Everyone, I'm going to call this meeting to order. All right. Thank you all for being here. Today is June 2nd. We are halfway through the year at this point, it seems. And with that, I am going to start with the invocation by our one and only Pastor David Butler from the Faith
Assembly Christian Church, the Rock and Roll Church. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Would you bow your heads with me, please? Gracious and lovely heavenly father, I thank you tonight for these your servants, our
mayor, our city manager, our city staff, and our city council members. I give thanks for the way of service they have chosen to take up on behalf of all of us here. We pray for wisdom, for strength and courage to do what is right and good
for all citizens. May we put the interest of others above our own. We thank you again for this council. We pray Lord for our law enforcement this evening, our military, our first responders, our schools, both students
and staff, our hospital staff, and all those who work to make this place such a beautiful place that we call home. And now the blessing is this according to Numbers chapter 6. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine
upon you and be gracious to you. May he give you his peace. Amen. Amen. Thank you for always being here. All right. Councilwoman Abear with the pledge, please. Please join me with your hand over your heart. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, may be seated. And we have a proclamation that's going to go up first.
got a big crowd of them all. But if uh all the Rotarians and our honoring uh award nominee nominee I'm sorry I didn't want to cut give you the wrong title on that to all the Rotarians who are here that want to be
recognized. Michael. All right. Come on in. Come on. Awesome. And then Brenda, would you like to start and introduce everything and then I can proclamation? Absolutely. Good evening, Mayor Wagner, city council members, and
guest. My name is Brenda Gray. I serve as the secretary of the Destin Rotary Club. It is my great honor tonight to stand before you to present a very special recognition with the Destin Rotary Club Citizen Above Self Award. This award was created to shine a light
on the unsung heroes in our community. Those who give without asking, serve without expectation, and impact lives simply by being who they are. These individuals rarely seek the spotlight. Yet they are the heart and soul of what makes Destin such a special place. This
year we are proud to recognize Jessica Holesapple as our Destin Rotary's 2526 Citizen Above Self-awward recipient. Jessica is someone who embodies the very essence of servant leadership. Her kindness, dedication, and quiet acts of generosity ripple through our community
in ways she may never fully see, but we certainly do. She was nominated by fellow uh Rotary members who saw her as the missing piece in our mission to honor those who make a difference behind the scenes. Jessica, thank you for being a light in this city. You are an
inspiration and tonight we are grateful to celebrate you. On behalf of the Destin Rotary Club and the people of Destin, congratulations and thank you for all you do. [Music] So with Rotary being one of the many nonprofits in our community that does
tremendous work. So first and foremost, thank you all for being here and thank you guys for putting uh service above self. Um so with that, you have one of the most caring and giving groups that I know uh bestow an annual uh honor to someone in our community. So for me,
this is a huge privilege to recognize you guys with with this group tonight. So, the proclamation honoring Jessica Holes and declaring June 2nd, 2025 as Jessica Hollesapple Day in the city of [Laughter]
Dest. All right, I got some fun wherees. Whereas the city of Destin proudly recognizes individuals who demonstrate exemplary discipline, compassion, and leadership and service to our community. And whereas Jessica Holesapple has been a driving force for meaningful change
since moving here in Dest in 2011, impacting lives for both locally and globally through her work at Shoreline Church and beyond. Whereas her leadership in cooperating disaster relief, organizing communitywide service initiatives, and participating in
international mission efforts, including the construction of a school in Uganda, has brought hope and tangible support to countless individuals throughout the world. Whereas Jessica is a model of wholehearted service known for unifying people and resources to create positive
and lasting change throughout. Whereas, as a devoted mother of four, including a child with special needs, she has been a tireless advocate for inclusion and connection, especially through initiatives like Night to Shine, a prom night celebrating individuals with special needs, and I saw the little
promo video. I just I held back the tears. It was amazing. You guys did a wonderful job with that. Whereas the Rotary Club of Destin has honored Jessica Hull's apple as the 2025 2026 community award recipient recognizing her extre extraordinary combination that
embodies the meaning of spirit of service and community. Whereas it is fitting that the city of Dest formally honors Jessica Holesapple and celebrates her inspir inspiring example of compassion, leadership and civic engagement. Now therefore, I, Mayor
Bobby Wagner, on behalf of the city council and all of our citizens, do hereby proclaim June 2nd, 2025 as Jessica Holesapple Day in the city of Dest, Florida, and encouraging all residents to recognize and celebrate the lasting contribution she has made to
enrich the lives of those in our community and beyond. So done this second day of June, 2025. Congratulations. So, thank you. Get in. I'm not that tall. Perfect. Awesome. Anything you'd like to
say? Thank you. Awesome. Well, I thank the family for being here. I know for every strong leader, the whole family of support. So, I want to thank the whole family and and everything you guys have done in and outside the church. So, we really appreciate you guys. And I I do want to give credit to God for all of this truly. Like, I didn't know Jesus
before I moved to this town. and this town has completely changed the whole direction of our whole family. So, we love it here. We're grateful to be here and I love raising our kids here. Um, it's truly an honor. So, I'm excited to continue to partner. We were already I have to plug it, but we were already approved with the Tim Tibo Foundation
for Night to Shine 2026. And so, that will be happening um in our town, which is a big big deal. So, get ready. February 13th, it's happening and you'll hear all about it. So, thank you guys. Absolutely. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank [Applause]
you. Well, that's a testimonial the TDC can't come up with. All right. Up first is going to be the public comment. So, I'm going to approve the agenda. Ah, there you go. Thank you, Councilman Schmidt. Do I have any considerations for the agenda or an approval? I'll make a motion to approve
the agenda. Second. All right. I got a motion by Councilwoman Abear, seconded by Councilman Schmidt. Any further discussions? Seeing none, Ray, if you can call that vote. Oh, no. We're going to approve the agenda and then it's going to be public comments. Yep. I got some help up
here, right? Sandy, Kevin, you guys in? in a minute. Oh, okay. I got you. No, it's on your laptop. You having a senior moment? Interesting. Why we have these things up here if we don't use them anymore? Oh, don't hit the assets. Taxpayers
problem. All right, I just have it. So, moved moving right along. We got public comments. Uh, I'm going to start on my right, y'all's left. If anyone from the right side want to go. Yes, sir. up here to the mic. If
I just need you to hit the gray button, the light will turn red. Name and address, and the floor is yours for three minutes. Yep. Good. Good to go. Name and address. My name is Riley Tanaka. I'm at 606 Harbor Lane. And I was going to talk about the jet ski that's in front of the that's on the
sandbar in front of our house that's been causing such a problem. I'm sure everybody in the city council's heard about this. Um, I was going to bring up an incident that happened not yesterday, but the Sunday prior. U, my daughter and I were out there on the sandbar, mask and snorkels, swimming around. The jet
skiis showed up and they came in full speed within 10 ft of us and almost hit us. We had exchanged choice words, you know, explained that this is not okay. And we were assured that the the driver of the jet ski was in control, but full
speed 10 ft away, it's not about that. It's about safety and courtesy. And we've been asking the city council to kind of give us some direction on how to how to meet this or address this. That's why I'm here today. I know it's not on the agenda, but I wanted to make our concerns known. Um, I understand that
there are some limitations on what can be done, but when it's a safety issue, I think that broadens our horizons on what we can do. So, I was just here to give y'all a firsthand testimony of what I've experienced, you know, in the water and outside of it from a viewing perspective. So,
um, is this something we openly discuss or is it just No, it's just a one-sided public comments and then, uh, just to try not to respond, but mainly, uh, we have heard and we've been doing some research and so just know that a lot of people have been reaching out to us and we're kind of going through what the
state would allow. Okay. If there's any other testimony that the council would like to hear, whatever, that that's what I'm here for. Um, just to just to help show support of that. um that solution potential solution. So
what's your name again? Riley R I L E Y Tanaka. Mr. Mayor, whether we talk about it now or at 8:00 when it's my turn, I'd like to talk about this. So yeah, I was going to plan on talking about talk about it now. No, I I think just for the sake of keeping everything organized and uniform
under the public comments, but I was as well going to bring it up. Just wanted to make sure. Okay. Voice is heard. And if you can just tap tap that off for me. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for being here. All right, guy. I'm starting to get everyone's names down.
There you go. Um, Guy Tadlock, 502 Norgo, Destiny. Um, first of all, two things, but first of all, did I hear today that the boring projects are going to be paused until sometimes like
Memorial Day or something, Labor Day or something like that. The the the boring the under Yes. where we got hit. Yes, I believe if you want to Yes, sir. Um everything in the 98 corridor right away south um has been
suspended until after Labor Day. There will be some work up in the neighborhoods and some on private property, but for the major boring components, we are not allowing any of it except the ads contract that's with the city that's doing the undergrounding
of the utilities, but the particularly the fiber companies that have caused us some grief. We have shut them down in that area till after Labor Day. Very good. Um it's really uh if you look at the danger and the traffic uh I mean
it's just scary as ripped to drive down 98 with all the construction work and you're driving this far from the workers. So good move. Glad to hear that. Okay. The other thing that I want to talk about tonight is uh bonfires. Uh I was watched the city
council meeting when that was discussed by Mr. Schmidt and and my mind is like there's no way this can happen. Uh this is really a very concerning issue. Uh first of all, if you look at it from
environmental standpoint, the impact that it has, uh if you look at it from a safety standpoint, I tried to get numbers. Uh and it's hard to get numbers on the number of deaths every year with bonfires.
Uh they typically lump that in with other fires and it could be as many as 70,000 a year. But then they drop it down to like uh pit fires and I'm not sure I know what a pitfire is and bonfires in 2017 there were 5,300 deaths. And then if you listen and look
at the stuff that's happened at the bonfires that colleges have could be a serious issue and you're and I understand that they're I read the uh I read the packet. Uh they're small fires. they're uh in a metal container. But my
goodness, we've got fireworks that causes fires just about every year. And uh and I just can't imagine us opening up the beaches to uh to have bonfires uh in my neighborhood. And if I
look at the packet, uh there's three candidates. Norgo Point Park, which uh hadn't been completed yet. And uh then there's the West Destined Beaches right in the middle of a very dense populated area of single family homes and condos.
I just can't imagine putting bonfires there. So, you know, if you if you look at it, got three minutes, so just final thoughts. Uh okay, I'm giving you a little bit more, but wrap it But if you look at it, um, the risk to safety and
health surely cannot justify putting our neighborhoods in peril. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. All right, moving right along. Better. Yep. Just sir, I got you next. Dondell's 442 snapper.
I've got a newspaper article from 2017 from the Northwest Daily News says drainage projects wrapping up in Destin. Okay. So, what I read was the National
Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded $3.6 million grant for restoration that includes storm water, which y'all know comes in my place. All right. I've been griping about it for 3
years. You know, Dewy's been by. City manager Mike been by. They're trying to get something going. They say they uh we got a new engineer who I just met today. Thank you, Larry.
Uh so, $3.6 million. That fixed a lot of streets and it did. It started off with, you know, over there on the the harbor first Joe's bayou, Indian bio.
They did all the streets except for my street. Mary, you know that you've been through all this mess. All the projects they got, and I'm not going to name them all. Clemens Park Restorations bid went out 21st uh or 20 no 2024 in July. Cross
Town Connector both start this year. Nora Point 2024 start August September. Storm water Matty Kelly swells. I do have a swell in front of my house by the way. Pickle ball. They gave pickle ball
courts 400,000 bucks. I was sitting here that day when that happened. I don't play pickle ball. Good. They're doing it, but it don't help me. July 2023, Marlor Bridge property right up there used to be
tattoo shop was bought for a little over $9 million. Okay. Uh boardwalk under the bridge supposed to start this year and we got walkways, bikes, and all that mess. So, you
know, Mr. Larry come by, Mr. Mike been by a couple times. Mr. do. He been by a few times. Uh supposedly they're coming by this week. Hopefully I'm there when you know call me, let me know. Try and figure it out. But you know, this is
crazy. I'll be 78 in two months. Actually, one month still hauling sandbags every time we get a hard rain. Okay, I can still do it, but I don't like doing it. So, I'm just asking y'all. I mean, you see where all the
money's going. We're not rich, okay? We're retired folks that living on fixed income. We ain't rich. It seems like to me the people with the money is getting all the attention. They're getting all the stuff fixed first before us. Okay.
So, that's all I got to say. And and uh one more thing, after several well, not several calls to the mayor, a call to the mayor, next day, Mr. goes and and uh Mike came out. They looked at it again.
They've been out several times. Do we have been out two times that I know, probably more. So, that's what I'm asking to do. I said, "Let's let's, you know, get off the pot and let's fix my my stuff." I have to pay 400 bucks a year for uh flood insurance, and I'm not
even a flood plane. Okay? That's 400 bucks a year out of my pocket. That's all I got to say. Thank you. Thank you, sir. [Music] Good evening, Carrie Harbarger, 307 Mountain Drive. So, I wanted to bring up
again, I'm going to on record come back to the council and I am complaining again about the carts and the ice cream carts on the beach. They're staged. There's numerous. Seven days a week I document it. But as I was documenting it, it dawned on me. It isn't just about complaining about having illegal
businesses that come here and don't pay into our community and just walk away and go back to Manville, Louisiana. I noticed something. It is pompo season, right? And there's a lot of surf fishing going on and everybody right I videoed it. I didn't have it. I don't not I
don't waste your time. But while these carts are on the beach, they have to be up on the sand selling because all the people have their rods in the water. They're laying on the beach. They're sunbathing and it's pompo season and everybody has their So are we going to stop the fishing? Surf fishing. Is there
no more surf fishing so we can fancy the illegal businesses that are on the beach? Or do we stop the businesses and stop all the drama? Because we're all still fighting about it and not one thing has been done. There's been a couple warnings issued for the whole the
whole Memorial weekend. I videoed them on the beach, lined up down the beach with their customers. You guys, we're invested into this community. I'll have you know that my property insurance went from $5,000 a year to $14,000 a year.
You guys got to protect your businesses that are willing to stand ground to stay. It's not okay. And this isn't the only business. There's others coming your way, guys. But there's no good faith been shown here. So, that was one thing that I noticed. So, we either need
to stop this surf fishing or just let the guys up on the beach because that's where they are. They're on the wet. they're in the they're on the sand because they can't or you're going to have fist fights with them fishermen if you ain't seen them guys lately. You know, they don't want that either. Nobody wants it. We've been told, we've
talked about it for over a year now. And I've watched the council direct our city manager to do something about it. And guys, nothing has been done about it. And uh also I want to say that also too, they like to give the air that they're with all the lifeguards like at Crystal
Beach. And I'll tell you guys that I talk to those people and the homeowners out there, they they pay somebody to do their little snow cones. They think those people are legal. They're elated to find out cuz I've told them that they're not legal and they want them off the beach. They come up there and they wear their red shorts like they belong
with the lifeguards that those people hire. It's a gimmick. You guys are getting played and I think that it's time that we really address it and quit messing with this. So that's I'm just complaining again. That's all. Any questions? Thanks for being here. Yeah, nice to be
here every two weeks to complain about the same thing. But thanks for hearing me though, I must say. And I want to do say we do have the most awesome council we've had in a long time. So, I'm depending on you guys. I've been up to these councils. I've never even had the first response or reaction. And this
council has given it to me not once, but twice. And it tells me that you guys are wanting a resolve, but you're not getting it. I don't know why, but I see you guys want a resolve. And I do see that. So, I want to say thank you and thanks for hearing me. Thank you. All
right. Thanks. All right. You just need to push that gray button. It'll turn the light red. You don't have to hold it down. Just uh there's a gray button up there. You just want to push that. There you go. Name and address and the floor is yours for three minutes. Okay. I'm Fay
Colbertson, 6 Norgo Road, 32541. Um I was here to about the bonfires. Um I'm totally against the bonfires. I don't want to be just any commercialized as much as at all. And I'm and fond of the turtles and all the
good work that people have done in the community about the turtles keeping them and keeping them safe. And um I guess that's about all about the bonfires except it's just we we have enough smoke smoke around here that from
all the from all of the uh fireworks too much. And in the new park down there that's going on holiday aisle. I understand that u there's going to be fireworks a couple times a week. I think that's horrible. We we I can hardly breathe out there anyway because
of all the smoke on on the days of the the fireworks. Another thing in regarding to the parks, uh are they going to be closed from uh uh dust to dawn? And and when will that start or
are or or do y'all do that? If you stick around, we're going to have a discussion on all that. This is going to be the first full discussion on all this uh at 4B on the agenda. You're going to hear the whole all of our thoughts. Okay. Just to I don't know if that was hypothetical or if you're looking for
questions, but yeah, we're we're going to address all that today. Okay. Okay. And back to the um bonfires. I know they do it in Men County. We don't have 27 miles of beach. We only have a little bit of beach. And um thank you very much and thank you for
all that you do. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Yeah. All right. You jump on in. Good evening. Thank you. I don't know what I'm worse at, public reading or
speaking, but uh I'm going to try a bit of both. Um name and address, please. Yes. John McCale, 306 Harbor Boulevard. I came to speak about the public slips that are located near where I am without throwing names or addresses. And it's
about 20 of them, I believe. And I don't think I'll be able to be present when it gets spoken about. So, I just really I may be here too soon, but I wanted to just be able to talk to you guys about what my concerns are. And I do want to say I am pro business and developing
growth. That's how I'm here. my business gains directly from the commercial activity and so on, but something just doesn't sit well with me and it hasn't since the moment those docks been approved the way they were approved. and I watched the meeting live happen and
the approval and I watched what happened on the property as soon as the next day and I think you may be aware and there I'm sure there some information has gotten to you but there is a confusion
and it's been stated publicly from the city that what is public and what isn't on a map and then people are confused when they arrive And it's a bit selective on who's able to stay and who's not able to stay in those slips.
