Ready? Okay, we are going to Yeah, I'm ready. God, I see there messed you up, didn't I? We're going to open the regular city council meeting and we have an invocation by pastor. Are you ready?
Are you ready? Thank you, mayor. Would you bow your heads with me, please? Heavenly Father, we pause to thank you for the gift of this day and the blessing of living in such a beautiful community. We are surrounded
by the evidence of your goodness in your hands. We thank you, Lord, for our city council members and all who serve in leadership. Grant them wisdom, understanding and courage to make decision that bring unity, justice and
prosperity to all. Let their service be guided by humility and compassion. We lift up our law enforcement officers who protect and preserve peace. Our educators who shape young minds and inspire hope. Our medical professionals
who bring healing and comfort. and the brave men and women of our military who defend our freedom. Strengthen and shield them all with your divine hand. Now Lord, we close with the words from your blessings in Numbers chapter 6. The
Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace and favor in Christ our Lord's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Prince. Bear, do
you lead us? Please join me with your hand over your heart. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Okay, this time we need a motion to approve the agenda. I'll make that motion. We have a second. Second motion by Miss Abear, second by Mr. Bagby
and Ray. Is there a anything to call the vote or we'll just do a regular roll call vote? I'm sorry. I I don't see the little machine. Do you aren't working? Ours.
Okay. In that case, we will have a roll call vote. Mr. Braden. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, that one passes unanimously.
Now we have a proclamation that I will get up and read. Making shrouds against breast cancer. Um, we are all unable to connect. So, oh well. He doesn't have his little
machine. Wonder where it went. Turn. She said the Wi-Fi is out. Turn on that. Sean Sean proclamation of the city of Destin American Cancer Society making strides
against breast cancer so breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women in the United States and is the second leading cause of death from cancer among women and whereas in 2025 the US will have an estimated 319,750
new cases of breast cancer diagnosed among women 42,680 women death because of the disease and more than four billion women have had a history of breast cancer in it and were living with
the disease and whereas the American Cancer Society has invested more than $600 million of breast cancer research grants during the past 30 years and whereas the making strides against breast cancer MSAPC program is a 3 to
five mile non-competitive walk that has collectively grown into the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation uniting communities with the shared determination in the fight to end breast cancer and where whereas there are more than 150 MSABC
events nationwide with more than 860,000 participants that have raised more than $45 million whereas the making strides against breast cancer program is uniting our community and raising money to help American Cancer Society find
breakthrough breast cancer research provide free information and support and help reduce breast cancer risk or allow early detection so that it may be more treatable. And whereas making strides against breast cancer on the Emerald
Coast envisions a future where our children no longer live with the threat of breast cancer and where everyone has a a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat and survive this disease.
And whereas by supporting the MSABC on the Emerald Coast movement, you help ensure the American Cancer Society can continue fighting for that same vision. Now, now therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Destin to hereby
proclaim and recognize the month of October as making strides against breast cancer month in Destin and encourage citizens to help save lives from breast cancer by decorating your business and neighborhoods in pink as part of the
movement and participate in the making strides against breast cancer of the Emerald Coast to be held at Northwest Florida State College in Nashville. on October the 18th, 2025 at 8 a.m. Father,
I will send bookmarks with event information, non-competitive walk run. Come out and join us on the 18th, a week from Saturday. So, coming up soon. Very good. This is one of the most noble causes that I think we or any of us have
ever been associated with the disease that needs to go away. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, we have item B. Item B is property
rights and freeboard requirements in FEMA flood zones. I think we have a presentation from Mr. Morgan. Yes. Uh Chadam Morgan, 339 Calhoun Avenue. Uh Mr. Dustin, if uh Gary Jarvis knew we had a voting mayor tonight, he
would be beside himself with jealousy. Um yes, he would. I'm speaking for myself, but I've also been asked to come up here and address you uh by my neighbors uh Miller Phillips, Mike Buckingham, and Justin Goff as they're also looking to build on
Calhoun Avenue. Uh a little backstory on how I got here. About two years ago, I engaged the city to build on my property, and I was informed I'd have to build at almost 14 feet elevation. Uh my current home sits at 9 1/2 ft and has
never flooded. It was built in 1962. It's been through a lot of storms. Uh the additional 4T made no sense to me and I decided to revisit it later. Uh which is why I'm here tonight. I do want to say during that process, the city staff was nothing but helpful and
courteous. Um, they're simply administering the codes that the city council has given them. Um, I'm asking you to change those codes tonight. And it's ironic because I'm fairly certain that it was one of my city councils that I was on that voted these codes into
place in the first place. But with LDC's, you don't always know what you're voting on because I sell food for a living. Some of y'all have construction experience. I certainly don't. And we don't know the issues and the implications of them until they are
brought up to us. And um FEMA sets their base flood elevations and establishes a minimum at what you can build at as a community and qualify for their flood insurance program. The state of Florida building code rejects that and adds an extra foot on top of what FEMA
recommends. The city of Destin adds an extra foot on top of what the state building code says. Um, so I have three different levels of government, each regulating my property and each level of government more restrictive than the
other. On principle alone, I think that's wrong. If the elevations are good enough for the federal government and if the elevations are good enough for the state government, I'd argue that they're good enough for Destin. It's principled conservative government. FEMA is essentially an insurance company, and
they're a really bad one at that. Last year, they lost $1.4 billion through their flood insurance program. It's socialized insurance, which is really just subsidizing repetitive loss properties, not new construction built to FEMA's own recommended elevations.
But it is the new construction paying the price by derisking the insurance company by incentivizing municipalities to require their residents to build to excessive elevations. The community rating system that the city of Destin participates in is a FEMA
program that trades property rights for insurance subsidies. Essentially, the more restrictive our zoning is, the cheaper our FEMA rates are. If you choose to leave the elevation requirements unchanged because of these subsidies, I'd ask where is it that you draw the line on restricting property
rights? Are we stuck at one foot? Because surely we could get more subsidies if we increase requirements and regulations, but that will only further erode property rights. A slight increase in flood insurance rates that are already subsidized by the American
taxpayer pales in comparison to the materials that are required to build to the extra elevations. New builds will never recover those savings that the extra requirements cost. And it might take a while, but through redevelopment, every lot in Destin will be a new build
at some point. There are four of us within a quarter of a mile all dealing with this at the same time. It's an issue that will continue to come up as the city goes forward. Uh, one other thing to note, I'm asking you to just mirror the code already in effect for
Calhoun mixeduse and South Harbor zoning districts. They are not required to build to the extra elevation requirements. They simply use the state's building codes. Please do that for the rest of the zoning districts in the city as well. Again, thank you for
our commitment to our city. This is a very thankless job. Uh but it means a lot to me that you all do it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Um anybody have any comments on the direction for this issue?
Yeah, I think we can all win here. I think uh Chad, Mr. Morgan stated the CRS requirements and and yes, it is a tradeoff. Uh we are currently a six and
one of the reasons that y'all passed that was to get us from a five to a six or I'm sorry seven to a six and then because that got us like a 100 points. So, I think the the solution is not
necessarily in changing the code, but there is a process that you can opt out that doesn't hurt the city because were we to change the code to allow that, at least I believe Michael told us today that we would lose 100 points on our
rating and then that would drop us down. And what dropping us down a level means is a 5% increase in everybody's insurance rates within the city. But I believe Kim told us that there is a mechanism that you and the other three
property owners can say we don't want to play in this game. Uh, and so we're going to permanently opt out and we understand we can never be covered, you know, through FEMA, through the federal insurance program. And y'all can pay
whatever flood insurance you or your banks or your families want to pay. So, Michael, I'm going to defer to you and Kim here for a minute to help explain this situation probably much better than
I so that he can see the path to what he wants to achieve without us punishing every single residential property owner in this town because I'm I'm not going to vote to raise people's insurance rates 5%. That's and you know
I want to help you but you know there's 14,300 other people that I want to help them too. So So what Mr. Chadam Morgan I don't know why I said Mr. Chadam that's weird. Um what he's asking for is relief from the
two-foot freeboard requirement which went into effect in March of 2018. Uh since that time, we have been a class 6 CRS community and as such uh folks that are covered or have flood insurance through the national program enjoy a 20%
discount on their flood insurance premiums. Um if we were to relax the standard to the Florida Building Code minimum, which is 1 foot, like like Mr. Bagby said, I spoke to the our CRS uh representative today on the phone. We
would lose about a 100 points. Currently, we're at 2,97 points, making us a class six. So, it would jeopardize our six, and we would be retrograded to a seven. Uh, the option that he was referring to is called a section 1316
where whereby a home uh can be made ineligible for coverage under a National Flood Insurance Program uh flood insurance policy. That letter uh comes directly from FEMA. The uh the uh process begins with the city making an
appeal to FEMA for consideration for a 1316. Um it does attach to the property's deed. It's a record that would be identified in any title search and it's uh forever until unless you want to appeal it at some point down the road,
but the home would have to be of course in compliance with local and state um standards. And Kim, if you had anything else to add. Unless there's questions. Questions? Anybody? Rodney,
thank you. Um, I I don't require flood insurance in my home. I don't have flood insurance. So, is that Are we talking about people that only require to have flood insurance? Yeah, this is a flood zone on the water
on the bay. Okay. And and I can add something to that, councelor Braden. Um if you have a mortgage that is federally backed, Fanny May, Freddy Mack, FHA, VA, any of those and you have an active mortgage on the home and the home is located within a
special flood hazard area, there's a federal requirement that you have to carry flood insurance on the home. The maximum you can cover for a single family residential structure is $250,000. Most mortgage companies will make you have a gap insurance for the replacement
value of the home. So, it's not only the FEMA insurance requirement that we're talking about. It's also the third-party insurance that you would have to acquire to fill the gap if you had a $5 or $600,000 home. But again, we're talking about people
that are in a flood zone. Absolutely. So we're we're not talking about the entire city of Destin 14,000 some odd residents. No sir, we have uh right now we have
probably 150 repetitive loss homes and every year we have to send out repetitive loss area letters to properties those properties and adjacent properties. This past year, we sent out 3,000 letters to people that uh either should have or could have flood
insurance coverage either on their town home, condo, or single family residential. So, you're that's what you're saying is there's 3,000 residents in this town that require flood insurance structures. Now, that could be condos as well. They don't have to necessarily be
full-time residents. They can be condos as well. Okay. All right. Thank you. That's all. Yeah. I just to highlight, I don't live on the water, but all my neighbors have flood insurance. We've chosen not to have flood insurance because we have to
buy private flood insurance because we're in the Cobra zone. So, there there are a lot of layers. I was just trying to keep it simple but of of this issue but there is a mechanism if they don't want to build and I understand why
because the cost of build up is more uh but there is a way for them to opt out of that also Kevin so it's from my understanding that um with 297 points there's multiple ways to earn points in the CRS system right so
we could potentially do other to still offset the 100 points that we might lose a way for them to opt out of that theoretically. Right. So, I guess I'll ask then that we get this brought back to us at a future meeting with the CRS system, ways to
gain points that will hopefully offset those points so we can see the full picture. Because if we can do that and we're not losing our class, then we can all still win, right? Yes. So, my motion will be to have that be brought back to us at a future meeting then. If that's a motion, I will second
it. Go ahead, Tori. Uh, the gentleman was just up here. What was his name? Morgan. I have a question for you. This section 1316, does that defeat the purpose of what you're trying to achieve? Does that hurt you in the building process? How
does that affect you or the builder in this situation? I mean, if you ever Well, you they can't hear you. Um, Council Member Guile, it it affects the property owner because they can no longer get subsidized FEMA flood insurance on their home ever again,
including if they sell it and it's not theirs anymore. So, if someone's going to sell their home and needs a mortgage and the mortgage, the lender requires insurance, they're going to have to either pay in cash for the home and not have a mortgage or obtain private insurance or self-insure.
Okay. Okay. I guess the part that confuses me and that I want to make sure I understand is according to the gentleman that just spoke, we're still within the he's still building within the FEMA limits. We just created higher limits based off FEMA. So I guess my
disconnect is if he's still within the FEMA limits, why does he have to file the 1316? He doesn't have to file the 1316 first of all, but that that issue has to do with our CRS rating. So, we have a certain amount of points that takes us
into a CRS rating that gives the residents a discount on their flood insurance. Okay. When when we change the twoft freeboard requirement, we will lose a certain number of points which will take us down a level in the CRS rating system which
means insurance may go up 5% for everybody. That's why to Kevin to council member Schmidt's point he said see if we can do something to offset the points we're losing to keep our CRS rating. I think it's clear as mud now. Thank you very much. Councelor Guile. In addition, we we keep
talking about CRS, but the city participates in the National Flood Insurance Program. And one of the major tenants of that program is that the community enforces the regulations. And so opting out with the 1316 is not really enforcing the regulations, per
se, even if it were just the Florida Building Code regulations as a minimum. Right. Right. I get that. I'm just saying. So, so my disconnect was that's RCS rating, but FEMA still has a requirement for them that they're
achieving that's outside of RCS CRS rating, but it still meets the FEMA rating. So, that's where I'm trying to understand. So, FEMA has requirements and if you exceed the requirements, which we are doing by having that two-foot freeboard requirement, we are exceeding what FEMA
says is the bare minimum. Since we're exceeding the minimum, becomes their standard now. Since we're exceeding the minimum, we get extra points, which raises our CRS rating. All right. If we cease to exceed it in that way, Council Member Schmidt is saying, "Let's find another way to make up for the
points we're losing so that our CRS rating remains the same." All right, I got you. Okay. And one one other thing, and I promise this will be the last thing, maybe, but the uh there are three levels as as Mr. Morgan said there's the FEMA minimum standard which is the lowest
floor will be at or above the base flood elevation. The Florida building code requires one foot above that and we do apply the Florida building code in all these types of situations. And then the city of Dest has elected another foot. So there's two foot of freeboard for
city, one foot of freeboard for Florida building code and then at the base flood elevation for FEMA's minimum requirements. All right. Any other questions? And the motion is to have
you look at if there is any other way to gain that 100 points back. That's what I heard. Correct. And I would also suggest um particularly in Mr. Morgan's situation, it's an existing home. And is there some point or some percentage that if you add past
that point, you have to come in or if you add 10% more to your existing home because it's, you know, to to raise in an existing home is kind of goofy. Is there a percentage that if you're under that percentage, you don't have to do that? There is.
