work, but it was really enjoyable work for me. They say if you love what you're doing, it's not it's not so. And now that Pat's retired and he's there and then they found out, you know, and he welds. So then they
found out that he welds and so they put him in the shop all kinds of stuff down there. Really? You know what he misses? He misses the people and things like that. But the way the world is right now, the way it's
too, you know, I was supposed to go to Egypt this year and we decided not to because it was just too much here. I prefer it right here. There's plenty to see right here.
Some of these can complain about the United States. to see how well you all kind of sound issues, man. I can't figure out what's going on. What's that noise? Is that coming up?
Yeah, it was it was static and echoing really bad. And now all of a sudden I've got this feedback. Okay. You want some cash? I'll contribute. Yeah. How many? Yeah.
Great. I got one more year. Did you guys get rained out for the parade or was it nice? Oh, good. See, I wasn't here. So, Oh, I'm glad. Nice. Who was your lead this year? a
minute to myself. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't know the family, but that's nice. 250th anniversary. Yeah, we need to assist you ahead of time with
some stuff ahead of time. I don't need to be putting things out because I got my ear chewed on. Not necessar stuff. It was stuff we didn't have out. Air condition. I'm not stupid. I pushed that golf cart a couple years ago. I figured out how
hot it was. Yeah. yours, too. Daniel, are you sure you just don't want to take your job and then we can get rid of half this crap? I worked on the other day, but
I did too. She told me that we got problem or what? No. Oh, we can go with it. Let's finish. We can finish.
be hard to find somebody's qualifications. She's done a good job for sure. Can you convince her? Convince her. to apply mayor. I think we're going to be good other than that yellow. Then we can go
straight to here and just start flying through the rest cuz some of this stupid And that's one sheet. So, we should be through it pretty quick. Anything that says state, county, or local is already covered in the other
thing that we talked about. At what point in this are we going to discuss on whether the um No, we lost time. Wait. Yeah. director should answer directly to the
city manager. Yes, council. I just I'd wait I'd wait a second. Where'd he go? He was just sitting there. He's right back there. Oh, he's helping them. Hello.
Hey. Oh, you can hear me. still trying to fix, but I think it's I think it's online. Does Mr. Gary have what I do? The wrong say Raphael dropped one on you, did he?
Oh my Danielle, did you did I see somewhere where we the city put together that schedule of deadlines like trim notices here, budget process here. It's it's like doesn't that already exist?
A um a schedule last year. Is that what you're talking about for the budget? That might have been where I seen it from. It's just next on the top of this list. I just want them to realize it's it you you've implemented it. All right, we want to call this meeting
back to order. We apologize for the technical issues. We're trying to correct people online can't hear a thing or they can, but it sure is not what we're saying. But uh anyway, so we will crank back up with I guess we're going to Amy's suggestions or where are we at?
Mr. Mayor, we can All right. go ahead and do that. We're going to strike the highlighted comments. Then we're going to go to physical demands and work environment. I I don't think that there's anything there that's technical as to what we've been going over, but I can read through it real
quick. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by employees successfully to perform the essential functions of this job. The work environment characteristics are those an employee encounters while performing the
essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions. Must uh must be fluent in speaking, reading, writing, Michael
and comprehension of English language. Specific vision abilities required including uh close vision and the ability to adjust focus. Required to use hands and fingers to operate machines, tools and controls and reach h reach
with hands and arach with hands and arms. uh must be able to maintain repetitive motions with hand and finger dexterity dexterity uh consistent with that needed to
operate a keyboard. The job description is not intended to be a contract for employment. Does everybody give that part? All right. Um, these are suggestions, additions to the
position description received on 824 from Councilwoman Heftlin. Demonstrate knowledge for deadlines. That's a duplicate of something else we have already. Yeah, that was the the audit and the assistant audit and timely manner. So, we can scratch that one. Prioritizing
competing tasks with multiple deadlines. Leave it or get rid of it. It's kind of the same thing duplicate. That net came in here. The reconciliations duplicate as well. The next one, the monthly B the reconciliations of all balance sheet
accounts. Okay, that one could we please leave in there? That's that's an essential. Okay. Um, prepare, approve, and implement policies and procedures. Credit cards, purchasing, payroll, processing, reporting. Didn't we have that up there
already where they were assisting and financing? preparing policies or something. Mhm. So, we can scratch that one. Prepare, approve, and implement internal controls for all financial functions. That's important. That's uh that's where
uh we got a couple of dings for Okay. Uh knowledge of knowledge regarding RFPs, RFQS, etc. We need to consider a banking RFP. Um,
that would be the pol that would be the policies that we had in there earlier. I I realize we're looking for that, but I think anything that says state like this 10.554, the 218, anything that says state, local, whatever, clay, red, federal, I think all those will be
duplicates now because we've combined those. So, I think all of those can go to be honest with you. Which ones do you want to keep that are in here? Okay, let me just see. I'll check. The knowledge regarding MDNA for audit compliance we should leave would be my suggestion.
Okay, that's a duplicate. The knowledge regarding proprietary special revenue and other funds. I think we should leave that one. Okay, we're we're skipped around here. I won't have following here. What which I'm saying eliminate everything except
what I'm recommending or where were Okay, sorry. those again. Um, that's about 1, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Nine. Nine above the gb stuff down there. Nine above. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Was that the
first one or the second one you said? Proprietary special revenue and other funds. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Down. That was the one she just said. That's the one we're going to keep. Second one. What was the first one? The first one was MDNA regarding MDNA.
four. Gotcha. Okay. We were gonna we we had already agreed to move knowledge of trim process up as well. Correct. Okay. Did we remove it or moved it up earlier and I say we remove it because it's part of the budget process which you said
under charter is him. But I do it. You may do it but that's why I asked can some of these things be delegated? He certifies it but think does leave it in. That's fine. I don't mind. Okay. Not going to hurt anything.
So, you left off at proprietary special revenue and other things. Okay. So, then the qualified public depository rule, we have to comply with that, but again, it's a statute and I think we already kind of summarized that. So, I think that's a duplicate. Okay.
This next one references a statute. We need to do it, but uh it's a duplicate. Compensated absences and reporting. They need to know that. Okay. Let's keep that one. I think we should keep the next one. The knowledge of uh restricted versus
capital assets versus fixed assets. The knowledge of due to due from I believe we should keep the F FRS knowledge is again statutory. So we don't need to worry about that. And the long-term debt schedules I think
we should keep. And the next one, the knowledge of project outcomes. I think that's a duplicate. Okay. The next three Gazsbies are duplicates. I think we should keep grant knowledge. Wouldn't that be covered under our
policies and procedures clause? I don't know if it would be or not because grants are a beast of their own and compliance with them and what we have to do and we segregate them. So I think we need to have them you know uh Liberty
Partners does some of our reporting but the finance director needs to follow up with them and communicate with them because it has to all get rolled up. And we have a specific section in the purchasing policy for grants exhibit A. Oh or uh appendix A I guess is what it is.
and it's specifically about grants. If that's the case, then I'm okay with that. Okay. I'm just kind of wondering like if grant knowledge, fix fixed assets, prepare the budgets, like some of this is to me Well, please speak up because basic and kind of elementary to to their
their function. Which ones do uh the think that, but you know, we got written up for that. So, that's why I'm concerned. And the person before Danielle ended up deleting a lot of things that she had to recreate and that
kind of put us behind a little bit. I read fixed assets. Audit, but I'll defer I'll defer to whatever y'all I mean I've dealt with fixed assets as you know private entities as well as you know government entities. That's to me
basic function. That would be part of the audit portion of it anyway, wouldn't it? Because they're prep preparing and assisting in the and there's some now Gazsby rules on the leases and stuff. So I'm okay. That's fine. All right.
