seen it, um that people will understand today, but those neighborhoods probably have a five to seven to eight year turnover. So, right
when we turn that over and we do it and all of a sudden I get my tax bill and there's a $600 assessment, I'm going to say, "Well, why did I why do I have this assessment?" We have to make sure that whether it's for 15 or 20 years that
everybody that buys a house in there has the explanation of what the city now tax me for something that they should have gave me anyway. um that we have to understand because whoever's here in 5 to 7 to 10 years is going to get those phone calls that those the building nine
is going to wonder why we're paying it because the president said it was for water that we should have had and they don't even know what's going on. So that's why we want to discuss it and you know figure out what's the best memorialization of it. Mr. Ruticell, you
have any better thoughts than that? No, I I think that's right. I mean it's uh you know in looking at some other jurisdictions around here a lot of them have actual programs set up in their ordinances whereby people can come
forward and ask to have a special assessment imposed for different it's either lighting or a lot of times it's you know lighting for a neighborhood or something like that and they require a certain percentage of the property owners to sign up for it. Um, so that's
one of the things we've looked at and and had some initial discussions with Ironwood about. Um, and ultimately that's that's kind of what we're looking for from the council is what kind of buyin do you want from Ironwood before the city agrees to move forward with the assessment process.
When you say that, can we put something in there of when a new resident moves in, they get their HOA or their management company has to give them an explanation of what this assessment is. Well, that's they have to do that. Yeah, they have to do that under
disclosure laws, I'm pretty sure. But what I'm saying, it's not happening. And we've got people in with River Dance that don't think they should be paying $300 a month for the rest of their lives because the property is leased and it's
a special assessment. And every year it comes up that they want to take it off even though they've lived there. And you know, yeah, they're supposed to be giving it, but is there something that there can be a box somewhere that the they're disclosing that because, you know, 10 years from now, it's not
happening. I I will say, I mean, if if you're saying this goes back that many years for someone to not know about it now, I mean, you could go back on it has to be disclosed. I mean, there are disclosure requirements. Citizens don't believe that they should
be paying for water. Well, they and their system. They think the city should well the HOA should be disclosing to them that it's a private system and you know they can't there's there's what should happen and then there's reality but legally they can go back on the
previous owner for not disclosing it but how many people do that like this I mean I'm not I'm not a real estate lawyer but well and if I may um when we when we buy and sell in those planned unit developments um part of what we do at
settlement is prorate these type of assessments. I would liken it to and please correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Russo, because the the accepting of it now is a little bit different than maybe what I have had experience with you doing it now, acquiring it now versus just when a developer is building their
new development initially. Um, I'm in my head I'm likening it to like a CDD or or you know, a tool that a developer uses to build out their infrastructure, but they don't absorb that cost. the homeowners do so over time on their tax
bill. This sounds very similar and I would expect a closing of a per, you know, a home in that area to have to prorrate those assessments. So they're at the closing table, you're being told this is a water system, a special assess a special assessment of some kind from
your HOA and you're paying for the portion of the year that you own the property and the other person's paying the portion that they own the property. So they'll at least have that conversation, I would think. Well, except that this would be an assessment from the city. So, it's going on their tax bill, right?
And it's going to show up as a separate line item assessment, right? All the special taxing authorities, you know, your storm and it depends on where you are, but you know, you get the gist. Um, well, I know that when Longboat did the um when they buried all all of that,
they ran that was on their tax bill and it was, you know, a lot of a lot of sellers would choose to pay it, you know, to enhance that. I think where I where I've had the biggest issue with that is some of these CDDs,
they they don't pay in a rears. That's where we need to make sure we're clarifying on how that's all going to be because that that to me is an again I just want information. So because you pay your property taxes in a rears
and then the CDD is not and that's where it gets really hard with the prorations. So I don't know how y'all y'all can figure that one out but that's where I've had issues. Well, and and in in these this neighborhood, it probably has
a shorter turnover than actually individual homes because people live there for a shorter time. Um, and that's where there is nobody there that I talked to seven years ago that because we went I went to meetings, I went talked to them and they were
like, why isn't the city fixing this? And and one of the questions I think is going to come up, we can, you know, kind of control. Do we want 75% of the homeowners in that building in that HOA? Because it's basically each building is an HOA. It's been a
nightmare with the fire now that their fire sprinklers are aging out and doing that. That was the first thing I got on in 2013. And you know, they think the city should fix their fire stacks. and you know it's not but they've had to replace stacks. Well, each homeowner had
to be assessed the portion of what it was and so it has been an ongoing thing now that it's aging out. Their whole infrastructure is aging out. The city has done for years help them because no plumbers will come in and fix their system. So when there was leaks and
there was problems, the city was working with them as a good inind help you get it because your water's flowing and we're losing millions of gallons. So no good deed goes unpunished when you deal with things and you're trying to I'm trying to mitigate this for something we probably will never deal with. You know,
even though the people might be mad right at the moment, some of them, but do we want to say that a super majority has to approve it in your building? I I think we should make it easier for them to get this project to go forward rather than make it more difficult for
the 49% that are against it. Well, but we want buy in from them. And if you have to get, you know, I've been president of HOAs and if you don't get buy in and you just get 50 plus one,
trouble, too. So, is it Merit? I think that's probably what we're going to talk about. And I really think it probably be good to bring down the association folks to engage in that because I think they're going to talk about some obstacles. I mean, ideally, I think you'd like to get 100% of the buy in, but as we know, sometimes it's a little
difficult. And I think the the uh I think the executive director of the association, is that what Molly is? She she is one of the prop she's the property manager that works with most of the HOAs over there. Okay. Yep.
