let's call this meeting to order mr joshua would you do the pledge for us i would love to please stand and please face the flag i pledge allegiance 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 we've got Pastor Mark Reynolds from First United going to do invocation let us
pray gracious God we thank you for your presence among us and for the opportunity to gather and to serve our community grant wisdom and discernment to each person here tonight that the discussions and decisions may reflect
justice compassion and the common good make us humble and guide our hearts toward unity respect and understanding bless our city and all its residents and help us to work together to build a community that cares as much about the
vulnerable as we do our own prosperity in your name we pray amen all right city clerk roll call commissioner Jackson here commissioner Hutcherson here commissioner Multi here
vice Mayor Williams here mayor Tesy here get someone to a motion for the agenda um had a request to pull uh H3 second just for awareness okay got a motion and a second for the
agenda pulling H3 all in favor i I I All opposed motion passes um staff reports good evening commissioners um so we just
have a couple of staff reports a1a pedestrian crossings FO update they are um the design team is finishing up their design plan revisions this week then they're going to um begin construction soon after um and they're going to
change the uh speed limit signs and the removal of the speed hump also this week we found out FDOT has given us an update that they also are going to move the other speed bump at the south end of town coming into town so they're removing both speed pumps oh good
that's all I ask for uh are they also removing the signs in the middle they everything yes okay should be great except for the crosswalks yeah crosswalks are fine okay um city attorney um nothing tonight thank you
all right city commission let's give public comment oh public comment any public comments about items that are not on the agenda um we'll do that now oh we got a thick stack here today
not on the agenda for not on the agenda these are public comment public comment um Jay Hood hi there um Jay Hood 11-114 Crescent Bay Boulevard Claremont Florida um talking
today about really an unsolicited proposal for a piece of property uh it's a 15 acre dredge site that's uh just to the north up here on the Banana River i've got a handout if I could pass that out to the commissioners yeah you could
give it to the city clerk and he can pass it around all right and remember you have three minutes all right thank you and again my name is Jay Hood i'm an urban designer with uh Catalyst Design Group in Winter Park Florida and
uh we're representing Titusville Resort and Destination and this is an unsolicited proposal for that dredge site uh that that is out on the Banana River i'm going to quickly talk about some of the things that we're thinking about um so if you can see this this is
the Banana River this is North Banana River Boulevard essentially what we're what we're trying to do is to go into partnership with the city this is a conceptual sketchy plan but when we look at this site it feels like there's a lot
of potential for both the city and for us as well so that's why we call this a partnership we know that it's just preliminary we know it's going to change because we haven't talked to the neighbors we haven't talked to you but as we see it we just see great opportunity so I'll I'll just quickly go
over this plan and this is also in your handouts this is concept B which is the one that we're feeling most favorable about um and essentially it's there's an existing curb cut off North Kana River and as we come into this we're thinking
about a mixeduse uh mixeduse area for for living so we've got a hotel out on the point out on the water that would have a new seaw wall parking underneath that it would fit underneath or within that 35 ft height limit in the area 155
keys or or rooms uh in that also an independent living facility with about 100 units same configuration within that 35 ft height limitation parking on the ground floor and then approximately 66
uh town home units u so all the parking would be handled on site we also have on street parking and in the town home area we actually don't want to look at a bunch of garage doors so we've oriented those around open spaces so the open
spaces look kind of to the mangrove and the open area to the north uh that that lagoon feature we also have pedestrian facilities says that there's a trail that runs along the north side out along the river uh and then back to service
all of these we're also very cognizant of the neighbors as well so we've got a heavy landscape buffer on the south side u where there's single family residential in that area um I think we also have a commitment of course to be
environmentally friendly with this so may not be uh certainly uh lead but we're certainly going to try to and and and intend to build things in a sustainable fashion using best practices and low impact development so
that's kind of a quick overview thank you sure all right um Matthew Beasley good evening it's exciting to be in the birthplace of Kelly Slater um I
am not a great speaker nor was I a great surfer um I ended up in the world of underground utilities and that's where I have met Mr jesse Wright u my company has been performing uh site work for the last 20 years successfully across the
great state of Florida we've completed um several projects from residential commercial to redevelopment and currently we are on the Titusville uh resort redevelopment project with Jesse which is looking to bring a significant
tax income uh in for the city of Titusville uh I'd just like to introduce myself my company a great team um Jesse is I've learned that he is a great gentleman to work with i've known him for the last two years he's what my
father would call a a true blue so he really is a true gentleman i I would uh like to help I would like to ask the city to uh really uh consider working with Jesse on this project thank you thank you jesse you're
right quick um so that is the project we have right now in Titusville i don't know if be able to see it you actually have a site plan that is uh on page um just uh the third one to the end it
is a mixed loan project with a hotel uh assisted living uh apartment complex and restaurants so what we're proposing in your pamphlet um if you could take a look at the first page uh I have three different plans we
looked at a plan to actually have a a canal and then the second the second one is the one that uh Jay was talking about and of course the plan C would be if we were to put all town homes under 15
acres i'm not sure if the city owns the entire uh 15 acres whether there are other uh owners there but we're in communication uh with the other ownership on site so if you go to the second page those are the requests that I'm asking the city of
course as Jay mentioned this is unsolicited and so we want to obviously talk with the neighbors um and uh and see if we can come up with a concept that city can make some money and uh also develop the the 15 acres um so if
you look at the um the drawing uh plan B is the one that is being discussed and I don't have a plan C in there and just to kind of give you a rundown
if you go to the last page one to the last page um this is a development in Winter Park uh it's a uh it's a $400 million project this is my JV partner that is doing that project that has a soccer stadium a lot of town homes and
the hotels we know what we're doing uh we're probably the top three developer mixed zone developer in Braver County and we certainly have the staff we certainly have the the crew to be able to handle this project and I'm
hoping that the city would put us on the agenda uh to get at least 15 minutes to cover this more in detail i'd be happy to answer any questions if there is any and otherwise I know I'm running out of time i got 30 seconds
okay uh I I appreciate you thank you uh I'm going to just ask the commission i know so obviously we don't know if we even have the the right to do any of this uh he would have to bid against many others that have been
trying to get access to this property uh in the past um is anybody interested in in hearing more in depth what he wants to say or I think what what would have to
happen first is uh the city get the permission from the residents who already have a vested interest in that property and being able to use it as part of their backyard i
think they've been uh given that um since the days the school board owned the property we paid $100,000 for the property to get it acquired from the school board um I just think that uh the city would
have to work through uh process to determine whether we could actually make that property available for something besides a recreational use which I think was another stipulation that was given to us when we
acquired the property uh if we got through all those hurdles then it would go uh we could potentially put it up for basically for sale and then uh a purchaser
um you know we could take bids on it and it wouldn't basically you know we'd hope that it would be based on a a qualified uh person that had a qualified plan but
that wouldn't be a stipulation on the sale could it i mean could it be i mean well when we when we let contracts open bid contracts for the city we go with a criteria in when we're
racking and stacking them as the most qualified and the best bang for the buck basically to say so yes that potentially could be put in place but I just to me
um I just believe that we're a long way away from getting to the point where we could actually put the property up for sale so I appreciate their interest in the property uh I appreciate them wanting to do a great project on our
property but uh I I just I don't think this is something that's going to move forward in any kind of timely fashion i'd like to hear from our city attorney okay um from what I understand we acquired this from the school board so there
there could very well I mean I'm sure well I'm not sure because I haven't seen the documentation but more likely than not there are restrictions on the property so I would suggest if you're even thinking about entertaining this authorize me to go ahead and get a title
search on the property and see what restrictions there are i mean I would be interested in just even seeing what that property what we could do with it even for ourselves um I think a title search would would be would be I mean it would only be like a couple hundred it's just
a pass through i send it to the title company and I don't obviously anything in the future it would have to it would have to make sure that the residents were you know okay with it i don't want to do anything the residents don't want so but I I think it would behoove us to
even figure out what that property is you know suitable for so am I authorized to spend the couple hundred bucks to get the title search take it out of your your normal salary please i'm okay with it you're okay with it yeah and the
other the other thing is this has been discussed before and the I think Tim was here and basically what it came down to was the only thing we could ever do with that property besides using it for staging equipment for dredging and all