Um Kobe, I've talked about this since the beginning that I would like my whole goal is if we were fully staffed and operating correctly, which is where we're headed now in that direction. We've cleaned up everything. I really think that we should prepare our
financial statements and submit for the excellence in financial accounting. We did that for 25. We obviously didn't. Yeah, we did. We didn't win it. She's talking about actual financials. There's two separate ones. We're talking about budget and financial. We didn't
submit for the financials. We submit for the budget. Okay. We didn't win, but we did get good feedback on good because that's the direction where I'd like to go. So, I would like to leave that in there because that's a specific goal. I would uh hope that we would go with the
compliance with debt and loan covenants. I think that's a duplicate from something else we did earlier. Uh consolidated financials, again, that's a duplicate. Pulled cash management and supervision. I don't think we put that specifically
in there, but it would fall under the balance sheet of all the balance uh reconciliation under all the balance sheet accounts. So, that could be removed. OP reporting, there's not really anything that's covered by Gazby. Oh,
okay. Thank you. And actually, a lot of that comes from the state's financials anyway. uh the auditors do that particular piece of the puzzle for us right at the moment. Didn't we do the mandatory monthly? That's already that's
a duplicate quarterly update to us, but I think now we already got it. So that's going to be in the finan the monthly manager report. So I think that's going to be a duplicate. That's it. All right. The uh got a motion and second on the table.
Correct. request of the ordinance. So as C as Mr. Danielle and I are talking about in your ordinance under section 2.60 duties um there's a required report at the first monthly meeting. We would like to have that changed to the second monthly
meeting is going to be a part of my manager report but also the first month's report is not enough time for finance to actually reconcile your books that quick. So they're be open to moving that keeping it keeping that requirement but moving it to the second meeting. It won't be a separate report. It'll be within for the prior month. So if July 28th
then July 28th you're reporting to us what happened June 30th reconciled. Correct. That's important is the reconciliation because if it's not reconciled it does us we'll always get the wrong decision. Yeah. Correct. With this modification we get is that
part of your motion? Yes sir. Mayor, is this going to um include We had talked earlier in a previous meeting if the finance director was going to report directly to the city manager or
the city manager and the five council people. We'll have to take that up, but but we do need to take that up. It should be because they should know in their job description who they report to. I think I don't think there should be any modification to that.
But anyway, uh what are we thinking, Kobe? That doesn't need to be included in this description of it. No, this is a I think we're on just a description. One change to the ordinance is what we're on right now. All right. Okay. All right. So, any
other questions or comments about the motions? This has nothing to do with who she reports to. Just qualifications. Qualification. All right. Any any comments from the public about these qualifications?
Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. I. Carry. Thank you very much. Coby. Anything else on this we need to pick up? Councilman Cosman's comment, but no, the job description. We will get that updated and have it on the next consent
agenda. All right. Um, all right. We want to move on down your agenda. What about the ordinances? Did we do that? That's what we're going to bring back. Yeah, we'll bring back an ordinance. Oh,
okay. All right. Where were we? Where'd you leave off? Let's see. We are at five life enrichment senior four five. Okay, sir. It'll be number five. Uh, life enrichment senior center travel policy. So um just want to get some clarification and with the council with
you know some limitations or non-limitations uh the senior center when they were a function of tri county um went to various places and locations you outside the state within within uh the state but just basically want to get
the council's feel for where you're comfortable with staff taking members of the senior center uh or not. So that's kind of the direction we're looking for. Um those would be particularly you know there in the past they have went to do to that senior center in Geneva. Um the
group has been to the casino in Atmore monthly as a as a function or event of the senior center and so really just looking for direction uh what this council feels appropriate or not appropriate in terms of length of distance or uh locations of attendance. Mayor go ahead.
Would the council feel comfortable with a 100 mile radius since it includes all the areas you just named, Kobe? We looked at it and it was over 111. So, I was going to suggest 120. Would you be good with 120 versus 100?
Tallahassee. That would cover Tallahassee. It would cover the casino. Sounds good. 120. Yes, ma'am. Does our insurance policies have anybody reached out to them? What's what's the Miss Ch has already reached out the individual's insurance will be first and
the city's policies will kick in next which we are covered and on top of that this backlo requires people to sign waiverss anyways when they become members of the facility and so even when they get demand they'll be they'll have a waiver signed so the waiver will be signed prior to departure can can you cover the part that they're
funding their own their own entertainment whenever they're gone that's not the city funds that are well at this moment the city the fuel for city would the fuel is covered by the city. But when when an individual goes to an event, they're paying for their own food, they're paying for their own entertainment, whatever that is.
They're going to the casino, the play, festival, you name it. They pay for their own attendance and stuff like that. The only thing the city's going to have in it is fuel for the vehicle and the employee, which is transporting to and from and the city's going to be paying for the fuel at this moment. Correct. That is how it would be
up to a certain amount, right? 100 or whatever it takes to fill the van up. Should we limit? I mean, you had a monthly budget or annual budget. What was it? Yes. So, so the annual budget right now I think we're looking at $1,200 was $100 a month. Um the only trips are going to have those designated trips and then going to the store here
in town. So, um we feel that'd be accurate. Work with Miss Blo on that. So, okay. Do they have a calendar of events? How many events would this includ? Miss Blo and I we sat down talked about it. Uh her and I are both comfortable
with two two set meetings a month. So, two of we know we're going to these things and a third one every month. Uh, and you know, well, that's it could be different. It can vary monthly. It could be something that comes up, but uh that would that would allow her to know exactly where they're going, when they're going, but also have adequate
time at the facility, but still give flexibility for oneoffs that may pop up. So, just I'm clarifying, you saying three meetings, 120 round is 120 one way or or round trip? One way. One way.
So it's 240 three times a month. Well, it may not be that far. One of them may be 90, but I mean that's what we're you're asking us to budget for at a maximum. At a maximum. They've already been doing these, so we're not necessarily Yeah, but not at our expense, though. That's that's the only thing I'm
considering because I'd say they need to remain within budget on what they've been budgeted. Either way it goes. We're just approving the distance. Is that what we're doing? It's just the distance the fuel if the fuel line I want it to be clear and transparent to
every fuel line item starts to get low either one don't travel anymore or two they have to make the appropriate adjustment within their budget just as everyone else. So we'll monitor that throughout the year. Will we allow them to do use their fundraising monies to uh offset the are
the membership fees going right back into their budget? Correct. Membership fees are calculated portion of the city saying yes. Yes. Membership fees are just a revenue which we account for. Uh what is their annual budget? Remind me.
Uh we're working on current now under your budget little exercise that you had done. I know it's an estimate. Uh I believe it's 106 106,000 I believe. So if I'm not mistaken we we done last time. There's a few things left to work out but we were
at 106. And how much will be offset by how much revenues did they raise? Well, Danielle's still going to do the revenue estimates here in the next week or two. Uh, but last year I think the estimate was $15,000 of membership dues collected was what they budgeted for
through the community center to the tri county. What's the county contributing? 30. It has been 30 in the past. I'm going to when I meet with Miss Tomlinson, CFO next week about other matters of the county, I'm going to follow up on the county's portion of the senior center for fiscal year 26.