And we may I may have guilty. Oh yeah, look at the map on the city. It'll it'll let you know. I don't even boat. I get seasick just looking at the boat. I I am a land lover. But I think it's wrong for someone to bait and switch us here as a council of city. And I just want to
read, you know, just a a thought that, you know, we're the second ranked. I didn't know there were ranked harbors, but something we should all be proud of. Everybody be proud of that. Um, that we're even somewhere that high. Forget the Miley Cyrus song. We're second ranked harbor. It's a real live harbor.
And if we're not careful with it, we could damage. We need to grow smart, responsibly. And if you don't have, you know, businesses need bathrooms, dedicated parking for their staff and their customers. And that burden falls on other people and it becomes
pressurized. And the last thing I want is any visitor in this town, whether they're local, Shalomar, Alabama, New York, it doesn't matter. They can't be chased around properties at our festive marketplace and not certain where they
can use the restroom, where they can do this. We are all in it together to create this environment. It's not just and the beaches as well. like there cannot be points of tension. That's the only thing I remember of my trip to Jamaica was vendors fighting. It felt
tense and I didn't want to go again. Um but anyway, I don't want to get off top. I wanted to read. There's some valid points to make. I hope I can make it when this gets spoken about maybe a little bit more. And um but I really didn't want to miss an opportunity to just kind of get that off my chest. Um,
and just please look back at how they were approved and and what we were told and promised and then, you know, maybe we can work back. I realized there's been different three different maybe code directors since I've been there seven years with my business there at
that location. Um, we've been open six Oh, anyway, thank you so much. I I really appreciate everyone's time and everyone's work and um I'll hopefully see you soon. All right. Thank you for being here, John. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? [Music]
Well, just for the record on that one before we get to the next speaker, you are all hearing about that on June 16th as part of a quasi judicial application. So, if you have questions on what was just said, please um direct them to the property owners representatives at that
meeting. Okay. Thank you. Just push that button. There you go. Name and address first. Okay. Um, Barbara Komas, 480 Gulf Shore Drive on Holiday Isle. Uh this is about the bonfires and I just recently found out about this and my husband and
I live there in Destin Point about I'd say 75% of the time we're there and um I've also been involved with the Ottabbon S society and we have had successful lease turn nesting on in that
area where on the state lands um where the Gulf meets the east pass. We last year I think we had maybe three to five turtle nests on in that area as well. Um so I really don't think it's a
good idea to start this bonfire business or whatever. I'm not sure what's going on and I came here to find out the information, but I know I'm not I'm not for it. I know a lot of people are not for it. Uh I know it brings parties. It brings noise. uh you know I'm retired
too like a lot of us on that island and um we just don't want that kind of activity. We want peace and quiet and um I just hope you would listen to that and get our you know get input about that. I I really don't want to see it from an
environmental point of view and uh just keep problems out of the area because I know with parties comes I mean we've had it in our own community. People jump the fence. They want to they get in your pool. I don't know. I think of uh bonfires with a lot of drinking
and stuff. So anyway, I appreciate I just want you to know I'm not for it. So thanks for being here. All right. Anyone else? Seeing none, we'll close the public comments and we will go into the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? I'll
make a motion to approve. Do I hear a second? Second. Second. Any further discussions? Seeing none, I call the vote. Ray. [Music] 30. [Music] H there we go. I just have it so moved
6. Uh Mr. Larry Jones. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. Um, item 4 A is regarding the uh debris disaster debris management services. We went out for a
proposal. We received a number of proposals back from some very qualified firms. Uh these are preposition contracts that will stay uh in obeyance until we have an emergency uh where we
need those the um scale of these um management services that these uh companies would pro provide. The two top ranked firms are TRF Enterprises and Southern Disaster Recovery LLC. We would
recommend we approve both of those uh by having two of those on standby. gives us a little bandwidth uh to make sure we've got u the ability to respond in the event of a disaster.
Right. With that, do I hear a motion? [Music] Teamwork. Would you like me to do it for you? So, I'll move to approve award of three-year pre-position contracts for disaster debris management services to TFR
Enterprises, Inc. and Southern Disaster Recovery LLC and authorize city manager to execute all necessary agreements related to RFP25-05-PW. Second with a motion. I have my second. Any further discussions? Little bit, mayor. Yes, sir. Jump on in. We've had
these contracts in place as long as I've been on the council. The previous people that had the contract are either one of these guys, the previous folks. Not to my understanding. So, um, for the past 5 years, we've had
TFR Enterprises. That's a repeat repeat tonight. And then formerly, we had Crowder G. And uh though Crowderolf did submit a proposal, however, it wasn't one of the uh top ranked firms. And how long had we had Crowder Golf? I'm trying
to remember who we had during Opal. I mean, I've been here 5 years and we've had them during that period. Prior to that, I'm not aware. Back to 2006, but I don't know. Right. And and so we've had them since back to 2006 or prior to that, they didn't make the cut. For what
reason? So based on the scoring criteria provided in the RFP, uh there were five points awarded for price um experience of the staff, past performance, their project approach
and financial capability. So they had letters from banks and all their proposals and based on the scoring criteria all 12 were very wellqualified. It came down to the price issue. And with with federally declared
disasters, FEMA will typically pick up 75% of that expense with the remaining 25% split um 12 1/2 and 12 1/2 between the state and the local. Okay. So, how much was the uh difference in the
price? Just wondering, you know, we got good service out of them for over 20 years. It must have been a pretty substantial difference in the price. You will just give me one moment. I will pull that up. Okay. Was Hurricane Opel the last time they
did anything for the city of Dustin? No, I don't think so. I think we'll have to ask them, but we've had a couple of near misses since then. Yeah, I think it's 0506 or something. soon as this Excel spreadsheet
opens. Okay. So, for this year, for this proposal that we sent out, we we provided quantities as a typical storm. So, we had cubic yards and various other measurements that they would provide unit prices for to kind of put everyone on a, you
know, level playing field. Oh, come on. Okay, here we go. So comparing SDR or southern disaster, their total response to the
kind of proposed event was 79,300,000. Um, Crowder golfs was 83,340,000 4 million or so five. Yep. Well, I guess we will move forward,
but sometimes you get what you pay for, and I know that company had been with us a long time. Okay. All right. With that, I have a motion and a second. Any further discussions? Seeing none, Ray, if you can call the All right. Eyes have it. 6. So
moved. All right. Larry, the hot topic item 4B, bonfires on beach discussion. So, at a previous meeting, uh, council asked staff to do a little research on what our neighboring county does as far as bonfires on the beach and to provide
you with some linear footage of available beaches or public beaches in Destin. And uh, that's provided for you in a table in your package. So, um, Walton County does allow bonfire
does allow bonfires on the beach, both public and private beaches. They are required to have a permit to be legal. Those permits are issued through the South Walton Fire District. Uh, the cost
of a permit is $100 plus you pay a $5 administrative fee. Um that $100 permit fee is split equally between the county and the fire district and that generates
a substantial amount of money in Walton County where they have a a lot of bonfires on an annual basis probably about 9500. So at $100 each you can see how much money they each share in. Um,
so no way in any thought would those kind of funds be generated in in the city of Dest. We we understand that. Um, we did have a conversation with the Destin Fire Control District to determine if the council had any
appetite to move this forward. Would they be willing to participate? And uh, they certainly uh would entertain that idea to be the permitting arm if we so desired. Um, so we're not making a recommendation. We were just asked to
bring back some information. Um, so you know, the bottom line is next door they do have fires on the public and private beaches. If you were inclined to do something in the city, it would take an amendment to the uh the code of ordinances, which regarding vending on
the beach. We would highly recommend that if you do move forward that you do it with vendors. be very careful about letting individuals uh outside of somebody that would be responsible for an ongoing concern that would be more
apt to uh pay attention to the rules, play by the rules if they thought they might lose their livelihood going forward. Uh so um there for your discussion. All right. And with that, I got Councilwoman Abear up first. Thanks, Mayor. Thanks, Larry, for looking into
that. I know that we were talking about, you know, the opportunity because we had several folks that had asked about doing bonfires with their families and friends, not necessarily that crazy, you know, drinking and college crowd, but is
there certain sections that it would be limited to? Because I know Holiday is a lot of rental, short-term rentals, but it also has a lot of permanent residents there. Was there a specific area on the those parts of the beaches that would
just be what we the city own? Is that correct? Well, you would actually permit them if you were going to allow them on private property. You would permit those as well. So, it would be on public or andor private property. Again, the public
property that the city controls are somewhat limited. Um and and it it might not be advisable to even consider them there because of the you know they're not very wide most instances but you do have the ability to require permit on a
private property currently. There are no bonfires allowed. Um and I think when we think bonfire I think Walton County says it can the flame cannot be over four feet tall. Now, how you control that, I'm not sure, but that's part of their uh policies. And
then the other part of that would be um the fire department. Am I correct in that they would be monitoring during that? If we did this and it was authorized, the fire department then would be an active participant to manage that bonfire um scene or no, that
doesn't happen. I think that would be part of any discussion with the whole process if we use them to permit what would go along with that uh uh opportunity as well. I can tell you in Walton County uh
their code enforcement does will come and check to see if you have the appropriate permit, but they have substantially more code enforcement officers than we even have the opportunity to have here. All right, that's that those are my
questions and answers. Thanks, Larry. Right, up next, Councilman Braden. Thank you, Mayor. Um, yeah, my thoughts on the bonfire. Um, first thing that comes to mind is I know the people come up here and spoke earlier that, you know, was talking
about the smoke and bad for the environment. Um, I don't I don't know if if people realize it or not, but and I don't know if they've people have went to the county and complained, but the fireworks, they they there's so much
ash and stuff on those boats down there at the harbor walk. And I've heard the guys and complain about it for years, but they can't say anything because the guys that did complain got evicted from the property. Um, and that goes on every week,
sometimes twice a week. And then the air show they put on, know they don't call it an air show, but it's an air show. They burn at least 55 gallons, a whole 55gallon drum of oil. They burn that in
those air shows every week. That's 55 gallons of oil they're burning. They're put they're pumping it through the hot exhaust making that smoke. I have flown with them. I asked about the oil. I saw the 55gallon drum. What is that? How how much you go through? So that's three
three months. That's 150 gallons old. They're burning. And I mean is nobody complaining about that? I mean, so I I don't have any problem with little bonfire myself if that's going on. Nobody's complaining about all that and the the fireworks and stuff.
They they cling about it, but nobody does anything about it. Um I've had bonfires in Walton County. I've I've paid guys to pull the permit for me, the beach guys, and they set the chairs up and whatnot. Did that one time. Second time I went to the fire department, got the permit
myself. And um second time when I pulled it myself, the code code officer came by while we had the bonfire going at night, nine o'clock at night or something and wanted to see my permit on my phone. I can't imagine in my wildest dreams our having our code
compliance guys would do something like that. Um so I I don't know. I have mixed emotions about I don't know. I know we could control like the city beaches, you know, the 50oot area. You could only have one down there. You couldn't just, you know, have a bunch of
bonfires. But, um, I don't know. I'm I'm open-minded about it. I like to hear more about it myself. Thank you, Mayor. Council Schmidt. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Larry, for putting this together and staff. Um, just just a few questions so we can
make sure the public that's here to hear about this item. Um, right now you can't have a bonfire on the beach, private property or public property. That's correct. Not a legal one. So if somebody on Norgo want to
have one right there behind their house, legally they can't do that. That's correct. Okay. Um, in Walton County, I think like Mr. um Mr. Braden, thank you. Said, I've
participated in a few as well myself, and it's a very thorough process um pre and during and after. They they came before we even started the bonfire to make sure you're properly there correctly and they come afterwards as
well. They hold you accountable and everything else. So, like could we because we're just discussing tonight, we're not making any decisions of actually having bonfires tomorrow. So, if we ever wanted to do this, we could say things like we're only going to give
one permit a night for one bonfire a night. Like, we could say that, right? I would think so. Yes. Like, we can limit locations of what part of the town we might want to do them in. We can limit the amount that will be
given in a period of time. Yes, sir. Okay. Um, do you know when Walton County has the majority of theirs? Did you get any of that? I did not. Okay. It's all right. I I mean, like turtle nesting
season is May 1st through October approximately. I'm not sure if anybody's on the turtle program. Um uh just just a note. I mean like I don't think there's going to be a lot of bonfires in the middle of the summer. Um
but we could also stipulate that no bonfires May, June, July, August something, right? Yes, sir. Okay. Um can somebody go on their beach house and play music and drink alcohol and
non-alcoholic drinks tonight? I would think so. Yes. Okay. as long as they don't break the noise ordinance in the city of Destin. Correct. Okay. I mean, like, we can pick and choose things all day long. I mean, we can worry about what may or may not happen.
Um, I think our staff and the sheriff's department and the fire department are fully capable of trying to do something like this. Um, and one of the biggest ideas that we talked about to bring it, or at least for me, was a revenue generating idea. Um, and if we can
properly do it, enforce it, make sure it's done safely, and we can raise a quarter of a million dollars, do half a million dollars every year, you know, maybe we earmark some of that to go to certain beach reourishments or I don't know, but we talk all the time about we need to
make more money in the city without taxing the citizens and charging them fees. You know, this was just a unique idea. Um, nothing to do with Emerald Grand, you know, for anybody that thinks this has something to do with Emerald Grand. Um, you know, if they're doing bonfires,
if they're doing them illegally, I I think that's wrong. You know, if anybody's doing bonfires illegally, I think it's wrong. Um, so this was just an idea that somebody brought up months ago at a at a city council meeting, and we threw it out recently. Um, so I'll
let Mr. Dustin and Mr. Bagby go, but if I could uh later, I will put a motion out there. All right. with that. Councilman Dustin, thank you, mayor. And I was just part of my question has been answered already, whether they were prohibited on public
and private. Um, and do we have an definition? Does Walton County have a definition of beach? Because of course, as long as we're not under a fire moratorum, many of us can have a fire on our property, I believe. So, a warming station. How do how do we define beach?