And what might that be? It's when you get above the threshold around 50% that you have to come on into compliance with current codes and changing that threshold would cause us to lose our 100 points or have we even given that a thought?
We've given that a thought it and I think we'll come back with a response that addresses all of this. Okay. And that's what we're looking for. I think any more comments on the motion on the floor like to hear from Mr. Buckingham,
Mike Buckingham, 510 Calhoun. Thank you all. Um, I reached out to a couple of my insurance brokers. Um, I have a few pieces of land. Of course, I live in Calhoun where this issue is and a couple other my friends that it's affecting also. But it was pretty clear that the
agent said that the only person that gets obvious you go through your insurance agent to get your flood insurance from FEMA. And the only person that they could get uh an answer on who gets the 5% is the guy that's actually building this house up. If I build my
house up to let's say elevation 10 and my neighbor's sitting at seven, my neighbor don't get 5% discount. I do. So I I think if we look at the part of the neighborhood, it's going to be 100 years before everybody gets up to elevation 10. I just don't think it's fair to
require us to do that extra foot, especially when we're all trying to work with handicap as much as we are. Every foot you go up, you're getting 12 more foot of ramp. So you know, one foot is not a lot to to pull back because city
as a whole is not getting 5% discount. I understand the points, but I like what Kevin said. Is there, and Kim said, is there other ways that we can get the points without having to go here? So, I look forward to seeing you all next month on this. Thank you. Mike, how much is your flood insurance? Do you know? I'm sorry, sir. How much is flood insurance? Fill dirt.
Flood insurance. Oh. Oh, my flood insurance, you know, where I live in Calhoun. Mine's not that expensive. Mine's $900, I think. Yeah, for the year. It's not that expensive. That would increase. And I'm sitting at elevation nine and that would increase five 5%.
Well, it's it's my my understanding from my agents and I would love for y'all to check with y'alls. That's not my understanding. So, it's my understanding it's I get the 5% by raising my house. You don't if you're sitting next to me down here. Why would they going to give you a discount for me? That's what I was told. So, it is
worth checking into. Thank you. All right. Any other comments? All right. We will vote in that case. Yes. Kevin, yes. I will vote yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Okay, that one passes unanimously. Okay. Harbor and Waterways Board recommendation for Jetty Upgrades. Good evening, council. Uh John Stevens, vice chairman of the Destin Harbor and Waterways Board. Um, so we've been dealing with uh ongoing issues related to channel markers, lighting,
maintenance in the Destin East pass since 2021. Um, just last week a large vessel actually collided with the jetties. Nine years ago, uh, we had another accident where we lost two lives. Um, so we need to get this fixed.
Um, back on November 4th of 2024, uh, council made a motion to prioritize lighting on the jetties uh, first and then navigation lightings on the channel markers. uh through the past second. Uh to my knowledge, u there hasn't been an update or pro or or progress report on
this action. Um now I understand that Coast Guard's Eton team, they usually handle the maintenance and repairs regionally and then what they do is they pretty much u focus on multiple areas at once when they do this. Um this year they did reposition buoys one and two to the deeper part of the eBol uh which
improved the navigation, but it seems they didn't get the memo about the rest of our concerns. Um those concerns remain which are uh repairing um and up upgrading the east pass marker. Um installing a new day marker at the end of the west jetty since the current one is damaged. Um adding lighting to all
existing nun and can buoys and keeping buoys one and two where they are now and adding illumination to them. Uh for a city that calls itself worldclass fishing community, our current entrance conditions are far below standard. If you look over to Orange Beach meets uh
their entrance is well lit up. uh it's easy to navigate and that's exactly the level of safety and professionalism we should be aiming for in Destin. Um so the Harbor Waterways Board we recommended a letter that's now before um you guys and once it gets approved it'll get sent to uh Representative Jenn
uh Jimmy Patronis asking for a support uh to improve safety and navigation through the East Pass. Appreciate your time and I'm here to answer any questions. Go ahead. Hey John. Um, so what we're looking at right now is like maybe a quarter of
what we needed done was done. So there's so much more that needs to be addressed. And they do did they not get the memo literally or you're like thinking that they were prioritizing and we didn't get that priority? I honestly don't know. I have no contact with uh Coast Guard's Eton team, but
like I said, that was one thing that we noticed that they moved and we were hoping that they were going to address the other stuff, but they didn't. Okay. Well, I look forward to getting the letter signed into Mr. Petronis. Thank you. Mhm. Mr. Yes, sir. Do we need action for you to do this letter?
I don't think it's necessary, but I would suggest that we also send letters to our senators, Miss Moody and Mr. Scott. You want to throw that in there? Yes. Somebody made a motion. I didn't think there was no motion, but I'll make a
motion to send this letter with additional representatives. I'll second that. Yep. Perfect. And that's our to our our state senators also, right? At the federal level. State. Yes. Senators. Yes. All right. Any discussion on the motion? All right. Mr. Braden.
Yes. Mr. Trener. Yes. Yes. Yes. I vote yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, that passes unanimously. Now we're in the public comment section, and this is for speakers who want to
comment about something that's not on a public hearing. And it appears we have nothing on a public hearing. So we'll start on three minutes. Yeah, it it has a threeminut time. They'll time you. So if you guys want to
go ahead, gentle sir, you could push the red. Yeah, good evening. I'm Bob Schmidt, father Kevin. What's your address? 833 Calair Drive, Dest Florida.
Live on that lake that you guys are still working with. But anyway, thanks for the time. First of all, I want to just tell you guys the sacrifices that you do to for this community. I know it's a thankless job just like Chadam said, so I can only imagine the other
sacrifices I see in Kevin's life, the sacrifices that takes place away from family and kids. So, thank you all very much. I want to bring up one thing that one is a request and the other is a question. As you as you all know in light of the
past several weeks that's taken place in this country, there's been a a change in the mindset in the communities of throughout this country. And I would like to present to you guys to uh take a serious consideration in putting up a
ichkbas on every sign in the city of Destin. Now an ichkas is a Greek word for fish and we pride ourselves in a city of faith. We pride oursself as the luckiest
fishing village in Destin. So in light of like I said it's taken place in this country and how people are standing up for faith, freedom and family, I think it would be nice to see an ickbas put on
a signs when you come into destin like the big signs of lucky v uh luckiest uh village in in the world uh park and recreation signs just to have the fish logo looks similar something like us
and by doing so I think it would establish two things. It tells the community of who we are and what we stand for and it tells all the visitors that come into this city what we truly believe in. Thank you.
Thank you sir. No, you got to push the button. My name is Robert Clifford. I live in Crystal Beach neighborhood here in Dest. My wife Cherry and I need an address. Oh, address is 73 Barracuda Street. My wife Cherry and I have lived here uh for
7 years. Uh we have a house there and a house that we just completed in the same neighborhood at 74 Barracuda. And uh we have a couple rentals and um and we those are short-term and long-term. And the reason I'm here is to to raise awareness about what's going on in
Crystal Beach, and also try to garner some help from the city council. Um, Crystal Beach, a mixed neighborhood, short-term renters, vacation homes, owner occupied uh, properties. In our opinion, it's a very nice, pleasant place. It's got a certain feel to it, a certain energy. We love it. That's why
we just built the house there over the last two years and plan to stay there. Um, it's got a res residential field, coastal properties, a lot of greenery, nice quiet streets, and um, for all that you know about all the little picket fences that everybody knows about there. Everybody in Texas and Mississippi talks
about them all the time. Um, as with many tourist popular communities, uh, the character of this place has been changing. And, um, we've noticed that, you know, a lot of the the properties were were sold off or they were rebuilt in the past years. some six-bedroom houses, mostly vacation rentals and um
owner occupied places were built and that was pretty much in the character of the neighborhood. But this has drastically and rapidly changed recently. Very, very quickly, what's happening now is corporate entities are coming in and almost every building in there is now corporate. What we're
seeing are massive commercial structures that are built just to maximize rental volume and income. and they're combined with what I describe as a Walmart style parking lot that's completely distasteful, nonfunctional, and unsafe. Even million-dollar homes now are being
bought, ripped down, and these monsters are being built on. Greenery and trees are removed. Structures push and go beyond all limits. And whatever they can push through is implemented either with your permission or without. Small streets are overrun, utilities are tapped out. The visual beauty of this
neighborhood is disappearing. And it's rapidly becoming a place where no one's going to want to live and no one's going to want to live near it. We know that. We've been living there. A lot of people here tonight also live there. And one of the worst parts is the city is a little bit complicit in this. The lack of
direction in the LDC has been a big problem. The failure to notify people. I've never lived in a community where I could have something built next door to me where the permit didn't have to tell me it was put out, where the building could be built without my my knowing about it at all. A house was just built
adjacent to our property. Never knew there was a permit because there's no notification. Every city I've ever lived in, you'd have to at least notify your next door neighbor that a structure was being built. Not here. They just show up. We just finished our driveway in our new house and right behind us a house is
being built that we never even knew about. And it's going to definitely change what's going on for our property. The staff is somewhat confused. The residents are confused. We're getting stepped on and stepped over by developers. And in the meantime, this neighborhood, which is an integral part
of Destin, is just getting destroyed. So, we've seen this in communities across Florida and around the world. Everybody reads about this in the paper, Santorini, Mkos, places like that. But for us, what we really want to do is ask if the city council will join us in
fighting to fix this. We don't have a lot of time. The neighborhood is changing so fast that it pretty soon it's going to tip over an edge where we can't pull it back. And this place is not going to look at all what it's ever looked like to those of you who have lived there previously or know about it.
So I'd like to ask a few things for the city to consider. Number one, consider a moratorum on structures built in Crystal Beach over six bedrooms until a time that we can look at this closely, figure out what the impact is, and make better guidelines. Number two, immediately make
a rule that anytime you put in a building permit, either everybody with an adjacent property or within 500 ft has to be notified that the permit came in so they have a chance to look at it before it just gets rushed through the 30-day process and construction starts. Um, third, I'd like to to have the city
really push to get the LDC clarified. So many parts of it are not clear. So many parts are misinterpreted. I I can give you endless examples where it just doesn't work. and and even if we did it as an interim inter interim item, we need to get that in place so that everybody knows what they're dealing
with. And then I'd really also like to have a have a resident committee from neighborhoods. I mean any neighborhood that want to get involved at least from Crystal Beach, some kind of an advisory committee of residents where we can bring these issues to you and help in the thought process of what's going on.
Um I know that without rapid attention to this, things are going to go downhill fast because they are. And if you want to see some serious examples, I can show you stuff that'll curl your hair. There's things in our neighborhood, might be beautiful things in New York City, but if you had them next door to your house, and whatever neighborhood
you lived in, you wouldn't want to live there. And I'd be happy to bring that information to you at any time, but we really are asking you to come help us with this in any way that you possibly can. Thank you. I think we share your concerns. Yeah, I appreciate your time and effort. Thank you. Okay,
next. Good evening. My name is Janet Mallaloy. I live at 76 Barracuda Street. There's two things I really want to discuss with you tonight. I'll be brief. Uh about seven years ago, my husband came and
presented to you about uh pickle ball courts in the city of Dest. And I want to thank this council and the mayor of city for finally providing us with pickle ball courts in Destin. So, thank
you very much. I look forward as an avid player. I look forward to using them when they're finished. Secondly, I'm here sort of to piggyback on Bob Clifford's pull that down. You don't understand. Well, I feel like Thank you. Thank you. I'm not I'm not
quite as tall. Um I want to piggyback a little bit on what Bob Clifford said. There are there are several people from my neighborhood here. We're really concerned about the growth, the enormous resurgence of these multiple dwelling homes that are being built in our
neighborhood. I live in a two-bedroom, two bath cottage on Barracuda Street. I don't want to have a a 10 sto 10 bedroomedroom, 10 bath home behind me, which is what's going to happen with parking for 10 cars. I mean,
I don't feel that it's it's doing a disservice to our neighborhood. It it's a unique area, Crystal Beach, and I want to keep it. And I think sometimes people forget that there are people that live there year round. It's not just a rental place. short-term rentals. People live
there and and I'm one of those people along with others that are here. So, I just wanted to let you know that um we're the people that live here. We we're the people that work here. We're the people that um that um pay taxes
here and we're the people that vote here. So, I hope you take this into consideration when you're dealing with people who are building these places who will never even come here. They won't come here. They're just building these big huge multi-dwelling units and we're
the ones that are going to be disrupted. So, thank you for my voice. Let me hear my Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Anybody else? If I may, I'm sorry. If you I just kind of tie in just what
they're saying here. Excuse me. Council member members, thanks for having me here. My name is John Dyer. I live at 71 Barracuda Street. I'm neighbors with all these people and have been for many years. Um, talking about
the building, the one they're talking about is an extreme thing. It it joins my uh be my southeast corner of my property. It is a vertical thing, three stories
high with a balcony on top of it with railings all the way around it. An elevator goes up to it. They built a monstrous slide arrangement out of concrete which was the city council or not the city came along after they built it
after it was permitted by somebody and forced them to tear it down because it was about 4 feet over the six-foot fence. My neighbor's six-foot fence. So they're over there. They've been tearing it down for at least five days now. hammers, drills, removing this great big
concrete structure that never should have been there to begin with. So, how that got passed, how it got built, I mean, I watched them build it. I said, "Well, they must have permission to do this." Well, somewhere along the line, they didn't because now they're tearing it
down. But this thing has got 34 windows on the north side alone. It's just the north elevation. I don't know what the other sides are. a lot. I understand they people have a right to build. This is an LLC, by the way, out
of Texas. They're also building the one directly behind Janet's house. They came in, took a twostory, two and a half story house down. They right after they bought the property, the thing is going up. The one
behind us is 11 bad 11 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms. It's a big one. The whole front, of course, is paved to the street. The building is built within five feet of the property fence. Concrete is flying into my neighbor's
yard, and he said, "If I find any of it in my yard, it's going to end up in your pool." So, they agreed to come over and clean it up. You know, it's it's hard when precedent gets set on the size of buildings or the the stories, whatever it is, to say,
"Well, you built this, but you can't build that." These things are ridiculous. I mean, I'm looking at a wall of white and glass from my corner of my property. I I don't know. I don't know how that
gets through. And the slide thing, I mean, that that's I don't know how that happened, but somebody should go over look at that one. It's an apartment complex in a sense, as Bob might have said. It's got a railing around the top that somebody can jump
off on the floor. You have to come. Oh, you have to. That's my wife. The whole top is one big top roof, flat roof with railings all the way around it with lights on top of that. So, you've got 30 plus, it's all
10ft ceilings at least. 30 plus feet of elevation. And then you have an open balcony on that which is going to be party central. You all ought to look at that before you off, you know, issue any more permits like that. I don't know what the one
they're building behind Janet is, but it's going to be terrible. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. How y'all doing tonight? Um, my name is Josh Prior. the general manager for a short-term rental uh company here in Destin 102
Highway 98 East 10002 Highway 98 East and uh I've had a lot of my owners ask me about the short-term rental ordinance. Um, so that's the reason I'm up here today to
talk to you guys or ask you the questions that I've been uh asked and called the city about and not I didn't get any answers um for the short-term rental ordinance.