And when we adopted it though, they said they would stay. Did I understand that right? They were going to continue to contribute what they were contributing and we were going to continue ours. Correct. We were under the understanding with the county at the time and and the board at the time that we left out
specific language as to what the dollar amount would be. We all understanding of 30,000 was the base from what we've always been there county commissioner particular commissioner Curry had made a mention to the ability for the county to make changes even more maybe more in the future or less if that's something but hopefully more and what we didn't want to do is have to go back and amend the
interlocal agreement every single year so we made a three-year agreement and that allowed each entity to have some flexibility every year. So if that's if if my math is correct, then if they have a budget of 106 and it can be offset by the county's 33 and the 15 of their
membership, that leaves 58 that we're funding then basically where it was 33 in the past, but now it's going to be at a level of 58. So the county was 30, we were 30, and the membership was 15. So 75. Okay. There's a difference. Uh what does that 61?
Well, the difference between 75 106 is 30. number here 31 31 18 of that is the expected increase that we already discussed when we took over the senior center from employee costs that left 13 a difference as of right now 12 of that is utilities which
at the time we talked about it we spoke I told you I spoke to the county miss Melissa had not gotten back to me yet so 12 is utilities so there's a $1,000 discrepancy between what we expected to be paying for that thousand is from other things we've looked at in the budget this year which could be you know
modified but at this moment those are That's the difference you see and that's why we have a difference. If they're staying within their own budget and and we're getting the waiverss and we don't have any issues with insurance, I don't necessarily see any other problematic
areas. Does anybody else do we need a motion mayor to clarify that? I would one for the record. If all we're doing is uh approving a travel radius, would the council be um
happy with making a motion to expand it to 120 miles? Yes. Is there anything y'all would like to add or piggyback to that one way or round trip 240? One way radius the the maximum radius 120.
So that would be around. I'm fine with that. That's what you're saying. What about the case of of a trip to 150 miles? Can it be up to the my discretion or would you like me to bring it back or just say no alltogether? I say say no only because when you get
to 150 then the next time it's going to be well it's only 10 miles more you know 15 more. I think I'm I'm in favor of, you know, what they're doing right now is is roughly I think when Kobe and I
were discussing looking at it's like 111 miles to Atmore and back or 100 right at 110 miles to Tallahassee. They're already doing that. That's already built into this budget that we were already contributing 30 and 332. They're already living within their
means right now for that. So if they wanted if they had a a once a year, once a quarter trip that was beyond that and they wanted to contribute to offset those costs, then I think that that we should give some
discretion to the city manager to approve those on a infrequent basis as long as they're within budget. So if they want to offset the cost, if they want to chip in because they know that this is a 150 mile trip because they have to go to Birmingham or, you know, like I think Montgomery is even
technically included in that radius. Okay. Motion to approve up to 120 mile radius one way and give do you want to give him the flexibility to approve trips beyond that if they contribute to the cost?
Yes. We might think about um you know some language as far as those additional trips. Something may come up that's 150 miles, might be 200 miles or we might get a financial situation down the road
where we should have the discretion or the or the you know to add a fee if if necessary, if it's financially necessary um because of budgetary constraints. I'm not saying now. I'm just saying it could potentially be if we're going to do the
if we're going to write a policy, um, we might want to consider doing something like that. So, I'll I'll second and agree that I think we should include that that and any deviation from the norm. Um, is
the city manager empowered to make that decision on his own? You would need instead of having to micromanage. Okay. Should we set a maximum? 120. Well, I think he's kind of saying within within the budget. Like the budget kind of keeps them within the max.
Saying like if they want to go 135 miles instead of 120. I think the the language that that we're discussing there is that if they are beyond 120, they have to contribute and it's his discretion whether to approve it and offset that additional cost.
And and just one key trips are all the time. I don't know if there ever been one outside from talking to Susan. They're typically within business hours because this Miss Bley does not like to drive it dark. So we want to keep within business hours. So there's got to be, you know, reasonable distance to that as well.
Motion to uh approve 120 mile radius with um what would you like to add to that? city manager's ability to approve trips beyond that as long as we're compensated. And I'll second.
Okay. All right. We have a motion to second. Any other questions? Yeah. I appreciate the discussion had this main thing I was concerned about. Okay. Am I it's not on
you are now. Okay. Anyway, um as I said, my concern was flexibility and uh I think you probably have covered that with giving the city manager some authority to to reasonably consider something else.
And uh this is an opportunity. This band must got last 24 miles on it. We've had it three or four months. So, we're anxious to get that thing on the road. and uh um uh and I'm sure that that will happen real soon. So, appreciate your
support on it. Yeah. Thank you. Anyone else? All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. I. Eyes carry. Thank you very much. Kobe, we'll go to six.
Yes, sir. Thank you, mayor. uh council simp what I'm asking for uh is authorization to approve change orders within the contracted amount for the library project. Um so you know we knew from working with the contractor and when we took it out of their initial contract the electrical allocation they
bid was way more than needed as they got more information. So we cut that in half. Um there's I mean we think it's going to be even less doing the contractor and so we're going to have the electrician out there uh hopefully this week or next to finish their portion. Then we'll know that difference. So, uh, there are things coming. We found some substantial wood
rot in some of the interior of the windows once they started scraping and pulling back. And so, I'm just asking the ability to move money around and approve change doors within the contracted amount of $361,790. Anything a dollar above that, I will bring back for your approval.
Second. I have a motion second. Any questions or comments? From anyone? All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. All right, it's carry. Thank you very much. And we'll go to number seven. Okay, mayor. If everyone's comfortable
with it, we we can either do all right now Ablanc or one at a time. I'd like to continue these items if everybody's okay with that to either a workshop before our next meeting or during our next meeting. Which 7 through 10? 7 through 10. Motion to approve. Motion to continue.
To continue, too. Second. All right. There's been a motion and a second. Uh any questions? Many one. All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. All right I carry. Thank you very much.
Assuming we'll move on. If you will just record reflect that's 4C 78910 to be continued. All right. All right. We'll go to Mr. Wallace on the uh Is Mr. Wall still with us?
He's in the hallway. Hey, Chris. Yeah, he's I was back in his office. He's You want me to go get him? Um I'll go get him. Will you grab Can we go to Clay? Oh, no. No, we can't. We can do my public hearing if y'all want. Yeah, let's go ahead.
Take care of 5A. So, mayor, this is the second reading of public hearing for adoption for 2025 annexation 01, which is 2.08 acres on Quail Ridge Road. It is effectively the southern um and somewhat southwestern
border of a property already in the city. It is not part of the adjacent subdivision. We've gone through a number of survey hurdles um based on this property not being part of that planted subdivision, but we are now prepared for adoption. I need a motion to hold second reading and to adopt. So moved.
Second. All right. I have a motion second. Any questions, comments? Anyone? All in favor say I. I. I. I I I carry and I don't have Sumi to give me the ordinance. I'll make her give it to us
as soon as she comes back in. But this is an ordinance annexing to the territorial limits of the city of Phoenix Springs, Florida, certain property and redefining the boundary of the city of Phoenix Springs, Florida, so as to so as to include therein the property annexed herein in accordance with the voluntary annexation provisions
of Florida statute section 171.044 providing for severability, conflicts, and an effective date. Thank you so much. Come on, Mr. Chris. We're on. You want get me to give you a quick need to give you the ordinance number? Well, we'll put the number was already
the one advertised. I'm looking at the blank copyright. So, it'll be the next sequence previously. What's that? No problem. All right. Keep you waiting. Yeah. Well, we talked about
Yeah. Well, you know, a little slow presentation. Thought I had a couple minutes, but anyway, let's get through this. All right, this is a review of the final plans for the Circle Drive Lakeside Town Homes located in the old
hospital building. U consist of nine apartments and the structure to the north will remain a single family home with the parking in between the two. Uh if you
look at the plan that was provided, they provided sufficient parking on site and as was previously approved by the council prior to them submitting plans, they're uh going to make uh improvements
on Live Oak on the corner to add an additional four parking spaces that will be for public use. U will not be dedicated to this project. Um, and that is all at their expense.