that stuff is to turn it into a a park it would have to be a recreational facility I think is what the deed uh deed restrictions are going to say so we'll see where it goes after Becky does her research all right well there
you go well we're going to figure out what we can do with that property and we'll go from there i think I paid the 200 he'll pay it yeah I don't think we can do that or can we what what did he say he said he'll pay for the top 200 i think that would get probably not a good idea that's getting in the woods so I
appreciate it thank you it's a conflict of interest yeah uh Ori Golf [Music] is this not on the agenda i totally Yeah it just says public comment every time you call me oh wait sorry th
This is for the I guess no this is for Dirty Birds right yes okay sorry wrong wrong time uh it was numbered so it's kind of uh public comment um Penny
Kitch you're up hello my name is Penny Kasich i'm on site manager and director of the board for Beach Island Resort here in Cocoa Beach our address is 11:25 South Atlantic Avenue between 12th and 11th Street i'm here today requesting
additional parking permits uh for our res our guests we have 11 spots plus one handicap spot in front of our property and uh that is the only parking we have we have 17 units that are available for
rent for our guests that leaves us short for parking which has become quite an issue because our revenues have increased over 200% uh this year um with the new management team we've brought on
which is posing issues with our parking of our guests and getting complaints which is not good it's it's defeating the purpose of bringing in those tourism dollars that we so badly want and need um we currently have a parking um space
rental with you with the city for seven nighttime passes on 11th Street um the problem is we need the daytime passes as well and we're more than willing to pay similarly that we have done for the
nighttime passes for the daytime passes to be included so we'd have day evening passes for one spot for each of our guests that would allow us that and of course it would only be as needed sometimes we do not have full capacity
so then that would open up those passes could I have any feedback from the commission um how many rooms do you have we have 17 rentable units okay so that means and you have what about 11 parking spaces of your own we have 11 spaces out
front plus one handicap spot you want 10 i would like to have an additional seven daytime passes to accompany the seven nighttime passes um I asked uh the
city clerk for some information did we get any of that yet we did not our finance director was out today um family matters so we would have to work on that information i I asked for some additional information from the city as far as what the average uh capacity of
our parking normally is for um one block south and one block north and then uh there so I can try to find out if we actually do even have the the extra room for you mhm and then I also asked about the um because you guys were around
before we had parking um um paid park paid parking correct so uh there's only a few of you that have been around for that long the the problem is if we if we allow it for you is everybody else going to flood in and want and want to do the
same so I want to see how many other um other places had were around before so as looking as far as in a grandfather effect yes um so there's just a lot more data that I want to figure out first and then I think when we get that maybe we
can call you back and ask and put it on the agenda perhaps perhaps something like that okay because I did do a gender request so you would have that too yeah there's just we don't have I don't have enough information yet to understand okay but I I I do sympathize with you and I and I am trying to look into it
yes i appreciate your time and thank you anybody else okay thank you um let's see is it Tam is it Tom Liot tam hello my name is Tam Li i'm with Space
Coast Vacation Reynolds and I'm just here to um support Penny Cas with the request for the parking spaces at Beach Island Resort um we do have guests that come to the area to with tourism to
spend dollars in the area and they do stay at different resorts and um in the area and one of them that they choose and love to stay at is Beach Island Resort and parking is of course an issue since they have less spaces
um than uh units available so I just wanted to come and um request that you um please consider their request and support that okay thank you thank you
um actually I'm going to put this one over here so he don't have to wait around uh is it Ronnie Haddock hi my name is Ronnie Haddock uh 352 South Orlando Avenue down in Cocoa Beach here um thank you for letting me speak i was here at your last meeting with that
3 m proposal and uh appreciate I love the fact you guys like the idea i was just wondering if there was any follow-up from the city attorney with the insurance so I was just trying to see if uh any headway was done on that or ask again later if that's it I'll
I'll ask the city attorney oh I'm sorry okay that's cool yeah that's it thank you you can um did we did we look into any of that insurance questions that we had um remember the human resources was was a little concerned about the the 3 m dive platform
oh I think that they were looking into it with um with our insurance company okay so I did not they have a meeting next week with the insurance company for rates and everything for budget purposes that's going to be a topic at that time so we don't have any new information no
new information at this time um but I uh he can contact you at at the uh city hall he can contact the city hall and and and we'll get him in touch with uh the HR director okay and have the information for your followup uh yeah just contact the city clerk at city hall
thank you i appreciate You're welcome um Matt sorry brandman is it It's hard to read it brand Camp yes and I'm going to all lot my time to Mr granger
okay oh am I going to give Mr granger my time uh you know what i see what we're we're getting ready to do here again um I will I you know what this is this is in reference to the Dirty Bird stuff right
no I need I have a general Okay go ahead go ahead Mark good evening Commissioners Mr mayor i'm Mark Granger 141 St croy Avenue um and I'm also a partner of Dirty Birds um and this is just a general comment um at the
last meeting Mr gaul who I consider a friend uh he's done a lot of good things for me over the years he really has um but he brought a lawyer and she presented a bunch of uh assertions and accusations against the city that there were some improprietarities going on with our development and work and not
about the CRA grant but just about the work this is about the CRA grant no it's not this is simply about She asked and she asked you guys to ask us to stop work on the project um not about the grant the grant was tabled i just wanted to say that
um in a way I'm glad that happened she came with pages and pages of documents not about the grant but about all these improprieties and we went through with staff double checked triple checked quadruple checked and it's not like they said "Hey well she got us got us on this one." There was zero of all those
highlighted items not one thing was considered uh inappropriate or wrong or or anything like that so I know Mr g's here he's going to be speaking later on and I believe he's acting out of anger for the way he was treated by the city in the past a previous city
commissioners previous staff but I know that he has some history with that corner and that whole area and I want uh just everybody to know that I hold no animosity uh our goal is to get a beautiful thing and we are of the belief that a beautiful attractive corner will
make it better for not just the residents and the tourists but also all the business owners including Mr g so that's all I just want to say thank you Mark [Music] um [Music]
there we will go with uh Burton Cat Glitch hi how are you good thanks for giving me a chance um start the clock i won't be more than three minutes uh so it's kind of interesting how
everything's changed once I heard the the first presentation so I'm Burton Catage i live at 447 Bura Lane um with my six children my two grandchildren uh which interestingly enough is near the property that the gentleman mentioned earlier which was interesting also
because that's the property I wanted to talk about um so I spent 28 years in the military we ended up in Cocoa Beach and we never left and we never will so we'll find our grave site we're going to stay here this is what we call our community and our family one of the things that we really enjoyed was the community
atmosphere up in that area right north of 520 uh we go walk our dogs our kids walk to school at our saviors uh we walk to the Starbucks it's a great neighborhood so first and foremost I don't want to see that really developed because what ends up happening is people
go from A1A and they come through uh North Banana River Drive and my kids are walking to school riding their bikes skateboarding and we've had instances where we've had to call the police cuz people aren't going the speed limit or they're acting they're trying to get to work or whatever but that's not really
why I was here to to counter that what I wanted to talk about was because it's a community area a lot of us will go walk our dogs and then we'll go to that property in fact let our dogs off the leash and let them run which for the last probably 5 years hasn't really been
an issue um I understand there's no trespassing sign that was there then was not there i understand that there was times where there was homeless people now they're not because it's being surveyed but now there's a sign up front that says felony for anybody that that comes on the property and so my question
is and I did do the title search for you so it is owned by the city and it is owned by the city it's property land it's the park um we're taxpayers so how could I be considered a felon using property that as a taxpayer we're paying
for that's my question thank you appreciate it okay no answer or nothing um I'm going to ask the city attorney can I ask or no this is not a back and forth but I I want to ask the city attorney if if she can answer any of that or can I use the rest of my minute
and 20 seconds to ask her we you talk to the to the commission and then I'll talk to my attorney okay so how will I find out what what the answer is just I I'll answer the mayor as soon as he asks me which I think will be in about a minute yeah so just bear with me
hold on a second city city attorney do you have any answers to the questions that he he presented and and I have not seen the sign i don't know what it is but as far as is um publiclyowned property you certainly can prohibit
people going on publicly owned property i have no idea why that sign is there it may be because there are some dangerous conditions or something i don't know but um the fact that property I mean
we're we have public property all over this area we've got federal property we've got state property we've got city property this the city the state and the federal government they control their property they can invite people on or they can keep people out so the fact