So, again, I'm going to I'm going to want more buyin than not because we will get blasted for this. And are we willing to basically 50% of them are going to like it and 50% aren't aren't. And you know I never talk about
what's election time or whatever but we will get blasted if we don't get more of a buy in. And I put the reason I say that because I put it on the HOA not the management company. I put it on the president and the board of the HOA of those 90 units. If they can't get a
supermajority to buy in, then we're looking at a Surfside situation. That's what I would. And you know, because the Surfside situation, the research I've done on that is they could not get buy in to fix their problem and they just kept kicking it down the road to the
next HOA. And I'm not I I feel terrible even saying Surfside because people lost their lives. But if they would have done what they would have done, their board would have fixed that. Surfside would have never happened. And that's what I'm talking about. And that's why I'm saying I hate to make
it harder for them to for the board to get the the the project to go because if they don't do it, then what do they have? Right. Well, but they have to to be able to manage through. And I and I think we'll get I think we'll get blamed either way.
I agree with that. I do, you know, but but again, I think there's got to be a little bit of a, you know, twothirds or something, you know, and I mean 50 plus one wins anything, but when you win when when you win something nine to eight, are you really a unified
group and sometimes you have to rethink it and I won something at the Boys and Girls Club when um 10 to nine one time, but when we walked out of that room, we lost. Three weeks later, we did another vote and it was 19 to1 because you have to be able to explain to people what's
the good of the whole. And I always look back on that and that's very minimal compared to this. But when you're talking about some places are probably 75 to 90 units. If they can't if they're if they're president and their board isn't willing to work the association,
then why are we trying to to bail them out? because we are bailing them out because they cannot find a plumber to do it because of this exact reason we're talking about. There's a couple when we had the meeting a few discussions came up and
one of the things is I I I I completely understand you're looking for something of a mandate so that and it makes sense because it's like look we don't want to impose something on you even though we think you probably need it. Um and but and it's on you
ultimately as the property owner to tell us that you're okay with it. But the question becomes there's 647 units over there. And so do you do a unit by unit type requirement aside from you don't have to do an election. You could do a certification or agreement
whatever it is. Or do you do it per building? And I was told by Molly this morning there's 15 buildings. I had heard there was 18. You had heard there was 10 and everything. I don't really know what that number is. Well, but some of the two buildings might be one HOA, right? Right. Yeah, that that's probably what's going on. But, uh, that'll be a
policy decision that you all have to make. And I don't know if you were able to get, um, out of the out of the 15 if you were able to get twothirds, which is basically 10 of the 15 if that would be enough or you felt comfortable with 75% or you want everybody to vote. But one thing I will tell you about is you have
to go to every uh, owner. Molly indicated that she didn't think that was a viable approach because and and there is problems. I mean, I live in an HOA and I think many of us have or do, right? And there's a great deal of apathy and the seasonality and and
things of that nature. Um, and so, you know, you you probably I think in my HOA, you can't even get half the people to vote yes or no on anything. Well, you have to in in uh in the year- end meeting,
but but but what it is is it's half the people that vote you need the 50% from. That's not most of them are really Yeah. In in Highland Lakes when I lived there, there was 123 homes and we had to have uh 62
to have a a a yearly annual meeting. Yeah. And then and if you wanted to change anything in the docks, you had to have more than 75%. So you had to work it. You had to go to people and you had to get the votes because the apathy is there. And that was one of the things
that I was proud of when I became president. We ended up getting up to 79. They were only getting 62 just to make so we could have an annual meeting the last year we had 79. So even though that out ofund whatever and the docks
here at at River Dance we just changed the docks. Here's another scenario. So, they had a deal where they could have lowered the HOA where I'm at by, I think, agreeing to some kind of reserve deal, and most people would like to lower their their HOA payment, particularly where it's sizable. It failed because they couldn't get 50%
of the vote. And it was probably similar to what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, that's a whole different deal about This is exactly why I wanted this discussion because here we turn around and we're trying to do the good guy and then all of a sudden 50 plus percent of the people are mad at us. and and I and
personally if if you're willing to take it as a president or a board member and there's you know and because you said 15 buildings 600 people that averages out to about 70 per building maybe or not even that 40 per building. So that's I
think that's where we got to get this done. Yeah. But I want the president's I want somebody representing each HOA and the master board to come here and talk to us because then we have it and we can always say I think that's a good approach when we're getting blasted in two years.