So, what I'm looking for is approval of the final plan for the circle drive. So, moved. Second. All right. I have a motion. Second. Any questions? Question. Yeah. All right. Chris, on the landscape plan,
these might already be existing plants. I don't know. But, uh, it it shows Bradford pair. Um, and that is a species that the tree beautifification board has removed from the list of the approved list of trees. So, if you could look
into that, maybe they might be existing trees that they're just saving. I don't know. Yeah, Mr. N could address that, but I'm sure that's if if they're not existing, that's an easy change. Yeah. That we can make. Okay. Yeah. Uh, good evening, Council Mayor.
Uh all the big existing trees that are on site right now are all being preserved. So we're not cutting any big trees down at all. Okay. And uh that's what I'm talking Y already be there. Yes, sir. And so on our proposed landscape plan, we do meet uh the count
the city standards for those. But uh any of the giant trees that are out there now are all being preserved. Awesome. Thank you. Any other questions from the public? All right. Okay. Did we have a
motion? Okay. All right. All in favor say I. I. I. I. I. I. Eyes carry. All right. Thank you, councel. And I do ask your forgiveness for me being just a little bit ty getting in here. All right. That worked out good. All
right. This time we're going to open the floor for citizens comments. Uh we'll give you three minutes and please state your name and organization. Got one coming Sarah and then you follow him. Sorry. Mark Hamley citizen. You know they say
practice makes perfect. I must say this last July 4th parade and and and fireworks were spectacular here. They and I've been to Washington DC a number of times. Senator the Wash Memorial. It's inspiring. just expiring being in our city at the park. Watch that. I I'd
like to thank very much Sarah Commander and her group of volunteers. They did a great job for for the wonderful job they done. The city, fire department, police department. All the work really was spectacular. It was crowded as it should be July 4th. Thank you very much, Sarah. Yes, absolutely.
And I also understand yesterday was a very special day. This was the birthday of Sarah Commander. I wish you a very happy birthday. Happy birthday, Miss. All right, Miss, come on up. Well, I'd like to thank you for those kind words. Yes, I did have a birthday
yesterday. I had no idea I'd get this old. I, as the old man said, I'd probably taken better care of myself. Um, but I did want to come and thank each of you who were in the parade. I know Miss Amy was out of town. Um, she missed a good one. Um, I especially want to thank Todd
Beerbomb for coming that morning. Um, this year we had a lot of challenges. Um, my one male that I count on to do heavy lifting, Matt Douglas, had had open a heart surgery. He wasn't around. Um, um, Carolyn Mora,
who always helps with the parade. She has, you know, she's 93 years old. She was not able to help. um Angie Willoughby and her daughter Angie lost her mother-in-law that Wednesday, so they weren't there to help. So it turned out Friday morning it was
me, Carla Huan and um Julie Edwards to do all the decorating and putting out the garbage cans and that sort of thing. And Todd and his wife showed up like mana from heaven and and helped us. Um, and I appreciate you doing that because
now you know it takes a little work to do that. Uh, and I I I certainly appreciate uh what you did. Yes, ma'am. Um, I think it was one of our better ones. It didn't rain. Praise the Lord. Um, I think everything for the most part
went very well. Um, we do want to um, and I'm I'm speaking before we've had a meeting, but I I feel they all feel this way. We would like to do next year's it is the of course we've done this what 36 years it is the 250th anniversary of the
signing of the Declaration of Independence and uh I'll be 80 next year so it could be our last one. I don't know. Um we would like to work with the city. Um we
do have some concerns after this year um uh that I would like to address. I'd like to meet with Mr. Townsen and um um uh head of code enforcement um Chris Chris I should know that he was in my
department um and Chris and I would like also if Mr. Verb Bomb, if you could be in that meeting as well, so we could go over some things that we would like to make suggestions for next year. Um because we'd like to make it if we can
raise the money. H um we would like to make it our biggest and best ever. And we've gotten a lot of comments on the fireworks. And for those of you that want to know, those fireworks were $14,000.
uh we have to raise more than that of course to pay for um advertising. We do get reimbursed but for that from the TDC if they approve it um but we have to pay insurance and all kinds of stuff that's not just fireworks entertainment and
that sort of thing. So we're hoping that the public will join with us for this next year because it's it's got to be a special year people. 250 years of freedom is something to be celebrated by all of us. So hopefully we can raise more money than that. I'd love to raise
$20,000 and I would I've already got plans in my head for the finale and for things that we want to do at the uh pavilion. Um and so if I could uh make an appointment to uh meet with y'all, I'd like to do that
before we make further plans as to to what we're going to do if that's okay with y'all. And one other thing I'd like to bring up because it does say on the I would like to request to be on the agenda next time. Um I think this city uh needs to
honor two people that have passed away. Uh JW Adkissen who there wouldn't be a city if it wasn't for JW. We all pro you know I didn't grow up you know I've been here close to 60 years and he was an institution. Um, and I would like to
honor Robert Nelson for what he did for this community as well. So, if I could be on the next agenda to I have some ideas and some suggestions of some way that we could not only honor them, but in future uh when we have people like
that that have given so much to their to this community and and they pass away to be able to honor them as well. So, I'd like to be on your next agenda if that's appropriate. Sure. Yes, sir. in in what fashion are do you mean to honor them?
Well, um we've talked about at one point we I I talked with the city about um you know the tree that's downtown that is across from CCC Bank. The DBP actually planted that tree and it got huge and
Robert Nelson took it upon himself to research. And when I tell you he researched trees, he researched trees and um the city took the old one out and we bought the new one and put it in. I was thinking of putting something there.
Um but then I also uh have had come up with a thought if you look at the chiqua building um there are two kind of like planners on each side um that plan you know what if we started putting
like markers in those two um planners whatever you want to call them not put pl you know and and as we honor more people we could put more and more you could probably put five or six in each one of those. That's a a an idea
I've had. So, I'm open to any suggestions, but um I I just feel like we need to honor the people that gave their life to this town. JW Atkissson started the first um merchants association which has turned into the DBPA.
Um he uh Lord, he gave money to this city and and stood up for it and all. And Robert Nelson um just gave his life to making this city better. Um he could be a creducan. I'll be the first one to say it, but I loved him for it. He spoke
his mind, but he cared about this city. He cared about the people here. And there are others like um this lady sitting right there that that at some point we need to honor the work she's done to make this city a better a better
city. So, uh, it's just something I would like to discuss with y'all. I'd be glad to talk with each one of you individually, but I I've I've waited too long on this. I apologize. I I need to get this moving. So, if I could maybe be on the next agenda and say I will
welcome any of you to call me and talk to me about your ideas. Yeah. Okay. All right. I think we can get that done. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Thank you, Miss Sir. Todd, anyone else? Todd, didn't you bring up one time on Okay.
