six o'clock on the So, I'm going to call the city council meeting to order. Good afternoon, everyone. Today is July 7th, 2025. And up first, uh we uh Pastor David Butler is on his way to Texas right now. So if everyone uh would just
please take a moment of silence with me and we will uh move through the agenda. So everyone just please take a moment sorry. All right. Thank you for that. Uh Councilwoman Abear with the pledge, please. Please join me with your right 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. Pledge of allegiance. Agenda approval. All right. At this time, uh
I'll have a motion for the approval of the agenda or anything we would like to add, change, or modify. I need to change All right, jump on in. I need to pull section B from the consent agenda. Okay, I got 3B getting pulled. Anything
else? All right, seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. Move to approve the agenda. All right, got a motion. Do I hear a second? Second. Got a second. All right, we'll vote on
the agenda. Polling 3B. Uh oh. All right, we all in. Oh, there we go. All right. I started right on the dot this time. All right, there we go. Eyes have it. So
moved 70. All right. Up first is going to be the proclamation parks and recreation month and I will meet everyone in the front. All right. All right. Fair enough. Yeah. Speak up a little bit then. All right.
And we'll skip a whereas whereas parks and recreation programs build healthy active communities that aim that aid in the prevention of chronic diseases provided therapeutic recreation services for those who are mentally or physically disabled and improve the mental and
emotional health of all of our citizen. And whereas parks and recreation areas are fundamental to the environment well-being of our community. And whereas parks and natural recreational areas improve water quality, protect groundwater, prevent flooding, improve the quality of the air we breathe,
provide vegetation, vegetative buffing, buffers and development, and produce habitats for wildlife. Whereas the United States House of Representatives has designated July 2025 as Parks and Recreation Month. And whereas the city of Dustin recognizes the benefit derived
from parks and recreation resources. Now therefore, I be it proclaimed that I, Bobby Wagner, on behalf of the city council, do hereby designate the month of July 2025 as Parks and Recreation Month in the city of Dest. We call upon
parks park and recreation supporters to join us in recognizing the importance of our nation's parks and recreation. Thank you guys. Yay. Awesome. You guys want to say anything to the podium? Well, I'll just say this is Miss Autumn
and she's our parks and wreck committee chairman. Does an excellent job and she's carrying on for her grandmother who is Nancy Weidenhammer that started the dog park. So, we're very proud of her. Okay.
And then my last shameless plug, uh, outside of most of these council members I think have brought have come through the parks and recck committee. Outside of that, uh, some of them are even on our brandly brand new formed uh, parks foundation, which just got their 501c3
accreditation. So, not only do we have a parks and recck department, a committee, but in parallel, but separate, uh, we now have a foundation. And so if anyone feels charitable or has any other needs to uh donate to a legal 501c3, we now have a deemed park foundations for that
as well. So I appreciate everyone who is a part of that in and out and everyone in between. So thank you guys. Thank you, mayor. Back there. All right, one last thing. Uh, we have a very important middle schooler here, Noah, if you guys want to come up. Oh, and he's got the crowd. And
then family wants to come up too and whole squad. Awesome. Well, I'm sorry we don't have this working at the moment. So, we'll just keep this rolling. Um, so Noah won state
civic B, not the spelling be that's for Larry. Uh so if you want to just what is that and what kind of got you there as far as what what is the civic be and what got you involved in doing this to begin with? Put you on the spot.
It's just something like the US Chamber of Commerce South Foundation created to educate like people like middle schoolers on the way they can impact government and different functions people they could talk to like the city
council or all all kinds of functions. Awesome. And you're at what middle school? On the best middle school for Walden. And then so now that you've represented us at the state, what's next? Washington DC. And what time?
Yeah. November 10th or 11th. Okay. November. Awesome. Well, we really appreciate it. Uh we have all these accolades and stuff. Uh so we just wanted to recognize you and thank you for representing the city of Destin, Okaloosa County, the schools, all the teachers that have been a part of your
uh education so far. and we really appreciate you taking such an interest in government and not only what we're doing currently, but what we've done in the past and perhaps you guys can uh help us guide the future. So, we appreciate it. Anyone else want to say anything at all?
I'm proud of them. Yeah. This is the manager and the brilliant mom. I'm just the principal, but I'm super very very proud of him for taking a risk. writing an essay required him to write an essay and compete. And then uh
not only did he have to do that, but then he had to do like a Jeopardy type panel event and he had to make a certain score to be in the last cut for that. And then finally he had to present his idea that he wrote in the essay and he
is just a charismatic speaker. I hope you get a chance to watch him on TV at the Nationals um in Washington DC because he will change lives. Will that be? I am sure. I'm sure
I'll try to get Mayor Wagner or one of us. We would love to share. So, what was your state award winning topic? Trash on the beaches. Trash on the beaches. Good one. audience for sure. So I appreciate that. So thank you for
caring both the government and the environmental side. So we appreciate that. So take a photo real quick. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Mayor, I just want to make one comment
as a former school board member. Absolutely. Students like Noah are what made the job worth doing and you and you ran across them occasionally over my eight years and it was always a thrill and you know without them I don't think I would have been there.
Awesome. Thank you for that. All right, with that, the proclamations and everything from one is done. So, we'll go into the public comments. And I'll start on my right, y'all's left. Anyone here for public comments? Yes, Miss Patty. Hi. Hi. Patty Brown, 86 Shyra Street.
And as you know, I'm a firm believer in um you have to get up and participate to be part of the process. Um it and you can't complain if you don't get up and speak. So here I am. So for the last 20 years, I've actively participated at
city council meetings and on task force. I served three times as the short-term rental task force. The last is the chair. A rule, regulation, or law is only as effective as its enforcement. Stop the warnings and start hitting
people where it hurts, in the wallet. I've watched Crystal Beach, which is where I live, spin out of control in the last year. We have several houses on our street that signage indicates four parking spots, but we have nine pickup
trucks and SUVs every week. I understand that we're down to two code enforcement officers. So, there's not a whole lot of enforcement that we can expect from that. Um, these cars are parked on the sidewalk in
the right of way, hanging out into the street. Golf carts, one or two parked in the front yard. The calls I've made about parking issue go unheated. The cars remain and nothing is done. Many of the short-term rentals don't
even have someone here locally in the event of an emergency. When you place a call to the rental agencies, you're usually talking to someone in another state, not local. Number two, I and other yacht owners have worked feverishly to be able to run
day charters legally in the city of Dest. We've negotiated with the city, worked with the fishermen, completed all the necessary requirements in order to be a valid business. I believe my yacht was the first to receive a livery permit
because I actively worked it. I now see on social media where there are several yachts coming into Dest, Tennessee, Texas requesting residential slips to run their business.
Um they have no BTRs and they're not following any of the rules of the city. So, I know there's a year process for everyone to come up to where they should be, but these people are skirting the issues that we have worked so hard for.
And what's going to end up happening is they're going to be working under the table, not paying taxes, and paying $1,000 or less a month for a slip at someone's house when we're paying 2,000 plus a month for a commercial slip. Uh,
we need to get that under control before it gets any worse. Um, in recent years I've seen, this is number three. In recent years, I've seen large increases in the amount of damage being done to our short-term rental houses, increased trash on our beaches, to total disregard
for parking, and pictures of how James Lee Park was left after July 4th, burned trash cans, coolers everywhere, broken tents, broken chairs. No one is cleaning up anything. It's us locals that are cleaning it up.
I I read a lot of the Facebook pages of the tourists um and their feeling is, hey, we're spending a lot of money to be here in Destin. We can do whatever we want. We we could give a hoot what the locals think. I think that we need to interface with
TDC and have them go look at what Walton County is doing because they're getting a totally different tourist. They have our tourists of the past 20 years. And so, um, I think that we need to get on top of
that because our streets have trash everywhere, our parking lots. I forever see an F-150 uh presenting itself as a golf cart at James Lee Park in the golf cart spots. My final thing I want to talk to you about are the beach
bonfires. I think it's a great idea, but like anything else, it has to be um regulated. Um as you know, I have a house in California. We have fire pits everywhere. No one ever cleans up after them. They're just a mess. We don't want our white sand all black. We have to
have permitting. We have to have regulation because people nowadays they can't regulate their own behavior. So I I think it's a great idea, but it's got to have regulation. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Anyone in the middle? Yes, sir. Yep. Just get up here. Name, address, and you just got to hit that gray button. It'll turn it red on the uh Okay. Okay. My name is uh Ricky Grant and I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio. I live here in
Destin now and uh I fix beach chairs. Yeah. Do you do you have a an address regardless of where that's at? I guess actually that's what I wanted to talk to you about because a physical address for you. I live in the warehouse where I fix the beach chairs. Okay. I sleep in the office and you know I strip the beach chairs.
to fix them. And I I work with Catch22 in Sunrise Share Coffee Co. And I'm trying to get out of there. I just became a real estate agent. So, I'm trying to, you know, become my own broker and, you know, build my own farm
up in Tennessee. I think I'm from Nashville. I went to school there for 12 years at David Lipkcom University. But I'm trying to get my farm and uh maybe a summer house, you know, kind of a beach house, coastal front and uh maybe even a
fishing house and do some fishing. I've been living in this little fishing town, so all the fishermen are wearing off on me, so I might try to do some fishing and get something to eat. Um I got some things I want to show you just kind of on my journey, you know what I mean? I live on the road or whatever. you know,
I I work in construction and I kind of do my own thing as a sole proprietor. Um, so I just wanted to talk to you guys and tell you my story because I run into a lot of problems with, business owners, entrepreneurs,
uh, you know, mom and pops, uh, just anything. I also go to church at St. Andrews. So, uh, you know, I'm trying to stay close to God and and kind of, I guess, incorporate that. Maybe stay close. I'm trying to get married, you know, have a
family, kind of live at home, retire, you know, thinking about the next 60 years of my life. So, um, I guess I got one minute left. Uh, that's pretty much it. You know, I just wanted to talk to you cuz I don't know with the way AI works these days, maybe you guys can help me cuz I've been out there fighting
for my life. is stressful. Um, I got trespassed at the library cuz the girl said I was looking at her. But, you know, anyway, this this little mask I got this little royal mask off the internet off Amazon. I guess I I'm on
the phone a lot all the time. So, whether it's night or day, I'm on the phone. So, that's kind of the direction that I'm going in. But, uh, like I said, right now it's just kind of looking at retirement, looking at a legacy, looking at my my farm, you know, my beach house, you know, trying to make, you know,
maybe $10 million from my investments. I got brokers and uh, I guess Miami that I work with. But that's my story. I guess that's all that I had for y'all. Oh, yeah. They got these little magazines. I talked to people at bookstores. I guess here's a kind of some I don't know if
you guys want to take a look at those little English home. I like castles or whatever. Maybe get a fast car and a truck and then, you know, country home. I'm from Nashville, you know what I mean? Dolly Parton, so country. But that's it for me. God bless and best of luck.
Yeah. Thank you, Mayor Wick. Yep. The important one. All right. Yes, sir. Anyone else? Moving on. Far right. Yes, sir. All right, hit that gray button. It'll
turn the light red. You don't need to hold it. Name and address. And the floor is yours. Brian Decker, 44 Indian Bayou Drive. Uh, good evening. Before I begin, I'd like to thank you all for everything you do for our community. Um, previous councils as well. I know a lot
goes into it. you sacrifice a lot of time for your away from your families and businesses and uh I for one am grateful for the place that I live and um wonderful place to live, own a business, raise a family and and you guys I know are doing the best uh of
your ability to keep it that way. So thank you. Um, on the topic of the beach bonfires, um, read over the discussion in the in the news article I read recently and um, some of you know I've spent a lot of time out there the last
25 years of my life, which um, in tourism seasons I believe is the equivalent of 104. But anyway, um, what I read about the the original proposal I guess that Mr. Schmidt submitted there with a single
vendor. I think um with that respect it would be I think reasonable for the city to employ a single vendor on their own beachfront areas. But uh removing that freedom of choice for the beachfront owners, HOAs and so forth would be
something of a disservice I believe. Uh and in that uh regard, I heard somebody else speak of the regulation. Uh some of the homeowners associations that I work for uh management teams and so forth have stressed their desire to see
control and regulation if this were to come about. Um, in my opinion, I think the permitting would be hopefully similar to what's required for the beach vending permits, uh, authorization, indemnification, insurance, and those sorts of things.
Um, again, somebody else mentioned the the Walton County model I think would be something uh to look into. I shared with the council members um the fire chief for the South Walton um fire control or
fire district and he um designed that program that they use and uh would be probably a wealth of information in that regard. Um couple other things I think worth mentioning which I saw on the uh the news article as well. turtle nesting,
fire safety, I think would be an appropriate thing to possibly require of folks if if this is going to be permitted. Um, another topic would be the revenue stream possibly for the the fire department, the vendors, the HOAs and
the city, possibly the sales tax with the uh state also u permitting fees and what have you. And uh one other thing I'd like to mention is the tourism aspect. Uh I overheard the uh lady as I
came in talking about the Walton County guests and uh my experience I might disagree with that slightly. I think a lot of people have gone there and have come back to Dest. Um, but you know, in terms of the experience, I spoke to somebody just recently and said that uh
they're not a beach person, but that was the best time they had had on the beach in quite a while was attending one of those bonfires. Uh, and the other aspect is uh maybe we're leaving something on the table. Uh, our neighboring counties
allow it, we don't. and uh maybe in terms of staying competitive and um and offering folks something that they would enjoy, I think might be uh might be very worthwhile. So, thank you very much for your time and
thank you again for what you do for our community. Appreciate you being here. Thank you. All right. Yes, ma'am. Hello guys. Hey. Button, name, address. My name is Britney. Definitely not going to give you my address because the man I had a restraining order almost ran me
over pregnant sitting right there. So, um, I'm a disabled combat veteran, a registered nurse, a mother, and someone who deeply cares about preserving the joy and freedom that makes this community so special. And tonight, I stand before you carrying the voices of over 1,700 people. And I've sent you the
petition. Locals, tourists, parents, veterans, and neighbors who signed our petition in just over a week to say loud and clear, "We love ice cream on the beach. We support mobile vendors, and we don't understand why this is suddenly under attack. This was never a problem.
Other vendors have operated for over 30 years without incident. There's no complaints. The community embraced it. Tourists enjoyed it. So the question is why now? The shift didn't come from public concern. It came from a private competitor, Rainbow Frost Ice Cream Truck, who has repeatedly expressed
opposition and has shown a pattern of harassment and retaliation. And now it feels like the city is responding more to that one voice than to the thousands who have expressed support for us. This isn't about safety. This isn't about zoning. This isn't even about the law. It's about whether a single business can
influence policy to push out competition. I went to war at 18 believing I was fighting to protect freedom and fairness and a future for the next generation. Now, as a mother, it's painful to see those values being questioned here at home. Rather, a family like mine
who are following the rules and working hard are being pushed aside over something as simple and joyful as handing ice cream to children on the beach. We owe our children better than that. And I believe Destin can do better than that. The council has a choice to truly listen not just to one business that's upset and wants to monopolize ice
cream, but to over 1,700 voices in less than a week. Families, veterans, tourists, and locals who are saying this matters. It's not just ice cream. It's happiness. It's cherished memories. It's part of tradition that makes Destin feel like home. We're asking you to stand with the
people to protect what brings joy to this community and to help preserve the simple things that make Destin so special. The truth is this isn't about broken rules or safety. It's about a handful of complaints from a pro from a competitor being treated louder than thousands of happy families. It's about community tradition being threatened by
personal interest. The community has spoken. The tourists have spoken. The families who return after year after year for a simple joyful moment. Ice cream on in hand, toes in the sand. They've spoken. But somewhere along the line, their voice have been drowned out by an angry ice cream truck. We're not
the problem. We're operating legally. Even your own code officer said so on March on camera. Where part of the charm and joy that makes Destin special and this city's mission is truly to serve the public, then I hope you'll listen to what the public is clearly telling you guys within a week. 1700 and it's going
to go up clearly and passionately. Let's not regulate tradition out of existence. Let's preserve the magic of ice cream on the beach in Destin. Thank you. Hey, anyone else? Final call. All right, we're closing public comments
and we'll move to let's do the consent agenda polling B and then we'll go to B right after. I vote to approve the consent agenda without B. Make a motion. Got a motion. Do I hear a second? Got a second by Councilman Bagby. There we go. We'll pull call the vote on
consent agenda minus B. I'm sleep vocal. Give it three seconds. All right, there we go. All right, eyes have it so moved. Uh, Councilman G, you want to bring up your 3B?
I might have just dyslexia. Give me just one second. I might have looked at this number wrong. I might not have an issue after all. What's your address? 724 or 42? 724. Oh, 24 versus 42. Yeah,
I withdraw my For the sake of clarification, you thought you had a conflict. Sure. Yeah. I thought I had a conflict. Oh, okay. Gotcha. That makes sense. Okay. All right. So, so with no conflict, you want to make the motion? I'll make the motion to approve.
I'll second it. All right. I got a motion. I have a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All right. I'll call the vote on 3B. Good. All right. Eyes have it 70. So moved.
4A. Mr. Larry Jones. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council. Um, item 4 A is regarding the award to H&T contractors for RFP 257 CM. That is the Cross Town Connector. We made that award
at the last council meeting. Before you tonight is the contract uh to accompany that award and staff recommends your approval and um direct city manager to execute the contract. All right. With that, do we have a motion? I'll move that the city council approve
the contract with H&T for RFB 257 CM and direct the city manager to execute the contract and issue a notice to proceed. I'll second that. All right. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Councilman Dest. Thank you, mayor.
As we marched toward completing our cross town connector, we have still not made one single funded projected change to the intersection installment. That gives me great reservation. The uh
you all see what kind of traffic we'll be importing from Commons straight through town to that intersection. We also know that Emerald Grand wants to build more on their side, which I think will double the density of what they have.
We're about to make one of the biggest mistakes in my 30 years on this council, I'm afraid, if we connect to that intersection without making any improvements to it at all. the uh there
are some things we can do and I will be making motions on those later on. I won't make it a a part of this but a prime example is uh Hollywood Boulevard as most of you are familiar in Port Walden and I may have mentioned this. It goes from the bay all the way to the
border of Herbert Field. It's their bypass or their cross town connector. What they did rather than funneling it all out onto the intersection at the end of it, they put a roundabout there and you can go out to 98 at three other
intersections and that divies up the impact on 98 where it is not horrible. It still gets pretty crazy at uh one intersection too little I believe. But we need to explore that. And before we connect this
road to Stallman, we've got to come up with a better idea than just plugging that nightmare into Stallman Avenue, which is already our very worst intersection as far as functioning. So, I will uh make a motion to to study some
alternatives. I know the city manager and I have been working with Bashville and Donovan, and I've got a couple of suggestions that we could do to to try to alleviate the impact on that intersection. So, uh, we will try to go forward with that, but if we don't do
something, we're about to create a giant giant mess, right? I'll second that. Well, yeah, I wasn't sub. Okay, never mind. All right. Any further discussion? All right. Councilman Braden.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, I mean, I know there's been a lot of talk about that intersection. I know we spent three or four years ago we allocated $50,000 to do a design study or some intersection. Um
we've got nothing. Is that what I'm hearing? We got we got nothing. Nothing. Nothing funded or actually we funded it. We funded $50,000 to redesign it for the redesign and we are getting somewhere.
We are working on a redesign, but we do not have one. And my fear is that we will complete the cross town before we ever even get close to improving that intersection. No, I agree. I agree 100% um what you're saying. I just don't know, you know, how
long we've been talking about that intersection and how much money spent on it. And that's our problem. And and after this vote, then I will make a motion to uh address whether we connect to that intersection
without making improvements. Thank you, mayor. All right, Councilman Bagby. Yeah, the uh and we may disagree, but I lived two blocks from there for the first four years we were here. uh getting the foot
traffic off of there I think will do more than any of the mobile traffic because the mobile traffic with ways and all these other abilities uh people will cut over to 98 or they'll cut away from
98 as they they deem fit. This is also just phase one. This is the ads the uh exfiltration pipe and the all the thing all the changes. So, I'm I'm fine supporting this and then we can continue
to work on the underpass, a fly over, whatever you want to do, but I just want to make sure we're okay. All right. Yeah, thank you. That was going to be my point. I I definitely don't take away from the the dire need of the Stallman intersection, but I do
feel that naturally the traffic's already there and it's already on Legion and Mountain because the GPS is already forming it. And I do agree that the underpass per the PD&E study from uh FDOT showed that the the pedestrian light itself is significant. Um, but I
don't say that discrediting the need for that intersection, but I feel the traffic's already there with or without this. It's going to be the same flow. It's just do we want it in people's front yards or backyards. All right. Any further discussion. All right. Seeing none, we'll call the
vote. All right. Eyes have it 70. So moved. Right. I'll make another motion that please that the uh the cross town connector not be connected to Stallman until such time
as improvements to the intersection are have been made or funded to the satisfaction of the city council. I'll second. Okay. Uh All right. I got a motion and a second. I I'm I know your concerns are the
intersection the cross town connector per this portion is Aelia and Legion. It is. So for the sake of trying while we might disagree I do want to make sure that your intentions are for the entire segment. Ah okay. I'm just making sure your
intentions are in there. All right. Connected. Yeah. Specifically the intersection stallment stallment. So, I mean whether it's a traffic circle or whether we blog up or whatever. We we'll figure that out but at a later date. All right. I was just making sure it was something that would get slipped underneath. All right. Any further
discussion? Yes. Council Braden. Thank you. Um when you say connected because right now it is connected. I mean, we're not we can't change that because just once we put that
through there, what are you I'm talking about after we've con after we've constructed the cross town that will smooth out and connect. Right now, we have a section that does not connect through the old campground until the entire project is through. That's when things are going to get interesting.
Okay. Thank you. That's all. And then my last just kind of point of information would be currently the I guess a that we passed that is for the storm water portion. Is that correct? That's correct. Do we have a ETA kind of an estimate of
what that window I guess a window between this and Councilman Destin's kind of crux of what he's looking at? offh hand I don't but the I was going to bring to the council's attention that at the last meeting you asked for a a kickoff groundbreaking uh the uh
pre-construction meeting for this component will be on Wednesday of this week so we will push out that time frame to you and we will ask those questions then and get to the best guess we can perfect all right uh Councilman Schmidt yeah can we just please go through this
again because I'm confused as well because once Legion and Benning is done, it's connected. So, can you restate what you're saying? The motion was that before the project is completed, the cross town connector
in its entirety that we will not connect the final end of the Solman intersection until improvements have been made to the intersection that satisfy this council. And And you're saying between Beach and Benning?
No. I'm the entire project, but I'm not trying to affect what we just I think like Mr. Braden said though, like once beach to bending is done, it's open. Like phase two might be aelia that
we've talked about doing some shrubbery and making it prettier, but the road's open. It in fact is yes. And at that point, it's open. And in my opinion, until improvements are made in the intersection.