that it's public doesn't mean anybody can go there right so thank you i just add something on to that the people whose backyards butt up to that property historically in the past there
was a gate there was a lock there was a gate code for the lock and the people that uh lived in those properties were allowed to use that open that gate bring
in boat trailers little campers whatever they wanted to park behind their house in there but they were supposed to lock up the gate a after they got done dropping off whatever they dropped off uh a lot of times they didn't relock the
gate the locks went missing then everybody that wanted to go in there didn't have the code for the new lock it became troublesome um the only reason I could see that they would have a sign that says felony no
trespassing would be because of the liability of the equipment and the ongoing with all that dredging equipment that are going on and it's being treated as a construction site from a liability standpoint that's just a surmise on my
part but um there was one it wasn't too long ago that they had the gate but then they had a walkth through that wasn't locked so yeah we we need to need to look into that a little further i
appreciate it uh yeah you you may sit down thank you um and I will add that um it as much as people like to think that it's their property because they get to put trailers back there and plant gardens back there and all
that it's not their property it's the city's property we we do use that for training facilities also for the fire department they've got stuff back there as well um so just so everybody knows um you know there's lots of places that are
that are off limits especially even our you know our city hall we lock it after hours our our public works building so um I don't know the reason if we could be a park why not make it a dog park
all right Janice Scott good evening well I don't think uh the public comment was for public comment but um since you pick and choose when you interact with people making public comments you take prospective great ideas things you
want to do and talk back and forth so I would like to talk about the Brightwaters property because around in the dark ages in 2000 uh that property came up again it was originally
uh belonged to the school board but they lost a tractor in there when they tried to build the school just sunk in the mud and disappeared they've never found it so um around 2000 there was a title search and all that and D who owned part
of that property uh released their hold on the property whatever i think three previous city attorneys have looked into this and I think that u Miss Bose can find the records easily about what they found without too much difficulty however it
was for preservation there's been a lot of uh drooling over that property i have to put it frankly it's the only thing the people on the north side we're the orphans of the city we would really like to keep that for preservation the the
city has used that and you need to get the people in north side organized to do keep this down you more people show up the more effective you'll be and um it is a nice spot because people like to go over take their kids look at the water i don't think you can fish very easily
there but um a lot of mangroves and in the past there have been several homeless camps that uh one of the previous city managers and I would go round and round that there were none there until it took him two weeks to move them out anyway it's great property
for the residents thank you oh I see you say uh new new business i I didn't I couldn't read it so I'll put I'll bring you up on that as well um I agree Janice i don't want to do anything that the residents don't want to do so but I also
uh want to try to follow procedure somewhat and and get people information all right um that concludes public comment um city commission anything
pass all right i've got something sure and I'm surprised we don't uh each of us don't have something to say uh but um this actual auditorium is going to be used tomorrow for uh prom uh the fact that we're here right now is the reason they're not decorating
uh but I I'm believe they brought some stuff in and they'll may be decorating tonight i don't know if they're can stay in or if we can stay open i don't know we'll see otherwise it'll be first thing in the morning 7 o'clock I guess um so they'll be decorating all day and that's
uh that's a big deal i don't know if you went to prom here no I was homeschooled okay you can still go to prom i went to homecoming so yeah um but um that's that's all I've got other than uh
um former Mayor Scott um addressed it correctly a public comment should just be public comment and sometimes we get caught up in talking to those folks when it's not on the agenda and the problem with that is
that it's not on the agenda and so other people that would like to talk about it whether pro or con are not here to talk about it and then we would get into the weeds and talk for a half hour on a on a subject that's brought up in public comment without any real
data and make decisions on that without real data and without input from the community so I suggest whether it's whether we like it or don't like it the comment should just be that a comment and maybe stated if you would like that
as an agenda item ask a commissioner or bring it up and put it as an agenda item on for the next meeting and we can have a a real discussion and talk about it for an hour or two rather than just be kind of hovering around it and not
really getting anything done and wasting a lot of time both yours and ours about it so instead of having real conversation um that's my thought on public comment and if Yeah that's all I got to say about it otherwise going in the weeds
again i appreciate that thank you when you're mayor you can do that mayor I have a comment mayor I have a comment so I I think you do have good reasonable discretion on the I understand the legality of it but I think there's some discretion there's some reasons why I do and why I
don't and if you're going to come up here with an attitude sometimes I you know I think we need to work together and I I don't want to deal with that but I do want to give you more than your a lotment of time so that you can get what you want to say off your chest because I feel like everybody needs to be heard
and I want you guys to be heard and I want you to feel heard and I want you to get answers so at times I will I will give you an answer if I think I can get it for you or if I think the staff can so I have the discretion to to break Robert's rules on public comment and I
will do it at my discretion um we will convene uh we will close this and reconvene with our CRA meeting is request to approve commercial visual improvement program grant for
Dirty Birds Tiki Bar Grill LLC located at 142 Minutemen Causeway Cocoa Beach Florida 32931 in the amount of $50,000 this is a budgeted item staff Representative Devin Thally Deputy Finance Director recommendation approved
move to approve got a motion and a second um I think we have public comment on this orson good evening commissioner commissioners mayor uh so yeah just wanted to say a
few words that you know this Dirty Birds project is a really nice project um I was looking at online doing a little research that I mean you know the surf closed back in 2010 and the property was vacant i mean it's just an empty property till 2022
you know area 4142 came along they closed around October 2024 i think a lot of people in the community were just really concerned that maybe another 10 years is just another blighted property you know Mark and Daniel you know came in got that property uh you know I guess
they have a lease or whatever they're fixing it up you know I was fortunate to see the plans it's very nice um I watched last last the meeting from two weeks ago really kind of shocked at what was said leave that alone though um so
anyways I just hope you guys will approve this grant i mean it's a worthy project this is what you guys have this money for you know let's make the place nice let's wish them as much success as possible uh and I'm I'm sure it'll you know help all the businesses uh in the
area so thank you thank you Orson oh she go thank you my name is Oshri Gal i'm the owner of OG Enterprises and Wave Developments LLC i would like to read out an email I sent you all council members this morning dear mayor and
members of Koko Beach City Council I am writing to you ahead of tonight's meeting where you will be considering a $50,000 grant for the Dirty Birds property i urge you to carefully weigh your decision in light of the lawsuit I have officially filed against the city of Cocoa Beach and Dirty Birds Grill LLC
regarding improper handling of the property's site plan and building approvals for your convenience I attached a copy as a longtime property owner and active member of the downtown community I wanted to be clear this is not about competition in fact I would welcome a vibrant
well-run business next door that meets all the city codes a successful attractive property brings more visitors downtown increases foot traffic and benefits all the surrounding businesses including mine that's far better than a vacant or unfinished lot i've always supported thoughtful development that
strength strengthens our community and it's well known that I'm a strong advocate of this my concern is with the process or lack thereof when I first identified significant issues with how this property was approved I attempted to discuss it with city staff instead I was met with silence and lack of
transparency i brought the matter to you council members and spoke publicly at last city council meeting believing that shining a light on the situation will prompt a course correction and return to proper procedures unfortunately that didn't happen it is unfair and unacceptable that while I and other
property owners must follow every code and process to the letter this project was permitted to move forward outside of those rules this raises an important question why is this applicant getting special treatment and how many other projects are being handled in the same
way after exhausting all reasonable efforts the city unwillingness to address the issue has left me no choice but to pursue legal action i strongly urge you to take this lawsuit into consideration as you vote on whether to award public funds to a project that is now under active legal scrutiny
approving a $50,000 grant to Dirty Birds while this lawsuit is pending would not only be premature it would send a troubling message about fairness accountability and responsible use of taxpayer dollars please do the right thing delay and or deny this grant until
the legal concerns surrounding this property have been fully addressed thank you thank you oshri coming just wait please i guess my better judgment I wouldn't allow you to say something okay um as
the the speaker just said he has filed a lawsuit and the lawsuit isn't against the grant the lawsuit is against how the city handled the process of permitting and all that and uh that lawsuit would
stand on its own um basically what we just heard would be his testimony in a court of law if that lawsuit ever gets that far and what's