Yes, sir. A policy on how we can kind of formalize that. Okay. So, we definitely need to be thinking for the next meeting. All right. Then we'll close the floor for comments and we will move to the city manager evaluation
play. Quite easy. That's in your packet. You have the compiled evaluation sheet for the city manager. The council is required to do that per the employment agreement with Mr. Townson by July 1st of each year. So we'll reflect that as having been done
and presented. Mr. Towns and you received a copy of it. Yes. Okay. So unless the council wants to take any action in light of that, it's there for an update. The scores are entered. Mr. Yes. Go right ahead. Kobe, were you
satisfied with your results? Yes. Do you have any feedback for us? No, I think we all discussed it individually and everybody appreciate everyone's effort in that. That's that's what it was for. It was for us to understand, you know, where we're at, where I can do better. Um, and um to get one just like everyone else who works
here. So, I do appreciate all of y'all's intention in that. That's what I asked for. So, thank you. Well, good job. Appreciate that. All right. Any comments from the council? Okay. Uh, no action, Clay. No action needed.
All right, sir. Thank you very much. And then we will go to uh Miss Amy on the uh city mail. Oh, I wanted to bring this up because I just wanted to chat with everybody. I kind of uh talked it over with Kobe, but you
know, when we first met, our first meeting in May, we didn't come back until the first meeting in June because we skipped the Memorial Day holiday. So, we had quite a length of time. I had mail sitting in my FedEx sitting in my
mailbox unopened for all that time. And I was just curious, that's public record. So, I asked Kobe, I said, "Why didn't somebody open that up and scan it? That's public record. And what if it was some kind of time sensitive material
inside?" Um, and I just I want us all to talk about it because I told Kobe I said you should always your staff should whoever's in charge of the mail should be scanning that in or I mean I know when I first started uh on the city
council, somebody asked for something and Kobe called me and said, "Hey, can you can you give me all of this?" And it's like, "Why don't y'all have whatever it is that is needed?" And I here I was trying to go back and give him what he asked for.
Uh so it's the same kind of concept. It's all public record. So I'm not sure if anybody has a problem with his staff opening our mail. Mr. Mayor, and distributing it. There's nothing private in it, right? If anything comes in with my name on it,
feel free to open it. I agree on the public record part. So, and speaking of counciloman heaven, we talked about the process right now is all all mail goes through finance. Uh, except for certified mail, which we've now updated that we're finance and
mabber can get it. The clerk is the main person to go get it. 99% of certified mail return is returned from code enforcement. That's basically what it is. Um, but mail currently goes to finance. Finance if it's directed to a council member, the mayor or myself, it gets it gets given to y'all's mailbox, given to the mayor and me directly, and
they do not open it. uh anything else related to see they open it they see what it is and then they deviate out to the appropriate department. Um so I think call councilman have one. The question is does the council want someone opening their mail and recording it by record and then putting in your box and that person would be the clerk
or myself in an admin office. It wouldn't be just you regular staff member any staff member. It would be the clerk or myself. So that that's the question. The process I think is there is it's as council concerned about the public record um and if that's what you want to do or not. end of the day, it's your is
every each individual person's responsibility is your male. So, and I brought that I'd like to give it to the clerk because you guys should and I was going to ask Amy. So, so um and I think it was is everybody here able will always be reachable by phone within
24 hours. Yes, sir. Okay. So, we can always call them. They could make a discretion call. I have all my mail until just the last few weeks always open when I get it.
It's all been open and looked at. So that's kind of common around here. So uh but I would, you know, if I had a FedEx or if I had certified, I'd appreciate you letting me know right when it came in. Yeah. And that's the, you know, resolution 201815. That is anything to
do with other with government communications. We go through that process. clerk gets it, divvies it out to all the council members, the attorney, so forth. I don't know that I really want to get into the the one-offs because I mean, y'all get a pretty good bit of mail. Um, so I guess that's that's what I'm asking is is you want us
to open your mail or you don't. If you do, we'll create process that's streamlined, right? You'll open it or I'll open it, we will scan it in, we'll put it in your box, open, but that I don't want you I don't want anyone to show up and be like, "Oh, well, all my mail's open." I wouldn't think that's a violation. To
me, that's public service. I mean I mean it is all public record. There's nothing in there that's private. And if it's you or the clerk, then you're going to have discretion to know, hey, this is a I don't know why that's a lawsuit. It shouldn't have been delivered to her or whatever it is. Uh
to to be clear, not everything that comes in necessarily is public. Perceptively it could be but just if somebody sends something of private nature that has nothing to do with city business if it was not it's not whether it was received by the city so that it's
received in connection with city business and intended to memorialize formalize or otherwise perpetuate the communication of knowledge or information. So just because somebody sends you something here to the city does not automatically vest it to be a
public record is the content of the communication, not the form or where it's received or stored. Don't make my fruit cake public record. I just don't think anybody should be sending me personal mail here on behalf of the city uh mail.
That should never be for anybody. Well, it shouldn't be the case, but I just want to be clear. the first time somebody does get one of those opened and y'all say, "Well, I didn't want that." Just be aware. I mean, somebody could send you something there that is not in fact public record. Yeah. Well, there's always a chance of that. I
mean, if somebody doesn't know my personal address, but they know I'm on the city council and they send me something to me because they know it will arrive here and it's personal in nature and it's opened by someone else. Is that is that public record at that
point? No, it's still the nature of the record is what matters. But it's still what do you call it? Piece of personal mail that's been open. That's and basically you're waving that privilege or right by agreeing to this policy is what we're saying. Yeah. I'd say leave the policy like it
is. I in in six years I've never had an issue with someone trying to mail me something that was public record that should have gone and and been entered into public record. I mean I literally it's always junk. magazines.
I just leave it like it is. Well, then maybe perhaps can we give him direction though because I do not want to receive anything here that's not open by them and stand in as public records me personally. Well, each of you can make that decision
because you're all responsible for your own mail. If you're if each of you want to ask the city to archive and um catalog your mail before you open it, that's correct. If not, you're just taking that obligation onto yourself. That's your right as a council member.
So, this is an individual council decision. It well can be if you want it to be individual preference. Okay. Well, it sounds like to me some people want to keep it private. Some people don't. Well, it's not a matter of private. It's just a matter of whether you're going to have the city open your mail and catalog it for you or whether you want to do it
yourself. I prefer, my preference is the city does it because it's city business and if there's some action that you need to take and it doesn't come to you know it shouldn't have been addressed to me then somebody should take it because I only come here once every two weeks
or or you know for meetings when you call us or our routine meeting but I mean we can individual talk about more but it looks like councilman co and council he I'll get Raphael and he'll do that council Harrison Scott and be y'all's preference will accommodate your preference. Okay.
So when you say catalog Clay, do they catalog junk mail? No. Okay. Just just pertinent things and then pass it along to us. Yeah. There there's nothing official made to perpetuate knowledge or no none
of that applies to speak. Right. Right. Okay. Thank you. That's all I just I never get to say it unless we're sitting here in a public meeting. So I just wanted everybody to be aware. uh that that sat in the box for six weeks and it it wasn't important, but it could have
been. And that that's what raised my flag. And do note that we do have a resolution dealing with governmental communications received by anybody in the city. All right. You ready to move on? Yeah.
Mr. Coen. So, one of our most valuable resources right along with our staff is um our citizens, especially our citizens that have expertise in certain areas.