So we would do reach to bending until well we may just put a roundabout at the end of Aelia. There are a couple of alternatives like they have done with Hollywood Boulevard and Port Walton. Those are the ones I want us to make sure that we address to try to divvy up
the traffic imp rather than having it all occur at Solomon. Okay. there. You know, they're not direct, you know, the Hollywood goes pretty close to 98, but we do have two north to south roads from Aelia to 98,
not including Stallman, but one by Sexton. Uh we got Paul Melvin. Yeah. And Palmetto Marlor Marlor. Yes. And they don't The problem is they don't go to lighted intersections, which hopefully we are going to address in our
attempt to make this more usable. Sounds good. Yeah. My my only fear with that is until they're done, I get your idea of holding, you know, holding all of us to the fire on making sure we address everything. But my fear would then be,
all right, we're done with one project, but it doesn't open until the next one's done. No, I'm I'm just making sure. That's not what he said. Okay. No. All right. Then I'll just I'll figure that out on the back end because I'm not going to vote on this. All right. With that, I'll call the vote. All right. All right. I have it so
moved. Anything further, Councilman Dustin? Nope. All right, Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item 4B is regarding our community rating system update. Uh we were asked uh previously to bring back an idea of how moving from
a uh class 6 to a class 5 in our community radio system would look. Uh the Okaloosa County Emer Management is leading a countywide effort to establish a program for public information uh which would include a number of things
and they're listed out for you there in your packet uh to uh coordinate and expand public outreach, enhance CRS eligible activities, uh improve documentation, stakeholder engagement and inter agency collaboration
um and a number of other things. um by moving from a and this initiative alone will not get us there, but it'll certainly get us points moving in that direction and something to build on. Um so, uh if we can get to a a um five
rating, that would save probably 250 280,250 $280, not thousands, excuse me, for the average policy holder for their flood insurance. So we would recommend that the city participate with the Oakl County program for the PPI initiative
and authorize the city manager to designate staff representative and stakeholder for this committee and to cooperate with the Oakloo County Emergency Management to support the uh necessary activities associated with this initiative.
All right, thank you for that. With that, do I hear a motion? Mayor, I move to approve the city of Destin's participation in the Okaloosa County Program for Public Information initiative. Authorize city manager to designate a staff representative and stakeholder for the PPI committee and
direct staff to coordinate with the Oakloo County Emergency Management to support documentation and outreach activities necessary for the Destin's CRS class 5 advancement. I'll second that motion. All right, I have a motion. I have a second. Any further discussion?
All right. Seeing none, we'll call the vote. All right. Eyes have it. So moved, Jones. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item 4 C is regarding the Cross Town Connector CI presentations. Um, at your last meeting,
you accepted uh staff's recommendation to bring three rank firms back for your consideration. uh that is Ankor CI half Associates and Vulker. Uh those three firms are represented here tonight. Um
this is a qualificationbased ranking. So we're going to ask them to make their presentations and ask you to rank them based on the qualifications that are presented to you tonight. Um if the appropriate action would be after your presentation to direct staff to
negotiate with the top ranked firm. If those negotiations fail to come to an agreeable contract, we would move to the second ranked firm by the council's ranking. Uh so we'll go in alphabetical order with Anchor CI being their first
and half and Vulker. While this is a public meeting and we can't require them to step out of courtesy, they may wish to uh stand down and let the each individual make their presentations. Sounds like they heard you. Mayor, just a point so we don't get
confused again as we as we rank our our presenters. Uh your number one rank gets three or one. I'll give you I'll run through it with you. Your lowest rank, your number one is your top choice. And so please choose a number one, a number two, and a number
three. Whoever has the lowest is going to be the top ranked firm. that the motion will recognize all three because if it is not possible to negotiate a contract with whoever comes out first, then staff would be authorized to go to number two and then to number three. Understand that part. And we continue to
do this crazy ranking system where the the number one guy gets the lowest score. It's golf. It just think of sense, but we seem stuck on that path. We are hellbent on that path. Number one is number one.
this logically should be the one to get. I All right, Anchors, you are recognized. Great. Thank you. Um, first of all, good evening. Thank you all very much for inviting Ankor to come and present to you this evening. Um, and most importantly, we appreciate the opportunity to to um compete for this
very important project. Um, my name is Elizabeth Moore. I'm the president of Anchor CI. Britney Trumbull. I'm the vice president. I'm Brian Osborne or two. Sorry. couple hundred people that always watch us. Yeah. So, a little bit closer. Feel free to step in.
No problem. Um, we want to start off first by just telling you a little bit about our firm. I'm going to talk a little bit about Anchor and what we do and just how we're structured. Before I turn it over to my counterparts here, um, where's the slide? Who has slides? This one.
Okay. All right. Perfect. Well, there's our first slide. So, basically, um, what I want to tell you is that, um, Anker is a woman-owned engineering firm. Britney and I own 100% of the company. What does that mean for y'all? That means that if there's any decisions that have to be made, she and I make them. U, we're right here. We're local. We're right
down the street. Um, so if you have any questions or concerns or anything that you want to talk about, that's, you know, we're right there and local and she and I make all the decisions. Um, in addition, we're a full service engineering firm. So, what does that mean for you? That means that Ankor has been involved in all aspects of
projects. We do strategic funding, planning, engineering, construction inspection. We do all the aspects. So when you ask like what does that mean? Like how does that help for this project? That means that whenever we're out in the field and we're watching what's going on, um we know the notes that have to be made. We know the
recordkeeping that has to be kept for your funding agencies. We understand the testing that has to be done because we require similar type testing in our design. um you know we just know full depth we understand the meaning behind a lot of the design so we're able to basically help implement that in the
field so that's a little bit more about you know our inspection us being full service um we started this business 10 years ago also we've been doing this um and she and I have been doing this we worked together at a engineering firm before that um locally in the panhandle so
Elizabeth and I specifically have worked in the panhandle our entire careers years uh and Anchor's been around for 10 years doing exactly um all all engineering specifically uh for for purposes today construction administration and CI which is uh construction inspection
right and together we have about 40 years actually all three of us all three of us we have like I don't know like 70 70 probably 70 years of experience and so we all work really well together and we communicate really well um we are DOT certified so we're um DOT certified not
only for construction inspection but also minor roadway way design. All of our inspectors have all the required certifications that are um part of the CTQP. Even though is all those are not always required on this, we have all those qualifications in case they're needed. So I think that's it for that
slide. And then the next slide, please. This is the proposed team that we um are presenting for this project. Um Brian is going to be the main point of contact the daytoday. He's our senior project manager. um he's the guy that's going to be the main point of contact, but as you
can see, we've listed both Britney and myself on this because we're both going to be involved. We like to have duplicity on our projects. If Brian's not available, you can call one of us. Um we also have Mandy Organ who I've worked with for probably 15 years. She's done these kinds of inspection projects.
She's very meticulous. She takes very good notes, which is good because my notes are usually not as good as hers, but she's very good at what she does. And then Jeremy Leb is our senior inspector who will also be out in the field and he has all the inspection certifications that we discussed in the previous slide. Is there anything else
we need to know? Um next slide please and then I'm going to turn over to Brian. So lo location. Um so Anker's office main office is in downtown Panama City. Um but we do have lots of inspection projects and engineering projects going on in in Oklahoma County and in this
general direction as well. Most notably, we got a big marina project that we're working on on on Okaloosa Island. Um, and then we also work for local municipalities as well close over to here, not just in Panama City area. We have uh city of Defunia Springs, City of
Freeport, um, Walton County, and then we just landed one with city of Alparezo. Um, and then we were also working with staff and some teams on the hopefully the Noriego dredging project as as well at some point. Um, and then I also have a lot of experience in in the area. I
ran an engineering firm in the city of Dest uh for about 10 years um or so. I was in Dustin Rotary. Um I'm on the Destin Chamber um uh uh board on that. I serve as their vice chairman economic uh economic deh development and government
affairs. So I actually watch and attend a lot of a lot of you guys' meetings. Um so I do spend a lot of times watching you guys as well. So um and then also I'm a Walton County resident as well. So, I have about 20 minutes from here. Um, so I can be very responsive for any on-site meetings or in-person meetings.
So, with that, I'll turn it over to Britney. Next slide, please. Again, thank you all for having us tonight. And uh I I want to talk a little bit about um construction administration and CI just in general. When Elizabeth and I started Anger, our
intention was to solely focus on CA and CI. And we have really done that uh in and in in the process grew and became a full-ervice firm. But our focus and the way we started this company was because we love construction administration and and um CI and that's really been our
core focus and it's probably varies but about 50% of our business. This is what we do. And we don't I think this is important. We don't do that for DOT projects or big roadway projects. We do that for municipalities just like you guys. Um and we have done that for
municipalities from um further west of here to Tallahassee. Um we have projects at different times going on. There's a list of clients behind you. Different list of projects. Um we do a lot of work in Wakulla County, uh Jefferson County, uh Calhoun County. Um
this is she specifically put road projects on here. Your project will be a road project, but at first it's a drainage project. She didn't list drainage projects. we could have listed and it could have gone on for pages. Um, specifically right now I'm doing three in the city of Panama City. They're all
CACI projects. Um, and they are road, storm, sewer, uh, road, uh, storms, water, storm, sewer, road, uh, from nuts to bolts all the way down all the way up. And it's the same type project. It's um
you you know you when you when you do work in an existing area in an area that's been around a long time, you just don't ever know as a design engineer, you don't ever know what you're going to get when you start digging. And when we start digging, things are going to happen.
And what I think we excel at is when there's a problem, it's everybody. Everybody who stands up here and talks to you today can follow the specs. They can follow the plans. They have qualified inspectors. We're going to check materials. All of us can do those
things. What we do differently is the construction administration side. It's the it's the negotiating of the change orders. It's negotiating making sure that a contractor is doing what they're supposed to be doing before they step
foot on a job. It's making sure punch list punch lists are kept on a daily basis and follow through and that we aren't letting a contractor pull something over on us that maybe somebody in a field would never know about. It's that we have experience doing this very
work. We have experience doing this with local governments and we have experience um uh just from from the whole you know again beginning to end. We um one of the first big projects Elizabeth and I did as a as a company was a sports park in
Panama City Beach 50 acre 120 I think. I've had I've had three kids since that project bid really big sports park and it's applicable to your project because again your project is not just a
road project. Your project is um you're going to have issues from neighbors. We will not let people park equipment in the right of way. We will not let contractors the contractor um do something in somebody's front yard.
We know enough and we've done this enough in local governments to stop that before it happens. So, I just wanted to kind of point those things out. I didn't really talk about this side at all. Will you go to the next one and see what I've um Oh, transportation experience. We do do some DOT work. Um but again and and
we are qualified to do all of the DOT things. We do a lot of um but but more of what we do is the lap scrap scop and uh which flow directly through municipalities. They're not DOT projects. They we end up working for the municipality directly or um right now
we're doing a lot of CDBG jobs again CACI jobs. Um but it's all the same scope of work that you guys are doing today. We go to the next slide. I kind of talked about our approach. Um we're ready to hit the ground running.
Uh if meeting this week, that's the first we're hearing of it, but um we hope to get a contract today and we're ready to go. So um I hit everything scope-wise. I think so. We go to the next thing. I think the only thing that we didn't mention is that part of our approach is
that we work to we strive to be an extension of staff. We are an extension of your staff. You call your staff, they call us. you know, we don't we don't try to um bill on the hour or on the half hour or anything like that. We're available here. Once we're committed to a job, you can call us and we'll be there just like your staff is.
Yeah. So, we're excited about it. We appreciate the opportunity again to present. Um hope to get the opportunity to work with the city. Um yeah, that's about it. Thank you guys very much. All right. Thank you, Miss Cop. Are we doing Q&A or is it just presentations or or Mr. Jones?
It's up to the That's in the discretion of the council. All right. Awesome. I just wanted to not do something that would mute this. Any discussion? Any questions? Seeing none. Thank you guys for your time. Thank you for being here. Thank you. And Brian, if you want to knock on whoever's next in alphabetical order
behalf, if you would send them in, Brian, and while they're stepping out, council, Mr. Mayor, uh, this award will be for the entire project, both phase one and phase two. So, it'll give some continuity moving between those two when that's needed.
Thank you, sir. Larry, on that topic, you're talking about we just approved phase one contract with H&T, right? That's correct. Yes, sir. So, you're talking about these CI groups would be managing the phase one contract who we just hired. That's correct.
Yo, Andy, looks like you're going to get a break. military calls. There we go. Please. You want me to Yeah. push him around? Yeah. Leave behind. If there's too many probably going this
way. All right. You mentioned installment and I'm thinking, "Oh my god, did I miss I miss a road on this shot?" We got plenty of jobs coming. Do I need to push a button? Nope. It's already on. Um, yeah, with the wireless not working as you guys if you're the only presenter, just stay
close and if so, just switch it out. Yeah. No. All right. Ready to go. Well, thank you very much. Uh, on behalf of Half Incorporated and our key teaming partner, the Utility Consultants of Florida, um, we're very happy, very proud and excited to be here and present
our qualifications. And I think over the next 10 minutes, we hope to convince you to be your CE and I for the Cross Town Connector. We truly do have a local staff. The staff is available experience finishing work very similar
to what you've got going on right now for the cross town express cross town connector. And we have a local office. It's on Main Street, probably not a mile away from the from the project site. So, we're ready and eager to go. And I want to say too that our team is simply a
seei team. We're not designers. We don't do anything else. We are construction engineer and inspection team. My name is Eric Rosenstein. I'm going to be your client service manager on this project. Also known in the CNI world as the senior project engineer. In my 40 years
of doing this work throughout the state of Florida the last 26 up here in North Florida and the Florida panhandle, I could tell you that there's nothing on this job, nothing in these plans that I haven't seen done and work with and argue with contractors before in the past.
My name is Stephanie Lindsay. My name is Stephanie Lindseay. I'm with Utility Consultants of Florida and I would be your utility coordinator and I'm already privileged enough to be working for the city of Dest for the utility underground conversion project. And my name is Doug Pritchard. No
microphone needed. I'm bringing 30 years of construction experience to you working on projects from 400,000 to 60 million. really focused on DOT work primarily in Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay County. The experience that this team is
bringing to you is specific to the niche that is the cross town connector. So, one thing is to build the job from dirt to pave. We just finished Jericho Road. It's the opening of the giga site for Okaloosa County, the big industrial park
up north. But building a road is one thing. Building a road in the backyard of somebody's home, that's a whole another specialty. We've just done that on Holiday Shores in Walton County. First phase has some pretty intricate
drainage construction. And this is an example of what we just finished similar. This is a baffle box with filter right in between two homes a mere feet from the bay. So we bring exor extraordinary amount of experience that's specific to the kind of work that
you're doing here. in uh preparation for submitting our RFQ uh submitted to it which I I believe you all read um we went ahead and attended the pre-bid mandatory pre-bid for the phase one project and it was kind of nice to go in there and see all the
contractors that we've worked with in the past whether it was H&T or C Roberts or what have you for me it was especially nice and I was very happily surprised to see Matt Taylor there with Atkins um I had 12 years plus or minus with Atkins the last few years I worked work real close with Matt and in the
pursuit of C and I work in North Florida. In fact, we won a number of jobs, one in Lyon County, one in uh city of Panama City Beach and one in Escambia County together. U Matt and I have a great working relationship and this is only going to add value to our services to you as your CNI, particularly when it
comes to communications between contractors and engineer of record in the city with RFIs and communications and that sort of thing. Also, we went ahead and after the job was uh awarded to H&T contractors, stopped by their
offices over in in Freeport. I wanted to introduce myself, introduce half, let them know that we're pursuing to see and I on the job, and just kind of gauge them for what their concerns may be, if they had any, which they didn't. And uh it was very nice to hear too that that they had worked with Doug when Doug was with Walton County and they were very
happy to work with him and they were very happy to know that Dalton Taylor was going to be the uh senior inspector on the project. They've worked with uh Dalton in past projects. So it it was a really good experience as we prepared to to present to you.
you know, a informed community is going to be a supportive community. And Doug and I made it a point to go out amongst your constituents along the alignment um to talk to anybody and everybody we could. We knocked on doors, we bothered people mowing the lawn, whatever it took. We spoke to businesses. We spoke
to the principal of the Destin Elementary School, Amy Meyer, and she's got construction going on next to her right now, so she's kind of familiar with what the construction does with uh her staff and her students. But she did uh relay that she did understand what the project was about. She has the same
concerns for her children walking to and from school, riding bikes, parents dropping them off. There's kids within that um cross town connector area not within the busing area, so they have to find some other means to get to school. And she also was adamant about getting
information quickly. She wanted to be able to be able to tell her staff and the parents of what was going on, whether it would be detours or lane closures or such like that. Talked to John on Sanderwood. He lives on a culde-sac. Sees a lot of vehicles trying to shortcut. There's no sign that
says dead end. So, when we're in construction, going to make sure we got the right signage out there. We talked to Dion. He works on his fence from the park and is worried about when the connector goes through, can I get to my backyard? Talked to Jen. several people that said, "Man, I'm really worried
about the noise." And we know that from experience. Let's not have tailgates slamming or beep beep beep the backup alarms at six o'clock in the morning, right? Don't need it at dinner time. Those are things that we can control as a CI to further support the public
information needed for this project. Um we're prepared to uh work with Dr. Young um in her public information efforts. um we've been able to work with her on previous projects and um she's wonderful at her job. So we already have plans in place to move forward with disseminating
communication to her in the same effective manner that we always have. And I want to throw two innovative ideas at you. This is in support of getting information out to those stakeholders and the public. First is the multivista construction camera. We use this on the
pedestrian tunnel. It's a freestanding camera. It's 1080p 360 degree dome camera and it takes photographs of construction at a regular schedule. The bonus is it's also a live streaming camera that you all will have the app to
access. So, not only can you look at the work at any time, you can control that camera through the app. Great for disseminating information to the public. Secondly, we've used this successfully on residential projects and it's as simple as an email distribution list.
We're literally going to go out and collect emails from those folks that want to know when the detours are happening, when the noise is going to happen, when a road's going to be closed. That email distribution is very effective for getting the word out and it has the added bonus of them being
able to reach us with their concerns. We can address those at the field level as your CEO. So, what's going to make this a successful project for the community, for the city of Destin, for the contractor? Well, two goals. Two project
goals. Job needs to get done on time, and the job needs to get done within the allowable budget. We expect the contractor to submit a very detailed and logical critical path schedule that's going to show his construction activities that cannot be delayed
without delaying the project. One of the great things that the schedule allows us to do is to find areas within the within the contractor's schedule that he could work concurrently so he could gain time on the project. Also, by knowing where the critical path activities are, it allows us to stay well ahead of the
contractor. So whether it's Dalton or myself or or Doug or other field people to look for those pinch points, conflicts and such, identify them, talk to the contractor, and resolve them well ahead before they get there. So the project is not delayed and we know in an
urban setting what is the most impactful uh you know imp impactful conflict that we'll see right away on a job and it's it's utilities. So our experience with your very local um utility agencies will help us to
proactively manage and um ensure that there aren't any uh schedule delays in relation to the utilities that have to be moved for this work. So we have um a really good understanding of the needs and expectations of both Monica Wallace with Dustin and Water Users and Sean
Croft with Okaloosa Gas. So, we have about three to four months within phase one to um move through utility uh clearance, clearing your utilities. Um and during this time, we plan on maintaining really good solid communication with those utility owners
um before construction and then during construction with invites to regular project update meetings and routine check-ins. So, that three or four months is really critical, an actionable item for us to get to the goal to meet the budget. That three or four months is going to allow
us to complete indepth constructability review. We've already touched on a lot of our findings in your design in our written proposal. The importance of that is to get a solid bid document out that avoids unnecessary change orders, right?
Get all the questions, any errors, get all of that ironed out before we go to bid. Secondly, are what we're calling specification pitfalls. Your project requires FDOT specifications. FDOT specifications allow the contractor
to overrun asphalt 10% in thickness and get paid for it. That's a $40,000 change order. We haven't even broke ground yet. Getting the right contract language to relieve you of that liability. It's critical. That goes for overpayment for
quality. They're allowed to get a 5% quality bonus on asphalt. We've gone through this with other municipalities and been successful in addressing that issue before it goes to contract. We have one other goal that we don't have written down here, and that's for
you guys. We expect your activity twice on this job. Bring the gold shovel, break the ground, right? Bring the giant scissors, cut the ribbon. If you don't hear anything about this job in between those two points,
we've been successful as your CEO. We've done our work. We've done our job. One of the most important uh accolades we could get from our clients and our peers are the awards we receive from our
clients and our peers. And Doug and his team, as he's reaching back there to grab it, just received the 2025 ACE FDOT project of the year for the pedestrian tunnel, as he beautifully displays it for you, which is located in Walt
County, just down the road in US 98. And this doesn't just go for half, this goes for our teaming partner. Yes. So, UCOF just uh recently won the 2025 Florida Engineer Society um project of the year for uh Bradenon Beach uh
roadway and drainage improvements. At the end of this project, our vision is you guys get your award for a job well done. Thank you so much. We're going to open it up for Y questions.
Any questions? Yeah. All right. Yes, CM. Yeah, that was a great presentation. Thank you. I really like your colorful uh energy and your examples of neighbors names and everything. Hopefully those are accurate. At least for one, I know for a fact, Jen, I' I've talked to her before. I
I know it might be silly, but you you mentioned you mentioned something that you mentioned something about the importance of the quality of of the environment on the neighbors. Uh we're not going to slam tailgates and beeping on the reversing. And that was that was it was cute. I I appreciate it. But one
of the fearful things I have that we've seen from other uh recent big big contractors that come in the area is flashy presentation and then all the subs are showing up and they don't even know their names half the time. So, how how are you going
to control the beeping reversing on a on a truck from not actually happening that you just said? How are you going to control that? Great question. that comes in early in the job by putting a plan note that restricts noise level within a certain time period. We've done that
successfully. In fact, Walton County Holiday Shores had a time restraint. That doesn't mean they can't work. They can get out there at 6:00 in the morning and work. They can work on Saturdays. They can work on Sundays, but you have a quiet period just like you have at a campground. And is somebody on site every day? Our
senior inspectors on site every day got everywhere. I live 12 minutes away. And got it. I want to be the boots on the ground and the eyes on the work. Absolutely. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, sir. We wanted you guys to ask questions. We
even tried to guess what you might ask. All right, Councilwoman Abear. Um I too appreciate the energy and we've worked with her. So I, you know, trust that she's definitely got the undergrounding and and uh that that's something that we have worried about our um we've had some recent problems that
we've had to pause that she had no control over. But we do, like I said, we want to make sure our residents are not inconvenienced by us trying to get this 15-year project started. So um and that's why we canvas the area.
That's why we knock names and find out knock on the doors and talk to the businesses like the East Pass Coffee Company. They're excited. The the people want this job. Well, thank you very much for your time and we look forward to the right people getting the job. Thank you. Thank you very much.