we can come on here's the video because we try to do this and I know I'm getting down granular on this but I think this is something pretty huge because you're talking about,000 1,200 people that you know and if you got 600 mAD then we didn't do a good job
at our job of getting it out to them and I've been dealing this with this and that's what the two the two gentlemen I dealt with the president and vice president of the master board said this is going to be difficult and neither one of them there are there anymore more they moved or they but they were like um
you know this is going to be difficult and it took it took this long to even come to us now. Um may I we know how hard it is with 170 to get some consensus. So and we're going to pay for it.
Um I if I may I wanted to just clarify that this isn't us doing it is unless I'm under misunderstanding some element of of us being involved. Well, no. I mean, they're doing it. Their association is making the choice to upgrade their system um or to take care
of their aging infrastructure that they are responsible for in their in their development. Um the fact that we're involved in it in some way, they're levying the the city's levy under the levy authority. Yeah. The So, we're going to be the CDD. They're going to turn over their
infrastructure to the city, pay for it to get it up to standards, right, before we take it over. Okay, because that's the requirements. If you want to give us your road and your road is a single dirt lane, we're not going to take it. Now, if you pave it to the city standards,
then give it to us, but you've paid to do it. Well, we would take over their system if they would pay to do it. But they cannot find for this exact reason because no development company that does this wants to deal with 10 HOAs
and all the money. And so we because the system is failing and we're getting blamed for it anyway. So at that point we were they came to us and I was like I don't know. And I got Jim involved and Jim was like Jim goes we're having to fix things. They had a pipe break and they couldn't figure out why their lake
was so full because they have a mass they only have one meter for all the buildings. So they pay a master they have a master account. They pay the account and then they divide it up amongst the buildings. Well, a lot of their people are mad that only live there two months a year because they're
still paying for just as much water as anybody else. So, this will individual lead meters to buildings. It'll it actually will be a good thing when it's done. It's just making sure that we don't hear it. We don't have 15 people coming in every meeting and from there when they move in and say, "Why are you doing this?"
And that happens. We had that not too long ago come in here. Somebody came in and said, "Why are we charging for this?" when it really in reality it's because of this type of situation. I think I misunderstood. I thought they were doing a a development an HOA special assessment
and that we were going to get reimbursed from them for that. Okay. Well, we got to be covered. It's a special assessment tax levy. Okay. And they've asked us to take on the responsibility of doing it through the master board with the other HOAs. I think we need a lot more information.
How many people are in each building? What buildings? Um, I don't know if this would then made me think of it with all the issues we had early on with the fire stuff. Is this going to affect the fire suppression in the buildings when now you have separate lines and hooking into
those and we know that most of those lines that go up those buildings because the one building that first came out they did they couldn't replace their line in the building because of where it was. So they had to put it on the outside and they didn't want it on the outside because it looked ugly, but they couldn't you know that was many
years ago and I don't you weren't chief then but Well, I think you know I've been around long enough to be well aware of the issues over there and I you know I don't have a lot to add other than we'd have to keep an eye on the permitting and the construction plans and I know we've been involved through the whole discussion
you know with public works on you know on an ongoing plan for them. So I just have to we just have to see what the new proposal would be and and uh make sure everything's appropriate and up to code. So moving right now you're going to bring back more information to us. It
was a little update and a lot of update but I think it's the first time the whole council has heard this and I think we're going to bring the master association and maybe you know some of the other and ask for each president from each HOA. That's probably a good idea too. And if there's 10 HOAs, we want a representative from each HOA. Yep. Because we know that management
companies do things when it isn't always then all of a sudden, well, I didn't like that or you you know, and again, it's it's an HOA. And no good deed goes unpunished when you're involved with an HOA all day long.