I talked about having an airport advisory board before and it was recommended that I put it on the agenda. Um, so we've got a probably over a half a dozen city committees. Um, some of
them it's been stopped, some of them's been picked up and continued again. I think uh for a while the um cemetery board was dormant and then started it back. Um I
understand based on prior comments that um there was a bad experience with the previous airport committee. And just because you have a bad experience uh like you know we've had with finance
directors and city managers you know that doesn't mean we eliminate that position. We try and learn from it and move on. We've got people in this community, pillars of this community that have spent their life as military
aviators and are now commercial airline pilots. And um they bring a lot of knowledge to the table. And just like the um planning commission with the county,
it's a it's a suggestion. The BCC doesn't have to take it. They can go 180 degrees or they can decide to go with it or they can send them back to do some more research on it. But with
this being a military-rich community uh and civilian airline pilots, I'd like to recommend that we at least start an aviation committee uh so that
we can get some subject matter experts to help give us some suggestions. And they're not going to be telling us what to do. It's going to be suggestions. uh the council doesn't have to take it, but at least we're hearing some
some knowledge from decades of experience of working with the Federal Aviation Administration, military. They know what air zones are. They know what we need.
And I'd like to make a motion that we stand it back up. Second. I have a motion second questions. Mr. Mayor, I'm not opposed to it, but I don't think now's the right time. I think we need there's too many projects
going on at the airport as we speak. And I think that Kobe needs to get his structure settled and resolved first and then a little bit later on bring it back. I'm not opposed to it. It's just I don't think that they need to get involved in the things that he's got going on right
now that have strict deadlines and funding obligations to them. After all that settled and set, then maybe bring it back up and look at how we would want to use them for anything in the future. Again, not against it. I just don't think time is right.
Um, we have the tree board, the planning board, we got all these boards and not a lot of money associated with them. Here we got the airport. We've got a ton of money, millions and millions of dollars going out there, projects going on. I think this would be the perfect time to
get the expertise because once all these projects are completed and finished, what's the sense in having the experts, everything's already done. It's too late at that point. So, I would be I I think it's a great idea.
Mr. May, go ahead. So when we when we consider committees, the things that I that I look at is what are we trying to solve for? What are we trying to accomplish? What is it that
we're we're needing um advisement on? All of the the current projects that are out there have all been approved and voted on by the council. We've had probably no less than 30 public meetings. Um and we've had
dedicated uh airport meetings on a regular basis where uh those experts could easily come and provide their expertise in an open public forum. Uh we've we've advertised we've been very transparent. We've discussed them at the dis and then said hey we need to
schedule this. So it's never been last minute. It's always been telegraphed ahead of time. Um, but I as someone that places people on these various committees that are referenced, I have to find people that are uh have
the time and I have to be cognizant of asking the the person that's on the planning board or the person that's on the CRA, etc., do they have time to dedicate? Um, I think we need to be respectful of the staff's time. This is
another This would be another committee. Again, I'm not sure what we're trying to solve for in in establishing the committee when all of the projects are in motion and have been approved by the council. So, we got staff time, we've got our our citizens time. Um I just I
don't see the function in it. Mr. Mayor, go ahead. Um, I would say that when these things come up for me that information for me to go to an expert and say, "Hey, what are your thoughts? Are we missing anything
is perfect." And then with all these projects going on, there's going to be multiple pro uh change orders. I can see that, you know, just because it looks like this today, there has been multiple change orders come with every project that we do. So I think it would be a
valuable contribution. That's what we have Garver and that's what we have bars for. They're actual aviation engineers that advise us on on actual aviation topics. So we have actual engineers. I understand that. But the people that are actually the pilots using the runway
and using our facilities and using uh the things that that that that new terminal is going to offer them. I there is a there's a value to it. I I think I think that's a great point to me. I think that's a great point from from the city's perspective.
Planes take off, planes land, planes get fuel, and planes go to a hanger. That's it. When it comes to the airport, well, what's all that what's all that meeting space that we put out there? I would disagree with that because there's a kitchen out there. There's supposed to be a catering. you know, if if a
corporate if we're going to attract corporate planes, they've got to be able to restock their supplies because they're going to another leg and they're going to have different customers and all that's covered under the basic operations that we have a city manager and an airport airport manager for and
staff for. I don't understand where we need advisement on how what to put the refrigerator out of the airport. Mayor, hang on. I just I just don't understand where where we need advisement. Okay. Go ahead. So, what you're saying is um as far as
the here and now and where our airport is right now, they don't they can't contribute any value. That's not what I'm saying. Okay. well, where they can contribute value and where I would like to believe
that this where this airport is is headed that we're going to be beyond way beyond general aviation. We've had discussions on how uh Destin airport is maxed out.
That's right. And the idea of having corporate and commercial airline traffic here, uh, the idea of having a regional airport is not far-fetched. That's right. I completely agree. So if you get people that are in the aviation
industry and have been for decades and decades and decades that fly in and out of these airports every day and have civilian military for 40 years, 20 years with the military, 20
years with civilian airline plus um I just believe that's a lot of knowledge that we could tap into. I'm I'm not dismissing it, but I'm just simply saying we're working as a city for the last several years on widening a runway, lengthening a runway, adding more hanger
space. That's okay. Improving uh the fuel farm, improving our terminal. I feel like as a city, we're taking all the steps to address anything that we might be advised, hey, we, you know, we need we need a better taxi way. We're
we're taking those steps already. Okay, mayor. Um, yeah, I mean I came on the council last March of 2024. So for 16 months, I mean straight, we have worked on this airport
uh acquiring these grants um worked with engineers the construction and now we're into more grants uh recently that all have deadlines. I mean, and and we have this thing moving
so well and it has been so slow as it is. Um, I've talked I I've spoken with with Andre out there. He he reaches out he he he reaches out to experts as it is. He's doing an excellent job. Um he
he reaches out around the country to various people to get input on the direction that this city is going. he feeds that information to Kobe and probably other council members as well. Um, so he's he's doing a great job for
us. Um, I just don't I kind of agree with with uh with Councilman Coners about the the timing of it. I can see a need for it. I can absolutely see a need for it somewhere in in the future, but these deadlines worry the life out of
me. uh getting these things done and meeting these job growth requirements uh creation of these 500 jobs um and and the more the more layers we add to decision making and all I I that really
deeply concerns me. We don't have to give any of this money back. We want to see this thing through. So that's my that's my big hesitation. I'm not against an advisory board at at the right time. I I don't think it's the time for to create a board that all of a
sudden now after all this work that got into it, you know, can cause delays uh with meetings and and and those types of things. And we don't I just don't feel like we have the
the I can't I don't think we can afford delays amongst ourselves and what we're and decisions we're making whether we put off something to the next meeting to decide something regarding the airport if it's if there's a grant involved. That's why we move forward last time. We all feel that pressure to not have
delays right now. Uh so that's kind of where where where I'm at on it at this particular time. I think there's a valuable use for it though. uh just I just don't I'm not comfortable with the timing right now. If we did approve it tonight, it would
take a minimum of six months or longer just to stand up this committee. Um and and the people need to be very closely handpicked and we need to really do our due diligence on getting
to uh getting the subject matter experts on our side. This isn't going to happen tomorrow, but if we approve it, then we've got an undetermined period of time
to stand it up and to get the right people in the right places. That's And if you don't want to approve it now, that's that's fine. Um, if I remember this correctly, and perhaps um Mr. Atkinson can help me.
There was an airport advisory committee back when we had directors of the airport and if we're going to have directors of the airport again, perhaps they would appoint an advisory committee to them and the director would bring it
here. When it was disbanded in the past, there were members of that committee who did not know who they reported to and it created confusion. So, you've got to decide, are they reporting to you?
And if they are, are you um disavowing whoever is going to be the director of the airport, if there is one, uh or if they're reporting to him, can you the director, can you trust him to appoint people that can advise him and maybe
help write their annual reports and their plans for the future and that kind of thing? and then that one person would come to you instead of having you hit from all directions. Uh that's a good point.