All right. Anyone else? Let's just making sure. No, you're good. You guys were so prepared. I want to make sure we we honored that. All right. Thank you guys so much for your time. All right. Um, All right. All right. All right. Thank you for being here. The
floor is yours, mayor, council. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to be here discuss the CI services for Cross Town Connector. Uh, my name is Mike Warkey with Vulker. Um, I'm our vice president, Southeast Region Chief Engineer. With me here, I've got
Jonathan Paramore, who's our CI E CI lead for North Florida, and Clint Johnson will be the project administrator for this project. Um, we do currently have a general engineering contract with the city of Dest and through that we've had the pleasure of working on a couple of
projects with you. Uh, the first one being the Stallman Avenue intersection assessment that was completed in 2021 and we're currently working on um the Commons Drive ped airport. It was discussed earlier, Common Drive airport
pedestrian improvements project that's going to tie into the linear park and that's scheduled to be completed around the end of the year. Um, we'd love to continue our relationship working with you guys on this project. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Jonathan and let him talk about his team and our CI
approach for this. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate it. Yeah, we go to next slide. Uh, go a couple more. Actually, those are the projects Mike just talked about there. Okay. Yep. Oh, one back. There you go.
All right. I'm just going to take a few moments to talk about our team on the hor chart there who we've got. As Mike said, he's going to be our client service manager for the project. I'm Jonathan Permore. Again, I'll be the senior project engineer, project manager for the project. Uh, we appreciate the
opportunity to come before y'all this evening to talk about this. uh Clint Johnson. He will be our project administrator. He's kind of going to be the the go-to guy for the city. He'll be handling all the daily activities, uh negotiations, anything with the contractor like that. He'll be
responsible with daily operations, contract management. Like I said, he'll be the point of contact for y'all and city manager on this. uh he's going to direct our staff, correspond with the engineer, the engineer record Atkins, and he'll handle any issues as they arise uh and provide any issue
resolutions. Clint lives locally nearby in Fort Walton Beach. So, we have any issues can call him on the phone. He can zip right over, talk to y'all, talk to contractor, get it worked out. So, it's good to have him locally to be able to respond timely to anything that comes up. Uh couple people real quick like
that aren't here this evening. David Alers. He'll be our senior inspector and assist Clint with project administration duties. Uh he's got over 15 years of roadway construction experience. Actually worked with CW Roberts in the past on multiple projects here in
Destin. They built uh when he was with them. He's been in construction inspection for several years. Project management experience as well as as he's got now with us. Uh he'll lead our team. He'll be an assurance projects built in compliance with the plans inspects and
he'll handle all the daily on-site coordination uh with the contractor. Uh this will help free uh Clint up, allow David to be his assistant to do a lot of things. Uh that'll help bolster the management of the project and oversight
as such as well. Uh he another inspector, Wade Weiderhold, he's been with us several years now. He'll help support David, our senior inspector, in his inspection duties. During the course of the project, he'll provide testing, plan, review, uh, and help provide document control as well. Uh, David and
Wade, by the way, both live in Freeport, not too far away, so if anything comes up, they can be here, uh, fairly quickly as well, uh, to be able to provide any on-site assistance is needed if something's going on during the time the contractor isn't working on the project.
But uh they can and uh help provide that as well. And with them being there locally, we can add staff. We can use one both of them any combination as well as project needs allow. Vulker has also partnered with MTN
resources for equal opportunity affirmative action and payroll reporting is necessary for the contract. Miss Brienne Graham with MTN will be the provider for those services and she'll be a resident compliance specialist. She's experienced uh local agency project reporting, lap reporting as this
project is uh which would be important because with the DOT requirements and federal highway requirements for funded projects, we want to be sure the city's reimbursed uh for everything that goes on. The documents aren't right, state's not going to refund your money. So, we
want to make sure that's where it needs to be for y'all. Uh as far as availability, Clint Dave away, they're all wrapping up current assignments. Uh, so they'll be available, ready to go whenever we are. I hear it might be quickly sounds like earlier and uh, so they'll be ready.
I'll be available all the time. If we need other support, we've got offices in Pensacola, G Breeze, Chipley, Panama City. So we have staff available as we need to to help uh, support your project. So no issues there at all. Next slide. All right, project notes.
You know, the cross town connector project has been in the works for several years and uh it's going to improve that level of service and traffic flow. I know that sounds like a concern and uh Vulkar is ready and committed to help bring this project to reality for y'all. As you know, it's
going to be constructed in two phases. Uh phase one is a construction underground ADS storm water systems. Uh itself H&T contractors is low bidder and was uh earlier in the meeting awarded the contract for that. So that's moving on. It sounds like we move on quickly.
Uh construction should begin in the next I only say month or so probably it sounds like and by the end of the year uh should be wrapping up. Phase two uh will be construction the rest of roadway the remainder of the ponds remaining
drainage striping lighting landscaping. Uh contractors not selected yet. Uh phase two will begin later this year early next year. So that's that's kind of the schedule where everything is on that and a lot of that depends obviously on weather, holidays, things like that that's going to come up. Might move
those dates out some slide. Uh go back one. I'm sorry. Maybe flip two. Is there one after that? Okay, that's it. All right. Well, anyway, something happened there. Uh some keys to success.
uh team and client communication and coordination, project understanding and approach, obviously documentation, compliance. I touched on that a few minutes ago. We got to make sure that document all the documents are done correctly to get your money back. Um and obviously in the end managing the
project budget and schedule, we want to make sure the project comes home schedule-wise within the aotted time and within a lot of budgets, not just for the contractor, but for the CI budget as well. that quality assurance, quality control.
Uh last note there, uh we use two integral measures to ensure construction management is successful and to deliver the projects for our clients. Uh Miss Teresa Driscoll who is our vice president uh with Vulker and our Florida
CEI director. Uh she will be responsible for performing any project reviews. What this does, we feel like it helps ensure our team to stay on point, make sure we're doing the things we've told you we're going to do to to provide good quality and assure that you're getting
good quality and helps our team stays on point, like I said, and be able to provide the city of Destin with top quality service as far as the CI inspection goes and any other measures that we have also and applies to design as well, not just CI, but it's a very important part of our process that we feel is very important.
So, in closing, uh, why Vulkar? You're going to ask, you're asking yourself, why are we going to choose these guys? Uh, this year marked the 100th anniversary of Vulker being in business. It's a long time. You know, through hard work,
dedication, client satisfaction, you know, Vulkar has persevered, was consistently grown, been successful year after year. Obviously, must have done something right to be for 100 years. um how we're able to do such uh years ago
vulkar established a set of core values to model our work and our lives by uh we feel it's very important to our success these these core values are service quality ethics and safety. Without those we wouldn't be successful in anything in
life in general. Uh using these core values allows us to provide the city of Destin with a team that has these values that meets and exceeds the necessary requirements to facilitate the contract and it's why we
feel like you should choose our team. In closing, we have formed an awesome group of highly experienced personnel for this project who will be responsive, will be timely, and will provide you with client service needed to deliver the project successfully.
We appreciate the opportunity to come before the city of Destin City Council tonight present for this project. We thank you very much. Awesome. And with that, any questions? All right. Thank you guys for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you all very much. Thank you. All right, Larry instructions.
Yeah, just a reminder that as you rank them, your number one top ranked firm will be number one. Your second ranked firm will be number two and your third ranked firm will be number three. And once we I believe it's going to Ray, if I'm not
mistaken, going to Ray. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, Jeff. All right. And then so I have a question. Yeah. So after we do RFQ, is there a RFB or no? This is a mod, this is a version
of what would happen next, Councilman, is that we would negotiate with the top ranked firm for an acceptable contract that we'd bring back to council for your approval. And if we can't come to terms that we think is acceptable at all,
we'll go to the second ranked firm. So, should we have done this before we do the RFB con construction contract for phase one then? Not necessarily. Aren't they managing phase one contract? They're more of a
managing the contract may be a little bit more than what they do. They're going to be our representative on site to make sure that the product that's being delivered is what was being designed and and bid uh in that process.
So whether that's contract management, it may be a matter of sematics whether we're but H&T is possibly going to start tomorrow digging holes and we don't need to have a contract with phase with this with these companies. No sir, they would. So they'll wait until this contract's executed.
Absolutely. Okay. All right. Uh, Councilwoman Traml, I was This question, I guess, is for Larry and and the attorney. If there was one specific aspect that you liked of one company and but you like the whole
company of another company, can we say at the approval process that we want to add that particular thing into the contract? Um, I'm not sure, but I'm thinking yes. If there's something that you want to
see particular um addressed during the construction engineering and inspection purview, we can certainly add that into a contract. Does that need to be part of the motion? You're just going to rank the firms one, two, and three.
Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Go ahead. to her point, how would she direct the staff to include that component if it wasn't part of the motion? Because after you rank the firms and we
have that motion, we can do a second motion to say. So, first we're just going to rank the firms one, two, and three for clarity. And then if you have any additional motions with respect to the contract, you can do that because if you look at the um motion that is recommended in the
staff report, it's to rank them and then it will authorize staff to negotiate with one and then if that doesn't work out too and then three as Larry said, so motion number two will be any specifics for the contract. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Seeing nothing further, does
everyone have thought Jeff was coming? Yep. We started asking questions. He sat down. So just to the city clerk, obviously you'll calculate them and then give us the ranking for the lowest number,
second lowest number, and third. Mr. We probably need to give Mr. Ray, just a few moments to do that before we proceed with. Did all council members turn in their ranking? Okay, mayor, we can take a five-minute break. All right, we're going to take a two-minute break. meeting back into order.
And is this a Kim? Are you or is it Ray? The city clerk will read the results. All right, Mr. City Clerk. Okay. Okay, the firm with the lowest total points of of nine
and therefore the council's first choice is half firm. All right. Uh the uh second rank firm with a total number of 12 points is anchors and the
third rank film firm with 21 points is Vulker. So it's half Anchor Bulker. Right. Thank you. We would need a motion from council. I'll move to authorize staff to negotiate a contract which will be
subject to final approval by the city council starting with the top ranked firm half. And if negotiations with that firm fail, moving down the list of the three firms in order of ranking until a proposed contract is reached with a firm. Second that motion.
All right. I have a motion and I do have a second. Not seeing any further discussions. Yes, sir. One question. Uh the contract will come back to us, right? That is correct. Okay. All right. Seeing nothing on the board. Uh we will call the vote and if we can
get that back on the screen. All right. Eyes have it 70. So moved. Thank all three of you guys for being here. Appreciate your time and talent. Thank you for being here and considering us. Mayor, I think Sure. Yeah. Please be recognized. Come
to the press the button. Oh. Oh, just the the gray button on the pad there. Yes, sir. There you go. Um I heard you say that there's a pre-construction meeting Wednesday for phase one. That's correct. We would definitely need to be there.
Love to have you. If you could uh notify the details us. Yeah. Thank you, sir. They also said that they won't start the project until we have a contract with y'all. So, we're we're ready, willing, and able. So, good thing you're on Main Street. Thank you, sir.
Appreciate you. Yeah. Push it off, please. All right. Anything else? Yes, Mr. Ramble. I don't need to make the motion, but what I wanted to say is where whoever gets the contract, whichever one of these three gets the contract, I want
that contract to include the cameras for real life for our citizens to know what's going on out there. So, I guess I can make that a motion in case because half did promote the the cameras and they have one, but if the other two end up being the selection,
I would like them to include and have cameras as part of the project so that our citizens can tie into those cameras and see exactly what's going on every day. Well, I'll second that if you make a motion. It's a motion. All right. A motion. Second.
I have a question. Go on in. What are you concerned about the selection? Because we select we just selected the top firm and as long as we have a contract. But if the contract does not go through, then you go to the second one. So So you're worried about the contract. So I'm saying if the contract doesn't go
through and we go to number two or number three, I want that included in their contracts. Okay. Does that make sense? Oh, it does. Okay. Okay. Sure. They want the contract. They're going to work with us. Well, I'm sure they will, but that's why that's why I said what I asked the question.
Yeah. No, absolutely. Good due diligence. All right. I have my motion. I have my second. We've had discussion. Anything further? Seeing none, I'll call the motion. The vote. The the question. All right. I have it so moved. It is added to the contract.
Mr. Jones. Boss man Larry Jones. Thank you, Mr. Ch Mr. Mayor. Um, item 4 D is regarding the undergrounding update and we have our consultants here that's going to share a brief presentation, but while they're setting up, let me tee it
up for them a little bit. Um, across the uh uh scope of the project where we are undergrounding the power lines on Harbor Boulevard 98, uh there are about 60 parking lots that have light fixtures in
them. U the request before you tonight is uh to consider funding $147,000 of the infrastructure being the conduit that will service those fixtures. And
Mark, if I get this wrong, set me straight. Um because once the underground is complete, there will not be option to service those by overhead. So what we've asked the consultant to do is to bring a a brief presentation that
will say that um the poles and the fixtures along the highway will be the same ones that FPNL will u charge a monthly fee for for those parking lot fixtures that will have to be replaced.
and by approving this $147,000 which we would anticipate would come from the uh landscaping component of that project which is in the budget. uh we will have some continuity into the
look of the fixtures along the roadway and in the parking lots. Along with that, and this part would require a legislative sponsor if you so desired, would be an amendment to the land development code that would require any
future um parking lot lights in whatever segment you would determine appropriate would meet the same standard uh that we're going to be requiring. FPNL If this is done, the U property owners
and businesses would pay a monthly charge per uh pole, per light, and that'll be between them and FPNL, but this would be their option to um use the same fixtures and poles that
we're using for street lights along the roadway. So, I'll turn it over and I didn't cover that. I'll let you take care of that for us, Mr. Mark. All right. Good evening, mayor and council members. Thanks for having me here tonight. I'll be brief. I know you guys have had a long night and uh try to get out here. I did before I want to
start um talking about the uh parking lot lights. I did want to kind of just briefly update on update you on the project status. So, I did bring the um so the the owner of the contracting company and his project managers here tonight just in case you guys have any questions about the construction. They just wanted to be present during this.
But I thought it would be good for you know there's a lot of maybe residents that are watching or that are maybe here tonight. I know most of you guys understand the boring operation, but as you guys know, and I'll talk about it here briefly, from Main Street to the bridge to the west bridge, we've got everything installed, both the north and
south corridor, and then we've got about probably a little over half a mile to the east of that. So, we're we're pretty close to getting that. The hardest part of this entire project is the conduit. You're going to have the wire later transfer. You're just pulling that through there. So, as you guys know that, I just wanted to share with you.
So this is that's what we're putting in on both sides of the road for just FPL and underneath the sidewalk. So it kind of gives you a picture. And then this is the carrier pipe. So you've got the different communication companies that
are attached to the pole and they're going in there. So this is basically what we're trying to stack and put underneath the sidewalk. And as you know, tons of existing utilities. Um but I just thought it it's kind of a huge milestone. For whatever reason, we all thought it'd be a great idea to start from Main Street and go west, the the
tightest corridor. But what that did is it gave us time to kind of make any adjustments that we may need. So as we go to the east where we feel like it gets a little more open, we didn't lose time. So the way that this project's going to work is once we get that infrastructure in, what we're trying to do is work with FPL. They're actually
here today. We've had meetings with them for most of the day. Um, so they're out here. You got a phenomenal FPL team. We've we've never worked with such a good group in our life. So, um, what we're talking about doing is from Main Street to the West Bridge, the switching is the hardest part of the job because all the infrastructure is in, the wires
in, the equipment set, we've got everything ready to go. Now, we're waiting for the power company to get everything energized, both aerial and underground. The problem with that is because it's so intrical. You have so many businesses and and the reliability. It's a real long tedious process. And then to add to that layer, we're tying
into existing golf power system with new FPL infrastructure. So, it's kind of a merge. So, it's a convoluted process, but anyway, what we tried to do, the short version of this was if we can get that started, get that piece turned over while we're progressing to the east, we can already be underway. So, what we're
trying to do is just save time. So, our whole goal with this job, and I know the contractor made the commitment to one, kind of get this project done efficiently, quick, without change orders. The other thing was to be here routinely or quarterly just to be here in case you have questions. We want to be transparent. But tonight, what we
wanted to share with you is we're 62, probably closer to 65% complete with all of the major infrastructure underground. Um, and that's comprised of everything, like I said, from the bridge just past Main Street. We're 39% contract time. So, we're way ahead of the schedule with
getting that. So, what we're trying to do is make up as much time in the construction side of it so that when we get to the switching, that's the slower process. We're at least ahead of that schedule. So, we're doing everything we can behind the scenes. there's a lot of interaction. Um, can't thank FPL's group. We've we've got a wonderful
relationship. You guys had an existing relationship with Bernard and those folks that's that's carried a long weight. So, we're just thrilled to kind of be up here and kind of present that we're kind of at that main milestone. So, we're basically a little over six months in on an 18-month job. So, a third of the way in and our progress is
extremely um looking really good budget. So, to you know, the project is is unit. So, we won't know until we get to the end of the job, but as of now, we're right on target. So nothing's come. We haven't had any big surprises. I would imagine that your biggest surprise would have been kind of encountered on that west end because that's where a lot of
the problems lie. So that's kind of good on that. And then right now I can't guarantee anything the contractors here in case we want to put them on the spot. But we think that we'll be able to get a little momentum going through the um off season. So when we get into the October, November time frame, we might be able to
have all of the major infrastructure in that's the carriers, everybody. Then our focus is just pulling wire through. So it doesn't really have impact. A lot of the boring machines are gone. The impacts of the driveways and a lot of that. So that that's kind of our forecast going forward. So I kind of jump to the next slide. We can go to the
third one. So that's just your phasing map. As you already know, what you see in red is what we're focused on phase one. So that goes from the west bridge to airport road. The next slide is just basically where the first section is pretty much predominantly complete. So you've got the west bridge to main streets almost
all complete. Now, they're going to go in there and set boxes, some intricate stuff, but for the large part, that's the hardest thing to get in the ground is the conduit infrastructure. So, we're good on that. So, tonight's subject um city manager did a great job kind of um laying that
out, but basically there's a FPL street lighting tariff, and basically what that is is it requires the customers to pay upfront for the conduit work. All the other components, the actual parking lot, the LED fixture, stuff like that, that just gets built on a monthly basis. So, as we're approaching this project, a
lot of the the businesses that we're working with, you know, that we're trying to get easements from, they had said that's kind of a big impact. We also thought that there would be some consistency and also being able to take advantage of if we work to get this project on schedule and we want to get the lines out, we need to get those
connections down. So, it seems like it's just seamless to kind of get it done, captured now, and take that burden off of the um the property owners. In some instances in talking with FPL Street Lighting Group, there's actually going to be a savings to some of these business owners. So, where they might
have a, you know, standard um bulb type fixture or maybe it's attached to an old pole. Some of the new LED lights will actually be improved. So, you'll have better LED light. It might reduce the count that they have. The LEDs cheaper than the old bulbs. So, it'll wind up it could be that they've got a lower monthly fee. So, that's positive for the
residents. So, two more slides in. I've got the existing flood lights and what I start with that is there's a monthly fee about $40 to $55 a month is what they're currently paying. The existing parking lot light
is basically between $9 to $18 a month. So if they've got the big flood light, they're paying somewhere right now between $44 to $55 a light fixture. And the they have just the standard smaller lights, those are about $9 to $18 a month. The next slide kind of shows some
examples. I won't go into it, but it's in your presentation. It just kind of shows you what's out there now, what those payments are. So, we kind of summarized that for you. The next slide, we went through and we basically did a um field calculation of everything. So, we went to every business that has the parking lots. We
did the measurements, takeoffs, everything. So, we now know exactly that there's 59 affected parcels. We know that there's a about 14,000 linear feet of conduit needed to facilitate all those lights. And we've got an estimated cost from FPL of $10.50 50 cents a
linear foot for that. So, we're looking at a total of about $147,000 to do that um during the during the project. The next slide is basically what the customers can expect from the change. So, basically, I gave you the prices before the flood light. This will change
to 26. So, you can see it's a reduction in their bill. The monthly costs for the parking, the regular parking lots are slightly higher, the LED, the fixtures, so they run a little bit more. But I think all in all what we're hearing from FPL is maybe if you have three lights now because of these new light fixtures
and the illuminations from them, you probably won't need as many. So they could also wind up reducing an entire pole and light itself. So that's would be between the customer and FPL to do that. Um the next page is just basically the summary of those cost and how we came up
with the average. So that's directly from FPL. And then the next slide is basically the the last thing is the existing parking lot poll. And I think this one we want to kind of take a second on because the monthly cost um is $20 a month currently
and the new cost will be$,750. So there's a slight reduction. Here's the thing. I've got on the next slide a picture of the poll. So if you guys remember, I know this isn't probably the best picture example that we got from FPL, but we're trying to put it in short order together. We these poles are
concrete black poles that are very similar to the ones that we're putting on the corridor. So you're going to have consistency when you go through the corridor. Everything's going to kind of blend in. So these lights, if we went with this option, would be the almost identical to the ones that you're putting on the corridor as far as aesthetic. So concrete, there's the
stability, the the weather, the storms, they're, you know, they're just a better um light all around. So these are the black lights. So the cost that I gave you, they have a variety of different poles. You can go with standard concrete, all kinds of aluminum poles, but we feel like this one ties in and it's right there in line with what those
costs would be. So, with that, um, I just wanted to see if I know I kind of said a lot in a short amount of period, but I didn't want to tie up too much time. See if you guys had questions that we can maybe answer. Yep. All right. First, I got Councilman Braden. Thank you, Mayor. I'm not sure who the
questions for. Um, but the $147,000 is that just for putting the conduit in and then there's additional price for running the wires. So that the the $147,000 is for just the conduit, the wire, the street lights, the poles, everything else is all done on a monthly basis. And
that's how it's set up for the customers now. So that's all no, we don't have to worry about any cost with wire or any of the other work. That's that's worked out between the owners and FPL on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, the conduit's the only thing they can't. We thought maybe they would be able to go in and just pay it in a a monthly installment, but they
don't. So it's got to be paid up front. So as you can imagine, that's a hardship for a lot of people to try to do that. And the timing is the most critical component of that, right? We want to get that done so we can get the polls out when we're ready to get them out. So that just allows for some uniformity. Thank you. All right. Uh Councilman Bagby.
Yeah. I would just uh ask Mr. Dest. I'll wait till he gets done talking to Sandy. Okay. If he would uh consider being the legislative sponsor. I mean, he's he's the one with the business down in the harbor area where we're doing this and and the land and you know, whatever he
thinks we should do down there, I'm pretty much on board. So, I would just ask he be the legislative sponsor if he's willing to do that. I would just love to be. However, since I am a property owner down there, I'm afraid the Florida Ethics Commission would not like that too much.
And I'm afraid that I may well not be able to vote on this issue at all. Oh, because you're a business because property's affected. Yeah, because I'm a property owner and if the city is paying then I would be getting financial benefit. At least that is the theory.