before us tonight separate of any potential lawsuit in that respect is should we um approve $50,000 worth of CRA grant
money for the additional improvements to this property and I support that okay um that's it for comment on this um Mark Granger has come mark did you have a comment i don't think you probably
should nobody spoke public okay unless you want to ask me no um I don't want to get in the weeds on this um Okay we are just voting on a grant should it should it meet all the requirements that it needs to meet uh
all in favor i all opposed all right motion passes [Applause] all right we will end our CRA meeting and we will convene our regular scheduled meeting
stay tuned consent agenda oh did we which one was the one that we we were skipping h3 h3 okay she she got it she won't read it yeah okay item one approve the following minutes february 20th March 6th March 20th commission meeting minutes staff representative city clerk
department recommendation approved item two approve the purchase of a replacement pump for sewer lift station number five in the amount of $61,167 this is a budgeted capital item staff representative Brad Cowso water recreck public works director recommendation approve
move to approve the consent agenda as read second motion and a second all in favor i all opposed motion passes 5 okay next items removed um approved BVAR County Ocean Rescue Cocoa Beach Pier
Shepard Park Fisher Park for fiscal year 26 staff representative Wayne Kerino city manager recommendation approved yeah I just like uh staff to go through this memorandum of understanding a little again
you want to make a motion for discussion oh yeah i'll move to approve second can I motion in a second all right okay just I can talk can you I can talk on it so last year we were you the commission
approved the lifeguards to come forward and we could go ahead and pay for them bard County never sent us the agreement it things got lost in the weeds with the election and everything so they sent us an agreement for this year we did not budget for lifeguards this year it was
missed out of the budget so Wayne had discussed with the lifeguard captain to pay last year this year and next year in our fiscal 26 budget but we have to agree to them now prior to so we won't
have to pay them now we can pay them once our budget is approved in fiscal year 26 which is October so that's it's going to be the same amount it's so so about 20 240,000ish or so
so 22 give or take no and then do all the math the the the timing of it is just back pain in 2016 we're Yeah as for back pain so we would be paying for last year and then we'll be paying for this year but we're also going to go ahead and pay for next year so it's basically three years of lifeguard services and
that's how much each year 86,000ish I think so it's so it's closer to 260 something like that 250 260,000 i just want to put on a record though u I'm okay with it uh but we when we didn't pay they pulled
the lifeguards so they're charging us for lifeguards that we didn't have the first year i'm just putting it out there but I'm okay to pay the full amount they worked with us we work with them i could mention to our finance director
just for clarity of record that we could we please send specifically the payment for 24 for 25 and 26 she said that's no problem so there won't be any a few years later saying look Coco Beach was paying 200 yeah it was or that it was
this was the agreed upon amount that we would pay separately and the record would show that yep okay are you ready for a vote um any I just asked for okay the city clerk to reflect in the minutes
the actual cost we can do that sir besides you know the memorandum you know as part of the minutes but just go ahead and put it in the top of the synopsis of what that cost is yes sir and it was a non budgeted item correct
all right uh Janice you got public comment on this janice Scott Cocoa Beach um I know that you all hired a lobbyist and I never heard nor have I
seen in his contract why he was hired however the conversation that has ensued is as a county commissioner on the subject of lifeguards he is not allowed he is prohibited by law for six years to
represent that issue so um I know he has said that his office or whoever they'll do it okay by proxy i guess that's okay maybe they do a lot of things different in Tallahassee however um I did ask him several meetings ago when we were
chatting if he was going to lobby for the TDC statute to change so that they could pay for lifeguards and he told me that he had not been asked by the city commission to do that so what I would like to know is two things why did you
hire him for $48,000 and why have you not asked him to pursue this topic this was a very hot topic last year and the TDC brings all the tourists here and they should be paying for it and it's a matter of
changing three words in one sentence in the Florida statute that doesn't allow TDC to pay for it now once again for like the fifth year in a row the Tourist Development Council has record
income 60% from Cocoa Beach tourism so I I just would like to know why we the residents are going to even pay $88,000 towards lifeguards on the beach thank you thank you Jan mayor have a comment on that mayor you know I will let you do
that so thanks for bringing it up that's a part of the intent of my K2 DOA initiative to address things like that inequities there was a disconnect on the file that was attached on the agenda so you may have read in earlier version but that's exactly why I put that on there that was primarily written around the
public safety uh inequity but I think the lifeguards is also a common topic so sneak brief with comment K2 okay um Okay any other public comment all
right ready for the vote all in favor all opposed motion passes 5 um unfinished business okay this is um item one adopt ordinance number 1697 on first reading ordinance number 1697 an
ordinance of the city of Cocoa Beach Florida amending chapter 26.5 vacation rentals of the code of ordinances of the city of Koka Beach providing for miscellaneous changes to findings of fact and definitions providing for upgrading updating grandfathering
provisions providing for additional and or revised methods of enforcement registration and penalties for violations of vacation rental regulations providing for violations of chapter providing for temporary suspension of certificate of registration providing for exemption for
pre-existing rental agreements and providing for conflicts codification severability and an effective date staff representative city commission recommendation adopt on first reading move to approve adoption of ordinance 1697 on the first reading second
may I make second you may a couple comments okay we had a an extensive meeting today with probably about 12 staff people um and we went through this um out of that came two changes that
you've got copies of them one of them um we had historically we've done vacation rentals so that they are renewed a year after they first apply for the um application and then there was a desire
because they thought it was easier to um have all of them renew January 1st but after discussing among all the um staff members that really doesn't work so I changed that back in here um and the
other thing is um um we talked about having a a sticker some sort of identification on the front of a vacation rental near the front door that would have contact information you know
for police and fire police and fire were well represented at at this meeting um and so I added um this is in 26.5-43 at the end every vacation rental
owner or agent shall place on a on an easily visible location near the front door of the vacation rental a sticker supplied by the city stating contact information for the vacation rental owner or agent and other relevant information as determined by the city
so this would make um if if there are any issues having to do with that vacation rental they can't get in or whatever they will have a a sticker um near the front door so poison and fire can know how to get in touch
with people so those two changes I'm recommending adding okay so so the motion was to approve the ordinance on the first reading with this basically what you're saying is the ordinance has
been updated therefore we need an amendment to cover the two changes you to just Yes probably the easiest way would be to withdraw the second and withdraw the the motion and then make the motion to include what Becky just
read this guy on a second and and this would be the first reading of this this would be the first reading of this with these changes since we haven't had time to digest it completely with those and I and I'd be happy to talk about the issues th those
two things which yes I agree you haven't had time to address those how did you come if I may yes how did you come up with the uh the date and not January 1st and it's like I'm assuming it's going to be whenever they register that is their start date yes and so that will be tracked by computer so they will you
know that way they don't all come in at the same day that's the reason because we had we had um people who are doing the inspections because inspections need to occur on a yearly basis they really couldn't do all the inspections in in
January that makes sense thank you and then Becky we had talked about um some like violation stuff yes and that was already in here okay um there are making sure for the repeat offenders what I mean
what what we could make sure that they have actually teeth yes this what I did was I spent the weekend going through this and adding a lot more teeth for the bad actors this should not be any
problem at all for the vacation rentals that are you know just chugging along following all the requirements and that sort of thing but this this gives us the ability to address people who you know abuse the privilege of having a vacation
rental here okay I I just feel like what was advertised uh and what we made the motion on and what was part of the public record that went out didn't include these last
two things so I'm I I want to go ahead and make an amendment to include those two items and then for the second reading or no for now so they'll be included for the second reading yes so I'd like to make
amendment to go ahead and include those two items in this re first reading and I'll be looking for a second second and that way we vote on the
amendment after public input we vote on the amendment and then we vote on the main motion and then it's nice and clean it wasn't like we changed things without it being documented appropriately okay
okay and just so you guys know this is just for fines for bad actors and for how we're going to deal with making sure um you know the bad actors aren't bad anymore this has nothing to do with with the fees i would assume everybody on the
the vacation rental um that fill out a card is for the next one for the fees i believe is that correct or is this for this okay come on forward um I'm sorry it was uh was it Tammy i
think this was Catherine Ashley for the extension [Applause] big long last name thunderberg Swingle oh there it is you may thank you so thank you again for