We do have a definition of beach in our code and it is want me to read you the definition if you give me a minute I will pull it up. Okay. Well, I'll I'll bother I'll I'll I'll go on with the discussion then. Um you know bonfires when I grew up in
Dest. I lost count of how many bonfires we had over on Holiday Alis. Of course Mr. Cadillac and all the people that live over there weren't there so they weren't in danger. Um, and I fully understand their uh belief that it may not be such a good thing and intend to
listen to them, but uh, as a property rights advocate, saying somebody on their own private property can't have a bonfire kind of strikes me as something I don't like. So, you know, I'm willing to to listen to both sides of the argument. Can we do it in a safe manner?
Perhaps Walton County seems to have done it in a p in a safe manner. I don't know if we've had any deaths associated with Walton County. Surely we would have with bonfires in Walton County. Sure, we would have heard of that. But uh you know, if the folks living out there don't want it, the vast majority
of them, then it's then it's a mute question as far as I'm concerned. But we'll listen to what people have to say. Council Bagley. All right. Unless you want the definition. Yes. Oh, I was just going to read it to you. Yep. So it's in the LDC in article 3 and it's the zone of unconsolidated material that extends
landward from the mean low water line to the place where there is marketked change in material or physioraphic form or to the line of permanent vegetation usually the effective limit of storm waves. And then it says beach as used in the coastal management element requirements is limited to the gulf and
estuarine shorelines. So if I get above that now I can have a bonfire. Yep. Yeah. We've talked about modifying it for the locations of the bonfires, too, but that's the current definition and a number of other issues if I recall while we were grasping mightily to try to
figure out where the beach was. Thanks. All right, Councilman Bagby. Thank you, mayor. Uh, probably not a strong supporter of bonfires. Uh based on my experience in Walton County as the tourism director and managing a couple
of the communities there. Uh, the revenue does generate some money. I've reached out to Sammy Sanchez and Carol Martin, the CFO for the fire district, because I think there that number I'm not saying y'all weren't given that number, but if they had
9,500 bonfires last year, that means they had one over one per mile every single day of the year. And I know that's not uh that didn't happen. the I might be persuaded to support a
very small beta test in one area to see uh because the problem that Walton County has with it is the enforcement. Uh they have beach vendors. The beach vendors do a great job and but they will uh Walton County
limits the number of bonfires that can be held on each of the public beach accesses depending on the width of the public beach access. So at one segroveve they allowed three per night but there would be some nights you would have five. So two of the vendors were
not authorized to have a bonfire but somebody called them and said hey can you do a fire down here? So there they go. You also have these fly by night vendors who uh don't use a burn barrel, don't keep it off the sand, and they basically do the bonfire on the beach,
and then they try to bury it in the beach there. And of course, we know what that ash does, particularly during turtle season. I'm not would not be an advocate for them uh because no offense but people that go to bonfires I've been to bonfires on the
beach uh don't understand the turtles and you know how you need to stay away from them and what distracts the turtles but you know let let's we can have a discussion. I just would not be in favor of an unlimited ban. Uh I want I want it
controlled. I want and and the fire department's not going to enforce it. Okay. So, I mean, we can we can have that pipe dream. It's going to be our code folks that are going to have to go down there and force it. Look at the permit, not look at the permit. You're not authorized. You're not 4 in above
the sand. You know, shut it down. And of course, nobody wants to shut down the bridal party or the reception uh the night before the wedding or whatever and, you know, see the bride in tears when you start pouring water on
her bonfire. So, you know, there's not a whole lot of upside. I hopefully we'll have once I get the numbers tomorrow or the next day, u I will send those to the city manager to disperse with you. But I I am I would bet my house that's not
9,500 uh bonfires in in a year. You're you're just going off of the price price delineated out. Is there different isn't I thought there was tiers perhaps? I don't know. Yeah. Anyways, well what's presented to us that it's Yeah, this is
what's going to generate just from those permits for the bonfire. Mhm. Council mem. Sure. And just to make sure we're clear for anybody here, if something is motion is made and passes, what would have to happen is an amendment to an ordinance would have to come.
First reading and a second reading. Um, probably you'd have two here and probably one at LPA, assuming we put it in the So, plenty of time for possible more discussion. But I will make a motion to have uh city attorney manager bring back an amended ordinance uh for
beach bonfires. Um and I'll throw out a few uh items for that uh specifically to limit the time period between months such as October through March. Um, and also
to have a vendor requirement and have one vendor be the approved vendor to do that. Just some ideas. All right. I have a motion. Do I hear a second? I'll second it. All right. I have a
motion and second. Uh, Councilwoman Traml, you want to discuss? I know you saw your name up there. Well, it was before he made his motion, so do the motion and Okay. All right. Uh, Councilman Braden, if we're doing the vendors, what do we
do on city property? They would still get a permit. The vendor would Maybe I don't understand your question. We don't have I'm just saying we don't have vendors on on county beaches. I mean, on city beaches, public access only vendors I know. People could
hire a vendor. Well, were you going to say? Yeah. We would just amend the code to allow people to hire a vendor for the purpose of fires. It wouldn't open up. We wouldn't be opening up to any vending, but we're just talking about fires. So then we would be allowing a beach
vendor from a private entity, condo, whatever to go set up and make money on city property. Yeah, that's what the count that's part of what you all are deciding. It does not have to be that way, but
That is true under the current motion. Yeah. I mean, we could take off no public I mean, no uh city public because we don't have much. It could only be on private property. I mean, that's that's fine if you want to start the discussion there. Our our public beaches right now are very small. Obviously, Crystal Beach
and Tarpon's coming, but I'm not suggesting just putting it in Crystal Beach. So, please don't take that, Mr. Beagby. But I'm fine with changing something to if you want. Okay. That's all I have, man. Okay. All right. Councilman Dest. Thank you, Mayor.
Um, I'm not sure I'm prepared to go forward with an ordinance process without hearing more from the public. Tonight, we've had three people show up that were opposed, none who said they wanted that to happen. Um, rather than just vote against this, I'm going to make a substitute motion
that we set it for public hearing at the first meeting in July. Second. What do you mean set it for public hearing? What do you mean by that? Just put it. We put it on the agenda as a public hearing and invite the public to come
tell us whether they want us to do this or whether they don't. All right. And then I had a second from Councilman Braden. Is that correct? You second. Did you second that? Okay. Yes, sir. All right. So, I have a substitute motion and a second. Any uh discussion
on the substitute motion? I just if they want to give clarification or Kim a public hearing on on a on an item is that what we do or we can we can do it that way or or we can do a first reading of an ordinance with the public hearing
but it's up to council. I think that your motion council member Destin is to do a public hearing without an ordinance. Exactly. Could we get some of these additional like data points and clarifications brought at that public hearing? Is that is that okay? Sure. I don't mind discussing it, but it's a
little premature to go into an ordinance first. Yeah, that's fine. I was just trying to get it brought to us. So, thank you for suggesting that option instead. Well, we could put together like a staff report that has some information button. I thought it was on. Sorry. We could we will put together a staff report that has information so
that when you guys can limit the side chatter out there, please. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Yep. All right. With that, I have my motion in second. I will call the vote on the sub. All right, eyes have it unanimously
moved. 6. All right, moving along. Mr. Larry Jones. Uh, so the next item 4481B Luke Avenue is a proposed agreement that arose because of some confusion that occurred between staff
and this property owner um with regard to what they were permitted to do on their property. they expended some money after getting certain direction from staff and then they received different information after the money had been spent. So to resolve it um we are suggesting a temporary agreement that
allows them to use their property in a certain way only during the time that they reside on the property and once they sell the property the agreement would be null and void. So, this is in the Crystal Beach neighborhood zoning district where short-term rentals are allowed and the resident would be under
this agreement would be permitted to use their attached unit um as a short-term rental with with themselves living in the primary home as a resident. All right, with that, Councilman Braden first. Thank you, Mayor. Um I had discussed
with the staff on my agenda briefing about this one. Um, you know, I've personally went to the city and I know a lot of contractors, we've been bitching about it for years, several builders in town. Um, you call the city, ask the city, you
know, hey, can I can I do such and such? Uh, yeah, that's good. Sure. Well, you do it and then you get your inspection and they fail it because of what you just asked and what you did what the city said and they say then they pull the code up and it says well or the ordinance or whatever
and it says you can't do it. Well, then I I get this from the staff. Well, it's your responsibility as a builder, homeowner, whoever to read the ordinance or to whatever it is, setbacks, whatever it is. it's your responsibility or your
builder or hire an engineer or something. It's not the city staff just cuz they say, "Yeah, you can do it." They're not going to back you up on it when it comes down to inspection. So, do we all get our money back from the money that we have spent doing
things and have to redo it? Um because it was our responsibility and I don't know how this came down. If this the city said, "Yeah, you can build it." You know, I know when I fill out a permit, it's you know, it's what it's for. What are you building? What what is
it for? What are you going to do with it? yada yada yada. So, was that not on the application? It's going to be a short-term rental structure or what? So, um with that being said, they I mean, I can't support it. It's myself. It's we've been arguing about it for years
and you know and it's just because the city and I don't I don't even know if the city even said anything about it to be honest with you, but it's it's I've been told for years it's my responsibility to know what I'm doing. You know, know what I'm building whether
it's right or wrong. So, I can't support. Thank you. Thank you for that. Councilwoman Abear. Thanks, Mayor. Um, I'm kind of on the same line as with Rodney when we have these people that tell us, you know, well, I I called and talked to someone on city staff and they
said, "Yeah, you can do that." I I want to know that we have something in place that our staff never gives a verbal and says, "Send that to us in email." Then we can verify it in the code so that you have it something in writing. Oh, just
to let you know it there was some stuff in writing on email and I neglected to say at the beginning and I don't mean to interrupt you, but the property owners requesting this are here and can probably fill you in on what happened and they're kind of motioning to me that they want to speak. So maybe we could
hear from them and then y'all can make your decision if that's if that's acceptable. All right. All right. If you guys want to come up, keep your All right, just push that button, that gray button in the middle. Here we go. All right, thank you for having me
come back and thank you everyone who has been putting some time into this um this topic. We've been working on this for about a year now. Um trying to get some resolution. as you all know um the facts are I I do appreciate what you're saying sir about you know is it our
responsibility to at the final note to be looking these you know these items over ourselves and trying to see if what the city is doing and guiding us in the right direction and ultimately for us to read um ourselves all the laws pertaining our
situations here's the situation I do believe that there should be some accountability from the city to be able to give something to the homeowner. We don't pull the permit. In fact, I could not get u my own contractors in. I had to hire a GC who's taken over a project.
But why is the homeowner not getting any written notices as to what everything is along with our permits? I don't mean that would have been part of it right there if I were able to do some homework myself. But I
had received nothing from the city um going along with this. And then when I did, a lot of the work was done. I kept getting yeses. We're fine. We're fine. You put the door here. Everything was a yes. They knew darn well it was a short-term rental. But at the end of the
day, I'm falling flat on my face here. I mean, this is this is ridiculous. I mean, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it was ridiculous, except for after a year, I'm exhausted. Um, I I feel like we should be able to go forward and take some full responsibility as the
homeowner, making sure that this is a safe residence, making sure that we're in a safe area, and we are going to be there 24/7 to be able to look this property over. Like, we have the best interests of the community as well. Um, in fact, because we are year round in
that very condensed short-term rental area, we have um the opportunity to help all of our homeowners around us because we are there as the watchdogs. And I understand you are short staffed on trying to get that whole area covered. Um, and we're there to make sure that
there's not 20,000 cars or cars parked in the sidewalks and and as such. But again, we're there. We did everything we were supposed to. I know there's some question about the parking and the bedrooms. We did everything we're supposed to as far as getting the engineer report CODE for the park
parking spot. We have everything all in line for a short-term rental. Everything soup to nuts. And now we would just like to be able to perform there. You know, we we believe we have an agreement that is a fair resolution to this. Um and I
would really like to move forward on that and I would really appreciate your vote in this. Um, and if we were to move or pass on to our children, they wouldn't have the same right. We're talking about while we're there and that could happen tomorrow and it could happen 10 years perhaps from now, but we
would take full responsibility and it would be null and void after we leave the premises. Mayor, can I ask you a question, please? Yep. Do you have anything from the city saying that it you can build what you was building for short-term rental or the property addition you were building
is short-term rental? You have anything like that from the city? The city was We do have We do have an email where there was the discussion to confirm that and then it was pulled back. My apologies, we were inaccurate. And that kind of
speaks loudly for the whole city coun the whole city uh process here that we were led down the path that this is not a problem. Even when we had the person come for the CEO for the property, I mean, he knew we were going to do a short-term rental. like everyone knew. I
mean, how did this fall apart? I know. I mean, I I I believe I'm not mistaken, the parking and all that is is the requirement is going to be the same for short-term rentals or for aggressive regular home because where you live is in a short-term resident or short-term
residential area. Um, I just like to see something from the city that said, you know, they where they knew that this was a short-term rental and you were going to be living there and they allowed allowed you to build it. How's that?
Well, in the in the whole situation towards the build building part of it and trying to get our permits, we understood that it was a short-term rental. They understood clearly and even to the point of oh wait now we can't we
just found something when I came down after I got my CO and I came down to do the um uh change of use so I could have a rental in my home. Um I was willing to forego the homestead and making sure
that I was doing everything right. So, I came down and we spoke again. And then that's when I received an email stating, I know that we told you this, but now, oh, I'm sorry, that's not the case because with this code, if you read it, this is really what it means. So, I I
don't feel like even the city was maybe clear on it themselves to be honest. But I understand what you're saying. Perhaps I'm wrong. I understand what you're saying as far as um you know everybody knew or you you know assumed everybody knew what was going on. on the city knew
it was short-term rental because we just passed changed an ordinance and passed had a first reading second reading changed an ordinance to allow Amvets to have buy a facility and
in industrial park and we did a whole process took months and once that was done then they come to get it and the staff's like well no you can't do that cuz it's an industrial park we didn't know exactly the location of it until we got the actual address and I was the one that made
those motions and spearheaded that and got that done. Like what do you what do you mean you didn't have the address? We're changing this whole ordinance to allow this organization to go in industrial parks where it wasn't allowed or next to a church.
So to say that the city knew all along what was going on and was on board with it. I mean this was just a month ago. And and and sir, in in all in all respect, I understand what you're saying, but perhaps the whole city um
planning did not know. Perhaps some did and some didn't. It turns out the ones that I was working with did know we were going to go for a short-term rental. And this is the problem I'm having is at the at the end of the day now I'm the one
that's being told, "Oh, I'm sorry. I that's not what we meant. We can't do this." I agree. I just And I have that in that whole process and it was aggravating. I have that in an email. I just love to be able to see something that you got from the city saying, you know, it being a
short-term rental that, yeah, you could build it or it's fine or whatever until it got down to the actual bottom, you know, end of the line and then they denied you. Yeah. All right. And we got plenty more to go, so I appreciate the points. No, you're
good. Councilman Dest I did I would stay there for a second. Thank you, mayor. It appears that the fact that she has an email from the city saying uh we made a mistake, you can't do this off after all means that she was
told you could do this. Uh I think this agreement is a fair compromise. It goes away the moment that they leave the house. Um, and the fact that they are going to be at the house addresses all the the legislative intent behind our
attempts to try to regulate short-term rentals, such as the parking and and the garbage and all that. If they're there, then they can control that. I wish every short-term rental had the landlord living with them. Then we would have a whole lot more a whole lot less problems. So, uh, you know, to my mind,
this is a fix that will go away the moment they leave and is a fair way to treat them in a compromise and hopefully we won't make a mistake like that again. So, I'll make a motion that we approve the uh the
agreement. Right. I have a motion. Do I hear a second? I'll second it. All right. And then I have further discussions. Are you done? Councilman Dustin, I got a few more. Councilman Schmidt. Yeah. Just clarification on this email. You're saying that our staff told
you you could do something and then months later after it was done, they said they made a mistake. Is that what I heard? I don't know when and how it happened, but yes, in the last Well, was it the next day that this happened or was it months later? Was it a year later? Is
there a staff member that can answer that question? Did she build something and then then we went back or was it like the day after they went to Home Depot and bought the supplies we told her? So, um the first thing is the permits explain that there it can't be
rented in in the but she never saw the permits. Her agent her her contractor did not let her know that. Sure. The city was very clear all the way through the permits. Okay. And then when it's it was close to I think being completed.