All right. Okay. I'll be the legislative sponsor that because I have nothing to do with the harbor area other than eating at Dewy's about once a month. So, all right. With that, Councilwoman Abe. Well, I I was going to say I'd be the legislative sponsor. I haven't even eaten at Dewey, so I can't even give
that credit yet. Um, my other question was the 147 that needs to be paid from us, the city, like now. Is that correct? Soon. We have time. So, that's not anything that we have to do tomorrow. We just wanted to bring it sooner than later so that when we get to that part, we're in position to do it. Plus, we're out there doing the boring now. So, it's
perfect just to go through. This is This doesn't affect anything that we've already done on the corridor. We still have to go into some of those properties, shoot the line to the services. These are very non-invasive, very quick operations. So, we can we can do it, but I would say sooner than later. And I think um the um city
manager, you know, mentioned too there there's a landscape budget that we never put in the contractor's budget. So um we have that. We just didn't know what y'all would decide to do with that. We thought that would be appropriate and then you know whether you decide to do things around some of the transformers of the equipments down the road. So if
you remember back at the beginning of the job, we said we'll just keep that separate and decide how to how to spend that later. So, we thought maybe that would be the most appropriate way and doesn't come really out of any um we don't have to come up with extra money for it. And then my other question is um the
black concrete is that like a painted concrete or is it like dyed before you create the poles? You know, I I don't know that I can answer that question. I believe that it's it's just the pro when they when they um they coat it, right? It's it's got a coating. So, I know it's not part of the concrete, but I don't know what type of coating it is. But I do know
that a lot of the beach communities that have had those black poles for a while, the concrete, they've last for years, and they're all in the same similar way. Most of our jobs are coastal, so they've got the aggressive environment, a lot of salt water. Um, they hold up extremely well. I would, that would be my preference. Well, that was my question was, you
know, if it's a paint or if it's something that's going to deteriorate within, you know, 5 10 years because of the salt and the air. But sounds like it's already been investigated. Good news with the poll is FPO owns that and they have to keep it maintained for the customer. So if it does go bad, they got to come in and swap it out. So it
wouldn't be the city in those situations. We'll make sure Bernard's people know that, right? Yeah, exactly. We'll call Bernard. Thank you. So Counciloman Dram, uh, this is for um, Mr. Jones. Is there another pot of money that we
can get that out of other than landscaping? because it seems to me that that's where we take it out of all the time and we end up looking half done. I will refer to Miss Crystal. Okay. We'll get you an answer. Yeah. So, the bottom line is we're using
electric franchise fees u to to pay this and um just so you know the the landscaping budget that was put into that resolution when or the ordinance when we adopted the electric uh franchise fees and dedicated a portion to undergrounding. uh they dedicated 10%
of the amount that's coming in. Um so that's that's coming in in about 90,000 a year and we haven't even nipped that yet. So there there's a lot of landscaping money, but the bottom line is we'll be using electric franchise fees to pay for this. Good question. Anything else?
All right. Thank you. Uh, Councilman Bagley. Mayor, I move to direct the city manager to approve a change order consistent with the consultant's presentation and bring back any necessary budget amendment to the city council taking those funds from the landscaping budget
as we discussed. Second motion second. Any further discussion? All right. See, sure. You want to give the hard contractor a hard time while he's here? I got a question for him after we we pass this. You want us to I I'll wait on my next motion. Yeah. All right. Uh seeing no further
discussion, call the vote. All right. I got 61 abstension. And I think we know who that is. Mr. Ray Bailey, if you can help with the paperwork at your convenience. Did you have anything else, Councilman Bag? I do. I move to direct city manager and city attorney to prepare an ordinance
for future council consideration to require uniform light poles consistent with the consultants presentation and after if I get a second second okay you know this is one of the things we have uniform been trying to do since we set up the
CRAAS both the CRAAS if you look at those little shepherds crook lights out on commons we were going to have a theme and we were going to have you know And these light poles are different, but at least we'll have the same thing all the way down 98,
you know, at at some point in time because it just aesthetically is more calming and more pleasing for this community. So, I am all in on doing this at least the entire length of 98, if not the major feeder
roads into 98, but we'll deal with that when they bring the ordinance back. All right. Seeing no further discussion, we'll call the vote on Mr. Bagley's motion. All right. Eyes have it 70. So moved. All right. Any last words? Any questions? No.
Seeing none, we'll keep this ball rolling. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item 4E is regarding the public beach vending RFP discussion. Uh it was requested that staff bring back some thoughts regarding
what an a procurement would look like if we were to entertain the idea of beach vending. Um so what you have in your document in your packet are some city standards and limitations, some requested responses
from an applicant. Um there's um Walton County uh example of their beach vendor RFP that they went out with earlier uh late last year and their ordinance that regulates beach vending. So as we move
um question number one is do we want to allow vending? There's a discussion later on about bonfires. Um, and if we want to entertain bonfires, we have to amend the code that will allow vending
to some degree. Um, so and in this process, um, we would look at um whether we would award separate uh proposals for uh different beaches or one universal.
Uh but before we get too deep in that discussion, I think it would be interesting to hear from council if there is an appetite to consider beach vending beyond what we have here uh what you've seen. Uh and we're we're prepared to move forward. Uh but if if there's no
appetite for it, we certainly don't want to waste council time or staff time. Fant. Well, I certainly love the idea, but we will absolutely hear from council. So, Councilman Bagby up first. Yeah, I'm not hard over on the the beach vending. I'm I'm not having dealt with
it and gone through about four iterations of the beach vending ordinance in Walton County uh when I was at TDC uh between ghost chairs and lines and people out there at 5:30 in the morning drilling holes in the ground.
The other thing, and this this isn't Walton County, uh they have 60 some odd beach access points the 26 miles of their county. you know, we have very limited public speech. Uh, and I haven't heard a great outcry that the people of
this city, and if I was going to hear one, I'd probably hear it in my neighborhood, uh, for beach vendors to go out there. I know the county has them at James Lee Park. We don't even own James Lee Park. So, when you look at the sections of beach that we would actually control,
uh, it'd be very few. And there's nothing that prevents these private beachfront property owners from saying, "Hey, I want you to come out here every day to my house and set up two umbrellas and four chairs and you know how much you going to charge me."
That that's a service, but that's not, you know, not for us. So, until I hear some major outcry, I I think the the juice is not worth the squeeze, quite honestly. But if we do decide, you know, and and we should I agree with
your premise. If we want it, it ought to be heavily reg, you know, we need to control it. And if we don't want it or we're not, we're kind of ambivalent, which is probably where I am, then uh we need to stay out of it.
Councilwoman Traml, I'm I'm not for bending on the beach. Um I think basically what Mr. Bagby said was was uh very appropriate. But I think when we're looking at this, I think we need to think about only approving what we can
service. We can't control this. We can put all the the limitations on all of this and we can't get out there to see if anybody's breaking them. We we can't do it. We've only got we can't do what
we're doing right now. So it just I would say no and I would say Destin is in a very unique position. We offer no vending on the beach which is unlike any other beach which makes us
unique in that way. We don't have to follow everybody else. So I think my answer to that would be no. Council Gal. All right. So, as you all know, I'm the one that proposed this originally, and
um I'm not saying I'm for or against beach vending. What I'm saying is as a council, we needed to do our due diligence and at least look at what options are out there. Um for us to actually make a decision, we needed to see the regulation that would potentially be in place, how it would
affect our community, and make a decision based off the data that was presented by staff. So that was the reason I requested it is so that we could all be educated and informed and make an informed decision. Councilman Braden.
Thank you, Mayor. Um yeah, at this point I I can't support beach fending. Um for whatever reason, we don't have have complaints and to best my knowledge code compliance not or fighting with beach fenders anymore. And I know that was a
huge problem two or three years ago. I don't want to open that can of worms up again. So, um, right now I'm like, like Mr. Bagby said, it's not a big outcry for it, so I can't support it. Uh, Councilwoman Abear,
I feel like we don't have the manpower to enforce something like this, and we only have a certain amount of our own beaches. So for us to say, you know, we can allow beach vending, then before you know it, it's like, okay, we we only control this little pod here, this
little piece of beach here. So I feel like, you know, people may want us to allow this, but realistically, we don't have how many miles of beach do they have in Walton County? We're not like Walt County. So uh 20 of which
12. Wait, let's see. State Park Six. Yeah, they have 26 total. State Park Six. We don't have like 8 miles or 9 miles. We don't even have a mile that we truly add. Um, so to try and do beach vending is kind of
it's a hard sale for me to say yes, we need to put this in place. I don't think we could manage it. Council Schmidt. Yeah. Thanks. I just have a few questions for clarification. Yes, sir. Um, you said, Mr. Bagby that
we only have certain areas where we could do this. So does that mean that people like on 98 that I'm sorry you know Gulf Shore Drive Oceanana by Holiday Isle properties they're allowed to to have vending on
their on their beach like they can just start bending. They can have a bonfire. They can sell trinkets. They can sell ice cream. They can just do it. I'm confused by what you meant by there's we don't have a lot of area.
We don't have a lot of area is just that public area. Yeah. that we can if if you're a private beachfront property owner, there's nothing that to my knowledge, I'll ask the attorney, but there's nothing to my knowledge that would prevent you saying, "Hey, Kevin, I want
you to come down here every day and put down two umbrellas and four chairs, and I'll give you $500 if you do it from March 1st to September 15th on my private property, not not below the mean high water line or below the ECL or
anything like that. Not getting, you know, into that discussion, but just on my private property, it would be no different than if I went down as a private beachfront property owner and put out chairs and umbrellas every day, but not bonfires. Not bonfires. That's a whole different
issue. And so, you're only talking about umbrellas and chairs. That's all we're That's all that's before us right now. It is. I I don't know. This is This says Yeah. Let me public beach bending. Yeah. This would be much more than
umbrellas and chairs if it was at council certainly discretion, but our understanding was it may include food, it may include beverages, it may include t-shirts, but that would be um the parameters that you would set around any
allowance, any permittable uh activity. U so it may be bonfires, it might at some point be weddings. uh but those things in order to allow any of those individually there has to be some
mechanism to allow that and now so this is would be a broader discussion of if we wish to allow something u and then decide what that something would be and where that something would be. Uh, one thing that I would suggest that while
enforcement is always an issue, if we allowed vending on a limited basis on a limited basis, particularly on our um, public accesses, there would be a lot of self-regulation going on there as to if
I'm permitted to sell t-shirts at one spot, rest assured that I'm going to make sure no one else comes there selling t-shirts. Um if if that be the case and and and later on we'll have some conversation about whether the the ordinance to allow
the sheriff whether to declare vending without a permit it would be a misdemeanor uh an arrestable offense that if you go down that path that certainly gives me as that one permitted vendor the opportunity to call the sheriff's office and say hey I got a guy
down here that's breaking the law and so there is some teeth that can go in to the permitted uses on a limited basis. And again, that's whether it's selling merchandise, selling food, or bending fires or maybe weddings at some point.
So, all right. And then with that, yeah, I'm going to get a to wrap it up and then I'll have you up. Oh, I apologize. No, no, that was good. I was glad you brought it up. He say my name. What I wanted to point out is is that's all well and good that you
you're paying to sell t-shirts or say you paid for, you know, you're going to sell ice cream on our public beach and you may go across the private to get to the next piece of our public beach and you're going to help monitor that because you've paid for it. Look at the
problem we're having right now with all of our pontoon boat operators. We have probably 20 of them calling us every week. We've got rogue operators launching out at that Leonard Park off of Calhoun. John was telling us tonight
that there was people at those transient peers picking up illegally all Fourth of July weekend and we couldn't get code down there. We didn't have enough people to enforce it. So, I feel like until we have a staff of 20 code enforcement, which I'll never see that, we're never
going to be able to enforce things if we start handing out permits. We're just going to punish the people that are permitted because your rogue operators are always going to find a way to get away with it. They're always going to want want to do the the least amount of work but get all the reap the benefits
and not pay to get the permitting. So, I feel like it's it's too hard with our limited access to our own public beach, what we have as property that we own. Right. Okay. Just to be clear on a couple of things, we currently have
permitting for um beach umbrellas and chairs on public and private beach. So, they would both come in for a permit if they were going to bend on the beach. This RFP would be however council wants it, but was intended to potentially open that up
beyond chairs and umbrellas. Right. Council Mish. Yeah. Sorry. I guess I I see that your request was to do an RFP potentially at our public beaches only maybe. Is that what your intentions were?
Yes, because we can't really regulate too much of the private beaches. Got it. So that's why you said we don't have a lot of public beaches then, which makes sense. So, but if somebody wanted to go be a vendor and sell straw hats, they
can they can sell them on the beach behind private property. But if it's private property, like like all of our land development regulations that affect private and public property. We regulate private property regularly through zoning every
day. It's the same thing on the beach. We regulate both. You have to have a permit. You can't vend on public or private beach without a permit in the city. There are some condos and multif family residential areas that have an amenity to their condo. That's
different. But for commercial vending on the beach, you need a permit. Okay. Yeah. I mean, this is a am I am I in favor of uh vending? I guess if we're going to define it and what does vending
mean? you know, um, we already have ice cream being slung all over the place, left and right. That's vending, right? Ice cream seller, that's bending. Um, 15 bucks a pop, you know, from a Spider-Man walking down the beach. Um,
I I know that beach bonfire would be bending, I believe. Right. So, later we're going to talk about that in a separate item, but if we're all saying right now, we're not even interested. I'm a little confused. But um I would be in favor of
some sort of vending at our public beach. I mean selling drinks and snacks and food is is a nice thing to offer to people that are going to the beach sometimes. So uh I'd be open to that too. So u but it's all good. It's very
confusing topic for sure. Um it sounds like people have been slinging ice cream for a decades around here. So, um, somehow or another, people have been bending and destined for decades. So, I I don't know what I'm missing then. Why we're not I I'm confused.
I don't I think that was misleading when she said we've been slinging ice cream for decades on the beach. That That hasn't happened. We haven't been and we don't allow it. Right. Okay. Council Dustin. Thank you, mayor. Um, I don't think I would be in favor of
opening the beach up to vending. kind of turned it into a carnival. Um, as I read through the Walton County ordinance, even they which who allow vending say it has to be on a specific site. You're not allowed to go up and down the beach with a cart. That's not allowed in Walton
County either. So, that's really the issue we're dealing with now. And so, I would I would not be in favor of going forward with this issue at this time until I hear from the folks who live and own property on the beach that they really want us to let people do that kind of activity. And I've not heard
that. All right. Councilman Bagby. Yeah. I just want to see if I can't help explain this to Kevin. If I'm a private beachfront owner and I contract with somebody to come down and set up chairs
and umbrellas for me or my guests or whatever on my little piece of land. That's not the same thing as that person going down and I think as Rodney said, hawking, you know, setting up a stand and saying and running up and down
going, "Hey, you know, we're we're selling or renting umbrellas and chairs, you know, you tell me and I'll have my guy who's set up here on this little private piece of property to run down and set up for you and you and you." A
lot of the condos, a lot of the uh neighborhoods or whatever resorts you want to call them, uh have tiki huts or have little snack bars or whatever, which is down near the beach right across the street, Silver Shells, you know, they have their little tiki hut
down there. And there there are others. James Lee Park has a whole restaurant that the county lets be there, but uh that's different. You know, if it were up to me, I would have and I I know I'll get slammed for this. I wouldn't even
have the ice cream going up and down in the wagon selling because that's that's one of the things that has that village feel is I bring my cooler down or whatever and I I do it. Plus, I don't like the government setting up a
monopoly, which is when you have if you go the route Walton County and others have gone before in some of their iterations, you say, "Okay, we're going to do an RFP. We're going to pick the vendor, okay? And they're the vendor." And yes, we're
getting part of the cut, but that's monopoly. And that's not government's business. But that's not really part of this discussion. It's probably going to be part of the fire pit discussion, though. But I that that's the vending that I I'm talking about. Yeah. And I'll give Kevin some great because I was on that wavelength too of
Yeah. I'm not necessarily for public beach vending. I would like our private corporations and residents to to have the option to do very strict refined vending our choosing. But I think that's I was getting ready for the fire
thinking that we needed this for the fire. So yeah, I would say from what I've heard and and the people I've talked to, um I think one of the biggest things that they're excited about even with our groundbreaking this morning was, "Please tell me there's going to be no vending." And I'm like, "Nope, no vending." And I'm thinking just chairs
in my head and everyone's like, "Oh, thank goodness. Oh my gosh, that's great." So, I would say to everyone's point so far, I think the public beach vending seems to be on on the side of let's not have it on the parcels that
we're buying for the beach, but just so we, you know, not to skip ahead, but I would really love to see some bonfires that are hyper controlled because me with a dozen of the people that are in this room like to go out and do some beach cleaning and the last thing I want to pick up is some some ash and soot on
top of that. So, I'm going to speak on a little out of turn and say I can't wait to talk bonfire. So, with that, um, do we need a motion or you got your consensus being that this is kind of a open form? To me, a motion would be nice clarity.
Nice clarity. Yeah, let's just wrap this up in a bow. Um, with that, do I Well, since I made the initial, I'll make the motion that we do not allow beach vending in Dustin. All right. We have the motion in the negative. So voting in the affirmative
would allow the no. Not to confuse the heck out of everyone. Second. Make it simple. Substitute motion. We will not go forward with pending investment at this time. You just got schooled. Yes.
May I ask for some clarity, Mr. Mayor? No. We're about confusion up here. No. Yeah. Don't confuse it. Now that well my clarity would be we have another agenda item regarding bonfires on the beach. That's discussion ma'am. That was for discussion.
That was for a public hearing to get public input. If if we vote to have no vending on the beach, would that preclude us from moving forward with that discussion or not? Just for clarity. I'm we're good either way.
I'm with him and and that's why I don't want to go all in on agreeing to that right now because I think we need to talk about some potential options for a question for him. Would that prohibit us from allowing bonfires on the beach? Well, you can carve it out of your
motion if you'd like. Very good. It will not apply to bonfires. My legal opinion would we will we will carve it out of this prohibition, but I don't see it as vending to have a bonfire on the beach.
But that's why you get paid all the money. I think the reason is because we were talking about the RFP or RFB. So in that context, the way Walton County did the bonfires is with through the RFP for vending. I saw that.
Okay. So we're carving out bonfires and just no vending for now. Yeah. For this point. For this? Yeah. For the next Yeah. Because tableabling it would make it go to the next meeting. No, we're not table. Yep. All right. Everyone thoroughly confused? Yeah. Fantastic.
All right, we'll call it unless anyone needs some clarification. Yes means no. Yes means a no. Yes means not. We're playing golf again.
Yeah. All right. Eyes have it. So moved. Next item. Next item. Next item is regarding transit boat slip signage um for discussion and possible direction. Um after your last meeting, we held a um
code compliance hearing for the magistrate where the um Mr. Perry's property that was denied their request to um amend their development order requiring a certain number of of transit boat slips or
public boat slips. Um, we asked them to remove the signage after they agreed that they were in violation on three slips, which was all before the magistrate at that time. We asked them to remove their signage and to install signage um, identifying those three
slips as transit or public slips. U, they boked at that with the uh, and their argument was there was no provision in our code to require them to post those signs that said transit or public slips. and they were kind of right. So, after some discussion and we
did get them to uh agree to put some signs up, but they were probably not the best they could have been. Um, so we council and I had a couple of conversations or probably many conversations about how do we move that forward. So, we came to the idea that if
we're going to have public or transient slips, we we should have some signage that says this is a public or transient slip. And if we're going to do that, why not have a universal sign that all transit or public slips are identified?
And uh Mr. Stevens made a recommendation after we published our agenda that maybe some language on that that also included no commercial activity would be appropriate. So what you see on your screen is a mockup of a sign that would
uh potentially be required for all transit slips uh within the harbor. And if you we have an appetite for that, we will need a legislative sponsor because it will require a amendment to the land development code that says transient slips will have a sign and that sign
will be designed and developed by the city and that they will be universal for all transient slips whether they're existing now or as we identify them going forward. Um, so that's kind of the discussion where we got here and whatever direction council wishes to
take, we'd follow. I'm going to save mine to the end. You want to jump in? Um, I'll be the legislative sponsor to put that in, make it a uniform sign across the board. All right. Okay. All right. And then
Councilwoman Traml, I was just I was just going to say I'd be the legislative sponsor, but in looking at this sign, I like it, but I think it would hold more weight if we would actually put our code line at the bottom
that they would violate. Then at that point, if there was commercial activity, that's all. We can put once we have a section number and we you all pass the ordinance, we can that's a good plan. We'll add it to the sign. So, in addition to this, and I'm shooting myself for not just taking a photo of it, so we can see it as well. I
think one of the biggest confusions and maybe unintentionally or maybe intentionally, the biggest misdirect from those docks, and I understand where they're coming from, is across the very front. So, if you're in the harbor
looking to the side, um there's big no no parking on the very front or I guess perhaps to the back of the dock, which makes sense because that's where the taxi goes. So, they're saying no parking here, but it's so big and bold that it
looks like no parking anywhere. Like, if I didn't know better, it would look like that whole dock is off limits. So I think in addition to the transient slips that may I'm assuming would be facing the slips which would mean the sign is not facing outward where all the public would be able to view it. You'd be
against the uh the side of the sign. Perhaps we also, and I hate to just muddy the water, but perhaps we also need a sign or some version of the sign to also undermine their no docking to taxi slip, public transit slips, because
even if those signs are up, my fear is the big red no uh docking sign is going to override any of these signs. So, that's just kind of my concern from just being out there on the third uh of this past weekend on Friday is these might this I like this,
but I also think there might be one more step to really minimize the confusion of what that dock really is. So, this is obviously this is going to be a harborwide ordinance. It's not with respect to any one property. Just for the record, there's other property owners in the city right now that
already have signs and we're just trying to make them uniform. But that is a good suggestion and we would we could put um that additional language into the new ordinance that we just obtained a legislative sponsor for. Okay. As well. Thank you. Perfect. All right. I got Councilman Braden.
Thank you. Uh yeah, my concern was somewhat along the same lines as um it is the ones at the at the edge. They're horizontal. And so we need to be able to, I guess, have a sign, a vertical sign like this and a horizontal
design. Um, and just my personal preference, I'd rather have public up top instead of notice. That's certainly fine. I mean, this is just a mockup to example of some uniformity. Okay. I like it.
Nice. Uh, Councilman Dustin, good suggestion. We do have a motion, right? You sponsored it. And it's to be a sign somewhat like this. And the only problem I have, mayor, with what you're saying is it sounds like we make it into a dueling
sign with property owners who can put the biggest loudest sign in. That's why it needs to be uniform. Yep. I know. But what the mayor was suggesting that we It's not part of the motion. I get it. It's just I just don't know how we can win a dueling sign competition apart from what we're voting
on right now. Correct. Yeah. didn't mean to, I guess, muddy the the motion with with another possible motion, I guess. So, yeah, I'll kind of reiterate that in a moment then. So, we'll we'll keep it to this motion. All right. Seeing no further discussions
on public transit slips, I'll call the vote with our sponsor in hand. All right. Eyes have it. So, moved. And then I guess uh to Miss Cop's point um perhaps I ask if anyone would like to be a legislative sponsor for a sign that
defines taxiing and what the water taxi location is. Would that solve that issue? I think we can put it all into the same ordinance if you all just want to come to a consensus on what you want in there or we can bring you something on first reading and you can let us know if
you're good with it. Okay. I don't think you need a separate ordinance for that. Okay. I guess I I don't want to cosine's point. I don't want to muddy this with another thing. With all due respect, the discussion and the motion specifically prohibited that to be part of this. Mhm.