Anyone else? You want to make a motion? He already has. You have a second. Oh, you did make a motion. Yeah, there is a second. I'm sorry. That's right. Okay. All right. Well, all in favor say I. I. Nay. Nay. Yes. Right.
Nice car. Um, yeah, that's something you somebody can bring up later. Um, I'll be honest with you, it scares me in the middle of this construction. U to bring in a bunch of opinions, you know, because if we change our mind
on what we have begun now, I'm all for moving forward. Yeah, I am too. But anyway, well, we'll uh we'll leave it for a future date and see if that's something that we need to do. I think at the right time, like Mr.
Con said, I think it will be a great idea. Anyway, all right. At this time, we will go to Well, let me see that. Uh Toby, you got any more comments? Yes, sir. Just a few. Um, first continues
for donating a truckload of artificial plants, really nice artificial plants for the terminal. So, staff went and got those last week. I'll be send them a letter, but we do appreciate them doing that. Um, second, uh, we all spoke about I did engage CIRCAP. Circap is a Southeast
Rural Southeastern Rural Community Asset Project. They're a nonprofit organization. They're going to try to help us resolve our water loss issue. So, um, should be a free service. is a nonprofit. I'll verify that, but um brought them in to help us figure that problem out. So, we are working to
address to address that. Um next, the visitor center bathrooms, the lakeyard, those should be getting kicked off here soon. Spoke to Mr. Kellenburgger about that and those should be getting started here relatively soon. So, be on the lookout for that begin. Uh next, the tennis court lights are completed. So,
you you you'll see those. Um a note, I know Councilman Kos and I are talking about the lakeyard is open. The whole lakeyard's open to swimming. I've got to work with someone to help get the pylons up. We don't have the ability to get those up. Those are truly put in there like docking. So, we got to figure out
how to get those out. And then lastly, I've been spoke with Mr. Greg Krishon, who's also a member of the code review land use committee. And I've been talking with Councilman Harrison about the FDOT ditch that's on property 90 East. So, we I spoke with the state. Of course, the state gave us the, you know,
the old adjective. It's it's our problem. So, um, basically I want to make the council aware that if it's okay with everyone continue to pursue that and see what our options are on bringing a solution back to that, but it is a problem. It's causing a lot of issues downstream particularly uh in people's properties and settlement. So, just want
to make you aware that we're looking into that and we're going to continue to push forward with trying to find some sort of solution to that problem as long as everyone's okay. FO was acknowledging it was FDOT's problem. No, no. When I called, they said they sent to us said, "Well, we were done. It's it's a cities. We signed it off." Of course, I have not got anything. I've
got an email. They said that, but I've seen no agreement. Typically, we sign things and we assume responsibility of something, right? So, we'll see if we can find that or not. May. So, just just FYI, we are because the moment we touch that ditch, we'll get a notice. Yeah.
So, they're the ones that put it in. Yeah. So, just FYI, we're looking at that moving forward. So, that's it. Mayor, thank you. Thank you very much. Um I wanted to yeah just mention uh the Gary and I know the team there boss Adrian just recently
and uh she's longtime uh contributor to the county and the city for a lot of years. What did you just say? She passed away. Yeah. When it's been about a week ago July 4th. July 4th. Okay. I did not know then.
Yeah. But uh anyway, she you got bad weather last few years here. But anyway, um and I was just going to say Sarah that that was a great job out there on the fourth. Both the parade and the fireworks were just
uh excellent. Yeah, that's really good. So, thank you for that. And we will go to Dan for his comments. Any comments? um in general. Okay, first of all about opening up the entire lake for swimming.
Thank you, Kobe. That was first brought up to this council about two years ago and two two years later, here we are. Thank you. Right on time. Okay. So, um, one of the things that
when I get phone calls, I say I can't really do anything about it, but I'll bring it to the attention of the council and I'm just going to give you some things, some bullet points to think about, and if you want to make a comment now or wait till another meeting, that's okay, too. Um, I got
some phone calls about some confusion uh involving the cemetery and families able to uh being told that they can't do maintenance on their own family plots anymore. So, not true. Do I I know. So, I took that information
and I gave it to Kobe and Kobe got some phone calls I believe. So, you want to clear that up and tell us where we are on that? Yes, so I think there was just some miscommunications. Uh we spoke reached out to some of the individuals who had been told they couldn't informed him
they could uh looking and reviewing the resolutions and the ordinances and I've sent that to the city attorney. He responded back and like I told Councilman Coen we have a cemetery board meeting tomorrow. We're going to discuss a little further and I believe there's probably going to be some further conversation in the future with the council about how we manage the cemetery
and cut the grass. We're going to be changing some of that through through this reorg budget time. But there's a particular question about the perpetual care and what that means versus what I think everyone thinks it means versus the ordinance. So that'll be coming back. But uh we did people can allow are
allowed to cut their their plots and be my opinion of the council. I don't see why we would stop that. The more people want to help out and cut the grass the better to want to maintain their plot. So we will be talking about the Martin Cemetery Board a little more and I'm sure we'll have further conversations about that. The next thing was um citizens calling wondering to know
wondering if we pay a 1 cent sales tax for our waste management. Um how come Freeport and Paxton are on the same sheet of m music but the defunct springs it are we paying for
garbage service or not? So, um, I called and talked to, uh, Doug Rener with Waste Management and he said, "It is a different situation, but we are not paying for the citizens of Tiaak Springs
are not paying for uh, garbage service." And he said, as a matter of fact, he said Kobe and Clay both are wellversed on how that works. So, uh, so that the citizens will know, uh, and we're at a public meeting. Would you or Clay like
to explain this so that it would educate our citizens and why we're not in the same boat as Paxton or Freeport and why we're different? I'll make it as quick and easy as I can. We get a reimbursement for the county through an agreement. I know we're working on trying to update that agreement for the better part of about
seven and a half, eight years. But uh in terms of how much we actually do get out of the small county sir tax which is the 1 cent sales tax the county has allocated for solid waste collection the city is reimburseed that our citizens do not pay an additional rate above that
base rate that's funded by the city. Uh the city maintained its own solid waste collection service. It had its own garbage department of the city for many years. So the city did not have a contract with waste management. The county contracted its services out for many years. Paxton, of course, does not
have any avalorum tax of its own and fell under the county's broader franchise agreement through a merger doctrine that they entered into with the county to have waste management. Freeport for many years had a third party franchise issued to a company, most notably Deco, which was then bought
by Waste Management circa 2009 2010. And at that time, waste management took over Freeport's franchise. Freeport has its own franchise agreement and actually is in the exact same boat as the puni act in that they receive a reimbursement. The rate they receive a reimbursement at
is different because it has been ne it was renegotiated at the time of waste management taking over the day franchise whereas defunct was operating its own garbage department and just receiving a base rate from the county. So when we went out and decided to bid out garbage
and enter into a contract, we did so. But just because we pay waste management, we're still getting money from the county. Kobe's still been working diligently on getting the updated rates. Um I believe there was some traction on that. Hopefully that continues with the new county administrator.