Okay. First of all, she wanted an ADU and the density wouldn't allow it. So then they the city said you can have an addition. In fact, if you look in there, it talks about the building has to communicate so that it's an addition and not a separate dwelling unit. She they got all that worked out. They're working
that out with the contractor. And so anyway, so they're almost done. They're going through with the final inspections and I think that's when you contacted it was in October uh and um incorrectly staff said you could have a single
occupancy rent rental. Uh and then I think about a week or two later I think this happened in October of last year and then about a week or two later they corrected. Okay. Um so it wasn't the very beginning stages permanent stages y'all said she could do it. Correct. It
wasn't near. It was at the end you accidentally said she and if her if her contractor had been communicating with her, he would have told her that the what the permit allowed and what it didn't allow. Okay. Right. Part of it was a lack of communication from the contractor in the beginning, but this property owner came to the council
previously and you all told us to try to work it out with her and that's why we are here. So the discrepancies at the end happened and the failure of the contractor to communicate in the beginning happened. And it's been a while, so forgive me if you answer this, but what what's the
deal with your contractor now? Where is he or she? Our contractor is not anywhere where we were in communication at all. Like, did they finish the job? You paid them and it's all done. I actually had 98% of it done. Yeah. Yeah.
And then we had somebody else finish it off for the cos. Okay. So, somebody else finished it because of this all stuff that transpired. Right. Okay. Just to your point about No, this he he was out of the picture before anything because
he he was not willing to do some things to finish it before this for the CEO. He wanted more money. So, we had somebody else finish it. Just to your point about you as the owner not being notified. I mean, I hear what you're saying, but you
know, if I go hire an attorney to go do something for me, you know, they're going to be dealing with whatever I asked them to deal with. You know, I I I don't think every single property owner should be CC during a permit process if a general contractor is pulling permits,
you know. So, um, if you want to be CCed, I imagine they would definitely include you, but, uh, I think the staff just deals with the professional contractor or whoever wants to pull permits, I would assume,
just like if I hire somebody to do something. But, um, I hate it. You know, it's tough situation. Um, I don't And I wish that contractor was Is he local contractor? Yes, he is. And I understand that there's several other people having problems with him. So I would like and
the city is well aware of him and the city is well aware. I'm wondering what's what's what's being done there too. Where where where does that go? That's another totally great conversation for sure. Thank you very much. Councilman Begley. Thanks. So I'll pick up there. Do you
have a lawsuit pending against this contractor? No, I do not. Okay. Uh when when was the first permit pulled? Yeah, the application was 7:25 2023. 72523. So July to October, 15
months, we told the contractor who failed to tell the owners that this could not be used for a short-term rental. And we were consistent for that entire 15 months. Yes. And then for a two-eek
period, we said yes. Right. And then we said no. I'm just trying to get all the facts and evidence here. So, I'm trying to figure this out. Yes. So, correct. And then at
um I think the staff was trying to find a way for so the um applicant I mean the the homeowner to find a way to they she was under she thought she was going to be able to do u rent out the room as a
short-term rental. Right. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. And I think staff was looking at this and and trying and mistakenly said you can uh live in the home and rent it out as a a single occupy short-term rental and then realized they had made a mistake and
corrected it within a week or two weeks. I can't remember exact time frame. All right. And so uh did we because you can build an ADU. When did when did the you can't build a
separate structure, you have to build an addition come into play? When was the change there? Sure. So the original permit came in as as a unit that was attached to the primary structure but did not
communicate meaning you could not access it from inside the house. You had to go externally. Right. Okay. um that attachment is considered an accessory dwelling unit. And during the review process, staff recognized that and said, "Hey, um you can't have an ADU on here
because um it exceeds density uh limitations. So, in order for you to do this, that was that was August 8th. In order for you to do this, you got to be able to make the unit, you got to make this area
communicate with the with the primary structure um internally. Okay. And and there was a condition or yeah, the condition didn't come in until once we approved it, but um yeah,
essentially it was um two weeks. So they applied in July 25th. on August 8th, two weeks later, we said, "No, you can't do an ADU. You have to do an addition." And so the plans
and the addition and and the addition was approved on the 18th of August, 2023. So 10 days later, we approved once they brought us back the change plans that had the two structures communicating.
Correct. With a condition stating that this cannot be rented as an STR. Okay. So, that was in there in the approved plants, correct? Okay. I mean, and also the permit was identified as owner occupied, not as an STR,
but staff recognizes these permits on the application on the plans. Correct. Okay. And were they signed just by the general contractor? Um, as as the applicant, probably. I'll I can confirm that. Give me one moment.
[Music] I mean, I I'm want to support Mr. Destin's motion, but I am just I I get Mr. Braden's point. Is this while we're waiting on that? So, I
are Are are you Barry? That's Barry. Okay. I didn't know cuz it was an IE and I was like it's an IE at the end. Yeah. Should be a Y. So, are you in good health? I am. Okay, good. Because if something happens to you, you
know, this deal would go completely away, right? Right. But anything can happen tomorrow and I know it's going to go away. My kids know it is going to go away. It's nothing being promised to them whatsoever. Okay. Is this this is just for us to be able to afford the affordability what we thought we put into. I got a lot of neighbors in your
okay same position that we changed our covenants so that they could rent in our neighborhood which was non- rental when we bought because they would have all lost their h not all of them but a bunch of them would have lost their houses. Is the property homesteaded right now? It
is. Okay. So that that's an issue for me. All right. Because she I'm No, I'm changing it. She's changing I didn't change it because I want to make sure this happens. Right. Okay. This would be this would be a I would lose my my homestead privileges. Yes. And I just
want to make sure that we don't sign this or agree to it until the homestead status has changed. So now you guys have had plenty of time to look up and see who signed that application. See, I bought you a little time. Yeah. Yeah. Just the contractor signed the application.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. Councilwoman Abear. Thank you. and I was still talking to you whenever they went off course here and everyone else was asking you questions. So, some of my questions got answered, but the takeaway is this was
something that got all muddied because the communication wasn't there. And this contractor that has basically not been very good at taking care of you or others in the area, our city knows who that is so that we can make sure this contractor doesn't get jobs in Destin so
that he doesn't mislead people. I mean, I don't know if that could be said or not. I'll fill in for Councilman Guile. Hi, Councilman Guile. Uh, as your roof for Councilman Guile, may I suggest that you go to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations, also known as DBPR, and file your
illegal or fraudulent contractor complaint. So, moving on, can you do that? Yes, that would help everyone else. Okay. And then, of course, that you will reig on your homestead as soon as you get this through. So, I will back you. All right. Thank you, Councilman
Braden. Final words. Yep. Last ones. Um, seems like this is I still have the same opinion you did last time. This between the homeowner and the builder. Doesn't sound like the city, it's not between the homeowner and the city staff. I mean, sound like the city staff may have muddied it up for a week or two, but was
going on for a couple years. So, um, and how are we going to know when this property sells? As honest as I am right now where I didn't try to do this behind the city's back and try to do anything illegal, I
am I'm a there's an annual registration. There's got to be a way to do this. There's an annual registration that she would have to do as a short-term rental owner and it it it tells the city who owns the property, but also the agreement provides not only if she le if
she doesn't reside there anymore and not only if she sells the property, but if she fails to register as a short-term rental, that unit for a year, she loses it then also. So, we'll know. It's just a matter of our files have to be properly. We have no way of knowing
whether she sold that house or not. If she sells it two weeks from now or two 10 years from now, we have we'll have no idea. No, we wouldn't we would when when the short-term rental application we can't keep up with parking spaces in the city of Dustin there. We're renting parking places to the same parking place
to 18 different vendors down there. Okay, point taken. Point taken. All right, Councilman Bagby, final final shot. Yeah, I just going to ask the motion maker in the second if they would uh amend their motion to include that it's not finally approved until the
uh exemption is withdrawn and confirm. Yeah, the homestead exemption. I'm sorry. Yes, no problem. I'll apply tomorrow. I have no problem. All right, with that I got my motion second. The board is clear for discussion. Ray, if you can call the vote for me.
Thank you for being here. All right. Four yeses, two nos. Eyes have it. So moved. All right. So the next item is um an engagement letter with the Warner Law Firm for the requested city litigation for the beach vending. This is coming
from the last meeting where you all directed us to um look at an attorney to file a lawsuit against beach vendors who are violating the code and not complying. So, we recommend the Warner Law Firm. They are handling the
insurance defense on the case where the city is being sued. So, they're very familiar with the issues and they are willing to provide their same rates that they provide to the insurance company. So, it's um very very highly competitive.
All right. With that, do I have a motion for this topic? Uh Councilman Destin, I'll make the recommended motion that we I'll make the recommended motion that we engage one law firm to take this item
and run with it. Um and I will ask the city finance director to bring back to us a recommendation of how we ship the money. I know that uh what was a meeting before last where we had two code enforcement infor uh issues where I
think we would have a total of some 20 or $30,000 that that we would gain through those. I would think that would be an appropriate place. And until such as time as we get those monies, we would just take it out of general revenue.
I'll second. Got a motion. I got a second. Any further discussions? Yep. Oh. Oh, hey go. Okay. Everyone's got an opinion. Councilman Bagby. Uh just so I understand the motion, we're limiting it to $30,000, which is
what the expected uh cost the Warner Law Firm gave us. That is the expected estimate for the first year. I I I want a limit. I I don't want to I I won't vote for something that doesn't have a spending limit on it. I'm not Yeah, this is his
proposal. So, you are welcome to modify. I'm just asking if you know 30 30,000 because I don't want a blank check. We thought you were coming for that. There's no cap. So if you want one, you would put in the motion. We will put in the motion that in order to go past that
number turn your put in the motion that in order to go past that number, it would take council approval like every litigation I think we've ever done. With that, I just want a number. All right. Council. All right. We're good with that. Okay. Uh, I want to engage with the sheriff's
office. I I have my doubts on I mean I I agree we have to do something. I think we all agree we have to do something. But I I want to ask the sheriff uh what they're doing to help us do this and if
there's action you think we need to take in the form of an ordinance that gives you something to go down there and write a ticket or give them bracelets or whatever. No, I'm serious. We This is out of control. So currently what we're
doing right now is when our deputies see a violation, they contact code and let them know that the violation is taking place. Uh they'll keep an eye on the person until code has a chance to get there. Um if code lets us know that they
need help because the violator has either potentially been ugly in the past with them or is, you know, they think they may cause a problem, we'll sit there and do security for them. Uh, in order for us to um take action, it would have to be
moved out of the land development code into the actual code. Um, because we don't do land development code. We uh we only do code uh by the contract. And then also um we would have to, you know,
we would have to figure out exactly what it is that the city wants us to do. The sheriff's office has gotten no taste for regulating business. I have been in contact or I've talked to to Steve and I've also talked to Mr. Larry uh about
it. I don't consider someone operating down there without a permit to be us regulating business. When I say that we're not going to regulate business, I'm talking about if we have someone down there who has been permitted to to do a business, but the
city's just not happy with the way that that business is being conducted. We've got no flavor for that. But we are willing to sit down and discuss with the city the possibility of us looking at it for from the standpoint of they're not actually a, you know, operating a
business there in violation. Uh and all those discussions have been based around the city providing us with an additional beach unit. Okay. So when we get dispensed with this business, I I will revisit some
direction to the city manager to to sit down with you. But the reason I don't think uh I'm skeptical. I'll just put it like this. because if they were afraid of our code or they were afraid of what we could do to them through our code, uh
they would have already stopped. And I just think that they will just keep pushing uh until somebody is perp walked off that beach and their little thing is floating away in the Gulf as the the surf comes in. They're not going to be
any more They're not going to be any more concerned about the sheriff's office enforcing your code than they are about your code enforcement officers enforcing your code. Well, Captain, could we make it a misdemeanor in our code of ordinances where it's punishable by 60 days in jail? You could make it a misdemeanor when it's publish
punishable by arrest and and 500 or up to that's where I want to go. $500 and 60 days in prison. Yeah. $500 and up to 60 days. Yeah, you can make that. I will revisit that once we get this all. I'm not going to make a substitute motion cuz I I think let's pursue I I want to
pursue on multiple avenues. I'll just I want to go Facebook live when this happens. My god. Councilman Braden, thank you. Um this may be a question for Steve. Um I it was said tonight by a public member that I believe during the Memorial weekend that there was only maybe a
couple warnings written, but it was my understanding there was five $500 citations written. Yeah. Since the previous council meeting, there actually been 11 $500 citations issued and three verbal or and or written warnings
issued. Uh, six of those $500 have been issued to repeat offenders. Another another four issued to another repeat offender and then one $500 was issued to a vendor that had not operated for quite some time, but I think was just trying
to take advantage of the Memorial Day weekend. Thank you, Councilman Schmidt. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I can't support this uh engagement letter. Um, one, I can't support a a blank check engagement
letter um process. I can't support using the citizens of Destin's money to go hire a a law firm out out of really nowhere rather than using the process that we have in the city of Dest. Um, somebody said we haven't done
anything. We've done a lot the past few months. I feel like we have the damn SWAT team out there tracking down ice cream people um constantly, but we have people complaining in the city multiple
times throughout our streets about trash in people's yards, about RVs and driveways, about all sorts of things that they get to shaft for years. for years, things don't happen. People blocking sidewalks, people
parking illegally. Um, from my understanding, I I have yet to hear anything about this beach problem except for one particular citizen and business owner. Miss Harbaugh, I believe, is is her
name. Harder. Harbarer. And And I support her and her small business. So, not against her. Um, I don't know what's the problem down there. And maybe I'm just missing out. And if I am, I I'd love to be educated.
That's fine. I think it's I think we're just We haven't even taken like the magistrate process. I don't think with these people, have we? Yeah, they're scheduled. They haven't Have they been to the magistrate? They're scheduled in two weeks, right? But we're already
going to go write a blank check to go hire a law firm to bring an injunction to take them to court or what that what does that do? Yeah, that's what that is. Why don't we Why don't we let them come to the magistrate and see what happens? You know, I just I just don't I'm
confused really why we're wanting to spend citizens money on something like this that I've yet to hear other issues with this involved. So, I can't support it. not about any of that other personal stuff. I just doesn't make
sense to me. Kim, on that the special magistrate versus the injunction, can you kind of give us a little Yeah, there there's actually a lot going on that we haven't talked about in meetings because there's pending litigation. We do have an executive session um in two weeks
though, but I'll say that there are there were citations that are going to judges. There is a special magistrate case that's going on um later this month. There's multiple enforcement mechanisms. The difference is that it that if we go through this um process of
hiring an outside attorney, that would be bringing our own lawsuit to a third party tribunal, which is the circuit court of Okaloosa County instead of our special magistrate. Um the citations actually that were issued haven't been paid. um and so they're being disputed
and so it takes a while to get to the judge but eventually those will get to a judge which is also um outside of our magistrate process. It's just that the city doesn't have control over the speed of that. Then I guess for the special magistrate, my understanding is then it's always goes to a lean of a property
or something tangible inside the city. Is there any teeth for them to be held to if they disappear tomorrow and they just can never show back up in they disappeared tomorrow that would be compliance because they're not supposed
to be there in 3 weeks they the idea of I guess the teeth I'm just I'm curious whenever they disappeared would be the goal because the goal is to stop the vending on the beach but um yeah the special magistrate process if they're found in violation then uh they would
have a time for compliance and whatever the magistrate sets. And then after that, if they are not in compliance by the date that the magistrate sets, then they have to go back for a second hearing where the lean is imposed. That could be um anywhere from $50 to $250 a day the first time. And then if they did
it again, that fine could go up to $500 per day. And it's not just when they're violating at that point. It's every day. Yeah. Until it's in compliance. And then that lean goes on to what? for a business that's anything that they own. Any um they own real or personal
property in the county that it's recorded. That interesting. Okay. If it's not if it's homesteaded though, we can't Yes. All right. Councilman Dustin, I think you just made the pertinent point, Mayor. If if you don't have property in the county to lean
against, then what's what's the alternative? We turn it over to a collection agency. Pass the Do you know if they have property? I'm sorry. Do you know if they have property? No, I do not. I think they do not have property. I don't know. My my understanding is they do not, but I do not know that. Is that from our
staff? The difference is when you go to the court, the court has the ability to if they don't do what's they're told to do to put them in jail. Right. But we're just going off of assumptions though. The assumption of what? That they have that they don't have property.