All right. So, uh, Mr. Perry, back to a Yeah, just the emergency purchase. Uh, we have four emergency purchases. I'm sorry. I signed them all on the same day which was uh 911. And basically what they involved is a $91,000 repair to
from Woodri and Suns for a Water Man storm sore replacement uh that was basically down on 26th Street and Riverview Boulevard. I happened to personally be out there that day and it was quite a mess and uh it was interesting to see the the the brereech
itself and um it was kind of in that area where we believe it was natural fill. We found things like old seaw walls that were up against the the uh the piping and and things of that nature. And they had to do some some asphalt work on there as well as the
patch. Um, I kind of was pretty much in involved with both the when it broke and getting out there um immediately and and then when they finally fixed it the next day. Uh, the second one was basically a milling and repave again on River View Boulevard for Woodruff and Suns. Um,
this was to do additional milling and repaving on a small section out there that was, I believe, $140,000. Um, the third one was a force main repair uh for a 20-in force main which was down on 21st Avenue West and 59th
Street. That was $16,000. And then lastly, um, on 91125, I approved the use of a crane by Puland Kent, who is our contractor on that big swimming pool we saw, which is Clarifier 4. uh they had to basically reposition
their crane in order to install the disc filter that we saw at the wastewater reclamation facility and the charge for that crane usage was $13,000 roughly. So those are the four that I have to report. Any questions?
All right. C public works and utilities. I think uh I think public works director Colonel Lee is going to take take this one. This is uh the master service agreement with Sam Sarah and I think he's going to tell us a little bit about the background who Sam Sarah is what the
product is and service and why we need it. Still morning good morning mayor council uh Mr. Perry Mr. Williams. Samsara is uh uh basically a replacement
for the data location services that provide GPS data for our vehicle fleets. Uh today the the contract that we have uh is expiring uh as of 31st of October. Uh and this SIM SIMSAR is a is a a
userfriendly product. the the the previous product we had was a little challenging to use. Uh but what it does is it allows us to to integrate uh data services on where the the location of of
our vehicles uh into not only the operation of of the vehicles uh but it provides uh data on fuel usage uh trip history. Um uh the the the beauty of this is is by integrating uh maintenance
milestones. Uh if you if there's a particular uh vehicle recall notice uh we we get that information. Uh it's it's automated. We don't have to manually provide that information. Um but the one
of the really neat benefits that that would have been very useful during our our hurricane season last year is it provides the lat long data that seamlessly integrates into our FEMA reporting and that in in of itself would
have saved us quite a bit of effort. Uh but but again that's this this is uh uh uh cost a little bit more but one of the reasons that that there's an increase in in the cost is we are now going to use
uh Samsara on a higher number of our vehicles. Right now we we primarily focus on our solid waste division uh you know for obviously reasons there but uh what we would like to do is extend uh location services to to a larger
percentage of our fleet. Does this also have video service? It does not. That is a it it is uh an option that we can pursue. Uh but right now that that that's not we did not pursue this uh option as part of this uh
initial contract. Mr. Williams. Yes. So to that point, Mayor, um we are looking at the we are talking with Sam Sarah about providing that uh with our solid waste division uh for kind of a a proof of service if you will. Um but that that to Mr. Lee's point, that's not
part of the current agreement that's on the agenda. Um and just uh you know maybe kind of further the benefits of Sam Sarah. This will help really um allow our preventative maintenance program to become a little more robust and and and
proactive versus reactive. And so that's something that we're looking for. The service that we had before was a GPS system. That was pretty much it. So Mike, that the reason I asked that question, I knew the answer, but I also know what we're doing. Um, we know and when you talk probably to I haven't really talked to Chief Kramer about
this, but I had heard from the sheriff's office and Chief Beavenon over the years. When you have nothing basically and you go to body cams, you get 72% less complaints than we were getting or more because of uh more
more because the person now can't lie that the officer did something wrong. as well as maybe the officer is being a little bit more conscious at times. So, it's a human nature thing. So, we have a lot of issues in our sanitation department that people said we didn't
pick up their garbage. Well, the GPS part of it is great, but it doesn't show that, well, I went by your house at 7:22 a.m. and your garbage can wasn't out. and or one of the biggest things we're having now is people with our now that
we have a system to charge for picking up stuff. I only had one mattress out there. Well, when they if but the driver said there was three couches, there was a refrigerator, there was a washer and dryer, and there was a mattress. Well, it will actually save us money, I
believe, in the long run because not that we're trying to prove somebody wrong, but when you and also our staff might be a little bit more intentive if they know, you know, and so we all that's just human nature on all of us. But I would want to have a system that if you can't tie it to this, then why
are we putting it on the vehicle if there's a system that does all of it at once? And if I could this uh as we look uh to February when we go online with our enterprise asset management system um
this uh Samsara has verified that they they will seamlessly integrate with EAM Mr. Perry and then Mrs. more ju just briefly, mayor and director Lee, um I was asked by a couple counselors and I'm just curious to
answer as well. Does PD use these on their their police vehicles? Any sort of G GPS tracking? Uh we have it and fire. The same question for you guys. Basically, we have it within our computers. um we're able to do it, but it's not a
robust I know before um one of your staff members left, we had a meeting and we agreed to put it on our cars, but we have to be able to have control of it to be able to facilitate that. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. About fire. We have location, not video.