A no taxiing sign. We we narrowed it down to this particular sign and that was made pretty clear during the motion. Just having uniform signage for public slips. So no taxing would be consistent, but if you want separate ordinances, that's fine. No, I think that would be
in comp would confirm with what the discussion was. I specifically asked that question. All right. So, I guess um you know and I think it's not necessarily of taking the no off is it is making it just uniform across what a taxi docking slip is and isn't and a transit slip is and isn't
through the signage that we're trying to uniform. So, I think if we're going to run that in parallel is if anyone uh would like to be the legislative sponsor or a motion to this I think what you're trying to do is you're upset there's a sign on the ed on
the edge of the dock that says no parking but there's lots of private docks across the harbor that we have transient slips further in. Okay. That have a private boat on the outside that also says so you're almost wanting to have street signs in the harbor directing people where the transient
slips are. I get it. Yeah. I don't think we're going to be able to tell a private property owner of the private dock because Mr. Perry built those docks. Correct. Some of the slips are transient slips. That's right. But I just I you know Yeah. No, and I have nothing against
I'm all about transient slips. I think we know that. Yeah. No, for me trying to help you, but for sure. No. And it's not against like trying to push one individual. The the reality is I'm trying to just clear the confusion of what is and isn't. And the illusion of what isn't out there is that
there's no docking at that dock. So that that was just where I'm coming from as a visual from Friday that I saw. So just throwing some I'd be fearful for the government to step in and try to Yeah. I I challenge myself libertarian views daily. All right. So with that, we'll just push
on. Seeing no appetite, we'll keep on rolling. Larry G. Yep. Appointment of council. Yes. um 4G, there are a number of boards that we have council representation on
and you have a list there, but if you look at the bottom three, which is the Okaloosa County Public Transit Cooperative Board, the Walton Okaloosa Santa Rosa Regional Utility Authority and the Emerald Coast Regional Council have primary uh appointees, but no
alternate. So, the question before you tonight is, do we wish to have alternates appointed to those three U organizations? All right. And with that, I'm just going to throw my name in the hat for the ECRC alternate. Uh, I was on there for a
year. It was a lot of good learning and with a lot of the new safe streets for all funding and a lot of things moving through that board. Uh, if Councilman Bagby, are you still the legislative side? I still am. All right. So, if he's not able to make it, I would love to be able to jump in there and at least speak to some of the
initiatives that we have. Uh, but with that, Councilman Bagby, you're up. Yeah, I have two motions. First motion is uh to appoint Mayor as the alternate for the ECRC. All right. Appreciate that. Uh, any further discussions? Seeing none, and
then Councilwoman Traml, I'll save your spot there, so I'll clear it, but I'll come back to you. Yep. All right. All right. Thank you for that. My second one is I'm willing to serve. I served as the chair of the RUA for about
four years previously. I'm willing to be the alternate, but if somebody else wants to be the alter be the alternate. I'll second that. Yeah, I know you will. You have it. You got it. What happened to me when I vice chair? That's it.
That's how it rolls. All right. I got a motion. I see no further discussion. and call a vote. Okay, I see what it's doing. All right. All right. And then I got Are you good? All right. Councilwoman Traml, I was just gonna say that be the alter.
I was just going to say that I would be the alternate for the RUA. Mr. Begby has it. Huh? I make that motion. Spoke too soon. No, I I I have been with a utility company for a long time.
All I want is gas in West Dest or at least where I live. The gas. Yeah, natural gas. Natural gas. Okay. All right. Um All right. What is the other The other one meets the fourth Thursday
of every month. Can you do I can I can do the public transportation cooperative. I'll make I'll make a motion that uh Sandy Traml be a second. There you go.
Mayor Wagner. Mayor. Mhm. The alternate. All right. You want it? All right. With that, I'll call the call the question. All right, eyes have it. So move 70. I
appreciate everyone's willingness to step up for one more deeply paid position. All right, item um just u a followup there. It was brought to our attention during our
briefings that um most of these organizations produce minutes from their meetings that are never shared with council. So, we're going to put an effort into reaching out to these individual committees and clerk has graciously agreed to help us with that
to provide minutes of those meetings to each of you um members of council. So, going forward, you'd have the opportunity to see what's going on. Perfect. Uh 4 are minutes from the standing board and committees for information. Uh you have the absentee report from the volunteer committees and
boards. Again, that's for information only. Um, a few announcements. Um, we were able to get the, um, harbor side of Norgo Point open for boats prior to the 4th of July. Um, got the fencing moved
up the hill slightly and enough to open the shoreline up and get got the appropriate signage moved as well. Um, Larry, could you please explain for those in the public what you did to make that happen? He can't say it up here in the public.
Probably wouldn't be a good idea. Well, we appreciate it and a lot of our constituents were very thankful to be able to park on Nora Point. We as a team took care of that. Correct. That's correct. Okay. Council member Schmidt met us out there with the contractor and with D rep and uh they
graciously agreed after some as he chuckles. We love you, Kevin. Thank you for taking that one for the team. They they they heard uh us, I will say loud and clear. Um so, uh $1 million appropriation from
the legislature got signed into the budget by the governor. Among U million that he vetoed on that day, our million-doll got by. So, we're grateful for that. Um, our lobbyist, Kelly Horton, will be at our next meeting to
kind of give us a wrap up of, uh, the legislature. Um, you know, follow up on some of the things and any other questions we may have for her. Uh, we were asked at the last meeting about the RFP for the paid parking. Those are in. We were hoping to have that available
tonight, but they were quite extensive. We had a number of them. So, we're making sure we do a thorough review of those. We'll have that recommendation back to you at the next meeting. um utility meeting scheduled for July the 16th. Uh as you well know, we've had
a a tremendous amount of conflicts between those that are boring um fiber optics in and other utilities and some of our uh natural gas um desk and water users. So, we facilitated a meeting last
week of all those providers that said, quite frankly, we from the city are tired of getting caught in the crossfire that there's so many instances where this one's saying their the problem. And so we're going to have all players
together in one room on the 16th from 4 to 6:00 p.m. So if you know of any unresolved conflicts between those unresolved issues, let us know and we'll reach out to get the details so we make sure we get the right parties together
to make our best attempt to come to some resolution to these u matters that have been longstanding for some. but uh we'll have uh the ability to pull up who was working where and when um so we can do
our very best to move those conflicts out of our way. So uh we're looking forward to that time. Um and Dr. T, you have something else? I do. Um, in addition to what our city manager just said, if people listening in do have concerns and would like to
show up on the 16th, we're super excited to have them there and present. But if they could please email publicinfo at cityofdestine.com ahead of time with names, addresses, and concerns. that's helping us facilitate to the right representatives at the
various companies so that they come prepared on the 16th to make sure that we've got answers for the public when they show up. Uh, also happy to announce the incoming operations supervisor and training coordinator in code compliance. Mr. Chris Cook will be starting on July
14th. His responsibilities will mainly revolve around ensuring the day-to-day staffing and operations of the division. ensure all the officers and other code staff have the appropriate training. And finally, it's a community favorite, big truck day, and that's going to be August 1st at the community center from 9 to
11:00 a.m. and we'll be posting about that and putting it on our website as well. All right, next item is good. Good, huh? regarding bonfires on the beach. Uh we were asked to hold this as a public hearing so we could take public
input. So that's what's before you. Um so we reached out to our neighbors in Walden County and asked them to provide us information regarding how they manage that process and that's been provided to you. Um but uh in a synopsis there's a
permitting process that is facilitated by the South Walton Fire District. Uh the permits there are $105. Uh $5 is a um processing fee and the other $100 is split equally between the county and the
fire district. Uh there was a substantial amount of revenue generated um through that program for um the county and the fire district. They split $936,000. No way is that going to be a reality in the city of Dest. But, uh, there is
some, um, magnitude there that, uh, shows there's, uh, some demand for fires. Uh, I've been in contact with the, um, Destin Fire Control District. It met even earlier today to be sure we were in
one accord moving forward. And, uh, they are here tonight, Chief Sassin, Fire Marshall, and we appreciate them being here. Um but uh we we had a very good conversation earlier and that we are certainly in sync on how this would
move forward. Um so what you have also in your agenda packet are the Walton County rules for having a bonfire on the beach. Uh the permit process and application. Um and then there's some um um discussion about the linear feed that
the city of Dest has. So um first question is do we wish to have this discussion about bonfires and I think we clearly spoke earlier that we would like to move this forward. So here's some things that we need to be
cognizant of in this process. Uh should bonfires be allowed on public and private property? I would suggest that the public property being so limited that we only look at allowing them on private property. Uh, I think it would
be unfair to have a 60 foot wide public access and have someone go build a fire at dusk and say nobody else can come to the beach tonight because that's basically what would happen. Um, operators or vendors would be certified by the city or the fire district, whoever we deemed appropriate. Uh, all
beach bonfires would be required to be permitted through the fire control district. Um, a point of discussion is what would those permits cost? Uh the fire pit setup would be in accordance with the city and the fire district's
regulations. Uh and prior to um moving forward with u any permitting, we would have those standards in place and those that would participate would be required to follow those requirements. So where would we recommend locating them? uh upland of the erosion control
line or the mean high water mark, 25 feet from any property line, 100 feet from any habitable structure, 30 feet from any other bonfire, 200 feet from a marked or known turtle sea turtle nest, 50 feet from any
vehicle, public roads, other structures, plants, vegetations, or dunes. Um materials must be hand carried to the site. uh as there's no vehicles allowed to to um transport that material. Um so
all the uh bonfire material will be required to be placed into a container low larger than 4t in diameter. All they must have a fire ring and they must have a bottom and I believe in Walton County they must be 4 inches off the ground. Um
no higher than four feet. So we can't have just you know blazing bonfires of any magnitude. Couldn't be could not be started with any um or fueled by any flammable material. U
no no treated lumber, no tar paper, rubber type products, glue impregnated materials, plastic, foam or trash. Bonfire material would be free of any metals. uh all leave no trace ordinances and regulations would be strictly
followed. Um we didn't develop most of this. Most of it we took out of our neighbor in Walden counties and um and it's been functioning there for many years and they've been very successful. So uh we did vet this with the chief sasser and um the fire marshall earlier
today and we're in accord with these components. Certainly this is just an outline. we can take it to whatever direction or degree the council would like. Um so with that uh any direction you would have for us again um it would
take an amendment to the land development code. So we need a legislative sponsor to move it forward to that end. Um the uh fire district is here if you have any questions for them and I know there's some from the public here that wishes to speak. So u Mr. Mayor subject to your questions for us
we'll hand it off. All right. I guess is there any questions from the overview before I open this up to the public? Yep. All right. So, from the public, if anyone here wish to speak on this topic, this is your time to do so. I'll switch it up and start with my left, y'all's right. Anyone here wish to continue any
bonfire talks? Yes, ma'am. Personally, and I think that I speak for a lot of people. Carrie Harbarer, 307 Mountain Drive. Sorry. I didn't think I needed to say that for you. I'm sorry. I don't even know why we're having this discussion. I can't believe
anybody wants to do that. I can see where Walton County has 26 miles to do it on. We do not. Why are we going to start that? We can't control what we have. Guys, please don't do it. I ask you, please don't do it. We don't need it. It doesn't have any economical
impact on us. We're not going to lose a bit of business and most of the locals, we don't want it. All right. Anyone else? Yes, sir. Gary Troop, 86 Shyra Street. Um whether you're for bonfires or not, until we get
some code enforcement that's reliable and consistent, it's just a bad idea. Period. Um you know, our beaches are where people come to see and if they're covered with, you know, um stuff left over from fires and stuff, it's just going to make them ugly. The um and when
you look at the numbers, I don't think we're going to get anywhere near 900,000. if you did if you limited like you said I think from uh I just read one article I apologize I'm not totally up to speed in this I've been out of the country but um you want to do it 180
days a year from uh October to March right is what you were thinking about doing that's what the article I read said you're not going to do it during the summer right because anyway maybe you will I don't know but if if you do what was in the article 180 days at $105
and there were 10 fires every day I mean you're talking about $180,000. It's not it's not a compelling amount of money. Um, and you're going to have to get code enforcement people to follow up on the vendors that they're doing it right, that they're cleaning up. And then
you've got all the people that say, "I don't need no stinking permit. I'm just going to, you know, have a fire on the beach." Um, so I think you just open up Pandora's box to be honest with you. Um, I like bonfires, but I don't want to put up with everybody else doing them. So, and I would say though if you said so
private beaches is where you're recommending it. So, I'm I'm not sure how that works. Um, are you going to I guess let the hotels and things do it? Is that your plan? Um, I don't know. But if you do it on public beaches, if you decide to do it on that,
then um I think the private homeowner should have the opportunity to do get a permit and do if they want to do it. It shouldn't just, you know, you shouldn't exclude them if you're going to do it. But um overall I think you know you go to the harbor, you go to the beach and we're not enforcing any of our
ordinances. We don't enforce the parking ordinances. We're not able to enforce the as Patty was saying the uh the illegal charters. We're not doing anything. So why open up another thing that's just going to be a mess? That's my my personal opinion. Thanks. All
right. Thank you. Right. I got you next, sir. Honorable mayor and honorable counselors, uh, Guy Tadlock, 502 Norgo. Um, first of all, thanks for the flags this past weekend. Special thanks to the
recreation departments. It's good seeing that. Um, relative to bonfires, um, I read in the packet, got a little bit better idea about the bonfires. I think they'd be better called fire pits uh than
bonfires, unlike what Mr. Dustin described that he did as a kid on Holiday Isle. I've been to a couple of bonfires and in both cases uh there was property damage and injuries.
One of them was the Texas A&M bonfire. But that being said, um whatever we do in that direction, uh we don't need to out uh out outrun our coverage. Uh I agree largely uh with the previous uh
speakers uh that we got to be very careful about it. Uh and with that being said, uh we've got some parks I don't think would be good candidates uh for uh fire pits. Uh, Noriego Point Park would
be one. Uh, it's it's narrow, slender, it's got a high crest in the middle. Uh, got a lot of new structures there, walkovers and docks. And most important, we've got sea oats that we've had a hard time getting going. So, I'm afraid that
they would be in peril. Not to mention that the close proximity to the fleet. But uh more more importantly uh if we go down this path, does this mean that our parks will be open at night? Because uh
now my understanding and looking through the U city website, they're closed uh dust to noon. So I'm not sure how popular bonfires would be in the daytime. But anyhow, uh it certainly takes a lot of consideration.
uh please be considerate of neighbors uh that uh residents that u might live close to these parks. I'm not sure it'd be a good fit for that as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. All right, I got this gentleman then you Marcy. Sorry. No worries.
Push that gray button. There you go. Hey, I'm Steve up here. 126 Country Club Drive West. And I didn't even know this was on the agenda tonight. I just came in to see what was going on. But I'm glad I came in with this beach bonfire thing. You guys aren't even talking
about the smoke and all the trash that they're going to put on the beach from the the burnt wood. Maybe you guys haven't been over to the beach lately, but I see the dogs on the beach and the code enforcement can't even enforce the dogs not being able to go on the beach.
And you guys keep on wanting to do vending and bonfires and just do everything, but you don't have the manpower to control what you already got going. And that's my point on it. We don't need it. If they want a bonfire, go to Walton County. Thank you, sir. All
right, Miss Bill. Oh, she's coming. Keep the Keep the meter running. Very good. Watch it on TV. No, I've been leaving you guys alone. I write plenty of emails. In fact, you should have gotten one while you were sitting right there at the day,
right about this very subject. My answer is no to bonfires. Why? That gentleman just spoke volumes. Oh, they have their dog on the beach today. We'll bring our dog tomorrow.
Oh, there's a bonfire there. We'll have a bonfire tomorrow night and they're not going to follow the rules because they don't even know there's rules. Oh, we're just here on vacation. That's why we can't have bonfires here because as someone else said, we don't have enough code compliance to even do what we need
them to do. Read my emails. We don't have the people to enforce anything like this. We can go into the environmental part. It's just bad. Thanks, Yes sir.
Good evening. Thank you for this time, Councilman Mayor. Uh John KS 2701 uh scenic 98 unit one area general manager for two uh electric resorts next to the Henderson uh park which is the Henderson Park in and the Henderson
Beach Resort. Um, and I agree with this gentleman here saying bonfire is a bad word, right? And it's not what it really is. It's not a brew. Haha. It's a controlled environment with the four
east coast desert. I did them in in the on the east coast. She had 4ft containers and fire marshall there and the water hose and the all the regulations and and uh and it gives my properties and my employees more
opportunity to work and that's what I try and do. I I try and keep everybody employed at my hotel and when we do group sites and visits they ask if we do that because they go to our competitor along the beaches in the Walton County boutique hotels as well that seem to do it very well
because they're live and breathe that business on the beach and taking care of it. Uh our section that is right. Um so group wise it's competitive and it just kind of just gets us at parody with
them. Secondly, families. We get a lot of requests for that. My concierge has to send them to Walton County. What we could do here if we do it right. And you know, it's a shame that we can't do it. If we can't do it right, you
know, it sounds like there's maybe 10 places that can maybe even do it at the beach. If we can't regulate 10 spots or less, then we have a problem. And it's I'm sticking to strictly private beaches.
We own that part of that beach. We have 62 weddings, celebrations, family reunions. Great memories are created out there and legacy memories are created and families come back and back to Destin, right? And they're looking for that bit
more. And like the gentleman said earlier today, he touched on it. He said, "Not everybody likes to go to the beach and hang out in the sun." I don't I run a beach resort. I don't go to the beach and I don't hang out in the sun. I'm a pool and a shade guy. But my father, he'd go out in the beach in his boots
for family entertainment and a good time like that. He wouldn't destroy anything. And then I also proposed and I talked to the the chief, you know, we'd help work, we'd love to be a beta property
on our small 800 liter linear beach to be a beta property to work all these things out. and set that high standard and protect our beach, protect our environment, protect our turtles. We
know the turtle season is it's right now through hurricane. So, that's what we would commit to be doing is to is to is to help bait that. Um, and again to help on our shoulders when it does get winter and you get those beautiful sunsets now over the
Gulf of of America there you got great little fires there. Not bonfires that controlled experiences roped off properly and managed. I have a security and engineering team
that would work 24/7 with the team. We have it staffed that way as we speak. And again, we'd work with the fire department, the great fire department here to uh to work on any beta that you guys would want to try out. We're open to it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I want to ask you a question.
Yes, sir. Yeah. So, if we allowed you to be a beta, would you open it up to people who weren't staying at either of your resorts at the same price for their bonfires? We would not. Okay.
All right. Anyone else? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing. And shall we start with a legislative sponsor or just get in? Yes. All right. If we want to move forward and Yeah, I'll be a legislative sponsor.
All right. Thank you, Councilman Schmidt. Um, and so would you want to start us off or I can Sure. Uh, I'll move to direct the city manager and city attorney to bring back a proposed ordinance to allow uh, beach
bonfires on private property in Destin. All right. I got a motion. Do I hear a second? All right. So, the business owners, the residents, the people that did talk in favor of it, nobody cares anything about them.
Just cares. Anybody else? All right. All right. All right. So, I got a second from Councilman Bagby. Uh, Councilman Braden's up first. Oh, I didn't Oh, I thought that was your take the bait.
I was going to talk about it. Oh, okay. So, do do we have a second not to All right. So, that motion fails, but we're going to continue discussing. Yeah. All right. Councilman Braden. Oh, we are. I I mean All right.
Councilman Bagby would fail for lack of a second to discuss. I I will discuss All right. He's going to discuss during his time during the council time. All right. Well, that's
sad. All right. I guess moving along because we're not allowed to discuss it now. We're going to discuss each of our individual member council member items. Is that what we're doing? a couple of points later. Yeah. Yeah. It's my time, so yeah, I mean there's no voting.
Okay. Yeah, there's no voting. Uh that I think that was already from earlier. Ray died for lack of a second. Um All right. Well, we will move on. My uh only thought was going to be Nope. We're moving on. You can speak on
your I'll speak on my item then. Your turn. B. Okay. Thanks. This is a public hearing regarding the submittal of a major development order for the construction of an Alvin's Island retail store at 1073 East Highway 98, parcel ID
00220024002. And I'm going to turn it over to Daniel Butler, but is the applicant present? Okay. If anyone um is going to give testimony tonight, can we have the city clerk uh swear you in, please? Please raise your raise your right hand.
Do you swear affirm the testimony you will give in this proceeding will be the truth? Thank you Daniel. Yes. Good evening council and mayor. So tonight as Kim stated this hearing is the Alvin's Island Major Development Order located at 1073 East Highway 98.
Um, as proposed, this is about a 12,600 square foot retail sales store, which is replacing the former 22,000 foot Alvin's Island store, which was destroyed by a fire in 2021. Uh, so as stated, this is a general merchandise store, which is a permitted use within the Town Center
mixeduse zoning district. Uh, as proposed, the project has undergone a technical review committee review and gathered approvals from all applicable entities and staff. And so staff tonight is requesting or staff is um
recommending approval of the Alvin's Island major development order as presented. And as stated, the applicant is also here to answer any questions and staff is as well. Okay. With that, seeing that this is a public hearing at this time, if there's anyone from the public who wishes to speak on this topic specifically, this
is your time to do so. Seeing no public input, I'll close the public comments and can let the applicant do his presentation. All right. Thank you. All right. The floor is yours. Just press that gray button. Robert Carroll, 17800 Pen City Beach
Parkway, Penon City Beach, Florida, McNeil Carroll Engineering. We're the engineer of record. Uh I know that is late. You've got everything before you. Staff has reviewed it. Uh we are here to replace the building about half the size that it was before. uh we've complied with all your regulations and and we're
excited to move forward and get this thing finally underway. We had approval a few years ago. Um there's still been a dispute with the insurance company. They still have not settled that. So therefore, the permit expired. We had to come back, start over. So here we are. I think we've checked every box and uh we
just respect request approval. Is there an LED sign, sir? Is there an LED screen sign? Uh there will be signage with it. Yes, sir. Okay. Right. Any other further questions?
All right. Councilwoman Tramble, what what we're seeing on on this picture. Yes, ma'am. Is that facing 98 or going sideways to 98? I guess is the word. Two elevations there. 98. Yeah, I know that. I was But see on this
one, I don't know which is the front. It's facing 98. The bottom one is facing north. Okay. Okay. So, it it goes around a corner. Is that what you're talking? So, the top one here is the one facing 98. Okay. The top one is the uh south elevation
facing 98 and then the bottom is is the north elevation facing back towards the neighborhood. Okay. And and I guess um my next question is under the the name Alvin's Island, there's a word that says signage
and then it looks like glass with a word that says vision on it. I I don't know what that means. Is that windows? Is that what you Yes, that that just means that it's that it's glass that it's it's glass that you can see through. Okay. But um one of the things that that
we have talked about and other councils have talked about this is the other um shops in town that do the same thing Albins's Island would be doing are advertising in those windows with big old pictures and all of that kind of
stuff. Is that your plan or is it just open windows into your store? These are um you know like when you walk down the street and you've got stage sets where you've got beach scenes and mannequins and those kinds of things set up in the windows like that's what that's for. Oh, okay. It's it's a display chamber.