What I'm pointing out is what the enforcement powers of the special magistrate are. If you have no property, then the special magistrate can only lean has a problem because there's nothing to lean. Right. I don't disagree with you. It's just I'm saying though, yes, they don't
have a a building on the harbor with a big sign on it, but we don't know what they do or don't have until we go through the magistrate process is all I'm trying to get at. And you're exactly right. But we know that that is not a issue with the circuit court. Property
or no property. You do what they say or you go to the jail. All right. Councilman Bagby. Yeah. And that that's why I will support this. My And here's a little bit of why I not a big fan of
this avenue of approach is because when's this next special magistrate hearing? June 17th. June 17th and the magistrate's going to hear and the magistrate has to give them some time to correct their bad behavior 30 to 60
days and that takes you to end of summer either July 17th or August 17th at which point you know who the heck cares. I know my wife is watching so trying to behave here.
Uh, and so I that's why I will make another motion after we vote on this one because the we're we're trying and we're doing something and yes, it's better than just the special magistrate. I I will grant
you that, but we need to do more. All right, with that, Mr. Magd just remember uh remember this conversation in two weeks as well about the magistrate and about the 60 days and dining. Let's just keep it on top of your minds. All just just a memo. I always remember that.
Good. Yeah. I'm never happy with code is the same way. Code has to give you time to correct your behavior and let's vote. All right. With that, Ray, I got the motion in second. If you can cast Yes,
sir. Uh some clarification on the motion. Oh, you haven't been following us? I have. I haven't been following us either. Uh Mr. Destin seems to have added something to the recommended motion. Okay. And I just want to find out if that's part of the motion which is capping the litigation cost of 30K
and to exceed that cost requires council approval. I think you is that part of the motion, right? Yep. And I and Councilwoman Abear the second agreed with it. All right. So with that I Ray if you can open the [Music]
vote. All right. Eyes have it. 51. Jim, you have anything for that? Sorry. Uh, I would like to make a motion to direct the city manager and the city attorney to sit down with the sheriff's office and bring us back a plan to put
this in an enforcable code, not the land development code to uh preclude this action. I'll second. All right. Motion in a second. Any further discussion on the direction? Seeing none. Oh,
Councilman Braden. Is this I'm sorry. Does this um have to have a super majority if it's not on the agenda? I would assume so. Yes. Yeah. With it not being on the agenda. Yeah, it would take a supermajority. Yes, sir. All right. Thanks. Although,
yeah, I would say while it's topical, it's not pertinent. Yep. All right. So, we'll call the vote. That's That's super. Yeah, we need five, six, and still four. Okay. All right. Still passes. There you go. Appreciate
you. All right. Motion passes. Mr. Larry Jones, you're still with us. All of me. The last item on our agenda on uh are the draft minutes for the standing uh committees and boards for
your information. But I do have just a few announcements as we mentioned earlier. Um due to a waterline strike on Holiday is we had a meeting with the Gigap Power folks and we imposed the same $500,000 bond
requirement for them that we did on Live Oak. Uh for all of those we suspended all work on Fridays. Um and they're working from from 7:00 a.m. till 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday is the only permitted time. As we said earlier,
nothing in the Highway 98 right away or south of there except our undergrounding uh ADS contract and those that are working in conjunction with them. Uh we're going to issue one permit at a time in a very limited scope so we can
make sure of where these people are working. Um and we won't issue another permit until they've completed those and have repaired any damage that they may have caused. Uh the only um exception to that will be where they're doing
installs to end users which would may allow them to bore dig on the private property but not in the rightway. Um so that's the um uh undergrounding. Uh we were asked to have a conversation
with D about uh enforcing of bending vending on the beach and their position. They're we're fairly clear that while they may or may not allow vending on the beach, they're not going to take any enforcement action unless someone's
either put a permanent or semi-permanent structure in the beach. However, they said for us to define beach pretty much any way we wanted to. And if we had an ordinance that says no vending on the beach, we could determine what we would consider the
beach at um and they they wouldn't, you know, offer any opinion whether we were right or wrong. Um you each each got an email uh not this past Friday, but a week ago Friday regarding the pause contract and
animal control. Uh, as I said in my email, I was shocked that at four o'clock I got an email that said at five o'clock they were terminating our agreement, which was really bizarre to me. Uh, but that happened. Um, and
fortunately, our good friends in Walton County provided us coverage for uh, Memorial Day weekend, but I don't think they had any calls. Um, since then we have uh began looking at whatever uh options are available and
they're somewhat limited. Uh, but we're looking at there's anyone in town that could provide the um animal control component, not necessarily the housing. Uh, but we're also hopefully we'll have a conversation with Paul later this week to see exactly where things have got
sideways and if there's any potential there to move forward. So, uh, just an update there. Um, we had a couple of calls last week, uh, that, uh, nothing that didn't resolve themselves. So, um, we'll
continue that effort. Um, just to let you know, we held our pre-bid meeting for the Cross Town Connector. There were eight contractors uh, there. So, we're hopefully we'll get some competitive pricing out of that process. And that's my announcements. I believe Dr. Young has some for you. Yes,
thank you. Our library has received a $2,500 general literacy grant. It's a nationwide grant that supports programs in 48 states. Also with the library, the summer reading program is up and running and it will go through August 2nd. The kickoff bash was this past Friday and
over 200 people attended and 14,000 minutes of reading has been logged so far since then. June 9th, we have our workshop to talk about the SRS results for town center and improvements throughout various city spaces. Doors will be open at the annex at 5:00 p.m.
for those wanting to walk around and view the visioning boards and ask questions of our community development staff. Then at 5:30 p.m., we'll kick the meeting off with council. The public is encouraged to come out that night and share their thoughts and feedback for the city's future. Following the SRS
workshop, we'll have our budget workshop. And again, that is June 9th. We've submitted as a city our concerns regarding the state of the navigational aids out at Eastpass. We've received a number of concerns from constituents about that and that is a
project that has been in the restoration project that has been wanted for many years. We're working with Alex Fog and Congressman Patronis' office to encourage the United States Coast Guard to fix this. the USCG with Lieutenant Larry Shod, who is the Marine Safety
Detachment Supervisor, are the overseers responsible for that. We did have a meeting this afternoon, a telephone meeting with Colonel Fountain, who's the congressional liaison for um Congressman Patronis, and he was adamant and wanting you all reassured that they are on top
of it and doing everything they can right now to make sure that gets funded as soon as possible. We reopened the Children's Park at Morgan Sports Center on May 24th with lots of excited families. And the official ribbon cutting of that will be Monday, June 16th at 10:00
a.m. On Friday, June 20th from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., Parks and Wreck is hosting its first Friday night event at Dest Elementary School, and there'll be live music and food trucks and other fun things. We'll of course be putting out all of these uh event information and
details on our official Facebook page as well as on our website. Um lastly, the we were asked to look into doing more utility wraps. We had done um four or five last year. We have narrowed it down to two and they are both on Airport
Road. One's on the corner of Airport and Maine. Um it's the green box, the FPL box that's right next to the white church. And then the other one is Kitty Corner, the gray box, and that's actually um city's responsibility. So, uh the FPL process has changed a little
bit. It's a little more thorough on what they require. So, we have submitted everything along with um preliminary designs for that um for kind of a subtle look because there's a lot of greenery already on that corner. Then the opposite end, we're going to look at something um just a little bit splashier
um with a kind of an American focus. We've got the American Legion right across from it. So um but well on the way to getting those done in 2025. Um I said that was last. Maybe I really should say this. We've gotten um pinged a couple times tonight. There was a 7-year-old boy missing. Um he'd been
out paddle boarding at Blue Water Bay earlier today. There was an aqua alert that went out for him. Happy to say that he has been found safe. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you for that. All right, moving along. Public hearings. Miss Kimberly Cop. This is
ordinance number 202510LC, an ordinance of the city of Dustin, Florida, reducing certain setbacks for town homes within the highdensity residential HDR zoning district, amending table 73, table of dimensional regulations, 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 first reading. And seeing that this is a public hearing at this time, if anyone from the public wishes to speak on this topic, this
would be your one and only time to do so for this reading. Seeing none, we'll close the public comments for the public hearing of 5A and I will entertain a motion. Counc [Laughter]
[Applause] Mayor, I move that city council approve ordinance 25-10-LC. All right, I have a motion. Do I hear a second? Second by Councilwoman Traml. Any further discussions? Councilman Dustin. Yep. Okay, jump on in. Okay,
since we're on first reading on this, I can only take it for granted that this is clearly a legislative act. City attorney. Yes. Okay. And I was looking for where the legislative sponsor was. Did I miss
it? Not on there. Is there was there a legislative sponsor? Teresa. Teresa, are you the sponsor? Yeah. I stand corrected. Okay. Now, we'll go put it on there, but I know there was one. We'll go to the merits of the issue. All right. Hold up. Ray. Ray. Go ahead. I
have Council Member Abear on Lisa. All right. There you go. I guess I read through that too quickly, huh? Crossing them tees. Okay. Um, let's see. On the issue itself, it if we're going to reduce the setbacks, that increases the footprint
that townhouse projects can have. Yeah. The issue has been that backyard decks have been I understand the issue is so yes, that people are not following the code. So therefore, we need to change the code. So when they don't follow the code, they're not in violation. Is that the question was for staff, was there a
reason to require the 10 as opposed to five? Is there an issue that that 10 ft would resolve and not five? And the answer that we got was no. And there has been inconsistency in permitting over the past 15 years there. So yeah, that was the reason for the ordinance, but
council can deny it if you don't. I couldn't I couldn't support that. We're going to change the ordinance because nobody's complying. So, we'll just change the ordinance in addition to the fact that we're expanding the footprint for townhouse projects. Both of those would not gain support from me. So, I
would say that we do not need to do this. All right. Anyone else? Let me ask. Yep. Go on. So would you grandfather in the eight or how many ever we
have now? So I see. Go ahead. That was either one of you can answer. I'm I suppose that would be consistent with the position I've taken on a couple of other issues. Okay. And if that's the fallback position, then I would support that. But
we need to enforce the setback and not change it to half of what it was in going forward. There are individuals in the area that received permits from the city that for decks that encroach into the setback. There
are now other neighbors that want the same permit and now the city saying no, but the city said yes previously to others doing the same thing. This is many years ago. That staff is no longer even with the city. So, it's not current staff, but this occurred. So, that's why
the question to staff was, do we need a 10-ft setback? Because if we do, we won't proceed with taking this to council. But the answer was 5T is just as good in the area. So, that's why we're proposing it. But I don't know if staff wants to address 10 versus 5T.
This kind of goes back to a a question that we brought to council and LPA during the LDC draft rewrite about the separation of primary structures um and having fire code um the the 10-ft separation of buildings with the fire
code and everything. So um if we go to 5t on setbacks on one side and 5t on the other, we still achieve the same 10-ft setback per fire code. Um so that that was the essentially the um the reasoning
behind not having an issue with the the setback at five feet and and my experience is that as you I guess the setback is not going to apply to decks accessories what is it it does it does apply or doesn't apply to the building
itself. It it would apply to anything that is a structure and a a deck would be a structure. Okay. So, we've reduced the set back from 20 feet between two on different properties to 10 feet. No, in
the in the HDR district, the the rear setback is is 10 ft currently. Okay. So, is it going to be five feet? The the ordinance would be five feet. Yes. Okay. So, that's half a 10, right? Correct. All right. You guys are confusing me. So, what we're doing is
we're going to reduce the setback by half. Correct. Yes. Bad move in my opinion, but council can vote the way they want. Right. C. Um if if the alternative is as Mr. Bagby said to try
to grandfather the Yate or whatever it is that are there now and then stick with the one we have and try to enforce it correctly and not give permits, then that's a reasonable alternative. But just to reduce the uh the setback to half of what it is now, not a good idea.
All right. All right, Councilman Bagby, do we have I in that area, do we have an impervious requirement or a pvious requirement? Yes, there is an open space requirement in HDR. It's 25%.
Okay. So, because my my concern that I didn't think about, so I apologize, Mr. Richard the this afternoon was, you know, now you got these bigger everything seems to get bigger and bigger and then it becomes impervious, but we're not
recommending any change to that open space requirement. Okay, that's correct. Okay. Uh, Councilman Braden, thank you. Did all these properties have a permit?
was open, satisfied, all that. I'll let staff respond to that. I don't think so. I to staff's knowledge, some of them have been permitted and some of them have not. Yeah. So, we're just going to grandfather somebody in it that just did something illegal. No, this ordinance doesn't grandfather anybody in.
That's what discussion here tonight is is grandfathering these people in. It's broke the law or whatever and just it's changing the law. It doesn't grandfather. It just makes what they did legal now when it was illegal. That's a fine point there.
Okay. Thanks. And it's not for single family homes. It's only for town houses in HDR. So, it's a very limited area and there's not very many that it affects. I don't Do you know how many? To add to that, it's specifically town homes that do not front the Gulf or the bay or the
harbor. I know there's a graphic that shows there's 178 town home units within HDR itself. However, that does not subtract the uh town home units that are fronting that harbor right there, cuz I know there's a few that do. Canal, the canal is a harbor under the definition.
I would say, yeah, currently in our code, um there is no setback for waterfront properties. So, because there's a state or there's there's a Well, it's just in our code there's just there's no setback for waterfront properties and canal properties do fall on that. Yes. Okay.
I'm just looking at the map now. So, to the point of getting a little confused. So, while I would say 90% of them are canal harbor uh backyards, there's just basically two roads that we're talking about then. Okay. I
see. Okay. Very few. Yeah. All right. Seeing no further discussion, we'll call the vote. Oh, do we have a Yeah, we didn't see the motion in a second on the screen. Oh,
you have to vote. This is number 12. Ray, what's the motion? I keep up with the the facts, not the the number. Recommended motion to approve it on first reading. Okay, I'm first reading. Okay. Well, then, you know, let's Yeah, let's just uh you know, let's just kill
it because it's going to come back next time here. Um, do I have any questions? Hold on. All right, Daniel, coming to you. It's really just those two two streets then we're talking about for the setbacks for eight whether they got the
permit or not compliant. That's where they're located. That's the ones that I'm aware of that are located. Yes. Okay. All right. Motion fails. 34. All right, moving along. This is resolution 2514, a resolution of the
city council of the city of Dest, Florida, approving the Harbor Community Redevelopment Area Master Plan and providing for an effective date. I'm reading the title because it's a public hearing even though it's a resolution. And thank you for reminding me. All right. Do I need to read it or
do you read it, please? I just read it. So, you're good to open the public hearing. I thank you. recovering from that vote. All right. If there's anyone from the public wishes to speak on this topic, this is your time to do so. Seeing none, we will close the public comments
for this public hearing and I will entertain a motion for resolution 2514. Mr. Mayor, if I might, please. At the last meeting, you rep prioritize the list of objectives in this plan, and that uh new list is reflected in this
document tonight. All right. With that, do I hear a motion? Listen, I'm not on the CRA board. It's up to you guys. I I'm not even on that board. Make a motion that we approve it. I got to pull it up. You guys are killing me. I'll second that. All right.