But you do have GPS locators. We do. Do they record trip history? They do. You use it for for uh maintenance and things of that nature? Probably. No, it's not an it's it's separate through the CAD and um you know through our operating system, you know, and RMS.
So, you know, it's a different different uh technology, I guess you could say, a different setup. Does it come off the MDT like the PD does? Uh it does. Okay, Miss Moore, I was just going to note um following
your comment that um uh that the I think the cameras also could help with illegal dumping. Um I in an area where there's a lot of vacancy at this moment still um I have had it hasn't happened super frequently but I've had a couple of
people reach out about a bill that they got when they're not living there and I think people are putting things just in their Well, we'll be able to show and that's what I mean. Yeah, exactly. And I know that's a we you know Mr. Williams and I have talked about those couple of circumstances and you know unfortunately when you're a homeowner you still have
to kind of pay and make maintain you know even if you're not physically living there but I just note that that has happened it won't happen we won't be able to say who dumped it but if all of a sudden the next door neighbor
that was a slum lord um did something like that is that I think that happens a lot where you didn't just say that word. Well, I wasn't talking about anybody particular, okay? But I'm just saying that in general that
if they're because again, you see that somebody moved out of this house, but all the trash is on that house, you know, and and when we lived on 32nd Street many years ago, there was one area that we put everything right in front of Jack Hawkins and Betty's oak tree. When you got when you gathered up
stuff, it was more convenient for them to pick it up in one area because there was cars on one side of the street. So, some of that happens. And now who who gets charged for it? That homeowner when it really wasn't their stuff. So I think the cameras will at least give us some video evidence of stuff.
So we would need a motion, I believe, just approving the service agreement. Is that right, Mr. Ruters? Do you think that's probably appropriate? Everybody's got enough information. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion that we adopt the master service agreement as presented in
today's meeting. Second second by Miss Coachman. So we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. Mr. Mayor, I just want to note we did everything we could in terms of negotiating the terms on this thing, but it's kind of like negotiating with your
credit card company on the uh terms of your credit card. Um so a lot of the technology companies, credit card services, financial institutions, we often are very limited in what we can do. So we've included essentially the
bare minimum of the legal requirements of the city but otherwise uh it is relatively one. What is our out if something doesn't work? Mr. Ruticell, those are specific termination provisions. I think what Mr. Ruticell was referring to is most of these companies have very standardized service
agreements and trying to get them to change terms that Scott would typically be concerned with to provide us certain things as the city would want. Um, even anti-appropriation clauses, the most basics, they go, "We can't do that." Yes. Um, it's it's a problem, but but
sometimes we plug our nose and do it because we need the service. And so, I just wanted to point out uh so true that that that's where we're at on this one. So, what is our out? You'd have to look at the termination. Yeah. I don't remember off the top of my head.
We're not stuck with this for 10 years. I think it's a fouryear perhaps five. It's five years. five years it is there any are there any out clause for cause or anything in the out I it's not working unaware of that I did read the contract
and saw that it's five years understand it but I didn't read that detail it didn't seem notable there's a 30-day termination for breach so if they don't perform we still
if they've made representation to us that this will work with the video and then it doesn't well again the video is not part of the agreement that we are that's a service but if it's not going to work with video
then do we want to go different contracts yeah just to to kind of clarify that was we are talking with Sam Sarah so if we got video through them it would work with this okay our software but they have availability to video correct and they've tested it we we've tested it
on vehicle We just did not get into it video. Okay. So, you call in the question. Call the question. No. No. Just we'll go start the vote in W four. Yes. Five. Yes. One. Yes.
Two. Yes. Three. Yes. Approved. Five to zero. Thank you very much. You. Um, any unfinished business, Mr. Perry? No, sir. Council reports. We'll start in W two. I thought that's what you do. Um,
[Music] I would like to thank the police department because I feel like recently I've gotten uh a lot of calls from citizens asking for help and for service. And as far as I know, they've gotten that help and
service that they ask for because they always say, "Thank you so much." And so, I'm just passing it on in case they didn't pass it on to the officers that were helpful to them. Um, want to remind everyone that the Braden Women's Club is going to be doing
a fundraiser on October the 4th at 6 PM. And the project that they're doing is they are wanting to raise funds to send 10 women veterans on an honor flight to Washington DC, which I think is a really, really neat thing that they want
to do. And I have bought my tickets and I encourage you to buy yours as well. want to let the neighborhood know at L around Lewis Park, you're going to see an area where there's some stakes that have been put into the ground. That is the beginning of the butterfly garden.