Where is the money going towards that you guys are collecting from the is there a place that I can go to look for that? Yeah. Um Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um the other question is is it uh
being are the hotels being asked to do the same thing to pay that? Um that's pretty much it though. I believe they are, but the city manager or the city attorney can answer those questions for you. Awesome. Thank you. And thank you guys.
Thank you. Appreciate it. No, I just have one thing to say. I'm Cherry Clifford. I live at 73 Barracuda. The reason this is so urgent for us is the builder of this first house on Cobia Street that we're talking about told me personally that they were doing four
more in our neighborhood and they've already started on the second one. So that's that's why time is of the essence. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Too late. I'll keep it short and sweet. Um I just My name is Reagan Gollightly. Um and I'm
here um your address uh 227 Twin Lakes Lane and I'm here to show my support for the purchase of the land at 446 Calhoun that's on the current agenda. The purchase of this property that shares a
boundary with the city park which is Threadgill Park. It is a city-owned park, but is leased to Destin Little League seven months out of the year. This property could be used for multiple purposes that would enhance the park and its accommodations. And I just want to show my support for
it. Thank you. All right. Do we have anybody left? Ditto. [Laughter] Yeah, but um here to Noah Shadkin 1260 Emerald Bay Drive. Um here to support
the purchase of the parking area by Destin Little League. It's something that I think we really need. I don't know if any of you come out there regularly, but there's hundreds of families that go on a regular basis and parking is really important to the baseball, you know, and it's safer for
the kids and being able to walk across and I think it's something that really really adds to the community and it's something we need. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that looks like everyone. So, we will move to one more
one more. Great. almost made it. Come on. To uh piggy back on Bob Clifford's comments, um Lance Silky. I'm at 87 Stingray Street. Um the house they're referring to is just just uh a little
south of south of my home. And one of the things that concerns me um as we're building these very very large homes is when you put that parking lot in front of this house. I think the particular house here is going to be suitable for
10 or 11 cars. And what we see I see kids walking down this street every day going to the beach and oftentimes they're running ahead of mom and dad. And it's happened, you know, it's happened today um on houses that are smaller, but you have 11 cars parked in
this driveway. I can see a four-year-old or 2-year-old running in front of this and a car backing out inadvertently and the worst thing happens. So, I I realize it's it's tough. You have people who want to invest in the community. I get it. That that's wonderful thing, but
there needs to be some some reasonable restrictions about how we do this. So, understand that, you know, taking action today is probably not going to happen, but please keep in mind that some of the dangers that occur when these these big
houses are built with 11 cars sitting in a driveway and at the particular example is the driveway has a has a car over a car. So, they approved 11 cars when only 10 cars will fit. But I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. All right. will close the public comments sections and we need a motion on consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion?
Mr. Schmidt? Yes. Tori? Yes. I vote yes. Yes. I vote yes. But I did have a question that I wasn't quick enough. Oh, Crystal was going to change where the
money was coming from for the pause contract. So, can she do that when she can she can do that? I I'll vote yes, but I want to hear where where it's being taken from, where that 7,000 is being taken. Yes. Initially, uh in this agenda item,
we proposed um an appropriation from fund balance, but at a certain request today, uh we'll be reclassifying that to city manager contingency account instead. FYI. Yeah. Thank you.
Okay. So, Sandy, your vote. Traml. Yes. Yes. All right. That one passes. City manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pertim. Uh, item 4 A is in regards to the special
magistrate services. We did an RFP 25509. We had one respondent, Miss Emily Rogers. uh she certainly met the qualifications for that for filling that position. So we would recommend we enter a an agreement with Miss Rogers to provide those services for our code
enforcement hearings. Um with that said, we will keep the existing contract in place with the current magistrate to serve as a backup in the event Miss Rogers is unable to attend a a hearing. All right. Thank you. We need a motion on
contract. I move that the city council accept Emily Rogers proposal and approve her contract for special magistrate services. All right, we have a second. Second motion in a second. Any discussion, Mr. Braden?
Yes. Trim Williams. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That one passes unanimously. Thank you, council. Item 4B is uh the Matty Cali outfall project. Uh this is
to approve the RFP to put that project on the street. If you recall, we've got a million-doll appropriation from the state to build this. Uh it is designed and ready to go. So, we're just looking for your approval tonight to uh publish and advertise this RFP.
I guess we'll make a motion to to um approve RFP 25-13-PW for Matty Kelly artfall outfall project and go out for bid. All right, we have a second. I'll second that. Second
motion to second. Any discussion? Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I vote yes. Yes. Yes. All right, that one passes unanimously. Thank you, council. The next item is 4C.
This is from our public works. This is for the milling, reservicing, and restriping of selected roadways. This is batch one from our authorization that uh was approved in our budget. Um these are uh part and parcel of our renewal and
replacement schedule. Uh this is about $1.5 million worth of projects. It includes uh Noryga Road, Magnolia Drive, Lagoon Drive, Chalkaw Drive, Harbor Lane, Juniper Street, Mar Street, Evergreen, Primrose, and Oander Avenue.
So, we would ask your approval. Okay, we need a motion on those projects. I'll I'll move to authorize a city manager to issue is issue purchase orders to H&T Contractors LLC, 14 streets identified. I don't know why
that's part of the motion, but I'll second that. All right. Any discussion on the issue? I see no discussion and I'll call the vote. Uh, Mr. Schmidt. Yes. Tori.
Yes. I vote yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Passes unanimously. Thank you, Councilman. Next item is 4 D. This is in regard to the F FRS social security questionnaire results. Um at
the last meeting we were asked to poll our um employees through a survey um and asked two questions. Would you enroll in FRS and Social Security where if it were offered? And two, should FRS and Social Security be offered as an option to city
employees? Prior to publishing that survey, um we held um some information sessions including representatives from our thrift plan, representative from Florida retirement system and rep
representatives from social security. We held two different sessions of each to ensure that everybody within the city had the opportunity to participate. We had some very good participation and interaction during those sessions. Uh after that we published the um survey
for one week. It was on survey monkey and it was emailed to each city employee. And again uh question one was would you enroll in FRS and social security as a city employee were it offered. Uh we had
83 respondents. 67 or 80 uh just over 80% said they would. 16 just under 20% said they would not. The second question in that poll was regardless of whether you would participate or not should Florida
retirement system and social security be offered as an option to city of destined employees again there were 83 respondents 81 um employees or 97.5% said yes and two employees or just two
and a half% said no. So that's the results of the um survey you ask us to publish and put out. So it's there for whatever action you choose to take. All right, council comments, motions. I I just have a question. How many
employees do we have? 115 full and part-time. Okay. Thank you. Parttime not eligible, right? That's right. That's correct. We we we published it citywide. So those that
okay may have participated but they currently part-time already are in social security because they don't qualify for thrift plan. So okay all right thank you. Is there a motion because I can't get my
computer to find out. Is there information council's discretion? Right. Um, we now have the report that we asked to give us the uh feeling of what the employees think. It's pretty overwhelming that they would like the
opportunity to participate. So, now we're at the point of uh going forward with that. And I think there's a couple of options. A motion to rescend the previous action
of the council can be made by anyone who was on the prevailing side and the absent members are considered to have been on the prevailing side under that motion to resend. So, you know, we'll entertain a motion to resend the
previous action which was to not make FRS available. I'll make that motion. Mr. Destin, you and I were on the losing side. Yeah. Mr. Den, may I clarify? Yes. According to your uh policy, the first
motion needs to be motion to consider recession. And if that motion No, he said motion to resend. This one is a motion to consider recision first and then if that passes then uh you can make a motion to resend and that will be on the next agenda.
A formal motion to resend. Okay. Now the motion. So, the first one is the motion to consider recision. Yep. I I I'm afraid I disagree slightly with that. It says a motion to resend may be
made and if you make a motion to resend, then it would be put back on. I don't think you need a motion to reconsider and a motion to resend. [Music] But in any event, the motion to resend, all of us that did not make that meeting, that would be Mr. Braden and
myself are considered to be on the prevailing side. So, you know, my interpretation of that and I'll let the city attorney give her opinion is that uh motion could be made by either Mr. Braden or myself or one of the people
that was on the prevailing side. Agreed. So, so it's basically anybody except for council member Bagby and council member Traml, I believe. That's exactly right. I would entertain a motion.
I'll make that motion, mayor. Well, there's two concern motion to resend to resend and I will second that motion. Discussion. Yeah. Just for clarity, we're mo making a motion to put it on the next agenda. Right.
That's where it'll roll to, I think. And and just to be clear, you're going to then have that motion on the next agenda, but you still if if you do change the vote and decide to go with FRS, there's still going to be two public hearings with an ordinance. So, this will be discussed multiple additional times.
That's correct. And can I also clarify offering the staff FRS means that the city would incur an annual cost. What is it, Crystal? to help make sure those
employees that want to have FRS, which it seems like that's the direction they want to go to take care of our citiz our city staff, we the the city budget would give up the money that has to match. And what is that amount on a yearly basis?
So the the difference between what we're in now if we go to into FRS plus social security the difference is 480,000 a year if all full-time staff join. Uh looks like we have about uh the survey
showed that 80% would join. So we're at about $384,000 a year out of a $60 million a year budget. Okay. Thank you. I I can't support it. Uh I respect our
staff. I think for nearly 5 years since I've been up here, I've asked, I've given, I've helped. Raises, cost of living, whatever we can do to potentially help these staff members, we've done it. Um but unfortunately, I think this was done
the wrong way. And I can't I can't add that additional cost of the citizens. um in my experience and the questions were asked and and just because we didn't like the answers that were given the first time. When you restate a question to somebody and make it sound a little
bit differently, you're going to get a different answer as well. So, um I do respect our staff, but I can't do this to the uh taxpayers of the city. Mr. Giles, any comment? No, sir. council.
Um I had a meeting, leadership meeting with um almost 40 staff members about eight days ago and I was on the no, we're not going to do this, we're not going to pay for that. But after talking to the staff and many of them been with
the city maybe three or four years, I felt like they were not well represented and I wasn't I didn't understand what we weren't doing for them at that time. And I feel like it's not a cost to our taxpayers
to get them staff members that we train and they stay because we're taking care of them. Because right now we're going through some staff members because we don't have the benefits that other cities do. We're training people and then they're leaving and going to
another city that does have options that takes care of them monetarily and benefit-wise. So, I feel like in the long run, that three or $400,000 we have to spend every year to not have to retrain people because you're spending that much money when you're hiring and
retraining and then you're losing time from the staff that are waiting because this person's not trained and they're not and they've got to help them train. Um, I personally feel like this is something we need to do so we can continue to draw in the best and the
brightest and keep the best and the brightest and take care of our staff that's here and make good on a promise that we want them to stay and we want them to have benefits that make it worth them staying. So, I will change my vote. Mr. Magie,
yeah, I think everybody knows how how I feel. Give them the option. you know, we're not forcing them to go one way or the other, but we we they deserve the ability to choose their own path. We we can't have one of our prioritized
strategic goals as offer livable wages and benefits to attract and maintain a high caliber qualified staff and not trust them to do what's best for them and their families individually. I do
have one question because now I'm a little confused on whether we're voting to to bring back a motion to rescend or we're voting on a motion to resend and then which means what's coming at the next meeting the motion to resend or are
we bringing back the u uh ordinance I'm sorry at the next meeting it should be the vote on the motion to resend whether you're actually going to resend okay and I know for some reason this time of the year all and I'm the a big
violator because I won't be here at the next meeting and I just came back from 10 days away but uh I don't know everybody's personal schedule but I'd like for all of us or at least six of the seven of us to be here so that we don't get into this
process of well we had two four and three against and now we got to go back through this process again in a recision Are we going to have six or six people here next time? I mean, I don't have to be here, but if two other people are
going to be out, I would prefer us not to have four people deciding the the future of our staff's fate. I'm just uh the only absences I'm aware of for the next meeting are council member Bagby and Mayor Bobby Wagner. Is anybody else? You're gone, Teresa. Yep. Okay.