As it trying to read it, it's so small. Just answer it. Say it. I move the city council approve resolution 25-14 and the harbor CRA master plan as presented. Thank you. Second motion. Got a second. Seeing no
discussion, we'll call the vote. All right. Everyone wanted to say yes. No one wanted to say the motion. All right, Kim, keep it rolling. Thanks. This is resolution 2513, a resolution of the city council of the city of Dustin, Florida, approving the town center community redevelopment area master plan
and providing for an effective date. Seeing that this is a public hearing, if anyone wishes to speak on resolution 2513, this is your time to do so. Seeing none, I'll close the public comments to this and entertain a motion. Mr. I'll make the motion before a
motion, please. Um, as I mentioned in the last uh item, this U town center CRA master plan also has a list and prioritize objectives uh that the council has not
readressed since this was published initially. If you wish to do that, uh we would entertain that tonight as and uh codify that in in the motion with the re prioritizing of those. I think we can bring those up for you. There are a
couple of things. Uh particularly the cross town connector and the linear trail that are listed there. If if you can get to where you see those uh that you may want to move to the top of the list because those are in progress. Okay.
Um as good as it's going to get. appreciate you. Well, I'll I'll put a draft priority out there and then we can beat it up. Mayor, I I would make the recommended motion with the changes in the project list
uh prioritization. I would move the cross town connector from six to one. I would move I would keep the linear park at two. Both of those projects are ongoing and working. I would move I
would move the number one arts district downtown to three, leave the park system at four, and then move the sidewalk bike lane improvements to five, and
uh the intersection improvements to six and leave the completion of the street network at seven. All right, second. I have a motion and a second. Anyone further discussions? Seeing none. Oh, Councilman
Dustin. I have one issue with making the cross town connector. And as I read it, it is going to be improved street sections of the cross town connector inside Town Center CRA district with all applicable requirements, sidewalks, bike lanes, buffers, landscaping. I guess
that's all of um Airport Road. No, I mean Legion Legion Drive. Okay. Because that's that's the only part of the cross town connector that's and and
do we know what that cost might be? The reason the re the reason I ask is right now we're at 13 million to build basically 800 feet of road because all the rest of it's there already. How much more do we throw at this project to the tune of millions and
millions to put in sidewalks, medians that won't fit on that road anyway to not do anything more than to improve the functionality of the road. So that's that's why I have a problem
with making that a number one priority. Now we're up to spending CRA money more besides the 13 million on a road that already exists except for 800 ft. And it's that's why it's 13 million. And how much more are we going to spend? So the only thing I can think of is um the
central network has already awarded us a small amount uh to get going for the sidewalks at least. I know that's not necessarily the the infrastructure for the medians or whatnot, but at the end of the day, we also worry about speeding and lowering speed signs don't seem to
work. So, I think having some kind of design into the speed itself or things that we can do. I mean, I know I just I just hate to see us race to the bottom of a quality of a project because of inflation and everything and we got to pay for it somehow, but I would just
kind of counter from the standpoint of I would love that place to have a tree canopy, sidewalks that aren't abudding to the road, and something that's more than just a utility for vehicles and something worth going to of some kind,
even if it's a over-the-top neighboring park. And that's a lovely thought. Yeah, you understand. We'll have to expand the rightway there, which we can't do without buying all those houses. And my problem is not to have it on the CRA because it's there. The problem is to
move it to number one. Is this list binding or is this just another list that we eventually change around once there's another council? Well, if that's the case, then we're wasting our time changing it. Well, there's government for you. I'd move it
to number three. That's halfway up the list. Okay. Yeah. Sure. I mean, okay. Yeah. Even then, I don't know how in the world we're going to do it without throwing a not that attitude. Eight or 10 more million. Not bad attitude. Okay. All right. If that's the motion,
then I'll I'll agree to move that to number three and move Linear Park up to number one and the arts district up to number two, I guess. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm going to look at Ray.
You good there? All right, everyone got that? Y best of your knowledge. All right, seeing no further discussions. All right, Ray. Uh oh. Anticipation. Oh, there we go. 6. So moved.
You can bring it up. Oh, yeah. No, we're definit I'm bringing it up, too. All right. Yo, Kim. Okay. This is ordinance 2511ccc, an ordinance of the city of Dustin, Florida, relating to noise regulations, amending chapter 14,
offenses and miscellaneous provisions, article 2, noise of the city code of ordinances. Amending definitions amending provisions relating to measurement of assessment of noise, providing for permissible noise levels, providing for exemptions, providing for findings of fact, providing for severability, and providing for an
effective date. Seeing that this is a public hearing at this time, if anyone wishes to speak on this topic, this is your time to do so for ordinance 2511 CC. Seeing none, we'll close the public comments and I'll entertain a motion for resolution 2513cc.
Got you, mayor. Move the city council to adopt ordinance 251ccc as presented. Got a motion by council member Braden. Do I hear a second? Got a second by councilman Dest. Any further discussions? Seeing none, we call the
vote. All right. Eyes have it unanimously. So moved. All right. That is the last of the public hearings. Looking like it. Councilman Braden. Any comments? Thanks, sir. Um the project going on 98 there by the old Chick-fil-A. It's been going on
for quite a while. I know they had the westbound lane shut down causing havoc with the traffic for several days. Not sure what's going on there, how long it's going to take, but is that not possible to What's that? Is that DW?
That was DW did that because they had to replace a pipe loader. They're still there when they had it. They had it shut down today and they've been working there for weeks or No, it's only been I don't know what. Larry, do you have anything? Yeah, they had notified us that DOT had
approved him to work there for I think it was five days through this week and we said okay when when's that window end? Should be just this week. Okay. I can confirm that but I'm I'm pretty sure
that was recollection is there. I have that on my list too. Can I just do Are they working 24 hours a day? I don't know. I don't know. seem like they ought to be working at night instead of Yeah, they ought to be working at night when there's not 8 million people. I mean, it when it takes me more than 35 minutes to
get from my little house over here because traffic's been backed up. It did that for both my pre-brief and for this uh they should be working at night. I don't know why they got the lane shut down. They're not working in the lane, but anyway, I said I would
ask. Um, next question is is for DW again. um all the repairs that they're doing because of the underground boring. Um I just want to make sure that you know they're not paying for that and then then it's going to come back on all
the citizens of Destin because their water bill is going to increase next year because the expenses they've had to pay. Do we I mean I know nobody from DW's here, but are they getting paid? Is the city getting paid or or somebody
getting paid or who's paying for it? All the repairs. I'm not getting paid. I ain't getting paid either. But I I've been told that there's nobody's the people that's causing the problems is not paying for it cuz they pointing the finger at everybody else. So that's
true. My question is, and that's not cheap when you go out and place a 12-in high-pressure water line multiple times. Can we can we find out if DWS I mean nobody's here for them if they're getting charging these people so the citizens of Destin don't I know that on
certain instances they have been reimbursed obviously there are those which he said she said they said and those have to be um arbitrated or mediated through you know whatever the appropriate means would be I know in in
their bond documents that both live oak and gigap how there are provisions there that if if the two entities don't come to terms as to who's responsible then it the bonding company makes that decision and
if there's still not a um holding hands and seeing kumbaya between everyone it goes to circuit court if I get that right counselor y okay cool I just don't want my bill or anybody else's bill going up next year like G power does
raise the bill cuz all the tornado or hurricane went through Panama City and tore their stuff up and everybody's have to pay for it. So I don't want that to happen but yeah good. Thank you mayor. It's all good. Appreciate it. I did just get word that they are
working 24 hours on that project. Good on the highway. Okay. Thank you. Uh Councilwoman Traml. Thank you Mayor. Uh Mr. Schmidt, did you want our request now or do you want to wait till your time?
That's all I have to I believe it would be best to just do it under my item. Okay. All right. That's fine. Then I'll wait until your item so everybody else can go for it. All right. Councilman Dustin, I would ask the city manager to give us a brief quick report on this drainage issue that
Mr. Dallas has come to talk about. I I know they've worked on it. Now we have a new engineer. What's what's happening with Mr. Dallas's drainage to date? Nothing new other than we've working out a time to meet with him with the new engineer to see if there's an
alternative plan between um making joining neighbors unhappy and the huge $300 some thousand project that was presented to us through our consulting engineer. Yeah. Well, please keep keep us up to date. We certainly
will. Yes, sir. People on Snapper call all the time. Yes, sir. And the other question I had, and Mr. Schmidt may have brought it up, but the gentleman with the jet ski issues, are we addressing that? I was going to kind of go into what me and Lisa have dug in. We've called everyone all the way up from the state down, and we kind of have at least
uh what we have the means to what the state has allowed us to do. Well, I look forward to that report. Yes, sir. Cagby, thank you. Uh we did the DW issue. Uh short-term rental renewals, they are due
March 31st. That's correct. And this year is a green sticker. Yes, sir. Okay. Um, this question is actually for Kim. Is there a way that we could change our code to
incentivize people 10% of whatever money uh we collect to report their neighbors who don't have the little green sticker and don't have the little sign on their houses. Because as I walk my neighborhood daily now, there's a lot of
houses that I know are rental properties that don't have little green stickers. Unfortunately, one has a blue sticker. Our charter doesn't allow us to make money. I'm not asking me to make money. Yeah. No, I wouldn't turn them in. I'd give it to the association or whatever.
I just want the people registered and paying the same that the people who are again fair the people that follow the rules get punished in this town it seems like sometimes and the people that don't follow it just get away and and I know
times are tough and rentals are down uh and so they are looking to cut costs and one of the costs that they cut is their check to us which I don't appreciate not to us personally but to the anything else if I may. Yeah. Um so the current
process and this is something that um I'm changing for next season um is that code staff puts the new sticker on as the applications are processed. So that I I'm I'm incorrectly stated that it's due March 31st. It opens March 31st.
It's due by May 30. And then any application that comes in after uh May 31st is is a is a late application. Okay? And pays late fee. So So here's what I would ask you to do for the next meeting. Give me the number of folks
that were registered last year as of May 31st and the number who are registered this year as of May 31st because I it just appear and some of these people may have registered and just haven't gotten around to putting the sticker on because
they live out of town and they just haven't been down to their rental property. I'm sure there's a lot of those folks, but I I want to know I I think we have a shortfall in our short-term rental registration collections, but I may be completely
wrong. So So what I'm what I'm going to change for next year is that the short-term rental management company and or owner is responsible for picking up the sticker. Okay. Um and um that way there isn't a lag because what happens
is is is there's only so many applications that can be processed at in any one day and then the code officers go out, they pick up a stack, go out, right? Um this way they're notified hopefully through MGO that their sticker is ready. They come and pick it up and
the onus is on them. Um, and what's going on now that the window is closed and a bulk of the uh, applications are in um, I have a code officer that goes up and down the streets. He sees a blue sticker. He said, "Have they been
registered? Just don't have a sticker yet." You know, he does that analysis. Um, and if they haven't been registered, they're on a list and and a notice of violation is issued. Okay. Um, as of as far as numbers go, um, sorry, wrong wrong sticky, wrong sticky. Um, so last
year, and this is this is fiscal year last year, 2024. Um, we had 1,54 STRs registered. Yeah. Um, at a cost of $699,900. Um, as of May 31st, we have
919 at a cost of $568,400. So, okay. Yeah, we're a little under, but that doesn't account for the late applications that we that that will roll in. So, also didn't account for more houses going on rental. You know, we're going to have another Well, they're gone. But,
um, yeah, I I just want the numbers because Yep. I'll get those. There are houses that I know rent in my neighborhood. Uh, cuz I saw him checking them in today, the property manager, and there's not a signed one on that house. Oh, they're just not registered at all.
Huh? They're just not registered at all. Well, both. The sign may be in the garage. They may have fallen down when they were re. Yeah. Okay. So, but I do want to know if there is a method that we can incentivize folks who uh help us in our
collections process, you know. Okay. Let me think about that one. Okay. Okay. All right. Uh, and I don't know if this question is for the city manager or for Kevin, but what what is the expected outcome of the
SRS workshop? Because this seems like I didn't go to all of them, but I went to a couple of them. This seems like about the fifth SRS workshop. What What do we think we're going to get out of this that we haven't gotten out of all the other workshops from a staff perspective?
We're going to bring some big picture items, some probably medium picture and some smaller ones to determine if there's an appetite to begin small and move into the some of the bigger projects that have been laid
out before us just to see if there's uh where council is on uh moving any of the initiatives forward. Uh it was kind of left with no direction. So it would certainly help us to know if there's things that we want to be working toward
whether we start small and look at some of the small things or want to waiting for the grand things. Yeah. I just I mean I'll be there because I I try to make every meeting and stuff. I just think we're wast wasting the
council's time. But and so I just want to know, do you think we're going to get something out of or what what what were you looking for when you brought it up, I guess? So I brought it up, but I think at least four other council members um also brought it up. Um so I'll go back real quick and look at the April 7
minutes and uh it talks about council member Schmidt talked about the importance of moving forward to taxpayers investment of the plan multi-phase approach. Maybe we should get together another time. Council member Traml supported the idea of giving staff more specific directions. She proposed the idea to she proposed
the idea to schedule a workshop for additional meeting. Councilman Bagby agreed to hold a workshop. He also raised concerns about elements of the plan, skepticism, funding, etc. So, at least you're consistent. So, yep, I am my I mean, so just me, but yeah, if
you're asking me right now, yeah, I I want to know what the staff can bring to us, the people that are paid by the citizens of Destin to help do things for the city. How can we do these things that SRS has proposed?
I'm not going to come up with a a multi-phase approach of how to do phase one. Like that's not I don't get paid enough for that. I'm not sure if y'all get paid. I don't. I I'm asking Crystal, the finance director, to look at money and Jeff, our grants guy, to go figure
out which freaking grants we can get to support a multi-million dollar project. I'm asking Larry to talk to federal government contacts and our state legislature and at that workshop bring us some possible options that we could do that. Okay. I think
that's what some other people are hoping to get to. Um because we have yet to have a discussion about a six-f figureure plan that that we paid to to do. We haven't discussed it at all. No, I agree with that. It wasn't at the vision session. I think that was a failure in my opinion. It should have
been the vision session, Jim. Okay. So, I wish it was, but it's not. So, that's kind of where we're at. Hope that answers. Well, hopefully we'll figure I'm not going to have a PowerPoint presentation that night, but I will speak to my ideas. I'm just hoping staff
and Larry have some stuff prepared for us to get paid to do this. Councilwoman Abear, thanks, Mayor. Um, a couple of things. First of all, I want to thank Lisa and her team for Memorial Day weekend. The u the amount of traffic
at the boat ramp at Joe's Bayou and the amount of parking and the headaches that her team dealt with. Um, thank you. Thank you to all the park staff and I I do appreciate what y'all do every weekend, especially Christopher and Wayne. They finally got that bullhorn
out there. Uh, I also want to speak to the fact that Sheriff uh Jason was very helpful whenever I called him and said, "We need help down here. These guys are not getting anybody to move or tow vehicles, at least ticket them." So, thank you for having your folks go down
there and ticket those out oftowners that just parked wherever and damaged the grass and the uh non-parking areas. And uh the other thing I wanted to make known, um Lisa has got everything going through with Eglund to get the big welcome to Destin billboard replaced. It
is a process. I've had people call and ask me about it. Um, it's our fault. We didn't work on it sooner, but starting next year in March, we'll process this so that the two weeks, three weeks it takes to get through the system. By April, spring breakers will see a new sign and we'll have that on a yearly
plan. So, those that have asked me why is it wore out, it's it's coming. Just give us a couple more weeks and we'll have a pretty new sign up there. Um, and other than that, thank you for all y'all do. Appreciate you. All right, Councilman Schmidt. Awesome. Uh, a few things
without on my agenda. Um, one is the animal control item. Just to go back real quick, I believe on some research I've done, and Captain Fulgren can correct me if I'm wrong, but it from the Florida statute in areas not served by
animal control authority, the sheriff shall carry out the duties. Is uhoh. Like, what? And you don't have to answer that right now, but if you if you if you do know, can you can you speak to that? I'm sorry. Can you repeat what you
were reading? Yeah, it's okay. The Florida statute 2002 2024 Florida statutes say that in areas not served by an animal control authority, the sheriff shall
carry out the duties of the animal control authority under this act. Chapter 767, section 11. I'm not familiar with that, but I will do some research on it and get back with you. Okay. Can you also get with them as well to make check on that?