We're we're not tearing anything else up. We're just putting a butterfly garden in at the request of and and also have some of the students from St. Steven's Episcopal School helping with that. So, um if you see stakes in the
ground at Lewis Park, that's what it is. Also looking forward to getting the Riverview Boulevard project started. We recently shared with the neighbors along Riverview Boulevard um some issues with that project, but I hope that we're
going to be getting it started restarted sooner than later. And also I want to give my congratulations to Dennis Williams. He is going to be retiring from our fire
department after 43 plus years of good service. So, Chief, if you'll let him know that he was talked about in this meeting, but in a good way. I sure will. He definitely doesn't like attention as you know. I know. and he's probably going to be irritated with me that I did this, but
seeing as he was the person that was tasked with bringing me the the tire from where's Creek that had been in Wearses Creek for many years and that uh one of it was one of the first things that happened uh in the year 2000 and um
it was I think it was a really fun training opportunity for some of the the firemen to figure out how to get that thing out of the creek, but somehow it ended up in my front yard and I vaguely you know what I cannot recall that situation. I recall it. I recall it.
Give it to your neighbor across the street for a decor. No, I I did not give it to my neighbor across the street. Um but I understand that that Mr. Williams was the one that was tasked with bringing it to my house and he very reluctantly did it.
But um my kids were like, "Are we are we going to make a tire swing out of it?" And it was covered with barnacles. It smelled horrific. Um, sad that you can't get by with those kind of things anymore and with all these Ring cameras. No, I mean I I've I I called and uh
figured out who did it and why they did it and um for the group that actually performed the rescue of the tire and got that out of Wores Creek because it was something that was driving me crazy for many years. Uh I I took them dinner and we made dinner in the fire station.
Yeah, definitely good came out of that situation. Absolutely. So, thank again, thank uh thank you, Mr. Williams, for all that you've done for the 43 years that you've been here and uh best wishes in the future. All right. Thank you.
Ward three. Um I would like to uh look forward to the farmers market that is beginning the first week of October. Um, I know that we all always enjoy that and I think that it's a uh a great way to both
support local businesses and uh discover new ones. Um, as we uh like to say, shop locally and support our local businesses. So, always look forward to that uh happening uh first week of October. Um, earlier in the council reports, I think
a couple ago, another council woman had mentioned uh some of the medians that needed to be paid attention to. Um, and so I'd like to say that uh driving around most recently, I've noticed a lot
of the overgrowth in those medians has been attended to. the trees are been pruned and see a lot of uh our city um out there uh cleaning that up. Um so happy to report that it's it's not all the way there but looking very good. Um
then the final thing I wanted to mention along those lines is I've used as a citizen because I heard of it most recently that on the city of Bradenton under public works if you go in there there is a uh app that you can use and
download on your phone. I used it most recently uh in the past week and it is really cool because you can see um when you put it in whether it's being addressed what the status is and when it's complete and I was pleasantly
surprised on a couple of issues uh potholes um and other uh drainage that those issues were being addressed um which is really great. Thank you more for
Um uh well I um not to start off on something well actually I'll start off on something pleasant. Um I was sorry to miss the first responders mass. I um had a calendar uh situation and I was unaware that it was happening but I have
jotted down the date for next September um because I think that that's a worthwhile thing to do and and I enjoy spending that time with um our first responders. Um but also I just wanted to point out it has to be said that uh Friday is the anniversary of uh Lee
Helen. Um, and so I just have had that on my mind and I think a lot of people around these parts have. Uh, and so I just wanted to, you know, I don't know, I guess acknowledge it in some way because I think people are feeling it and we've been blessed so far this hurricane season and I know that, you
know, all of us are are keeping us in prayer so that that does not happen again. Um, but I did want everyone to know that at least, you know, in my immediate area, it is um, definitely top of mind and
um we're just you know moving onward and recognizing something bad that happened but that in the face of that we managed to be resilient and move forward as a as a community as a team u and I think it that's worth celebrating um I wanted to
mention that I didn't pull it off consent but that mitigation strategy plan that we adopted uh has a lot of great data it's super lengthy I appreciate that but if anybody um really boils down to some of the charts and whatnot. I thought a lot of the data regarding the the different
municipalities within it were really interesting. It's only a thousand pages. I I know you print part of it and Oh, yeah. Don't print. I think I have to get a new printer. I know. It's just totally locked up. It was It was a lot. But some of the you know, especially if you just hit some of
the charts, I thought the data was really interesting, especially in light of, you know, comparing Bradenton to the other municipalities within the county. Um, and as far as regional kind of ideas go, um, the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council has kicked off their coastal master plan project, uh, that on a
regional basis will hopefully bring funding and whatnot to the greater Tampa Bay area to uh, for projects that maybe will mitigate and flooding and and and all kinds of flooding and also um, talk, you know, fund resiliency programs. I
posted on my public social media a while back a link to a survey that any of us can take and if you all would like I can share it via email with um Miss Melton but it's super short. Uh and I thought it was really interesting that you could really hone in on your map. you're like
you just put in an address and then you can answer a few questions about whether and I think the flooding I think it's safe to say that all of us in some you know in our four corners as mayor is saying are affected by some level of some type of flooding. So if you all are interested in that I will happily share
with Miss Melton and I believe that that is it. Thank you coach. Okay. Uh as always great meeting um having u
observed all those organizations get hi [Laughter] switcheroo. [Laughter] Well welcome.