I won't be back till the second. So then we would have five back back into probably dangerous territory again. The motion can it include that it be on the next meeting in which seven council members are you could do that.
I would say six or more because something's going to come somebody will get sick or have a kid get sick. So I would just say six if we could. Okay. The motion maker Mr. Braden will you modify to say the next meeting we're six people? Correct. Yes sir I will. Is that normal to pick and choose how many council
members are at a meeting to decide upon making votes for things? Is that like normal? We can just start saying, "Hey, only want to talk about this thing when Miss Traml's not here or Mr. Brain's not here." Is this coming from the same person at last meeting and said, "Let's just spend $400,000 of taxpayers money and let's
figure it out later on on the piece of property for parking lot." Come on. I mean, this is council. Council going to do Absolutely. I think we're going to talk about that in a couple items, too, but that might have been me. I'm just curious, is it normal to pick and choose when things come to it? It is not normal. Okay. Uh question.
But I will say this, we because and we can do this all year long. We can have five people or four people make the decision because that's a quorum and then we can come back to the next meeting when the three people that were absent that disagree with that decision make a motion to resend and we can just
keep kicking this can. I would rather us be honest up front be honest upfront ha have have this decided at a meeting where there is a super majority uh present and stop kicking the can because it's not helping us with the
staff and it's not helping us with with anything to be honest with you. But if we want to do it when there's four people here because I'll miss the next one and if if we decide to tell the staff no again, I'll make the motion to resend at the meeting following that.
But so I mean it we we just need to to treat Yeah, it is not normal though. You're you're absolutely correct. Now what is normal is we could ask that it be put on the second meeting or the first meeting in uh November. No,
that that is a normal way we do things. And I you know everybody's supposed to be here then. We hope be here then. No, I won't be here the first and neither will the mayor. And neither will the mayor. No. Do we have two meetings in November?
Yes. Second Monday of November. But even without just uh council member Abear and the mayor, we still have six. So you said six. I I would say go ahead at the next meeting. The heck with it. And if there's only four people show up, you
can put it on the agenda for the meeting after that because you're going to be because we do have to have two readings. And the thing is we only have one meeting in December, right? Do we have two changed it? Well, and and the issue is if you have six and one of them happens to be the
mayor pro Tim, they can't break a tie. Just saying. Just saying. Just let's just I'm sorry I brought it up. Let's I just want to get this thing resolved. Okay. We are going to have how many people the next meeting?
It's going to be five. One, two, three, four, five of them. The five of you. Just me and Jim and the mayor and the mayor. Three of the eight. the two of us. Well, I unless I forgot how to count the
mostly will come out the same way anyway. So, the second Yeah. Okay. Can I speak? Yes. Go ahead, Tori. I have to agree with Councilman Schmidt on this. I mean, to me, it seems like we're up here trying to count votes to figure out how
something's going to go. Um, I don't think this is how we need to handle it. I think we just put it on the next meeting, see how it plays out. And because if we're doing it that way, anytime there's a contention where it's a close call, then what do we do? Just automatically say,
"Ah, let's resend it. Let's go ahead and vote again." I mean, it it let it fall the way it falls. No, I agree with you. All right. So, we're back to the original motion. And anyone else have a comment, Mr. Mayor? Yes. May I clarify the motion?
Please do. Okay. First of all, uh, Mr. Beagby, did you make that motion? No. No. Mr. Braden did. Okay. And the motion is motion to resend or motion to consider recision according to your uh motion is to consider recision at the
next meeting. There we go. That'll clarify it for us. So, tonight's motion according to your uh resolution is motion to consider recision. And if that passes then motion to resend can be at the next meeting or any future meetings. Right.
I think you're correct. So motion to consider recision and then we'll put the motion to resend next. I think that's what it says or after. Kim, do you agree? Yes, that's what we're saying. Yep. Okay. All right.
Any other discussion? Mr. Braden? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I vote yes. Yes. No. All right. That passes six to one. City manager.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pertim. The next item is regarding the business tax receipt. Um we were asked at the last meeting to bring some information back uh regarding a how many BTRs are currently registered and in your packet
you have a number of 953 but I can give you an updated number since publishing the agenda that number is now 1,034. So we've had some pretty good movement uh over the last few days. Uh but what we have discovered is that according to
the property appraisers website, there's about 2725 [Music] properties listed as businesses in the city of Dest. So, our new MGO um software will allow us to program in a
notification on a monthly basis of those 2725 uh minus the ones who have uh already registered and and send out a monthly reminder uh and notice that you're delinquent um at the point of
delinquency. Um, and that will go out each month until they're either taken out of the database or they come into compliance. Um, in addition to that, we our software can generate a letter uh that would supplement those email
notifications and we're also looking at uh mimicking the county's u version which is a card with a QR code on it. One of the distinctions and difficulties we're having in in resolving that is the
county has one fee and so you scan the QR code and you pay that fee. We have numerous fees. So they're kind of all over the place and the transition from our previous system to our current system was not as seamless as we'd like
it to be. So, there's some effort that's going into making sure that as you uh reregister in the new system, you get the the u right category and pay the right fee that will roll out in next
year's renewals. But that's kind of one of the obstacles we're up against right now. But we are seeing some movement. Uh we are being a little more aggressive with notifications. One of the uh fallacies in the previous system was that if you didn't renew your BTR this
year, you didn't get a notice next year that you needed to have a BTR. So, there was a diminishing number that would as folks would fall out, they failed to be noticed that they needed to register. So, we're recapturing those and hopefully we'll see some u uh better
numbers coming in to capture more of those 2725 and get them registered. Do we have any idea uh city manager how many we sold last year? The 953 would be the number that would
drive us to the to that question of how many that we had registered. Is that accurate, Dave? that number I think he's talking about last year that's the 953 got updated to 1034 last year I think it was around 1,200 around
1,200 mayor so we're getting close sir and you know I'm the one that asked this question of course and and I understand that you all are are laboring under a number of difficulties here so if you're moving toward making it better next year
then I would like to wait and see how we do Uh, I did fool around with it today and and of course when I tried to click on renew, there is no renew. And so we're all new and and that's one of the major glitches we're having right now. And uh,
you know, I appreciate the difficulties you're having. Hopefully, we won't have those next year because we need to capture all 20 how many hundred? 27 2725. Yeah, we need to capture all of those next year. And and so if I were to wander into your office today and say,
"I'm here to pay my BTR," what kind of a reaction would I get? Um, we'd be pleased. We'd be pleased. Well, and we would help you. Um, Sherry takes the load of that and she would she sits down with them and she walks them
through the process to make it as easy as possible. All right. Sherry. And yes. So, uh, Yep. So, they would be accommodating. Okay. And and I think the the real off throw or throw off was that we didn't say, "Okay, all of you guys uh your new applications now." And I and you have to
have your seating capacity in a restaurant, of course, which is what I'm working on uh from BPR. That's correct. And so we have to get them involved. But anyway, we're going to make it a lot better next year. Right. Thank you, Mayor. I would like to give kudos to
Sherry. She walked me through mine. Thank you, council. Next item 4F is the 446 Calhoun proposal uh parking um at Threadgill Park. Um first off, in your packet is a a contract if you choose to
execute that contract for a purchase price of $400,000. There's some provisions in that contract uh for allowing us to do some due diligence to make sure that we can um feasibly locate parking on that. I think that's 30 days
that would give us an out if that uh became a problem. Uh we were asked at the last meeting to have one of our consulting engineers uh review um the site and we have done that. um he identified that uh 65 spaces would be a
reasonable number. I think our engineer had identified maybe 70. So they're kind of concurring with one another. The consulting engineer also agreed that the development cost for those 65 spaces would be between five and $600,000.
uh which may be a little on the high side. If we chose not to do a imperous surface, while there would still be a lot of development cost, we could probably save maybe 100,000 bucks. So maybe get in at 400,000. Uh in any
event, those spaces would range somewhere between 13 and $15,000 of space. That's with the acquisition cost of the property and the development cost. We looked at the property the on the Calhoun and Hickory streets u and
the consultant identified about 30 spaces that are have the potential. However, they also identified that there's some drainage structures and uh drainage systems on that property. there are some wetlands on that property that the cost to develop would probably be
prohibitive by the time you mitigate the wetlands and go do some off-site mitigation, do the field, do the permits, and then manage the storm water in a different way. So, there's a lot that would go on and try to develop that into parking. Uh so, um we think that
would probably be cost prohibitive. the cost per space on the 446 site would be considerably less than those on these areas. Uh but if that was something we wanted to, you know, look to further in the future, we could certainly do that. But there's a lot that's going on on
that rideway component. Um, I have a couple of questions, Larry, and I don't really know for sure if you have all the answers or not, but so the purchase price is 400,000 and you stated it's like a thousand something per space
of the 65. So for just the average, you know, citizens that that's watching that wants us to buy this, it's $400,000 purchase to have more parking, that sounds great. But truly, the total cost is going to be close to 8 or 900,000
total when we're finished with what we have to do to prepare it to get it ready to make it a parking lot. Is that correct? That's correct. The acquisition cost is $400,000 for the property. And we anticipate somewhere between four and 600,000 for the development uh of a
parking lot depending on whether we went with a gravel um or a hard surface with with imperous surface. And that would also be lot a little lengthy as well, five, six months even after we purchased it that it would be
started to be in progress of a parking lot. Correct. Well, they would take time to close the deal. Of course, there's some demolition that has to be done, clearing the site. So, um, you know, development order, a land use change would have to be done because it's a residential property now
and it doesn't allow for a parking facility. Not that we can't do that. I mean, that would certainly be, but that would be part of the process. There's some um, you know, steps, initiatives that have to take place in order before we start parking cars on.
All right. And then last question, where does the money come from for the 400,000 purchase price and then the 500,000 development price? The funds we have discussed would be from the parking fund. Um, since it is parking and whatever arguments one of
you might want to make for against that would be up to you. Thank you. I got the same question I've had the last two times. Have the surrounding property owners been notified that there's potentially a lighted parking lot going next to their home?
We I have not and I don't believe we have as a staff notified anyone. Do do we typically notify anybody there or we just throw up a lighted parking lot next door to somebody's home without saying anything? I'm not sure. So if so we would we
wouldn't have anything to notify them of right now since we don't own the property. But if we were going to go through the process that the city manager described, there would be at least four public hearings due to the future land use and zoning changes, right? So there would definitely be
notifications to property owners. So that would be after we spent $400,000 and if they came in here standing room only. Yeah. Against it, then what do we do? We just stuck with a $400,000 piece of property that we can't do anything with. Yeah, there would be no notifications
unless you all asked the city manager to provide that separately because that's not currently in the code for purchasing property. So, seems like if we got to reszone it and all that, it'd be Yeah, behoove us to We have notifications for development, but we don't have notifications for
purchases. But you could, if you want to purchase the property, you can simply direct the city manager to do additional notifications. Yeah, I that's just me. I just thought it would be smart. I mean, I'd want to know if I lived in the house next door that, you know, was fixing to go up, not after
I bought the property. And it was kind of too late now. We've already spent $400,000 of taxpayers money. So, you know, too late. If you enter into the contract, you can direct the city manager to make those notifications. And then there would
still be a 30-day contract period. And during that 30-day period, as the contract is currently written, you have the ability to cancel the contract for the entire 30 days. Um, if the parking lot, I'm sorry, if the property is deemed not feasible for a parking lot
for any reason in our sole discretion. So that could be one of the things that we look at once the city manager provides notifications who comes to the meeting and complains or reaches out to council and objects or supports the purchase.
Yes, sir. So I'll go ahead and make a motion to uh enter into a contract with the following revision of notifying the adjoining property owners of the potential purchase. So to enter into a contract with the
revision. Yeah, I'll second just so we can talk about it. Sure. Thank you very much. Um, so the taxpayers money, you talking about the taxpayers that are paying in the parking lot because the taxpayers
money, that's the money that we're potentially would fund it though, is the parking fund, which comes from parking revenue, which I guess some people that might live in unincorporated Dustin would be paying into that, but city of Dustin residents shouldn't be paying at
those parking lots. And if they are, I mean, they can get the free decal. Um, do we need additional parking at this city-owned property where there's activity happening? I think
Do do you think we need parking? I think anywhere we have activity that's serving our citizens, parking is always a good idea. And this is certainly I mean, is there a need to add parking at a city-owned park where there's
people parking on rightways and sidewalks? Yes, sir. So, we So, it's a need. I would agree. Yes, sir. I mean, I hear some of the questions and concerns. I hear it. Um, could we sell
the property if we end up finding out that something's not going to work? If we end up closing on it, let's say, but then something happens, could we sell it? Council, I'm not sure that I'm familiar with a property disposal policy within
the city, but I would think if you find clear surplus, there's provision in statutes to sell pretty much anything we own. So, I would say yes. Gotcha. Yeah. I mean, we all know I mean obviously I'm I'm supportive of it, right? This is I get
it. This is baseball, sure, but this is more than just the little league. Okay? In my opinion, this is a city-owned property that there's an adjoining parcel connected to it. Let's take the little league out of this. Take whoever
you want out of it. There's an adjoining parcel to our city-owned property that the city has the opportunity to purchase. It just it it and there's a need. There truly is a need. Uh it could be expensive. You're right. Um I mean we
already have community members volunteering to clear the land and to prep it for development for free. One of our contractors through the city of Dustin. So you know it's it's a need and I you know yall don't want to support us fine
but I I just see that especially having parking funds available that we haven't really done anything with. I think this is a great opportunity for the city to do something. That's all I got. I got it. Tori, I have a couple questions. First,
I'm looking at the estimate of roughly 138 to 153 per space, and you're saying that's for the parking lot at 446, correct? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. Is that also the cost for the 30 spaces you're you're talking about on uh
Calhoun? No, sir. Okay. So, those costs are going to be what? approximately $7,600, $7,700. No, they're going to be considerably more than that once you consider the um the wetland mitigation, the permitting
and the o the uh offset of the storm water facilities that are there. Now, I don't know that we've got a firm number on that because that's pretty complicated calculation. Um, but both our city engineer and our consulting engineer said those would be
considerably more than the ones on 446 Calhoun. Okay. But nobody gave us a price because we're looking at roughly $7,600 per parking space for 446 Calhoun if you subtract the cost of the house, right?