Um, interlocal agreement between the city of Dustin, the Okaloosa County School Board. Uh, I think we first had the original one back in 1996. I was actually probably there as an elementary school student. So, thank you for everybody that was here that helped do that um to support
that. 20 years later, we renewed it. Fantastic. Um I think it's time to go back to the drawing board with um the school board people, whoever makes those decisions. Um the current one I think needs to be reworked a little bit.
There's some things in there specifically about the use. Um, I don't think we're currently possibly following the what it says about public use only. Um, we rent them out, you know, I think we're allowed to rent them out. I'm not saying, you know, but there's a lot of
updates. That's one. Um, the school's about to do a lot of changes over there. Um, so I think we need to understand what that's going to look like and uh how the city can use it or not use it.
Um, and lastly, I read it very closely. Wasn't that long, but there's nothing in there about crossing guards. So, for next school year, and I have a kid that's going to be there. Um, my expectation, I told Larry, is that the
city of Dest will not fund the crossing guards unless there's an agreement in place. Um, and they have plenty of time to do that. So, um, with all that said, I'm making a motion to have Larry work with whoever
to parks director Lisa to kind of see what we need to do to bring it into the current 2025 time frame of the next 10 20 years. I'll second that. Sure. Thank you. Any uh discussion on that? We're
just talking about We're just talking about the elementary school. It's the interlocal agreement for that property. Yes, ma'am. Okay. The elementary school without muddying it up. Does that now include their expanded property? That's kind of what we're saying here, right? I
think Lisa would like, and I don't want to speak for you, but I know Lisa and other staff members would like to know what's coming and what we are going to be able to use still and update the map, right? The map doesn't even have that expansion. So I think it just need to update it. Absolutely. Yeah. Councilman
Dustin, I I don't see any problem with updating the document, but as far as this crossing guards not being funded by the city, I'm opposed to that change. After all, those are destined kids that are going from neighbors all over destined
neighborhoods all over destined to go to the school. We've been providing the crossing guards now there for 20, 30 years. I uh I would not be in favor of discontinuing that city service. I have a question. Yep. Council Hey Bear. Um I
I respect what you're saying, uh Mr. Dest, but we also have a lot of uh non-incorporated neighborhoods that are going to that Destin Elementary School. So, Okaloosa County probably, you know, being where those folks are paying their taxes, not to the city. be nice to sort
of find out if we could get some funding from the county since there's a chunk of students coming out of those neighborhoods that are not part of the PA taxpayers of Destabby. Yeah. Uh and I hear y'all I understand I think
I understand where everybody comes. The crossing guards primarily help the kids that are walking there. Now, there are parents that drop their kids off because they don't want to go through the drop off line, and I got that. And some of them probably don't live in the city
limits of Destin, but the the vast majority of the kids crossing in the crosswalks are the kids that live within a mile where the buses won't run. If you remember, they're they're correct. And so, I think it's a mile. It may have
gone to two miles now, but I I know it was a mile when we were living over there cuz the bus didn't run by our house. So, you know, either we dropped them off or the kids walked or bicycled over to the school. The um So, I'm I'm
kind of in favor of keeping the crossing guards. I think that is something that, you know, it sounds like a great idea until that first kid gets hit. Uh, and you know, and God forbid dies. I mean,
look what Colton, you know, everything that we tried to do to help that family in the coverings. Uh, I would say I don't have a problem updating this. If you just want a new map or something, I I would hope that you or somebody up
here would give the staff a little bit of direction. I.e., I think the football field's going to be left and the track's going to be left and we kind of know what we're doing there. I think everything else, the other field, the soccer field that people play on will be gone. Uh,
but you know, for our use or for public use. So, is there some direction specifically or maybe Lisa, you have some ideas based on what you've heard or what you want? I'm just trying to figure out what what we're directing y'all to
do if that makes sense. Yeah, Lisa, if you want to jump in. I know we get bombarded about more fields, but anything else? Um, no, I do not have any updates. I do stay in contact with Mr. Bill Smith on any of the direction of
that extra property, but as far as I know, um, I don't know what they're going to do with that, but I know there's lots of ideas. Okay. I I did have one on on the crossing guards. If we want to require the school district to indemnify us or
crossing guards that we provide or provide the insurance for the ones we provide, I I would have no problem making that part of this agreement. But to just say, you know, maybe we can work toward that an
agreement with the school district, but until we get that where they somebody's providing crossing guards and we've done it historically and until somebody else is in a written form providing them, I'm for keeping them. Council Schmidt.
Yeah. I I guess I'm sorry if I'm being confusing up here tonight. Um, I don't want to muddy the waters with the crossing guard thing, but Oklusa County School District collects a ton of money from our citizens. Yep. A lot of money. I don't
know if we, the city of Destin's been doing the crossing guards for 20 to 30 years. If we have, okay, I will tell you in case any of you guys haven't ladies haven't seen the mornings and the afternoons by Dustin Elementary School. You should go
down there. Well, that's that's good. Then 20 or 30 years ago, I might have walked and rode my bike to school in the morning. My mom and dad were at work and I crossed that street and the crossing guard helped me. Can't go tomorrow because school's out
for summer. You go out there any other day, you will see 20 to 50 to 75 adults and cars parked all the streets walking in the crossing the crossing thing. Um,
you will see them standing outside the doors of the Destin Elementary School waiting to be dismissed so they can collect their kids. They park in the rideway that years ago the city put post on one side but not on the other side. So now all the cars parked on that guy's
yard. I imagine eventually when that guy complains the city will have to put post. So things change. Um so you know 6 hours a day, three people 2 hours a day, 6 hours, 5 days a week, 185 days,
5,550 hours. What's the average hourly rate of a parks and wreck or code enforcement personnel? Anybody know? $18. $18 is $99,900 that the city of Dest pays.
Yeah. For a crossing guard. So again, when school comes, unless the city manager has something on our charter or ordinance, my expectation, I hope all the other council members is we're not doing
crossing guard unless there's an agreement with the Oakland County School District. And if y'all want to bring that up later, that's fine. But um I just it's just crazy. So, but the direction for the interlocal, Jim, to answer your question is to Lisa to go update the the interlocal. I mean, it
literally says that we can't use it except for public use and we're using it every day to make money when we rent it out. So, it's it's it just needs to be updated. Those are those are items that need to be updated. What usually happens is we tell them to go do something, but we don't give a
directive and then it doesn't happen for a year or two and we wonder why nothing ever gets done. So again, I'm not paid enough to do the job. So I'm asking Larry and Lisa to go to the school board and update a document that's a a binding contract between the city and the school
board. I can't do that myself. Or I guess I could, but I sure as hell ain't going to do it. So hopefully somebody else will. All right, Councilwoman Neighbor. Thanks, Mayor. And back to what Kevin was saying, every morning there's 20 to 30 vehicles with adults
getting out with their children that live in those neighborhoods four and five miles away that they're walking their kids into school. And like Kevin said, with the money that is costing the city of Dest, it's not unfair to think it should be the Okaloosa County that
helps fund us to put these crossing guards out there to protect our kids and family members going. We're not saying we don't want to do it. Of course, we want to save, you know, lives, but we need to be funded through the county. They're collecting enough money and there's enough people that are not
destined residents that have their children going to these schools and they're part of the Okaloosa County taxpayers. So that's what I'm asking is find out from them when you talk about the agreement. Can we get some funding from the county since they collect all
the money to help us pay for crossing guards instead of it being a Destin city cost? Right. Customer Dustin, just so we understand the situation, the uh the track and the ball fields that we have been renting out to people for 20 to 30
years, we get those from the county for I think a dollar a year. So to conrue the fact that we provide some crossing guards into a narrative that we are somehow being taken advantage of is
quite a quite an issue, quite a quite a fantasy in my opinion. um because they don't need to let us use those fields at all. I think it's been a pretty good deal. We have made way more than what we have spent on crossing guards. Um I would say that the motion
is to try to clarify the areas that are still going to be used. And as far as a crossing guard, I have or the nature of public use since we are renting those fields out to other people. Clearly that is a public use and has been for 30 years. I don't know
where that issue is coming from. But to uh to slap that tiger and say, you know, that dollar a year, y'all are really y'all are really taking advantage of us to let us rent all those fields out for these very, very large sums of money.
You need to pay for the crossing guards, too. Uh I don't think that's going to be wellreceived, nor is it well thought out. We also maintain it. Yep. We also maintain it as well. Just like we do every other public facility we have in the city. All right,
Councilwoman Traml. Um I just wanted to bring up with regards to the crossing guards, there will be a new uh student crossing on Benning Drive next year. So that needs to be looked into as well. Okay. Councilman Bagman.
So Miss Lisa, how much do we make renting out the football field? just the football field cuz that's probably all that's going to be left there. I don't have that right now. I'm sorry. Okay. No, that's fine. I I would like to to know that. Um
just because Yep. the costing and maybe we can negotiate that with the school district. That's fine. If they want to help us pay for the but until we have an agreement that they help us pay, I'm not willing to let the school go uncovered.
I I would ask uh that you separate the two issues because I I'll vote to update the uh use agreement, but if it includes the provision with the crossing guards, I I can't vote for it. Yeah, that's my mistake. It shouldn't include a
provision with it. So that's it's just up update interlocal. So sorry if I muddied the waters there. is not included. So what the motion is just I'm just bringing it up in the same conversation tonight, but no, the motion is not to go add some provision about
crossing guards. The motion is to update the interlocal about the use of the facilities, the future use of the facilities, the expansion of the facilities, what we can and can't do on this property as a city of Dustin. All right. All right. With that, I'll call the vote. Ray.
All right. Eyes have it. So moved. Yeah. So I guess the next item is about updating stuff and um and um updating things these things. I know the staff put together stuff. Did you want to speak first to the staff or Sure. So I don't want to be here all
night and I don't want to fight over anything. So I guess my only ask will be that uh a lot of these things are basically done in my opinion. You know we we pursued the the Destin city center so 1.1 should be done because we pursued it. You know uh we acquired the bridge
property so we should remove that. It's done. So you know that's my hope and expectation is that you know we we began uh phase one of the underground utilities. So, it should be done. Take it off if we want to keep the pursuit of that and somebody can talk about adding
it. Um, so only thing I'm going to just uh add up here tonight is I'd like to add u the start and completion of the Clement Taylor Park as a critical priority for the city council. That's the only thing I want to add. Uh, and I'm just going to hope staff will just
update this thing to make it more clear on where we're going. So, that's my thought and idea. I'd be happy to let other people talk and Jim, if you want to say anything or whoever, feel free. All right. Um, I'll I'll jump in first cuz I uh we had an extra week um to
think about this, so that helped me out. Um, no, no, in a good way. Hey, priorities, just like we're talking about. So, I I think something that, you know, if we're going to spend 25,000, I just this thing is it's 25,000 in the
grand scheme of thing. It's still money, but I know we just depending on the topic that might be a lot, it might not be anything. And um the whole survey, the citizen survey, I think if we're going to do another survey, we know that
by far the number one issue is going to be traffic on 98. Right now, the CIS network, aka Harbor West Destin 98, is number four on the TPO list. And uh from the great work of our legislate, our
lobbyists and everyone, I feel like we have a really good connection right now with the state. And I would love to see uh us solve or at least try to help the traffic that everyone knows and hates about Destin. And we know that's going
to be everyone's number one issue when we ask them in a survey. we still, you know, drop $25,000 for a survey to realize that everyone still has an issue with traffic um even today. And so I would like to see us really start to get
in with the state and uh pursue the alternative four-lane uh high west highway 98 in Destin um feasibility study. So if you guys look into it, I can send some documents to Ray to expand. when we failed the six lane
because of the rightaway acquisition, there was two alternatives that kept it four lanes that would improve traffic flow and a lot of those things are uh I would say cost savings to the state and to us and it's still ranked number four. It didn't move at the TPO. Uh so we're
right there at a good number where we can get some dollars, especially with this being a much smaller dollar uh evaluation than expanding the six lane. So, it's our citizens number one issue. We all know it's our number one frustration. So, my my only one thing
that I'm going to throw on there uh for discussion or just for uh for me to talk tonight would be that we just figure out not only to improve Stallman, but the west corridor of 98 going down FDOT's one of FDOT's four-lane alternative um
programs. So, that's what I have for tonight. And uh Councilwoman Abear. Thanks, mayor. Yeah, Kevin, my um my big deal that I would like to see as a priority is the Clement Taylor Park as well. That's been on for years. It's
like it's it's this grant that has just sort of stalled and there's been nothing done and it just feels like why why are we not able to move forward? So, I would like to see that be pushed to a more work on it. Let's find out where the money is. Let's see what we have to
do to get this finished. And then I agree with the mayor getting the um Stallman Avenue, getting our the four lanes, it's definitely not enough. All right, Councilwoman Traml, I'd like to have a copy of that. I
didn't get one. Oh, here. I don't have one. Sorry about that. if you like or I or and if you need a couple minutes, Jim's going to talk too. Uh no, I was just I
was I don't have any objection to anything that anyone has said. I said the one thing that I would like to see is what uh the SRA survey came out with was uh our people wanted more green space and I think we're going to be
looking at that. One of the priorities that I'd like to put into place is when the the parks master plan is done, I think we need to seriously take a look at that and prioritize what we can do with that. Um that will answer the
questions that our citizens have put forth to us uh about why we they want more green space. They need more green space. There's a lot of properties in town that we can do that with with very little money. And I think we need to
explore those options. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Bagby. Yeah, I have no problem getting rid of 1.1. Uh, a lot of these when we did this a few years ago and we've just kind of rolled them over, things have been added, uh, descriptive
words that weren't in the original strategic plan. And 1.2 is a a perfect example. Uh, 1.2 2 originally was uh acquire more public waterfront. It wasn't tied to a single
parcel on the harbor or on the bay or on the beach. And so we've pursued that consistently over the last five, six years where we, you know, we bought bet well us in the county bought some
golfront and then we bought the parcel uh one harbor one or whatever we're going to call that parcel and we've looked at parcels on the harbor and on on the bays and on the bayus and stuff to we we can never have too much
waterfront property particularly until we get uh beach nourishment project completed. So I I would I would keep public waterfront acquisition as one of our top priorities because hopefully the parks foundation
or somebody would would add that. I don't have a problem with Clement Taylor Park being up there uh undergrounding the utilities. That's that's still a priority. We've got years to go before that, you know, 30 years to go before that's done. The Stalman US98 pedestrian
underpass hopefully. I don't have I just want to make sure we're clear on the fourlane because my memory of those four-lane projects when the six lane project uh failed was that it included removing some of the turnarounds or some
of the turns on the west end of 98. So basically, you had to go to a light to turn around or whatever. Some of the crossovers got reduced. It also included, I believe, some turn lanes specifically uh at the Emerald Grand. Uh
and so before we I'm not opposed to adding that to the priority list. I just want somebody to bring it, you know, so we can look at the two plans and say this is that one minus this. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I'm not tied to any details of it. I just I think we have some good
footing right now to get some fed up money to do something that improves us. Yeah, I agree. Uh and then parks master plan and you know I want a pocket park in every neighborhood so people can walk their dogs or whatever. So I don't have a problem with that. Uh
the under the Marlor Bridge, you know that the cross town connector. Yep. Keep that improved parking. uh explore, you know, prove parking. We made a commitment, God, 20 years ago
almost to improve parking in the harbor district. Uh and we've done a little bit, but probably not enough. And then the annexation, I don't know where the mayor's initiative on that is, but I would assume you want to keep that ready
to rock. Okay. So, um yeah. I guess my question is, is the staff going to bring us back a new list and then we're going to say no, like we've done with Arbor CRA and the town center, you know, move four to one or one to six
or what? What that was my thoughts is that we would not be sitting here making motions on individual items, but they would take this. Um, for example, they did provide us a lot of answers to each of these things. you know, I don't necessarily agree and like, you know, the improved parking option that you
just brought up. Their answer was, well, we did the SRS thing and it had parking garages in there, but that was also part of a $40 million project. So, you know, the the the Marlor Bridge, I don't think you were here maybe that year, but it was very important at that time in the council to have that
specifically said on that council objective, but you're not wrong about Waterfront. But that's my thoughts is that they take these edits and changes and then bring us bring it back. Yeah. All right. Councilman Dustin. Thank you, Mayor. I I have no problem at all with
adding the Clement Taylor to the priority list. Um the fourlaning project, like Mr. Bagby, I need to know the details because I've seen some versions that were going to be pretty controversial. Simple things like no left turns out of some of the streets would help a lot. Yeah, that's probably
my number one is that yeah, closing off a bunch of the ways people can turn and have have to go down to only one light. That's not a good idea, but I don't mind looking at it and we should look at it. So, you know, add the Clement Taylor to the priority list and we can look at
those four lane improvements to see what we can do other than that. Um, installment intersection. Yeah, the other things that we've already done when we get completely through them, we can take them off, but All right, Councilman Braden, anything? All right, good deal. Council Schmidt, anything
else? No. Do you Are y'all good with that, Larry? Just Yes, sir. Okay. And when I said the undergrounding like again, Jim, like you said about the words, I want to leave it on there, too, but let's edit it because phase one is started, right? So, I I agree with you. Just things like that. So, that's all I
have uh Mr. mayor for the night, I believe. All right. With that, uh, Councilman or Fulgum, Captain Fulgum, I looked up the statute that you were referring to while y'all were talking and and 76711 refers to dangerous dogs
and and and bites by dangerous dogs, not animal control, per se. Thank you. He's going to give you the leash back. So, yeah, the the sheriff's officer requires I'm sorry. So yeah, the uh that statute requires
the sheriff's office to investigate dog bites or dangerous dogs. There's a whole definition of what defines as a dangerous dog. Uh if there is no other animal control in in place, but it only applies to like I said just the dangerous dogs. Mayor, just a quick
question on that issue. Is the city of Crest View looking at doing their own I you know I saw somebody that was checking out of the contract. the city of Cresfield, the city of Niceville, city of Marester to a degree and the county are looking at some different
model and that's why at the last meeting we had the conversation about joining in with the county in that process and absolutely thought the folks from Paul's understood that was an option we were going to uh probably move forward with because we had that conversation with
them. There's a lot going on in that arena. More so in the capture and transport component as to the housing component. Yeah. And I would say that would be a direction we'll have to go if pause doesn't want to do it. We'll have to partnership with some of those
entities. Okay. Larry, just FYI, I'm a expert at relocating all types of animals. So, if I can assist, just let me know. To to the bottom of the Gulf. If you if you can if you can get a motion, we'll negotiate tomorrow.