Thank you. And I hope you realize that that was a part of our meeting this morning that all the organizations benefited from our fourth for sure funds and got a little something to help them go along and and welcome also. Um
it was also good to hear and and Mrs. Barnaby you did mention this the public comments that we were getting in the decorum. Um I I think I may have heard one kind of insult when somebody was calling a narcissist or something, but
other than that, everybody I felt worded things appropriately and we were able to hear what they were saying as opposed to feeling what they were saying. You know, I guess what I'm trying to say. Um
as far as work five, there's some good infrastructure things going along going on. Um, some years back I was told that there were there was going to be a project to put sidewalks around the Manatee Elementary
um, school um, places where sidewalks did not exist. And so it's really going to be safety safety safety for Manateel. And it just kind of goes along with, thank goodness we did not end our speed
camera uh process because there weren't even sidewalks where they should have been to make it a little safer. So, it was great that we kind of mitigated at least the speed and reduced the, you know, possibility of someone getting hurt. So,
great things are going to be going around Manateel. Uh within the past two weeks, I've gotten some of those calls as usual, garbage not being picked up. Uh so I'm definitely looking forward to us being
able to um you know, confirm whether the garbage was there or not. Um I've also had a few calls about speeding throughout the neighborhoods on neighborhood streets. And I just wanted
to ask, I know the county did away with their their cameras at their schools school zones. Can we put those in the neighborhood in different areas? Uh, it was kind of I mean joking but serious at the same time
because I feel like since we can't do speed bumps um if there was some way we could mitigate and get people to be conscious of how fast they're going in neighborhood streets, you know. So, I don't know. What you're going to find though is um a
lot of the neighbors are going to get tickets and rightly so. They should slow down. I'm not I'm not against I mean I I don't think it really matters talking about cameras. I'm bringing red light cameras back. Now I wasn't even going there but
but it it's the new technology saves lives. Absolutely. And I don't think it matters who is doing the misdeed. Whoever you are neighbor
hopefully not me. No. Um or someone just passing through to avoid traffic. It it it doesn't matter. It It's just a way child gets hit and killed. Exactly. Can't change that. Exactly. It's just a way to get make us more conscious because a lot of times I don't think people realize it.
Not breaking the law. You won't get a ticket. Right. Right. But I just threw that out there. That's all because it seems like we have nothing else to mitigate the speeding. You can't have a police officer there 24/7. Absolutely not. I wouldn't do that to our officers to sit and be bored like
that. But anyway, um so all good things are going on and definitely in terms of the water treatment stuff we're doing. It's a lot of it is happening in W 5 and and it's just uh I don't look at it as a W five thing. I
look at it as a city thing obviously, but it is great to see that war 5 is definitely alive and um just uh hats off to all that um staff is doing. Oh, and I want to say I'm I'm
happy that Miss Amch came forward to talk about the the house the Burlington Housing Authority. they really are trying to move in a in the right direction in an upward direction and um it's it's great to even be their liaison
to hear you know um I'm trying to get this to stop um to hear that you know all of that progress is going and affordable housing uh is such is so needed throughout the city um different levels of it because
some people think of affordable housing as low low and anyway whatever is affordable for particular areas it's important that it exists because people are in need um
um well and I made a comment already about the discussion about BOD um I'm just it's just great to be on this council because the problems that we are facing
throughout the city the causeway voda flooding lift stations. The fact that we are working hard and working together to face it and fix it. I just it's just great being up here right now.
Thank you. That's it. That's cool. Yeah. Um, I you know, again, we mentioned earlier, Councilwoman Barnaby did such a beautiful prayer, but it's been it's been a really rough week. The
recent violence over the assassination of Charlie Kirk has has just the the I will go I will go to the map for everybody's free speech. Um, but we also have to be accountable for our words and we need to be we need to have kindness
and um we but we need to respect people's free speech and I I'm very concerned about just some of the rhetoric and some of the the the social media. I I tell you it as much
good that can come from it, there's some really bad and I'm not sure what our next generation is learning through all this, but um I guess my overall uh comment is to just be kind, try to practice kindness. Um the causeway, I
wanted to give BPD feedback. I'm sorry Josh missed it, but um I got a call from some of the residents that came and complained about the noise and um they definitely have had improvements. So, we
appreciate all that. Everything I know it's obviously the noise issue is is hard and it falls on BPD, but um and code enforcement, but um thank you. Um, I did get that positive. So, I like to
get the positive back to you. And, uh, also I don't know if we've publicly thanked, but you know, with with all the this surrounding with the horses, I want to thank the the horse companies for trying to work with us to resolve this and and they care about
this is their community, too. That a lot of these people are lifelong residents, and I want to thank them for cooperating and working with us as well. And lastly, I just wanted to offer my condolences to all my Gator friends. I know this is a rough year. Cool.