Yeah, I'll check you worth that. Yeah. Okay. So, I'm I'm just kind of curious because we can always designate another piece of property as wetland to to develop wetland property. And I realize there's a cost incurred with developing wetland property, but that designation
is pretty easy. It's pretty simple to do. Um, so I'm I'm real curious is what the cost to add those 30 spaces are because if it's substantially less than the than the the price per space for the the 446, I mean, I don't know why we're not
looking into that, right? Um, additionally, the the only way I would even consider supporting this is if we completely negated that last petition to give control of the park over to the the
little league. I mean, I don't see us spending a million dollars for a small portion of the citizens just to to give the the use or control of that park to a citizen or or an organization.
All right. Just one point of clarification if I could. There is no there is no control of that part by an organization. It it was not given to the to the organization control. No, no, but he was asking for it and didn't we table it or something? I don't
we we um the lease is all signed off and complete without it. Okay. Mr. Mag. Yeah. The mayor is not here, but he posted on Facebook and I know a lot of people got
um I guess a lot of people's hair standing on in probably the attorneys, but it started an interesting conversation of a lot of things, people going back and forth and I guess we are not at least in the opinion of several
people in the mayor's string there optimally using what we have. So, there's some spaces and they were talking about where the old batting cages were and all this other stuff and I was like, haven't been out there in a couple months since this or right after
this first came up, but I guess there there probably are some because nobody said though, that's not right. So, that would be the first I I they need more parking now. You know, and I know the one of the arguments against it is if if
we truly needed parking that bad, some one of those young entrepreneurs who owns a house down there would be parking people in their front yards just like every football game I've ever been to near, you know, there'd be somebody five
bucks, 10 bucks, just park your car here for a couple hours. Uh they would be doing that. But I would just ask the staff to make sure that we have looked at and I know there's I know the previous city engineer had what two or
three plans for additional parking there. Robert? Yes sir. I' I've found several layouts that he had done before he had left. Okay. And so I would just ask that before we spend a million dollars uh
that we make sure we've optimized what we already control. Uh number two, you ask about the timelines. Okay, it's going to be a lot more than five months because first we're going to have to change and authorize parking
to be there because that's not the land use that is currently approved for that that address. So, that's going to require two readings. That's going to, you know, approval and then we'll probably send one of them back because some T wasn't crossed or I wasn't dotted
or whatever. And then it'll come back. And then, uh, I I noticed in the contract, I was looking, this is a residential, which is what we're buying, but that's not the purpose we're buying it for. So, there's no environmental inspection in that contract. I want at
least a phase one environmental inspection. There's a lot of things that went on in this city even before Mr. Destin was born. Uh, and God only knows what was dumped on that lot. And so
before we go start digging it up or, you know, redeveloping it, I want at least a phase one environmental inspection on that property. And I want it and that'll take more than 30 days would be my guess. Uh, so I want it written in the con I would like to see it written in
the contract subject to a phase one or any environmental inspections because it gives us it's the standard residential. You got 5 days to inspect it and you can reject it for that. Yes, I know we put in the comments or additional terms. We've got 30 days,
but I just want to make sure that on day 31 or 35 when the environmental inspection comes back and says, "Yeah, somebody was probably dumping fuel oil or motor oil or something there uh 40,
50, 80 years ago." Uh that we know that. So, I I'm not sure I'm I'm ready to um approve it tonight, but I I'm still willing to engage. The
other thing somebody brought up an idea again in in the conversation online, uh the citizens have parking passes or parking decals, whatever the heck we have on our cars. A lot of these kids
live in Kelly and Emerald Bay uh and other places. You know, maybe we get the nonsitizen parkers. Now, my theory is they just go to somebody's house, they all hop in a suburban who is a resident and they come over to the field in that,
but then that negates the need for some of the additional parking. I don't know. I just don't think we're ri this is this issue is ripe yet for a final decision. But I I'm willing to support additional parking there whether it's in the
rightway uh you know or whether it's on that lot. I just I still have too many questions and I'd like for somebody in the staff if you could lay it out. Here's the process.
You know, first we got to get the land use correct. Well, first we got to get it under contract. Then we got to get inspections. Then we got and concurrently we can be doing the land use changes. And then once we get the land use right and oh by the way that is
where the person the neighbors going to come out and go you're building what next to my house. I didn't when I bought my house 80 years ago you know it was a house. It wasn't a parking lot that had lighting, LED lighting, I'm sure, you
know, down, you know, low lighting, but and that's where you'll get those people. So, I just want to know all the little steps that we're going to go through and all the hoops so that we all understand. And then the the money is still an issue with me. But if you know
if we're charging the non-residents to actually park there, okay, maybe that that recoups some because that's that's what they're doing. Um I I don't know. I'm just I'm just not there yet on the contract and
on the information that we have so far. Sandy, I just have a question. I guess it's for Kevin because I haven't been down there lately either. Is there any paved parking right there? Now, the paved parking is um right along the boundary of the park about 20 20 spots.
Yeah. Okay. So, we do have some paved. Mhm. Okay. Just on the street bas, you know, like it just kind of goes up. Okay. Everything else is the uh Mr. Bavy brought up a Facebook post. I think one of the 65 comments on there was the ones
that he mentioned. Um, I think all the other 60ish were kind of in favor of it, but there used to be a little T-ball field that a lot of us play back in that area that he's talking about. And that's dirt right there. Thankfully, we've had some community members such as uh the
Centuis bring over some mulch and gravel and things like that to help people kind of park in there. And then uh beyond that, people park in the rideway just in the grass on the sidewalks, things like that every night. Okay. I I was just excuse me. I was just I haven't been down there in a while and
I didn't I don't remember any paved parking. It was all dirt when I So, they're actually starting the fall league next week. Y'all should come down there Monday through Thursday. I will. I've been out of town. But the uh the designs that Robert's talking about, I think those were about a million dollars at that last city engineer. It was a a big retention pond
he he he drew up. I mean, it was a it was a massive deal, Mr. Bagby. But those those designs that you're referring to Yeah. was between 400,000 massive a million one for the night. A lot of ways to not do something beneficial for our city here tonight, but I understand we all have our
answers. All right. Well, I I have one comment. Um Kevin's right. We need parking there. We've needed parking there since I was uh coerced into being a T-ball assistant coach. And that was a very long time
ago. Granddaughters out there. Yeah, absolutely. But Mr. Braden also has a good point that uh if we buy it and get massive push back from the neighbors on reszoning it and putting a parking lot
in there with lights, we may well have bought something we can't or shouldn't use. Now, I've been exposed to quite a few contracts to purchase and seen I lost count of how many have zoning changes as a contingent that is
necessary for closing. Also, when you put those kind of things in there, generally you give the person more money because you're paying them to wait. And so, if we could craft the contract to have it dependent on, you know, zoning
change, u Mr. bag's environmental study and give the uh property owner enough money that would make it worthwhile for them to wait for several months that we may have to get through that, then I would support it tonight. And uh
so we can make this amend that motion to not exceed the appraised value with those additional items that you're talking about. And if you will make if you will amend your motion in the second we'll agree then then we would have something that I would feel comfortable
going forward with because we would answer the two big questions. I'll amend it to that. Yep. Mr. G, you with a second on that. Do you agree to that? I'm still want to find out what the actual cost for the 30 lot spaces are. I I mean we've asked for that since the
very first date and we still don't have a cost for that. So, I don't I don't know how many times we have to ask, how many different ways we have to ask, if I have to say pretty please, put sugar on top, we have to kiss, but I just want to know how much it costs to get those 30 damn spots.
Well, if you amended, if you agreed the amendment, we would have plenty of time to do that because we're waiting on a zoning change and that'll take us. Kim, we'll probably have to be at least a 60-day contract, but I'm going to talk to the um one of our a couple of our consultant engineers and see what they think as far as timelines for a phase
one. Okay. As well, then then I will agree. All right. So, we have a modified motion on board that says we will require a zoning zoning chain will be a contingency that is necessary for us to
close. the environmental study is necessary and and Tori would like to see the answer to those questions. We won't put that in the contract, but we we do need to see it. All right. Any other discussion on it? Yes, sir. Mr. Braden, thank you. I didn't get to see the
Facebook post. I hate that cuz I know that's where all our experts are. We just can't get them to run for city council or nothing else. So, they've got all the answers and so I hate I hated it. I missed all that.
But, um, why are we why did we originally decide to purchase this property? Is are we getting a lot of complaints for parking in people's yards? Is sheriff's department getting a lot of wrecks or complaints? Does the city get a lot of
complaints down there? Captain Fulg if they've getting much from that area. I don't know. But off the top of my head, I'm not familiar with any um traffic crashes down there or parking complaints, but I can't say 100% without going back and looking it
up. Does the city get complaints from I have not received any in in my office that I mean, we certainly hear from folks that utilize the park of, you know, some deficiencies in parking. So other than that
I just asked a question. Did the property owner reached to us? Is that what happened Kevin? That is correct. I believe uh two to three years ago the property owner as well did it. Not sure what happened but
and then just recently the property owner So we don't have a problem. We just want to buy the property. Say that again. We don't have a problem. We just want to buy the property. Is it a problem to park in rideaways and on sidewalks? Is that I just I just asked Haven't we hit the water man behind the field once or twice before, Lisa?
Like cars hit water manes. I just asked that question, Kevin. Oh, I just got through asking the city and the sheriff department about the complaints and there there is no complaints. That's why I made the comment. You said problem. There's no problems. Any complaints, problems, however you want to say it down there. So,
how' we come up with this million dollar piece of property? I mean, normally we have a problem. It's fine. Normally, we have a problem or a situation that we're trying to fix. That's that's all I was asking. Okay. Any other discussion?
I just haven't I guess it's a question. Uh I was under the impression that this may mitigate some of the encroachment issues that we have had down there. Is that true or not? So we we haven't gotten a survey yet, but that is part of the contract and we would be reviewing
to see what encroachments, if any, exist. There's certainly been discussion that encroachments may exist, but we have not verified that yet. We would if you go under contract. Can I was going to say, do we need to specify that as well? It's it's already in there.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions, comments? If not, we will vote. Mr. Quick question. I'm sorry. Go ahead. This is going to This is just first round. We're going to have to vote on this again. Right now, you're making basically a counter offer if this motion passes. So,
we'd have to run this by the seller, and if they approved it, you'd have um a contract come back. And if they don't, you don't. And if they don't, we don't. So you're you're making amendments to the existing contract right now, including a
inspection period for environmental phase one at least um and zoning and future land use um entitlements being put into place. So all before we even get the very answer that we asked for from day one about those 30 spaces.
No, not necess Excuse me. I'll answer if I may. We will get those answers because after all, we are saying this isn't going to happen until we vote to reszone it. And we can get those answers way before that
even comes through because that is a drawn out 60-day at best, maybe more. And uh we know you want the answers and we'll get them. Thank you. You're talking about public hearings at LPA and city council. So there would be six,
three for each. Yes. And I would I would suggest that we will probably have to negotiate that down payment because what is it? 4,000 in this. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't wait 90 days and possibly not sell my property for 4,000. So hopefully you will be able to come up
with a figure that's acceptable to all of us. All right, Mr. I think we're putting the cart before the horse. So I'm voting no. Yes. Mr. Bagby. Yes. Yes.
I vote yes. Yes. Yes. All right. That passes six to one. So, just so I understand, you all go back to the owner. You all bring a revised contract back to us
and then all the answers and all the agreements. We vote on the contract, that contract, if we everything's worked out, and then we go into the changes and the inspections and all this other stuff. Correct. Correct.
Assuming the realtor and the seller accept the changes. Well, yeah, that's true. Yeah. All right. Can I Can I ask a question about the 30 spaces? He's talking about the ones on the rightway that we took on that.