Have a meeting on the 24th with the CFO to continue that convers. Okay. Um I was taking a morning walk last week and it is not uncommon to see city trucks on Crescent um right down there um on East Live Oak
just down uh just down the street from my house. you're like you're headed toward the lake and I've gotten in the habit of stopping and talking to the city uh city workers and it's seems like there's an entire line there that has
been fixed peace meal and they were running the camera through the through theundy old clay pipes and I said so what's going on and one of the guys was uh open enough to say well see for yourself and I walked in the
back of the truck and I was watching the camera go through the pipes and about 50% of the pipe was disintegrated. It was gone and the sewage was just going into wherever the aquifer. I don't know. And
um they were talking about uh I said, "Well, are you how are you going to fix it?" And they said, "Well, I don't think it's I don't really know. That's going to be a city manager job." Mhm. And so, um, they talked about the possibility of putting a sleeve through there. Now, Kobe and I had this
conversation, uh, before. So, this is no ambush. He knows exactly what the situation is. Um, so it seems like instead of doing constant peace meal, if we could get a plan and
uh get it all fixed right the first time instead of just putting a band-aid on a bad problem. Um, and you came up with a good idea. Would you mind sharing that? Yeah. So um update and it's uh so the
section you council was referring to is there the corner at the the intersection of Crescent and Live Oak. There is a manhole there and there's a small uh section of pipe from that manhole back north on Crescent. Uh there is a section in there that is missing. It's I don't
I'd say it's five six foot long. Um and so we've had issues over the last few months. We've been trying to figure out the problems and and lining and looking through all the lines to see where it's at. Our camera got fixed. That's how we now have the ability to go through and see it. And so that section of Crescent U, the utilities department is working
on transportation to schedule that to be done. That'll be done here in the next few weeks. We scheduled it because it's not a one day fix. It is cutting 18 inches worth of concrete in those old historic roads. We're going to do it. We're going to dig that section up, fully replace it, and then pour concrete back. So, it's going to take a couple
days to do it. the bigger line running down Live Oak from the corner to live oak to 11th that was Cameron uh and staff is looking at different options. One of the options is to line it. Um but right now there's not a bigger there's not a big enough problem in that line to cause any concern. There are some bales
that are cracked but they're not nothing to what we're going to replace. And so as we go through the sewer master plan hopefully next year that's going to identify a lot of these things. And in that, our engineers will tell us the appropriate course of action depending on, you know, cost and where we're at and when we get to it. Um, but, uh,
staff came and seen me about that and they came up with recommendations and what they'd like to do. And so, I agreed with them because, you know, they're the ones in the field doing it and they know what needs to be done. So, we do have a plan for it and hopefully the next few weeks they're going to be coordinating uh to get that done. Okay. Can I ask a question? Is there any
environmental issues? If you got a five or six foot section missing that's disintegrated and that's just leaking into the ground. Well, we found the problem. We're going to fix it. But not that's that's the thing. He said they
were scoping it. So they the scope got fixed. They started scoping it to figure out what it was. Kobe is the appropriate course of action to put the sleeve or the stint. No, we're going to we're going to fully replace this line. This section of line will be fully We'll dig it up, tear it all out, put in new line. But you're saying for multiple weeks it's been a
problem. Well, it just came we just we just came about it uh week and a half, two weeks ago. Uh Kobe inherited. No, I understand. I'm not trying to blame anybody. I'm just thinking Yeah. staff just got their camera back. So, as soon as they figured it out and Mike Harrove, our utility foreman, he
had the chance to camera and learn how to do all that in terms of videoing it like a movie. Um he he came to show me. And so, um we've seen it, we talked about it, we're coordinating to replace it. The biggest thing is that section of t that corner is going to be shut down for a few days. On top of that, it's not
asphalt. It's concrete and it's a foot and a half deep. So, it's going to take a lot of effort to dig it up. Have we told the public that it's going to be We will be impacted. When I met with them, we talked about they're going to give plenty of heads up of what we're doing, how long we shut down. Okay. Uh the next thing is when you look
at the city limits lines at Paxton and the city limit lines as uh in Freeport, you see these logical rhyme and reason linear lines that outline their city limits. And then
when you look at the city limits lines in the Funiac Springs, it looks like a paintball hit a wall. It's just, you know, all this spot zoning that's been going on for years and years and years. Um, does the council feel any need, and
this is just a question, to clean up and more have more definite, logical lines out uh defining our city limits? Does anybody feel the need to do that? We would love to expand them. We when when I first got elected,
uh, Councilman Mcnite pushed for expansion. The annexation laws within the state of Florida are such that people have to voluntarily request to be annexed in. So that the involuntary provisions are incredibly difficult.
Referenda, certain number of people have to vote to allow it is incredibly arduous process. We have engaged and so we have prior conversations in the past. Uh staff's engaged u economic development alliance director to kind of help with some of this information. We're starting to put
some stuff together on how we might pursue uh property owners and and what's a pro and a con to entering the city and stuff of that nature. But in terms of the lines and spot zoning, they are two separate things. That's zoning. This is the lines. The lines are dictated by the property. So, um I don't know. We have
very little we have any ability to square things off because it's about property lines and what you annex in. Have you heard anything about the samples that came back from the lake? Not yet. So, we have received our our regular water samples that we've done. Those all pass, but we are waiting for
the soil samples to come back. And we've already talked about guidelines for honoring people. That was on my list, too. That's it. Thank you. None, sir. Okay. Um, I won't be here for the next meeting, Mr. Mayor. I already had a previous out of town engagement. Okay.
However, I'll be back following me. Yes. I wanted to thank Sarah. Did she leave already? Miss Sarah, thank you and happy birthday. Um, and is there any update on when we're going to pave Twin Lakes Drive? We have not. We're still We'll reach out
make we have Denise reach out to the state, but we have not heard from him yet on the grant agreement. So, um, we'll reach out to them, but we are we're waiting on the state to to get with us. They have reached out about the million- dollar appropriations we received. Uh, but we're waiting to hear from D, uh, DOT on a grant agreement.
Okay. And the appropriations have, was that July 1? Yes. So, we have to have information all information submitted by September 30th for the grant agreement. Okay. Yeah. So, before we pave it, we're going to have the engineers and check out the infrastructure. Okay.
Yeah. They'll do a full design. Gotcha. Yep. Real quick, uh, congratulations on your evaluation without going into any details, but uh, we're we were happy, Kobe. I just want to congratulate you on
that. I appreciate that. And um, I definitely couldn't do it without y'all and definitely without staff. So staff's the reason whereas and I'm here and the reason we're doing as good as we are. So, well, you've got a big job and we appreciate the organ the restructuring that you're that we discussed tonight.
um you're doing without what you originally asked us for and that's somebody to help you directly and you you put a lot of work into and thought into this and and it's greatly appreciated in a tight budget uh year. So, thank you for that. We appreciate it. Um Michael and Jesse, I think
installed two speakers here somewhere, right? Correct. Um I believe so. Two additional speakers, I think. I don't know if they were working. Michael, I heard Michael say uh they had some some Yes, sir. There. There's one right there and one right there. Yes, sir. So, he they they did that, by
the way, Kobe Kobe's direction for for to to assist people here better. So, uh that's greatly appreciated. Thank you guys for doing that. Yes, ma'am. We will do we will do a better job of that. Thank you.
Can you hear me now? Thank you. There you go. Um And and lastly, um I realize it took a long time for us to go through that finance director thing tonight, but the
reason that I felt like we needed to do to go through that and for this lady's working 60 hours a week and has been for a long long time. And she lives out of town and she drives home every night. We want to keep her, right? even if we hire
a finance director, uh, she will still be here. You talk about a jam up finance department once that person gets in place and has this lady to help her. So, I I hate that it took so long for us to do that. I understand that it's probably frustrating for for the audience and and
people to watch, but it's necessary. We we feel like we have to move on with these things um because we value you, Danielle. Thank you. Do you plan on applying? But I don't plan on going anywhere either. So keep that. Well, thank you very much and we will
call this meeting ajourned. Is that the end of the table? tomato.