giving me the opportunity to speak um and thank you to all of you who actually did um reach out to us in some way based on the emails that we sent so I appreciate that um you know the basis of of and and the reason
I'm I'm talking about this right now is because you're talking about amending the ordinance again right so we're making additional changes so I feel like I should be able to talk on changes to the ordinance um the basis of extending this ordinance citywide was related to residential neighborhoods and and
quality of life and safety in those neighborhoods and that's RS1 and RM1 um all of those findings of facts they don't support extending into commercial zones there is not a finding fact in there that says that these vacation rentals
are an issue for commercially zoned areas um Town Center and Gateway are not residential areas in this in this city um I've made um multiple attempts to try to discuss this with everybody and bring
this point forward that the city services as defined and as are already uh provisioned for are for in the commercial areas are for the businesses the businesses of uh vacation rentals are very consistent with the zoning and
they do not provide an extra burden on the city above what other businesses do so I have not heard a discussion out of the council yet on that topic i I've brought it up but I have not heard anybody have in this forum a discussion
about why it's really makes sense to extend this into the commercial zones i've I've talked but I haven't gotten a response so right now I'm going to challenge you to have that discussion before we adjust this ordinance again and let's talk about why does it make
sense to actually extend this into the commercially zoned areas thank you thank you anybody else have uh public comment on this oh I I have some information on that subject that you might want to hear yeah I'd love to hear okay um thank you
there are only um it's either 11 or 12 vacation rentals in the entire gateway area so it's there aren't very many um in Town Center there are 77 so um it
would not I mean it's totally up to y'all but it would not be a a huge deal to remove those two i would be okay with that can we move to add that to the amendment for this
um we already have an amendment we we could I'm just trying to think if the title would need to be changed and I'm thinking the title would need to be changed tim did you say there were two thank you huh did you say there
were two that were registered or there's two that have been designated they're only by our staff that are the our rental skate which are the company that we use said and I don't remember if it was 11 or 12 in gateway is one or the
other and in town center it was a total of 77 that exist regardless of how many are whether they're registered or not all right my my thought on this is is a couple things um we do have mixed
use right so so that is not just uh commercial but it's residential in that it's mixed use potentially um and there are um health risks uh that we have to take
into consideration i'm sure there's fire code and whatnot every hotel room has to have sprinklers and and whatnot um is that not our job to protect the tourists that come in in that case they would still have to have a BTR they still Okay
they have to have a BTR no matter what that's my question is is is if we if they have that then they have to have BTR then they have to have um certain fire suppression requirements and whatnot in there okay good then that covers that okay so so that's not a I just want to bring that up and make sure
thank you so quick question though the so the the fines and the and the um or the uh the stuff that applies to RS1 and other areas i mean are we saying that
our fines and some of our rules won't apply to to some of the transient ones if if you decided not to include town center and gateway then the this particular ordinance would
not apply to them um it would they would have to have a BTR so they it would have to be safe um and it would be checked every year you know to to ensure that it was safe but um it would not have the fines
that are particular to the vacation rentals question on that city attorney so would they be added in section 2653 that had the gateway towers i'm sorry the towers kind of mini would we add those two zones in here or would just the classification baseline classification
of zones would apply to this ordinance if we are going to do this I want to make sure that I'm doing this absolutely correctly i think it would need to come back for a second first reading essentially and and change the title
um to make sure that everybody is aware that um because there might be some people in town center that think they ought to be regulated i don't know but um I would suggest if you want to remove them I can easily make tweaks to
this existing ordinance and bring it back for a new first reading at the next meeting it hasn't been advertised yet so okay so so where I see this going is we're we're like going to give up two
zones and then we have three other zones in the city that are going to say "You gave it to them give it to us it's up to y'all." Well no i'm just saying I get complaints
about things that go on in those places from people that aren't short-term rentals that have no recourse at the current time fines anything else to you know to do anything
about the issues they have in their facility that is basically mixeduse residential and short-term rentals so say that we haven't heard any complaints about that i have okay
so if we remove this then they basically it back to being a free-for-all in those buildings for those residents that live in those facilities that are mixed
use you know with short-term rentals yeah there are condos there are residential condos you know within particularly within um the uh yeah the gate no the town center area
right so now they they have nothing that they can do about it if they had things going on in their in their condominium with short-term rentals if we take this out they wouldn't have any recourse with their
HOA and things like that well the HOA on the HOA right i I can't speak to the HOA issues if there were we do have noise ordinances you know within but I I don't know if you've got
a really noisy vacation rental next to you um in a condo um under this there'd be recourse under just our regular noise ordinance it would be tough i think Skip brings up
a good point i mean I I I retract my second on that basically so so you just as that was going to be my question is initially you were supporting of fairness citywide i was hesitant on citywide just because I wanted on the finance side to collect actual you bring
up a point but I think the alternative to this if we don't want to the exclusions because commissioner Williams brings up a great point is we we've talked about there's a fee schedule in work that could potentially lessen some of this pain right um because I think it's a case of one size fits nobody
we're working on that actively yes i mean potentially next commission to have the meeting that we had um uh we are really close to coming up with a fee schedule and there um there could
be differences because there there is a difference in the enforcement costs in condominiums versus um you know regular single family right so multifamily versus single family um
the enforcement for parking is is quite different right um which would So what we're thinking of is having y'all talked about tiered based upon occupancy but also tiered based upon um you know
multifamily versus single family and the the single family would be more expensive because it's going to be more expensive to regulate so I stand behind my amendment that got seconded in my original motion i got second so just so I'm clear your
amendment was to add the two new additions and we've retracted just Yeah whatever what Skip is saying um I think so we still got public comment on this uh yeah go ahead not on the fees oh no it's not on the piece um my
name's Tammy Muse i live at 202 Woodland Avenue that's my home my parents live down on South Boulevard i love Cocoa Beach um I had vacation rentals um it was four month minimum so it was kind of
a different type of thing um in Cocoa Beach but it was outside of the city limits i decided that I was going to buy something that was closer to my home um I did purchase a condo in the Sand
Castles condominium complex we are kind of a resort type style complex we have management on duty 7 days a week we have a big parking lots um I rent to people i
I pay property taxes $7,420 a year for property taxes of which $2,855 dollars go to City of Cocoa Beach i have been compliant with the BTR rules i've done you know passed my fire
inspections all that good stuff and whenever I bought that I specifically did not buy in the RS1 because of the disruption to my neighbors disruption to myself um the good thing about that is
it's really fixed up a lot of the houses that are in there you know they look better and they're under better repair and maintenance but I chose a condo that's it's on the beach i chose that because I wanted to host guests in a
like environment in a resort type environment this is not a environment where people are throwing beer bottles and beer cans and stuff like that into the canals that was one of the um complaints that I read
about um I just urge you to consider the fact that some of these vacation rentals by making it citywide some of these will really hurt um some
of your residents that have purchased something that they hope to be able to use for the retirement supplement and and that's all thank you thank you just so you know this this wasn't about that it's just about making sure that everybody has the same fines or
fees so um let's see tammy oh that was okay that was [Music] you uh Elaine did you want to speak on this one or the next one
okay that was the next one okay that's it for Oh yeah you You may name name and address and 3 minutes okay i'm Bobby this is Susie uh
we live at 488 North Fourth but we have some condos on the beach that we rent out uh one is at Sand Castle and short-term rental short-term and and uh I want to reiterate what this the the lady had just spoke about uh
briefly big difference in when you've got property that's regulated basically it's self-p policing you know you have these condos you're paying an on-site manager you know it pretty much everybody's paying dues and and all of that and so you've
got a lot of eyes on situations you know everything isn't a phone call to the police you know there's a lot it has to something has to really get to a point before we require services from the city you Now residential different ballgame
alto together okay uh just just just out of the gate you've got a different animal all together you know so you know that I don't have to tell you that uh one of the big problems that we're we're looking at here is the amount of money that's being
required okay now if we were big corporations just wanting to come in and buy up a bunch of houses and doing all I understand that mentality stick it i want to make money i want to have a corporation make money too but if you're coming in there and doing it that way this is a tiny little town where
everybody knows everybody you know we have places for people to make money like that to grab those condos you know the majority of them are vacant year the most of the year because they got shuttered up and people are living in New York you know that's fine coming