Yes. I I I spoke with the engineer today and in looking at those spaces, those are pull-in spaces, which means the cars will be backing out on Calhoun, which is very dangerous. They need to be backend spaces. So, if you're going to consider cost, make sure we get the right kind of
parking spaces in there. That may make a difference. It may not. I do not know. Right now, aren't they parallel parking? Which means they're backing in off Calhoun anyway. Correct. That's how people are approaching it. They're I'm looking at the new spaces that they just to mitigate the wetlands. They
pulled in at at and they're backing out. They will be backing out on Calhoun. So if they back in then at night when after the games, which are mostly in the evenings, they will be pulling out straight and not having to back out on a
street. 30 cars backing out on a street on a corner is not healthy. So if you have them backing into the space and being able to see where they're going when they're leaving,
that's that's better. City Roger, I take it you would look at that issue under the guise of parking that is even permittable under our code. Yes, sir. Very good. Thank you. Item 4G is an update on the
Joe's Bio um redesign and redevelopment project. Um you have in your packets an email from the DP. Um bottom line is there's the plans for the uh development are 90% complete. Uh the D and their
staff is working with our city staff on the pre-application meeting to begin the DO process. The couple of big uh uh issues that are being dealt with. One is the um waiting on the Army Corps permit
um which was moving slow enough as it was but now that the government has shut down um there's you know there's no timeline to be seen but even at that the core would not give D a ballpark of when they may address it and work on issuing
a permit. So, uh, while we are moving forward with the development order process, that's kind of, um, at a standstill until that permit comes in. Also, there's still an issue of some funding. So, the D is looking to resolve that as well. So, we're thinking, you
know, leak probably 2027 before this thing gets too much traction, at least next year at the earliest, but we will keep you posted as it moves forward. Another issue regarding Joe's bio is the
ordinance that you've asked us to work on drafting. Um if you recall some of the criteria for that ordinance was supporting documentation of a problem, how many instances there are and the magnitude of those instances. So um in
conversation with the sheriff's office, uh they really don't have the bandwidth or to clearly demonstrate uh what those issues may be and how often they may be occurring or the severity of them. So, what we're planning to do is reach out
to the general public and Dr. Young will give us update a little more depth in just a moment regarding the um uh utilizing uh the residents in the area and their little video cameras of taking pictures
and photographs and um videos of what we would consider violations, dangerous situations, people doing silly things and submitting them through an email address so we can have a repository for that information and Miss Copen and I
will continually monitor that and when we think there's enough data and sufficient information there to support the ordinance we will bring that back to you for consideration. So 4 is the financial reports that you get um
each meeting for our graph minutes for the boards and committees. Um we're actually going to kind of reddevelop those a little better so that when there are motions that need to be made from any of those committees, we'll make sure they get before you. Um couple other
announcements. Um the vision session, uh Lisa Gunderson, who is handling our um leadership academy for our employees, uh has agreed to lead that session for us this year or next year. uh but she'll
begin that process this month with having some interviews with our staff and we're looking at all levels of staff. We want to get some uh she's looking for feedback from staff as um what they see going on with the city and some input from them as we look at the
vision and then next month uh and probably into December, maybe even meet with each of you individually to hear what your thoughts of a vision should be and how she can begin formulating that prior to our public session in either January or February of next year.
Um then we had the those that were fortunate enough to attend the ebike uh meeting last week uh in Niceville for some of us had to go home and uh fix a a P trap on a kitchen drain where the dishwasher decided to discharge into the
kitchen floor instead of the drain. So thank you very much for that, Miss Kim. Um but three kind of things came out from the about you. Huh? You? Yeah, me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just as I pulled in, my wife called and said, "You might want to come
home cuz the dishwasher hit the kitchen floor and not the drain." And I said, "Thank you." Wife's name is Kim. Ebike. My wife. You know how that went. You said Kim. Oh, no. Wrong Kim. I'm sorry. Too many Kim. I'd have fixed hers, too.
But I mean um not not to bass up an ebike meeting, but kind of three things came out from the um um that meeting was one, we need a unified ordinance and the city manager from Niceville is working on that and
we'll distribute that whenever it gets um wrapped up. um that we work on making sure that uh that the BBOPs are headed in the right direction whether on the sidewalk and the street and then that work on education and communication of
the issues that surround them. I know Miss Traml was there and she might want to offer more in depth and uh I know uh Dave and Robert and some of our other staff members were there so any of you that might have more than that feel free. Well, I can tell you that it it was a unanimous decision that every
municipality and the county also decided that the ebike ordinance that we go through needs to be the same everywhere because as usual, the bikes are all over the place. Um the directionality was
they must be on the side if they're on the sidewalk or in a bike lane, they must be going with traffic. And so that was part of the issue that they're working on. And the education um was to involve also education in their
native tongue. If we can find um my suggestion was they go to churches. Uh because we have Hispanic churches. We have several churches that speak the native tongue and we can then meet there or uh the parks and safety committee.
I'm parks and safety public works and safety committee can meet with them and explain when the ordinance is passed that we did pass an ordinance and this is what it means. So we are now educating our public in their native tongue so that if they don't speak
English and can't get that information that um they're now aware of that. So basically that those were the three. I don't think did we come up with anything else? I didn't think so, but it was an outstanding
u meeting and um there was a lot of people that didn't understand that we have to accept it. It's here to stay. It's it may even get worse before it gets better. But um everybody was um
very uh cordial and and those were the three things that we decided we'd shoot for first. So, we're just waiting for Niceville city manager. He was already working on an ordinance with Niceville and as soon as he gets it, he'll pass it on to the rest of us for tweaking in our
municipalities. Bes besides the churches, I would uh look to the employers because they hire typically these folks from one Eastern Europe or Jamaica. they go and the services that they use to hire these
folks will provide or can provide I'm not saying they will can provide that translation as they are bringing them into the country to say yes that was understood yes that's all we have sir Dr.
Yeah, I I would like to thank Captain Fulgum and Emily Pickkins and the rest of the team who ran that ebike workshop, helped coordinate it. Um, in addition to those that were able to attend in person, there were about six of us, um, locally from Dustin that listened to the
whole thing, um, watch the live stream. So, it was very helpful. Um, and we did have discussions recently about the Portuguese and Spanish and other languages that we do have in this town. and we have reached them um through the written word in the past through the top
10 employers and um the employers were really receptive and helpful. So I think doing that again on a a bigger scale makes a lot of sense as well as introducing it more with the churches. Our city manager referenced the request for the public to send us photos and videos of concerns or questions or
incidents that they may noticed out at Joe's Bayou. The email address to use for that is public info@c cityofdestton.com. And we are working with radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, and our area's biggest blog to push the word out about
that. And so we will pass that along to both the city manager and city attorney as those come in. We have our community yard sale this Saturday, October 11th from 8:00 a.m. to noon at the community center. We will be closed on Monday for the federal holiday of Columbus Day. We
have our annual open house on Wednesday, October 22nd. That's from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the community center. And the entire community is invited out for that. And um we provide the lunch and drinks for that and music. So, it's a really nice opportunity for city staff
and council that can make it to interact with our community members and answer questions and share things about our department. We will have shredding paper shredding before at city hall as well as at the community center. So we've pushed out the details of timing on that to the
media. And then last week we received the annual friend of the watershed award by the Chakahachi Basin Alliance. The friend of the watershed award is given out for demonstrated long-term commitment to improving our local waterways. So we were very proud as a
city to get to receive that. Thank you. have any public hearings tonight? Correct. Correct. We will move on to comments and presentations. Mayor Council, Council Member Braden. Thank you, Mayor. Um, does anyone know
when the state last year the state either approved or certified or our comp current comp plan? I'm sorry. I don't know the correct terminology, but I hope someone in this room understands what I'm trying to ask.
Ear, are you talking about the year report? No, our comp plan. Um, you mean recent amendments or the whole No, the whole comp plan was approved five, six, seven years ago. I don't I don't know when that I think. Yeah. So, to council member
Bagb's point, we call that the ear. Every seven years, the entire comp plan is reviewed. So, um, it was about, I think, six years ago. We're getting ready to get into the next Dave, am I right? Was it about six years, Steve or Dave? Yeah, I believe the last time was about 2018.
As we've been talking about how we're about to start the next review, so that would be coming to council. So, I know when I got first elected 11 years ago, the comp plan was five years out of compliance. then
um so now it's been it's been approved or completed six years ago and we still have not got the LDC completed. Is that a true statement? We still working on the LDC.
We are always working on the LDC. Yes. So, we're we're still six years in the making and we still ain't got we even the council even approved I think it was a $30,000 spending for outside personnel to help get it done.
I'm not playing director of community development. There's two different things. We we are currently in the middle of redoing the LDC, but not necessarily from the EAR report that said you have to fix these things.
So, those should have been corrected. Those were done years ago. So, I'm not Are you Are you talking about our current rewrite that we're in the middle of that some people wanted to stop because of Senate Bill 180, or are you talking about the
corrections from the ear report in 2018? I guess I don't know. I know we we was working on the comp plan for several years to get it and then we was told that we could not start the LDC rewrite until
the comp plan was passed and approved by the state. Is that true? I'm going for I wasn't on the council. Is that man is that that's how the process went? We had to we could not work. So the the 2018 E um valuation
appraisal review or annual something I can't remember what exactly it is. Um so that started in 2018. I I believe it finished up about 2019 and all the changes that were needed per that review were completed um with several
LDC amendments. And then in 2021, in April of 21 is when council approved the contract to do the comprehensive rewrite of the LDC. And staff has been working
on that LDC rewrite since then. Um, and we are we we have all the final drafts of all the articles and they've come before city council workshops from July of last year through December. And so
we're um uh we're we're reviewing those again and uh based on the comments from the feedback from the the workshops and the LPA meetings and all that and putting them in together. So the comp plan was the new comp plan
was done and passed was submitted to the state and approved and all whatever had to be done in 2018 and then we started the rewrite of the LDC to get that and then so that was that the whole rewrite of the LDC was completed when
the the LDC rewrite's not complete. So, why' I get all these stupid looks when I said it's been six years and we still haven't gotten it done? Because the comp plan and the LDC rewrite did not start at the same time. The comp That's what I just said. Yeah. The comp plan was 2018 and then
Steve was saying the LDC rewrite started around 2021 because we kept asking about that the LD the comp plan because it was 5 years out of compliance when I first got elected and I don't know when it was 2012 2014. So we got that and I kept saying why can't we start on the LDC because we
know there's a lot of problems with it. We can't staff kept saying we can't even can't even start the LDC until the comp plan is finished passed approved at the state. Then we started the LDC rewrite because I guess the staff tell me if I'm wrong when I come in for development
order you're going off the new comp plan and the the old LDC. So there's there's there's no new comp plan. It's just it's the E takes a look at to make sure that
one we're compliant with state regulations. Um and then any any other changes that might need that we might not be following um in the LDC or the LDC is not following per the comp plan, right? And so you you have to do that audit. And so all those changes were
completed with the 2018 E. So, so we're looking at the comp plan and we're looking at the current LDC. And so I I'm not quite following the the new comp plan and old LDC because it's that's we're just they're the same
documents. They're just updated and amended from time to time. So the LDC and comp plan is the same document. No, they're two different documents. But you just said they were the same document.
No. So the plan is our objectives, goals, and policy. It's like our akin to our I'm just going to for the audience. It's just like our constitution almost. And then our enacting regulations underneath the comp plan, our our comp plan
policies and then our actual regulations. Our LDC regulations are amended all the time. We have regularly brought every time we bring you an ordinance that amends a development regulation that is an LDC amendment.
Every time we bring you an ordinance that deals with the comp plan, it's a comp plan amendment. So we've never taken the whole comp plan and start it over and we've never given you a entire rewrite of the LDC. But there is an LDC
rewrite going on that started in 2021. But what I'm saying is there were other amendments to the LDC. We do them all the time. That happened after the comp plan and go on every day. For example, the last one you did, we amended um the
LDC dealing with um noise. Oh, sorry, that was the code of ordinances, but with livery vessels, noise, short-term rentals, all these things that come are either an amendment to the LDC or the code of ordinances. So, they're happening all the time. If you're asking about the status of the LDC rewrite that
started around 2021, we have a complete first draft that has gone through many committees and had a lot of input and has parts of it have come to council at workshops, but it's being perfected. We have a new community development director who's put some
brilliant input into it as well. and we have a schedule where we're intending to bring you um portions of it in the upcoming months. I think starting in either November or December. We did get a one-mon delay on LPA recently because
of a quorum issue. So, it was going to be October, but it is in the process. It has not stopped. So I know the comp plan is kind of a if you will broad spectrum of what's going on in the city
and then the LDC is more of a defined definition gets down in to the nitty-gritty. Um, so how much of that LDC, how many how many chapters of that LDC has been approved
that the building department is using with the comp plan? Well, there have been many LDC ordinances dealing with the building department, but recently the council has been moving them out of the LDC and into
the code. So all those ordinances you've seen within the past year where we've deleted building code provisions from the LDC, we've moved them to the code of ordinances. That is a part of the LDC rewrite, but you're you haven't gotten it all at once. So right now they are
applying the current LDC to any questions that involve a land development regulation and the code of ordinances contains building provisions. So, how many chapters of the LDC has still not been finalized? All of them.
As part of the rewrite, none of it has been finalized as one because what we're going to do is have you approve it all at once. The reason is staff is moving things all around. The chapter numbers are not going to be the same. The definitions, when you change a definition, you're essentially changing
everything, and we don't want unintended consequences. So, they're going to make everything effective all at once. But they are going to take article by article or chapter by chapter um to you in the coming months before the final mass approval.
So I know I don't know I don't know how or why this is so complicated or but I know we had the comp plan and we had the LDC and a builder and and I know how it happened. the comp plan. If a builder
came in want to develop something, if it was to the comp plan specs, he'd get it approved. Or if it was to the LDC specs, he'd get it approved cuz one was not married to the other. Yeah. Cuz I I read I was going through the comp plan. you
go through a a section talking about looking at say sidewalks and it says refer to page so and so in the LDC and you go over there and and that page is talking about the dog park or something had nothing to do with and there's several of that in the LDC.