Not me, him. All right, let's keep going. All right, let's do the Joe's thing. Thank you, sir, for being here the whole time. I'm sure you're here for this and the entertainment value at this point. All right, so Joe's me and Lisa have gone through, I guess, every department that the state wants to create an alphabet soup for on this. Uh, basically the nuts
and bolts are we can't just throw up a sign because we feel like it. Uh, it seems to their knowledge that South Florida has ruined that for us. um all the canals and everything down in Fort Lauderdale, Miami have created issues where the state has in their ultimate
wisdom decided that no uh the only way you can have a no wake zone is 500 ft from in this case Joe's Bayou ramp. So there's a 500t radius and so that's where those two signs come from. Now, we started getting creative and I go, "Okay, well, what else creates a
radius?" And the main thing, I guess, I would call it the lowest dollar improvement that we could consider would be uh improved kayak ramps. Uh something where there's quite literally not just a a board, but something for the kayak floating dock where you can sit on the
kayak and kind of launch off. That would then allow us to do a 500t radius. And if we really want full circle from the council who was here maybe 10 years ago, uh the the some of the gentlemen, I'm sure he's watching, so get a get a laugh out of this. Some of the gentlemen that
wanted their abatement or wanted the rightaways gone are might just be the solution to improve a a have a improved cat uh kayak launch at these rightaway uh locations that we have, which would then allow us to expand that radius. So
theoretically, if we put two or three of those kayak launches in Joe's, again, not sure about the dollar amount, let alone where we pay for it, but that would be a creative way to be within the state statute to allow us to draw several 500 foot radiuses in Joe's Bayou
to then create a full no wake zone. That's kind of really where we're at at the moment. If we want to go the and pursue the route of no wake safety and and those kind of things and boating operation would be FWC and that's a whole other department. But from the
standpoint of trying to bring no wake to Joe's Bayou if that is the council's decision. Uh that seems to be the lowest common denominator. Lisa, do you have anything else? No. All I thought you had if you're waving me in. All right. Thank you. Um, so with that, uh, Kevin,
yeah, thank you all for taking all those calls with the ABC suit. Yeah, there's a lot of them. I appreciate that. So, there used to be a no wake zone sign in the back of Joe's Bayou. Who put it there? What happened to it? Uh, that I didn't I didn't go historic. I was going
for forward. Does anybody on our staff know that the Joe's Bayou Wake zone towards the back of Bayou? The guy who's been here the whole time. Oh, perfect. We passed that no wake. We passed no wake back there many
many years ago. I'm not sure the states um whatever regulations they've made reach back and cancel ordinances and things that probably not. That's generally not the way the law works. Yeah. Um so we'll see. Those ordinances were passed long long time ago. Miss
Cop, your analysis of the situation concurs with the mayors or have you looked at the issue? No, it concurs with the mayors. I have looked at the issue. Okay. So, you have an an opinion about a a noway zone that was instituted 15 or 20 years ago. Yeah, we have institutional. No, I think it's good. I
mean, we don't have a problem with that one that's been there. Okay. So, the Harbor Lane one is where I'm sorry. The one that gentleman was talking about. That's behind where Mr. Tim Krueger lives, you know. Yeah. So, that is in Joe's bio. Yes. Yeah. He's kind of right across. And we need to go back and see
where those nos on the door. I think it was in the back half, not the front half, unfortunately. So So if you don't mind, I was going to ask, was there ever one further to the bay that you recall back in the day or just the one to because I remember the one in the back, too. But
yeah, I'm I'm not I'm not sure. We'll have to go do some research. So what we've been told by the sheriff and the staff and the city, like it's our bayou, it's our jurisdiction. So who told you we can't put a sign up? I don't get that. The state uh state FWC, correct?
Uh but there's a state statute that the state legislature put in I don't know what year overriding uh municipalities power in canals and bayus because people uh call them Karens in the South Florida area or trying to no wakeake everything
to uh stop voters from coming in their canal. Have you verified this? I believe that that statute was predated by what we did. We put our signs there, I believe, before that existed, which is great. That's good news. But this this what he's talking about is that is that
chat GPT or No, no, that's No, that's State departments. No, this isn't not in chat this one. Yeah. Okay. That this is state department conversations. Yeah. So, I guess maybe Mr. Dustin, you can help me with this, but I mean at minimum, let's put the sign back. Yeah.
So, I guess ask staff and Miss um Strickland to bring us what that cost. But then beyond that, I would say if it's 500 ft, then we measure 500 feet from Joe's by you put another sign. So there there is two at Joe's pushing out.
I believe 500 ft from it. Uh north and there is a north and south one. All I'm saying is correct. To the middle. Oh, to the or wherever that looks. Wherever. Yeah. I I I would I would Mr. um Tanaka and I think another Mr. Tanaka and like
we've talked about this again for over a year and we don't do anything. This is this you know and so I would just ask that maybe we replace the one and then add one to the 500 ft but we need to know the cost of it. So just so you know after the motion I'll put out there my comments it goes to public comments.
I'll make that motion to do that. You can have a whole three minutes on it again. Make the motion to have staff bring us back the cost of putting replacing and as well as adding one 500 ft from Joe's Bayou launch. That's a motion. Second. All right. I got a motion in a second. Um I
believe yeah I believe um uh what's his name over at not Alex Fog um Mike Mike Norbert I think he said what 2500 for the post and sign for a ballpark. But just so you guys kind of have some general information of what we're
looking at. So simple. It should be. It should be. Yeah. All right. Uh Councilman Dustin, anything further? I'd prefer it there. Okay. You got the second. Any any further discussion? No. All right. Uh Councilman Bagby.
Yeah. Is Krueger off Harbor Lane? I thought he was on Marlor's by you. No, he's 606. Harbor Lane. Harbor. Harbor. Okay. Thought you were. Yeah. Well, I know because I know um who's our concrete guy? Um
yeah, Buckingham is over off Crossourt, right? Yes. That's uh Marlor. Yeah. But did we give him the that right away? There was a rightway between his and Bruce's house. That one we abandoned.
Yeah. We abandoned that one. Yeah. Okay. because we could also protect if we had that we could we could protect more abandon it and I guess my question and maybe when you said you didn't have a problem with the science Kim maybe this is it the the waters of the city versus
the waters of the state those are are ours right they're not waters of the state they're ours because of our city charter includes them in the city jurisdiction okay and so we can put signs particularly if they predated the legislation that prevented that.
Correct. Let me um get the legislation and find out when it was enacted for the next meeting. So, I don't have it on me tonight. The mayor snuck this in. No, no, just kidding. And I would just make one comment. Marlor Bayou is
unique. Yes. The bottom of Marlor Bayou is owned by the property owners, not the state of Florida per circuit court ruling 30 years ago. So they I think they can pretty well do what they want to or allow us to do it. Oh, nice. It's different than the other other body
waters. All right. Um with that, I got a motion in a second uh to get this finally moving forward. Thank you guys. And I'll call the vote. Ray. All right. Eyes have it so moved and hopefully a solution soon. All right.
with that. Um the only other thing I was going to bring up um kind of relates to the priority list, but I didn't want to kind of throw it in there. Um the the Marlor Destin Bridge, so the the Marlor Bridge, aka the Harbor Bridge here. Um
we're halfway through the PD&E study at the state level. Um we just so happened to have a very talented um bridge architect that lives in our community 32 years and he has generously offered to just help us in any way possible to make
that a not a utility bridge but actually a gateway bridge or some kind of landmark. And so he's got 32 years experience. I asked five times if he wants any dollars. He's like absolutely not. we mean and staff uh met with him this morning and he seems like he is
very knowledgeable and a very this this um so I can shoot you guys the email via Ray of what he's suggesting but really it boils down to if we can get a bridge aesthetic committee together call it blue panel call it whatever you guys want to call it um and then with that go
to FD do and really not only allow for public comments during the workshops but allow this committee to create the design and the functionality and the intention that we're looking for so that when the state goes through its processes, there's some trigger points that we can actually hold a little bit
more local accountability of what we're looking for and not just, you know, get a couple nice workshops and a couple comment cards and, you know, the the the train moves on without our our consideration. Um because for me my goal would be for that bridge to really
exemplify what this harbor is, which is a world-class fishing village that we're trying to protect the heritage of. And you know, just about any photo that you see in Destin, that harbor, that bridge in the harbor is either a silhouette or is kind of mainstage. So for me, it's
something that we would be starting now. And you know, if we're lucky, in 15 years, we slowly start seeing that fruit of the labor. But for me, I this boils down to trying to get the locals getting us to not just start with a blank canvas, but start with some options,
boil it down to some designs that this committee can start uh approving and then really just have a design manual for the bridge at the end of the day. Kind of like the harbor had there. We have a mission. We're going to we're going to meet we're going to meet that mission and then we're going to have
this uh presentation or these uh priority lists for the council to approve eject. But at the end of the day, we're trying to make sure that this isn't become another uh level one utility bridge, but something uh extraordinary for us to be proud of. So
yeah, exactly. I I would say and he was he he was pretty excited to from the standpoint of like you know maybe even a little Pensacola plus because there's a couple things that he felt they did that were more cherries on top bells and whistles versus some structural integrity designs so that you know this
bridge in his opinion will last over 100 years which means every building in Destin will get redeveloped or recycled while this bridge stands. So this could be something that you know while we are at this very beginning phase where it might not mean much to us or we might not see any fruits of our labor for the
next couple years if we can do this right and we can pull off something very landmarkish um we could be proud of for the next century. So that's kind of where I'm coming from with this bridge design committee. Um, I would probably ask to put this in the council objective, but
obviously not to build it or anything, but perhaps just to get get the uh committee together, put it under important, put it under desirable. Um, cuz at the end of the day, this is going to be helping us get to a final end product that's going to be two decades out. So, uh, just wanted to throw that
out there that we met today as a staff. Um, and we at least have someone who would chair that or at least willing if you guys would nominate him at some later date. But we got some brains that are here locally that just love the community and want to give back his knowledge for this uh project. So that
was something that happened this morning that was exciting. And so that's all I had there. Is there any Oh, I'm I'm looking up. All right, Councilman Dustin, that was the preview. Oh, there you go. I was on the map. I was looking at Joe's Bayou for a hot minute. All right, so
Sandy, anything? Yes. I was just going to tell you that that this whole topic was brought up with the Harbor CRA 20 years ago. So instead of creating a new committee, you may just want to hand it to them. And and that sounds I'm I would prefer less committees. Me and Steve,
no, less is more in the committee department. Well, and we worked with the DOT at that time to try to get the bridge lighted and they told us they couldn't do it. Yeah. So anyway, we'll look at the All right, Kevin. Anything further? Yeah. Yep. I like that cuz I didn't want to make another committee. I
I felt a little dirty even saying it. Awesome. All right. I was like, I'm against more committees. What am I saying here? So, do we need do we need to vote on No, cuz I really don't have anything to give you. I just wanted to give you guys an update. It's kind of a big topic that I just wanted to let you guys know that we're working on and I'll
disseminate some information through staff and I think once we get something together, we can uh once we have something that is worth council's approval of something, we'll look at it. Yeah. Okay. So hopefully in the next month or two when you see it. I guess we don't want it to be a big topic out of
nowhere. Um so with that, Kevin's name. Kevin, you know, he's she was good. Yep. And then uh city Kim, anything? I don't have anything. Thanks, man. All right. Public comments. Uh yes, sir. All right. Appreciate you. Did you hear? All right, guy.
Boy, the uh acoustics in this room really hadn't gotten any better. Yeah, that's why we need a new one. And that's that's the reason that u I watched city council meeting on television is so much better. I got a text from my wife while ago and she said, "Don't come home
unless you bring up Memorial Day decorations." Maybe we missed something. Uh we had a tremendous crowd here as Miss Abear mentioned. Uh, I don't believe you could have floated another boat in the harbor. Crab Island, uh, has
an annex now. Maybe you don't know about it, but now then, uh, from the Coast Guard station all the way down to what we used to call the wall, part of Crab Island, as well as, uh, the point uh, at the end of Bayou Drive. But maybe we
missed something. If we did, I apologize for it. But it seemed like there was a almost a total void of uh Memorial Day decorations in the city. And I don't know uh if perhaps um we missed something, but if it wasn't for the Emer
who had wonderful, beautiful decorations and a lot of the uh private homes, you know, with flags and decorations, it would have almost just been like another, you know, long weekend. And there's a popular television show
and you probably saw the same thing that I did uh where they uh they interviewed people going on uh vacation on Memorial Day weekend. Uh where they were going, etc., etc. And why are we celebrating Memorial Day? They didn't know. They
didn't know. And I don't think we helped that a lot this weekend of last weekend. So my suggestion is uh please consider uh going forward that we um honor our those that gave their life for the
freedom that we enjoy and uh join some of the other businesses that not not many of them but like I say the Emerand I think Ace Hardware had some plaques up but I'd sure would like to see a better job of that. Would really encourage you to look into that. Thank you very much.
Appreciate you being here. All right, Mr. Green. Nothing. All right. With that, city council adjourned.