into the neighborhoods that's a little different now if you it's going to require a lot more services from you guys so I can see the justification for the the the fee differences but when it comes to these looking at the history of the last couple of years since the condo fell down there in Miami what's being
imposed as far as through our state and the governor and everybody else which is a realistic thing we need to be doing to a degree concrete restorations all the requirements and the new insurance requirements and the st taxes and everything else we're playing a different game on that beach over there
with our condos than people that are buying up a house next to your house you know it's a whole different animal out there and a lot of these poor old people can't do it now in a place like this 90% of our our uh uh units are people that
are short-term rental people okay in that particular uh uh complex so this is serious and then a lot of people have multiple units so between assessments and everything else that are
required now to to speed the ball get everybody up to meet these deadlines that have been imposed you know we're not we're not we're not we're not on the same playing field with somebody else okay and we don't want to be because we're a different animal so
if we could we we could and you'll forgive me if this isn't exactly what we're talking about tonight but due to you guys know dealing with serious health issues so the days that I can come up and I can deal with then I take advantage of it and so thank you thank
you and I just want to reiterate most most of you guys will never ever have to deal with this this is only for the bad actors so if you haven't been getting problems this doesn't apply to you um you want to say city so just on record I have permission legally to send the awareness email you and I talked
about to the rest of the commission on this topic i'm I'm saying that now because I anticipate this will be discussion point but I want them to be aware of that for the next fee schedule discussion so legally I can send this on a copy clerk okay from a sunshine
perspective you're saying exactly yeah from a sun Yes you can you can discuss it here i'm gonna I'm gonna send an email just for awareness but it's basically on the on the fee conversations ashley I think did a phenomenal job well and it will become a public record i just want to put it out
there if anyone wants to see it it's today's date okay thank you okay um there's no Is this regarding this it is but it's specifically regarding something she
brought about signs up okay okay um Susie Ballister i live at 488 North Fourth and I own a unit at Sand Castle's complex 7 years now
um uh attorney you'd mentioned um the 12 of you had discussed an idea of placing a sign on a window that would be visible from the outside of let's say an RS1 or a um condo I suppose um short-term
rental with the information contact information and such um I don't know how many vacation rental owners were among those 12 and have experience but
um to me it isn't the wisest or safest idea to be plastering a sign in a window which is basically telling anyone who walks up to it hey this house here is empty half 50% of the year you know
it's just not the wisest or safest thing and for 10 years I owned a vacation rental home in downtown Napa before Airbnb existed and the process there was first
of all 100% of our prop of our um toot went to the city the state didn't get any the county didn't get any but we paid 250 a year renewal for our permit and at the same time they had
owners fill out a card with our contact name number you know manager whatever number of occupants number of parking spaces on it
they had us make labels of the 300 neighbors around us I mean the neighbors within 300 m around us and mail it out to them alerting them this is my information if there's a problem you
know this is who you would contact as a neighbor and we also had code enforcement officers that the city had hired but that was what we did in that case but also that information went straight to the fire department since we
also would have uh them do our annual inspections so everyone in planning the fire department anyone who was important needed to that information had it didn't have to plaster it on the
front of a the window of a house or front door that's my concern and thank you [Applause] all right we got a motion in a second on the amendment first on the on the
amendment the two provisions with the two provisions right all in favor i all opposed motion passes 50 motion all right now the main motion
um all in favor i I all opposed motion passes 50 uh next okay item two adopt resolution 2025-04 a resolution of the city commission of the city of Cocoa Beach
Florida providing legislative findings amending resolution number 2025-01 that set vacation rental fees and fines and false advertising fines by providing for an additional reduced fee time period for the payment of
vacational vacation registration fees and late fees providing that all provisions of resolution number 2025-01 shall remain effective except as temporarily revised by this resolution providing for severability and an effective date and ending date staff
representative city commission recommendation adopt and this would extend the 30-day grace period essentially until May 5th okay and then
um when do you think we'll have the potential adjustment of the other fees coming to us next meeting okay so just so you guys know we're we're working on um amending those fees like we talked about last uh last time
for um the size of unit i'm talking I'm not talking about this i'm just talking about that real quick for the size of unit and uh whether it be residential or um uh in a
condo um okay we got a motion for this do you have a question no motion is read second got a motion and a second i've got two comment cards um
Robert want to come on up oh okay um Allan I mean Elaine sorry lane Content Truck 770 South Atlantic Avenue um I I missed the last meeting it
was I was had to run the airport but I just want to reiterate you know the size of units does matter um I do operate transient housing in Cocoa Beach and you know a studio to pay 2500 versus a house that might be um 3,000 ft² my studio is
only 250 ft you know um if all the fees were in inactive today I would pay about $22,000 um right off the bat and I'm only renting about 1,500 square ft so less than a house or about the same size
of a house so the the fees that you guys come up with just consider the size and um really consider you know how many if if if you have a triplex or duplex you know is it fair to pay you know if you have a triplex is it fair to pay $7,500
for the same structure right is the same location um that's all I have to say about Thank you Lane yeah it sounds like you should come uh come next week or next time and we'll we'll be dealing with that one uh any other public comment on
on fines for the bad actors in this grace period yeah the grace period is the grace period period okay yeah all right you got you come in um can can we have discussions with you oh absolutely over the next week so that we can kind
so you can come to a consensus without telling each of us in sunshine you know that I'm I'm going to ask for input and I'm going to bounce ideas off of each of you and then I'm going to bring back something that yeah I want to make it transparent what's happening is that
you're going to talk individually with each of us over the next week or so and then the week after that kind of put every put it together and then we'll actually put it on the agenda yes so it's out there for a week yes so everybody can kind of get an idea what what those fees are and we can as well
because we won't know until we see it on the agenda right other than what we talk to you about and um yeah that's all okay yeah so again this is this is the only time we ever get to talk about this so we that's why we're trying to figure it out in front of you guys that's why we sound like we don't know we don't know
what each other think um okay so all in favor I All opposed motion passes 50 um new business okay um item one Thunder on Cocoa Beach is requesting
sponsorship from the city of Cocoa Beach for an amount not to exceed $5,000 per the code of ordinances representative Jenny Puit recommendation approving kind donation move to approve second got a motion and a second
um you know what i'm gonna start with Janice you were on this one right go ahead Janice [Music] yeah she she's next have to speak do what she's I have a card for her next
okay i just you know was going to be at the end of publicana so um yes um this item is being sponsored by the very popular former owner of Juice and Java Jenny Puit very popular uh there did a
really nice job everybody loved it um I um have a objection about the city um pitching in $5,000 i don't know you haven't said what inind is is it you know a jar that put people put donations
in or whatever but basically it turtle nesting season started the 1st of March and I don't know anywhere else in the state that this boat race would be allowed on this date it's basically I'm
objecting to the date the 18th of May is two months into turtle nesting season and the city spends a lot of money making sure everybody turns their lights out closes their curtains on the beach does everything they need to do uh leash
their dogs uh etc etc so um I also don't think that at any time of year they would allow um one of you with your boat to rip up and down the shoreline in your boat
particularly when the loggerheads are out there for two months now waiting to come ashore and lay eggs i mean it's just a inconsistency in state policy where on the one hand they spend millions of dollars doing this and on
the other hand they allow something like this so I feel um it's really up to you all in the future to please not allow this boat race at this time of year there are other times when the right whales aren't here and the turtles
aren't here either i don't think the turtle preservation society people that have told me that they don't feel that uh they're having somebody in a helicopter or some person in a boat 5 miles away is taking care of the turtles
thank you thank you Janice um Jenny Puit Hi thank you um Jenny Puit 248 Bahama Boulevard um I just wanted to clarify on the agenda item that this um the grant was not going to Thunder on Cocoa Beach that it would be going to Freedom
Fighter which is a 501c3 nonprofit and it is the official um uh nonprofit for Thunder on Cocoa Beach and we are the ones who actually put on the downtown street party um we pull all the liquor license for the bars um manage the food
trucks and so we were trying to look at reducing expenses um to help out for the nonprofit um and that's I just wanted to clarify that that it wasn't going to thunder on thank you appreciate it um
quick question so I thought we were saying was it 5,000 uh for inind which means it would go towards police and fire or barriers stuff like that correct so we we do invoice
um the street party they get three invoices the street party then the boat races so we do invoice them so the money could go onto their invoice and it basically is like a deduction off of their invoice we do not have the funds budgeted at all or have funds to like