Okay. But it's not just for a poster hanging. No, no, it's a display chamber. Yeah. Thank you. They it's a 2 and 1/2t deep uh display chamber built up behind it and they have beach scenes and all that and then they have people with umbrellas and people with uh bathing suit outfits and stuff like that sit up
in the windows. All right. Thank you. That's all I have. Mayor, anyone else? Yep. Councilman Bagby. So the reader board is that an
electronic sign? Yeah. Okay. So, you got two reader board. You got two and I can't tell the dimensions of them, but you got two electronic signs. There's a reader board on each end, Jim.
Um, of the store. Yeah. And I think it's within the guidelines of the of the signage, but they're not sized yet because we haven't brought it in for signage approval yet, but the reader boards will meet the signage guidelines when they come in. Um Jim Jim Row over
in Panama City Beach is our signage guy and he'll come in and make an application for for signage. Okay. So here here's here's my question for the staff. You got two electronic reader boards. You got an Alvin's Island sign obviously and then you got signage
over every one of the windows that Miss Traml uh alluded to. One 2 3 four five six. What's the total square footage of the signage facing 98 on this building?
So, when a signed permit is submitted, staff would review the facade of that building. So, that south elevation, the applicant would have to provide staff with the square footage of that facade where those signs are to be placed and they would also have to provide to provide a calculation of the sign square footage and it has to be at least or has
to be 15% or less than that facade. So, I don't I don't have the math on hand to do the square footage, but the signage cannot be more than 15% of that facade. I I I think that number is incorrect, but I may be incorrect thinking that, but the signage
I So, actually, all I just heard was y'all don't know and you're asking us to approve this. What they're saying is they don't review the signage at DOU. They do it at permitting. So, that's why they don't know. Okay. You're not you're not approving the signage right now. Just for the project.
Yeah, just the project. We come in and get a separate permit. We'll bring all those calculations in. Okay. Based on the elevation, square footage, and we'll bring you all the the different sign where it says signage. Now, there'll actually be an image and and a detail of how the sign uh what
the sign is, how it's mounted. Uh there a cross-section through it, how and how it meets the wind load. All that'll be on the sign detail when it's brought in. And the square footage will be calculated. Jim. Okay. And my only admonition to the
staff is when they do bring that in, you need to have a provision that precludes to Miss Traml's point that those glass areas, which I understand what you're describing there, and that, you know, every store in New York City has them.
uh but there aren't signs posted on those windows or if there are you calculate exactly the square footage of you know so sale or you know summer clearance or whatever
business yeah well they're not going to go out of business but do do you understand what I'm asking I just want to make sure that we're communicating here yes any window signage anything that's Anything that's visible from the rideway or meant to be reviewed viewed from the
ride ofway um um is in the definition of sign and that would be reviewed at that time. If there's anything that is placed within the windows um that was not approved at a later date then um we can we can issue a warning code citation all
that. I I want it I want it in your approval that any temporary signage won't exceed well no it it'll be allowed as long as it's less than 50% of the total facade. So I that's where I want that calculation. Does that make sense?
So um right now and correct me if I'm wrong Daniel window signage is considered as as a building sign or an attached sign. So it would be included in what would be allowed as the facade. It would be limited. So it' be limited to the 15%.
Unless you're talking if unless you want to do like a specific window sign and limit it to 50% of the face of the window. Okay. And I should know this because I've been up here long enough, but is a facade include the window?
Yes. Okay. So, and 50% total of that entire square footage. 15. No, no. 50 or 15. 15. 15. Five. Oh, okay. I must have Okay.
I thought you said 15. 15. Okay. But what are you saying of a window sign only 50% can be? No, no, no. What I'm saying is a window sign is considered as a as an attached sign and therefore would be included in
the 15% calculation. But where didn't you mention 50 years ago? I was saying if we wanted to create a window sign and I I heard 50 from you Mr. Bagby. So I was I from what I heard and understood is if you wanted to create a specific window sign um to
limit it to 50% of the size of the window. But that's not what we're talking about. No, that's not what I'm talking about. I know. I Yeah, we got it. We're clear. talking about the frontage. Yep. And they've got two big reader boards. They've got the Alvin's Island sign and they got 1 2 3 4
5 six signage above the windows. Yes, sir. Okay. Which to me comes pretty close to the 15% already. So when you do all these calculations, I want them to know exactly how much square footage of
signage in those windows can occur. Yeah. So, so it would be a total calculation of the facade. They would get we'd get a calculation of the facade and then we'd multiply that by 0.15 and that would be the maximum amount of signage allowed on that facade. They
could have it in any any up to 150 square feet I think is the maximum. It's a it's 15% or 150 square feet. And so they could divvy it up into as many signs as they want as long as they don't exceed those limitations. Well, this elevation is not showing any
signage in the window areas. Window areas. No, no. I I understand that. Okay. I just want you're going to add it. You know, everybody does. I got that. And I'm not and I'm not saying you can't add it. What I'm saying is it shouldn't be in every window because now
you've way exceeded the signage that you would be allowed and I want it in the approval that your window signage is limited to how many ever square feet it is whatever's left of that number because I think we're over 150 square
feet just with Alvin's Island, the two reader boards and the signage above the windows. Yeah. If if you're taking the the extreme limits of the box of where it says signage probably, but that's not how we measure signage. Okay? We we take the top edge of the of the
verbiage extreme edge or the the basically box it and that becomes so you could have a big old red square at 100 square feet but only have 10 square feet of actual signage and it would be counted for 10 or 10 square feet. That part I do know.
So, okay. Yeah. Um so so again it would it it would their their signed permit would detail what their facade that facade is the square footage of that facade staff
would confirm. Then we would get that maximum whether it was the 15% or 150 150 square ft and then we would be limited to that. If there any permit comes in that exceeds any of those limitations we don't we don't approve it. So
Jim I think you're right. You're probably right about the fact that the architect when he showed these white areas where he labeled them, that's probably the maximum the code allows. He's probably already made that calculation. I just don't know the number on here. I I just don't want you to be surprised because one of the
things we've been trying to do consistently for years is get rid of the redneck Riviera moniker and have class and and you do a class job but you know a presentation not 8,000 signs on the front of this building in the windows
above the windows at the ends of the thing you know so I just want them to know you you're already at your max so there shouldn't be anything in your windows except mannequin an umbrella and a mannequin. Okay. Or bikini tops or whatever the heck they
put in there. Okay. Uh just not really for point of this. Uh the wooden steps in the back, does that just go to the neighborhood in the back? Yes, those are existing. Oh, cool. Allow interconnectivity. Nice. Okay. I was going to say this has always allowed the neighbors to to cross our site. Yeah.
And we've we have not closed that off. Cool. All right. I just kind of saw that as a detail at the last minute. Awesome. Any further questions? I just wanted to say welcome back. Yeah, we're glad you came back. It's been a chore. It has been. I thought you were gone forever.
All right, Councilman Bagby. Yeah. So, just so we're clear, we're going to make it as a condition of the DO, the development order. Right. You can make it a condition of the DO that 15% of the facade can be signage. That's already in the code. It is. It is. It's just another
Don't make the signage code. Yeah. Okay. I mean I mean obviously we're going to make the signage. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. I I I think they understand what I'm saying. Okay. All right. With that, we'll we'll call the vote. Oh, I'm I'm sorry. Yeah, everyone's in
agreeance over here. All right. Do I hear a motion? I I'll make the motion. I move that the city council approve with uh We didn't make any conditions, right? Nope. Okay. Uh Alvin's Island number 11, a major development order as presented.
I'll make a second on that with a motion and a second. Seeing no further discussion. All right. Ready to open the vote. All right. Welcome back to Destin. I have it so moved unanimously. And
all right, Miss Cop. Ordinance 2513 PC. An ordinance of the city of Dustin, Florida, making transportation related amendments to chapter 1, future land use element, chapter 2, transportation element, chapter 9, capital improvements element, chapter 12, administration, and chapter
13, glossery of the city's comprehensive plan, deleting the multimodal transportation district, providing for goals, objectives, and policies relating to the city mobility plan and city mobility fees. providing for transmitt to the Florida Department of Commerce, providing for incorporation into the comprehensive plan, providing for a
business impact estimate, providing for conflicting provisions, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. This is first reading. And seeing that this is a public hearing at this time, if anyone wishes to speak on this specific hearing topic, this is your time to do so. With enthusiasm
roaring in the audience, we will close the public comments and I will entertain a motion. Mayor, I move that the city council approve the proposed ordinance 25-13-PC as presented. I have a motion. I hear a second. Any
further discussion? Councilman Dustin. Just a clarification. After watching a news program on channel 3 tonight where Santa Rosa County was about to get into they thought a lawsuit with the state over a law that was just passed saying none of us municipalities,
counties could change our land development codes until 2027. Does that affect this at all? Yeah, that's um Senate Bill 180, which I emailed you all about. I don't know if you saw, but it um it does say that in
areas affected by hurricanes, which is basically the whole state under the statute. Um we cannot pass more burdensome or restrictive uh regulations or comp plan amendments. Um, however, this uh is open to
interpretation and someone would have to sue us to make that determination at which point council would have the ability to review it and determine if it's overly burdensome or restrictive. I I mean on behalf of the city, I would say it's not. We had a study done that shows the extraordinary circumstances
that required the raising of the fees. The the comp plan amendments don't do any of that fee raising. You've already passed that. Um, but the comp plan amendments would simply make everything consistent, which our regulations do need to be consistent with the comp plan under state law as well. So, if that if
someone makes that argument, we will certainly bring it to you and and we can look at it. I will say that Senate Bill 180 is retroactive to August of 2024 and does go through October of 2027. According to some of the county commissioners, Santa Rosa County, they
felt perhaps the state of Florida would be making that accusation. If it does, then I suppose we will be on their team because for the state legislature to pass that is incomprehensible to me that they would be that
intent on stripping of us of any ability to It's a big It's a big uh chip off of home rule for sure. It sure is. Thanks. Good point. All right, with that, any further discussion?
All right, seeing none. Thank you, Ray. Eyes have it. So moved. 70. Miss Cup. Okay. Ordinance 2515cc. An ordinance of the city of Dustin, Florida, amending the code of ordinances, providing for authority, providing for findings of fact, amending chapter 14, offenses, and
miscellaneous provisions of the code of ordinances. Providing definitions, establishing that solicitation, canvasing, and or vending on the beach without a permit is a misdemeanor offense. providing for penalties consistent with state law, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. This is first reading.
Um, chapter 162 of the Florida statutes allows cities to um designate certain offenses as misdemeanors that are punishable by up to $500 in 60 days in jail. Um, we've coordinated with the sheriff's office on um their review of
the ordinance as as to whether they also believe it's legally defensible, which they do as well. Um and so first reading is before you and city manager may have something to add. In that discussion with the sheriff's office, it was indicated to us that they
would uh request an additional beach deputy to enforce this component of the ordinance. Absent that additional one, they did not feel they had the capacity to provide enforcement. um in by virtue
of arresting a violator and captain vis I cover that correctly. Yeah, that's correct, sir. All right, Councilman Braden. Thank you. Um I sent the city manager
um a picture of a beach vendor um that a tourist took. doesn't don't doesn't doesn't live here. Live in I think Huntsville, Alabama. Anyway, um
and not 10 minutes later, two deputies went by on four-wheelers. So, if we've got that on a beach, why do we need more officers on the beach if there's already two there? Point taken. This is a public hearing.
Thank you. Before we jump in, if anyone from the public wishes to speak on this topic and we dive into it, this is your time to speak on this hearing. Seeing none, thank you. M Councilman
Dest Rodney, back to you. And I guess back to whoever you're Yeah. Somebody can answer your point taken to whoever wants to answer that. I would defer to Captain Fulg because I don't have an answer without knowing exactly what time you're talking about. I couldn't really tell
you what the two deputies were doing. I can tell you that the beach deputies, we have three of them, which means that um none of which are funded by the city of Dest, two of which are funded by the TDD, which means that half the time I've got one deputy trying to cover Okaloosa
Island and Dest. Now, you caught one of the days that there were two happened to be two out there. may have been during spring break when we're using still using TDD funds to put more than one out there a day. I don't know. But between those three
beach deputies, they answer over 6,000 calls a year. 6,000 criminal calls a year. They don't have time to deal with ordinance violations. I'm not trying to I'm not not trying to dis diminish the importance of ordinance violations, but
we're breaking up fights. We're preventing fights by dealing with underage drinking. We're pulling people out of the water that's drowning. All of those are going to take pre precedence over someone who's selling ice cream or someone who has got a dog on the beach, which you all well know with the um the
situation that you're facing with uh service animals. Dogs on the beach are next to impossible for for us or code to enforce. But said, we we simply do not have the time to do criminal law violations and code enforcement right now.
There you go. There's your answer. There's your answer. Um, so if we have an officer out there, what else are you going to be doing if he's not writing a violation or arresting a vendor? I guess, Captain,
if that's the case and and that's the direction we're going, does that mean, you know, we're no longer splitting that one sheriff on the beach and we're picking up a beach sheriff for this plus everything else? If y'all provide an additional beach deputy, that'll give me the ability to
have a one deputy on Destin Beach 7 days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And what kind of cost we looking at? It's about 15. Hang on just a second. And I'll give you an exact job. Yeah, I need a job.
157348. 157 here. So, we've already allocated $30,000 for an attorney to deal with this problem. So, I'm going to have a hard time supporting anything to $157,000 for an officer to be down there
for beach vending. Uh, that's all I've got, mayor. All right. Thank you, C. Destin. Thank you, mayor. The 157,000, I believe that would be for a full year. Um, we will be in discussions with the sheriff about whether we need somebody a full
year and what he wants to do and what we want to do, and those all come out during contract discussions. So, we'll move forward, I would think, and hopefully the two entities can get together and come up with a reasonable compromise. I I fully support they need
more people out there during the summertime, especially not a lot of beach bending going on in the dead of the winter. Nobody's on the beach. So, that can be a discussion between us and the sheriff about exactly what he requires and and what we can pay. So, I
I don't see that as a hindrance to going forward with this ordinance as it is now. Yeah. As it is now, we have no ability to regulate it at all. So on that note, I will move that we approve this ordinance on first reading. All right. I got a motion. Do I hear a
second? I'll second. Have a second. Councilwoman Aber, if you want to continue. I I was basically going to say the same thing. I think we could probably have discussions to where we need this for the the summer months starting at the beginning of, you know, May and probably
ending sometime the beginning of September, but certainly not a full-time 247, seven days a week all year long. That's unnecessary. We have the biggest problem in the summer. Uh, Councilman Bagger, you good? I'm good. You're good. You want to say you agree?
You're in the budget negotiation. That's right. That's where I'll I say my piece. There you go. All right. Seeing no further discussion, we'll call the vote for first reading. All right. I have it so moved. 61.
Okay. If Thank you, mayor. If it's okay with the city council, um I would like to read ordinances 254 LC and 253 PC together as they involve the same properties for the cross town connector. One is the future land use amendment and one is the reasonzoning. Um, ordinance
number 253PC, an ordinance of the city of Dest, Florida, amending the comprehensive plan, providing for authority, providing for findings of fact, providing for the adoption of a small-cale amendment to the comprehensive plan future land use map to include a change in future land use designation of three parcels of rail property located within a portion of the
area of Beach Drive to Benning Drive as more particularly described and depicted in exhibit A, consisting of approximately 8.53 acres from medium density residential village, MDRV, to recreation. REC providing for incorporation into the comprehensive
plan, providing for a business impact estimate, providing for conflicting provisions, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. and ordinance number 254 LC, an ordinance of the city of Dustin, Florida, amending the official zoning map as referenced in the land development code section 71201
A2 zoning maps to include a change in the zoning designation of three parcels of rail property located within a portion of the area of Beach Drive to Benning Drive is more particularly described and depicted in exhibit A, consisting of approximately 8.53 acres from medium density residential village,
MDRV, to recreation, reciding for authority, providing for finding ings of fact, providing for jurisdiction, providing for zoning map amendments, providing for incorporation into the land development code, providing for conflicting provisions, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. This is second reading for both. And
since we are providing for all those things, at this time, I'm going to provide the public with their chance to speak on either one of these hearings. Seeing none, we'll close both public hearings and I will entertain a motion collectively or one at a time still. One at a time. We're just read them one at a
time starting with 253 PC. All right. Do I hear? I move that the city council adopt proposed ordinance 253-PC. All right. I have a motion. Do I hear a second? Second. Motion and a second. Uh seeing no further discussions.
Seeing none. All right. Open the vote. All right. Eyes have it 70 and I'll entertain the second. And the other ordinance is 254 LC. Move the council approve 254
LC on second reading. Second. Right. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussions? Seeing none, we'll open the vote. All right. Eyes have it. So moved. 70. Miss Cop. Thank you, Mayor. Ordinance number
202510LC. An ordinance of the city of Dustin, Florida, permitting decks to encroach up to 5T into rear setbacks for town homes that are not waterfront within the highdensity residential HDR zoning district. Providing for authority, providing for findings of fact, providing for incorporation into the land development code, providing for
conflicting provisions, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. This is second reading. Um the only change we did make a change from first reading and that was to add the definition of a deck to ensure that enclosed structures are not included within that definition.
All right. Thank you for that clarification. At this time if anyone wishes to speak on ordinance 2510 LC, this is your time to do so. Seeing none, Councilwoman Traml. Uh Mayor, I move that the city council adopt ordinance 25-10-LC
is presented. I'll second. All right. I got a motion. I have my second. Seeing no discussion, we'll open the vote. I'm ready. Just so you know, Councilman Desim with a second. There you go.
All right. Eyes have it. So moved. 70. All right. Moving right along. Councilman Braden. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, city manager, how many code officers do we have at this time? Uh we have four and I know one is out um
sick for um undisclosed amount of time but we are down to four. We're actively pursuing hiring. Uh we had some conversation today about how we may be able to supplement that on a um a little better basis than what we have now. So
we're giving it all we got. Okay. Thank you. Um, I know I'd ask about the uh beach cleaning services from the county. Was you able to get anything like that? How often they clean the beaches, empty the trash cans? I I have not, but I will get that for you.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Um, also the I guess when I was talking to staff they mentioned or um talking about the LDC rewrite um that when it come to the open air seating that that's requiring 25% of that for
parking. Can somebody explain to me how we come up with 25% required parking for that? I know it was council's decision, but I wasn't here. Yeah, that the the 25% came from the u
the LPA and the city council workshops on the parking requirements for um uh open air restaurant seating. So, that's the discussion from um council and and LPA came came to that um 25%.
Did they pull that number out of a hat or how did we come to that? know the original recommendation from staff was to do one for one 100%. Um and then the discussion from that point um just went back and forth amongst the members um
and I believe the and I could be wrong but I believe the LPA recommended 50%. Um and then so at the workshop with council it was recommended that um that
the harbor district was uh given uh 25% and then everywhere else was 50%. And so that's that's um that's pretty much where it stands right now. Okay. I was just curious how we got how
how that I hate I missed that discussion of their reasoning behind why it's 25% because I I've eaten it probably 99% of these establishments on the harbor and off the harbor and
100% of that seating is available year round. Mhm. I mean that's like Dewy's restaurant. I've eaten there. Rain, shine, cold, freezing, hot, it's open. So, if if if I had to sum it up and and I'm I'm not going to speak for council
or the LPA on this, but based on because I was there and what I understand, it's it's if we required a one for one 100% parking requirement there basically would hamstring any development um in in
any festive nature of the harbor district. um which is why the harbor district of the harbor area actually I think it was specific to South Harbor mixed use zoning district um was reduced to 25%
um and then everywhere else it had the 50%. So um and it was just that's just where the discussion went for the harbor. Um, and then everywhere else it was just they didn't I again I'm not speaking for council or LPI on this, but
I just don't think that they felt that it was warranted at a at a one for one rate. And I can I can say, sorry, don't mean to interrupt. I apologize. Just something else hit my head. Um, when it comes to trying to measure, are
we are we measuring the decks like the square footage of the deck? are we measuring the amount of tables and seats? Um it it it becomes very difficult and and um to to really um hammer down exactly how it's going to
happen because if they say hey in my plan I'm going to give you know 20 seats or or 20 tables and each each table's going to have four seats and our parking requirement is is one car per four seats, right? So that'd be 20 cars. Um
but then it's a massive outdoor area that can definitely fit way more, right? But we do a one per four seat um with a reduction of 50%. Right? Like how do we how how does staff handle that situation when we know that they're going to put
way more on there um than than just the 20? So um Well, I guess it I mean it's pretty obvious to me that it would be the same as it is right now inside it's a square footage is not table by table but
besides the point it's I mean it's pretty par for the city the way the city operates is I mean we we and and and and about parking on the harbor but we breed it by giving you know BTRs to people and then they
give us a bogus parking plan that's the same as 10 other businesses using the same parking and we We don't do anything about that either. So why in the hell would we try to do something, you know, toiate some of the parking? Let's just keep let's just keep giving permits. Let's say, well, you know, these decks,
we can't don't know how many people going to sit, so screw it. We'll just, you know, make them have 50% of it instead of 100%. And just create more parking problems. So, it's pretty much way the city operates. So, why the hell
not? Let's just keep on keep going with it. I mean, let's just I don't know why we keep it like it is. Just no parking at all for no parking required at all for decks, you know? Sounds pretty poor for way way we operate anyway, I guess. So,
oh well, doesn't make no sense to me, but it's what everybody else wants. Um the last thing and I hate to it's so late that um yeah nobody else has got the balls too so I'm going to um will you read that
for us mayor? That's the mayor's duties of Yeah. You want me to read the whole thing? That'd be great. Awesome. Section 3.07 power and duties of the mayor. The mayor shall be recognized as head of the city government for all ceremonial purposes by the governing governor for purposing
for proposes of military law for service of process exe uh execution of contracts deeds and other documents and shall perform such other duties and functions as may be designated by the city council. Further, the mayor shall attend
and preside as the at all council meetings, make such reports as the council may require. Uh present a state of the city message at the public meeting in February for each year, perform such other duties as are
specified in this charter or may be required by the council. have the power to summon the uh the posi to suppress civil disrupt disturbs and to keep the law in order during times of emergency
to permit to participate in debates in council meetings but not shall make or have a second motion. At all times represent the adopted position of the council. cast a deciding vote. Shall any issues perform uh before the city
council end in a tie? And then I have a handwritten ledger social media ordinance for mayor and council. Thank you. Um, so with that said, I'm I'm done with the phone calls of, you
know, the citizens calling me want to know, well, why is the mayor in Tallahassee speaking on behalf of the city as a city mayor when the council didn't approve it? Um, why is the why is the city the mayor
where's this meeting at that the city mayor's holding about bonfires and stuff? Well, I don't know. The city's not We didn't prove anything like that. Well, the mayor is having a meeting and I don't know anything about it. So, I look like an idiot. Um
I'm just get I'm tired of the I mean, up here on the dis seems like everything's good. You know, you stay in your stay in your wheelhouse. Um, but when it comes to social media, which I'm not on, um, that's where everything's happening and
I'm I'm just done with people bitching and I've heard through them as they've called other council members and they're pissed off about it, but nobody wants to do anything about it. So, it's it's I'm tired of of people calling me and staff telling me that, yeah, the mayor is overstepping his boundaries and we've
told him and told him and told him, but nothing changes. So, what do we do? Well, this is the first I've heard of it from this position. So, the city attorney has never spoke with you and say, "Hey, look, you're overstepping your boundaries. You need permission from the council to go to
Tallahassee and speak on our behalf." Um, about Tallahassee, I don't believe we've ever discussed Tallahassee trips. Um, other than that, we've gone and I've worked with our um lobbyists in Tallahassee. So, city staff has never told you that
you've overstepping your boundaries and you're doing because I've talked to Kim about the fireside chat that I do on my own accord and that's about collecting input, feedback, and data for policies that will or will not uh make it through the council process. Yeah, I could I I know we've talked
about that you can speak as an individual but not as the mayor uh unless there's a council directive. We've talked about that in several times to answer Rodney's question that I didn't know he was going to ask me tonight. But um but we've talked about that and uh the other thing I
would say is that we have a resolution with respect to the lobbyist and who can you know that that the lobbyist is not supposed to go to Tallahassee without directive from the council on any particular issue. She is supposed to go lobby for us but for particular issues it's supposed to take council directive.