We went through it last year and we're here for you. Kindness. Kindness. You're not going to bring anything about kindness. I don't anything to say about the national champions. Maybe there's a
Hey, that's all. How many basketball championships have you Oh gosh. Okay. I'm just being trying to offer kindness. I don't think anybody needs suncreen with all that shade that was just thrown. No, going moving forward. I mean,
obviously we can hear out there what you know and all of your reports and how we're moving forward with a lot of things and and again I don't it just started as Miss Moore said that the four corners of areas but really when I think about collaboration with our community there our four corners are inside the
city limits. And when somebody asked me that question, well, where are they? I said, your guess is as good as anybody else's, depending where you're driving, the garbage can. Yeah, look at the garbage can. But but um we talk about all of that and we see some of the things that are happening. You see the police station, you see the
grand opening we're going to have at the fire station out on Manatee Avenue in October, but you don't see all the other stuff. And that's where the staff, look at everybody in the room and everybody that's out there, is really working dayto day getting everything done while getting through the budget time right
now because that's part of the time of the year we're at. Um, but things are working well. We're going to continue to spread the positive news of what we're doing. Unfortunately, some of it has to articulate into the negative that's out there, but we're going to try to show
that and and the science is the science. We've got to to go through it. Um, so I just really think thank you to everybody that's out there trying because I don't believe there's any one person that is trying to do bad at times, but sometimes
they read it and they just jump on it and go. But we're going to keep putting out the positive to go from that. Um, I appreciate what everybody's doing here. We are pushing the envelope and that's under Mr. Perry's leadership through the administration part of it with great people under him. I know he'll say, but
that is why we're here to to get that as quick as possible and move things forward. Um, and just in closing, I just like to to again uh one of my best friends seven years ago passed away today and it shows that when people, you know,
are positive and do good things that, you know, good things can come out of it and, you know, anniversary dates sometimes you celebrate that person's life. But the Bristo family will live it the rest of their lives. You know, Dave died at 59 and uh I'll be 59 next year.
And you just you think about things in reality in life and what really means something. And what we're doing is really trying to to make this city a better place for our children and grandchildren. And I will defend that till that day because we are. And if
you're out there saying negative things about us and and the funny thing is is we'll put out the facts and it's right there but then they'll come back and Mrs. Shadic is doing a great job at responding but responding positively
with information and that's all we want. You know me and anybody up here I believe is the same way. An email is an email but we will call you back. we will talk to you and it's not about proving you wrong or us right or vice versa. It's about the information that will be
out there to help. So, um I I loved the citizen comment today. Um and you know, I mean it it shows that maybe with some of the things going on with out of our control at times, Village of the Arts is coming together. There's going to be some people that aren't going to be
happy with a little bit, but at least now we can have an open dialogue and figure out where we are and what we can do. And that little jewel that's there has never reached its maximum capacity. Maybe one thing can start that. And you
know, 25 years later, you know, it's 25 years, but people I think 25 years ago thought it would be a lot more progressive instead of where it's at. Now we have an opportunity to get it to that level with a little bit of government help, but the private business world has to do it themselves. and but we're willing to make sure their
sidewalks are in the best shape they can, the lights they can throughout the city. Um, so I'm excited about that and that's that's why I like doing this job every day because if we can give that positive, we can get it out there and help others. Um, any department heads
that haven't spoken yet or anything that need anything? Chief, I was just going to say I don't know if we touched on tomorrow is going to be a come and go from 1 to 3 for Dennis for at the fire station. Yes. Fire Station One. All are welcome.
And just Mayor, as we're on fire, um if if Tiffany can or chief want to announce the dates for the grand opening, I was hoping to bring a bullet in. So, October 22nd, I I can't remember exact times for the grand opening in the morning, 10:00 a.m. And then in the
evening, uh I think we're still was it 5:30 is going to be the community open house. Yep. So, so kind of two events one day. Uh, but we're we're looking to do it all on the I don't know if we got that to council, but if we have it. Yeah. No, we did. I'm super excited. Yeah. 5:30.
All right. If there's nothing else for the good of the order, we'll be a jur. Anybody else? [Music]