hand them 5,000 cash so we're not actually giving them 5,000 cash we're giving them police and fire services to help um with some of that and it's not It doesn't cover all of it it's just to help so just so you know we're not
paying for that party we're just helping a little bit keep it safe yeah we we want to make sure everybody's safe so that's that's what this is for any other public comment on on this [Applause] uh Rick Anderson 1800 Minut Causeway and
I I guess the boat race is a done deal one way or the other but I'm going to go on record as as agreeing with with with Janice and going a lot farther i mean I love the idea of getting on a speed boat and zooming 100 plus miles an hour um
but I mean it's known that that sea life such as dolphins and whales communicate from countless miles under underneath the sea and under the water and I think environmentally it it's a disaster so I'm just um I'm opposed to the the whole
idea of it okay thank you right what is that name address three minutes mark Granger again 141 S4 Avenue i actually provide the helicopter that flies the wildlife observers for these
races we've been doing it for years and years and they have stopped the races many times and I got to tell you I didn't know anything about it but I'm very impressed with the effort and the work that they put in it's a a licensed observer turtle wildlife observer um
we're not here to debate whether the race is coming or not the race is coming but uh from what I've learned with my inside knowledge providing the helicopter and we're flying these observers around over the race all the time they really do their best and they do stop they see something and they they stop the races for it so again you know
we're not here to debate whether or not the race comes or not but I think it's a a great cause of Jenny does and I'm fully supported as a resident thank you yeah again this this uh item is not to uh say we allow the race or not this is just to say that we're going to make
sure that you guys are safe when you come uh any other public comment on this all right any other uh any commission comment yeah um I I've been to the event obviously well not obviously but you know every
year i think it's I'm not sure how many years it's been that you've been doing the races jenny is it like eight years 10 years i've been involved since it inception yeah
yeah so um let's not and and I support it i I it's a it's a great event um and all I I I do support it um but let's not kid ourselves $5,000 in kind is going to be cash to them because instead of them
paying $5,000 for our services um which they will have to do if they have an event so they're not just getting we're not it's we're not just keeping them safe by giving them this inind donation we they they are kept safe whether we
give this inind donation or not because they would have to actually pay for it in cash to the city so it's a it's a shell game with the money it's not it's not we're giving them $5,000 any way you look at it and and and I'm okay with
that i mean it's a it's a great event it generates it that money back um and we did it with uh we do it with the art show we do it with Fridayfest um and all that um what I what I can say is that um for the art show for example for years
for when when we took it over the current group that has the art show took over the art show prior to that the city was giving the art show all those services and $5,000 cash on top
once I saw what was going on I said and being on the board it wasn't the other board members weren't real happy with my decision but I said "We don't need that $5,000 cash if we can't I mean this art show's been going for 50 years it should
be self-sufficient in that respect." And it was and it didn't matter and we never took any any cash money although we do get those services from the city and it's it's much appreciated and I think that's the same thing could happen here because this event has been going on 10
years um the inind uh for those services I'm good with um and just wanted to make that clear that that's our perspective comment on that yeah i think the what we're saying with the incind is we don't
have the 5,000 budgeted but we do have budgeted for overtime pay so it's inkind but yeah $5,000 coming out of the city's budget so I mean I understand your point Tim i just want to make sure we've gone back and forth on the main
street side of exactly what you said is do they need the funding piece there's a significant portion of inind services are given but it's the cash piece so just food for thought if if we're okay with our show I I totally respect your opinion um but we've gone back and forth on the main street side that they get
cash and in kind services so if we're not going to do the cash for future discussion I think we all talked about we want we want to make sure that they understand going forward that they need to really try to be self-sufficient listen we really can't
have the discussion on Main Street that's a whole different animal uh Main Street does a lot more than just hold Friday fest and that's what we're supporting with Main Street so that's a different that's a totally different thing all right let's stay on subject um
all right so don't want commission comment don't want public comment uh all in favor i all opposed motion passes 50 um all right number two
okay um uh adopt resolution 2025-05 a resolution of the city commission of the city of Cocoa Beach Bvar County Florida providing for the cooperation of the city and city staff with the office of policy and budget in
the executive officer office of the governor and its ensuring government efficiency team EOG doge team providing direction to the city manager and providing an effective date move to discuss
second all right let's talk about it so I put this out there um I think the governor's doing a finan a fantastic job getting uh the inefficiencies but what I wanted to highlight is uh I think Miss Scott alluded to that on
the lifeyard funding piece um and I want to be crystal clear we welcome tourists we welcome family-friendly tourists here i'm not alleging that the county is misrepresenting or misusing funds i just want to use this resolution as a potential platform that we could have
our lobbyist work the state side of legislation to try to relinquish some of those state restrictions on the use of TDC money in Cocoa Beach we all know that there's a a pretty big disconnect in terms of how much is collected in
Cocoa Beach versus the the service we we receive um so that was my intent here and that's why I made a motion to discuss this but I think it's a good platform to to showcase that we believe we we to me this is basically a problem statement
we're codifying a problem statement of hey we talk about it but nobody's ever making action and I think this is a platform that we can then uh task our city staff with and our lobbyists to resolve some of those this kind of coincides with what Janice was talking
about earlier um and so one other thing so predominantly it's the public safety piece the lifeguard is a piece of it but there's a massive cost uh with the public the company of the lobbyist the lobbyist himself can't represent this because of the the thing but whatever mechanics
work out one more comment mayor please um there's for those that are out there there was a there was a disconnect on the attachment that was there there was we went through several iterations so read the latest agenda item i got it resolved but the first one focused more on just inefficiencies the revised
version specifically targeted uh the public safety side of it so make sure you check out that agenda so I'm okay with also getting the the company of the lobbyist to to try to see what we can do as far as getting that um wording
changed so that we can get the funding for the uh lifeguards uh TDC actually has taken in another 4 million this year over what last year so last year they did 32 million this year they did or sorry 20 23 million this year they did
27 million uh in in income from uh from the TDC tax so um I think we need to figure out how we're going to take care of the guests that they're that they're drawing here um we have a couple public comment
on this and then we'll go to more com commission comment and then we'll we'll vote um uh KPLE thank you for second but you ch down good good good evening uh in my opinion
this is the biggest Trojan horse you can roll into town i understand what you're trying to accomplish yeah you don't get enough of the tourist funds but this is not the way to do it you're inviting EOG Dodge into uh your books and if you read
on page two we will told you tell the city to work with Dodge and if we see anything from Dodge so far they have not helped anybody to get more money they have come in and they have cut stuff so I see you guys struggle when you do the
budget and I don't personally think that there's any fat in the budget at this point in time there may be a little bit here and there but it's not really big when Doge comes in the outcome of this and I looked at my crystal ball this afternoon is they're going to tell you cut capeex here goes your second fire
station they're going to tell you to cut OPEX your only way to cut OPEX is employees so do not work with Doge in the hope that there is money that Doge will allocate more to the city thank you
thank you uh Janice janice Scott Cocoa Beach um I really appreciate the Doge exercise and I think there's a lot of misinformation i check the website every day i'm very conservative i do not I first of all
what is the purpose of government to provide services for the residents that they cannot a practical way provide for themselves water sewer public safety police fire not
to put out a stage or something for somebody to make a living to the extent that the city isn't preventing someone from making a living in a practical um fiscally responsible way or say you know
a nice way um that's up to them they business does not like people interfering in what they're doing and I don't think that it's up to the city i mean we provide all kinds of things for people to make a
living downtown and I am adamantly opposed and I'm glad this has come out with Doge with uh Elon Musk about the pass through to the 501c3s where people go they they get the
government oh it's a great cause and it's really great and then people all get on board they approve it but they don't monitor it so after a couple of years before you know it people are collecting the money and they're not doing anything they're and or they've
it's morphed into doing something for example and I'll tell you about the morph here since it was brought up after I made my public comment about the boat race um Miss Puit runs a 501c3 and Thunder and Superboats used to
give her any money they made on that race every year okay so I mean hey if you all want to do that that's fine or if they want to do it that's fine i don't think it's your job to give our tax money you tax
us we can't you know how do we object to that you tax us and we have to pay our taxes and I don't think it's up to you to give it to other people thank you thank you Dennis go ahead Devin