So we had to get the comp plan because it was out of compliance with the state. We had to get that I don't know if you want to call it a rewrite, get it up to speed, whatever. Get it to the state because that took several years for us to get that done. Whatever that was, the
state approved it. It was in effect with the city. That was the new developers, whatever. That's the staff had to go by that comp plan or whatever. And then the LDC, we couldn't start the rewrite of the LDC or get it married to the comp plan like it's supposed to until after
that comp plan was approved by the state. So when people come in for development order or whatever, the staff was looking at the comp plan and then the LDC that didn't make any sense to this comp plan
at all. So we're in the mix of rewriting that. So, like I tried to ask a minute ago, if the staff is looking at the comp plan, if I want to come in and build a subdivision or RV park or whatever, they going by the
comp plan, comp plan says, "Yeah." And then the LDC says, "Well, no, you can't do it because this or is it to go by the new LDC that it's as we rewrite this LDC, is that law as it's being rewritten dayto day?" No, it's the existing LDC
that's in effect now. Okay. That was the LDC that was in effect prior to 2018. Yeah. So, we've been working on the new LDC for we amend the LDC parts of the LDC all
the time. I know we amend it. We amending stuff because I voted. If you want to call it the 2018 LDC, I would say yes, the 2018 LDC as amended from time to time, but it's still not complete. Well, we'll always probably amend the
LDC, right? Because as the city has different needs, we make amendments. As things come to your attention, ebikes, as an example, you know, whatever issues come to us, we tend to amend the LDC to meet the needs of of the city. Does the LDC have to be approved by the state
like the comp plan does? No, it does not. It needs to be consistent with the comp plan. And that's why you got the advice back in 2018 that we couldn't change the LDC until the comp plan was changed because the state law is the comp plan rules. So to the extent of any inconsistency
between the comp plan and the LDC, the comp plan would rule. So you got to change that first and then we make the LDC match. So how much longer do we have before the LDC is say fully all the chapters went through
complete. It marries the comp plan. [Music] I mean I think we made the amendments to match up with the comp plan that was changed in 2018. Now we're just making additional improvements
in general. It's not necessarily all comp plan amendment. If there are inconsistencies right now between the LDC and the comp plan that and that's getting wrapped into the LDC rewrite, then that will happen on the schedule for the overarching LDC rewrite, which I
think Do you guys have a schedule yet? Share it. So, it's it's it's a fairly aggressive schedule, but um we should be wrapping up um article 11 um sometime in June of next year
with with um public meetings, ordinance, ordinance approvals, and everything. So, that doesn't mean that doesn't mean you're not going to see it until June. It means you're going to see it every month. Yeah. Starting in November until June because they're going to take you chapter by chapter and there are 11 chapters.
So, when did we start chapter one? And because I know we was going chapter one and then chapter 2 and chapter 3. When did we start chapter 1? 2018, 2021. I think it was around 2021. But you but it went to many boards and it kept getting changed and it kept getting
improved and it got when it got to a certain point it did chapter one did go to council. Um but a lot of the other chapters haven't come to council yet. So So how many chapters have come to council? I don't remember only only a few a handful
every every chapter has come to council only in workshop not for approval not for approval just just for workshop so so staff can't go by the new LDC until the council approves it so we're still working under
the old LDC correct correct under the existing LDC okay it's It's difficult, Rodney, because in 2018, if you want to call it the 2018 LDC, yes, we're using that, but we have
done other amendments to it rather than just replace it. When you when you get any ordinances that deal with land regulations, we are amending the LDC. So, it's not exactly the same as 2018, but we haven't replaced the entire 2018 LDC. Does that
make sense? Okay. How much have we replaced? Zero. None. So in six, five years, we have replaced none. It's still being No, they've improved it. They haven't replaced it. They haven't thrown it out
and started it again. Okay. 25 years. I think I think there's a couple things in play. is there's an effort to do a rewrite of the land development code and that's been going on probably too long.
I've asked Dave to put a rigid time frame together when it will be nailed down and get to the um what's the committee I'm thinking about. Okay. LPA. Thank you. Planning Commission in Walden County, but I couldn't remember
the what and and get it back to council sequentially to eventually get it all circled back around. And then I think June of next year is kind of what that time frame looks like because of the individual components in so that's
that's one part of it. That's the big rewrite redo in the interim starting back from 2018 19 whenever it was when the ER identified components that needed to be
amended to uh align with the comp plan. Those were accomplished in relatively short order. But in the interim, there have been changes and amendments to the um land development code uh to accommodate the desire of council,
whether it was changing sign ordinance or changing uh you know a land use or whatever it may have been. So two or three things have been in play. the alignment of the um uh land development code as changes were
identified in the U E process in 2018 or whenever that was amendments moving forward to capture new ordinances or regulations that council so fit and then the rewrite to kind of redesign and recraft the thing to make
sure we've got all of those amendments uh subsequent amendments adopted and in the right place and in a a enforcable mechanism and then um to make sure we we've captured all those changes in the
meantime. I don't know if that's offers any clarity or not, but that's kind of what I was cap Yeah, I I understand what you're saying that it was a little clearer than what I've been getting from
everyone. Um and and it's came up from the people in um Crystal Beach was here tonight talking about these huge houses and stuff and it just seems like when I come in for development order to build a home or whatever, the comp plan says I can do one thing
and the LDC says I can do something else cuz it's it's a mess. It was a mess and the council has not approved all the new changes in LDC except for some small ones that we've done here along the way. I get that. I understand
that 100%. So, I've asked a question three or four times. Are we still working under the old LDC? And and like Jim said, yeah, we're still working under the current LDC, which is the one that's
really doesn't make any sense. I mean, we we've rewritten a lot of it, but it's not law yet from the council. Is that could that be a true true statement? You say it's not law yet. If it's if
council has taken action to amend it and those amendments have been approved by council, it is law. So all the the chapters or how whatever 1 through 11 whatever you want to call them council's approved one two and three
council hadn't approved anything let let me take a stab at Larry let let me let me say this at some point council approved everything that's in there now whether it's um and and I would say whatever is there is
the latest version of council approval. Is is it all what you want it to be? Probably not because they very seldom are they but um did that make sense? I don't know. So if I come in and build in for development whether if what's it how much the LDC
the staff go by as far as as far as the the new stuff that we've not the stuff they've been working on and come to workshops and all that that the council hadn't approved. that they if it that LDC says right there that you know it hadn't been approved by council but it
now you know the old one says I got to have so much green space but the the new LDC that council hadn't approved yet says you got to have twice that. Which one are you going by? The old one or the existing what you're calling the old one? The one I'm calling the old
the one that has had council action to approve. Okay. So, how much of the how much the LDC has the council made action to approve since 2021 of that? How many chapters? Zero. Zero. Zero. That answer.
So, let me help you. Okay. 2018 had the year made the changes in the year. I wasn't on the council then, but I know they made the changes. Maybe it was 2020. Then we had COVID hit which slowed down the LDC. 21 when I did come
back on the council. One of the first things I asked Lewis was, "Where are we on the LDC rewrite?" And Lewis said, "Well, we're just starting. We've hired this consultant. They're going to help us. We're going to do all this. You know, we have some personnel challenges because we don't have full staff and we're trying to go through all this."
So, he gets in 2022, he tells me by Christmas of 2022, we will have the LDC rewrite. We were sitting right up here and Lewis, bless his heart, I think he he had the best of intentions, but we still had
some personnel issues and we couldn't get and the main thing we are fixing in the LDC is exactly what you described about 15 minutes ago of I go and it says the in the comprehensive plan, you know, reference this paragraph or reference
this sub paragraph and I go to that paragraph or sub paragraph and it's talking about ebikes or it's talking about, you know, vessels, livery vessels or something that's not even related to how many stairs, you know, or what depth I can have on my lot or setbacks or
whatever. That's the main we're cleaning up the LDC. It's the comp plan rules. It's the constitution. Then all the rules are in the LDC of, you know, this is the specifics. They've brought every one of those chapters to us. They even
brought the glossery to us in a workshop environment. I I don't remember if you were here or not, but we've seen all of them. And then, you know, we had the Lewis got sick. Lewis was a city manager. We didn't have a planning director. We the Senate Bill 180. I
mean, we could go on for the next 30 minutes on things that slowed down the rewrite of the LDC. None of which are acceptable to me, but that they are a fact and we are where we are. But in two months or next month, November, they're going to start bringing chapters back
for our approval. And those chapters, we'll have a chance to go through and go, you know, or what I do is I put out the comp plan and go, "Yep, okay, that references the proper paragraph." But right now you're going to find in the current LDC they don't marry
bad references but that is the rules that we have and they generally support the comp and I would say are in concert they may not be in the right place in the LDC or they may not have the right reference but they are matching with the
comprehensive plan. Does that make sense? Makes a lot of sense. And that's pretty much what I was saying. And I was just wondering when I said something about a rewrite of the LDC, everybody was, "Well, we're not rewriting the LC. We're always changing changing the LDC." But you say we're rewriting the LDC and it's
all fine. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I'm sitting there looking four years after it should have gotten here. But besides, I'd say we're not going to solve this issue tonight. Rodney, you have anything else? No, I was just trying to get a simple question.
I think I think Jim Jim summed it up. And Jim helped Jim, Mr. Raml, I have a couple excuse me, a couple things tonight. A question for you, mayor. Um, when we talked about uh the freeboard issue. Uh, we did not set a date certain when we wanted that back.
Do we have any idea when that's coming back? Because we have a lot of people out here interested and I don't want them attending every council meeting until they Oh, the free the freeboard the free boarding issue. We talked about having staff bring it back. I didn't know about when they thought they could bring it back.
Well, that's so easy. I'll ask the city manager transit. Bring it back when. Let's Can we do the first meeting? November. Yeah. Okay. First meeting in November. Thank you. Um, and the Harbor CRA has a motion
tonight uh to look at uh they made a motion requesting us to ask the sheriff's department to patrol the boardwalk near the end of each shift in the off season. I'm not sure why, just the offseason to ensure the safety of
the boardwalk and review that it is well lit. And I have John here to explain anything about that. Uh John Stevens, chairman of the harvest CRA. Um that was brought up by one of our committee members um who was
expressing u she was a restaurant owner on the harbor that there was a lot of uh questionable activity occurring the later parts of the evening. Uh potentially some stuff disappearing off some boats. Um, and so one of the suggestions was uh we have a uh our our
officer over here and uh I wasn't sure it was ours, but potentially maybe at the end of his shift if he wasn't doing anything, he can patrol the harbor and see if there's any mischief going on, but turned out I think it's it's later hours in his shift. So when I when I
talked to him afterwards, but we were hoping to get a little more security at night up and down the harbor. cameras are amazing. I would say we should direct the city manager to have the discussion with the sheriff's department. All right. Okay. All right. And uh the
other motion here, John, was basically between y'all to update the work plan for the camera system. So when you present your work plan, you can give us that period. Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Mr. Magby.
Thank you, Mayor. Uh, so we have the schedule for the LDC rewrite because that was one of the questions and I will try to reach out to the Crystal Beach, my fellow Crystal Beach people and let them know they should have been here when those three big houses on Shyro
were going up because it's just going to keep cascading. I did have a question come up to me. I forgot to ask today during my meeting. Uh, when we said when the sign on the house says six vehicles, I think I know the answer, but is an L
is a licensed LSV counted as one of those six vehicles? Okay, I'm hearing yes from Steve. I think it is, but could y'all please confirm that because we've got people, you know, and it says seven vehicles and they got
seven vehicles and then they got two LSVS parked in the grass or on the sidewalk or whatever. I just I just want to confirm that. We'll confirm. Uh so, and then we had the guy uh the property manager come up and ask us two
questions. Hopefully, he's watching. Probably not, but could we answer his questions? Number one, where's the money going? Chris, is Crystal still back there? I know the answer to this, but I'll let you answer it. Uh, in in short, our cost for law
enforcement uh especially u between the sheriff's contract, which is additional augmented law enforcement for the city and the lifeguard, um, has gone from uh 2 and a.5 million up to over four million. Yep. Over the past few years. And so with the
influx of all of the people through the short-term rental programs, uh we're hoping that that'll help us offset the costs of public safety. And then do the hotels pay it? And I know the the hotels pay BTRs, but they are not
subject to the city's short-term rental um and that's all the question. I just want to make sure when people come and ask us, I know we don't answer them when they come and ask us, but sometime during the meeting, we need to make sure we answer their questions because
they've taken the time to come out of their life to come here and ask questions. I'm sorry. Ask why the hotels are not Did I ask why? No. Can you ask her why so they can get the answer as to Oh, yeah. Yes or no? Will you explain why the hotels don't? But she kind of gave that.
She did give that. Yeah. Um, I'm sure um the bottom line is a BTR for a hotel is based on occupancy and it's far higher than a BTR for a short-term rental. Yes.
I just wanted them to know. Okay. Yeah. And while the hotels don't pay, short-term rentals in condos do. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes. Okay. So, that that takes a lot of them in under the umbrella. Go ahead. Sorry. The hotels do pay not not in
Destiny, right? But they pay the bed tax. That's right. Right. So, they do pay the bed tax. Okay. Yeah. I'm glad uh he asked the question. I wanted to ask and I wanted to make sure it was very clear. People don't understand the cost that we now have to
spend to have our excellent sheriff's department because an extra, you know, a million dollars for that and the lifeguards. And I watched today with double red flags, people getting in the water and some kids struggling and lifeguards that are not even in the
section are coming to save these Tennessan tourists that because they don't know that two red flags means don't go in the water. So unfortunately the short-term rentals, they don't see that. They just say, "Well, we've charged our people this amount for this.