So I can answer those two things. Well, I know people's been wanting to bring it up and it was it was supposed to be brought up tonight and nobody's bringing it up. Nobody wants to be the bad guy. Um, but everybody wants to behind closed doors. Um,
but I me personally, like I said, in in this setting and I' I've told several people, they say, you know, how's Bobby doing? Bobby's doing great. I think Bobby's do is great mayor. He's doing a hell of a job. He's at every function. I mean, he's everywhere. Um, but when it gets
outside of here, it seems like it changes. And I've had several people call me and like I say, they they called other council members and um complaining about, you know, what the mayor is doing. He's overstepping his boundaries. He's getting too big for his britches. I
mean, I've heard it all. Um, and I' I've explained him the same thing. Said, "Look, the mayor the mayor doesn't have any power. The council overrules the mayor. Uh, the mayor really can't do anything without the council's approval. Um, so I mean I don't I don't know if that's if that's what that said or not in a
nutshell or can the mayor say, you know, go to a county meeting and say, you know, well, I'm going to speak as a citizen right now as Rodney Braden. Um, and then a minute later I'm going to say, okay, I'm going to switch my hat
and put Mayor Braden on and I'm going to discuss this. Well, that comes that comes through as, you know, we see it in the paper. We see it on the news. Mayor Bobby Wagner is, you know, spoke on behalf of the city of Dustin on
whatever topics it is. And I was like, we didn't discuss that. It that didn't come up at city council. So, that's why I'm saying something about it is it's start it, you know, makes me look like an idiot. Um, and I I can do that on my
own good enough. Um, but when you know when they're calling and want to know what's going on with the city or you know where's this meeting being held, I heard about the fire the fires or whatever. I heard about the Tallahassee meeting. He stayed overnight an extra night to go back and talk on behalf of
the city. Um, then it starts affecting me personally. Um, so it needed it need to be brought up. Everybody wanted to bring it up but nobody wants to say anything about it. So I guess that's why I'm here. All right. Well, I I appreciate other
than I don't have anything else. Yeah. No, I uh I appreciate your perspective. I I try my damn hardest that anything that we have a official position on or adopted a position on or whoever's done the credit for the fences
that are moving back. I can assure you that everything I always say is in line of what we've done. And if there's projects that I would like to see done, I have those meetings to try to see if there's support and see what I'm missing in my blind spots. And the reality is
what I ran on was communication and transparency and trying to make sure that the citizens of Dest uh feel like they have a voice because it seems like for many years they felt they didn't. And you're absolutely right. The mayor doesn't really do a whole lot of
lobbying or legislating. That's all you guys. But what I did promise was to be open and transparent and communicative with everyone. And I feel I have upheld that promise to the citizens of Destin. And if anyone else has issues or comments or concerns, I'm we're all a
team. I've said a thousand times online, this is a team and I give the credit to you guys and staff every time. Now granted, they don't read our articles. They don't read bullet points. They go, "Oh, oh my god, the mayor." And I go, "Nope, staff and team." So, I would invite you guys to read beyond what most
citizens unfortunately do and just read the headline. Uh, but I would invite you guys into the comment section into the replies where 99% of the time I give it to everyone else. I the only thing I and I forgot to mention the only thing I
would I don't know I I would say caution you over about but um there's several citizens have said that you know you guys have been working on Nora Point or something for years and
the mayor is putting post on Facebook or wherever and taking credit for it that it's his idea and he's ramrodding it. Nope. Um the latest one is the uh the marine out there. Oh, we're going to get a city marina. Did not say that. Um people want to make assumptions. I
cannot I cannot control assumptions. What I can control is us talking about what we've always talked about. Me and John have talked moing harbor in the past. We have talked city marina potentially at the bridge, potentially other places. And if people want to
constru that all happened to do with the topic of my last meeting, which was the harbor, including a million-dollar oyster idea or a million oyster idea that would help clean the harbor, reduce our NEPB fees, and clean the harbor
while helping out our pump, that was another topic that was discussed. But if people want to con constru and put throw things together, I I can't I can't help that, you know, this this area likes to talk, which I appreciate and encourage. But, you know, people are going to have misinformation. People are going to
assume things based on past councils that I wasn't privy to. And the reality is, uh, information about other parcels, anything I've ever said has either gotten the blessing of the senator or someone else saying that it was public information.
Last thing I'm going to say is reiterate. I've told multiple citizens. They've asked come to me to ask specifically how's the mayor doing? Just out of the blue, how's the mayor doing? And I've told him every time the mayor's doing a great job. Appreciate that. He's done a hell of a lot better job
than I could have done. Um cuz he's went to every I've ran into you at different functions stuff. You know, you speaking and whatnot and you're everywhere. Um, but I'm not going to bash you behind No. a keyboard, talk behind your back or nothing else. This is our time to do it.
I can't do it. So, this is my only place. Yeah, of course. No. No. And I'm not taking any personal No, please don't. No, not at all. No. This is our only time to talk and let's let's make sure we're we're team destined. And if I'm overstepping, come on. Like, let's let's make sure that we're we're one team. And while
we're transparent, I I have just one apology that I was going to uh put out in private afterwards, and that's going to happen for being a little careless with some details, but other than that, I only tried to make sure that communication from the citizens gets
here and that we at least project that we're one team outwardly and that doesn't mean that we always have to agree to still be on the same team. Councilman Desmond. Thank you, Mayor. and and I want to assure you that
your uh youth and enthusiasm has been a breath of fresh air. Um I would just caution you not to get too far ahead of the council policies and I know that you have every right to ask people what they think. Um I have a
little concern over social media. it. I know a number of cities and counties have a social media policy and I'm I'm going to ask the uh attorney to bring us back a social media policy sample to look at because when we air these issues
over social media, I think we're dancing dangerously close to sunshine law violations perhaps. I want to make sure we don't go into that arena, you know, because if one elected official gives an opinion of what they think on an issue,
all the other elected officials can see it, right? And that's kind of tiptoeing around what open records of Sunshine Law is all about. So, we want to I mean, theoretically, if if you had an opinion and I got on your Facebook and gave you my opinion, then both of us would be in
violation of Sunshine Law. So, I want to, you know, that issue concerns me and hopefully we can work something out to make sure we don't fall into that trap. But, uh, you know, the job is to advocate for policies set
by the council. You do a good job when we set one. Just don't get too far ahead of us and continue to to ask people what they think because that is part of your job. Yeah. And then uh just to that point, I have sent over to Kim and and Larry on
uh Panama City Beach just passed one for social media really giving that distinction of you know if there's a uh public opinion or I'm sorry an adopted position you're going to hear it from the city of Destin's page and all of us can do it. But what we do on our
personal slash public pages of this title is in our condition and maybe we can find one that's on the other side of the scope that holds us closer to the fire. Yeah. And hopefully Miss C will be able to come up with something. Yeah, absolutely. Counciloman Aber.
Thanks, Mayor. Reiterating what Dewey said, you've been doing a fantastic job. People ask me all the time, oh my god, he's so motivated. I was like, he's a hard charger. He's working hard. He's out there. He's trying to make things happen. I'm very proud that you're our mayor. But I will give you an example
like he was saying on how social media is poisonous for you because you were out there talking about, "Yay, look at this tarpon beach, 340 ft of beach." And you know, and people were like, "Thank you so much, mayor. We really appreciate it." And Gary Jarvis said, "You're welcome."
Meaning it's been going on for years since the project. So when you're putting stuff out there, it's our teams, our years of work. In other words, it a lot of times what you put out there is a result. You're not like making it a we
factor or several councils and couple of mayors prior to me. This project's been in in 15 years. You know, I'm lucky I'm sitting here at the end result of 10 different projects and you're getting to see these things to fruition. And so
that's all I would say is caution yourself to this. I'm just lucky to be at the end result from many years of hard staff work, hard council work, hard mayor's work because there has been years of hard work to get to a lot of what we've accomplished. That would be
my caution because like I said, you are doing a great job taking care of getting the information out there and getting people to feed in what do we need to do to be a better city. So, thank you for what you're doing. And that would be my only caution is give the credit to the years and to the
staff of what's come up to I don't disagree because I do that every time. And the reality is social media isn't a blog post. It's a couple characters. And the first issue that everyone has is that you got to get their attention. And then when they
comment, I can assure you 90% 99% of those comments have I'm just the queen of England. and I just get the smile and wave. It's it's the staff and counsel. If I've said it once, it's my my auto uh guessing what I'm going to say next.
That's where it goes is like nope, it's council and staff, council and staff. Coun. So, I 100% agree. But I also want to say that you anyone can't just read the header because no one's giving time to the header. People are giving their
individual time to the comments and the reply. And that's where I spend the majority of my social media to the to the bane of my existence is in the comments because that's where people feel one-on-one, loved, heard, and understood. And that's that's my motto. I want everyone to feel loved, heard,
and understood. And you can only do that on a one-on-one basis. That's not a post. That's a reply in the comments. And I know that's micro stuff. I know there's legal. There's a lot of little stuff in there, but that's how I'm communicating to everyone who reaches
out to us. Councilman Bagby, I just want to thank you and I I just want to say a couple of things. Yes, we need a social media policy and we probably needed one two years ago before uh and I I think a lot of what we're
years ago. Yeah, probably 20 years ago. But, you know, a lot of the concern that people have is because somebody's putting out information to our citizens
and informing them what's going on in this city and that's a good thing. Uh maybe, you know, the public information officer ought to do it more or whatever. And I think she does a great job. You
know, the going to Tallahassee. Look, we we have said almost every year I've been on this council that we want to make acquisition of public beachfront a priority every
single year. So, the mayor goes over to try to get the customary use thing. He he lobbies in in my little brain, you know, I can either go over myself or somebody can go over there, the lobbyists, the mayor,
and say, "Yes, pass a law that gives us more public beach because it is killing our community." Uh, not not as bad as Walton, but it's killing our community. So, I'm glad you know you have the youth
of Craig Barker and the enthusiasm of Sam Severs and Sam did a lot of every mayor I've worked with, I think I've worked with five, has done something. Uh, you go that's not the mayor's job. You know, this is a council manager form
of government. The manager speaks for us or the council speaks collectively for us. But every mayor has been out there and everybody up here knows it because I can whether Gary Jarvis and the hockey thing or the town center thing. I mean, I can go through every one of them and
their little pet thing, but yeah, let's get a social media policy and let's adhere to it and let's let's move on. All right, Councilman Schmidt. Yeah, I wasn't going to, but since we're taking turns, Bobby, uh you just keep
doing it, man. Yeah. And you're doing a great job here, out there, everywhere. Do you go over the boundaries? Some maybe. I don't know. But we have an attorney. There's ethics commissions. They they'll notify you, I'm sure, if you do something wrong. I'm very sure of it.
When I call Bobby, he says, "I know that voice. My grandparents, my mom, and you know, little Bobby, you need to stop doing this. Do do you because it's a breath of fresh air and I think it's great. And if people are having their feelings hurt because
you didn't mention something about 15 years ago, get freaking over it. You know, get over it, those people. Why? Why? Why? Cry about it. We put your little, you know, thank you 20 years ago for doing something. You're not doing that on purpose, Bobby. Yeah.
Everybody that knows you knows you're not doing that on purpose. That was a celebration today. I don't even know. I didn't even know that was a problem. You posted a picture. It was great. Move on. All the haters out there, get behind their little keyboards. Forget about them. Just keep doing it. So,
thank you, Miss Traml. How's woman Traml? Thanks. It's It's my turn anyway down the line, but anyway. Oh. Oh. Oh, you're moving on. All right. I figured I thought the pray was continuing, but um I I just I guess I wanted to
explain something. And not that I'm here to to to crucify you or or anything. I just um about the um fireside chat. Yeah, I I don't have a problem with fireside chats. Here's the way I saw the issue.
Uh Mr. Stevens has talked to me as well and he's also talked to the Harbor CRA and the Harbor Waterways Board and all those other things about his project and I have spoken to Mr. Stevens as well. that project before you start putting it
out into the public needs to be approved by council so that you can go forth and do that project. Do you see what I'm saying? As a committee, they need to do that. Mr. Stevens was on
council. We also have in our charter how you can participate after you've been a council member, and that part needs to be part of it as well. and and that's not you, that's not me, that's just knowledge. Okay? Um and one of the ways
you can do that is by getting your committee's approval. And then if you're chair and you've been on council and yada yada, then you can go out and speak about it. But it's not an individual thing anymore because you're still in
that bubble of I served on council before. Does that make sense? I can see where I'm unfortunately. Unfortunately, you can't do anything without being called the mayor. I hate to tell you without being called the mayor or the general manager
of public with a green jacket. There is there really there really is, you know, you couldn't say, "Hey, I you know, anything without without being called the mayor." And I get that. But that's what I was looking at is that I happen to know because I've worked with these
committees that this project is coming up for approval, but yet we're out here in the public talking about a project that the council hasn't approved yet. So, it was just a little premature in that piece. But the committees are about getting public input so that we have everything to the side. They have to get approved to go get
public input before they get public input. Say, I just dis Yeah, I agree with that old school. They're not us. They're not us. their committees. Correct. Do you want JQ Citizen to go out and start advocating in Tallahassee for
something that you don't know anything about? They can. There are maybe, maybe not. If they're using the name of the city, it should not be happening. If they're doing it on their own, that's one thing. Yeah. Okay. So, that was where I was coming. No, no, that's fair. And I was I was
just looking at that going, "Oh, took this a step too far. you know, wait till it's approved and then everybody talks about it. That's good. And then I think you should ask. In my head, that just seems like, all right, we're going to make a we're going to approve something and then ask the citizens if they like it. There seems a
little No, we're approving that they can go out and solicit citizen participation participation. Okay. Okay. To be fair and and to everyone's point there, I was going to talk about the bridge this past month and then I got talked off the
ledge from a lot of fine leadership positions covering my butt saying like, "Hey, we haven't you got council's approval to make the committee or I mean guess to put that committee under one of our committees already. Perhaps we should allow them to talk about it
beforehand." So, not that it rectifies anything, but I had shifted it from bridge topic to harbor topic since that was a little bit more already out there. We've talked about it for a couple visioning sessions at that point. Not defending or undermining your the train of thought,
but just to let everyone know, I was going to talk bridge and then I got talked off that ledge for that exact reason. Well, that that was just my only No, for sure. Now, I have some other things to Can we go on? Yes, ma'am. Okay. First of all, I would like to thank uh Parks and Recreck and Public
Works for uh them cleaning up some uh old debris at the uh Cobbs Point um rightway. They did a great job. I've heard from several of the people that have gone down there, they loved it. So, um the uh thank you mayor and Tamara for
the tarpon groundbreaking and whoever else you had working with you because I know there was a ton of people out there doing lots and lots of stuff. Um, I would like to ask if the council would approve for Rey when he gives us the the
quarterly things on who's missed what meetings and all that kind of stuff if he could also list on their vacancies because we may have a vacancy coming up. And I don't I don't know that. Yeah, I you already know that, but could that just be listed as there's a vacancy as
well as those? Um, and the next question I have is for the council. Uh, I would like to attend the Florida League of Cities annual conference in Orlando in August, and we need permission to do that. So, I'm just asking, do you need a motion to allow it?
Well, if there are other people, we can make it all one motion. But yes, I've already got my room and everything set up for the third year in a row. I understand that, but you are the designate for the Florida League City. I want more. I would love for Jim to come back because I know that has been stuff for him.
No, I would love for more participation. So, so that yes, I that's why I'm asking. I'll move that we ask Miss Tremble to go to the city league. I'll second that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And um
I tell you what, I one time almost all of us went. Yeah, I know. And you guys got old and sleepy. Honestly, I never thought we were supposed to all go. off that was like you go. Most of them are city manager. I mean sometimes they possi the heck up and I
know that turns into a couple other red flags, yellow flags. But well the part of the reason you ask is because is it in the budget? Is there enough budget money for 14 people to go or 12 or seven or five or two or one? So that's usually why you ask. So
no for sure. And and since I am not the designate for either one of them I that's why I'm asking. Okay. So with that, any further discussion on that with a motion in a second? I got a motion in a second. All right, call the vote. Yay. Do I vote on that?
You want to split a room? I don't know. Do I vote on that? Do they still Do I have to abstain? I'm serious. Do I do abstain? Do they still do death? No, you vote on that. You be appointing yourself to the They do not. I have 70.
Mr. Bagby. All right. They do not do death by chocolate. They don't. They do not. So, it's not worth going. I mean, I I went every year. I think my first term only because Sam was very involved and she was and they still talk about Sam. Yeah. They were She was trying to become the first vice president or
whatever it was the league. Well, there are several committees that Yeah. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. If I may, usually uh we we budget for it and then uh the reimbursement comes afterwards. That's
fine. And we're if we're out of money then we'll say so. But you know, but normally uh my charter has to be approved, you know, a reimbursement for for the travel. Yes. And we do that city. No, no, no city credit cards.
Got us in trouble. Some some people didn't use it correctly. I got got in trouble over that. Uh anyway, thank you. Yay. Thanks for coming. Thank you. That's all I have. All right, Councilman Dustin, mayor. I uh I was trying to find out if we have have
or have plans to put warning signs out in the channel where we unfortunately lost someone last month. Uh, I think the county put a sign out there that said something about snorkeling, but I would make a motion to direct staff to uh, design a sign that warns people about
the dangers of the swift current uh, when the at full outgoing tide. It's making almost four miles an hour out there, which is as fast as the Mississippi River, and we need to have some signs in that area more than one. I'll second it. And that'll that'll be a motion on that
issue. Yeah. All right. I got a motion and I got a second. Um, the only other thing I would add, and I know we don't allow, um, God, I guess call it artwork on walls, uh, but there's a huge white wall there that could also be a nice little public
private partnership for, uh, PR, a mural. A mural. Thank you. Uh, just throwing that as a discussion, not to add it into that motion, but just throwing that out there for future consideration. Seeing no further discussion, we'll call the vote.
And uh city attorney, do you need a motion to direct you to do the social media policy? I already have it written down because it seemed like you all agreed and had a consensus. Does anyone not want the social media policy? Besides, I'm just I'm kidding. I'm down for a
policy. No, it's it's it's it's its intent is I mean if one person does make a no no swimming or whatever caution danger caution danger sign. Yeah. We're waiting. Kim, I'm going to I'm going to go ahead and make a motion since our charter says
no action shall be taken without a motion. That's right. There consensus doesn't appear in that document. Before we get to that motion, we do have a voting body. You want to vote on the other one. Ray, can you please read Councilman Dustin's motion? about the sign. All right. Thank you, sir. Signage for danger.
Councilman Dustin, another motion. What's the next motion to do? The motion is on the uh to draft social policy draft. Does that make you the legislative sponsor, Mr. Council? I will be happy to be so. Okay. All right. And I second it.
Got a motion. I got a second. Seeing any discussion, seeing none, we'll reset the board with a custom vote. Give Ray a second. So, yeah. All right. Eyes have it. So, moved.
And the only other point I would make is I want to congratulate the staff. It keeps you from falling over the edge. Oh, yeah. Oh, don't worry. For as much as I do listen to them. There's a few times I don't. Stay away from that edge if you can. Oh, yeah. Thanks. I'm done.
All right. Appreciate you, Councilman Bagby. You know, I'm going to pass tonight other than to say no. I I will say cuz I promised Kevin I'd say uh I would just say without going into my 10-minute line by line here uh the advantages of fire
pits is not as uh advantageous as some people uh you know think. The city manager put a pretty positive light on it. My experience managing a resort community and a resort beachfront condo in Walton
County was totally different and uh it's it's not everything. But I was willing if he was the beta the Henderson Beach if he was willing to do a beta and let everybody in on that action to do a beta test. But I'm not, you know, when he
said no. And not if you weren't standing there then then n that's where he lost me because I'm I'm not again I'm ambivalent. I'm not okay hard opposed but
it's it's not very advantageous uh in my experience. Yeah, me too. Councilwoman Abear. Thanks Mayor. Um quick question. Steve, have you been able to manage to find out what the Fourth of July parking um
collections were at our lots, especially the one behind Meguiire's for Thursday night's fireworks Friday? And then I think Michael could probably pull those numbers up quicker than I could. Um I'm really just learning the system myself, so
I'm waiting. I I've had my laptop on for five hours, so it kind of died. I'm seeing I'm seeing if it'll come back to life here. Just give me one moment. I do know last week uh the uh revenues total were 58,000 and some change, but not for
the Zerby lot, but just uh in total. In total. Well, the other thing is is I know that we are low on code, guys, but I know that Larry, you did have that as one of the things they were to check, especially from Thursday through Sunday for those to be verified they had called
in and paid the parking. Correct. That was correct, Mr. Okay. All right. Great. Um, then I also wanted to uh thank Lisa and her team extraordinaire for the Fourth of July fireworks. I know that was a lot of work
getting that permitting, getting that piece of land set up, getting all the fireworks. It was a beautiful event. I've had so many people say what a great job City of Destin did for fireworks. So, thank you to your whole team because I know there was a bunch of them
involved. And then also the Joe's by you guys. I went down there two days in a row just to see how things were, just to check. It was pandemonium. And I'm telling you, Wayne and I think it was Chris was with him. They are like stellar people. The toleration they have
for the people that are out oftowners that don't know how to not unload their boat stuff in the slip. Um, so kudos to your your team. I mean, it was just a very busy, hard weekend and you've got a great group of people. So, I wanted to say that. And then, of course, thanks
Tamara because she never got time off. There were people that were having all kinds of accidents. There were just every night 2 am Tamara's sending out an email and somebody's accidentally run over a telephone pole or something. But thank you for what you did during that hard weekend as well. And then my last
item is the bad roosters. We have a lady that has asked us to find out why do um roosters get free reign of roosting all day long. Um, this ordinance was put in place back in 2020 when people bought
roosters to help fertilize the eggs for the chickens, when people were buying their chickens and making basically having their own eggs. Um, so Kim, did you tell me there was something we could do to change the verbiage? I think it's just a policy
decision for the council if you want to allow roosters or not because once they're here, they're going to make noise. So, right now, we have an exception in the code that says roosters. Basically, it comes down to roosters can make noise. Um, so
what about the noise ordinance? Can they not be held to that level? We have an exception in the code that says roosters can can do it um because of the nature of the animal. So, if y'all want to change that, then we we probably have to amend the code. So, I'll leave it to the council to make
that policy call. Does does it in there for dogs barking? It has an exception for roosters in the section that says dogs can bark. It says roosters. Roosters can crow. What do you call it? Crow.