is Santa not here tonight no she she had something so at our last meeting we had our government uh county auditors come here and give us
a excellent audit of our financials in the city and my understanding like every year is they do a very thorough job of looking through all our books and making sure all our numbers add up and pointing out things that might not add up and
getting them corrected and we just passed a financial audit by professionals according to um the state statutes which used to be Gatsby now it's something else yes that's correct
is it still Gatsby mhm okay so we're meeting all our requirements and so our books are straight so I don't think they're going to come in as far as Doge goes and say you know you're you're cooking the
books you know you're you're not spending the money where you said you're spending the money and I don't think they're going to come in and say that we're overpaying our uh emergency services personnel or our
uh regular city staff you know we we have a hard enough time keeping our employees and trying to keep up with it staying above the average rate for other employees in the same positions in the county to try to retain our employees we
got a pretty good benefits package um I I I'm I'm not scared of them at all you know if they want to come in and look at anything here I I'll be the first one to go in there and follow my sword in front of them if they they try
to pull anything i think that seems like what you're what you're saying cuz this is your um item here basically you want you want us to work with them to see if they can figure out where our bed tax money is going
with the county mostly not necessarily okay so and in all transparency I did a Fox News interviews it'll be on tonight and and one of the questions they asked me made me realize that we probably need to tweet some of this less i'm not accusing the county of misspending money
or misallocating i want this as a platform that's codified and commitment by the commission that we can work with the legislative aside to resolve some of those inefficiencies to me that's a massive inefficiency if we have this huge public safety budget in departments
well part of it's because you have this massive influx and a restriction on the money usage so that's my platform and I mean you have a a uh relevant point that they're not going to come in and find other things i think that's what KP's concern is we've talked about the
inequity on the TDC usage and the restrictions and we don't make any traction on that so we residents take on that burden and keep you know paying for it at some point i see this as an avenue to try to resolve some of that anybody else have any comment on this one well
and yeah I think it's already been noted but my my principally I I agree with what Commissioner Hutcherson has said specifically I'm concerned where the city is already responding to the
governor's office and where we might be getting crosswise with that in terms of this resolution and the purpose of our response i'm just not sure if this is necessary where we responded more of a question for Becky then on
that is this does this look like we're getting in the weeds with the with the us cuz we had already responded we did we did respond in because every
municipality every county in the state um had an inquiry with regard to there was a tick list did you do any of these things which were basically gross mismanagement of money and we responded as all the other cities in the state
have now I'm sure um responded that no we haven't done any of the of these things it was my understanding that this was going to be used as somewhat of an of a lobbying tool to try to get because
it's state law that's the problem it's you know the county um I mean we may have differences with the county but the state law gets in our way when we try to get public safety paid for um the public
safety needs of the tourists under the tourist development Florida statutes uh they can't pay for that which is totally unreasonable right i think by anybody's standards and this was an attempt to
point this out exactly right i have no idea how effective it will be or you know nothing is not effective right now but you're exactly right it's supposed to be a tool and because it's endorsed by the governor I figured it had more
traction good yeah so yeah Doge is endorsed by by the governor it's also endorsed by our president and and all and and I'm on board with that um if we can increase efficiencies um using it for this I don't think is
the proper path um as a matter of fact in the document from the governor it goes through five points of what Doge's responsibility or the state's Doge team's responsibility is and it really
has nothing to do with tourist development tax and and the like it's um and and I appreciate you know using using the term Doge it's uh oh my gosh that's that's out there and you got the news to come and interview you which is you know bring it to everybody's
attention so that's great uh but the fact of the matter is was exactly what you said um Becky uh with respect to the laws that are in the books concerning TDC money that's the problem and we need to talk to our legislative
uh group Tyler Soy um who needs to do something with that as well as any other state rep that you may be in contact with uh to get that verbiage changed um there are also some other avenues that that are being looked at um that I can't
really discuss right now but um I think going through the Doge is not the right path because it's that would be an inefficiency to use it for that in itself uh whoever you know those people that are are working that Doge team for the state aren't doing it for free um I
don't believe um and for us to create a um a group we we are um everything that was in your the original um uh resolution that you created we already have those res um
uh have those tools at our at our h in our hands you know we can talk to the city manager we can talk to you know about about the budget we can we can do all these things um we don't need to create another entity or or more bureaucracy
um to to get this done we just need to use the rules we have on our plate right now and if we choose not to do that then that's our fault um but I don't think creating another um uh path is is the way to go that's um
you mentioned that the letter from the governor's office had five bullets on it what if we would only had four bullets on it and then we were discussing the why wasn't the fifth bullet on there and now the fifth
bullet's on there i don't know why this bullet shouldn't be included also so all we're saying is we're passing a resolution it's not an ordinance it's not law it's just giving us and our lobbyists something to stand on that
says we want to know where all that money goes and why we can't have any of it besides what's already listed in the state statutes and if that's the reason we can't get any of the money to cover all the extra police fire and
EMS that we put out to handle all these tourists that they get the TDC money from and so be it we'll find out but I'm I'm going to support it if you've been on this commission for 20 years you know that that's the reason it's it's it's
it's in the law it's the verbiage in the law as as Becky just mentioned well maybe this is a way to to highlight it and say "Hey so hey you know everybody else you know we got people that are in
supposedly independent uh auditors saying how come these people aren't getting any money for all this all these resources that they're paying for these tourists?" So I'm willing to support it if that tool will help us get anywhere on it because like you said for
20 years we haven't got anywhere on it so I'm going to assume that if we didn't qualify or we didn't hit the bullet points or whatever I mean we send it in just like some people want to send in facade grants and they don't meet all the requirements then it doesn't go nowhere if if it hits it strikes a nerve
somewhere then maybe like he's saying maybe maybe they will all say oh that is kind of odd so and maybe I'm just missing this this piece of it but we we believe that by making this resolution it will get the
attention of the governor's office and the governor's office will address the TDC on our behalf it may not directly to the governor's office but it's going to get the attention of the community and the broader community and anybody else
that need we need to get attention to to try to get us some help and and and if I if I not saying it won't I don't I don't see that necessarily as the most optimal viable path but if it worked I'd be delighted um it's a resolution mayor uh
uh former mayor uh Scott mentioned that our lobbyist has not been directed to pursue this or address this is that something we could not in competition with this but is that something we could go ahead and take care of if you if you task him to do that and you give him the
ammo of this resolution that's exactly right and he can go stick it under the the desks of the representatives for our area in Tallahassee and say "Hey what about this why are we doing something about this?" That that makes more sense to me yeah so I made a motion to discuss
because I've realized that I I think we need to I seconded to approve no you just I mean to discuss discuss because I wouldn't I wouldn't sure any of y'all would approve it and it wouldn't even get visible okay I'll make a motion to approve second all right I'm gonna I'm gonna close our discussion there was
something the commission where I was going with that is is if we need to add those specifics I agree but exactly what Commissioner Williams said we haven't gained any traction we've been talking for 20 years if this tool works it gets visibility it's a piece of paper you hand to legislator hey go work this issue we know lifeguard is an issue we
know public safety is an issue okay i would move to amend i'm closing I'm closing our discussion and we got a motion in a second to approve right and I was going to move to amend that motion and discussion to add in the direction to okay our lobbyists to deliver this
and have that discussion i think second I think that can be by consensus but we'll go with we'll go with the motion a second to approve with his amendment um just the amendment the amendment just says the guy that we
hired to do our bidding for us then we're going to give him this piece of paper and say go do our bidding i don't think we need a You know what we're going to do we're going to do a head nod after this to to do okay we got a motion and a second to approve we got any other public comment on this okay no we got
any other commission comment motion in a second all in favor i all opposed motion passes 50 can we get a head nod that we'd like to also instruct our um lobbyists to to go and try to help us uh get the extra funding and we'll also on
that resolution you just adopted we'll fill in the proper um dollar amounts okay okay and between Becky and Karen who normally tells our our lobbyists what to do i
believe it's the city manager okay i mean I that's that's my guess okay and the city manager hopefully he's listening i have I have it all written down we did not have to change the title to that ordinance correct correct thank God I did that
every