They're already paying this." They don't understand all of their visitors are coming in from out of town for a week at a time and don't understand the severity of a rip current or the waves that are coming in with double red flags. So, I'm glad you spoke to that and I just, like
I said, wanted to reiterate the amount of money we have to spend to keep our sheriff's department because we don't have a police department. That's gone up significantly and well worth it. and the amount we've have to spend now on our lifeguards and life- saving uh medics
for the city to manage. Um the other thing I wanted to talk about was in the LDC. I know that you've got a timeline, but is there someone in and I guess city manager, I need to ask you this since they don't work directly for me, but is
there a way to put like someone just on the rewriting? Like Steve, give him just that job and make it just all he does since he's so good at getting it you like honed in so we can maybe move it a little bit better
now that we're able to have more staffing. I'm just kicking this down there to you, Larry. You're grinning, but I don't see any kind of answer coming. So, um, I'll let you talk to David about that. But that's my thoughts. Maybe if we had someone that was totally focused on it with, you
know, maybe some of our land development expertise lawyer down there helping a little bit of coding, you know, could help maybe move this LDC sooner than eight months from now. But just throwing that out there. Okay. You don't have to
reply. time to rewrite that ODC, but I can do it. Um, and then the gentleman from Crystal Beach also said something about the notice of development um, sign. I do know that we we see those in some of
like the area off of Calhoun. You know, we got a billboard basically that says city, you know, development. Is there none of that that goes into an LLC that's putting in a six to 10bedroom house on Crystal Beach? Do they not is that not part of putting in any kind of
signage, Larry? So, whenever there's a development that kind of commercial development and they're LLC's, is there not supposed to be like they come to the city, they get their permitting, and then there's like an advertisement that this is going to be approved.
Put on your speaker. Morning of clarity. If it's a single family dwelling that they get a building permit for, the answer is no. If it is a commercial development that requires a development order, the answer is yes. I'm speculating that most of those are
qualifying as single family dwellings that they come to see Miss Noel and get a building permit and they go build a big house. And so that probably absent some mechanism in the land development code that offers some clarity uh to
that. Um and M you I think there's something different there. But I think that's where the the issue is coming in. What's the single family dwelling and how big is a single family dwelling and what say commercial development? And so our LDC currently, because we're still
working on it, probably doesn't hone in on that sizing of a single family home in residential areas for like short-term rentals. No. Right. Remember, state law says we can't prohibit a short-term rental in
residential areas. We have to allow them. Then the council has to decide and has not wanted to put a limit on size or number of bedrooms in residential homes because you didn't want to, you know, impact the residents that live there. So that was the choice. Do
we want to limit the size and number of bedrooms in homes in particular zoning districts or not? You can you can regulate the number of bedrooms if you want to, but we haven't done that yet. would be for both short-term rentals and residents, right? Got it. All right. Well, then,
um, on to a couple of things that are under my name. Um, the first one is, um, I don't know how to do this if I need to make a motion, but I was wondering if we could give the citiz the city employees the day after Christmas, the 26th of December, it's a Friday. Just make it
like a 4-day weekend. So, make a motion. Yeah. Can I make a motion to approve it? Okay, great. All right. Do we have any discussion on that motion? Thanks. None. Then we will vote. Miss Kevin, we have no discussion. Right.
Right. Yeah. Stop it. Kevin, you get to vote unless you have a comment. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes. I'll vote yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
That's almost as good as FRS. I pass it unanimously. Pleasure. Um, y'all enjoy Christmas. Okay. Um, and then I I also I've had a few people tell me that they didn't realize that they didn't live in the city of
Dest, but they were eligible to buy an annual pass to park in all the city parking lots when they're working downtown or whatever. So, I just wanted to put it on the public record that if you're a non-resident and you still want access to like the sticker because
you're here all the time, you're parking and you don't want to pay $15 a day. Um, it's $25 a year. Is that correct, Larry? Yes, ma'am. For an annual parking pass. And the same goes for the Joe's Bayou boat ramp. So, if you are not a city resident, but you
like live in one of the other areas that are non residential, you can still buy an annual pass. So, in January, go get your annual pass for the year if you're a non-resident, but you're always using the parking lots. And uh that was all I had. But Sandy, you had a question on
I I did re remember when we had on Main Street the 10-bedroom place that was going up. One of the things one of the things that I found out that happened there was um the letter that they're supposed to get from Destin Water users
was not gotten before they got their development order there and they didn't have the capacity for 10 bedrooms. So, I'm want to make sure that we're getting that letter before some of these places are given
their ability to build because if we're building all these huge big places and all of a sudden there's not capacity in the sewer line, it's going to be a little hectic for a while. Certainly follow up on that. Yeah. So, if if you would follow up on that and just make sure that that's part
of the permit process. Yes, ma'am. But as for me, uh, Mayor, that's all I've got tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Tori. I almost forgot what I wanted to talk about. Um,
let me see. Oh, I need to remove a member that hasn't been active in the Harbor CRA Advisory Committee, Casey Jones. And I need to add an individual that wants to take that place, Sheridan Gibson. Can I make a motion to do that? Yes. Can I get a second? I'll second it.
Yeah. Can we remove and replace it in one motion? I think you got to have two. We got to do two. Dang. We can't just make this easy. Can I make a motion to remove Casey Jones since he has I'll second Casey Jones removal. All right. Any discussion? None. Did he Did he not uh um request removal?
I mean, did he not resign? As far as I know, no. I've reached out and called a phone number. Ray Bailey has called several times a phone number and we've never got anybody to answer or return a call. Is that correct, Mr. Bailey? Yes, sir. And and do we have to have
them present? I mean, be notified that they are up for removal at the meeting? I don't remember what it said. We tried to, but we can't get a hold of them. Yeah, we made good. Okay, that's right. As long as we substantiated, that's good. I just wanted to make sure vote. Yes, Mr. Braden.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. Passes unanimously. Now we have a nomination. Okay. I would like to nominate Sheridan Gibson. Second. Hi. Any discussion? Yes. Yes. Do we have her application?
Right. Or Ray, do you have her application? I just received it. Just I got it on my phone. Wow. All right. Great. All right. Mr. Braden, how do you vote? Yes. M. Reme? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. All right. Pass unanimously. Okay. That's all I got. Very good. Mr. Schmidt. Yes, sir. A few things. Um, oh gosh, I apologize when I say bear. Not just at all.
All of you. I know we've had branding things like uh leave no trace behind on on on everything. So, what is the process for an ichthus? Can we make a motion? Possibly. I don't know. I I'm just asking is that like a branding thing? Is that a city
logo thing? If if we were to add the ichthus that was brought up um on our what are we trying to bring? No, we want to bring the fish like you said religion government separate right?
Yeah that's what they say. I don't know religion sticker. Can we stick is that a religion versus church versus state thing? I'm not I I appreciate that. Sure. turn your microphone on so we can all hear you.
No, I appreciate and respect that, but I I can see this getting out of hand in like a nancond where now we have crosses and we have stars of David and we have everything, you know, every uh half not
half moons. Uh what's the the Muslim symbol with the half moon? But the crescent, the crescent and everything else going on top of our street signs. And I'm just like there there's a place for that. The back
of your car or your house or your lot or your whatever. I'm just I'm very nervous about doing that on city signage. Do we have any city signs right now like in God we trust or anything like that in our cars or is that the sheriff's department or is that not? I know it's a
school district. school district added it to the schools in God we trust on the outside um and all the schools a couple years ago I'm not sure do we have any city property where we do any words not that I'm aware of okay
does the sheriff's department do anything like that Walt County Sheriff does it's on some of our seals it's not on any of our vehicles or anything like that so I guess the question then To go back to my original question for the we have
leave no trace everywhere, right? Does the council do we vote to like we want to champion leave no trace everywhere we go on all of our publications? Was that like a council resolution possibly? I remember law
to put a emblem on all of our publications. Lisa, where'd that come from? That's TDC. that came from um the PIO prior to Miss Tam his card and then like maybe one night just had a
meeting and brought sure the process that it went through. So if we wanted to do um a change or addition a potential resolution, I guess the council would have to agree on take take a vote of the council.
A vote of the council. Okay, sounds good. Um, at the next meeting, can you we please put under my name, Ray, uh, charter review committee? I'd like to have that on there with some supporting documents for, uh, looking into that. Uh, doing a charter review
committee, please. Um, and lastly, I was out of town, but I saw this article, and it's got to be true, but it was on Facebook, right? Right. public or according to Rodney. I don't know if they've closed on it yet, but apparently the state just
acquired a lot of acreage for about $84 million um next to Norgo Point to our next to our park, which I saw that article, I was like, "Wow, that's awesome. A lot of money, but awesome." So, um, I would like to have the council
have our manager and attorney, I guess, reach out to the state, ask if, you know, hey, can we work with you guys since we have a park right here? Can we also work with y'all since you just bought this property and combined forces and have one big park? Um, so I don't
know if y'all have any interest in reaching out on that or just letting the state take it over. Is that a motion? Sure. My my suggestion would be wait till the purchase happens. I I don't know. I just read our I don't know if it has happened. To my knowledge, it hasn't happened yet, has it?
It has not. No. Facebook didn't tell me that. It's under contracts and it was not It did not close yet. So, if you want us to based on the closure, how about that? Based on the closure. Second. Okay. What is the motion? Larry, you want to have the city manager attorney reach
out to the state to discuss possible partnership and working with the state and their property. We've had some good conversations with the county folks as early as today uh of working together. We've reached out to
our partners at the state as well and we're looking forward to um you know a good partnership on that project. Um, we know that there may be some misinformation out there around, but I can assure you that we're 100% behind a
good project that's good for the citizens of the county, for the city, our visitors, our residents, our guests. Uh, and based on our conversation this morning, the county is looking for the same thing. So, we hope to all partner with the state uh to put the best product available.
Who have we who has the city talked to at the state, though? Not the county, the state's buying it. I believe the state's buying it. That's correct. We we've asked our lobbyists to reach out to the state agencies and some of our legislative delegation there uh to
begin that process and we've got some good feedback so far. Well, if y'all are good with that, I guess. Okay. Uh while I support the general direction of that motion, I'm going to
offer a substitute in which we have the staff reach out and and say we support the acquisition of that property for conservation purposes, which I think is what the money is coming from and that we look forward to collaborating with
whatever government agency will uh go forward to make that happen. Second. Do I have to recuse myself from this? No. All right. Any discussion on that?
Yes, sir. Mr. Braden, I've asked this question before. I don't know who it was, but did didn't um didn't the county have Nora Point and then gave Nora Point back to the city of Dustin? I'm sorry. What was We do own Noriega Point.
The county did the county have Nora Point and they gave it back to the city of Dustin. I don't think so. I mean, we didn't actually know who had it. I think was the discussion. If we go back to how Nora Nora Point was released from the federal government. It went from uh the federal government to
the county I think to a private corporation and then but the 1500 ft at the end which is our Nora Point Park was always reserved as a park. Do we know why the county is wanting to join forces on this one piece of
property for a park? I don't know if the county did. We don't really know that the county has taken any actions at all officially. That's why I would say we need to tell the state we uh support the land being put it into conservation and that we look
forward to collaborating with whatever entity they decide should be in charge. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I think uh the word conservation is the key. Yes. Yes. Uh because it was a bird sanctuary.
Yes. If you remember the I know you remember but for the rest of you if you've looked at any of the old older maps of Noriega Point it was designated as a bird sanctuary and that
conservation is key uh to make sure because I don't think any of us want to see it developed into a circus location. Uh exactly why I put the word in there. Thank you. vote.
Any other comments? All right, Mr. Schmidt. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Passes unanimously. Make it happen.
Anything else? Okay. Uh, that leaves me. I'll try to keep it short. We did have quite a delegation from Crystal Beach tonight. I'm not sure they understand the kind of uh preeemption the state of Florida has done to us on regulating short-term rentals, but uh there are still a few
avenue avenues available to us and and I was glad to hear the one that Miss Traml brought up tonight. I wasn't even aware that could be a tool in the toolbox. So, I would I would uh move that we direct the city manager and the city
attorney to try to contact that group. And Mr. Bagby, those are your homies. Those are my homies. So, I would make you the council liaison for that contact. And I'll put that in the form of a motion. I'll second.
All right. Any discussion? What was that motion again? I'm sorry. The motion was to have the city manager and city attorney contact the uh people that came tonight out of Crystal Beach and discuss with them the limitations of what we can do and possibly come up with other ideas of what we can do that don't
run a foul of the states. Yeah. Like the water that this don't run a foul of the state's uh preeemption of our ability to regulate these clearly commercial activities in a residential zone.
Okay. Okay. If there's no discussion, Mr. Braden. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I vote yes. Yes. Yes. All right. That one passes unanimously. Uh now we go to the city attorney. I think I don't have anything. Thank you. The best news I heard all night.
Okay. Do we have public comments? Come on up. This this is Neil Bawa. He's my mentee from the collegiate high school. Very good. Awesome. Nice to meet you all.
Turn it on. Okay. Nice to meet you all. Just touch it once to make it ready. Nice to meet you all. Um I'd like to introduce myself. As Miss Andy Traml said, I'm Neil Ba and I've been a resident here at Destin since I was in kindergarten and before that I was in
Myar Beach. Uh over the summer I work as a lifeguard at our beaches and as mentioned by Miss uh Theresa Herbert earlier we were discussing it's a bear. A bear. Sorry. Don't make me question.
Um not you. Not you. But the biggest thing about lifeguarding is preventative measures and how you were uh discussing um how many of the tourists here do not know about our beaches. They don't know about the
safety standards and a lot of times they don't even know to pick up their own trash. Um so I believe that we can do many things about uh educating the tourists about how to you know treat our beaches. And I believe one of the things
that we could do is reintroduce um these small cards. And now I'm sure that many of you living here in Destin for a while may know what I'm talking about, but lifeguards uh used to carry these small cards. And what they would say is that they would just have um all the different uh flag types. They would have
green flag, yellow flag, red flag, double red flag, and purple flag. And even the black crossoff no swimming sign. um and they would just tell people that oh what each of them meant and I believe by reintroducing that we could
more effectively educate tourists and other beachgoers on what and what not to do. I believe that we can also um educate them through um mandating condo owners and other like uh lease
like people who are renting out their properties to tenants uh to educate them whether it's just leaving like a little flyer like a little note or even like one of those little cards or even in the house rules uh just
mentioning uh some of the flag rules or just pick up after yourself. I think that could be really effective for keeping our beaches safe and clean. So, thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment?
Seeing none, we will adjourn this meeting.