Crow. Yeah. I had uh roosters can bark. Yeah. Roosters can bark. I can tell you um I mean I've gone around to all my neighbors. I I had chickens, still have chickens. I had four roosters at one point cuz we raised them. Um, and you know, you can't get all hens magically from egg grazing. And
the reality is they can crow all day long, but so do my three neighbors dogs barking cuz they want to be inside all day. And I guess that's never happening either. So the reality is I think everyone should just be better neighbors and confront each other versus trying to
get Daddy City involved and just trying to come up with a law for every little thing that someone's upset about. This lady did go over and ask them if they could take their rooster inside while it was crowing during the afternoon and it it they've been trying for about six
months to see if they could come to an agreement and just said is there a noise ordinance that these could be held up to? So yeah, if it's it's an exception, it's an exception and it doesn't sound like anybody up here wants to do anything. Hey, mayor, have you have you ever tried a crow
caller? I Yeah, one uh I hate to say this out loud, one died because of it. I I uh it was a it was a little I you know, as as a uh as a rooster owner, I think the closest person to the rooster is the owner. And um you know, we we tried a
couple measures and perhaps uh I uh tightened the I've heard of them. I've never heard anybody. Now, Brandon, I was brand new at the time. I think I've learned my lesson of you got to put a pinky underneath it. I heard afterwards. Um I think I was trying to eliminate my own problem, but I hate to say that out loud, but
here we are. Um, other than that, I would say at least to your point, what I did is I went around and found out that all my neighbors went to work around 11 or sorry, 7:15, 7:30. So, I had an automated door and that kept the hens and the rooster inside and I let them out at 7:30. So, that's kind
of what I tried to do to be a good neighbor, but I do get that you can't stop an animal from doing what animals do. So, I'm not trying to discount that, but I, you know, just as a chicken rooster owner and no longer rooster owner, I can assure you, at least for me, the uh my roosters got on my nerves
before I think any of the neighbors did. So, I found a good home for them elsewhere, the ones that I didn't experiment on. Sandy, did you have something to That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. All right, councelor Bear, to answer your question. Uh, it was 151
transactions over the holiday weekend and I think the my laptop did die. It was just a little over $2,000. Yeah, it's $15 a day. So, whatever 15 times that number of transactions was. It wasn't a lot.
But that lot holds like 40 cars. So, it does. We don't we don't capture if you have a head if you have a handicap tag placard or a disabled veterans tag. We don't charge. we we can't capture the local residents
um decals. So there there are a lot of transactions that we just can't capture. And that's fine. I just wanted to make sure that you know and that's good. If our locals are using that lot to go across and watch the fireworks and enjoy Harbor Walk for free, that's great. Okay. Thank you. And to that point, I think that's what
hopefully this RFP for those will do. Having the cameras there, it can identify if it's a local, if we've given a a discount, if we've given a waiver for a 5K there. It's it's a simple what we could do with a camera and and some of this to offload some of the manual
enforcement and honoring that we always have a problem with and put those codes in other places where we don't have the simple mechanism. Yeah, Councilman Guile, I have a few things. One, I'd like to explain to Kevin why I didn't vote for
the uh fire pits. I thought it would be hypocritical. If we're going to vote against vending, we need to stick with it. We can't just pick and choose what we like or don't like. Secondly, the TDC seems to be focusing on the wrong type of tourist right now. And I
don't trust those people out there doing these controlled burns or or anything else. And I think uh that falls in line with what a local citizen just said not too long ago um during the public speaking portion,
Miss Patty. Um right now I think our TDC is focusing on the wrong people. I've asked to have TDC come down here and speak and you uh if you can clarify where they're at, Larry, or what their responses are. The last response was the director was checking
with with the commissioners, but I will reach out. How long ago was that? Three months. Three months. She was at the ribbon cutting this morning. Yeah. Well, if they're that incompetent, they can't figure this out in three months. How are they going to find the right tourists for our
We have a rep. Okay. So, they're So, does the rep know exactly who they're focusing on? So I I think the July meeting is cancelled because they gather all the data and then in August they present it to us.
So I think we'll have somewhat of a presentation available and maybe we can in turn bring that here in August to kind of show who they targeted and how they targeted and what they targeted to give you the answers. That would be amazing because
I'll bring it to you myself uh if they don't come in August. I agree with Miss Brown. after I'm sorry after the August meeting then I would bring it whenever they present it in August once we have it. I got you. But I agree with Miss Brown. We we are
not getting the tourists that we deserve in the dust tent. Second, we found out we only made $2,000 for parking during the Fourth of July event out of the one parking lot. I don't understand why we don't just dedicate parking lots to
locals only during specialized events like Fourth of July or New Year's fireworks or New Year's whatever event you called it. The drone drone thing that you you more 40th anniversary. Yeah. Okay. City events. But I don't understand why we don't
dedicate just to locals only and have tow trucks go through and tow anything that's not a Florida tag. Um, locals suffer through this tourist nightmare on a daily basis. They can't go to a restaurant with an hour hour wait. They can't visit and enjoy
our our local amenities as a local. And they're the ones it's their tax dollars that are pretty much paying for everything. So, I would like to see us work towards opening parking lots for locals only during specialized events. Um,
another thing I want to bring up is gutter permits. There's other counties within the state of Florida that require lure for gutters. Right now, we're dealing with a gutter company over on uh
gez Morgan Sport complex. They installed the gutters wrong. His answer to me was, "Well, the person that installed it before me was wrong, so we just followed suit." So, wrong person to say that to. Yeah, the initial guy's an idiot, so you can be an idiot. That that's allowed. I I it
doesn't make sense to me. Um the other idiotic statement he made is, "I saw standing water in a corner nowhere near a downspout." And he said, "We have no way of checking that." I said, "Well, that's why people have created a level." But apparently those gutter companies don't understand what a level's for.
There's several several municipalities in the state of Florida, cities that require one of four licenses. One of five licenses. I take that back. specialty metals, residential contractor, building contractor, general contractor, or roofing license in order to install gutters permitted process. If
you install gutters wrong, you're going to rot out your fascia. You're going to rot out your rafter tails. You're going to rot out your sopet. It's going to cause a tremendous amount of burden on our local citizens because we let idiots do a job they're not qualified to do and we're not regulating it. So, I would
like to see us investigate permits for gutter installation and requiring legislation since it is a regulated uh service within the building codes. Let's see here. Short-term rentals. I'
I've got a question for Cap over there. Captain, um I have a business right now. I have a guy that comes in with a badge once a year and looks at all my documents. Doesn't say a word to me. He just looks at my board, make sure I have my my documents. He's not a cop, but he's got a badge. I don't
know what his role is, and I don't ask him, and he doesn't talk to me. We just ignore each other. He does his little search and walks out. But my question to you is, if there's anything that's happening in my private business, even though it's open to the public, do you have to have a warrant to come in and look inside my private business if there's a complaint, or can
you just come in? I would have to have a warrant. um to come into certain areas, other areas. If it's open to the public, I could come in without a warrant. Open to the public. Yeah. It's not a it's not a simple yes or no question. Okay.
There's a lot a lot of variables, but yes, generally speaking, if it's a private area, I would have to have a warrant to enter it. Okay. So then that answers one of my questions because what I was going to ask is if a short-term rental is now a business unit, it's no longer a local residence, what prevents us whenever
there's a complaint or an issue that we go in and search for anything else that could be causing or agitating or breaking a law? Um, same with maybe even the the fire chief going in and verifying that there's not too many people for the occupancy of that to create some type of fire hazard because
right now we have an overburden of way too many people trying to pile themselves into one building and it's causing parking issues. It's causing road damage issues, wear and tear that we're not qualified to deal with. And based off the type of tourist that this TDC is bringing in, which I'm not going
to say it's 100% TDC, based on the type of tourists that we're focusing on or they're finding Destin, I have zero faith in in and their compliance with legal laws. Um, and I really want to try try
to figure out a way to to start moving back to where we were 20 years ago to bring back the people from Rosemary Beach, Inlet Beach, Alice Beach, bring them back into this direction. we're not going to do it with the people that we have here. So, I'm trying to find solutions. Um, so based off what you're
saying, we can't just if there's an issue that might be considered private and you don't have access to that without some type of Yeah. If they're renting the if they're renting the property, I I would have to have a warrant to go in to look for criminal activity. They have an expectation of privacy inside their their rental unit.
Even though it's no longer a residence, it's now a business. It doesn't matter. Okay. And that's what I needed to understand. I just did not understand that that now if the if the rental person if the company that's doing the rental agreement with them has it in their
contract that they can enter then that person can enter uh but they can't direct me to enter without a warrant. So, and this is a question from Miss Cop, then is can part of our STR agreement or BTR be that we now have the right to investigate or inspect anytime
if you become a business, we have the right to inspect or investigate and there's wrongdoing or intent to suspected wrongdoing. I think that would be difficult to enforce on private property in some cases. for life safety. I think we can
do it, but it it's kind of controversial as far as things beneath life safety to be able to just go into private property without permission. But arguably, if someone's coming in for a permit, if we have a permit requirement for something, we should be able to inspect. Otherwise,
they will never get their permit cleared. So, in that circumstance, if it's something we require a permit for, then I think we, you know, we can be able we can require an inspection after permitting. But okay, but that's only permitting. That's not a BTR and that's not can't we can't do it for a BTR. But when
you talk about STRs, if there are certain permits required, you know, for new construction or renovations, then I think we could inspect. All right. We can also inspect with permission. Obviously, I'm trying to stay fairly calm right now because this whole situation agitates
me. I try to take my daughter to the Fourth of July fireworks. Parking was ridiculous. I get down there, the the tourist that I'm dealing with, I probably almost got into four fights, physical altercations down there because people are jackasses. I watched a guy throw a cup on the ground four feet from
a trash can, 5t from a trash can, and uh I had to get in a very verbal confrontation with him and five of his friends in order to get him to pick that cup up and put it in the trash can. We just not bringing the right type of people into this town and we need to figure out how to change that.
Thank you, sir. Councilman Schmidt, whatever your last name is at this point. It's okay. Uh, I just have some updates from the public. Uh, where do we leave off on the Lee parcel on Indian Trail? Are we still pursuing it? Looking into
it, waiting for appraisals. We are still looking into it, but if council, sorry, what? Yeah. Uh the Park Foundation is uh specifically um Keith uh Jay Howard is uh was
reaching out to the Lee family to see if they would be willing to donate that parcel to the Park Foundation and take the tax write off. And I think it's going to that they'll have to get an appraisal and I can ask I can reach out
to Jay tomorrow and ask him if he's what what the Lee family told him. But that's that's the last I know. If the staff was working on something else, we're we're meeting the parks foundation's meeting next Friday, so I can talk then. But I It's not on Indian
Trail. That's not It is. It's on Indian Bayou. No, it Yes. The southern end touches Indian Bayou. The northern end touches Indian Trail. That Eastwood goes the entire length of the
Okay. Whatever. And that was one of the other things was Jay I think when he had a a conversation they might not want to give the whole thing just a part like look whatever we can get you know for them donating to
the foundation let's get yeah so I respect all that and thank whoever else has been talking but if you two could look into it and bring us back in August missed the update in coordination with Jay and Mama and whoever else and let us know because we
asked council you asked these two to do it. So, thank you. Uh where we at with Clementator Park? Did we get the approval? Are we starting? Uh we got a another request for additional information last week which we turned around quickly and provided
back to the county. So, they're going to resubmit it and wait to see what comes up next. Who who who uh requested, the county or treasury? Well, the original request came down from Treasury through the county. So, we had a 30-day waiting period for uh
insurance flood impact notice. Okay. Yeah. So, I I mean, I don't live anywhere near his park, so I could care less, I guess. But does anybody else get like frustrated with this Clementator Park situation? I
mean, is there every other day? I mean, like I don't know. I mean, y'all have a lot of years of experience up here. Do we just continue just to wait and just get on our knees and do whatever, you know, just wait just I I I would really like to know, is there anybody that any of us could talk
to, Jeff, at the county to tell them that we need to know what we need to do to stop this pick back and forth? I mean, is there does someone need to be more assertive with them? I mean, you seem like you're a really laid-back kind of guy. So, I I apologize. I you know, I am that,
but I have been very clear with them that we want to advance this as quickly as possible. And anything that they need from us, let us know now so we can deal with it. Now, I feel like we've made that request about five to 10 times. Like, it's like a failure on somebody's part here. Like,
what's the what's the can we do anything? Well, and I don't think any contacts in DC that we can call. I think that's the problem. I mean, is there got to be somebody, right? Frustration. I I've spent a year and a half with the Army Corps of Engineers
uh even when I was the district director and calling for an update from the congressman's office and it's here's the course process and here's here's where it is and then it'll move from that office to the next office and it's like dudes when we
I appreciate it when we went through it for Captain Royal Melvin I remember we had to eventually get involved and try to push to speak with the treasury directly and it I don't feel that that went over particularly well with the county. They really seem to want us to go through
them. But I would say we can talk to Jane Evans again about um potentially having a direct call with the Treasury again like we did for Royal Melvin. could y'all take that next step to at least reach out to her and and um
Greg and and just kind of say, "Hey, about a year ago, about a year ago, uh Mel when Mel was commissioner and then they all got in a t room because they had to kind of work on some things and I just feel like we got to do it again." Cool. Kevin, it does take an extensively long
time. Yeah. My uh kid will be graduating high school by the time it's done, so it's perfect. Maybe college. Yep. Uh, does the does the Joe's Bayou State project is that out for bid or is it going to bid? Do you do you know? Do
we Is that even ready? Are we way far away from that? I don't know. PICE likes to drag his feet like every other federal employ. But it's not It hasn't gone out to bid yet. State employee. I'm sorry. Still in permitting, I think. Still in permitting. Okay. So, all right. Can we get an update from them?
No. All good. Uh, where are we at with the no wait zone sign being added back into Joe's Bayou and bringing the cost to us for that? Bringing us some G maps and
we um the Joe's Bayou all no wake signs are in place. We were going to add a new wake sign uh 500 feet from the Joe's Bayou launch. Y'all were going to bring us like a GIS map of of all this stuff
and where they are and how much it was going to cost. This was about a month ago the meeting. Yes. So we we do have that. Um but the 500 the 500 radius both signs
are there. All signs in Joe's Bayou are in place. Right. But we talked the the whole council historical the council not just Kevin but the council said bring a new no wakeake side and y'all were going to bring us the
location of that where it could go and the cost of it. So yeah I guess can we circle back? I think we did discuss that. Mayor also had some information on that that there was nothing we could do at this time. We
would have to make kayak launches on the other on the um other side of Joe's Bayou to maybe do another 500 radius. And this is per Mike Norberg. And then the only thing that got added
after that from Councilman Dest was in fact that historically there was one in the back of Joe's Bayou and that we were going after that one. Yeah, there's there was two at the fingers. That's right. One and they are there. on the fingers are there or arms or whatever you want to call
them. I can send you the map. Yeah, I would just appreciate there was two there was two uh motions or two directives that night. One to provide the cost of replacing the previously removed no wakeake signs which I think what y'all are saying is they're already
there. And two, add a new no wakeake sign 500 ft from the Joe's Bayou boat launch. So I think we haven't gotten number two yet. Well, those from a 500 radius from Joe's Bayou, right? Are they So, if y'all could just bring that to us
and show us, then I guess then that will answer the question. I can get that to you. Somebody said something about GIS and they were going to show us on the map and I'll have Ray send that to all of you tomorrow. That'd be great because I I know some people over there are still asking about
what are we doing and I couldn't answer them because I we were waiting. It's okay. Kevin, we can still designate some other areas around his kayak. All my understanding all it takes is us to designate him. Then we get another 500 foot bite. And there is a right straight across from the boat ramp over there. There's still
a little piece of rideway that goes to the water. We need to explore explore that. There's a waterfront rideway. That's right. Is a park, but it's not a park that was under very controversial discussion many years ago. And I think we could potentially call that like a
kayak launch. If we want to, we certainly can. So, okay. Um, well, that's already in the no wait zone. Nope. Part of it. Yes. Because the whole the asking for the whole finger is a no weight zone. There's there's I'm talking
about I apologize for one more question about code, but is there anything we we can do? I guess I didn't know we have four code officers. I didn't know. Is this a priority? Is this a Jamie thing? Are y'all are we do we need to change the advertisement? Do we need to go is it
money? I mean, we we've increased where we at all. Uh it is um we we had a discussion this morning about the best way to overcome the deficiencies we have. Is it money? So,
we're taking a look at that. Is it a um a staffing initiative whereby we can create some part-time positions for um weekend work that uh will relieve our the four that we have in place now. We
do have an additional one coming on next week I believe and we certainly are you know trying to up our recruitment efforts and so part of the conversation this morning was how do we fill in those gaps? Can we do it with part-time um
officers that we may could ratchet up the pay because we're not gonna provide benefits. So maybe there's some uh code officers in other areas or even some military police that may want to work some weekend hours or something that would help fill in the gaps. So it is a
priority and you know and we are looking to make sure we are recruiting in the best places we can. Okay. is I know Steve I I told you a while ago, you know, I supported everything that you presented one of those nights and how I mean I saw a
bright future with the plan, right, that you want to do and I I still strongly believe that. But if if we're not being told we need to do something to support this more than what we've already done, you know, quality of
life of the citizens of Destin is one of the top priorities that we try to enforce around here. And if our co we don't have code officers to enforce the code on a daily basis. I mean me personally I would take the guy off the
beach and send him around the streets of Destin to support our residents right now. That's what I'd be doing if I was a staffing person because right now we're sending a code officer and SWAT team on the beach every day to deal with, you
know, ice cream vendors but people breaking the parking in the parking lots or whatever and all these accusations, you know? I mean, that's that's me personally. I wish we would take them off the beach, put them in the streets. Um, it's just one idea. Uh, I don't know if that takes
a council motion or people to be up here for a long time to be able to make that happen. But if you need something else from the council, I'll be a legislative sponsor to hopefully get more code officers to help support the citizens of Destin. All right. Thank you.
I'm sorry I let it on there so long. Uh, Councilwoman Traml, is that still valid? Yeah, I was just gonna I was just going to comment that uh next year for the Fourth of July is the 250th anniversary of the US. So, I think we need to do something really special
like a drone show. Yes, I was going to suggest that, but the budget meeting is coming up. So, we might I just wanted to put that in people's minds before we talk budget. That's all. Love it. So, great idea.
Um, and then so the only thing I was going to bring up and it's not under my name, so I'm not really pushing anywhere. No, no, no, not at all. So, no, I appreciate that. Any anytime we can get the drones out there, I'd love to see it once a week. Uh, but that's not our money. Um, kind of full circle with everything talking about. I just wanted
to bring it up. Uh, kind of the paid parking, the dollar amount, where we're going. Uh, to my understanding, there's over $2 million in that parking lot. To my understanding, this council does not seem interested in doing anything in the harbor parking, which cool with me. So,
may I suggest us during the budget season look at using the parking funds at Morgans's or over at Crystal Beach? If we got these beach properties going on for public access, we probably need some upland facilities that aren't as
expensive as golf parking. Um, so you know, just throwing that out there as a general. We're all kind of been dancing around uh paid parking and just that what that looks like. And so in our uh mobility plan, we do have two spots identified for parking improvements in
Crystal Beach. And I just feel that could help offset daytime code ordinance that's getting broken, which is cars parking all over the sidewalk and not allowing people to use the sidewalk. instead of just ticketing them, we can now kind of escort them over to the
right place or let them know where they can pay for overnight parking as well as just our daily uh people trying to go to the beach. So, kind of in that that budget idea, I would really like us to see that 2 million plus dollars of parking revenue go to something that we can all agree on. So, with that, that's
all I had for tonight. And we have the city attorney, Miss Cop, real quick. So there's a couple of there's um there are a couple of new bill or laws now that require ordinances or resolutions. So my question to the council is do you want me to get a
legislative sponsor for the bill for example that requires us to pass a resolution on plat policies because unfortunately council's going to lose its final authority on plats. It has to be done staff level in accordance with this statutory requirements now. So for
something like that, would would you like me to ask for a legislative sponsor or is this or is the sponsor the legislature of the state of Florida? We never intended for things that are mandated by the legislature to have legislative sponsor after all. We have no choice in those, right?
No, we don't. That's why I thought I would just mark it down. Florida, state of Florida. Got it. Okay. So, so for that and some things for Senate Bill 180, you'll see some things coming. Awesome. Thank you, Councilman Bagby. Funny. Yeah, I figure it's 10:30 and all the
little eighth grade girls have gone to bed. So, I just want to congratulate you and Rebecca on your neutrals. I know the middle school next year, every heart will be broken. Thanks. Congratulations. But congratulations.
I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. With that, public comments. If you made it this far, please say something cuz I hope it's not just here for your public entertainment. John, come in there. John, you got a parking problem, buddy. I was overlooking your parking down
there. There wasn't an empty spot anywhere. That means business was good that weekend. Uh John Stevens, 425 Indian Trail. Um so it's kind of piggybacking off of Dwiey's uh discussion about uh the incident that happened at uh Ostein Beach. Um, Oklusa
County um, actually removed all the safety corridor buoys on Crab Island. So that means those buoys could potentially be available. Um, I recommend that we probably reach out to Oakus County, maybe Mike Norberg to see maybe if we
can get access to some of those buoys and maybe repurpose them from no boating buoys to caution swift current buoys and place them over in that area. Um because you gota think about people are accessing that area not only by beach but also by boat. So that's all I got.
Thank you John. I have talked to Mike physically Mike and he is saving those and we're going to pick those up this week or next week. All of them. Thank you. So I know we do have a a potential work plan to use some of those
others too. So thank you. Yes. Yes. I'll get with you. All right. Anyone else? Seeing none, John, it's time for a haircut. All right. Ajourn. Motion. Oh, no motion. Just a journ.